Bjorn started off by laying out the less hidden loot. He laid out the two rings and the bracelet. One of the rings didn’t look like much, it was a simple band of dull metal with a clear gem for its set stone. The other was a simple band of black gold. The bracelet was a band of weaved copper that had a single small polished red stone set in the center of the band. Following a hunch he used W.A.I.L.A. on each of them.
Bjorn quickly read out the item, and its description to the rest of the party. They each were surprised in their own equal rights at each item.
Rickie had a single question though. “How do you know what these items are and what they do?”
“It’s simple. He has an ability that can identify objects.” Tayla said matter of factly.
Alaric and Tayla gave her a withering glare. “What? We decided to trust Rickie, if he is going to be traveling with us then we need to trust him. If he is going to be traveling with us then he will find out eventually, might as well rip off the bandage.”
“It’s alright guys, she is right after all. Rickie will find out eventually.” Bjorn gave Rickie a small half smile. “Besides, it's rude to not include him in the conversation after all.”
“Thank you Bjorn. I meant no offence by it, I was just curious what means you were using to identify the items.”
“Anyways moving on.” Bjorn said, cutting through the awkwardness. “I think it is rather obvious who each of these items should go to. I think the spell storage ring should go to Meira. She has the greatest use of it. The other ring should go to Tayla. Even though we aren’t fighting humanoids, that ring fits her best. She is after all the one who sneaks around to stab people in the back. And since the only person who uses two handed weapons is Rickie we should give him the bracelet.”
“I agree with the first two, but we have to remember that you use the bow more than you do any other weapon. And the last time I checked the bow was a two handed weapon.” Alaric said.
Bjorn furrowed his brow. “That is true, I hadn’t thought about that. I still stand by my point though. I think it would be best for the bracelet to go to Rickie. Although I do use the bow a lot, I am more of a jack of all trades kind of guy. Besides Rickie is a better fighter than me, I think the extra stats would be more useful on him and on me.”
Alaric raised his hands. “Hey, I wasn’t saying it should go to you. Just saying it is still an option.” When no one objected they gave the bracelet to Rickie, who immediately slid it onto his wrist.
The next thing Bjorn pulled out was the leather pouches. There were 6 of them in total. Opening one there was a satisfying sound of coin hitting coins. Inside it was filled with copper coins. Moving on to the next one it was filled with gold coins, the next was filled with small golden bars, then silver coins. The last two bags were filled with octagonal orange stones. Bjorn had seen something similar once before. It was where he got his portable pocket from.
Alaric went and got the short table and then set it down in between the 5 of them. They then poured the contents of each bag out and began counting. There were 108 coppers, 96 silvers, 100 even gold coins, and 21 of the small golden bars.
The bag of orange octagons was harder to sort, so they finally decided to sort them by size. There was 1 of the biggest size, 4 of the next, and so on and so forth until the smallest pile had over a hundred gems. Bjorn used W.A.I.L.A. on each soul stone and found they have quite the collection of soul stones. The soul stones ranged in description from Special, to grand, greater, common, lesser, then petty.
“What are these gold bars?” Bjorn asked.
“I have never seen them.” Meira replied. “But I think they are what is known as a gold mark. Marks are another piece of currency that is used that each one accounts for 25 of its respective coin. So that pile of gold marks is worth 525 gold coins.”
“... wow, we have quite the hall here.” Tayla said. “So I guess we split it evenly?”
“Works for me.” Rickie and Alaric said almost simultaneously. They quickly sorted each pile into 5 equal piles. They ended up deciding that Alaric got the spare coins, and Bjorn got the spare golden mark.
Moving on Bjorn pulled out the scroll that he ended up taking. When he identified it he found out it was a map. After knowing that it wasn’t actually a one use magical scroll he opened it up and unrolled it on the table. Everyone craned their necks to get a look at what was scrawled on the map. At various points on the maps there was clear writing on the map. It looked like gibberish to Bjorn.
