by Seth Ring
“Hold on, it is a title? Not a class? This is starting to make sense. Old legends talk about the god’s avatars, but all this time people have been searching for them as if they were classes. To no avail, I might add. It has been assumed that you could become an avatar if you found the correct class combination, but from what you experienced, that is not the case. You said Hati picked you?”
“Mmhmm. Hati was watching me and liked my character or something like that.”
“You keep saying they. You don’t know if Hati is male or female?” Julia looked at Thorn skeptically.
“Haha, no,” Thorn chuckled. “I only saw the top of their nose and eyes. A bit hard to tell by that, and I don’t want to get struck by lightning for getting it wrong.”
Julia smiled, happy that her nephew was able to be in high spirits despite his situation. A few minutes later she waved goodbye after making Thorn promise to contact her more frequently. They were almost halfway through Thorn’s one-year free range wandering agreement and she was starting to think about how he would fit into her guild.
Thorn, on the other hand, was not thinking about the future at all. While he had been stuck in prison, he had spent almost all his time thinking about the future but right now he was just taking a break and enjoying the soft crackle of his fire and the cool night air.
*snap*
The faint sound of a cracking tree branch woke Thorn from his daze. Someone was coming. Ever since his encounter with Hati, the Moon Wolf, Thorn had found his sense sharpening, allowing him to instinctively judge how far away the broken branch was and in what direction.
Staying seated, Thorn flipped over his hand, pulling his tetsubo out of his inventory and placing it across his knees. Running his fingers over the metal protrusions on its end, Thorn couldn’t help but wonder where Master Sun was.
Slowly the sounds grew louder as the group coming got closer to his camp, coming to a stop about fifty feet away from the fire. Thorn had chosen to settle in a natural clearing where the ground dipped, providing a bit of protection for his fire. Since Thorn carried ready-made food in his inventory, the fire was not used for cooking, so Thorn let it blaze merrily.
After a slight pause, the group made their way forward, soon stepping into the light of the fire. Thorn counted four people, making a mental note that there was probably an assassin of some sort sneaking around. Watching Ouroboros’ team operate had been quite the education for Thorn and after experiencing Jorge’s backstab, Thorn had vowed in his heart never to forget about assassins.
The most eye-catching of the group was a large man with a full, red beard and scars across his right eye. Almost 6’ 5”, the bearded man was covered in chain mail and carried a large bladed axe at his belt with a buckler on his left forearm. Next to him stood two yellow-robed, bald-headed figures, one holding a four-ringed khakkhara staff while the other held a golden vajra. Both monks held their weapons in front of them, staring at Thorn as if he was a great demon. Peeking out from behind the rest of the group, a brown-haired warrior watched Thorn, his hands rubbing together with nervous excitement.
“Good evening.” Since they remained silent, Thorn decided to open the conversation. “Welcome to my camp. I’m happy to have you join me.”
Having looked around the camp and seen that Thorn was alone, the red-bearded man chuckled to himself and rested his hand on his axe. Waving his other hand, he signaled for the two monks to spread out, surrounding Thorn from three sides. The nervous warrior stayed behind the red-bearded leader, his eyes flicking to the forest behind Thorn.
“Let's make this short and sweet. Hand over all your gold and credits and you won’t get hurt,” said red beard, his eyes narrowed.
“You are robbing me?” Thorn was stunned.
“Yeah, and if you don’t play along, I don’t mind sending you back to spawn.” Red beard spat.
“Oh, wow. Well. This is a novel experience.” Thorn, seeming unperturbed, wrapped his hand around the tetsubo’s handle and stood up. And up.
As he stood, the two monks on either side of him tightened their grip on their weapons, each taking a small step back. One began to chant to himself in a low voice, the other just gawked. The red-bearded robber in front of Thorn looked up at him before whispering to the cowering warrior behind him.
“I thought you said he was big?”
“He is big.”
“That’s not big, that is giant! Forget it.” Turning his glare back on Thorn, red beard pulled out his axe. “I guess you want to play the hard way, huh?”
“Whoa, wait. Hold up.”
Seeing Thorn’s hand go up, red beard paused.
“I don’t even know who you are. Don’t you think you should introduce yourself?”
“Actually, he’s right,” nodded the monk with the mace. “I’m Mali, the Enlightened Buddha, and that is my brother, Jamir, the Evil Monk over there,” he motioned with his mace, pointing at the other monk who was still chanting.
“Hi.” Jamir paused his chant long enough to nod his head.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Thorn.”
“Enough!” For some reason, seeing their friendly exchange made red beard furious. “My name is Pulen Blood Beard and it’ll be the last thing you’ll hear!” Roaring this out, he raised his axe and was about to jump forward when Mali, the Enlightened Buddha yelled out, “Wait!”
“Oh, for crying out loud, what is it now?” Pulen turned his glare on the yellow-robed monk.
