Chapter Thirty-Four - A Path Determined

Oh nooo, I accidentally another chapter. Shucks.

***

By the time they arrived at Ofrustaoir it was well past sundown. The only thing keeping Cricket and Lucky going was momentum. Both of them were barely trudging along at a walking pace.

Unsurprisingly to Rosario, Lucile was doing better. She had a lot more Constitution, and honestly? She was a farm girl. She did physical labour every day while Cricket was more the sort to... not do that. 

Not that Rosario thought that Cricket was particularly lazy, but the [Jester] certainly didn’t give off the impression of being a hard worker if she could avoid it. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see strangers before,” Lucky said as she squinted ahead. 

The city of Ofrustaoir was nestled in a valley right at the foothills of a mountain range. The city occupied both sides of the valley, with homes built in layered tiers across from each other and a small river ran through the centre. Walls made from locally quarried blocks encircled the outer city, pressing it up against the mountains. The space before the city was a mix of open plains for grazing, fields tended to by small farming villages, and some well-tended forests through which important roads ran.

Rosario hadn’t spent too much time here, though it was a place she had travelled through a few times, being an almost obligatory stop on the way into Lithos.

The entrance into the city was well-guarded, but those guards were on the end of their shifts and looked well past tired. Three young women, two of whom looked exhausted, didn’t raise any flags and they were let in without much fuss, one of them even directed her to a decent inn within the centre of the city.

The moment they walked into the inn, which had already passed its busiest hours, both girls with Rosario collapsed. Cricket didn’t even try to pretend to have any propriety, she simply started to sleep on the floor.

“Three rooms, please,” Rosario said to the innkeep. The woman’s expression changed to become exceptionally helpful once gold traded hands. 

Rosario was still wide-awake, so after ensuring that the girls were in bed, she switched jobs and set out to explore the city, bouncing from rooftop to rooftop and getting a feel for the place.

Her impression was of a place that had once been very well off, but which had faced a decade or three of hardship. The buildings, especially the older ones, were well-made and showed clear signs that the people that built them cared. 

The same couldn’t be said for the people that came after, not judging by the general lack of maintenance that permeated everything. 

Her plan was to grab a quest the next day from the Adventuring Guild, after handing in their last one, then move on to the next city. But as she snuck past a guard patrol and then hid within a noble’s home for a few moments, she considered the condition of her travelling companions.

They’d be a little too burnt from the long trek for that.

In trying to save time, she might have cost them some.

No, better to help them in what ways she could, and then give them a day to rest. Besides, she wanted a little time to herself.

So, she returned after a night of grinding her [Rogue] job and practicing her stealth skills, took a three hour nap, and was up a few minutes before the sun.

She took tea out behind the inn. Being that it was one of the nicer establishments, it had a small garden and yard for guests to use. That was where Lucky joined her.

The young woman was walking slowly, as if every movement hurt. “G-good morning, ma’am,” she said.

“Good morning,” Rosario said. She took a sip of her tea. “Scone?”

“Ah... I could do with breakfast, sure,” Lucky said as she say heavily across from Rosario. Instead of finding herself a meal, she stared. “You... thank you, I think.”

“For what?” Rosario asked.

“You let me come.”

“You invited yourself.”

Lucky laughed. “I’m a low-leveled farm girl. You’re a [Swordmaster]. I think we both know that if you didn’t want me, I wouldn’t be here. You could have simply walked away faster than I could keep up.”

“But I did walk, and you did keep up,” Rosario said.

“Sure,” Lucky replied. “I... those spars were rough.”

Cricket had rather enthusiastically put Lucky down. Every time she did, she earned herself one minute of ‘sit’ time. Unfortunately, Cricket had elected to sit on Rosario, who had seated herself crosslegged to observe the bouts. 

It was silly, but it kept Cricket’s mood up.

Rosario did discover that the [Jester] had a very bony behind, however.

“You... very obviously have some strength, and your endurance is good for someone at your age and level,” Rosario said. She had no idea if that was true. “But your forms... suck, as Cricket would put it.”

“I don’t know any forms,” Lucky said.

“Then let’s fix that,” Rosario said. She pulled out one of the other swords she bought and handed it to Lucky across the table, hilt-first.

Lucky looked at it for a very long time. 

Rosario could read the young woman’s expression like an open book. She was hurting, she was sore, she was in no state to push herself. Her shoulders slumped a little, and Rosario could imagine just how badly she wanted to give up.

Lucky’s hand grabbed the hilt, and she grunted painfully as she forced herself to her feet. “I suppose if I had breakfast I’d just puke it out anyway,” she said.

Rosario smiled. She... liked this girl. 

Now to teach her...

Rosario felt warmth climbing her cheeks as she realized something important. She had no formal training with swords.

