Beneath the Dragoneye Moons: Ranger's Dawn

by Selkie Myth

Dedication

This story is dedicated to my wonderful wife, Lauren, without whom this wouldn't be possible. Her endless love and support keeps me going.

This story is also dedicated to my beautiful daughter Flora, whose smiles light up my every day.

I would also like to acknowledge my beta readers, who put up with my endless typos, fix my mistakes, and help guide the story, so it can be the best story possible.

I'd like to thank all the other supportive authors and writing communities, and all the kind words they have.

Lastly, I'd like to thank Royal Road. My story and success wouldn't be possible without their website.

Thank you, to each and every one of you.

Chapter 101– Ranger Academy I

The rest of the day after the Ranger Convocation – I finally had the name for it – was spent in a giant party in The Room. Food and drink were brought out, and everyone had a chance to mingle, a chance to chat with each other. A chance to say hello to new teammates, and goodbye to old ones.

Even the ones written on the wall.

Ranger Team 4 – the old one, not the new one – was particularly busy, arguably the center of attention. Artemis retiring, and old teammates were crowding in to say goodbye, other Rangers wanting a word with one of the living legends, and in at least two cases, the movers and shakers of Ariminum wanting to sign their kid up at the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft.

And of course, we also had Arthur, the newest Sentinel.

Or, as we were now starting to call him, Toxic.

The problem was compounded by the other Sentinels hanging out with Arthur, wanting to get to know him better, getting a better feel for the newest member of their most exclusive club.

With the celebrity-like status of the Sentinels, more people wanted to see them, effectively making Ranger Team 4 the center of attention, which I didn’t want to be.

Maximus and I eventually managed to escape – Julius felt obligated to stick with people, while Kallisto reveled in being a social butterfly – and hit the buffet line.

Which generally consisted of Maximus taking a small sample of everything, to better expand his horizons, while I hoovered up the mangos.

Artemis popped out at one point, dumping a leg of ham on my plate.

"Eat." She ordered me.

I gave her a look.

"You know I’m not allowed to tell you anything about Ranger Academy." Artemis said, seemingly going off on a wild tangent.

Artemis dropped lots of little hints like that, all technically within the letters of the orders every recruit at Ranger Academy was given, but probably breaking the spirit. What I heard it translate to: "There’s going to be massive mana consumption at Academy, best get your reserves up."

Hang on. That didn’t make sense. Blowing tons of mana was fine, it was –

"Eat up, they’re going to underfeed you."

There we go.

The party continued, people breaking up into groups, mingling, doing general party-ish things.

Parties were not my jam, and I kept finding myself feeling, being, isolated. Artemis tried to stick with me, but she kept having people come up to her, congratulating her on her retirement. Arthur was in an even worse swarm, and while I was no stranger to constant streams of patients in a clinic, this was so much worse on so many levels.

There was no neatly defined relationship of what I was to everyone else. Tagger-on? I was more than that. Ranger? Not quite – especially when I wasn’t called to be in a team. Socially, I was an odd duck, both my age and gender separating me from everyone else. There were a few young kids, but they were young kids. The recruits for the current batch weren’t here, and the grapevine had the youngest graduate of the current year being 22.

All in all, the party was more on the "awkward" end of the spectrum, than the "fun" end.

A few things were fun though.

"Hey Julius!" I called out to him, waving my arm, wandering over.

"Oh hey Elaine." Julius said, stopping his conversation with seven other people, one of them a woman.

"Hey Julius! New team?"

"Yup! Getting to know each other, off for some teambuilding exercises soon."

"Who’s this?" The woman asked.

"This is Elaine. Interesting character we picked up on my last round. About to enter Ranger Academy."

"On that note – Elaine, this is probably goodbye for now. I hope to see you at the next Convocation, as a full Ranger… again." Julius held out his hand for a handshake.

I gave him a hug instead, trying to crush him with my 118 Strength. Puny against a higher-level, physically-based Ranger. Strong compared to anyone from Earth, anyone without points in Strength.

"You better stay alive. Get another healer to tag along with you." I muttered into his armor.

We spent a moment like that.

"Again?" The woman asked, after an appropriate amount of time saying goodbye.

"Well, you see…" Julius started to explain my story, and I decided to make myself scarce.

I found Kallisto, flirting with two incredibly good-looking, wealthy-looking women. I shook my head at him. Some guys had all the luck.

"Kallisto!" I sidled up to him.

"Hi, I’m Elaine, his former teammate. Great dude Kallisto. Can’t go wrong." I said, being a quick wing woman for him. Not that he’d need the help.

"Elaine! This is probably goodbye for now, you’re about to be vanished off to Ranger Academy aren’t you?"

"Yup! Best of luck out there, stay safe! See if you can get a healer to tag along with you. Especially you, you need someone to patch you up if you get ran over by a level 400 monster 20 times your weight."

"You got ran over by a level 400 monster? I have to hear that story." One of the ladies asked him, fluttering her eyes.

"Well…." A grin split Kallisto’s face, knowledge that he was in, so to speak, as he started to explain the story of the Nothasaurus, now thirty stories tall, with teeth larger than the Argo, and I went off to find Maximus.

Maximus was, to only a raised eyebrow from me, deep in conversation with the Nature Sentinel, who was holding an entire amphora – basically a fancy jug – of wine, happily drinking right from it.

Nobody would want to pour themselves a drink out of that after he’d had his way with it, but from the rate he was going at, I didn’t think that’d be a concern.

I decided to respectfully hang out, and not interrupt the powerhouse who could literally flatten me with a thought.

Interesting that idea – if someone got strong enough, could they literally kill someone with an errant thought? If they briefly got mad, and activated a massive skill, would it fire? Was there a way to stop that, to restrain yourself? Or were high-level hotheads doomed to eventually kill someone on impulse?

A solid question, one possibly for the Nature Sentinel. Another day.

Maximus and Nature were in a deep discussion, and I decided a little bit of eavesdropping would be socially acceptable. We were at a party, it wasn’t like I was sneaking up on them, nor were they in a private room or something.

"… Mithril, and Adamantium." Maximus said. "Speaking of, here’s Elaine! She found the scroll in question."

Nature turned to me, and he was intense. He was built like a brick shithouse, with a modest layer of fat on him – not that anyone could call him fat, but it was clear he was no body sculptor. It reminded me of a bear, a lion, an apex predator that had some extra weight on him because he was just that successful at hunting down other creatures in the jungle.

He eyed me up and down, and grunted.

"Good find. See you at Academy."

With that, he turned and walked away, Maximus and I staring after his back.

"Don’t mind him too much. All the Sentinels are a bit strange. Arthur’s the most normal of them, but give it some time. He’ll have as many screws loose as the rest of them." Maximus said.

I gave him a Look for that.

Maximus and I spent a bit of time chatting, about nothing much. Mostly Arthur.

"I didn’t see that coming." Maximus said, for the 3rd time.

"Yeah, I had no idea. Anyways, let me know if you find any good stories on the road. I’ll be waiting to hear from you."

"Thanks! If anyone has an interesting skill at Academy, see how much you can get out of them. Mana, range, ability, versatility, how often they can use it – anything and everything."

"Sure! Stay safe!"

"Stay a Ranger." Maximus shot back.

We shook hands, and I wandered off, determined to use [Identify] on every single person, this being a great chance to level the skill.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Identify] has reached level 97!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Identify] has reached level 98!]

Eventually, I found my way back to Artemis’s room, where I’d dragged my cot back.

I changed, and not having much left to do, flopped back down, only to jump up with a scream.

"All the gods dammit Artemis! Why mice!? Why today?!" I yelled into the void.

The remaining two weeks until Ranger Academy passed in a blur. I spent the first week with my parents, who eventually had to leave, to head back home. Dad could only spend so much time away from being a guard, and the trip to and from Aquiliea took weeks in the first place.

We visited all over town. The colossus statue over the harbor, which locals claimed was a statue of Herculix. A grand library that I had to reluctantly tear my eyes away from – I only had so much time with my parents. The Mausoleum, a series of incredibly elaborate burial methods for the rich and famous, to show off for eternity.

I mentally snorted at that one, [Recollection of a Distant Life] helping out. It’d last until the Republic fell, and tomb robbers got to it. If a high level [Tomb Raider] hadn’t already snuck in.

All too soon, I was saying goodbye to them. I didn’t know if I’d be able to write or not, but they promised to try and make it to graduation.

I spent my last few days wandering around the city, suddenly feeling lonely. Artemis still had her room at HQ for some reason, and I was still bunking with her. However, she was running around like her hair was on fire, getting her school started. Lots of work, founding a school. Wasn’t as easy as hanging up a sign on a door it seemed like, and she was a one-woman operation. From what I could see, she took to it with the same determination and grit that she took to being a Ranger, with significantly fewer friendly-fire fatalities.

I also raided the library, but with Academy starting soon – the gap between graduation and the new class starting was to give the instructors a break, or so I’d gathered – it felt like my doom was hanging over me. I tried to stick with a light exercise routine, to not fall too much out of shape.

The last day before Academy started broke, and I woke up to an empty room, Artemis most likely having gotten up when the deadly moons were still high up. I gathered everything that could be considered my worldly possessions – the pendant and knife mom and dad had gotten for me rated as my most valuable, my manuscripts a close second, my new bracelet and dress a distant third, along with my other knick-knacks – and headed down to the temple. I deposited them all with the temple, keeping just a spare tunic, a few loose coins.

I’d handed my Ranger’s badge back – temporarily, and with great reluctance.

I headed down to the baths, having a sneaking suspicion that "luxury bathing time" wasn’t part of the Ranger Academy curriculum. If there was time to get yourself clean, "freezing water" was probably how they did it. With sharks. Little mini-freezing water sharks, to "encourage" you to bathe faster.

I took the plunge into the warm, steamy baths, and got to thinking. Didn’t have much else to do.

Would I get my own bath at Academy? Were women rare enough that they were just thrown in on their own? How did they handle sexual harassment? The team I’d just been with had been fantastic, maybe due to my age, maybe due to their maturity, maybe due to Artemis having bolted them into shape before I came along. Alone, with hundreds of other men? With [Pretty]? Cripes.

At the same time, Artemis had made no mention of it, and she was fiercely protective, like a mother bear.

I liked mother bear Artemis.

To counter that, it’d been years, over a decade, since Artemis was at Academy. Also, Artemis was, to put it mildly, extremely aggressive, having no problems zapping people who annoyed her.

I literally couldn’t, not until they’d committed some action that was overtly hostile, that I could justify a response with flames and burning.

I’d see.

I was driving myself nuts in the bath, and finally got out, toweled myself off, got dressed, and headed back to HQ. A quick meal, and I went to bed early, Artemis still out and about, busy with her school.

I spent hours tossing and turning, nerves creating a massive twist in my guts.

"Up! Up! Come on, let’s go!" Artemis yelled at me, rudely waking me up.

"Academy." I said, bolting straight up in bed.

"Yup! Move, move, move, move! Get your skinny ass in gear, or I’ll skin you and feed you to a cat!" Artemis yelled at me, point blank.

My mind caught up with what Artemis was saying, and I paused, half-dressed, looking at her.

"Wait, what? A cat?" I asked, confused. Artemis never yelled like this, never had bad insults like this.

Artemis’s grinning face fell. "No good?" She asked. I shook my head.

"What’s going on?"

"Well, being a senior, retired Ranger, and opening a school up for mages, and being, among other things, an amazing former Artillery Mage, and living in the capital now, I was approached and asked to be an Instructor at Academy. Part-time, I’m going to be one of the people yelling at you, trying to convince you to quit."

Artemis paused a heartbeat, letting that sink in.

"Was practicing my yelling."

I gave her a single arched eyebrow.

"Maybe stick to the lightning bolts?"

"Lightning bolts!? Lightning bolts!? What do I look like to you, some pint-sized lightning bolt mage, who can only zap things!?"

I thought about it for a moment, then nodded.

"Yup."

"Drop and give me 20 recruit!"

I carefully schooled my face to not give away how little I thought of 20 push ups as punishment, and did them. Artemis needed some serious help on the drill instructor front, but I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her.

Nah, I’d let someone else sass her too far, let her bolt the hell out of them, and go from there. If Artemis was using me as a test dummy to sharpen her verbal wit, I wasn’t going to make the knife going into me any sharper.

Thankfully, The Room was where new recruits to Academy met for the first day. What happened after that, I had no idea. Nobody would tell me, or rather, they were under orders not to.

We all found spots on the main floor, jam-packed like sardines. I was lucky in one sense to be on the main floor – unlucky in another, in that I couldn’t see much besides the back of the people in front of me.

Damn being short.

I got some strange looks from the people standing next to me, who glanced at each other.

"She’s a healer." One of them said, with some surprise. The other one looked down at me, obviously using [Identify] or something, and raised an eyebrow.

"Don’t see that every day."

They glanced at each other, then shifted themselves slightly, to give me a bit more room, shield me a hair.

"Thanks." I said, meaning it. I’d have appreciated being involved in the conversation, but hey, I could be offended that they’d done all that without even saying hi to me, or appreciative that they were preventing me from being crushed. Seriously, was the requirement to join this year to be twice my weight and height or something!?

A hush spread through the crowd, and I decided my dignity was worth less than seeing what was going on. I stood up on the bench, finally able to see over the heads of the rest of the crowd.

"Welcome, new Ranger Academy recruits!" A member of Command yelled from the podium.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 16]

[Mana: 17210/17210]

[Mana Regen: 20521]

Stats

[Free Stats: 62]

[Strength: 118]

[Dexterity: 218]

[Vitality: 235]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 1721]

[Mana Regeneration: 2379]

[Magic Power: 1506]

[Magic Control: 2039]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 187]]

[Celestial Affinity: 187]

[Warmth of the Sun: 160]

[Medicine: 184]

[Center of the Galaxy: 160]

[Phases of the Moon: 187]

[Moonlight: 104]

[Veil of the Aurora: 146]

[Vastness of the Stars: 135]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 62]]

[Fire Affinity: 62]

[Fire Resistance: 62]

[Fire Conjuration: 62]

[Fire Manipulation: 62]

[Fuel for the Fire: 62]

[Burn Brightly: 62]

[Rapidash: 62]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 98]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 131]

[Pretty: 125]

[Vigilant: 131]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 167]

[Ranger's Lore: 140]

[: ]

[Learning: 148]

Chapter 102– Ranger Academy II

"Welcome, new Ranger Academy recruits!" A member of Command yelled from the podium.

A modest cheer came from us.

"It is an honor to welcome you to the class of 4798!"

"I’d like to thank the Instructors, the members of Ranger Team 0, and the Sentinels who have chosen to impart their knowledge to each of you. Each and every one of them works tirelessly to train you, to instruct you, to help give you the skills needed for you to survive out there once we’re done with you."

"You are the best Remus has to offer, and have passed a grueling pre-selection process. Through this training, you will become one of the elites, the best of the best, the pinnacle of humanity – a Ranger."

Pre-selection process? Welp, one of the benefits of being named a Ranger on the road – I guess I was allowed to completely skip that.

"The training will be difficult. It will be hard. Right now, there are 509 of you. Only about 110 of you will make it to graduation. Only about 100 of you will be selected to become a Ranger. If you fail, you’re automatically able to re-enroll, and try again."

"And now, I’ll pass you off to Ocean."

He sat down, and a tanned, sleek, fit man, like Swimmer but better in every respect, with swirling tattoos in teal ink that looked like waves on his face took the podium

"Without further ado, Trainees! On me!"

Bless Artemis and the rest of the team teaching me proper military commands and discipline. About two-thirds of the trainees immediately started moving, following Ocean as he jogged out of the arena. The remaining trainees quickly caught on, and followed as well, mixing in with the crowd.

Ocean set a brisk, but not unreasonable pace through headquarters, then out onto the street, as we slowly fell into ranks and rows behind him.

Well, it was clear who came from the army, and who came in through the external selection process. The army people – I considered myself in that group – ended up in neat ranks and rows as we jogged in unison through the town. The non-army people ended up either figuring it out quickly, and getting their own place in the formation, or getting jostled out to the side, to fall behind the rest of us.

We didn’t go down the main, central road through the city, but we were on one of the major arteries. People took a look at us jogging through the roads, the sheer implacable mass of bodies, and decided that when an implacable force met their very moveable object, it was time to get out of the way.

At least, that was my assumption. I could mostly see the back of the person in front of me, and a bunch of people pressed to the side of the road, under awnings and in alleys.

At one point I saw a massive wave of water lifting a wagon up and out of the way, the casual display of power by Ocean sending a shiver down my spine.

The guards didn’t try to stop us in the slightest, the gates opening well before we got there, and the 500+ trainees jogging through, the instructors and Team 0 taking up the rear, catching anyone who might’ve fallen behind.

We made our way down to the docks, where three large ships were waiting for us. We loaded up, and set sail.

As the sailors pushed the boats off from the docks, a wave of loneliness hit. My parents were gone. Artemis might show up now and then, but she was busy doing her own thing. Julius. Kallisto. Maximus. They were all gone, off on a new round. Odds were, one of them would never return.

I suppose Arthur, or as he might now go by, Toxic, might be around now and then. Depends how much he needed to learn as a Sentinel, how much they needed him to solve problems, and how much he wanted to teach. Still – in quite a few senses, I had nobody here.

I didn’t want to be arrogant – Perinthus, Maximus, and a number of other incidents had taught me that I never knew enough, that I was never good enough, that I had to always strive to be better. However, Arthur had spent a good amount of time teaching me poisons and woodcraft, how to hunt and survive in the wilderness. If he was teaching anything, did he have anything new to teach me that he hadn’t already imparted in the almost two years we spent together?

It took less than an hour to make it to a large island, the home of Ranger Academy.

I expected austere military barracks, maybe stone, maybe shitty huts. I expected that maybe we’d be made to camp in the woods, learning to build our own shelters. Perhaps we’d be assigned a wagon and tents, like Rangers on the road were, to learn to live that lifestyle.

I did not expect what could only be summed up as "decadent opulence." There was a massive, sprawling villa made out of marble, statues and fountains of water, dozens of healthy, happy-looking slaves bustling around, moving plates of food around.

Were… were those escorts lounging about and waving? Were we at the right place? This was the fearsome Ranger Academy? We didn’t end up at a luxury resort for the rich and famous?

Nope, the boat was going to the dock attached to the villa.

"What on Pallos?" I asked the person next to me, the same one who’d helped shield me in the arena. He looked at me, hesitated, then said.

"I’m a repeat. I’m not allowed to say anything about what goes on, but it is part of the Academy."

I narrowed my eyes. That wasn’t a ringing endorsement of the place. There wasn’t a note of longing, of happiness at seeing Hotel Luxury again. There was a tired, exhausted note. Not all was what it seemed.

We disembarked slowly.

"Septimus. Room 6."

"Octavius. Room 44."

As each person got off the boat, they reported to one of the instructors, who looked up their name, and told them which room they’d be in.

"Elaine." The instructor looked at my name, and hesitated. Uh oh.

"Stand here for a minute." He finally said. I walked to the spot he pointed at, getting a glimpse at the clipboard as I did so.

"Have her wait." Was the only thing written down.

Well then, that was not a promising start to Academy.

I hung out, only to see a familiar gigantic shape jogging towards me.

"Arthur!" I called out to him, waving happily.

He only frowned at me. My hand slowly dropped to the side. Was he pissed at me? Did he not like me or something?

"Trainee Elaine." He said, as formally as he could, then paused, waiting for me.

"Trainee Elaine, when I address you, I expect a ‘sir’ at the start and end of everything you say. Do you understand me?" Arthur said again.

Ah. Right. This wasn’t the casual Ranger group anymore, the six of us happily traveling together as equals. This was Ranger Academy, where Arthur was one of the hotshots, the amazing Sentinel, and I was just another Trainee at the bottom of the totem pole. I’d gotten some drilling on this, but it hadn’t quite clicked until now that here and now was when it was relevant.

"Sir! Yes sir!" I said, throwing in a salute for good measure.

"Very good. While we’re here, I’m Toxic. Come with me." Arthur said, and started to jog up to the villa, passing lines of new trainees making their way to their room.

[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Training]! Would you like to take this skill?]

Training: Hoorah! You’re an army recruit, and you have a long way to go trainee! This skill gives extra experience when training, and makes picking up skills and learning from the instructors that much easier! 1.5% boost to all experience per level when being trained. Note: Only applies to army training.

Well, I had a free skill slot, and this let me kick the can down the road of what skill I wanted to get. I was pretty sure this skill stacked with [Learning], and a good amount of Ranger Academy seemed dedicated to raising my skills. Maybe I’d get lucky enough to class up, or be able to work with some of the instructors on good skills.

[Recollection of a Distant Life] I had a sneaking suspicion was reaching the end of its useful life as well. I’d written my manuscripts, the total sum of all medical knowledge I had, and the only thing left were tales and stories. It’d gotten me into the Rangers, but now I was here on my own merit.

Unless I decided to take some sort of Bard class as my second class. It’d be an interesting evolution to be sure, but it’d take me out of direct combat, doubling up on the support. If it was a support class, and not some sort of wandering bard related thing.

A decision for another day.

We made our way into the villa, and it was even nicer on the inside than the outside. Artwork, marble busts, and trays of delicious food scattered the hallways, and jugs of wine could be found on every other corner.

The hell was going on here? This looked like paradise.

We reached a room, labeled room 100.

"Ar-Toxic, what’s going on? Sir." I said, confused, belatedly remembering to add the "sir" at the end.

Arthur looked at me, hesitated, then shook his head.

"I’m also being tested, seeing if I can keep secrets now that I’m a Sentinel. Can’t tell you, Trainee Elaine."

Hmmmm, interesting. Alrighty then.

We entered the room, and it was nice. Very nice. There were even some mangos on a tray.

The fuck was going on?

"Ahem. Trainee Elaine, at attention." Arthur said. I turned around, snapping to attention.

"As may be incredibly obvious to you, you’re a girl."

I resisted rolling my eyes, since Arthur was doing it for me.

"While we believe every Trainee will hold themselves to the highest standard, there have been incidents in the past. Here’s an emergency signal disk. Pour some mana into it, and break in case of, ah, an incident. We really don’t want any casualties."

I was having a hard time keeping a poker face at Arthur’s clear discomfort over having to give me this lecture. It was good to know that they’d thought of this before, and had a system in place.

Honestly, thinking about it, it was more likely there had been numerous problems in the past, and Arthur’s mention of causalities made me wonder if this was to solve the problem before a body count started to pile up. Artemis must’ve been what, 18 when she went through Academy? Ooooh yeah, I could totally see Artemis causing a number of casualties. I was a healer, young, and honestly, vulnerable-looking. Yup, time to keep this disk with me.

"Quite frankly, after the first 3 months, there’s never been an incident, so you can probably relax after that."

"Please don’t sleep with anyone, and please, please don’t get pregnant. They’ll throw you out for the second one, and get really mad at the first one."

"If an instructor approaches you, there’s a chance they’re being an idiot and trying to test you, in spite of being told not to. If an instructor persists, know you can always say no, and talk to a Sentinel about it." Arthur paused a moment, then added. "I recommend Night or Ocean. They’re the serious ones that you’re likely to find."

Arthur was fuming red at this point, and I let a chuckle escape at how incredibly uncomfortable he seemed.

"Understood Trainee Elaine?" He finally finished and asked me.

"Sir! Yes sir." I responded.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Training] has reached level 2!]

He relaxed.

"Good."

I cracked a grin at him.

"Never had to give the talk before?"

"Ug no. That was terrible." Arthur said, clearly relaxing back into his "Arthur" role, and no longer "Toxic."

I grinned at him.

"Why, Arthur, I never knew that-"

"Elaine, if you finish that sentence, I will damn you to thousands of pushups."

I grumbled something under my breath about "abuse of power".

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Training] has reached level 3!]

Seriously System?

Then again, I wasn’t going to complain.

He gestured around the room.

"I’m told to tell you to make yourself comfortable and at home. Mingling occurs later on, where you can meet the other recruits. When the big gong strikes, assemble in the front courtyard – you have 45 heartbeats to get there, and fall in formation. Any questions?"

I opened my mouth to ask about his first statement, then closed it. Arthur was also being tested, I reminded myself.

"Sir! No sir!" I said, saluting. Might as well do this properly.

Arthur saluted back, then left. I grabbed the mangos, and sat on the bed, thinking as I peeled and ate them.

Everyone was being incredibly, suspiciously cagey about this villa. Clearly, it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Arthur telling me "He was told to tell me to make myself comfortable" translated to he didn’t think I should make myself comfortable and at home. The recycled Trainee on the boat not having good things to say about the place reinforced that feeling.

However, Artemis telling me to eat, trying to stuff me, suggested that if nothing else, I should chow down.

I ate everything in the room, then started to roam the hallways, grabbing food and chowing down, a one-girl whirlwind of gluttony. Mmmm, I had been offered a glutton class once upon a time…

I made some polite conversation with some of the other trainees, most of which were reveling in the luxury and excess, a few with a hard look in their eyes joining me on my quest to give myself indigestion.

However, as the sun started to get lower in the sky – I could tell from the open-aired courtyards scattered throughout – my fellow gluttons slowly dropped out of the eating contest. Figuring that they had advanced knowledge, or were recycled, I decided that when in Ranger Academy, do as the Rangers, and stopped eating as well.

I started to work my way towards the front courtyard, dodging some trainees with giggling women on their arms. The fuck?

I found the front courtyard, and just hung out, making some small talk. I noticed a half-dozen animals that I hadn’t seen before, including an Ornithocheirus with a saddle, a massive bear, steam billowing off of it like it had just left a hot tub – or was Steam-aligned - a muzzled saber-tooth tiger, all lean muscle, flexing its claws, a pair of wolves, one with a bright, shiny coat, one matted dark as night, curled up with each other, a massive potted plant in a wheelbarrow – what?

I knew Rangers tended to be strange people, as it required a certain type of crazy to get to the levels needed, and to sign up for a job with such a high fatality rate. It hadn’t quite occurred to me just how much crazy there was, and that it’d be concentrated at the Academy.

In the front of the courtyard, there were two gongs. One was a massive thing of bronze, twisting pillars supporting it, glowing inscriptions on it, at least 10 meters in diameter. The other was much smaller, the size of a normal gong, maybe one meter in diameter, simple looking, but with even more densely written inscriptions on it.

One of the instructors walked out, nodded at us already in the courtyard.

"You’ll do well." He said to all of us, before walking up to the big bronze gong and punching it as hard as he could.

Booooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnggg

The sound of the gong reverberated through the island, calling us to attention.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 16]

[Mana: 17210/17210]

[Mana Regen: 20521]

Stats

[Free Stats: 62]

[Strength: 118]

[Dexterity: 218]

[Vitality: 235]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 1721]

[Mana Regeneration: 2379]

[Magic Power: 1506]

[Magic Control: 2039]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 187]]

[Celestial Affinity: 187]

[Warmth of the Sun: 160]

[Medicine: 184]

[Center of the Galaxy: 160]

[Phases of the Moon: 187]

[Moonlight: 104]

[Veil of the Aurora: 146]

[Vastness of the Stars: 135]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 62]]

[Fire Affinity: 62]

[Fire Resistance: 62]

[Fire Conjuration: 62]

[Fire Manipulation: 62]

[Fuel for the Fire: 62]

[Burn Brightly: 62]

[Rapidash: 62]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 98]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 121]

[Pretty: 125]

[Vigilant: 131]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 167]

[Ranger's Lore: 140]

[Training: 3]

[Learning: 148]

Chapter 103– Ranger Academy III

The sound of the gong reverberated through the air, the inscriptions lighting up. It was strangely quiet for how close to us it was, and if I had to guess, there was both a dampening, and amplification going on, letting the noise of the gong echo through the entire island, letting people know wherever they were.

One trainee immediately stepped forward in the courtyard, raised an arm, and yelled out "On me."

A number of people started to fall into rank and file to the side and behind him, and I joined in. I mentally dubbed the trainee who’d called out the fall-in "Leadership Material."

Those of us in the courtyard already filled out the first few rows, and there were sounds of scrambling, tripping, swearing, and some clanks, clangs, excessive swearing, and one loud shattering noise from behind.

I kept my eyes forward, not that turning around to look behind me would have me seeing anything. If nothing else, I needed to learn how to fly so I could see over groups.

Not that I couldn’t step on [Veil], but the mana consumption was horrible. It was easier for me to fix a shattered body in terms of mana than to use [Veil] as a stepping-stone.

After a time I’d guess was exactly 45 heartbeats after the initial gong strike, the instructors pounced, yelling obscenities at the trainees who were showing up late.

They were creative, I’d give them that. I didn’t think the trainee’s grandmother could bend that way, regardless of what the instructor said.

The side of my lips curled back in a grimace at another particularly offensive insult. Wasn’t that going a hair too far…?

In short order, the vast majority of us were in formation, waiting for the instructors to begin their next lecture, while about a quarter of the trainees were in the back, getting smoked by the instructors for being late.

Must not smile. Must not crack a grin at someone else getting punished. That was a one-way ticket to getting punished myself.

"Trainees, listen up! I am Quintis, your Senior Drill Instructor! From now on, you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and last words out of the dung pit you all call your mouths will be sir! Do you slimes understand me!?"

"Sir, yes sir!" We sounded off, some of us more with it than others. A few "understood", and at least two "affirmative" replaced "yes", but for the most part we were in unison.

"For the next two years you will sleep here! Learn here! And if the gods smile upon us, some of you might become good enough to be a Ranger! Just know, at any time, anytime of day or night at all, you maggots can crawl over to that silver gong over there and tap it! If you do, you are free! Free from sleeping in the mud, the leeches in your boots, the worms in your food! Free to go back to the villa, and enjoy all the wonderful luxuries every god and goddess has seen fit to place on this beautiful planet! Free to enjoy the life each and every one of you is capable of living, with your skills and abilities! You will also be paid a frankly ludicrous amount of money for no longer wasting my time! The sooner you quit, the more you get! Do you understand me!?"

"Sir, yes sir!" Another cry came out, more unified.

The purpose of the villa became crystal clear with his statement. It wasn’t a trap, really. It was more of a lure, a way to see who couldn’t tough it out, who’d rather have a life of ease and luxury instead of the hardships of being a Ranger.

It made sense. Anyone who’d give up at the hardships now, was likely to give up during the hardships on the road. By making it as nice as possible, anyone who’d choose a life of ease, a life of luxury, over being a Ranger, over the Ranger’s mission, would be selected and filtered out.

It could also be an anti-corruption measure. Who would be tempted by wealth, luxury, ease, women, men? The only temptation not present was power.

It’s why Arthur couldn’t tell me to get comfortable – he didn’t want to see me get used to that standard of living, to be drawn back to it.

A commotion came from the back, louder than before.

"but-"

"Don’t care! You’re out! Get! Onto the boat with you, you’re being shipped out."

Must. Not. Look.

From the sounds of the yelling and the instructors, genius back there had decided he didn’t need to show up to formation, was too busy enjoying himself, and had mouthed off to the instructors. He was being thrown out as a result.

Idiot.

The Senior Drill Instructor continued to yell at us for a bit, and the short version was as follows. Over the next week or so, we’d get the bare-bone basics of how to do basic army things, for those of us without proper, formal training. Most of the people coming in from the army had already done that, but about a third were ‘external’, and needed to learn some really basic stuff, like saluting, marching, and other basics.

Then would be three months of hell, which caused the instructor to stop swearing every three words, and almost gleefully told us everything about it. Training, 22 hours a day, being pushed to our limits and past them. Sleep? Sleep might happen, now and then. Maaaybe 4 hours a week, if we were lucky. Food? Yeah, we might get some rations here and there. If the instructors felt we’d earned it.

For three months.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone wavering, starting to show cracks at the mere description of what we were going to go through. I had bets on him not making it. If hearing about it was causing that much indecision?

After much yelling and hollering, which was somehow incredibly boring but I forced myself to focus on it, we were told to fall out, get in lines, and have a conversation with one of the instructors.

We did what we were told, and ended up in roughly 50 lines of 10 people each. I ended up in Quintis’s line, and when it was my turn, I stood in front of him and saluted.

"Sir! Trainee Elaine reporting as ordered. Sir!"

Good first impression, good first impression, don’t get on the Senior Drill Instructors bad side.

"Give me 200 burpees peanut!" Quintis promptly yelled at me.

I hated burpees. Pushup, followed by jumping in the air, only to go right back down to a pushup. I did what he said anyways.

"Do you know why you’re doing burpees!?" Quintis yelled at me.

"Sir!" pant, get a breath in. "no sir!"

"You are not Trainee Elaine! You are Ranger Elaine, and will refer to yourself as such! Do you understand me?"

"Sir! Yes sir!" I yelled out, as I did the standing up part of a burpee.

"Ranger Julius saw fit to promote you. Now, you weren’t one of mine, but now you will be. However! Until your pansy ass quits Academy, you are a Ranger, and will not besmirch the name by referring to yourself by anything else! Are we clear?" Quintis yelled at me.

"Sir! Yes sir!" I yelled back.

I had a feeling that I had a bunch of eyes on me at this point. Dammit all. So much for trying to stay relatively low-profile. At the very least, Quintis, maybe, possibly seemed to vaguely be happy that I was here, and didn’t seem to massively hate that I’d become a Ranger outside of his precious Academy.

"Right then. Ranger Elaine. I need a report on the following. Can you swim? Can you read? Can you write? Do you know your numbers? Can you…."

A long, long list of questions came from Quintis, and I answered to the best of my ability, while still doing burpees.

I could swim, read, write. I could march, salute, dig a latrine, couldn’t build a fortification. Made me a bit of an oddball, and Quintis muttered to himself on that one, although apparently, I wasn’t the only one. Kids of soldiers usually missed fortification building as well. I couldn’t sail, my knots were terrible, my wilderness survival passable, my first aid knowledge top-tier. I had an aura. A dozen other questions, probing to see what I could already do, what I’d need training on.

I felt pleased by my answers, the knowledge I had coming in. I’d gotten a thorough practical education on my way here from Julius and the team, and upon reflection, it was like what they taught me had been tailored just for here and now.

Which it kinda was. They were teaching me practical Ranger skills, and Ranger Academy was all about being taught practical Ranger skills.

I was an offensive mage + support, and I wouldn’t classify myself as a physical fighter or utility. Strange how Support and Utility were broken out into separate groups, but six of one, half dozen of another, and I was considered to be Support. I didn’t have any animal companions, or any ‘other’.

"Right, last questions. Do you have binding or restrictive skills?"

I blinked. Was this a standard question? Was this a-

"Ranger Elaine! Stop standing there with your thumb up your ass and answer the gods-damned question!"

Right.

"Sir! I have a powerful restrictive [Oath], surrounding harm, fighting, and healing. Sir!"

"Well spit it out! I haven’t got all day!"

Ah curses.

I recited the [Oath] as I continued to do a burpee, the physical exertion making it hard to talk. One moment I was talking to Quintis’s face, the next I was detailing [Oath] to the ground, whispering my secrets to Gaia. I did get a whistle out of Quintis for my efforts though.

"Right, you’re going to be handed off to Night eventually." He said, forgetting to curse me out in the middle.

"What are you still doing here Ranger Elaine!? Get out of here! Next!"

After some time milling around on the field, we were called into formation again.

"All of you are Ranger Trainees! As a result, you selkie-looking slimes should all be offered the skill, [Ranger’s Lore] as of… now! Take it! It’s an upgrade of [Soldier’s Solidarity], and will be one of the most useful skills you worthless heathens will ever see!"

"You will also be judged by how high you get it!"

"Basic training starts tomorrow! You shit-stains are all dismissed!" Quintis yelled, freeing us.

I headed back to my room, not wanting to mingle, checking over my level up notifications.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Training] has reached level 4!]

….

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Training] has reached level 11!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 149!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 185!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 161!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 142!]

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 16]

[Mana: 17210/17210]

[Mana Regen: 20521]

Stats

[Free Stats: 62]

[Strength: 118]

[Dexterity: 218]

[Vitality: 235]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 1721]

[Mana Regeneration: 2379]

[Magic Power: 1506]

[Magic Control: 2039]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 187]]

[Celestial Affinity: 187]

[Warmth of the Sun: 160]

[Medicine: 184]

[Center of the Galaxy: 160]

[Phases of the Moon: 187]

[Moonlight: 104]

[Veil of the Aurora: 146]

[Vastness of the Stars: 135]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 62]]

[Fire Affinity: 62]

[Fire Resistance: 62]

[Fire Conjuration: 62]

[Fire Manipulation: 62]

[Fuel for the Fire: 62]

[Burn Brightly: 62]

[Rapidash: 62]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 98]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 121]

[Pretty: 125]

[Vigilant: 131]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 167]

[Ranger's Lore: 142]

[Training: 11]

[Learning: 149]

Chapter 104– Ranger Academy IV

I made my way back to my room as the sun fell, the moons starting to slowly rise, slitted pupils watching this part of my journey. I grabbed a quick meal from one of the platters lying around, and contemplatively munched on it. If I had to guess, from the way some of the other recruits were busy eating earlier, and the various hints dropped by Artemis, combined with sheer logic, that the hell months didn’t feed us enough.

I nodded to myself. That made sense.

As I fixed myself my own sandwich – I still had to teach other people how to make them – I considered my plan of attack. Would it be better to scuff as much as I could now, then have the sharp fall-off once the hell months started? Or was it better to start weaning myself now, to not have that sharp spike of hunger pains at the start?

I wandered into my room, still lost in my own thoughts.

What about sleep? No way we weren’t going to get sleep deprived, not with how often I’d pulled watch, not with how often we’d gone gallivanting off in the middle of the night to handle some crisis or another. Should I start weaning myself down now, or-

My musing was interrupted as someone entered my room.

"Hey you. Want some of this?" A shirtless man said, indicating to himself.

I couldn’t help pulling a disgusted face at him.

"Ug, no." I said. "Please leave."

"Aww come on, don’t be like-" He started to say, only to get interrupted by a hiss.

I’d heard snakes of all stripes in the Kadan Jungle. I’d heard louder hisses, meaner hisses, and the sound and cadence of the noise made me think of a snake.

However, none of their noises broke, shattered [Center of the Galaxy] in quite the same way. None of them brought about a deep, primal fear, rooted in my very bones, fight-or-flight instinct screaming at me to move, to run, to flee for my life.

I couldn’t move a limb, the fear was paralyzing, an apex predator here for me. There was no running. There was no hiding. There was no fighting. There was only groveling.

A second man entered the room – fully clothed bless him – and he was a pale, thin man, with red eyes and white hair, stalking forward with his hands clasped behind his back. My guess was he had albinism.

Softly, oh so softly, he spoke, every word defying how I knew sound should work, piercing through the static background noise, he spoke.

"Did you not hear the lady? Your presence is neither requested nor desired. Leave."

I seized the moment to [Identify] him. I had to know what I was dealing with.

[Warrior].

He was higher-level than the Nothasaurus, by a good chunk. If I had to guess, from all my experiences, he was just shy of level 500.

I wondered – first real class at level 8. Second class at level 64. Was the third class at level 512?

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Identify] has reached level 99!]

I dismissed the notification – it wasn’t supposed to show up during high stress or combat situations.

I suddenly felt a sense of release, as I regained control over my limbs.

"Oh yeah? Who are you? Why should I-" The man started to bluster.

I gave him a Look, like he was the biggest idiot in the world. Which he might be. Did he not [Identify] the person in front of us? Did he not realize that the person was higher than both our levels combined? Was he one of those idiots who didn’t have [Identify], or was he scared, and simply lashing out?

"I am Night, first among the Sentinels. This is my island. I will brook no disrespect." He said, and suddenly I was on my knees, bleeding from my ears, unable to hear anything as everything in the room shook.

Night and the man were gone, and I healed myself with [Phases of the Moon], [Center of the Galaxy] kicking back in.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 161!]

I blinked, looking around. It was like a bomb had gone off in here. What had…

With a polite knock on my doorframe – I no longer had a door – Night was present again.

"Please, walk with me." He politely said, and with the display of power, and his previous declaration, I wasn’t going to say no.

We slowly walked through and out the villa in silence, Night only pausing to request a slave to get my room fixed. The slave’s attitude was telling – deferential, but not terrified. Nor surprised at the damage.

"I apologize for the unpleasantness." He started off saying, finally breaking the silence. "There always tends to be one who thinks my orders are mere suggestions. They must be reminded of their position."

I suppressed a shudder. It was clear that Night placed himself above all the other trainees – and for that matter, he might be placing himself above all the other Sentinels. Which, by implication, was placing himself above most of humanity.

"What happened to…" I said, gesturing back towards the villa.

Night snorted.

"He went for a long swim. He should be able to make it. Only about half a mile or so, and the moons are out tonight."

I looked at him. There wasn’t a drop of water on him. Either he was able to accurately hurl a person half a mile, he could run on water, or he was just so fast that he could towel himself off and change clothes in the brief time he was gone.

Which meant the explosion in my room earlier had been from Night moving that fast, the blast of air so loud, so powerful, it caused a minor explosion. From 0. While carefully accelerating a second, not as durable person.

Fucking hell. What sort of monster was I talking with?

I swallowed a nervous lump in my throat.

"What do you want with me?" I asked, looking directly at him.

He laughed.

"Ah, brave little otter. I wanted to have a discussion on your [Oath]. I am, shall we say, something of an expert on restriction skills, and yours has potential to be problematic during the training that is to come."

I had never been called an otter before, but if the highest-level human in existence wanted to call me an otter, I’d swim on my back and carry a pebble.

"Restriction skills?" I said, wanting a clarification on the terminology, and there seemed to be no better person to ask.

"Yes. Skills which bind you, and give you power as a result. I am Night. It is an open secret that I am restricted to operating when the sun is not present. The skill strengthens me, empowers me to reach untold heights."

Which might be why he was such a high level. He could punch far, far higher than normal, and as long as he hunted during the night, he could slay monsters higher level than him, getting a large bonus to exp for punching up. Being able to reliably kill monsters his level also helped.

"My concern is multifold. People will be injured. We need to know who can push through minor injuries, and still accomplish what needs to be done. We can not have individuals get used to being healed now, then find that they falter and fail when present in the field. This will kill many, many Rangers."

"At the same time, I do not wish to separate you, to put you through a trial of one. It is unfair to everyone involved. You will not bind to the others, develop a sense of comradery. At the same time, you will be resented, accused of acquiring special favors through less savory means. This too, can not be allowed to pass."

"Tell me. How do we make this work?" Night said.

We walked, taking a slow lap around the villa, as I thought on the problem, fingers tapping against my side.

"Well…. If someone’s at risk of dying, there’s no way I’m not going to try and keep them alive." I started off saying.

"Acceptable, and please do. We have a pair of healers, but they are not always on-hand, and preventing training accidents is to be desired. My concerns are more low-level injuries, broken bones and the like."

‘Broken bones’ and ‘low level injuries’ didn’t go together in my book, but this was Night, and his scale and perspective were clearly different.

"If people explicitly ask me to not heal them, I won’t. I believe, for the most part, in self-determination, in letting people make their own choices. Have people ask me to not step in on minor injuries, and I won’t be restricted. Now, if someone comes to me and asks for healing, I will heal them, regardless of the consequences."

Night gave me a long look, as we continued to walk.

"This is acceptable. Tell me more about overriding people’s choice."

"When the impact is more than just the person. Perinthus, some people refused healing. They put the entire town at risk, for what? Their ego? Some strange desire to not want help? Some sense of pride? No, at that point, the good of the many outweighed the desire of the few, and they were healed, regardless."

We walked again in slow, contemplative silence.

"What if you had to let one die, to let two more live? Three? What if you had to kill one person, to save four? Five? At what point does your [Oath] free you, let you make decisions to kill, instead of save?" He finally asked.

I stopped, staring at him, thinking. He stopped, turning, looking at me with those intense eyes.

"I don’t know." I finally said. "I know I couldn’t deliberately launch an attack on the Classer causing the plague in Perinthus, regardless of the damage he was doing. Fortunately, I had a team to cover me."

"If your team was not present, what would your course of action have been?" He said, each word carefully articulated.

"Told the guard. Told other healers. I wouldn’t have shouted it from the rooftops – that would’ve sparked a riot. Possibly confronted him, let him launch the first attack, then go from there." I promptly replied. I’d done a lot of thinking on the subject.

"If you see a powerful archer drawing a bow at you, stacking skills, what could you do?" Night asked me, seemingly changing the subject.

"[Veil] to hide myself and block the arrow, move into a different position, evaluate if I should be fighting or running." I said. Another situation I’d had some thinking on.

"You do not need him to fire first to attack back?" Night asked.

I shook my head.

"It’s clear the archer’s hostile. My [Oath] is restrictive, it doesn’t mean I have to be stupid."

"What if someone was attempting to merely restrict you, just bind you? They meant you no harm, they simply wished to kidnap a powerful healer."

"Attack the bindings. Throw up my shield skill. Attacks against my shield are obviously hostile against me, and I can go from there."

"If said hostile parties chose not to attack your barrier, and simply erected a prison around you?"

I hesitated, not wanting to say that I’d probably be in serious trouble.

"Very well." Night said, properly interpreting what my silence meant. "The solution is to get your secondary class to the point where the question is meaningless."

We walked for some more time in contemplative silence.

"Excellent pairing of classes, by the way. It used to be the traditional pairing for healers to take a mage class secondarily. Did you come up with the pairing yourself, or did you discover some account of it with your great joy in reading historical accounts?" Night asked.

I suppressed a shiver. He knew way too much about me. It was kinda creepy.

"I came up with it on my own. Why did the pairing fall out of favor?" I asked.

Night shrugged.

"Pure healers stayed in camps and towns, becoming wealthy. Healer-mages went out and fought. Over time, the healer-mages died out, as those that fight tend to do, and youngsters looking to become healers did some basic calculations. Stay, and become wealthy and respected, or go, and become dead. Is it any wonder that healers ended up entirely backline? Mages get a full sixteen skills to defend themselves against attack with, while healer-mages tend to only have eight. On the other side of the coin, it’s exceptionally rare for those that find themselves with a calling to become a mage deciding to take up the more peaceful mantle of healing."

"Hence, healer-mages dying out as a combination."

We continued to walk for a bit, then reached the front of the villa again.

"Miss Elaine. It has been a pleasure. I wish you the best of luck in the coming weeks." Night formally said. "I do hope none of the earlier unpleasantness will occur again."

I saluted, knowing when I was being dismissed.

"Thank you Night." I said, turning and leaving.

The next few days were relatively straightforward. Early wakeup, formation, a run around the island, then get some bare-bone essentials drilled into us, mostly for the benefit of the non-army members who had joined. That way, when the instructors told us to do something, we’d know what exactly they were asking us to do. Break for lunch, more drills, then more laps and light exercise.

The two wolves were hilarious, marching in lockstep behind us with a pair of goofy grins. They didn’t need to, but they were clearly having the time of their lives making fun of us. Or participating. Hard to tell.

I had a brief talk with the owner of the wolves, who said the black one’s name was Moon.

And the white one’s name was Moon.

Why you’d name your two wolves the same thing, I had no idea. I had to stifle a laugh every time he asked "MoonMoon" to do something though. Odds were good, the wrong Moon would do it – and from the glint of mischief in their eyes, it was deliberately to wind Wolfy up.

[Ranger’s Lore], [Learning], and [Training] were all enjoying the current activities, seeing a few points in the first two, and a modest jump in the last one.

We had the first drop out three days in – the dude with the carnivorous plant in the wheelbarrow. He said he couldn’t risk his plant’s health, but I personally, privately thought he was sick of wheeling it around everywhere.

Four more dropped out before the end of the first week, all muttering and complaining about it being "too much." Too many pushups, too much running, too many orders, just – too much everything. They weren’t given the nasty treatment the first person who’d been thrown out was, but they were somewhat looked down on by the rest of us.

Hey, we were sticking it out, and they were quitting less than a week in. Of course, I’d look down on them somewhat.

I was pleased to see the dude who’d tried harassing me was in the lot. He asked to leave after five days, constantly looking over his shoulder, jumping at every little noise, looking like he’d seen a ghost. Probably just a result of being on the receiving end of Night’s displeasure. Good.

Another day of training wrapped up, and I went to bed, intending to get a full night’s sleep. Tomorrow was the last day before the hell months started. I’d come up with a few ideas, but one in particular stuck with me as I saw people leaving.

[Identify] had severely diminishing returns if you looked at someone you’d already [Identify]’d once. Otherwise you could just sit there and [Identify] the same person for hours on end to grind it up.

With [Training] providing a nice exp boost, and [Learning] most likely going to level up a good amount, I was only going to [Identify] people once they quit, and my chance of IDing them basically vanished. By waiting though, I’d maximize the amount of experience I could get out of them, because [Learning] and [Training] would be higher level.

A crack of lightning woke me up in the middle of the night, along with the all-too-familiar sound of rocks whizzing by, impacting on the ground or pillars, causing an explosion of noise. The primal roar of a sea monster pierced the air, reverberating, striking fear into my heart.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Vigilant] has reached level 132!]

Not nearly as badly as Night though, and instructors were moving through the villa, yelling at us to move, to run, to fall into formation in front of the building.

Which I promptly did, wondering if Artemis was out there somewhere, throwing lightning bolts and rocks. It was her style.

I got outside, a massive deluge of rain pouring outside of the villa, a shimmering golden barrier separating the villa from the elements. Other trainees were running to the courtyard to fall in. I started to run through, head on a swivel, ducking as a projectile went whizzing over my head.

The duck was unneeded, but I was getting concerned. What was going on here? Were we under attack? Who’d attack Ranger Academy, with some of the Sentinels hanging out? Was it just a monster attack?

I made it to the formation, neither at the front nor the back.

Senior Drill Instructor Quintis walked out to the front of the formation, a cruel grin on his face.

"Welcome Trainees, to the hell months!"

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 16]

[Mana: 17210/17210]

[Mana Regen: 20521]

Stats

[Free Stats: 62]

[Strength: 118]

[Dexterity: 218]

[Vitality: 235]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 1721]

[Mana Regeneration: 2379]

[Magic Power: 1506]

[Magic Control: 2039]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 187]]

[Celestial Affinity: 187]

[Warmth of the Sun: 160]

[Medicine: 185]

[Center of the Galaxy: 161]

[Phases of the Moon: 187]

[Moonlight: 104]

[Veil of the Aurora: 146]

[Vastness of the Stars: 135]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 62]]

[Fire Affinity: 62]

[Fire Resistance: 62]

[Fire Conjuration: 62]

[Fire Manipulation: 62]

[Fuel for the Fire: 62]

[Burn Brightly: 62]

[Rapidash: 62]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 99]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 131]

[Pretty: 125]

[Vigilant: 132]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 167]

[Ranger's Lore: 144]

[Training: 28]

[Learning: 150]

Chapter 105– Ranger Academy V

The rain poured behind the barrier, gusts of wind causing it to go sideways at times. The trees flailed wildly, and it was strange to be warm and comfortable behind the barrier, as the elements howled outside.

"Welcome Trainees, to the hell months!" Quintis shouted.

"At any time, you worthless goblin-loving maggots can choose to leave hell months, and return back to the sweet, tender embrace of the villa! You will be warm! Fed! Safe! Escorts to meet your every need! All you need to do, is tap that gong over there!" He said, pointing to the silver gong, now taking on a dreadful psychic weight.

"Before we begin, we have a pair of unusual restriction skills with us. Ranger Elaine! Trainee Diao! Front and center!"

We moved to the center, where Quintis clapped a hand on both of our shoulders.

"Ranger Elaine is obligated to heal unless you explicitly ask otherwise! You will now ask otherwise!" Quintis roared out.

In a slightly softer tone, he followed it up.

"Ranger Elaine will disregard and still save your worthless life if it’s needed."

A bunch of muttering came from the crowd.

I will admit, this was strange. Nobody was being directly coerced to ask me to not heal them – and I could still at any time – but I felt this was strongly pushing [Oath].

At the same time, it wasn’t like [Oath] demanded I fix every little bruise and scrape, nor that I need to touch everyone and heal them just incase there was some lurking disease I didn’t know about. This was simply making sure it extended a bit further than usual.

"Trainee Diao is obligated to fight to the death if challenged! None of you will challenge him to a duel, spar, fight, or any other feat or contest. Understood!?"

I yelled my understanding with everyone else. How on Pallos had he managed to stay alive and un-arrested by the guard with that type of restriction skill? Was he a gladiator or something before becoming a Ranger?

"Lastly, some of you think you can use your aura skills. You would be wrong! If you troll-screwing scumbags can keep your aura to yourself, you may use it! Else, turn it off!"

"If you are caught using a wide-spread aura, you will be thrown out! This is a personal challenge, not a test of who can get closest to people with beneficial auras!" He screamed out, in that cadence only drill instructors could manage.

I withdrew [Warmth of the Sun] to only include me, and, looking at the pouring rain, upped the temperature.

"You are permitted to use skills, as long as they only impact yourself!"

"Now follow me!" He yelled, and jogged through the barrier.

I followed, along with everyone else. Passing the barrier was a strange sensation, that could only be described as "tingles of light", like my leg had fallen asleep and was waking up with an angry buzz, but all over my skin.

The storm hit me like a physical wall, buffeting me, almost bowling me over. The rain was freezing, colder than anything I’d ever felt before.

Heck, we were in a nearly tropical climate, during the summer. This should be a warm rain, not a freezing rain.

Ah. There was a skill at work.

We ran down to the sandy beach, where the first of many torments began.

"Trainees! Down in the sand, and roll!"

I threw myself to the ground and rolled in the sand, as ordered. It got everywhere – my hair, my hands, my clothes, inside my clothes, in my sandals – there wasn’t an inch that wasn’t coated in cold, sticky, irritating sand.

"Up! And run!" Quintis ordered.

We ran – no longer jogging – and it quickly became clear who had builds that were physical, and who had builds that were more based on skills.

Seeing a brief opening through flashes of lightning, I activated [Rapidash] to try and stick with the main group. There were instructors lurking in the back, and I didn’t want to be the unlucky girl they pounced on.

Lightning continued to crack the sky, great spiderwebs like reaching branches segmenting the stars before the rumble came down, the weight of the thunder pressing down on us, interspersed with howls of wind and rain driving into us.

The bright lights from the villa pierced the storm, mocking us, letting us know it could all be over soon.

We started to run around the island, and on a particularly muddy patch, after the burst of speed from [Rapidash] was gone, I slipped and fell into the mud. I tried to catch myself with my hands, but it was too deep, my face planting into it, mud getting into my eyes, my nose, my mouth.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and violently threw me back. I windmilled, then landed on my back in the mud, back and hair getting caked. I was now a mud-monster.

"Ranger Elaine! Are you alright!?" One of the instructors screamed in my face, a violent tone to gentle words.

I half-saluted from my position in the mud.

"Sir! Yes sir!" I called out, mud spraying from my mouth.

"Then why are you not running!?" He screamed.

I got back to my feet, continuing to run after the group. Nice of the instructor to make sure I wasn’t busy drowning in mud. It would’ve been a real awkward way to go.

We made it back around to the sandy beach where we’d started, close to the villa, only to get new orders.

"Halt! Drop, 500 pushups!"

I dropped and started to do pushups. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a dozen of the instructors descend upon us, one of them heading towards me.

"Ranger Elaine! What type of push up pace is that!?" He screamed at me. "Faster!"

I redoubled my efforts, arms already starting to feel the burn. Satisfied, the instructor moved onto some other poor sod, yelling at them in a similar manner.

I didn’t dare slow down, mentally dismissing [Training] level-up notifications as they showed up.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Training] has reached level 29!]

….

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Training] has reached level 35!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 145!]

I’d murder to have my [Greater Invigorate] skill back at this moment.

We kept running and exercising as the storm calmed down, and the sun came up, my stomach rumbled I figured we’d stop for food any minute now.

Any minute now.

Any…

I was feeling light-headed as the sun peaked in the sky, having been working out with everyone for roughly the last 10 hours without a single break.

Curses. I see why Julius had made a comment on vitality and Academy.

I opened my menu, and, without really thinking too hard on it, dumped my remaining 62 free stat points into vitality.

I immediately felt somewhat better, and perked up as I saw some bread being brought out. A second, smaller tray of food was brought out, filled with meat.

My face fell, and there were cries of dismay, as one of the instructors gestured dumping sand all over the bread.

"Trainees! Lunch is served! Half a loaf per person!" Quintis yelled out at us. "Companions that eat meat line up over there." He pointed to the smaller tray.

Ah. Not getting people’s companions killed. That was a one-way ticket to not recruiting anyone with companions, and they could be powerful.

"Fuck this." One person yelled, staggering off towards the villa. I quickly threw an [Identify] his way, to get the experience. No level, sadly. One of the instructors leapt over to him, and helped him along the path of shame, the path to quitting. Quintis had a sadistic grin on his face.

"Right then! Anyone else want a real meal? No? Then what are you doing, form a line, move!"

We scrambled into a line, and quickly, with exhausted military efficiency, grabbed our half-loaf of sandy bread.

I half-heartedly brushed the sand off, then bit into it, the hard, stale texture nearly breaking my teeth, grains of sand grinding my gums.

It was the most delicious thing I’d ever eaten. I wolfed it down within seconds of getting it. Warm, slightly salty water was also served, and downed with gusto. There was plenty of water, it was just somewhat nasty. They weren’t trying to kill us.

We were given maybe five minutes of rest before the instructors were yelling at us again.

The afternoon started, more of the same, with the exception that a blowing sandstorm covered us, tiny grains pelting us, getting in our eyes. My limbs were feeling heavy, my eyelids drooping.

The rain of projectiles being shot over our head was never-ending, causing me to flinch and jump every time, occasionally flickering [Veil of the Aurora] reflexively to shield myself.

Some Trainees stopped caring about the shots, which had me frowning to myself with the tiny amount of extra energy I could muster up. Ignoring potentially lethal blows was a great way to get yourself killed one day.

We continued on through the day. Through the night. And right back into the day. We were fed again at midnight, frozen bread instead of sandy bread.

More dropouts. And we were still in the first 48 hours of hell months.

The physical aspect was hard. The sheer boredom was almost harder.

A week passed, more of the same. More dropouts.

"Trainees! Groups of eight, by height!" Quintis yelled at us.

Ug. More running. Fine, fine. I got up and started to run along with the other trainees, only for an instructor to get in my face and yell at me.

"Ranger Elaine! What is your malfunction! Group up by height, nitwit!" He screamed in my face, spit practically flying into my face.

I wasn’t the only one, as the other trainees who’d started to run on auto-pilot also got roasted.

Groups of eight were rapidly formed, and I quickly found myself isolated.

Men, as a rule, were taller than women. Generally speaking, as a person got older, they got taller.

Not only was I the youngest recruit, not only was I the only female recruit, I was also on the short end of the spectrum for a woman. I was roughly 155 cm tall. The shortest man who was still with us was 170 cm tall, and it only got worse from there.

The instructors moved along, smacking people around, getting them into proper groups of eight. One group had a group of six, another had nine people in their group. Yelling about "proper counting" and questioning their intelligence and their ancestor’s sexual choices.

"Ranger Elaine! What are you doing!?" Quintis yelled in my face.

I gave a wobbly salute, as my coordination had fled along with my lack of sleep.

"Sir! There’s nobody even close to my height, sir!"

"Are you sassing me Ranger Elaine!?"

"Sir! No sir!"

He looked around with a gleam in his eye, mentally measuring people, seeming to agree with me.

"Wood! Earth! Metal Mages! Raise your hand!" He called out.

A few scattered hands were raised, and he grabbed the closest one.

"Make Ranger Elaine platform shoe! She must be taller!"

The mage muttered something to himself, making me a pair of tall, thin metallic stilts. In my sleep-deprived haze, I eyed them, unsure how I’d ever keep my balance, or how they could support my weight.

"Do you call these platform shoes?! Ranger Elaine is a person, not a mantis! She will be running in your group; do you want to fail!?" Quintis continued to yell.

The mage hurriedly fixed the problem, and suddenly I had platform shoes to use. They were heavy, awkward, and unwieldly, but now I was at the proper height for whatever the instructors had planned next.

"Form up in your group! Follow me!" Quintis yelled.

As we started to run after Quintis, who never slowed down the pace, my respect for the Senior Drill Instructor went up quite a few notches. Not only was he sticking with the murderous pace he set the rest of us, eating the same food we were, he was also keeping an eye on all of us, finding and solving problems in a quick, practical manner.

We ran to the center of the island, the omni-present light of the villa promising warmth, food, sleep, clothes. My tunic was already ruined, in shreds, and I was coated in sand, mud, and other disgusting fluids that I didn’t want to think too hard on. My new boots were killing my legs, the extra weight and unsteady balance doing me no favors.

Bless [Center of the Galaxy] for keeping me sane. I’d need to check on my levels at some point, but I was too tired to process them right now, didn’t have the bandwidth. The recurrent background *ding!*’s reassuring me that I was making amazing progress, as hellish as this was.

A series of seasoned, gargantuan logs, glowing with inscriptions, were in the middle of the island, and we were ordered to grab a log each as a team.

"One, two, three, LIFT!" I said, coordinating my team. Nobody else was doing it, and I seemed to be the only one with a mental stability skill, still able to process things.

More of the same was next, except we were now carrying a massive log, designed to be a challenge even to high-strength individuals, around with us.

The log got steadily heavier and heavier, and I strained, doing my best to pull my weight.

Suddenly, the log got much heavier.

"Blah." Someone on my team said, shaking his arms. "Just need a quick break."

That was clearly the wrong move, as the instructors descended upon him like eagles to prey, a whole flock tearing and yelling.

"You do not give up on your team! Everyone pulls their weight!" Was the main refrain.

Two minutes later, he was heading to the villa, tears in his eyes. From what I’d heard, he hadn’t been forced to quit – the instructors had verbally brutalized him until he left of his own volition. There was the standard yelling they did, then there was that.

I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that.

One of them tapped the log, and suddenly it was lighter, designed for seven people to carry it, not eight. And by lighter, I meant it was just as heavy as it was before Slacker decided to stop pulling his weight.

Those were some impressive inscriptions. I quickly glanced at my mana, seeing that there was a moderate drain on it, probably what fueled said inscriptions.

Being made to shoot myself in the foot like that was easily the worst part about carrying the log.

Another day. Another week. Of running around with the damn heavy log above our heads, more people dropping out. One team had a single giant of a man, just a hair shorter than Arthur, single-handedly carrying a log himself.

That’d be one hell of a weapon.

The elements kept changing around us. Thunderous gales turned to sandstorms, sandstorms turned into sleet, sleet turned into snow, with frozen icicles flying through the air. Billows of choking smoke, banks of noxious coughing gas that made us all tear up, boiling steam making us wish for the sweet release of the frozen snow to return, followed by more heat as all the elements vanished, and the hot, hot tropical summer sun beat down on us.

The food never got better, but there was plenty of water. They wanted to push us to the extreme, not kill us.

Crawling through conjured ooze, worse than any mud. Stickier. Smellier. Nastier. It clung to our limbs, foul stench clogging our noses. I wished I was crawling through dirty diapers; it would’ve been an improvement.

A month later, the tone shifted slightly.

"Fuck!" I yelled, as a stinging sensation hit my arm, blood being drawn. I quickly healed myself with [Phases], and threw up [Veil] as another projectile was shot at me.

"They’re shooting at us!" I yelled, the remaining four members of my team groaning.

That made us all jumpy, as we no longer knew if the omni-present sound of projectiles flying over our head were designed to miss, or aimed at one of us. We dropped the log more than once as someone got jumpy, diving to defend themselves instead of carrying the log.

The instructors were Not Amused by that at all, and one chronic dodger found himself leaving in tears.

Games were played with the logs. Races.

The first team could rest until the last team made it. The last team got no rest.

Turns out, it’s possible to put a log down as a team, and fall asleep, in seven seconds. Getting even 40 seconds of sleep was a worthwhile endeavor. We were well-motivated to move fast.

Everyone else had the same motivation. The all-physical teams did amazingly well.

The more mage-centric teams struggled, like mine. It was completely random if a team was physically or magically based, and some drew shorter straws than others.

We ran up to the center of the island, where we dropped the logs down.

"Congratulations! You are all slightly less worthless for having made it halfway through!" Quintis yelled at us. "You have earned yourselves a rest!"

It was like Black Crow had come down and killed every single Trainee, as we all collapsed to the ground in unison, desperate to get some sleep. Rocks? Water? Someone else’s rank foot? None of that mattered, the sweet siren of sleep summoned.

I woke up, to a hazy fog covering everything, unable to even see the person next to me. The villa was still visible, cutting through the fog like a false beacon.

A soft voice whispered to me, coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

"You killed him."

"Nobody will want you."

"It’s your fault."

"Why would the gods touch you of all people? You’re worthless."

"You’ll only kill more people."

"Nobody will marry a girl who’s a killer."

"It’ll be your fault again."

"Why are you here?"

"You’re a good healer. For a girl."

"You killed her."

"What’s the point?"

"You should quit."

"No! She should die!"

"If you had done nothing, she would be alive."

That, and a thousand other words whispered to me, pressing on my sanity, rooting through my mind, unearthing my deepest, darkest secrets. I shook my head. Just words… just words….

…. But it was my fault Origen died. I had killed Lyra, as surely as if I’d pushed her off a bridge.

Were the voices right? Would I just kill more?

Hours. Hours of the voices whispering to me, tormenting me.

The fog lifted with the dawn, and maybe a third of people were no longer around.

I got up, and started to walk to the villa. The voices had been right.

I took three steps, and hesitated.

What would Kallisto say?

What would happen to Julius? He’d be demoted, right? Maybe thrown out?

What would the look on Artemis’s face be? Would understanding and acceptance be worse than the disappointment?

Shaking my head, I turned back, rejoining the group. Quintis gave me a stink-eye, another recruit almost broken.

We continued running, the boredom returning rapidly, the ‘rest’ having been a trap, a sleepless night full of mist taunting us.

Another lap.

Another lap.

Another lap.

Another-

The instructors descended upon me as a single unit, a horde of rats onto a single morsel of cheese.

"You’re worthless!"

"Your parents must not care about you to let you do this. Are they trying to get you killed?"

"Useless!"

"Just be dead weight on your team!"

"Who ever heard of a healer Ranger!"

"Girls should stay at home!"

"You’ll just distract your team!"

"Just go home and have some babies!"

"You’re only here because you spread your legs for the right person!"

"We’ll stick a knife in you!"

"Your hysterics will bring your team down!"

"Go home!"

"Nobody needs a childbirth expert on the road! What else could you possibly know?"

"Go away!"

"You’re so damn ugly with your hair all muddy like that!"

"We don’t want you!"

"Nobody would want you!"

Hundreds of insults, threats, promises of mutilation, harm, and more came from all the instructors, demeaning me, causing tears to well up in my eyes and fall from my face in hot streaks.

But I kept on running. I wasn’t going to quit, they’d have to force me out themselves.

"She’s not quitting."

"Next!"

And just like that, I was free, free from the swarm of instructors, and I blinked, looking around, only to see them descend upon another trainee, hurling abuse at that one.

Something about their mother and sealskins.

Three minutes passed, and in spite of having made it two months, through all the trials so far, the instructor mob did him in, and he raised his hands in surrender, walking towards the villa.

I was in the back of the pack, and I got to watch them cleverly isolate, then torment each trainee in turn. [Veil] was on almost permanent flicker-duty, deflecting a constant barrage of shots heading my way. As trainees quit, unable to put up with the abuse, the combined focus of all the Instructors, I threw an [Identify] their way, barely remembering my plan to grind the skill.

Other trainees didn’t have as many shots aimed at them, but my combination of shield skills and healing left me receiving the bulk of the barrage. Every other trainee had at least a dozen minor injuries from impacts, and it seemed like whoever was controlling the attacks wanted me to join them.

And yet, once the "instructor mob" portion was done, it was suddenly easy, as easy as it had been at the start. That is to say, it was only running, no sleep, shit food, and environmental hazards. The shots started to go over our head again, the ooze pit vanished, the insanity mists were nowhere to be seen, and there were no traps, no logs to carry, no instructors screaming threats in my ear. No races, no cruel games pitting us against each other, with the reward being sleep.

Just a single, unified body of Trainees, who’d all gone through hell together. An unspoken bond was between us all, binding us together, making us a single, cohesive whole. I could see why Night was reluctant to isolate me, why he wanted me to have this bond with everyone else.

The last two weeks felt almost perfunctory. Not a single person dropped out.

"Fall in!" Quintis yelled, and by sheer sleep-deprived instinct, we assembled into our formation.

"Cooooooooooooongratulations! You’ve all passed!" Quintis yelled at us.

There wasn’t a single cheer, just a mass-collapse event as we all settled into the sand right where we were to go to sleep.

Walking to the villa? Clean sheets and food?

Nope. Not worth it. Sleep now.

Chapter 106– Ranger Academy VI

I woke up to a servant – or slave, probably a slave – bringing in a tray of food into my room. I bolted up, realizing I was in clean clothes again.

There was a note on my bedside table.

Hey Healy-bug!

Congratulations! I’m so proud of you!

Can’t wait to see you later.

Cheers,

Artemis

What was unsaid was she was probably the one who’d brought me back and changed me.

I got up, both ravenous and not hungry. I’d adapted to life with barely any food, a subsistence level just above starving. I glanced at the offerings – a weak soup, designed to slowly get me back up to "full speed" so to speak.

I ate it, then found sleep claiming me again. I figured it was safe to sleep – we’d just been put through three months of torturous hell, we’d demonstrated we could take it. They needed us recovered for whatever came next.

"Rise and shine sleepy head!" Artemis said, as loudly and obnoxiously as possible.

I sprang out of bed, saluting Artemis, deeply honed reflexes from the last three months kicking in.

"Ranger Elaine ready to – oh hey Artemis." I said, my brain kicking in halfway through, processing that I was out of hell months, and it was, well, Artemis!

"That’s Instructor Artemis to you, Elaine!" Artemis said, sending massively mixed signals.

"Sir? Yes sir?" I said.

Artemis preened.

"That’s more like it."

Worst. Drill. Instructor. Ever. I wasn’t complaining.

"What happens now?" I asked, sitting up, seeing a tray of slightly more substantial food had been left in my room.

"Well, you’ve all passed the hell months. Congratulations by the way – I was worried about you. At this point, you’ve all but made it – it’s exceedingly rare for someone to drop out at this stage, and it’s usually due to either outside influences, a training accident, or an injury so crippling that a Trainee drops out."

I tilted my head. "What could that be?" I asked.

"Usually something breaks in their head, and they walk away. Swear to never fight again or some nonsense."

Mental trauma, basically. Without the proper word for it. Something I couldn’t even heal. Well, not magically. And I knew I wasn’t equipped to try and properly treat it nonmagically. Although, sympathy and a willing ear went a long way… thoughts for another day.

Also, I disagreed with Artemis. It wasn’t nonsense.

"What happens next?" I asked, between a mouthful of bread. Hot, warm, straight-out-of-the-oven bread. It tasted like heaven. Soft flakes of tender goodness melting in my mouth.

Best part? No sand.

Just how good would a mango taste if I could get my hands on one? The thought was sheer bliss.

"Well, you get a week to rest and recover. You spent four days sleeping already, so practically it’s only three days. In the meantime, the Instructors are planning an individual course for each of you, although a lot of classes will intersect."

"Huh?" I asked, confused. Hey, I was still sleep deprived. The only thinking I’d done in the last three months had been "Put one foot in front of the next", and the "careful thinking" part of my brain was still rebooting.

Artemis sighed.

"Let’s say you have a ranger class, like Arthur – the one that shoots arrows. And you can’t read, or sail. You’d get the general Ranger class, a class on reading, and a class on sailing. Along with everyone else that needs those classes. Depending on how good you are at shooting arrows, you might or might not be signed up for archery classes."

"Then take a, say, healer. You can read, can’t sail. You’d get signed up for the general Ranger class, you’d skip the class on reading, and get signed up for the class on sailing. You’d be exempted from the class on healing, but signed up for the class on how to be a mage, because your mage abilities and levels suck."

Ouch.

"You’d be in the same sailing and general class as the ranger we talked about before, but you wouldn’t be in his reading class, and he wouldn’t be in your mage class."

"Personalized education for everyone, but the classes are for all."

Artemis’s eyes unfocused, the typical signal of someone receiving a System message.

"Hey, I leveled! [Teaching] up!" She said, pumping her fist.

"Nice!"

Something clicked.

"Hang on, aren’t you not supposed to tell me things about Academy?" I asked.

Artemis gave me a Look.

"One, I’m an Instructor now. It means I’m allowed. Two, the main thing we want to keep under wraps are the Hell Months. It’s a bit too easy to prepare for them if you know what’s coming. A skill like your [Center of the Galaxy], and high vitality makes it quite a bit easier to pass than we’d like."

I could practically see Artemis rubbing her hands in glee at the first point. She always did like having privilege. Not that I could blame her – every benefit she got was hard-fought and hard-won.

"Don’t repeats get to know though?"

"Sure, but anyone kicked that hard, and coming back anyways is hard to stop. They’re clearly dedicated."

The logic didn’t quite sit right with me, but again, who was I to question the more interesting practices of the army. Wasn’t the first, second, or even third time they did stuff that I didn’t agree with. For now, I’d be a good minion, and play the game by their rules.

"Most Trainees get assigned a Sentinel as a mentor, depending on where they think their skillset lies. Ideally to help them with any skills that aren’t obviously covered by other classes. Which is good and bad."

"Oh?" I said, encouraging Artemis to continue.

"In theory, it’s to get some wisdom from the strongest humans in existence. In practice, people good at blowing things up aren’t great at teaching them."

I gave Artemis a flat look at that. She cuffed me.

"Don’t give me that look! I’m a great teacher!"

"Some are better than others. Sky is notoriously flighty, and I honestly think he resents being promoted to Sentinel. His life of relatively carefree flying around as a Ranger became one of responsibilities, being on-deck to move Sentinels from A to B, along with myriad other job duties. He hates it, and does whatever he can to avoid ‘extra work’, aka anything he decides is beneath him. Don’t get me wrong, in a pinch he’ll be there, but if you get him as a mentor, you’re lucky if you get one meeting with him the entire time – he’s usually either shirking responsibilities to fly around, or he’s flying a Sentinel to a hotspot."

"He does teach a class on flying, although I suspect it’s more because he gets sanctioned time to fly around, which is what he wants to do anyways, than out of any desire to teach."

"Sealing and Ocean are some of the best teachers. Destruction has passion, but he’s terrible at teaching. Magic always has something new and interesting, but rarely gets anyone assigned to him. Bulwark is similar – only Inscriptionists and defense specialists get assigned. He mentored Origen."

"Almost nobody gets assigned to Acquisition, or at least not openly. Rumors are, he gets assigned to teach people less savory skills. Theft and assassination, among others."

"Nature believes in the school of hard knocks, which also means he doesn’t have to do it. Expect to get thrown into the Kadan, and walk out a year later. Lowest pass rate, highest number of drop-outs after Hell Months, but there’s no arguing with his results – his trainees have the highest survival rate."

"Brawling is totally average, but gets solid levels out of his trainees. Most fighters end up with him. I know he mentored Kallisto and Maximus."

"No idea on Toxic, the mysterious new Sentinel." Artemis said with a straight face. I punched her in the arm.

"Come on, Arthur loved teaching me all about poisons and hunting."

Artemis cracked a grin.

"Sure! No idea how he’ll help people on their particular style of fighting though. The point is to help people on their path, not throw people on yours. Might split assassin training with Acquisition, thinking about it." Artemis said, looking thoughtful.

