《Rising from Despair》
Chapter One. A warriors struggles.
I write this mostly to improve my writing speed and to let my imagination run wild. this also helps me relax. All constructive comments welcome. Have a good read.
p.s. Harem or no harem? - Thats the question of the day!
p.p.s. first three chapters can be considered somewhat of a prologue and world setting up, i hope you my dear comrades will keep reading my story and will enjoy it :)
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Two armies clashes in a field in front of a medium sized town, one army belonged to a small kingdom of humans ¨C the kingdom of Shield. Second army, the one that was trying to expand its territory was made out of many species ¨C elves, dwarfs and some orcs all under the banner of the elven kingdom of Selvoks. For many years there have been small skirmishes across the borders of the two kingdoms happening, but only now did both of these kingdoms went out into an all out war, since Selvoks decided to expand, when a new ruler was crowned ¨C the young princess Elona.
Powerful magical attacks were flying from one side to another, each sides mages trying to take out the others. Blasts of fire sent shock waves from the places they crashed into. Lightning zapped heavily armored soldiers to death and beasts summoned by their contractor mages battled the enemy soldiers spreading blood and gore with their claws.
A new wave of soldiers rushed into the battle from the Selvoks side, between them was a young elf man, who signed up just a few months ago... Aro Duskson was his name.
Aro running together with his battle brothers, who he trained together when he joined was a greenhorn to battle just like they. Armed lightly with leather armor and an axe of his father he ran into battle shouting like everyone else around him, trying to encourage himself and those around him.
Enemy soldiers made a shield wall to counter their incoming enemy assault, their spears sticking on top of their shields. Aro was nearing the shield wall and trying to jump over it, just like many others . Luckily for him he managed to jump in without getting pierced by one of the sticking spears. He chopped to left and right with his trusty axe taking out one enemy after another, trying to reach the mages who have been decimating their army from behind. Soon he was joined by a few more men all moving in the same direction, some mage from their side noticed what they were trying to do and blasted a nice big fireball a bit in front of them to clear them a path trying to help even a little bit.
Enemy mages werent sleeping either, they noticed a group of warriors moving towards them and began to concentrate on them. Soon Aro was left alone... Some of his battle brothers succumbing to arrows, others to enemy fighters. A man close to Aro just got incinerated by a fireball... leaving him all alone in his charge.
But Aro didnt give up, he was already so close to the mages! Just ten more meters and he will reach them! Adrenaline pumping in this young elfs blood pushing him forward he ran towards them, when a group of warriors tried to block his path ¨C luckily for him a mage from his side blasted them to pieces with a wind bomb, leaving a clear path for Aro... if he could take out at least a single mage the tide of the battle might turn!
Reaching his targets Aro cut down one unaware mage with a swing from a side straight into the back of a mages head, he pushed the dead mages body into an incoming fireball shielding himself from it, while trying to reach the mage who sent it his way. As he rushed to the mage jumping the last few meters with his axe held high above his own head going for a sure kill attack, the mage he aimed for grinned...
Lightning! An elemental attack of Lightning struck him straight into the chest, blasting him back with his leather armor charred onto the ground. Aro crashed heavily into the ground, there his body began to spasm from lightning still running in his body rampant, soon he was still.
The mage who blasted Aro away laughed, thinking that he was now dead and turned back to cast his magic, but Aro wasnt dead... yet. Shaking he barely got up from the ground, his lungs burning from the damage caused by that lightning attack and crashing into the ground, blood was tricking from his mouth and his head hurt like never before. His vision blurry he found his axe ¨C blade melted and now no more, than a blunt weapon. He barely stood there shaking on his week legs, the distance of merely five meters from his enemy, he sluggishly began to move forward slowly speeding up towards the enemy. When he swung at the mage aiming for the head... his strength failed him his body refusing to move how he wanted it to, all probably caused by that damn lightning. He didnt bash the mages skull in as he hoped, his swing going too low he shattered that damn mages shoulder bones into a bloody pulp.
That human mage screamed in pain a moment after he was hit, stumbling away from the force ¨C letting Aro fall on the ground now all out of energy exhausted. Consumed by rage the mage moved close to Aro and kicked his ruined axe away an expression of anger and sinister joy on his face he lifted his right good arm and began to mutter an incantation trough his clenched teeth.
Soon small light glow began to spread around Aro and he began to feel pain like never before ¨C the mage was a soul mage! And he was trying to take Aro''s soul! That mage continued his dark spell still muttering the incantation, Aro''s soul now could be clearly seen leaving his body ¨C that will become nothing more but a soulless shell soon when the mage finishes.
A few moments later that human mage was holding Aro''s soul in his palm, preparing yet another incantation to seal him within a pendant he was wearing, so he could torture him later, Aro''s body was now just a living shell...
**Zwimbt...**
A lucky arrow released by one of the many Selvoks army archers managed to pierce trough weakened mages defenses and straight trough his skull. The mages knees buckles, its bodily strength leaving now dead body and Aro''s soul still in his palm he fell on top of Aro''s body, pressing his soul back into his body.
For a moment Aro''s body shook with pain and then settled down Aro now out cold from such a shocking experience.
That day Selvoks warriors successfully expanded their territory and crushed most of the human kingdoms military forces, thus forcing them to surrender and enter negotiations of what will happen with them and their kingdom in the future.
After the battle, some humans taken prisoners Selvoks warriors that were less hurt together with healers were waling the fields looking for their comrades, who survived the battle even if hurt. Soon they stumbled upon Aro, who was in a very weak state a great wound evident in the very middle of his chest ¨C luckily for him lightning burned his muscles not allowing any bleeding to begin... if he was hit by earth or wind attack he would be dead long ago.
Aro''s body was quickly put onto stretchers and taken away into medical tents back at the Selvoks army camp, there he was places between many other injured soldiers, who were still clinging to life.
A month later.......
Aro coughed as he woke up, his chest hurt and his whole body was feeling quite numb. He groaned while trying to sit up, but his strength wasnt enough and he fell back into the bed groaning more form the pain in his chest that intensified more.
A young elf girl quickly walked over to him and held him in place not allowing him to move.
Stop right there! You are heavily wounded, its a miracle you survived a lightning attack straight into the chest, lie down and rest. Head doctor will see you soon. - She spoke to him.
Di.. Did..
Yes yes we won, now lie down and relax.
Hearing about victory Aro relaxed and didnt try to get up anymore, his confusion finally began to leave him as understanding that he is at a hospital began to down on his still clouded mind. As the nurse said soon an old beast-man of the fox tribes came to see him, he didnt speak at first and began to check Aro''s condition. Nodding to himself the man worked on his body ¨C checking everything. Finally after what seemed like eternity for Aro the man sat down on a chair the nurse brought close to Aro and looked at him, before beginning to speak.
Young man, you are very lucky to be alive with the damage you took, you will take a while to recover and for the time being will stay here at the capital''s hospital. Unfortunately... your lungs are so heavily damaged, to tell the truth mostly burned from that lightning magic, that they will recover mostly to sixty maybe seventy percent ¨C meaning days of a warrior are now gone for you. - The doctor spoke.
A nurse walked up to them again giving some papers to the doctor, who quickly red trough them and nodded.
The general approved of your early retirement with a veteran''s pension together with a nice bonus for your heroic deeds during the battle. You will also receive a medal for your deeds.
Aro grunted at the words of retirement.. he was hoping to reach something in the army, only to be forcefully sent into retirement only because of damaged lungs. His hopes of gaining a status trough battle proves and earning himself a place in the kingdom all destroyed by this single injury... he knew what it meant to have barely working lungs... he might train his body to be strong, he might be a strong warrior, but he would be a warrior who tires out quick because his body wont be able to support him with enough air to do what needs to be done... A cripple.. he was now a cripple...
The doctor saw how Aro''s eyes changed when understanding downed upon his mind. And could only feel sympathy to the young man, who in a single battle lost so much.
Do not worry so much young one, there are many things to do that you are still capable of. You might no longer be fit to be a warrior, but you can still become a teacher to other warriors, you can always get a job behind the desk in the army if you so desire. Look at your injury as a sign, maybe you were never meant to be a warrior and this is just a way gods are showing this to you ¨C while one way got blocked for you many others are still open! - The old doctor spoke to Aro.
Doctor, other patients need your attention... - The elf nurse who was waiting for the doctor to finish said.
Ah.. yes... Rest well young one, you will be out of this hospital soon.
With those words the doctor and the nurse both left, leaving Aro with himself and his own demons.
A few days later, when Aro had recovered a little more a representative of the army came to him and gave him a medal for his actions during the battle... and that was it, with that and all the money deposited into his bank account he was left alone ¨C a veteran cripple not needed anymore.
Days passed a week later Aro was finally able to move, while still feeling some lingering effects form the lightning and fully feeling the lack of air his damaged lungs now couldnt provide him with he was back on his feet. He still wasnt discharged, but that was just a matter of time ¨C as that beast-man doctor said a week at most and he will be free to go.
It was the last evening that Aro will be staying at the hospital in the capital. He was sitting at the hospitals balcony, catching his breath after a little walk trough its empty corridors, now almost two months since the battle that allowed Selvoks kingdom to expand he was watching the sun hide behind the mountains in horizon. He was one of the last injured soldiers to be here, many didnt survive their injuries, many became cripples like him but he didnt care about them ¨C he cared about himself...
''What would father say seeing me like this? A great warriors son became a cripple on his first battle... he would laugh and say that I am a mistake a stain without any honor in the family tree of wariors! What will I do now?...'' Aro''s thoughts were heavy and dark thinking about the future he was uncertain about.
Lost in his thought''s he didnt hear how another man entered the balcony.
Ah, such a view.. the setting sun isnt it? - the man said his voice startling Aro.
Ugh, yes... it is quite a view.
I''m Thomas Leafwing, nice to meet you... ? - the man said.
Aro Duskson.
A pleasure to meed you Aro! So why so grim? Thinking about how your woman will scold you when you get back home? Hahaha... - Thomas laughed.
No... I have no one waiting for me. Nor do I have something to be cheerful about.
Come on man! Cheer up! It cant be that bad! - Again Thomas tried to list Aro''s mood up.
Damaged lungs, mostly at fifty percent working... Doc expected them to work at least sixty to seventy, but you can never know he said... - was Aro''s silent sad reply.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.Oh... Shit man sorry.. So no more swinging for you anymore.. - Thomas seemed to be lost in thought for a moment while they both stared into the last light of the sun disappearing behind the mountains in the horizon. - So, have you thought what you will do in the future? I think I will go back to my family... we were always hunters a long bloodline of those.
Good for you. - Said Aro with a little sarcasm in his voice. - And yes I have thought about that, but just cant think of anything where half a man like me could do something.
Come on man, you are still alive and kicking! You will find something! - Again Thomas cheerful voice could be heard.
Aro didnt reply anymore, he left the balcony and moved back to his room to get some sleep, after all he will be leaving tomorrow. Thomas didnt say anything either when Aro left, only shaking his head silently..
The next day Aro was finally discharged form the hospital, he got some clean linen clothes ready for him upon leaving when he returned patients clothes, since all the equipment he wore during battle was army property and his axe was lost, not that anything much was left from it as much as he remembered.
He wandered the capital without much purpose, soon finding himself sitting near a fountain out of breath only after ten minutes of walking. He cast his gaze upon the water and looked at his own reflection. Looking back at him was a young elf youth, no more than thirty. His hair became white after that episode, when he got his soul separated from his body, his skin from light elvish skin turned dark and gray, no longer did he look healthy, his eyes too had lost that sharp look he had before. His colorless gray eyes gazed back at him from the reflection, his mind heavy and depressed not seeing any joy in his surroundings anymore. He sat there for quite a while even after he recovered his stamina ¨C thinking, trying to find out what to do next.
Shit.. There really is no point in being so depressed over all of this, like the doc said there still are some roads open for me. - Having found some new determination not to give up so easily Aro stood up and looked around.
''If one swing doesnt cut it... Then swing more until the damn thing falls!'' he remembered a quote that his late father used to say and silently smirked for himself.
''Sorry pops, looks like I can only swing once, so I will have to make that swing all that I need!'' Aro''s grin grew even wider a slight glint of madness could be seen in his eyes at that moment.
That evening Aro found himself a cheap inn and booked a room for a few night with and agreement from the owner, that he wont reserve that room for anybody, since he might decide to stay a bit longer than he plans. Aro had visited the bank after his small moment at the fountain and checked how much money he had received. Apparently, he got quite a nice veteran pension form the kingdom ¨C seventy silver every month until he dies, wasnt a small amount. The bonus he was told about was a generous sum of twenty gold coins! With such money he could buy himself some land and live there for the rest of his life easily from some light farming or even heck, doing nothing just living from veterans pension if he wasnt wasteful.
But in his mind he had already began to formulate a plan ¨C he was no farmer, after all he came from a line of warriors! So his plan was simple ¨C get strong enough to so to say ¨C one shot his enemies. If his fathers saying was swing until the enemy dies, he will now live by a new one ¨C one swing ¨C one kill. The path he chose will be hard, he understood that himself and for that he will need all the knowledge, all the help he can get.
Next morning, when Aro woke up at the inn he bathed, shaved his beard and shaved his head clean ¨C ''a full fresh start'' he thought. After some light breakfast he left the inn and went on his way to the open library of the capital ¨C many said it was a gem of knowledge this library, for knowledge here was stored since ages forgotten.
