《Two Worlds》 Two Worlds - The Cultists And Talia The Two Worlds ¨C Short Story One ¨C The Cultists and Talia She ran between the buildings, the alleyway twisting ahead of her, thoughts of The World Eater plagued her mind. ¡°Who would aid the damned thing?!¡± She thought while chasing the last cultist down. A block further along the alley ran a man in a red robe that faded towards black halfway down, heart beating rapidly in his chest as he fled the assassin woman. Feet pounding and echoing off brick and stone walls while piles of refuse lay strewn about, visible as she rushed past them. After a few more blocks of running the robed man tripped over his own feet, panting heavily. ¡°You cultists are all so doughy, you should exercise more.¡± The woman stated as she caught up with a nasty grin on her face, breathing heavily but not from panic as the cultist was. The cultist rolled over and crawled backwards placing his back against the nearest brick wall at a bend in the alley, panic stricken face and lungs on fire, a incapacitating pain in his side. ¡°You¡¯ll pah.. pay foh.. for this.. DO Yah¡­ YOU Knah.. KNOW WHO I¡­ AM?!¡± He shouts breathlessly at her. Her only response as she threw her dagger, activating the skill *Sure Strike* to ensure her accuracy, into his throat was ¡°Another dead man croaking.¡± --- The next morning found our assassin at the Two Worlds Adventuring Guild to collect her bounties. The receptionist, finished with her previous client, looked up and called out ¡°Talia! Everyone has been freaking out about the cultists, that was you wasn¡¯t it?!¡± Pulling out a pouch that squelched as she set it on the counter Talia states ¡°Hey Alina, Yep! That was me, I¡¯ve been chasing them down for weeks now, had to catch them mid gathering so they would all be robed up and together.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll have to tell me about it sometime, I always look forward to hearing about your adventures.¡± ¡°Can do, over beer tonight?¡± ¡°Oh, yea! That sounds great. Is the bag for the bounties?¡± Alina responds. ¡°Yep, collected the ID mark on their index fingers.¡± Alina accepted the bag from Talia and opened it, making a discomforted look at the decaying fingers in the bag. She then pulls out a rectangular magical device to read the ID mark of the bounties. Three of the twelve actually had bounties on them and two of the marks surprised the receptionist. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°No way¡­ are you sure about this?¡± Alina asked warily. ¡°Yea.. Both of them were in on it. Magister Lancaster and Lady Nora Bolten both seemed to be leading the cultists.¡± Talia said dourly. ¡°It¡¯s going to cause such a commotion.¡± ¡°No kidding! Hopefully the fallout doesn¡¯t blow back on you..¡± ¡°Thanks, definitely something I¡¯m not at all worried about.¡± Talia replied sarcastically causing Alina to laugh lightly. They continued chatting for a bit with Alina finishing the bounty process and paying Talia for the three bounties, it wasn¡¯t a large sum of gold she was handed but it would keep her comfortable while she worked the next job. --- Late that afternoon they met up at the Apocalypse Tavern, it¡¯s full name was ¡°Next To The Apocalypse Tavern¡± but everyone shortened it to Apoc Tavern, the owner had a sense of humor about living so close to the wound. The tavern wasn¡¯t anything fancy ¨C tables, chairs, a bar and bar stools. There was that Dire Moose skull out front though, gave it a bit of a spooky atmosphere, oh the purple lights and light mist magic didn¡¯t help fix the atmosphere either. The two ladies met up at their regular table in a corner of the tavern, each having already ordered their favorite brews and settled in to discuss Talia¡¯s latest completed job. ¡°It took me a few weeks to track them down, you know. I had to put a lot of leg work into this one considering the two high profile targets.¡± Talia stated. ¡°Oh! I bet, can you tell me much about it yet?¡± Alina replied. ¡°Nope! The paperwork and documents are all hush hush at the moment, Guild Master Rolands and Captain Stentson are looking through my work still. I might be able to talk about it when they are finished, but there¡¯s a large amount of financial stuff in there.¡± ¡°Oh.. What can you talk about then? The fight maybe?¡± ¡°Yep! The fight was over pretty quickly, I don¡¯t think any of them expected to be caught. None of them knew how to fight either.¡± Talia laughed out as she said this. ¡°There I was, sneaking up on their hideout. It was an abandoned shop a little off of market street. I came up and they were trying to summon some monster! It looked like a cross between a dire wolf and an octopus, it was so weird. The monster was already half phased in so I had to move fast.