"Lastly is Night. The best, but only takes one Trainee a year. He was my mentor back when I did Academy." Artemis said. "My bet? You’ll end up with Night. You’re arguably the most promising Trainee this year, although you’re not a Trainee, and you have both night-related skills, and restriction skills, something that Night handles."

She shrugged.

"I’m not in on the meetings, I’m just a part-time Instructor. Might end up teaching you magic, might not. You kinda know everything I’d teach already, it’d be a waste of your time." She said.

"Right, I’m off. Enjoy the next few days! Eat lots – but don’t stuff yourself too much. There’s a bath in the lower levels of the villa that’s almost never used – it’s good for us. Cheers! And again, congratulations."

Artemis hugged me at the end, and I hugged her back, happiness filling my heart. I’d made it!

She headed out, and as I finished eating, I decided to take a peek at my level ups.

I got a whiff of myself before I got to see them, and decided that this could be handled after a bath. I’d been changed to sleep, but I had months of literal filth still caked onto me. Bless Artemis for not saying anything, and hugging me anyways.

A hop, skip, and a jump to the nice, luxurious, heaven-sent, warm, blissful, one-girl bath, and I was reviewing my level-ups. Hmmmm… let’s merge all the level ups from the same skill together, and skip the middle. Just the start and the end.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 188! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 189! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

That was honestly pretty disappointing. Three months, only two levels? Blah.

To be fair, I was only healing myself, and I was only healing the lowest of low-level injuries. Sore feet, cracked skin, minor cuts and bruises, the occasional shot from one of the Instructors that I wasn’t able to shield with [Veil]. All in all, I’d done almost nothing in my class, and through that lens, two levels was generous. The added stress, and the [Learning] and [Training] multipliers were the only reason I’d gotten two.

I think. The System didn’t exactly give out details like that, much as I’d like it to.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 188!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 189!]

Sometimes, it was hard to see what the Affinity skill did.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 161!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 189!]

Ding ding ding! Wild success! Keeping the aura on a tight, full-blast, constantly needing and relying on it did wonders for the level.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 162!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 189!]

A second capped skill! I threw my hands up happily, not caring that it got water everywhere. A brief twinge of guilt went through my mind at whoever had to clean it up, but then again, they’d just spent the last three months in a warm, cozy place. My sympathy was, probably improperly, limited.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 188!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 189!]

No way to tell if that was from the healing I’d done, or the over-leveling I’d done earlier. I wasn’t complaining.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Veil of the Aurora] has reached level 147!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Veil of the Aurora] has reached level 181!]

Turns out, blocking shots non-stop for months was great for [Veil]’s experience. Not quite enough to cap it, but enough.

[Vastness of the Stars], [Medicine], and [Moonlight] refused to budge… which was fair. I hadn’t used the skills at all.

Speaking of, what was [Moonlight] at?

[Moonlight]: The phases of the moon are visible to all who look up at them and see them. Able to apply [Phases of the Moon] at range, whenever moonlight touches them. [Phases of the Moon] applies with a significant efficiency penalty. Penalty increases with distance. Increased range, decreased penalty per level. Current range: 10.4 meters. Current penalty: 351% increased cost per meter.

I’d worked the math out at one point – it got 1% more efficient per level, and .1 meter per level.

Right. Onto [Pyromancer].

[Pyromancer]?

Hello? System? Is this thing broken?

With the most reluctant *ding!* I got a notification.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pyromancer] has leveled up to level 63! +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic power, +8 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

Naturally, I got all of my skills leveling up one.

I suppose not burning anything to the ground would bar me from significant [Pyromancer] experience, although I hoped I’d get some residual experience from everything else, and constant use of [Rapidash].

Nope, apparently not enough. Fine. One level it is. General skills, don’t let me down!

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Identify] has reached level 100!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Identify] has reached level 125!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Vigilant] has reached level 133!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Vigilant] has reached level 177!]

Welp, being constantly shot at for months clearly had a fantastic effect on [Vigilant].

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 168!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 180!]

Wait, what? What was [Oath] doing there?

I checked over the exact wording of [Oath], and it hit me.

I will teach and spread my knowledge to the best of my abilities, asking for no recompense.

The scrolls I’d sent out. Took the scribe long enough, probably took longer for them to get to healers, and for them to be read, tested, and approved, but – I bet that’s where I was getting those [Oath] levels. I anticipated a steady stream of experience from it.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 145!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 160!]

Ranger’s Lore continuing to be the silliest skill. How did running around an island improve my ability to track animals? How was lifting logs in a team helping me fight?

I’d break my brain thinking too hard about it, and the room had enough steam without any escaping from my ears.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Training] has reached level 36!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Training] has reached level 100!]

Sweet! This would give me a massive boost to everything I did here, and was probably responsible for everything else going up so fast. It’d be invaluable for the rest of Academy, and I could, maybe, try to cap most of my skills while I was here.

It’d also help me level [Pyromancer], which was in serious need of help.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 151!]

A perfunctory level. Better than nothing. Let’s do some math, blah.

Training – 1.5% boost per level, 100 levels. 150% boost.

Learning – 1% boost per level, 151 levels. 151% boost.

So either a 300% boost, which was a 4x multiplier to experience while here, or if I was lucky, they stacked well, and I would get a 6.25x multiplier. Roughly. I didn’t want to try and calculate the extra 1%.

I leaned back, finally getting the last of the mud out of my poor, abused hair.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pretty] has reached level 126!]

That skill could also use some serious help. I wonder if they’d help me level it?

All too soon, the day came for training to resume, and we were in formation in the villa courtyard again.

"Trainees! I’m proud of each and every one of you! Barring an unfortunate accident, all of you wonderful people will make it to graduation! That doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get a spot as a Ranger, but it’s the closest you handsome people will get!"

The tonal shift from Quintis had all of us nervous, even though we didn’t show it. He’d gone from calling us "shit so bad not even maggots would eat us" to "wonderful, handsome people."

Was severe mental whiplash the last test of mental fortitude? I eyed the silver gong, an escape from the mad lunacy of Quintis. I wasn’t alone in my sudden self-doubt.

"If you indicated you can read, please see Instructor Jason when your name is called. If you can’t read, please see the Instructor who raises their hand when your name is called!" Quintis called out.

"First! Ranger Elaine!"

Welp. Rank hath its privilege and all that. I fell out of formation, and headed over to where Jason was.

I stopped in front of him, and saluted. He saluted me back, and handed me the top piece of paper.

I walked away, reading over the schedule.

"What on Pallos?"

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 16]

[Mana: 17550/17550]

[Mana Regen: 20797]

Stats

[Free Stats: 24]

[Strength: 118]

[Dexterity: 218]

[Vitality: 297]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 1755]

[Mana Regeneration: 2419]

[Magic Power: 1533]

[Magic Control: 2075]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 189]]

[Celestial Affinity: 189]

[Warmth of the Sun: 189]

[Medicine: 185]

[Center of the Galaxy: 189]

[Phases of the Moon: 189]

[Moonlight: 104]

[Veil of the Aurora: 181]

[Vastness of the Stars: 135]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 63]]

[Fire Affinity: 63]

[Fire Resistance: 63]

[Fire Conjuration: 63]

[Fire Manipulation: 63]

[Fuel for the Fire: 63]

[Burn Brightly: 63]

[Rapidash: 63]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 125]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 131]

[Pretty: 126]

[Vigilant: 177]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 180]

[Ranger's Lore: 160]

[Training: 100]

[Learning: 151]

Chapter 107– Ranger Academy VII

I looked over my schedule with no small amount of concern.

4th Gong: Physical Exercise

5th Gong: Breakfast

6th Gong: Wilderness Survival

8th Gong: Legal and Justice

9th Gong: Investigations

10th Gong: Sparring Overwatch

11th Gong: 1 on 1 Sparring

12th Gong: Lunch

13th Gong: History, Politics, and Geography

14th Gong: Obstacle Course

15th Gong: Monster Slaying

16th Gong: Flying

17th Gong: Leadership

18th Gong: Dinner

19th Gong: Mage Training

20th Gong: Survival, Escape, Resistance, Evasion Training

21st Gong: Toxic

22nd Gong: Night

Well, while it wasn’t Hell Months anymore, it didn’t look like they were letting me slack off at all. With how often I’d been asked about sailing, I was fully expecting a lesson on how to sail, although that didn’t seem to be present.

Not that I was complaining. After Massilix, after hearing all the rumors of things in the Nostrum Sea – which didn’t even connect to The Ocean – I was more than happy to keep my two feet on dry land.

Plus – Flying. It looked like they wanted to teach me how to fly! Hell Months were automatically worth it, and I’d go through another six months of them in a heartbeat, if that meant I’d be able to fly at the end of it! One of my long-cherished dreams, possibly coming true!

It had to be Artemis who told them about me wanting to fly, possibly pulling a string or two. Wait, how could Artemis possibly have any strings or pull at Academy?

Also, what was this sparring overwatch thing?

Hmmm… Time to compare notes…

"Wolfy! Hey, Wolfy!" I said, calling out the Trainee who was companions with MoonMoon. Having two wolves, Wolfy was the only appropriate nickname.

"Elaine. What’s up?" He asked me.

"What’s your schedule like?" I asked.

"Well…" He said, and we bent over to compare notes.

Physical Exercise, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Obstacle Course, Monster Slaying, SERE Training, and Wilderness Survival were all overlaps. Where I had "Sparring Overwatch" he just had "Group sparring".

However, he had classes like "Advanced Wilderness Survival", "Monsters and their habitats", "First Aid", "Army Basics", "Sailing", and just "Nature" – who I could only assume was the Nature Sentinel.

I grimaced seeing that, reached up and patted his shoulders.

"Good luck." I said.

MoonMoon tilted their heads at me, sensing Wolfy’s confusion.

"I’ve heard rumors about Nature…" I said, not wanting to elaborate.

Ok, fine, I also wanted to be slightly scary and ominous. It was fun when the shoe was on the other foot!

Still, he had a lot less in his schedule than I did, mostly at the end of the day. Oh well, I’ll find out more as time goes on!

Name after name was read off, about half going to an instructor to be verbally told their schedule, the rest getting their schedule from Instructor Jason.

"Trainees! Fall in!" Quintis yelled after everyone got their schedule.

"The Gong gets hit at regular intervals. Everyone starts with the 4th Gong, which gets hit special. You’ll know when it goes off. Meet in the courtyard when it happens, and your days will go from there. Trainees! Dismissed!" Quintis yelled.

Some of the other Trainees were chatting with each other, deciding to do warm-up spars, or explore the island more, find where they needed to be ahead of time. I decided to take one last day of relaxing before this schedule started. I doubted I’d get much "me-time", not with the schedule listed.

Maybe I could skip lunch now and then, grab a quick bath. Or better yet, grab food, sprint to the baths, and eat while bathing.

Heck, if I was clever, I could get a bowl to float in the bath with me.

I luxuriated the rest of the day idly, and went to bed early. It’d be the last good night of rest I’d get for some time.

I woke up to the sound of a gong reverberating, echoing again and again, somehow never fading.

Welp, I guess that’s what they meant by "You’ll know when it goes off."

I hustled out to the courtyard, and fell into formation without being told. We were a lean, mean, well-oiled machine at this point, and even MoonMoon was in formation, the serious look in their eyes betrayed by their happy grins and lolling tongues.

"Trainees! Form two ranks, and move out!"

We jogged around the island, next to what was obviously the obstacle course that had been built at some point in the last week. It wasn’t a terribly hard run, and the push-ups, pull-ups, burpees, and sit-ups weren’t that bad either – maybe 60% of the intensity of Hell Months.

It felt more like "We’re keeping you in shape and waking you up" more than anything else.

The hour ended all too quickly, the sun maybe thinking about peeking over the horizon. We headed back at various speeds to the villa, where breakfast awaited.

I was in the "Run back to have more time eating" camp, while others just wanted a break. To each their own – no method was right or wrong.

"Trainees! This segment has ended, fall in at the villa courtyard!" Senior Drill Instructor Quintis yelled at us, his voice somehow penetrating and reaching all our ears. I hadn’t noticed it before, but did he have some sort of sound-related [Drill Instructor] class?

We fell in at the courtyard, where the Instructors started to sound off.

"Religion on me!"

"Speedsters on me!"

"Basket-weaving on me!"

The last one was said by a man I recognized as Acquisition.

There was no way his class was basket-weaving, which had me flashing back to Artemis saying he taught assassination and theft.

I gave a long look at the people who went to Acquisition, mentally marking them.

We lost fewer than 10 people, who were either so good at Wilderness Survival that they didn’t need the extra help, or the Instructors felt it was worth them sacrificing learning how to survive in the wilderness for whatever other class they were taking.

Which brought my respect for them up to a whole new level. That was some serious, dedicated planning, to properly interlock everything.

"Trainees! First rule of wilderness survival – water is everything! You can go three weeks without food, but only three days without water! Before your vitality kicks in. Vitality screws with all that! So does using skills! The fundamental truth remains – water is your god, the very fountain of life! Today, we will teach you how to find water – then how to make a fire."

Training continued, and I managed to get myself yelled at.

"Ranger Elaine! You do not make a fire with your skill! One day, you might have a different set of classes, which does not have fire in it, then you’ll be stuck! Now do it properly!"

Which, as it turned out, was hard. I’d gotten complacent with Team 4, leaning on skills whenever, and they hadn’t bothered to teach me how to light a fire the right way, not when it was so easy for me to make a fire with [Firebug] then [Pyromancer].

Good thing I was being made to go through Academy, to polish out all the little blind spots I had like that.

At the end of the class, we fell in formation in the courtyard again. We were only doing that for the first week as we learned where every class was located, although my head involuntarily turned, against discipline, and my jaw dropped as the people coming back from Acquisition’s class were bringing back poorly-woven baskets.

What.

With that mystery bouncing around in my head like an itch I couldn’t scratch, it was off to Legal and Justice with me, along with four other students.

The main class was swimming, along with a few other side-classes for those that already knew how.

"All law derives from the Senate, who empower the Governors in each town to enact them." Our Law instructor began. "The Army reports to the Senate, and while we’re technically a branch of the Army, we are outside of, and equal to them. Similarly, while we’re on a lower level than the local Governor, they’re not able to order us around. That being said, realpolitik dictates that we should listen to them when they ask us to do something – and when we ask them to do something, they listen. However, that’s moving away from the legal system. Law enforcement is generally left to the guard, but we need to enforce it when they’re unable – or unwilling- to. Laws are passed by…."

It was morning, and I was fighting to keep my eyes open. This was important stuff, sure, but I was struggling to see the point. The droning nature of the Instructor, who while clearly knowledgeable, completely lacked passion, did nothing to help me focus.

Investigations.

"The important thing to ask yourself is, ‘what do I think happened?’. After that, your goal is to ask questions, talk with people, and see how your understanding changes."

…..

"I want to get into something I call ‘corollary truths.’ That is to say, if A is true, then B must also be true. A simple example. If a suspect has told you that they bought a loaf of bread from the baker in the morning, it means that the baker must be open in the morning. It means the baker must have bread in the morning. It means the baker sold a loaf that morning. It likely means that the baker was baking that morning. All of these can be investigated. If the baker only sells bread in the afternoon, it means the suspect was lying. Then you must ask yourself, why was he lying? What did he have to gain? From this, we can…."

There was lots of good information, and I had a strong sense that Julius had taken this class once upon a time.

Sparring Overwatch was interesting. We all got into formation, as usual, and Quintis yelled out.

"Trainees! We’re off to the sparring area. On me!"

Nothing was said about me and overwatch, so I jogged along. We made it there, and Quintis started to yell.

"Trainees! I will be breaking you up into teams of four! You will have a short period of time to get used to each other, before you will be paired against another team to spar with! Wooden weapons and padding are found on the North corner!"

"I don’t believe it needs to be said, but I’ll say it! No. Lethal. Blows. If you kill another Trainee, even by accident, not only will you be kicked out, you will have to pay triple the standard price for murder! For each and every one of you, this will mean slavery!" He barked out.

"Also, no matter what, avoid head shots! Carrying on!"

"Team 1! Gladius, Penthus, ….."

He called out teams of four, one set at a time.

In the end I wasn’t on any team, standing at rest as everyone else broke out into their groups, talking and getting to know each other, and their skills.

"Ranger Elaine, with me." Quintis said. I approached and saluted.

"Sir?" I asked.

"Ranger Elaine. Your skills make you not only unsuited to these duels, but perfect for being able to jump in on a near-lethal blow, shield them, and stabilize and heal. Your duty is to be on guard, rushing in at any moment, on any duel, and save the life of any Trainee that needs it. Additionally, any injuries that occur, I expect you, within reason, to patch them up, so we can continue uninterrupted. Understood?"

I saluted.

"Sir! Yes sir!"

"Very good. This will also double as working on your healing class. When push comes to shove, I won’t question you if you move in on a fight early. We’d rather a spar end prematurely because you got jumpy, than someone dying."

I saluted. This wasn’t exactly training I was being put through.

No, I was basically being hired as a temporary instructor/medic, to keep people alive. It was a show of trust that I’d repay.

"Trainees! Listen up." Quintis yelled.

"While this course is going on, Ranger Elaine is your healer! For here, for now, her word is above every single god and goddess! She says stop, you stop! She says jump, you say how high! If she says left, and I say right, you go left! Understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" A confused response came back, as people suddenly eyed me speculatively. Quintis leaned down next to me.

"Julius had good things to say about you. Don’t let me down. Don’t let anyone die."

I saluted, as seriously as I could manage.

The first training session was fairly easy, as people kept to light blows, wanting to get each other’s measure before starting to really land powerful hits. I only had one broken bone to fix, and didn’t see the need to step into any fight.

The dude with the ‘fight to the death’ restriction had failed out during Hell Months fortunately. The rumor mill had him as a gladiator, trying his hand at something else.

I might’ve helped just a bit with that rumor.

I looked around, and saw a wide, interesting variety of people using skills, and named a few of them.

Wolfy with MoonMoon, the two silly wolves having a surprisingly serious and aggressive side, while also having the gentlest bites in spars. There was no doubt they could bite down and rip limbs off if they wanted to.

Sniper, so called because he seemed to be able to hide himself, shooting arrows from unknown places. A mini-Arthur, in many ways – stealth archer seemed to be popular, and there was good reason for it.

Oozy, an archer that shot nasty things on the tip of his arrow. He demonstrated being able to cause a black mist, or an explosion, with his arrows, and from then on, the Instructor overseeing the spar declared any near-hit from him to be ‘lethal’.

Barrier, who was able to conjure up panes of solid light, most blows bouncing off of them. I knew how much my [Veil] could take, and his could easily take 10 times the damage mine could before he even showed strain. Skills to help skills was my bet, the way [Moonlight] helped [Phases of the Moon].

Dancer, a former tumbler who’d taken up the blade, who moved with sinuous gracefulness, always being out of the way of a blow, flowing like a stream as he moved from hit to hit.

The Three Musketeers, three guards who were trying their hand at becoming Rangers, quick with a baton. They weren’t the best in spars, but they were well-rounded, and if they got close enough, they were able to apply debuffs. They were also allowed to use their ‘real’ weapon, instead of a wooden baton.

Aura, a support who buffed his team to unreasonable levels, allowing them to fight a 3v4. The opposing team kept forgetting that Aura was there, and could also just straight-up stab them with a spear. I was quickly being convinced on the need, and value, of supports being able to fight enough to keep up.

A half-dozen Artillery Mages, recruited and promoted from the frontlines. They all had Earth or Metal classes designed for throwing rocks a long, long distance. I imagined the sparring instructors would struggle with them, if a near-hit was a success or not, but to my surprise, they had some means I couldn’t figure out to determine if a shot was "lethal" or not. I guess generations of Artillery Mages going through Academy had given them time to figure out a system.

They claimed they could hit someone cross-island if they wanted to, and given their history, I believed them.

I didn’t believe when they said they could hit one person out of a crowd. I imagined they’d just filled the corner of an island with hundreds of pounds of high-speed metal balls.

There were maybe thirty, forty ‘normal’ soldiers from the front lines who’d wanted to become Rangers, and had passed all the selection criteria so far. I imagined that Kallisto had started the same way, these soldiers forming the frontlines of most Ranger teams.

Honestly, probably most of the body count.

Speedsters. As I mentally cursed them, mage-killers.

Levitator, who fought by levitating a bunch of weapons, and hitting people with them, one sword distracting from the front, while a shield bashed, and a knife slipped into the back.

Spitter, who could spray acid out of his mouth, blinding his opponents before "killing" them with his sword.

Binder, who caused roots and thorns to erupt from the ground, binding and tripping people.

Alchemist, a utility, who had at least three lessons dedicated just to his craft, who threw seashells of water at people. Apparently, he could make nasty, nasty potions, and was one of the most lethal people at Academy.

For the first thirty seconds. Then he was worse than a mage, and would require weeks to re-brew everything he’d just used, at massive expense. His teammates were allowed to drink fairly basic stat-improving potions, and once again, the value of utility on a team was shown.

As a rule of thumb, the more powerful the person at a given level, the shorter the timeframe they were powerful in. It’s why not everyone was a mage – a mage was strong as long as they had mana, then that was it, they were weaker than most people half their level.

Hulk, a hair shorter than Arthur, who didn’t seem to quite have all his marbles, using a tree like a maul.

His fights turned into a question of if the other side had one of the Artillery mages, who could rapidly score a ‘kill’ on him. Without one, he usually won quickly, although the Instructors were throwing unhappy looks his way. His ability to restrain and control himself was poor, to say the least.

Hidden Blade, who could use the Mirage element to completely hide his forearm and weapon, who had an unknown reach. He seemed to be a fan of changing weapons after hiding what he had, keeping people guessing.

Of course, the moment people caught onto that trick, he stopped changing weapons, playing constant mind games.

Mirror, a warrior coated in shining…well, mirrors, every blow on him mirrored on the attacker. Nobody had figured out how to "kill" him without the Instructor overseeing things to also declaring them dead. Useful, but in a real fight I wouldn’t want to have his skill, killing my enemy by sacrificing myself.

Although, maybe that’s how he worked. Nobody wanted to be the one "dying" to kill him, so he was tanky by sheer virtue of a "don’t you dare hit me" skill.

Lava, a warrior who was slow to wind up, then erupted with fantastic power for a brief flurry. It was the first time I saw an advanced element in action buffing a person, and knew what it was.

Adaptor, a warrior with almost no physical points, who instead had a massive mana regen, and would buff himself to whatever stats he needed. It wasn’t as powerful as someone with those stats directly, but the key was, he could be anything. Including the counter-build to what he was facing, or the role his team needed.

A few mages, of the non-Metal, Earth, or Wood variety.

And a dozen more. It was dizzying, trying to keep up with all the different skills, which ones had higher potential for a lethal blow, for me to need to rush in and save the day.

My bet would be on Spitter – he was disregarding the "don’t aim for the face" order, and was using a skill, unlike Alchemist or Ooze, who demonstrated they had the skill, then used a non-skill version of their abilities.

The session ended, and I found myself with Instructor Jason next, with Sailing being the main course.

"Ranger Elaine. Being bluntly obvious, you were unable to spar earlier, so this time is dedicated to some one-on-one sparring together. I ask that you not use direct, offensive flames, as you have a course for that later. Ready?"

I nodded. One of the privileges of being a full Ranger, being a healer that could cure almost anything, and Instructor Jason being part of Ranger Team 0 – we were both in full armor, using hard, sharpened weapons.

He beat the shit out of me, it wasn’t even close.

"Good practice!" He said, annoyingly cheerful.

I glared at him from the ground, then sighed. I’d only ever be in fights against people stronger than I was. I did need the practice. Although, maybe I’d turn it into ‘Tactical Repositioning’ practice, AKA running away.

Lunch was next, and while I had no bruises to nurse, I had a minor grudge to nurse.

Chapter 108– Ranger Academy VIII

History, Politics, and Geography followed lunch.

"The geography of a town is instrumental in the history of the town, which ties into the politics. The three are closely entwined, unable to be separated. Let us start with Ariminum, the capital. It is located on a peninsula that juts deep into the Nostrum Sea, making it an ideal center. Every town on the shores of the Nostrum are able to quickly and easily get to Ariminum. The peninsula it’s located on is ideal for defense, and our grand Republic was founded here, as we could easily secure the borders. Is it no wonder that the town should then become the Capital? Geography becomes history. History becomes politics. You will learn about every town, their geography, their history, their contributions to the Republic, and their recent Governors and Senators. You never know when knowing the background will be critical to solving some problem or another."

The obstacle course was blessed relief from the brain-frying interactions and difficulties that was politics. I was a healer, dammit! I wasn’t some political mastermind, thinking seven steps ahead in the demented game of chess that was human interpersonal relationships.

Then again, I was severely lacking in that department, maybe they wanted to fix that? The Instructors here were smart, and they clearly had a plan.

"Trainees! You will do this in two sets. The first is twice around the island, the speed run! The second is ten times around the island, the marathon run! You will be scored and ranked in the order in which you return."

"On your marks!"

"Get set!"

"Go!"

And we were off.

I half-expected some sabotage, people subtly interfering with each other, maybe one of the Earth artillery mages making the footing uneven or something.

Nope. Oh, we were competitive as hell. We all wanted to win. But the bond forged in Hell wasn’t going to be shaken by something so trivial as the first contest through the obstacle course.

I happily blew [Rapidash] to stay near the head of the pack of runners – the speedsters had already outstripped us all – as we got to the first obstacle – a series of balance beams over mud. Even with my barely enhanced physical stats, it was a breeze, 16 of us at a time jumping onto one of the 16 beams and running across, taking our turn so we didn’t foul each other’s jump onto the beam.

Our politeness didn’t extend to lending a helping hand, it was more that not interfering was best for all of us. As someone carelessly slipped off the beam and into the mud, we didn’t help out, apart from checking that he was ok, and hadn’t landed face-first.

MoonMoon had a barking laugh at the poor dude’s misfortune, and I couldn’t help cracking a small, schadenfreude-fueled smile. At the same time, I had no illusions that it’d be me in the mud pit one day, and other people cracking a smile as MoonMoon laughed at me.

Ropes came next, needing to climb up one of many dangling ropes, then down a ramp on the other side.

A giant ladder. Wooden slats inverted into a V. Thin metal bars, making a cage we had to crawl under.

I had fun with that one – as short as I was, it was easy mode. Hulk struggled, as he could only barely fit in, let alone move forward. He managed to get an entire lane to himself, nobody wanting to get stuck behind him.

A tightrope. Ropes in a pattern slightly above the ground, that we needed to not touch as we hopped through. And a dozen other tests of speed and agility.

I finished with about twenty people behind me on the first two laps.

"Good work Trainees! That’s the speed course, designed to let mages and others that rely on abilities and mana show off! Now it’s time for the endurance course, where people with physical abilities get to strut their stuff! On your marks, get set, go!"

Fuck.

I finished second from last, and the only person I beat was Hulk, who managed to get stuck in an obstacle.

Monster Slaying was next, and I think it was the only course every single one of us had.

"There are four ways of handling a monster." Hunting started off by saying, while Katastrophi eyed us menacingly.

How did they get her to the island!?

"Tolerate, Drive off, Placate, or Kill. Ranger Elaine, can you name the fifth method?" Hunting asked me, putting me on the spot in front of everyone.

I saluted.

"Sir! Call in a Sentinel, like you, sir!"

Bluebeard grinned at me.

"Exactly right! Now, for the most part, Kill is the method you’ll be going after. We’re going to start off reviewing the other three briefly, then the rest of this course will cover all sorts of different monsters you could encounter, and the best way to kill and bait each type. Let’s begin..."

Bluebeard’s class ended, and I was off like a shot.

Flying.

I’d done tiny amounts with Artemis, which were more "Get lifted into the air by rocks", but this was the real deal, or so I imagined.

We set out, and there were six of us assigned to Sky, who hovered above us in the air.

"Flying! Flying’s the best thing ever. I’m here to help you all fly, then you can try to catch me in the air. Advice, I’m supposed to give you all advice, hmmm… don’t fall."

He pointed to four of us.

"You, you, you, and you. You all have weak flying. Come and get me. You and you." He said, pointing to the remaining two, then hesitating.

"I’m supposed to help you learn how to fly. Well, it’s simple. Use your skills in a way to fly, and they’ll evolve into a flying skill."

He paused a moment, thinking.

"Eh, why not." He said swooping down and tapping both of us.

"You’re now both 80% lighter. Good luck! The rest of you, come and get me!" He said, speeding off.

Well shit. This was the least useful lesson ever.

Right, time to put on the thinking cap.

"Any idea what we’re supposed to do?" I asked Barrier, who was the other poor unfortunate who couldn’t fly yet, and had been selected for this.

"I have no idea." He said, jumping up experimentally, shooting much higher than expected.

"I’m flying! I’m flying! I’m – oh no." He said, as gravity reasserted itself. It was weaker, but it wasn’t gone.

He started to fall, but instead of screaming, summoned one of his panes of light, landing on it hard.

I could practically see a lightbulb go off in his head.

"Hey, wait, I can just-" He said, jumping off the pane of light in mid-air, summoning a new one to land on.

Well, I had [Veil], and I could mimic that trick. [Veil] was a massive mana hog when I stood on it, but at 20% weight, it should only take 20% of the mana. Being unable to move [Veil] myself had been a source of much frustration over the past two years, but suddenly, it was the greatest asset of the skill!

With a whoop, a holler, and a shout of glee, I jumped up, summoning [Veil] to catch me, watching my mana drop like a rock, then drain rapidly.

Mana: 15777/17550

Wow, that was close. The initial landing – which I’d done near the peak of my jump, with minimal downward velocity – had cost nearly 700 mana. With only 1533 magic power, I’d shatter [Veil] if I landed too hard. How was Barrier doing –

With a scream, Barrier came tumbling out of the sky, only for Sky to come blazing down like a peregrine falcon, catching him before he hit the ground.

"Idiot! Watch your mana!" Sky cursed him out thoroughly.

"And you! Don’t make the same mistake!" He yelled at me.

I nodded, jumping from [Veil], letting it flicker out before summoning a new one.

I hopped four more times before stopping, having roughly half my mana left.

From what I’d seen, and what I’ve been told, using skills in a way was a good way to evolve them in that direction. However, did I want [Veil] to end up being my flying skill? It was stupid useful as a shield, as privacy, and I wanted to keep it that way.

[Rapidash] was my movement skill, and if I had a flying skill, it would be significantly less useful. I had to figure out how to fly with [Rapidash].

I thought about it some, and sighed. The only thing I could come up with?

Launch myself as high into the air as possible with it, and hope to stick the landing. Either with [Veil] slowing the blow, or letting myself hit hard, and healing.

[Oath] gently reminded me that the second option wasn’t exactly kosher. Right, catching myself with [Veil] it was.

I bent my knees, and for the first time, tried to use [Rapidash] while jumping. It worked, I went up, far higher than any jump could get me, and at the peak of the jump, summoned [Veil] for a moment.

I then pushed horizontally off of [Veil] with [Rapidash], wincing as the familiar sensation of [Veil] shattering like a pane of glass went off through my mind.

Success though! I was soaring through the air!

I was really high up though, able to see most of the island, and Sky and the other trainees moving through the air. Time to let myself down, gently, gently…

I caught myself on a [Veil] before I let too much speed build up, and repeated the process four more times on my way down, before landing hard on the ground. A quick healing, just in case, and I was ready for a second attempt.

My mana was too low after that second attempt to risk a third one – I didn’t want to have to be plucked out of the sky by Sky. It’d be too embarrassing.

It had been less than 10 minutes since the class started.

One by one, over the next 10 minutes, the four "already-fliers" had run out of mana, and were grounded.

"Ha! This class is so weak! Right, good luck, see you tomorrow!" Sky said, taunting us, flipping in midair, then flying away.

Flying away, in the most aggravating fashion.

We looked at each other.

"Cards?" One of them suggested.

I shrugged.

"Sure, why not."

Flying Lessons 10 minutes of lessons, 50-minute break. Sky’s anti-gravity buff wore off before I could get enough mana to try again.

Worst. Instructor. Ever. Artemis rose a dozen notches in my head – at least she cared!

"Leadership!" Instructor Quintis roared at us. "Leadership is about communication! About seeing what needs to be done, and doing it! Delegation! Communication! Trust! If you….."

Whoof. More lecture classes. After nearly breaking a third of the bones in my body from Sky’s class, I was grateful for grounded classes that didn’t involve a high risk of bodily harm.

Why was I in leadership though? I was practically allergic to social skills, and the only people that-

A brilliant lightbulb went off in my mind. History. Politics. Investigations. Legal. Leadership. They were all skills Julius had; these were all classes I could imagine he’d taken once upon a time. Was I being groomed to be a team leader?

As Quintis roared about inspiring trust, about getting people to look up to you, I shook my head. It was possible, I mused to myself, but I’d have an incredibly hard time getting people to look up to me, as young and female as I was. People looked up to Artemis because she had years of experience, and the firepower to back it up. I had neither.

At the same time, I was in this class because I knew jack shit about leadership, and they were going to teach me all about it. Maybe I’d be good enough at the end. Maybe they wanted to give me a good foundation, for years down the road.

I mentally shrugged, and redoubled my efforts. Everything I did here would reflect on Julius, on Artemis, on Arthur. I’d do them proud.

Especially since it seemed like one of my classes was with Arthur.

Dinner was bliss, and then I was off to Mage Training, a two-on-one class with an instructor. There was one other fire mage Trainee at Academy, although what I gathered, he had Fire and Earth, and was aiming to merge them into being a Lava mage. Ambitious, trying to merge at 256, but he’d be massively rewarded if he pulled it off.

"Fire. Fire is a wonderful thing. There are eight disciplines of fire." The Instructor started off by saying, as I listened with rapt attention. This Instructor was an Inferno-aligned mage, who could teach me all sorts of things that a cursory overview from Artemis and Maximus couldn’t.

"Inferno. Pure, raging flames."

"Wildfire. The untamed fury of nature. Lava’s part of that." He looked significantly at the other mage with us.

"Hearth. The warmth of the fireside."

"Forge. The fires of creation, and invention."

"Candle. The light of the way."

"Pyromancer. I don’t think I need to teach you anything on that one." He said, looking at me significantly.

"Berserker. The mental aspect to it, throwing all away for power now."

"Beast-flames. The ferocious aspect that monsters can tap into."

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pyromancer] has leveled up to level 64! +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic power, +8 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

I sat up straighter at that. What was that, 50 words, and I’d gotten a whole level out of it? This Instructor knew his stuff!

"You probably already know this, but your element is likely to evolve into one of the eight advanced Fire elements. Inferno, Steam, Pyronox, Radiance, Ash, Lava, or Storm. Nature was telling me that Fire plus Metal can be a magic metal of sorts, but given the extraordinary rarity of it, I wouldn’t hold my breath."

"Storm is also unlikely. It’s solid for warriors, rangers, weather-sensors, and a dozen other professions, but for mages like us, it’s unlikely. Rather, not unlikely, so much as incredibly impractical. There’s not much you can do as a Storm mage, the sheer scale of what you need to impact is far beyond what a human can manage. Hasn’t stopped the occasional idiot from taking it, and almost entirely crippling themselves."

He paused, looking at me.

"Listen. If you ever get the urge to take Storm, please, I beg you, think four, five times about it. It’s a mistake. Don’t do it."

I nodded slowly. Listen to the ridiculously experienced Inferno mage, who can make you level up just by talking.

"Right, enough talk. Best way to level up as a Fire mage? Burn stuff down. Monsters preferred, and while I don’t have any right now, some should start to come in soon, unless we make a trip to the colosseum. Which will happen as a group somewhat frequently. For now, let us begin. I’d like to see your flames."

I showed him, and my training began.

"Survival! Evasion! Resistance! Escape! This is the unfortunate training needed when, not if, you find yourself against more people that you can handle! This is the training needed when you need to single-handedly put down an entire rebellion, when the 3rd is occupied or unable to reach you!"

"You will be taught survival skills. Hit and run tactics. How to evade capture. Identify and take out targets. Resist torture and interrogation, how to make it worthless. How to escape being confined, sabotage supply lines, frame rebellion leaders, poison wells, and more!" Quintis yelled at us.

This was again one of those classes everyone had.

And this time, most of the Sentinels were present.

My ears had perked up at "escape being confined", and I’d gone from ambivalent on the class, to wanting to be the best at it.

Well, the best at escaping.

"This is easily your most important class, and the one we weigh the most heavily when determining your final ranking, and as a result, your placement!"

Our hardest class began with Arthur – Toxic, as he should be called here – handing out a weak poison to each of us.

I grinned as I downed it, activating [Phases of the Moon]. No poison for me!

I looked around. The moons had risen, and this seemed like a good chance for [Moonlight]…. Although they didn’t want to be healed, they needed the training.

I’d get to heal them at the end of class, and get some experience then.

SERE training was off to a bang.

"Toxic." I formally saluted to Arthur. "Ranger Elaine, reporting as ordered."

"Elaine! Sit!" Arthur said, grinning at me. "I’m glad I managed to snag you."

Wait. Waaaait a minute. This didn’t sound like training. This sounded like-

"Let’s start with The Iliad!" Arthur said with a mad grin.

I cursed to myself. Arthur didn’t want to teach me stuff, he wanted a bard!

Arthur seemed to sense my mental eyerolling, and with a perfectly straight face, said. "It’s for leveling up your [Recollection of a Distant Life] skill."

Ah well. The big scary Sentinel wanted a song, he’d get a song.

"Rage! Sing Goddess…."

At the end of it, I got thunderous applause, and I sensed – I wasn’t checking, not until the end of the day – that I’d just gotten some significant [Recollection of a Distant Life] levels.

Night. Sky. Bulwark. Ocean. Hunting.

Five Sentinels emerged from the shadows, and I saw a few more instructors beside. I tilted my head in confusion.

"What? Everyone else is done, we’re here for the show!" Sky said, pumping his fist with enthusiasm.

Arthur snorted.

"Politely, we’re here to see what else you know, what else you can teach us. Maximus did his best, but he had a one-track mind. I also have a one-track mind, and I’m quite frankly not smart enough to figure out as much as I can from you." Arthur admitted, leaning in towards me.

"Let me start with a question I was too embarrassed to ask before. When I killed that Sea Serpent, I used almost all my poison stock. I kept getting notifications on smaller creatures killed for a week after. Obviously, they ate the Sea Serpent, but that got me thinking. There has to be more to that, right? There’s some greater concept at work?"

"You mean a food chain, or a food web?" I said, surprised.

Arthur snapped his fingers at me.

"Yes! That’s a great word for it. Tell me more."

"Please Ranger Elaine." Night said, eyes gleaming at me. "I implore you… tell us everything."

I looked around, at a number of Sentinels, the peak of humanity, looking at me hungrily. I imagined their fingers twitching, ready to split me apart to find out all my secrets. The cruel moons shined down on me, unblinking, laughing at my plight. I gulped. Priest Demos had been a cakewalk compared to this.

I mentally revised Toxic’s class to be the hardest one.

"Let us walk." Night invited me once I was done answering their questions for the past hour.

"You have been busy." Night said, stating the obvious. "However, I wish to ask, have you had time to meditate on the inquiry I gave to you the prior time we met?"

"Uh…" I was drawing a blank.

"No matter. Permit me to refresh your memory. If you had to slay one to permit two to live, could you do it? Three? Four? At what point can you bring yourself to commit murder, for the greater good?"

Ah, that question.

"My answer – to become strong enough that I don’t need to answer." I said.

Night stared at me, crimson eyes boring into me.

"A poor answer." He softly said. "But an answer none the less. Let us bring you to that state of being together. I have some ideas on that subject."

We walked a few moments, lost in thought. This seemed to be Night’s methodology – a few sentences, contemplative silence as we digested what the other had just said.

It was driving me nutty. If it wasn’t for a large, healthy dose of fear I felt towards Night, I’d be antsy and agitated.

I didn’t dare near Night. I was too scared. In that sense, he was perfect for fixing my inattention and hyperactivity.

"Tell me about your general skills. You had a slot open, last I knew."

"I got [Training]." I promptly said. "1.5% experience boost per level while, well, here."

We walked slowly, a few more steps around the island.

"A fine skill." He said softly. "But we shall replace it shortly before leaving. It is an interesting balancing act. As you keep it, every other skill rises. But if you replace it too late, whatever skill you get after will be weak and infirm, unable to pull its weight. Tricky, tricky…" He muttered to himself.

More silent, contemplative steps.

"Has any other of your general skills come under contemplation for replacement?" Night asked me.

I hesitated.

"[Recollection]." I finally said.

Step. Step.

Night shook his head.

"The skill is new to me. But from tonight alone, do you not see how useful, how powerful, the skill is? You had the undivided attention of the most powerful forces Remus had to offer."

"And you will continue to have that attention. Already Toxic is planning new, better ways to use his poison to kill monsters that plague us. Instead of trying a single, massive dose, as is his wont, he shall try poisoning dozens of smaller animals, prey to the monster he wishes to slay. There is more in your mind, more you know. I suspect, it forms a strong part of your core, of who and what you are."

My thought process when I was with Papilion came back to me. I’m only dead, when people have forgotten me. If I removed that anchor, was the old me dead? Would the memories fade?

Should they fade? Should I permit them to go away? Should the me from before be allowed rest? What was a person? When did the past you die, and the new you take over?

Was it every day? Never? Did it take a lifetime?

I see why Night was in the habit of taking time between each sentence, each statement.

"Questions for another night, I believe." He said softly. "Meditate upon your skills, your stats. Who you are. What you are. Tonight, however, we shall work on a different skill, polish you until you shine like the gemstone you can be."

"We shall teach you how to dance."

I blinked owlishly at him. What?

Chapter 109– Ranger Academy IX

Spring of the first year of Ranger Academy.

Well, technically, the year rolled over on the winter solstice, so it was more like the second year, but, well, either way, nine months after the Academy started.

The lesson plan I’d been given was - more or less - daily. Occasionally, Sky would be substituted by another Instructor as he went off on some mission, or Bluebeard – Hunting – would be gone for weeks at a time as he handled some problem.

Other times, like today, we were on a field trip, designed to give us practical experience in real situations. Goblin encampments were the favorite, the creatures seemingly inexhaustible. Usually quite a bit bigger than the 11 I’d be asked to tackle, which made me wonder if Arthur had whittled them down to size before sending me in. Wilderness survival trips were a close second, and arena fights against monsters third.

I went over my armor again, making subtle adjustments to it. This wasn’t Maximus’s beauty that he’d carefully crafted for me, no. That was somewhere in the Ranger’s armory, but it was off-limits to me. Something about ‘learning how to use standard armor’ and ‘it won’t always be a skin-tight fit.’

Bah humbug.

I stumbled and nearly fell as a particularly large wave rocked the frigate we were on, chuckles coming from the rest of the team. I flipped them off good-naturedly – they all had Sailing as a lesson, and had solid sea legs.

I checked the last few clasps on my vambraces – they were tight, and my armor was on me securely. The only concession to non-standard armor I had was a large quantity of Arcanite woven into the laminar vest I was wearing, with the idea being that I’d only pull the mana in case of emergency, to save someone else. It’d be a fail if I pulled it for non-critical reasons, but I had a bunch of leeway. Alive and failed was much better than dead.

I looked around at the team – my team – as we headed away from the island where Ranger Academy was, back to the capital.

Wolfy, with MoonMoon.

Oozy, with his explosive arrows. We weren’t going near him, or to be accurate, we weren’t going near his quiver, even MoonMoon was staying far away. He wasn’t offended – he just laughed, pleased that we considered him dangerous enough to avoid.

Barrier was around, pacing nervously. He’d gotten better, both with his barrier usage, and with flying. Still didn’t have a flying skill though, although he seemed to think he was close.

It felt like someone had acquired a cloning vat, or was some sort of [Master Cloning Biologist] or something, and pumped out dozens of the Artillery Mages. I knew it was because there was standard training for all of them, and for the most part they took all the same skills, but it was still unnerving, only being able to tell them apart by their scars and subtle differences in their hair color.

We had Artillery C with us, as I’d mentally – and verbally – dubbed him.

Levitator was with us, and to his displeasure, he was starting to become more and more like a mage that threw things every day, instead of a clever duelist who used weapons from afar.

The first step had been the Instructors convincing him that his weapons didn’t need handles – after all, he was using Wind to guide them, he didn’t need to hold them.

Then it was that spear tips were more efficient than swords.

Then it was that using more tips, faster, was better than slowly whittling someone down.

Before Levitator had realized it, he was basically an inefficient Metal mage. He still stubbornly clung onto two shields and two swords – one for his actual hands, one for his skill-hand-thing – under the logic that he’d never run out of stuff that way.

Still, we shared a secret smile as he muttered and cursed about it.

We had Lava, who after many nights talking with Night, the Sentinel filling in all sorts of gaps in my knowledge and education, that along with his element, I figured he had some type of restriction skill. He always – no matter the situation – started off a fight slow, then after a few minutes, erupted into violent motion, overpowering whoever he was against. It was a coinflip if he’d win a three-vs-one if he managed to get to that point.

I hadn’t pushed for specifics, and he wasn’t forthcoming with them. It wasn’t critical for this mission, although if it ever was, I’d ask.

Hector was along, one of the Three Musketeers. Hey, I was biased. I liked guards – even former guards – and I’d taken the time and effort to learn his name. He had the standard set of armor and weapons every Ranger had, but kept his trusty baton, which he’d reach for first.

"Too many skills relating to it." He’d confided in me at one point.

We had one of the nameless front-line soldiers rounding out the team. They were fairly interchangeable, none nearly as charming as Kallisto.

Instructor Jason was with us, providing a guiding hand, since he knew the who, what, where, when, how, and why. It was his job to get us to the right place, and open the right doors – namely, the Colosseum today.

"Hey Wolfy, what have you learned about today’s mission?" I asked him.

"For the thousandth time, I have a name, you know." He said, shooting me a look.

MoonMoon both gave off a strange, barking laugh, as the white one nuzzled me, and the black on nuzzled Wolfy, clearly approving.

"Yup! Wolfy!" I cheerfully told him.

"Be glad you have a name." Artillery Mage C said. "I’m just ‘C’."

"Artillery Mage C!" I said, with a note of mischief in my voice.

He rolled his eyes.

"You see what I mean."

Hector looked smug.

"Well, some people have a proper appreciation for the guard."

Levitator smacked him with the side of his floating blade.

"What I don’t get is why there are nine of us." Soldier said. "Squads are always eight people. Nine is just wrong. It’s unnatural."

He… had a point.

Wolfy laughed.

"You haven’t noticed that Elaine’s always in a team of nine?"

"I think it’s because they want people to get used to fighting in a ‘full squad’, not with a healer at the ready." I said.

"That makes no sense." Oozy said. "Whatever team you’re in will be eight people, and it’s not like teams don’t have utility or support that they need to protect, and the support fights as well. Hell, you throw some mean flames around, there’s no reason the healer designation should grant you an exception."

"We’re almost there." Instructor Jason said.

The ship landed at the dock, sailors and dockhands expertly performing their dance.

We jumped off before everything was ready, not even getting a batted eye from the dockhands. It wasn’t every day a squad of heavily armed soldiers – or in our case, Ranger Trainees – landed, but it happened frequently enough that nobody blinked when it happened.

A quick jog through the streets, people parting for us like Moses and the Red Sea – the perks of being in full combat gear – and we were at one of the "challenger" gates to the Colosseum, instead of the "audience" gates.

Instructor Jason had a quick word with the guard.

"Right, you’re all set. Reminder, Ranger Elaine is in charge." He said.

"Why?" Lava said. We looked at him, shocked at the audacity.

"Rank." Instructor Jason said curtly. "Are you seriously going to argue this now? Questioning command right before a mission, a fight?"

Lava muttered something, but shook his head.

"Go get ‘em."

We jogged through the twisting hallways in formation. There’d been an… incident… the first time I’d come here, where I healed most of the gladiators I’d bumped into. Which had caused a ripple effect of pissed and happy people, and, well, the less said about That Incident the better. Ever since then, our route had been clear every time I’d gone through.

We made it to the gates, a pair of air-lock like gates, such that when they opened, nothing from the arena could escape.

"Wolfy. Got anything about today’s mission?" I asked him again, now that we finally had a moment. He was good at sniffing out information he had no right to have, to the tacit approval of the Instructors. Now, if he ever got caught somewhere he shouldn’t be, that’d be a different story.

"No large rebellions caught, no army squads arrested and sentenced, and no famous criminals." He quickly recited. "A few adventurer teams have returned in the past few weeks, including two famous hunter groups. They don’t send gladiators against Trainees – bad for everyone, there must always be a designated winner. My bet is we’re fighting monsters."

"Barrier, maze?"

He shrugged.

"Funnel probably"

I nodded.

"Do that. Soldier, Lava, Hector – you’re our frontline. Levitator, Wolfy – you’re protecting Artillery C and Oozy. Barrier, I want your back to the wall so you can focus on funneling, and throw up any shields as needed. I’m going to be next to you, and I have shit secondary barriers, and jump in as needed to heal. There are no moons, so I’m touch-only. Wolfy, I leave MoonMoon to you – you know what to do with them better than me, and I can’t heal them nearly as well. Keep them alive, I can’t do much for animals. Understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" They said, saluting me.

It gave me a little thrill that ran through my body at that.

We paused a moment, and seeing his moment, C spoke up.

"It’s Artillery Mage C, thank you very much."

We laughed at that, as the heavy metal grate was lifted up. We walked out, to the roar of the crowd, an [Announcer] with a Sound-class doing his thing.

"Froooooooooom the North Gate! Future protectors and guardians of Remus! We give you - A Ranger Trainee Team!"

We got a moderate, but not thunderous applause from the crowd. We weren’t Rangers, and quite frankly, we were C-list entertainment. A warm-up for whatever today’s main event was. A full Ranger squad might be B-list, while the best [Gladiator]s were A-list.

Or a Sentinel. Brawling was a fan of showing up when he was bored, and regularly threw wrecking balls through the schedule. Given his fame and popularity, the organizers were happy to accommodate him.

I just hoped he wouldn’t be our opponent today. That would suck. We’d get the shit beaten out of us for as long as it was funny. The rumor mill had it, eight problematic Trainees were put in a squad once, and Brawling had given them all an extensive ‘lesson’ in front of the crowd. We didn’t think we’d all screwed up that badly, but hey, the Instructors worked in mysterious ways sometimes.

We quickly got into formation, Barrier snapping up tall panes of Brilliance around us, leaving a small entrance to funnel whatever monster was coming at us to the frontline, keeping whatever was coming from the more fragile – and deadly – backline.

"Froooooooooooom the South Gate! The most vicious dinosaur living in Pallos! With teeth the size of swords, a tail that can break bones, and a jaw that can shatter stone! Victor of seven fights, Albius, the Abelisaurus!"

We all cursed, in various interesting ways.

"I can’t hold that!" Barrier screamed in terror.

I punched his arm, not being tall enough to cuff him properly.

"Then don’t! Barrier down, everyone scatter, hit-and-run! Sacrifice a limb if needed to stay alive, I’m here, I can save almost anything!"

The barrier went down, and we scattered, as Albius charged into the arena, coated in vines squirming all along its body.

"Caster Monster!" We called out.

Every living being had a Class, and an Element. Some dinosaurs were locked to one, or a derivative – most fliers were Wind or Wind-adjacent, for example.

Usually, it just reflected what type of skills they’d have – for example, fliers had flying-related skills, weight and endurance and speed.

Rarely, like MoonMoon, like Albius, the monster would get skills that would physically manifest, or that they could cast. In this case, this seemed to be Wood-aligned, with vines snaking along its body. We didn’t know what they could do yet, but it couldn’t be anything good.

Not with seven wins under its belt.

"Who was supposed to lose this one!?" Soldier screamed out as we scattered.

Light Moon ran to the middle of the area, barking fiercely at Albius, while Dark Moon slunk into the shadows cast by the walls and the sun, moving to flank. Light Moon started to flash bright light at Albius’s eyes, aiming to blind and disorient him. I briefly considered trying to blind with [Veil], but ditched the idea – he was moving too fast, and having [Veil] shatter was a good way to blow through mana.

C took a few exploratory shots, only for the thick vines to absorb the hits.

"I need an opening!" He yelled.

"Conserve and save until then!" I yelled back.

Right, C was set.

Oozy fired an arrow, deadly black mist exploding over Albius’s face. The dinosaur just roared, fear striking my heart, and continued charging with no regard for what happened.

Our three frontliners scattered, splitting apart, stabbing from the flanks, cutting into the vines. Lava’s head snapped back as one of the vines "punched" him back.

Dark Moon appeared, swiping at the leg, Darkness punching through the vines, a light scoring appearing on the leg.

I hesitated. Just a moment, as I thought and processed what was going on.

Fine. Today was our lucky day, and I seemed to be a perfect counter to the wrecking machine pitted against us.

[Rapidash] twice to get me to the side of Albius, then I unleashed everything I had, going for a "wide" application of fire, trying to set as many vines as I could on fire, to burn away his defenses.

I was too close. It was too risky.

A sickening crunch and crack went through my body, and I found myself hitting one of Barrier’s panes of Brilliance, my arms and legs not responding to my commands as I slumped down to the floor of the Arena like a sack of potatoes.

The announcer roared something, and the crowd was going wild. I couldn’t hear them, nor could I see, as my helmet was twisted around, blocking my vision, a distant ringing in my ears as I started to pulse [Phases of the Moon] through me, not even bothering to do a full diagnostic first.

The heal would be horribly inefficient, but given that I think I’d broken my neck, I wasn’t going to complain too much. Living was a priority right now, and it wasn’t a sure thing.

Feeling my body restitch itself, a sudden, well, enlightenment as I could feel my arms and legs again, the disconcerting sensation as the bones forced themselves into alignment, causing my body to flop around as they pushed against the ground to make it work.

I felt the healing stop, my body finished repairing, my helmet still over my face. I experimentally twitched a limb or two, only to feel myself get picked up and flung.

Fuck this.

With a small burst of flames, I burned away the leather strap holding my helmet on, letting it fly off while I was still in the air. I got a glimpse of Albius’s foot having landed right where I had just been, Lava saving my life by throwing me out of the way, risking his own in the process.

Burnt and smoldering vines covered Albius, where previously they had formed an impenetrable armor. Deep gouges scored its side, and blades danced around it.

This wasn’t going well. I got up, and started calling out orders.

"Levitator! Oozy! Aim for the eyes! Blind it! Kill its sense of smell! Barrier, shield! Everyone who can, hit the right leg!" I called out, seeing that trying to directly kill the dinosaur wasn’t working.

A focused effort on the leg finally bore fruit, as after a few blows, we cut a tendon, and the leg was dragging, the dinosaur no longer charging around. A spurt of blood came from the dinosaur’s face.

"Everyone back!" I called out.

We regrouped on the other side of the area from the enraged, crippled dinosaur. I put hands on each teammate as they made it over, making sure they were full healed. I checked my mana.

About 4,000 left. Screw this, I’d take a fail if it came to it.

I breathed in, feeling the mana from the Arcanite in my armor flowing into me.

"Right, it’s currently crippled and enraged. The crowd’s going to hate us for this, but they’re not the ones down here. Oozy, Levitator, Artillery C, you’re going to hit it from a distance until it’s dead. I blew through most of my mana, and I’m running on the emergency reserves. I’d got a bit if needed, but let’s not trigger a fail."

"I’m just going to move in, stab it with my spear." Lava said.

"No. Stay back, it’s not worth it."

He sneered at me.

"I listened to you at first, but if you think you can steal the kill just because you’re sleeping with the Sentinels, you have ano-"

"Stand down." Soldier barked at him. "Ranger Elaine is in charge, and regardless of how little you like it, her orders are law."

I gave him a level look, fighting down frustration and anger that was bubbling up.

He did just save my life, risking his own in the process, and was only bringing this up now, when we were relatively safe. It didn’t excuse it, but it was… mitigating.

"If you believe you’ve been unfairly robbed, bring it up with Senior Drill Instructor Quintis. That dinosaur is capable of performing lethal blows that I can not save you from. My primary goal is to keep everyone alive. My secondary goal is a success on the mission."

Argh. I wish I had more to say, more elegant words. Words that would flow like honey, convince and persuade people to my way of thinking, so they could just understand.

Whatever. I’d settle for obedience for now.

I stoically turned my back on our frontline, now our backline, as C, Oozy, and Levitator performed their bloody work. I tuned out the boos from the crowd.

Wolfy tapped my shoulder.

"They want you to call it off, let the dinosaur live another day."

I glanced at him. I glanced at Lava. This would mollify his complaint, and he was the best man for the job.

"Lava. One spear, thrown through the head. Try to finish it fast before they stop us."

A mad grin came over his face, and throwing his spear like a javelin, impaled Albius through the head. It worked due to him explosively erupting, like his element and nickname implied, and the rest of them having worked through the dinosaur somewhat. Lava was just the final blow.

A dismayed cry came up from the crowd, and some old produce was thrown our way. I didn’t care, [Veil] deflecting some, Barrier getting the rest with his shields.

[*ding!* Your Party has slain an [Abelisaurus] (Wood, lv 333)]

We beat a hasty retreat out the North gate, the crowd clearly in no mood to be celebratory with us.

"Thoughts?" I asked, as we navigated our way out of the arena.

"It was a setup, a test, or a mistake." Hector immediately replied. "That was far higher level, and more difficult, than it should be, and we ran a strong risk of dying. Additionally, that dinosaur was clearly a favorite. We don’t get fed the favorites to kill and level off of."

He paused a moment, thinking.

"Does anyone here have some political connections they haven’t mentioned? Anyone a Senator’s kid or something? General’s son?"

We shook our heads. He shrugged.

"Probably a mistake then."

We got back on the boat to the island, and I decided to check my level up notifications.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 198! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pyromancer] has leveled up to level 99! +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic power, +8 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pyromancer] has leveled up to level 100! +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic power, +8 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 198!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 198!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 198!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Veil of the Aurora] has reached level 198!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Training] has reached level 151!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 198!]

[*ding!* For reaching level 100, you’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Fireball]!]

I pumped my arms, immediately replacing that skill with [Fireball].

When Night had found out I’d unlocked [Dragon’s Breath] at level 80 – which I told him via pantomime, the most amusing way of communicating a new skill – he’d hissed at me, and forbade me from ever using the skill. "The risk is not worth the rewards. If you decide to persist, to use the skill, I will slay you where you stand." He said, and I’d sadly watched my level 80 skill stay at level 1 forever.

I suppose I unlocked it by constantly breathing out flames, one part a memory from how well it worked against the goblins, three parts from seeing how successful Spitter was spraying acid out of his mouth in duels, and simply imagining dragons breathing fire.

But now – now it was all worth it. Every insult, all the pain, almost dying today.

I had [Fireball].

With a whoop of glee, I ran to the back of the boat, and started firing off as many [Fireballs] as I could into the Nostrum Sea.

[Fireball]!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 16]

[Mana: 14852/24400]

[Mana Regen: 25604]

Stats

[Free Stats: 360]

[Strength: 156]

[Dexterity: 213]

[Vitality: 297]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 2440]

[Mana Regeneration: 2903]

[Magic Power: 2148]

[Magic Control: 2475]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 198]]

[Celestial Affinity: 198]

[Warmth of the Sun: 189]

[Medicine: 188]

[Center of the Galaxy: 198]

[Phases of the Moon: 198]

[Moonlight: 160]

[Veil of the Aurora: 198]

[Vastness of the Stars: 138]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 100]]

[Fire Affinity: 100]

[Fire Resistance: 100]

[Fire Conjuration: 100]

[Fire Manipulation: 100]

[Fuel for the Fire: 100]

[Burn Brightly: 100]

[Rapidash: 100]

[Fireball: 1]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 130]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 144]

[Pretty: 128]

[Vigilant: 185]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 195]

[Ranger's Lore: 166]

[Training: 150]

[Learning: 198]

Chapter 110– Ranger Academy X

Four days before Summer Solstice. The halfway mark of Ranger Academy.

We were all assembled together, full armor and weapons, a rare break from the constant lessons.

"Trainees! You’ve managed to make it this far. Congratulations! Today, we’re hosting a tournament, to see which one of you is the best fighter in individual combat! Support and Utility will get their own bracket! Any questions?" Quintis roared at us.

A half-dozen hands shot up.

"I’m glad to see no questions! Trainees, move out!"

I suppressed a chuckle as I jogged along with everyone else to the waiting ship. We still fell for that one.

Military discipline was one thing, but Rangers were notoriously lax, and enough time had passed from the Hell Months where some quiet whispering occurred as we were heading along to the ship.

"What do you think….?"

"Mages? Against Warriors? Is that fair?"

"To who? The mages or the warriors?"

We got on the ship, and started to sail towards the capital.

"Obviously the mages have an advantage. A one-on-one fight? Short of a mage-killer, the mage will win."

"For like, two, three rounds. Then they’re out of mana, and a mage with no mana is a dead mage."

"Not if they take out all the warriors first!"

"No way they all get taken out first."

I tuned out the endless debates, focusing on my own problem.

I’d come round – and as a result, [Oath] had come round – to the idea that sparring was good. Sure, minor injuries could occur, but they’d always be fixed, and in the long-run, it was good. It helped sharpen people, it increased their chances of survival. It was a net benefit, and nothing I did to people caused damage. Not that I was blasting flames, nor did I have the stats to properly make it through our sparring armor and cause any harm. Sparring was kosher.

The ship landed, and we neatly exited, jogging down the streets in formation to the arena. We were going to be good entertainment, but we were nothing like the grand plans the colosseum had for the Solstice. We were a warm-up, and one that didn’t even justify being that close to the main event.

On the obvious note, when someone was trying to kill me, I had no problems performing violence right back at them.

What was the right move in a duel that wasn’t meant to train, or improve, but to rank, and show off? To determine who was better, who was the best?

I didn’t have anyone I could bounce it off. Night was my go-to on [Oath] dilemmas when Artemis wasn’t around, but like most of our missions and ‘live’ practice, this had come out of the blue, to better mimic "real" conditions.

Having gone through the "real" conditions myself, I knew that scouting, prep, and planning was the name of the game, not throwing people in blind. The only "blind" fights we had was when we were attacked – by Classers or goblins or other monsters – and those we didn’t have the luxury of getting our armor on ahead of time.

I shrugged to myself, and the shape of a plan started to take hold. I knew what to do. I knew exactly what to do…

I was classified as one of the "Support and Utility", blessedly not having to fight against a dedicated mage. They’d chew me up and spit me out, especially in a duel like this.

Our group was the first one to go – we were less exciting than the mages, warriors, and rangers, aka the cool shiny explosive group.

For once, I wasn’t on "stop the fight and heal" duty. The Ranger healers had that handled today, since in theory that was their job. Also, free tickets to the show for them, and a good day’s pay. What was there to not like?

I could see why convincing healers to go on the road, and not stay in town healing, was so difficult.

"Elaine. ELAINE!"

I snapped to it as Instructor Jason called my name.

"Huh? What? Yeah?" I said, jumping slightly.

"You’re up. Come on."

Whoops! Good thing this wasn’t important.

I walked out to the announcer calling me.

"From the East gate, Trainee Elaine!"

A polite smattering of applause, some hoots and hollers.

I looked at my opponent. It was Aura, who specialized in a dozen different supporting auras. He could buff himself with it, but his real power was in being able to buff everyone around him – selectively. Incredibly useful in a team fight, pretty awful in a 1 v 1. It did make him a better fighter though.

We saluted each other, and I implemented my dueling strategy – Operation ‘she’s lost her marbles.’

I kept my sword sheathed, planted my spear, and raised my hand up into the air, conjuring the largest, fattest gout of flame I could muster. There was no density to it, barely any heat – it was mostly for show. I threw a few fireballs around the arena, making sure they hit sand, far away from Aura or any spectators.

"Burn! Burn! Burn my pretties! Burn him to the ground! Burn the sand! Burn the stadium! Burn the people, ignite the town, let all be consumed by the all-devouring flames! The pretty glow of embers against the sky, the roar of the inferno in my ears! I wish to see it all, and it starts here, it starts today, it starts – with you!"

"Come closer, lie down upon the sandy altar of blood that is the floor of this colosseum, and give yourself over to the consuming flames! Free your body, free your mind, let all your worries burn away!"

"Let us start a wildfire! A grand inferno to burn the city down! Hundreds of levels! Together, we will-"

Aura didn’t let me finish, charging towards me, spear leveled at me. I cursed, turning the flames off, keeping my hand up in the air.

"I surrender."

My early exit of the tournament afforded me a good seat to watch the rest of it, not that I paid it that much attention. Even being in the stands was a serious risk, that I’d see something that would demand I jump into the arena, and put a stop to it, heal the person who’d gotten injured. Bless the medics on standby, they always arrived before I was more than halfway out of my seat.

Operation ‘Pretend I’d gone nuts’ had been a complete failure. I figured that Aura wouldn’t want to tangle with a mage – correctly – and I’d tried to bluff having snapped and gone nuts, ready to burn him down.

He’d just shaken his head, put a hand on my shoulder, and told me.

"Ranger Elaine. We know you too well. We know you wouldn’t go crazy like that, and even if you did, your [Oath] would stop you. If you did go crazy, the only solution would be to kill you anyways – what Rangers are for, literally what we’re training to do. Lastly, your acting sucks."

With that smarting analysis of my shortcomings, I spent the rest of the day in the stands, watching.

The finals, to the surprise of some, was Hulk against Lava, the mages having run out of mana after a few rounds, then getting roundly beaten up by the remaining physical Trainees. In the end, while the mages had gotten some lessons from Artemis, none of them had her ability to efficiently take people apart over extended periods of time.

This wasn’t the first time this particular duel had occurred. Hulk usually had an edge, although if Lava could get going, it was anyone’s duel.

It was short. Hulk was one of the few people who used their own weapon. If I was being generous, I’d call it a large quarterstaff. If I wasn’t feeling generous, it was a small tree with the branches trimmed off.

Lava had already erupted a half-dozen times today, and the volcano was out of fuel. Hulk simply beat him down with brutal efficiency until Lava surrendered.

Aura ended up winning the support side of things. His buffs got him to the stage of a weak warrior, which was far above the combat prowess of most of the other supports. Barrier was his opponent in the end, and he didn’t make the mistake the other utility Trainees made, which was getting too close. Instead, he kept dancing back, whacking at the shields Barrier made, then threw things at Barrier from a distance, not falling for the fake "I’m out of mana" Barrier was pretending to have, in a last-ditch attempt to lure Aura closer.

Alchemist was declared an honorary third place, having not been allowed to properly compete. It’d be too expensive, and too dangerous.

I snuck to the back of the boat on the way home, and threw a few fireballs into the water. It was satisfying, watching the soccerball-sized ball of flame go whizzing off, hitting the water and erupting into a ball of flames.

Even Artemis had been slightly surprised at the enthusiasm I’d taken to practicing - and leveling up - [Fireball], me throwing them at every spare moment.

Morning run? [Fireball] into the sea.

Obstacle course? [Fireball] before the balance beam, [Fireball] on the balance beam, and one last [Fireball] as I jumped off the balance beam. All into the Nostrum Sea, conveniently to my right as I did all this.

I’d been banned from throwing [Fireball] anywhere else, after the third incident.

We don’t talk about those.

We made it back as the sun was setting, had a lovely dinner at the Villa.

"Ranger Elaine." Arthur – or Toxic, as he was when he was calling me by my formal name – "Our lessons continue tonight."

I saluted, the effect dramatically diminished by the entire apple held in my mouth.

"Understood." I tried to say, but it came out more "Undastoof." The perils of talking with your mouth full.

Reflecting on it, it was strange. I’d seen most of the Sentinels at dinner, except for Night and Magic. The others were rare – only if they were around – but they did show up now and then.

For that matter, had I ever met Magic?

The ‘lessons’ with Arthur were no more than the Instructors and Sentinels wanting free entertainment out of me. Apparently, it was an open secret amongst them that any bards or bard-like classes, when they rarely joined the Rangers and passed to the lesson portion of training, got press-ganged into entertainment services. It got boring on the island, especially when you weren’t a Sentinel, able to easily come and go back to the capital on a whim.

Given how close we were to the Solstice, I had a special play in mind.

"Welcome! Come one, come all, to Elaine’s nightly performance! Tonight, a special one, for the season – A Midsummer’s Night Dream! By the Bard himself!"

I got some scattered applause, one of the Instructors particularly pleased with Shakespeare letting me know his appreciation. I curtseyed at the crowd – involuntarily having gotten some social graces beaten into me by sheer virtue of practice. I really could make a living as a bard.

Or, more likely, I could try to pass off my second class as being Bardic, the correction and amplification from [Recollection] doing a weak mimic of the class.

"Be advised, fair maid;

To you your father should be as a god,…."

The tune and words of A Midsummer’s Night Dream came out, the effect massively diminished by me trying to play every single role. I had a dozen different masks, each with a number on them, that I put on for each different role. Thesues was a mask with a 1 on it, Hippolyta with a 2, and so on and so forth.

As with all the works of Shakespeare, it was a hit, and I bowed to the applause at the end.

50-50 on [Recollection] leveling. It hadn’t leveled up for the last few performances, and Midsummer’s was new enough that I had a shot.

Come on, come on…. Yes!

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Recollection of a Distant Life] has reached level 152!]

The Instructors left, most off to bed, or whatever other entertainment they had planned for themselves, while Night and I went for our usual walk, his guidance and mentorship invaluable, the reason I’d gotten most of the levels I had. We’d talked about various general skills I could get, along with solid stat builds to go along with them, inventive uses of my skills, and long, deep discussions on my [Oath], somehow managing to probe and discover all the boundaries without triggering or causing problems.

"Your performance tonight was elegantly done." Night always started the conversations, usually after we’d walked in silence for some time.

I knew the game; I knew the pattern. He was happier when I mimicked him. Him arranging the fight against Albius, as well-meaning as the intention had been to get me experience, still weighed on my mind though. Walking was good for thinking, for processing. Step. Step. Step. Step.

"Thank you."

Step. Step.

"With that being said, I have come to realize that you are like an infant who’s somehow managed to unlock their System, throwing around skills without a care for the world, nor the damage and destruction that could be caused. This must be rectified."

I wanted to say something, I had a powerful urge to defend myself.

I shut up. Night knew what he was talking about.

"Creatures that are nothing more than stories, myths and legends, nothing more than a dream to you are very present here. You’ve already been lectured on one, and yet, you persist in being flippant. Creatures like centaurs, elves, dwarves, selkies, goblins, orcs, trolls, and so many more – yes. They are safely ignored, dismissed. Oh, do not mistake me – they shall kill you as quick as anything, but they are entertaining fodder for discussion."

"The Fae are not. They do not hear when they are called, but may come none the less. They do not follow the rules. They are unbound by the System. If you could, if somehow you managed to slay one, you would receive no reward, no accolades from the System, no experience. You would also invoke their wrath, which is not survivable, instead of their ire. They may look human, they may act human, but they could not be further from human. The way they think, what they want, are entirely foreign to us. Never think you understand them."

Bless Night for insisting on silent contemplation after each sentence. He’d just dropped a dozen bombshells on me.

And for most of them, my mind broke, unable to get past a simple question, a simple problem which hadn’t come up before, which I hadn’t even realized back when Julius shut me up all that time ago.

How could he know?

Nobody I knew spoke of elves and dwarves. Centaurs weren’t even a figure of stories, there were no lessons on how to slay trolls, or how to battle orcs. Yet, Night just casually dropped all of them, like he had personal experience with it.

And if D----ns were so dangerous, so deadly – how did anyone know about them? How did that knowledge survive, how was it passed on?

Curiouser and curiouser. Night hated questions about him, and I wasn’t going to poke the bear, not when the bear was already… irritated… with me.

"The fae are elusive and secretive, generous and helpful, even-handed and fair, cruel and spiteful, all in one, all at the same time. The less you deal with them, the better off you shall be. Indeed, strive to never interact with them."

"For you to know about the Fae. Take heed, for I shall not repeat myself." Night said.

"

Strike no deal with them, make no bargain.

Take nor offer a gift.

Be nothing if not polite and courteous. Give no insult.

Do not lie. They can not lie, but never think they speak the truth.

Keep your word.

Do not give them thanks.

Do not partake of their food or wine.

Do not spy, nor violate their privacy.

Do not give them your full name… a task you might struggle with. Give them a moniker if you must.

Do not violate their rings.

These things seven may grant protection against the Fae, each in its own manner.

Cold Iron, pressed to flesh.

A four-leaf clover, to grant vision.

Wearing clothes inside out, to confuse, amuse, and befuddle.

Salt, sprinkled around in a circle.

Arcanite, pulsing with mana to blind.

The Symbol of the Five Gods, worn sincerely

A wreath of holly, a crown upon your head."

"We arm our soldiers with steel, not only because it is better than iron, but because we do not wish to give systemic offense to the Fae. A single individual, or even a collection individually deciding to protect themselves will go unnoticed. A large attempt to ward them off will cause offense, and the full might of mischievous faeries would descend upon the troublemakers. Accidental warding would be one thing, but as I have the knowledge to the contrary, it would be seen as an affront."

We walked, for maybe twenty minutes in silence as I engraved that knowledge on my soul. After the time, Night spoke again.

"I wish to compliment your work in Perinthus. I had not heard of the wide-scale attempt to ward off the Fae, and if that knowledge had been brought to me, the outcome would have been… different."

A vision of fire and steel, of a town being put to the sword, ran through my mind, and I shuddered.

"What… mischief… can the Fae Folk wrought?" I asked, finding myself slipping into Night’s manner of speaking. Blah. It was like gristle in my teeth.

Night chuckled, amused.

"Whatever mischief they please. They are unbound by the System. They can do what they want."

"Swapping a newborn babe with a changeling. Luring you in to dance, dance until your legs are bloody stumps, dance until you must dance with your hands, for your legs are no more. Hide things of yours, move them, misplace them – that is the least of the harm they may bring. Lead you astray, with pixie-lights and will-o-wisps, into a bog to your demise. Or worse, into one of their rings, where you may emerge the next day, a hundred years older – or a hundred years later, with only a day having passed for you. Music, entrancing and beguiling. It seems oh so safe to just listen, to hear, to get just a bit more of the magical, otherworldly tunes – but you shall listen until you die. Accept a gift of a pebble, and they shall demand the gift of your firstborn in turn. For to them, this is a fair trade. Accept a flower, and they may ask for the heart of your lover, and you will be compelled to fill said bargain, to give them said gift in return. Cruelty and fair play – by their standards, which you could be bound to."

With that troubling note, we spoke no more, as I struggled to digest and remember everything that was said.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 17]

[Mana: 26710/26710]

[Mana Regen: 27637]

Stats

[Free Stats: 492]

[Strength: 164]

[Dexterity: 212]

[Vitality: 297]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 2671]

[Mana Regeneration: 3107]

[Magic Power: 2347]

[Magic Control: 2651]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 205]]

[Celestial Affinity: 205]

[Warmth of the Sun: 190]

[Medicine: 190]

[Center of the Galaxy: 205]

[Phases of the Moon: 205]

[Moonlight: 165]

[Veil of the Aurora: 205]

[Vastness of the Stars: 138]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 108]]

[Fire Affinity: 108]

[Fire Resistance: 108]

[Fire Conjuration: 108]

[Fire Manipulation: 108]

[Fuel for the Fire: 108]

[Burn Brightly: 108]

[Rapidash: 108]

[Fireball: 108]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 131]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 152]

[Pretty: 129]

[Vigilant: 188]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 197]

[Ranger's Lore: 168]

[Training: 154]

[Learning: 205]

Chapter 111– Ranger Academy XI

Early winter of the second year of Ranger Academy.