At the library Aro began to spend his days, reading anything and everything he could find about how body works, how it functions and how to strengthen it. His main focus was to learn of a way to reduce the penalty that his damaged lungs placed upon his body, also he found valuable knowledge about how fragile and weak any body is ¨C like where to cut to make your enemy easily bleed to death, where to strike to knock out your opponent, where to stab to disable your opponent and so much more. Aro read the books and sucked in all the knowledge into himself like a desert water.
When walking trough the capital city he would look at the people and try to imagine how he would strike one or another person to take them down in there was a need, trying to apply his theoretical knowledge. His gaze disturbed many people...
Aro was currently walking to a tailors shop. As he entered the little shop a small bell disturbed by the opened doors rang and a rustling noise could be heard from the back of the shop.
Coming! Just a moment dear customer! - a voice of a man at the sunset of his life could be heard.
Soon an old Orc walked to the counter from the back of the shop, his body still strong, but his age easily seen on his wrinkled face.
Welcome to my humble shop dear customer. How may I help you today? My name is Tarko.
Aro. I wish to order some clothes to be made, if possible some armor too. - Aro said in his silent and slow voice.
After having had his lungs injured, he fount that talking silently and slowly reduces the toll his lungs take while talking ¨C since then he grew accustomed to speak like this.
At his voice the shopkeeper Tarko raised an eyebrow so a split second, but said nothing, just smiled.
What kind of clothes would you like to order? And while I cant help you with armor, I am sure I can point you to one of my friends who makes quite nice leather armor if that is what you are looking for. - Said Tarko in an unnaturally sweet voice for an orc.
I see, I need some dark clothes that would allow me to blend with the crowd, also they should be made with some extra pockets. I also want all shirts and coats made with hoods that would hide my face. - said Aro, hearing this Tarko just nodded.
Very well, what customer wishes will be made! Well then, come here please I need to take your measurements. - Again Tarko''s voice resounded with its unnatural swatness.
An hour later after measurements were taken and after some haggling for the price Aro left, his clothes would be ready in a day, since Tarko didnt have much work. Aro again walked in the direction of the capitals library.
A few days later a hooded and darkly dressed figure could be seen sitting in the library, he spooked out some people with all that dark get up, but for Aro around being less people meant only an easier time to concentrate on the knowledge he was seeking. Right now he was reading a book about plants and their uses ¨C looking for some kind of a miracle plant that could heal him or at least improve his condition, on a paper sheet near him he had scribbled a few names of the plants that could turn out useful for him.
A month had passed like this at the capital for Aro ¨C learning from early morning to the late evening in the library, the practicing some alchemy at a little flat he managed to purchase cheaply for a few gold from a person who was moving out of the city because of some personal problems.
One of Aro''s experiments failed again and angry he punched the table.
''So much time wasted! FUCK! Nothing works...'' he cried silently there for how helpless his condition was. None of the potions he brewed had any noticeable effect, he was currently near a breaking point ¨C even his studies of biology didnt reap too many results, yes he could improve his condition a little but at max by only five percent! Useless! For him it was useless...
Collecting himself and calming down he began to think anew, maybe, just maybe he was thinking wrong? He sat straight on his chair and began to with down what he studied and learned during this month, no not the knowledge but subjects themselves ¨C looking for what he could have missed.
Looking at the sheet of paper where he wrote all the subjects on, a new slightly mad idea began to form in his mind.
''Who are the masters of plants and potions? Alchemists! And who knows more than anyone about biology than anyone else? Assassins... it is their way to strike down their enemies in a single strike. Yes, I was approaching this all wrong.. and magic ¨C I have not researched any magic that would be able to help me!'' he sat there pondering about all the options he hadnt tried yet.
'' its just me myself and I.. solo ride until I die... '' a melody entered his mind together with words he hummed the melody and sang the song in his mind, his consciousness not registering the fact, that he had never heard such a strange song.
When the morning came Aro left his flat and was on his way to one of the alchemist shops in the town, hoping to get an apprenticeship there. Out of habit he was looking at people from under his dark hood imagining how he would kill one or another person by applying his new found knowledge of a persons body.
At the first place he wasnt accepted as an apprentice, not at the second, neither at the third... quite annoyed and angry he was making his way to the last alchemy shop in the capital, a one that had quite a shady reputation with his last hopes of getting a place as an apprentice there.
When Aro finally reached the place he could see and old sign hanging above the run down shop in no better condition, on ti ¡°Harold''s herbs and potions¡± was written. Sighing at his low chanched at becoming an apprentice he entered. Like in many shops at the capital a bell rang when he opened the doors, there he could see a figure in no less brighter clothes than his with a hood sitting behind a counter-desk and making something. With practiced and skilled movements the person was making something, looking oblivious to notice that a potential customer had entered.
Ehem. - Aro tried to be noticed by the person, but was left ignored. - Hello?
Yes, yes I hear you, wait a little need to finish here. Go browse the goods or something. - the person said in an annoyed voice.
Aro just shrugged, he wasnt going to throw away his last chance so easily, so he did as he was told and looked around. Many herbs and potions were placed on the shelves all around the store many dusty from no one buying them and one could only wonder how the shop could keep running if it sold nothing. Finally after a while the person seemed to be finished with what it was doing and just in time to say the least, for Aro was beginning to get annoyed and thought about leaving had just begun to sneak into his mind.
So what can I help you with? - The hooded person said.
I am Aro... - he wasnt allowed to finish.
And I am Harold, like the sign says, say what you need I have work to do. - Harold said not friendly at all.
I wish to become your apprentice at the art of alchemy and herbalism. - Said Aro a little annoyed, by Harold''s tone.
Heh, none of the other oh so good alchemists took you in? So you decided to come to the good old Harold? First then take that hood of kid show me your face, no one speaks with me if they dont show their faces! - Said Harold.
Without any comments Aro took off his hood and looked Harold straight into the eyes under his hood.
A strong gaze you have there, but looks like that''s the only thing healthy about you. If you want to learn alchemy ¨C fine I will teach you, need some helping hands around here anyway. You will work for me here during the day, doing task I order you to do. In the evening I will waste an hour or two maybe on trying to teach you, you also pay for all the materials used during your training, also for all the ones you will ruin doing my tasks. Do we have a deal? - Harold asked without even blinking an eye.
Yes we do, when do I start? - said Aro being in a corner and having no more options.
Right now, come here into the back, need you to sign a few papers of silence that you wont sell out my secrets or customers who are buying what and so on and you can begin.
When signing the papers somehow Aro felt like he is selling his soul to the devil... he already had almost lost it once and believe the feeling wasnt good.
Once all the signing was done he was quickly shown where to sit down and how to cut some herbs, with a quick explanation why it needs to be that way, then he was left alone to his task and a few big sacks of herbs that will take him quite a while.
And so like this Aro began to climb the stairs onto becoming an alchemist, with his more than a little annoying master Harold.
Chapter two. Unexpected changes.
~ 6k+ words, not bad if i have to say myself.. took me roughly seven hours to write this all as i dug trough my notes.. well then have fun reading, since i had quite a bit fun writing this.
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- Ahhhh!!! no, no NO! Not like that you dumb elf! - Harold once again shouted Aro straight in the face. - You have to mix the components in equal amounts and then slowly heat it up! You didnt even check the amount of components used not even speaking about fucking burning it!
Aro was getting annoyed.. a lot by Harold, while the man had his moments of teaching mostly he was a shouting or screaming mess, who raged over even the tiniest of mistakes...
- Sorry..
- What sorry?! Do you think you can just be sorry for wasting precious materials? YOU ARE PAYING FOR THEM! Understand finally! - Again Harold raged. - AGAIN!
Sighing Aro did as he was told and began the process of making a mana potion yet again.
He carefully weighted some mana crystal dust checking if it was enough ¨C the amount seemed perfect. Continuing with his work he cut some ¡°refresher¡± herb and began to grind it, once done with that he weighted how much of it he would need. Harold silently watched him, for now he looked to be doing fine. Both components mixed up he placed them in a small vial and poured some water inside, now all he needed to do was to gradually heat it up until the potion will gain a rich blue color. Five minutes later he had a nice mana potion finished, to that Harold finally sighed happily too.
- No that wasnt too hard, was it? - The old alchemist said. - You have a problem Aro, not a big one, but one that will hinder all your life if you wont learn to control it! You have no patience! Was it so hard to make it right the first time?
Harold continued ranting, when he went off to do his own work leaving Aro alone ¨C happy with the silence. As Aro continued to work during the day on a big amount of mana potions ordered by the mage guild he silently thought about all that he has learned these past few weeks.
His inner thoughts were soon disturbed as the shops bell rang, he was about to go see who came to the shop, but Harold motioned for him to continue working and went up to the counter-desk himself.
The man who entered wore dark clothes, his face well hidden behind a bandanna and a hood. Harold began to talk with the man, but not in his usual loud voice, but a silent whisper. Aro for now decided to ignore that and continued to work. Soon the man left.
Harold sighed and came back to where Aro was working.
- Listen boy, I got quite a bit of an order here... the thing is... ah to hell with it! You are smart enough to see how many clients we receive during the day to understand that my shop should be barely running, you following me? - Harold asked.
- I do...
- Got any ideas what I am talking about?
- You do some side jobs too, dont you? - A little intrigued Aro said.
- Yes, now since you signed those magical doc''s sealing your ability to talk about what I do, I can give you a choice ¨C you keep learning the ¡°normal¡± stuff, or you decide to help me out with some ¡°unusual¡± alchemist stuff and I teach you that for free, though if you choose to help me out your work load will more than double and you will be my delivery boy. So what do you say? - Harold asked, his eyes having a slight glint in them, that Aro couldn''t recognize.
- What do you need me to do master? - Aro grinned as he called Harold master for a first time.
- Good, well then I will prepare you a list in a moment, you will go out to the town and buy everything I need for this order. Once you will be back we will begin to work... on what you will learn when we work. Oh, and an advice ¨C dont buy everything in one shop, even beter use some beggars to buy you some of the materials...
- Eh, I know this is going to be shady, but why the hell such secrecy?
- You will understand later, for now finish this mana potion and wait a moment.
Aro nodded to his master, seeing how he wont get any information right away. After finishing heating up the mana potion he was working on before, he had just finished to clean up his working space, when Harold returned with a small pouch and a list.
- Now, heres the list and here is the money you can use to buy materials, if you manage to buy cheaper you can use leftover money to buy some mana potion ingredients. And remember to not buy everything at one place, though I dont care how you get all the ingredients if you will mess up... consider spending a long time in the towns dungeons.
Aro took the pouch and list, quickly looked over it raising an eyebrow, then nodded to his master and left the shop, his trusty hood coming onto his head as soon as he left ¨C his unusual appearance for an elf tended to attract attention if he didnt hide his white hair and pale dark skin.
''Old man didnt give me any kind of time limit... heh, might as well enjoy myself for a bit.'' Aro thought as a light smile found its way onto his lips.
An hour later, Aro could be seen sitting in a small coffee shop ¨C while sipping his coffee he was reading trough the list he received. Some ingredients he could easily buy from young adventurers who will be returning to the capital in the evening after a day of hunting animals and clearing out the ever present goblins, who seemed to just repopulate their lost forces during the night continuously making work for adventurer''s guild.
Aro walked near the gates scanning beggars sitting near them, asking for some small change to survive ¨C while Aro knew most of them were drunkards, he didnt care. They would be useful right now, to accomplish the task he was given.
As Aro was making his way to one of the beggars to offer him a deal a new idea popped up in his head.. he abruptly stopped, attracting a few looks, then turned around on his heels and smiling yet again walked in the opposite direction.
As Aro''s darkly dressed figure made its way towards the orphanage many moved out of his way, quite disturbed by him, for all the way there he unconsciously was playing with a small dagger he usually used to cut up herbs at the shop. As he walked inside the orphanage, he saw a fat old lady with a gentle expression on her face talk with some kids. Walking up to the lady Aro sat down in front of her on a chair.
- Ah, hello dear, did anything happen to bring you here? - The lady said in a calm tone, her sharp but gentle eyes looking at Aro.
- Oh, no.. Nothing bad really, just wanted to know if I could offer some small odd jobs for the kids here, hoping they might want to earn some pocket money to spend on sweets. - Aro said, as he removed his hood and flashed a nice warm smile to the lady.
- Well, what kind of jobs are we talking about? Many of the kids arent the most healthy for carrying heavy objects or something like that...
- I just need them to set up a few small stalls near the gates into the capital and buy me some materials, that''s all im asking of them. I am an alchemist apprentice and have found myself recently spending more time buying the materials than actually learning anything. - Aro said, not allowing the woman to speak too much, trying to cover as much points as he could, while not slipping any unnecessary information.
- Ah, I see... I will call a few older ones for you then, you can offer this job for them yourself then. - As the lady said, she ordered two of the kids nearby to fetch a few other kids, form somewhere within the orphanage and she herself stood up going to the second floor to look for one more kid.
Aro sat there for five minutes, before he got bored of waiting and took out the list, checking what he could ask the kids to buy for him, happy to find that he will be able to cover most of the list with their help he decided to get the few remaining ingredients he will need by himself from the few local herbalist shops.
- Ehem. - someone cleared their throat, clearly trying to gain his attention.