¡± ¡°I started running towards the group and threw two daggers with *Sure Strike* then I activated *Blink* and appeared between two of them. I used a short sword and Betsy, and stabbed the both of them. I turned having taken out four of them before they knew what was going on.¡± ¡°Then I quickly retrieved my short sword and Betsy as two of them rushed me.¡± ¡°I managed to bring the short sword up quickly enough to block the firsts attack as I back pedaled a little, I got lucky when the second attacker tripped over the corpse of his ally.¡± Talia laughed, ¡°I overpowered the cultists sword with my own, tossing it left and down and stabbed him with Betsy, which gave me enough time to jump the second attacker while he was standing up.¡± ¡°*Blink* came off cool down then and I activated it again, appearing behind two others who were fumbling backwards trying to draw their daggers and stabbed them both. Having just appeared on the other side of the room, two of the cultists had to turn around and run the other direction to get to me, but tripped over each other. Laughing I strode over and stabbed them both as they were trying to get back up. I threw another dagger at what turned out to be Lady Bolten with *Sure Strike* while the Magistrate decided it was time to run.¡± ¡°I chased him down, and¡± Talia starts laughing again ¡°He did that thing¡­ Where they ask if I knew who they were. As if him being some big important person allowed him the sin of summoning one of those things onto our world. Thankfully I had disrupted their summoning rite and it faded back out. You should have seen that thing Alina, it was hideous!¡± ¡°You cleaned them up quick¡­¡± Alina said, a little sadly. ¡°Yea.. They weren¡¯t combatants. I don¡¯t think a single one of them was even registered with the guild.¡± As the sunlight started to fade the angry reds and purples of the wound could be seen in the sky. An endless aurora as The World Eater devoured their planet, an unknown time limit hanging above all their heads. Two Worlds - The Boy And His First Rune Stone Two Worlds ¨C The Boy And His First Rune Stone Tanner Tattone had just turned eighteen, the legal age to purchase a rune stone, the sun barely risen as he collected his stash of coins, his spear, his leather armor and was saying a running goodbye to his parents who were having none of it. Tanner¡¯s father, Roln, stepped in front of the door saying in a stern voice ¡°At least give us a hug before you run out to your death.¡± Guilting Tanner into slowing down and turning towards his teary mother he said ¡°Right, sorry¡­ I was excited.¡± ¡°Please be careful honey, and write often, we¡¯ll miss you so much!¡± His mother, Elizabeth Tattone, barely managed to get out over the tears. After a proper goodbye was had Tanner found himself traveling down the road between Barton and Zrora. Barton was a small hamlet of about one hundred people, not much happened there and Tanner was glad to be leaving it behind. The allure of Zrora and its potential too much to ignore. Tanner had been working and saving every scrap of gold he could since he was twelve in order to purchase his first rune stone, he had it all picked out and everything! *Lunge* would be his first skill even if he had to scour every rune stone shop in Zrora. He¡¯d been practicing with the spear for as long as he¡¯d been saving and he thought himself a deft hand with it. *Lunge* was the first step towards him soaring the skies and skewering his enemies as an Aerial Knight. The Aerial Knights had a few standard rune stones to collect before one could apply to the organization so he would sign up as an adventurer and work towards collecting those needed runes. It was a few days travel by foot to the city of Zrora which held the Two Worlds Adventurer¡¯s Guild, his destination after obtaining his first rune stone, and he couldn¡¯t wait. Thankfully the occupants of Zrora held most of the monsters back, at least on the western side of the wound caused by the World Eater. Tanner shuddered, he had seen paintings of the wound, and everyone could see the World Eater¡¯s mass outlined in the sky at all times. It was a massive ball of orange and red sticking out of the side of Rivas, the mother planet. Artwork had shown the wound and it was grizzly, the World Eater was siphoning essence out of the planet in a whirlwind like funnel of energy, its teeth latched onto Rivas. The wound could only be seen from a small corridor east and west of the World Eater because the things massive mouth was blocking sight of it from anywhere else. The capitol and the rest of the east had been lost to monsters and the weird dungeonous growths that seemed to infect the mother planet after the World Eater¡¯s attack. Zrora stepped up to the challenge and has been holding the west so far and Tanner planned to do everything he could to help hold out and maybe even push the monsters back. ¡°A solution to the World Eater had to be found at some point, right?