Quick Change Volume 1: Slyborn

by C. T. O'Leary

  As the two of them entered the courtyard, Seth saw Aurora and Ramses were already there, as well as a pudgy older man wearing white robes under his red cloak and seven more Adventurers’ Guild members he hadn’t met yet. As he walked up, the pudgy man stepped forward and introduced himself, “You must be Seth, the new hopeful! My name is Barnett, and I’ll be administering your trials. The young Aurora has been filling us in on some details about you this morning, you’re a level twenty-nine warrior, correct?”

  Seth nodded in confirmation and the man continued, words spilling out of his mouth at prodigious speeds, “Good, good. And she says you’ve not yet picked a secondary class yet? That is most unusual, I assume you’ve had trouble gaining access to a master of your desired class, and I assure you that the guild can assist you with that. We have masters in every class if you’re willing to travel to them, and they’re always willing to help a fellow guildmate! Just one of the many perks of joining the guild. Now, I want to confirm one more time that you’re ready to take the trials and join the Adventurers’ Guild, one of Morgenheim’s oldest surviving guilds!” Seth wondered why the guy sounded like a mattress salesman.

  A pop-up window appeared at the man’s words.

  Barnett of the Adventurers’ Guild has invited you to take the trials of the Adventurers’ Guild! Success in these tasks will result in you being added to the ranks of the Adventurers’ Guild. Do you accept?

  Accept? Decline?

  Seth took a deep breath of the cool morning air and answered, “I accept.” Before he could even ask what the next round was, the little man clapped his hands gleefully and started digging in a leather bag that had been slung around his shoulder.

  He finally found what he was looking for and pulled out a slim glass vial with a cork in the top, similar to the health potions Seth had been given, but filled with a shimmering yellow liquid. The liquid actually seemed to give off light, like someone had juiced a bunch of lightning bugs.

  Barnett handed Seth the bottle and simply said, “Drink this, please.” Seth was marginally unsettled by the seriousness of the man’s words, as he’d been acting like an excited child until that point, but took the vial without comment, unstoppered it, and downed it in one gulp. It tasted like what Seth imagined lemon Pledge might taste like, and he made a face as he looked back at the man. A small active effect appeared in Seth’s vision, and he focused on it to see what it said.

  Truth Serum: You will answer the next question you’re asked truthfully, to the best of your ability.

  He chuckled slightly at Seth’s discomfort and then hastily said, “Seth of Bosqovar. You’ve expressed the urge to join the Adventurers’ Guild. Do you solemnly vow that this is of your own volition, and that you intend to work for the betterment of the Adventurers’ Guild, and therefore the world?”

  Seth noted how the man seemed to have recited the words, and wondered how many times he’d asked them. Before Seth even had consciously made the decision to speak, his body did it for him. As if vomiting the words, they jumped out of his mouth of their own accord, “I do!”

  Seth cringed at how loudly and urgently he’d shouted the answer, but no one seemed to notice, and he chalked it up as a side effect of the potion. He watched the Truth Serum active effect fade from his vision, and idly wondered how he could get some of that made for himself.

  Barnett nodded and smiled before turning to the group of assembled guild members and saying, “Let all those members who witnessed this truthful affirmation also remember their own vows to our organization. Most of their heads nodded, though Seth noticed both Ramses and Ivon didn’t move at all. Barnett was back at it again though, yanking one of the male Adventurers’ Guild members out of the group and motioning for him to step out into the middle of the courtyard.

  Barnett began again, “Now that you’ve confirmed your intentions are noble, we must judge your ability to actually protect those that cannot protect themselves. Our lives revolve around our ability to stand up to monsters that average townspeople cannot. Please, step out into the courtyard, it’s time to d-duel.”

  Seth wondered why the man stuttered on the word. Perhaps he was nervous?

  Barnett continued, “Your sparring partner will be Randolph. You will not kill your opponent, but wounding is expected. Our healers will be on standby to heal both participants upon completion of the duel. First one below twenty-five percent health loses. Ready!”