“L-let’s start with stances,” she said as she had Lucky stand out in the open and guided her into standing with her back straight, then stepping to one side then the other. It was very basic stuff, but Lucky was, fortunately, at a very basic kind of level. 

It wasn’t too long before Cricket crawled over, looking like death warmed over. “Thou art... not as hot today as thou were yesterday, before your senseless and cruel torture.”

Rosario smiled. “Good, you’re here. Let’s get both of you sparring again.”

“I refuse!” Cricket said. “The very act of asking it is a crime of the highest order, it is cruel and unusual punishment, it is--”

“First, both of you take a sip from this,” she said, setting down a potion onto the table. It was a mixed stamina and health potion, fourth tier. Not as expensive as some others, but it should, in theory, make both of them feel far better.

Cricket took the bottle, uncorked it, then sniffed before taking a sip.

A minute later she was doing flips in the back of the yard, laughing like a hyena on a sugar high as she bounced around.

Rosario insisted that both of them have a light breakfast before moving on to the sparring. Her idea for Lucky’s training was simple; have the girl fight Cricket until she could hold her own, and occasionally give her some advice on why she was eating so much dirt.

At around lunch time, she left the two alone to enjoy the inn, then dipped into the city to look for some additional supplies, specifically a frog for the swords and some basic enchanting equipment, as well as some sewing material and a few rolls of cloth. She had to limit herself to only buying a few. The temptation to buy one of everything was quite strong.

When she returned, Cricket was off gallivanting around town, but Lucky had stayed and was dutifully practicing her sword swings. She perked up when Rosario arrived. “I got [Soldier]!” she said.

“Congratulations!” Rosario said. “That was nice and fast. Now... we need to come to a choice.”

“A choice?” Lucky asked.

“Indeed. There are three paths ahead of you, one slightly faster than the other. The first is to take [Soldier], then [Swordsman], then [Swordmaster] and finally [Sword Saint].” 

Lucky nodded quickly.

“The issue with this is that you will have no source of Intelligence or Wisdom by the time you’ve maxed [Sword Saint].”

Lucky cracked a grin. “I don’t think that’s something I can ever do. Maximizing a Titled job is... insane. Even just getting to [Sword Saint] will take most of my life.”

“Ah... well, still. It’s worth thinking about.” Rosario cleared her throat. “The other option is to refuse [Soldier] and wait for [Swordsman] as your first tier combat job. That may take several weeks, or only a day or two.”

Lucky nodded a little more slowly.

“That would lead to a different second tier job, then back to [Swordsmaster] and eventually [Sword Saint].”

“And the third path?” Lucky asked.

“Take [Soldier], reach level twenty-five, take any other combat class that isn’t sword related, and start anew with [Swordsman] as a tier one.”

Generally speaking, one couldn’t have multiple related tier one jobs at the same time. There was a limit to that, of course. Lucky here proved it, with both [Farmhand] and [Harvester] being farm-related jobs. There was however, a penalty, and it limited future builds in some ways. 

“That third path would make it take longer for you to reach your full potential, but by the time you start to truly grow, your Constitution will be ridiculously high, and you might have a nice Intelligence-boosting second job option after [Soldier]. Though... if we’re going that route, you might as well learn a few spells and try to also unlock [Spell Sword].” Rosario paused. “No, scratch that, new plan.”

“N-new plan?” Lucky asked.

“We’re going to make you impossibly deadly,” Rosario said. It was one of the paths she had originally considered taking. “We’re going to split your growth. One set of jobs will be [Soldier], [Swordsman], [Sword Master] and then [Sword Saint].” Lucky nodded slowly. “And when we have time to spare, I’ll teach you some other tricks. We can have you level those by night. [Fencer], then [Arcane Trickster] then finally [Spell Sword] as a second third tier. I don’t know what the fourth tier job for that would be. [Battlemage] maybe? Or [Arcane Blade]? I think I met one of those who posted his build order once.”

“Uh,” Lucky said. “That’s two Titled jobs.”

“Hmm? Yes, you’re going to have to grind a lot. Well, what are you waiting for? Take [Soldier[ already, then we can get back to work. I want to see what your level five skill is.”

Lucky was sweating, but soon her name had changed. 

Lucile ‘Lucky’ Smith

[Soldier] - Level 1

That was a good start!

This teaching stuff was easy! Now, if only her other student was as quick a learner... Maybe a few tough quests would serve as good motivation?

Oh... right, and they had to hurry along to Dawntown too, she couldn’t forget that part!

***

Do you guys mind all of this system and level talk? Or is it boring? I can increase/decrease it fairly easily.

Should be good for a little while, though! We're having the girls move on the next day! I do want to get to the Princess soon, and now that we've picked up a Lucky, we can start to pick up the pace too!

Part of my does think that finally reaching the Princess would make for a good end-of-volume thing, though.