by James Patton
The man was persistent, and she could see he was not put off by her resistance. It seemed to have the opposite effect, and he was smiling.
“You will be back before long, and you won’t be the first elf that has shared my bed. I do require that you inform me directly when you have completed a Trial. So I am sure I will see you soon my lovely little elf.”
Resisting the urge to stay, she turned and headed for the door. She could hear the mayor chuckling, and felt the vibrations against her body, causing her to gasp. Once outside the door she shut it and leaned against it breathing hard.
“Huh. Never seen one resist the Mayor before.” The guard said, but she could hardly see the man.
Her entire body was shaking, and she stumbled for the door that led back outside. Once there she found the sun helped clear her mind and the fresh sea breeze brought back her calm.
“Not many can resist the charm of a dwarf. Eat this.” The little girl gave her a small vegetable.
The plant was blue but shaped more like a small carrot. She devoured it without thinking and felt the effect immediately. All vestiges of desire left her, and she was back under control.
“You have more of that? I might have to deal with him a few more times.”
“See that small garden beneath that orange tree? Just pull one and rinse it before eating. They do not survive long outside the ground, so do not pull one until you need it.”
“Thanks. How do you know this much about plants?”
“My mom. Its passed down generation to generation. Now ya betta get going before he sticks his head out here. Resisting him once in a day is tough, but twice…”
The little girl made an excellent point, and she headed for the gate nearly in a sprint. The inn came up faster than she expected, and she saw that Red had vacated the alley.
Once inside the inn, she walked up to the counter, and most conversation stopped for several seconds as they looked at her. Then they went back to whatever they were doing. A Champion, even a new one, was just another person in the inn.
Walking up to the bar she put the token down in front of the innkeeper, and he just nodded. Took the token and moved to a back wall and grabbed a key which he put in front of her.
“Room 18. Breakfast is on me. That board over by the front door has new tasks daily. Most are simple things, and the rewards are simpler still. On each task is a number, that is how many days at my inn you just earned. Remember to do the easy ones first to build up a surplus. If you run out of days, you get kicked out.” The innkeeper was wiping down the bar giving the old wood a shine.
“These tasks, can they be done for money?”
“You mean for Vees?” He must have seen the confusion on Boh’s face because he spoke up to clarify. “That is short for Vouchers. I could offer you Vees in exchange, but you’d be disappointed in the amount and how far they’d go. My way is the better deal.”
“Not arguing that just trying to figure out a way to get additional supplies.”
“Ah, yea. I could trade off some of your days for those purposes but not until you’ve got a surplus of more’n a week. But you’d be better off trying to barter. Most traders or merchants are looking for resources, and that is a currency of much higher value than Vees.”
“Understood. Where do I find the farmer Richard?”
“Not even here a day and you know about that crazy bastard? Northwest of town, take the west road, you will reach the flatlands. His farm is out there. I do not recommend going, that man is more’n likely gonna shoot you on sight.”
“Thanks for the advice, but he has something I need.”
“Hmmf. I have a task no one will take. I will even credit you seven days for it, just give him a letter.” The innkeeper walked back towards where he got the key, and from one of the cubby holes in the wall he pulled out a letter. Then he slid it across the bar to her. She picked it up and looked at it briefly before sliding it into her pocket.
“What about a bag? How do I go about getting one of those?”
“The tanner might help, but you’ll most likely have to hunt and skin the animals for it. Head east, and when it forks, take the south path. It leads down to the beach, but at the top of the bluff, the tanner has his home. The stench, ya understand. No one wanted it near town.”
“Thank you, and what do I call you?”
“Lucas.”
“I’m Boh.”
“Last bit of advice. It gets dark here really fast. The mountains to the west block the sun well before normal. It might not be safe for you after that.” Lucas told her softly, and his eyes shifted uneasily towards the lobby where other Champions were relaxing.
Information and a warning, she owed the innkeeper a favor.
Boh
Chapter 7
Richard Gatz
My father loved World War I and II era weapons. It almost rivaled dragons, and he would take me with him to see various collectors. More often than not they would shoot the weapons, and while I hated the noise, I loved cleaning the guns afterward. To this day the smell of gun oil brings me a sense of peace.
-from Boh, Audio Roll 1333
The road west of town was mostly an upward climb. At one point she came around a bend and saw where Midnight had perched. His claw marks were still visible, and he had killed a whole nest of the osprey. Their corpses had so far remained untouched.
Shortly after that, the area leveled out, and she understood why they were called the flatlands. She could not see it all, but it looked like the entire area was farms divided by lines of trees. One of the farms way in the back appeared to have an orchard.
The newer growth in the fields made her believe this was probably springtime, but she was not sure if seasons worked the same here. This region felt exotic, and if it was closer to the equator, they might not get a winter.
The farmer and their families waved at her as she walked by and she waved back. Could she have been a farmer’s wife? A life of surviving by hard work and using her hands to provide for herself. A simple life. Waking and sleeping by the rising and setting of the sun, and maybe her pale skin would take on a nice tan. These people were happy, almost sickeningly so.