“If you say it that way, the last thing he will hear is you saying, ‘it’ll be the last thing you’ll hear’. Shouldn’t you say it the other way around? Like, ‘the last thing you hear will be the sound of my name, Pulen Blood Beard!’ Then, whoosh! Slice him with your axe.”
“But then they will hear the axe, right?” Taking interest in the conversation, Jamir stopped his chanting to chime in. “So, the actual last thing they will hear will be the whoosh of the axe.”
“Ah, that is true.” Mali nodded sagely.
CHAPTER FIVE
Amused, Thorn watched the monks toss ideas back and forth. Before they could come to a consensus on the best way to deliver the line their boss flipped out. Thorn had been keeping an eye on him from across the fire, so he was ready when roaring in rage, Blood Beard launched himself forward.
“Wave Crossing Chop!” He yelled. His jump brought him across the fire and he landed steadily in front of Thorn, bringing his axe down in an overhead chop. At the same moment, a faint twang sounded, like the string of a guitar being plucked and an arrow shot from the darkness toward Thorn’s back.
Startled by their boss’ sudden move, the two monks dropped their discussion and raised their weapons, striking from the side. Despite the four rings banging around on the khakkhara staff, the weapon made no sound as it struck at Thorn’s feet. Rather, it was the mace that let out an evil wail as it struck toward Thorn’s right shoulder. From how smoothly the attacks came in it was obvious that the group had practiced this attack often and they were quite proficient ambushers.
Thorn planned on meeting the axe head on, but the arrow shooting toward the center of his back made that a dangerous gamble. While Thorn was wearing armor, who knew if the arrow had any special ability. Instead, Thorn lifted his tetsubo in a smooth motion, jabbing it at the mace-wielding monk on his right while twisting his body to the side to move out of the way of the arrow.
The abrupt shift caused the arrow to miss and Mali to step back, but the other two attackers adjusted their weapons’ trajectories, continuing to smash toward Thorn. With a slight smile, Thorn took a large step forward, his massive stride taking him well out of the reach of Jamir’s staff and Pulen’s axe. Mali was still moving backward as Thorn pressed forward, his maces trying to ward off Thorn’s tetsubo which was thrusting forward like a spear.
Aware that another arrow was probably on its way, Thorn changed directions. Turning his body toward Pulen Blood Beard, he stepped forward again, lashing out at the chain-mailed warrior with a horizontal str
ike. The red-bearded warrior was in the middle of an attack himself and could only brace himself as he saw the blur of the tetsubo coming toward him.
With a loud bang, the steel-wrapped weapon smashed into Pulen’s side. Shock flashed across his face as his body turned into small motes of light that drifted up into the sky. For a moment there was silence as the other attackers stared at the place where Pulen had stood in utter astonishment. Had he just died from a single hit?
The warrior who had been following Pulen was the first to react, giving off a high-pitched scream and running away as fast as he could. Mali backed off a few steps as well, his eyes extra wide. On the other side, Jamir put his hands together and started chanting again, though it was obvious how nervous he was from the sweat that had started to bead his brow.
Keeping an ear out for the sound of the archer in the woods, Thorn glanced at the two monks. His one strike seemed to have knocked the fight right out of them.
“So, are we going to keep going or what?” He asked, spinning his tetsubo in his hand.
“There is no need, no need.” Mali’s maces disappeared and he waved his hands at Thorn. “As the Buddha has said, ‘let’s not fight’ and ‘it is better to show mercy than to build a ten-story pagoda.”
Ignoring Thorn’s puzzled look, Mali rushed over to stand next to Jamir who was still softly chanting.
“Benefactor, we will not bother you anymore. Come Jamir, let us leave this wise man to his thinking.” Mali bowed his head repeatedly toward Thorn and, grabbing the other monk by his arm, pulled Jamir into the woods as fast as he could.
Thorn watched till they were out of sight before using the end of his weapon to poke through the few things that Pulen Blood Beard dropped when he died. Apart from the small number of coins, there was a set of bracers and a half-used sharpening stone. Pocketing the coins, Thorn tossed the armor and sharpening stone into his inventory. The bracers were much too small for him, so he did not even bother examining them.
Sitting down by the fire again, Thorn stretched out and closed his eyes. It was obvious that Pulen Blood Beard had been the motivating force behind the attempted robbery and since he would not be able to log in for twenty-four hours Thorn was not concerned that they would be back to try again.
The next morning found Thorn well on his way to Embersplit Mine. He woke while it was still dark and started on his way after cleaning up his camp. Because it was night his ability [Blessing of the Moon] activated, granting him excellent night vision, so walking in the dark was no problem.
It was mid-morning when he arrived at the sprawling town. Unlike Berum and Narthil, the town of Embersplit had no wall. The buildings were largely wooden, hastily constructed and in danger of tumbling down at any moment. Making a mental note, Thorn swore to be extra careful as he walked around. It would be an utter disaster if he were to accidentally knock most of the town down.
