Chapter 22 – Montage (Patreon)

When I came back to the main room in the basement, an argument was full underway. Muriel and Darek were facing each other, practically yelling. This was the first time I'd seen either of them lose their composure, and it was somewhat of a surprise - the group seemed so close knit, even with their very different personalities. The moment I was spotted, however, Muriel sent me a scathing look and walked past me out the door. Darek beat me to the punch though, saying "Please, do not ask." and we opted for a nice round of uncomfortable silence instead.

The one-legged kobold seated himself awkardly and proceeded to whittle away with abandon at a large stick. Looked like it'd end up being some sort of throwing weapon - a glaive maybe? Huh - so that was where they got all their training weapons - that was pretty damn impressive. A couple of minutes was all it took though, until he'd simmered down and looked over to me. "Are you ready to grow beyond the language of a toddler?" I got up, and we walked to the class room and got on with it.

The next three weeks were anything but uneventful. However, the number one things that I had not prepared for was this: I finally managed to settle down a little and establish a rhythm. The past couple of weeks had been one crazy sprint from one game changer to the next, rare moments of normalcy soon interrupted by something completely unforeseen. Here...well, here there was almost no socializing, no pressure beyond the need to prepare as well as I could - and diddly to do. Oh, and the fact that Talen’s clique were still prowling about from time to time, also limited my scouting trips. Funny thing was, I actually enjoyed it. Being forced to spend most of my time in the basement with the trio led to a surprisingly natural group dynamic, and I often found myself deep in conversation with either of them about completely inconsequential things that would never have any bearing on quests or anything. 

And they were a surprising group too. Beyond Darek's hardeded demeanor I caught glimpses from time to time of a proud man refusing to bend or change, even in the face of insurmountable odds. The way he acted towards Arack and even Muriel, showed how much he valued the others, even if he would never say it. This, in fact, applied to all of Muriel as well. That one was a piece of work, though. He'd ridicule any thoughts of morals or kindness to another person - and at the very same time he'd sacrifice all his own possibilities in order to protect his chosen family. Even afterwards, I never could tell whether his tales of criminal exploits were true, exaggerated or mere excuses to cover the selflessness of his sacrifice. Arack, however, was the real prize. Nine times out of ten, she'd be your typical teenaged chatterbox - albeit one with a seriously skewed set of moral standards. That tenth time though - now and again, she'd put my thoughts to shame. In the weeks I spent there, I watched her apply her contagious good mood to break up a discussion, divert a brewing disagreement into a bragging contest and other social stunts that put me to shame. Never once did she show any sign of doing it on purpose, however. I often wondered whether there is such a thing as a social idiot savant - because she might be it.

The crowd of Anathema in the Beggar's Court also slowly settled into a rhythm alongside my presence. I never managed to make quite as large an impression as on that first evening, but I went along daily, and was pleased to find how they slowly warmed to me. It was the small things. A tiny smile on a young brute when he recognized me. How somebody throwing a piece of refuse at me during my third performance was - let's say 'encouraged' not to do it again. Also, while they initially shied away from interaction with me, I could tell how the mood changed from day to day. The first real measure of success came when an emaciated woman asked me to play a somber piece I'd done earlier in the evening, and a couple of days later I knew I was really getting somewhere as a nervous-looking type dragged me aside and taught me a simple tune that he'd like me to perform. There was some way to go before they'd be able to let go, but they accepted and enjoyed my presence, and that was more than enough for me. My reputation with the crowd also rose steadily and after the first week, I was already past halfway to Honored status.

While socializing with the trio and playing in the Beggar's Court were steady fixtures in my day, they represented a tiny piece of my waking hours. No, I had my mind firmly fixed on the battle a week ahead of me, and to have a fighting chance I spent as much time as possible practicing. In some MMOs, the best method would probably be to locate the nearest target dummy, select your skill of choice and start grinding. As I may have mentioned before, Exogenics had a nasty habit of introducing a certain amount of realism to the game though. In short, strain was a thing to take into consideration, be it mental or physical. Due to this, I opted for a number of different training passes during the day, and then added on or stopped early depending on fatigue. Sometimes I managed to stop in time and would be able to tack on a pass or two later on, but quite often the alarm came in form of a debuff telling me I'd hit my limits. Pushing on would just result in slower stamina or mana regeneration later on and even worse debuffs to follow, so I simply didn't.