Who was she kidding? She snorted with laughter. The hard work she could handle, but a place like this took a much stronger woman than her.
Insects buzzed around, and occasionally an osprey flew past. They never came near, and she was sure the distance put them out over the sea. However, she was not about to let her guard down.
On more than one occasion she saw a house and various buildings grouped together with a small road leading up to it. Distracted by the journey she never thought about how she would locate this man’s farm.
Communities like this usually knew each other, so she decided to ask the next person she found. It did not take long, but she wondered whether the man was a farmer. His fields were empty, and the man himself was trying unsuccessfully to remove a stump from the ground.
A sigh escaped her lips. Boh removed her weapon belt and tossed it over the fence, and grabbed a nearby shovel. The sun was approaching its zenith and she wondered if her pale skin would burn.
The farmer was not tall, but his shoulders were as broad as his barn, and his close-cut white hair and beard made her think he was ex-military. The smooth and tanned faced contradicted the age in the man’s eyes and posture. It made it hard for her to judge his age with any degree of accuracy.
Rather than start up a conversation she just started digging around the stump. The farmer looked up briefly to acknowledge her and kept slamming his ax into the root he exposed. She cleared all around the stump exposing the roots as much as possible, even following them out a few feet to make sure they did not hover along the surface.
It did not take long before she was sweating horribly, and hoped the itchy clothing did not chafe. Dirt covered her arms as the powdery dust clung to her wet arms, but she never once complained.
Affinity with Earth +1%, Earth Affinity is now 76%.
She ignored the message. Instead, she tossed aside the shovel and grabbed an ax because there was not much more she could dig out. She watched the farmer pull put a hand high on the handle and then slide down to the bottom as he swung downward. This shifting hands and stance provided a lot of force behind the strike.
After a few attempts, she found the rhythm and had to admit it was effective. Even for someone with her strength, she was chopping through the roots at a quick pace. Each root Boh chopped off at the base sheAs she cut one, she moved to the other end and chopped that too, removing the length. Then moved on to the next root and then the next…
The farmer started to push against the stump, and she put down her ax and pulled from her side. Then she pushed while he pulled, and they continued to rock it back and forth until it felt loose. He stopped to grab a rope and tied it around the stump, so they could both pull on it. The stump rose out of the hole at a snail’s pace, and then she tumbled across the ground as the stump popped free.
The farmer was chuckling as he held out his hand to help Boh up. She took his rough hand and then they pulled the stump behind the barn. The rest of the tree was back there, only it w held out his hand to help her up, and she saw the stump popped free. She helped him pull it back behind his barn where he put the rest of the tree, cut up into neat stacks. There was more of the roots to gather, so she turned and headed back to their work site.
“Stop. Drink.” The farmer was standing near a cask of water, and a few wooden tankards were hanging off the side of the cask. So she grabbed on and dipped it in to the water and drank deeply. The cold water hit the back of her throat, and she started coughing. “Careful, ya o’erheated, and ya don’t want to cool yaself down to fast.”
“Now you say something.” She muttered, and the farmer chuckled.
“Ya kind ne’er stop here, and that stump woulda took me days to pull out, so I’m feelin’ as I owe ya.”
“You don’t. Many people do not understand what a gift it is to be able to use their hands to do a task. I would rather have a thousand more days like this than one more as a cripple.”
It was a good day, and she would not cheapen it by asking for something in return. She had time, and he needed help, it was that simple.
“I ‘ear stories about ya kind, and how ya be differen’ people when ya come here. Sometimes the gift is the reward, and they be blind to it, ya? I may not talk about it, but I am an educated man. I lived in the big cities and walked among Drache, but out here, I do something worth doing.”
“The place I come from, we call people who do this work the ‘salt of the earth’ which means someone that is good and decent and does simple, honest work. Our world went to hell because everyone felt they were entitled to something better and were not willing to work for it. It is a problem that does not change no matter what world I visit.”
“I moved ‘ere because there is no war and few dragons. The Trials are overseen by the gods and not even the king of dragons will come here without respecting the laws of this place.” He said, and she had no response, so they sat in silence for a short while.
“Are you Richard?”
“Who be askin?” The burly man’s neck muscles tightened. It was the blue eyes that changed from from a soft summer sky to that of ice that gave her cause for concern.
“My name is Boh, and Midnight told me to seek you out.” Her words were chosen carefully, to give the least amount of threat.
“That old war beast is still alive? I’ll be damned. Ya found him, girl. I’m Richard Gatz.”
“First, this is from the innkeeper.” She pulled out the letter from her pocket and found that she had accidentally crumpled it up some. It was not wet from her exertions, so there was that. Handing it over, he took it from her and slid it into a pocket of his own. “And Midnight suggested I learn about skills from you.”
“Ya must’ve made an impression if he is sending ya to me. The truth is, ya made an impression wit’ me as well.”