Aro lifted his head up, a little disturbed. In front of him stood the old lady of the orphanage and three young ladies besides her... He could clearly see, that the girls werent older than seventeen, but they had quite well developed bodies.
- So, do you think these girls will be able to do what you need of them? - The orphanages manager said smirking, seeing how some more red seeped into Aro''s face.
- Yes, I think they will be perfect. - Aro said, gulping a mouthful of saliva he found began to collect in his mouth.
- I believe introductions are in order then! This is Aya, her sister Maya and this silent lady here is Ferta and now girls this is... a rude man who didnt introduce himself, but wants to offer you a job. - The old lady said smirking at Aro.
- Ugh, right ¨C lost my manners there... hahaha... I''m Aro, an apprentice alchemist. The job I have to offer for you ladies is to buy me some materials every few days, when I ask you to. I will be paying one silver fifty coppers per day of work to each of you if that satisfies you? - Aro said, as he scratched his chin, trying to loose that awkwardness.
The girls turned to look at the manager lady, for a moment and she nodded ¨C probably letting them understand, that the pay is good... But Aro could only wonder about that.
- It is a pleasure to work for you. - all three of them said in unison.
After that everything went quite smoothly ¨C Aro gave a list to them of what he needed them to buy for him, the manager lady offered some assistance telling the girls, witch gate was better to set up shop for what materials to buy, then Aro gave them an advance for two days of work and money to buy the materials, with that everything was set up and the girls quickly left the orphanage ¨C seeing as it was still midday and they could buy quite a bit of these materials needed.
- Ah, today is such a good day! - The manager lady said while smiling looking at the girls leaving.
- Indeed it is, with your help my life just got a lot whole easier! - Aro said satisfied as how things turned out.
- Yes, yes! But I wonder how long will it last for you Aro! Hahaha... - The lady dropped a strange comment confusing Aro a bit and left to do her own tasks.
Aro just shrugged, not understanding what she could mean and left to buy the remaining materials from the list. His list was now considerably shorter, so he managed to get everything in three hours, even if he used a few street kids to buy some things or beggars, this secrecy still bugging him as he thought what might be made so dangerous out of all these materials..
As sun was beginning to set, Aro was back at the shop, previously having visited the orphanage again and collected the materials the girls manged to buy for him during the day. Harold looked pleased with his results and questioned him a bit how he got the materials nodding about his choice of using the kids from orphanage and how he bought other things on the list either himself or by using street kids.
- You have a good hearth Aro, its always good to create yourself an image of a man who cares about others in out line of work, though be careful to not reveal your ¡°employees¡± too much. - Said Harold nodding. - well, then lets close the shop and get to work, I can see you itching to learn about what we will be making.
When the sign ¡° Closed ¡° was hung and the windows were covered to not let anyone see inside, Harold led Aro deeper into the shop, into a room he wasnt allowed previously.
- So you figured out about my ¡°side¡± work a bit earlier, so I will tell you what you need to know for now. - Harold scratched his head and sat down near a table, motioning Aro to sit down too. - Place the materials here and we will work while we talk. My ¡°side¡± job is making poisons, smoke bombs and other not so legal shady stuff for the underworld guilds of capital. Our current order we received in the morning if for the infamous assassins... And tonight we will be making a shit load of poison and smoke bombs, together with some toxic bombs.
- Ugh, this will be dangerous wont it? - Aro said a little concerned about his well being.
- Yes it will, I give you the last chance to walk out of this if you want... not like you will be to tell anyone about this anyway. So what do you say?
- Well fuck me im famous... lets do this master.
- Glad to hear! So we begin like this...
And like that Aro worked his ass off, getting poisoned during the night more than few times, strangely enough Harold wasn''t grumpy at all when he thought Aro the dark side of his trade, but laughed all the time as he remembered how he learned this and told Aro. Every time Aro messed up and accidentally inhaled some poisonous dust or pricked his finger with a knife he used to cut some poisonous herbs, Harold wouldn''t give him the antidote right away, but would tell him to wait a bit before he felt his limit and then would feed him with the antidote ¨C as he said ¡°you need to build some poison resistance, for this kind of work¡±. True to that Aro saw how many times Harold inhaled the poisonous dust with himself and didnt use even a single antidote.
Early in the morning, when they finished only one tenth of the order Harold ordered all dizzy and tired Aro to sleep on the ground in that room, using one of the sacs of herbs as a pillow. Before he knew Aro was out cold sleeping and snoring like a giant.
- Kids these days! Cant resist even a little bit of poison! - Harold chuckled to himself seeing how fat Aro fell asleep.
It was six hours later, that Aro woke up because of a sharp pain in his side and saw Harold''s boot retract from his side ¨C apparently he was kicked awake.
- rise and shine sunshine.. we still have work to do! - A little sinister smile was on Harold''s face, he enjoyed kicking people awake!
- Yes master... - Yawning Aro got up and went back to work.
The poison they were making were of few kinds ¨C one was called ¡°blood tear¡±, for it made the one who inhaled it have its hearth beet accelerated so much that from the pressure blood vessels would rupture and one would begin to cry and sweet blood.. a nasty way to die if not treated resulting in hearth attack or organ failure. Next one was ¡°Death''s kiss¡± usually used by coating ones lips with it, the one who coated his lips with it would need to drink an antidote that lasted for around four hours, this way any person that was kissed would get poisoned. This poison worked slowly and would kill the target over few days, creating clogs in the persons blood vessels as it accelerated blood coagulation. They also worked on a few more and also all the poison versions mixed with some explosive dust or also making smoke bombs mixed with poison.
Aro learned it all quickly, but carefully ¨C understanding how bad it would be to mess up in this line of work. Harold seemed to be pleased with his learning speed and shared some tips of how the poison could be used too, broadening Aro''s knowledge on the uses of poison. Of course they also made enough antidotes to use with the poison in case the user accidentally poisoned himself, or someone who didnt need to be poisoned.
Three days have passed, since Harold received this order and they finally were finished with making everything.
- So, you have already learned quite a bit about the shady side of our craft, now do you want some more about who uses this? Hehe. - Harold said to Aro as if taunting him.
The blood in Aros body seemed to heat up a little as he understood he was being taunted, but his youth and pride pressing him to accept this small challenge.
- I am, so you want me to deliver these? And I guess the place is one of those ¡°shady¡± underworld guilds?
- Yes, we have talked about them previously, the assassins. - Harold said smirking.
- Well, so whats in it for me?
- New connections why of course! Having some friends in high places is good, but having some at love places is even better! At least I think like that. Strangely enough in this wretched world ¡°shady¡± guys tend to sell you out less frequently than those noble assholes. - Harold said with somewhat distant look in his eyes.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.- Well, that''s a good enough reason for me, having more connections never hurts. So wheres the place?
After his question Aro got quite a bit of information on where to find quite a few ¡°shady¡± guilds, that usually had not so ¡°shady¡± guild''s as their cover.. everything has a dark side doesn''t it?
Aro''s first destination was the assassins guild, that used carpenters shop as a cover ¨C the box Aro was given to carry had quite a few hidden compartments filled with the goods they made during the night, on top of it out in the light as cover were some varnishes and waxes used to coat weapons to prevent them from rusting and used also to clean them.
Again as Aro was making his way trough the city with his many break''s for rest because of his accursed lung damage, he was humming to himself a strange melody he had never heard before, but that seemed distantly familiar for him. Though he just shrugged at the strange feelings the song welled up inside of him and continued on his way.
Finally at the carpenters he saw many hunters come to replenish their supply of arrows, some traders and businessmen making orders and so on.. all seemed like decent folk of the city, but now Aro knew, that many of these people used this merely as cover.
The trusty door bell rang again as he entered the shop, these things seemed to be everyplace he visited. A middle aged orc raised his head and looked at Aro as he entered.
- Good day customer, what can I help you with? The names Garka, owner of this humble shop.
- Aro, I came here to deliver an order of varnishes, waxes and some ¡°other¡± stuff, from Harold.
- Very good! We were expecting the goods tomorrow though, come with me... Garta! - The orc shouted at the back of the shop, from where quickly a younger orc walked out. - Son, take over for me a little, need to take care of the goods delivered.
- Yes father. - the young orc Garta replied and quickly took over whatever his father was doing before.
- Now then, follow me Aro.
Quickly following inside the shop, Aro looked around. Many bows hung on the walls, with many arrows on display, there seemed to be many other tools on display together with finely crafted wooden furniture and other stuff.
Aro was led deep into the shop, their final destination was an underground floor of the shop, behind a wooden door, that looked plain ¨C but as they entered the room Aro could see how fortified the door was.
- So tell me Aro, you are a new disciple of that old ball of nerves Harold? - Garka asked him with a slight grin.
- Apparently so, I though he shows his nerves to me only, looks like I was wrong.
- Haha, apparently so! Well then , show me the goods.
Aro quickly took out all the goods he was carrying ¨C the varnishes, the waxes and all the different kind of poisons. Garka nodded at all the goods, looking pleased at them. The orc fished out some money out of the chest behind him and handed it over to Aro, then took out a leather book and wrote something down in it, as Aro though probably noting the goods.
- So, Aro you are willing to involve yourself in this line of work huh? Need money desperately? - Garka asked him out of the blue suddenly.
- You can say that. - replied Aro picking his words carefully. - Though, im just making some useful connections for the future would be a better thing to say.
- Yes, yes.. a man has to think about future! Though if you are making such connections your future might be quite a dangerous one dont you think? One has to be able to keep his mouth shut about such things and have quite a bit of trust in other to too keep their mouth''s shut. - Said Garka with a cheeky smile.
The next moment Aro could feel a dagger on his throat and also something pointy pressing at his ribs. Looks like he was sneaked upon form behind by someone and he didnt even notice that. His pupils contracted to small dot''s as he looked Garka in the eyes.
- What is this all about? You unhappy with the wares I delivered?
- Oh, no nothing of that sort... I just need you to stay here for a while, to let my boys check if you really are Harold''s apprentice. And well.. if you are not.. I think we will test a few of these poisons on you.. always wondered what would happen to a person if you mixed those!
Cold sweat began to run though Aro''s back.. '' Harold wouldn''t abondon me would he?... '' were his thoughts. The dagger at his ribs moved from his side and a split second later sharp pain his the back of his head knocking him out cold. As the world around him darkened, Aro could only curse his own bad luck.
Aro woke up all stiff with his bottom hurting from the uncomfortable position he was sitting in, looking around he found himself in the same room sitting on a bench. Neither his hands, nor feet were bound, so he stretched a little, as he did so he sighed.. what a day.
- Sorry about that.. we need to be careful in this line of work. - a voice resounded in the room coming from a dark corner on Aro''s left, there a young person was sitting while coating some daggers in poisons Aro recognized form the color and smell.
- Since I am alive I believe Harold confirmed that I am his apprentice?
- Yeah, he also laughed his ass off when we told him how easily you were taken out.. got a small package for you from him here. - said the man as he handed Aro a small well wrapped bundle. - take your time.
With that said, the man went back to his work and ignored Aro. So without delay Aro unwrapped the package ¨C there he found a book, a letter and a strange long black box. Opening the letter he began to read it.
¡°My young apprentice, sorry about this small inconvenience I caused you to go trough.. I am leaving the capital, since it got a little too hot for me here, you might not noticed ¨C but the shop was being watched and people were following both of us every time we left it. I wont disclose the place im mowing to, but I think we wont ever meet again, not that you will be able to recognize me even if we did. I am leaving you in the capable hands of Garka, my old friend. The book you received has many information about potion brewing, both normal ones and ¡°shady¡± ones. Learn them yourself. In the box I have left for you is a very unique creature ¨C a parasite of sorts, that has some useful qualities to it, more about it you can learn in the book. Well then good luck to you my boy!
Harold.
p.s. You can ask Garka to train you, or introduce you to some trainers if you dont like the silent style hehe, I think you will need to learn some skills to survive.¡±
''Oh boy..'' Aro sighed as he finished reading this letter, intrigued by the black box and whatever was inside it also troubled by the contents of the letter he was apparently left for his own devices.
- Finished reading? - The man in the corner asked.
- Yes, apparently im in your ¡°guild''s¡± care now...
- Seems so. Garka will come down in a few hours, find yourself something to do while we wait. You are not allowed upstairs... city guard''s places a small bounty, if you were delivered to them alive for questioning.
- So im a fugitive now?
- Yep. - with that single word the man began to ignore Aro once again diligently continuing his work.
Having nothing better to do ¨C Aro opened the book he got and began to look for information about that parasite in the box.
This parasite was quite an interesting one ¨C it lived in rivers far to the south in barely explored lands. This parasite was called ¡°ripper¡± - for it tended to rip its way into the body without a care in the world for its host''s body. This way the parasite was hated by many explorers for the pain it caused, though it wasnt hard to remove if not let to live more than a month in the body. Many thought of this creature only as a parasite ¨C but the truth is it can be quite beneficial to one if you are willing to go trough the pain of it entering your body and a whole month of discomfort of feeling something slightly move inside your body...