¡± Tanner thought to himself while he walked. The first night of travel found Tanner tired, he hadn¡¯t ever walked this long before. He found a nice spot on the side of the road to set up a camp and pulled out a bit of food. He had packed some grapes, a bit of dried meat, some crackers and a flask with a bit of juice from fruit local to Barton. As he ate, he mentally stepped through his spear forms. He hadn¡¯t any formal training, but he had sparred with the guards that would be stationed at Barton from time to time and they showed him a few forms to practice and stay in shape with. After he finished eating and wrapping the food back up in cloth he stood and dusted himself off and set to actually practicing those forms in the flesh. ¡°Can¡¯t allow myself to get rusty, no matter how tired from walking I am!¡± Tanner declared while performing a slow hook, grab, and throw maneuver. Full of youthful energy Tanner practiced until he dropped. Now thoroughly exhausted he crawled into his tent and slept, no stranger to sleeping on the ground was he. The next morning Tanner woke and had some small breakfast of more grapes, dried meat, crackers and juice ¨C that was all he had packed for the trip. He performed some limbering stretches and then packed the camp up setting off after everything was put up. Two more days of walking ahead of him Tanner pumped his sore legs and thought of how great a Zroran bed and a bath would be. That night was much the same as the previous night, Tanner pitched his tent, had some food and then stepped through his spear forms. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. On the third day Tanner finally came to the main road running East/West along Erebus, the large continent he was on, this road actually had some people on it while he walked it. There were horse drawn carriages that passed him by, soldiers walking west along the road to unknown destinations, and even occasional other travelers heading west. Tanner had been warned to be weary of highwaymen on the road, but he was youthful and had that sense of invulnerability that most his age had, which is why that third night as he saw a small merchant caravan parked at the side of the road setting up camp he walked right over to them and introduced himself. ¡°Hello there!¡± Tanner called out, as he walked up to the group. There were three carriages, the horses to pull them, and eight people setting up tents and sleeping bags. As Tanner approached an imposing looking man, roughly 6 feet tall stepped out between Tanner and the group. ¡°Sod off, kid.¡± The obvious hired guard said. ¡°Now now, he looks harmless enough¡± an older man called out, turning towards Tanner. ¡°Yea, until his slits your throat in the night and takes off with a carriage.¡± the guard grumbled. ¡°I¡¯ll be watching you kid.¡± he further stated while returning to setting up his own little section of the camp. ¡°Don¡¯t mind Darrel, he¡¯s a bit high strung. Great guard though, him and Talon took out a couple of wolves just last night that were after the horses. I¡¯m Gregory, and you are?¡± ¡°Tanner! Tanner Tattone from Barton.¡± Tanner called out, arriving a moment later in front of Gregory and offered his hand which Gregory took. ¡°I¡¯m heading to Zrora to pick up my first rune stone and join the adventurer¡¯s guild. Was hoping I could join your group for the night, safety in numbers and all that.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mind at all Tanner, the adventurer¡¯s guild huh. Yea ¨C you look about that age, let me guess¡­ Spear at your back.. you¡¯re going to be looking for *Lunge* aren¡¯t you, hoping to get in with the Aerial Knights?¡± Gregory presumed. ¡°Wow, yea that¡¯s right! How¡¯d you know?¡± Gregory chortled loudly and stated ¡°I¡¯ve seen a few spear wielder¡¯s, they all want to join the Aerial Knights. Tough job though, make sure you don¡¯t skip your leg exercises.¡± Tanner nodded solemnly at that, Aerial Knights jumped a lot and needed good leg strength to keep it up. Tanner set up his own tent, and then helped some of the others finish setting theirs up. The conversation and food flowed which Tanner appreciated after three days on the road by himself, not even seeing another person. After dinner Tanner did the usual and performed his spear forms which Talon, the other guard, seemed interested in and ended up joining Tanner and performing sword forms. After a bit Talon asked ¡°Want to spar?