“That is in Cronkrum.” Rickie said matter of factly. “You can tell it by here and here.” He pointed out the mountains on the left side of the map, and open water to the right side of the map. “Those mountains are clearly marked as the restless volcano. And I have never heard that name used for that ocean. It is clearly calls it the Shantrock Abyss. Today it is called the Glistening sea.”
“What language is that?” Meira asked. “It isn’t one I can read.” A chorus of nor I’s came from everyone else.
Rickie got a perplexed look on his face. “I don’t know, I couldn’t tell you. But somehow I can read what it says.
There was a bit of an awkward silence before Bjorn broke it. “Well moving on.” Next Bjorn pulled out one of the two books that he found in the alcove. Setting it down on the table it was a thick and heavy leather bound book. On the front there was a depiction of a shield and right above it there was a single word. ‘Blocking.’
There was a sharp intake of breath from Meira as she laid her eyes on the book. “Is that what I think it is?” She picked it up from where it sat and began leafing through the book. “I think it is.”
“Do you mind sharing with the class?” Tayla said half way irritable.
“Oh sorry, I think it is a skill book.”
With that proclamation there was an audible quick intake of breath that matched the one that she had just taken.
“How much does it give?” Meira asked.
“It gives skill level 30 in the blocking skill.” His heart sank as he relayed that information. Ever since he came to the eld he has trained day and night with absolutely no breaks. He has been here for at least a year and a half, maybe even 2 years. And from all of that effort that he had expended his highest skill is mining, at level 20. That was because he was forced to do that task day in and day out for months on end. His next closest skill was alchemy at level 18. This book would allow him to skip years of dedication and practice. He needed to find more of these books.
“Who do we give it to?” Rickie asked.
No one said anything as the gravity of what they had found set in. People would pay more money than they had ever seen to get their hands on such a rare item. It was hard to put a price on something that saved literal years of skill grinding.
“I am confused. I get that this is good, but it only gives the skill level?” Bjorn asked as he started to reread the description.
“No.” Tayla said. “Skill books give all of the knowledge that would be obtained as if you obtained the skill level yourself. This Skill book will give whoever reads it not only the levels, but the proficiency to go along with it. This book's worth is more than everything else that we have found so far combined. I am willing to bet we could trade this book for a large plot of land out there and a small castle on that land to boot.”
“Oh. Are we sure we want to use this book?”
Almost simultaneously they all said. ‘Yes.’
“Alright, then who do we give this book to? My vote is for Alaric.”
He managed to drag his eyes away from the book just long enough to meet Bjorn’s eyes. “It should go to you.” Before his eyes dropped back, transfixed to the rare find in front of them all. “It will save you years of effort learning how to protect yourself.”
Even before Alaric finished speaking Meira was shaking her head. “No, it should go to you. Think about it, you already use a shield when you fight. I am willing to bet that you already had the blocking skill, and at a rather high level too, if I was a judge based on how you fight. It will be a boon for you. Besides, it might push you to the edge where you will be able to get a profession.”
“But Bjorn hasn’t gotten anything yet. I think this should go to him.” Alaric still protested.
“Don’t worry about me. There is still more to come, there might be something there that suits me better. This should go to you my friend.”
“It is unwise to fight against the tide.” Rickie said. “Everyone is in agreement this honor should be yours.”
Alaric started to reach out to pick up the book when his hands froze and he looked at Bjorn. “How many items are there left?”
“3.”
“I won’t use this item until we find something suitable for you.”
“But-”
“But nothing, I will not be swayed on this course of action.”
“Very well. Let’s see what is next then. I am pretty sure it is another one of these books.” Bjorn then reached into his bag of holding and pulled out another almost identical book. This time on the cover instead of there being a shield there was a pestle and mortar, and emblazoned on the top of the book was a single word. ‘Alchemy.’