After a month spent in the hosts body and having found itself a sweet spot, that wouldn''t disturb its host and would allow for it to live in peace the parasite would connect itself to the host''s nervous and blood system. It would then release some of the fluids it makes into the hosts blood, making it addicted to the fluids, while strengthening the hosts body ¨C that''s why it was very annoying to remove one after a month ¨C because of the addiction it caused. This strengthening made the hosts body produce more natural steroids, making the host get more ¡°buffed¡± while also increasing muscle density a little, since the secretions of this parasite were used in many poisons the host would develop a natural resistance to them over time.. and as it wrote might actually begin to enjoy them from time to time like beer..
'' Well that''s fucked up '' Aro thought, but continued to read.
Further it wrote, what happens because of this parasite connecting to the host''s nerves. The parasite would enchant host''s senses and at the same time would be able to dull them if needed, making it beneficial if many cases. The last info about it was... how this parasite reproduced.. from time to time the host would literally shit out some of the parasites eggs, that were so small that the host wouldn''t even notice them, thus not causing any physical or mental discomfort. The parasite being hermaphrodite didnt need a partner to reproduce. There was also a small warning at the end of all the information - ¡°Not recommended to use for mages, since random mutations can appear because of magical power affecting the parasite and its host.¡±
''Good thing im no mage.'' A simple thought flowed trough Aro''s head as he closed the book and pocketed it together with the box and Harold''s letter in one of his pockets, deep within his clothes.
- So, how much time left till Garka shows up? - Aro asked the silent man, who seemed to have finished his work and was pocketing all the instrument''s.
- Not too long now.
As if on queue the doors to the room opened and Garka showed up. Seeing Aro up he nodded and turned to the other man.
- Got a task for you, all info is upstairs with Miriam.
- Understood. - with that said, the man left the room not making even the smallest sound.
- So, I can see you received the ¡°package¡±, so you are in my care for now. I will train you if you want as a favor for our mutual friend and I will employ you in his place if that satisfies you. You good with that? - Garka looked at him expecting an answer.
- Works for me, though I have a bit of a condition with my body..
- Yes, I was informed about that, though our friend said he left you something that will fix you up in a few months. We will be moving you out of the capital tonight into a more secure location, so get some rest the trip wont be long, but it will take quite a bit out of you with those damaged lungs of yours.
Aro nodded at that and made himself comfortable on the bench he was sitting, he fished out a few herbs out of his pocket, chewed them and soon fell asleep as those herbs took effect. Gaka, looked at the youth, that now was sleeping on the bench and sighed.. ''In what a world do we live that our young are forced to take such lines of work?'' he asked himself silently, hoping only that this young man wont get corrupted and twisted in time. A strange thought for an assassin.
Aro didnt know how long he was sleeping, when someone woke him up, informing that it was time to move out.
There was four of them, the people he didnt know yet showed him the way trough secret tunnels out of the capital and led him away from it towards a forest in the distance. Like Garka had said before, the trip wasn''t that hard, but tiring for him ¨C since they needed to walk quite a long distance trough the forest and then into the mountains. Approximately eight hours later, at least by Aro''s calculations in his head, they arrived at their destination, that looked like some long ago abandoned cave, though you cold barely see it even if you knew where it was, for it was well covered by vegetation.
- Follow us greenhorn, the tunnels are like a maze, stay close... - one of his companions said with a deep rumbling voice.
All four of them entered, following the one who spoke, the cave was truly like a maze ¨C but since they had a guide they moved quickly trough it. Aro tried to memorize the way back in case he needed to leave in the future, only to get a headache after half an hour as there were too many turns and identically looking corridors to remember.
Aro guessed that they took more than an hour to navigate trough the tunnels, when they reached their goal ¨C seemingly a blocked tunnel. Their leader walked close to one of the walls and began to look for something in the dim light their torches provided. A minute later the man seemed to find, what he was looking for and pressed one section of the wall, while kicking another. With a dull sound the wall moved in a little bit. With some combined strength they pushed the hidden door fully open and entered a well lit room.
Aro and the two other people looked around curiously, there could be a few beds in the side of the room, quite a bit of crates on the other and closed doors leading somewhere.
- Stop looking around newbies, help me close this god damn rock doors! - Angrily said their guide.
Once the doors were closed and they turned around to look back, they found themselves being observed by ten men, half of them having their bows ready ¨C all of them dressed in dark clothes made in a way that you would have a hard time telling if the one wearing them was a man or a woman.
- Stand down you lot! It me Fallin! - their guide shouted lightly. - dont scare our new recruits, see? Those two are trembling already!
- Maybe you should bring some real men then next time? - said a woman''s voice coming from one of the figures. - hahahaha..
The bows were let down and the group that watched them burst out laughing, taking off their bandannas and hoods, revealing their faces.. surprisingly seven of them were women.
- Listen up greenhorns, you will fight each one of them and they will choose you as their students... Aro you first.
Out of the blue Aro found himself dodging, rolling and parrying blows from a woman, whose dagger seemed to become a vicious snake following his every try to escape or get some distance. His damaged lungs dint help either.
- Stop running chicken! Not like it will help you! - the woman shouted at Aro annoyed.
Aro tensed up at being called a chicken and stood up, while catching his breath he gripped a sword he was handed and turned to the grinning blonde. He took up the stance he was thought back in the army, raising his sword and taking it with both of his hands, putting his left foot forward he found his center of gravity. Calming his breath Aro reversed his grip on the sword with a quick motion and jumped at the blonde, she grinned and was about to kick Aro in the face, when he dived below her and pressed his sword at her thigh prepared to cut one of the bigger arteries in her leg. At the same time he felt her dagger press at the back of his neck drawing small amount of blood.
- A tie! Well done greenhorn. Though, next time try not to find yourself sniffing Kates pussy. - Said Fallin, while he himself and everybody around laughed.
A little red in the face and totally out of breath Aro stood up and nodded, to his sparring partner Kate. She just winked at him and licked her lips...
- Okay next! Bern you go spare with Cleo. - Again Fallin''s voice could be heard and another rookie stepped up.
Chapter three. Whispers of the spirits.
Hey comrades, i hope you like my story - though i write it to improve my writing speed while not looking at the screen mostly. If you have a rich imagination - feel free to pm me with characters of your own imagination (name, last name, maybe a nickname for the character and some background for it) and i will try to use it in the following chapters sooner or later. It''s the hardest part for me to make new characters. If you have any ideas or suggestions feel free to post them. This chapter is just 53 words shy form reaching a 5k words mark, i consider this +/- 500 words my medium chapter length. Have fun and enjoy, because i certainly did!
p.s. some suggestions on how to make the characters seem more alive is welcome.
--//--
At the assassins guild''s base Aro received training, well at least some of it as he couldnt keep up with the rest of the new recruits, his condition hindering him. His main job like Garka said was working in place of Harold, he supplied them with potions, poisons and other consumables. All the resources were delivered straight to him, the members also helped him set up a small, but efficient alchemy lab in one of the unused rooms of their base, though there was a lot of cleaning before everything was set up.
It was early in the morning when Aro woke up, from the sound coming out of the other beds in the room designated for males ¨C everyone else was still sleeping and quite soundly.
''So, what am I going to do today?'' slow, still sleepy thought entered my head. I did some light stretches when I got out into the main room, it feels so good to get rid of that morning stiffness. I walked trough the main hallway, past the girls room and I could already hear some of them up silently talking to one another. Shrugging at their perverted talks that I heard... I made my way into the lab. During this last half a year I truly began to enjoy the smell of herbs filling the air, taking a big breath and filling up my lungs I smiled in pleasure.
All the people here in the base said I was doing a very good job keeping them supplied, so as a way of showing their thanks they somehow managed to get me a nice and comfy leather chair in witch I have just placed my bottom comfortably. As I lifted my eyes off of my notebook, that was neatly arranged with pencils on the table, that box Harold left me came into my view.
''might as well get this over with..'' sighing I took the black box into my hands feeling its smooth surface, my fingers traced the side of the box, where a simple metal button acted as a switch, that opened the box.
As Aro opened the box, he saw there inside of it a small creature ¨C the so called ¡°ripper¡± that was curled up into a ball. The creature was greenish in color, no antennas eyes or anything like that could be seen on its body, one could only wonder how it sensed it''s potential host''s.
- Well, little guy you dont seem so menacing as your name implies? - Aro said smiling at the small creature, he was now holding in his palm.
As those words left Aro''s mouth, the creature as if on queue straightened out, then it nimbly jumped off of his hand straight onto his chest. Such quick movement shocked Aro for a moment and when he finally tried to grab the creature it had already ripped past his shirt. Pain came out form Aro''s chest as the parasite quickly made its way into his body.
- Oh fuck! That hurts you little shit!!! - Aro fell onto the ground rolling in pain, as he could feel the parasite moving within his body.
After a few minutes the creature seemed to settle and Aro sat down on his chair panting, while also feeling the parasite in his gut doing something, fortunately for him whatever the parasite was doing didnt cause any pain ¨C only a slight discomfort. He took off his shirt and looked at the place the creature used to enter his body ¨C a small wound with jagged edges could be seen on his chest at the left side.
- Fuuuck, that hurt! - Slowly catching his breath Aro looked at his shirt, that now had a bloody hole in it. - Balls, that was my favorite shirt!
Grumbling profanities silently under his breath, he made his way back into the male room, intending to grab a change of clothes.
Bern and Fallin were already up and getting ready for the day back in the room. They looked at shirtless Aro.
- Dude, what happened to you? - Bern asked a little concerned seeing his bloodied chest.
- Ha! he probably opened our old suppliers present hahaha! - Laughed Fallin, but his face quickly came back to his usual serious expression. - Get a bath Aro, Garka will be arriving today, he will want to see you. I dont think he would like to see you all bloody.
- Okay...
As he was told Aro grabbed a change of spare clothes and a towel, soon he was on his way to the baths.
The bath in the base was quite a nice one, though it had to be a pain to make it ¨C there was a small pool carved in the middle of a separate room specially designed to be a bath. Some pipes were placed underground bringing hot water from a nearby hot stream, another set of pipes were also placed on the bottom of the pool, to allow the water freely leave this pool. Someone really worked hard to make this.
Aro undressed placing his clean clothes on one of the benches carved out of rock near the pool, then he walked up to a basked on the other side of the room and dropped his bloodied shirt there, one of the girls will wash it later in the evening.. probably..
All in his naked glory Aro stepped into the pool and relaxed, just when he was about to let out a satisfied sigh.. that damn parasite reminded him about itself as it began to stir inside his stomatch.
- Oh come on! Cant you let me rest for a bit, after all you did! - Annoyed shouted Aro into the empty room.
But apparently the parasite had some plans of it''s own and continued to move around inside of his body. Aro let his body sink deeper into the water and again relaxed as much as he could.
'' So Garka is coming over here today... I wonder what will he say about me using this parasite? '' Deep in his thought''s he didnt notice someone entering the baths.
- CANONBALL!!! - Someone shouted behind Aro and after a second of running sounds that someone jumped over Aro''s head into the pool.
That was Alex, mikes twin brother. The next second a small tsunami hit Aro''s face.
- What the fuck man?! Did you really need to jump over my head?! - Fumed Aro at now laughing Alex.
- Hey, whats the problem, not like I hurt you!
- Yeah, right the view of your ass is now burned into my memory! And that is a memory I could have happily lived without!
- Bah, I bet you have never seen such a nice ass like mine! So be grateful!
- Like hell I will! Come over here you prick!
What followed, could be only described as a.. manly battle for justice!
Mike and Bern joined them a few minutes later, after their small fight in the water ended, with Aro almost drowning Alex in the water.
- So guy, Fallin said Garka is arriving today? Got anything on what took him so long to get here? - Curious Aro asked his comrades.
- Nope. - Replied the guy''s in unison.
- But I guess something either important or annoying. - Smirking replied Mike knowing how annoyed Aro got when he didnt get an answer.
After that with some small talk going on about, who will do what during the day all of them relaxed, only Aro from time to time showing an annoyed expression and rubbing his stomach.
- So, Bern said you finally decided to use that thing? Did it hurt? - Mike.
- It hurt like hell for a few moment''s, but that all, now it''s just annoying with all that movement inside of my stomach.
- Heh, that wound looks like it hurt! Check the edges they are all jagged! - Bern.
- One thing I know for sure im never sharing my body with some creatures! Brrrr!! the thought alone gives me the creeps. - Alex.
- Yeah, well not like I have much of a choice on this matter... You know.. damaged lungs? - Aro.
- But still man... with some training you could reduce that stamina problem of yours, though yeah.. that would take you years. - Agreed Bern. - Let''s end this topic.. better lets share something about ourselves? Since I suggested it I will go first, if thats alright with you attention whores!
Everybody present grunted in agreement.
- So, my name is Bern as you all should know by now, I was your average farm boy, until my village was raided... well I then left the frontier, somehow found myself in the capital and as you all can see now im here!
- Okay we are next, I and Alex both grew up near the capital to tell the truth, while out parent''s were farmers we both always wanted to be adventurers right bro?
- Yep.
- So yeah, a few years back we tried out the life of an adventurer... unfortunately that almost cost us our lives, since some asshole noble wanted our land and thought that by taking us as hostages on one of our subjugation requests and asking our parents to pay some nice coin for our lives trough a proxy he used he would make them take loans to pay for us. Unfortunately for him we are strong! So we managed to escape our captors, went back home and stayed there with our parents for a while.. All our attempts to get justice failed and we were constantly pressured by that noble to sell our land to him. One day Pop''s finally got tired of that and together with mother decided to move a little away from the capital and also to sell our land to that noble, no matter how I and bro were against that it was his decision to make in the end. Well, while our parents left for the west plains to start a new life there I and Alex decided to get back at that damn noble, so here we are working for the guild in exchange that once our contract ends we will get help in eliminating that fat pig.