¡± and Tanner jumped at the opportunity, he loved sparing. The two stepped a bit further away from the camp, so they wouldn¡¯t throw dirt and dust into the camp and faced each other. They both nodded respectfully, signifying the start of the match. Tanner being the less experienced and less patient of the two struck out first, he rushed forward and struck out with the spear at Talon¡¯s chest, which was easily parried by the man¡¯s shield. Talon replied with a sword swing from Tanner¡¯s outside, to the left, but Tanner was expecting it and swept the shaft of the spear vertically left just after being deflected and blocked Talon¡¯s swing, sparks flying off the colliding metal. Tanner jumped back a step and adjusting the grip of his hands on the spear shaft, giving himself a bit more length, pressing the attack again he thrust out strike after strike keeping Talon on his back foot preventing any sort of attack. Tanner having the reach advantage utilized it for everything he could until he got around the shield and hooked the ridge at the end of his spear on the inner edge of the shield, twisted his wrist, pulled, and sent the shield flying away from Talon. About to step in again and further press the advantage Talon jumped back and put his hands up in surrender. ¡°Well done, well done! You are better than I was expecting with that spear.¡± Talon stated. ¡°Thanks, I¡¯ve been using it for a while now.¡± Tanner responded, breathing a little harder than normal. ¡°You might have a shot with those Aerial Knights after all, if you keep that up.¡± Tanner beamed at the compliment, and ran over to retrieve Talon¡¯s shield handing it back to him. They joked around a bit after than, and then separated to sleep. The morning eventually arrived and both groups had some breakfast, broke camp, and set off together towards Zrora. The road was surrounded by thick forest and had been for some time. Thick tree¡¯s blocked the view in all directions as the road curved a bit from this point, however, around mid-day the road straightened back out and the first sights of Zrora could be seen in the distance, a couple hours later in the early afternoon the group arrived at their destination and parted with Tanner thanking Gregory, the guards, and the rest of the caravan for the company Tanner went off in search of his first Rune Stone. Two Worlds - The Boy And His First Rune Stone chapter 2 Two Worlds ¨C The Boy And His First Rune Stone Chapter 2 Zrora was everything he¡¯d heard and more, instantly visible after that bend in the road, the tall tree¡¯s no longer blocking the view. The middle of Zrora rose on a large hill, the western side facing Tanner looked like a quarter of the hill had collapsed and a large rushing waterfall fell down the hill perplexing Tanner as most of the rivers in this area ran in an eastward manner, but this waterfall had to be running west AND uphill in order to have a fall there. The buildings covered the rivers exit after the fall so that Tanner couldn¡¯t tell where it went from there. Zrora had a theme with all of its buildings ¨C Starlight, all the buildings were painted in dark colors with pinpricks of much brighter colors scattered around. Tanner had heard this color scheme was a testament to all the worlds that the World Eater had not eaten, and that Rivas would continue to stand among them. The buildings blocking his view of the river were large, larger than Tanner had ever seen ¨C some even as tall as five stories high. The complexity of their construction was well beyond Tanner, The tallest building in Barton was three stories tall, and people wouldn¡¯t shut up about how it was the tallest building in the world. The buildings got progressively shorter the further out from the center of town one got, Tanner observed, there wasn¡¯t a single building that obstructed the view of another building¡¯s roof until his eyes hit the center of town. The reason for this eluded Tanner for now, but he would later learn that it was part of a defensive strategy in case they were attacked from the west by people. People could be bastards, they were united against the World Eater for now, but one day they might not be, especially with no word from the capitol to the east in decades. Zrora was planned with this contingency in mind, archers could set up on the rooftops and pelt enemies, falling backwards along the skyline not giving the enemy a single ranged advantage during an assault. To the east of the hill, far in the distance a great stone wall rose out of the ground, visible over the hill, over the buildings, even over the buildings on the hill. The wall ran from the northern side of the city to the southern side of the city, Tanner assumed there would be gates there somewhere allowing people to cross. The wall helped to prevent most monsters from crossing into Zrora, or bypassing Zrora and moving straight into the western side of Erebus. As Tanner observed the massive wall he noticed a shimmer to it, some sort of magical enchantment. From what Tanner understood of the city, the hill contained all the city administrative buildings as well as the main building for the Two Worlds adventuring guild. There would be shops scattered around the city and he would have to spend some