Rickie almost immediately laughed upon seeing the word on the cover of the book. “That settles it then, Alaric you get the block Skill book, and Bjorn you get the alchemy Skill book.”
Not able to argue the point any longer Alaric picked up the block Skill book and held it close to his chest, almost as if he didn’t want to let it go.
“Gesh, whoever’s house you plundered must have been someone extremely important, based on how many high value items you have pulled out so far.” Rickie observed.
“I am not done yet. There are two items left.” Bjorn reached into his bag and pulled out the two remaining items that they looted, excluding the books of course. The first item was a small vial filled to the brim with a clear liquid, and inside the liquid there were two floating motes of golden light. The second one had a large round portion at the bottom of the flask. Inside the flask was hard to describe, but it looked like bottled wind, somehow.
Bjorn picked up the bottle with the wind spirit then slowly and delicately added the captured wind spirit back to his bag.
“What was that about?” Alaric asked, still cuddling his Skill book.
“That is a captured wind spirit, and its durability is dangerously low. So I figured it would be best not to leave it out where its durability has a chance to continue to drop. This other potion though is quite intriguing, it is a bottled level, well bottled two levels to be exact.”
“Does that do exactly what I think it does?” Tayla asked.
“I think so.”
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Should we even use it now? I mean we are all in our mid 20’s for our levels, expect for Bjorn, but he has always been a slow learner.”
“Hey.”
“I mean, an instant two levels sounds pretty darn good. We aren’t in any dire situations yet. We are well protected by the army around us. We are in pretty good shape all things considered. My vote is we hold on to that vial until we have dire need of it.”
Rickie sat there staring at the friend around him. “I am glad I joined up with you guys. I have seen more magical and powerful items in the last hour with you guys than I ever did fighting on the front.”
“Trust me. This has never happened to us either.” Alaric said.
“Staying on topic.” Meira cut in. “I agree with Tayla, there isn’t much need for one of us to gain two levels right now. I think we should save this item until we get to the higher 20’s or lower 30’s. Right now drinking this potion would save one of us a year, maybe two of fighting and work. If it was in the mid to lower 30’s it could save us literal years of work and effort.”
“That's fine. Do you mind hanging onto it for the time being Bjorn. You with your portable pocket and all. Makes it so no one can steal it from us.” Rickie said.
“Sure.” Bjorn picked it back up and put it back into his bag of holding.
Rickie stood from where he had been seated. “Well if you are done with pulling treasure after treasure out of your bag, I need to get back to the mess. I told them I wasn’t going to be gone long, apparently that was a lie. But I might as well try and keep some semblance of honesty.”
“No, that is the last item.”
Rickie nodded and turned walking out of the tent.
“When are you going to use your Skill book?” Bjorn asked Alaric.
“Right now.” Alaric sat down on his cot with his legs crossed. He then opened up the book to its first page. Light poured out of the book and streamed into his eyes. The book remained open and slowly started to turn its pages.
When Bjorn had used spell books previously the entire process would take roughly 10 to 15 seconds to fully complete. As Bjorn watched expecting the process to end it just didn’t. 1 minute turned into 5, and then 10, then half an hour, and then an hour. All the while Alaric sat in place with the book slowly leafing through the pages and light poured into his eyes.
After an hour and a half of waiting Bjorn looked at Tayla. “Should I wait to do mine or should I just go for it?”
“I say go for it. We haven’t heard anything about any orders yet. I think it would be better to do it sooner rather than later.”
Nodding Bjorn took a seat similar to how Alaric had sat down. After seeing how the process was going for the dwarf he figured he would be there for a while, so might as well get comfortable. He then pulled open his book and looked at the front page, a prompt appeared.
You are trying to learn the knowledge contained inside the Alchemy skill book. Would you like to do so? Yes/No?”
Mentally he clicked yes and waited for the process to start. The book automatically turned the page and light began to pour out from the open book and into his eyes. Thoughts and experiences started to flood his head. It was odd, vividly remembering a memory that he was not a part of. The images began to pour in faster, he couldn’t handle it. His brain began to hurt, and then he blacked out.
