Four Horsemen: Chapter 5 Part 1 of 2 (Patreon)

Chapter 5: Adventurer’s guild

Valter woke up with a start, looking around the room. Petor had fallen asleep with a thin book on his chest.

Nothing moved in the room or the world beyond, it must’ve been only a few hours since he went to sleep but he was refreshed.

The bed squeaked as he stood. He cleared up the two cloaks Petor had leant him and the water proofed hide he’d used as a layer between him and whatever else was living on the straw and cloth mattress.

The floorboards barely squeaked as he reached the chair next to the window, embers glowed in the distance, torches lit up the wall, his eyes narrowed, summoning a thread of power his vision zoomed in on the wall. Wood was nailed into the wall with massive hammers over breaches. Mortar and clay covered stones pushed into the breaches, held fast by the remains of the wall and the wood bracing.

A mother and her children pushed against a cart, their expressions blank, the older boys and girls keeping their hands close to their blades as they struggled up the hill towards the cathedral.

There was a quietness a deadly tension in the slums. Valter leaned against the wall, watching, silent and as still as a statue.

It was several minutes later before he moved again, pulling out a book unlike any other. Its covers were thick metal, scarred and pitted. He ran his fingers over the cover, touching the clasp, his power spread from his fingers, through runes hidden in the clasp and cover; like refined metal poured into a mold.

The clasp clicked and Valter opened the book. Blank metal sheets glowed with molten words turning into sharp life-like blueprint carvings, cooling as fast as the molten lines passed.

He traces his fingers over the words, feeling their edges and divots.

Wizards and spellcasters have their spell books. I have my smithing book.

He flipped through the pages, sections on refining, different techniques, and then the different gear, armors, weapons of all kinds.

“Small steps.” With a smile he turned to the first page, reading through the notes. It was as if his mind was a desert tree and the words upon the page the finest rain. He absorbed every word, not just reading but understanding it all, like his mind woke from a slumber.

Each page invigorated him, the art of smithing, its hidden depths and secrets coming together as pieces of a puzzle, the basics of controlling forge heat, what it could do, how to refine iron into a variety of steels, how to alloy it with other materials.

Petor woke with a start, hunting knife in his hand, eyes flicking over the room. Valter looked up from a book, catching the night beyond that was on the edge of becoming dawn, at some point it had started raining and only threatened to become heavier.

“Morning.”

“Morning,” Petor put his blade away and climbed out from his sleeping cloak. “Is that made of metal?”

“Yes,” Valter smiled and closed his book. “I think with this I might be able to make some armor to protect you all. And a spear that won’t be torn apart by you using it.”

“The burning sensations from my core and my essence veins have gone away. I feel completely different like I could wrestle a bull and win.”

“Essence veins?”

“Be faster if I told everyone together.” Rain fell beyond the window, a heavy constant, the sky brightening, without any sign of the sun hidden behind rain and their clouds. Petor drank from his canteen.

“Guess we should check on the ladies?” Valter closed the clasp on the book it flared and the markings disappeared.

“That’s a special kind of book, yeah, one sec.”  Petor threw his sleeping gear into his storage device and followed.

Valter checked the hallway, sniffing the air. “Smells like breakfast is coming along.” He walked over to the ladies’ door and knocked.

Mya opened the door.

“Well look who dawn dragged in. Desari?”

“Come on in.”

Mya moved deeper into the room. Petor locked their door and tied his laces, placing a wood chip at the bottom of their door before he entered the girl’s room.

“Did you learn anything useful?” Desari asked as he locked the door.

“I have an understanding on smithing,” Valter said.

“I know how to do rituals and a lot of necromancy stuff,” Mya said.

“Did you sleep at all?” Desari asked.

“Nope, had to do something after all the bars shut down.”

“I think I understand a bit more of how power works and before we go to the adventurer’s guild we need to take care of some things,” Petor said.

“Go on,” Desari said.

“There are three types of people, normal, awakened and runic. Awakened are people that can cultivate essence internally. Runics use runes and geometry to transform essence. So, swords that will never blunt or magical staffs with spells inside. They can use external sources of essence. Many of them are awakened as well, but you don’t need to have a core to be a runic. You just need knowledge.”

He’d wondered what the chapters on runes and geometry in the metal book had been about.

“You need to show you are a qualified runic, or awakened to become a member of the adventurer guild which has locations pretty much everywhere. People that need a job done by an awakened, go to the Adventurer’s guild. Adventurers are given plates to symbolize how strong they are. Copper, Silver, Gold and so on.” He pulled out a plate like the one the mercenaries had been wearing. “This is a copper plate, do you have one?”

Valter searched through his storage devices.

Mya pulled out one, Desari as well.

“I don’t think so,” Valter looked up from his last storage device.

“Can you sense a crystal under your sternum, at the center of where your power comes from?”

Valter sought out his core, finding a shard of white crystal.

“Yeah.”

“What color is it?” Petor leaned forward.

“Green with yellow sparks in it.”

Petor pulled out a book, flipping through pages and tracing down the side. “Well I have some catching up to do.” He muttered.

“What do you mean?”

“Cores come in different colors, starts with white, then red, then orange, yellow green and on. As your core changes color you can hold more essence with it.”

“My core is white though,” Mya said.

“Mine too,” Desari said.

“You should’ve got stronger by killing others,” Petor bent his head in his book. “Well okay, maybe that is something normal for me. It says that ‘an awakened increases the level of their core through storing more essence. A common method is by consuming powerful beasts, taking potions or elixirs or training in high essence locations.’”

“So we’ve got the weakest cores,” Mya said.

“Yes, but there are many ways to increase their capacity.”

“I was wondering what my alchemy was talking about using essence to power the cauldron. Essence is power,” Desari held her chin in thought. ““We’ll say that you lost yours Valter and get you a new one. With three of us having them we shouldn’t have any problems.”

“Right.”

“Are there other kinds of essence users?” Desari asked.

“Runics get stronger with more knowledge, Essence users get stronger by holding more essence. At the Red stage awakened can become manipulators, using their essence to create external attacks.”

“But Desari and I can already do that,” Mya said.

“I know, but I think that might be because of what Orange stage can do. They can use their essence to bind themselves. I bound three demons to myself, for it I can summon armor, a spear and a cloak and I have other powers probably. I should be able to call upon these indefinitely, but I can only call upon them a short time because it burns through my limited essence. I think that whatever happened to us, reset us back to zero, though I’m not sure why your core didn’t turn white too,” Petor frowned at Valter.

“Luck of the draw?” Valter said.

“Because I am bound to the elements then even with a white core I can use the elements,” Desari said.

“And I can do the undead boogie?” Mya added.

“Yes, I think,” Petor grimaced.

“So then the priests are binders but they’re bound to the gods?” Mya held her chin.

“Kind of, they’re mostly called chanellers, because their gods power runs through them. They might have their own essence, but the majority of their power comes from another being. Group casters can also have channelers, as can rituals, turning one person into one with the power of dozens.”

“Huh,” She nodded.

“Lets head over to the Adventurer’s guild and see what they have for us,” Desari stood and headed for the door.

Mya sniffed. “Well my mama always said to start the day off right with a full hearty meal” She  grinned.

“You remember that?” Petor asked.

“No, but seems like something a mother might say?”

“Food first,” Desari agreed.

Valter was on his feet faster than anyone else.

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