"Trainees! Fall in after dinner!" One of the instructors roared at us as we were eating dinner.

Those of us sitting at the same table all turned our heads to stare at Wolfy, who’d more than earned his reputation for intel-gathering.

"What? I have no idea." He said.

We good-naturedly pelted him with breadcrumbs.

"This is so unfair." He said, brushing the crumbs off his tunic when we were done. "None of you knew either, why am I the one that gets penalized?"

"Because we expect you to know!" Dancer cheerfully said. "Any bets?"

"Well, it’s gotta be a non-standard class, right?" I said.

"Duh. It’s not the first time they’ve done this." Aura gave me a look like "Are you dumb or something?"

I sank down a bit and muttered darkly to myself. Next time I’d [Fireball] him…

We fell in after dinner, most of us being smart enough to keep it light.

"Mages! On me!" A familiar voice called out. My eyes widened.

Artemis!!

I blew [Rapidash] just to be in front, grinning like a lunatic as I met Artemis’s eyes.

"Heya Ranger healy-bug." She said, grinning back. "We’re going to have fun today!"

In a more serious tone, she called out. "Mages! Follow me!"

We jogged, following Artemis – Instructor Artemis – to a large field.

"Attention Trainees! I’m Instructor Artemis. Most of you know me, some of you don’t. I was a Ranger for 14 years, and retired recently. Special lecture today on fighting other mages. Rules are as follows: remove the lower left leg, you win. Trainees, attention! Spread out in a single-file line."

We shuffled around quickly.

"Ranger Elaine. Fall out." Artemis said. I stepped out of formation, and walked over to her as she beckoned.

"Wait a moment, then heal." She whispered to me. "Stand away from me."

I knew what Artemis said would make sense in a minute or two.

"I know, I know, most of you think you’re hotshots. Who’d like a duel to start?"

There were some nervous mutterings, then one of the Trainees raised his hand.

Artemis didn’t even blink. A quarter of a second later, the rock had finished going through the Trainee’s knee, and he was on the ground screaming.

I waited a heartbeat, then moved over to him, healing him up.

"First rule of mage duels! There’s no such thing as a fair fight!" Artemis said, leaning forward, lifting her left leg up and behind her.

"Would anyone else like to try?" She said, from the awkward pose that also made her almost unbeatable.

"Also, because at least two of you are getting the bright idea to attack me first – you’re not allowed to attack the Instructor without announcing your plan first."

"But that’s-" one of the Trainees said.

"Not fair?" Artemis finished. "Exactly. You should never be in a fair fight. There’s no such thing. Hit them from behind. Hit them when they’re not looking. Hit them without announcing yourself. Hit them, six against one when they’re sitting in a cell."

Artemis paused a moment, letting it sink in.

"There were plenty of Rangers with notions of fair play. They’re dead. I have no notion of fair play. I’m retired. Do the math. It’s much, much easier to say ‘I’m sorry, I screwed up and hit or killed the wrong person’ than it is to attend your own funeral. Attendance is mandatory for that one."

"I’ve screwed up plenty of times. I’ve killed dozens of people by accident, or who weren’t actually a threat. On one level, they haunt me. On the other – yeah, I’m pretty happy to be alive."

"Just about all of you know how to use your class and magic well. I’m here to teach you as many tricks about fighting dirty as possible."

"Anyone have a powerful shield skill?"

Barrier – for some reason he was in the class – raised his hand.

"Great! Shield up!"

He promptly put his shield up, then looked at Artemis, defiant look in his eyes.

"Great!"

Artemis threw a few rocks at the shield.

"Now, normally this barrier would be hard for me to break. It’s also a good one, and I can’t conjure up rocks or lightning inside the barrier to hit him – remember that trick by the way, it’s good for killing most barrier mages – however, watch this trick."

"Trainees! New orders! Bring down that barrier!"

Barrier went pale as all sorts of projectiles were sent his way, a massive barrage of rocks, metal, wood, flames, water, an air blade, and more. I started running towards him, seeing how this would end.

"Trainees! Halt!" Artemis shouted out.

Barrier was pretty beaten up, but nobody had gone too hard. His legs were a mangled mess though, and I started to patch him up.

"First dirty trick – bring friends. No such thing as a honorable 1 vs 1 duel, not in our line of work. Let’s continue…."

"Ranger Elaine. Excellent, you are on time." Night said, at the start of Toxic’s entertainment time.

Night looked around, and spotted Instructor Jason.

"Ranger Jason. Remain. The rest of you – leave."

There wasn’t even an angry mutter at Night rudely killing entertainment hour, just muttered, respectful "Night." and salutes as each Instructor took their leave.

Also, wait – Ranger Jason? Not Instructor Jason?

Most of the Sentinels stuck around.

"We have arrived at a decision. Toxic. Prepare what you need. Ranger Jason. Full exploratory gear. Sky – get the ship ready. Ranger Elaine. With Ranger Jason, get a second set of gear. Nature. You may come if you’d like. Meet back here on the next gong strike."

I saluted, and followed Ranger Jason, who had a pained look on his face.

"What’s going on?" I asked him, suddenly an equal with the titles used.

"Blah. Night’s going on a long trip, you, Toxic, and Nature are going along, and Sky’s going to be transporting. Me? I drew a short straw, and I’m going to be gone for a few weeks, maybe a month or two. No idea with you. Although, maybe we’re going together? Impromptu wilderness survival trip, that you’re on because you’re a Ranger? Giving me some backup, a team of two?"

We arrived at the Instructor-only portion of the villa, and being escorted in by one of the Instructors was enough to not have anyone challenge me. We made it to what I assumed was their armory, filled with armor, weapons, and all manner of survival tools and packs.

This wasn’t the slightly aged stuff they had Trainees use. This was the good stuff.

A gruff older man I immediately mentally dubbed "Armorer" was sitting in the room, stitching a cloak back together, the material looking good as new under his careful ministrations.

"Ranger Elaine. Fourth armor set on the right is yours. Get it on, I’ll adjust after. Ranger Jason. Seventh set on the left. I hope I don’t need to adjust it more."

The Look Armorer gave Jason let him know that he better not have gained any weight, and I silently resolved never to be on his bad side.

"Two exploratory packs please." Jason asked, putting his armor on. I did the same, a few places a little tighter, a little less comfortable, from how I remembered it.

Armorer grunted, walking in the back, coming out with two large backpacks, shovels hanging off the side, a sleeping roll on top. He walked over to me, put a hand on my armor, and, with a speed that put Maximus to shame, my armor immediately fit, like a snug second skin. Even the padding under it shifted to cling to me, like it’d been vacuumed on.

Thinking about it, it’d be hell to get out of, but then again, I suspected I was going to be in this for some time.

We geared up, and met back in the courtyard.

Arthur was being, well, Toxic, and I could see what Maximus had meant by "getting stranger." He was carrying a massive – and I had no other word for it – dresser on his back, dozens of little sliding wooden boxes neatly labeled, and a huge corked gourd.

"Do I want to know?" I asked.

"Well, a benefit of being a Sentinel is support." Arthur cheerfully told me. "I have all sorts of poisons now, from all over! Neatly delivered to me. This here," He said, patting the gourd. "Is a special project, and most of the reason for our trip."

"Pray, tell me, why do you see it appropriate to give all this information to Ranger Elaine?" Night said, stalking in from the shadows.

Toxic saluted him.

"Sir! She’s going to be our teammate on this mission. Shared information is worthwhile, and my personal evaluation is that she’s need-to-know."

Night hissed in an amused fashion.

"Well reasoned. It looks like Nature will not be joining us. Sky, get down here."

The last line was directed up, and Sky dropped down.

"Aww, but we still had more time until the gong!" He complained.

Night just gave him a long, flat stare, until Sky wilted.

"Alright, alright, let’s go already!"

Sky shot off into the distance, and Night gave a long-suffering sigh at his antics.

We made our way to where Sky had shot off, to find what looked like at first glance to be a small sailboat, with enough room for a dozen people to be seated comfortably, and five large Arcanite stones, seated in the middle of the boat, locked in by mystical rings. Inscriptions glowed all over the boat, a trail of little lights along the rim, and at the top of the sail.

"Hop on, hop on! Let’s gooooo!" Sky said.

We gave Toxic room as he went on first, nobody wanting to be near his chest or jug of extremely deadly poisons. Or Toxins. Ranger Jason hopped on next, I followed him, and without a whisper, or movement of air, Nature appeared out of nowhere, leaping into the boat, settling down without a word. Night raised an eyebrow at this, but with aristocratic grace, settled into the boat as well.

The boat was on dry land, but with all the magic I’d seen, I wasn’t going to question anything.

"Hope you have a strong stomach! By the way, if you fall off, I’m not catching you. You’re on your own." Sky said.

Night hissed at him.

"If Toxic’s gourd should fall, you will retrieve it, understood?"

Sky wouldn’t meet Night’s eyes, as he muttered something about "personal responsibility", but then went around, tapping all of us.

"95% weight reduction! And now, for the main event!" He said, wind starting to howl around us, sail catching the wind.

"Up! Up! And awaaaaaaaaay!"

The wind caught the boat, and the combination of skills, inscriptions, and generally good construction, caused the boat to catch the wind, lifting us off the ground.

"Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" Sky yelled in pure glee, hand on the Arcanite. "This never gets old!"

Night had a smile, and Arthur looked positively giddy. Nature just looked dour, and Ranger Jason looked like he was going to be sick.

"Westwards." Night ordered.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." Sky shot back.

We started flying, a powerful gale at our back, moving our little boat along the currents of the air.

"Ranger Elaine. This is the Pegasus. While it’s no great secret that Sentinels have ways of rapidly moving around Remus, we prefer for you to not shout about it from the rooftops. Understood?"

I saluted.

"Sir! Yes sir!"

"Very good. Ranger Jason will soon demonstrate some of the more interesting aspects of the Pegasus."

I heard some soft cursing from him, his face in a deep frown.

"Could we at least land –"

"No."

More cursing and swears, softly, self-directed. Night seemed to let it slide.

We traveled through the night, going at a blistering pace, the miles beneath us being devoured, occasionally dipping through the clouds as Sky had some fun moving us up and down.

"First crystal down!" Sky cheerfully informed us.

Everyone else seemed to be trying to doze, and I mimicked them.

A few hours later – "Second crystal down! Time to shine Jason!"

Ranger Jason cursed, and opened up his bag. Two of the massive Arcanite Crystals were removed, dimmer than before, having been completely depleted. They got packed into his bag.

"Best of luck!" Sky said, tapping him.

"Hang on, wait a mom-" Ranger Jason tried to say, before Sky physically threw him out of the boat.

As we were going through a cloud.

"I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttttttteeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ttttttthhhhhhhhiiiiiiiii-"

I leaned back with surprise.

"Uhhhh-"

"Arcanite is heavy. People are heavy. Once the two crystals are drained, it is worth removing them, to make the rest of what we have last longer. At the same time, Arcanite of that size is exceptionally valuable. Ranger Jason now needs to make his way back to Headquarters with the Arcanite, so it may be used once more in the future."

Basically, thrown off with ridiculously expensive, heavy crystals, in the middle of the wilderness, and expected to make his way back to HQ with them.

Alone.

No wonder he’d looked so sour at the duty.

"Where are we heading?" I asked.

"The frontlines. Toxic wishes to try a new way of poisoning the Formorians, and your knowledge could be useful as he refines his attempts."

Oh.

We continued to fly through the night, trying to doze fitfully, as Sky kept making happy noises, occasionally making the Pegasus swoop about – waking us all up, making us glare at him.

Dawn broke, we broke into some light breakfast, Night scowling as he threw a cowl over his head, wrapping himself up in his cloak, and generally did all he could to subtly stay out of the sun.

"Hey Elaine, you never mentioned your level 200 healer skill." Arthur said, making some conversation. "It’s usually something good."

I snorted at the memory.

"I was offered [Astrological Horoscope]. Something about ‘reading the stars to learn what was wrong with a patient.’ Wasn’t worth the spot – [Medicine] and my own experience does most of that already. I’m also sour on the snake-oil that’s astrology. I’d rather just throw more mana at the problem if it comes to that."

Arthur shrugged.

"I don’t know enough about it to comment. Shame the 200 skill was a dud though."

I shrugged, not having much to say. After some time, we had some lunch, and then we arrived.

At the frontlines. The eternal war against the Formorians, trying to overrun humanity. The walls, holding them back. The 4th – 20th legion, locked in never-ending conflict.

The massive pseudo-city of camp followers, making sure the soldiers’ every need was met. This was the first major encampment that didn’t have complete surrounding walls, just a sprawl of humanity.

The destination of our journey.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 17]

[Mana: 28120/28120]

[Mana Regen: 28953]

Stats

[Free Stats: 576]

[Strength: 168]

[Dexterity: 212]

[Vitality: 297]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 2812]

[Mana Regeneration: 3239]

[Magic Power: 2466]

[Magic Control: 2766]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 210]]

[Celestial Affinity: 210]

[Warmth of the Sun: 193]

[Medicine: 192]

[Center of the Galaxy: 210]

[Phases of the Moon: 210]

[Moonlight: 177]

[Veil of the Aurora: 210]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 112]]

[Fire Affinity: 112]

[Fire Resistance: 112]

[Fire Conjuration: 112]

[Fire Manipulation: 112]

[Fuel for the Fire: 112]

[Burn Brightly: 112]

[Rapidash: 112]

[Fireball: 112]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 133]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 156]

[Pretty: 130]

[Vigilant: 192]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 199]

[Ranger's Lore: 172]

[Training: 160]

[Learning: 210]

Chapter 112.1– Ranger Academy XII

The frontlines were vast. Even from our vantage point so high in the sky, the walls and encampments stretched to the horizon, beyond my view. The feature that immediately caught my attention were three massive walls. I couldn’t see how tall or thick they were, but the fact that the people walking on them looked like ants spoke to an enormous size.

Large slabs of stone jutted out from the walls at regular intervals, a perpendicular slice pushing deep into hostile territory. It reminded me of a cross between Pride Rock from The Lion King, and Minas Tirith from The Lord of the Rings. There seemed to be people hauling sleds full of rocks up the slope of the juts. Empty sleds were brought down, and I kinda wanted to try sledding down the hill.

Between the three walls were two sections, full of neatly organized and regimented tents, dozens of tents making up the short section between the walls. I mentally dubbed it the "Military" section. Outside of the third wall, on the "safe" side, was a wild riot of tents, wooden shacks, the occasional stone building, and it was safe to say that the words "planning" and "organization" weren’t to be found in any of the documents governing that area. I mentally dubbed it the "camp-follower" section. It was the perfect offering to Xaoc, God of Chaos, and the place could practically be a temple to him, if Xaoc went for that sort of thing.

As we started to come in for landing, more details became clear. Soldiers patrolled both the "military" and the "camp-follower" section. Wooden walls, of a more normal size, were in layers in the "dangerous" section outside the walls.

I got my first good look at the Formorians. They were huge, jet-black ant-like creatures, slightly larger than the average man, with massive, crushing mandibles, an endless black tide that covered the earth.

They charged in endless waves, into a solid phalanx formed by the soldiers, two deep. The rocks being hauled up the stone juts made it to the top, where mages magically grabbed them, throwing them without any apparent aim into the vast, endless horde of Formorians.

There was no need to aim. Any shot would land.

Screams and cries came from the battlefield, stretching endlessly from horizon to horizon. There must’ve been literal millions of the Formorians, and less than a tenth of that in human manpower.

A massive gout of flames came from one section.

A billow of yellow gas from another.

Ice shards, tripping vines, blurring spears, red blades, ballista arrows, metal buckshot, lightning bolts, crashing water, searing light, toxic spores, ashen spikes, brilliant shields, lava shots and so many, many more skills were constantly unleashed upon the endless, never-ending, never-ceasing horde.

We clearly passed some type of boundary, as my System went nuts.

[*ding!* Your Army has slain a [Formorian] (Wood, lv 120)]

[*ding!* Your Army has slain a [Formorian] (Wood, lv 120)]

[*ding!* Your Army has slain a [Formorian] (Wood, lv 120)]

[*ding!* Your Army has slain a [Formorian] (Wood, lv 120)]

[*ding!* Your Army has slain a [Formorian] (Wood, lv 120)]

[*ding!* Your Army has slain a [Formorian] (Wood, lv 120)]

[*ding!* Your Army has slain a [Formorian] (Wood, lv 120)]

[*ding!* Your Army has slain a [Formorian] (Wood, lv 120)]

[*ding!* Your Army has slain a [Formorian] (Wood, lv 120)]

[*ding!* Your Army has slain a [Formorian] (Wood, lv 120)]

[*ding!* Your Army has slain a [Formorian] (Wood, lv 120)]

[*ding!* Your Army has slain a [Formorian] (Wood, lv 120)]

[*ding!* Your Army has slain a [Formorian] (Wood, lv 120)]

Hundreds – no thousands – no, more – notifications were steaming past me in a dizzying array, *ding!*’s going off like a battalion of machine guns.

I disabled all notifications dealing with Formorians. Holy.

"Heh. Pay up." Arthur said to Sky, holding his hand out.

"Oh, come on! You warned her! No fair!" Sky whined.

Arthur shook his head.

"I did no such thing. Pay up. You lost fair and square."

Sky grumbled, but paid up, a money pouch changing hands.

"What was the bet?" I asked.

"How fast you’d turn notifications off and return back to us. Happens to everyone."

I tilted my head.

"Everyone – every single person – on the frontlines is considered to be part of the Army, according to the System, from the soldiers doing the fighting, to the washer-women cleaning clothes. Everyone gets a tiny portion of the experience, and the more you’re participating in your class to assist with the war effort, the more experience you get." Arthur explained.

"Yeah, it’s real shit though." Sky said. "A solo kill’s worth more than twice as much experience as killing a monster with a partner. The more people you have, not only is the experience spread out among more people, there’s less of it to go around. There’s several hundred thousand people here, making the experience shitty."

"Unless you directly participate in the combat." Night said, the first words he’d said since the sun came up, sounding particularly grumpy.

"Yeah, but even then, it’s almost impossible to get over 180." Sky grumbled.

"Which is exactly why we request new Trainees to be level 180. It demonstrates a strong commitment to the frontlines, and only the smart, the strong, make it that far."

"Do people die that much?" I asked, horrified by the prospect.

Nature scuffed at me, the first sound I’d heard from him all trip. I jumped, having forgotten about him.

"No. But it’s easy to be a coward, to simply hold the line."

"We have arrived." Night said, as we landed close to the biggest tent I’d seen so far, the fabric of the tent red, with purple trimming.

"Nature. You are free to do as you please. Report to this section’s Centurion once a week such that you can be located, if the need arises."

"Sky. Report back here in three days’ time." Night gave out his orders.

With a whoop, Sky was off, flying towards the danger zone. I felt a minor surge of admiration, as his first thought was to help with the grand war humanity was engaged in.

Three seconds later that admiration crashed to the ground, and I facepalmed as I saw him flying back from the danger zone, to the safe zone, circling for a moment before going in for a landing.

Night pulled his cloak around him more tightly as a number of guards tensed up, obviously unhappy at a bunch of Classers suddenly landing right next to what was one of the head honcho’s tent.

"Toxic." Night said, and Arthur flashed his Sentinel’s badge, Eagle within sunburst.

The guards stood down and saluted, but kept a wary eye on us.

"We wish to meet with General Augustus." Night said. "Could you please inquire as to his availability?"

One of the soldiers stepped forward and saluted.

"Sir! Who should we say is here?"

"Night. Toxic." Night said.

Three of the guards went pale at Night’s name, and scurried off. The squad commander looked around.

"Can – oh." He said, realizing that some of his minions had already left to do Night’s bidding. Given the extreme loyalty required to be the guard of the head honcho – I recognized Augustus’s name from the strange pink-haired girl back in the capital – Night had some serious pull.

In a moment, the guards came back, and we were swiftly escorted into the tent.

With all these hotshots around, I resolved to shut up and not embarrass anyone.

General Augustus was one of those short, intense people. The tent was large, but spartan, only the necessities in place. A massive table, dominated by a map. A cot in a corner, a few trappings of living. Some chairs, a number of aides milling around.

[Identify] Away!

[Leader].

Holy – that was what, level 370? Hard to tell, I didn’t have a lot of practice IDing high-level people. And when I did, they weren’t forthcoming as to what their level actually was.

"Night. Pleasure to meet you again." Augustus said, saluting. Night saluted back, just as deep, deferentially.

"General Augustus. A pleasure, as always. I’d like to introduce Toxic, the newest Sentinel. We are here to attempt a new method of attacking the Formorians."

General Augustus frowned at that.

"Given Toxic’s title, I assume it’s not a large-scale casting."

Night shook his head.

"I am always the one counseling against them. I remember what happened in 4466. 4179. No. Large-scale magic like what Destruction can do has no place here."

General Augustus relaxed.

"Good! What do you need?"

"Two mage outcrops. One Advanced, one Standard. Five extra-large, charged Arcanite crystals for my transportation. – we shall provide you three uncharged ones. Twenty-four extra-small mage packs, twenty-four extra-large mage packs. Accommodations. A single small shift of guards. Two would be plenty. A single Wind mage, or other Classer capable of preventing backblow."

General Augustus had thunderclouds on his face.

"That’s a massive allocation." He grumbled. "How long do you need the outcrops for? Also, the packs are strategic – they’re not for casual casting like you seem to be asking. And two sets? Toxic’s one, who’s the other for?"

"Ranger Elaine here." Night said. "She is providing support for Toxic. I give no timeframe in which he shall be finished. Ranger Elaine’s requirements and support are of a shorter timeframe. I do believe we have a significant chance at causing massive damage, however. Else I would not be here, making requests."

Night paused a moment.

"I shall also directly participate for a week."

"Two weeks!" General Augustus attempted to negotiate.

Night shook his head.

"You know I can not be away that length of time. Attempting to negotiate is in poor taste. A week, along with the travel on either end, is the longest I can be away. Additionally, Nature has seen fit to bring his presence here, and will be doing… whatever he wants. Killing Formorians is probably part of that, but I shall not commit to what actions he shall take."

"Fine, fine." General Augustus raised his hands in surrender. "Just be open to a chat with me in the future, when the time comes."

Night gave a self-deprecating smile.

"For the Warden of the Wall? Anytime."

I noticed he didn’t say ‘for you’, he said ‘for the Warden of the Wall.’ My politics lessons coming in handy!

"Right. Aide Paraceltus! Get what Night needs together."

One of the aides snapped to attention.

"Sir! On it." He said.

"Follow me."

We followed Paraceltus, who grabbed more aides, issuing more orders. A brisk, efficient whirlwind of activity occurred, and before I knew it, the three of us were in a tent, with forty-eight backpacks along the four walls.

Arthur poked his head out of the tent, and requested dinner from one of the guards, who hurried off to do his bidding. He came back into the tent, grinning.

"Gods, I love being a Sentinel at times."

"Remember the responsibilities of your station." Night gently reprimanded him.

Arthur saluted.

"Yes Night."

"Good. Tonight, we shall begin."

Night proceeded to detail the plan over dinner, simple soldier’s fare.

Night fell, and Night’s mood noticeably improved. I grabbed my backpack, and Arthur grabbed his. The moons were out, full and large, staring at us with those creepy eyes. Hey, at least [Moonlight] would work.

To my surprise, I was using the extra-large one, while Arthur was using the small.

"For you use significant amounts of mana rapidly, while Arthur only needs the occasional top-up." Night explained to me. Arthur had his mysterious jug, leaving his dresser of poisons behind.

"Toxic. Mage Outcropping J-31." Night informed him. "Ranger Elaine. With me, Mage Outcropping J-16."

Toxic saluted, then climbed the stairs up the second wall, where he could access the start of his Outcropping, a tunnel through the stone allowing free movement along the wall, while stairs cut into the side let him climb up.

Night and I made our way through the camp, out of the walls, into the "dangerous" side of the wall.

Chapter 112.2– Ranger Academy XII

Not that the area immediately outside of the wall was dangerous – the layers of wooden fortifications helped, along with the real frontline, the actual soldiers fighting for humanity, being deeper in. It looked to me like the logic was to slowly build wooden fortifications, inching forwards, pushing the Formorians back eight feet at a time. That, or it gave more room for ebb and flow. The complexities of the war eluded me – I had a simple mission. I left the high-level analysis to the [Generals] and [Strategists]

We made our way through the maze of fortifications, Night pointing out various signs and what they meant, until we arrived at the start of my Outcropping, significantly different from Toxic’s. It started out here, on the wrong side of the wall, and it didn’t go nearly so high. It was, quite frankly, designed for weaker mages, those who couldn’t project force nearly as far.

Or, politely, who didn’t drop rocks on their enemy’s heads. Gravity was still deadly, and the Army had no problems exploiting the weakness.

We jogged along the Outcropping, narrow, rickety, barely wide enough for one person with good balance, steadily rising higher and higher, until we reached where the soldiers were in direct combat with the Formorians, soldiers moving in a single unit, Phalanx strong, tower shields down in a solid, interlocking pattern, spears out, stabbing in a practiced, uniform manner. A second line of soldiers were behind them, spears long enough to cover their fellow ahead of them. Whenever a soldier took a bad blow, deadly mandibles crushing through a shield and an arm, the soldier behind them would grab them, drag them back, then take their place in line.

A third line of soldiers were on double first-aid duty, and wall-building duty. When an injured soldier was thrown back out of the line, three soldiers would pounce, quickly wrapping the injury up, stabilizing the soldier long enough for them to make it back to the wall, where the healers had set up large tents to process the casualties.

When enough soldiers had fallen from the 1st and 2nd line, a number of soldiers from the 3rd line would backfill in, and the entire 3rd line would reshuffle to continue to be balanced, and continue to be building the fortifications.

The meatgrinder had reached peak military efficiency centuries ago.

From what I could see, it wasn’t "The Formorians are attacking! Quick, get into position!" No, it was endless. 8-hour shifts of combat were the norm, at which point the next set of lines came out, replacing the lines out, and the combat continued.

Every day. Every night. Endless, ceaseless.

For. Centuries.

How did the Formorians get so many bodies? How were they not stacked like cordwood, a massive wall made out of dead bodies? How – oh, they grabbed their dead and hauled them back. Probably to eat, and reprocess into more bodies.

I couldn’t think of many other reasons they’d drag them back.

As we passed the soldiers and the lines, crossing into enemy territory, high enough above them that they couldn’t reach us, but low enough that I could reach them with a really long spear, I used [Moonlight] and [Phases of the Moon] to heal every single soldier in range, my mana almost immediately draining to nothing, a combination of the sheer number of soldiers in range, and the frankly terrible image I had – just "heal".

Wonder if I could get a "multi-processing skill" of some sort. It’d help me think about each heal I was doing

I pulled mana from the backpack, the frankly ludicrous amount of Arcanite crystals packed in it, and just kept right on going, healing all those in range as we crossed to the sea of Formorians, some of them seemingly to look up and chitter angrily at us.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 211! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 212! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

I squashed the other notifications. [Celestial Affinity], [Center of the Galaxy], [Phases of the Moon], [Veil of the Aurora], and [Learning] all made it to 212 as well.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Moonlight] has reached level 178!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Moonlight] has reached level 179!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Moonlight] has reached level 180!]

Man, this backpack full of Arcanite was good stuff! Healing people right in the thick of the fighting – even if they weren’t directly at risk of dying – was amazing experience.

A slight cheer came from behind us, as the soldiers realized a healer had just passed by, patching them up. I waved, not looking.

Cool girls don’t look back.

We reached the end of the Outcropping, and Night looked around, satisfied.

"Good. This will do. Do not hit me." He said.

I looked around. Hordes of Formorians were marching past us, on their way to attempt to topple humanity – straight into the meatgrinder. A few Formorians flowed backwards, carrying bodies with them.

This was, quite honestly, a scary place to be. Hit the Outcropping too hard, a small earthquake, a moment of vertigo and I could lose my balance, and fall into the endless horde. There was absolutely, zip zero zilch, chance I’d survive falling. None at all. Not even a divine miracle could get me out of that.

"Begin." Night ordered, and with some small amount of trepidation, I threw a [Fireball] into their midst, the light of the fire briefly illuminating the ants before impacting. It exploded with violence and fury, a few Formorians staggering under the blow.

[Oath] was silent. They were exactly what they looked like – oversized ants, a killing machine. There was no twist, they weren’t secretly sentient, just a black tide threatening to overrun the whole world.

Well, I had fantastic regeneration, and a small mountain of mana on my back. I could quite literally do this all night – and that seemed to be the plan.

With the unrestrained glee of a [Pyromancer] who’d finally gotten a real, legitimate target, a good cause, and no need to restrain herself, I fired off as many fireballs as I could, in just about every direction.

Mage Outcroppings were either so high up, or so far forward, that mages could unleash skills without needing to worry about friendly fire. Which was the whole point of having them sticking out like this.

"Very good. I shall take the right-hand side. Please limit your attacks to the left." Night said, and with that, he stepped off the Outcropping, falling into the horde.

"Night!" I screamed in concern, only to see him gracefully land on top of a Formorian, punching straight through, blood and ichor spraying everywhere. He rode the body to the ground, then did the most frightening thing.

He laughed. The unrestrained laughter of a lunatic, of a killer unleashed. Red blades emerged from him, and started to swirl around him, and he began casually walking through the horde, spinning blades around him slicing and shredding all who came too close.

Slowly, his range of blades, the area they were active in, started to expand, becoming larger and larger, and he started to jog, then run, Formorians falling by the dozens – no, by the hundreds – as he ran back and forth through the battlefield, a one-man maelstrom of death.

"What are you doing, Ranger Elaine?" Night asked me, annoyance in his voice, ignoring as his lethally spinning blades around him cut down Formorians by the hundreds, the deadly ants realizing the threat in their midst and attempting to converge on him.

There wasn’t enough Formorian left after he was done with them for them to be able to drag a body back.

With a start I realized I’d stopped shooting off [Fireball], and went back to my barrage, feeling bad.

I sometimes killed one, maybe two Formorians with my shots – although I was injuring a bunch – but compared to Night’s hundreds killed every dozen seconds, I was nothing more than a drop in the bucket.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pyromancer] has leveled up to level 113! +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic power, +8 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

Well, a leveling up drop in the bucket.

At the same time, with the light of the moons illuminating, and the flashes of [Fireball] screwing with my night vision, the endless black tide of Formorians didn’t relent. Didn’t end.

Even Night’s efforts were a drop in the bucket, although the soldiers behind him probably appreciated the reduced pressure.

"I’m off for a brief run. I’d like to see how Toxic is handling himself. Do take care not to fall off Ranger Elaine. It would be a shame to lose you."

I mutely nodded, and Night took off, whirling blades around him slicing and dicing.

What were those even made out of? I found myself wondering.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 173!]

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 17]

[Mana: 28600/28600]

[Mana Regen: 29432]

Stats

[Free Stats: 606]

[Strength: 169]

[Dexterity: 212]

[Vitality: 297]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 2860]

[Mana Regeneration: 3287]

[Magic Power: 2506]

[Magic Control: 2808]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 212]]

[Celestial Affinity: 212]

[Warmth of the Sun: 193]

[Medicine: 192]

[Center of the Galaxy: 212]

[Phases of the Moon: 212]

[Moonlight: 180]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 113]]

[Fire Affinity: 113]

[Fire Resistance: 113]

[Fire Conjuration: 113]

[Fire Manipulation: 113]

[Fuel for the Fire: 113]

[Burn Brightly: 113]

[Rapidash: 113]

[Fireball: 113]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 133]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 156]

[Pretty: 130]

[Vigilant: 192]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 199]

[Ranger's Lore: 173]

[Training: 160]

[Learning: 212]

Chapter 113.1– Ranger Academy XIII

"Blasting the hell out of the Formorians" eventually became a chore, and I started to mix up my attacks, manipulating flames to hit Formorians closer to the Outcropping I was on, mixing it up with the [Fireball]s I was throwing further out. [Fireball] had a longer range than my manipulation and control skills, and had more bang for the mana used, but - and I couldn’t believe it - I was getting bored of throwing endless, extra-large-backpack-of-Arcanite-fueled [Fireball]s. There was just no variation.

My night vision went to hell in a handbasket with all the flames being thrown around, and I was oh-so-briefly regretting ditching [Eyes of the Milkyway]. Ah well. [Moonlight] was much, much better.

I’d occasionally see flashes of light from other Outcroppings further down. There seemed to be a Lightning mage to my left, lightning bolts like Artemis’s crackling every 70 minutes or so, and some sort of Brilliance mage to my right, a rain of Brilliance arrows showering down every 40 minutes or so.

The natural conclusion, I mulled as I threw more fireballs into the crowd, was other mages traded off on the Outcroppings, blowing all their mana, then trading spots while they regenerated up. I had a backpack full of mana, so I was able to single-handedly hog the spot.

Something was wrong. I didn’t need to be able to hog a spot to give Toxic support – hell, I wasn’t doing any supporting at the moment. I didn’t need this massive backpack of mana, fueling a [Pyromaniac]’s every dream.

What was going on?

I had lots of time to think – I didn’t really need to aim, just occasionally pause as Night flashed by, trail of gore left in his wake. However, no matter how I put the pieces together, it didn’t quite fit.

The only conclusion I came to, was this was probably related to my lessons being heavily focused on leadership and the like, relating to the Rangers maybe wanting to make me a team leader? Maybe they’d decided I was doing well enough in my lessons, and wanted to get my level high enough to justify it?

But this was absurdly expensive. Why not just, I dunno, let me be a Ranger for a few years, and let my level rise naturally that way? Get a solid core of other Rangers who knew me before making me a team leader?

And who ever heard of a team leader right out of Academy? Ok, fine, so I wasn’t right out of Academy, but still.

I continued puzzling and blasting for most of the night. Didn’t have much else to do, besides make sure I didn’t fall under any circumstances. I’d die horribly.

Eventually Night jumped up onto my Outcropping, and bless [Center of the Galaxy] for not having me fall.

"Excellent work Ranger Elaine." Night said, in his usual formal manner. "Let us return, and see what progress Toxic has made. I trust you still have mana in reserve?"

I saluted.

"Sir! Yes sir." I said, not quite sure why I was going full-formal.

Night nodded.

"Excellent. Follow."

We walked down the outcropping, endless tides of Formorians on either side, rushing to their doom in the meatgrinder.

"Why do they keep attacking?" I asked.

Night shrugged.

"I do not know. Eight times I have attempted to dive deep, to find and cut off the source. Eight time I have failed. There are larger, more powerful Formorians, and once inside their nest, I would be overwhelmed and crushed. Even I am not powerful enough to directly challenge them in their lair, nor am I able to fight a Broodmother. I am certain, however, that the Broodmothers, the Queens of the Formorians, are leveling, and leveling well, from all this."

Night shrugged.

"They do not desire to communicate, nor do anything other than consume. For the most part, I have given up attempting to solve the problem myself, rather keeping an eye out for those with the talent to potentially solve the issue. Hence Toxic, and to a smaller extent, you."

I nodded, as the dawn started to light up the horizon. We reached the frontlines, where a massive roar of approval came from the soldiers. Night lifted his right hand in the sky, clenched in a fist, and from the sound coming from the soldiers, it was like their favorite team had just won the Superbowl.

"Night! Night! Night! Night!" A chant came from them, the soldiers energized by his mere presence, throwing the Formorians back with vigor.

Night smiled, a pure smile of genuine happiness, at seeing more soldiers alive from his efforts, at the cheering of the crowd, his efforts to protect being rewarded.

The moons were setting as the sun was coming up, promising a perfect, cloudless day, and I took the chance to blast out [Moonlight]-empowered [Phases of the Moon], seeing dozens of small injuries heal up.

I ignored the level-up notifications. There had been a lot of those recently, and I wanted to see them all once we were done.

Night and I walked back.

"With your leftover mana, and Arcanite, we shall take you to one of the healer’s stations. I believe you wish to do some good there, correct?" Night asked me, pulling his cowl up to hide himself from the sun.

"Yes please." I said, eagerly looking forward to it. I was so bored of blasting endless waves of Formorians.

We made our way to a large tent, rows of soldiers on stretchers outside, each marked with one of two strips of cloth – a green, or orange strip. Soldiers from the frontlines were coming up in either pairs or trios, either one soldier supporting a second, wounded one, or two soldiers carrying a third on a stretcher. A half-dozen support staff milled around, receiving each soldier in turn. They’d get marked with a green strip of cloth, an orange strip, or immediately sent into the main tent, an efficient triage system.

"I’m here to help. I’m here to help. Let me get in position to do the most good." I mentally repeated to myself, fighting off the urge to just start blasting healing around. The green-strips would be fine – heck, some of them were only technically injured. The orange-strips needed some help, but it was the people that weren’t given a strip, just sprinted right into the tent, that required the most help.

I needed to be in that tent, helping.

"Ranger Elaine. I trust you’ll be able to find us once you have completed your task here." Night said. I’d barely started to nod when he was off like a shot, back in the direction where our tent was.

He really didn’t like the sun.

I made it to the entrance of the tent, where a pair of guards waited.

"Everyone needs to wait in line and be triaged first." One of the guards recited mechanically, not even looking at me properly.

"Hi, Ranger Elaine here. I’m – "

"Don’t care. Everyone needs to be checked out by triage, Ranger or not." The guard said.

"I’m here to-"

The guard looked down with a frown.

"Was I not clear?" He asked, gripping his spear.

"Are you fucking dumb?" I shot back, tired of trying to be polite. "Have you bothered to [Identify] me? Can you not see I’m a fucking healer, trying to get in and help?"

The other guard lost it, doubled over laughing, as the first guard went red, then purple, veins throbbing on his head.

"Go in, go in, healers are always welcome." The second guard said, tears of laughter in his eyes. "Forgive him, we get way too many people trying to skip the line, trying to pull rank for some reason or another."

The first guard came to a decision, and unhappily relaxed. "Go in."

I didn’t thank them on my way in. I was feeling petty.

Long story short, after the guards it was relatively smooth sailing for me to get, for the lack of a better word, a booth.

"Pull down the red tassel when you’re out of mana. Pull the green tassel down when you’re ready to accept patients." One of the helpers told me.

I experimentally pulled down on the green tassel, the red one lifting up via a simple pulley.

"Sounds good! I’m just here briefly until I run out of mana." I said, getting a foul look from the helper, who muttered something about ‘part time workers’ and ‘no work ethic.’

I resisted sighing and rolling my eyes. Seriously people. Instead, I patted my backpack.

"I have a lot of mana."

The look in the helpers eye changed somewhat, as he put one and one together. I wasn’t here for a dozen patients or so – I was here for potentially hundreds.

Green tassel down, the first patient was brought to me, the two soldiers with him flopping his hand onto my booth as he lay, barely breathing, not really conscious, on the stretcher. I got eyed by the soldiers, who decided that I must’ve been screened at some point, and that it was a 17-year-old girl in the healer booth, not the grizzled 40+ man they expected.

"Left stomach, long cut." The first soldier recited. I glanced down at the man I was going to heal, seeing that was indeed the primary injury, although they’d neglected to mention the guts hanging out. I touched him, focusing on the injury they’d mentioned, pulsing [Phases of the Moon] through him, watching the guts get sucked back into his stomach, wound stitching back up.

"Thanks!" One of the soldiers said. The other just threw me a dirty look, and the three of them walked out.

That was pretty much how it went. Injured soldier came up, and either him or his friend would give a short description of the injury, saving me – and the other healers – the trouble of diagnosing the problem, letting us quickly get to the needed image to rapidly heal them in an efficient, if not perfect, manner, balancing mana usage with rapid healing, to get to the next patient, who might be critical.

There was no telling when a critical patient would come in, but mostly I was on a steady diet of orange patients. A green patient came in at one point, grumbling about the long, long wait.

"Look, see that guy over there?" I said, pointing to a soldier being rushed in, screaming, missing his legs. "That gets you immediate attention. Lose some legs, and we’ll see you first."

The soldier – both green in seniority, and now green around the gills – mutely nodded, letting me fix his arm, before moving on.

It took me about an hour and a half to finally run out of mana, at which point I made my excuses and took my leave.

"Ranger Elaine." The helper saluted me on my way out. "We appreciate your help at any point."

I smiled at him, mentally snorting. I probably threw something of a wrench in their operation, a healer randomly showing up, causing a kerfuffle, then leaving again after a short time, but hey – that was more of a "them problem" than a "me problem". Plus, I was helping people.

Chapter 113.2– Ranger Academy XIII

I snuck out the back, not wanting to get trapped in the triage section in the front. Now that I was no longer getting myself in a position to help, [Oath] would demand I stop and heal people, and given my immediate proximity to the healing tent, I had a few minor issues getting out, mostly around pausing people heading that way, regardless of severity, and fixing them up.

I made it back to find Toxic eating, Night just hanging out, a set of soldier’s rations – triple the norm, standard for a heavy mage - out for me.

"Ranger Elaine. Welcome back. Sit, eat. How was it?" Night asked me.

I sighed, and tucked in with gusto.

"Some hiccups getting in. Idiot guard wouldn’t let me get a word in sideways about being a healer. After that, relatively smooth sailing, although escaping was a hair tricky."

Night nodded.

"Excellent. Toxic’s already reported back."

Arthur grunted.

"I’ve fired thousands of those poisoned arrows out. It’s still going to take months, if not years, of doing this before we see results." He griped.

"Help me out." I said, around a mouthful of bread that I’d torn into with bestial ferocity. "What’s different this time from the usual attempts to poison these monsters, which I have to assume has been done before."

Arthur nodded.

"Yup! Our best guess is, a long time ago someone tried poison. It didn’t work too well. Then a more lethal, faster-acting poison was developed. Eventually, we hit upon something strong enough to kill the Formorians before they hit the shield-wall of the frontline soldiers – anything slower than that wasn’t worth it. Problem was, it was also pretty damn toxic to our soldiers. It was refined, improved, and we hit on a poison that was cheap mana-wise, fast-acting, and had almost no impact on our soldiers. We’ve been sticking to that for hundreds of years now. Sure, once in awhile someone will try a slowing, or a sleep, or a confusion, or some other type of crippling poison, but it turns out flat-out killing them is the most effective use of mana. We didn’t try to develop it further from there, we’d hit upon what we thought was peak efficiency."

"However, it’s clear that the poison used doesn’t really impact whatever recycling of the bodies the Formorians do. I’ve been working on a poison, with your help and the System, to hopefully manage to get back to the Queens, killing them once and for all, ending the threat of the Formorians."

I sat there, munching on the cheese – slightly stale – as I processed what Arthur was saying.

It clicked.

"Hang on, you’re talking about genocide." I said, slowly dawning horror at the realization.

Arthur thought about it for a moment, then nodded.

"Yeah."

"Ranger Elaine. We have been locked in conflict with the Formorians for centuries. It is clear this only ends with one of us ended as a species." Night said.

"Maybe, but – this is genocide." I said, voice laced with horror, cheese dropping from my grip.

"Yes. Do you have a problem with killing the creatures attempting to end us all?" Night asked.

"No, but I have a problem with trying to make them extinct!" I said, getting up to my feet, looking around. Didn’t they get it?

"Tens of thousands of other solutions have been tried. Each and every one of them has failed. They will not negotiate. They will not relent. There is nothing there but hunger, and a desire to see us all dead. Please, Ranger Elaine, enlighten us. What else is there?"

"There has to be something apart from fucking genocide!" I shouted. "I’m not participating in this."

"Are you sure you wish to declare that?" Night said.

"Yes."

"Even if we should strip your Ranger qualifications, pitch you from Academy, and leave you here, with barely the clothes on your back, for defying my orders?"

I froze at that. I remember the last time someone had considered one of Night’s orders a suggestion - thrown into the ocean. Night did not like being disrespected, nor his orders ignored.

His arguments about what needed to be done with the Formorians wasn’t wrong, either. I couldn’t object to a solution without presenting a better one – that was just poor form.

But no matter what, I couldn’t condone genocide. I couldn’t participate. I had to have some lines, even in this line of work, that I wouldn’t cross. Some ethics, even not [Oath]-restricted, that I stuck with.

Heart pounding, tears forming in my eyes, I saluted Night.

"Sir! Yes, even then."

I closed my eyes, waiting for the hammer to drop. I could only hope that he threw me into the "safe" half, and didn’t decide to just directly feed me to the Formorians.

Instead, I heard a hissing laughter.

"Very well, little otter. It is good to have some ethics, some morals, even if they are, ah, inconvenient. Far better than your mentor, Artemis, who I had some concerns that you would follow."

"However, you still stand because they are merely inconvenient. Challenge me on a greater issue, and I shall not be nearly so lenient, nor tolerant of your beliefs."

Night paused a moment, collecting his thoughts.

"To be clear, you shall not interfere with Toxic’s mission?"

I was going to have a heart attack with how fast my heart was going. I hit myself with [Vastness of the Stars], just to try and keep my composure. And not have my heart explode on me. Be bad for my health. Although, with my healing, and having recently fixed my broken spine, it wasn’t impossible to…

I refocused on Night, answering his question.

"Sir! I won’t interfere. Simply not participate."

Night nodded.

"Alright. However, there is a greater mission which you need to focus on, between bouts of combat. Namely, you need to check to make sure what Toxic is doing isn’t blowing back on us, and isn’t poisoning us as badly or worse than it is the Formorians. Given the mechanism involved – poisoned arrows fired a long distance – I do not believe this is as significant of a risk as some of the other poisons we have tried over the years, but it never hurts to be safe, to be careful. Now and then, I ask you to wander around, talk with other healers, see if they have noticed an uptick in poisoned soldiers or the like."

I mean, we didn’t always know what we were healing, one of the joys of magical healing. But yeah, I could keep an eye out for a new disease which could be linked to what Arthur was doing.

I saluted, happy and excited to be able to do something I wanted to do, to help with something not conflicting with my ethics. Being a check that the poison expert didn’t start murdering our side was the perfect job for me.

"Of course I’d be more than happy to!"

"Very good. We shall continue. Tonight. For now, I believe we could all use a rest."

I collapsed on a seat, like a puppet with its strings cut, hardly believing what had happened. I’d opposed Night, and somehow survived. For now.

We fell into a rhythm pretty quickly – Wake up at dusk, eat breakfast/dinner, head out to the frontlines, blast away for hours, return as the sun rose, blow the last of my mana healing people, make it back to the tent, have a brief chat with Arthur and Night, repeat.

A week passed like this, then Night was ready to leave, to head back towards the capital. He had a few parting words for us.

"Ranger Elaine. This is a valuable chance you have been offered. Do not squander it. You will likely be offered a class-up for your [Pyromancer] class in the near future. I’d encourage you to not take it, if you have any intention of taking [Ranger-Mage] as your next class. Wait. Allow your [Ranger’s Lore] to rise, which shall boost the power of [Ranger-Mage]. Additionally, your [Constellation of the Healer] will assist with the additional stats. The experience does not vanish into the ether, it builds and accumulates."

"Wait on spending your free stats, unless an emergency occurs. I shall think upon where is best for you to allocate them." Night said, giving me some solid advice.

"Toxic. Do not be afraid to try new things, different things. You have proven yourself, time and time again. Failure is acceptable. I’d rather this take thirty years, and succeed, than to fail because you tried to accomplish it in three. Do not pressure yourself too harshly."

With that, Night left with Sky.

Then it was just me and Arthur. We switched to a saner daytime schedule, and Nature occasionally joined us, a massive, hulking, silent figure. He didn’t say much, but clearly wanted some companionship now and then, and to listen to more of my stories that I told during our downtime.

We spent until late Spring like this, our backpacks of Arcanite finishing recharging right as the last one was spent. The ability to cast like I had unlimited mana did ridiculous things for my experience. I don’t think it was possible to design a better leveling experience – and maybe that was the point. Night was right; this was the chance of a lifetime. Months passed. The leveling was epic.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 213! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 240! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pyromancer] has leveled up to level 114! +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic power, +8 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pyromancer] has leveled up to level 128! +5 Free Stats, +14 Mana, +8 Mana Regen, +14 Magic power, +8 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 240!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 194!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 198!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 193!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 202!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 213!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 233!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 213!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 240!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Moonlight] has reached level 181!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Moonlight] has reached level 240!]

Moonlight: Range: 24 Meters. 89.6% Increased cost/meter.

After capping [Pyromancer] I’d been more inclined to spend mana getting [Moonlight] up to speed, than throwing more fireballs into the unending horde. Didn’t stop me from doing it, but my priorities had shifted.

[Veil] hadn’t leveled at all. I hadn’t needed to use it.

[Vastness] was also unused, and I was starting to think about axing the skill if a good skill was offered to me.

All of my [Pyromancer] skills capped, which given how much I’d practiced the skills without getting good [Pyromancer] experience in the past, made sense.

Also, with the sheer number of [Fireball]’s I’d thrown.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Identify] has reached level 134!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Identify] has reached level 136!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Recollection of a Distant Life] has reached level 157!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Recollection of a Distant Life] has reached level 159!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Vigilant] has reached level 193!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Vigilant] has reached level 195!]

I was a little surprised at that. Turned out, it only really did anything when I was moving through camp. The Formorians just didn’t seem to care enough to trigger the skill. Other people though? According to my skills, they were the real threat.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 200!]

Another surprise. My best guess were my scrolls still circulating around, or people taking my [Oath] starting to funnel experience to me.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 174!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 182!]

Training didn’t move an inch. Maybe it was because I was acting as a Ranger, not a Trainee? It’s not like I was training for anything, more than I was standing and blasting ants. Not exactly Ranger training.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 213!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 214!]

The lectures from Night had done most of the work, and little bits I learned about life on the frontlines did the rest.

I was more than pleased with the opportunity I’d been given, and I think Night would agree – I hadn’t squandered my chance.

And hey! My birthday was around the corner!

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 17]

[Mana: 35460/35460]

[Mana Regen: 36219]

Stats

[Free Stats: 1032]

[Strength: 184]

[Dexterity: 210]

[Vitality: 297]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 3546]

[Mana Regeneration: 3967]

[Magic Power: 3079]

[Magic Control: 3406]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 240]]

[Celestial Affinity: 240]

[Warmth of the Sun: 198]

[Medicine: 202]

[Center of the Galaxy: 233]

[Phases of the Moon: 240]

[Moonlight: 240]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 128]+]

[Fire Affinity: 128]

[Fire Resistance: 128]

[Fire Conjuration: 128]

[Fire Manipulation: 128]

[Fuel for the Fire: 128]

[Burn Brightly: 128]

[Rapidash: 128]

[Fireball: 128]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 130]

[Vigilant: 195]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 200]

[Ranger's Lore: 182]

[Training: 160]

[Learning: 212]

Chapter 114.1– Ranger Academy XIV

I blasted yet another Formorian, hitting exactly the one I’d been aiming for. I believed the Artillery Mages now when they said they could hit the exact target on the other side of the island. There was basically nothing else to do besides call shots and take them, and frankly, it didn’t matter if I missed – one Formorian was just like another. The real challenge was making sure you tracked the one you called, that you didn’t lose track of your called shot in the endless mass of bodies.

However, the baleful moons were starting to rise, watching me, staring at me, practically stripping me naked before their gaze. I hated them, as nice as [Moonlight] was as a skill, and speaking of, the moons being up was my cue to leave.

[Pyromancer] was significantly less fun to try and level when it was at the cap. Sure, I knew I was getting experience, and when I finally classed it up, I’d be grateful. But with a complete and utter lack of feedback on the skill, I sometimes struggled to keep focus, especially with the monotony of throwing fireballs into an endless horde of Formorians.

Oh, all the gods and goddesses above, I was getting old. [Fireball] was becoming boring. I blamed sheer overuse. I’d easily cast over ten thousand of them, basically non-stop daily for months. Anything would get old repeating it that much.

Healing people never got old though, seeing wounds vanish, new life being given and restored. Made me fairly popular to boot, which I had mixed reactions to.

I made my way down the Outcropping, to find the current frontlines in their usual shieldwall, efficiently stabbing the Formorians with spears and swords. They probably got better experience than me in some senses – the System penalized just how darn safe it was for me to casually throw fireballs into the horde from a distance, compared to being in the thick of things. I mean, technically I was in the middle of the horde, blasting away. Still, was pretty safe. On the other hand, I could throw [Fireball] for literal hours, and was hitting, and possibly killing, a lot more Formorians than an individual soldier on the frontlines could. All things considered; I didn’t mind. It was still combat and killing experience, and that already had a large boost.

The Century – a subsection of a Legion – that was assigned to the particular Outcropping where I was located was more than happy to see me. Patients that were critical were still whisked off to the healer’s tents as quickly as possible, and there was the omni-present row of bodies with a stained white sheet over them, the few that had died today, but everyone that would normally be marked as green or orange patients were leaning up against the Outcropping, waiting for me.

I got close – might as well be as efficient as possible – and let out a [Phases of the Moon], the moon’s light letting me use [Moonlight] to heal everyone in a single go. The mana drain was atrocious, but that’s what the extra-large backpack of Arcanite was for.

I got more than a modest cheer at that, mostly because healers didn’t come to the frontlines like this, and because after a few months, the only people that hadn’t gotten a touch of my rapid healing were the brand-new recruits, the ridiculously good grizzled veterans, or the cowards who managed to never be in the line.

Three soldiers were waiting for me at the bottom of the Outcropping as I stepped down, and I restrained a sigh. Didn’t put a smile on my face though.

"Oh blazing hot mage, would you-"

"No." I said, shooting the first one down.

"Hey, want to go for a walk later on?" The second one asked, much more politely.

"No thank you." I curtly said, meeting his courtesy with some of mine. Not a lot – the conclusion was foregone, and bugging me anyways.

I swear the first one had asked me out at some point a few weeks ago. I didn’t keep track.

The two saluted and walked back to their duties, getting laughed at by their fellow soldiers, while I gave a Look to the Centurion, the boss of this section. He shrugged.

"Look, I know you hate it, but it makes my life so much easier. Just think, without the ‘two a day’ lotto more might be trying. Thank you again, Ranger Elaine. You’re the angel of our Century."

I’d used up a decade’s worth of long-suffering sighs months ago, and I simply saluted him, the Centurion saluting back.

Healing at the frontlines directly was much more convenient for me than finding my way to the healer’s tent, and handling the mess there. The injuries were less severe, less likely to take a life, which reduced the experience. That was balanced out by the fact that I was casting on the front lines, and also hitting people directly in the shield-wall, those in the thick of the fight.

Why [Moonlight] worked on people hiding behind their shield, under armor, and not on people under a thin stretch of tent canvas was one of those inexplicable mysteries of the System. I’d gotten some solid practice at figuring the ins and outs of how the skill worked, the Century that was around my Outcropping all too happy to give me a hand experimenting. Wasn’t every day a high-level healer decided to hang out, and being a Ranger helped.

Being a pretty woman also helped. I thought darkly to myself. I shrugged. Couldn’t do anything about that, and the Centurion had been a total gentleman the entire time, making sure that everyone toed the line and didn’t harass me. Too badly.

I made my way back to the tent, expecting to see food, Arthur, and possibly Nature. I felt bad for Nature’s mentees – he’d been away from them for far too long. Did one of the other Instructors take over at that point? They must, otherwise poor Wolfy and the others wouldn’t get any guidance.

Instead, I found food, Arthur, and Night, who immediately stopped their conversation. Night turned to me, and looked me up and down.

"Ranger Elaine." He said, in his soft, sound-defying way, every word making its way to my ear, cutting through the background noise of the camp.

"It is good to see you have taken full advantage of this opportunity. We are returning to Academy momentarily. We are simply waiting on Nature, and for the Pegasus to swap out its Arcanite stones."

I saluted.

"Understood."

I shucked off my backpack, then started to chow down. Night would let me know when we were going, and I wanted to get some food in me first.

There was some running around, and in a moment, we were leaving. I asked one of the guards to let the Century I’d been hanging out with know that I was leaving, and not to rely or hope I’d be around to heal them anymore. It could get nasty if people waited around all day, only for me to never show up, then end up much further back in line for healing when they eventually made it to a tent.

Before we left, the Quartermaster swooped in with a vengeance to reclaim the backpacks I’d been using. They were seriously heavy-duty strategic stuff, and they wanted them back ASAP in case of an emergency.

I felt no guilt over it. The powers that be decided I should be using them, and they’d traded – Arthur was a strategic resource, and Nature was also doing gods-knows-what, and at least two Sentinels hanging around was good enough. Not my decision – I just made sure it was put to good use. There was definitely funkiness about.

Before I knew it, I was back in the Pegasus with Night, Sky, and Nature, flying along in a sailboat above the clouds.

Goddesses, I wanted to fly. I sent a quick prayer off to the twin goddesses of the moons, beseeching them to hear my prayer.

It was strange. I never got the same vibe off the goddesses that I did off the moons. They were the goddesses of the moons, but maybe they weren’t related to the Dragoneye Moons?

We traveled along, Nature and I giving a brief report of what we’d been up to. Nature had, in his own words, "gone for a long walk" in Formorian territory, but from the sound of it, he’d mostly paralleled the walls. He didn’t think he could safely go deeper into their territory – something about stronger variants on defense, as opposed to the endless, low-level attackers sent at us. Still, he’d been practicing how to survive with the endless hordes constantly around him, in every direction, for a potential deep dive later on.

Night didn’t seem all too amused, and I couldn’t see how Nature could do a deep strike himself if Night couldn’t. Still, I had to give him credit – a high level classer spending months doing almost nothing but murdering the crap out of Formorians must’ve relieved some pressure.

I gave a detailed breakdown myself, and Night looked thoughtful at the results, while Sky remained a pain in the ass.

"I do believe it’s time to drop your [Training] skill for something else. I have been thinking on it, and I do believe we are due for a long discussion on the matter." Night said.

I suspected the "long discussion" would be Night telling me what skill I would take, him politely listening to my objections and reasoning, then cleverly dismantling everything I said. Maybe I’d just skip most of it by agreeing – he’d be right in the end.

"Also, it has recently come to my attention that you have never deliberately killed another." Night said, and a slow, creeping chill crept over me at that pronouncement.

"This must be rectified. An execution has been scheduled for six days from now. You will be present. I will accept no argument on the matter." Night decreed, and that did nothing good for my mental state, spiraling down a staircase of self-doubt and anxiety.

First, Night’s wording of deliberately. Just how much did he know about me?! Was it simply a lucky guess, knowledge that most healers had accidental kill notifications sent? Or did he really know me inside and out? Had I let it slip in one of our many conversations? Did he piece it together from other bits of information?

And an execution. That, in so many ways, directly conflicted with "First, do no harm." Night had to know that. There couldn’t be a mistake. Especially with him saying he’d accept no argument on the matter.

Think Elaine, think. There was something else going on here. What did I know?

Night was an expert – the expert – on restriction skills.

Night was my mentor, and there was no way he didn’t know about my restriction. Hell, we’d spent many nights discussing it.

There was no way Night was setting up a situation where I had to break my [Oath].

I shook my head at that point. No, that wasn’t correct. Maybe Night knew how [Oath] worked, and knew it would shatter, and I wouldn’t be bound by it anymore. Maybe he was trying to break [Oath], and free me, turn me into a killing machine. It didn’t seem likely, but point 3 wasn’t a conclusion I could make. What else was there?

The use of the term "execution" – it was exceedingly rare for someone to be executed in Remus. It basically never happened. Fines, leading to slavery, was the solution for just about every single crime. Executions didn’t happen – everyone could still be a member of society, of the human race, even if it was chained up with other slaves quarrying stone. After seeing the front lines, I was convinced that this was a better solution than the death penalty. Also, I wasn’t an executioner, although, Night had enough pull to change that.

The use of the term "scheduled." It meant an event, a time and place. Most executions took place immediately, skills and classes making keeping someone prisoner who knew they were going to die difficult. Sure, there were imprisonment skills and classes, but it was still hard to keep someone down, especially if they knew there was no hope.

Someone being executed, and knew they were being executed, wasn’t going to be low-level. Being polite, people who were fairly low level didn’t usually have the power to cause the type of damage that warranted arrest and execution. Unless it was political power, like heading a rebellion or something, but that sort of activity tended towards leveling a bunch… unless it was caught early…

Yeah, I don’t think I can do anything with point 6.

Dawn broke as I was musing, Night huddling deeper into his cloak as the rest of us ate breakfast. I continued musing, Nature being stoic, and Sky too focused on enjoying flying to make much conversation.

Whoever it was, likely didn’t know they were being executed.

I was being asked to "Execute", not "Assassinate".

A random thought came to me, letting me put the pieces of the puzzle together.

We often were put in fights in the Colosseum, against monsters.

There was a Colosseum fighter that some powers that be somewhere wanted dead, probably someone who’d screwed with the wrong person in some way, shape, or form, and had been sold into slavery as a result, most likely to the Colosseum. Someone called in a favor to Night or something, asking for a Trainee to bump them off.

Must be one hell of a favor to ask Night to do something. Could be another Instructor, or someone the Rangers – probably in Team 1 – owed a favor to, who then traded it up the line.

We arrived, and after a short, brief visit to the armorer to return my gear, I practically sprinted to the one little bath that I thought of as mine.

I was disgusting, in so many senses of the word. I’d fought, ate, drank, and slept in my armor the entire time I’d been at the frontlines. It had gone on all those months ago, and hadn’t come off once the entire time. Blessedly, I’d stopped smelling myself ages ago, but the sheer need to scrub myself to within an inch of my life was overpowering me.

Which is exactly what I did.

There was an awkward moment in the middle where I needed to ask one of the many slaves hanging around for help rotating the bath water, it was getting that filthy that quickly. Apart from that, bliss. Pure, relaxing bliss, as water finally ended up in my much-abused pores, which hadn’t seen air in months.

Scrubbing the dirt out of my matted hair, I got a notification.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pretty] has reached level 131!]

Combing it out got me yet another one.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pretty] has reached level 132!]

Finally!

I got back into the swing of classes fairly soon, my absence having been noted, but not terribly commented on. I wasn’t the only one who’d been vanished for a period of time. A large portion of the class had gone on a "practical" wilderness survival excursion, some other unlucky Trainees had gotten "Special Attention" from a Sentinel – apparently Wolfy had been instructed to live in Saber-tooth cat territory for months, somehow surviving it. MoonMoon had a few additional scars, making them look extra-dashing. What was remarked on was how many levels I’d gotten. Most Trainees get 20 levels in their primary class through Academy. I was pushing 60.

I kept very, very quiet about my second class’s skills and level gain.

"I have two experience boosting skills." I said over one lunch. "[Learning] and [Training]."

"I grabbed [Training], but didn’t get nearly as many." Hector griped at me.

I shrugged.

"Maybe because [Learning] boosted how fast [Training] went, which in turn boosted [Learning] again, which then boosted everything? It stacks really well."

There was some muttering at that, and I realized – what if someone took all experience boosting skills? Just how high could they reach?

"Ranger Elaine! Today, you are reporting to Instructor Artemis for special training!" Quintis yelled in his usual manner, giving me a stink-eye.

"I don’t know what you did to make her mad enough to pull Artemis out of her school during the day, but you better make her happy by the end of the day! Do you understand me?"

"Sir! Yes sir!" I said, suppressing a grin. I knew exactly what I’d done, but I was surprised Artemis went so far as to take a whole day.

I met up with Artemis, who had a stormy look on her face.

"Ranger Elaine, reporting!" I said, saluting.

Artemis couldn’t do it. She couldn’t keep the face up, as a grin split her face from ear to ear.

"Happy birthday healy-bug!"

Having an Instructor to kidnap you away from training for a day was a horrible abuse of power, and totally worth it.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

The day of the scheduled execution arrived, and it was strange.

No armor. No weapons. Just an old, ratty tunic for me. A woman’s tunic even, a long skirt reaching to the ground, restricting mobility, not even the standard men’s tunic I was so used to wearing.

And it was Ocean himself escorting me, also in a tunic, with a long cape and cowl hiding his features. There was definitely something covert going on here, but I was being a good minion, shutting up and going along for the ride.

It did feel suspiciously like I was being setup, but Rangers didn’t setup other Rangers. If they were pissed at me, they’d let me know. If they really wanted me dead, they’d just kill me, not go through whatever this was.

We entered the Colosseum through a backdoor, making our way to the waiting room, where Ocean had some last-second instructions for me.

"Ranger Elaine. Don’t mention you’re a Ranger at all until the end of the fight, and once it’s over, throw up the Ranger Eagle in flames. Everything will be fine."

I saluted, just as formal as I’d be in my full outfit, wondering how all of this was going to work. The person on the other end could just, not attack me, and this would get real awkward. Hell, there were dozens of different ways this could go horribly wrong, not the least that without armor or weapons, I could just be riddled with holes and die once I ran out of mana.

No mana + sword in chest = dead Elaine.

A wealthy looking man showed up at one point, quickly glanced at me.

"Alright, good, she’ll do."

Do what?

Before I knew it, it was my turn.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! The Brawling Sentinel vs the [Myrmillo] Marcus Attilius will be up in a moment! But first, one last match to whet your appetite! From the South Gate, we have, Healer Elaine!"

I walked out, to the largest crowd I’d ever seen. The stands were packed, there wasn’t a single empty spot on a bench. People even filled the aisles, making the crowd as dense as possible. I didn’t follow the Colosseum, but even I’d heard of Marcus Attilius, the famous gladiator. Him and Brawling were both superstars of the arena, and clearly the crowd was for their fight – slated after mine.

Something was seriously wrong here. It should be some A-list entertainment before Brawling and Marcus, not me, introduced as a healer, not even as a trainee. D, or E-list entertainment.

"And from the North Gate! With 122 victories over the last three and a half years, I give you the [Retiarius], Kerberos!"

Chapter 114.2– Ranger Academy XIV

Holy shit, was that-

A man bounded out of the North Gate, with an almost completely bare torso, filled with rippling muscles. His right arm was bare, except for a sword in his hand. His left arm was armored from the shoulder down, ending with a rope net, small metal balls woven throughout. A vambrace with five gems protected his forearm, two of them glowing.

And his face –

His face was all too familiar, but no longer fat and pudgy. He’d burned the fat off in the arena, but I could remember all too vividly the last time I’d seen him, the fear and revulsion I’d felt, later morphed into an icy hatred after he’d sent adventurers after me.

"Kerberos." I practically spat out, and did spit after saying it, trying to wash my mouth of the foul word.

A quick [Identify] gave me [Warrior]. Somewhere around 145 or so. I had a large advantage in terms of stats and levels, and he probably didn’t know about me being a mage. I probably looked like a tasty sacrifice.

Thinking quickly on it – his class was probably some sort of [Gladiator] with the way he’d been introduced. He was specialized for this sort of work, while I was a generalist. Maximus’s lesson on how specialists could punch way above their weight class when in the right situation came back to me, and I resolved to be extra-careful, regardless of the level and stat disparity.

He wasn’t wearing a helmet, and I saw his eyes widen.

"Elaine." He said as venomously as a viper.

He started to walk a slow circle around me, oh-so-slowly getting closer.

"[Announcer]! Amplify me!" Kerberos shouted up.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Citizens and Freemen! It looks and sounds like there’s more to this fight than what it seems! Direct from the Demon of the Pit himself, let’s hear it from Kerberos!"

That announcement got a lot more cheering than anything earlier – seemed like people liked a grudge match. I could see what Kerberos was doing, having seen it in a dozen duels I’d been on overwatch for – he was trying to slowly close the distance on me without me noticing, confusing me with his shifting, ever-changing steps.

I took a large step backwards, adjusting. Yeah, I wasn’t going to let someone that close to me, not that easily. Probably gave away that I had some idea what I was doing though.

"This bitch here’s supposed to be my wife!" Kerberos said, and the crowd fucking loved that. A grudge match between almost-spouses?

"She ran away from home, and when I sent some people to make sure she was safe, and bring her back home, instead she framed me! Framed my family, for a heinous crime! We were forced to pay tens of thousands of rods, and I got sent here!"

Lots of boos in my direction. [Vigilant] pinged, and I neatly sidestepped some rotten cabbage thrown my way. I threw a dirty look at one of the vendors selling rotten food.

"But now! All will be right! The gods have seen fit to throw this cunt in the arena against me, a tasty, high-level healer for me to level on! I’m going to beat her, fuck her, then force her to crawl, begging forgiveness!"

A sickening roar of approval went up from the crowd, and I felt my stomach drop out at that.

However, he was still an idiot. With that last sentence, I wasn’t bound anymore.

"I’m going to make her suck-"

I used Artemis’s trick, imbuing my voice with power, with fire.

Also, Artemis’s trick of not fighting fair. I wasn’t going to announce what I was doing; I wasn’t going to be sporting. I wasn’t here for that.

"[Fireball]." I intoned, a massive ball erupting from my fingertip, racing off to Kerberos. His eyes widened, his speech interrupted in the middle, as the [Fireball] directly landed on him and exploded, as hot and powerful as I could manage. There was no warming up, there was no playing around. No declaring that the fight began, no trash-talking back, no pandering to the audience.

As Night said – and I was completely onboard with him now – this was an execution, one that I was all too happy to participate in. Arranged by Night, not as a favor, but as a way to get rid of someone Rangers hated the most – someone who’d attacked a Ranger, and had somewhat gotten away with it. By sheer virtue of still being alive. I’d said I’d take care of it all those years ago, and, well, now I was taking care of it.

The announcer was screaming, the crowd was going nuts. I tuned them out, they didn’t matter. [Veil] hid me as I moved through the sand, repositioning myself.

I dropped [Veil], only to see Kerberos looking off to my right, horrible burns on his skin starting to slowly reform.

I had a small hope that a single, well-placed [Fireball] would end the fight, would be enough to kill him in a single go. I could usually kill a Formorian with a direct hit like that, but no such luck. Either his stats were heavy in vitality, or he had some skill to help him survive. Probably the latter. Damn specialization.

I didn’t say anything this time. I just threw another [Fireball], the shout from the crowd his only warning. To his credit, he threw himself out of the way, only getting nicked by the edge of the explosion. It still caused his leg to eat it. I’d evaluate the damage later.

The follow-up [Fireball] landed directly on him, and he barely managed to roll out of the way of the third one, jumping back to his feet.

He was panting, coated in burns, patches of his skin peeling off. He looked at me, with hate and venom in his eyes, only one light on his vambrace remaining.

Bastard was blatantly cheating, bringing gemstones in to heal him, and nobody was calling him on it.

He started to charge me head-on, and [Fireball] seemed to be working, so I threw another one at him, eyes widening in surprise as a shimmering barrier snapped around him, the last light on his vambrace going dark.

Fucking rich pricks and their gemstones.

[Rapidash] helped me get distance again – I had to be slightly careful, as I was unbalanced again, my stats not quite properly aligned, but I was just getting distance, I wasn’t trying to do anything fancy, not going at full power- and I threw another [Fireball] at him, taking a moment to check my mana.

18344/35460

I’d gotten a little too used to having endless mana to throw skills around with, and I decided to bide my time for his shield to go down – it couldn’t last long, not with how gemstones worked.

I let him get closer and closer each time before blowing [Rapidash] to regain distance, wanting to draw out how long this took. He was hurt. He was slowing down. Time was usually against the mage in a mage vs physical confrontation, but not this time. I’d hurt him, and hurt him badly, and I wanted to draw it out. Mostly from a logical perspective, he was hurting, and drawing the fight out was to my advantage. A small part of me was happy he was suffering. Thank goodness he wasn’t that high level – well, relatively speaking. Nor was he a speedster.

As I let him get closer for the 3rd time, keeping a wary eye on his net, I fucked up. He had something, some sort of gap-closing skill, had been faking how badly he was hurt to get closer, and he blurred as he moved fast, suddenly getting within range, throwing his net at me.

However, his shield went down for that, and I blasted flames at the net, [Burn Brightly] incinerating the ropes. I got peppered with incinerating hot little metal pieces from the net, but I wasn’t trapped. It wasn’t going to slow me down. I’d done worse to myself.

Kerberos’s right arm drew back, then started to stab forward, trying to impale me, cripple my leg. I threw a [Veil] in the way, in the awkward spot on his elbow, arresting his momentum in a way that was exceedingly mana-efficient.

He snarled at me, so close I could smell his breath, spitting on me. Getting close to a powerful Classer, one with mana, one trying to kill you, was always a terrible idea. It was going to be me or him in just a few seconds.

At this range, I could use [Fire Conjuration] and [Fire Manipulation], and I wasn’t limited to just using them. I shot two hot, narrow jets of flame, one at his groin, one at his chest, making it hard to block and defend against both. They had potential to do damage, but they weren’t my main attack. I could use more than one skill at a time.

I reached up with my right hand, grabbed his face, and from point-blank range –

"[Fireball]."

It blew his head clean off his shoulders, exploding into a hot, charred mess. It was blessedly hot enough that there was no spray of blood, just burning chunks of human flesh gently raining down around me, smelling sickeningly of pork.

[*ding!* You have slain a [Retiarius] (Water, lv 145)// [Thraex] (Fire, lv 140)

I swore off pork then and there. I was never eating it again. The rest of the world came into focus, as the sound of the crowd and the announcer came back to me.

"Citizens and Freemen! There we have it! In a surprise twist of events, Healer Elaine has reversed the tables on Kerberos, and blown his head clean off! Is this the start of a new legend?"

I unsteadily got to my feet. Right, the Ranger’s Eagle. I pointed up, and threw it up, made out of flames, as strong as I could make it.

The announcer’s voice cut out. Superimposed over my Eagle was a second, giant one, as large as the arena. The light from the sun was cut out, as some skill killed the lighting. From all around, loud enough for everyone to hear, soft enough that it seemed like it was a whisper in your ear, came a voice.

"This is what happens to those who attempt to arrange an attack on a Ranger."

With that, the illusion, and the voice, faded.

The crowd exploded, and even the announcer was at loss for words for a moment.

I didn’t care. I had already walked out.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 183!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has reached level 190!]

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 35460/35460]

[Mana Regen: 36219]

Stats

[Free Stats: 1032]

[Strength: 184]

[Dexterity: 210]

[Vitality: 297]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 3546]

[Mana Regeneration: 3967]

[Magic Power: 3079]

[Magic Control: 3406]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 240]]

[Celestial Affinity: 240]

[Warmth of the Sun: 198]

[Medicine: 202]

[Center of the Galaxy: 233]

[Phases of the Moon: 240]

[Moonlight: 240]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Pyromancer - Fire: Lv 128]+]

[Fire Affinity: 128]

[Fire Resistance: 128]

[Fire Conjuration: 128]

[Fire Manipulation: 128]

[Fuel for the Fire: 128]

[Burn Brightly: 128]

[Rapidash: 128]

[Fireball: 128]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 132]

[Vigilant: 195]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 200]

[Ranger's Lore: 190]

[Training: 160]

[Learning: 212]

Chapter 115.1– Ranger Academy XV- Classing up!

I stumbled out of the arena, having held up a good front for the crowd, to where Ocean – and Artemis – were waiting.

"Good work Ranger Elaine." Ocean said, formally saluting. Holy shit, I was being saluted by a Sentinel.

Artemis shot him a dirty look, pulling me into a hug.

"Good job healy-bug. Proud of you. You’re free now. Need a moment?"

I nodded, resting a moment, gathering my thoughts, then getting up.

"Right, let’s head back."

"Don’t want to watch Brawling?" Ocean asked.

"I want to get as far away as I can from the crowd that was screaming for me to be raped in front of all of them, thank you very much." I said, the memory like oily grease on my mind. I spat, trying to get the taste out of my mouth.