Any given day, I made sure to at least fit in one training session with Darek as well as a language class. In addition, I made very sure to visit the warrior training compound every single day - for several nefarious reasons. First, I wanted the warriors to grow used to my presence, have them let down their guards. Next, I wanted to obtain as much information as I possibly could from the other warriors, both about the coming events and my reluctant patron-to-be. And finally, I was going to start training my spells. Slowly, openly and with a very limited selection, in order to convince any watching lizards that I was a slow caster who lacked for versatility. The first two days surprised me with how strenous the entire regime was, and I managed to do nothing else. However, following the second day, I generally managed to fit in a bit of time with Arack in the vain hope of learning how to someday hit a moving target. 

Admittedly, even though I finally settled into some sort of regularity, the days didn't merely fly by. The training sessions with Darek, for instance, often seemed to drag on forever. The language sessions because, well, even though I was aware of the importance of learning the language, one does not simply become a scholarly type overnight. I did hit Apprentice level for the oral language on the very first night, which finally allowed me to comprehend and speak with the level of, say, a 4-year old. As for the combat training sessions, they felt like eternity – not because I got bored, but simply because they were demanding. The actual physical work was acceptable. Yes, sure, I did jump around a lot, evading the attacks of Darek and a host of imaginary attackers both - but the real drain was mental. The time we spent on different techniques for dodging or acrobatics was rather limited the first week. In the words of my very own personal kobold coach: "Your dodging skills will be irrelevant if you do not know when to dodge." This had me scrambling mentally to keep up with the scenarios that he pitted me against, formulating and executing the best possible response to each different situation. Needless to say, he always left me with too little time to think the scenario all the way through.

For instance, he'd place me in the corner of the room, say, "I am a slow, heavily armored warrior. To your right, far down the aisle, we have an agile archer." and instantly go on the offensive. In that case, the correct response would be something along the line of "Activate High Tide, use Sleep, Stun Blast or Charm to take out the warrior fast - then take down the archer." We didn't keep it to theories though - I was expected to act according to the scenario he set. The only concession to his presence was my shouting out any damage spells I'd cast on him instead of actually casting him - everything else was kept as close to a real situation as possible. Needless to say I got it wrong a lot - and he never failed to point out my exact failures. To be fair, he also did point out my successes in equal detail. The learning curve was steep though. To date, I'd just acted on the instinct built from countless games and situation. Creating a built-in set of reactions allowing me to raise the correct response to different situations within moments? Yeah, that took time. 

Two archers and a spearman, fighting defensively. A single opponent, only he's fast as lightning. An ambush with me in the middle. His imagination seemed endless, as did the scenarios to which I had to adjust. Darek didn't keep it to kobolds either, adding in monsters for good measure.  Then, when my stamina or mana was all used up, we'd sit down to go over the scenarios we were able to complete. In short, the actual increase to my skill and spell level was minor, yet it felt like I was learning more about combat than ever before.

In comparison, the occasional training session with Arack was more or less the opposite. We focused on throwing - that was all. Throw in (heh) a bit of talk about technique, and plenty of mindless chatter just to have fun, and you'd have our sessions down pat. As a result, I definitely did not take as much with me from these exercise, but my Throwing skill did increase proportionally fast. On our third shared workout, however, I stumbled into one unforeseen element that almost made me quit training entirely. I'd stumbled upon Arack when she was already finished with her throwing practice, but she insisted on joining me and suggested an alternative training. Moments later, I found myself roped into throwing rocks at Arack, while she practiced her dodging skills and - I must admit, it almost broke me. My hands worked on autopilot, tossing rocks at her the best I could - but my mind...my mind was completely blown. That tiny girl dodged and weaved, making a mockery of my efforts to hit her. I've seen my fair share of martial artists, trick fights and otherwise online, but the way she moved was something else entirely. She did not merely evade - she danced, making every single movement connect seamlessly into the next. Hands, feet and tail all worked together, somehow making the transition from each difficult move to the next look effortless. A dip in the shoulder evolved into a spin move which naturally turned into a backwards walkover supported by her tail. My point being, she made it look so damn easy, it was almost depressing - because I knew very well that I'd never be able to obtain even a third of her grace, speed or skill. Still, it was hard to maintain a lousy mood in her cheery presence. In fact, the sessions with Arack often turned out to be the highlight of the day, exercising and laughing without any thoughts as to deadlines or consequences.