When he opened his eyes he was inside a small alchemy lab. There were glass beakers and flasks everywhere. From the ceiling hung drying herbs and other various hanging plants. The quality of alchemy equipment matched what he would expect back on earth. Along one wall there were shelves piled high with vials containing all sorts of different looking potions. An old wizened and kindly man stood in the corner of the lab.
“Oh, hello there little one. Why don’t you come over here?”
He continued to stand there unable to move. It was like he was having a vivid dream and had no control over his body.
“Come on little girl, I promise I won’t bite.”
A young timid feminine voice called back. “What are you doing?”
“Alchemy my dear. Would you like to learn about it?”
He felt his head nod. Correction, she felt her head nod, then she took several small steps forward. Her head didn’t even come up to the bottom of the table. She slowly came closer.
“Do you want to see what I am doing?”
Again a nod.
The old man knelt down and held open his arms so she could grab ahold of him. She walked forward and let herself be picked up. He stood and turned back to face the table and then positioned her so that she had a clear view of what was going on.
On the table there was a small reaction going on. There was a white powder that he had made a small ring out of. In the center of the circle was an immensely dark drop that was roiling. Occasionally a small tentacle of sorts would reach out and make contact with the circle of powder absorbing a small amount of the powder and then the tentacle would retreat back into the center and grow ever so slightly. Each time it got more powder the blobs agitation would get worse.
“What is it?” She asked, her eyes transfixed on the display in front of her. Tentatively she reached out a finger to touch the reaction.
The old man used one hand to grab ahold of her questing finger. “You don’t want to be touching that. It isn’t very nice. This is what happens when you take some distilled essence of the abyss and mix it with a nutrient. If you touch it while it is feeding it will consume you as well.”
“What does' consume mean?” The girl asked.
The old man chuckled as the vision faded to black.
Things had gotten a little hectic. As she grew a little older she had become a larger help around the lab. The old man looked to be in an advanced state of aging. His previously full head of white hair was thinning out, and liver spots could be seen growing on the back of his hands. Still she wanted to help out the best she could.
He had told her at a young age that she had a knack for alchemy. Things just seemed to go right when she was around. Things just made sense when she was doing alchemy.
“Jen, would you grab me a handful of sage root?”
“Of course.” came a more confident young woman’s voice.
She walked over to a small plant that was hanging in the corner of the room.
“Don’t forget I just need the leaves this time.”
“Of course master.” She started to pluck the leaves from the branches one at a time. After she gathered a handful of the leaves she came back over to where he was working, standing over a small caldron with a nice transparent blue liquid inside.
She handed over the leaves which he immediately let drop into the caldron, one at a time. Each time the leaves came in contact with the liquid a small pulse of vibrant green veins permeated the transparent blue before they faded and the blue color re-established their dominance.
“Remind me, why do we add the sage root?” The tone, actions, and look on his face clearly stated that he didn’t need to be reminded. Instead he was asking to quiz his pupil.
“The sage root is used to emulsify-”
“I am proud of you Jen. You have come so far.”
Tears filled her eyes as she looked down at the old man, this time bedridden. From the vantage point she had, she had grown significantly over the years.
“Don’t go. I don’t want to lose you.”
“There is a time and a place for everything. Unfortunately the time is now, and the place is here. I have lived a good life. And I am proud that I have been able to train you. You will go far and do wondrous things in your life.”
“Here, drink this.” She held a vial of a liquid in her hands holding it out for him to drink it. “It should preserve your life. Letting you live for a while longer. I have been working on this for years, I don’t want to lose you.”
She grabbed his head tilting it back as if she meant to pour the liquid down his throat, forcing him to drink it. He put up his hand placing it on hers that held the vial. “No, if I was younger maybe. But I think I know what all is in there. If I was to drink it now my body would be perverted. It would twist me and turn me into something I don’t even want to imagine.”