Finally finished Mike was all out of breath, but he looked strangely satisfied.. probably he was thinking of how he will skin that noble. Aro sighed and took a deep breath as it was now his turn to tell them about his past.
-Well, I have no living relatives remaining. My father and grandfather both served all their lives in the military, my father even managed to achieve the rank of a general in the army, but he was assassinated soon after... there are no suspects. My mother died giving birth to me so I dont know much about her. I cant say I have spent a lot of time in any place during my short life, as my father was transferred form one place to another every few years, that is until one of the old generals died and a spot opened. Thats about it?
- So, what do we have here? A farmer, a son of a general and two mighty adventurers? - Laughed at all of them Talon as he entered the bath.
- Ha! tell us your story Talon. - said Mike looking at Talon who apparently was listening to them, while he was changing.
- Oh, sure! - with that said Talon turned his naked back to them... Scars, many scars were on it. - And thats about it.
Everyone was silent, after they saw Talon''s back, he on the other hand didn''t care and entered the pool.
- Whats with you guys? Did a troll cut your tongues out? Hahaha! - Talon.
- No man, just sorry about asking... you were a slave?.. - Mike asked yet again being unable to hold his big mouth shut.
- I was, though, not because of some unfortunate event ¨C my drunkards parents sold me to the slavers when I was six, to settle their debt with a local inn, where they spend their time drinking. - All the guys, were looking at him shocked. - dont look at me like that guys, I got my revenge ¨C freed my two sisters from that filth of parents and killed them myself.
- Dude...
- I know right, I had to torture them before.. but I kind of forgot, seeing my two baby sisters.. - said Talon in a sad voice.
- Thats not what I had in mind, so where are your sisters now? - Mike.
- Oh, I found a nice family and got them to adopt my sisters. Poor people ¨C they were unable to have children of their own, so they were more than happy to accept my sisters into the family. - Said Talon now with a smile on his face.
''Yoooup... Talon is crazy ¨C I somewhat knew that, but now im sure of it. Better not to mess with the guy.'' A thought passed trough Aro''s head. Nodding to himself, he stepped out of the pool, it was time to get back to work and prepare some more supplies for the group before Garka arrived.
Other guys stayed behind chatting a little more.
Humming to himself yet another unknown melody Aro entered his lab for the second time today. There was a small amount of blood on the floor that he hadnt noticed before, so he grabbed a small cloth ad cleaned it up. After cleaning up the mess he took out some of the herbs he will need and began to cut them into small strips, that would be easier to grind and extract juices from.
Aro set aside the book Harold left him, to look at one of the vials ¨C it was about to boil and he didnt need it to, so he turned off the oil heater he was using and placed the vial in one of the small boxes to cool down, carefully taking while using tongs as to not get burned.
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He wiped the sweat away from his forehead and began to work on one more vial... ''I am sweating a lot today.. must be because of the ¡°ripper¡±'' he thought as he poured some water into a bottle to be distilled and later used in the potions. ''Might as well make myself something refreshing.'' Aro thought as he took out a small cup from the drawer under his work desk and poured some water into it, he quickly found some herbs with minty taste, that were used in mana potions and brewed himself some tea.
The smell coming out of the cup was divine for him, actually ¨C he really liked mint tea since forever. Guys actually began to ask him to make them some too, after Cleo had tasted it once and said it was really delicious. With that in mind and looking at the small mana watch he had placed on the wall in front of his desk he began to brew some more of his herbal tea ¨C it should go well with almost anything the girls will prepare to eat.
As his teapot heated up Aro placed the herbs into a medium sized metal barrel that could hold up to five liters of liquids and placed his herbs into it, then he proceeded to heat his teapot a few more times, so that there would be enough tea for everyone. After that he had to use some thick gloves to not get burned while carrying this barrel into the kitchen.
The kitchen had a nice scent lingering in it. '' Nice! Chicken wings for lunch, with my herbal tea this will be divine!'' Happily thinking about food he placed the barrel on the table.
- Ohoho! I thought I smelled something good! - Said Fallin as he entered the kitchen and sat behind the table.
- Yes, Cleo helped me with preparing some wild chicken wings, we will also be having roasted chicken for dinner. - said Rita as she was preparing some salad, Cleo helping her.
- Add my herbal tea to the list. - Aro said.
- OH goodness, we might get fat if we will continue to feast like this. - Smirked Fallin.
- You can have some salad instead of chicken if you are so concerned about you weight Fallin, there will be more meat for us! - Said Cleo as she placed a big bowl of finished mixed salad in front of Fallin.
- Nah, I think I will help you with eating that chicken, who knows you ladies might get too fat from overeating it. - Fallin tried to bite at the girls, only to get smacked on the head with a wooden spoon by laughing Rita.
- Aro, do me a favor and call others, before Fallin decided to eat everything himself. - Rita
- Sure thing Rita, im on my way.
Aro found Alex and Hanna sparring in the training room, while Mike and Ashe were polishing their throwing skills, Wade was doing some weight lifting and Bern was checking on his beloved swords.
- People! Rita said that lunch is ready, better goo get some before Fallin eats everything alone! - Aro shouted into the room, getting everyone''s attention. - Anyone know''s where Talon, Kate and Anna are hiding?
- I saw Talon back in the room taking a nap. - Wade said out of breath as he was putting the weights down.
- Kate and Anna are meditating out in the forest, they wont be back until the evening. - And apparently Ashe knew where the last two girls were.
I nodded hearing all that and turned around going back into the kitchen. Soon everyone else arrived, well except Ashe and Kate ¨C we put some food away for them to eat later, though I dont think Fallin wont try to eat that too, but we shall see!
During lunch there was some small talk going on, everyone was quite interested why was Garka so late, Fallin also mentioned that he should be bringing Garta along, the kid was big enogh to join the ranks of the assassins now.
- Tell me guys, we have spent some time now here in the base, during all that time I have seen you going on missions only a few times, so does assassination jobs pay that well? - Aro asked about what was on his mind.
- Yeah, they pay well, but the risk is big too though, also you get payed only if you succeed so yeah... - Fallin replied.
The talks died down, everyone was a little uncomfortable now ¨C probably remembering the lives they have taken during their career as assassins, Aro felt a little bad about his question now. Finished with food everyone went back to what they were doing previously, Aro too thought about brewing some more potions, but that parasite didnt let him focus with all it''s movements so he went to lift some weight''s with Wade instead.
Lifting the weights together with Wade was fun ¨C we had a small who can lift more contest running with many breaks, for me to get some rest and regain my stamina, though I saw Wade could have went on and on ¨C as this was all he was doing on his spare time ¨C he wasnt your stereotype assassin, as Fallin had once told me that Wade prefers to slaughter everyone present around his target and call that an ¡°assassination¡± instead of plain murder... Well our group is all crazies isnt it?
A few hours later as the evening was fast approaching all of us had gathered in the main room, near the fireplace ¨C Kate and Anna had returned from the forest too, after finishing their meditation. Garka had arrived just half an hour earlier ¨C his son Garta together with him. We all were ordered to gather here as we will be discussing our future plans. Soon, Garta finished with his bath and having changed into clean clothes came here into the room.
- Listen up you lot, I have some things to say! - Garka''s loud voice could be heard. - First of all my son will be joining our ranks from today on.
Everyone present congratulated Garta on joining us and went back to listening of what Garka our leader has to say.
- So, first things first ¨C we have got ourselves a job, that will need all of us, excluding Aro. - Garka said and Aro was about to ask why, but was silenced by Garka to let him speak for now. - This job comes in many parts, our time limit is five years ¨C so we will be working quite a lot on this long term project. Our contractor has paid us full in advance, any extra expenses we might have during the job will be paid to us once we finish this.
These news were great for everyone, so our group cheered even more then when Garka announced his son joining.
- Next then, our first step will be eliminating some people in the villages around the capital ¨C preparing positions for our contractor''s people to be inserted into. All except Aro, Garta and Talon will be working on that. Next then, Aro you will prepare us enough supplies to last half a year, I have a list of what we will need for you to make ready right here. - Garka handed me a small notebook. - While Aro will be working on our supplies and consumables ¨C Talon I will ask of you to get in touch with your contacts and get us some high quality armors and weapons, I would like you to take Garta together with you as it will be good for him to have some contacts to rely on in the future. All supplies, armors and weapons will be needed for our next stage of action.
- Okay Garka, just remember ¨C my contact''s are a little paranoid bunch... not all of them might work with Garta right from the start. - Said Talon.
- It''s okay, we have some time for now, to get them used on working with him. - Garka. - Everyone else rest for tonight, in the morning I will show you our targets and we will make a plan on eliminating them. Start thinking of ways to make it seem natural and remember ¨C if you fuck up your job''s I will personally see to your training to weed out any weaknesses.
Some of the group nodded, others grunted in agreement. Garka then moved a little away form the group going into one of the side rooms, but before going there he motioned for Aro to come with him.
Inside the room Garka took a seat and motioned for Aro to take the second chair on the other side of the table. As Aro sat down Garka lifted a small backpack that was lying on the floor near the table and placed it on top of it. Opening it he took a small leather bundle, two notebooks a stone and a bundle of papers all full of writings.
- Here take this. - Garka handed the leather bundle to Aro. - It''s something from me for you, hope this will help you out in the future.
Aro took the bundle saying his thanks to Garka and unwrapped it ¨C inside it was a pair of black leather gloves both engraved with many runes and faintly glowing with magic.
- These gloves are heavily enchanted, all that you need to know about them is in that brown notebook, next then, I have quite an interesting item for you.. See this stone? It is no ordinary stone, I got it from a mage who owed me quite a bit ¨C it is used to kick start a persons magical power or in some cases if one doesnt have any to grant it to him. Swallow it now.
Doing as Garka said Aro quickly swallowed this gray stone, his insides felt warm for a moment, then it passed, but now Aro felt filled with energy.
- So how do you feel?
- Filled with energy! - Aro replied with a smile. - Thanks, this had to cost you quite a bit.
- It did, but consider it an investment into the future for all of our well being. This notebook is something I grabbed during one of the missions I did way back in the days. This thing needs you to soul bind it to yourself, to learn what is inside.. I never bound it to myself, but you can try and learn what is written inside it. And finally this bundle of papers is from Harold, he said he didnt have much time to write all the recipes he knows into that book he left for you so, take these and copy them over into that book he left for you.
- Great! This will help me out a lot.
- I sure hope so, here - this is a list of supplies we will need. - Garka handed Aro another paper. - When you are done with these, I will send you out of the base. You should take around a month to prepare all the supplies we will need and after that you will join one of the expeditions that will be going out to the frontier.
- Eh? Why? Did I do something bad? - Surprised Aro asked.
- No, dont misunderstand this ¨C the team will need to have their head''s clear for whats coming and we will need a safe place to fall back to in case everything goes to hell. Your task with this expedition will be to find us a safe place to fall back to if needed, where we could lick our wounds and figure what to do next. I also want you to get stronger, make some connections and to during the time we will be away to figure yourself out ¨C meaning what you want to do in life. You are still young Aro, you have a long road in front of you and I dont want you to become a part of our group while you still dont know yourself. - Garka looked at him as he told him that. - even if you will decide not to join us, I will still ask you to continue to be our supporter. Also I think some adventuring will be good for you.
- I see, if it is like this then I agree. - Nodded Aro. - Though you scared me back there, I thought you are kicking me out.. hahaha...
- Nah, you are too good of a guy to just shy away.
Both of them talked a little more after that, but Garka soon retired for the night saying he was tired after that trip to the base, apparently some bounty hunters tried to track him and his son as they left the capital so they had to take them out.
As Garka went out to get some sleep with few others Aro stayed in the main room, near the fireplace. He took out that book that Garka said needs to be soul bound, from his poor knowledge about soul bound items he knew that to bind it you need to inject your own mana into the book. Concentrating Aro tried to find his mana within himself, after a few minutes he sensed it ¨C holding the book in his hands and concentrating he tried to send it into the notebook and after a few attempts he succeeded. The moment his mana entered the notebook a connection between him and the notebook formed, it vibrated slightly in his hands for a second and then stopped. Curious Aro opened it and began to read it''s first page.
Whoever you are, if you are reading this ¨C then I the great Douglas Gilton ¡°the Mountain¡± have died. My sole desire during my life was to become the strongest earth mage, so I ask you to continue my dream, even if it is just a side goal for you. If anyone ever asks you who was your teacher tell them - ¡°the Mountain¡±, so that the legend of me would live forever!
''Wow, no wonder this guy had such a nickname, I wonder if he was called ¡°the Mountain¡± for his skill, or for his ego? Well, no badmouthing the dead.. not that it''s hard to tell anyone that I was thought by ¡°the Mountain¡±! Even if it sounds silly...¡± Aro thought.
Aro flipped trough a few pages of the book, looking at what spells were written there ¨C seeing many common ones and a few uncommon he closed this now soul bound notebook and feeling sleepy went away to his bed. Good night''s rest is important, even more so as he knew how much work he will have preparing all those supplies that Garka asked of. Sighing he left the main room, there now only the shadows cast by the fireplace dancing their unending dances on the dark walls of the room.