"Yeah, let’s ditch those losers." Artemis said, as we started to walk out.

Ocean sputtered behind us.

"The stands are filled with Citizens! Senators! At least two other Sentinels! And more! You can’t just call them all losers!"

Artemis shot him a look, which impressed me. She was willing to sass a Sentinel. "I can, and I did."

We made it back to Ranger Academy without further incident, where I technically had the rest of the day off.

It was freeing. I hadn’t realized how much mental load was taken up by Kerberos, wondering where he was, when he’d strike next at me. I had nothing for mental trauma, and his goons torturing me was easily the worst memory I had. Him being dead and gone was freeing, blissful. I was practically skipping and whistling from that.

I still made it to Sky’s lesson, but apart from that, I took it easy. Who didn’t want to fly?

There was no way I’d stand Night up though, and we met at the usual time and place.

"Ranger Elaine. Most excellent." He started off by saying.

I’d had time to cool off, and while I wasn’t about to start going down a pacifist path, I just felt sick. I’d literally blown someone’s head off, and I’d had every reason to do it. It was the right thing, it was self-defense, I’d do it again, but Night kinda had a point. I’d never deliberately, directly killed another person before, and it was a whole new experience. The sheer intensity of the emotional fallout from it being Kerberos, the demon who’d been on my back, was doing me no favors as well. My emotional state was all over the place.

It was good to cope with the emotion. It was healthy to process it.

Bless the contemplation between each sentence, the silent walking to process thoughts. I had a sense that I was going to pick up this habit of Night’s in the future.

"I believe, in the few weeks left to us, that it is time for you to class up. I shall make no comment on what I believe you should take, except to listen to those who have, with the best of intentions, given you advice."

Classing up time! My spirits lifted considerably at that.

"Now, with that being said, let us discuss your general skills. Your [Training] skill has reached, more or less, the end of its useful life. You made most excellent use out of it, but at this time, I believe we should replace the skill, and use the remaining time to get your new skill as high as possible, along with getting used to your new abilities, should you change element, or get a particularly interesting new skill." Night said.

"I recommend you get [Reflexes]. It will help with your reaction time. The hope is, one day, it will evolve with your [Vigilant] into [Speedster’s Perception], a most useful skill."

We took a few moments while I digested what he said. It made sense, but…

"I know I encouraged Artemis to take the skill once upon a time. I do not know what has happened with her and the skill, but I have reason to believe she still has it or an evolved version."

I thought about Artemis, and her superhuman reaction time.

[Reflexes] it was! Not that I was going to argue with Night over it.

"It’s hard to say one way or another if taking [Reflexes] now and then classing up will be better than keeping [Training] and classing up. [Training] isn’t that useful, and is unlikely to impact your choices, and [Reflexes] will simply be too low to help."

Night shrugged.

"It’s unfortunate, but the additional experience gained by [Training] more than makes up for it. Let us discuss your stats."

Stats

[Free Stats: 1032]

[Strength: 184]

[Dexterity: 210]

[Vitality: 297]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 3546]

[Mana Regeneration: 3967]

[Magic Power: 3079]

[Magic Control: 3406]

We spent a long time walking in silence, Night’s fingers slowly twitching as he performed calculations known only to himself. Finally, he spoke again.

"Right. We shall currently put most of your stats into your Magic skills, to better improve your choices upon this class-up. After, we shall see what you get, but I would encourage you to mostly focus on Vitality and Speed. When combined with [Reflexes], it will do the most to keep you alive. Do not forget a few points in Dexterity, if you ever find yourself losing control, but for the most part you have reached the end of the line in your Strength and Dexterity, if you wish to continue this path of Healer-Mage."

I nodded, and Night gave me the point distribution he recommended. Rounded out my mana regen, spiked my mana up, a bunch into Magic Power, three points into Vit, and the rest went to my control. Damn trade-offs.

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 184]

[Dexterity: 210]

[Vitality: 300]

[Speed: 220]

[Mana: 4000]

[Mana Regeneration: 4000]

[Magic Power: 3500]

[Magic Control: 3459]

There wasn’t much more to say. I turned in for the night, with Night wishing me luck in the morning.

I woke up to the usual 4th Gong, and promptly turned over back to sleep. I wanted to be as well rested as possible for this, and I’d been excused for the day.

I woke up to the 7th Gong, a tray of food and two women in the room with me.

"Morning! We’re here to look after you while you class up!" The first one said cheerfully.

"Take your time! It’s an easy break for us!" The second one said, showing me some cards.

"Thanks!" I said, chowing down.

"Just checking, you’re fine with however long I take?" I asked. "You won’t get in trouble or anything?"

"Nope! Not as long as you’re still classing up!" The first one said.

A wild grin split my face. Reading time. Yesssssss.

I laid down, closed my eyes, focused on classing up, and felt myself fall back into the world of my soul.

I opened my eyes to Librarian, dressed like a Ranger, red cape, badge and all, and the Library.

"I’m BACK!" I shouted, flexing, doing my best genie impression.

"You’re back!" Librarian exclaimed happily, grabbing my hands, jumping up and down with me.

"And I have all the time in the world! More or less." I said.

"Yeah, until you starve, or die of dehydration." Librarian pointed out.

Curses. I knew there was a catch. Note to self, get a "don’t starve" skill so I can do this longer next time.

"Right! Let’s get to it!" I said, plonking myself down at the closest table. Librarian rolled her eyes and pointed to another table, one with stacks of books at the ready. Heaps of books.

Heck, a single bookshelf wouldn’t be able to hold them all.

Yesssssss. Delicious reading-food.

"You know, I had prepped a table for this..."

Mmmm right.

I moved over, and started chowing down on books, eagerly devouring them all. It was hard. I wanted to read as fast as I could, almost skim them, but then I wouldn’t get the content, I’d lose the story. But I had limited time. If I went too slowly, I wouldn’t get to read as much.

I needed to class up more often, and class up in places where I could simply spend hours to days classing up, with no responsibilities. Mmmm…. That’d be hard, but I’m sure I could manage it.

Book after book, tome after tome. Action, adventure, fantasy – wait no, that’d be slice of life here, there was no fantasy, not after what I’d seen. Quiet, peaceful stories. Epic tales, where I overthrew the government, proclaiming myself Queen Elaine the 1st. Sometimes Empress Elaine. Stories where I traded with dwarves, was a diplomat to elves. Stories of riding with centaurs, stealing from giants, fighting off hordes of savage gnomes.

I don’t know how long I’d been there, but there were at least eight stacks of books taller than my head when I heard a soft cough from Librarian.

"We should probably get going."

Awww, but mom….

The perils of being an adult, of being a Ranger. Responsibility. Bleh.

I went up the stairs to the second floor, where my level 32 class-up had occurred. Given that almost all the books were variations of "Burn things down", it was a significantly less interesting read. That, and there was a tiny fraction of the novels.

With no small amount of trepidation, I walked up to the third floor.

It looked nothing like the room I’d been in when I classed up to [Constellation of the Healer]. A long hallway met my eyes, with books on stands to either side. At the end of the hallway, it opened up into a large room.

Ranger-Mage was in big letters on a plaque above the door, and that’s where I started to walk, idly checking out the other books on my path, seeing if anything would be tempting enough to distract me.

[Fireball Maniac - Fire] And I was promptly distracted. This class was all about fireballs. Fast fireball, grand fireball, siege fireball, multi-cast fireball, efficient fireballs – the works. The last few months of non-stop [Fireball] had paid dividends with this class. Zero non-fireball skills though.

Ehhhhhhhhhhhh.

Fine, shortlist.

I grabbed it, carrying it with me. I’d dump it at the first solid, yellow class I saw, which I expected to.

[Formorian Exterminator - Inferno] Taking Formorian extermination to 13. Massive bonuses when shooting flames into the endless black tide, penalties when I wasn’t. I had no plans on living on the frontlines. Next!

[Oath-Spreader - Metal] A change of track, going forth and proselytizing about my [Oath] for all who’d hear me.

[Flameclad - Fire] Coating myself in flames, getting close and personal to punch things with flaming fists. Not exactly my style, although the physical bonuses were interesting.

[Magical Professor - Light] Retire from the Rangers, join Artemis’s School of Sorcery and Spellcraft. At least, that’s what I’d need to do to get any use out of the class. Teaching did sound fun, and maybe one day, Artemis would need a healer to teach classes. It mostly fell under what her school could teach.

[Author - Wind] Write as fast as the wind! Swoosh! Having charcoal dance around me as I manipulated it with magic!

Sadly, I’d written my magnum opus, my healing manuscripts. I didn’t have more stories to tell.

Although, I could start plagiarizing Earth stories, using [Recollection of a Distant Life]. Hang on, there was potential here… more retirement options?

Were all my choices here different ways to retire from the Rangers? Seeing if I’d be side-tracked on my path to [Ranger-Mage]? The set up of this room fit – a series of books to distract and side-track me from my goal.

[Scribe - Water] Surprisingly, I was more interested in this class than the [Author] class. It would help me copy my manuscript a bunch, and that was somewhat appealing. I’d get crazy [Oath] experience, and working it out, that could be one of the better ways to improve my healing.

I honestly would never have thought of that.

  [Black Widow - Dark] Somehow, I didn’t think I’d get in the habit of murdering former fiancés. Something about doing no harm.

[Papilion’s Puppet - Mist] Well, this one was refreshingly direct. Next!

[Chop and Burn Explorer - Fire] Burning down a fraction of the Kadan clearly encouraged more pyromancy. I didn’t see myself in the large-scale forest fire creating industry anytime soon.

[Pyre-mancer - Ash] Origen’s funeral, the solemn occasion marred by the terrible pun in the name. I was in the anti-funeral business though.

Although, terribly, it’d make me a one-stop shop. "Get healed! If I fail, I can cremate you!"

[Bookworm - Wood] With the Element given, I half expected to need to physically eat books. Nope, just read scrolls. Still needed to figure out how to convince people to switch to books. Or properly invent them.

[Goblin Slayer - Fire] Taking killing goblins to 11/10, just like the number of goblins I’d had to kill on my way to the capital.

More specialization. Power for narrowing my focus.

[Fiery Flower - Fire] Taking [Pretty] to untold heights. A vanity and preening class. Blazing dresses, flaming flowers for my hair, sparks in the air as I danced through the night. A thing of beauty, and I wished I lived in a world where I could happily take it, without fear of harm to my person as a result.

[Ranger’s Mascot - Fire] Similar to [Fiery Flower] from before, but with more focus, more purpose. I wasn’t a mascot though, I was a full Ranger in my own right.

But the mascot class indicated I’d reached the end of the distractions, and was at the room I’d been aiming for from the start.

Chapter 115.2– Ranger Academy XV- Classing up!

I made it to the room labeled Ranger-Mage, and a tiered podium met my eyes.

There were five levels to the podium, a small stand in front of it with a sad, battered book, then a few more books scattered around the room. I figured I’d start with the sad book, the scattered ones, then make my way around the room.

[Ranger-Mage – Mithril]

the sad book proclaimed, the white text indicating that this was the weakest possible class I could still access.

Seemed like I had, just barely, managed to get access to the class. I wasn’t going to take it. I had no real interest in magical metal manipulation, and a quick skim of the book indicated that there was no [Mithril Conjuration] or similar skill.

What good was a Mithril mage, with no Mithril? Utterly useless. Moving on.

The second book I looked at was one not on the podium.

[Ranger-Mage – Acid]. The fact that it was greyed out meant I couldn’t use it at all. I thought back to my lessons. Acid was Water + Metal, and Water opposing Fire was probably why I couldn’t upgrade.

A quick glance around confirmed that every single book here was [Ranger-Mage]. Right, time to shortcut a bit. Just call each book by the element.

The remaining books scattered around the podium were [Coral], [Mist], [Ocean], [Ooze], [Water], [Ice], and [Mirage], confirming my theory that Fire opposing Water didn’t let me upgrade Fire into an advanced Water class.

I moved onto the first tier of the podium, where 14 books awaited. A quick, quick flip through them all suggested they all had the same number of stats – 40 – all distributed in different ways, depending on what the element wanted. [Lightning] had more power, for example, while [Spore] had more control.

[Erosion]. [Forest]. [Gale]. [Gemstones]. [Lightning] – I immediately grabbed that one, dusted [Mithril] off of its sad podium, and plonked it down. My shortlist was being created, and I’d be lying if I said Artemis wasn’t an inspiration. [Fireball Maniac - Fire] joined it on the shortlist. [Mantle] and [Mountain] – the advanced versions of Metal and Earth - also made the shortlist, from a sheer "everyone calls Metal and Earth practical" standpoint, and I wasn’t going to remove them from the running this early.

[Poison] just barely made the cut, with a large grimace by me. What Arthur was doing was fresh in my mind, but the dose made the poison, and I’d need some serious considering if I wanted to try and side-branch into medicine making, that I could also defend myself with. It required thinking, and as a result, made the shortlist.

I skipped [Sand], [Spore], [Wind], [Earth], [Wood], and [Metal]. Sand just wasn’t my jam, [Spore] seemed like more of poison, but with different aspects, and the rest were entry-level elements, that I had no intention of side-jumping into. If I was going to do, say, [Earth] or [Metal], I’d just pick up [Mantle] or [Mountain] instead.

The next layer of the podium beckoned.

[Brilliance]. [Arcanite]. [Celestial]. [Mirror]. [Sound]. [Verdant]. [Light]. [Dark]. [Void]. [Gravity]. [Decay]. [Miasma]. [Spatial].

Each one had 55 stats, distributed in different ways, depending on what was most useful for the element. I was also starting to see some physical stats pop up, almost all in vitality and speed. Clearly, my discussion with Night was reflecting here somewhat. Was the System giving me more of what I wanted? Did my belief that speed and vitality help mean the System offered me classes with those stats? Or did it rearrange stats for me?

Curious. There was digging and investigation to do here, but it’d be hard to do large-scale testing, not when people grabbed what they thought was best for them, and didn’t share information all that freely.

My bet was the fact that my first class was Celestial, combined of both Light and Dark, was influencing my choices. These were all marginally more powerful, with slightly more stats.

Aaaand I was a sucker for the Light and Dark classes. [Brilliance], [Celestial], [Mirror], [Sound], [Void], [Gravity], and [Spatial] all made it to the shortlist.

"You can only take one, you know." Librarian said with more than a little amusement.

"Are you sure you can’t, I dunno, unstitch them and make them all one mega book-class for me to use?" I said.

"Mmmm. And which Affinity skill would you take? Which skills would you pick? You only get eight slots."

I shook my fist at her.

"Let me dream!"

Librarian just laughed at me.

The third tier was the middle one, and the number of offerings was dramatically reduced. [Steam]. [Ash]. [Lava]. [Storm].

While they were still orange-class, they were now offering me 80 stats per level, a significant improvement. [Storm] was telling in that every point was in Magic Power, letting me know that yeah, I wasn’t close to having enough Magic Power to properly use it.

Ash didn’t call to me. I shortlisted the rest.

The fourth tier.

[Radiance]. [Pyronox]. [Inferno].

100 stat points per level for each of them.

And lastly, sitting on the top, the king on top of its throne.

[Ranger-Mage – Fire]. A whooping 120 stat points per level. The System was clear. Sticking to your path was rewarded.

It’s probably why Artemis was an Earth mage. She saw no reason to get an advanced element, and just stuck with Earth for the bonus stats.

The four naturally got shortlisted, and I sat down to my, quite frankly, absurd list.

I was about to have some serious, serious decision paralysis.

"Help me out." I asked Librarian.

"Stick with something Fire-based, unless one of the other elements is absolutely perfect. You’re taking a major penalty jumping off of fire. As you just observed."

Ha! Confirmed! Librarian could read my mind!

I mean, I could read my own mind, so…

You know what? I’m going to stop this train of thought before it gets too trippy. I was Librarian, and Librarian was me.

Fine.

[Lightning] survived – I still wanted to see if I could be a mini-Artemis, a mental coinflip had [Mantle] surviving and [Mountain] vanishing – sure, I could do a deep analysis on being able to manipulate my own armor and weapons versus having infinite ammo, but if somehow [Mantle] was the final choice I’d do the analysis then.

I debated over [Poison], which was against the spirit of "quick cuts" but there we go.

On one hand, [Poison] could easily help make medicine. I wouldn’t be in direct combat when trying to kill something with it. Arthur could give me a hand learning about it.

On the other, the direct combat potential was lower, and was probably slow enough to kill someone that [Oath] might jump in again, and possibly make me heal them.

Although, sleeping powders and paralytic agents were in poison, drastically expanding my non-lethal repertoire…

Argh! Fine! Stay on the damn shortlist!

Right. Trying to cut books here was an utter failure. One outta four removed, and that was more a "I’ll figure that out when I get to it."

Time for the next tier of shortlist. Let me just-

Librarian stepped in, stopping me.

"Ask for help again." She said.

"I need help." I said, meaning it.

"Alright, what do you need from this class, what do you want?" She asked.

"Flying." I promptly replied. I’d done the fireball thing, and it was great fun, but I was growing up. The method mattered less to me than the results now, and I’d honestly managed to cast a lifetime worth of fireballs. "The ability to defend. Some utility."

"Let’s talk about defending yourself a bit. Don’t we already have [Veil] and [Phases]?" Librarian asked, stating the obvious somewhat.

"Yeah. Raw, offensive firepower is what I need then, in that respect."

She nodded. "Good!"

She looked around, and grabbed [Lava].

"For each one, we’re going to say if it’s better or worse than [Lava]. Ones that are worse, we cut. Ready?" Librarian said.

"Ready!"

"[Mantle]."

"Lava can do everything Mantle can that I know of." I promptly replied.

"Great, so Mantle’s out. [Sound]."

"No flying."

"[Void]."

"Still no flying."

We rapidly cut the list down to size. It made me sad when I had to let [Lightning] go. Heck, all of them made me sad, but we managed to, with Librarian’s firm prompting, get rid of all of the non-fire classes. Mostly on her beating it into my head that, "Sure, you can fly and defend yourself with [Gravity], but [Lava] does that better and has more stats."

[Fire]. [Inferno]. [Pyronox]. [Radiance]. [Storm]. [Lava]. [Steam]. [Fireball Maniac - Fire]

[Inferno] and [Fire] were really close to each other. [Inferno] has mass while [Fire] had better stats. Practically speaking, that meant I could physically push people back with my flames, that they could no longer just charge through them without a care in the world. I figured I’d temporarily cut [Inferno] and [Fireball Maniac - Fire], and if [Fire] ended up winning, I’d debate the merits of the three against each other. Kinda like my earlier reasoning on [Mantle] vs [Mountain].

With that, [Inferno] was cut. Well, more like side-lined for a later discussion down the line.

I looked longingly at [Storm], before hardening my heart and cutting it. Everyone telling me that [Storm] mages were almost useless had gotten through to me, even though riding a tornado sounded just as appealing as summoning a thunderstorm. None of those activities were in the book. Little weather manipulations, the scale I needed to impact far beyond what I could manage.

Couldn’t upgrade the class further if I was dead.

[Fire]. [Pyronox]. [Radiance]. [Lava]. [Steam].

[Pyronox] was a bit of an odd duck. Cleansing, removing flames – it was like a high-control version of Fire, with some twists and turns to it. I figure my control was high enough to make straight-up flames work, and [Fire] had better stats.

[Pyronox] got cut.

[Fire]. [Radiance]. [Lava]. [Steam].

I decided to reserve Fire. If anything seemed better than it, I’d take it. Otherwise, Fire was my last choice, so to speak. My backup option. At which point, I’d do my three way comparison.

I could see why Artemis was still an Earth mage. Nothing must’ve appealed to her enough to take an advanced Earth element, versus sticking with the simple, higher-stated, Earth.

[Steam] was the first one I looked at. Hot springs. Baths on the road. Never an unclean day again, steam cleaning every night. Hello. I could practically feel [Pretty] leveling up as I read over the class in detail.

The self-defense portion was fairly weak. Somehow, it was even weaker than [Fire] was in that respect. I’d need to condense steam even harder, heat it even hotter, and then, there was a chance it’d just turn into water as I did it, at which point the mysterious aspects of magic kicked in, and I wouldn’t be able to control it. It would be an amazing element if I opened a bathhouse, but the idea of parboiling someone until the skin sloughed off did not appeal in the slightest. It was a ridiculously ugly way of killing someone.

Heck, [Acid] had cleaner kills, and that involved people screaming as they melted into a puddle of goo. Killing Kerberos was still fresh in my mind, and [Steam] quite frankly lacked the proper "offensively defensive" aspects, as lovely as it was on the utility side.

Thinking about it – when I wanted, needed self-defense, I needed it purely on the offensive side. Between [Veil] and [Phases of the Moon], I had a cockroach-like defense. Nothing like a warrior, but I rated myself as "hard to kill" defensively. I needed offensive firepower, to be able to stop people attacking me.

[Radiance]. [Lava].

From a utility aspect, they both had small amounts, but nothing spectacular. A detailed read showed that my current Fire utility skills would all upgrade neatly.

Lava was fairly solid, as elements went. Solid, in the literal sense, where I could throw up a dome of Lava, and attackers would need to get through it. On the offensive side, I was like Artemis, able to throw high-speed, burning rocks at people.

Although, I’d need to conjure up everything I threw. And Artemis hated conjuring up Earth, due to how expensive it was from the weight. To be fair, she had it on easy mode, constantly walking on endless ammo.

[Radiance] on the other hand, had almost nothing in the defense department. It was all about blinding, burning, searing light. Light that moved quickly, almost impossible to defend against. Radiance that burned so hot, it’d cauterize any wounds left behind.

Searing brilliance that, if I needed it to, would quickly, almost painlessly, dispatch a foe.

It called to me. It fit. My style with my flames had more and more moved towards narrow beams of compressed fire, to better punch through defenses, hit a single spot and damage it. Radiance was the natural extension of this, the entire style dedicated towards thin beams of burning, penetrating light.

As a bonus, it also was high up, the boost from having Light in Celestial giving it a leg up on the other classes, giving me more stats than [Lava].

It was what I needed, what I was looking for. Pure offensive firepower.

I didn’t need the defensive aspects of [Lava], nor did the increased cost of attacks appeal to me.

I decided to check what the description was, having skimmed over most of them.

[Ranger-Mage – Radiance] You’ve glowed like the moon. Twinkled like the stars. Shined like the Aurora. Burned liked a fire. Now, Blaze like the sun! +10 Free Stats, +5 Speed, +5 Vitality, +20 Mana, +20 Mana Regen, +20 Magic Power, +20 Magic Control per level.

"This one please." I told Librarian.

She smiled at me.

"Great! Let’s go check it out."

Chapter 116.1– Ranger Academy XVI

[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve upgraded your second class – [Ranger-Mage] - Radiance]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger-Mage] has leveled up to level 129! +10 Free Stats, +5 Speed, +5 Vitality, +20 Mana, +20 Mana Regen, +20 Magic power, +20 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger-Mage] has leveled up to level 180! +10 Free Stats, +5 Speed, +5 Vitality, +20 Mana, +20 Mana Regen, +20 Magic power, +20 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

Yes! Straight to level 180! I needed to sit down and do some math – the number seemed high – but I was pleased as punch over it.

[*ding!* Your skill [Fire Affinity] has evolved into [Radiance Affinity] - 128]

[*ding!* Your skill [Fire Resistance] has evolved into [Radiance Resistance] - 128]

[*ding!* Your skill [Fire Conjuration] has evolved into [Radiance Conjuration] - 128]

[*ding!* Your skill [Fire Manipulation] has evolved into [Radiance Manipulation] - 128]

Absolutely no surprise here. I’d half-hoped that I wouldn’t need the [Radiance Resistance] skill, but then again I was channeling ridiculously hot sunbeams next to my skin. Probably all of the Fire-evolutions required the resistance skill, except maybe Mithril.

Or I could dump it and burn my hand off every time I used a skill, or burn my face off when breathing fire.

Hang on, I couldn’t breathe fire anymore. I could…

I could shoot lasers (Fine, beams of radiance) from my eyes. Yessssss.

The resistance skill could live.

[*ding!* Your skill [Fuel for the Fire] has evolved into [Sun-Kissed] - 128]

Sun-Kissed: The gentle warmth of the sun shines down on you, loving you, caressing you. The sun is the source of all life, and places a gentle kiss upon you. Additional Free Mana Regeneration while in sunlight. Solar-powered! No food required! .2% Increased Mana Regeneration per skill level.

[*ding!* Your skill [Burn Brightly] has evolved into [Blaze] - 128]

Blaze: The sun shines through your skills, letting them burn like the sun. Increased heat and damage to all offensive Radiance skills per level. -1024 Mana Regen.

[*ding!* Your skill [Rapidash] has evolved into [Radiant Steps] - 128]

Radiant Steps: Your steps brim with light, leaving glowing footsteps in your wake. Increased movement speed per level.

[*ding!* Your skill [Fireball] has evolved into [Nova] - 128]

Nova: A small, exploding sun. Increased speed, control, heat, damage, and explosion radius per level.

[*ding!* Would you like to move [Warmth of the Sun] from [Constellation of the Healer] to [Ranger-Mage]?]

I blinked. That was new. Kinda made sense though – the skill could easily be from either Element. I declined to move it over, keeping the healing skill with the healing class, but I resolved to experiment with the "warmth" part of the skill – maybe I could make the aura warmer than before?

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Radiance Affinity] has reached level 129!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Radiance Affinity] has reached level 180!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Radiance Resistance] has reached level 129!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Radiance Resistance] has reached level 180!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Radiance Conjuration] has reached level 129!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Radiance Conjuration] has reached level 180!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Radiance Manipulation] has reached level 129!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Radiance Manipulation] has reached level 180!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Blaze] has reached level 129!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Blaze] has reached level 180!]

No surprise there! I’d been blasting flames at Formorians for months on end.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Nova] has reached level 129!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Nova] has reached level 180!]

I’d been blasting them with [Fireball] as well. Onto the more painful ones…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Radiant Steps] has reached level 129!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Radiant Steps] has reached level 155!]

Well, that was better than I could’ve hoped for, given how little I was using [Rapidash] on the frontlines.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Sun-Kissed] has reached level 129!]

…

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Sun-Kissed] has reached level 140!]

And I was back to grinding a really slow skill. [Fuel for the Fire] had taken me ages to get capped, and now I had another mostly passive skill that I had to deal with.

I really, really hoped that [Phases of the Moon] could handle skin damage and skin cancer, otherwise I was in for a one-way ticket to trouble.

[*ding!* For reaching level 150, your skill [Radiant Steps] has evolved into [Talaria]!]

Talaria: The winged sandals of Hermes, forged by Hephaestus, made out of radiant light. Wear sandals, strap them on, and step on sunbeams to take flight! 4% decreased cost per level, increased speed per level.

"Yes!" I screamed out, sitting up, throwing my hands up!

"Ack!" I heard a scream, and I looked around, processing.

Right, my room. Where I was being looked after.

"Ranger Elaine! Are you ok!?" One of the women came up to me, face creased in concern. "Is anything wrong? What happened?"

"Huh? I’m fine." I said, only for my stomach to betray me, sound echoing throughout the room. *Gurgle gurgle gurgle*. A sudden wave of hunger and embarrassment came over me.

"Totally fine." I said, trying to keep a straight face. The lady grinned at me, pointing to a tray of food.

"Of course, Ranger Elaine. We appreciate the week-long break. We were just concerned; I’ve never heard of someone taking so long to class up."

She nodded at the other slave, who promptly vanished.

I started to eat, discovered that yes, I was ravenous, just like someone who hadn’t eaten in a week, and chowed down with vigor.

It was weird, adjusting to eating without [Fuel for the Fire]. I’d gotten used to the skill helping me, and now it was gone. It was like I kept reaching for a crutch that wasn’t there.

I paused a moment, slowing down so I could eat without choking. Choking was another thing that [Phases] couldn’t heal right now, although… I could just blast my throat open, remove the problem, and heal it back up again. It wasn’t harm when it was saving my life.

Let’s not choke. How about I review my stats instead?

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 50400/50400]

[Mana Regen: 45874]

Stats

[Free Stats: 572]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 5040]

[Mana Regeneration: 5092]

[Magic Power: 4410]

[Magic Control: 4369]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 240]]

[Celestial Affinity: 240]

[Warmth of the sun: 198]

[Medicine: 202]

[Center of the Galaxy: 233]

[Phases of the Moon: 240]

[Moonlight: 240]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 140]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 155]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 132]

[Vigilant: 195]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 200]

[Ranger's Lore: 190]

[Training: 160]

[Learning: 212]

I still couldn’t get over [Talaria]. I could fly!

I wanted to jump up, run outside, and immediately take flight. Just needed to eat some – hang on, I was being dumb. I threw on my sandals – I’d changed into something comfortable for classing up, which didn’t include sandals – jumped up, grabbed my tray.

"Is everything ok?" The woman asked, looking worried.

"Fine! I’m off!" I shouted, running out as fast as I could, trying to balance my Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner in one hand, stuffing my face with the other, looking for a courtyard. I found one, the sun was shining, and I instinctively activated [Talaria], shimmering wings made out of glowing light appearing on my sandals. I stepped up, and I was away! I was flying!

I dropped the tray, to better enjoy myself. Who needed food?

I was flying! I was free as a bird! I was no longer bound by earthly constraints! The wind in my hair, the sun on my skin, the air beneath my feet!

I couldn’t help it. I let out a holler.

"I’m flying! I’m flying! I’m fllyyyyyyyyyyyyiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnggggggg!"

"Good stuff, isn’t it?" Sky said, dropping down on top of me.

I jumped, and weirdly enough, just went up, not down.

"Holy shit Sky! You scared me!"

He grinned at me.

"Yeah, but you don’t care now, do you? You’re flying."

He was totally right. I grinned back.

"I’m flying! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" I said, racing off to I-don’t-know-where. I didn’t care, the pure joy and exhilaration from flying couldn’t be beat.

Was this how Sky felt when he was flying? Was this why he tried to spend as much time as possible flying, ignoring other things to do?

It was as heady as a drug; it was like liquid joy coursing through my veins. All the time I’d spent in flying lessons, trying to move up and falling to the ground, my likely sub-optimal selection of Fire as an element when I first started. The grief, the pain, the hardship I’d been through – all of it was worth it in an instant, as I was dancing through the sky, singing with the birds, feeling my tunic flutter around me.

Bless my habit of wearing men’s tunics, so I wasn’t flashing everyone. I’d need to remember that. No flying with dresses.

"Hey Elaine, what am I going to say?" Sky said, dropping down on top of me again.

"Check my mana." I said, and reflexively checked it.

[Mana: 18404/50400]

Blah. Around half an hour – fourty minutes? - to lose a more than half my mana. I had some time, but I started making my way back anyways.

"Now that you can fly properly, a quick note. Don’t test how high you can go." Sky said. "I got promoted when Gale decided to see how high up he could go, and we never saw him again."

I blinked at him. Sky, being helpful?

"Who are you, and what have you done with Sky?" I demanded.

He just laughed at me.

"Pass the warning on to anyone who learns to fly! Flier’s creed! Good luck!" He said, laughing and letting the breeze take him.

I laughed, then cursed, realizing that Sky could at least teach me some basics on aerial combat. Nope. Was going to have to figure it out myself. My best guess was "Stay up high" and "drop things on people". Like [Nova]’s.

I came in for landing, only to get a rude surprise. I was aiming for the main courtyard, which had the large bronze gong that kept everyone on schedule there. I dipped into the shadow, and suddenly, I was no longer flying – I was falling, and falling fast.

Months upon endless months of flying lessons helped out, as I summoned [Veil] to keep breaking my momentum, letting me land in a bruised heap on the courtyard, instead of a broken one. Good thing I’d kept some mana.

What had happened?

I quickly read over [Talaria], and groaned when I figured it out.

"step on sunbeams"

This seemed to be more than metaphorical. It seemed like I could only fly in sunlight.

I paled as I realized – if a cloud had gone over the sun, if a flock of birds had blotted out the sky, I could’ve had a much, much longer fall, one that [Veil] wouldn’t save me from.

Ha. At that height, it’d be a real "Tank it or shield it" test. Would probably aim for the healing, and try to heal myself fast enough as my body hit the ground. I’d need to remember that trick one day, in all likelihood, but it wasn’t one I was eager to practice.

Chapter 116.2– Ranger Academy XVI

The rest of the day passed mostly uneventfully, as I spent time sunning myself grinding [Sun-kissed] and eating a week’s worth of food. I was what, 100lbs//45 kg soaking wet, or thereabouts. Skipping meals was bad for me.

This skill was the greatest excuse ever to slack off. Experiments as to relative leveling speed vs skin exposed would need to be done – but not here.

I also decided to calculate what had happened with my [Ranger-Mage] class, not that I was complaining.

Ok, let’s pretend the Brilliance mage that was shooting every forty minutes or so was typical, and let’s also pretend we had the same length shifts, which I was never sure about. He showed up for about two minutes or so, fired off all his skills, and was gone after that.

Let me pretend he was typical, although with Brilliance having a +2 every level to mana regeneration from the double Light, that wasn’t always the case.

With that ratio, I was twenty times as efficient as the unknown Brilliance mage, so I was, roughly, getting twenty times the experience.

I was there for roughly six months, at twenty times…

Holy shit. I’d gotten the experience of the average mage being on the frontlines for ten years.

And if the Lightning mage was anything to go off of, if he was more typical – it was closer to twenty years of experience.

Granted, that wasn’t how it worked, and the comments about people tending to cap out around 180 on the frontlines rang in my mind, but wow. Yeah. Serious, serious experience.

Why wasn’t this the norm? The theory about being made a team leader was making more sense – at 240/180, I was starting to have some serious, serious firepower. Not Artemis levels, not yet, especially not with her having both 256 evos – but I could pack a wallop, and I was certainly at the power level of an experienced Ranger.

A slave let me know that my evening meeting with Night would be as usual, and when the appointed hour arrived, we met up, starting our usual slow walk around the villa.

"Ranger Elaine. I was starting to become concerned about you. Was there some trouble with your class-up?" Night started off asking.

I had a minor twinge of guilt at that.

"No, but I wanted to spend time reading." I said.

"Oh? Elaborate?" Night said, gesturing at me to carry on.

I took a deep breath. This was going to sound ridiculous, but if Night wanted to know, I’d tell him. Secrets were a short way to get in huge amounts of trouble, and I’d already defied Night once. I wasn’t able to start making life hard.

"Where I come from, reading for pleasure is a popular pastime. It isn’t here. Heck, there aren’t even books here! As much as I’ve tried to tell people how they’re made, the materials are just all wrong. My classing up location is a grand library, with thousands, or tens of thousands of books. Sure, they’re all about potential classes, but they read like a novel. Classing up’s the only time I ever get to see or read them, my only chance to pursue the activity. I was making full use of the time." I told Night.

He looked at me with – was that pity? We walked, the ball being in Night’s court, taking as long as needed for him to process and think.

"I had never considered such a thing." Night said. "To be torn from one’s world, yes. To lose friends and family, a tragedy. But to also lose one’s hobbies, one’s means of enjoyment? To know they no longer exist, and are only in your soul?" He pulled a face.

"Somehow, that is just one insult too many. But enough of that. Tell me about your class."

"[Ranger-Mage] – Radiance!" I excitedly told him. "I also finally managed to get to fly!"

Night started to laugh, pausing a moment to catch his breath.

"Of course you’d take Radiance!" He said. "Let me guess, it completely fails to synergize with your Celestial class?"

I didn’t make an uhhhhh noise. I’d been better trained than that. Lemme see…

[Moonlight] operating when the moons were out.

[Sun-kissed] and [Talaria] operating when the sun was out.

Those were my only time-restricted skills.

"Unless there’s an eclipse!" I cheerfully said.

Night just rolled his eyes.

"You can hope for the two classes to eventually reach some type of equilibrium, for the skills to help each other remove their restrictions. Aside from that, a solid choice. I am also pleased you decided to take [Ranger-Mage], showing a dedication towards being a Ranger."

I smiled at that, and the rest of the walk was spent discussing the fine details of my skills. At the end of it-

"I will attempt for you to visit Instructor Artemis’s school to help you learn the finer details of your class. While Lightning isn’t Radiance, many of the aspects of having an extraordinarily quick element apply."

Oooh, field trip to Artemis’s School of Sorcery and Spellcraft! Fun!

The next day, having joined a boat of Trainees off to the Colosseum for some more training, I found my way to Artemis’s school.

It was somewhat outside of the walls, the stunt only possible due to how safe the capital was. Several low, stone buildings surrounded a large field, where skills and large displays of magic were being fired off.

I wandered in – there wasn’t really a gate or a fence or anything resembling an entrance guard or greeter – and figured that since the field was where the action was happening, might as well head that way.

I made it to the field, where a bunch of teenagers were lined up, Artemis lecturing. Some younger kids were off to the side, meditating on a bench.

Artemis was saying something about proper tracking, then threw a bunch of thin earthen disks into the sky. Immediately, the dozen or so mages tried to fire off skills, aiming to hit them.

In a word, target practice.

"Elaine! Hey Elaine!" Artemis called out, waving to me.

"Everyone, this is Ranger Elaine, one of my first students, now a full Ranger. Listen well, and one day you can be like her!" Artemis said.

I smiled and waved, being good PR for Artemis, resisting rolling my eyes. I’d been a full Ranger before becoming a mage, but I wasn’t going to announce that. Artemis’s school was going well, but it was clear she hadn’t had huge amounts of money dumped on her out of the blue.

"Elaine’s here to practice her new class, and get a new skill. If you’re interested in getting [Reflexes], come join! Otherwise, pay attention, and learn how to get the [Reflexes] skill if you ever need it – or want to teach it to someone."

"Ready?" Artemis asked me.

I nodded.

"Block!" Artemis said, whizzing a pebble at me, her trademark attack at a fraction of the speed. I threw up [Veil] as fast as I could, watching my mana take a small hit.

I dropped [Veil], only to see Artemis throwing more pebbles at me. Shield, shield, more shield, getting them smaller, doing it faster, until-

[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Reflexes]! Would you like to take this skill?]

Reflexes: One of the most important aspects of survival – quickly reacting to problems coming at you. Improved reaction time per level. -128 Mana Regen

I swiftly hit yes, throwing my hands up in surrender, then promptly doubling over with nausea as I lost [Training] at level 160. Fuck. I’d forgotten how sick losing skills made me.

"I got it, I got it." I said.

One of the students raised his hand.

"How do we teach them if they don’t have a shield?" He asked.

I looked at Artemis. Reasonable question.

"You make them catch it instead. Also needs to be slower. If you’re a Fire, Air, Water, etc. mage, you can just throw pebbles at them. It takes longer to trigger the skill, but the general idea is the same – make people react to something coming at them." Artemis explained.

"Right, Caius, can you work on stone pulls with everyone?"

To my amusement, one of the students – Caius, I assumed, clumsily saluted Artemis, then started yelling, getting the other students to get ready to hit the stuff he was throwing up.

"Right, what do you need?" Artemis said.

"Radiance! Need practice, Night said you were good for fast stuff."

Artemis nodded.

"Yup! With Fire, things were either too close to you for it to matter, or you had to track where things were ahead of time with your [Fireball]. Radiance is a bit different. It’s just there, immediately. It’s difficult to stop or counter as a result, but when it is stopped or countered, your bag of tricks is diminished. Be careful against Mirror – they will straight up wreck you. Arcanite, and Ice you need to be slightly worried against. On the other hand, you do horrible things to Brilliance barriers, and usually Radiance is good against Mirage and Mist."

"I’m going to throw things up, and you’re going to hit them. Then we’ll move onto me throwing things at you, and you disintegrating them before they hit you. It’ll train your reflexes as well. Ready?" Artemis said, and I nodded.

She threw a pebble up in the air, and I focused, willing a thin beam of Radiance into existence. Suddenly, the beam was just there, and the pebble blasted to pieces.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Reflexes] has reached level 2!]

"Good! Just like that. Carrying on…" Artemis said, throwing three pebbles up in the air. I blasted one, two, three.

"Eh. Blast all three at the same time. Come on." Artemis said, repeating the procedure. "You won’t always have time to hit them one at a time, learn how to focus and split your attention. Let’s see how many we can work you up to…"

Four. The answer was I could handle four beams at once.

"There’s a skill you could take to try and help you handle more things at once, if that’s what you want later on." Artemis told me.

I mentally marked it down, if I could get [Vigilant] and [Reflexes] to merge.

"Right, let’s practice your new skill – what was it again?" Artemis asked.

"[Nova]"

"Right."

[Nova] it turned out, was basically the Radiance version of [Fireball]. Worked the same way, but cooler. A small marble of blinding light was shot out – it had travel time unlike the Radiance beams – hit a target, and exploded into a blinding ball of fire, like a small exploding sun.

It seemed like [Radiance Resistance] helped a bit with not blinding myself with my own attacks.

"Hey Artemis, can you try flashing me with a bunch of lightning? I want to see if that still blinds me."

Artemis instantly complied, and I cursed as my vision went white, blinding the spots out of my eyes.

Nope. [Radiance Resistance] was good only for my stuff, not other people’s. Had to check if it helped against hostile Radiance, but given how [Fire Resistance] worked, it might.

Artemis came up to me at the end, beaming.

"Good work healy-bug! Hey, just a few more weeks until graduation. I heard Julius is already back!"

"Ahhh! Why’d you tell me! I won’t have a chance to see him until graduation, and now I know! Good to hear he survived though."

"Yeah! I’ll be at graduation – I gotta see my healy-bug graduate." Artemis said, looking off into the distance at her students, a strange note in her voice.

"Artemis – are you crying?" I asked, incredulous.

She swooped down and hugged me – darn her unnaturally long legs!

"My little healy-bug is graduating Ranger Academy! Of course I’m happy!"

I hugged Artemis. What else was there to do?

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 50400/50400]

[Mana Regen: 45746 (+14257)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 572]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 5040]

[Mana Regeneration: 5092 (+1425.76)]

[Magic Power: 4410 (+44100)]

[Magic Control: 4369 (+43690)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 240]]

[Celestial Affinity: 240]

[Warmth of the sun: 198]

[Medicine: 202]

[Center of the Galaxy: 233]

[Phases of the Moon: 240]

[Moonlight: 240]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 140]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 155]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 132]

[Vigilant: 195]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 200]

[Ranger's Lore: 190]

[Reflexes: 15]

[Learning: 212]

Chapter 117.1– Ranger Academy XVII- Graduation

The Summer Solstice. Graduation.

I’d spent the remaining few weeks primarily working on [Reflexes], with some added work in [Talaria] and [Sun-kissed]. A few other skills got some levels, notably [Oath] got one and [Vigilant] liked the [Reflexes] training. I could see how the two were closely related. [Vigilant] would warn me of a problem, and [Reflexes] made it easier to do something about the problem. [Center of the Galaxy] was also surprisingly synergistic with it, removing the startle, letting me move immediately.

Yesterday had been an easy day – there was running in the morning, and that was it. I didn’t even have my talk with Night, with the idea being that we’d get a good night’s sleep.

I didn’t sleep a wink. I don’t think anyone else did either.

Out of sheer habit, we assembled in the courtyard on the 4th gong, as we’d been doing for over a year and a half. It was like the Instructors knew what we’d do – or more likely, had decades of experience with other Trainees doing this – and there was a set of armor for each of us, waiting and ready, with our names pinned on it.

My familiar set was there, and almost shaking, I put it on.

I wasn’t the only one with a serious case of the nerves, and we moved through, helping each other get the armor on, finding out today if we’d get the Ranger Eagle to go with it, or if we weren’t selected to be a Ranger.

The choices were varied for those of us not selected. Repeating Academy, which had all sorts of benefits – you’d get an entirely new set of lessons to take, combat and sparring lessons to help boost your level. Becoming a guard, soldier, or mercenary of some sort, ‘passed Academy but didn’t get selected’ was a solid, solid recommendation.

Of course, becoming an adventurer was also on the menu, but I didn’t think anyone would stoop that low. We were all better than that. We had standards.

On occasion, people who failed out would strike out on their own, open a business, or discovered a love of sailing while at Academy, and became a sailor, a captain, or, famously, one became a pirate.

Also known as "how to get a Sentinel sent after you."

They did not look kindly on almost-graduates turning to a life of crime. Reflected badly on all of us.

I suspected that the primary test was an aptitude one, a test of character, one last way for the Instructors – and Command – to cut people they found unsuited, or who’d failed their classes. For example, I was betting that Spitter would fail. He consistently failed to follow orders properly, and had never stopped spraying deadly acid into people’s faces when sparring. He was my number one problem when I was on sparring overwatch, and he always had some sort of shit excuse for it.

I would never voice that out loud, nor would I make bets on it. It would be in poor taste, and saying "I don’t think Bob will make it" would be one of the only ways to shake, if not break, the bond between us all.

Wolfy showed up, and we helped him get ready. I was grooming Moon, making his fur coat look positively luxurious.

I kinda wanted one of my own. So soft!

Once Wolfy was fully geared up and ready, and MoonMoon was positively shining, we pounced.

"Alright Wolfy, give up the goods. What are the numbers?"

"What makes you think I know!" He protested.

We looked at each other.

"That’s not a denial." I said, taking charge.

He grumbled to himself.

"98 Rangers down. 112 Trainees graduating – well, including you Elaine. Unknown how many Rangers will formally or semi-formally retire, but it’s usually two to four. That includes anyone who asks to be permanently promoted to Team 0. My guess? 10 of us don’t make it." Wolfy said, spilling the goods.

The sun came up, bright and shining, promising a day of clear skies and beautiful weather, finding us all ready. Ocean was back, and a single ship was waiting for us. We lined up to file onboard. I was in the front – again, rank having its privilege. Some of the Trainees, like Lava, kinda resented it, but having survived almost an entire round had given me a layer of respect. The other Instructors treating me as a Ranger had gone a long way to boot, and making it to graduation should, at least, give Julius a clear.

Almost everyone could sail – myself and a few other Trainees excluded – and while we could do it ourselves, this was our moment. We were being escorted.

Night had asked me the other day to put my remaining free points into my Power and Control, and while I hadn’t gotten a great reason why, I wasn’t about to argue.

Stats

[Free Stats: 8]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 5040]

[Mana Regeneration: 5092 (+1435.944)]

[Magic Power: 4636 (+46591.8)]

[Magic Control: 4636 (+46591.8)]

Eh. Close enough. I’d keep those extra few stats.

Over 50k Magic Power and Magic Control after [Oath] applied though! I was a monster when it came to healing.

We filed into Ranger Headquarters, a place we hadn’t been since the last Ranger Convocation, and made our way to our assigned seats, in alphabetical order. Our names would be read out in order, and I was between Echelaos and Eteonous. Artillery Mage A and one of the soldiers who’d made it this far. Finally learned their names… just in time to never use them again. Unless we ended up in the same team.

We were on the early side, but by no means the first.

I saw Artemis in the stands, head bowed, facing the wall, a tear going down her face.

My sense of joy at being here had a bucket of cold water dumped on it, dampened by the Indomitable Wall. I searched it, finding Origen’s name.

I bowed my head in remembrance. Fuck. I’d given very few thoughts to him over the last two years, hadn’t I? Did that make me a terrible person? I said I wouldn’t forget him. Nor Lyra.

I don’t know how long I spent like that, in remembrance, reflecting on memories I’d made with the two of them. Skipping through the park with Lyra. Origen’s beard bunching up in a smile as we all praised his cooking. Dozens of memories, of good times and bad.

They were only dead once I forgot them. Once their name had been said for the last time.

There was nothing else to do, but speak their name to myself, quietly, softly.

"Lyra."

"Origen."

I opened my eyes, looking around. May all the gods and goddesses stop me from needing to expand the list.

I’d heard Julius had made it back in one piece. I opened my eyes, looking around, seeing who was here.

Team 6. Julius was here, in one piece. Eight people were standing in that row, but one was clearly a hanger-on of some sort. My [Identify] was high enough that I could check, and, yup – a healer. I grinned, Julius having picked up another healer to keep his team almost entirely alive.

Team 11. Maximus was present, although there were only three other members. A near miss.

I let out the strangest noise when I looked around and saw Team 8. Golden-haired Kallisto was there, safe and sound. That was the first half of the noise.

And he had gotten married?!

A beautiful ring on his left middle finger indicated his "taken" status, and a short, blonde woman was next to him, carrying a baby, with an equally elaborate ring.

I blinked, rubbing my eyes. No, they weren’t tricking me. It didn’t surprise me that Kallisto managed to convince someone to join them on the road. No, what was surprising was that someone had convinced Kallisto to settle down with her. She must be someone special – I had to congratulate him later on, when the speech part was over, and the mingling part started.

Still. Kallisto. Married. With a kid. I couldn’t get my head around it, CriticalFailure.exe firing every time I tried to get past it.

Ok, ok, think. Kallisto probably had a dozen kids scattered all over. That wasn’t a surprise.

Kallisto having a bombshell on his arm. Be more surprising the other way around.

Kallisto with a marriage ring.

Nope, couldn’t do it.

Still, everyone had lived, and I felt some weight lifting off of me. The odds were good that one of them wouldn’t have lived, but no, there would be no name from the old Team 4 on the wall.

More and more people filed in, and when the sun was high in the sky, the drums started to play.

Bam.

Bam.

Bam – Ba-ba-duh-duh-dum.

The sound of the drums came in, loud and strong, announcing the start of the convocation. Fifteen men marched in. Ranger Command, eight men with Ranger Eagles inside laurels, and what Sentinels decided to show up, Ranger Eagle inside of a sunburst.

Hunting. Bulwark. Sealing. Destruction. Ocean. Brawling. Sky.

Magic, Night, Acquisition, Nature, and Toxic weren’t around.

From what I knew now, Magic was extraordinarily reclusive, and was at least a Mirage mage. Perhaps he had a healthy dose of Artemis’s paranoia, and figured one of the best ways to stay alive was for nobody to know who he was, where he was, or some variant of that.

Night simply didn’t come out in the daytime, his restriction skill binding him. A shame he missed the event, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he came out here every night, to simply stare at the wall and remember.

The less Acquisition was seen in public, the better. Nobody liked the assassin-thief being in the public’s eye, including Acquisition himself.

The other Trainees had finally gotten one of his students to crack. The basket-weaving was only halfway legit – it was lessons on always having an alibi, of always being able to point and misdirect attention. Always doing two things. They were indeed being taught less savory skills, but, they were needed. I kinda hoped I wouldn’t be in a team with them.

Heck, me being a team lead didn’t make a ton of sense, I suddenly realized. I literally couldn’t order a hit on a Classer, like Julius had ordered a hit on Hesoid. And my team wouldn’t go around my back, or if they did, it would cause all sorts of problems.

Maybe a second in command, like Artemis was to Julius? That made a ton of sense. Going directly from Academy to squad leader made no sense. Going from Academy to a second, to be trained and seasoned? Yeah, that made a lot of sense.

I refocused on the Sentinels, taking their position in front of one of twenty-one chairs, spinning around with military precision.

Sky being here was a bit of a surprise from what I knew of him, he only showed up to things he wanted to, or things that were important.

Eh. It’d be a bit unfair for me to pigeonhole him that way. For all I knew, this checked off both for him.

Toxic was probably still on the frontlines, shooting thousands of poisoned arrows a day into the endless hordes, and Nature would show up if he was around, so he was probably on assignment somewhere. The rest of the world didn’t stop turning for the Ranger Convocation.

Thinking about it, it was probably somewhat dangerous to have no Rangers in the field for a few weeks around the Convocation – some problems could get rooted in that timeframe.

Oh well. The powers that be must’ve decided that it was worth it.

Everyone was in place, and one of the Commanders stepped up to the podium.

"Welcome, to the Ranger Convocation!" He said, a loud cheer coming from the crowd.

Chapter 117.2– Ranger Academy XVII- Graduation

Speech! Speech! Speech!

And I was promptly put to sleep by his speech. And the next Commander’s. And the next. And – were all eight of them seriously going to be giving slightly different variations of the same speech? Cripes.

My ears perked up, and I started paying attention again when we got to the important part.

"… and now, it’s time to carve the names onto the Indomitable Wall."

The same stonemason from last time stood up from the VIP section, and walked over to the wall. He walked slowly, like stone moving, but the atmosphere was solemn, serious. Nobody would dream of interrupting his walk, of asking him to hurry along.

The drums started to play again, a slow, solemn, melancholy beat. Each name said here, said now, was a life cut short in defense of Remus, a peak warrior killed. This would be, in many ways, their only remembrance, their only legacy. A name, stated. A phrase, uttered. A carving, in a stone wall.

Some of us would move on. It was clear to me now, that others didn’t. Artemis clearly remembered, and remembered well. I also remembered; I wouldn’t forget. The first time I’d been here it felt like I was preserving the memory. No, that wasn’t the important one. It was returning here, returning to where the memories were preserved, to remember them once again – that was the important part.

No wonder every Ranger would fight to the death before allowing That Room to fall. I’d stand in front of the wall and take a lightning bolt for it.

"Team 3." The Commander announced, Team 1 and 2 having been blessedly spared.

Team 1 was the capital team, the best of the best. It was no surprise that none of them died, and since there was an omni-present Ranger presence, it was no surprise that nothing became a large enough threat.

Team 2 just got flat-out lucky.

The leader of Team 3 got onto the stage, and read off the first name.

"Theopropides."

I chanted, with everyone else.

"Brave Ranger. Your time to rest has come. May White Dove take you to a better place. Your deeds will not be forgotten. We will remember you."

The Indomitable Wall was tapped, a new name carved onto it for eternity.

We repeated the process. A name. A recital. A tap.

Wolfy’s intel had been good. 98 names. 98 recitals. 98 taps. 98 new names on The Indomitable Wall.

Team 10 got fully wiped.

Team 13 also got fully wiped, again.

I was starting to wonder if there was some curse on team 13.

Silence naturally fell, as the last name from Team 24 was called out. Remembrance, once again. Respect for the fallen.

Not even Kallisto’s kid made a peep.

One of the Commanders got up, and walked to the podium, the moment broken.

"I’d like to congratulate the new Academy graduates. As you hear your name, please approach the stage."

"Trainee Aebutius, approach."

Aura – I finally knew his name! – jumped up, and marched onto the stage. A handshake, a Ranger Badge pinned to his neat armor, and he triumphantly held his hands up.

"Congratulations to our newest Ranger!" The Commander said, and we applauded.

The other Trainees were the most enthusiastic.

Name after name was read out, until-

"Trainee Echelaos, approach."

The man next to me got up, and marched up to the stage. My heart was going a million miles an hour. My palms, sweaty and clammy. I forced myself to breathe, to not hyperventilate.

This was it. This was the moment. It was about to be my turn to-

"Trainee Eteonous, approach."

My heart plunged into my shoes, as Lava patted my shoulders. We’d never gotten to like each other – got along like two wet cats in a bag – but even here, at this moment, at the lowest I’d ever felt, the bond between us Trainees, we who’d gone through the Hell Months together, was unshakeable.

Hang on, I realized, blinking through tears. I’d always been called Ranger Elaine, even all through Academy. Was I just not called up because I didn’t need to be graduated to a Ranger?

My heart hit my shoes, and bounced back up, but I was anything but stable. I’d find out soon. So soon.

My heart managed to re-invent the yo-yo. Deeply unpleasant.

Exactly 103 Trainees were graduated, the 9 of us who hadn’t been called up with sad, ugly looks on our faces. Spitter was present, as well as Hulk. My bet with Hulk? He was a brute, through and through, and wasn’t smart enough to properly be a Ranger. He was a fantastic fighter, but that was it. Couldn’t track, talk with people well, hell, anything outside of a basic order he struggled with. He’d make amazing money as a bodyguard.

Still, I had no time to focus on others, I was worrying about myself.

"Now, it is time to announce the new teams for the following round." The Commander said, and I immediately started paying rapt attention again, to see if my name would be called out.

No, I told myself. To see what team I’d be in. I was going to make it. I had made it. It’d just be a bit weird walking down from the stands to my new team, but hey, I’d manage it.

"Team 1. Velius, Kallisto, Fufius…" The Commander started reading off names, and happy day, Kallisto was promoted to Team 1! Maybe he was being given some consideration for being married, a way to make married life work as a Ranger? Either way, good for him! He was now an elite of the elites!

Names were read off, and as time went on, I started to get nervous. Maximus’s name was read off – Team 15 – but my name wasn’t said anywhere.

Nor was Julius’s.

Hang on, let me check something really fast –

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 132]

[Vigilant: 198]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 201]

[: ]

[Reflexes: 95]

[Learning: 212]

Oh fuck. Oh fuck no. [Ranger’s Lore] was gone.

But I hadn’t felt anything.

I leaned against Hulk, almost crying to myself.

"I don’t have it anymore. It’s not there." I said, fighting back tears.

"What’s not there?" Hulk asked me.

I just shook my head. Hulk might get it, but from his complete lack of reaction, he might not even realize he hadn’t made it as a Ranger.

The last name was read off, Team 24 being assembled without me.

Or Julius.

Fuck. Had I failed so badly? Had I done so poorly? What now? I could feel hot tears escaping my eyes, making trails down my face.

What did I do with myself?

I couldn’t bring myself to look in the crowd, to find Artemis, or my parents.

One of the Commanders was speaking. I couldn’t bring myself to pay attention.

Mmm. I had never thought of it. What would I do if I didn’t become a Ranger? If I failed out? Worst-case, I thought I could just repeat Academy, but maybe it was different if I was a failure? If I wasn’t properly ratified, if they were throwing me out instead?

I snapped back to the speech when I heard Julius’s name mentioned.

"… replacing me, please give a warm welcome to Ranger, now Commander, Julius!"

A roar came from the crowd, a solid wall of approval, and I straightened up, clapping. Hang on, Julius was being promoted to Commander? That didn’t sound like being punished for my failure.

"Thank you everyone. The Rangers mean the world to me. When I was a young boy…" Julius started to give a very, very long speech, and as much as I liked Julius, long, boring speeches got me every time. I only perked my ears back up when I heard him start to end it.

The sun had moved a noticeable distance during his speech.

"I’d like to say a few words on stats. Getting to 10,000 in a stat is the mark of an expert, of a high-level Classer or Ranger reaching seniority. Getting to 20,000 is the mark of a specialist, someone dedicated to maximizing a stat."

"30,000 is the realm of a specialist with a number of boosting skills, bringing themselves to the peak."

"40,000 is a once in every 400 years number, many generations passing before someone gets there."

"And 50,000 is a joke, a number given when someone doesn’t want to give their real stats, when stories want to exaggerate to comedic proportions."

I was pretty sure Night pushed that number, although maybe he was evenly split enough not to. Also, Arthur would be pushing that number eventually, with his amazing classes off of the sea monster slaying. No idea on the other Sentinels.

My propaganda sense was going off.

"But here today, the number will be given out, not as a joke, but completely seriously. As my first act as Ranger Commander, I’d like to invite Ranger Elaine to the stage."

Mechanically, I started to march to the stage, putting one foot in front of the next.

A voice, coming out of nowhere, whispered in my ear.

"You’ve got this. One foot in front of the next. Let’s get a light Radiance glow out of you."

The Sentinels all stood up.

"A Ranger. Completed one round. Although, after this we’re going to include ‘started’ the round as well." Julius said, getting a ripple of laughter.

"The undisputed best in her field. A grand feat. An open seat. The ability to survive on your own. Powerful combat prowess. Able to move through Remus as you see fit."

"Ranger Elaine has over 50,000 effective Magic Power and Control while healing. Not just one stat, but two are over the 50,000 mark. She’s the undisputed best healer in Remus, and her Medical Manuscripts have taken the healing world by storm. Everyone wants to know ‘who is Elaine’ and ‘how do we meet her’. Well, the answer is – she’s Ranger Elaine, one of us."

Holy shit. I was being promoted. To Sentinel.

What the fuck. I wasn’t nearly as high level as them. And while they were promoting me, it felt like I didn’t quite meet all the requirements. Something I’d need to ask about.

Although, was doubting and asking a way to get them to say ‘nah, nevermind, you’re right?’ Was it a test, like Arthur said he was tested?

Bah. I’d ask anyways. I had to know.

"Elaine single-handedly resolved not one, but two plagues in Perinthus, in a single week, where dozens of other healers and experts spent over a year trying – and failing – to cure. Her only weakness is pissing off bards, and being written out of songs as a result."

More laughter. I couldn’t believe my ears as I made it onto the stage.

"We set a new record as well. Not only were there no fatalities in this year’s Ranger Academy, but not a single day was lost to recovering from training injuries, due to her presence. Not only that, but all of this is in a single class. Her second class is a powerful Radiance mage class, able to fly and throw powerful skills from above. Her journey to us was somewhat unconventional, but I am more than pleased to say, the first woman, the third youngest in history."

Yeah, except for all the training injuries when I hadn’t been around. They really liked to hype up the new Sentinel. Not that I minded.

"Elaine. We hereby name you, The Dawn Sentinel." Julius said, pinning a Ranger Eagle in Sunburst onto my chest.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger’s Lore] has evolved into [Sentinel’s Superiority]! 185]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Sentinel’s Superiority] has reached level 190!]

I threw my hands up, and I nearly went deaf from the crowd’s roaring approval.

Sentinel’s Superiority: The peak of humanity, you stand at the top, the best in your class, defender of humanity against the endless threats to its survival. 25% boost to all class skills. Improved fighting prowess per level. -2048 mana regeneration.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 50400/50400]

[Mana Regen: 45234]

Stats

[Free Stats: 8]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 5040]

[Mana Regeneration: 5092 (+1435.944)]

[Magic Power: 4636 (+46591.8)]

[Magic Control: 4636 (+46591.8)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 240]]

[Celestial Affinity: 240]

[Warmth of the sun: 198]

[Medicine: 202]

[Center of the Galaxy: 233]

[Phases of the Moon: 240]

[Moonlight: 240]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 141]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 160]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 132]

[Vigilant: 198]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 201]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 190]

[Reflexes: 95]

[Learning: 212]

Chapter 118.1 – Ranger Convocation

I held my hands up as the crowd roared approval, my mind shorting out.

Me. A Sentinel.

Many things suddenly made sense, but for every answer I got, I ended up with two more questions.

Me always being in teams of nine, with me in command. It wasn’t a team of nine- it was a team of eight, plus one. A full Ranger squad, with a Sentinel in command. Practice.

But wasn’t I too low level to be a Sentinel? Wasn’t my combat prowess not enough? Who’d even listen to me, when push came to shove, when there was a roaring dinosaur charging at us?

The trip to the frontlines, being given massive resources. It was to get my level up, get my stats right.

But why? Was Night playing ‘build-a-Sentinel’? Was it off of sheer potential, [Oath] promising that I’d get there, or was I already one of the best?

I mentally shook my head, as my arms were raised up in front of the cheering crowd. I’d ask Night later. Or maybe Ocean now, if I could grab him for a few minutes. Ocean was responsible and helpful; he’d have answers and be willing to tell me. Unlike Sky.

Julius said a few more things, and the crowd broke up, milling around, starting to talk with each other.

Well, like a third of them. It felt like the remaining two-thirds started to descend upon me, and I was starting to get some serious anxiety. I didn’t like social things! I didn’t do social gigs!

And I’d just been offered up as a slab of meat before hundreds of hungry wolves, all salivating and wanting a bite.

That voice came back, impossibly close, whispering in my ear even though nobody was around.

"You’ve got this. We’re all here, and will help screen people somewhat, so they don’t all rush you."

"Probably should introduce myself. Magic. Mirage-Sound. Glad to properly meet you, Dawn."

I put my arms down, getting ready to greet the first person. Julius beat me to it.

"Elaine – Dawn now I suppose – congratulations. You’ve done me proud." He said, beaming at me.

I couldn’t help it, his grin was infectious, his happiness contagious, uplifting my spirits. Heck, he was a Leader, he very well might have a [Raise Spirits] skill or something.

"I nominated you for Sentinel way back when, since the feat’s hard. I thought it’d take more than a decade before they agreed! And look at you! Level 240, give or take! That’s incredible." Julius said.

"Thanks!"

The other Sentinels came up to me, offering their congratulations, calling me Dawn for the first time.

I rolled the word over my tongue.

"Dawn."

It was solid. I liked it. Could’ve been so much worse – Healing, for example. Recovery. I shuddered at the thought of all the bad names.

The rest of the crowd made it to the podium, then it was sheer hell on Pallos. Heck, give me the Hell Months back. It’d be easier to handle than all this… socializing. Bleck.

"Dawn! Congratulations on your promotion!" The first Ranger had made it up to the stage, someone I recognized as being from Team 1.

"No chance I can get a top-up healing is there?" He asked, grinning. I happily tapped his hand, pulsing [Phases] through him. I have no idea if that took any mana or not- my regen was high enough for it to immediately recover, if anything was spent.

"Thanks! Congratulations again! We hope we won’t need you – but if we do, we’ll be sure to call!"

I smiled and thanked him, the second person coming up, another Ranger.

He glanced down, and asked the worst question.

"No chance you’re single is there?"

I just gave him a Look, that was apparently not terribly effective.

"Not interested."

Bless the old Team 4. I’d never gotten grief from them.

Everyone – fucking everyone, even the Rangers – had a "nice, unmarried relative", or worse, actively propositioned.

Kallisto eventually made it to the stage with his wife.

"Kallisto! You made it, you’re alive! And married!? What happened to the playboy I knew!?"

His wife punched Kallisto in the arm, juggling the baby with another.

Kallisto just laughed it off.

"Cordelia happened! One look and I was smitten,"

"As usual." I said, having no mercy.

"one thing led to another, and we were married!" Kallisto finished.

Cordelia rolled her eyes at that.

"He’s neglecting the part where I had to sneak into the Ranger’s wagon to start the trip together."

I nodded my approval at that.

"I couldn’t believe you pinning down Kallisto any other way."

Kallisto half-heartedly swatted at me.

"Anyways, this is Flora!" Kallisto said, gushing over his baby. "She’s the sweetest, best, most perfect, wonderful…"

Kallisto went on in this vein for some time.

"… baby there ever was!"

I smiled, and looked at her. She looked something like a mashed potato.

"She’s so cute!" I said, faking enthusiasm. Babies weren’t really my thing.

"Anyways, Kallisto," I whispered to him, leaning my head forward. "Any chance I could borrow your ring? The mob’s relentless."

Cordelia was clearly listening in.

"Here, borrow mine real fast. I totally get relentless suitors." She said.

"Bless you. How’d you manage?" I asked, slipping the ring on.

"Poorly. I’m the daughter of a Senator – his only daughter. Everyone wanted a piece of me. Fake ring’s good, making it known to direct everything to your dad works best, though only if he’s in on it."

Good, good, taking notes.

"He probably would be, he’s here somewhere… just ended up at the back of the crowd. Thank you so much Cordelia, I’ll get this back to you at the end of this."

She laughed.

"It’s more that I knew Kallisto would happily lend you his, then he might start getting ideas." She said, glaring at him.

"Of course not, love." He said, clearly smitten. "You’re the only one for me."

How the hell had Cordelia managed to wrap Kallisto around her finger like that? Wow.

Hang on – was that why Kallisto was Team 1 now? His wife’s dad pulled a string? The idea wasn’t impossible. Rangers did their best to avoid politics, but it didn’t mean it couldn’t happen.

Remus society was fairly permissive, and just because you were married didn’t mean or imply monogamy. Bit of a valve on the arranged marriage thing. From the sound of it though, Cordelia had somehow convinced Kallisto to go steady with her.

A ring did help though, for a variety of reasons.

Kallisto, Cordelia, and Flora hung out on stage, while more people came up. More of the members of the audience were coming up on stage, as a number of Rangers had already said hi, or were discussing with their team.

This sucked. This had to count as harm, right? Mental anguish? Trauma? I could start blasting in self-defense, and jet away, right?

With a sigh, I politely healed someone else, a surprising amount of mana vanishing. Oh. He’d really needed the help. Maybe this wasn’t the worst…

A commotion came, and I saw Artemis flying over the crowd, skipping the line with mom and dad in tow on top of a large stone slab.

The person she cut in front made a noise of protest, but she ignored him.

"Elaine! We’re so proud of you!" Dad said, giving me a hug. I gave him my strongest hug back, suddenly realizing – I was much higher level than he was.

Mom and Artemis piled in, and we spent a long moment like that, shielding me from the rest of the crowd. I took a moment to relax, some of the tension bleeding off.

"Dad." I mumbled into his shirt. "Dad, you’ve gotta shield me from all these suitors. Just tell them all no. Or make up that I’m engaged or something."

Mom laughed.

"Sure, will do!" Dad said.

It got better from there, and Maximus made his way over.

"Dawn! Congratulations!" He said. "Now that you’re a hotshot, I dunno if you’d want a copy of this fascinating story I found…" He waved a scroll at me.

"Gimme!" I said, grabbing it.

"Thanks for looking out for me." I said, tone serious.

"Anytime. Hey, now that you’re a Sentinel, might be able to call you in on injuries."

I shrugged.

"Hell if I know. I only found out today. No idea what’s going to qualify as ‘call in Dawn’ or not."

Maximus shrugged.

"Yeah, it’s going to be tricky. My best bet are mass casualty events. Like, if Destruction is sent somewhere, I bet you’ll tag along to clean up his mess."

I had to remind myself that any problem Destruction was sent on, he’d be going regardless. I’d just reduce the body count, which was my whole raison d'etre.

"Do you know if Arthur’s around? I assume he’s alive, his chair’s here. Unless they decided to give both me and the retiring Commander a chair – I was worried about that." Julius asked me. I shook my head.

"Frontlines. Up to something." I said.

"That’s a shame – I was hoping we could get the entire old Team 4 together for dinner, to celebrate your accomplishment, and all of us surviving."

"Why not?" Kallisto asked, popping back round with Cordelia. I slipped her ring back, with a mouthed "thanks".

"We should go out, celebrate!"

"Ah, why not. Elaine, Maximus, Artemis?"

"Sure."

"I’m in."

"My treat!" I said.

"Errr… assuming I’ve been getting paid."

Artemis gave me a Look.

"Seriously? You don’t know if you’ve been getting paid or not? That’s like, the first thing to do! Who works without pay?"

Mom lightly punched my shoulder.

"Clearly she does. Always insisted on getting paid – I taught her well – but never cared how much she got paid." I got a slightly disapproving, mostly proud, look from her.

Ocean popped around.

"Why don’t all of you meet at The Blue Harpoon tonight? I gotta grab Dawn for some Sentinel stuff."

Julius almost saluted before catching himself. He was a Commander now, one of the head honchos. Other people saluted to him, not the other way around. Clearly, he was still settling in, but by the long speech he’d given, they’d clearly prepped him ahead of time. Probably had a long interview or something.

Would I need to interview with Command?

Man, why didn’t I get prepped? So unfair. Would avoid a heart attack and a half.

Maximus and Kallisto saluted and left, and Artemis left with a cheery wave, arms hooked into mom’s and dad’s arm. Looked like they were off for a fun day in the city!

Ocean, Brawling, and Hunting led me out of That Room, down to the basement of Ranger HQ.

"The first thing to know is, your badge. While the Ranger’s badge shows our authority, the Sentinel’s badge actually does things. Namely, it keys you to the wards, and lets you pass certain barriers." Ocean started off by saying, as we reached a desolate stretch of a basement corridor. There was nothing here, and so I was betting…

"We have ‘official’ quarters up above – if you don’t want to buy a house – but our real quarters are down here. Helps avoid people being pests, and on a more serious note, avoids assassins and thieves."

"I mean, we recruited the biggest thief in history." Bluebeard – Hunting – muttered grumpily. "Night was fine for all that."

"Night has a reputation to maintain, and having Acquisition deflects blame onto him." Ocean retorted.

I blinked.

"Wait…"

"Yes, Night’s the deadly assassin. Acquisition’s mostly a thief. Spatial. Can just teleport objects to his hand if he’s close enough." Brawling said. "Knows enough to teach the trade, knows enough to teach new Rangers how to assassinate unsuspecting targets, but we don’t want to start training and creating good hitmen. We did that once. Ended terribly. Night had to hunt them all down personally."

I was a Sentinel now, and apparently, that meant the curtains were being pulled back, and I was getting a look at the inner, real workings of how things were done.

"Lot of smoke and mirrors." A voice said from behind me, and I nearly jumped.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 234!]

Instructor Jason was behind me, and I narrowed my eyes.

"You’re not Jason. You’re Magic." I said.

"How do you know I haven’t always been Magic, simply disguising myself as a humble Instructor?" He asked.

"I watched Sky throw Jason out of the Pegasus. No way he did that to another Sentinel." I said. Investigation class away!

He shimmered, turning into a plain-looking man. I didn’t believe it was his real appearance.

"Yup, you got me."

"Stop distracting her. Dawn, watch this pattern." Ocean said, tapping some random parts of the wall. With a rumble, the wall folded back, revealing a passageway.

"Through we go!" Ocean said, and I stepped through into a luxurious passageway.

We passed doors on either side, until we got to one a few doors down, a sun painted on the door.

"This is your suite. It’s yours, until you die. We have a passage from here to Ranger Academy island. It’s a bit of a jog, but it beats waiting for a ship. Of course, you could just fly over."

"Every morning, around 7th Gong or so, we meet quickly here." Ocean said, pointing to a comfortable room that reminded me strongly of a living room, just mostly underground. "That way if something’s come up that needs one of us, some problem a Ranger’s told us about, we can find you and dispatch you."

"Last thing." Ocean said, opening a red door. "Down here is one of the capital’s great secrets, and you need to know about it."

He spent some time fiddling at the entrance of the door.

"Right, traps are disabled. Keep your badge on, that disables the rest of them. Let’s go."

We walked very carefully down the hallway, to another door, and a massive room, with a giant slab of quartz in the middle.

The thing was massive, plunging down into the depths of the earth, over 80 meters by 20 meters on each side. Glowing lines of inscriptions lined the crystal, and spiderwebbed from it to all the walls, mystic runes speaking a language I didn’t know, but Origen would’ve.

"We call this The Heart. As you know, skills can be stored in gemstones. Well, gemstone mages and artisans can do interesting things, and long story short, this generates a massive barrier to protect the capital if a serious problem occurs. Only a Sentinel can activate it – which now means you." Ocean said.

"Let’s head back." Brawling grunted. Dude was massive, like a stereotypical bodybuilder.

Chapter 118.2 – Ranger Convocation

We made it back to the living room, where we settled down into the luxurious seating. I’d grabbed a chair that looked simple, but was so soft it basically ate me.

I had to get me one of these. Or two. Couldn’t be too hard to drag one to my new suite could it?

"I’m sure you have some questions." Ocean said, prompting a flood from me.

"Why me? I get that I was promoted, but I don’t feel like I meet the requirements. Especially not on the combat front, I’m only 180 in [Ranger-Mage]."

Ocean nodded.

"Good question. Frankly, the requirements we state aren’t the real ones. The real ones are – best in your field. A grand feat, that demonstrates your usefulness to the Sentinels. An open seat. A level that’s not embarrassing – which is usually tied to the first one. The right character. The rest are just fluff."

"Smoke and mirrors!" Magic said, poofing outta nowhere. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Let me guess, you do that all the time." I said.

Brawling started laughing his ass off.

"She’s got you figured, and it’s only the second time you’ve done it!" He said, slapping his knee.

Magic just looked sour. "Yeah, yeah."

"Hang on, you said you’re Mirage and Sound. But all the stories say you can cast any type of magic, making you the Magic Sentinel. Is it all just…?" I said, hardly daring to believe.