The mine was located on the north-west side of the town, tucked in between two mountains. Unlike the quarry, the mine was not open-air. Instead, it dove deep into the mountain range through a series of twisting tunnels.
*ding*
Calling up his notifications, Thorn saw that he had a chat request from Oberlin.
“Hey, Thorn! How is it going?” Oberlin flashed his trademark smile.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in prison still?”
“Eh, details.” Oberlin waved dismissively. “I heard you are headed to Embersplit. That is quite a coincidence because I happen to be there right now.”
“Yeah, what a coincidence.” Thorn rolled his eyes. There was no doubt in his mind that the thief had peeked at the documents in the warden’s office before breaking out of the quarry.
“We should meet up. I am at the Green Goblin in the center of town.”
Knowing that Oberlin would not let him go, Thorn sighed and agreed to meet him. As he closed the call, Thorn could not help but wonder if he was forever cursed to be hounded by over-enthusiastic people.
The Green Goblin was a squat building situated in between a general goods store and the local surveyor's office. According to the sign hanging crookedly on the wall, it was the oldest inn in town, having been established when the Embersplit mine was first discovered. Staring at the doorway skeptically, Thorn called up Oberlin.
“There is no way I am fitting inside this place. How about you come out?”
“Huh? Oh, right. Yeah, sorry. I did not think about that. I’ll be right out. We can stay somewhere else.”
“I’m planning on camping out near the mine anyway. I am pretty sure that if I touch any of the buildings in town they are going to collapse.”
“Haha, that would be quite something.” Oberlin walked out of the inn and patted Thorn on the arm. “Good to see you again buddy. So, do you need any help with your quest? Since we’re both here, why don’t we team up and help each other?”
“Will you allow me to refuse?”
“Haha, no, probably not.” Oberlin gave a small smile. “You are pretty much my only shot at completing my quest so I’m afraid I’m going to keep bothering you until you say yes. But I’m happy to help you with whatever you need to do first. Don’t you have a quest to get rid of your criminal status?”
Sighing, Thorn decided to give up trying to shake Oberlin off. If their time in prison had taught him anything it was that the thief was persistent.
“Alright, you can help. Step one is gathering information. I want to go scope out the mine and talk to the mine supervisor, so let's head that direction. According to the quest, the miners are not meeting their quota, which could mean any number of things.”
“That doesn’t tell us anything.” Oberlin’s brow furrowed as he read the quest description that Thorn shared with him.
“Actually, it gives us a couple of useful pieces of information. First, the problem is solvable. And not through mining. That is, I don’t have to do the mining work. The quest is expecting me to clear whatever obstacle is keeping the miners from being productive. Second, because something is keeping the miners from being productive, we know that whatever the problem is, it is not an issue of the miner’s attitudes. And even if it is an issue of attitudes, it is likely that there is a simple and direct solution.
“After all, the quest is expecting me to be able to clear it in a short amount of time. Third, I did a bit of research about Ember Iron, which is the mine’s primary mineral. Unlike normal iron, Ember Iron is a type of coal used to increase the temperature of smith’s forges. It allows for more efficient smelting and is in high demand. However, Embersplit mine is known to be one of the smallest Ember Iron mines already, so the fact that the production has fallen is not a serious issue. This leads me to believe that the reason I was dispatched to the mine is less about the actual production levels and more about resolving a different issue. The production is just being used as a cover.”
As the two walked out of town they talked about possible problems the mine could be facing that would cause production to slow down. After concluding that there were way too many possibilities, they began to talk of other things.
The mine entrance was a quarter of a mile away from the town of Embersplit, so it did not take them long to reach it. A wooden fence surrounded the naturally formed cave entrance and a guard dressed in rusty armor sat near the door, dozing in the sun. Opening his eyes as Thorn’s shadow fell over him, the guard was so startled he fell backward off his stool.
“We are here to see the mine supervisor.” Just as Thorn was about to speak, Oberlin stepped forward and stared down at the guard.
“O... okay.” Recovering from his shock, the guard got to his feet and opened the fence door. Thorn and Oberlin followed right behind him, stepping into the fenced-in area in front of the cave mouth. Oberlin looked around with interest while Thorn examined the cave before sighing with relief. It looked big enough that he would not have to duck.
After a few minutes of waiting, a frazzled-looking man stumbled out of one of the buildings, still try
ing to tuck his shirttails in, without much luck. Unkempt hair pointed this way and that and one of his suspenders had fallen from his shoulder, making one side of his pants sag dangerously low. The man slowed down as he got close and took in Thorn’s staggering height.
“Hello, are you the supervisor here?” Thorn spoke in as friendly a tone as he could manage. “My name is Thorn, I’ve been assigned a parole quest to help you determine why your production has fallen in the recent months.”
“Hello, hello. Welcome.” Nodding his head repeatedly, the mine supervisor invited them into his office. “I am Supervisor Hobson. I oversee day-to-day operations here at the mine. Thank you for coming out to help us figure out the issue.”