time tracking them down at first. He had heard that the shops on the eastern side of the hill would cater more to adventurers than civilians, but he could find weapons and armor just about anywhere. The far eastern side of the hill supposedly held the artisans area, all the crafters, armor-smiths, blacksmiths, and other artisinal needs one might have. Housing could be found scattered all over Zrora with civilians sticking more to the western end of the city and adventurers taking residence in the east. The separation in housing wasn¡¯t an attempt at segregating the adventurers out, it was more practical. Monsters attacked from the east, so that¡¯s where the adventurers hung around. Taverns, gambling dens, and houses of sin were spread around the city in the way they were spread around any larger city of Erebus, the people enjoying their vices. Most of the common vices weren¡¯t frowned upon by the law, but Tanner had heard of some more magical vices that were outlawed, such as an aphrodisiac sourced from some monster that Tanner wasn¡¯t familiar with but had the unfortunate side effect of sometimes turning the user into a blood crazed berserker, usually to the detriment of their partner at the time. Tanner had just split with Gregory and the caravan and was heading deeper east into the city. The sun had just risen above the World Eater, so it was early afternoon that Tanner found himself among the streets of Zrora. Main street ran east/west along the city spanning from the main Erebus highway to the eastern gates heading into monster territory. Main street was filled with shops selling all kinds of things, especially this close to the highway. Tanner ignored the temptation to stop and shop at these shops, wanting to save his money for a *Lunge* rune stone and make sure he had enough left over to tide him over until his started making money as an adventurer. It took about two hours to walk across the city and climb the hill, crossing over into adventurer territory. Thankfully Main street kept mostly straight, making the trip a lot easier to manage than it could have been for someone unfamiliar with larger cities. From what Tanner understood there were around 80,000 people living in Zrora, far more people than he had ever seen. Thankfully, likely due to the spear on Tanners back, the residents of Zrora left Tanner alone, he wasn¡¯t a known quantity having just arrived, so no one stopped to ask for favors. Tanner smiled at everyone as he walked past, however, small town habits take a while to break. After passing the administrative district and making a mental note of where the adventuring guilds headquarters was located Tanner finally found himself a shop advertising rune stones. He stepped into the shop, a heavy wooden door separating the inside from the outside, he noticed a counter set back against the wall with a few rune stones displayed on the wall behind it. Various racks of weapons and stands with armor on them decorated the rest of the shop. Tanner walked up to the counter where a man reading a book was sitting and said ¡°Hello!¡± ¡°Huh? Oh, a customer, hey there kid what can I do ya fer.¡± The man behind the counter said. ¡°I¡¯m looking for a rune stone of *Lunge*¡± Tanner stated without hesitation, perhaps a little too excitedly. ¡°*Lunge* huh, looking to become an Aerial Knight?¡± The man asked while standing up and taking a few steps down the counter and reached under it. ¡°Yep! That¡¯s my dream¡± Tanner reacted. The man pulled a oval shaped stone out from the counter inscribed with the runic symbol that Tanner had studied over and over in his free time. *Lunge* was right there, at his first stop, directly in front of his eyes, he couldn¡¯t have missed it. ¡°Got it right here.¡± The man said, holding the rune stone up for inspection. Tanner reached out for it but the man pulled the stone back and said ¡°Ah ah, gotta buy it first, can¡¯t have you activating it without paying.¡± ¡°Oh, right.¡± Tanner said as he fished out his coin pouch. They discussed price and even haggled a little bit resulting in both people thinking they got a good deal off the other, Tanner not knowing exactly how much the rune stones here were marked up. After purchasing the rune stone, Tanner held it in front of him and squeezed as the man said ¡°Aw jeez, not here kid.¡± but it was too late. The stone shattered into dust sending small chunks of stone flying off in every direction, a few even pelting the merchant though not with any real force. It did however make a large mess, dust and debree covering half of the store. The man sighed and went into the back of the shop grabbing a broom and dustpan, walked back out to Tanner and held the two items out to him to clean up his own mess but Tanner was transfixed, staring off blankly into the distance. The man sighed and waited, having seen this before.