''Maaaster... master... I will wait for you to summon me master.'' - a silent whisper could be barely heard coming from underground into the now empty room. - ''huhuhuhuhu.. huhu.. a mew master...''
Chapter Four.
I was born as a lowly farmer, near the iron mountains. The land my family owned was fertile, yet hard to work ¨C full of stones and pests, most of my time was consumed working in the fields form morning to late evening ¨C as the climate was always good to plant crops. My life in my youth was nothing special as I have mentioned ¨C a farm boy, dumb and big, with no real goals in life. My life began to change when I reached the tender age of thirty ¨C for a normal human that would be half their life, while for some other races merely a drop in the ocean. The change in my life was caused one day ¨C when I and my father were selling our harvested goods in the ¡°iron town¡±, as always I got a share of money after we had sold our goods for all the work I did in the farm ¨C as always when father gave me the money he said ¡° Just dont get any girls pregnant, unless youre willing to spend the rest of your life with the girl.¡±. Like always I would just laugh at my father, I thought that day that I would use the money I have received like always ¨C for mead and women, but destiny or fate had other plans for me ¨C you see that day out of curiosity maybe, or maybe out of idiocy I bought a book about magic! Nothing special ¨C really, just a basic tutorial how to find out if I have any potential or not, with a few beginner spells included.
- Douglas Gilton, the beginning.
Aro read the book he had received form Garka, the man who wrote it liked to brag about himself and about his own way to power, though between all the bragging there were some very well explained spells and training exercises. Between the time he was making potions for the assassins and training he was spending all of his time reading this notebook, he was half way trough it and still havent tested any of the methods of meditating and training described in it, not even talking about the spells. But his curiosity was running rampant itching withing him to try all of the spells and training methods, but for now he didnt ¨C why? Simply because all of them were very time consuming. When he began to read the book, he decided to first learn all the theory and only then use any of it, of course when he will be out of the mountain cave and back somewhere in the civilization.
Time passed quickly, now that the assassins had a mission the lazy atmosphere that was all around before was gone. If anyone had spare time from the tasks they have been assigned by Garka ¨C they were training. Aro was asked to prepare meals for everybody while he was still staying with them, so that they would have more time to train and devise plans about how to take out one target or another. Talon and Garta were probably the most busy ones, as they would leave early every morning and would return only late at nigh ¨C bringing supplies for Aro to use the next day in preparing potions, they also brought back intel on the targets form some of their hired spies or information brokers they bought it from. From time to time some unseen faces would appear in the cave, but whenever someone unseen to Aro would be coming he would be asked by Garka to stay in his lab ¨C as Garka said, the less he knew the safer he was. ''Something big will happen in these five years, wont it?'' Aro would think for himself every time, just wondering who could the assassins client be.
Aro''s days were busy, to say the least ¨C preparing meals, brewing potions and reading the journal... not to mention that annoying parasite ¡°ripper¡± moving inside him from time to time, though after these two weeks since he let it enter his body it began to move inside him less and less. As Harolds notes said it was beginning to settle, in two more weeks it will stop moving at all and will be fully symbiotic with Aro''s body. Aro himself couldnt wait for that time to come, he wanted to see what this symbiosis will bring him ¨C advantages together with disadvantages, his biggest hope was that it will somehow improve his lungs, reducing his disability.
The papers Garka delivered him from Harold were quite interesting too ¨C many more receipts were written on them, giving Aro even more work ¨C as he made at least one of each other and by meaning made ¨C brewed them until he succeeded as, he was brewing them for the very first time he messed up quite a few times, thankfully most of these new potions used other ingredients than the supplies the group needed. He had also quickly skimmed trough the notebook that wrote about the gloves Garka gave him ¨C the gloves were a marvel of enchanting, well at least form Aro''s perspective. They were enchanted with many basic spells, had a compass installed in them ¨C they were called ¡°Adventurers gloves¡± as the notebook said and they were no longer in production since the man who was making them died about a decade ago. Also many adventurers better used scrolls for all the basic spells than the gloves ¨C as one needed quite a bit of training with them to be proficient in the spells that were inside the gloves ¨C as the book wrote about half a year of conscious usage of the spells within the gloves was needed to begin to use them efficiently and with less concentration. Meaning the gloves were almost useless if you havent trained with them. Lucky for Aro ¨C the gloves were enchanted with heat, cold and energy resistances, so for now he used them when working on his potions ¨C taking hot flasks or sometimes using the basic spells like ¡°Heat¡± or ¡°burn¡± within them during his work, trying to at least become a little proficient with them.
As he had his days full of work, he had to abandon his training for the time being, only hoping to catch up later. At those rare moments, when the group had finished with their days work ¨C including Aro they all would gather around the fireplace in the main room and would talk among themselves ¨C unspoken rule at those rare times was to never speak about work. Everyone just wanted to forget it for a bit and relax.
The time of Aro''s departure was nearing, as the crates with the supplies were beginning to pile up in his already small lab, cramping it even more. To have some free work space he even had to move some of them into the main room, though keeping them on the opposite side of the room from the fireplace, so that the flammable things wouldnt catch fire if exposed to too much heat. Days were passing quickly for him, anticipation was quickly building within him too, the question that kept popping into his mind was ¨C ''So whats next, when I leave this place?''.
It was one week later, that Aro was woken up by one of the twins.
- Aro, wake up. - Alex spoke to the still sleeping Aro, who after those words began to stir. - Garka wants to speak with you man.
- Five more minutes father..
**Smack!**
- Get eaten by a bear you asshole! - Shouted Aro as he sat down in his bed, to see Alex laughing at him, after he smacked him on the shoulder. - I was having such a nice dream!
- Yeah, but Garka sad to get you now! So move it lazy ass!
- Fuck you.
Aro got out of his bed and began to dress up, like always he put on his dark clothes with hood all made out of leather. He walked out of the room putting on his enchanted gloves, just finishing to tighten all the small leather straps on them.
Ten meters down the corridor, still yawning and last bits of sleep leaving his mind he entered the main room ¨C there Garka was finishing his talk with Talon as he was seeing him and Garta off.
- Ah, there you are Aro! - With his big orkish smile he greeted Aro.
- Morning for you too Garka, Alex said you wanted to see me?
- Yes, I was told you finished with all the supplies?
- Yes, all of them are ready ¨C all thats left is to pack up my things and tidy up the lab.
- Good, good. - Garka nodded at that. - Dont bother with the lab, just pack your things.
- Uh, but I have quite some equipment there..
- No worries, I will cover all your loss. Come, lets talk in my room.
Aro followed Garka to his room, he had never been there before. Entering into the room he looked around ¨C in the room there was a big orc sized bed, together with a mannequin that was covered in armor, that Garka used. Near a wall there was a desk covered in papers ¨C all reports of some sort as much as Aro guessed. On the ceiling there was a big map placed ¨C glued actually as he could see some glue on the corners of it.
- Youre looking around as if you have entered a room for a first time. Hahaha!
- Well, yeah yours for the first time.
- Nothing much to see here, but lets not waste time ¨C work awaits. So, on to the things we need to discuss. - Garka said with a serious tone. - I have some good news and bad news for you. Witch ones do you want to hear first?
- Ah.. bad ones? - A little confused Aro said.
- Sure thing... so... Harold made quite a mess in one of the bigger towns of Selvok, so he and all know associates are now to be captured on sight, if not possible killed. - Aro''s face darkened at the news. - Yes my boy.. you are now hunted.
- Fuck, what did he do?
- Blew up the current kings cousin.
- Sorry I asked. - Aro face palmed himself.
- Next bad news are that the expedition I wanted to place you in decided to leave early, but this is only a small stone in our plans ¨C though it means more work for you.
- I see, any more bad news? - Aro asked now in a sour mood after he heard, that he was hunted.
- No, that''s all of the bad ones. Moving on to the good ones... - Garka took out a scroll from one of his pockets and handed it over to Aro. - This is a scroll to change your face. I paid a fortune for it ¨C but I was the one who fucked up when I asked that psycho to deal with the kings cousin.
- Okay, how does this thing work?
- Simply ¨C like all the scroll''s out there, you tear it apart and it will envelop you in a magic bubble, that will allow to mold your face according to your imagination. Know, that this thing is permanent.. unless you use another one later. But they are very hard to come by and illegal almost everywhere. Use it wisely. - Garka explained.
- Okay, so this will help me with my face, but I have no papers nothing..
- That''s covered. - Garka gave Aro another paper. - This is a document of birth, all with official seals and signatures, imbued with magic. Write Your new desired name here and choose yourself a new family name and you my boy will become a new person.. of course when I deliver it to my contact.
- Ugh.. Okay. That''s all? - Aro asked, his mind in overdrive already thinking about what new name to choose.
- Nope, not yet. - Garka took out a pouch of coins out of his endless pockets and handed it over to Aro. - Twenty gold pieces, for all your hard work and to compensate for your lab''s equipment that you will be leaving behind. Do what you want with them. Now, that is all. Write your new name in the document and bring it to me this evening, then pack your things and change your face Aro, new adventure is waiting for you hehe. Oh I remember when I was your age... heh.. good times...
Aro nodded to Garka who, now seemed to be lost in his memories of ¡°good old days¡±, seeing as Garka was still lost in his thoughts he quietly excused himself out of the room.
Back in his lab Aro looked at some things he had already packed up and just sighed ¨C ''Ugh.. and I was breaking my head thinking what to pack... clothes and personal possessions now..'' Nodding to himself he thought. Taking a seat at his comfy chair that he grew fond of during his stay with the group he took out the document and this face changing magic scroll. ''Maybe I should first change my appearance.. yes, lets do that.'' quite exited he tore the scroll, as the scroll was torn it burned to ashes that turned into mist and began to surround Aro''s body. He blinked looking at the phenomena and his vision became all white, slowly in this white his naked body shimmered into existance.
Somehow Aro felt without a body as if he was a spirit looking at his own body. ''Oh shit.. I didnt ask Garka how to do this!'' A little scared he thought and looked at the image of his body, thinking how big his forehead was, remembering how he was bullied because of it as a kid ¨C as he thought that his forehead became smaller. ''Oh! So that''s how it works.. hehehe..'' happily Aro went to work on his face, he was about to finish ¨C now looking at such a pretty face, he felt warm inside.. but some thought''s dark and logical in nature surfaced. ''If I use this face, however pretty it is I will attract too much attention.. damn it. Lets go with something not so flashy.... Sigh...'' sighing, he began to work on his face again.
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Aro made his new faces skin rough, as if he was traveling a lot, then he made his eyebrows thick and dark, he changed his facial structure into one, that would belong to a person who liven in the mountains ¨C strong jaw, matching cheekbones and an average forehead with brown eyes, that seemed to turn greenish at the sides of his iris. He imagined his hair growing spiky and dark, with a few strands of gray here and there ¨C to make him look a bit older, then shortened his elvish ears a bit to make him look more like a half breed than an elf. Putting some finishing touches here and there he thought for a moment of changing his skins color, but decided against it ¨C he grew to like his dark pale skin.
Finished with his work, he looked at his overall appearance ¨C thinking what would one think seeing him for the first time. ''A traveler from far away.. yes ¨C I now look like a traveler. Good, this will do.'' nodding to himself he thought that he was done. As he thought that all the white began to retract and soon he found himself back in his chair at his lab, his face was tingling a bit ¨C touching it, he could feel all the changes, his skin also felt as if it was new ¨C quite sensitive to his touch.
In one of his desks drawers he found a small polished metal plate, holding it in front of his face he looked at his new reflection ¨C and there he was with a new face, Aro tried to smile, to frown and many more facial expressions like a kid, soon seeing as everything turned out well he nodded to himself and put the plate back in its place.
In front of him the document was waiting for his attention, it was time to decide on a new name.
Your name defines you ¨C his father used to say, he also told Aro that his name meant hard and harsh, he thought a bit and decided to choose a name with similar meaning ¨C after all, he wont be able to change who he is. After some time of pondering he took the paper document and wrote down his new name. Leonardo.
After choosing a name, he thought for a bit of what family name to use, but decided against it. Many commoners didnt have a family name, maybe there will be a time when he will earn one.
Finished, Aro, no now ¨C Leonardo left the lab and went to Garka''s room, knocking on the door he heard ¡°Enter¡± from inside, so he entered.
Leonardo handed over this document to Garka and turned around to leave, Garka looked at the paper and nodded.
- A good name Leonardo, I like how it sounds. - Approvingly said Garka.
- Me too. I will be ready to leave in a few hours? - questioningly asked Leonardo.
- That would be good, but dont rush, we have to wait for Talon to return ¨C he will lead you to the capital. - replied Garka.
Nodding Leonardo left the room.
Back at the side of his bed, he took out all the clothes he owned and a big backpack that Garka had provided him earlier with. He looked over his clothes, set aside all the unnecessary ones and packed only the ones he would be using in the near future ¨C a few pairs of underwear and socks, a spare cloak with a hood, two sets of gray shirts together with dark leather pants and a pair of simple warm gloves. He will be wearing his light leather armor with a hood when they will be leaving together with Talon ¨C as he thought it should further add to his ¡°wanderer''s¡± appearance. After packing his backpack with all the clothes and also putting inside all the books and notebooks he owned after wrapping them into a bundle using some linen cloth ¨C his backpack was ready.
