20demayo Chapter 10: Sage
Chapter 10: Sage
Chapter 10: SageCalenCalen ranged out with his skills active, Mato loping almost silently beside him in the form of a disconcertingly large wolf. He was as tall at the shoulder as that Starving Alpha wolf, but there was far more bulk to his frame and his reddish-brown fur wasn’t matted and dirty like the monsters’. It was rather bizarre to see his friend in this form, but it served only to emphasize the undercurrent of excitement he felt. He had finally earned his Class, and it was a powerful one. He was an archer, of course, with two of his class skills focused on ranged damage and archery. Thanks to Aliandra’s shrine, he had unlocked a powerful affinity for Light magic, and a class that seemed ideal for him, taking full advantage of his higher-than-normal intelligence attribute and augmenting his archery with magical damage. Two skills were primarily scouting skills, and his new repertoire was rounded out with a decent stealth skill and a blessing that improved his attributes.
Bobbing overhead was a small Mote of Light – one of his new skills – which cast a clear and pure light all around him. According to the description, the light he was casting had anti-stealth properties, which would, no doubt, require some extensive testing.
The cavern, with the ancient dead forest through which they walked, was so huge that the light was lost in it, gobbled up by the brooding darkness. But where he stepped, and within their immediate surroundings, it was clear as day. He could easily make out the damp mossy ground, the huge decaying tree trunks, and the abnormally abundant piles of bones that seemed to fill the endless expanse of the cavern. He was a little worried that the light would attract monsters, but the combination of being able to see clearly and their new attributes and skills allowed them to speed through the treacherous terrain, leaping piles of crumbling bone or moldering wood, and skirting the slippery damp patches of moss with ease.
Just how long had this enormous cavern lain sealed and undiscovered right below Myrin’s Keep? A musty odor of age and slow decay filled his nostrils. Just the size of the gigantic dead trees implied it must have been hundreds of years, if not far more.
An overturned rock the size of his fist caught his eye and he stopped.
“Hold up, Mato,” he said, crouching down to examine it. Other than the monsters, the only people who had disturbed this cavern were their own group. And this did not look like a rat or a wolf. He cast around carefully, finding a freshly snapped bone a little way ahead.
With a thought, he brought up the description of one of his new class skills – one which he was particularly excited about. The neat white lines of text appeared in his mind, the same way they always did. One thing which had surprised him was that his newly unlocked light affinity matched the color of his interface – as if the system had always known.
It would be hard to figure out, but Mato had always said his status was green, adorned with some sort of floating leaves – and he had unlocked a nature affinity, so it wasn’t just him.
Explorer – level 1
You have enhanced spatial perception and perfect recall for places you have explored. You can discern important details about the places you are exploring and the creatures that inhabit them.
Stamina: Use your enhanced perception to track your prey.
Knowledge, Identify, Scouting, Tracking, Perception
Explorer was a powerful perception skill that most certainly cemented his role as a scout. When he had unlocked it, his class had consumed his Identify general skill, producing a tracking skill that also served as an Advanced Identify for places and enemies. As with all advanced Identification magic, there were some drawbacks, however. He had already verified that he could no longer identify the properties of his own bow.
he thought, turning his attention back to the scrapes on the ground and the overturned rock. He channeled a little stamina to activate his Explorer skill, and instantly the outline of a small light footprint stood out against the ground, enhanced by the magic of the perception skill.
He sucked in his lips.
It had to be her, there was no other possibility, and the tracks were leading back up to the sewer, light and far apart suggesting the Catkin girl had been sprinting at the time. The flood of information into his mind felt a little strange, like an enhanced intuition that instantly connected his memories of Tala with the tracks. His mind, presumably augmented by the magic of his skill, built a clear scenario of the speed, direction, and even the image of Tala rushing across the damp ground.
he thought, examining a few more scrapes on the ground a little further on.
“Mato,” he said quietly. “These are Tala’s tracks.”