Name: Tanner Tattone Titles:
Level: 1 Fresh (Newly leveled classed individual) (No stat bonuses, slightly reduced aggro from most monsters)
Stats: Strength: 3 (+2 level up bonus)
Agility: 3 (+2 level up bonus)
Toughness: 2 + 1 (+1 level up bonus) (armor bonus +1) The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Mental: 2 (+1 level up bonus)
Mental Defenses: 2 (+1 level up bonus)
Class: Fighter
Affiliations: None
Skills: *Lunge* Performs a multi-step forward strike with a piercing weapon. 2x Agility bonus on movement before strike. 2X attack bonus on strike.
Tanner stared at the status screen that had appeared before his eyes when he crushed his first rune stone. It displayed information on him, he¡¯d never seen such a thing before but he remembered talk about how adventurers had some method of tracking their abilities. The first few lines of the status page showed his name, a self portrait that he didn¡¯t remember having had painted and a list of titles he had achieved. Currently the title section listed ¡°Fresh¡± and he internally grumbled about that, however he then read that it came with reduced aggressiveness from most monsters and decided that Fresh was a good thing until he got his adventuring legs. The next set of lines showed his stats, after looking over them he made the assumption that civilians must have a "1" in all of their stats based on the level up bonus he received. Next up was his class - Fighter, nothing special there Tanner had expected to become a fighter, it was the first step on his road to Aerial Knight. Affiliations was next but that was also empty, following that was his skills which listed the brand new *Lunge* skill he had just activated. Tanner beamed internally while reading over the *Lunge* skill, he would be bouncing with excitement if he wasn¡¯t locked in place by the status screen¡¯s first activation. After about a minute or two Tanner snapped out of it, looking around, and saw the merchant holding a broom and dustpan. Tanner looked at the man confused, as he had teleported from Tanners point of view. The man pointed to the large pile of dust and stone debree that was all over the front portion of the store and once more held the broom out to Tanner. Tanner groaned but acknowledged the broom, grabbing it and the dustpan from the man and got to work cleaning up after himself. *Mental note Tanner, don¡¯t activate the rune stones inside* Tanner thought to himself. A little bit later, after cleaning up Tanner thanked the merchant again and headed out towards the adventuring guild. Back west along Main street Tanner walked, excited about being able to activate *Lunge* soon, he¡¯d have tried it here, but he was afraid he would skewer someone if he did as he didn¡¯t know the skills full specifications just yet. He would have to play with it in a safe location very soon. Arriving at the Two Worlds adventuring guild a little bit later Tanner smiled his biggest smile at the guild receptionist as he walked up to her. ¡°Hello!¡± Tanner broadcast out. ¡°Hello.. Welcome to the Two Worlds adventuring guild, how may I help you out?¡± The receptionist asked? ¡°I just acquired my first skill and would like to sign up.¡± Tanner replied quickly, a bit too energetically. ¡°I see¡± The receptionist stated, and bent down under the counter to pull out a stack of paperwork. ¡°Read and fill these papers out, you can read, yes?¡± ¡°Oh, yes, I know my letters. Numbers too!¡± Tanner stated proudly. ¡°Good, that will help. Read these papers, fill them out, and bring them back to me. If you have any questions please ask.