“But I would still have you.”
“No, let me die. I am thankful you stumbled into my lab all those years ago. You were the daughter I never had. Thank you.” At his last words the man’s hands relaxed and dropped back to the bed he was lying in. His head went limp in her hands.
The tears started to flow freely. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That isn’t good enough. Come back to me.” She used her hand holding his head to reposition the limp head so that his mouth hung open. Taking the vial she held in her other hand she poured the liquid into his mouth. After she dropped the vial and used her hand to hold his mouth closed. Using her other hand she started to massage his neck muscles trying to get the liquid down his throat.
After a minute of trying she gave up letting his rapidly cooling body lay back. She collapsed on top of him, tears flowing freely.
Cracking and popping sound woke Jen from her sleep. She opened her eyes and sat up looking at the form of her late master, only she didn’t recognize the body.
He had been right. The potion would twist his form and make him a perversion. His once slightly hunched back hand warped, a large 2 foot tall mass of flesh had grown out of his back. The mass of flesh was so large it displaced his head, it now sat sideways on the mass of flesh. One of the arms grew in size, growing several feet longer, now dragging on the ground as he stood there. It also grew in size, it was now several feet in diameter, and it was lumpy. The eyes had turned from a soft blue green color to a vibrant sinister neon green.
She screamed.
Her scream brought the attention of the monster and it turned towards her, and lunged.
The adrenaline that was coursing through her body allowed her to see the lunge and dodge. She fled from the door out into the kind of busy street. Most of the people on the street stopped to see what the commotion was. It would be their folly, as the creature followed after her and barreled into the street, slamming into the pedestrians.
The monster slammed into the bystanders and began ripping them apart. It gained monstrous strength and it started tearing arms and legs off of bodies. Panicked screams followed Jen as she fled through the city.
Years later Jen was in a new lab, one less well stocked than per previous one. She was working furiously muttering under her breath as she almost haphazardly threw herbs and ingredients together with little worry on the outcome.
“It’s coming.” was the only thing that could be made out through her incoherent babbling. She grabbed a pinch of an orange powder. Then a large handful of a paste that sat on a slab of wood. Then she poured some liquid from a flask she had tied to her hip.
This went on for a long time. It was not wise to mix items together at the same rate at which she was working. Oftentimes while doing alchemy mixing components together would create a reaction, the speed at which you added ingredients would change that reaction, sometimes making it larger, or smaller, or more volatile. A Lot of alchemy came down to adding the correct ingredients at the right time during the reactions.
Finally she stopped. “It’s done.” she whispered under her breath. Before her sat a black sludge that filled a cauldron. Carefully and gingerly she took out an arrow that had been prepared with a rag tied around the end of it. She dipped it into the liquid. A thick layer of yellow smoke rose out of the cauldron.
When she retrieved the arrow the rag was now stained a jet black. She repeated the process two more times, before an inhuman roar could be heard in the distance.
Trembling, she turned and set her feet, she picked up a bow that had been laid off to the side of her work area and stepped out of the building, and onto an open road.
In the distance she could see the grotesque form of her former master’s corpse, shambling towards her at a surprisingly rapid pace.
As it drew closer she brought the bow up, drew and sighted her arrow on the monster. “I am sorry master. I should have listened.” She said to no one in particular before releasing.
Bjorn slowly opened his eyes and drew in his surroundings. He sat inside the tent he shared with his friends. The panic he felt just a moment ago, gone. The entire experience of the Skill book was surreal. He had not only felt what Jen had felt, he had experienced every single one of her senses. Her taste, her touch, her sense of smell, and of course her sight. Her thoughts had flooded his mind. Hundreds of memories of Jen’s life related to alchemy had flooded his mind. It took him a minute for him to distinguish where the memory ended and his life began.