His friend instantly ceased his prowling circuit,
Mana drained from her mana pool in a rush, and her mind was filled with a brief disorienting feeling as if several important things had simply been rearranged in an instant. Her supposedly passive skill was consuming a disturbingly large amount of mana without her control.
The sense of meaning had to be from the Knowledge trait of the skill, and it seemed to be attaching the meaning to the memorized conversations as she heard Malika speak. It was a thoroughly disconcerting sensation, a little like the skill was rifling through her memories and rearranging the library card catalog of her mind on her behalf.
Malika looked at her curiously and said some more words. Ali’s mana drained again, and a fresh sensation of meaning emerged, connected to what she heard.
. Guessing that perhaps she was being asked if she was hungry, Ali cautiously nodded.
Malika walked over to a pack one of the boys had left behind and produced an apple.
Ali happily accepted a few slices from her and sat down. Not only was she excited that she had guessed correctly, but she found she was also ravenous after all the strenuous activity from the day before. Her stomach produced a ferocious growl that made the dark-haired woman beside her chuckle. Ali met her sparkling blue eyes and then burst out laughing too. Then, Malika began talking to her. Ali wasn’t sure why she was talking, knowing Ali couldn’t understand, but perhaps she just wanted some company. At once, the magic kicked into action, providing a difficult-to-follow flurry of meaning, all the while her mana drained into the voracious skill.
After about twenty minutes and about a hundred mana consumed, she noticed she was even burning a few stamina points. Ali wondered curiously if perhaps there was something to the idea that mental activity made a person physically tired. Her skill reaching level three seemed to create a sharper sense of clarity in her mind, and the flow of meaning became immediately fuller, somehow richer. Malika seemed to be talking about something to do with skills and classes, but the abstract meaning derived from the Knowledge-based skill was still exceptionally difficult to understand, certainly at the speed of normal conversation.
Malika said something else, and the disconcerting magic connected it with a memory of Mato shouting something during the wolf fight. As if a key piece of the puzzle had been unlocked, the connection set off a cascade of memorized snippets of conversation shuffling and interconnecting within her mind as all the memorized conversations, and Malika’s one-sided monologue, condensed into some vague semblance of order. A clear soft tone sounded within her mind as two new notifications appeared.
The greedy Sage of Learning skill eased up, slowing the magical restructuring to a much more comfortable level. The torrent of mana consumption died down to a small trickle as she suddenly heard Malika’s previously unintelligible words snap into clarity as her new language Aptitude activated.
“... all these skills. So, what do you think?” Malika said. Then she sighed, “I wish you could understand me.”
Ali’s rudimentary command of the common language wasn’t quite good enough yet to pick up the words as clearly as she seemed able to, however, her Sage of Knowledge was still burning some of her mana, so it was presumably still filling in the many gaps in understanding.
Ali tried.
Holding up the slice of apple, she spoke carefully, “Thank. You.”
Malika whipped her head around and she fixed her with a look of incredulity. “You can talk?”
Ali answered, “I learn.” Her Sage of Learning skill bent her memories again. This was the only description of the feeling that made any sense. She tried again, “I learn common language.”
“Wow, that’s incredible!”
Her command of the new language was atrocious, but she had to marvel at the power of her new skill. Sage of Learning had, for the mere cost of almost her entire mana pool and a handful of points of stamina, done what would previously have taken her about a month of studying to achieve. Basic – very basic – proficiency in a new language! While she couldn’t see any combat use for Sage of Learning, Ali was nevertheless enormously pleased with her powerful new skill.
Excited to have overcome the frustration of not being able to communicate, she looked at Malika’s surprised face. “Thank you … save … me.” Her speech was still broken, but she was nonetheless convinced she was being understood.
The other girl smiled at her, “You’re welcome. Thank you for sharing your shrine.”
Ali smiled back at her, a soft warmth filling her heart at her first real conversation since waking up.