¡± The receptionist said while pushing the small pile of paperwork over to Tanner. Tanner nodded at the lady and grabbed the stack as well as a quill and small inkwell from her. He went over to a small chair that had a small wooden desk attached to it, the sort he was used to seeing at his small school back in Barton. He sat and started reading through the paperwork. The undersigned acknowledges the potential difficulty of the tasks he or she may be assigned by the company and relinquishes liability of the company in case of death, dismemberment, injury both mental and physical¡­. Tanner scratched his head and continued reading. He had no idea what most of this meant having been written in legalese, however he still filled out what he could and signed where it asked. It didn¡¯t matter what it said, Tanner thought, he was planning to sign up with the guild regardless. It took about an hour to read through everything and fill it out before Tanner got up, stretched, and returned the items to the receptionist. ¡°I see you finished, give me a moment to look the paperwork over.¡± The receptionist said. She had him scratch out and refill a couple sections, and fill out one or two spots he missed entirely before she nodded satisfied. ¡°That part is done, I¡¯ve scheduled you a sparing match with one of our assessors to ensure that you meet our minimum requirements before we let you in. The match is in about an hour.¡± ¡°Oh, know where I could grab a small lunch then, I haven¡¯t eaten since breakfast.¡± Tanner said while his stomach grumbled lightly. ¡°Sure, there is a food stand around the corner, they sell some meat on a stick, just don¡¯t ask what its made from.¡± The receptionist said while giggling lightly. ¡°Oh, ok. Sounds good, thanks!¡± Tanner replied ¡°I¡¯ll be back in time for that match.¡± Tanner found the stall easily enough, it was just a bit north at the next corner down ¨C he followed his nose to find it. The stall sold a few different dishes, but he took the receptionists advice and asked for a skewer of meat, paying for it as he did, and wolfed it down. ¡°famks mifter¡± Tanner said with his mouth full as he started walking away. Across the street from the guildhall there was a small training area that had a sign in front stating it was ¡°Open to the public¡±, grinning Tanner thought he could try out his new abilities before the match and see if he could adjust for them. He walked into the sand lot and found an empty training dummy, pulled out his spear and set to work. Simply doing some light stabbing work, a bit of slicing work, and some blocks to see how things differed from before activating the rune stone. Tanner immediately noticed he was faster and stronger than before without even activating his skill. He could feel the spear snap harder as he blocked, he could feel the difference in his strikes as well. Thankfully though these training dummies were built with C.I.¡¯s (Classed Individual¡¯s) in mind so they were tougher than normal. Tanner hopped back a couple steps in preparation and activated *Lunge*. All he had to do was think about it, will it to happen and it did. He suddenly shot forward, he body mostly moving on its own as if it knew what he wanted it to do. He took a few rapid steps forward, everything around him turning into a blur, and his spear shot forward impacting the training dummy square in the chest, causing it to splinter and explode outwards, shrapnel flying away from the impact. ¡°Holy crap!!¡± Tanner cried out, causing people to stop what they were doing and look right at him. ¡°Hey kid, don¡¯t use skills against the free dummies, whats wrong with you?¡± Someone called out. ¡°Oh.. Sorry, I didn¡¯t know it would do that.¡± ¡°What are you, fresh?¡± ¡°Yea¡­ actually..¡± ¡°Oh.. well, head over to the guild and pay for the damage.¡± ¡°Sorry¡­¡± Tanner said, as he slumped and walked back to the guild. He explained what happened to the receptionist who laughed. ¡°Hahaha, don¡¯t worry about it, first dummy is on the house..¡± she chuckled. ¡°It is? Oh.. Thank you..¡± Tanner said, dejectedly. ¡°Heheh, go have a seat, the assessor will be out shortly.