by Tamryn Tamer
All of them were intelligent, remarkably so in some ways, but all of them had massive gaps in knowledge.
It was little things like making sure the warehouse was heavily insulated and using cooling gems to make sure that everything inside was kept cold allowing them to store meat longer than they were able to previously. Or driving home the importance of having food stored up for long periods of time just in case there was a famine. Although he couldn’t imagine a famine actually happening in their world given the respawning monsters and animals they could eat.
So, virtually every day he was in the village he needed to spend an hour going over what they were currently working on as well as what he felt was important.
His second responsibility was checking in on the Academy.
Although Cassia was placed in charge of the academy, he played a key role in designing the curriculum.
Everybody in his territory was expected to be able to read, write, and do basic math as well as train in a combat, magic, or crafting. Thanks to his curriculum, his villagers leveled at speeds that shocked even Cassia.
As he grew to understand more of the world and the level and ability systems it used, developing a curriculum became as easy as writing up a game guide.
The cornerstone of everything was the person's level. Their level determined their mental and physical abilities, to an extent. In theory, a person could be high level and actually lose some physical ability due to a severe injury but even in those cases level was generally the most important thing to consider.
Abilities were also important. Everybody earned ten Free Ability Points when they leveled and they earned Restricted Ability Points by using abilities. The difference between the two were Free Ability Points could be applied to any ability while Restricted Ability Points could only be applied to the abilities used to earn them.
Simply put, if you used a sword on an opponent enough, you would earn a Restricted Ability Point in swordsmanship. That point could be placed in any swordsmanship related ability whether it was the core ability or a specific skill such as Spinning Slash.
Every ability could be leveled to ten and every level required the same number of ability points as the level so it took fifty-five ability points to level an ability from one to ten.
Since there were potentially an infinite number of abilities, most people ended up spending their ability points horribly.
It was easy to see how it happened. Some farmer would place ability points in beast keeping to help his family care for animals. They would need to ride a horse so they would place points in their riding skill and maybe even put points in driving a wagon. Maybe he needed to learn a new language or how to grow a specific crop. In the end, he would be a level twelve farmer without a single level ten ability.
It wasn’t just farmers either. Most of the soldiers he met had points scattered everywhere. Even Sir Isaac and Sir Adamus, former royal guards, didn’t spend their points wisely. Sir Isaac in particular had over two hundred of his points in various magics that he never used.
When Frost first came to Nivara he had six hundred Free Ability Points and spent most of them on combat abilities. In hindsight, it wasn’t the best way to spend the ability points and afterward he decided to be more careful with them. He prioritized abilities that were difficult to practice such as different languages and rune reading.
It was because he was being so cautious with his Free Ability Points that he started focusing on Restricted Ability Points and realized how easily he could earn them.
At first, Frost thought he earned points easily because he was a herald but after hunting various monsters, some low level and some high level, he realized that the level of his opponent determined how quickly he would gain ability points.
A level five knight killing level five monsters would take a while to earn a Restricted Ability Point in swordsmanship. A level thirty knight killing level thirty monsters could earn them much faster.
If that same knight decided they wanted to be an elementalist, they would learn new abilities faster than a lower level elf that dedicated themselves to magic because their higher level would allow them to practice the magic more often and take on more powerful enemies.
It was only natural that levels became the cornerstone of the curriculum. The goal was to increase your levels and to do that you needed to prioritize combat abilities.
Even if you were a crafter, you would have increased physical and mental capacities due to the higher levels. You would also have access to higher quality materials and be able to craft more often before exhausting yourself.
So, Frost created class templates for all of them.
There were base requirements to unlock certain classes such as fighter, elementalist, or cleric but class templates were different. They were lists of what Frost considered the most important abilities to prioritize if you wanted to be effective.
Knights were told to prioritize plate armor abilities, shield abilities, evasion abilities, and one-handed weapon abilities. Their initial goal was to level each of those abilities to four which depending on their level would allow them to effectively hunt a wide variety of monsters
Clerics were told to level their divine rune reading, recovery, paralyze, and barrier. Those abilities would allow them to be an asset to any party that invited them.
He went through all of the classes and designed those basic templates to ensure that villagers that wanted to be tanks weren’t shoving points in two handed weapons and elementalists weren’t wearing plate armor because they thought it was safer.
Because of the curriculum Frost designed, Brynn said that his Academy was probably on the level of some of Zira’s most prestigious academies. And unlike those academies, everybody in his territory was permitted to enroll, assuming there was space.
“Herald Frost!” Sumina and Rania flagged him down as they loaded human children into their wagons. The two beast keepers were in charge of transporting children from the villages of his territory to and from the academy, although only six children opted to enroll. “We have a question for you.”
“What is it?” Frost asked as the elves made sure the six human children had everything they needed. Despite his offer to accept any children from the surrounding villages, only about two dozen families accepted since most found the idea of their children being schooled with demihumans insulting. The six that they were loading up were from Kald, a port town in his territory.