With his backpack ready Leonardo began to change the clothes he was currently wearing ¨C he put on new underwear, new socks, then changed into darkly dyed sturdy linen shirt, put on pants made out of dark thick linen too. Next Leonardo put on his good old leather shoes, that Fallin had fixed up with new soles ¨C the guy apparently knew how to make shoes. Rummaging trough the small pile of leather armors he had collected while staying here he began to choose his what will he take with him and what will he leave. He put on his leather breastplate armor, that was a little modified by Fallin after he asked and had a hood added to it, next he fastened his leather shin guards on his legs, then put on his enchanted gloves. Leonardo wanted to take these nice leather pauldrons too, but thought that he already looked shady enough ¨C going to the capital looking too much like a bandit wasnt too good, so with a sigh he collected all the left over armor pieces and took them to the groups armory.
- May you serve my friends well. - Sad he said his goodbye to his collection and turning on a heel left the room.
When Talon returned, he first went to Garka to deliver the new information he had gathered, after that he grabbed a bite in the kitchen and went back to the main room, where Aro ¨C now Leonardo was waiting for him.
- Quite a fancy name you chose there for yourself Aro, or should I say Leonardo now? - With a smirk Talon said.
- Call me Leonardo or just Leo from now on ¨C got to get used to it. - Replied Leonardo.
- Good mindset, so ready to go?
- Yeah, got my backpack almost bursting with stuff, the sooner we leave, the better..
- Very well, lets go.
With that the two of them left, Leo wondered for a moment, why Garta wasnt joining them, but just shrugged ¨C he saw how tired the young orc was when he returned.
They moved a lot faster now, when they were leaving ¨C Talon didnt need to check for anyone following them, though they slowed down near the exit and Leonardo was told to wait, while Talon scouted in front ¨C looking for anything suspicious.
Leo watched as Talon seemed to blend in with the shadows, his practiced and near perfect movements. Truly a skilled assassin he thought ¨C the wait wasnt long and after about half an hour Talon was back, the path in front of them seemed to be clear.
Going down the mountain, with more and more trees appearing as they closed to the ¡°Widow''s¡± forest both of them were silent ¨C Leonardo was deep within his own thought''s and Talon too seemed to be thinking about an assignment of his or something equally important. It took them less than three hours to reach the edge of the forest, there Talon stopped.
- Listen Aro, damn it ¨C Leonardo... when we will enter town we have to act like we dont know each other ¨C we have to make an impression, that we are just two people who met while traveling the road to capital. In the capital I will go to the red light''s district, there at an inn ¡°Twin peaks¡± ask for Melody if you ever need to contact us ¨C she is the owner of the inn and our contact, other than that we will contact you ourselves. And good luck man, I dont know much about you ¨C but I consider you a friend.
- Thanks Talon, I think of you as a friend too. - With all things said and after a manly handshake they mowed towards the capital in silence.
At the gates of the capital, the guards didnt even look at them ¨C continuing to talk between themselves as how they will spend their evening when their shift will be over ¨C good for Leonardo and Talon. Like Talon said, just as they entered the capital he turned into one of the small alleys leading to the red light district, Leonardo on the other hand continued to walk deeper into the capital ¨C his current destination ¨C one of the cheap ins near the gates at the other side of capital.
Leonardo had to make his way tough the local market district to reach the inn''s, on his way trough it he browsed some of the stalls that the merchants had set up ¨C looking at the prices and thinking about setting up his own stall to sell some goods and make some extra coin. The prices have raisen a little during the time he was away ¨C but that was only natural as many merchants from now absorbed Shield kingdom migrated here into the capital.
Soon, when he found himself out of the market and at the beginning at the residential district he began to walk from one inn to another ¨C looking for one not too shady and not with too much people, that would still offer fair prices for renting a room. One such inn was ¡°Carved Tusk¡± - as soon as Leo entered he knew why such a name was chosen ¨C on the counter there was a small bell made out of a boars tusk and carved nicely to call a receptionist. A young woman was walking around bringing the meals customers had ordered to their tables, when Leonardo entered she looked at him, but soon her attention was back on the customers that were still waiting for their meals.
Seeing, that he wont receive any attention form the woman Leonardo rang the small bell gently.
- Coming! Wait a second! - a male voice came from the doors behind the counter.
Soon the doors opened and a stocky dwarf entered the room, he stood up on a small chair behind the counter to be at Leonardo''s eye level and looked over him, then on his face a nice warm smile ¨C that all innkeepers and merchants seemed to make appeared.
- What can I hep you with? Looking for a place to stay the night? I Assume you are, since if you wanted to eat ¨C you would already be sitting behind a table... hahaha. - the dwarf laughed and as he did so his stomach fat rocked. - The names Bock, owner of this little inn.
- Pleased to meet you, im looking for a room as you have guessed accurately. - Replied Leonardo, while keeping the expression of a tired traveler on his face.
- Ah, one night is five coppers without meals, ten with three meals and access to bath''s included.
- Eight coppers for a room, meals and baths and I will pay for a week in advance.
- Nine and I wont go lover than that. - Said Bock not willing to go lover.
- Very well.
Leonardo took out some copper coins out of his pouch, after faked rummaging trough it ¨C to make it look like he wasnt too well off. Who knows what people are gathered here now and are having a meal, you can never be too careful. As soon as Leo placed all of the coins he fished out of his pouch on the counter, they quickly disappeared within the hands of Bock.
- Here, the key to your room. Room nine near the end on the hall upstairs, the baths are at the very end of the hall. - Placing the key on the counter made out of simple iron with a nine imprinted on it Bock said. - Anything else?
- Thank you, I would like to ask some directions too.. if you have the time?
- Lets talk in a few hours, im a little busy back in the kitchen now. - Said Bock. - Food will be ready in two hours, I will join you then and we can talk.
- Works for me, see you later then.
Nodding to that the dwarf hopped off the small chair and went back trough the door behind him to the kitchen. Leonardo then too turned to the stairs and made his way up to his rented room.
The room was plain and simple ¨C a small one person bed, with clean bed sheets, an old wooden table on the other side and with creaking floor. ''Fits the cost...'' Leonardo thought as he dropped hi things on the table and laid back on the bed, he was hoping to nap a bit... But unfortunately the people on the other side of the wall had other ideas. Soon Leonardo found himself with a hard on in his pants as he was forced to listen to people fucking behind the wall. Sighing he sat down in his bed, reached for his backpack and took out a book about his enchanted gloves hoping to at least learn a bit more about them and their potential uses.
Chapter Five.
**Knock, knock.**
Leonardo woke up in his bed, with his notebook on his face and some drool on a side of his mouth.
''Uh, must have been really tired to fall asleep like that.. I dont remember ever falling asleep like that.'' He thought as he got out of the bed and made his way to the door, thinking about who could it be disturbing him. Oppning the doors he found there that waitress from before waiting for him.
- Good evening sir, Bock is asking if you will come down for to talk, the dinner will be over soon. - She said.
- Yes, I will be down soon, you dont have to sir me ¨C my name is Leonardo.
- A pleasure to meet you then Leonardo, my name is Mia. - The waitress Mia introduced herself to him with a polite bow. - I will inform uncle Bock, that you will come down shortly.
- Thank you.
Leo was about to close the doors, but Mia stepped closer to him while licking her left hand, she then fixed his bed hair.
- Dont worry I dont bite, unless you want me to. - Giggling she then turned around and left.
A little stunned and with flushed cheeks Leonardo closed the doors and cleared his throat. A moment later he took off all of his leather armor that he had fallen asleep with and changed his shirt, the precious one was looking wrinkled and had some drool on it.
As he walked down the stairs, now a lot more well rested than when he entered the inn, he admired the railing of the staircase ¨C it was nicely carved like the bell on the counter. Bock had taken a table near the counter, he had already finished eating by the looks of it and was some kind of a drink, while waiting for Leonardo. Leo made his way to the Table and sat down on the opposite side, Mia soon brought him a plate with some mashed potatoes, vegetables and a few home made sausages. Leonardo quickly thanked her and then looked up to Bock, who has just finished his drink and let out a big belch.
- Better outside than inside right? - Bock just laughed his lack of table manners down and motioned for Mia to bring him some more of whatever he was drinking, then his attention returned to Leonardo. - So Leonardo, my dear customer ¨C what would you like to know?
- Yes, it''s better to let it all out. - Smiled Leo while playing along, not wanting to make his companion annoyed. - Some directions to the local adventurers guild and some information if you have any about any new settlement expeditions going out soon?
- Well, I can provide you with the directions, but about those expeditions.. I might know something, but my memory is a little dizzy... Though I think if you bought me a few drinks while we talk it would become a lot clearer. - Said Bock without any shame.
- Hahaha, very well, the drinks on me this evening then.
Leonardo ate the surprisingly tasty sausages with well spiced vegetables and mashed potatoes, while Bock was giving him directions to the adventurers guild. He already knew where the guild was, but it was better to keep playing his role as a wanderer, that was in the capital for the first time. Soon though, Bock began to talk about what Leonardo was truly interested in ¨C the expeditions that were going to make new villages.
- So, with that last war being won by our side, our dear old king decided to expand... you know population growth and all that stuff, but my own personal thoughts are that the king just wants to assimilate those lands quicker making our people spread there. As you are a wanderer I dont know if you have heard, but the king has some pretty big ambitions about going to war again with one of our neighbor countries in a year or so, greedy fat bastard. - That last part Bock muttered silently with his head lowered. - Anyway, back onto the topic ¨C the expeditions!
He took a few big gulps from his mug, burped and continued to talk not letting Leonardo to even say a word.
- In this last month four expeditions have already left for the conquered lands of Shield''s kingdom, last one left just two days ago. And this is all only from the capital, only god knows how many have left throughout the county. As much as I know, the next one to leave is still preparing and looking for more people, their leader is an old gnome going by the name ¡°Tarkh¡±, hes a crafty one with a good nose for money. Dont know about their destination though, but wherever that guys has planned to go ¨C that place will bring him and his companions some coins. - Bock took another big sip from his mug. - Thats about it, no other expeditions are currently preparing to leave, that I know of. But hey! Im just a simple inn owner, who knows maybe you will learn some more about them when you visit the guild.
- Thanks for all the info. - Leo said. - I think I will retire to my room for the evening, a good night''s rest is in order for me. Haha.
- Yes yes, rest well Leonardo, see you tomorrow. - Bock wished him well as he was seeing him off, his big dwarfish nose red from drinking.
Leonardo wasnt tired at all, since he had that unexpected nap earlier, he was feeling quite refreshed. As he made his way to his room, he decided to spend some time practicing with his gloves magic and now that he had some time ¨C to finally try and connect to his mana trough meditation, but before that he first was going to take a bath.
Luckily for him, he found the bath empty of any other people ¨C it was late, near midnight already, so others, might have already taken a bath, but he was thinking that they might be just too lazy to wash themselves as he had seen a very dirty human entering the room before, without a hint of a thought to get himself washed. Leonardo''s elfish nature didn''t let him to be unclean, nor did he liked to stink and look dirty.
In the bathroom he found a bunch of towels all clean and nicely folded placed on a small bench for the people staying in the inn to use, there also were a few small pieces of soaps left near the towels in a wooden box. He took one piece of soap and a towel and then entered the baths.
It took him no more than half an hour to wash himself as he wanted to practice and try this meditation method he had read about in that arrogant mages book, so he was back in his room quite quickly.
Leonardo practiced for half an hour with his gloves diligently, trying to switch between spells as quickly as he could, he also tried to use two spells simultaneously, but with no success. After that half an hour and one accidentally ruined shirt later when he lost his focus and ripped it with a weak wind blade spell he moved onto meditation.
He sat down on the floor and made himself comfortable his legs placed on one another in lotus position. '' Lotus position? What the hell.. im having more and more of these strange thoughts lately.. ugh.. might I be going insane?'' He thought for a moment, but then just shrugged and cleaned his mind out of any thoughts.
Leonardo followed all the instructions in the book, he relaxed and calmed himself, his head free of any thought''s he then slowly began to go deeper into himself, shutting his mind from external senses ¨C smell, touch, hearing eyesight and all others.
He didnt know how much time had passed, but he found himself floating in a strange place, that should be his soul ¨C where his mana resides and is being collected. First step to connecting with it was to understand it ¨C that was the hardest part as it had to be done while keeping his head out of any thought, just by using instincts and his subconsciousness. Leonardo was surrounded by darkness, small light shards floating around ¨C myriads of them, each seemed to be surrounded in a bluish mist ¨C that should be mana his soul was collecting from around him to fuel his body and itself. Oddly enough ¨C the book wrote that he should find only one big shard that should be his soul, but there he was looking at myriads of them. His confusion almost broke his meditative state, but he managed to stay in it. Deciding to just go on with the next step he willed his mind to float closer to one of the shards, while also willing it to approach him. After some effort it was now floating in front of him.
Moving onto the third and final step ¨C connection, he willed his mind to stretch and wrap around this shard of light, as he did so the blue mist surrounding it slowly began to move his way, soon enveloping his mind. He had established a connection with his mana pool ¨C his soul. Soon, some memories of his past were played in his mind.