My visits to the warrior compound were a different animal. To begin with, my initial welcome was a tad warmer than I had expected - meaning that the warriors mostly ignored me. Also I received only a handful of derogatory comments and no actual harassment during the couple of hours I spent there on the first day. Sure, nobody went out of their way to talk to me either, but that was to be expected. I'd decided not to try and make much of my presence on the first day. Instead, I located a training dummy a bit away from the nearest group and started to hammer away at it. Sonic Missile, Sonic Wave and the occasional Sonic Push - and nothing else. For now, I wanted my skills to remain a secret. In between spell barrages, I even took to attacking the dummy with my old tattered kobold spear. My performance appeared to have the desired performance - at first, a number of warriors stared at my training, but as I kept up working over the same skills, they gradually got bored and went back to what they were doing. The following day, I went for a repeat performance, this time next to another group, however. They sent a few glares my way, but otherwise I was left to my own solitary, monotonous training - which led me to part B of my brilliant plan - spying on the locals. Naturally, I then proceeded to discover a less brilliant part of my plan: Warriors mid-training rarely spend a lot of time chatting. I had finally gotten to the point where I might comprehend half their discussions - if they spoke clearly - and loudly. Yet with all that, the only facts I was able to deduce at first were that the blue-scaled runt needed to keep his shield up and the overly spiky lass needed to work on her spearwork. Still, after the first hour, they rarely glanced my way, and spoke freely around me - the scheme felt sound. As the days flew by, I obtained little useful knowledge. The upcoming combat tests were brutal. People died every year. They had some sort of 'game' involved that raised the stakes and somehow was the cause of hilarity. Oh, and one useful gem - spiky lass was looking forward to the Hazing Trail - in her own words, she was "holding on to something special for that pale heretic." Better keep my eyes out for that one, if I made it past the preliminaries. Skill-wise, increases were slow, but steady. Like I'd noticed earlier, skill increases slowed down dramatically if there is no risk involved. Also, since both Sonic Missile and Sonic Wave were at Apprentice level, the speed declined even further. Regardless of the decline in speed, the week of labor gave me two skill increases to both damage skills and three for Sonic Push – pushing that one into the Apprentice Level as well. 

[Congratulations.

Your spell Sonic Push has reached Apprentice rank. In addition to existing effects, The range of your spell has increased. From now on, you will be able to cast it at 35 meters of range.]

Lovely reading, that. While the damage of the spell was negligible, the range was higher than the rest of my spells, enabling me to get an early first hit in and cause some chaos.

I only had one kobold approach me during my time at the compound. A crimson-scaled lithe male harrumphed loudly from behind me, making me jump. How he'd managed to sneak up behind me bedecked with enough spears to form a palisade was beyond me, but I composed myself. "Hi. How can I help you?"

His common was almost perfect as he responded: "That's a hunter's spear. Where did you get it?" It took me some time to understand what he was talking about and think back to where I'd actually gotten the damn thing. It felt like ages ago, when in fact it had only been a couple of weeks.

"In all honesty, I'm not sure where we were. My bard trainer led us to a training ground through a portal. The owner was part of a group guarding the place - I believe they were hired, but I can't be sure. Last I saw the hunter, he was fast asleep." Probably not a good idea to mention that I'd also had to kill a couple of his kin.

He repeated the words "bard trainer" as if in disbelief - opened his mouth, closed it again and walked away, shaking his head. In kobold, he said: "That .... old ....."

What? So he recognized Greck from the description? Heh - well, of course he did. Nerit was larger than Grant's Crossing but still small enough that everybody would know of an exiled bard. My curiosity for the contents of the history tome increased even further. I still couldn't really understand the contents - but with the next written language skill increase, I felt ready to give the tome another try.

With how busy I kept myself, it was a bit of a surprise how fast the first test approached. The day before, I got up to conclude that I still hadn't encountered any secrets that'd put me ahead of the competition - and I definitely wasn't at a skill level where I felt comfortable taking on the world. That meant one thing: I needed some cheats. Some kind of backup to save my behind if I got in over my head. In other words: Crafting time!