“Um,” Rania rushed over, the beautiful elf smiled nervously while glancing back at the children. “Some of the children seem to have some things they shouldn’t have and we’re not sure what we should do about it.”
Frost glanced at the wagon and several of the human children clutched their bags worriedly.
“What do they have exactly?” Frost asked while glaring at the children.
“Well,” Sumina pulled out several chunks of metal with grooves for fingers. They were a little longer than they needed to be and the craftsmanship wasn’t bad. “I know that thieves sometimes carry these and…”
“They’re strike enhancers,” Frost said while walking toward the wagon. The children got more nervous the closer he got. He stared at the group of children and they quickly averted their eyes. “Two questions for you. The first is why do you have these? The second is who made them for you?”
“Nobody made them for us,” the oldest boy said. “We found them.”
“Yeah,” the oldest girl chimed in. “We found them.”
“Okay,” Frost said. “Let’s move past that lie. Why do you have them?”
“For protection,” one of the younger boys said. “When people…”
“Shh,” the oldest boy shook his head.
“Well,” Frost grabbed one of the steel strike enhancers and began flipping it around his fingers. “Humans from one of my villages were found in my territory with weapons. I can only assume that you wanted to hurt somebody in the village, right?”
“Herald Frost!” Rumina
snapped.
“We weren’t going to hurt anybody in the village,” one of the younger children said as they nervously turned to the oldest boy for answers.
“At the very least I’d probably have to ban you from returning,” Frost said pensively. “I mean, I can’t have dangerous people in my village. I’d definitely have to kick them out of the academy.”
“We’re not dangerous,” one of the younger girls said as tears well up in her eyes. “Please don’t kick us out of the academy.”
“Herald Frost!” Sumina glared at him judgmentally. “You’re scaring them.”
“If I don’t know what they’re for or where they got them then my hands are tied,” Frost said while gripping the item. It was either made by an adult or a talented child but he really had no idea who would have. Most of the demihumans in the village that preferred hand to hand combat had no need for something like a kubaton. “It’s a dangerous weapon.”
“We promise we weren’t going to hurt anybody,” the oldest girl said, panicking as she looked at the other children, hoping somebody would back her up. “They were for protection.”
“Shut up,” the boy snapped while shaking his head. “He’s just trying to get us to tell.”
“I don’t want to get in trouble,” one of the little girls said. “I like it here.”
“Me too,” a younger boy said.
“Protection from who?” Frost asked. “Must be somebody pretty dangerous if you intended to use a weapon.”
“It’s for home,” a little boy volunteered as the oldest boy glared at him, clearly aggravated by how easily they all broke. “When the other kids attack us.”
“Okay,” Frost said. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Are you all being targeted in Kald for attending the academy?”
The children all nodded. He somewhat expected them to be ostracized since so few children opted to attend but he never followed up on it. Most of the human children that attended the academy were from Filan and since that village was used to demihumans they integrated seamlessly.
Kald was a different story. The port town was full of thieves, pirates, and merchants that resented the fact that their town was given to him by King Asmund. The fact that any of the people decided to send their children to his academy was shocking. It was only natural that they would be targeted by people for attending.
“I see,” Frost said, glancing at Sumina. “When you drop them off can you let Hansel know that the students of my academy and possibly their families are being targeted.”
“Absolutely,” Sumina nodded.
“Okay,” Frost said, smiling at the children. “Now, the other question. Who gave these to you?”
“I made them,” the boy said, crossing his arms.
“No, you didn’t,” Frost said admiring the craftsmanship.
“Yes I did,” he insisted.
“Fine,” Frost said while pointing at the academy. “Let’s head back to the academy and you can demonstrate for me. If you can make one just like it, I’ll believe you. If you can’t, I’m expelling you from the school.”
“You can’t do that!” the boy snapped. “I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“I can do what I want,” Frost scoffed.
“Fine!” the boy said, shaking as he crossed his arms. “Expel me then because I made them.”
“Don’t,” the girl said, grabbing his arm. “Maybe we should just…”
“Don’t say a word,” the boy growled. “I made them. End of story.”
Herald Frost was impressed by the boy’s loyalty. Even though he was only fourteen he was showing more guts than most adults he knew. Unfortunately, he was also showing an alarming lack of sense. He really didn’t want to kick a child out of school but he needed to know what negligent adult was providing kids with dangerous weapons.
“Herald Frost!” Renna shouted excitedly as she walked out of the stable with her Dancer, her antelope-like steed. As she rushed over the small metal weapons caught her attention. “What are you doing with my punchies?”
“Your punchies?” Frost said as the green-haired elf snatched them away from him and Sumina. “You made these?