Magic bowed, then straightened up with a flourish.

"Nope! See!" He said, flipping his tunic inside out.

Dozens – hundreds – of gems were strapped to a sash against his body.

"I have a support staff, mostly gemstone artisans and people who I use to find and get powerful skills from Classers. Costs a pretty penny, but in the end, I can make a convincing illusion – sight and sound included – of any skill I want, and I can make it in reality. Costs an arm and a leg, but that’s the secret – I’m the front of a dozen Classers working together to create one of the more powerful second-tier Sentinels. Speaking of, I’ll probably want to get your [Phases of the Moon] skill. Great healing spell. Actually, it might become one of the standard gems we carry around, for that matter. A panacea skill?" Magic said, fanning himself.

"Why all the…" I said, gesturing.

"Smoke and mirrors? We operate solo. A large part of our protection is our mystique. By making it look and seem like we’re invincible, we can bluff our way out of problems."

Ocean started to tick off his fingers.

"Night’s helpless in daytime. Acquisition can be killed by a stiff breeze. He’s probably even worse than you on the combat front, if we’re being honest. Sealing’s only good in single combat. Bulwark has limited offensive capabilities. Sky struggles to kill things under shelter. Destruction takes ages to channel a spell. Away from water, I’m pretty mediocre. Nature struggles in cities, or rather, where there are no plants. Toxic’s poisons don’t work half the time against big, big monsters – although you probably knew that already. Hunting’s the most well-rounded of us, but a bad stinkbomb and Katastrofi’s down for the count. Brawling has no range, and Magic is really three midgets in a toga."

Magic threw something at Ocean, who ignored it. It vanished upon hitting his face.

Ocean shrugged. "That’s not to say we’re weak or anything. But we all have serious, serious weaknesses. Ranger teams are carefully crafted such that people are able to cover each other weaknesses, so there are no glaring holes. That falls apart once people start to die, but we try to have redundancies for that reason. Anyways. We work to cover and mitigate each other, and the joy of being a Sentinel is we only send people after the right problem. Sky will never be asked to take out a fortified position, just like I’m never going to be sent inland. Acquisition’s only sent to retrieve items, just like Night doesn’t fight in the day. And it’s not like any of us are slouches."

"Yeah, stop saying I have no range. I have plenty of range!" Brawling protested.

"Throwing a rock with no skill doesn’t count as range!" Hunting protested.

"It does when it works!"

"Anyways." Ocean said, bringing the conversation back. "There are three tiers of Sentinels."

"The first tier is Night and Hunting. The strongest, best-rounded Sentinels. Even then, Hunting barely made it in, and there’s some debate on it."

"I’m honestly flattered to be mentioned in the same sentence as Night, but I don’t fit." Hunting said modestly. "I’m a top second-tier at best. You should also be considered a tier one."

"Nah, I’m not that good. My ‘out of water’ weakness is too big." Ocean said modestly.

"Well regardless. Magic, Destruction, myself, Nature, Brawling, and Toxic make up the second tier. We’re all in on sheer combat capabilities, each of us having a different method of fighting, and monsters and Classers we’re good against."

"The third tier are Sentinels that are in because they’re the best at something. Bulwark is the best wall-builder and Inscriptionist in Remus. A monster takes out a town wall, and Bulwark is out there almost immediately to stabilize the situation before a goblin horde or worse can take advantage." Ocean continued.

"Sealing is in a weird place. The short version is, single-combat, he’s practically unbeatable. Can seal people away in barriers, and slowly stop them from casting anything. Reflects attacks, applies ranged mana drain, and 1 vs 1 only Night could stop him. At the same time, he doesn’t – or can’t easily – kill. Imprisons well though. Hence Sealing." Ocean said.

Hunting snorted. "Keep in mind our definition of ‘can’t easily kill’ is radically different from everyone else’s. We’re talking about top-tier Classers, people like Artemis. Someone like the average Ranger Academy graduate is killable enough to not even enter into our ‘can we kill them or not’ calculation. Experienced Rangers and up is where our line starts, and that doesn’t include ambushes."

"Sky’s unmatched in aerial combat, and he’s good at dropping rocks on people on the ground. At the same time, there were other Rangers with grand flying feats and were faster and stronger in the air. He was picked because of his Gravity class, being able to move a number of people around Remus faster than anyone else. Our rapid deployment – for everyone except Hunting." Ocean continued.

"You’re our backup when it’s a problem on the Nostrum." Hunting pointed out. "You’re also able to move Katastrofi around, which Sky can’t."

Ocean tilted his head in acknowledgement, before continuing.

"Acquisition’s a master thief. You wouldn’t believe how often something sensitive gets stolen, and he needs to bring it back. Worst part is, it’s usually some political game, where its information changing hands. Still, that gives him good practice for when we need to re-collect something important. His combat prowess is possibly worse than yours – he’s all about stealth and stealing things, not fighting. At the same time, we know there are better thieves out there, and he acts as a deterrent, as well as being a lightning rod so Night’s not blamed for assassinations."

"And now you. Your healing prowess is probably legitimately the strongest broad-healing, although I know a Caecilius that might give you a run for your money in a plague situation."

"Hey, I know him! Great dude!" I said.

Ocean nodded. "Exactly. Right now, we have a hole in our ability to heal. Heck, we’re all about smashing and killing problems, not healing people. We leave that to civilians. But, well, you’re strong enough, and you qualify. I’m eager to see how it works out! At the same time, all of us help with the public perception of Sentinels."

"I hate the arena so much." Brawling jumped in. I turned to him; mouth open in shock. "Not allowed to kill anyone. The fight’s always fixed in my favor, not that it needs to be fixed. But nooo, can’t risk me losing a fight. There’s never anything strong enough to be a real challenge. Evvvvvvverrrryone wants to talk with me, wants a piece of me, and I need to be a great fucking showman, instead of fighting people. I could end most fights in seconds, instead I need to drag them out." If we weren’t in the living room of the Sentinel’s space, I suspect he would’ve spit.

"I need to be the serious one." Ocean said. "Constantly attending the Command meetings, keeping an eye and pulse on politics, making sure that things don’t start going wrong for us. Not why I signed up – believe it or not, a long time ago I started as a fisherman. Wind in my sail, a harpoon and a plan, a struggle to get dinner on my plate. One thing led to another, and…" He shrugged, as if to say ‘here I am!’

"On that note, I think you’re both going to love and hate your role – just like the rest of us." Ocean said. "You’re going to be the social pretty face, the healer saving everyone. People will see you, like you, and by extension, like us. [Pretty], single, and free healing? We’ll hopefully get less flinching when people see the rest of us, not to mention what you can do with a rapid response the next time we hear of a plague. We can just send you, and the 3rd never gets tied down in a single spot for a year again. We spent the last two years getting information out of you, and we know there’s more. Also, as you attend events, people will gain a positive perception of you, and by extension, us and Rangers. It’s not something that’ll pay off anytime soon, but you’ve got over a hundred years easy to sway people. A whole generation of movers and shakers will grow up knowing you, creating what they think is a good back channel – and warm fuzzy feelings towards us."

"I won’t give you better ways of killing." I promptly said. We’d had the discussion a few times already, but I figured it was best to reiterate it.

Brawling waved his hand. "Bah. We’re good enough at that."

"Those rebellions were miserable." Magic said. "At least two rebellions started off of that, because they heard the 3rd wasn’t able to move. Figured they’d take their shot. We had to come down hard before more people heard about them, and we had a real problem on our hands."

Hunting groaned. "Don’t remind me."

"Also, most Sentinels you see have been Sentinels for years, if not decades. We’ve all had time and resources to help boost our levels up high. Part of our mystique being our high level. Once we’d decided that yes, you should be the newest Sentinel, Night stuck you on the frontlines to get some basic experience. It happily coincided with us deciding to execute the plan to try and get Toxic to do some serious damage on the frontlines. Same meeting, believe it or not."

Hunting interrupted.

"Speaking of Toxic, you’ve seen the type of support he gets. You’ll get similar support, although one that can’t be done is any sort of bodyguard. Ruins the invincible image."

"What other questions do you have?" Ocean asked.

"There are two other healers that are already Rangers. Why not one of them?" I asked.

"They’re support staff, and, quite frankly, you were almost made support staff as well, instead of a full Sentinel. However, you have combat capabilities, are a real Ranger, and have an excellent character. You wouldn’t balk at being sent to a combat zone, you can mostly solo walk from A to B. And hey, worst-case, you can hijack a Ranger team or join a caravan."

I snapped my fingers.

"That’s why Rangers get so damn nervous when a Sentinel shows up."

Brawling nodded.

"A part of it, yeah! Hijack and redirect to a completely different town, completely throwing off their round, and murdering a year’s worth of vacation time if not more. Or requisition supplies – we’re much more free to ‘borrow’ a Ranger’s gear than try the stunt in town. That, and we know what Rangers have, and that it’s good quality. Try not to do that too much, although if you do, try flirting a bit."

I shot him a withering look.

"Fat chance."

"It’d make them happy!"

I tried to put some pieces of another puzzle together.

"Hang on. The Ranger Academy villa. The connecting tunnel. It wasn’t originally an Academy was it?"

Ocean shook his head.

"Good catch! No, it used to be our private island. Then some idiot Sentinel 400 years ago started teaching, and we didn’t have a strong political grasp. Before we knew it, we’d been press-ganged into teaching, the villa got converted to a honeypot, and we need to spend a few hours every day teaching." Ocean pulled a sour face. So did the rest of the Sentinels.

"Hence why I take my ‘keep my finger on the pulse of things’ job seriously."

We spent more time chatting, getting to know the basics of being a Sentinel, of my new job.

Short version: Lots of support and equipment to go along with a host of new duties and responsibilities.

"By the way, feel free to walk around without your badge on. You wouldn’t believe how many people can’t recognize us without the badge on – comes from us flaunting it when we do have it on, so people focus on the badge, not the person."

"Works extra-well for me!" Bluebeard grinned.

I stared at him, his distractive… bluebeard… a huge marker.

"Seriously? Even with that?" I said, pointing to his beard.

He laughed.

"Between the badge and the dinosaur, almost nobody recognizes me without them. It’s great fun!"

"On that note," Ocean said. "in a few days, you and Commander Julius will be having a meeting with all of us, as we bring you up to speed on a few of the other secrets."

"We’re going to have a clinic next to HQ for you. Both for the public perception, and light experience while you’re in town." Ocean said.

I stared at him.

"You’re serious?" I asked, with some disbelief.

"Of course!" He said.

"I’m going to get almost nobody, and it’ll look worse than no clinic." I said. "The type of people who live in this area already have their own personal healer, and the people who need to be here, I bet that if the guard doesn’t disallow them from being here, they’ll be heavily discouraged. Come on. Set me up in the slums or something. Central market squares are also good." I said.

Ocean pursed his lips, while Magic just laughed at him.

"We’ll see. On that note, I believe you have a meeting with your friends soon?" He asked.

"I do! Mind if I leave?" I asked.

"Not at all! Remember, while we’re senior, in theory, we’re all equal. You’re a Sentinel now. You can, for the most part, tell us to stick it where the sun don’t shine." Ocean said.

"Ha! Anywhere Dawn is the sun’s shining!" Brawling said, slapping his knee at the frankly terrible joke.

"Just don’t tell that to Night. He’s the only tier one, the boss, the highest level by almost 100 levels, for a reason. He says jump, even Katastrofi asks how high." Bluebeard said, a note of reverence and respect in his voice.

I saluted – it felt wrong not to – and made my way out of the Sentinel Suite.

Party time!

Chapter 119.1 – A date

I made my way to the temple first, wanting to get my stuff back. I kept my Sentinel badge in my bag, suddenly feeling covert. Master of Disguise Elaine here!

I had basically no trouble getting into my vault. To my surprise, there was a small mountain of coins.

I kept a poker face while the attendant was fussing around, guessing that I’d been getting paid while at Academy. That, or it was a promotion bonus.

Or Sentinels were paid stupid well and this was one day’s pay.

Either way, asking ‘why do I suddenly have so much money’ to the bank attendant wouldn’t get me any answers, and possibly asked ‘why do you not know why you have money? You sure this is your family’s vault?’

I poured my pouch full of coins, reclaiming my knife, pendant, dress, and bracelet. I had solid living quarters now, and I could keep stuff there.

A hop, skip, and jump later, I was at The Blue Harpoon, having dropped off some stuff and spare coins at my new home.

Julius, Kallisto, Maximus, and Artemis were all there, already seated at an outdoor table.

"To the woman of the hour!" Julius toasted me as I sat down.

I beamed back at him.

"To the man of the hour! Commander Julius!" I said, a wide grin on my face. I was still on the high of being promoted – me, a Sentinel – but I wasn’t about to forget who’d pinned the badge on my shirt.

"To Kallisto’s new wife!" Maximus toasted.

"And his kid!" Artemis.

"To your new school!" Kallisto said.

We all had something to celebrate, and the food came out soon after – I bet Artemis had been the one to order the same thing I’d gotten last time we were here.

We tucked in, sharing stories of our latest adventures.

Julius had promptly hired a healer to join their team, taking a bet on an apprentice who was close to graduating, promising him solid, but not amazing pay, but the chance to get experience and a reputation. He’d saved them a dozen times over, and Julius was feeling pleased with himself, having managed to find the right combination of price and experience.

The fact that it took so long for the first Ranger on his team to die meant they were never at risk of ‘cascading’, aka when the first Ranger dies, it’s easier for the second one to die, and so on.

Healer was now happy, had a wide variety of experience, money, and a reputation to try and start his own clinic. Granted, all that had come with a not insignificant risk of ‘dying horribly’, but the gamble paid off.

Kallisto only had eyes – and therefore memory – for his wife and new kid, and we heard endless stories about them, him gushing profusely over them in a way we’d never heard him before. It was sweet really.

Maximus had a most interesting round, with dozens of one-of-a-kind situations.

You know. Typical Ranger stuff.

"…anyways, we finally figured out what was happening. Two Classers, not one. They’d charge a gemstone, and stick it in a loaf of bread or something. Then the animal speaker would convince an animal – usually a bird – to bring it somewhere and would be allowed to ‘eat’ it as a result, promising unbelievable rewards for success and fantastical punishments for failure. Animals are dumb, they kept believing her. Bird would peck at the bread, crack the gemstone, and it would cause a massive explosion. Of course, the Classers were somewhere completely different – and visible – as a result. Always had an alibi."

Maximus shook his head.

"It was unbelievable. Took us three weeks to properly hunt them down."

There was a slow, but steady stream of people that passed our table, people just out for a walk, or going from A to B.

It was at that point that an absolute vision of a woman passed by our table. Long, straight, black hair, clear, pale white skin, bright red lipstick. She was wearing an elegant, simple red woman’s tunic, no ring on her left hand, and looked to be around my age. She moved with grace and beauty, and like everyone in Pallos, looked more than moderately fit.

She was so beautiful. She was so cool. She was so -

"Elaine. You alright?" Artemis asked, snapping my attention back to the here and now.

"Huh? What yeah I’m fine." I said, a flush going over my face.

Kallisto was grinning at me like a maniac.

"I’d know that look anywhere! Elaine! Why did you never tell me you were interested in women? The adventures we could’ve had!"

I shot him a withering look.

"One. I was too busy trying to catch up and learn how to be a Ranger. Two, I was way too young!"

I muttered under my breath, but from the look on Kallisto’s face I knew he’d heard me anyways.

"Three, I’m interested in both, not just women…"

Everyone at the table had a wide grin on their face. Oh gods no. The teasing would be merciless.

"Well, go on, ask her out!" Kallisto said merrily.

I blushed, shaking my head.

"No way. A guy would be easy. I’d just walk right up, smile, and ask. A girl though? She’s so cool. So beautiful. I have no idea if she’d even be interested." I said, shifting uncomfortably.

Artemis started laughing her ass off, while Maximus started to choke, pounding his chest.

"You ok?" I asked, and he nodded.

Julius coughed.

"Kallisto, given your talents, and recent marriage, you have a mission." He said, pointing a fork at him.

"Get Elaine a date with her." He said, pointing to the lady.

"But-" I tried to protest.

"No buts! This is coming from your Commander. Our Elaine’s all grown up! She was a great wingman for you Kallisto, least you can do is return the favor!" He said, the second part directed at Kallisto.

Artemis threw a nut at him. Good ammo that.

I threw a nut at Julius.

Kallisto jerked his head in the direction the lady had gone down the street.

"Come on. We’ve got our marching orders. Let’s go!" He said, grabbing my hand and pulling me along.

Damn Kallisto and his beefy physical stats! Damn my lack of physical stats! That’s why he was able to pull me around!

I sighed to myself as we went through the streets. I was lying to myself and I knew it. I wanted to meet up with her. I wasn’t resisting at all, heck, I was moving my feet as quickly as I could.

She was visible, the woman in the red dress, and we caught up to her.

I stopped moving my feet, fidgeting behind Kallisto, heart beating like a drum. Holy shit. Oh my gods. We were doing this.

I sent a quick prayer to the moon goddesses for help. They seemed like the right ones to ask.

Why did none of my Ranger Academy lessons cover romance!? Why didn’t Night teach me how to approach a woman, instead of how to properly cut down a tree!?

I blinked, and suddenly-

"Jaclyn." She practically purred, offering her hand. She had such incredibly piercing grey eyes!

"Elaine." I said shyly, taking and shaking it.

She eyed me up and down, and I suddenly felt self-conscious. Why hadn’t I worked on getting [Pretty] higher!?

"Why don’t we meet tomorrow evening, and get to know each other a little better, mmm?" She asked, nervously licking her lips with a slim, delicate motion.

I nodded, like a bobblehead shaken too hard.

"Out-outside The Blue Harpoon?" I asked, desperately casting my mind around for a place that wasn’t Ranger Headquarters.

She thought for a moment, then leaned over and whispered in my ear.

"Sure."

And that one word sent a tingling thrill through my entire body.

She turned and walked away, and Kallisto and I headed back. I gave him a HUGE HUG. The BIGGEST ONE EVER.

How the hell had he pulled that off!? Twenty seconds of me not paying attention, being too worried and overthinking everything, of missing whatever dozen words or so Kallisto had said, and she was asking me out! I needed to respec into a pure charisma build or something.

"You’re the BEST Kallisto!" I said, trying – and failing – to keep my giddy happiness out of my voice, crashing down from the stress and adrenaline high I’d just been on. Asking someone out for the first time – or rather, as it turned out, somehow being asked out – was quite the thrill, an experience unlike any I’d had before.

I was very conveniently forgetting all the men who’d asked me out before. I’d just been entirely uninterested in them, mostly due to the situation and whatever age gap there was. And they weren’t that interesting, frankly.

I felt like skipping and humming on the way back, and screw it! Today had been perfect! I hummed and skipped and twirled my way back, to where the remaining three were at the table.

Artemis gave me a silly grin.

"Went well did it?"

"Yup!" I said, mindlessly eating the mango-coated food, barely noticing that it was mango. "I have a date! Tomorrow evening!" I said, all excited.

"Think she’d like a mango? I should get her a mango. Everyone loves mangos."

I continued blathering on, to the amused looks I was being shot from everyone else. I didn’t notice the teasing at all.

I had some idea of how Kallisto felt.

=

I woke up the next morning at what would be 4th gong, out of sheer habit. I had a few days off, at least until the great big ‘here’s more behind the curtain stuff’ meeting. Once the Hell Months started, I’d participate in that somewhat, and once Academy got going, then I’d have real work.

Bless that little break they gave everyone, even if the vacation time was abysmal. Two, three weeks every two years? We needed a union. I’d have to talk with Ocean about it. Sounded like his domain.

Not really knowing what to do with myself, I found breakfast – free for Sentinels inside our HQ – and around 7th gong I was in the living room, watching as everyone filed in one at a time.

Well, everyone not on assignment.

Naturally, Night led the meeting.

"Welcome Dawn. I can not tell you how pleased I am with your progress, and that you have made it here, joining the rest of us." He said, in his usual slow fashion.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Sentinel’s Superiority] has reached level 191!]

Woohoo! Doing Sentinel-things got Sentinel levels! I doubted I’d get many more for attending meetings, but hey. Novel stuff seemed to give a lot of bonus experience. Or repeating stuff had diminishing returns. One of those anyways.

I sat up straight. Being the center of attention of all the Sentinels? Child’s play. It’d happened a hundred times – well, closer to six hundred times – over the last two years.

A date though? [Recollection of a Distant Life] was very helpfully reminding me that I’d never gone on a date in my last life, and this was my first one.

Ever.

Barring having been on a date right before I died and the memory was stripped, I mused to myself.

I mentally shook my head, bringing myself back to the meeting. Yikes I was jaded, if I could just lose focus like that in front of all the Sentinels.

"We will be outfitting you with a standard set of gems, along with acquiring you a set of your own. Moonstone and Sunstone are the Celestial and Radiance gems, and are fortunately quite cheap. On that note, your [Phases of the Moon] is going to be added to our standard bag of tricks. While we have several gemstones that in combination can produce the same effect, we don’t have a Classer in our organization that can reliably produce a related skill, in a gemstone so cheap."

There were more than a few happy noises at that announcement, mostly coming from the "Tier two" Sentinels, the more combat-happy ones. Extra-loud from Magic, who relied hard on gemstones.

"Potions, armor, Arcanite, and inscriptions will also be provided. Now, I will confess, you are the first dedicated healing Sentinel we’ve ever had. We’ve had a few regenerators in our time, but not healing on the scale like you can do. Think about it. Is there anything that would make your life easier, boost your skills further?" Night asked.

"The ability to make the moons come out whenever I wanted?" I asked, somewhat flippantly, after a moment of thought.

Magic started laughing, while Sky facepalmed.

"That is sadly beyond our capabilities for now." Night said with a straight face. "Do let us know if anything else occurs to you as an idea."

"I mean, a boatload of Arcanite, but I assume that’s a given?" I said.

"We do outfit most mages with a large amount of Arcanite, yes. I suspect you might even end up desiring it as much as Destruction does. I caution you not to grow reliant on it, for it is the doom of many mages when they wake up one day, and it’s gone."

Night gave me a significant look, and with a nervous gulp I remembered my duel against Kerberos, where I’d nearly made the same mistake of thinking I had unlimited mana when I no longer did.

"With that being said. I declare a week of vacation for everyone except Dawn. You are entirely free to do as you wish." Night pronounced, and there was a great shuddering, a destroyed chair, as the room evacuated, all the Sentinels pushing their superhuman stats to the max to enjoy every last second of time.

I blinked. Night couldn’t have cleared the room faster if he tried. A disaster of epic magnitude would’ve had a slower exit.

"With my apologies Dawn. You need to learn the basics and fundamentals of how we operate, as well as getting properly outfitted. Fundamentally, I believe you will end up on slightly fewer missions than the average Sentinel, although you might handle higher body counts – or be doing your best to reduce them at the very least." Night said.

I saluted, hand over chest.

"Now come. Over here is where we keep basic potions stocked – although you might want a few additional ones…" Night said, giving me a more in-depth tour of what I was mentally calling ‘the Sentinel Armory’, a series of rooms located inside the suite where all manner of gems, weapons, armor, potions, inscriptions, and more were located.

"Quick question." I asked, as Night was showing me the frankly staggering array of weapons we had, none of which I could use well. I was a short sword and spear woman. Maximus would’ve been in heaven though.

"Clearly more people than just us have access to these rooms, right?" I said.

"Yes, but only four. The head of Potions, Gemstones, Inscriptions, and Armory are granted access. Anything else they can simply communicate the problem to the relevant authority, and get the proper response from them. I do not know if Ocean mentioned it, but you were nearly made the head of Healing, a new branch. A combination of the organization needed to make that happen, your combat prowess, your usefulness in the field vs your relatively limited use at HQ, and the, quite frankly, terrible organizational skills you demonstrated at Academy made us choose a more, ah, standard path for you."

I hadn’t thought my organizational skills had been that bad, but then again, Night was talking about heading up a major department in the Rangers. Which my organizational skills were not up to at all.

Chapter 119.2 – A date

Before I knew it, it was lunch, and Night was yawning.

"Right, see you tomorrow morning, more of the same." He said. "I’m off to bed."

I saluted – him being the boss made it more than appropriate – and suddenly, I was free, with a whole day in front of me to worry over my date later tonight!!!

Ok, breathe in, breathe out. I was the bloody Dawn Sentinel. No date could stop me!

Although, what if those voices had been right? What if she found out that I was a Sentinel, and it scared her off? Knew that I’d killed, and didn’t want someone with blood on their hands?

My stomach was doing flip-flops, the butterflies inside throwing a rave.

Ok, think. Plan. Execute. This was like getting ready to slay a monster, or diagnosing a patient before healing them. This was the same as any other problem, and I’d been trained how to handle problems.

The Problem: I wanted Jaclyn to like me, and I wanted our date to go well.

What could I control: Myself. My equipment. My planning.

Right then.

I was totally going to wear my dress, the one that I could imbue elements into. It was fancy, fun, and simply perfect.

Bracelet and pendant were in. Knife?

Knife was in. It was pretty standard, and it’d be given to me when I was a kid. I wasn’t about to reject it.

Right. That’s what I currently had. What else could I use?

Cosmetics. I had absolutely none.

Something for my hair. Again with the "not having anything."

My hair was pixie-short again, the Frontlines having been terrible for hair. However, I’d slowly been letting it grow out, and now that I was a Sentinel, I could consider going for long hair. I liked my hair long.

Other resources: A huge pile of coins.

Today’s mission: Go out into town, buy cosmetics, get something for my hair, possibly get a little gift of some sort.

Potential obstacles: Thieves, like the one that had stymied my attempt to get tons of scrolls.

Additional goals: Maybe new sandals? My current ones were, putting it nicely, very practical and had many miles on them. I could get something new and shiny.

If I had time.

Right! Order of operations time!

I should bring my dress with me. One of the [Beauticians] must have a way to change.

I should scout out the location and the surrounding area, and work from there.

I nodded to myself. Right. I had a plan. Let’s execute it.

I grabbed one of the larger pouches – more like a courier’s bag – and carefully folded my dress into it. I left HQ, and started off by scouting the scene of the future battle date. Knowing the terrain was important. Geography impacted history, history impacted politics, and-

I shook my head. Nope. Those lessons were going to be completely useless here. Focus.

I made my way through town, back to the restaurant. Along the way, all the people eyeing me up yesterday and today finally paid off.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Vigilant] has reached level 199!]

A good omen! Everything was coming up Elaine!

Right, The Blue Harpoon was with a bunch of other restaurants, and there were merchants nearby, selling food. It was in a nicer-but-not-the-nicest district, and there were a number of high-end stores in the area. They weren’t the best in the capital, but they were pretty good.

A quick mental calculus of added cost vs added improvement to appearance, vs extra travel time to potentially reduce or remove said added appearance, was done, and I settled on nearby stores.

I swung by the food vendors, and picked up a dozen mangos, coins changing hands. I tried to have a nice afternoon snack of only six mangos, enjoying the sun on my face as I ate on a bench in a little park.

Darn butterflies were going to ruin everything.

I kept the remaining six for later, excited to share the sweet nectar of mango with Jaclyn.

I moved the name over my tongue.

Jaclyn.

My first date!

I kicked my feet happily at the thought.

I stopped my imagination from going on a runaway train of "what-ifs" and "laters".

Right. I still had hours to go, but I was going to start getting ready now.

I washed my face off, then went to the [Cobbler] to get myself a new, fancy pair of sandals. After much browsing and hemming and hawing over it, I got a simple, sturdy, comfortable pair, that didn’t look like it had hundreds of miles of wear on them, that made me look and feel [Pretty].

The baths were next, a solid, full-body scouring, rubbing my body clean to within an inch of its life. I was going to practically sparkle.

Alright, the [Beautician] was next. I found a store, and went in.

"Hi! How can we help you?" The woman behind the counter cheerfully asked me.

"Wellllll…" I said, drawing it out. "I have a date tonight!" I exclaimed, letting the happiness leak out. Might have been a bit of a Radiance glow as well.

"Oh my goodness! How exciting!" She said, showing as much excitement as I was feeling. "And let me guess. You want some help for the big event?"

I did my best woodpecker impression.

"Alrighty! Well, it’ll be a rod, before the cosmetic price is factored in. Is that ok?"

Pricey!

"Sure. However, no lead or mercury cosmetics. Is that ok?"

"Sure, but that limits us quite a bit. Can I ask why?"

Whoops. I’d managed to put my foot in it. This was going to be all sorts of awkward.

"Please don’t get mad. They’re a slow, slow poison. I’m a healer, and I can’t handle them." I said, closing my eyes, waiting for the inevitable anger.

She just laughed at me.

"I don’t know where that rumor came from! Lead’s perfectly fine, we’ve used it for decades! But sure, we can skip it if you’d like."

Close one! I wasn’t going to argue with them. We could both quietly think the other one was a lunatic, and I wasn’t going to go on a one-woman crusade against the entire cosmetics industry, not when I wanted their help badly.

"Last question! Do you have one or more appearance skills? And if so, which one? [Beautiful], [Sexy], [Pretty], [Attractive], [Lovely], [Gorgeous], [Exquisite], [Splendid], [Fabulous], [Fine-looking], [Jade Beauty], [Eye-Catching], [Good-looking], [Cute], [Ravishing], [Stunning], [Resplendent], [Dashing], [Mesmerizing], [Alluring], [Imposing] or any of the other ones?"

I blinked. I hadn’t even realized how many there were… and the System was busy offering them all to me.

Ooooh the things I could do with eight appearance skills.

… The number of people that’d bug me with eight appearance skills. I’d stick with [Pretty].

"[Pretty]!" I said, happy it was near the top of the list.

"Great! Our [Pretty] expert is with someone else. You can wait a bit to see her, or you can see someone else."

I glanced at the sun. Plenty left.

"I’ll wait!" I said.

I waited, and ended up with the [Pretty] expert in no time.

"[Pretty] right?" She asked.

"Yeah!"

"Ok cool! I’m Albina – nice to meet you! Light touches then – [Pretty] works best when just a touch is applied."

"I heard you have a big date tonight!" Albina said, all happy and excited for me.

"Yeah!"

"Come, sit, sit! New person, old person, tell me all about them."

"Well, so, I kinda, maybe, possibly, saw them yesterday, and well, asked them out. Kinda. Well, she ended up asking me out. Um. Yeah." I said, fumbling the entire thing horribly.

"Ha! I remember my first date." She said fondly, starting to bustle around me. "Why, it was a lovely autumn evening, and…"

I sat there patiently while she did her thing, chattering away happily.

"Oh, do you want longer hair? I assume you want it short, but…"

"Wait, you can grow out hair!?" I exclaimed.

"Yup! Costs extra, but it’s a skill of mine!" Albina told me, picking up strands of hair and putting it down.

"Fuck! Why didn’t anyone tell me! I’d have gotten it grown out weeks ago!" I cried out.

She suddenly looked sad, patting my shoulder.

"I dunno what you did to get way over level 220, 230 at your age, but you clearly didn’t spend a lot of time in towns."

I felt a pang of sadness go through me at that. She was right. I’d ditched anything remotely resembling a normal life years ago, when I ran away from home.

I closed my eyes, breathing in, breathing out, resetting myself mentally.

"Ran away at 14. Bunch of time in the wilderness." I said, all of it true. I don’t know why I was suddenly being cagey about being a Ranger – no, a Sentinel. Maybe I just wanted to feel somewhat normal, a typical woman for a day.

"Why don’t we go for shoulder blade length? I can give it some subtle curls, really bring your eyes out." She suggested.

"Sure!"

The [Pretty] expert did her work, and it was amazing.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pretty] has reached level 133!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pretty] has reached level 134!]

"Would you believe I leveled twice." I said, changing into my amazing dress.

"Oooh! Yay!" She said. "My record’s three time, but never on someone so high level! I also got a level from you."

She paused, blinking.

"Two levels from you."

I laughed.

"My [Pretty] level isn’t all that high."

"Yeah, well, you’re something special. I got a main class level, which I got one recently. I’ve had three people since then, and I leveled off of you. Twice."

I got my dress settled, practicing flowing Celestial through it, the starry sky showing on the dress, tiny little comet-illusions going off of it.

I was feeling very [Pretty]. I had a little twirl, feeling the weight of my new hair doing strange things.

It was one thing to slowly grow out hair. It was quite another to suddenly have a bunch.

Eh. Albina had been so nice, and why not, it wasn’t every day I could pull this off. There was a chance I’d become famous soon, and my anonymity would vanish.

I paid her, left her a nice tip, then at the end, paused as I was on my way out the door.

"All your levels might have been because I’m Sentinel Dawn." I said, winking at her, then leaving. One two, and from right outside the store, I heard her-

"Oh my god we just had a Sentinel in the store!! She was a woman!!"

Oooh this could be fun.

Chapter 119.3 – A date

The sun was setting, and I found a spot to hang out near The Blue Harpoon. Pouch was full, and well-guarded. Mangos acquired. I was darn [Pretty].

My heart was pounding.

My belly was doing flip-flops.

I had an invasion of butterflies in my stomach.

Sweaty palms, short breath, and a tight chest. I kept pulsing [Phases of the Moon] through me, and I seriously considered ‘blacklisting’ ‘first date nerves’ on [Center of the Galaxy].

I didn’t, mostly because it was non-combat, and because if I turned off every inconvenient emotion, I wouldn’t be human anymore. No, I’d ride the emotional rollercoaster, and enjoy it, as much as I could.

I froze, as a thought crashed over me like a thunderbolt.

What if Jaclyn didn’t like [Pretty] girls? What if her style was more masculine?

Bah. I was [Pretty], and she’d take me as I was.

Oh goddesses I hope she’d take me as I was. The thought was… pleasant.

What if she changed her mind? What if she stood me up? What if she…

Round and round my thoughts went, self-doubt rising.

The sun set, and the moons rose, voyeurs to my first date. I shook my fist at them, only to hear a high, clear laugh.

"Jaclyn!" I said, jumping.

"Not a fan?" She asked, nodding up.

I shook my head.

"Not at all. Here! A mango! I love em!" I said, handing her one of my precious ambrosia made fruit.

She gave it a casual look, putting it into her bag.

"Thank you! Want to go for a walk?" She asked.

She wanted to walk! She didn’t want to just politely let me know she wasn’t interested!

"Of course! Your dress is so nice!" I said, falling in step beside her. She was about a head taller than me, and it was nice.

"Thanks!" She said.

My high went down like three notches when she didn’t return the compliment.

"Want to get something to eat?" I asked, figuring this was safe territory.

She glanced at me, eyeing me up and down hungrily. She hesitated, then bent over to whisper in my ear.

"I’d love a little snack later."

Did she mean…?

My high went right back to 10/10, then proceeded to break that and end up at a solid 13/10.

"I’m very tasty." I said, trying to flirt back. She smiled at me as she drew back up to her full height.

"I hope so!" She said, winking.

I felt bold enough to grab her hand, and wow, she must have a lot of physical stats. I checked her out with [Identify].

[Artisan]

Like 130 or so? Was that typical for someone of her age? Did Artisans have a lot of strength? Depended what type I guess.

Even mentally I was babbling.

I suddenly realized – I had no idea what was normal. I’d been handling Classers, guards, high-level people in cities, but didn’t have that great of a barometer for normal.

"How old are you?" I decided to make some idle conversation. Got a sour look in return.

"Older than I’d like to admit!" She cheerfully told me.

Alright, alright. Hint taken.

This date was feeling strange. She was showing interest – a lot of interest – but only sometimes, and was being cagey about personal things. Like what she actually did. "Worked in the family business" was as vague as possible.

A food vendor was selling strips of seasoned roasted beef, a small crackling fire dimly lighting up his stand. I was feeling a bit peckish, so I stopped and looked.

"Could you get that one?" Jaclyn asked, pointing to an unseasoned one at the end.

I shrugged, not really having any dog in the game. "Sure! Do you want one?"

"Nah, I’m good."

A quick negotiation later, and we were continuing to walk through the streets, making small talk. Things were getting somewhat better, I polished off my snack, and soon we were near the park.

"Walk in the park with me?" Jaclyn asked, a glint of mischief in her voice promising maybe doing a bit more than walking.

"Yeah!" I said.

The moons were out in full force, and they were reflected red in her eyes. Goddesses, her eyes. They were so beautiful. So charming.

Heck, she might even have something like [Charming Eyes]. I wanted to get lost in them. I wanted to swim in them.

We made our way through the park somewhat, getting to a little, private grassy hill. She turned, and, hesitating a moment, leaned down to kiss me.

My heart was going to explode out of my chest with how fast it was beating, an entire drumline furiously beating.

She was going to kiss me!!!!!!

I tilted my head back, feeling her strong arms around me, her soft body pressing into me, strawberry lips pressing on mine.

I gave a happy squeal, lifting one foot up behind me as I pressed back, kissing her with fervor, with joy, with happiness, a rush of emotion coursing through my body. She stepped back a moment, and I was in love. Totally, utterly in love.

She leaned forward again, kissing me again, one hand in my hair, firmly pressing my head to hers, one on my back, holding me against her. I wrapped my arms up and under her armpits, securing myself as I was slightly bent over backwards. I let out a soft moan as our lips met again, only to feel her tongue starting to invade my mouth.

I let it, feeling it explore my mouth, wrapping around my tongue. It stayed a moment, our kiss extending further and further, then it was my turn to try to be bold. I stuck my tongue in her mouth, exploring a bit, only for-

"Ouch!" I cried out, pulling back.

"Muh toung." I said, having my tongue hanging out of my mouth, tingling sensation going over it. "owww."

"Oh let me see that." She said, sounding excited.

I obediently stuck my tongue out at her, giving her flirty eyes in the process. She locked eyes with me, her red eyes still reflecting the moons, the moons behind her glowing. I wanted to flip them off… but maybe I was ok with them seeing everything.

She sucked on my tongue for a moment, then gave me another deep kiss, one I happily reciprocated. She tugged at the shoulder of my dress, still shimmering Celestial, and I let her reveal a shoulder.

I didn’t want to go too far tonight, but I was totally game for making out. Maybe some light petting.

She broke the kiss off, then slowly came in again, holding me tighter than ever, aiming to kiss my neck, start trailing kissing down my body and-

[Vigilant] went nuts.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Vigilant] has reached level 200!]

[*ding!* Would you like to merge [Vigilant] and [Reflexes] into [Bullet Time]?]

I reflexively hit yes, and the world slowed around me, giving me time to think, to process. I still moved at the same speed, but I thought and could think so much faster – invaluable with Radiance and near-instant-cast spells.

The pieces of the puzzle came together with a click.

Pale skin.

Only seen at night.

Hypnotizing, captivating eyes. That one might just be me.

Licking her lips, eyeing me like I was meat.

Sharp things in her mouth – fangs.

Eyes red even though the moons were behind her. Reflections didn’t work that way.

Disliked seasoning – more specifically, the garlic.

Not eating any other food. Mango heretic! Never dating anyone who dislikes mangos again.

Making sure she had a nice, solid grip on me. Physical stats far beyond what her level suggested she should have, especially with the [Artisan] tag.

And a class, offered to me a lifetime ago.

[Apprentice Vampire Hunter].

Jaclyn was a bloody vampire, and I’d all but gift-wrapped myself and delivered myself to her. Hells, you could argue with all the effort I put into being [Pretty] today, that I had gift-wrapped myself.

And neatly delivered myself into a private, secluded location so she could have, in her own words, a little snack.

I’d even called myself tasty. Yikes.

It wasn’t enough, it wasn’t proof. I didn’t want today’s date to end, I didn’t want to believe, to have my feelings come crashing down around me.

At the same time, I wasn’t about to become dinner.

I threw up a small [Veil] around my neck, and time resumed its normal speed, hearing a small pair of clinks as she hit the [Veil] around my neck.

"Jaclyn… there’s no chance you’re a vampire is there?"

She pulled back and hissed at me, lips drawn back, revealing a pair of sharp fangs, and suddenly the gentle strength on my arms turned crushing, bones breaking under her formidable grasp.

My heart broke at the same time my arms did, my first crush (fine second), my first romance ruthlessly destroyed, a lie the entire time. [Bullet Time] activated again, time slowing.

Fuuuuuuuuccccccckkkkkkk [Bullet Time] was awful for getting injured. I was feeling every bit of my bone stress, then break and shatter, one piece after another as her grip tightened, muscles flexing as she went for more moves.

I couldn’t bring myself to perform lethal shots, not when it wasn’t absolutely needed, not when I had so many levels on her. Not when we’d been making out literally 5 seconds ago. A thin, [Blaze] – powered beam of Radiance shot from me, drilling through her right shoulder, then her left, burning through muscle and bone and ligaments, shoulder sockets destroyed, her arms becoming useless before they could finish trying to rip my arms off.

She screamed, a high, inhuman noise, and [Bullet Time] ended, the threat to my life gone as she ran, scattering like the wind, arms held limply at her side. She left me heaving, tears streaming down my face as I cursed, healing myself back up with [Phases]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Bullet Time] has reached level 189!]

Why!? Why had this gone so badly!? The first time I put myself out there, and the person was an inhuman vampire who just wanted to eat me!

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 235!]

My heart was lead, in my sandals, and I fled, crying, back to headquarters, ignoring the guards asking me if everything was ok. I made it back to my room, and holed up in my bed, blankets around me, wallowing in my sadness, despair, and self-pity.

I really, really needed a mopey, angsty set of music right now to listen to.

I must’ve spent a really long time crying and moping, because there was a knock on my door.

"Dawn?" Night’s voice came from the other side of the door. "Are you alright? It is past time for our meeting, and it is not like you to be late."

Ug. Responsibility. I was still in my dress, tears having wrecked my makeup horribly.

"Fine, be right out." I said, wiping my face – I’d need to launder this dress later, or pay someone to do it for me – and opened the door.

To Night.

Great avoider of sunlight.

Pale skin and red eyes.

Who’d I’d never seen eat.

"Fuck!" I screamed, slamming the door shut. "You’re also a vampire!!"

[Bullet Time] How else can you dodge bullets? When your life is in mortal peril, sense the attack and your perception will speed up, giving you the time to think about your actions. Increased perception increase, total length of time increased per level. -64 mana regen.

[Name: Elaine]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 50400/50400]

[Mana Regen: 45234 (+3360.72)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 8]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 5040]

[Mana Regeneration: 5092 (+1435.944)]

[Magic Power: 4636 (+46591.8)]

[Magic Control: 4636 (+46591.8)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 240]]

[Celestial Affinity: 240]

[Warmth of the sun: 198]

[Medicine: 202]

[Center of the Galaxy: 235]

[Phases of the Moon: 240]

[Moonlight: 240]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 141]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 160]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 134]

[Bullet Time: 189]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 201]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 190]

[: ]

[Learning: 212]

Chapter 120.1 – History Lessons

"Dawn? May I come in?" Night asked, politely knocking on my door.

I fell back, scrambling to get away from the door, away from the thing on the other side, an inscription providing light for the room throwing crazy shadows over my face.

"No! You can’t enter!" I yelled out, trying to remember my vampire lore.

"That’s how it works right? I don’t give you permission and you can’t come in right?" I asked, only before realizing the monumental stupidity of asking my enemy for advice on his weaknesses.

I heard a deep sigh from the other side of the door.

"I am not entering because the place is yours, and I value your privacy. I would not intrude upon you, especially when you are distressed. Would you at least be willing to discuss the latest events with me, so I may understand what has transpired?"

"I’d feel a lot better with more people around!" I said, suddenly feeling like a hostage negotiator. Except I was also the hostage.

Ok, think. There was one door to the area. If Night went through the door, I’d be able to get Radiance beams on him, no trouble.

Except he was so high level compared to me that he could probably just shrug it off, even if I went for the eyes.

The realization was almost freeing.

I was a dead woman if Night wanted me to be a dead woman. My only chance at survival, at freedom, was to make Night happy.

System, oh System, hear my prayer. Give me a skill to make Night happy with me, give me a skill to help me survive this!

[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Tasty Blood]!]

You have got to me kidding me.

I rejected the skill. I was hoping for something more social, like [Silver Tongue] or something.

[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Tastes like Chicken]!]

No way.

[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Mid-Night Snack]!]

This clearly wasn’t helping. Back to hostage negotiations.

"How do I know you won’t just eat or kill me at the end?" I said, starting to think a bit more.

More silence from the other side of the door. Night’s habit of long pauses between speaking was going to be the death of me.

"I am Night first. I am the leader of the Sentinels second. Protector of humanity third. Guardian of Remus fourth. Patriarch of a vampire lineage fifth. You are Dawn. You are a Sentinel, one of mine. I place you, and your well-being, above one of my idiot descendants."

What.

"What?" I said, confusion clear in my voice.

More exasperated sighing.

"Could I please come in, or could you please come out, and we can discuss this face-to-face? It is difficult speaking to a door."

Fine. Operation ‘Make Night Happy In A Way That Doesn’t Get My Blood Sucked’ is a go.

I opened the door to find Night a respectful distance away, clearly trying to not spook me. He looked me up and down, and discreetly coughed.

"Ahem. Would you like a few minutes to straighten yourself up?"

Mmmm. He had a point. I was a hot mess.

I ducked back into my room, splashed water on my face – my suite had everything, luxurious bed, a living room, a fully stocked bathroom with a small bath and everything, basically a penthouse suite on Pallos, magical inscriptions providing all the luxuries.

I probably would’ve had this life, or a similar one, married to Kerberos. No wonder my parents had thought it was good for me. He was dead now, and I had it anyways, on my own merits. Much better.

I finished washing up, changing into a new, simple tunic. I put my dress away somewhat carefully, unsure if I’d ever wear it again. Good memories and bad linked to it.

I left the room, and found Night in the central living room, having claimed a large, plush chair for himself. I took a recliner on the other side.

"First, while you are clearly upset, I would like to check – you are physically ok, correct?" He asked.

I shot him a withering look.

"I’m a stupidly powerful healer. Duh I’m ok physically."

"If I may pry, what has occurred to make you so upset?"

I glared at him, then realized he had no way of knowing.

"Vampire. Tried to take a bite." I sourly said, expecting some sort of retribution.

He hissed, and I realized why it had sent such deep fear into me the first time I’d heard it, when he was mad. He was an apex predator, and I was his prey.

"Which one of my idiot progeny tried to take a bite out of one of my Sentinels?" He hissed in anger. "Edward? Vlad? Lincoln?"

I blinked. I hadn’t realized there were so many – but then again it made sense.

"Jaclyn." I said.

Night blinked. Then blinked again.

A long silence stretched between us, much longer than usual. Shit. Was she a favorite of Night’s or something?

The silence continued to stretch on. Had I somehow broken Night?

"Right. Ahem. Regardless of how you feel, yes, Jaclyn." He said, normally smooth words slightly stuttering.

Wait. Did I just throw Night off by having gone on a date with a woman?

"First off, did you get bitten?" He asked.

I shook my head.

"Good. It’s not the worst thing to have happen, but it makes things less complicated. Now that we’ve established you’re ok, will I need to be burying a body – or did you not leave a body?"

"Crippled her shoulders." I said. "Blew through both of them, disabling her arms. She ran off after that."

More damned silence. I was never going to play cards with Night, not with that poker face.

"Thank you." Night said. "While you would’ve been justified in removing her after her affront to you, I must confess I never enjoy hearing about the loss of one of mine – Sentinel or otherwise."

"Normally, I dislike your approach, and I was the one who instilled the lesson in Artemis – do not leave threats behind. Granted, she’s taken that lesson further than I believe is reasonable, though not out of bounds, but she is a discussion for another day. However, today, I am thankful for your restraint."

"Does everyone else know about you?" I asked. He seemed awfully unconcerned that I knew.

"Yes. It’s one of the things you and Commander Julius were to be educated on in a few days, along with a number of other critical pieces of information. Normally, the terrors of the skies are also part of your education, but you came to us knowing it already."

I didn’t know what to say to that, and it felt like tumbleweeds were rolling through the room.

"I have decided. You deserve a history lesson, a full one. You may tell the others, but I’d prefer you didn’t. Call it my own desire for privacy." Night said.

I nodded, eager to hear more, my curiosity and desire for stories getting the better of me.

"What year is it?" Night asked, out of the blue.

I had to think about it for a moment. It wasn’t something we used every day.

"4798." I replied.

"Yes. And what does that number represent?" Night asked.

More thinking, back to System Day at the temple way back when.

"Years since creation?" I ventured a guess.

"It’s pretty close. Off by a few decades." Night said. "But it’s close enough. More accurately, it’s how many years since Herculix was born."

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 213!]

Wait. Vampire. Spoke of ancient events.

"You-" I said, not daring to finish the sentence, not daring to believe.

"Yes. I was not born." Night said. "I was created, at the dawn of time, when the big five gods and goddesses saw fit to create Pallos, and populate the planet with all manner of creatures."

"It was the worst moment of my life. One moment I didn’t exist. The next moment, I was. A full adult, head crammed full of useless knowledge. A full language. Without the information of what language was, or how to use it. I didn’t even know how to stand! I had no history, no practical knowledge, no memories. A bundle of poorly thought-out instincts. I fell to the ground, twitching, as I tried to process what had happened, what was going on. Beams of light were coming down from the heavens as I did this, as the gods kept their cruel experiment going, creating all manner of creatures, of horrors."

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 214!]

"The gods were new to creation. Pallos and its natives were their first attempt. Or rather, if it wasn’t their first attempt, I shudder to imagine what their first did look like, what ungodly horrors were created and unleashed to justify a purge, a mulligan on creation. Regardless. I was blessed, lucky to not die in those first few days as so many tens of thousands did, killed by their own body, killed by the gods forgetting something as fundamental as a mouth, misshapen, bloody things that only existed for a few brief moments of agony then died."

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 215!]

Ok, you know what System? Shush. I’m listening to the ancient vampire talk about creation. Let me know what the gains are at the end.

"Some were plain unlucky. I saw a creature created next to me, only for a larger one to be created directly on top of him, instantly crushing him to death. One body I came across was clearly just the gods having figured out eyes, then trying every single type of eye onto a single being, simply to experiment. Nothing but flesh and eyes, dead mere moments after having been created, all for the gods to learn more, to see what would happen, how different types of eyes worked."

"The world was hard and rocky, lava spurting out from the ground. The gods figured out that we needed soil, and the great soiling occurred, burying every creature in feet upon feet of the stuff."

"Most small creatures were created or re-created after the event. Myself, I had to dig out of it. For all I knew at the time, being buried alive was a frequent occurrence. I spent weeks making sure I was always high up, such that when a repeat of the event occurred, I wouldn’t be buried again. More fragile plants were created then, damning those who had been able to survive in the lava fields to being buried."

"But the gods were improving, steadily creating better and better races as a whole, as a rule. I’d like to think Vampires were one of the later races, as we were blessed with an immortal lifespan, fantastic physical prowess, and strong racial traits from the System."

"Sadly, we vampires have some of the worst leveling I’ve ever heard of. I’m nearly 5000 years old, and still have yet to break level 500. Part of it is my role as a guardian, a defender, but more significantly was the fact that we are simply a failure from the gods."

"My belief is the gods found a template that somewhat worked, and decided to continuously improve upon it. That is why so many creatures and monsters are human-like. Or, as the gods would put it, that is why so many creatures and monsters are elf-like."

"For the elves were the god’s last and greatest humanoid creation, their peak, the pinnacle. Blessed with endless lives, rapid System growth, as much knowledge as they could give them at the start. The gods also cheated. Every other species was spread all over the planet, scattered to every corner, to see who and what would survive, and what would perish."

"Not the elves. No, they were all created in a single area that the gods cleared ahead of time, given advantages no other species were."

"Thanatos, the God of Death, made his greatest creation around this time. Black Crow//White Dove. An endlessly flipping coin. Two as one, you will be visited by only one, but both are always present."

"White Dove takes those who go willingly, while Black Crow drags the unwilling away."

"White Dove saw that many, many races, species, and yes, even some individuals she would never meet, for age does not touch them. She cursed them then, cursed them all."

"I do not know what each race got. I know that we vampires lose access to our System-granted skills and stats when under sunlight."

"Hang on – is that why you don’t go into sunlight? Not your [Oath] or whatever?" I asked, feeling lied to.

Night grinned at me, like Prometheus after he stole fire.

"No – I figured, while I’m already bound to not show up in the sun, why not take a restriction skill, formalize it, and gain power from it? The curse isn’t from the System after all, I am permitted to double-dip."

I blinked. He was just cheating!

"The curse felled most of my fellow vampires, becoming prey during the daylight hours when most beasts roamed. Most of my brethren have taken a similar restriction skill, although a fire mage one was so dumb as to declare he’d burst into flame should sunlight ever touch him."

"The idiot burst into flames three decades later when the gods decided to experiment with a second sun."

Night shook his head at the memory.

Chapter 120.2 – History Lessons

"It was humanity, who offered us a place at their fire. Humanity, who was willing to guard us during the day, as we guarded them during the night. Humanity, who protected us, as we were cursed to level so slowly, our early years being some of the hardest of them all. Humanity, who tolerated us at level 20, 25 when they were already leaping forward, some of the earliest, strongest pushing 300, 400 as the cruel world created amazing opportunities. Humanity, who saved what I believe were the last three vampires, the progenitors."

"I am one of them. And I am eternally grateful."

We paused a moment for me to digest.

Wow. Just.

Wow.

Night wasn’t just old, he was old.

I was still trying to process the rest as he continued.

"They allowed us to occasionally feed from them, to take what we needed from them. They sheltered and protected us, and we helped them in kind, expanding their tribe’s territory and influence, meeting other tribes in turn, banding together for survival. Petty disputes mean nothing before the beasts and monsters out there."

"Once the gods finished elves, they turned their hand towards other creatures, winged beasts of the sky, leviathans of the deep. I believe that they felt they perfected the humanoid form, so they reached still higher, for a greater form."

"Thousands upon thousands of beams of light over the oceans and seas, populating the depths with creatures still unknown. I will not set foot over the ocean."

"For that matter, there is some great monster in the Nostrum sea – a massive plant, stretching across the entire depths. Anything too far from shore gets grabbed and pulled down by thorny vines. I have been working on a solution for a few centuries, but have nothing so far. That’s one of the secrets, the creature in the depths, the reason we are shore-faring, and do not directly cross the Nostrum Sea."

"Blessedly, it prevents anything large from forming in the Nostrum, keeping the threats minimal, compared to the size things could grow to unchecked. The only price is being unable to directly cross. The price, so far, has been worth it. Hence not spending too much time on the issue, compared to the Formorians."

"Back to the skies."

"Rocs. Golden Crows. Quetzal. Thunderbirds. Griffins. Phoenixes. Tapajaras. Wyverns. And so many more. Each one greater, fiercer than the last."

"A flying island showed up, but as to what’s going on with that, I haven’t the faintest idea." Night shrugged.

"Then, their final creation. Only a few dozen beams of light lit the sky that night, but the terrors of the sky, the overlords of creation were created."

Dragons.

"Their reign of terror was immediate and brutal. Our only saving grace was, at first, they were just as content to murder and maim each other as the rest of creation."

"After some time, they ceased fighting each other, and turned to the rest of us."

"One in particular saw fit to attack the lands where humanity was struggling to eke out an existence. For what purpose, I have never found out. Perhaps it simply enjoyed sowing mayhem and chaos, reveling in destruction, at watching all of creation flee before it, groveling before its might."

"There was nothing we could do but pray and supplicate ourselves before the overlord, who didn’t care for us in the slightest. No, if anything, us calling to it and offering sacrifices seemed to offend it, speaking its name seemed to enrage it. It is why the name, and the knowledge, is taboo, although informing new team leaders once every two years or more doesn’t seem to be enough to provoke its wrath, and let us clamp down on any idiots who find ancient records and get ideas."

"We could be wrong about it hearing us when we speak its name. I am unwilling to risk it or test it."

Night paused, collecting his thoughts.

"What I am about to tell you is speculation from me, only some of which I have seen."

"I believe, as they continued to oppress all of creation, a number of beasts, monsters, and beings from around the planet decided to fight back. I only know of one, but as Etalix engaged with the annihilator, none of his kind came to assist. Etalix summoned storms, throwing massive bolts of lightning at the destructor. Great blasts of ice and acid came from the ocean, spatial tears ripping the very fabric of the world, skills of a level I can’t begin to dream of assisted him."

"The fight was, at best, a draw. At worst, a loss for Etalix, but either way, they were no longer an omni-present feature in the sky."

Night reverentially bowed his head.

"I do not believe he was fighting for us. Nevertheless, he is our Guardian, the reason we still exist today. That fight is the reason we venerate him, place a statue of him before every temple."

"At this time, yet another band of humans left, to follow and praise Etalix. Among their number, just another face in the crowd, was Herculix. I do not know what transpired, only that many decades later, there was great rejoicing from all humans, as he accomplished some great feat that even the System recognized, permanently making him a part of humanity’s record."

Wow. That’s why we worshipped Etalix.

Yup, I was going to offer more than a few prayers to him, giving thanks, even though prayers to him didn’t drain mana the same way praying to the gods drained mana.

"Anyways. The great battle carved out two more sections of the Nostrum, nearly connecting it to the Ocean in some places, a permanent scar of the battle. It wasn’t even an aim of the winged being to do so, they were simply missed shots. That is the scale of the power of those beings, rearranging the surface we live on with little more than an idle thought. The landscape was scarred in many other ways."

"Time passed, humanity recovered, and began to expand. Many times, humanity has decided to do something dumb. Often, I’ve been tempted to intervene, to correct them and set them on the right path."

"I have refrained. I have seen too many warlords, too many powerful humans who thought they knew better, crushing the rest under their heel. At times, choices I believe were wrong turned out to be right. It forced me to face the truth – I am a warrior, not a leader. I would end up being nothing more than a petty warlord, and I have seen the fate of every petty warlord."

"As such, I took the role of guardian. After Gideon founded the Sentinels and Rangers, I took my place with them, and have stayed here since then, providing a guiding hand, remembrance of fatal mistakes so they are not made again – at least, not made without several words of caution in the ears of those who would make them."

"Eventually, the edge of humanity’s expansion reached the edge of the Formorian expansion, and we began to skirmish, then battle, then war. One day, like an Inscription activated, they went from a stream to an inexhaustible tide, seemingly throwing every body they have at us."

"We have tried all sorts of manner to slay them, but they are unending, unceasing. Many times, people have gotten the brilliant idea to cast some large-scale skill. Usually, it works the first time, so they attempt it a second time, a third. Inevitably, one of the skills hits our lines, breaks our walls, and they flood in. I stop potentially species-ending stupidity like that, along with any Classer too powerful for another Sentinel – or occasionally a Sentinel himself who’s gone rogue." Night said.

"But that gets off track. Know this. I have an unending, undying debt of gratitude towards humanity, and consider myself one of their guardians – as well as you. If a conflict should emerge between my kind and humanity, between vampires and Sentinels, I shall always be on the side of Sentinels."

He stopped, the massive flood of words over. I was still soaking in them, trying to remember and process everything he said.

No wonder he took so long before saying anything. Anything he heard, anything he did, had to be catalogued, processed, checked against nearly five millennia of knowledge and experience.

And bless his habit. It let me do a boatload of processing.

I’d never thought that creation was, well, creation. I’d been told it, but it never really processed, never really hit. I’d never thought what it’d be like to be one of the beings created, suddenly placed upon the planet with no frame of reference.

And creating! Gods weren’t perfect, and their early creations were clearly subpar. Given what I’d seen, given what I knew, I strongly suspected after some time they decided to just plagiarize successful models from Earth, and possibly from other locations.

Made sense why so many things were humanoid though, just the gods saying "well this seems to work, let’s keep trying!"

But that casual cruelty, of creating and forgetting, of throwing a bunch of beings into the pit and seeing how it shook out for their own amusement jived exactly with what I’d felt from Papilion, who’d happily stripped my memories and threw me into the world.

I must’ve spent an hour or more processing, thinking, going through everything Night said. He waited. He was patient.

He literally had all the time in the world. No wonder he was so unconcerned with the passage of time.

"Thank you." I finally said, having wrapped my head around most of it.

"Now that you have a light background of me and mine, we can hopefully address last night’s unpleasantness." Night said. "Generally speaking, we can feed on blood in one of a few different ways."

‘Light background’ my ass.

"The first and most common are slaves, who get their debt paid off exceedingly quickly in exchange for not asking too many questions as to what’s going on."

"The second are animals, foul, not particularly tasty, the experience is so tiny even against our vast needs as to be ignored, but we can survive consuming them."

"The third, sadly, are people like you. People who appear weak physically, but have a high level. Strong vitality makes feeding harder, while higher levels are, somehow, tastier."

"I strongly discourage this practice, and Jaclyn will be experiencing my extreme displeasure later on for trying."

I did not want to think of what creative tortures a nearly 5,000 year old vampire could come up with.

"When a vampire feeds, they can do it in one of a few different ways."

"The first is to inject a substance that causes – or maintains – sleep. This is how we feed on our slaves without them knowing, being able to return them back to civilization proper once we are through with them without them spreading the word about us."

"The second is to attempt to turn the person we are feeding upon, and this is how more of us are created. I carefully limit who can turn, and when we turn more to our kind, and I make sure the person is always, always willing. More than a few Vampires have seen fit to challenge me on this. They do not survive the challenge."

Yeah, pissing off the 5,000 year old vampire who survived creation is a good one way ticket to the afterlife.

"If we expand too much, too far, it is inevitable that humanity will see fit to exterminate us, for you do not have the same memory that we do, you do not remember us guarding the fire at night, all those millennia ago, nor do you remember my – our – years of service defending Remus against all threats."

Night shrugged.

"Before I ask my next question, a few more points."

"First off, Jaclyn will be made to apologize to you, in-person." He thought a moment. "If she hasn’t been tended to by a healer by then, I’d be eternally grateful if you fixed her up."

I rolled my eyes. I’d have to once she was in front of me anyways.

"Sure, can do."

"Second off, I’ve heard that your parents plan on moving to the capital, to be closer to you. As recompense, I’d like to offer them a house in the central district."

I blinked. Wow. That was- wow, that was a lot of money to throw around.

I suppose when you were around when the city was founded, you had a lot of assets from centuries of accumulation.

"Um. You’d have to ask them. Um. I think they’d love that though!" I said.

Night nodded.

"Very good. And now, to my question."

I saw him hesitate, then maybe, possibly, change his mind with lightning speed.

"Would you be willing to heal my brethren when the need arises?"

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 240!]

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 50400/50400]

[Mana Regen: 44496 (+3360.72)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 8]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 5040]

[Mana Regeneration: 5092 (+1435.944)]

[Magic Power: 4636 (+46591.8)]

[Magic Control: 4636 (+46591.8)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 240]]

[Celestial Affinity: 240]

[Warmth of the sun: 198]

[Medicine: 202]

[Center of the Galaxy: 235]

[Phases of the Moon: 240]

[Moonlight: 240]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 141]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 160]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 134]

[Bullet Time: 189]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 201]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 190]

[: ]

[Learning: 240]

Chapter 121 – Winding down

I blinked. That was… a surprisingly low-level question, for all the build-up involved.

"Um. Sure. Why not?" I said. "I’d be obligated to do it anyways."

Some tension left Night, tension I hadn’t even seen build up.

"Good. I was concerned that the well might be poisoned, and a conflict or problem between us might occur. It is also difficult to find a healer who does not discover our secret, which continues to be an awkward point. At this point, are you satisfied with our conversation? Do you still have concerns for your safety or well-being?"

"I mean, let your other vampires know that I’m off-limits, make sure there’s no retaliation, and sure, I have no problem with it. I’ll heal anything and anyone that’s not trying to kill me or a patient of mine." I said, chin held high.

"Excellent. Onto other matters." Night said, and the tone shifted again. No longer was he Night, an ancient vampire teaching history to Elaine, he was now Night, leader of the Sentinels, instructing Dawn how things were done.

"Hang on, quick question." I said. "I’m wondering if you know anything about the moons?"

He blinked at me.

"The moons? Why would I know anything about them?"

"Well, they seem somewhat unnatural to me. Earth had nothing like them, and I figure you might know something."

Night shrugged.

"The gods not only experimented with life, but the stars, moons, and even the suns. Blue, red, orange, white, one, two, four – the gods tried all manner of suns, moons, stars and constellations. After everything shook out and settled down, after, oh, the first thousand years or so, the sky appeared as it does now."

That wasn’t really an answer. Ah well.

Night carried on, business as usual.

"A set of gemstones has been prepared for your use." He said, handing me my vambraces, the inside part which touched my skin now twinkling with dozens of gemstones, Arcanite mixed with Moonstone, Sunstones scattered throughout with a dozen of other tiny gems mixed in.

"Arcanite needs no introduction. You can store your Celestial skills in the moonstones – I personally recommend your [Phases of the Moon] primarily, with a [Veil of the Aurora] or two mixed in, for emergency shielding. The rest of your skills likely have no use stored."

"For your Radiance skills, while technically possible to store Conjuration, it is a poor move. Radiance, like Light, Brilliance, and others, simply moves too quickly. You’d waste the entire skill. With that being said, I recommend storing [Nova] in it, with perhaps an emergency [Talaria] or two to catch yourself falling if you should make a mistake while flying."

I looked over my skills. Yeah, I agreed with Night on all of that.

Something about having nearly 5000 years of experience on me does good things for analysis. No wonder his advice was always spot-on. Thousands of years of experience, and a single trainee to advise.

Could also be that he was too damn busy to do more than one trainee.

"Now, we have what I call the standard set of gemstones we issue all Sentinels. They are expensive, and single-use, which is a large part of why Ranger squads don’t have them. Rangers also cover each other, while we operate solo."

"You have a [Light], [Gust], [Water Conjuration], [Shocking Paralysis], [Watery Manacles], [Brilliant Barrier], [Mana Void], [Tracks-be-gone], [The Stars Reveal], [Tripwire Alarm], [Summon Knife], [Revealing Radiance], [Cast Scream], [Invisibility with eyeholes], [Muffle], [Amplify Voice], [Wall Buster], [Curse Breaker], and a [Feather Fall]"

"Most are self-explanatory. [Shocking Paralysis] is a rare physical-disabling skill that prevents any movement, although be warned, skills can still be used. [Mana Void] drains and prevents mana from regenerating. One of Hunting’s skills. If you need to take a Classer prisoner, those two skills are what you use."

"I see the chances for you to use these skills to be minimal. However, most Sentinels need them, and I saw no reason to limit your options."

"[Watery Manacles] summons handcuffs if you need to take someone low-level, with non-threatening skills prisoner. Again unlikely, but potentially useful. Mainly present so the powerful skills don’t need to be used against someone low-level. Ocean’s work."

"[Brilliant Barrier] will encase you in a shield much more powerful than your [Veil], one that you can both move with and see through. Thank Sealing for this one."

"[Tracks-be-gone] is a powerful, powerful anti-tracking skill. As you move through the woods, low-level damage you cause to your surroundings will be reverted as you continue forward, erasing all traces of your passage. It won’t work on, say, a large branch being broken, but most things smaller than that it’ll work on. Critically, it also works on smell."

"[The Stars Reveal] is to see in the dark without giving away your position with [Light]. It’s harder to recharge than [Light] is, but when stealth is paramount, it is useful."

"[Tripwire Alarm] is one of those skills that every few decades we try to add to the kit, it fails, we remove it, and carry on. I keep my peace on these experiments, hoping that it’ll work this time – I can be wrong – but so far, it hasn’t been promising. It creates a loud noise if someone crosses into your campsite – for a single night, for a single site. Not the best."

"[Revealing Sunlight] is an anti-illusion spell. Illusions require very little in terms of power and mana, just requiring good control. Low-level illusionists can cause devastating damage as a result. The hard part is knowing an illusionist is at work, but this will strip all illusions within a large range around you."

"[Invisibility with eyeholes] – When cloaked with true invisibility, you can see exactly as much as people can see of you – namely, exactly nothing. This one’s from Magic, cloaking yourself in a way nobody can see, except through a tiny slit. You can duck down and be truly invisible, or stand up and peek through it. Incredibly potent. Works best with [Muffle]- also Magic’s – to not be heard either."

There was a pause, and I opened my mouth to ask the obvious question.

"You can still be smelled."

"[Wall Buster], like the name suggests, destroys a wall. Do not use it on a city wall unless in the most dire of emergencies. Or if Bulwark is around to fix the problem."

"[Feather Fall] is Sky’s ability to reduce your weight, a second way to save you if your [Talaria] should fail. Say… if a cloud moved over the sun while you were high up."

"Normally, there are a number of healing and anti-poison skills included. We felt that simply providing you with more moonstones would solve that issue. Related, the head of Gemstones would like to borrow you to craft a large number of gems with your [Phases of the Moon]. Naturally, at your convenience. Preferably a few days from now – all of our spare moonstone went into your equipment, and he is currently attempting to acquire more. Discreetly."

"Questions?"

I shook my head.

"Good. Take some time to familiarize yourself with your new equipment, attune yourself to the new gemstones and Arcanite. Your other equipment has all been upgraded, purely with additional Arcanite."

"We are working to secure you a stall in the 3rd-largest marketplace in the capital, having taken your suggestion seriously. You are free to set whatever price you want – or no price at all – but the quartermaster insisted I ask if you could throw a few coins that you inevitably make towards helping us on the rental of the stall."

I expected Night to have some sort of distasteful look at the prospect of needing to manage money, but nothing. Thinking about it, he probably did care, as it was another aspect of being a Sentinel. Couldn’t pretend money was like water when it wasn’t, and doing so was a bad idea. Solid, practical considerations, mixed with making sure we had every tool we needed.

"On a different note. In a week or so Ranger Academy will begin with a fresh set of recruits. You are invited to assist with the Hell Months – indeed, I think it could be beneficial to you to see how it happens. For Academy purposes, I believe putting you in charge of all healing-related education would be appropriate. After all, you have literally written the defining work on the topic."

I saluted, bowing my head forward slightly, trying and failing to hide a grin, which turned into a slow smile instead.

"On the subject of Academy, I ask that you attend some of the planning sessions, as we attempt to solve this year’s puzzle of which classes go when, and who goes where. As for mentorship, there are no healers this year, however, there is a single bardic Trainee. If he should pass the initial selection criteria, I am of a mind to pair him up with you, so that you may better expand his repertoire of songs and tales."

Night shrugged.

"Seems to be the best fit."

"One last note. Roughly a week from now, there is the first social gathering we hope you shall attend."

I pulled a face at that. Blah. Socializing.

"Right, any questions?"

I thought for a moment, feeling a sly smile creep onto my face.

"With the socializing plan, I’m going to need some help working on my [Pretty] skill. I have a plan in mind, it’ll cost somewhat. How do I best go about that?" I asked, thinking of Albina.

"Speak with the Quartermaster. Negotiate what is reasonable with him."

I mentally pumped my fist. YES!

"Best way to find my way to various places in HQ? Like the gemstones dude or the Quartermaster?" I asked, planning out my line of attack.

"Just ask anyone who works here. They can direct you."

"It doesn’t screw with our look?"

"All new Sentinels tend to ask around, given how little time is spent at Headquarters not in That Room, their quarters, or one of the living spaces. It’s practically tradition for new Sentinels to get lost and need to ask how to get to the more obscure places. Helps humble them a bit, helps remind everyone here that yes, we’re only human," Night had a little chuckle at that. "and yes, they can talk with us."

"I tried at one point to keep us mysterious and above everyone, but that ended in disaster. Mistakes and problems weren’t pointed out, people being too scared to tell us, or thinking we already knew it all and were invincible."

Night yawned, a huge, gaping yawn. I checked inside his mouth real fast. Couldn’t see any fangs. Did they only come out for feeding?

"Right, I’m off." He said, getting up and vanishing down the hallway to his quarters.

Welp, nothing for it. I was a Sentinel now, and apparently that meant a boatload of free time. It being a vacation for everyone was helping, and I suspected it’d mean I’d end up with a bit more work later on… but not that much more work.

I paid the price, by being one of humanity’s best, by always being on-call for a disaster. But I could see the point of whoever it was 400 years ago that said Sentinels should teach, and I could see the point in us having little tasks here and there, like Ocean with politics and Brawling with the arena. Our days were really empty otherwise. The better to improve ourselves… or kick back and enjoy.

Weird. So weird. I’d had unstructured days off here and there, but now almost my entire day – heck, my entire life – was looking unstructured. Guess it was up to me to do something with that, fill my days with something.

Healing seemed like a solid way of doing it, a vocation I could – and did – build my life around. There had been a good reason way back when that I’d picked [Apprentice Control Healer], and the ability to lead a fulfilling life was part of it, the call I felt to help and to heal.

Just, with a standard clinic, like every other healer had.

Rather. That only male healers had. Bah.

And I’d have my clinic free and clear, all to myself.

Only took four years of difficulty and danger to accomplish, along with a massive knowledge base from reincarnation. No biggie. Anyone could’ve done it.

Technically, I didn’t have it free and clear. The Rangers owned it, but…

Man, this was not a productive line of thought. On to other things. Like breakfast!

Lunch rather. The conversation with Night had been long.

Quartermaster, Gemstone dude, then some solid sleep. I didn’t need as much, vitality helping out, but it wasn’t like I was one of those 3000+ vitality monsters. I still needed – wanted – sleep, and after the absolute monster emotional rollercoaster I’d been on since I last slept, I was looking forward to some good Z’s.

I found the Quartermaster after a bit of sleep-deprived wandering – there was no anonymity for me here, not in the heart of Ranger territory. Almost everyone had been at the Convocation, almost everyone had seen me become Dawn. It wasn’t like there were that many women running around HQ in the first place.

The Quartermaster was tall and slender, and gave off a brisk, efficient, penny-pinching air. I got the sense that he’d complain about damaged armor, saying that you could’ve sacrificed a leg to save the greaves or some nonsense like that. Not that I could blame him on the penny-pinching part. Everyone probably wanted all the resources in the world, and it was his job to turn the limited Senate funds into enough armor, weapons, goods, and most importantly, pay, for the entire organization.

Surprised I was talking with him, and not one of his endless minions. Who all required pay, and looked like they were driven harder than slaves working in a field.

Which, from my very brief conversation with the Quartermaster, might be the case. Money didn’t grow on trees and all that.

After a short negotiation, which consisted of me telling the Quartermaster what I wanted and him immediately lowballing me on what I could have – and me accepting said lowball, not wanting to piss him off this early into our relationship.

Maybe he’d warm up to me as I started feeding him coins? Actually, if I managed to make enough healing, and pay enough back into the pot, I could end up his golden goose… and golden geese got fattened up.

Granted, I’d make and have more just keeping it all to myself, but I was feeling not only a sense of responsibility, but of gratitude, towards the Rangers and all they’d done for me. It was the least I could do to give back somewhat.

After my mango budget was taken care of.

And a little shopping budget.

And a "fun with mom/dad/Artemis/other" budget.

And… yeah I’m not sure how much would end up back in the Quartermaster’s pocket.

Oooh, but I needed to make friends with a good mango merchant. Maybe a standing, recurring order of some sort… yes… yes…

I was sleep deprived and rambling. Gemstone dude.

Gemstone dude practically glittered, and I meant that both metaphorically and literally. He had sparkly dust all over him, remnants of little bits of gems getting crushed and just sticking to him, and a greedy sparkle in his eye.

I immediately saw why Quartermaster was so penny-pinching. Gemstone dude would suck him – all of us – dry in a heartbeat given the chance.