  Seth felt a bit disoriented as he walked out into the center of the courtyard and squared off against Randolph. Two more guild members in robes came forward as well and positioned themselves behind Seth and Randolph respectively. Seth assumed they must be the healers who would keep the duel from being deadly.

  Seth had asked Aurora the night before if she thought he should try to hide his Quick Change Artist abilities, and after some debate they had decided that he could use them if he thought it would help him win the duel, and if he was asked why he’d received a divine boon to just be as vague or mysterious as possible. While he didn’t strictly need to win the duel to enter the guild, he did need to put up a good fight.

  Seth looked across the dirt at Randolph, trying to gauge his class and level. He wore chain and leather armor, not too dissimilar to Seth’s own, which indicated that he was likely a warrior or knight class, the only two who could easily move in the heavier chain armor. Two wicked axes hung from either side of his belt, one with a slightly red tinged blade, the other slightly bluish. Seth thought to his Axe Mastery ability that he’d yet to try, and decided that Randolph was likely a warrior.

  Randolph drew the axes then, holding them in a ready position. From Seth’s discussions on the road with his friends, he knew that the only people who used a weapon in each hand, at least effectively, were either main or secondary class rogues. That narrowed down Seth’s best guess at Randolph’s class then, a main warrior, secondary rogue.

  He didn’t have too much experience with rogues, he knew they were sneaky and fast, but he wasn’t sure what someone with that secondary class would be able to do. Seth resigned himself to just being aware of his surroundings, and drew Fearless, its silvery blade shining in the dawn light.

  The two of them stood ready for a few tense moments before Barnett barked, “Begin!”

  Randolph immediately sprang into action, beginning to run to the right, his left, keeping Seth in his line of sight but actually drawing away from Seth’s position slightly. Seth realized what the warrior was doing as soon as Charge became available in his own skills list, he was putting distance between them so that he could activate his Charge skill.

  Seth grinned as Randolph shot towards him, dirt clouds puffing up where his feet had been moments before. Fearless’s effect, increasing Seth’s Charge speed, would be a nasty surprise for his opponent.

  Only microseconds after Randolph began his Charge, Seth triggered his own and launched his body at the man, feeling the wind whip at his face as they hurtled toward each other. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as they closed in, and Seth saw that Randolph was actually slightly redirecting his charge, dropping his back foot to the dirt to throw himself off to Seth’s unprotected left side.

  Seth had never even thought a Charge could be redirected, and even though he saw it coming, there was no way he would be able to move fast enough to block a hit from those wicked axes. Seth did the only thing he could think of, and flexed his mental muscle to swap to his heavier armor just before the blow landed.

  Both of Randolph’s axes clanged off Seth’s plate armor, each of them leaving a gouge in the metal. Instead of trying to dodge to the side or stop himself, Seth let the momentum of his Charge carry forward, slamming his considerable weight, augmented by the huge plate armor, into Randolph. They both went rolling on the ground, and Seth glanced at his combat log as he swapped to his primary fighting armor and climbed to his feet.

  Level 32 Warrior (Randolph) hits you for 105 damage (main hand) Level 32 Warrior (Randolph) hits you for 97 damage (off hand) You hit
level 32 Warrior (Randolph) for 56 damage

  Seth’s health bar appeared and dropped down to just over eighty percent. Randolph’s was still healthily in the nineties, Seth’s tackle having inconvenienced the man more than injure him.

  Randolph wore a perplexed expression on his face as they advanced on one another again, no doubt wondering how Seth had just made plate armor appear and block his hit. Seth cringed at the thought of how much damage the hits would have done if he’d just been wearing his normal armor. The exchange of blows had done one thing for Seth, and his spirits lifted marginally as he noticed that his fury bar was sitting at over a quarter full.

  As they entered striking range, Seth activated Deliberate Strike, lancing his sword forward at Randolph’s midsection. He stepped back quicker than Seth had been expecting, and would have completely dodged the blow if Seth hadn’t activated Quick Change Pierce, momentarily lengthening his blade.