The sensation of having two sets of thoughts, emotions, and memories occupying his mind at the same time was disorienting. His head began to swim and he grew nauseous. Bolting out of bed he flew out of the tent looking for something for him to throw up in. His eyes fell upon a bucket which he ran to, trying to hold down the puke. He wasn’t entirely successful and managed to not get everything into the bucket, but he got most.
‘Ugh.” He thought as he tried to clear his head. In the corner of his eye there was a notification. With his head slightly cleared after puking he mentally clicked on the notification.
You have advanced your skill level in alchemy, reaching skill level 38. Potions you make will have 38% increased effect and 76% increased duration of effect.
Congratulations you have advanced from a novice alchemist to an apprentice alchemist. You have gained a perk. You have an increased chance to save an alchemical component when used during alchemy.
Bjorn’s head cleared enough for him to read what the notifications said before the vertigo set it once again causing him to continue throwing up.
Over the next few hours the memories and emotions began to fade, no longer being in the forefront of his consciousness. As the memories faded, so did the vertigo. As the vertigo faded so did the nausea.
“You alright?” One of their neighbors asked.
“Yeah. Just got a bad case of vertigo.”
“What is that? Is that a disease? Are you sick?”
“No, I'm fine. I swear I am not sick. Vertigo is, well don’t worry about it.”
“Gotcha.” The guy said rather unconvincingly, before he turned around and entered his own tent.
Bjorn pulled himself away from the bucket and stumbled his way back to his cot. Laying back down he tiredly fell back to sleep.
When he next awoke the first thought that crossed his mind was. ‘Water.’
Getting up from where he laid he started crawling forward trying to find water. When he remembered that he actually had water in his bag of holding. Drinking his fill he just collapsed back to the ground.
“How was that?” a deep voice sounded.
Bjorn blearily opened his eyes and saw Alaric standing over him. “Why are you doing fine? Did you not read a Skill book just like I did? How are you not dying right now?”
“I am not a pansy. Suck it up buttercup, you will be fine.”
“I will live, most likely. This sucks.”
“Again, suck it up. We have somewhere we need to be.”
Bjorn looked up making eye contact “huh?”
“We have a shift guarding. Come on, let's go.” Alaric bent down and picked up Bjorn. Together the two of them made their way towards their assignment.
Throughout the entire defense deployment Meira, Alaric, Rickie, and Tayla all asked Bjorn several different questions about what he had experienced with the Skillbook, all without actually asking it directly. They were still around the rest of their unit, so they were careful with what they asked, not wanting anyone to guess what happened. Luckily for them, their actions the previous day gained them some social graces from the rest of the squad. No one butted in, or seemed to try to eavesdrop. For the most part everyone gave them plenty of space to themselves.
It was a routine watch detail, nothing of note happened. When their replacements took over they made their way back to the camp. From there everyone went their own separate ways. Meira went to the field hospital. Alaric and Tayla both went to clean up. Rickie wandered off, not saying exactly where he was going. And Bjorn was left alone.
Sitting on his cot Bjorn pulled out the Spell books that came with his bag of holding. 2 of which were death magic, and one was a fire magic spell. The remaining 4 of which were of a type of magic Bjorn had never heard of before, sonic magic. There was 1 spell he could learn and 3 he couldn’t.
Bjorn thought about it. With the requirements of either earth life or air magic, this was likely a combination spell. It was the first combination magic he came across. Although the practical use for the spell didn’t seem all that useful, the utility was great.
But would he be able to learn the spell and by extension the school of magic? He already had 4 schools of magic under his command. Earth, water, light, and dark. What would happen if he tried to use the book? Would it just fail because you could only have 4 schools of magic? Would it strip one of the magics from him? Or would it upgrade one of his existing ones? Most likely earth magic, seeing how that was the only requirement he met.
Bjorn chewed on his lip as he tried to work through what he would do.
Ultimately he didn’t have the necessary knowledge to know what would happen. Regardless of what he did it would be a gamble. ‘Fuck it, in for a penny, in for a pound.’ Bjorn thought to himself as he began the absorption process for the spell book. Complex formula began to flood his mind.