I charged the few Moonstones he had left with as much [Phases of the Moon] as I could. It was weird filling them up. I focused on "heal", and the gemstones acted like a person that needed to be healed, mana draining out of me and into the stones. I could then sense when it was ‘healed’, aka the gemstone had taken as much mana as it could handle. They’d have terrible efficiency when used, but then again, they weren’t being used for casual things, they were being used for ‘oh god I lost an arm//got poisoned by a snake in the middle of the wilderness’, where anything was better than nothing, where even if [Phases] wasn’t enough to fix everything, it should be enough to stabilize the problem long enough for the Sentinel to get better help.

There was no cafeteria or anything inside of HQ, but there were a half-dozen food vendors who set up shop nearby, the large number of hungry people from HQ enough to support them, never mind the other businesses and government buildings in the area.

I grabbed food from the closest vendor, probably overpaying, downed it without a thought, somehow found my bed, and crashed. The System helpfully reminded me that I was a Sentinel, and had done a bunch of new Sentinel-ish stuff.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Sentinel's Superiority] has reached level 191 -> 195]

Tomorrow would be the start of the rest of my life.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 50400/50400]

[Mana Regen: 44496 (+3360.72)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 8]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 5040]

[Mana Regeneration: 5092 (+1435.944)]

[Magic Power: 4636 (+46591.8)]

[Magic Control: 4636 (+46591.8)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 240]]

[Celestial Affinity: 240]

[Warmth of the sun: 198]

[Medicine: 202]

[Center of the Galaxy: 235]

[Phases of the Moon: 240]

[Moonlight: 240]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 141]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 160]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 134]

[Bullet Time: 189]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 201]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 195]

[: ]

[Learning: 240]

Chapter 122 – What to do with myself

I woke up the next morning, somewhat refreshed and feeling alive and well again. I got ready – I was going to get so spoiled with my own bath.

Night and Jaclyn were waiting for me when I exited my rooms, Jaclyn looking contrite.

Hang on – weren’t these Sentinel-only quarters? Night, abusing his privilege somewhat. Not that I was going to call him out on it.

"Sorry for trying to eat you." Jaclyn said, and I raised my eyebrows at that. Seriously? That was the worst ‘I’m apologizing because I’m being made to and not because I actually feel bad’ I’d ever heard.

"Apology accepted." I said, somewhat curtly, not really feeling it. If she’d been sincere, yeah I’d be happier.

Ah well, I’d take what I could get. Night might be in trouble though, if his vampires were starting to get other ideas, even with his presence nearby.

"Are your shoulders ok? Do you need them fixed up?" I asked, this time with some real concern. She wasn’t moving her arms much, if at all, and her shoulders looked much bulkier than usual under her tunic.

I’d gotten some real good looks at her shoulders after all.

I could see the struggle on her face, Night being impassive, before she admitted. "No, I could use some help."

Poker face. Gotta keep a poker face. Oh, how it must sting to ask me for help, after having tried and failed to take a nibble out of me, getting blasted by me, and now needing me to fix her up.

I said nothing, just took a few steps closer and healed her.

Even though I knew what the problem was – shoulder-holes, caused by Radiance beams from the prettiest mage in existence – it was a massive mana-sink. I think it was because my class was primarily aimed at healing humans, and while Jaclyn was close enough that I could fully, properly heal her, I was clearly eating a hefty penalty.

Although, novelty was rewarded! New experiences! New creatures! New injury types, forgiveness, and the quite frankly higher-than-expected difficulty resulted in rewards!

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 241! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 241]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 203->204]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 241]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Moonlight] has reached level 241]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 202->204!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 241!]

Yay [Moonlight]! It had a boatload of excess experience, and I was being rewarded.

Hmmmm… maybe I could convince another vampire to try and take a bite out of me…

I shook my head at that. Same thinking as when Artemis suggested throwing me into another fire. Sheesh. What was I coming to?

Jaclyn was politely but firmly kicked out, so we could have our quick meeting. "Nope, everything’s good" was the long version of the meeting, and we left to go our separate ways.

I didn’t want to think about it, but it occurred to me – if Night really wanted to punish Jaclyn, he’d do it after I fixed her major injuries. Yeah, let’s not think too hard on that.

Who needed armor in the safe city? A simple tunic, like the ones I’d worn most of the time I was on vacation as a Ranger, was the name of the game. Did need to get used to my new stuff at some point.

Clinic wasn’t ready yet, and I’d gotten most of my gear set. I could practice with it… or I could go bug Artemis at her school, say bye to mom and dad as they were going to leave back to Aquiliea – needed to pick up their stuff before they could move – and, hmmm… what else to do…

Oh, I could bug Markus or something. Could be fun. See if I could get a trusty mango-merchant to buddy up with, strike a deal with Albina.

Right. This was a full to-do list.

I left my quarters, and not knowing where mom and dad were, but knowing where Artemis’s school was, I wandered down that way.

She lived just a hair out of town, and not having much better to do, I just stuck to the streets, just moving along with the crowd, enjoying being anonymous.

Enjoying only seeing people’s backs less. Ah well. I was in no rush.

I hit my first snag at the gate to the great outdoors, a problem I hadn’t even hit in Aquiliea.

"Purpose of leaving?" The guard asked me, in the same bored monotone from having asked the question dozens of times every hour, every day, for years.

"Visiting a friend!" I said cheerfully.

The guard looked me up and down doubtfully.

"Where’s your husband?" He asked.

Oh goddesses I was going to have to go through this again.

Worst part was, I generally liked guards. Argh!

"Not married." I said curtly.

"Well, what about your father?"

"Trying to find him. Hence going to see my friend, she might know where he is."

"Well, why didn’t you just ask the guard instead?"

"Because I want to see my friend? Nothing against that is there?"

"No, but it’s not safe out there for a girl."

The worst part was calling me a girl. Sure, I was young, but 18 was an adult by any standard – doubly so in Remus, where I’d be considered a woman for years by now. I was starting to see tinges of red.

"Do I look low level enough to be in danger?"

"You look like a healer. So automatically, yes."

I gritted my teeth in frustration. Pull rank or walk over, pull rank or walk over…

Let’s try diplomacy one last time.

"Do you have a real, good reason to not let me out?"

"My own judgement is enough, preserving your safety."

Fuck this guy. I’ma just walk over.

"Fine." I said, taking a few steps back, making sure I was properly in sunlight. I activated [Talaria], and started to run up, up, over and out, ignoring the cries of the guards and the other people trying to leave.

Ok, not totally ignoring them. I flipped the guard off on my way out, ignoring his cries of protest. Bless men’s tunics.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Talaria] has reached level 161]

I landed on the other side of the wall without too many problems. The sun was high enough that the shadows weren’t too long. I really needed to upgrade [Talaria] and get rid of the "running on sunbeams" part, it was going to get me killed one day.

There was a minor commotion as I landed – fliers were rare, given that there’d only been six of us at Ranger Academy, and Ranger Trainees were among the best of the best – but I quickly acted naturally and just started walking, blending in with the crowd.

I wanted to grit my teeth in frustration. There was an entire fucking shanty town outside the walls! It was clearly safe! What sort of idiot fucking guard wanted to stop me from leaving!? What type of shit attitude was that!?

Oooh, I was tempted to have a talk with the guard captain on the way back.

I made my way to Artemis’s school, only to find the worst thing possible.

A sign.

"Closed for the Solstice. Come back soon!"

Was the entire world on vacation!?

Actually, thinking about it – probably yes. While Artemis could run the school constantly, she had a bunch of wealthy kids in it, who probably wanted to spend the festivities around the Solstice with their parents. Mom and dad were in town, and Artemis was probably spending time with them. It hadn’t been exactly clear where I was, and just like that, we did our best ‘two ships in the night’ impression.

I grabbed a large fallen branch, and with some clever use of [Radiance Conjuration] and [Radiance Manipulation], I burned a message into the now-much-flatter branch.

Artemis,

Elaine.

Living at Ranger HQ.

Swing by sometime!

And I was outta room. Oh well, she’d get the message. I could come back another day.

I made my way back into town, back through the same gates. Getting in was, ironically, easier than getting out.

"Purpose of visit?" Guard asked, same bored tone.

"Returning home?" I asked, not quite sure how to answer that.

"Welcome home." The guard said, waving me in.

See? Wasn’t that easy!?

"Hey, yeah, that’s her!" I heard the guard from earlier yell, pointing at me.

I found myself at the wrong end of the attention of a bunch of angry-looking guards, including one who I assumed was the captain.

"She blew right through the gates when I denied her exit!"

"For no good reason." I protested, defending myself.

"Miss, that’s still not a good reason. I’m going to ask that you come with me." The captain said, fingers drumming on the baton.

Ooooh, I could pull this card for the first time. It was going to feel so good. I could see why people liked doing it.

"I’m sure you’ve heard this every day." I said, slowly – didn’t want them getting any wrong ideas – reaching for my pouch. "But do you know who I – not my parents, not my husband, not a relative, who I am? I’m thinking no."

The captain looked thoughtful, my tone of pride and note of joy giving myself away. He wasn’t the captain for nothing.

Idiot guard was sneering though, but the rest of the guards were reserved, looking to their captain for guidance.

"Ha! We don’t care who you are, we-"

"Shut up." The guard captain said, cutting him off. "Miss, I better like what I’m going to hear."

I couldn’t resist the smile that split my face in half from ear to ear, as I finished pulling my Sentinel badge out of my bag.

"Sentinel Dawn, at your service." I said, showing the badge in all its splendor.

Instant salutes, from everyone but Idiot Guard, who just looked like a fish out of water.

"Sir! Err, ma’am? Apologies. Go ahead. I’ll deal with him. Have a nice day."

I kept my mad grin on as I left, resisting the urge to pump my fist. Wasn’t a move I wanted to pull that often, but when the situation called for it? Yes please.

And now, I was back in the crowd, not too many people having noticed what just happened. Whoosh! Secret Agent Elaine!

Ok, fine, anyone who really wanted to could track me.

Where to next? Albina, probably.

I navigated my way through the winding maze of the city, grabbing lunch along the way. Found her – well, technically, probably her and the other [Beautician]’s husbands store, but for practical purposes, her store, and entered.

"Welcome! How can we help you?" The lady at the counter asked, then did a double take.

"Wait, are you Dawn?"

I scratched my head awkwardly.

"Yeah, but I’m here for me, not on business. No rush."

Annnndddd that went in one ear and RIGHT out the other. Alternatively, she stopped listening at ‘yeah’. Either way, she went tearing off to the back.

I rolled my eyes – I was going to do a lot of that – and took a seat. There wasn’t anyone else waiting, and given the time of day and the lack of any big events, I wasn’t surprised.

Albina came hurrying out a moment later, and curtseyed to me.

"Dawn! What can I do for you?"

I laughed – in hindsight a poor move.

"Relax, relax! I’m still Elaine! Here as Elaine. Chill, I’m still human."

A look flickered in her eye, and she straightened up.

"Well, come on back! You gotta tell me how the date went!"

My face involuntarily twisted.

"Ah, not well?" She said, reading the obvious body language.

"Sadly not."

"Well, come on! Tell me all about it. Come, come!" She said, grabbing and steering me to the back.

"You sure? I’m not taking you away from anything?"

"Nothing important! Boring inventory. Sit! Do you want a do-up? It’s on the house, least I can do after you got me so many levels last time!"

Well, kinda what I wanted.

"Sure! Hoping to work on my own [Pretty]! Wanted to speak with you about that by the way…" I said.

We had a lovely conversation, where I told her an abridged, heavily redacted version of the date – I wasn’t about to let slip vampires, not when I was being trusted with secrets, not when it seemed like they were mostly under control.

Albina was wonderful, making all the right noises at the right times, offering a sympathetic ear. I mentioned my plan of visiting regularly, and she immediately offered me not only a discount, but to make her way up to HQ.

"After all, being the personal stylist for a Sentinel? Oooh, you’ll make me famous."

"Ha! Come over more often then, with that discount. It’s not like I need to pocket the extra or anything!"

"Sure!"

She got silent a moment, then asked a question that made happiness, tinged with a hair of sadness, in my heart.

"Are lead and mercury really poisonous?"

I gave a deep sigh.

"Yes. They’re not fast. They’re slow. Very slow. And they don’t directly kill – just cause madness."

A long silence behind me, then some forced cheer.

"Well! You’re Dawn. Guess I’ll have to change my stock around. The alternatives are more expensive, and don’t look as good, but if it’s better…"

I patted her arm – only place I could easily reach from the angle I was sitting at.

"It’s for the best. Hey! Maybe you’ll start a fashion trend!"

She laughed at that, her normal cheer restored.

"I can only hope!"

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pretty] has reached level 135]

"A level! Huzzah!" I called out.

"Woohoo!" Albina said, celebrating with me. "Good timing, I just finished up."

"Maybe that’s what triggered it?"

"Usually is." She said. Well, she was the expert, I wasn’t going to argue with her in her chosen field of expertise.

"Thank you! See you in three days at HQ, around lunch?"

"Yup!"

"Great! I’ll send a runner if something comes up."

"Cheers! Chin up! You’ll find someone!"

I gave her a thumbs-up on my way out the door.

Hmmmm. Let’s find Markus now.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 50570/50570]

[Mana Regen: 44696 (+3373.92)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 20]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 5057]

[Mana Regeneration: 5112 (+1441.584)]

[Magic Power: 4650 (+47430)]

[Magic Control: 4654 (+47470.8)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 241]]

[Celestial Affinity: 241]

[Warmth of the sun: 198]

[Medicine: 204]

[Center of the Galaxy: 235]

[Phases of the Moon: 241]

[Moonlight: 241]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 141]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 161]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 135]

[Bullet Time: 189]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 204]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 195]

[: ]

[Learning: 241]

Chapter 123 – Medical Manuscript

The classic problem occurred – I had no idea where Markus was. However, he had to be something of a feature, and the courier station was always ridiculously well-marked. Most towns had three to five, on the sheer basis of inter-town communication being made easier that way – nobody would walk halfway across town to get a message delivered when they could simply walk to the destination to do so.

The capital had a bunch more, by sheer virtue of how large it was. I wandered around, enjoying the sights – I was in no rush – until I saw a sign indicating a courier station. I poked my head in, waiting in a short line until it was my turn at the counter.

"Hi! Delivering a letter? Dictation, or do you have it ready?" The man behind the booth asked with brisk efficiency.

"Hoping for directions actually! Looking for Healer Markus and his clinic."

"One moment." The man said, standing up and walking back. I heard some muttering and the clattering of scrolls – probably trying to look up where he was.

Fortunately, there was more than one counter, and I wasn’t holding the line up.

"Right – which Healer Markus?" The [Clerk] asked me after some time.

I blinked. Wow. There was more than one?

"Markus the Pyronox?" I said, with a question. "Has a bunch of apprentices? Well, he did last I knew him."

"Yeah, got it." The [Clerk] said. "You’ll want to go down fisherman’s street, then make a turn at cobblers…"

He proceeded to give me the directions, and I left him a small tip. Least I could do for taking up his time, and they all needed to eat as well. Nice of them to not charge for information, even though it took time.

Then again, he was probably paid by the couriers directly, regardless of how much they made. Oh well.

I made my way through the city, only for [Bullet Time] to activate on a particularly crowded stretch.

I looked down – in slow motion, [Bullet Time] didn’t help speed me up, just gave me more time to think – and saw a short, tiny thumb-knife heading for my pouch strings.

I was in love with [Bullet Time]. I had time to think! Although I could see the knife still moving at a steady pace towards my pouch. Clearly the world kept moving around me, and if someone was fast enough, [Bullet Time] wouldn’t save me. Like against Night.

Hmmmmm. I looked over, to see a short, fierce-looking girl at the other end of the knife, face screwed up in concentration.

Blasted high-level [Healer] tag making me look tasty.

[Veil] it is! I threw a careful one up, just around my pouch, right at the tip of the knife. I started to move my hand, and time resumed as normal.

She was faster than I was – no great accomplishment – but the combination of the surprise [Veil] stopping and deflecting her attempt, moving her hand in strange ways, along with my pre-emptive movement, allowed me to slap her hand shortly after my perception turned to normal.

She looked startled, but to the [Thief]’s credit, just vanished into the crowd.

Blah.

Strange though. [Bullet Time] had nothing about thieves trying to steal my stuff.

Then again, my Sentinel badge was in my pouch, and Night would murder me if it got stolen.

Bonus though! It only activated when there was trouble – not when anyone eyed me up.

Ah well. We were all trying to live, and while I wasn’t a charity, nor was I going to let my stuff get stolen, it wasn’t like I was so mad as to try and chase her down. I’d gotten a long, hard look at what life was like near rock-bottom when I tried to run away, and I wasn’t about to forget it, not even in my new, privileged position.

Such was life.

I found my way to Markus’s clinic, still mulling over life and society and the like.

I entered, to see what I thought was more or less a standard clinic layout for Pallos, with what was clearly Markus’s personal touch of Pyronox flames in little holders, dark light flickering over the place.

I looked around. This place looked more like a villain’s lair than a medical clinic, but hey, there was no accounting for taste. The number of people hanging out in the lobby attested to the fact that Markus was doing well, and the flames probably indicated that Markus was indeed around.

"Hello, can we help you?" The man at the counter asked.

"Hey! I’m hoping I can chat with Markus at some point."

The dude frowned. Oh boy. What now?

"Generally, we ask that patients see an apprentice first, with Markus providing the final touch. Can I ask what your problem is, or would you prefer to discuss it with an apprentice privately?"

That… was surprisingly reasonable. Everyone probably came in, wanting the head honcho himself to look after them, which would overload Markus and screw the apprentices out of experience.

"Oh, I’m just here for a social call." I said. "I helped Markus in Perinthus, and wanted to swing by."

"Well…" He started to say, but got interrupted.

"Elaine!" Herodotos exclaimed, having just entered to grab his newest patient. "Elaine, is that you?"

"Yup! In the flesh!" I said, drawing myself up to my full, short height.

"Hang on, lemme grab Markus real fast!" Herodotos said, vanishing into the back.

"Wait! Your patient!" The poor dude at the counter called out after him.

I shrugged at him.

"Sorry! Didn’t mean to make it hard."

Markus popped in a moment later.

"Ranger Elaine! It is you! Come, come, let’s talk!"

He hesitated a moment, looking at the lobby, most of the patients staring at him.

"Mind a quick healing session so we can talk?"

I grinned at him.

"Not at all. Race to see who can heal more people?"

Markus said nothing, a massive burst of Pyronox coming out from him, engulfing everyone in the room.

"Sure. I win."

I blinked. Ok, wow. Yeah. I suppose that was an option if you wanted to close down for the day.

"Mind if I do a restoration at the door?" I said, as the people in the lobby blinked, processing what had happened. Man, they’d get mad next time they showed up and needed to wait.

"Not at all! People don’t usually come to me with a problem like that."

Softer, to me. "I’d appreciate if you didn’t charge."

Why would – ah. It’d look a lot like I was poaching his work if I charged, and it’d be frankly rude.

"Not at all!"

I got to the door – a few people had left already – and quickly topped up everyone as they headed out. On all but one person, I used so little mana I didn’t even notice it. One person required a hefty dose, and looked revitalized.

We got back to what I could only describe as the villain’s lair, the final boss’s location. A large, long room, steadily ramping up and in, towards a massive chair-throne-monstrosity, red drapes intermixed with pillars of Pyronox, reaching from floor to ceiling.

I eyed it doubtfully, half-expecting music to start playing.

"Love what you’ve done with the place." I said, as neutrally as I could.

"Isn’t it great!" Markus said, pleased to show off. "It took me ages to get it all right, but now! Nobody will forget Markus’s Miracles!"

Unforgettable was one word for it, yeah.

A lightbulb went off.

Moonlight. Being hit by the moon.

However, if I had a bunch of mirrors or good gemstones or something, I could make moonlight bounce around wildly in a room, hitting everyone present. I could then perform mass heals, because everyone was being hit by moonlight.

I mentally filed the idea away for another day. It’d be good to remember if I was ever building a more permanent clinic, or getting a spot not in the market. Should probably start thinking about a permanent clinic, thinking about it. Why not?

Markus gathered his apprentices together – a lot more than he had in Perinthus, maybe he’d gotten more or not brought them all the first time - and sat on his throne, the king surveying his domain, black and red together.

I had to admit, it left an impression.

"Everyone, this is Ranger Elaine, the author of the Medical Manuscripts that I’ve had you all read. Her knowledge of medicine, I must admit, is unparalleled. Also the – literally – unsung hero of Perinthus, managing to solve the root cause of the plagues there. She’s swung by to chat a bit – hopefully about medicine! If you have any questions, this is a good time to ask her."

I swelled up at his compliments.

"Thanks! Happy to, one small correction though. I’m no longer Ranger Elaine."

"Oh, sorry to hear that." Markus said, seeming genuine. "If you’re looking for a place to work, I’m sure we can work something out."

"It’s Sentinel Dawn now." I said, crazy grin cracking my face. Man, this was never going to get old.

You could’ve heard a pin drop – even the Pyronox flames just stopped for a moment as Markus processed what I’d just said.

"I’d heard some rumors, but – wow, congratulations, just wow!" Markus said.

"What’s your element?" One of the apprentices said, unable to restrain himself anymore.

"Celestial!" I said, happy to tell him.

"Did you also take the [Oath]?"

"I made it!"

"What are your stats like?" A third apprentice asked.

"That’s rude, don’t ask her that." Markus reprimanded him.

I shrugged.

"I don’t mind. Just don’t ask me if I’m single or for a date or anything like that. That’s rude. I have over 50,000 in magic power and control when I’m healing."

Dead silence again. Markus cradled his face in his hands.

"Please don’t steal my apprentices from me."

I laughed at him, patting him on the back. "No intention of doing so!"

"I have a question from your Medical Manuscript. In scroll 5…" One of the apprentices had a detailed question, which I did my best to answer.

And another.

And another.

And – I was interrupted by one of the apprentices jumping up.

"By the gods! I just leveled!"

I shot him finger guns. Not that anyone knew what those were.

Markus still had like 30 levels on me, but my knowledge was different.

"Yeeeaaaahhhh! Good job! Next question! Let’s see who levels next!"

Three more levels. After hours of Q&amp;A, I eventually stretched.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 205!]

"I gotta get going. Markus, do you know where Caecilius is? Or Ponticus? Or anyone else from Perinthus? I seem to remember Caecilius having an apprentice, and I figure I should bother him, along with some of the other people from Perinthus."

Markus had a slightly awkward look on his face.

"He’s in Deva right now. Left a week ago. Something about a small coughing plague, nothing serious."

"Oh? Why aren’t you there?" I asked.

"Bad business. It sounds like it’s really mild – barely qualifies as a plague. Perinthus almost wrecked me, and Deva’s tiny, as towns go – only like 5,000, maybe 10,000 people. Caecilius can probably clear it up in a week or two, as long as it’s not some disaster like Perinthus was. No sense in all that travel time and expense for basically no pay. Nah, I’m staying here for now."

I lasered in on what he said. Deva. Small town.

Travel time.

This sounded perfect.

Perfect for getting out of that damn social event a week from now.

"Thanks Markus!" I said, waving to him as I bounded out. "See you in a few weeks!"

"Wa-" Markus started to say, but I wasn’t listening. I was off like a shot.

Dusk was falling as I hustled back to Ranger HQ, grabbing dinner on the way from a vendor.

I should probably get my pay to my suite. Get a little vault there or something.

I was basically done for the day – I shot off too quickly in hindsight, wanting to find Night and ask him about Deva, but ah well, he was off, doing mysterious vampire-Sentinel stuff.

I got changed into nightclothes – I had blasted nightclothes now, I didn’t have to sleep in the same outfit – and laid down to rest, doing nothing but stare at the ceiling.

Deva.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 50570/50570]

[Mana Regen: 44696 (+3373.92)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 20]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 5057]

[Mana Regeneration: 5112 (+1441.584)]

[Magic Power: 4650 (+47662.5)]

[Magic Control: 4654 (+47703.5)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 241]]

[Celestial Affinity: 241]

[Warmth of the sun: 198]

[Medicine: 204]

[Center of the Galaxy: 235]

[Phases of the Moon: 241]

[Moonlight: 241]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 141]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 161]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 135]

[Bullet Time: 189]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 205]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 195]

[: ]

[Learning: 241]

Chapter 124 – Preparing

I woke up, and practically sprang out of bed. Not because of a plague, not because of doing something as a Sentinel for the first time, not because of the adventure.

Because it’d get me out of a fancy social thing.

Socializing. Putting on a fake smile and dealing with people all day. Well, if it was people I knew and liked, that’d be one thing. A bunch of random strangers, most of who were probably dicks? Meh. Pass.

I mentally got my arguments together, and was seated in the living room as Night showed up.

"Dawn. Excellent punctuality." Night said, sitting down. I had the sense that he’d always do the same thing every time, like he’d perfected a routine centuries ago.

"Julius is getting instruction later, and I hope for you to formally meet with Command once he’s settled in. That’s all I have." Night said.

He’d been around the block a few thousand times, and could see I was brimming with the urge to talk.

"Do you have something Dawn?" He asked, politely and formally.

"Yes! So I went to visit my friend Markus – the Pyronox dude from Perinthus, bunch of apprentices, decent-ish dude but a bit of a prick at times – anyways, I wanted to see if he knew where Caecilius was, the [Plague Healer], anyways, long story short, apparently there’s a little tiny plague in Deva, and I was thinking that it’d just be absolutely perfect for me getting my feet wet as a Sentinel to go over and see what I can do, like a trial run, shake down all my stuff before something really bad comes up and my clinic isn’t even fully ready to go yet and..." I trailed off, having nothing more to say.

Night just raised an eyebrow at me.

"Sure this is not some ploy to get out of social engagements?"

With a completely straight face – I don’t know how I managed that – "It totally is. But the cause, and purpose, and arguments behind it are genuine."

Night just laughed at me. Man, he had to be really easily amused to still laugh at dumb stuff like that. Gotta find amusement where you can, I guess.

"Your points are persuasive. I am also not in the habit of dictating what you can and can not do. I agree an initial run to get used to your gear and equipment could be good."

He spent some time thinking.

"When the second Ranger team leaves Deva, I expect you to leave one way or another. We can not have a Sentinel tied down in a single location for that long, potentially away from more catastrophic events that may come up."

I saluted, indicating my understanding.

"Good. Yes, this will be an excellent chance for you to shake down your knowledge and understanding, and given that a Ranger team is headed your way – a week or so from now, and they must take the standard method of travel, instead of the more rapid method that Ocean is likely to employ – you shall have some form of backup should things start to go poorly."

Well, that was a real ringing endorsement.

"Now. You should prepare your gear, visit the quartermaster for supplies, and make any other arrangements you see fit before you leave. Perhaps a message to your friends, or leave a message here. We have a [Clerk] who helps manage that. I shall find Ocean – he will enjoy the excuse for a trip."

"Additionally, this has let me finalize the thoughts I had on your last general skill. Social skills are not your thing, correct?"

I nodded.

"I’ve never even been offered one."

"Most unusual, but not unheard of. Well then. I believe you should attempt to gain the skill [Persistent Casting]. It allows you to use skills while you sleep, as the name suggests. Being able to sleep under your [Veil of the Aurora] could offer you some additional shelter and protection when traveling. Additionally, you can keep your auras running, and, maybe – I am unsure on this point – keep your healing going, to immediately begin to repair damage if you should be attacked in a manner that immediately breaks your [Veil] while you slumber."

"How do I get the skill?"

"Simply try to keep a skill running as you go to sleep. If this is troublesome, you can also try a sleeping potion, which makes the sleep portion simple."

Dangerous things, sleeping potions. It was easy to get addicted to them – not, like, craving them, but the human body just stopped producing the whatever-it-is that helps people sleep, making one more and more reliant on them. I’d consider it.

Not having this defense could be even more dangerous.

And it wasn’t like it was just having a shield up. No, it was having a shield up, and a number of anti-detection things going on as well, like – nobody could see it was me curled up sleeping, nothing could smell me, skills couldn’t be cast on me directly, and more! I had full faith in my wilderness survival, but this would just help more.

I’d seen a few other trainees with similar skills, and I was pretty sure Markus had the skill – that’s how he kept the Pyronox gates up permanently.

Right! New skill!

While I’d gotten almost no chances to think about it, I did still harbor some vague dream of having an animal companion of some sort, and I knew that’d take a general skill slot when it happened. Hmmmm. Was it worth working on a skill for it ahead of time?

Eh. Gotta stay alive first. I’d take [Persistent Casting], and evaluate my options if I ever ended up with a potential animal companion.

Not a plant though. Not after seeing the poor Trainee with the wheelbarrowed plant.

Not a mineral either. Did those even exist?!

Still, I was a Sentinel now, and part of that was insane resources at my disposal. I should find Hunting, and have a long, long discussion with him about it. He’d know all the tips and tricks, he’d be able to guide me and give me good advice. I could use a guardian, now that I was mainly operating solo, and a companion seemed to be just the ticket.

Thoughts for another day.

What did I need for this trip?

Well, my standard bag of tricks, which was now a massive standard bag of tricks.

I’d have to see what the Quartermaster provided me. I assumed a travel kit of some sort, a bedroll, although a tent was questionable, given that I should have skills to help with that.

Yeah, ok, first stop was the Quartermaster, and I’d go from there.

After a trip through HQ – I was starting to get the hang of the layout of the place, not just the easy stuff – I was at the Quartermaster’s place.

"What do you need?" One of his helpers asked me.

"Going on a mission! Need supplies."

I got a flat look from him. Yikes, being a Sentinel carried absolutely no weight here did it?

"What type?"

"Well, I’m not quite sure. Traveling to a town, handling a problem there, heading back."

"Right, a civilization pack. Although – is the town going to be mostly standing when you get there?"

Mmm. Yes, that would be a standard question for Sentinels wouldn’t it?

"Should be. Relatively minor problem."

Muttering "I’ve heard that one before." the helper vanished into the back room.

"Shit. I jinxed it didn’t I?"

Wood, wood, I needed to knock on some wood…

Twenty minutes later or so, he showed back up with a pack.

"You’ve got some standard traveling supplies – bedroll, pillow, tinder, axe…" He went on for some time, detailing every single piece of equipment I was being given.

"Now, we went light on the supplies…" He said. Light. Ha! More supplies than we were given most of the time as Trainees. I suppose that was kinda the point though – we needed to know how to survive on the bare basics. I was being given a lot more than the bare basics, but only what could fit in a large backpack.

Wait. Shit. My plan.

"…but mostly we’ve made sure that you have a sizeable stash of coins, to be able to buy what you need. You can naturally requisition stuff in an emergency, but please don’t."

I looked at the "standard backpack", sized for someone at least a foot taller than me. I thought about my half-baked plan of using a metric ton of Arcanite to solve the problem.

Welp. That wasn’t going to happen.

"Any chances that I could get a pouch of Arcanite?" I asked. I might as well get some extra, and saddle myself like a beast of burden.

I really needed an animal companion, if only to pull a Hunting and strap a million bags and saddles to it.

Dude pursed his lips at me.

"Let me see what I can do."

"Or three pouches!" I called after him.

Welp. Let’s see where this went.

He came back with two large pouches.

"Fully charged. They’re counted. Bring them back." He said.

"What do I look like, Acquisition?" I shot back.

"I dunno. For all I know, you are Acquisition, on your latest prank. Framing the new Sentinel would be exactly your thing…" He said, looking at me suspiciously.

"Oh. Good to know." I faintly said.

Maybe I should leave something shiny in my room, something I didn’t care about, well-hidden with a note saying "you found it! Now leave the rest of my stuff alone!"

Right. I was fairly well equipped, and unlike my first, disastrous camping trip, I was trained and ready for this. I could do this.

Plus, I had a speedy ticket there. It was only on the way back where I might need to do more than just hang on.

I’d plan for getting back later, another day. For now, I needed to focus on getting all my stuff done.

I asked around and got directions to our own little courier outfit. Between the Rangers hanging out, Command needing to talk with everyone, all the logistics people, and of course, the Sentinels, we had our own little runner’s outpost, where we could write and drop off messages. Convenient! It was slower than other places – from what I’d gathered, we had two couriers. One was practically a half-Sentinel, one of the best of the best, designated as support instead of a Sentinel – in other words, the [Courier] equivalent of what I’d almost become. He got most of the support that Sentinels got, along with equivalent pay, and most of the benefits. Just not the clout or visibility.

His entire job was to be on-deck constantly, able to sprint priority messages from A to B.

Then there was a second [Courier], or two – it was never clear – who handled the more mundane messages. Came in, grabbed the latest mail, vanished to deliver it. Rinse and repeat. It’d take some time to get stuff delivered as a result – there was usually a queue ahead of your letter, but it was cheap! Free, even.

I wrote a series of letters out, quickly detailing what was going on and where I was going.

Artemis,

Heya! Missed you when I tried to find you.

Heading off to Deva. Small plague, no big deal. Swing by some time when I’m back!

Pass my second letter off to mom and dad for me?

Cheers,

Elaine.

Mom! Dad!

Haven’t been able to find you. Miss you. Hope we could hang out more.

Although I hear you’re moving to the capital! Hurray! We can spend a ton of time together!

Long story short, Night’s offered to give you a very nice house. Don’t worry, I didn’t do anything too weird to get it.

Love

Elaine

Albina

Heya!

Something’s come up, and I gotta run. Sorry, I have to cancel our appointment. I’ll send a letter once I’m back.

Cheers!

Elaine – Dawn

Markus,

Heading off to Deva, going to give Caecilius a hand.

Would love to chat more with you – and other healers! When I get back.

Any chance you could help arrange something?

Cheers,

Elaine

I think those were all the letters I needed. I looked at the pile.

Fuck me, I only had four people in the world I wanted to send letters to? Two of them were more business than pleasure?

My mind flashed to Lyra. Goddesses, I still missed her. Time was supposed to heal all wounds. Well, it wasn’t fresh and raw, but it still hurt.

I checked over my stuff again. Yeah, I was all set. Bless the Quartermaster and how thorough he was. I checked my armor. It was perfect, fitting to me like a glove. Good thing, I’d probably be living in it again. I wasn’t going to trust a medium-sized villa’s worth of armor to the average bathhouse’s security and general trust.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Sentinel’s Superiority] has reached level 196!]

Potions were set. Gemstones were all charged. Arcanite was glowing from all my stones.

Eh. It was getting late, I didn’t have much else to do. I was going to stop by That Room, and pay remembrance to Origen, then swing by the temple and send some prayers. One to Etalix. One to Lyra. Some to the goddesses of the moon. Maybe one to Papilion, if I was feeling generous.

Maybe I’d get a miracle one day.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 49440/49440]

[Mana Regen: 40176 (+3075.6)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 7]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 4944]

[Mana Regeneration: 4660 (+1314.12)]

[Magic Power: 4312 (+44198)]

[Magic Control: 4312 (+44198)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 241]]

[Celestial Affinity: 241]

[Warmth of the sun: 198]

[Medicine: 204]

[Center of the Galaxy: 235]

[Phases of the Moon: 241]

[Moonlight: 241]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 141]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 161]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 135]

[Bullet Time: 189]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 205]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 196]

[: ]

[Learning: 241]

Chapter 125 – Traveling to Deva

I woke up in the morning to a lovely notification.

[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Persistent Casting]!]

Persistent Casting: Alright, alright, fine, you can keep active skills running in the background, even when you’re not focusing on them. Mana drain per active skill persistently cast. Decreased mana drain per level per skill. Max two skills cast at once.

Well, this looked like both a useful skill, and one that would be obnoxious to grind up. Nothing for it, I guess.

Had to spend a moment processing how it worked though – the wording was confusing. I got it after a moment.

It cost me mana, above and beyond the skill, to have a skill under [Persistent Casting]. However, as I leveled the skill up, it took less mana.

I also bet the skill would evolve, and let me [Persistent Casting] more skills at once as it got higher leveled. Just made sense to me.

I threw up a [Veil] around me, then focused on letting [Persistent Casting] ‘take over’ managing it, feeling the mental load just vanish.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Persistent Casting] has reached level 2!]

To do: Test if I could feel it shattering.

To do: Test if I’d wake up from it breaking. No sense if having a defense if it didn’t alert me.

Mmmm. Which reminded me.

To do: Test if [Bullet Time] would activate from a deadly attack from outside [Veil].

Then again, with the strong privacy aspects, would I even detect it? Ugh. Be bad to only know about a bad attack once it was through [Veil].

The natural result – [Veil] should be as large as possible if it was the case that [Bullet Time] didn’t activate.

Stuff to test another day.

I healed myself with [Phases of the Moon], idly noticing a few points vanishing, before coming back. Natural decay, some minor illness, or what? I then got a full-body [Phases of the Moon] ready and primed, constantly going off.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Persistent Casting] has reached level 3!]

I wasn’t even going to dare to think I was invincible – but any blow I took would get healed as soon as I took it, as long as I had mana. I hadn’t really thought about it when Night was suggesting it, but as I got it ready and set, it started to dawn on me that it could be used that way.

On the flipside, someone sticking a knife in me and keeping it in me might drain my mana at an atrocious rate. Like, with my [Oath]-boosted power, it could almost zero me out in seconds. Trade-offs.

I finished washing up and getting ready – damnit, I was already getting soft, I was going to miss my morning bath. It was still early, so I decided to triple-check all my equipment. Backpack, ready. I’d taken everything out of it, checked each piece of equipment and gear over, checking for defects, seeing how it was all put together, figuring out, most critically, what wasn’t there, then re-packing it all.

I also had a solid grasp of how many coins I was bringing along, on top of my normal ‘fun spending money’ mango budget in my personal coin pouch.

Armor – oiled and ready, every gem shining with a properly imbued skill. I would’ve liked some time to practice using the utility gems, but there was the combination of not having enough time, and each use being obnoxious to recharge. One use, then it was off to a long, winding adventure with the gemstones dude to get a new one slotted into my armor. You’d think they’d have a number of practice gems around or something. Ah well.

The shield one was the only one I suspected I might need to grab in an emergency, but I’d try to remember the rest.

I had a bad feeling that I’d forget about them at some critical point when they could bail me out. Maybe I should make a habit of reviewing them every day, so I’d remember them when they came up.

Weapons – interestingly enough, no spear. I was operating solo, in a mostly non-combat manner. By the same token, my shield was a much smaller thing than I was used to, no longer one of the massive tower shields that we used to interlock with each other. Another concession to me wanting to move fast, avoid combat, and if I was in combat these days – flying was a much better defense than blocking stuff.

My ability and time to fly was directly related to my weight. I’d taken the effort to sit down and calculate it out. My mana regeneration was, in sunlight – the only time I could fly was when [Sun-kissed] was helping me out – roughly 12 mana/second regenerated.

With no equipment on, I spent roughly 21 mana/second flying, spending 9 mana/second in total. Fully geared up, I was at 34 mana/second, burning 22 mana/second total – more than twice the burn rate. With my current mana pool, I could go well over an hour with no gear, and a measly half an hour geared up.

Roughly. Good timekeeping was hard here. Sure, there were sundials, but they weren’t the best. Also, when I flew geared up, it was unlikely I was just flying, and not fighting for my life. Which turned my fly time from half an hour to practically nothing. Depending on my mana consumption on the rest of my skills.

And this was before I pushed [Talaria] to make me go faster, instead of just hovering there or casually walking.

Blah. Mathing it all out somehow took some of the magic out of it. Moving on.

Potions were all set, in an easy to access satchel on my belt. The Arcanite was similarly attached to my belt, and I’d taken the time to attune it all to me, letting me grab more mana with a breath. Same with the armor.

Which also screwed with the flying math. Whatever.

I left my suite, fully geared up, and waited for Night.

Who showed up in short order, Ocean popping in a few minutes later, in a simple tunic.

"Dawn. Ocean. Excellent." Night started. "No new emergency or call has come in. Ocean, would you be so kind as to ferry Dawn to Deva so she may begin her first mission?"

Ocean saluted.

"Of course."

Not that there was any question of him saying no. But Night seemed to like his routine, of the formal back and forth. Probably helped keep everything organized.

"Right. We are all set here." Night said, standing up.

"Hey Dawn. Need anything else, or are you ready to go?"

I blinked at him.

"Um. I’m ready. What about you?"

Ocean laughed at me.

"I’m not the one going on a mission! Plus, we’re taking my boat. Most of my gear’s stashed in it."

"Alrighty then. Let’s go I guess?" I said, still taken somewhat aback by the abruptness of it all.

Well, more so that Ocean being completely gearless had thrown me for a loop. Anyways. I was processing and getting back with the program.

"Yeah!" Ocean said, with all the excitement of a schoolboy who’s been given permission to raid the candy store.

Unsupervised.

A hop, skip, and a jump through town, me hurrying to keep up with Ocean, who’d basically thrown away all his dignity to move quickly, and we were at the docks.

"Couldn’t you have moved a bit slower!?" I said, once we were walking over the wooden planks to a location only Ocean knew. "Everyone was looking at me like there was some emergency! Which a fully geared Sentinel running through town really looks like!"

Ocean scratched his head awkwardly.

"Oops?"

"Oops! You’ve been doing this longer than I’ve been alive! What do you mean, oops?"

Ocean shrugged, a wild grin on his face.

"I just couldn’t wait to get here. Come on, hop in!"

Ocean gestured to a respectable, mid-sized sailboat. It wasn’t fancy, there were no luxurious ornaments or carvings on it, but as I looked around – cursing my lack of sailing lessons to not have the proper knowledge of this – everything was perfect. There wasn’t a single splinter out of place, the ropes had a solid, well-used, well-maintained look, grooves were cut in the wood where the ropes met plank. It was a thing of beauty, crafted perfectly, well-loved and maintained for decades.

I hopped on, wobbling a bit as the whole boat moved with me. Yup. I needed a [Sea Legs] skill.

[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Sea Legs]!]

…

Oh System, while you’re granting wishes, can I get a few extra skill slots?

Nothing. Rats. [Sea Legs] would have to rot.

"Hey Ocean, what’s this made out of?" I said, stroking the unfamiliar wood. I was no great carpenter, heck I barely knew my oak from my pine from whatever-the-hell the Kadan Jungle grew – but the wood seemed strange.

"Ironwood!" Ocean cheerfully told me. "Ridiculously rare. It doesn’t grow here. Once every few years a trunk will float down one of the rivers from outside of human lands, and, well, the stuff’s more than a bit expensive. Has properties normal wood doesn’t, like really slow self-repair if you pour mana into it."

I looked around the medium-sized sailboat, made out of practically one of a kind magical wood. My knees felt weak. I sat down.

With a faint voice, I asked.

"How much did this cost?"

Ocean laughed.

"You could probably buy a whole block of houses in the fancy district of the capital instead of this boat."

I whistled, as we started to pick up speed.

Ocean was happy. Grinning, smiling, laughing, closing his eyes, letting the wind wash over him. We spent time in silence, Ocean navigating with his eyes closed somehow through all the other ships trying to dock. We made it out to the open sea, and picked up speed – way more than I thought was possible with the wind and the waves they way they were.

After some time, Ocean started to speak.

"When I unlocked, I got [Heart of the Sea] and [Love of the Ocean]. I instantly took them. The skills have stayed with me ever since. There’s nothing I love more than the waves, the sea, the ocean breeze. Doing this? This is the life."

I made a positive noise, not quite sure what to say to Ocean.

"Anyways, this is your first outing. Congrats! Deva’s a lovely place. I think I’m going to hang out there a bit, do some sailing, talk with the local fishermen. Maybe enter a largest fish contest or two. Good way to extend my vacation without Night knowing about it. Shhh! Don’t tell him!" Ocean said, winking at me.

Unsaid – he’d be around if I needed backup, training wheels on my first excursion. Hopefully I wouldn’t need them.

We spent some more time sailing, before I got an idea, warm sun on my face.

"I want to see how [Talaria] works when I’m already going fast." I said.

"Sure, knock yourself out."

I took a short running hop, and I was up, up, and away with [Talaria]. Ocean’s boat started to slowly pull ahead, but I’d managed to confirm that my speed persisted, for the lack of a better word. I could go far if I could get enough of an initial boost.

I landed back down on the boat, Ocean having slowed down a hair to let me catch up.

"Tell me about Radiance." Ocean said. I looked at him funny. Shouldn’t he know already?

Ocean saw my look.

"I’m great at dealing with Radiance mages. Water screws their attacks something fierce, and I always have a ton. I’m curious what it’s like from your perspective."

Well, why not bounce info and questions off of the super experienced, at best the 2nd, at worst the 4th, most powerful Sentinel.

"Radiance is fun! Burning light, immediately hits the target, narrow and focused. As my power goes up, I obviously get more damage, but the smallest beam I can use gets bigger. As my control goes up, I can re-shrink the beam back down. Hence, a balanced mix between the two are optimal."

Ocean snapped his fingers at me.

"Explains that one dude, oh, 15 years ago. Dude kept using really fat beams of radiance – larger than I was. I went completely overboard on the defense, but it didn’t hurt nearly as badly as I thought it would."

I looked at him. I had some doubts that this was brand-new info to him, but hey. He wanted to chat, and I wasn’t a sailor-type. Heck, being as far from shore as we were was making me all sorts of nervous.

I didn’t see myself taking up life on a ship anytime soon.

Oooh wait, while he was here, I could do some testing.

"Hey Ocean, I got a new skill. Want to test a few things with it. Mind giving me a hand?"

"Sure, why not? What do you need?"

I explained to him my thoughts on [Persistent Casting] and [Bullet Time] that I had earlier. Ocean looked thoughtful.

"Sure, I can do that. Lift your vest up, show me your stomach, flip a coin and put your [Veil] up."

"Flip a coin?"

"So you can tell when your skill activates."

Made sense. I awkwardly shifted around, revealing my vulnerable stomach to Ocean. I flipped a coin high, throwing up [Veil] around me, looking at my stat screen.

Hmmm. [Sun-Kissed] didn’t work under [Veil]. Wasn’t testing it, but hey. I’d take what I could get. I passed [Veil] off to [Persistent Casting].

Next thing I knew, I felt [Veil] shattering, and the world around me slowed, as Ocean’s knife was heading for my stomach, a vicious side-slash that’d open me up from left to right.

I tried to lean back, watching the knife moving at almost-normal speeds, while my body was slow and sluggish, like in water. I tried a second [Veil]. I tried to melt the knife with a Radiance beam.

Fuck me I’d forgotten how much I hated getting hurt while under [Bullet Time]. Sure, it was distant because of [Center of the Galaxy], but apart from that, I could feel my stomach splitting open, skin and muscles parted, sharp steel rearranging my guts. Even stranger was my persistent [Phases of the Moon] immediately fixing the damage behind the knife.

Blessedly, the knife finally exited the other side, and time resumed as normal. A gasp I’d been working on finally finished.

"Fuck!" I yelled.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 236]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Persistent Casting] has reached level 4->11!]

"No good?" Ocean said with a frown, looking at his way-too-clean knife. "Amazing healing by the way. I was convinced I’d get some fish chum out of you with that, but barely a speck of blood. I’ll say it now. I apologize. I didn’t think your healing was good enough, that a Sentinel couldn’t qualify on just that, but I wasn’t going to argue with the powers that be, and you did technically qualify."

He paused.

"I am completely convinced otherwise now. That was the single most stunning display of combat healing I’ve ever seen or heard of. You’re basically unkillable… while you have mana."

I thought I was immune to compliments and flattery. Noooooope.

I couldn’t stop a mad smile crossing my face. "Thanks! Gotta work on it though – that was a bad heal."

I thought about it. I’d given the persistent cast an image of "heal". I groaned, putting my head in my hands.

"What’s up?"

"I am going to need to make a stupidly complex image for my passive heal."

I thought about it. A stupidly complex image.

"Got some rations? Figure I should grab lunch before starting. I might be a really bad traveling companion while I get this worked out."

"No worries! Fun trick." Ocean said, getting out a pair of clay mugs.

Ocean waved his hand, a spurt of water from the sea filling both mugs.

"Here. Pure, perfect water, courtesy of a skill."

I took a sip of the glorious, perfect water.

"Wow. That’s some skill."

"Thanks! Never need to worry about water."

We ate, Ocean happily chatting about the sea, the creatures, telling me about knots and sails and tacking and wow this was a lot of info going in one ear and out the other.

I suspect missing the Sailing class hadn’t gone unnoticed by Ocean, and he had clear passion for the subject, wanting to share his love of the sea with me. I didn’t think I’d get [Love of the Ocean] anytime soon though.

"Thanks Ocean!" I said, having polished lunch off in record time. "This might take quite some time – don’t get worried if I’m under for quite a few hours."

Ocean waved his hand.

"I get it. Shoo. Make it perfect. Staying alive might depend on that one day."

I threw up [Veil], passing it off to [Persistent Casting]. I wanted zero distractions on this.

Right, full-body, perfect heal. This was going to take some time. Let’s start with the heart. How was the heart put together? How did it connect to the vascular system? How did that hook up to the lungs? Muscles? Stomach?

How did lungs work? Bringing air in, connecting to the vascular system, bringing air to the muscles, which had nerves making them twitch, all attached to the skeletal system, giving everything support and structure – and also making new blood cells, connecting it back to the vascular system. The nerves also ran through the body, firing impulses, letting the brain control fingers, toes, arms, legs – everything. Running along the spine, bringing me back to bones, protecting the kidneys, liver, stomach, guts, lungs – back to the heart.

Eyes. Immune system. Mouth. Tongue. Nose. Nostrils. Hair. Nails.

Every single bit of human anatomy I knew.

Creating that image took me hours, a full, detailed mental picture of the complete human body.

Then I was off to diseases. Viruses, bacteria, fungus, parasites, cancers, and everything else I could think of. I couldn’t get them all, but I tried to catalogue as many as possible, and the cure, the solution – mostly just phasing them out of existence, in the same way the moon waned to nothing.

I moved onto other injuries, other problems. My earliest [Detailed Restoration] healings, restoring arms, fixing eyes. Reforming skin.

How bones needed to be shifted back into position, realigned properly to heal. Bone fragments either put back in their place, or removed. The tiny ligaments and bones in the wrist. The beating of the heart. Function of the brain. Kidneys filtering blood, liver producing enzymes to digest food.

Hundreds, thousands of ways of being hurt. Almost every single one was drawn on from experience, from plague victims in Perinthus, to soldiers manning the walls against Formorians. The lady coming up to me at one of my stalls, fixing the urchin kid’s sister.

Injuries I’d never seen, and their unusual method of handling. Like crush injuries. Couldn’t restore the leg, that’d just do bad things to me. Instead, amputation was correct, cutting off the blood flow to the area, moving away, then restoring. A delay on the healing, to properly save myself.

Bonus – it’d mean my [Persistent Casting] wouldn’t futilely try to heal me and drain all my mana in a useless mission. Huh. Never thought of that before. This new skill had so many implications that I hadn’t thought of.

Was totally worth the skill slot. Was totally worth listening to Night.

I finally finished, putting in a few extra broad-spectrum tweaks to my image, some catch-alls, before opening my eyes.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 242! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 242]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 205->210]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 242]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Moonlight] has reached level 242]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Persistent Casting] has reached level 12->35]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 242]

I dropped [Veil], only to realized I’d been under a lot longer than I thought, and we were tied to the docks at what I assumed was Deva.

"Welcome back." Ocean said drily, handing me a mug.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 49600/49600]

[Mana Regen: 40336 (+13186)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 18]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 4960]

[Mana Regeneration: 4676 (+1318.632)]

[Magic Power: 4325 (+44331.25)]

[Magic Control: 4325 (+44331.25)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 242]]

[Celestial Affinity: 242]

[Warmth of the sun: 198]

[Medicine: 210]

[Center of the Galaxy: 236]

[Phases of the Moon: 242]

[Moonlight: 242]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 141]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 161]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 135]

[Bullet Time: 189]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 205]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 196]

[Persistent Casting: 35]

[Learning: 242]

Chapter 126 – Deva I

I blinked, taking the mug from Ocean, downing it. It woke me up, made me realize just how hungry and thirsty I was. Without saying anything, Ocean refilled my mug, handing me more field rations, which I promptly devoured.

"How long?" I asked, between mouthfuls.

"Three days. I was starting to get concerned." Ocean said.

Three days!? No wonder he was getting concerned!

I chowed down ravenously, then started to break into my backpack. Ocean grabbed my arm, stopping me.

"We’re at a town. Better buy stuff here, and save your rations for on the road."

Mmmm. Good point.

"What happens now?" I asked, refocusing on my mission.

"Well, a good majority of the time, there’s the Ranger team that called you hanging around to give you a debrief. Usually trying to contain whatever mess is going on. On occasion, they’ve left to continue their round, and the info’s been left with the local guard, or the next team’s around to give you the run down – enough time could pass between the message and you getting here that the next team’s arrived."

"The remaining usual case is an information package, on all the details of a problem. Usually a fast-moving problem, or a slippery classer. At which point it’s a hunt to find the problem – and almost every time Hunting is sent on those."

"This time, you’re practically chasing rumors though, which is going to make it hard."

"Or easy, depending on the prevalence." Ocean shrugged.

"Anyways, we’re here. You’re the boss. You decide what to do."

Well then. Investigations and Leadership classes were suddenly coming in handy, and the History, Geography, and Politics lessons were useful in giving me context to do everything in. Good foresight.

Ok, let’s think about this, do some planning. A plague was something massive. I could try to one-woman army my way through it – which was the whole idea of a Sentinel – but so many people were touched and impacted that there was no way I could organize a response on my own.

I was the daughter of a guard, grew up around them, and had nothing but respect and admiration for them. They were also the perfect people to work with on this, having the personnel and the network to make anything I needed happen.

A significant part of authority and leadership was being recognized as the authority, as the leader. The governor was the governor because everyone decided he was. If I walked in and started making demands, good chance I’d be ignored. If I walked in on my own, there was a good chance I’d be questioned if I really was a Sentinel, or making stuff up. Same deal as when I was a Ranger.

Being the first woman Sentinel was still ringing in my mind, and odds were good Deva had never heard of me, not with the speed Ocean traveled, not with the non-critical aspect of it.

One of the best ways to be recognized as an authority figure – have another authority figure, a well-known one, introduce you.

My eyes turned to Ocean.

"Right. Here’s the plan. I’m going to walk around a bit, get a general feel of the place. See if there’s a super obvious plague or anything, grab lunch, then I’ll swing back, grab you, and we’re going to talk with the captain of the guard together."

"Oh?" Ocean said, leaning back. "This is your mission, not mine."

It seemed like all the Sentinels liked testing and challenging each other a bit. More to see what the thinking and logic was than anything else. I’d seen Night do it to Toxic.

"Sure. All I’m asking is for you to introduce me. With my age, gender, and height, it’s likely I’d be disbelieved when I mention I’m a Sentinel, which undermines all of us. Gods know it happened enough when I was a Ranger, and that was traveling with a full team. Having a well-respected, well-established Sentinel introduce me in the first place though will go a long way towards mitigating that."

Ocean nodded.

"Right. Well-reasoned. I’ve already talked with the [Harbor Master], and you’re all clear to enter town."

"Thanks!" I appreciated that.

I left Ocean’s boat, and started to wander around town. There were a number of people with faintly purple teeth. Wonder if they had a problem with drugs here. My ‘wandering around town’ was really more me just hitting up every food vendor I could between healing people on the street.

I’d frankly forgotten about that. The severity of a few people hacking their way down the street obligated me to stop, and ask if they’d like to get healed.

Most said yes. A few looked at me distrustfully and declined, either biased against a woman, refusing to acknowledge they were sick, or simply believing there had to be some catch to the ‘free healing’. Couldn’t blame them, enough conmen ran around. The disease wasn’t at the stage where I was going to force an override on their decision – not yet.

There was certainly a minor problem going on, but business was, by and large, as normal. I suppose any plague where news left the town about it – Deva was tiny, relatively speaking, maybe 6000 people – would be large enough to see.

I got a solid look at the disease to boot. After the 12th patient or so, I was pretty sure I had a nearly complete picture, barring rare symptoms. Didn’t matter. Not for curing a disease. Markus’s rumors had been fairly accurate. Lots of coughing, some bloody flecks in the worst cases. Well, the worst cases that were still out and about.

No carts of dead people. Nobody yelling ‘bring out your dead’. No mass pyres of bodies.

A low-level plague, perfect for me to cut my teeth on. By now I had a solid grasp of what the disease was, how it worked, and how to cure it. The added [Medicine] and [Oath] levels, along with flat-out experience, did wonders.

No major reservoirs, purely human to human transmission. No strange magical twists. Just simple pneumonic plague. Easy enough to cure.

I made my way back to the docks, where Ocean was happily sitting, legs dangling in the sea, having somehow obtained – or taken out from his own stash – a fishing rod, happily trying his hand at dinner, casually chatting with some of the other fishermen. I dare say, he was trying to be somewhat normal.

I sympathized. Although it’d only last until someone [Identify]’d him really.

I tapped him on the shoulder, carefully not calling him Ocean. Most people would probably think it was just a weird name, but, well, I had no idea how famous Ocean was amongst sea-faring people, just like most people not involved with medicine didn’t know how famous I was.

Heck, I had no idea how famous I was. Markus and his apprentices seemed to think I was a hot shot, with my Medical Manuscript, but I had no idea if that extended at all, or was purely a local phenomenon.

"Heya. Got a few minutes for me to borrow you?"

One of the fishermen started to say something crude, but Ocean cut him off.

"Sure, let’s go."

Finding the captain of the guard was trivial. We went up to a patrol, and asked them nicely. They were happy to point us to where we wanted to go. Something about me being in full army-issued combat gear helped grease the wheels.

We found the Guard’s Barracks easily enough, and getting in was as simple as walking in. Our first real obstacle was outside of the captain’s office, where a pair of guards were hanging out. Made sense – didn’t want just anyone to be able to waltz into his office.

"Name and purpose of visit?" One of the guards asked, in standard guard leathers and baton. Tone wasn’t bored. Wasn’t excited. Purely professional.

We glanced at each other, and I tilted my head ever so slightly towards Ocean.

"Sentinel Ocean. Sentinel Dawn. Here to speak with the captain." Ocean said, in his best ‘professional’ tone. He took out his badge, and showed it. I followed suit.

Bless the guards. They looked at each other, and one said "Please wait a moment" while the other one vanished into the captain’s room. He came out a moment later.

"Go on in."

We entered to see the captain sitting behind his desk, a dozen scrolls scattered all over. Paperwork bamboowork. Couldn’t escape it even on Pallos.

"Welcome. Can’t ever say I’m happy to see a Sentinel, let alone two. What’s going on?" The captain said, straight to business.

We showed him our badges quickly, then put them away. Ocean shrugged, and in a friendly, casual tone started talking.

"I’m Ocean. I’m just rapidly deploying Dawn here, and given the scale and nature of the problem, we felt that introductions were in order. Dawn’s had some, ah, historical problems with people not believing her existence."

The captain looked me over, up and down.

"Yeah, I can believe that. No offense, but I wouldn’t believe you’re a Sentinel. Never heard of you, and you don’t look like one."

I gave a half-twitch of my mouth, half-bemused one-sided smile. The ball was now in my court.

"Yeah. I get that a bunch. I’m Dawn, nice to meet you. Grew up around guards, big fan." I said, offering my hand to shake. Making connections. Establishing common ground.

Socializing. Bleck.

The captain, bless him, took my hand and shook it.

"Pleasure to meet you. Now. What problem’s caused you to come all this way? Is there some Classer I don’t know about who’s going to ruin my week? Some rampaging dinosaur about to destroy my walls?"

I schooled myself to not look at Ocean for support. This was my ball, this was my court. I was in charge here.

"Pretty simple. I’m all about healing. Heard rumors of a low level plague – well, not that low level, not if I’m hearing about it – and we figured I’d jump in and stamp it out while it was in the early stages, before it got nasty."

The captain frowned.

"We don’t have a plague." He said, steel in his voice.

"You absolutely do. It’s not what you usually think of when you think of a plague, but give it another week, another month, and you’ll have a full-blown problem on your hands. I’m here to kill it now, before it becomes a serious problem."

The captain frowned, drumming his fingers on his desk.

"What would you need from us?"

"Mostly depends on the full severity. I haven’t gotten a chance to do a full dive. However, a full town purge should work in short order. Caecilius, a [Plague Healer] over level 300 is rumored to be in town. Was thinking of recruiting him, recruiting some local healers, and in more or less a single night, getting everyone through the gates, healed up, and that’s it. We’re done. The guard would be invaluable for helping organize the event, and keeping the peace. I’m a single woman. I can’t direct thousands of people to do the same thing at the same time on my own, especially not as a stranger. The guard can. I can organize the healers – if I know who they are. Again, something the guard’s intimately familiar with."

He still looked unhappy.

"Look, I just need some solid cooperation for a few days, then I’m out of your hair." Find a way to align incentives, make it so we’re all on the same page. "I’m trying to stop this from becoming something much worse, something that takes weeks or months to resolve. I get that it doesn’t look like much now. Heck, it could even burn itself out. Why risk it?"

Lastly, sweeten the pot.

"I’ll also be hanging around for some time after, offering free healing. I don’t know if you’ve got a powerful Light healer, but I’m naturally able to fix just about any problem."

I paused a moment, thinking about it.

"Guards and retired guards would naturally get priority."

"Fine. Let me speak to the governor about it. He’d need to sign off on this." The captain said. It was clear we were being dismissed.

"Does lunch tomorrow sound like a good time to meet up again and chat?" If I left it to him, I’d never talk with him again, just another person in the long line of VIPs wanting his time. I needed to take the initiative.

"Make it dinner. Will probably meet with the governor at lunch." He said, taking out another scroll, starting to read it.

Fine, fine. Hint taken.

Ocean and I left without saluting. In the field, as Sentinels, people saluted us first, then we saluted them back. It indicated rank, indicated that they considered us higher up the food chain. To salute first would indicate that we thought the captain was higher ranking than we were, and that we’d listen to his orders.

Not how we worked.

Still. Politics. Bleck. Just arrange everyone in front of me, a small mountain of Arcanite, and the moons at my back, and this would be done in an hour.

We made it outside, and started to meander back towards the docks, occasionally getting hijacked by someone sick.

"Not bad." Ocean said. "Not bad at all."

I beamed at the compliment. I’d gotten chances to practice leadership at Academy, but it was in an academic sense, Lava challenging me being the only real leadership hurdle I’d experienced. Now I was out in the real world, putting into practice what I’d learned for the first time.

"Well, tomorrow’s another day." I said. "Gotta see if I can find Caecilius, and see if I can start organizing other healers. Need to get this done one way or another."

Ocean nodded at me.

"By the way, my help here is done. It’s all on you now. Good luck!"

Ah dammit. Fine. I’d manage.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 49600/49600]

[Mana Regen: 40336 (+3086.16)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 18]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 4960]

[Mana Regeneration: 4676 (+1318.632)]

[Magic Power: 4325 (+44331.25)]

[Magic Control: 4325 (+44331.25)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 242]]

[Celestial Affinity: 242]

[Warmth of the Sun: 198]

[Medicine: 210]

[Center of the Galaxy: 236]

[Phases of the Moon: 242]

[Moonlight: 242]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 141]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 161]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 135]

[Bullet Time: 189]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 205]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 196]

[Persistent Casting: 35]

[Learning: 242]

Chapter 127 – Deva II

I woke up in the guard barracks, them being the best place for me to sleep. Bless the added padding Sentinel armor got. While it wasn’t terribly comfortable, it was at least bearable. And the Hell Months had gotten me well-suited to sleeping in, well, anything and anywhere really.

I spent some time chatting with some of the guards over breakfast. I liked guards, and if we were going to be working closely, I wanted them liking me and putting forth a good effort, not grumbling about the Sentinel coming in and upending everything.

More leadership stuff. I was happier doing this.

We finished up, and I left to wander the streets.

As a rough ballpark, a healthy town without major problems had roughly one full-time healer for every thousand people, and, for lack of a better term, a ‘partial’ healer for every six hundred or so people. Verta and my mom would both have qualified as a ‘partial’ healer, someone who wasn’t healing full time, just someone with it as one of their classes, who did some healing now and then. Oh, and apprentices. They counted as well. Before I’d gotten [Detailed Restoration] and ran away from home, I’d qualified as one as well.

Anyways. With Caecilius and his likely apprentice, the 5-7 full time healers, and the 9-11 ‘partials’, I was looking at 16-21 healers in total for this operation.

Max.

Some might be sick. Some just might want to sit it out. Some of the partials might not be allowed to participate. Bleh.

I started to walk through the streets, drawing all sorts of looks. It was clear I wasn’t a guard, and Rangers and the like didn’t usually walk around armored. Some pointing and muttering occurred when people spotted my Sentinel badge, the badge being rare enough, and Deva far away enough from the capital, that it wasn’t exactly a common or well-known sight, in spite of how well-known Sentinels were.

I was looking for some of the other healers, to chat with them. See what they knew, see if they were up for a mass heal event.

I hadn’t appreciated just how much organization had gone into Perinthus, and all of the healers working together. Trying to one-woman my way through all of this, to solving the problem? Yikes. Harder than I’d thought.

I saw a sign, a herb leaf, indicating that a healer’s clinic was here. I entered, only to find myself in what was basically an apothecary.

Either I’d read the sign wrong, or this was a rare wood-healer, one who brewed tinctures and tonics, as opposed to simply throwing mana and skills at the problem. They were handy when you weren’t in town, and only made irregular trips, or suspected you’d need something on the road, or just wanted a backup of some sort.

Either way, I was of the opinion that yes, Wood healers were ‘real’ healers.

"Hello, can I help you?" A man called from the back, stepping out into the main store area.

"Oh no." He said, seeing me, turning tail, and sprinting to the back of the store, knocking down a shelf of potions along the way.

I raised my eyebrows. What was that all about?

….

I decided to poke around the store a bit. – I practically felt obligated to, and I was allowed to. Potions, neatly labeled. Herbs, hanging from the ceiling. Well, anything that’s making the dude abandon ship so fast wasn’t going to be out in the open. Time to poke around in the back?

I pushed my way through the door leading to what was probably his living quarters, feeling like I was intruding. Just a quick little peek around… is there anything super-duper obvious that I’d need to make a fuss about?

Bed, clothes, trapdoor, table, kitchen, recliner – wait, trapdoor?

Damnit. Please no underground slave ring, please no underground slave ring.

I went down the open trapdoor – seriously, what was the point if you were just going to leave it open – finding myself in what could only be a skill-empowered underground grow operation.

Flowers. Dozens of purple flowers all over the place, in various stages of growth. Perfectly normal for an alchemist/Wood healer/apothecary to be growing their own herbs…

Except these weren’t herbs. These weren’t purple flowers.

These were the Purple Flowers, the dangerous, addictive drug that stained teeth purple. I’d never seen them in person before – something about not having all that great an interest in trying out drugs – but I’d gotten descriptions of them, and these fit perfectly.

Ah shit. I knew there’d been a bunch more people than normal running around with slightly stained teeth. Welp. This was going to be a mess.

Couldn’t I just heal a plague, like a normal healer? Instead, I was going to be down a healer for the mass heal event, and it wasn’t like Deva was swimming in them.

Looking around – the grow operation was, from the small theoretical knowledge I had on the topic, way more than a town this size needed.

Man. All the dude needed to do was play cool, and I’d have never noticed. But noooo. Assumed Sentinels were all-knowing, all-powerful, and his ego assumed I’d been sent after him.

I went pale as I realized I had a problem.

Drugs on this scale were a lot of money. And I was deep inside the dude’s lair. He was either bailing, or getting reinforcements, and getting trapped in here against a bunch of angry, potentially drug-addicted Classers would end poorly for me. Being a Sentinel, I could try to intimidate my way out of it, but yeah. I wasn’t going to stick around.

Dammit. Where was a local guard patrol? I was handing this off to them. Way above – hang on, that was all wrong now – way below my paygrade. Plus, a team of guards was better suited for handling this than I was.

I groaned, realizing another consequence.

I’d have to ask to directions to another healer now. I just couldn’t catch a break, could I?

……..

Guard informed, I was outside the door of another healer. Four other healers, this one included, called Deva home.

"Hello?" I said, stepping inside.

"Heya! Um." The [Receptionist] said, his standard greeting completely thrown off by my attire. "Is something the matter?"

"Well, yes, but not urgently so. Hoping to chat with the healer when he’s next free?"

The man nodded furiously, before vanishing into the back. I sighed.

It was better than being outright dismissed, ignored, or doing a massive accidental drug bust I guess?

The healer came out, demeanor suggesting ex-military. Made me think of the healers on the frontlines – was he retired from that?

A quick peek at his level with [Identify] suggested that was the case, as his level was much higher than I’d guess normally – around 260 or so.

"Sentinel." He said, throwing off a crisp salute. Definitely ex-military.

"Healer." I said, with the same respectful tone, throwing back a perfect salute of my own.

"Come, let’s talk about whatever your issue is."

"I hope I’m not disturbing you too badly." I said. I really did hope that.

"For a Sentinel, anything." He said. He only had eyes for the badge, wasn’t seeing me behind them. That, or the badge was overriding. I wasn’t going to argue.

"I’m Dawn. Nice to meet you." I said, trying to set the tone of the conversation, extending my hand for a shake.

"Flavinius. Coral healer. Blood specialist." He said, taking my hand, the formal tension somewhat eased.

"I specialize in healing." I said, somewhat stating the obvious. "Rumors reached us about a minor plague here, and quite frankly, I just got promoted last Convocation. We figured this would be a solid first mission for me, let me cut my teeth on operating as a Sentinel, instead of as a Ranger."

Honesty. Candor. I did my best not to lie, but I figured being completely open with Flavinius would get me far.

He nodded at me.

"Not that deadly. Somewhat persistent. Has the potential to become larger. Yeah, I can see this being a solid initial mission. What do you need from me?"

I explained my plan of a straightforward mass-heal event. It did seem to be the standard, initial response to a plague, when sources and reservoirs weren’t well known.

Flavinius nodded.

"Seems wise to handle this ahead of time. Which other healers have you talked with, and what’s the next step?"

Bless him. Bless ex-army medics. No arguing, no questioning, just agreement.

I scratched my head awkwardly.

"Well, I tried to talk with some Wood healer, but he just screamed and ran. Turned out to be growing a huge amount of Purple Flower."

"Really? He was the cause of the problem?"

"Well, unless he was renting out his basement to his neighbor and didn’t want to be implicated." I said with a straight face.

Flavinius laughed.

"Who else?"

"Nobody so far. I know I’m also looking for a [Plague Healer] Caecilius, rumored to be in town. Incredibly powerful, specialized in this sort of work."

"Well, I know them all. Why don’t I arrange for all of us to have a meal together this evening?" Flavinius suggested.

I opened my mouth, almost agreeing, before remembering – I was booked for the captain of the guard this evening.

"I’ve got an appointment with the captain of the guard. Tomorrow, lunch?" I asked.

"Perfect." He said.

Bless him. I whole-heartedly endorsed the idea, and Flavinius even went so far as to suggest hosting it himself.

At this point, I made it my mission to locate Caecilius. However, my geography knowledge was muttering at me, saying that something wasn’t quite right… I needed a quick talk with Ocean.

……

"Yo." I said, plonking down next to Ocean, who was sitting with his new fishing friends. "Quick question for you."

"Oh?" Ocean said, as the other fishermen were giving me mixed looks. No – giving Ocean mixed looks. "Who’s this and why’s the blasted Sentinel treating him so casually?" Was what the looks said.

"Just how far from the capital are we, and how long is the trip normally?"

"Ten days."

That might be why Caecilius wasn’t super obvious. If he’d left when Markus thought, he’d have just gotten here.

Wait.

Holy shit Ocean was fast. No wonder he was the secondary rapid deployment.

Still. He should be around somewhere, although maybe he was still getting settled in. I could ask Ocean for help – but I’d gotten most of the help I wanted from him, and something like this was mundane, low-level. I felt the need to prove myself, and it wasn’t like finding Caecilius would make or break things.

"Cheers thanks!"

Ocean waved, and re-cast his line, the hook and bait going an improbably far distance. I narrowed my eyes. Was there even that much line…?

Skills. Who knows, maybe that was part of his [Love of the Sea].

Right. If I was Caecilius, where would I be? I doubt he’d be wandering the streets like I was. He didn’t have any sort of obvious stall in the marketplace, like I tended towards.

Where did I find him last time? The temple.

Seemed to be a good place to go looking for him. Every town had a temple, and while they didn’t specialize in healing, they could, occasionally, do some minor healing, and people often went to the temple for… things… like…

Yeah my religion wasn’t particularly good. Apart from occasionally showing up to pray for Lyra, and being amused to watch my mana bounce around as I sent a prayer off, I didn’t really do much with it. The existence of gods and the like should’ve maybe had me take a more active, direct interest, but there’d always been something else to do. The priests spoke of miracles and divine revelation, but it was impossible for me to tell if they were real miracles, real divine revelations, or more Oracle of Delphi-style ‘prophecies’ and the like. Miracles directly from the divine, or ‘miracles’ that were just smoke and mirrors, and the clever application of skills?

Magic made it really hard to tell if a miracle was real, or just some skill.

Anyways. I could see a wandering healer setting up in the temple, instead of a market square, and I made my way over to see if he was there – or had stopped by there – healing the occasional person as I made my way through the streets.

The temple wasn’t nearly as big as other temples I’d seen, but Deva wasn’t particularly large. I made my way inside, to speak with the [Acolyte] inside.

"Welcome. What can the temple do for you today?" He asked. Dude looked old. Not old-old, but late 50’s, early 60’s easy. Curious. Did he never want to be a priest, or was there some reason he never went up the ladder? Or was there something else going on?

Ah well.

"Heya! I’m looking for Caecilius, a [Plague Healer]. Think he might’ve stopped by here?"

"First room on the left." He said. "He asks for payment up front."

Well then. That was remarkably easy!

"Thanks!" I said, making my way over.

I got to the door in question, and knocked.

"Come in." A voice I recognized said.

I entered, to finally find Caecilius and his apprentice! Hurray!

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 49600/49600]

[Mana Regen: 40336 (+3086.16)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 18]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 4960]

[Mana Regeneration: 4676 (+1318.632)]

[Magic Power: 4325 (+44331.25)]

[Magic Control: 4325 (+44331.25)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 242]]

[Celestial Affinity: 242]

[Warmth of the Sun: 198]

[Medicine: 210]

[Center of the Galaxy: 236]

[Phases of the Moon: 242]

[Moonlight: 242]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 141]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 161]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 135]

[Bullet Time: 189]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 205]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 196]

[Persistent Casting: 35]

[Learning: 242]

Chapter 128 – Deva III

"Caecilius!" I said, happily opening my arms.

"Elaine?" He said, somewhat surprised, blinking as he looked at me.

His apprentice just made an annoyed noise. Sheesh. Dude never liked me.

"In the flesh!" I said, twirling around, showing off somewhat.

He blinked a few more times, processing.

"Congratulations on your promotion to Sentinel." He said. "What title did you get?"

Mmmm. He’d been around the block a few times, and probably had as much experience as an entire Ranger team put together. He’d probably seen his fair share of strange and unusual things, and me being a Sentinel might break his top 100, if I was lucky.

"Thank you! Dawn." I said, answering his question.

A strangled noise came out of the apprentice, eyes bulging in jealousy. His face was turning all sorts of interesting colors.

Heh. I was probably 10 years younger than him, and had like 60 levels on him.

"Would I be correct in thinking that you are indeed the author of the Medical Manuscript?" Caecilius asked, pulling a scroll out of his bag.

"Yup!" I said, recognizing that he’d pulled out scroll 1 of it. "Markus put me up to it after Perinthus, and I spent almost a year writing it. Managed to get it distributed right before Academy."