  An ugly wound appeared in Randolph’s gut as Seth swapped back to his normal armor, and he grabbed at his stomach in disbelief, almost forgetting the duel completely. Seth saw the warrior’s health bar jump down to two thirds

  You hit level 32 Warrior (Randolph) with Deliberate Strike & Quick Change Pierce for 607 damage.

  Seth was shocked at how much damage the attack had done, but he could only assume that it was Quick Change Pierce’s effect of ignoring all armor and defense that had done it. He used the few seconds where Randolph was Vulnerable to execute his next move and activated Expose Breach, landing a brutal slash across the warrior’s exposed forearm.

  You hit level 32 Warrior (Randolph) with Expose Breach for 532 damage

  The warrior’s health dropped again, sitting now just above a third. He fell to a knee, eyes bulging from the pain of the two wounds Seth had inflicted, and Seth noticed that landing the strikes had continued to increase his fury bar, which still had enough fury to activate Onslaught. He could actually feel the fury affecting him now, warping his emotions. He was afraid that activating Onslaught would kill the man, and he was afraid at how angry he was, making him think maybe he should kill the man. The duel was supposed to last until one of them was under a quarter, so Seth hesitated, not sure what to do.

  Hesitating was the wrong move, and Randolph’s eyes locked on Seth’s as he raked both axes across Seth’s shins. Pain exploded in his legs, and he fell back on his butt, almost dropping his sword in the tumble.

  Level 32 Warrior (Randolph) hits you for 165 damage (main hand) Level 32 Warrior (Randolph) hits you for 143 damage (off hand)

  Seth’s health bar dropped to just below half, and he groaned out a wordless complaint. Before he knew it, the man stood over him, arm raised to strike. At that moment, Seth debated summoning Pahan to help him, but figured that every guild member in sight would attack him, assuming he was some creation of the wild spirit they were trying to oust. Instead, Seth whipped his sword at the warrior’s left leg, and as soon as he felt it connect, swapped to his plate armor and felt Randolph’s strike bounce off his shoulder.

  Seth swapped back and scooted away, ready to defend himself again, but golden light surrounded him and his health rocketed back up to full immediately. He looked over to see the priest behind Randolph healing the warrior, too. Seth looked at his logs to try and figure out what had happened

  You hit level 32 Warrior (Randolph) for 264 damage Randolph’s health has dropped below 25%, you win the duel!

  Level 32 Warrior (Randolph) hits you for 172 damage Level 26 Priest casts Potent Heal on you, healing you for 682 points of health.

  Seth stood and walked towards Randolph, expecting to see anger on his face, but he just laughed and shook Seth’s hand, exclaiming, “That was great! Good fight, newbie. How’d you do that trick with the armor? Is that some kind of spell?”

  Before Seth could answer, Ramses and Barnett appeared before him, congratulating him on a successful duel. Barnett spoke up, “Congratulations, Seth, that was a fine duel. Let us confer with the judges momentarily, and we’ll be back with our decision.”

  The two men walked away and spoke in a group with the other guild members that had been watching the duel. After several minutes they returned and Barnett spoke again, “Seth, you did win the duel, but some of the other members are worried about the ability you used so heavily, that allowed you to create armor and a longer weapon from nothing. Could you please explain what that was?”

  Seth explained he’d been given a divine boon, and that brought on more questions. He followed Aurora’s advice and kept it as vague as possible, saying he couldn’t reveal exactly what he’d done to earn the god’s favor, or even which god it was. The group huddled again for a moment before deciding that, since it was a permanent divine boon that he’d always be able to use, it wasn’t cheating to use it in the duel. So, he’d passed two of the three trials, and they swiftly moved onto the final one.

  Seth was told to stand in the center of the courtyard again, and Barnett began chanting in a language that Seth couldn't understand. Smoke coalesced around Seth’s feet, and after several seconds the cloud of smoke moved forward, towards him. The shape of a man slowly formed from the smoke, rising up to end up taller than Seth and rather broad shouldered.