The book wrote, that it was all there was to do, but Leonardo didnt feel like this was the end ¨C as he now felt his own mana it seemed to be weak and low in quantity, so he decided to try and bring one more shard to connect with.
As he connected with another shard, there was another playback of memories ¨C but these were strange ¨C he saw cities with tall houses, something called ¡°skyscrapers¡±, he saw hundreds of people going about their business in a city that was a hundred times bigger then the capital of Selvok, all of this seemed alien to him and yet.. it all was strangely familiar.
''Is this really my soul? Why is it full of memories I dont have, nor have ever experienced???'' With this thought finally breaking all Leonardo''s attempts to keep any thought''s at bay he exited his meditative state.
He was feeling confused to say the least after this otherworldly experience, his mind full of questions he had no answers to. Leo got up from the floor, the wood creaking under him as he did so ¨C he looked trough the window seeing a small ray of sun already over the mountains in the distance. ''I really did spent quite some time meditating..'' With that thought he laid back into the bad and soon was asleep, his dreams full of strange sights and things that he saw within that soul shard of his.
It was already mid-day, when Leonardo woke up, he didnt feel too well rested as the visions from his meditation kept popping as dreams while he slept ¨C one thing he knew for sure, that they wont stop now, that he has connected to that soul shard of his. Sighing to himself as he was putting his clothes and leather armor on he made mental plans for the day.
The very first thing on his list was breakfast ¨C preferably, just as tasty as yesterdays late dinner.
On the first floor of the inn, Leonardo found quite a few late birds eating, some also were having early supper. Some of the people here were sitting in small companies ¨C probably groups of friends or acquaintances, others were alone. Leo found the table he was using in the evening empty, so he took a seat in the same spot as before, his back turned towards the entrance into the inn. Soon Mia walked over to him with a smile on her face.
- Good day Leonardo, I see you are a late bird. - She said him smiling, her eyes playful.
- Looks like that, what will I be having for this late breakfast of mine? - Returning the smile Leonardo asked.
- Bock, has prepared scrambled eggs and some ham to go with it for the breakfast, alternatively I can offer you some left over soup from yesterdays supper if you want.
- No, thaks I think ill have those scrambled eggs with bacon you mentioned.
- Sure thing, ill bring it in a minute.
As promised to, he got his food soon and without any ceremonies dug into it. His stomach was demanding food and Leonardo didnt feel like going against it''s wishes. After breakfast and a cup of hot tea, that he had to pay an extra copper coin, he was feeling full and had a satisfied expression on his face.
Leaving the inn Leo turned towards the direction, that the ¡°Adventurer''s¡± guild was located at and slowly began to move there, on his way browsing the stalls merchants had set up and looking at the glass showcases of the shops across the sides of the streets he passed.
Leonardo reached the guild licking his fingers after he had finished eating an apple covered in caramel, a tasty little thing that he bought a few minutes ago from an old lady.
¡°Adventurer''s¡± guild was located in a building made out of stone, it looked quite old, but well maintained. Inside as he entered he saw many people ¨C some dressed in simple clothes ¨C probably residents of the capital that had some small tasks for adventurers looking for work, some were wearing more expensive clothing ¨C merchants looking for protection to hire on their trips and finally many many men and women wearing all kinds of armor from all kinds of races.
There were three counters set up one at each side of the main room and one near the back room. On the left there was a counter to register as an adventurer and for people to put up requests it also served as an information point having three women working behind it, at the middle one adventurers reported of their completed tasks bringing all kinds of proof and on the right they lined up selling various materials that they had collected during their trips.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Leonardo took a place in the line at the left counter, his wait wasnt long.
- How may I help you today? - A middle aged beast woman of bear tribe asked him as he approached.
- I would like some information first, I have heard that there is an expedition preparing to leave soon?
- Yes there is, you want to join them as a settler or a guard? - The woman asked him fixing her glasses that hung loosely on her big nose.
- I would like to join as both, also I would like to register myself as an adventurer.
- Very well. Take these papers and fill them up, once done deliver them to me and we will have you tested for the category you have opted for.
Leo did as he was instructed, he sat down at one of the tables in the corner and looked over the papers he was given ¨C one was his adventurers application, the second was another application to join the expedition, the first one asked just some basics ¨C his age, his gender, where hes from, why he decided to become an adventurer and what kind of a fighter he is ¨C melee, ranged or a mage. There were also some questions asking him if he wanted to sign up for some paid training sessions. Done with the adventurers application quickly he moved onto the second ¨C now here he needed to answer a lot more questions ¨C some were the same as in the previous paper, most of the new ones were about how could he help the new community to be established.
When he was finished with both applications and felt quite strongly about his expedition application he stood up from the table he was occupying and again took a place in the line to the left counter.
- Very good, for your adventurer''s test go trough the back door into the guilds inner yard, there you will be tested, to get information if you were chosen to join the expedition come tomorrow in the evening, you can also come this evening, but I dont think that old gold obsessed gnome will manage to sort trough all the applications till then. - Said the same woman who gave him the applications.
Nodding to what he had heard and after saying thank you Leonardo went to the inner yard of the guild. There in the inner yard a few adventurer''s were training and two instructors were helping them, no mages could be seen in sight ¨C they probably had their own quarters assigned to them Leo thought.
Inside the yard he quickly made his way to the melee instructor, that is supposed to test him. After telling the man what he came here for he was ordered into a small circle used for duels ¨C the rules were simple they fight until one falls unconscious, surrenders or the instructor thinks that he has seen enough. For this test he was given three choices of weapons ¨C sword, spear and mace. Both the sword and spear were blunted, the mace was made out of light wood and had a few metal circles placed around it to prevent it from breaking, it was a mock battle after all.
Leonardo chose sword, as he was the most familiar with it, instructor too seeing his choice took a sword, they positioned themselves inside the circle on the opposite sides of it.
The first to make the move was the instructor that Leo was up against, the man nearly dropped to the ground before kicking it with his feet launching himself quickly at a surprised Leo, but was a soldier trained to overcome confusion quickly, so he quickly pulled himself together and stepped to the side trying to let the instructor dash past him, but the man stabbed his sword in the ground and using his momentum kicked Leonardo straight in the chest, he was unable to block such an unexpected attack. Staggering back a few steps Leo tried to ignore the pain coming from his chest and again raised his sword, now in an offensive stance ¨C the man in front of him was too experienced for him to defend against, all he could hope to do was to demonstrate his skills and get a rank as high as possible.
Leonardo feinted going for a horizontal low slash and executed an attack coming form below, while scratching dirt with the tip of his sword ¨C trying to throw some dirt with it into the instructors eyes. Seeing that, otherwise this emotionless instructor smirked and side stepped Leo''s attack, he then lightly slashed trough his back, so that Leo would feel it the next morning he woke up.
- Zero to one greenhorn, want to keep going? - Leo was getting mocked.
- Oh yes honorable instructor. - Trough clenched teeth Leo responded as his back was sending some signs of a beautiful morning that was awaiting him tomorrow.
Again Leonardo took a stance, but to everyone that was watching surprise he lowered his sword and simply began to walk towards the instructor, who tightened his defensive stance. Leo''s sword shot forward like an arrow aiming straight for instructor''s throat, as the man blocked it a low punch into the side of his ribs found its way. Now it was instructors time to take a step back, but Leo didnt let him and began to assault him with every attack he knew ¨C forcing the man to defend.
Leo was doing very well suppressing this instructor, but unexpectedly the parasite within him moved making him flinch... that was all that the instructor needed. The last thing Leo saw before passing out was a swing coming towards his temple.
- Ahh, and this was getting interesting wasnt it.. - said the other instructor who was observing the fight.
- Yeah, the kid has some good training, but still needs to polish it... I would say D rank maybe?
- Nah, give him E, hes too good for those kid requests at F, but I think still needs some training to work in group for D and higher. Staying a month or two in E will do some good for him.
- Good thinking, E it is then. Want to go grab a drink in the evening? That new receptionist promised to bring her friend with her..
= Le some time later. =
Leonardo woke up with a headache and an wooden ceiling above him, the ceiling he didnt recognize, sitting up in the bed the memory of his mock battle returned. ''So I lost huh.. Damn parasite!'' Angrily he shouted within himself.
- You should lie back a little more, you got hit pretty hard even if it was with a practice sword. - An unfamiliar rough voice addressed him.
Leonardo raised his head and looked at the one speaking ¨C it was a gnome, the gears in his head quickly began to spin.
- Its okay. - saying that he took out a small flask with red liquid inside it and downed it. He felt better almost immediately.
- Ah, yes forgot you were an alchemist, by the way I accepted your application to join our small expedition. - said this gnome, while continuing to look tough papers on his desk. - The names Tarkh ¨C leader of this expedition.
- A pleasure to meet you, im Leonardo, but you should know that already form my application.
- Yes, that potion of yours seems to be quite potent.. have another one? - Tarkh asked as he lifted his eyes from the papers.
Leo handed one more flask over to the gnome, that he took out from under his armor.
- Thanks, these piles of never ending papers were causing me a headache for day now. - Said Tarkh as he gulped down the liquid in the vial. - Oh, this really is good! I can feel my headache going away already.
- Uhu, these are my best ones so far.
- Good, we will need them where we are going to. The guild has already made you an adventurer''s identification plate, they left it with me after I informed that I will accept you into the expedition. - Said Tarkh in one breath, while he leaned back in his chair. - I also asked them to move you here, so that we could talk as soon as you woke up if you are in any condition to talk.
- Ah and I was wondering why I was down here and not lying somewhere on the first floor.
- Hehe, yeah.. they thought about leaving you back there in the inner yard after checking on ya.
- Thank you.
- Dont mention it, now then since I have officially accepted you into our expedition ¨C lets talk business. - Said Tarkh raking a sip from a small steaming cup. - What do you know about the former kingdoms of Shield lands?
- Nothing much.. they are mostly inhabited by humans, who were brainwashed with their stupid church''s racist beliefs, so they look down on all other races than humans. Their land has rough terrain, mostly mountains on one side and plains on the other as they have cut down most of their forests on the flat lands over the last few centuries. Thats about it?
- Basic knowledge, well at least you know that much. The situation there currently is very unstable ¨C with many groups of bandits formed out of former soldiers, some wild beasts are present there too. Recently reports came that an underground magic line has ruptured in the mountain region somewhere, some mana warped monsters have been sighted in the region.. unfortunately for us.
- Were going to the mountain regions?.. - Interrupted Leonardo a little surprised.
- Well yes we are, why? You will learn when we will arrive there. I need you in the expedition as out potion supplier and when youre not doing that as a guard, what do you say? - Said Tarkh with an emotionless face.
- Works for me, what about supplied I will need for my potions?
- Make a list of what you will need ¨C potions for fevers, healing rashes.. poisoning and so on. I will get a few crates of ingredients you list for us, also here this is a small notebook about what s growing there ¨C mark if you can use any of them, we will collect them on our way. - Tarkh handed him over a small book.
- Okay, I will read trough this and deliver you this list tomorrow early in the morning.
- Good, see you tomorrow then... Oh! Almost forgot. - Tarkh took out something from a drawer in his desk and handed it over to Leonardo. - This is a discount to buying slaves in my cousins shop ¨C I suggest you get one or two if you can afford to help you out with your stuff when we leave.
- Thanks. - With that Leo left.
Exiting the room, he found himself on the second floor of the adventurer''s guild, Tarkh probably rented a room here for convenience, or who knows what. The room below was just as busy as when Leonardo entered the building, he nodded to instructor who he fought against before, who now was relaxing talking to a girl. The man nodded back to him and with that Leonardo exited the guild.
It was well past midday, still having a lot of time Leo considered what Tarkh had told him before and getting himself a slave looked like a good idea, especially now ¨C that he got a discount.
Half an hour of walking later he was in quite a shady district of the capital, not many guards could be seen here either and those who were here didnt even check people for illegal goods ¨C pobably bribed thought Leonardo and he was right. The address on the discount note led him to a building near the city wall, a sign hung above the doors ¡°Fursts Trading¡±. Entering this shady shop Leo looked around ¨C inside was clean and well maintained, there were two beautiful beast kin woman behind bars at one side of the shop sleeping, in front of the doors, not too far from them behind a counter sat a gnome identical to Tarkh.
- Ah! A customer! Welcome, welcome! How may I help you today?
- I''m looking for a slave..
- Of course you are! Why else would you come here, ehehe.. need a woman, to keep your bed warm at night? A strong man to work at your farm or as a bodyguard? I have many ¡°good''s¡± to choose from.
- I see, I do not know what im looking for, so im hoping you will allow me to browse your ¡°good''s¡±? - Raising an eyebrow to this gnomes speech Leonardo spoke.
- Oh, yes of course! - Nodded Furst. - Tidor! Bring your lazy ass over here! We have a customer!
A skinny boy quickly ran into the room falling flat on his face as he tripped right in front of Leo.
- Waht do you need me to do master?
- Show my customer around, he wants to browse the ¡°good''s¡±. - Annoyed said Furst. - Dear customer, I advise you form touching any of the ¡°good''s¡± before buying, or I will have to charge you for the damage.
- I understand.
- Follow me please. - As politely as he could the kid said, but disgust evident in his eyes.
''Dont look at me like that kid.. we live in a harsh world.'' Leonardo thought, but didnt voice it. Following the kid he went past the counter to look at what was up for sale, or better to say ¨C who was up for sale.