Caecilius blinked, doing some mental math.

"They made you a Sentinel right out of Academy?" He asked, the first note of surprise in his voice.

Yesss. Broke his top 20 surprising things in all likelihood.

"Kinda. I did it ass-backwards. Ranger first, Academy second. Sentinel third."

"That’s quite the story. I’d love to hear more of it." Caecilius said.

Man, his apprentice was just not coping at all. It was pretty funny, not going to lie.

"About that – I’m trying to arrange a short meeting between all of the town’s healers tomorrow, for lunch. Markus put me on to you possibly being in town, and I wanted to invite you to it. Share info about the plague, discuss a possible plan of attack."

Caecilius gave me a little knowing smile.

"Using the Perinthus methods?"

"Shamelessly." I said.

"We’ll be there." He said.

His apprentice made a strangled, frustrated noise, and left the room.

"Great!" I said.

I gave him the directions, and the time, and set out myself.

Ok, healers secured. Guards – kinda secured. Depended on the meeting this evening.

Man, who thought that "healing a town" would devolve into "run around arranging meetings all day." This was, quite frankly, not what I was for, and not my skill set.

Hang on. Magic was able to get a support crew of Gemstone artisans helping him out. Toxic clearly had people sourcing poisonous stuff. Could I get a high-level [Administrator] to help me out? Someone who could sniff out the right people, arrange meetings and connections, get the right people in the right room?

Wasn’t a bodyguard. Helped shore up a weakness. I was going to be in more mass casualty events, where massive organizational skills were critical. My skills were OK, and people were being generally cooperative and helpful. It was a miracle really that things were going so smoothly, that people were looking at the badge and not me.

It wouldn’t always go this smoothly, nor would I always have the time to arrange meetings and get people together in a slow, smooth manner, as opposed to diving head first into healing and stabilizing as many people as Elaine-ly possible. Someone to do that for me – or a small team – seemed to be just what I needed, to deal with the small details so I could actually do my job.

Right. I was basically free until the evening. Time to get at it, see how many people I could heal. The more I did now, the fewer I’d need to do later.

A few hours of ambling through the streets later, and I had a much greater appreciation for Caecilius’s method, along with the people that helped me get a stall in the marketplace for free healing. I’d tried, but nobody wanted to bite. I either looked intimidating, or like a bad deal – people would be too focused on me, if that made sense.

Another point for a helper – help me get a solid spot to heal from. I considered the temple, but that’d just throw a wrecking ball through what Caecilius was doing. That, and if nothing else, I was out and about and visible while doing this. The [Pretty] healing Sentinel offering free healing. It’d make my attempts to do a mass healing later maybe easier, as I was getting to know people.

6000 people was a small town. If everyone knew I was in town by the end of tomorrow, I’d believe it.

Evening started to fall, and I made my way back to the guard’s barracks. Meeting time with the guard captain.

I introduced myself to the guards, who were clearly expecting me. I was swiftly escorted to the captain’s office.

There was a man with the captain. Sitting down, he was at least a head shorter than the captain, which made him taller than me still. He had longer hair, tied back into a neat bundle at the back of the head. He was wearing a simple tunic, the simplicity betrayed by the quality of the cloth and the rich blue dye used to color it.

While he didn’t look pissed, he had a distinct "unhappy" air about him.

The captain stood up, while the man stayed seated.

"Governor Gaius. I’d like to introduce you to Sentinel Dawn." The captain said formally.

Oh shit. I knew I was forgetting to talk with someone. The governor. Yup. That might be an important person to have a chat with directly, instead of through the captain.

Man, he’d even hinted at it to me.

Whoops. No wonder he looked annoyed. I’d dropped into his town, and started running around doing all sorts of things without once talking with him. He probably should’ve been my first contact. I was too used to being a Ranger, to letting Julius handle that sort of thing, and in Perinthus the governor had been notably MIA.

I saluted him, closed fist over my chest, bowing slightly.

"Governor. Dawn here. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I apologize for not coming to meet with you earlier, I ended up otherwise occupied."

Right. A ‘mea culpa’, a show of deference, a polite half-excuse that we could all use to gracefully exit – if he wanted to.

Dear gods, I hated politics and socializing. I needed helpers. As soon as possible. Just get me a conga line of people that needed healing. Have person come in. Elaine-Heal-Bot 3000 lays hands. Heals. Next person!

The Heal-Bot 3000 was easy. The line was hard.

I looked up, to see the governor looking much happier. Me deferring to him, apologizing to him, clearly went a long way.

"Dawn. A pleasure to meet you." He said, with a surprisingly high-pitched voice. "What brings you here?"

I gave the short version of the plague, along with reassurances that of course he probably already knew all this.

"What do you hope to do?" He asked.

"A mass-heal event." I promptly replied. "My skills, knowledge, and experience are letting me know that this is purely a human to human transmission disease, which means that if we cure everyone, the plague’s done. Over. Gone. I go home, everyone continues on happy."

"Human to human?" The governor asked.

Whoops. Common medical knowledge not being so common strikes again!

"Diseases can transmit in a variety of different ways. Person to person, animal to person, water to person, contaminated food, bad air, insects, parasites, and more. Some diseases are purely internal, things like cancer, diabetes, and more. This current one is purely person to person, meaning we don’t need to exterminate all the rats or find a contaminated well or anything." I continued to ramble on about diseases – just a short, quick overview – before looking around, realizing I’d lost my audience.

I coughed awkwardly. Was it my fault that I found talking about disease easier than managing meetings and politics and organization?

The governor and the captain looked at each other.

"Yup. Most certainly a Sentinel." The governor said. The captain nodded in weary agreement.

Hey! What did he mean by that!?

"Help me out. Why is this a problem now? I’m aware that we have a minor disease going around, but how is this any different from any other minor disease that we get?" The governor asked.

I winced. Dude was smart, and was going to roast me hard.

Screw it. Honesty was the best policy, and it’d worked for me so far.

"Honestly… it’s not. You may have guessed, but I’m relatively new at being Sentinel. This is a shakedown run, so to speak, me getting my legs. As opposed to most Sentinels which just go off and murder some moderately high level monster, I have to deal with a bunch of people."

Something in my tone must’ve betrayed me, as both the captain and governor started laughing at me.

"Wait, wait, don’t tell me," The governor said, between fits of laughter. "brilliant at healing. Terrible with people."

I felt my lips pursing together. They looked up at me, and started laughing even harder.

"Alright, alright." The governor said, calming down. "I think I’ve got the picture here. We’ve got a bit of a problem – I will acknowledge that – and I do appreciate you coming in to smash the problem in its early stages. Or late stage. Can never tell with these things."

He had a point there.

"Tell you what. I’ll help you organize this, but put in a good word, or fifty, into your report."

Oh bless him, I’d hire a bard to sing his praises from here to Aquiliea if he was able to handle most of this. Granted, him organizing it also meant he could claim most of the spotlight – and credit, and good will – for the save, but at this point I didn’t care. I’d been dealing with people too much. The relief must’ve shown on my face, as he got a sharp grin.

I should probably do a deep session of weighing the pros and the cons against each other, but I was tired. I wasn’t any good at wrangling people together. He had the recognition, and the authority, and I was happy to hand it off/delegate to him.

"Sure!" I said, thrilled that it was no longer my problem. "I’m working on organizing the other healers in town – I’m meeting with them tomorrow – but in terms of mass, bulk-healing, I work best under moonlight. New Moon was a few days ago, so any time shortly after sunset works best for me to heal dozens of people in one go. Additionally, Caecilius is in town – a [Plague Healer] – and he’s also got bulk healing."

The governor gave me a sharp nod.

"I’m familiar with Caecilius, and him being in town does give merit to the idea of knocking the disease out now. Normally, I’d use a party outside the walls as an excuse, but the solstice just finished, and everyone’s still partied out. However…" He said, drumming his fingers against the chair arms.

Man, he’d stayed seated the entire time I was standing. That had to be some sort of power play or something, but again, I just didn’t care enough at this point. I just wanted this to be done and over, a line of people in front of me to heal.

We hammered out a few more little points, and agreed to meet again tomorrow – at the governor’s place.

Perfect. Now I just needed to meet with the healers!

Endless. Damn. Meetings. Next time I was going to the party, at least the pain and agony would only be an hour or two, instead of this protracted, drawn-out affair.

Seriously, just shoot me now.

"On a last note, I’d like to congratulate Dawn on her apprehension of the Purple Flower grower." The captain said.

"Oh?" The governor asked.

"Yeah, she single-handedly took down the entire thing."

"ehhh… funny story that…" I said.

"Do tell." Gaius said, leaning forward.

"Well… I just walked into his shop."

An awkward silence stretched between us.

"That’s it?"

"Yeah, that was basically it."

The governor facepalmed, while the captain – clearly already knowing the story – laughed himself sick.

I couldn’t help it. The mirth was contagious. I cracked a smile.

…..

"Welcome Sentinel Dawn!" Flavinius said, opening his front door for me personally, at my lunch appointment the next day.

His digs were nice. A big, fancy villa, as nice as anything else this town had. Heck, it even rivaled the governor’s place! Again, it was brought into sharp focus for me how nice healers had it, how wealthy they could become with little to no risk, or danger.

As we walked through the villa, Flavinius playing the perfect host, pointing out artwork and statues and the like, as slaves bustled through, I mentally revised my estimate. My Sentinel quarters were nice, but this was indeed a tier of luxury higher, if only for the extra room for artwork and frescos, and having a large support staff able to wait on you hand and foot.

Ah well. My bed was made – well, not made, I’d gotten up too fast – and I was happy to lie in it.

We made it to the room, and one of the healers instantly got on my nerves.

"Oh, hey, serving girl, get me another jug please." He said, comment directed to me.

Ok, be cool, be calm, don’t-

"Fuck off." I said, barely suppressing throwing him the finger.

Welp, so much for that. And good initial impressions.

This was going to go swimmingly.

Chapter 129 – Deva IV

I looked around the room. Lavish. Luxurious. Probably standard for how a healer lived. Whatever.

What was more interesting were the people here. Four men sat around a central table loaded with the tastiest of – was that a mango!?

Heck yes it was.

Ok, focus. Back on topic.

Caecilius was seated, eyebrows climbing up into his hair, eyes twinkling with amusement and swirling with Mist, marking his element. His poor apprentice wasn’t cut out for this sort of life, making strangled noises in the background.

Three other men were seated around the table. The dude mistaking me for a servant I was mentally dubbing ‘Wine Slob’, because he was asking for wine and looked like a total slob. His back was to me – he hadn’t even looked. Probably guessed I was a servant by my footsteps – it wasn’t like I was quiet, and it wasn’t like I was making big, heavy plodding footsteps like a giant would. Couldn’t see his face, but dude was pudgy, grease stains on the shoulder of his tunic where he was clearly wiping his fingers off.

‘Relaxed’ was what I dubbed the dude who was sitting – no, lounging – in the most carefree manner. He didn’t even glance over or blink at our little altercation.

‘Blue’ was the last dude, on account of having a love affair with the color. His tunic was cyan, with dark blue threads woven, making patterns in his tunic.

Normal so far.

A blue bracelet. Blue hair. Blue sandals. I could practically hear a song being sung in my head.

Brown eyes though. Unlucky him. Would’ve been perfect with his theme. They were incredibly shiny, and if I had to bet, I’d bet on him having a Mirror element. Had the same eyes as Mirror from Ranger Academy.

I shouldn’t have named him Mirror. Ah well.

He was focused on the altercation, slowly putting down his cup.

Wine Slob started to turn around, stormy look on his face.

"Who do-" He started to say, only for Flavinius to step in, trying to keep the peace.

"Peace all. Let’s not fight in my home. Let me introduce Sentinel Dawn, the newest Sentinel, focused purely on healing. Dawn, this is…" He proceeded to rattle off everyone’s name. They went in one ear, and out the other.

However, Flavinius had been nothing but kind, courteous, pleasant, and helpful. I could keep the peace for him – as long as Wine Slob didn’t poke the bear again.

Wine Slob was a Decay healer, focused on removing disease, and other problems. Blue was indeed a Mirror healer, and from the sound of it, had a class like the [Picture of Health] class I’d been offered a long time ago. Relaxed was Steam, which worked a lot like Caecilius, except he had a warming effect with all his skills.

Honestly, not judging Caecilius, but Steam seemed better than Mist in a straight up one to one comparison for healing. Then again, Caecilius had almost 100 levels on the dude, so element clearly wasn’t everything. Whatever.

There were a number of apprentices off to the side, who had been chatting with each other, but fell silent at our little altercation. Most were older than me, which was doing me no favors. Whatever.

"… In conclusion, Sentinel Dawn is here to knock out the Coughing Illness before it becomes anything more serious." Flavinius said, finishing up the introduction, and outlining the problem.

Yeah. Helpers. I needed them. Like Sky needed the Pegasus, or Ocean needed his boat, they were a vital tool I didn’t think I could manage without.

"Thank you." I said, saying something before Wine Slob could get a word out. "While it’s not a problem now, it has the potential to become a problem later. An ounce of prevention’s worth a pound of cure and all that."

The blank looks said that my idiom had completely failed to hit the mark. Ah well. The concept was there.

"Anyways. As Flavinius said, I’m here to straight up knock the plague out before it can become a larger problem. I’m working with the governor, but I’d also like your help."

"What’s in it for us?" Blue asked, in a reasonable tone. Not aggressive, not challenging, just curious.

I blinked at him.

"Um…" I said, at a loss for words. Like, wasn’t it obvious?

"Experience? No more plague? A clean city?" I said.

"Pay, girl. He’s asking about pay." Wine Slob said, rubbing his fingers together. "A sickness like this is good money for us. As long as it’s under control, why should we be concerned with eliminating it? Are you sure you’re any good at this healing business, and shouldn’t just leave it to men who know what they’re doing?"

There was general nodding around the table – even Flavinius was reluctantly nodding. Caecilius had a bit of a frown.

You know what? Screw this dude.

"Without pay, you won’t help?" I asked, looking around. Bunch of reluctant nods.

Bloody hell. This is what happened when the government didn’t believe in any sort of government programs. Heck, I could name exactly four – technically five things the Senate funded. Town walls, roads, the Army, including Rangers and Sentinels, tax collectors, and themselves. Of course, governors also raised taxes, but that was mostly to pay for the local guard, and enforce whatever rules they saw fit in their town. Everything else was left to a laissez faire approach.

Hence, fire brigades refusing to extinguish fires, unless the property was sold to them first.

Hence, cripples who couldn’t afford healing being left to die.

Hence, orphans. With no orphanages.

Hence, healers unwilling to stamp out a plague in its infancy. Bad for business. Why not just let it run its course for some time, milk it for all it’s worth? If it gets too bad, well, business booms more.

Remus, and Pallos at large, was still relatively new, as far as worlds and civilizations went. The concept of "band resources together because it’s easier for us to all do things as a group instead of individually" had clearly made its way through – it was the fundamental basis of government – but what should be done as a group was still, shall we say, a hair shaky. Like healthcare. There’d be fewer sick people if the town just taxed everyone, then paid the healers to heal everyone, no questions asked. Globally better for everyone. The healers still get paid, people still get healed, but a bunch of friction vanished. If people wanted stuff above and beyond simple healing – say, someone old wanting constant healing to feel their best – they could still pay for it.

But nooooo. The government was hands-off. Let people figure it out themselves. Which led to this mess.

Ok, to be fair – I was being paid by the government. If I was totally on my own, not Sentinel Dawn but just Elaine, [Wandering Healer], I might have a very different take on things. I might not be trying to heal everyone for free – I’d want to get enough money to, you know, eat and such, and pay for travel. No way would I travel on the roads alone, without an escort.

Nobody was exactly wrong here. The Senate should really figure out this properly.

Well – I thought back to my Legal lessons. It was a town by town issue, so the local Governor should be the one figuring it out.

Not my challenge, not today. Getting a proper medical system arranged was a challenge for another time and place, and ideally, someone who reveled in that sort of diplomatic wheeling and dealing. Just needed to find the right person, get the idea in their head…

I mentally shook myself. Focus.

At the same time, they weren’t exactly hurting for money. Everyone was rich, not that I blamed them for making a living, and I’d inadvertently increased their workload by accidentally removing one of the other healers in town.

I drummed my fingers on my arm.

"Fine. What would you each want for a single evening of healing as many people as possible? I’m not asking for you to cure any ailment, simply targeting the affliction in question."

"Eh. Don’t we just need to cure people who look sick?" Relaxed asked, contributing to the conversation for the first time.

"No, but yes." I said, after a moment’s thought. "It’s possible to have the sickness and not show it, but still spread it to others. In that sense, you need to heal everyone. At the same time, Caecilius and I are able to mass heal people."

I thought about it for a moment, doing some lightning calculations in my head. The town was small. Not everyone was sick – or rather, the people who were more sick required amounts of mana that were significant, the rest were so small as to be ignored.

"Honestly. End of the day I can do this entire thing on my own." I said. "I’m asking for your help both as a courtesy to you, and to make my life a bit easier. With that being said, let’s discuss pay for a night’s work…"

With that, I sat down, grabbed that mango that had been sitting on the table, tempting me with its luscious goodness, and started peeling – and negotiating – in earnest.

Darn mango was practically all pit.

After a few painful hours of negotiating – didn’t they all have a clinic to run that they needed to get back to – we’d hammered out a deal.

Rather, I’d hammered out a deal with Blue, Flavinius, and Caecilius. Wine Slob wanted too much – I wasn’t willing to meet his price – while Relaxed didn’t seem to care enough. "Too much work" in his words.

I also suspected I’d been fleeced horribly in the deal, but didn’t know enough to say otherwise.

I left the meeting, angry and frustrated. Wine Slob had taken every chance to belittle me, although his crestfallen look when I’d basically said ‘screw it, I’m not going to bother dealing with you’ let me know that he was a hair disappointed that he wouldn’t get paid for the mass heal event. Thought he could bend me to his will, that just because I was a woman I’d cater to his whims. Ha! Not likely.

Caecilius had been the most reasonable, followed closely by Flavinius. They both extorted a bunch of money out of me, but hey, that was life.

Blue drove a much harder bargain, arguing on the basis of being able to bulk-heal. Caecilius taking a single, bulk payment helped negate a bunch of that, and both Blue and Caecilius were getting a single payment.

Flavinius had argued well on being paid per-person. In short, if he managed to heal around 400 people, he’d make a heck of a lot more than the others. Which really wasn’t fair, since they would all be healing more people on average than he was – but on the flip, Flavinius could really only heal people that were visibly ill.

This whole thing was a gods-damned mess. I was doing this solo next time.

Or maybe…

"Caecilius! Hey Caecilius!" I said, catching up to the elderly man as we left Flavinius’s place, all the polite formalities having been sorted out.

"Sentinel Dawn." Caecilius said, perfectly polite, even half-bowing. "I thought our business was mostly concluded in the prior meeting?"

"Oh for today’s stuff, sure! However, I wanted to have a chat with you about a different, long-term arrangement."

Caecilius looked at the sky, at the sun starting to head towards the horizon. He sighed, a deep, weary noise that spoke of ‘darnit, the day’s totally shot isn’t it?’

"Of course Sentinel Dawn." He said, hands folded in front of him. Blah.

"Short, short version, for you to think about." I was shit at reading body language, but I was getting a ‘tired of all this damn politicking’ vibe off of him. Not that I blamed him. I felt the same way.

Please just give me a conga line of people to heal, or a bunch of people in one spot with the moons out. The frontlines were blessedly uncomplicated in that respect.

Maybe I could ask to hang out there now and then?

But then all the Ranger Trainees would be missing the best healing education possible…

Then again, they’d lived so far without me.

Focus. Here and now.

"I foresee that we’ll end up working a solid amount together. Whenever I can be spared, and the plague’s big enough, I’ll also be sent to handle it. No idea how it works on my end, but I know I can have a few people as helpers. I could probably try to wrangle something with you, get a number of your expenses paid, a few privileges, to just… keep doing what you’re doing, and give me a helping hand when I need to handle a plague. No need to give me an answer now, just think about it."

Caecilius blinked. His apprentice was trying to catch flies.

"That is an exceedingly generous offer, Sentinel Dawn." He said after a moment, giving me a quarter bow. "I will have to think on it."

"Yeah, no worries. Not even sure if it’s fully possible, but it should be. You can give an answer at Ranger HQ at any time! Don’t even need to catch me here. You are based out of the capital right?"

He slowly nodded at me.

"Have a good day."

I recognized a ‘I am so ready to get out of here’ when I heard it. Heck, I was of the same frame of mind.

"Thanks! You too!"

He walked away.

Ok… back to the governor I guess?

Dear gods. Endless meetings. Shoot me now. I needed a helper.

I paused a moment, thinking.

I needed a helper… or to get a level so high I could just flat-out purge a town on my own in a single go.

Hmmmmmmmm.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 49600/49600]

[Mana Regen: 40336 (+3086.16)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 18]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 4960]

[Mana Regeneration: 4676 (+1318.632)]

[Magic Power: 4325 (+44331.25)]

[Magic Control: 4325 (+44331.25)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 242]]

[Celestial Affinity: 242]

[Warmth of the Sun: 198]

[Medicine: 210]

[Center of the Galaxy: 236]

[Phases of the Moon: 242]

[Moonlight: 242]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 141]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 161]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 135]

[Bullet Time: 189]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 205]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 196]

[Persistent Casting: 35]

[Learning: 242]

Chapter 130 – Deva V

Three days. It took three whole days of meetings and wrangling and preparation and gods-knows-what-else to finish working everything out, and getting everything, and everyone, organized.

It was a far cry from Perinthus, where we’d been able to get everyone done in a day. Motivation, and prior organization went a long way.

Bless the governor. He’d organized nearly the whole thing, and not only that, he was paying some of the healers. Sure, it was only a quarter or so of what I’d offered them, but the removal of some stress helped.

I had a suspicion that he was going to end up with a lot more in his pocket at the end of it, once he did all his politicking-things well. "I paid for the people to heal everyone" and all that.

While people didn’t elect their governor – it was decided by the Senate – popularity was a factor that was considered, and the Senate would never remove a well-loved governor, which this one was well on his way to being. Well – they’d never remove one that wasn’t actively planning a rebellion or something. Why a governor would plot a rebellion, I dunno. Rich, powerful, got everything you want? Anyways. He could probably also raise taxes, under the excuse of "Had to fix that plague//pay for this event", and people wouldn’t grumble too much.

Excess tax ended up in the governor’s pocket, of course. His pay for running things well. That was ripe for abuse. More of my lessons coming in handy!

They’d still grumble, of course. Nobody was happy when the tax man came around. But the tax man would just get deep sighs and the occasional insult, instead of a shallow grave in the backyard. The governor would get his taxes, and I’d get my damn politics headache removed.

Never. Again. I was going to camp outside of Night’s room until I had minions to help me out with this part of it again. I hadn’t given Kallisto and the like enough credit for making my life smooth and easy in the past. Or all the people in Perinthus who made things smooth.

Nor was I going to discount organizational and social skills. With all the damn work I’d been putting in, I’d hope to get an [Organize] skill or [Meetings] or SOMETHING like that offered to me. But noooo, the System had it out for me.

I looked over my skills quickly.

[Phases of the Moon] - arguably the best healing skill possible.

[Talaria] – Letting me fly.

[Fireball], later [Nova]- The System giving me exactly what I wanted.

Heck, getting [Detailed Restoration] at level freaking 100 – that was amazing, and quite literally saved my life.

Fine. The System loved me, it just tormented me by not giving me anything social. Not that I’d take it… so what was I doing complaining?

Back to the healing event.

We’d split the town into 12 districts, each one roughly 500 people. Sure, the wealthy district had fewer, with the average made up by the slums, but potato, potato. It was being billed as a massive party, an extra festival, all sponsored by various wealthy citizens.

Man, how did he do it? Convinced a bunch of people to throw a moderate party for the whole town? I was impressed. I would never have thought of the idea.

Ocean, to my great surprise, even chipped in a hair. Not enough to count as help, but, well, he’d managed to fish a fairly large sea monster out of the Nostrum, and had happily sold it to the organizers. "Try out exotic sea monster – Extra tasty!" had more than a little bit of appeal, and was helping get some of the more reluctant people out and about.

The guard was going through and talking with the last few stubborn holdouts. Flavinius was starting out stationed in the wealthy district, giving personalized healing to the rich and powerful, which was a lot of hand-holding and bedside manner, for not a lot of actual healing. Still, even if he wasn’t getting his money’s worth out of me, he was making it back tenfold in connections and a personal touch on the richest. I suspect his clientele would dramatically increase after this, especially with the Wood dude’s patients needing new homes.

Heck, if I had billed it this way from the start, he’d probably have worked for free. Ah well. I was happy that he was getting one of the better deals, given how nicely he’d treated me, and how much he’d helped.

He was also on-deck to run around the town with the guards, going directly to anyone who refused to join the event directly, and just flat-out healing them. We suspected we might miss a few people here and there, but the situation wasn’t nearly as urgent as Perinthus was, and the disease was more liable to burn itself out if we missed one or two people. Especially if they were so reclusive as to skip a big party paid for by someone else, and managed to dodge the guard’s attention.

Caecilius had eight districts, and Blue had four to manage. Caecilius had more on the basis of being specialized for this type of work, and quite frankly being dramatically stronger. He could do more than twice as much work and healing as Blue could, but we’d settled on this split.

Privately, I’d told Caecilius that I’d double what I was paying him, but to please not gloat or boast about it, otherwise I’d need to do a whole second round of negotiating with everyone. He seemed pleased at the recognition, and my attempt at fair treatment of everything, and had agreed without making a fuss.

There was some muttering between him and his apprentice, and what I’d gathered was the apprentice was going to try his own skills first, do what he could, before Caecilius cleaned up.

I had no idea what Blue’s plan was, but it was probably similar.

My role was both easy, and hard.

I was doing everyone.

In the same way Markus had set up his Pyronox gates as a back-up for any last bits of healing, I was going back over where Blue and Caecilius had already done their healing, and doing a secondary heal, to catch anything they missed.

Or in Caecilius’s case, anything he Mist.

Artemis was a terrible influence on me.

All my work with Night had resulted in me having a strong, strong grasp on my [Oath]. Something I hadn’t mentioned a ton with the other healers was my free healing sessions after – throwing a rock through their business – but not only was it part of what I’d offered the guards for their help, before realizing I’d been an idiot and should’ve just talked with the governor directly, but it also let me see and heal basically everyone in town without [Oath] kicking in and demanding I take a detour.

I was just going to heal the current disease, and any and all problems were for tomorrow.

Sure, if someone was critically injured, I’d step in and help, but most problems could wait a day.

The sun was setting, and after some time, the moons started to rise – the only way we’d make this work honestly, if I had to lay hands on everyone we’d never succeed, and it was nice to throw a party in the evening – as the governor started his speech to the wealthy district.

I was on a makeshift stage with him, dressed to the nines. Part of my contribution to this whole thing – showing up, looking good, making the governor look good. I was treading dangerously close to politics and being political, but the entire damn mess was politics and political, and there was no dodging it at a certain point. Just had to look as neutral as humanly possible, smile and wave, and get out as soon as I could.

At last his speech was winding down, and fortunately he’d given me a heads up for this next part.

"…and now, Sentinel Dawn, with a few words!"

Whyyyyy did I have to give a speech.

"Thank you so much governor!" I said, mustering up as much cheer as I could. "I’m not going to hold you all – let’s get started!" I said.

A cheer from the crowd, a dirty look from the governor.

Hey.

He didn’t say anything about a long speech, and I was sick and fed up of all the social stuff. I was never ever dodging a party to go to one of these ever again. A party I could at least… well… no that wouldn’t work…

Eh. A party was over after a few hours of agonizing.

This? This was ENDLESS DAYS of hours of agonizing.

Anyways.

It was kicked off, and Flavinius had already started socializing. I was staying on the stage, waiting a moment or so, shaking hands and plastering a smile on my face as people came to meet me.

"Sentinel Dawn! What a pleasure to meet you!" Another nameless, faceless dude in a purple toga said, offering his hand.

I took it and shook it.

"It’s such a lovely town here! So peaceful! So quiet! I’d love to spend more time here!" I said, faking enthusiasm.

Dude beamed at me, completely missing that his name had gone in one ear, and out the other. Good trick, complimenting the town. Everyone had some small amount of civic pride. Usually.

"Have you seen how the light hits the harbor at sunset? Prettier than any gemstone! Why…"

Yup. A real fanatic.

Blessedly, all I needed to do was nod my head and make appreciative noises, and nobody else butted in. Dude was content to tell me all about the town.

Come on Blue, where were you? I needed you to kick off your bulk heal before I threw mine out, then I could start swinging round to the areas where Caecilius was managing.

A shimmering series of flashes that went on for almost a minute, noises from the crowd, and I was jealous. Dude had a much larger area of effect. Was a lot slower than I was though.

Oh well. That was my signal.

"Excuse me, gotta start now." I said, politely smiling at the dude.

"No worries! Thanks for letting me blather on!" He said, giving me a cheery wave.

Note to self: Find people who loved to talk, and were high enough on the food chain, and let them talk to me for hours on end when at my next social thing. That was so much easier and less painful than I’d imagined.

I walked through the crowd, focusing on [Phases of the Moon], empowered by [Moonlight]. I focused on healing only the plague, on catching anything that wasn’t caught.

On one hand, I didn’t need line of sight to people I was healing. On the other, if a group of kids hid under a table and declared it their fort – good fun that – [Moonlight] wouldn’t touch them.

My mana did some wild fluctuations. It was basically impossible to tell if someone nearby was severely ill, or if it was someone right at the range of my area of effect being a little sick. The [Moonlight] distance penalty was harsh.

To offset that, I kept "flickering" it – turned it on, healed, turned it off, walked around a bit, turned it on again. I made a few rounds – it was possible that someone was sick and somehow walking in a way that exactly avoided me – but this was good enough.

This wasn’t Perinthus, where we had to get every single person. There quite frankly wasn’t the political will for it, and having a big party like this was the best we were going to manage.

I had some fun diving under tables though.

"Rawr! The great monster is here!" I announced to the kids, diving under a large table that they’d commandeered to play with.

"Yar! Get her!" One of the kids waved a stick around, with great enthusiasm.

There had been two sides to their fight, and it looked like they had been playing "Humans versus Formorians" – Deva was more on the west coast, so it made sense. The war was a lot closer and a lot more real for them, than it was where I grew up.

However, the great Sentinel-Monster was fun and novel enough that they were suddenly all humans, and ganging up on me.

Perfect. I’d get to contact all of them, and I wasn’t going to just heal the Coughing Illness from them – I’d smack them with everything I had.

About 15 minutes of roughhousing later – hey, it was fun, and I was in desperate need of a break – the monster was "slain", and screw the "bad optics" of the Sentinel, in her gear, being the monster and killed by kids. It was good, clean fun.

I got up, dusted myself off, grabbed my guard escort, and we were off to the next party/gathering!

I had a little map with me, with the order of who was doing what where, and long story short – I did a lot of running around town, from spot to spot.

More monsters were slain, although I did mix it up once, doing a surprise appearance as myself, a Sentinel, when it looked like one side was badly losing. Same difference really.

I made it to the last stop on my merry heal-go-round – the slums – and checked my mana, and my Arcanite.

I was doing well on both.

"Caecilius! How’s it been?" I said, initially greeting him. Somehow, in the mad rush around, moons glaring down on us and torches flickering light all over the place, we hadn’t bumped into each other. Spoke to a well-executed plan in my opinion.

"It’s going well. Any issue on your end?" He asked, dignity in his voice betrayed by the chicken on a skewer leaving grease marks all over his fingers and chin.

I resisted the temptation to laugh.

"Nope! Blue’s only so-so on his bulk healing. I don’t think I had a single person who needed anything more from any of your sections."

Caecilius looked pleased with himself, pride in his word lacing his voice.

"Why thank you. Mist is pretty good at getting everyone."

I refrained from mentally wincing. [Moonlight] was, like, a C at best for bulk healing. Hopefully I could upgrade it on the next class-up.

"Yeah, I’m pretty sure with a solid supply of Arcanite, you could’ve knocked the thing out by yourself."

Caecilius smiled at the compliment.

His apprentice jumped in.

"Not without me!" He said.

"No, probably not." I replied, too happy to do anything.

"Anyways, you wouldn’t mind if I did some mass healing?" I asked, gesturing around broadly. The party in the slums barely qualified, although it looked like someone had pulled a string, and the bulk of Ocean’s sea monster was here.

"No, but it might deteriorate the relationship you have with the other healers."

I shrugged.

"Not my problem" I said, focusing on [Phases of the Moon] to the max range of [Moonlight]. I mentally winced at the mental image that was forming – just ‘heal’.

Screw it.

I focused, and discovered a new trick. I didn’t need to say the skill, just be focusing on it.

With a voice that tinkled like the stars, a word laced with moonlight, an intonation that invoked the vast skies above, I said:

"Heal"

Limps vanished. Eyes restored. Fingers fixed, and arms un-broken. A new lease on life was given to dozens within my range, as my mana vanished in a second. I breathed in, pulling more mana in, and repeated the process, watching most of my mana disappear again.

Caecilius blinked at me, looking around, processing what I’d done. It was his turn to start catching flies.

"What? What’d she do?" His apprentice asked.

Caecilius didn’t answer him directly.

"Sentinel Dawn." He said, as politely and formally as he could manage. "That was incredible. Could my apprentice perhaps follow you and take some notes the next time you perform a feat like that?"

"Sure." I said, a little puzzled by his request, then it clicked.

"Oh. Yeah, I’m going to do it again in a moment. Just gotta move to a different place in the crowd."

Caecilius bowed to me, then straightened up. Seeing his apprentice still looking bemused, he cuffed him.

"Owww." The apprentice said, rubbing his head.

"Follow Sentinel Dawn. Watch her. Try to learn. She’s the most powerful healer alive right now. Her area isn’t the largest, but her speed and detail is unrivaled."

Awww shucks.

I gave Caecilius a brilliant smile at that.

"Thanks! Let’s go apprentice!" I said, diving into the crowd, who was just starting to process that some of them no longer had old injuries.

I repeated the process twice more, draining a good chunk of my Arcanite in the process. I did have a frankly absurd amount of the stuff though.

I was slightly offended that I wasn’t getting credit for my moves though – once the crowd figured out what was going on, they descended upon poor Caecilius, giving him thanks and credit.

I snuck out, after answering a few questions from the properly-awed Apprentice. Hey, he got a nickname now. Sort of.

I worked my way through the empty streets, to the guard barracks, where I had a little room/cubby thing, and crashed. I’d check my level up notifications tomorrow – I’d gotten a few. Hurray!

Chapter 131 – Returning Home I

I yawned and stretched as I got out of bed. I felt absolutely filthy, having lived in my armor this whole time. I briefly contemplated taking a risk and having a bath anyways, before banishing the thought. Ocean’s boat was fast, and hey, who knows, maybe he could like, dunk me in the water and drag me along.

Oooh! Maybe I could water-ski or something! A rope, a plank, and a strong grip was all I needed! Ocean was super fast – yes, yesss, this could be a ton of fun.

My joy was shot down brutally as I looked around my cubby, and saw a little note on the desk.

Dawn,

Excellent work.

Part of being a Sentinel is getting back to HQ on your own after your mission’s over.

I recommend joining a caravan or a merchant’s ship.

Good luck!

Ocean.

That rat-faced bastard. I was going to murder him once I got back to headquarters.

Ok, fine. I now needed to travel across half of Remus by myself. No Sentinel boats or airships, no Ranger wagons.

At least I was better prepared from when I initially tried to run away from home. I still cringed at my idea of "prepared", along with how naïvely I thought I’d just catch up to a bloody Ranger team. They were no slouches in the movement department. I’d now gotten years of wilderness training, along with flat-out practical experience. I could, if I wanted to, literally walk across Remus back to the capital.

That would take me weeks, if not months. I wasn’t exactly a physical classer. I was no courier, no Julius, who could just flat out run across Remus.

Right. Solo travel was out of the question. That left joining up with someone who had better, faster transportation.

On rare occasion, there were couriers who could – generally as a team of two to four – transport a person from A to B. They were insanely expensive, but when it came to a low-level, or just straight up non-combat-oriented but important person needing to quickly get somewhere, and had the money to fund it, they were the people to go to.

They were generally in the capital, and usually if you weren’t in the capital you’d need to send a letter to them, requesting them, saying where you were, and where you’d like to go.

You could buy a house with what they charged for one trip.

They were out of the question. They weren’t in Deva, it’d take ages for the letter to go round trip, and quite frankly my dignity wouldn’t let me. I didn’t want to wait around, then be carted around like a package. I wasn’t a wilting flower.

Granted, "package" looked like anything from being physically carried on someone’s back, to a small luxury wagon, pulled by a horse and someone with serious skills. Mmmm. The last one would be an option, if I could afford it. I had a lot of money. I didn’t have that tier worth of money, not to spend on one trip.

Plus, the quartermaster would murder me.

I could probably earn that much money if I put my mind to it, but that seemed to be a lot of effort for not much in return. As opposed to just traveling, oh, not in luxury.

I wasn’t a pampered brat. I’d survive a different method of transportation.

I really needed to talk with Bluebeard about companions. A massive dino to stomp around on? Yes please!

Or maybe a flier. Oooh, I should get a flier – that way if we ended up in serious trouble, we could both fly up and dodge the trouble. How bad would I feel if we got surrounded, and I could fly away but my companion couldn’t?

Speaking of dignity, I should consider how I wanted to travel. Did I want to be Sentinel Dawn, the world shaking as I stepped? (Ok, shaking a very small amount. Tiny footsteps and all that.) Or did I just want to be Healer Elaine?

I almost immediately decided on Healer Elaine. I could always let the cat out of the bag, but stuffing a cat back in a bag? Yikes, no. I’d get clawed horribly. I swear they all had [Aim for the Eyes] or something.

Alright.

Healer Elaine needed to get from Deva, to the capital.

To start off with, I don’t think Healer Elaine could possibly exist in Deva. Literally everyone in town had gotten a good look at me. That also meant I couldn’t hitch a ride with Caecilius. Also that would be so awkward. "Yeah, I’m a badass Sentinel, and I want you to work for me… also can I get a ride?"

Nope. That’d be traveling as Dawn, not Elaine.

So now my options were… I looked at the letter and groaned.

My options were, practically speaking, an overland caravan, or hopping on a merchant ship, or some other ship moving from where I was, to the capital.

A merchant ship was significantly faster than a caravan. Water being the great mover and all that. It wasn’t even close.

Heck, pretend both moved at the same speed, and it was, by some magic, the exact same distance from A to B. The ship could travel through the night, while the caravan couldn’t. The ship was on water, which didn’t have hills, rocks, fallen trees, and more.

Add in that ships tended to sail faster than an average caravan, and it wasn’t really a contest.

Ship it was. Or was it a boat I needed? Whatever.

Ok, I had something of a to-do list now.

Wrap up my obligations here, which mostly consisted of some free healing, but not enough to piss off Flavinius or Blue, who’d been super helpful.

I should totally set up near Wine Slob’s clinic. Get some nice petty revenge.

A short hop, skip, and jump to a nearby town. This should be pretty easy, possibly doable in a day, depending on what the nearby area looked like.

Find a ship heading to the capital

Buy passage on the ship

Did I need bodyguards? Would Healer Elaine have bodyguards? Shit, she probably would, just for appearances sake. And someone to handle problems for me.

And naturally, get back to the capital.

Right. This seemed to be a solid plan of attack. Mostly, I needed money. A bunch of money. The Quartermaster dude knew his stuff, loading me up with more money, and less survival gear.

Ok, first thing first. Free healing. Mostly for the guards.

… You know what? I was super burnt out on politics and negotiation and stuff.

I left my room, and navigated my way to the front door of the barracks.

"Heya!" I waved to one of the guards, standing around, looking bored on ‘hang out in the barracks’ duty, aka ‘field complaints from people’.

"Sentinel Dawn." He said, formally saluting. "What can we do for you?"

"Well, long story short – free healing for guards." I said. "Got a chair or a table or something I can set myself up on?"

"Yeah sure, one moment."

Like, 15 minutes later, I finally had a table. And basically no patients. It wasn’t like I’d heavily advertised my free healing. Nor was I super interested in doing it. I was still tired.

Sure, some word of mouth would happen, but by the time it really had spread round, I’d be outta here.

I’d be feeling bad about it if I hadn’t just gone through a superhuman amount of effort to organize the anti-plague event.

Speaking of, let’s see the levels!

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 243! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 244! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

Two levels!

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Warmth of the Sun] has reached level 199]

Being around crowds of moderately ill people paying off.

I had to do some thinking on the skill, maybe talk with Night or other powerful healers. Could [Warmth of the Sun] turn into something powerful, a massive, persistent healing aura with enough power and juice behind it to make a noticeable difference? Or was it doomed to always be a background skill, one that made me feel warm – literally.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 242->244]

Yawn. No surprise there.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 210->212]

A level here, a level there, and soon you were talking some serious levels!

Still, this was a miserable leveling rate for what was going to turn into weeks of effort once you considered the return trip. No wonder most people lifetime capped out at a lower level than what I was at.

I’d need to see about putting some serious work into my healing. Maybe Night would bless a trip to the front lines, and I could, I dunno, fly from spot to spot on the frontlines healing people? I can’t imagine better experience.

A little voice whispered in the back of my mind that a civil war or major rebellion would be much better experience.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 242->244]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Moonlight] has reached level 242->244]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Sun-Kissed] has reached level 142]

Surprise! I needed to work on my tan.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 206]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Sentinel’s Superiority] has reached level 196->201]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Persistent Casting] has reached level 35->45]

Like. It wasn’t a ton of levels, but it also wasn’t a ton of time either. Had to work on it some more.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 242->244]

Hang on.

This made no sense.

My [Persistent Casting], like all my other low level skills, shot up like crazy. But once it was around 200 or so, I slowed way down. I should be continuing on at a good clip – [Learning] was capped, and giving me a generous experience boost.

But it didn’t feel like I was getting a generous experience boost. Something was strange. I’d need to have a nice talk with Night about it.

[Pretty] was due to level once I got back! I was half-tempted to let Albina take a stab at me from my worst, but I decided against it. I had standards.

I leaned back in my chair, drumming my fingers against the side.

Ok. Not advertising – big mistake. Not on the healing or not healing front, but because I was boooooored. Guard in. Guard out.

Guards in.

Guards out.

Complaining townsfolk in.

Complaining townsfolk out.

Hmmmm.

Maybe I should eavesdrop on them. Subtly. Maybe I’d hear something like another Nero, another Octavia that could use a sizeable helping of Sentinel justice. Not that I could do what Artemis did, but my [Oath] had nothing against acting like bait, then self-defensing an attacking party to pieces.

Being short, skinny, and [Healer] - tagged helped. Being famous did not.

I scooted over, listening in, ready for my next ADVENTURE!

"… just because you were fishing there yesterday, doesn’t automatically mean you get to fish there today! You can’t keep coming to the guard and asking us to arrest everyone who ‘takes your spot’, because it’s not your spot!"

A fishing dispute. Lovely.

A market dispute, where a guard went out to adjudicate the dispute between two stall owners.

An accusation of theft, which got me excited until I realized the supposed thief was in custody.

A broken wagon in a busy street, a team of guards hustling to help get it out of the way, and traffic moving again.

All stuff I’d seen and heard a dozen times over when I was a kid, shadowing the guards on their rounds. Zzzzzz.

Thinking about it – Octavia had been the outlier, and it wasn’t like Deva was massive and bustling to the point where I’d see cases like hers all the time.

I frowned to myself.

Heck, cases like hers didn’t usually end up at the guards.

I should probably hang out by the river, where laundry was done.

I’d do a lot more good down there than here.

I wandered over to the captain of the guard’s office, where the two guards immediately recognized me and saluted.

"Let me get him." One said, moving towards the door.

There were yelling noises coming from the other side of the door. Someone was getting horribly roasted.

"Hang on! It’s not urgent. I can wait if needed." I protested.

I got a look of disbelief from the guard.

"No, seriously. I’m just hanging around, just letting the captain know where I’ll be if he needs me. Nothing worth interrupting him if he’s busy."

After an eternity – ok, 20 minutes – of waiting, the door to the captain’s office opened. A chastened guard exited, holding back tears.

Yikes.

I brushed him as he passed me, healing him with [Phases of the Moon]. Dude got roasted so badly it wouldn’t surprise me if it ended up physically burning him. I remember the [Roaster] class I’d been offered all that time ago.

The guards gave each other a quick look, a fast mental coinflip going on between them. One of them lost, and opened his mouth.

"Sentinel Dawn to see you sir." He said, and cringed just a bit.

"Why by all the gods above did you leave her waiting!?" The captain came out, roaring at the dude.

"Whoa! Chill! I asked him to. Nothing important!" I said, leaping to the poor dude’s defense.

"Dawn. Come in."

"Eh. It’s just real fast. I’m going to probably wander down to where the laundry’s done, and hang out there. If any guard needs healing, of any sort, send them that way. I’ll be there for free healing for all of you."

He blinked at me.

"Um. Ok."

Great!

With a hop, skip, and a jump, I was off to the river.

I halted halfway there, turned around, and went back to the barracks. I grabbed a long, brown cape-tunic-thing, and wrapped it around me. I looked ugly as sin – [Pretty] was complaining – but at least I wasn’t radiating SENTINEL DAWN HERE. Like, it was still clear who I was, but it wasn’t super obvious anymore.

Back to the river!

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 49920/49920]

[Mana Regen: 40656 (+3107.28)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 40]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 4992]

[Mana Regeneration: 4708 (+1337.072)]

[Magic Power: 4351 (+44815.3)]

[Magic Control: 4351 (+44815.3)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 244]]

[Celestial Affinity: 244]

[Warmth of the Sun: 199]

[Medicine: 210]

[Center of the Galaxy: 236]

[Phases of the Moon: 244]

[Moonlight: 244]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 142]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 161]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 135]

[Bullet Time: 189]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 206]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 201]

[Persistent Casting: 45]

[Learning: 244]

Chapter 132 – Returning Home II

Chapter 132 – Returning Home II

The river had been moderately exciting. I kept hoping to hear a thread of adventure, of an injustice that needed to be rightened, but nope. Nada. Nothing. No great adventure to go on. It was a relief.

I did manage to get a bunch of healing in, and spending time at the river was more fun when I wasn’t scrubbing clothes or waiting for things to dry. I had mixed feelings on being at the center of attention. Back in Aquiliea, I’d been angry and miserable, convinced the world was out to get me, still feeling raw and aching from Lyra’s death. I’d turned down what I now recognized were genuine overtures at friendship, content to simply withdraw into myself.

I’d done more than a bit of growing up since then.

It didn’t stop the constant smiling, the touching and healing everyone who asked ‘just in case’, nor the non-stop barrage of questions from being draining and tiring, but it wasn’t the massive chore I had made it on myself before.

Heck – dare I say it – that type of socializing was almost…

Almost…

…nice?

Either way, I’d spent three days there, before bailing once word had spread I was hanging out here, healing everyone who asked. The area had started to turn more into "The place to meet Sentinel Dawn" rather than "The place to do laundry", and I was starting to get the stink eye.

Plus, nobody could say I hadn’t filled my promise!

Had to keep that in mind though – where everyone was gathering to do chores together was a fantastic area of communication, where anything happening in a town was chattered about.

How had I forgotten that?

One of the women had been so grateful that I’d healed not only her, but all her kids as well, that she offered to fix up what I was calling my "disguise tunic". Basically, I went from "obviously wearing full armor under bad clothing" to "pudgy body with a slender face".

As long as I wasn’t wearing my sword under it, I looked fine. My potion satchel also fit under, no problem.

Which was apparently an ideal body shape for Remus. When everyone was skinny, having a few extra pounds was attractive.

Weird how cultures work that way.

Long story short – well, medium as it may be – I’d left Deva, jogged over to the next town over, lamenting my lack of [Running], spent a night camping next to a ring of mushrooms, and entered the town without too much trouble.

I was wandering around as Healer Elaine, working on getting back to the capital. Healer Elaine would naturally need some bodyguards – and on a practical note, they could help me deflect some problems – however, the ‘temporary bodyguard’ market was slim.

Slender.

One could even call it non-existent, especially for a one-way trip like I wanted.

Especially when I wanted to keep my secret identity. Mostly out of "I don’t want to be bugged."

Which is how I found myself in front of the worst building in any town. The last place I ever wanted to be. A wretched hive of scum and villainy, where no person of repute ever found employment.

The Adventurer’s Guild.

I hesitated at the doorway. Did I really need bodyguards…? I could just do this on my own…?

"Hey sweetcheeks! Wanna have a good time?" Someone passing on the street catcalled to me.

I entered. Fuck it. I was going to get someone or three to, at the very least, handle catcallers. Adventurers were pretty low on my totem pole. Catcallers were even lower.

Dirt and bacteria were above both. They were at least useful most of the time!

Also, adventurers could be used as a ‘face’, aka, I wouldn’t need to negotiate passage on a ship. I could get someone else to do it for me, someone who wouldn’t be looked down on, condescended to, or just flat-out denied based on appearances.

Even if they were – it was their problem to handle. Not mine.

I looked around. I was expecting dirt and grime, a seedy-looking place three seconds away from lawlessness, if not outright brawls. Instead, I got a relatively clean, if sparse, room, a few tables and chairs scattered around. A counter, with a few clerks – one in a heated argument with a team of three, them gesturing to a pelt of some sort and yelling loudly, the clerk with a stubborn look on his face.

A number of low-lives adventurers were hanging around the room, generally with some misshapen set of armor and weapons, no real rhyme or reason to anything they had. A large board dominated one of the walls, color-coded pieces of paper with words and pictures on them scattered throughout.

Probably the quests. My bet? Pictures for the ones that couldn’t read, while the words had the details. A white piece of paper had a picture of a skull and crossbones – some signs were fairly universal – a picture of a slime, then twenty smaller slimes under it. I took a quick peek.

E-Rank Quest.

Slay 20 slimes in the sewers.

32 coin reward.

Seemed fairly straightforward.

"Hey! Healer chick!" Someone called to me. I turned to them, grumpy.

"What?" I snapped at him.

"Wanna join our team?" The dude asked – a level 180 [Warrior].

"No." I said.

"Aww, come on, don’t-"

"I’m here to give a quest, not take one." I said curtly, ducking under his arm and stomping over to the desk. Bah.

"Hiya! I heard something about giving a quest?" The [Adventurer’s Clerk] asked me.

"Yes. Hoping for an escort from here to the capital." I said.

"Ok. Are you expecting to be moved there, or do you have transportation?"

"Hoping to book passage on a boat or something."

The [Adventurer’s Clerk] made some notes.

"Anyone or anything after you?"

"Errr… not to my knowledge." I said. Kerberos’s dad might have a mild grudge against me, but I didn’t even know if he’d gotten the news yet. Non-Sentinel, non-courier travel was slow, and I didn’t see the news rating a high priority message.

I got a skeptical look at that.

"Any bounties on you?"

Hmmm. That was an interesting question. Was there a standing bounty on Sentinels? Did some criminal organization want our heads? Was there some dark, shady slave ring that’d pay thousands of rods to be able to say they sold a Sentinel?

"Not from the government." I eventually hedged.

That got me a raised eyebrow, and a few chuckles from people overhearing.

Furious scribbling at that – much longer than what I’d said.

"Want to tell us why you’re going to the capital? There’s a premium on secrecy."

"Um. Going home?" I said, not quite sure how to answer that.

I got another flat look.

"Ok. Want to tell us how you ended up here?"

"By boat? Or ship? Never can remember the difference between the two."

The poor clerk.

"Right, I’ma call that a half-secret."

I thought fast. I didn’t want to spend more money than I had to.

"I mean, my prior escort bailed on me, wanting to teach me a lesson." I said with a straight face.

Sounds of laughter from behind me.

"Yeah… that’s going to increase the price." The [Adventurer’s Clerk] told me.

Dammit!

"Do you want a small, medium, or large escort? And do you want it to be A, B, or C ranked?"

"Lemme guess. Higher ranked is more expensive, bigger is more expensive."

I got a look of "Well duh", but to the clerk’s credit, he smiled and kept on going.

"Naturally!"

"Could I pay some with healing? Like, old injuries, restored limbs, etc?"

"I’ll make a note of it, and you can negotiate with anyone who wants to take it."

"Speaking of, how does it work from my end?"

"Well, people or groups come up, asking to take the quest. We vet them, to make sure they meet our standards. For example, if you ask for A-rank adventurers, we wouldn’t allow C-ranks to take it. However, if a B-rank wants to take a C-rank quest, we’ll let them. At which point, we’ll send them to you, and if you’re happy, they’re hired. You give us the money, and they get half the pay now, half later. You’re also expected to pay for transportation, but they’re expected to pay for their own provisions."

He paused a moment, then went into "standard speech" mode.

"The Adventurer’s Guild can’t guarantee the safety of anyone, nor will its members commit suicide in the face of unreasonable odds. Additionally, for slaying or retrieval quests, adventurers may bail at any time. Payment on those quests is only delivered upon completion anyways."

Yeah, yeah.

Seemed reasonable. I didn’t really need an escort. I needed warm bodies to run interference, and smooth my path.

"I’ll take a C-rank small team." I said.

"You sure?" The [Adventurer’s Clerk] said.

I then got a long up-sell pitch, which I finally killed by relenting.

"Fine, fine, B-rank small team. If it’s not too pricey." I said.

I was named a price.

I thought on how many coins I had on me, and how much passage on a boat for four people probably cost.

"Nevermind. C-Rank." I said. "Can’t afford the B-Rank."

"Well…" The clerk looked slightly embarrassed.

The price dropped. I gave him a glare, for trying to fleece me.

The price dropped a teeny tiny amount more.

"Fine. Also mention a quarter of the price off for anyone who needs serious healing beforehand."

Not said – I’d heal them anyways if they asked, and really needed it. I wasn’t about to stoop to their level, and not help people who couldn’t pay.

But, hey, if I could get a free escort out of it? That was a form of payment.

"What can you heal?" He asked.

I grinned.

"Everything."

Not entirely true, but anyone who made it to be an adventurer in the first place had injuries I could treat.

They had little spartan rooms, both for adventurers looking for a place to crash, and for people like me, people requesting an escort mission and who didn’t want to go haring all over the place.

A small escort was looking for 3-5 people, and with the rank, and relative ease of the mission, it wasn’t long before I had the first person knocking on my door.

"Enter!" I said. Job Interviewer Elaine here!

Manager Elaine?

Oh gods no.

HR Elaine!?

I’d lived too long. I’d seen myself become the villain.

A giant of a man – well, like, two heads shorter than Arthur, but a bit broader – walked in.

"Here for the escort mission." He said, looking at me with a half-sneer. "Just do what I tell you, and I’ll get your pretty little head back to the capital, safe and sound."

I blinked at him, taken slightly aback.

"Would you listen to me in a fight or a pinch?"

He snorted at me.

"Fuck no."

"Alright. Next!" I said.

"But-" He looked crestfallen, surprised that I dare have the gall to deny his request.

"I have no intention of working with someone who can’t listen to me."

"But you can’t fight!" He protested.

Ah shit. Was my cover blown? Healer Elaine couldn’t fight.

Meh. I just needed people willingly to listen to me, and at the bare minimum, he didn’t treat me with respect.

"Out." I said firmly, pointing to the door, suddenly realizing I was kinda trapped in here.

Or… not. I still had [Wall Buster].

Hmmmm. Good to remember.

My quest was popular, but my "incredibly high standards" – AKA "Listen to me" – meant it took some time to get my team ready.

Brutus, a bare-knuckle brawler who mostly wanted the free passage to the capital. He took the healing discount option, and I fixed a half dozen poorly set broken bones, and a dozen more cracked ones.

What was the dude doing!?

Either way, he was a level 170 [Warrior]. Sure!

Cassia, who’d lost her arm somewhere along the line. She’d been trying hard to earn enough money to afford a healer, and would’ve done anything to be healed.

She’d gotten demoted to D-rank after losing her arm, and D-rank quests barely paid for the necessities of life, forget about amassing enough money for an expensive Light healer. She’d been given special dispensation to apply, since with two arms she was a lean, mean B-ranker.

She almost strangled me with joy when I fixed her arm.

"Don’t… kill... employer…" I’d gasped out, pounding on her back.

She probably felt the armor under my disguise tunic, but said nothing.

"You’re the best! I’ma start off by staying right here to stop anyone getting ideas!" She said, immediately leaning back on a chair like a tightly wound tiger, spinning a pair of knives in either hand, still flexing and looking at her new arm like it was a miracle.

In many senses, it was a miracle for her.

Another [Warrior], although I was pretty sure at this point that there was no [Rogue] designation or anything similar. I didn’t see her in a straight up brawl, more being clever and slipping a knife past defenses. Level 180ish.

Not that I saw us fighting.

Atticus was last, with a fierce little protoavis on his shoulder. He seemed unwilling to listen to orders, but…

"By the goddesses, he’s so cute!" I said, moving my finger in front of his protoavis, perched on his shoulders, wing-arms gripping the dude’s mop of black hair.

He burped, and a small little puff of fire came out.

"Whoops, haha, sorry." Atticus said. "He does that all the time."

"So cute!" I squealed over him.

…I was a total sucker for it.

He was a [Ranger], although I didn’t see a bow or anything. Maybe he had a class related to his absolutely adorable little beastie, and that was enough? Around level 150, seemed low, but then again, there was his protoavis, which was also 150. I vaguely remembered something about bonded companions always being fixed at your level, with how experience was shared and what not.

I should learn more about what classes got what designation. At what point did an [Artisan] making potions turn into a [Healer] designation? At what point did an all-rounder class ID as [Warrior] versus [Ranger]?

Interesting questions for another day! I’d have to bug Maximus when he was next in town, that seemed to be exactly the sort of thing he would know.

Cassia rolled her eyes, but to her credit, didn’t say anything. It wouldn’t surprise me if she was having some doubts – after all, I didn’t seem to be taking this all that seriously.

Didn’t really feel I needed to.

With my nominal escort assembled, it was time for the next challenge – finding a ship to take us!

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 49920/49920]

[Mana Regen: 40656 (+13370.7)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 40]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 4992]

[Mana Regeneration: 4708 (+1337.072)]

[Magic Power: 4351 (+44815.3)]

[Magic Control: 4351 (+44815.3)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 244]]

[Celestial Affinity: 244]

[Warmth of the Sun: 199]

[Medicine: 210]

[Center of the Galaxy: 236]

[Phases of the Moon: 244]

[Moonlight: 244]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 142]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 161]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 135]

[Bullet Time: 189]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 206]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 201]

[Persistent Casting: 45]

[Learning: 244]

Chapter 133 – Returning Home III

I gathered our motley crew together.

"Hey all! Nice to meet you. Why don’t we quickly get familiar with what we all do? I’m Elaine, a [Healer]. I’ve got most of the Light and Dark tricks. You get a problem, talk with me, I’ll patch you up!"

"Brutus." Brutus grunted, not super social. "Hand to hand combat. Anyone down for a quick brawl? We’ve got a healer on hand."

Cassia gave him the side eye. "No."

"Cassia. Knives. Quick and nimble. If it looks like I’m ducking out of a fight – I’m not, I’m either working on a flank, or grabbing Elaine here and getting her somewhere safe – since that’s our main goal."

"HA!" Brutus roared. "A coward’s way! Just beat up any problem, and she’s safe!"

I missed the Rangers. Dear gods, I missed the Rangers so badly. I was regretting my choices immediately. The sheer lack of professionalism.

Also, ideally, we’d work and train as a team for a few weeks before moving out, getting to know each other and our fighting patterns, but… time was money.

Almost literally, as I’d need to pay more the longer this took.

"Atticus. This here’s Alpha." He said, pointing to the protoavis on his shoulder. It squawked at all of us, letting us know in no uncertain terms who was boss.

"I know you didn’t really say, but could you at least give us a hint why you wanted an escort to the capital?" Atticus said.

Cassia and I gave him a Look.

"Ok. Imagine you’re the captain of a merchant vessel. Some pint-size girl comes up to you, wanting a ride. What do you say?"

"No? The sea’s no place for a lone woman?" Atticus asked, trying to see the trick in the question.

I facepalmed as Cassia laughed her ass off.

"That’s why she needs a damn escort!" She said. "I heard her trying to arrange for the quest – wanted the bare minimum. You basically just need us to smooth things for you from here to the capital, no?"

"Exactly!" I said. "Also, as to why I’m going to the capital – I live there. I don’t live here. Hence. Needing to get home."

I looked at Brutus, hulking giant, disappointed that we weren’t going to have a friendly getting-to-know-you brawl. I looked at Atticus, slightly scruffy looking, but otherwise fairly presentable.

I weighed the odds of Brutus making it to the docks and back without a fight.

Nah.

If anything, I’d be taking bets if he got over or under three fights.

Cassia would probably have the same problem I’d have.

"Hey Atticus – can you find and arrange transportation for us on a ship to the capital?"

He looked at me. He looked around, at Cassia flipping knives, and Brutus getting bored and starting to lift his chair as a workout.

"A wise choice. Sure. What’s our budget?"

With a huge amount of stealth I took off my backpack, turned around so the contents were hidden, and started rummaging through it.

Ok, so it was obvious I was trying to keep the contents secret.

I looked at my much-diminished stash of coins. I reserved half a rod’s worth – for my own food – and named how much was left.

"Ehhhh. Yeah lemme see if I can make that work." He said. "Mind if I head out?"

Alpha squawked at me, letting me know it wasn’t a request. I rolled my eyes at the imperious bird.

"Yeah, go nuts."

Atticus left, and I looked around. Brutus was now doing pull ups on the doorframe, while Cassia was twirling a knife around with her newly created arm, still looking at it like it was a marvel.

"I still can’t get over this." She said. "You’ve given me a new lease on life. You sure you don’t need a long-term bodyguard?"

I hesitated.

"Maybe. Let’s talk about it later?"

"Yeah sure."

I expected there to be a snag, a snafu, some problem. A thief in the night. Atticus running off with the coin, instead of paying passage. A captain who took one look at us and refused passage. Cassia cutting herself as she re-learned her arm. It went almost entirely smoothly, and I found us packing up to leave nearly seven days later.

Seven very boring days.

Hey, it wasn’t every day a merchant was leaving for the capital.

Brutus, predictably, was the problem, as he insulted and tried to brawl nearly everyone on the way to the docks.

Except the guard. He wouldn’t mess with the guards, and that gave me a happy warm smile that I kept to myself. He did flip them off when their back was turned though, which just continued to give me a low opinion of him, and adventurers in general.

I was trying to be nice, to give them a shot without my prejudices showing. It was hard.

After the third brawl with a sailor – we were so close to the boat, dammit! – I had to pull him aside and remind him.

"Look, please, we’re all trying to get to the capital. If the guard gets mad at you, you’ll have to pay the fine yourself."

He looked stunned at the revelation.

"But I’m guarding you!"

"But I don’t need guarding from someone you pick a fight with!"

"How else could they know you’re not to be messed with! Plus, free healing. Always nice. I can fight all day!"

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Adventurers.

"Look, please just follow along."

We boarded the boat, and while I hadn’t quite thought of it, I was fine with the arrangement.

Basically, Cassia and I got a room together, and Brutus and Atticus got a room together.

On the other side of the boat.

Not great for escorting me around, but ah well, Cassia was nearby, and I wasn’t expecting problems.

I’d kinda expected to have my own spot by myself, but this worked. I wasn’t going to complain.

We had a quick huddle as we got on board and stashed our stuff.

AKA I kept carrying around all my gear, because I didn’t trust anyone to not rifle through it.

"Captain says it’ll take three weeks to get there. We’re not expected to help, but we’re expected to stay out of the way. Meals are twice a day in the mess, and we’re welcome to join. Might not be the best food, but hey. It is what it is."

Three weeks!? It had taken Ocean three days!

I looked around the creaking ship. It was big. Four layers of decks, each one loaded down with crates of stuff – trade goods from the town to the capital.

From the smell I was getting – wine. A boatload of wine.

This was also one of the larger trading vessels I’d seen.

Made sense to be so slow…? Maybe?

Heck if I knew.

"Sounds good." I said.

"Also…" Atticus said, then looked at me, looked at Cassia’s knives, and hesitated.

"What?"

He took a step back.

"CaptainSaidNotToTemptTheSailorsThisIsAShipNotABrothel." He spat out as fast as he could, then turned and ran.

Cassia was most certainly a physical class, specializing in both speed and dexterity. I’m pretty sure she stabbed extra-hard, and poked him a few times more than she normally would, on the basis of me being around.

First day – first hour – and we were already leaving blood on the planks.

Wonderful.

This trip was going to go swimmingly.

Our cabin was tiny, and we didn’t even have beds, just a pair of hammocks. Didn’t even have anywhere to store our stuff, just a few ropes tied to the wall.

"Usually this is the 3rd mate’s quarters." Cassia happily told me, expertly tying her bag to the wall. "Nice of them to let us have it."

Uh huh. Nice.

Well, nothing for it.

I tied my bag to the wall, blessing Ocean for having given me a crash course on knots, even though I remembered like, three. I know he’d taught me a better knot for this, but I had no idea what it was.

"I’m not one to pry…" Cassia said.

"But you’re going to pry." I said with a sigh.

She held her hands up in surrender.

"I just wanna know if whoever owns your armor knows you have it, and will be coming after us! Is it some soldier that you’re on the run from? Oooh! Or is there some romantic story! Tell me everything!" She said, eyes gleaming.

I gave her a flat look.

"… how about knucklebones?" She suggested.

Meh. Anything to change the topic.

Cassia wrecked me. I’d forgotten just how badly I lost at physical games of skill.

She didn’t even need to cheat!

I ended up spending most of my time in my cabin, bored, going more than slightly nuts from the boredom. The ever-present wine fumes didn’t help, and if it wasn’t for sleeping under [Veil of the Aurora], I believed I’d wake up tipsy. I’d specifically excluded alcohol from my [Persistent Casting], wanting to have the option of getting drunk now and then, knowing I could always purge it with [Phases of the Moon] if needed.

And bonus! I never needed to worry about liver damage or anything else like that! Being a healer was awesome.

When I did wander out now and then, Atticus and Brutus were, to their credit, always somewhat around, and we’d all eat our meals together. "Sailor Slop" it was called, and I eyed the mess somewhat uneasily before figuring that I’d eaten worse during hell months, and that I could heal myself if it ended up being that badly poisoned.

The fact that I tucked into it with only a moment of hesitation seemingly won me high marks in the mysterious calculations of the sailors. Which led to them propositioning me and Cassia. Which led to Brutus happily, cheerfully, and entirely unbidden "defending" us – usually with his fists.

I didn’t need "defending", nor did Cassia! Blasted unprofessional adventurers.

Which led to an unhappy captain. Despite the fact that I healed everyone up.

And since it was touch-based, the sailors quickly got it in their head of "sexually harass Elaine, get touched by her after a short beating"

Perverts.

Which led to me spending all my time in the cabin, to minimize more problems.

Which led to me not noticing the mist rolling over the boat.

Which led to me missing the non-existent sound of a ship creeping through the waves towards us.

Which led to me not hearing the cloth-wrapped footsteps of pirates landing on the deck, three at a time.

No, the first time I became aware of any of this, realized there was a problem, was when the door burst open, and Atticus and Brutus slowly backed into the room, making it cramped beyond belief. It was hard to see past them, especially as we got pushed all the way to the back of the room, my back pressed against the hull, but I could see some brightly colored slashes of cloth, swords, and mean, gravely noises.

"Alright! Hands in the air, where we can see them!" A nasty voice came through. "We’re the Silver Manacles! Resist and be run through!"

Joy. Pirates.

"You lot are adventurers, right?"

"R-right." Atticus stuttered out, his protoavis completely silent.

"What are you lot doing here?"

"E-e-escorting her." Atticus said, pointing to me.

Somehow a minor gap appeared, and the pirates could now see me.

The lead pirate had no parrot, no eyepatch, no peg leg, I was disappointed. Instead he just looked hungry and mean, and was eyeing me up with no small amount of glee.

"A pretty [Healer]! I’ve always wanted me one of those!" He said.

"Right then. You lot have a quest or some shit to move her, right?"

"R-r-right." Atticus said.

I was starting to see why he was only level 150. Complete fear in the face of adversity.

"Well, there’s thirty of us, and three of you. How about we pay you to stand down, we’ll tie you up or some shit, and you can claim you tried and failed. We’re doing the same with the sailors – only taking half their shit, and nobody dies."

Atticus’s head bobbled like it had lost all bones. Brutus just folded his arms.

Cassia, bless her, stepped in.

"And you promise nothing will happen to me?"

Aaaaand there went my evaluation of her.

The pirate eyed her up.

"Yeah, no, nothing."

"Fine." She said.

"I fixed your arm!" I cried in protest, unable to believe the treachery.

She shot me a sympathetic look.

"I know. I’m sorry. But there’s nothing I can do."

I looked to Brutus.

"I love a good brawl. But one against forty? I can’t do that. Nobody can win one against fifty."

"Ha! Hear that missy? Now come along, real quiet like, and this will be over soon enough."

I looked around the tiny, cramped room. The three adventurers, with Cassia the only one showing an ounce of shame. The pirates, leering at me, promising a terrible end.

I unhooked the clasp of my cloak, letting it fall to the ground, rolling my shoulders, getting ready for a fight.

"Fucking useless adventurers."

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 49920/49920]

[Mana Regen: 40656 (+13370)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 40]

[Strength: 236]

[Dexterity: 203]

[Vitality: 560]

[Speed: 480]

[Mana: 4992]

[Mana Regeneration: 4708 (+1337.072)]

[Magic Power: 4351 (+44815.3)]

[Magic Control: 4351 (+44815.3)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 244]]

[Celestial Affinity: 244]

[Warmth of the Sun: 199]

[Medicine: 210]

[Center of the Galaxy: 236]

[Phases of the Moon: 244]

[Moonlight: 244]

[Veil of the Aurora: 212]

[Vastness of the Stars: 139]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 180]]

[Radiance Affinity: 180]

[Radiance Resistance: 180]

[Radiance Conjuration: 180]

[Radiance Manipulation: 180]

[Sun-Kissed: 142]

[Blaze: 180]

[Talaria: 161]

[Nova: 180]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 136]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 135]

[Bullet Time: 189]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 206]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 201]

[Persistent Casting: 48]

[Learning: 244]

Chapter 134 – Returning Home IV

My disguise tunic – bless the woman who’d stitched it for me – fluttered to the ground, inscriptions lighting up as I activated them.

There was a stunned silence as I quickly walked back – deeper into the room – grabbing one of the "all in one" boosting potions I had in my potion satchel which I’d kept on me the entire time, quickly downing it.

I had to make several snap calls right now, without the time to think about them fully and properly. I was a mage, and I was alone. I was up against a bunch of warriors, in close, cramped quarters. Heck, you could barely swing a sword in here, let alone do anything else.

With how everyone had shoved themselves into the room, I’d been pushed to the very back of the room, separated from my bag.

And my sword.

I had my ever-present knife on me though, and with how cramped everything was, a knife was infinitely better than a sword. I didn’t want to be close enough to anyone to start stabbing though. The rule on physical versus magic Classer fights was when the physical Classer closed in, they won.

I didn’t need it – I was a healer first, a mage second, and stabbing someone with a sword was plan F, aka everything’s fucked, but it would be nice to have.

Not all that critical, so I left it behind. I’d pick one up from a pirate. They were all close enough to each other for my purpose.

I had my knife, and I had my magic. That was enough for me. Better than trying to push through the crowd, grab my bag, rifle through it, get my sword, and go.

I had some specialized gemstones, and some powerful gemstones. I didn’t want to blow the powerful ones right off the bat. Like Sealing’s barrier gem. That was a ‘break in case of emergencies’, and while bad, this wasn’t at that level of emergency yet.

I needed space. I needed a lot of space, and I needed it fast.

As I was guzzling the potion as fast as I could, my other arm reached out, touching the wall of the ship.

Bless not needing to say skills. Otherwise I’d never have been able to use [Wall Buster] on the wall while I was drinking down the last of my potion.

The resulting explosion brought people back to their senses.

"Get her!" The pirate called out.

The adventurers weren’t entirely useless. They made it slightly harder for pirates to follow me, filling up space in the cramped cabin.

Internal moveable ballast. Basically, all they were good for.

I didn’t want to blow us all up, and the adventurers were, at this point, technically neutral. I couldn’t harm them, not even as collateral damage, so throwing [Nova] around was out of the question.

A thin beam of Radiance though, was entirely on the menu. I shot it out at the first pirate pushing his way through the cramped room, aiming for his face and eyes. He went down with a scream, and some knives started to fly towards me, mostly over Cassia’s head, activating [Bullet Time]. I threw up [Veil], noting my mana getting chunked as the knives hit.

I took a quick moment to look outside.

A deep, heavy fog covered everything, but I could distantly, faintly, see the sun shining.

Fog? In the middle of the day, with the sun shining through it? This was a skill.

And Radiance was good against Mist, which fog had to be part of. I started to blast as much Radiance as I could in a powerful cone, sweeping it around, trying to do enough damage to the skill to break it, to allow the sunlight to shine though and give me a flight path.

I dropped [Veil] so I could see. Benefit of a snap-shield. I could drop it and raise it, as long as some skill wasn’t persistently pushing on it – like a gout of flame or pressing a blade into it or something.

I looked back at the pirates starting to move. Kerberos’s surprise movement skill was still fresh in my mind, and if a pirate got a hand on me, they’d be able to use their superior physical stats and bulk to just pin me down and hold me, and I’d flat-out die at that point. Like, I could kill the first one, but I’d still be pinned by the body, letting the second one get to me. The third. The fourth. It was how mages died, and they’d talked about making me a slave, which strongly implied that they had mana-disabling skills. Or some other skill that could cripple and disable me.

Fuck. That.

Best to get moving now, and avoid any surprises like that. Either movement surprises, quick-slash moves, or a crippling skill of some sort.

I wanted to give my attacks on the Mist enough time to break the skill, to let the sun shine down on me, letting me grab some airtime with [Talaria]. Being a flier, being up above everyone else, being able to rain down attacks on them, was exactly the position I wanted to be in. Much better than the cramped quarters that let physical dudes get a chance at me.

I’d probably need to re-enter the ship at some point, but I had a plan for that. I needed nobody to be looking at me when that happened though.

Still, I wasn’t going to stick around. If I waited any longer, they’d either break [Veil] and be close enough to me to grab me, or drain all my mana hitting [Veil] hard. Both were bad. I gave one last sweep of Radiance, the sun showing up. Perfect!

It had only been about five seconds since I’d blown a hole open in the hull. If one thing had been hammered into my head – fights were fast.

I jumped off the side of the boat, grabbing the sunlight with [Talaria] –

Only for a fogbank to roll back over me, canceling out my skill.

"Fuck!" I yelled, as I dropped down.

While [Veil] was an option, standing on my [Veil] still ate mana at an atrocious rate. I’d only used it to break my fall so I didn’t land too hard on the ground, but I was going to hit water – no need to slow down too much. I’d just swim back out.

Didn’t stop me from using [Veil] right before the water, so I didn’t sink too deep. I wanted to be mostly near the surface, to easily get back out. Water wasn’t my domain at all, and I was scared of going too deep.

Of the monsters that had to be lurking below.