¡± Tanner nodded and went to a corner, sitting back down. Tanner mentally went through his spear forms again while waiting, after a bit this large man came of a hallway leading deeper into the guildhall. He was more grisly than Tanner had ever seen. Tall, standing a full head taller than Tanner, the man had a scar down one eye, the eye looked like it was still functional, but it looked like it might have been a close thing. Unshaven, the man had multiple five o¡¯clock shadows stacked together, it was unkempt and grew in multiple directions, but Tanner wouldn¡¯t have called it a beard. He had short cut hair, and leather armor on. ¡°Tanner?¡± the man called out while walking up to him. ¡°That¡¯s me!¡± Tanner said, perking up. ¡°Great, lets see what you¡¯ve got, follow me.¡± The man said, turning around and walking towards the hallway he had just come out of. ¡°I¡¯m Gris Akermane, by the way.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you Gris.¡± Tanner replied. Walking through the hallway it came out into a training hall. Clearly reinforced training dummies, far more so than the free ones outside, covered in armor. There was an archery range at the far end of the hall, leather punching bags for brawler training, and a corner of the hall had weight lifting equipment. ¡°Nice setup¡± Tanner said, awestruck. This was the biggest training hall he had ever seen. ¡°Haha, we put a lot of effort into training up our members.¡± Gris replied. ¡°Now, we¡¯re going to spar. Anything goes, give me everything you¡¯ve got.¡± They set up across from each other, a couple of the other people in the training hall stopping what they were doing to watch. The pair nodded and once more Tanner moved first, showing his impatience. Gris however was no mere civilian guard, and blocked the first thrust Tanner made, the second and third thrusts were easily thrown off mark by Gris¡¯s dual wielded short swords. Tanner struck out over and over, trying to gain an advantage but had no luck so after six or seven unsuccessful strikes he backed off a half dozen steps, Gris allowing him the distance. Tanner shifted his hands on the spear, walking them back giving him more reach and mentally activated *Lunge*. Tanner shot forward, faster than he was used to moving, and struck hard at Gris, but once again Gris slid the attack off to the side, Tanner was expecting this however and bled off the excess speed he was moving at into a 360 degree leg sweep, spinning faster than he¡¯d ever spun. This almost took Gris by surprise, but at the last moment he hopped up and over the sweep. ¡°Good move Tanner, keep it going.¡± Gris called out while throwing a few strikes of his own at Tanner to see how he blocked. Tanner responded well to each strike blocking to the right, sweeping to block left and swinging directly into a backwards downward strike with the flat end of the back of his spear. This was blocked as well. The two separated again and before Tanner could lunge once more Gris held up his hand and said ¡°Wait.¡± Tanner stopped. ¡°Good work, not bad at all, got a long way to go if you want to join the Knights, but its a great start. You pass, kid.¡± Tanner, breathing heavily this time, bowed and said ¡°Thank you!¡± ¡°Head back up to the receptionist and she¡¯ll fill you in on all the membership details.¡± Tanner thanked Gris again and jogged back down the hall to the receptionist¡¯s desk. ¡°I passed!!!¡± He said while bouncing back and forth between his feet. ¡°Haha, alright, got the energy of a puppy about you. You passed, huh? Great news!¡± she stated. ¡°Membership gets you access to the training hall of course, not to mention the barracks in case you don¡¯t have a place to sleep, the in house tavern ¨C though that one isn¡¯t free it is discounted, and then most importantly ¨C The Quest Board!.¡± ¡°We put requests up that come from the citizenry, the mayor, or the guild itself there. That is how you get paid by the guild, completing quests.¡± She further explained. ¡°Great! How do I go about finding a party?¡± Tanner asked. ¡°We have a Looking For Group board as well, you are welcome to look it over. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll do that in the morning then, its getting a bit late. Where are the barracks?¡±finl