In all honesty, I felt a bit ashamed I hadn't gotten around to it earlier. Hell, it might have made my day easier on quite a few earlier occasions. On the upside, however, that meant that I had amassed a seriously impressive pile of crafting materials. My still was still at a measly four though. That part, I could do something about though.

Selecting my Tinkering skill, my view of the basement classroom faded to the background, leaving me with a slight case of double vision. The classroom was still there, only it appeared grey and unreal - like I was mid-corpse run in an old-time MMO. The tinkering menu, in contrast, appeared like a sharp and crisp overlay, leaving me smiling at an open circle headlined by the words. [Insert core material] For my very first attempt I decided to go with one of my more numerous items and added a [Viper Fang] to the open circle. At that point a button appeared at the top of my vision, labeled simply [Create core]. I pushed the button and watched as the fang dissolved, turning into a tiny, pulsating gem. [Very weak core. 10 piercing damage + 1-5 poison damage each 5 seconds for 30 seconds] The overlay changed into a large glowing triangle with three accessible buttons – [Create trap], [Create grenade] and [Create automaton] – no surprises here. I pressed [create trap] and was instantly rewarded with a diamond sporting four circles, the fourth of which was already occupied by the core. No further explanation was given - but two of the remaining circles remained greyed out. What I was seeing made sense so far. As I progressed in skills - or levels, who knew - the remaining circles would open up, allowing for further alteration possibilities. The single remaining open circle was for the base material. 

All right - so far so good. From what Mrs. Bertinga had said, I could deduce that the mixing and matching was where the real chances of your face going 'kablooei' lay. The only available slot right now was meant for the base materials - I remembered that much from last time. With this in mind, I likely wasn't going to discover any deeper truths about combinations and dangers today - or have my face blown off. However, I might still be able to surmise some fundamental truths about the system. I entered the base material for the lowest-tier rope trap - a piece of string, basically - and clicked the large, glowing [create] button. I watched the lights fizzle out into nothingness, as a large [creation failed] message appeared. With a sigh, I watched the core disappear from my inventory. Damn - I'd forgotten about that. Tinkering was an Intelligence-based skill - one of my many dump stats - hence, every so often, I'd fail a creation. Nothing to be done about it though - I just had to accept a certain degree of waste. 

I took the time to go over all the materials I had amassed, arranging them into two piles. One pile went straight back into the inventory - the few rares I'd found along with any uncommon items where I only had a single example or two. No way in hell was I about to take a chance of seeing an awesome item disappearing just because I neglected to raise my Tinkering skill first. Still, it was with a longing glance that I put them away. I was so looking forward to figuring out what I could create from the Fury and Poison Glands. The Soarer Skull and Dire Rat Tail as well. Even with those items stowed away, the remaining pile was more than large enough to keep me busy.

As the first order, I created a single core of each kind, so I knew what I was dealing with. This led to the first surprise of the day. Halfway through the pile, I was attempting to create a core from a [Tuft of demon-infested bear fur] - one of the items that dropped from Othell’s summoned demon bear. Except, instead of a core, I received an obscure system message [Origin items can only be used for alteration purposes.] Huh. Did that mean I could only use those later on, when a new circle had opened? I shook my head and moved on with the task. The resulting haphazard pile was daunting, but when I'd arranged them all in a separate tab in the inventory, I managed a decent overview:

5 x [ Rat Eye - Common -1 perception]

9 x [Rat Claws - Common - 3-5 bleeding damage every 10 seconds for 60 seconds]

11 x [Viper Scales - Common - +10% blunt damage resistance]

19 x [Viper Fangs - Common - 10 piercing damage + 1-5 poison damage each 5 seconds for 30 seconds]

7 x [Viper Eye - Uncommon - Cause heat vision]

8 x [Bone Protrusions - Uncommon - 3-5 bleeding damage every 5 seconds. Endurance check needed to stop the bleeding]

4 x [Soarer Beaks - Uncommon - 10-40 damage - ignores armor]

8 x [Soarer Claws - Uncommon - 10 slashing damage. Stuns target for 1.0 second]

12 x [Dawnlight Feathers – Common - +1 Agility]