  The details of the man continued to sharpen, and when he looked almost real aside from being totally devoid of color, he reached a hand out towards Seth. Seth heard some murmuring from those surrounding them, but wasn’t able to pick any words out. He held still like he’d been instructed to do, and the man reached for Seth’s forehead. He didn’t feel anything when the apparition made contact.

  A moment later, he could feel the man viewing some of his memories. He saw himself telling Aurora and Ivon that he was glad the poisonous snake had bitten him and not them. He saw himself fighting on the wall of Vardon to save his friends from being tossed off, even though he would have come back to life either way. He saw his negotiations with the kobold chief, to solve a problem without killing. He wondered if the memories would start going back to things he’d done on Earth, but the man moved away then, and a smile appeared on his face. He nodded once, and then lost consistency and disappeared.

  Barnett and the others came forward, and he said, “Congratulations, Seth. You’ve passed the trials, and are now a novice member of the Adventurers’ Guild. May you always protect others and act honorably. Now, it is customary that a new member slays a beast of the wilds on his day of joining, rest up for a few hours and we will head out on to the mountain to see this ceremony completed. Welcome to the guild.”

  Everyone assembled filed by to smile and shake his hand in congratulations, and even Ramses cracked a little smile. Seth turned and started to head for Aurora and Ivon, but Ramses said, “Seth, please stop by my office when it’s convenient.” Seth nodded to the commander but couldn’t help feeling like a student called to the principal's office.

  Chapter 25

  Seth and Ivon walked to Ramses’ office about twenty minutes after his trials had ended. Aurora had volunteered to take Seth’s borrowed plate armor to the forgers in the crafting building to have it repaired. Seth knocked on the door and heard Ramses yell to enter, but Ivon just stood next to the guard outside the door, and Seth entered alone.

  Instead of standing behind his desk like he had been the day before, Ramses stood in front of an enormous map mounted on the wall. His back was towards Seth, but Seth noticed a slight twitch of the man’s head in his direction as he made his way toward Ramses, as if he were tracking Seth’s position by sound. He spoke up before Seth could, “Seth, thanks for stopping by.”

  Seth gaped as he stared at the enormous map, taking in the bands and blotches of color seemingly dotted at random. It must have been over twenty feet tall, and was noticeably wider than it was tall. It looked almost like a heightmap of some sort with wide bands going from green to red, but there were notations for mountains, and they didn’t seem to align any of the colors consistently like a heightmap should. There were also huge swaths of gray map, complet
ely colorless. Those sections seemed to have very little detail, with some just being smudged blurs of gray and suggestions of terrain.

  As Seth studied more, he noticed all of the green sections seemed to grade to yellow, and then red, before finally giving way to gray. The guild commander noticed his slack-jawed gaze and said, “It is quite impressive, isn't it? We brought this one with us from Vardon when we decided to reoccupy the fortress, otherwise it likely wouldn’t have survived the raid. It’s one of the guild’s most expensive possessions, if you can believe it. Cartographers had to dig through entire libraries to be able to put this together, and we sent guild members far and wide to get the potency ratings. That was all before my time, though.”

  Seth noticed how sad the man’s voice sounded when he referenced the attack on the Vardon guild headquarters.

  He finally found words and spoke up, “Potency ratings? I’m afraid I don’t know how to read this map.” He mentally kicked himself and hoped this kind of map wasn’t something that all citizens of Morgenheim should be able to read.

  Ramses chuckled and said, “I forget how disorienting the map can be the first time. Let me explain, we are here,” At this he pointed to a mountainous section of the map that was colored a pale yellow. Seth saw the words Broken Bones written above the area in ornate script. His eyes roved around, and he was able to spot Vardon annotated on the map, though it seemed that Bosqovar may have been too small to be mentioned.

  Written in a complicated script above the entire green/yellow region was the word Efril. Seth assumed that must have been the name of the country he was in, where Morgenheim was the world. Ramses continued, “The potency rating is our attempt to catalog how strong the monsters that spirits spawn in a particular area are. Green means that most monsters spawned will be near or below level twenty, with very dark green areas being home to none but the absolute weakest monsters.