“I might have punched him in the face.” She muttered, and Gatz’s face went slack, and his eyes grew round. A gut wrenching laugh poured out of him, and its throaty sound had her chuckling along with him.
“That’ll do it. That dragon has an uncanny way of finding people like ‘im.” Gatz told her still smiling. “This is the simple version…”
It did not take long before the system messages appeared. She brought them up and read through them.
Congratulations! You unlocked your skill bars.
Skill Bars Summary:
-You Gained 2 Active Skill Slots (Reserved: One slot is for your Primary Active skill)
-You Gained 2 Passive Skill Slots (Reserved: One slot is for your Primary Passive skill)
-You currently have no skills registered to your skill bars.
Additional Details:
-Dragonrider grants you one Active Skill Slot (Reserved: One slot is for your Dragon Primary Active Dragon skill)
-Dragonrider grats you one Passive Skill Slot (Reserved: One slot is for your Dragon Primary Passive skill)
Primary vs. Secondary skills:
Primary Skills are locked. It is not possible to remove these skills, but they may change over time. Your Primary Drache is a Dragon, and the Dragonrider class provides another Active and Passive slot specifically for your Primary dragon skills. If your dragon dies and you bond with another dragon, the previous Primary dragon skills become secondary skills. This will weaken those skills.
Secondary Skills are replaceable, and once swapped it reduces the effectiveness of the skill by 50% for the next thirty minutes. After thirty minutes the ability is attuned and fully active.
Congratulations! You now have access to your Skill Book.
Skill Book - The skill book holds all your Active, Passive, Dragon, and Innate skills. Active, Passive, and Dragon skills all have one Primary that cannot be swapped out, but all Secondary skills are available for swapping. To open your Skill Book, just think ‘Skill Book,’ and it will appear. Do this in a safe place because it will use one hand while open.
The skill book has many more uses, but it is up you to discover them.
“Lot of information to take in, ya?” Richard asked scratching his bearded cheek.
“It is, but I got a handle on it.” That might be true, but she realized there was a lot more depth to it. Anxiety was held at bay while she absently rubbed the tip of her ear.
“Good. Then lemme explain one last thing. Ya just learned about Primary and Secondary skills, but one thing ya have not heard about is Innate skills. These are things that ya do naturally or are easy enough that anyone can learn ‘em.”
“Like jumping?”
“Sure, that is an Innate skill. Novice, Journeyman, and Adept spells are also considered Innate—same with crafting. Innate abilities are broken down into three types which are physical, magical, and utility.” The man’s dialect started to fade as he taught her, which made her believe it was not natural for him to speak that way. “Find a mentor, so they can explain it better than I. My specialty was building things with these.”
The farmer stared at his hands long enough that she started to shift uncomfortably. It was a look she recognized because she saw the same haunted look in the mirror. The man had been through a lot.
“Sorry. Life is complicated, ya?” Richard rubbed a hand through his hair and shook away his ghosts. “Anyway, innate skills require no attuning, because you can just do them. Your Active and Secondary skills need to be attuned.”
“Makes sense.”
“Wanna help with another stump?”
“Gods no.” She replied much faster than intended which had them both laughing.
“Me neither. I miss having livestock; coulda used an ox or a horse to help me move that thing.” The old man was rubbing his beard when his face went stone cold.
One hand shoved her down, and she buckled under his strength. A long gun appeared in Richard’s hands and Boh had not even seen where the farmer h
ad hidden it. The weapon discharged above her and so close to her face that her hearing disappeared. Two more times the old bastard squeezed off shots from whatever beastly gun he was using.
The noise and concussive blast left her slightly disoriented. It was a few seconds before Boh registered that Richard was lifting her to her feet. She turned around and saw two more of the osprey flying off.
“Those damn things get bolder every day. Sorry about ya ears.”
“Its fine,” she told him with a shaky voice and tried to hide her shaking hands. Damned birds! If he saw her shaking hands, he said nothing.
“Normally they hunt over coastal waters for fish, but all the Champions here are messing with the ecology. They must’ve been stalking ya, hoping ya be easy prey.” The old man paused and checked her out and then continued with his talking. “There is another Innate category that I did not want to bring up because most of the Champions don’t need to know it yet. There is a whole section in your book on your Elemental Shield.”
The explanation went on for a few minutes, and then he told her to open her skill book and check it out, so she did just that.
Skill Book. She thought, and a book appeared in her hand, which was strange. Not that she did not believe the messages, but it was different. Holding an object in her hand felt more realistic than swiping at hidden windows.
In the book, she saw there were several tabs: Passive, Active, Innate, Dragon, and Other. Most of the tabs were empty, so she opened the Innate skills tab.
Innate Abilities - There are three types of Innate abilities: Physical, Spells, and Utility.
Physical - Most of these skills you will already know how to do, such as Running and Jumping. Once you do them, they will show up in your book. Some advanced Innate skills might require a skill slot.