Congratulations you have gained access to your first combination school of magic. Sonic magic. Sonic magic is a combination of the base elements, earth, air, and life.
You have learned the sonic magic spell: Silence.
It worked! In a moment of panic Bjorn pulled up his character window and looked towards the bottom. Thankfully all of his magics were listed. Now there was a new entry to go with the rest of his magic.
Wanting to try his new spell he got up and started walking around the tent using the trigger word necessary to cast the spell. Upon casting the spell the 4th time in the last corner of the tent, nothing changed. He could still hear the light voices of people talking a few tents away. There wasn’t any shimmer letting him know that the spell was working. There wasn’t even a hint at there being any magic cast.
Most spells left some sort of residue behind, making it easier to tell that a spell had been cast. For example, his purify water spell left the water ever so slightly a bright blue shade. His cone of darkness spell left the area just ever so slightly darker. His cast stone spell left a small hole in the ground where the rock burst forth from. Not this one, at least not that he could tell.
Determining it would be hard to tell or even test it without someone else around Bjorn decided to move on with his day. It had been a while since he had gone to see Skarit and see how progress was being handled, or if there had been any at all. Pushing his way out of the tent he started heading towards the Alchemy area.
As he approached there was the normal flurry of activity as everyone was busy working on all the various different alchemical projects that were needed by an army of almost 2000 strong. Skarit was in his usual position overseeing the comings and goings of all the younger alchemists.
“Ah Bjorn, I was wondering when I would see you again. It has been a while, I almost thought that we scared you off here.” Skarit let out a good natured laugh at his comment.
“No you won’t get rid of me that easily. I have been busy with the assault. After the assault we were tasked with clearing out the room which took the better part of yesterday. And then today my unit and I were put on guard duty.”
The smile slowly slid off of Skarit’s face. “You know, I could probably pull some strings with Gram and get you pulled out of the main army. You have skills that are more useful here than they are in the frontlines swinging a sword.”
“No!” Bjorn blurted out rather rudely. He realized how it came out and cleared his throat. “Sorry, I meant no, I appreciate it. But no. I have family down here that is assigned to the same detail as I am. I would like to stay with them and try to protect them as they fight.”
“Hmmm. If there is one, maybe two, I could probably get them reassigned as well.”
A gentle smile crossed Bjorn’s lips. “Would you be able to get 4 reassigned? I don’t think you could.”
“No, you are right, I couldn’t.”
“It’s just as well. I don’t think you could get them to sit back while everyone else is risking their lives. I appreciate the gesture, but no. I don’t think it will work out how you are hoping it will.”
“Eh fair enough. Now shall we go over what developments there have been over the last few days while you were off playing soldier?”
The gentle smile broke into a grin. “I think we should. Let’s see what you were able to do playing coward.”
Skarit let out a full body laugh. They then walked over to their designated area and began talking shop.
(If you don’t care about character growth you may skip ahead.)
Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in traps, reaching skill level 9. All traps you set will be 22.5% harder to find.
Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in trap finding, reaching skill level 7. All traps you come across will be 14% easier to find.
Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in trap disarming, reaching skill level 6. It is now 12% easier for you to safely disable any traps you come across.
You have advanced your skill level in water magic. reaching skill level 9. You have unlocked the ability to learn higher level spells.
You have advanced your skill level in archery, reaching skill level 17. Damage from arrows you shoot is increased by 22.5% over base damage.
You have advanced your skill level in herb-lore. reaching skill level 18. The efficacy of plants and herbs you collect will increase by 54%.
Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in heavy armor, reaching skill level 4. The effectiveness of your heavy armor will be increased by 12%. Your 5% movement speed decrease per piece of heavy armor is still maintained.
You have advanced your skill level in hand to hand combat. reaching skill level 11. Blows you land with bare fists and legs now deal 22% extra damage.