“Yeah,” Renna said while walking them back toward the children. She held one in her hands and made a fist, demonstrating one quick uppercut and then a backhand with the side of the steel strike enhancer. “Remember, hold it really tight and aim right for the chin. And if you’re too short to hit their chin, right between the legs.”
“Renna,” Frost chuckled as the children looked on in shock. “You gave the children weapons?”
“Uh-huh,” Renna nodded, completely oblivious to her negligence. “The kids asked me not to say anything but apparently there are some really mean people picking on them at home. So, I told them, one good crack with a punchy and people will think twice before coming after them again. Right kids?”
“Um,” the kids nervously glanced at each other before nodding in agreement.
“You can’t give children weapons like this,” Frost said, shaking his head. “They could hurt somebody.”
“That’s the point,” Renna said, not following the conversation. “Oh, wait. They’re not going to use them to hurt people that don’t deserve it! Only people who try to hurt them. I made them promise. Right?”
“Right,” the kids said, nodding along, unsure of how they should react.
“She didn’t do anything wrong,” the boy said with a concerned expression. “Miss Renna was just helping us. She’s a good teacher.”
“Yeah,” the other kids said, immediately coming to her defense.
“I am a good teacher!” Renna said cheerfully as she rushed over to Frost, smiling at him, her emerald eyes practically sparkling with pride. “See how good I am with children? Don’t you think I would make a better mother than that old hag? I’m younger, prettier, and a good teacher. You should marry me already and I’ll have as many children as you want.”
“This is not a point in your favor,” Frost said, unsure of how to react. “You can’t give the children weapons.”
“How are they supposed to defend themselves then?” Renna asked. “The people attacking them are bigger and stronger than they are.”
“Fair point,” Frost sighed. “But you can’t just give them weapons. At the very least you should have gotten approval.”
“Cassia approved it,” Renna said defensively. “I asked her four days ago if I could give the children some punchies and she thought it was a good idea.”
“I should have seen that coming,” Frost said, realizing his mistake. “Next time get approval from me for something like that.”
“Alright,” Renna said grinning as she tugged on Dancer’s reins. “Herald Frost, since you’re not busy, do you want to ride with me? I know a nice secluded place out in the forest.”
“Does that mean we’re letting them keep them?” Sumina asked, while staring at the kids in the wagon, practicing their punches.
“Yeah,” Frost shrugged. “Whatever. But, when you get Kald can you just report all this to Hansel. I’m sure he’ll have some input of his own.”
“We can do that,” Rania said while hopping in the wagon. “Renna, don’t forget to feed the animals while we’re gone.”
“I know,” Renna said, waving at the women as she turned her attention back to Frost. “I don’t have any classes right now and Cassia’s stuck at the academy. So, want to grab Witch and ride with me?”
“Tempting,” Frost said, leaning down to peck the beautiful green-haired elf. “But I actually have to fulfill an Ayoyou with Lishri.”
“Another?” Renna said bitterly. “How does she earn so many?”
“She earns one every time I miss our scheduled time together,” Frost said defensively. “And remember what happened when I missed two scheduled times in a row? The Arachne caught her crying and refused to help with anything until I comforted their queen.”
“It’s unfair,” Renna said, pouting. “I get less time with you.”
“It’s not the same,” Renna pouted.
“Well,” Frost chuckled. “Unless you manage to assemble a significant labor force that’s willing to stop working unless I spend time with you, my hands are tied.”
“Really?” Renna said, smiling impishly at him.
“I should have just kept my mouth shut on that one,” Frost said, as she pressed her body against him. He leaned down and kissed the petite elf on the forehead. “I love you. Please don’t assemble an army.”
“I love you too Herald Frost,” Renna said. “Don’t make me assemble an army.”
CHAPTER 10
Slade stared at the ceiling as Hestia cuddled against him.
It had been thirty minutes since he woke up and the auburn-haired elf had yet to move. She wrapped her warm leg around his, locking him in place as she draped her arm over him and buried her face in his chest. The point-eared woman breathed rhythmically, her warm breath sweeping across his chest every five seconds like clockwork. It was calming.
Slade would have stayed in bed with her all day if it were up to him, but there was always work to be done. The fucking nobles in Blackwater were always up to something, the merchants were always trying to evade their fucking taxes, and then there was the dog-fucker.
The stupid bunny-fucking bastard had to go and kill an entire outpost full of guards while Princess Fiora’s mother was still in Blackwater. The cunt mother of the cunt princess was ready to leave the fucking territory and the stupid bug-fucking bastard had to go on a fucking rampage.
Thanks to that stupid fucking bastard, Grand Councilwoman Valencia Leaucault decided to extend her stay in Blackwater for an indefinite period.
Princess Fiora was still the acting governess of the territory but the Grand Cunt was making that a lot harder than it fucking needed to be. It was obvious the woman had no governing experience because her royal guards and investigators were cocking everything up.