15 x [Item set for creating trap. Quality: Low]

15 x [Item set for creating bomb. Quality: Low]

15 x [Item set for creating automaton. Quality: Low]

At first I just stared at the stack, lost in concentration, but soon I felt my lips curling in a nasty smile as the ideas started ticking in. As for the combat test, I was still pretty much in the dark, so I kept it simple, creating a handful of bombs that might be able to help me - a few stunning ones, and a bunch of poison ones in case I had to fight a tank build. Odds were that I would not have the chance to set up traps beforehand or the time to activate any automatons mid-combat. With regards to the Hazing Trail, however - I couldn't help myself, as a mean-spirited chuckle escaped me. If only I made it through the first test, I was going to have fun.

An hour later found me equipped with a small remaining pile of crafting materials and a smaller, but beautiful pile of finished items before me. The epiphany I’d been searching for regarding the crafting system was still absent, but a few things had become clearer. For instance, even though no item levels were shown, I succeeded more often at creating items made from the lower-leveled creatures like the rats I’d killed at level 2. Uncommon items were also harder to use. Finally, I concluded that all abilities from the cores were somehow relevant to where I’d gotten them. That meant that if I wanted something like fire damage, I’d probably have to go look for fire golems or the like. It was a working theory, but so far it held true. In the end, I’d probably have to wait for the next circle to unlock to really get deeper into the intricacies of Tinkering – the journey was pretty intriguing so far though. Hey, and I’d already hit 8 in my Tinkering skill – with any luck, it would unlock at Apprentice level.

The day of the combat test dawned and I got up early - which I instantly regretted. It wasn't like I had anything pressing to do before the test, which was at noon, and it left me bored and anxious at the same time. In order to occupy my mind, I went to the old storage/training room to play around a little. Mid-breakfast, I'd been struck by an idea that had struck my mind without warning and just refused to leave me alone.

In all honesty, the idea probably wasn't that innovative, but it could still mean a great deal for me - if it worked, that is. The theory was as follows: My agility sucked - as did my strength. This naturally removed any possibility of precision with a ranged or thrown weapon. My perception, however, was pretty impressive, and my control of sonic magic was improving. With this in mind, could I perhaps use my Sonic Push ability to propel some sort of ranged weapon along? My mind might be exaggerating the possibilities, but I could vividly picture bypassing all those annoying requirements for brawn and dexterity and go straight to throwing entire arsenals at the enemy using only my mind.

Ten minutes of attempts and liberal amounts of cursing did a lot to dispel all the wild ideas I'd had. At some point in the future, my Sonic Push might level up to the point where it was powerful and focused enough, but so far, no dice. I'd tried everything from throwing daggers over throwing spears to good old arrows. The best result so far was when I'd made a shield spiral through the room, completely out of control. I had a premonition that most people might be able to explain why this was the case - but I was a language geek myself and flunked the last physics class I had some 20-plus years ago. It wasn't that there was no power in the spell - I just couldn't focus it well enough to create decent traction.

During a normal session, I might've called it quits right then. This time around, however, I'd just spent a fair amount of time creating bombs, and for some reason they sprang to mind. A rapid check in my inventory confirmed that I still had a couple handfuls of clay balls lying, so I figured "Why not?" Five minutes and four smashed clay balls later, my mood had improved markedly. The difficulty of actually making the ball go where I wanted it to was horrendous, and I missed entirely every third time - but even so, I could tell that I was on to something. Hells, the moment you start playing baseball, you don't hit every time around either, but when I did, the momentum was decent. And then I went and had the bright idea of throwing the ball before casting the spell. Wow. The first time I actually hit the ball, I got the angle wrong and it spun straight into the center shelf, exploding into tiny clay fragments. Even so, I could tell that the speed was way above standard for me, and it opened up some additional opportunities for me. One was the simple bonus of being able to toss my bombs a lot longer, possibly inflicting additional damage. The other? Having bombs change direction mid-shot, removing my opponents’ chance for proper defense. Sure, this was next-level stuff, but it still had me whistling as I left the room.

I spent a while perusing my character sheet. It'd been a while and the progress was pretty decent – you could tell I’d been grinding a good number of skills lately.

Character Info:

Name: Arcangelo 

Race: Half-elf

Class: Bard, Level 4 – experience towards next level: 20/4000

Crafting Class: Tinkerer, Novice

Gathering Class: Chronicler, Novice

Deity: Serune, Initiate. Clergy points: 800/1000

Stats and Attributes:

Health: 110/110 (+20)

Mana: 80/80 (+110)

Stamina: 110/110 (+20)

Strength: 8 

Perception: 17 (+1)

Endurance: 11 (+2)

Charisma: 34 (+7)

Intelligence: 8(+1)

Agility: 8 

Luck: 15

Skills:

Skill Name          Level          Rank                  Stat

Acrobatics           5               Novice                Agi.

Barter                   5(+2)        Novice                Cha.

Blackmail             5              Novice                Cha. 

Brawling               1               Novice                Str. 

Chronicler            7               Novice               Int. 

Concentration     8               Novice               End. 

Diplomacy            9(+2)         Novice              Cha. 

Gambling              7              Novice               Cha.

High Tide             Max                                     Cha.

Leadership           6              Novice                Cha.

Lore:                      4             Novice                 Int.

 - Crafting   Lore   3             Novice                Int. 

- History               4              Novice                Int. 

- Local   Lore: Dawnlight Forest 7   Novice   Int.

 - Magic   Lore      6             Novice                 Int. 

- Religion              3             Novice                 Int. 

Multicast              4              Novice                Int. 

Musician              15             Apprentice         Cha. 

Performing           8              Novice                 Cha. 

Singing                 8              Novice                 Cha. 

Sonic Spells         11             Apprentice         Cha. 

- Charm   Person  2             Novice                Cha. 

- Cuirass   Of Sound 6        Novice                Cha. 

- Entrance   Animals 3        Novice                Cha. 

- Sleep                   3             Novice                Cha.

 - Sonic   Missile   14            Apprentice         Cha. 

- Sonic   Push        10           Apprentice         Cha. 

- Sonic   Wave        14           Apprentice         Cha. 

- Stream   Of Songs  2          Novice                Cha. 

- Stun   Blast           8            Novice                Cha. 

Spot                        10            Novice                Per. 

Teacher                    3            Novice                Cha. 

Throwing                  5            Novice                Agi. 

Tinker                       8            Novice                Int.

Tracking                   5            Novice                Per. 

- Forest                    3             Novice                Per.

Unarmored Dodge  9             Novice                Agi.

Leadership Skills:

Resilience I: Mêlée damage taken is reduced by -10%.

Magic Resistance I: Magic damage taken is reduced by -10%.

Traits and Achievements:

Fair Visage: Being blessed with the best from both parents, half-elves gain +1 Charisma for each level gained.

Low-light Vision: A half-elf can see twice as far as a human in poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.

Pariah to Elves: In general, Elves disregard half-elves as both a disgrace and an example as to the dishonor of the parent elf. Half-elves start with a “Disliked” reputation to all Elven factions, and earns -10% reputation gain with Elves.

Universally Welcome: A bard is always welcomed, almost regardless of where he goes. Everybody knows that a bard entering the room will soon result in cheerful music, good conversation, laughter and enjoyment. The Bard’s initial reputation with any faction that would otherwise start at disliked or neutral is automatically increased to the next level. Reputations below disliked and above neutral are not affected.

Apprentice Bard: Charisma based skills increase 3% faster.

Bringer of Joy. You have shown that you are able to bring people together and joy to the crowds where ever you go. Reputation gain while performing or playing is increased by 25%.

Survive the Swarm I. You have survived an attack by more than ten times your group’s number. In the future, your group receives +2 to all defensive skill checks when your group is heavily outnumbered.

Defeat the Swarm I. You have eliminated a group numbered more than ten times your group’s number. In the future, your group receives +2 to all offensive skill checks when your group is heavily outnumbered.

The Ends Justify the Means. You have proven that you are willing to go to extraordinary and even amoral lengths to get to the bottom of what you believe to be the truth. People know and respect that you are a man who gets results, but dislike the methods that you tend to use. Any positive reputation gain is increased by 20%, but negative reputation is increased by 40%

With a satisfied grunt, I closed the character sheet. My only complaint? That damn critter still had my necklace – I was missing those buffs! A short while later I started towards the warrior compound. Time for violence.