I hit the water, having dropped some 5 meters or so to it, [Veil]-bouncing not included, and promptly started to sink like a rock. I stabilized and started swimming back up after only dropping half a meter or so under water. A reasonable depth, easy enough to swim out of. I opened my eyes, the water making everything look weird.

On Earth, if a person, regardless of how strong a swimmer they were, fell into the water wearing a bunch of armor, they would drown.

Bless stats. Bless potions. Bless the inscriptions on my armor.

All of it made swimming doable, like I was wearing a normal outfit. I started to kick and work my way back up, before I processed exactly what I was seeing.

Three pirates – I had to assume they were pirates – had been lurking underwater, blades drawn.

And they were swimming towards me.

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Radiance was almost completely useless inside of water like this – the water split the beam, and all the heat and energy was just eaten by the water, which dispersed it all over the place. Basically, I cooked the water, not whatever was threatening me.

And I’d jumped out without a weapon. Although, I still had my knife. A knife, underwater though, where their skills reigned supreme? Nah. Better to ambush them with Radiance.

And the pirates seemed to have some ability to either breathe underwater, or stay under a long time. They could just… grab my legs and pull me down until I drowned.

They reached me, and I’ll admit, I started to panic, thinking I was dead. I burst through the surface of the water, and I took great big gasping breaths, choking and coughing out water.

Air! Life! Fuck the water, I knew it was a bad idea to be over it.

Ocean was a certifiable lunatic, wanting to be in and near water.

Two of them went to either side of me, weapons in hand, and, instead of grabbing my legs and pulling me to the depths -

Surfaced next to me.

With their blades still drawn, pointed to me in warning. I practically went cross-eyed trying to see one of them.

Hint. Taken.

"Listen missy." One of the pirates was saying. "I know being a slave’s bad, but dying’s so much worse! Just give it a few years, eh?"

I blinked at him.

Did he –

Ha!

Sexism strikes again, in my favor! He was too busy seeing the pretty female face that he missed the "armored like hell" and "glowing dangerously" parts.

And I hadn’t been crippled either! [Healer] tag striking in my favor!

Wait, why would there be pirates in the water? Why would they so naturally point swords at me instead of drowning me, and instantly start talking about ‘slavery not being that bad?’

Ah. 500 coins said that people tried to jump ship – or throw cargo overboard – to dodge the pirates all the time, and they were here to quite literally fish the ‘valuable cargo’ out of the water.

It wasn’t that they were missing the glowing armor or anything. They probably just didn’t care, didn’t register as a threat. I’d dived overboard, which implied I wasn’t a fighter, and to be fair, I was a healer-tag, with two swords at my throat.

Heck, in their shoes, I’d assume I was doomed.

Two pirates. One on either side. Two blades pointed at my neck.

It was pretty clear cut, but I saw no reason to not, you know, negotiate a hair. I’ll give them half a chance to live.

"Unhand me or die." I said. As I said. Half a chance.

Their grip tightened, and I felt some skill take hold, trying to move all my mana regeneration to… something else. Was that an underwater breathing buff they were trying to give me, crippling my mana in exchange? Made sense – the guard had a similar skill to take people prisoner, it was only logical that ‘fish slaves out of the water’ pirates had a similar crippling skill. Prevent pretty slaves with [Nova] from blowing them all up while they slept.

Right then.

I had the [Curse Breaker] gem – I was going to kill them both, and see if the curse persisted. Then I’d consider breaking it.

Although, if it really was underwater breathing, I might want to keep it around. Seemed handy in the current situation.

I wasn’t going to give them the time.

I wrapped my hands around the first dude’s sword – his hands were too far away – mentally throwing both a [Nova] and a tight beam of deadly Radiance at the second dude. I wasn’t quite sure how much to kill the dude, and I wanted – needed – him dead, so I could fight the dude in front of me. No sense trying to perfectly kill both of them, only for both to live then kill me. I’d take my chances in a grappling 1v1 then maybe killing both, or maybe being in a 2v1.

[*ding!* You have slain a [Shallow Diver] (Water, lv 130)// [Slaver Pirate] (Metal, lv 111)]

The blast from [Nova] burned and scarred the first dude, the second one having been instantly killed. I’d expected the first pirate to try and run me through, at which point I’d do my best to deflect, dodge, or just plain sink to avoid the attack, but instead he reflexively brought his hands up to his face, trying to protect his eyes against the burning [Nova] explosion that’d occurred point-blank, ripping the sword right out of my hands. It’d be a futile attempt to try and restrain him physically somewhat, but hey. It was better than doing nothing.

He sliced himself somewhat with his sword, and I finished the job with a brief burst of Radiance through his head, right before I started sinking again.

I kept my eyes open underwater, seeing the pirate’s sword dropped right in front of me.

I grabbed his sword before it could sink into the depths.

Now I was armed with something a little more dangerous than a kitchen knife.

The curse was also gone. Ah well, so much for underwater breathing. I’d probably have broken it anyways, just to get the regeneration back. I had tons of Arcanite, but every bit mattered.

I started to just widely blast Radiance into the mist around me, as I looked around.

I took a moment to take stock of my surroundings. The mist was starting to clear – all my work on it had clearly managed to break the skill, and now that it wasn’t powered by a skill, the sun was doing its thing. The merchant ship was large, and there was a much smaller ship tied up next to it – obviously the pirate’s ship. They didn’t seem to be moving much, which was good. Easier for them to board, easier for the three underwater pirates to hang about, easier for a skill to roll a fogbank out and coat them. I seemed to have come out on the other side of the ship than the one I blasted open – so no crowd of people looking down on me. I had a few moments of relative alone-ness. Except for that one pirate still underwater.

Right. First things first. I needed to get out of the water. [Talaria] didn’t work when my feet were underwater. Fortunately, the last diver pirate was staying far away from me – I could see him swimming under me, like a deadly shark, waiting to strike in a moment of inattentiveness.

I scrabbled against the smooth hull of the ship, unable to get any purchase to lift myself out of the water. No luck.

The pirate ship had oars out on one side of it, the side not hooked up to the merchant’s ship. If my next few things didn’t work, I’d swim over there. I wanted to avoid doing a bunch of swimming, it would make it easier for a pirate to spot me and try to shoot me while I was in the water.

I tried to stab the hull of the ship with the sword. It just deflected off.

Bloody skills. The captain probably had something like [Strong Hull] or something equally absurd, preventing my relatively light blows from landing or gaining any purchase.

My evaluation of [Wall Buster] went up a dozen notches, before I remembered Night telling me not to use it on town walls, unless I really had to.

Yeah, if it could take out a town wall, a ship’s hull would be like paper before it.

Ok, I couldn’t lift myself out of the water enough to get a purchase with [Talaria]. Time to be inventive, before I was forced to swim and expose myself more.

Think… Think…

This was the most awkward solution.

I flipped myself upside down, and started doing a weird stroke – mostly just moving myself a bunch – until my feet were sticking out of the water, and the rest of me was under water. I activated, and could feel [Talaria] gaining purchase, at which point I half awkwardly "stepped down" upwards, half swam up and out of the water, until I was fully out.

A quick, athletic half-flip later, and I was upright again, climbing fast until I was looking down on both ships.

I had a nice, bright Radiance glow coming out of me – not so bright that you couldn’t look, but bright enough that you’d need to squint, or shade your eyes.

The rising of the sun.

The Dawn had arrived.

I mentally cursed that a leather skirt was part of the standard outfit. I needed to talk with the Quartermaster about a different outfit.

I used the [Amplify Voice] gem to make myself loud.

"Pirates!" I said, grabbing everyone’s attention. I winced – there was nothing in the skill that stopped blowback. How did people not go deaf using this skill?

"I am Sentinel Dawn." I said, quickly thinking of and discarding a dozen different things to say. Whatever. Keep it short and sweet, speak their language.

"Fuck off or die."

Yeah, that was about as straightforward as I could manage.

Dozens of pirates boiled out of the ships, onto the deck. Including the pirate that had been the leader of the pirates accosting me, and a very fancy-looking pirate, who I mentally dubbed "The Boss". Looked like the boss.

"Kill her!" He shouted, loud enough that the voice carried to me. With a roar, the pirates started to throw weapons and skills at me, most not coming close.

Fine then.

"Anyone may surrender at any time by kneeling down and putting their hands on their head." I announced. Had to give people a way out, otherwise they’d all fight to the death. Give people a retreat and all that.

"The rest of you –"

"Perish."

Chapter 135 – Returning Home V

Time to put my SERE training to the test, push it to the limits. It’d been designed for a full Ranger team against a rebellion or large bandit camp – but one Sentinel against a few dozen pirates was roughly the same scale and ratio.

I started to pulse the Radiance glow around me rapidly, pushing it to full strength one moment, withdrawing it to almost nothing the next, then pushing it out again. It was possible to adapt to a constant, bright glow. It was almost impossible to adapt to a disco-ball style rave ball, constantly flashing bright lights. I was going through a dozen cycles per second.

Warning: Looking at Sentinel Dawn may trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy.

The attacks started to go askew, even more than before – most people weren’t equipped to shoot down a rare flier in the first place – and I kept moving as fast as I could, remembering to constantly draw in additional mana out of the Arcanite in my armor, making sure I was perpetually topped off.

It became rapidly clear that there was at least a Wood and a Metal mage, who I mentally added to my list with the Mist-aligned pirate that had to be running around. I wouldn’t put it past them for there to be other types of mages, but so far, their attacks were easy enough to avoid. Screwing everyone’s vision up was great. Hard to hit what you can’t see.

A few shots did come close, but they were spent, clattering harmlessly off my armor.

And being a flier, well, air versus ground combat was pretty easy from my perspective. Just drop stuff on them.

Like [Nova].

I started to drop [Nova] on crowded clumps of pirates, then rapidly changed to "whatever pirate I could still see" as a half-dozen kill notifications came streaming in, and the pirates – captain included – vanished off the deck to below-decks on both ships, leaving with me the smoky remains of some small fires burning.

I didn’t use my beams, because they were only effective in a relatively short range. [Nova] could travel much further, and it kept me out of range of more skills, as well as making attacks travel twice as far to get me.

One [Nova] was generally enough to kill the average pirate, and just over a second worth of Radiance beams on a head killed. From the looks of their classes, that was for physical Classers. Magical Classers would probably go down faster.

I eyed the ships, and for a moment, seriously considered just burning both of them down. I shook my head.

There were innocents on the merchant ship for sure, and from the classes and what I’d seen of the pirates, they were busy capturing a bunch of people to sell off as slaves. While their boat was more like a longboat, and it’d break apart and give people a chance to swim away, there was no telling if people were chained to each other, chained to the hull, or something else.

The merchant’s ship would end up being a coffin for anyone inside without a good underwater breathing skill, and even then, there was no telling how far it could be pushed.

Plus, I still wanted a lift home.

Could I… just steal the pirate ship and sail that away on my own?

I considered it, before realizing that there was no guarantee that people on the ship would know how to sail. I cursed my lack of sailing lessons.

Fine. The hard way it was.

I flew over to the pirate ship, and proceeded to happily set as many sails and ropes on fire as I could find though. It shouldn’t spread too badly, not with skills being involved, and it might light a fire under the pirate’s asses.

Although – whoops, sails burned really fast.

I also tried to burn things that looked important. Blowing stuff up was so much easier than building stuff.

I did a quick sweep, looking at the various weapons that had been dropped, either by a panicking pirate, or by one of the pirates I’d managed to kill. I found a sword that was almost exactly like the usual short swords I was used to using. Army surplus? A caravan raided? Some soldier turned to a life of crime?

Irrelevant questions honestly. I upgraded.

Eight down so far. Generally between level 110 to 160. The dude had said there were thirty pirates, but after the goblins, I didn’t believe that was the right number. They either inflated the number, to seem more intimidating, or deliberately undersold the amount. Still.

More of the pirates seemed to be on the merchant ship than the pirate ship, so I decided to start with the pirate ship. I looked at the deck, flames surrounding me as the ropes burned, toppled barrels rolling around. I looked at the two entrances, open, inviting me in like a wolf invites a rabbit into his maw.

No way there weren’t weapons readied for me.

At the same time, there were no eyes on me. I could finally implement the next part of my plan.

Time to be clever.

I’d been given a bunch of gemstones to help me out, and some were a lot stronger than others. [Light] was pretty weak, all the way up to the [Wall Buster] I’d used, and another skill I considered the strongest I had on me.

[Invisibility With Eyeholes].

I cast it, seeing my body just… vanish. It was disconcerting, to say the least. Like, how did it know to move with me? How did it keep my sword invisible? How did…

I wasn’t going to overthink it. All hail magic. All hail skills.

To play it safe, I also hit myself with [Muffle], and [Tracks-Be-Gone]. No idea if the [Tracks-Be-Gone] would do anything, but hey. I was in a bit of a pinch here.

I did some experimental jumps, seeing the eye holes jump with me. I then willed it to stay as I dropped down, and the entire world dropped away from me, inky darkness surrounding me as I lay down on what I assumed was the deck of the ship, the eye slits shining light inside.

Freaky.

I stood back up, and got the eye slits realigned. Right. I could see out of it, and they could only see my eyes, if they were looking in the right place. Talk about major advantages! At the same time, I was slightly worried. Radiance was the bane of Mirage skills – if I blasted too many shots through the skill, would I break it?

Possibly. Possibly not. I needed this skill too badly to risk it though, which left…

Laser eyes.

Meh. I suppose I could also slip an invisible knife between their ribs, or slit their throat.

Oh wait – something to try really fast…

Nope. Couldn’t fly while invisible. No sunlight reaching my feet.

Fine then. Sneaky [Arcane Trickster] Elaine time!

I glanced at the other ship, still tied to the pirate boat. I had a plan I wanted to use to get in… but it’d need to wait for the bigger, badder boat. Fewer people here, I could test run how this went.

From my understanding of invisibility, I was still there, just hidden. I had a good grasp of myself, I knew where all my limbs were without needing to look or see them or get any sort of feedback.

People would look for me at head level. My major weakness right now were my eyes being seen.

My solution? Crawl on the floor. Especially the first few times, before they caught on that I was invisible, I might be able to sneak past some eyes.

I was seriously tempted to stick the sword in my teeth. Horribly impractical, but I was fighting pirates.

Sadly, practicality won out.

I considered just blasting through the floor, although I couldn’t see who was on the other end.

Although... could I drill little holes through the planks, then look down through them, and snipe whoever I saw?

The idea seemed to have merit, although as I thought about it, I realized a key weakness.

I’d have to block the hole with my eye as I looked, which would give them a great "Shoot here" indicator.

However, the idea was still valid for a distraction.

I ran up and down the length of the hull, looking down and firing little blasts of Radiance, just enough to burn through the deck, not enough to do much more than that. Took me a few tries to get the hang of it, but hey. It worked.

It was also a solid destabilization trick. Make them worried. Make them afraid. Make them think I was everywhere, that I could kill them at any time. More SERE tactics.

Heck, if they were an encampment, I’d just raid them every night, taking out one or two each time. Sadly, they were not, and I’d need to sleep eventually.

Wait.

I could totally do that couldn’t I? Hide on the boat, sneak out, kill a pirate or two, then sneak back to a hiding spot? Like a murderous stowaway?

Eh. It’d take a long time, and I had no idea how long [Invisibility with Eyeholes] would last. I’d need to ask for more gemstones. Why did they only outfit us with one each? Plus, they could just sail away to their pirate hideout, then I’d need to deal with more pirates.

Although – were pirate hideouts a real thing, or something fake? Too many blasted holes in my memory to tell. Fuck Papilion.

Fine. I’d pretend they were real, to avoid bad situations. Gotta ask Ocean later.

I was saving my [Cast Scream] for the merchant’s ship, and I felt brave enough to crawl along the ground to the entrance towards the lower deck of the pirate’s ship. I took a quick peek in.

Seven pirates, none of them looking at me. Dozens of slaves, huddled along the side, collars around their neck, chained to each other, chained to the walls. I broke out in a nervous sweat. Glad I hadn’t burned the ship down.

There were four large benches on either side, with a nice cushion on them. Four massive oars were in and folded, one per bench. The other four, on the side of the water, were out. Interesting. Instead of a bunch of galley slaves rowing the boat, the pirates elected to have a few powerful pirates row instead. Stopped a slave with a good skill from fouling everything up – or a slave without good skills slowing them down – letting them go much faster.

They weren’t terribly well organized though. Crates and barrels were strewn all over, no real organization that I could see. Coils of ropes, some primitive torches here and there cast light and shadows all over.

The pirates were huddled near each other, looking at the ceiling. Six of them had weapons drawn, and the last one was pointing with his finger.

Mage?

[Identify] confirmed a mage, level 170. Yikes.

There was a creaking noise, and the pirates all whirled towards it.

Just normal ship noises.

I had them jumpy though, which was nice.

They were grouped up, which was less nice. Ideally, they’d all be separated.

I considered throwing a [Nova] at them, and trying to one-shot the entire group.

Blasted slaves made it hard.

Hmmm.

I eyed them up. I eyed the slaves up. I thought about [Nova].

I shook my head. No [Nova] blast in the middle, followed by a short-range scuffle, then hopefully healing anything who’d gotten hit. The odds of someone dying – hell there were at least two kids I could see – before I got to them was too high. No yelling stuff, framing a slave for it. [Muffle] was still active, didn’t even know if I could say anything without breaking the skill. Those would all end badly,

I had to…

I had to…

Damn all the gods and goddesses, I had to wait. Wait for them to chill a bit, wait for them to break apart from the group. I’d done a great job spooking them and making them not watch the entrance, making them convinced I was going to snipe them from above.

Too good of a job.

I did some more poking around, only to realize one slave was starting to follow me with his eyes.

And that’s my cue.

I went to one of the benches, and hid under it. It’d be hard to step on me here, hard to bump into me, hard for anything really to disturb me. My plan was basically, wait until they were separated, snipe one, hide under another bench. Repeat.

The slaves started to mutter, and after some time the pirates realized I’d "left."

"You go check."

"No, you go."

"You don’t tell me what to do!"

A slave let a little giggle escape.

"Shut up!" The pirate said, and I heard the sounds of smacking flesh, a cry of pain.

Patience. I consoled myself.

"You, you, and you! Go!" A new voice chimed in. "Hit opposite doors at the same time, and just peek out! Move!"

"Why should I?" A fifth voice whined.

I heard a lethal whizzing noise that I associated with Artemis, although the tone was somewhat different.

"That’s why!" The voice shouting orders said.

Grumbling and stomping around. I took a quick peek out – nobody would notice my eyes, blue against the shadows – and it sounded like it was time.

I crept out, then hesitated. Take out the person alone? Or the mage?

I looked at the dude, back turned to me. I looked at the mage, wooden spheres whistling around him. I only got one surprise strike before people realized I was here.

A mage could be hard to fight. Much easier to jump him, and kill him before he could start throwing powerful skills around.

I waited, keeping low to the ground.

"We’re going to look on three, ‘kay?" The pirate who’d gone to the door said.

"Kay." The other pirates on the other side of the ship said.

"One…"

And let’s GO! No sense in waiting for them to be fully wound up.

I blasted the mage with a tight beam of Radiance, drilling straight through his head, even managing to burn a second pirate. I dismissed the notification – he had been a [Pirate Mage – Wood] – electing instead to roll across the room, and hopping on top of one of the more sturdy-looking crates.

The mage had dropped fast. Downside of weak physical stats.

Ugh. That could be me one day. Dead from a surprise attack to the head before I even knew I was being attacked.

"He’s in here!" They yelled, and started looking around wildly.

The not dead pirate was on the ground, screaming in agony.

"Mirage!" One of the pirates yelled, starting to swing his sword back and forth as he stalked down the center walkway.

Heh. Being tiny had advantages. They wouldn’t try poking where I was. To boot, they probably hadn’t gotten a good look at me.

As he passed, and more eyes were facing away from me than towards me, I blasted the side of his head. It made me slightly sick, but I’d gotten the hang of how to properly headshot the pirates – I needed just a hair more than a quick burst of sustained damage. A quick burst got the blinded pirate from earlier, and the pirate screaming in agony now.

Well, that’s when they were physically built, with a bunch of stats in vitality. The mage had considerably less, which is why he’d gone down so fast.

I ducked and rolled to another bench, hiding under it.

Two pirates dead, one crippled. Four left. I could probably take all four of them, but why risk it?

"Stay together! Stay together!"

"No fuck this, the Sentinel’s in here with us, I’m getting out!" One of the pirates yelled.

"Same here! Captain’s on the other ship, he’ll know what to do!" A second pirate yelled out.

I heard the pattering of feet, and made a split second call. I didn’t want news of me being invisible to spread, especially not to the other ship. I thought they’d be a lot more isolated, a lot more spread out, and a lot easier to snipe one at a time, and knowledge that I had an invisibility skill would ruin all that.

I ran out, only to see the pirates emerging from the other side. They hadn’t noticed the pair of eyes – combined with part of my nose I suppose – floating on the other side. They coughed as the smoke hit them, and I opened fire, happily throwing a [Nova] their way, followed by beams of Radiance.

One kill was clean. The other one got some tortured screams out before the flames claimed his life. I winced slightly at that one.

The System gave me two more kill notifications, letting me know they’d been handled.

I walked down the stairs openly, not bothering to hide. Two against one? I was happy with those odds. My major concern was breaking my invisibility at this point.

"You killed them right? You’re in here with us right?" One of the pirates was yelling, tremor in his voice betraying his fear.

I spent a brief moment looking at it from their point of view. A single, hidden, silent killer, picking them off one at a time, as smoke slowly filled the area? A killer who couldn’t be seen, couldn’t be reasoned with, and was just out for blood? A killer, claiming the name of Sentinel, the best of the best?

I was their worst nightmare made flesh.

One of the pirates grabbed a kid, hoisting him up, rattling his chain and all the chains attached to him.

"Show yourself! Or the kid gets it! You can’t let a kid die, right?"

I rolled my eyes. Idiots.

I walked up to him, and he saw my eyes at last.

"Ahha! Now drop the invisibility, put your weapon down, or the kid gets it!"

I didn’t say anything, just walked closer. The other pirate was nearing, clearly excited that their ploy was working.

"Don’t get any closer!" He said, trying to back up, getting yanked back by the kid’s chain.

Meh. I was close enough.

I blasted him in the face with Radiance, a thin beam, aiming for the eyes – good trick that – and the pirate went down with a scream, his arm flexing, slitting the kid’s throat. A hot spray of blood coated me, and while I didn’t have a great grasp on the skill – it was a gemstone skill after all – it felt like it was flickering, as I got coated in blood.

I lunged forward, dismissing the notification that the pirate was dead, laying my hand on the boy, pumping [Phases of the Moon] through him. It brought an invisible smile to my face, seeing his neck seal back up.

He was still pale though, so very pale, and I quickly reached for one of the blood loss potions I made sure to have on me. I uncorked it, shoved it in his mouth, then turned as quickly as I could, to make sure the other pirate wasn’t trying anything.

Well, he was trying something alright – surrender. On his knees, weapon down, hands behind his head. Blabbering that he surrendered.

"Please don’t kill me please don’t kill me I surrender" He said, on and on, repeating himself. I wrinkled my nose. It stank down here, slaves not exactly having the best of hygiene, but I was pretty sure he’d just contributed.

I grabbed one of the ropes lying around – for some reason that didn’t become invisible, go figure – and tied him up, being wary for any sudden tricks. There were none.

I looked at the pirate who’d gotten a blast, who’d stopped screaming and was now just on the floor, whimpering. I sighed, tied him up as well, and healed him.

I’d sworn I’d heal anyone, and he was about as down and out as possible.

I looked around. I wasn’t going to leave the slaves like this, but I couldn’t exactly ask for a key. However, most seemed to be hooked up to some sort of "master chain" that wove through everyone, so the logical move was…

Ahha! That’s where it was bolted to the hull.

I burned through all four places it was bolted to – two on each side – and the slaves figured out pretty quickly from there what was going on.

"Thank you!"

"Thank you so much!"

One grumpy dude tried to throw cold water over the whole thing, just sitting there with arms crossed, not helping take the chain out from his link.

"They’ll just beat us even harder when they get back. No point in trying."

Sourpuss.

With the first ship taken out, and a total of 15 pirates down, I prepped to take over the merchant’s ship.

Time for the hard one.

Chapter 136 – Returning Home VI

I paused a moment on my way up and out of the pirate ship, taking the stairs like a normal person. Everyone had been thanking me. Which implied they could see me. Which meant…

I looked down. Yeah, the invisibility had worn off. Not only was I coated in blood, but I could see my sandals and shin guards. Drat.

I hesitated a moment, before deciding to take a quick dunk in the sea, to hopefully wash everything off. I emerged from below the decks, only for me to spot pirates on the deck of the merchant’s ship.

Who promptly spotted me.

"There he is!"

You’d think, with all the pirates who’d seen me, that they’d get I was a woman. But nooo. Deadly Sentinel murdering them all had to be a dude.

I promptly launched myself up, having a clear view of the sky after burning all the sails and other nonsense. Also, since my invisibility was down, flying was back on the menu. A number of arrows and other projectiles were shot my way, most of which flat-out missed, some of which needed [Veil] intervention, and one arrow needing a small twist to dodge.

Then I was back up in the air, far above them, and, well, there really was only one way this could end.

Five [Nova]s later, four kill notifications, and the top deck was mine again, the rest of the pirates having scurried below deck.

Shame they couldn’t just stay on the deck and trade shots with me until the fight was over. It’d be so much easier.

Right. 17 pirates dead, two out of commission. I still wanted to take that dunk – although I needed to get some rope to easily pull myself out of the water.

Like, there was no practical reason, except "not smelling like blood" and "reducing the personal ick factor a hair."

A length of rope, some inexpert knots, and ramming my not-so-trusty blade into a plank to find it once I was done later, and I was lowering myself into the water, making sure I was on the sunny side of the boat.

[*ding!* Your party has slain a [Storm Sailor] (Water, lv 145)// [Reluctant Pirate] (Wood, lv 94)]

[*ding!* Your party has slain a [Linesman] (Wood, lv 129)// [Pirate] (Dark, lv 63)]

Wait, what?

I spent a moment thinking, as I scrubbed the blood off, watching it sluice off.

Ah. The prisoners.

That I’d left with a bunch of angry, recently freed slaves.

Whoops.

I cringed, waiting, expecting [Oath] to punish me. Nothing. Too abstract? Too far? It wasn’t me doing it? Or was the fact that it was a genuine mistake in the heat of combat enough?

Either way – wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

I kept a wary eye out for any pirates who were in the water who might take the chance to stab me, or any sea monsters attracted by the blood. I had no idea what lurked below, and I doubled my resolve to avoid boats in the future.

All too quickly – I’m sure I was missing some spots – I hauled myself back out of the water, let [Talaria] take over the climbing, grabbed my stolen sword, and hacked myself out of the ropes. I looked over towards the merchant’s ship.

Hard mode time.

I flew over the ship, looking down at it. There were three main entrances, and I was willing to bet they were all guarded – and the pirates had plenty of time to arrange traps and the like. I was also no longer invisible, able to just sneak in.

Hmmmm. I should make my own entrance. Or…

Lemme see if the exit I made was an entrance now. The quarters had been extremely cramped, which is why I wanted out, but maybe it was an in now – especially since I was now flying and free, if there was a pirate on the lookout, free snipe.

I didn’t need to fight all the pirates at once. I just needed to fight every pirate one at a time. 5v1 would see me dead. Five 1v1’s would have a pile of pirate bodies.

I flew over to where I’d blasted a hole in the side of the merchant’s ship, and flipped myself upside down, slowly lowering myself to peek in through the top.

Sneaky on top of sneaky.

The three useless adventurers were there, looking somewhat uneasily out at the water. Door was closed. I quickly withdrew my head.

My bag – with my good weapons, among other things – was there.

Like. I’d stayed basically within arm’s reach of them the whole time I’d been on the ship, but nooo, when push came to shove there just hadn’t been enough time to grab it, versus managing the situation.

The useless cargo had clearly been bought off, and I wasn’t going to risk them deciding that they were on team pirate now, versus team themselves. At the same time, they were three moderate to high level combat classes, and I didn’t want to tussle with them if I didn’t need to. They’d also shown themselves to be useless, and I couldn’t rely on them.

Refocusing to the pirates, even by conservative estimates, I’d probably killed half the pirates. If pirates were guarding each of the entrances, they were divided up even more.

Divide, and conquer.

I landed back on top of the ship, breathing in, making sure I stayed topped up and maxed out. Screw it. I had a ton of mana, and I was going to throw mana at the problem. I took aim at the door at the front – the bow? – of the boat, and unleashed a flurry of [Nova]s at it.

There were skills at work, but the end result was a smoking hole where the door used to be, and two kill notifications. Any trap, ambush, or whatever on the other side was now non-existent, blown apart by my [Nova]’s.

It wasn’t [Fireball], but it did one heck of a solid copy of it.

I trotted over to the smoking hole formerly known as a door, and grimaced.

I’d completely overkilled it.

The door was gone.

The pirates were gone.

The traps were gone.

The stairs were gone.

The ropes were gone.

The floor was gone.

Basically – I’d need to drop into a dark hole, with no sunlight, and pray that I both landed well, didn’t land on a sharp, broken jug – broken crates were strewn about, cracked and broken pottery leaking wine, and the sharp edges had to be somewhere – then pray a bunch of pirates weren’t running to the source of the commotion.

Fine then.

I flew out, and around the ship. I found a spot, and threw [Nova]s at it until the wall broke, then quickly bailed before getting a good look at it.

Five spots. I blasted five more holes in the hull of the ship before I was satisfied. This wasn’t the pirate ship, where everyone could see everything below decks. This was a huge merchant vessel, packed with goods, with multiple layers of decks. Which included a bunch of walls and other stuff, which translated into being hard to run around in.

It also had holes on three different layers, although none too close to the waterline. I did want to catch a ride home at the end of the day, and sinking my ride would be terrible. Also, [Oath] would brutally punish me for it.

I paused a moment, doing some quick self-reflection.

Why was I stalling? Why was I being so careful? Why was I taking this so slowly?

Like. Dropping into the hole would probably be a bad move, but making five more holes as distraction? Blowing huge chunks of mana swiss-cheesing my ride home?

I took a deep breath, and examined myself. A meditation of sorts, while keeping my head on a swivel, making sure I wasn’t about to be attacked.

…and that was the crux of the matter, wasn’t it? I was under attack, I felt like I was under attack. In a word – I was afraid. Afraid of being captured, afraid of being sold into slavery, and all that entailed. Afraid of dying. Afraid of failing.

And it was people I was running around killing, not aggressive goblins. It shouldn’t make a difference, but it did. My opponents were smart. They were cunning. They were murderous. If they got their hands on me, I’d suffer terribly, beyond anything I could imagine.

This hadn’t been a short fight to boot. It was a long, grinding affair, and I had the initiative to boot. Which meant I decided when the next action happened, when the next risk to my life and limb occurred. It wasn’t a quick bout like Kerberos, or even a slightly longer fight like the goblins.

The self-reflection, as poorly timed as it was, was good for me. It let me face my fears, let them pass over and through me.

I smacked my cheeks, giving myself a pep talk.

I was Sentinel Dawn! Heck yeah! These pirates had nothing on me!

I flew over with [Talaria], and just walked into one of the holes I’d made. A pirate lunged out at me, screaming, and I drilled a hole through his chest. Took a second to drop him.

He collapsed, blade swinging out in one last, weak, futile effort to hit me.

I let it hit my armor and slide right off, the force and angle too weak to do anything to me.

I was Dawn.

I left the room, exiting the ship again, poking into another hole I’d made.

"He-She’s here! She’s here!" The pirate yelled, running away.

I – fucking hell.

I couldn’t shoot someone in the back who was obviously running away, regardless of what his group was trying to do.

Blasted freaking [Oath].

I bailed, and did a tour de holes, managing to snag two more pirates. Each one died almost as soon as I saw them, crushing them with my major advantage of stats and levels. It helped give me the confidence that I could do this, that I could walk through the ship and just kill them all.

Blah. I didn’t like being the bloody butcher. Nice thing about Radiance though, it left smoking holes, not explosions of gore.

I revisited the first new and improved entrance to the ship, wrinkling my nose at the smell of cauterized flesh with wine. The pirates had learned, and they were no longer in the rooms, keeping watch. My hit and runs had whittled them down even further, and I was feeling confident enough to start stalking the innards of the pirate ship.

I used a [Cast Scream] to make one hell of a noise, before zooping over to another entrance, gracefully landing right inside.

I flung the door open – no careful, cowering moves from me, not now, not anymore.

I stalked through the ship, killing a pair of pirates I came across. The first one opened a door halfway through the hallway, the other turned a corner at an unfortunate time.

They both died almost immediately after I saw them, and identified them as a threat. Maybe I could’ve just flat-out fought my way out – but this was easier. Safer. Why take a risky fight, when you can just slowly whittle them down one at a time? Killing them all was killing them all, no matter how fast – or slow – it took.

I hated being the lethal predator stalking the ship though, the stuff of nightmares made real. I wanted to fix people, heal them, restore them, not cause smoldering holes to appear in them.

Why couldn’t they have left me alone?

It felt like hours I’d been stalking the ship, finding and sniping pirates one at a time, dodging and running when it sounded like a group of them were roaming together.

Thirty sets of one versus one. Not one set of thirty versus one. A lethal game of cat and mouse.

I dropped to another floor, bending and absorbing the impact. Doors burst open around me, eight pirates surrounding me, charging at me.

An ambush, carefully prepared and laid for me. They’d worked out that I was avoiding their groups, and laid a trap for me, where I couldn’t hear them moving around. Yay [Bullet Time]!

I couldn’t fly. I had to deal with them all here and now. My endless reviewing of gems immediately gave me an answer, the emergency button I always had at the edge of my awareness, as I activated Sealing’s powerful [Brilliant Barrier].

Panes of hard light snapped around me, trapping me with three pirates. One I recognized as the same one who’d been acting as the leader in the room, who’d paid off the adventurers and tried to capture me.

One pirate dove in a tackle for me, the second one lunged low, their blade trying to pierce my stomach, the third one – the ‘sub-leader’ – slicing high.

Fucking hell.

I leaned back, the world moving around me in slow motion, moving my blade to parry the high stroke, going for a beam of Radiance through the second pirate going for the gut shot.

I wasn’t going to make it in time, I wasn’t going to be able to kill him before he skewered me like one of the food vendors arranging mystery meat on a stick.

I threw [Veil] in the way, hitting and stopping the blade, as the tackling pirate made it to me, starting a full-body tackle.

While they could maybe be put to better use somewhere else, no point if I was dead. I hit the tackling pirate with both [Shocking Paralysis] and followed it with [Mana Void] just to be safe. I’d killed enough people at close range with a surprise skill to not risk it.

The tackling pirate was completely crippled, unable to do anything. Perfect.

However, my parry of the high blade wasn’t going well, the blade being forced out of my hands as my meager physical stats were crushed by his. I’d tried to do a parry where I was simply redirecting the force, the classic move for someone with lower stats than the opponent, but it was all for naught. Either he had a skill in play – common for someone using blades – or his physical stats were just so monstrous that I was like a butterfly fart.

Sadly, I’d somewhat fucked up, and the tackling pirate’s continued momentum and size were more than enough to keep bowling me over, forcing me into the path of the blade I’d just leaned back to dodge. [Veil] was still doing full-time duty keeping my innards alive, blocking the low stab, as I felt the blade bite into my neck.

I hated getting injured in [Bullet Time], and yet, every time I was injured it was during it. Dangerous attacks and all that. Serious drawback to the skill.

I felt the cold blade bite into my neck, splitting skin, slicing through muscle, one centimeter at a time. A spray of blood as my carotid artery was split, a gust in my throat as my windpipe was opened to the air.

And still I was pushed forward, the blade going deep and deeper into my neck the longer the stroke was. I had way too much time to think, and I could easily calculate that it wasn’t going to entirely decapitate me, but it was going to be close.

My spine was spared, barely. I did feel the blade scraping against my spine, glancing off instead of biting and severing. One hell of a disconcerting feeling.

The stabbing-low-pirate died, a notification popping up. I immediately turned the Radiance onto the throat-slashing pirate, aiming for his eyes, trying to pop and boil them out of his head before continuing to penetrate his skull, aiming for his brain – which really, any damage to would be enough to kill.

I wasn’t going to use [Veil] to stop the blade – I needed it out of my neck.

A rippling sensation as my [Persistent Casting] [Phases of the Moon] healed the injury right behind the blade, rendering the blow that should’ve been lethal nothing more than a mana drain – and not a particularly bad one at that.

Didn’t stop a fine spray of blood spray-painting the room that [Brilliant Barrier] had created, the outline of the throat-slashing pirate painted behind him.

The blade exited my neck, time sped up again, my sword spinning off into the distance. I landed hard, the frozen body of the crippled pirate still on me, pressing me against the pane of light.

Showing me the angry pirates on the other side.

No – not angry. Scared. Disgusted. They’d just seen my throat slit, and nothing seemed to happen. Except it looked like two of their fellow pirates were now dead. Completely disabled looked a lot like dead.

And I was nicely shielded. Pirate body on one side, pane of light on the other. I couldn’t see particularly well, but the screaming let me know that the throat-slashing pirate was in bad shape. Having the eyes boiled out of your skull will do that to you.

I could barely see him out of the corner of my eye, the body blocking most of my view, but it was close enough to fire Radiance at him. Head shots were nice and clean, but I was at a shit angle to see properly. I simply kept firing thin lances of Radiance around, figuring that I’d just char holes through him until I hit something critical – or until he’d had enough holes in him that he couldn’t maintain living.

I’d been pretty clear on the surrender conditions. I didn’t see the need to repeat myself.

I winced as the pirate blindly swung his blade out towards me, instead hitting his fellow pirate who was shielding me, gouts of flesh gouged out.

It was a bad look to the pirates outside the barrier, and I saw first one, then the rest, turn and flee.

The throat-slashing pirate clearly had felt his blade connect, and had to assume it was me. He went nuts on the offense.

It was kinda gnarly, I had to admit. The throat-slashing pirate was slashing into the tackling-now-meat-shield pirate, large chunks of gore being ripped out and splattered against the Brilliant walls surrounding us, caging us together.

I quite honestly felt a little bad, a little responsible, a lot loving my meat shield, and I had tons of mana to spare. I threw mana into healing my meat shield, while continuing to fire Radiance through the pirate.

Slash. Slice through muscle and tendons, skin and bone. Spray it against a wall.

Heal. Restore the broken and battered body.

Radiance. Throw another beam through where I thought his center of mass was.

Scream, as I hit him, as I continued to chip away at him.

Repeat.

He started to slow down, then stop, collapsing to the ground.

A notification let me know that I’d killed the pirate, and I heaved my meat shield off of me, still frozen.

That had to hurt. There’d been nothing in what Night told me about pain-removal or mitigation.

Ah shoot. This would’ve been a perfect time for [Vastness of the Stars]. I’d have to remember it next time a high-pain situation arrived.

Still, he was more useful than the adventurers.

I patted him.

"Better take [Meat Shield] as your next class." I suggested, not at all helpfully.

I took a look around. No more pirates – they’d all fled from the undying lunatic and her trusty meat shield.

I’d caused no small amount of damage to the ship though – Brilliance barriers had a weak spot to Radiance, and some of my beams that had drilled through the pirates had kept right on going, gouging out chunks of the ship.

I wanted a lot more of these barriers though. Being able to hole up and just shoot out? Yes please, this seemed like a great build. Shame I didn’t have a third class to grab [Barrier Expert] with. Time to make friends with Sealing – and the Quartermaster. Or just buy a bunch of quartz myself.

This was going to be my ride home. If the captain didn’t murder me for all the damage I’d caused. Heck, at this rate, I was causing more damage than the pirates would’ve.

Not my problem though. I’d sink the entire ship before letting myself get captured.

I rubbed my neck, smooth skin under my hands, not a trace of the violation that had just occurred to it present. I shuddered involuntarily.

That had been close. Way too close. Another quarter of an inch, another half a centimeter, and my head would’ve been separated from my neck.

Although – I’d healed so fast. I’d been healing the entrance of the cut before the sword had even exited my neck, as disconcerting of a feeling it was – both to feel and to know. Could I even be decapitated by a thin sword like that; could a clean cut kill me?

Not something I was eager to experiment with at all.

Chapter 137 – Returning Home VII

I got up, looking at the burning hole in the middle of the ship.

Right. Time to find another way.

I started hunting through the ship, strangely not finding any pirates.

I clambered onto a crate, grabbing onto the lip of the deck – another hole of mine – and pulled myself up. I distantly heard a voice calling.

I slowly went towards the voice.

"Parley! Sentinel! The pirates wish to parley!" A sailor was calling, walking through the hallways.

"Parley! Sentinel- holy shit!" He called out, as I turned the corner, sword pointed towards him. It paid to be careful.

He was holding his hands up.

"The pirate captain wants to speak with you he said he’ll kill innocents if you don’t meet please don’t kill me." The poor sailor said as fast as he could.

I snorted at him.

"I only kill pirates. Anyways. Lead the way." I said.

"By the way, how many are left?" I asked him.

He shrugged at me.

"Not completely sure miss- ma’am – Sentinel?" He said. "One of em’s got a Mist skill, something fierce and all twisty-like. It cloaks them, hides them, and I know for-sure he’s making fake pirates show up, then vanish, hiding their true number. Can’t be more than twenty, and if you gave me some good enough odds, I’d bet under 10. Only if the odds were real good though."

A twist, a turn, a ladder, and we were near the door of the captain’s quarters.

"He’s in there." The sailor said, a tremor of fear going through his voice.

Clearly, someone was listening on the other side, and the door opened.

"Come in!" A voice I recognized as the pirate captain’s said.

"I’ll warn you though – we’ve got the so-called leader of this sluggish mess here, along with a dozen sailors! If you try anything, they’ll all die!" He said.

I hadn’t planned on throwing [Nova]s through the door until they were all dead, but, well, now I wasn’t going to. It was a good idea though!

"I’d rather not." I yelled back.

Going into close quarters, alone, surrounded by pirates? I wasn’t completely stupid. Most of my bag of fancy tricks was gone, I was down to mostly just my own skills, and they weren’t exactly super combat focused. Good, yes, but not "walk into a trap deliberately and expect to win" good.

I’d only beaten the last ambush by using three of my most powerful gems that I had with me.

"Come in, or we start slitting throats!" The pirate captain yelled.

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. Did these pirates only have one trick up their sleeve?

"I really don’t care. Honestly." I yelled back.

"Their blood will be on your hands! As surely as you slit their throat yourself!"

Honestly. Pirates. Almost as bad as adventurers. At least they were honest about their scum and villainy!

"No, it won’t be. I’m here. You’re there. You’re the one slitting throats, not me. Why on Pallos would I take a shred of responsibility for your actions? That’s just moronic."

Dead silence followed that pronouncement. Tumbleweeds would’ve blown through, if it wasn’t the wrong place seven times over.

"We want to leave." The pirate captain finally came out with. "With the merchant’s tax."

Not damn likely. Not after all the mess I’d gone through.

"Please agree." A second voice I recognized as the merchant captain.

I couldn’t resist. I rolled my eyes.

"Leave the slaves and your loot behind, and you can go free."

More silence. I couldn’t help myself, I kept talking.

"All the slaves have already been freed, and I have control of your boat. I could just sink this boat, and sail away. Why should I accept your terms?"

I had no idea what I was saying, no idea if my negotiations were any good.

"You gotta sleep at some point! We can just kill you then!" The pirate leader shouted back.

"So do you. I’m a Sentinel. I only have half my bag of tricks, but even then, I can burn the ship down and fly to shore, pick you off one at a time, never let you sleep, throw poisonous gas into the hold, go invisible, have shields, blades, dozens of tricks more that I won’t tell you but you’ll discover at the worst time, and a nearly unlimited supply of Arcanite. I’ve literally trained for years how to do this. The only reason I’m negotiating is you’re literally not worth the effort, nor me explaining to the Quartermaster that I need to restock everything. Dude’s a grouch. Huge pain in the ass to work with."

I paused, letting that sink in, hoping my casual attitude and ‘killing you is no problem, dealing with the paperwork is a hassle’ approach projecting more confidence than I felt.

"You? You’re just another day, and a particularly obnoxious one at that. I’ll repeat what I said earlier. Fuck off, and I’ll let you go. I literally don’t care enough to hunt you all down."

I was bluffing like hell. Half the tricks I mentioned I’d already used, the other half I had only on a technicality. Like the poison gas. I could make a poisonous gas if I screwed with the potions and Radiance enough. I assumed the gas was poisonous anyways, it was the dose that made the poison after all.

Technicalities. I did try to avoid lying.

I also couldn’t see a way to take them prisoner. The sailors had been shown to just bend over, the adventurers were useless. Them surrendering to me would necessitate managing up to a dozen prisoners, and I literally couldn’t handle that many. They’d murder me in my sleep.

More of a pause, some soft arguing. I had an idea, a way to kick them while they were down.

"By the way, one of your lieutenants got the drop on me with a team of people. Eight against one. He managed to slit my throat and everything. He’s dead, I’m not, because I’m a bloody Sentinel. Ask yourself, how do you kill someone undying? Ask the pirates that were there what happened. Well. They missed the end, I guess. Too much gore in the way to see what happened."

You could hear a pin drop after that, only interrupted by a dry retching noise coming from the quarters. Heh. At least one of them had a weak stomach.

"Fine!" The pirate captain yelled after an eternity. "How are we doing this?"

Erm. Welp. I had no idea.

Ok, think, think. I needed to, erm.

Ok. I needed the pirates off this boat.

I needed the ex-slaves and loot from their boat to my boat.

I needed… I actually didn’t care after that point.

"Right, you’re all going to leave this ship, while the slaves and loot are moved from your boat to this one."

"Hang on, what are you defining as ‘loot’? We need to eat!"

I pursed my lips at that. Shit. I really couldn’t let them starve to death, that would be cruel. And a violation.

"Meh, fine, I don’t care too much about your food and water stores."

"Get the good food!" A voice called from the cabin, one I hadn’t heard before. There was a smack, and a cry.

Well. Least I could do for the brave sailor.

"And the good food." I said.

"Fine, fine, we’re coming out now." The pirate captain called out.

"No." I said, taking a few steps back.

I was bluffing like hell. If they all charged me at once? I’d take down a few, but I’d die. I couldn’t win 1 versus I-dunno-how-many. Not with most of my gems blown.

The last fight had been far too close for comfort.

A pause.

"How do you want to do this then?" A frustrated voice called out.

Eh. What could one more hole hurt?

"Break out from the hull, and jump into the sea." I said, remembering the one last diver pirate who was hanging around. "You can climb back into your boat."

A pained voice, the agony of the seaborn listening to some poor landlubber mauling all the terminology.

"Ship. She’s a ship, not a boat."

What-ever.

"Not all of us can swim!" He said, sudden inspiration striking.

I narrowed my eyes. There was treachery afoot.

"Use some of the wood from the walls to float!"

"Planks." A new voice chimed in.

"Hull!" New voice number-I-lost-track.

"Please stop mauling the language and my ship." The merchant captain called out. "I’d rather the pirates killed me instead."

No gratitude. Honestly. It wasn’t like I’d made this twenty times more difficult for the merchant captain, nor turned "lose half your cargo" into "lose almost all your cargo and most of your ship".

"Break the wall and all jump out." I ordered, the slightly humorous note that had been creeping into my voice gone. "Alternatively, I can just start shooting [Nova] into the quarters, and taking my chances that there’s enough people left around to move this tub to land."

"Fine. FINE! You win." The voice came out.

I’d eat my hat if there wasn’t treachery afoot.

And yet – From my position down the hall, I saw them expertly taking apart part of the hull, to the anguished cries of the merchant and the sailors, then jumping out one at a time, most of them holding a log. Plank.

Whatever.

After some time, the pirates seemed to be all gone, including a flashily-dressed one.

"All clear?" I asked.

"Clear." A shaky voice came from the cabin.

Welp. Time to discover what surprise they had in wait for me.

It’d be dumb for me to walk in there though.

"Alright. Come out." I said, winding myself up like a spring. Something bad was going to happen. Pirates and dealing fairly?

One by one, the sailors exited the room. None had weapons, but I was suspicious. This was going too well, and the sailors looked scared.

"Stop." I said, halting the line of sailors leaving the room, pointing my sword at them.

"What’s the trick?" I asked them.

They all glanced at each other, but tellingly, didn’t deny there was a trick. Nor did they confirm one.

A soft sound behind me. [Bullet Time] activating. The start of a word, deep and heavy as the ocean depths.

Bless Artemis and her relentless hours of training. Bless Ranger Team 4, and throwing pebbles at me for two years. Bless all the training I’d gotten.

I threw a [Nova] behind me, while throwing up a [Veil] close to me after a brief moment – enough to clear the [Nova] away from me, so I didn’t end up blowing up my own skill against my shield. I started to duck and roll.

[Veil] broke, as I heard the roar of [Nova] detonating in someone’s face. I activated my stored [Veil]s, only for those to also get promptly broken as well.

I felt the back of my armor bending, absorbing an impact, starting to push me forward.

I unleashed every single [Nova] I had behind me. All the stored ones, in all my gemstones on me. A brutal barrage, capable of incinerating just about anything, a one-time explosion of power and heat.

My armor, separating before the blow.

Cold iron, piercing my back.

Breaking my spine.

Mashing my heart.

Cracking my sternum.

Exploding out of my chest in a rain of gore.

I tried to gasp, getting no air, like a fish out of water. More than my heart, the bottom of my trachea had gotten blocked, a wooden shaft stopping air.

I spasmed, trying to scream in pain, in agony, as [Center of the Galaxy] was broken, trying to fall as my legs no longer wanted to support me, being held upright by the cruel harpoon skewering me like a fish on a stick.

I panicked. [Center of the Galaxy] was no longer giving me the cold, distant detachment. I scrambled, trying to grab the harpoon, to somehow pull it out of me. I started spamming my skills, all of them, desperate for one to land, to miraculously pull me out of this.

[Bullet Time] was still active. It had been less than a second since I’d heard the soft, careful footfall behind me. Without it, I’d be speared through, only just starting to react now.

[Phases of the Moon] was working crazy overtime, and I tried a poor image on top of it. Can’t hurt to heal twice right?

Nothing happened. I was already focused on healing myself.

[Nova] was castable again, and I fired it behind me.

[Veil] felt kinda useless. Didn’t stop me throwing one up. Anything. Everything. To stay alive. To see another day.

Only to promptly drop [Veil] as I realized I could fire a beam of Radiance behind me.

I was starting to fall, to drop, my back crackling and sizzling, flesh boiling off of me. Fucker was trying to cook me alive on top of everything else?!

I remembered from earlier about pain and a skill of mine. [Vastness of the Stars] saved my life, giving me a calm detachment from the situation, doing a poor [Center of the Galaxy] substitute, but saving me either way.

Now I had time, and the ability to think, not scream silently in my mind as I felt consciousness start to fade, as my body started to topple over.

I wasn’t dead yet. I think.

Oh gods did he get a kill notification on me already, and I was just in the last vestiges of a fever-dream?

Problem: I had a harpoon through me, a stake through my heart, and I couldn’t heal while it was present.

Solution: Remove the harpoon. I didn’t need to kill the pirate short-term, I just needed it gone.

More specifically, I needed the harpoon shaft where my heart belonged gone. I could feel something hard and metal against my back where the harpoon had entered, a catch of some type stopping a harpoon from going too deep. I also had no idea how much longer it was. Trying to just pull it through wouldn’t work. I needed to cut the harpoon in half first.

I stopped the Radiance beam behind me. No notification? Just how tough was this dude?

I focused the Radiance inside of me, focusing where my heart should be, darkness creeping in on the edges of my vision.

Spots swimming in my eyes.

I still couldn’t breathe; blood was no longer being circulated. I grabbed the harpoon sticking out of me, and tried to pull. It was slick with blood – all of it mine – and I slipped as I tried to get ahold of it, cutting my hand on the wicked barbs on the front.

I finished my fall, landing on my side, watching blood pool under me. So much blood. I could swim in it! Yay blood swimming pool!

I was going delirious from blood loss. To do: Drink a blood potion.

The pressure my circulatory system was under sprayed another huge gout out in front of me, painting everything red.

Oh fuck me I hope he didn’t pull it back through.

Or – I hope he did. I’d heal right back up the moment it was gone.

Wait, how could he pull it back if I was on the floor? What - ?

Vision fading, I threw another [Nova] behind me, grabbing again at the harpoon, getting a better grip.

My vision faded to black.

A black crow watched me in the darkness. Beady, unblinking eyes stared at me.

With a silent scream, air still blocked by the wood, I heaved, pulling the front half of the harpoon out of me, instantly feeling flesh reknitting behind the pull.

My spine was still broken, my lungs closed off, but I had a heart again. The first beat was like the loudest drum I’d ever heard, the silence having been deafening. Vision returned, the crow fleeing with an angry caw, his prey denied to him.

For now.

Burning seemed to be good, and I threw another [Nova] over my shoulder breathed, panted on the floor, trying to avoid drinking too much of my own blood.

It was all wrong. Blood should stay inside of me! Wasn’t for swimming.

I slipped off the harpoon, now cut in half and lubricated with my blood, my spine and all the other muscles and organs in the middle regenerating as well.

I didn’t catch myself on the way down, just kept blasting, [Nova] after [Nova] behind me.

"Stop. Stop! STOP!"

Screams caught my attention, the sailors yelling at me, and I paused.

Oh.

I’d killed the dude ages ago. While [Center] was broken, when the heat washed over me and started cooking me – that wasn’t his skills. That was the combined heat and power from all my stored [Nova]s going off at once, breaking through my Radiance resistance and starting to cook me alive.

I’d just missed the notification in my panic, my desire to live removing anything not immediately essential to my survival from my awareness. Fight or Flight was a hell of a drug.

I spent some time panting and heaving on the ground, sailors running around me – giving me a wide berth, throwing me terrified, horrified looks – to try and contain the frankly absurd fire I’d started. Multiple [Nova]’s all in the ship’s vulnerable belly? All stacked together? Oof. If this ship was still able to sail, it would be on virtue of the captain having skills keeping it all together.

I’d be lucky if I hadn’t sunk us all. I was in no state to be swimming, crashing as adrenaline fled my system, whoozy from the lack of blood.

I slowly crept my hand towards my potion pouch.

Why was there a floor in the way? Why was the floor so wet? Man, that was a lot of blood, someone was probably badly hurt.

"Miss? Miss, are you ok? Belay that, miss, are you alive?" The merchant captain asked me.

I groaned in affirmative, then realized my work wasn’t done.

"Up." I tried to order, but a dry hacking came out instead, the blood that had flooded my lungs when the harpoon violated them, from when I’d inadvertently breathed some in, coming up instead. A brutal, hacking and coughing session occurred, as I tried to get blood and other crap out of my lungs, and sweet, sweet, delicious air into them.

A sailor helped pick me up, and I looked at the horribly mauled body of the pirate captain.

Heh. Extra-extra-extra-extra crispy.

[*ding!* You have slain a [Pirate Captain of the Fog] (Mist, lv 210)// [Shallow-Sea Monster Whaler] (Ocean, lv 205)]

"Help me." I croaked. I hated to show weakness, not now, but I didn’t think I needed to be afraid of the sailors. They were all looking at me like I was a monster.

I mean, from their point of view I’d been ambushed, skewered from behind, run all the way through – and lived. Yeah, I’d be pants-shitting terrified of any monster who shrugged off a stake through the heart, who looked like a sweet and innocent nothing until that moment.

An amused thought flitted through my head. No way would any of the sailors here dare harass me again. Some were probably saying some prayers right now, that the specter of vengeance wouldn’t descend upon them now that I’d revealed my true colors.

Others would probably use it to brag. Whatever.

They wouldn’t stop staring at my chest. I mean, I know sailors were on the cruder side, but that was just rude, especially since it wasn’t like I had-

I looked down, at the twisted and bent metal of my armor bursting out, coated in a thick layer of slowly-drying blood, pale flesh pulsing underneath it to the beat of my heart.

Ah hmmm yes. I might stare as well.

You all get a pass.

This time.

I limped as I walked, mostly because some of my armor was still in my flesh, having been bent inwards in the first place, then healed around it. It was too large, too solid for [Phases of the Moon] to remove.

A stiff breeze could knock me over at this stage. I’d literally come under the attention of the grim reaper, and even though there were, what, nine pirates left? No idea, could barely keep my eyes open, the sailors had been shown to not have that much of a backbone, and they could try to overrun the ship again.

I could only hope they didn’t try. I gasped out some instructions to the sailor next to me, orders to make a show of force, to let the pirates know that I’d won, I was still alive, and angry.

"Give them the uh." I said, trying to think, trying to process. Damn potion bag had broken. "The ‘don’t make me come over there’ speech. Like to kids. Yeah. That one."

"Don’t forget their captives. Or their loot." I reminded the sailor, who grinned at the prospect of being placed in charge of acquiring the loot.

I had no doubt a sizeable chunk of it would vanish. I didn’t care.

One of the sailors nodded and ran off. How many were helping me? I was starting to regain some strength, regain some vitality. Not enough to fight well – besides blasting someone to pieces with Radiance of course – but enough to start moving better on my own. I felt like I was going to keel over at any point, my hands ghostly pale from the lack of blood.

Smoke and mirrors. I wasn’t forgetting that catchphrase of Magic’s again. I had to look strong if any pirate saw me. Or the adventurers.

With some help, I limped back down to my room, opening the door.

Seeing the three adventurers still there, backs to the wall with the door, staring at the empty space where the hull used to be.

Right. I couldn’t sleep here.

Also –

"Fucking useless adventurers." I spat at them, grabbing my bag, turning and limping away. To whatever room still had four walls and a hammock.

Chapter 138 – Returning Home VIII

I unsteadily moved through the hallways, feeling myself crashing hard. My sea legs weren’t really working anymore, and I leaned against a wall for a moment, waving the sailor off.

I felt my arm being lifted up, and I saw Cassia next to me, putting my arm around her neck, then lifting in a way that I could still walk – but she was holding most of my weight. She gave me a knowing look.

"I don’t know much about being a Sentinel. I do know what ‘badly hurt and trying to hold it in’ looks like."

How – right. Her arm. She’d lost it at one point.

"Tell you what. I know where the captain’s quarters are. Let’s get you bunked there."

"No." I grunted, putting one foot in front of the next, letting her lead.

Bless her, she didn’t ask.

"First mate’s?"

"Sure." I said, after a moment of thought. I didn’t remember deliberately trashing it, but who knew.

I could sense that she was brimming with questions. She didn’t ask any, instead grabbing my bag to carry.

After far too long – we had to go around a few holes, some of them still-burning, wading through some slowly draining puddles of wine here and there – we finally got to some room or another that I assumed had to be the first mates.

Like the rest, spare, a small chest with what I assumed was personal items, and a hammock.

"Do you want out of that?" Cassia asked me, eyeing my armor.

I stifled a groan as I looked down, flexing my back in a way that the broke parts of the armor cut into me.

I’d regenerated around it after all, and I didn’t enjoy metal spikes in my back.

"Please." I said around clenched teeth.

It was one hell of a chore, and I stopped a scream leaving as Cassia finally ripped the armor out of my back.

She blinked at the spray of blood, immediately cut off by my healing.

"Wow. That’s – just, wow." She said, with no small amount of disbelief.

She held the armor up, looking straight through the hole in the middle.

"Wow."

She might’ve said something after that. I had fallen into the hammock, and was already asleep.

I woke up, and started to process all the notifications I’d skipped over.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Healer] has leveled up to level 244->246! +10 Free Stats, +15 Mana, +15 Mana Regen, +15 Magic power, +15 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Celestial Affinity] has reached level 244->246!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Medicine] has reached level 210->215!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Center of the Galaxy] has reached level 236->242!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Phases of the Moon] has reached level 244->246!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Moonlight] has reached level 244->246!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Veil of the Aurora] has reached level 212->216!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Vastness of the Stars] has reached level 139->144!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Ranger-Mage] has leveled up to level 180->188! +10 Free Stats, +5 Speed, +5 Vitality, +20 Mana, +20 Mana Regen, +20 Magic power, +20 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Strength, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

I ignored all the notifications of my capped skills getting re-capped.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Sun-Kissed] has reached level 142->145!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Talaria] has reached level 161->163!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Identify] has reached level 136->137!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Bullet Time] has reached level 189->198!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 206->210!]

Wait- oh, healing the pirate that just tried to murder me, saving his life. Counted for something good!

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Sentinel’s Superiority] has reached level 201->206!]

That had been a very Sentinel-y thing I just did.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Persistent Casting] has reached level 48->55!]

Honestly, leveling the skill up was kinda useless.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 244->246!]

More capped skills staying capped! Huzzah!

The kill notifications sobered me up. I did give a bit of a thought to the people I’d killed, the lives I’d ruthlessly ended. On one hand, they’d all chosen a life of piracy, of robbing people, selling them into slavery, and murder.

On the other – I didn’t know their circumstances. I didn’t know if they’d been gang-pressed into service, if they were runaway slaves turning to piracy out of desperation, or what. It’d been fairly clear that they weren’t the "put everyone to the sword" type, willing to negotiate, buy guards off, and only take half the merchant’s goods, not stripping them to the bone.

Hell, if they had asked really nicely I might not have cared – the merchant being robbed was the merchant’s problem. My only complaint would be how long they took. Not that I approved, but between "fine, whatever" and "Stalk through the halls of the ship murdering pirates one by one", I know which option I preferred.

Well. "Not being attacked by pirates" was the top choice.

And sure, I was a Sentinel, but I was a non-combat one. Someone like Brawling or Toxic would probably be expected to clean them all out if attacked, and if my identity was called out, I’d probably need to as well. But Healer Elaine had no such responsibility. Healer Elaine – and Dawn, at Headquarters, in private, could let pirates slide, especially when the odds were as stacked against me as they had been.

What was done was done, and I mourned, grieved for their loss. Grieved for the cold necessity that forced me to aim pinpoint beams of Radiance through eyes, that forced me to fly up high and bombard people with exploding balls of burning Radiance.

I wanted to give myself time. Time to process the emotions, my thoughts and feelings. Time to recover, to heal mentally. Time, so I wouldn’t end up scared of pain, time, so I wouldn’t harden my heart too much, so I wouldn’t lose my sense of empathy.

Time, so I wouldn’t turn into a cold, remorseless killing machine.

I really needed a good [Therapist].

I was distracted by a knock on the door, and a heavenly scent coming through.

"Come on in!" I said, much more cheerful than I felt.

It wasn’t like I hurt – physically, I was fine, apart from missing half my blood. Well, ok, fine, that wasn’t fine, but still.

No, I was hungry. Ravenous. Famished. Starved. Peckish.

FEED ME.

FEED ME NOW.

Cassia opened the door, carefully managing to sway with the ship in a way to keep the food on the plate. I eyed it. No way I’d pull that off, the delicate balancing act while daintily keeping food on the plate.

Oh no. I’d have to scarf it down. Woe is me.

I could feel my saliva glands go into overdrive as the plate approached.

"You good?" Cassia asked, carefully, politely. Not wanting to set off the murderous lunatic.

I nodded furiously – not trusting my throat – and extended my hands out, in the "gimme" gesture.

Cassia obliged, and I tore into what had to be dino-steaks.

Bless the sailor that had told me to grab the "good food". He knew what he was talking about!

It was meaty and delicious, perfectly seared – there had to be a [Sea Cook] or something – and it was better than the best steak I’d ever eaten.

Hunger was the best spice.

Cassia found a seat on the first mate’s sea chest, watching me inhale dinner. They’d piled it extra large – extra high – whatever, and I barely blinked as a particularly bad swing had one of the steaks fall off and land on my lap.

5 second rule. It was still good.

"So…." She said, seemingly hesitant, watching my gluttonous moves. "Sentinel, eh?"

I nodded between bites. Mouth was too full, and it was impolite to talk with your mouth open.

"Explains why you didn’t seem to care how well we could fight."

More nods.

"But what did you need us for?" She asked.

I lifted the plate in response, still not saying anything.

"Food?"

I thought about it a moment, then slowly nodded, then shook my head.

Charades were fun!

Cassia looked frustrated though. I decided to give her a hand, some normal human interaction after the vicious mess.

I took a moment of pause. Mostly so I could speak, and not go "mumph mumph mumph."

"Sentinel can be exhausting." I said. "Sometimes, it’s just easier to travel as Healer Elaine, than Sentinel Dawn. Like. Half the captains probably wouldn’t want a Sentinel on-board, and the other half wouldn’t talk with a woman. Or see me as a girl. And assume all sorts of things, making my life hard. A few adventurers to grease the wheels? Makes my life much easier, for what should be a cakewalk."

Cassia couldn’t suppress the amused look on her face.

"Given that you basically did twenty times the damage to the ship that the pirates would’ve done, I can’t really say I blame the captain for not wanting a Sentinel onboard."

I snorted.

"Blame the pirates. I didn’t ask for them to try and kidnap me, I offered them multiple chances to surrender and leave. They didn’t take them. What was I supposed to do, quietly let myself get sold into slavery?"

Cassia made a motion as if to pat me, then pulled back.

"By the way, not sure if you know, but…" She said, gesturing towards me.

What?

I looked down-ish.

Oh right

Being drenched in blood, then not doing anything about it, resulted in a lot of dried blood all over me. I wasn’t exactly a stranger to it, but I could see how it might be slightly disconcerting.

"Wanna get me a bucket and a rag?" I asked.

She was out of the room before I’d even finished.

…

A good amount of scrubbing later, a few delivered hot meals, a fresh tunic, and a couple days of sleep, and I was ready to tackle the loot.

Loot! At long last, glorious, delicious, loot for me!

I started off inspecting what we’d gotten.

First, was the good food, the dino steaks that everyone was feasting on. I had a feeling the captain was concerned I’d be hijacking it all, and, well, if the crew just so happened to eat it first…

I didn’t blame them.

Ingots of Noric Steel. Nice, but I had literally no use for them.

The Quartermaster might, but I ran into the "hauling crates of stuff around" problem.

Bolts of fine material for making clothes. I was for sure grabbing a few.

A scattering of furs. I’d need to properly inventory them, then grab a couple.

I realized as I looked through stuff – I wasn’t exactly hurting for money. Anything above and beyond my personal use, I’d need to go through the effort of selling.

I wasn’t in a position to sell stuff. Merchants were. Plus, it was probably more lucrative to sell healing services anyways. The only benefit to grabbing stuff here was I didn’t need to shop around, barter and trade.

A whole marketplace to myself, where everything was free, courtesy of the five-finger discount.

Plus, giving the stuff to the merchant with no arguments would probably go a decent way towards repairing our relationship. Not that I needed it repaired personally, but – PR. I’d basically blown his ship to pieces, and there was a world of difference between "Tough luck deal with it" and "oops, sorry, here’s some money for you."

I was still going to take first pick of stuff – dude was terrible at hauling passengers around, all too willing to turn a blind eye to what the pirates wanted to do with me – but I couldn’t imagine myself single-handedly hauling crates of stuff out of the ship, trying to store them, then sell them one at a time, all while people tut-tutted about the money-grubbing Sentinel who was practically robbing the poor merchant blind.

Also, I remembered some vague lesson about how Rangers weren’t supposed to take stuff from people we beat up for our personal use, instead turning them over to whatever local government there was. Sure, the rule was bent all the time, but there was a world of difference from "oops where did those gems come from" and "I need a warehouse to store my stuff."

Speaking of gems! The last crate, tucked in a corner, had been pried open and closed so many times that there was practically no structural integrity left on it. I simply reached out and lifted the "hammered in" lid, to find a thin layer of gems on the bottom of a large crate.

The little scratches on the inside let me know that this crate had started off full, and that dozens of little rats had been scratching at it. A pirate here, a pirate there, and shit the pirate I crippled.

I’d completely forgotten about him. Technically a prisoner. I didn’t even have a cursebreaking gem to free him and feed him.

Oops oops oops. To do: Check on the prisoner, see what happened with him. Drip water into his mouth if I needed to.

I looked at the sad gemstones left all alone.

I mean. At this point I’d already basically called them mine, and it wasn’t like there was a crateful of them.

I poured them all and bundled them up. Would try to work with the Quartermaster – or maybe the gemstone dude – on getting them arranged for me.

With a start I realized my armor would need some serious tender loving care. Yeah… I was going to need to bribe the heck out of the Quartermaster to stay on his good side.

I made it back to my quarters, dropped off the gemstones, and went back, "shopping" through the furs and cloths, quickly getting lost in the dizzying array. Without some vendor telling me what was what, I had no idea what I was looking at.

Bear fur? Wolf pelt? Monster leather?

I patted and felt, and finally settled on one that was big, warm, and fuzzy, that I could just sink into. It’d need some more work, but I could maybe turn this into a nice chair or something?

The cloth was a bit easier. I ended up getting nothing. It was all fairly bulky, and there wasn’t anything I saw as particularly special, just standard high-end cloth. With all the work that would be needed to turn it into a dress – I might as well just buy one.

And it’d be kinda awkward to give a bolt of cloth to Albina and say "Hey look! I got this for you on my latest trip!" Merchant-wrapped bulk-transport goods didn’t exactly scream "personal touch" so much as "robbing people on the high seas."

Which technically I had.

You know what was good for people? Gemstones. Artemis’s brilliance all those years ago was brought into sharp relief.

Blah. This was super duper disappointing. I’d finally gotten a chance to loot the villain’s lair, and……….. practically nothing. Good eating, some souvenirs for friends, and that was it. Having most of my things paid for by the government, and being in a profession that dabbling in it now and then earned me ludicrous amounts of money, made run-of-the-mill loot worthless to acquire.

Which meant… hmmm…

Artwork.

I should work on commissioning artwork and the like. I was no artist, I had no head for it, but I could pay other artists to make cool things for me! Everyone won!

Healer Elaine, great patron of the arts.

Yeah, I could make this work.

It was the last day of the voyage back, getting late – the captain wanted to land before it got dark – before we finally met again. He’d been avoiding me, and I was perfectly content to stay in my room, avoiding the frightened stares and scared whispers.

"Sentinel Dawn." He said, as politely and as formally as he could, bowing deep. "I trust your trip was pleasant?"

I gave him a Look. If looks could kill, he’d be dead.

Oooh! My looks could kill if I did it right!

He looked nervous and fidgety.

"Ahem. There was quite a lot of damage to the ship, and –"

I waved him off. I had no time or patience.

"Yeah, you can have everything left. Fix up your ship." He started to stammer out a thanks.

"Donate the rest to the Rangers." I said, looking at him.

"I have ways of finding out if you don’t."

The captain stammered something, as I turned and left. I had no time for any polite nonsense – I was home!

Also, my ways of finding out if he didn’t were long, involved, and would probably be weeks of investigating and talking to people and staring at accounts and honestly way more effort than it’d ever be worth. But it was technically true. I could find out.

And hey! I’d figured out a way to convert the loot into cash for the Rangers, which should make the Quartermaster happy enough with me to hook me up with some juicy stuff.

I’d deal with the adventurers later. They’d been fairly loyal at guarding my door, not letting sailors pop in and bug me, and Cassia had been moderately entertaining. Still. They’d failed at the crucial part, and I was due a reckoning at the Adventurer’s Guild tomorrow.

My backpack was now extra-extra-large, as it was carrying my mauled armor, my loot, and it had started life being extra-large and full to boot. Sure, I’d spent a bunch of money, getting a concerning amount of space back, but still. I probably made an odd sight walking through town with a bag that large and awkward.

Not that people didn’t do things like that, abuse stats in that way – it was more that their loads looked good and secured, and mine was done with bad rope on a rocking boat.

I made it back to HQ fairly late at night, and not quite knowing what else to do, I stashed my backpack in the main living room area of the Sentinel’s quarters, and found my suite.

I took the longest, hottest bath of my life, reveling in the luxury that was my own bath in my rooms.

Why had I ever wanted to go to Deva? This was soooo much better. I could suffer the occasional social engagement. Gods knows that missions have more social engagements than the occasional party.

I scrubbed and combed, blood caked in hard to reach places finally coming undone, then I let myself relax, hot water easing the ever-present tension out of my muscles.

Home.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pretty] has reached level 136!]

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 51840/51840]

[Mana Regen: 42569 (+4049.1)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 150]

[Strength: 244]

[Dexterity: 202]

[Vitality: 600]

[Speed: 520]

[Mana: 5184]

[Mana Regeneration: 4908 (+1423.32)]

[Magic Power: 4517 (+46525.1)]

[Magic Control: 4517 (+46525.1)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 246]]

[Celestial Affinity: 246]

[Warmth of the Sun: 198]

[Medicine: 215]

[Center of the Galaxy: 242]

[Phases of the Moon: 246]

[Moonlight: 246]

[Veil of the Aurora: 216]

[Vastness of the Stars: 144]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 188]]

[Radiance Affinity: 188]

[Radiance Resistance: 188]

[Radiance Conjuration: 188]

[Radiance Manipulation: 188]

[Sun-Kissed: 145]

[Blaze: 188]

[Talaria: 163]

[Nova: 188]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 137]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 136]

[Bullet Time: 198]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 210]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 206]

[Persistent Casting: 55]

[Learning: 246]

Chapter 139 – After Action Report

A knock on my door woke me up, after not nearly enough sleep.

Ok, fine, after not nearly enough beauty sleep. I’d been getting way more than enough sleep on the trip home, and it wasn’t like I needed a solid eight hours of sleep, not with my vitality.

I groaned, rolled over, and got up. Morning meeting. Blah. Seems like not even coming off a mission was enough to get me out of it.

I opened the door, going straight to it, finding nobody there. Ocean was three doors down knocking on another door though.

"Morning." I grunted at him, shuffling over to the living room.

"Morning!" Ocean said, obnoxiously cheerful.

I made it to the meeting-slash-living room, where most of the Sentinels were. My armor – puncture hole and all – was on prominent display in the middle of the room.

Uh oh. That hadn’t started there. Was I in some sort of trouble?

"Dawn. Welcome back." Night said, as politely and formally as ever.

"Glad to be back!" I tried to muster some cheer up, kinda succeeded, and got ‘tired-cheer’ as my voice.

Ocean came back, shaking his head. Night frowned.

"Well, now that everyone who will be here is here, does anyone have pressing business before we begin Dawn’s after-action report?" Night asked. Formal. Polite. One step at a time.

Carefully checking things off a checklist perfected hundreds of years ago. He never knew what was coming up, even though I had no doubt he’d heard every message and communication already. Still. We all had our own information sources, never knew when something would come up.

Brawling, of all people, half raised his hand, put it down, looked down and blushed, then raised his hand.

"Brawling." Night said, acknowledging him.

He mumbled something under his breath.

"What?" I asked, not hearing him.

"I said, my badge got stolen!" He cried out, humiliated.

Oh whoops.

Night frowned at him. Acquisition, of all people, jumped into the conversation.

"Night, don’t be too hard on him. It’s the latest game in thieving rings, to target Sentinels and go for their badge. It’s the mark of a master thief, and rumor has it that the System will even reward anyone who pulls it off with better classes."

Night slowly turned and stared at Acquisition, fixing him with his eyes.

Softly, slowly, dangerously, he spoke.

"Do they not recall what happened the last time they made a game out of stealing Sentinel badges?"

I shivered at that, at his tone. Acquisition awkwardly rubbed his head.

"Erm. When was that? I don’t even know."

Night paused a moment, processing.

"Not even 200 years ago."

"Night. Come on. Thieves are semi-organized, but none of their stuff persists. They don’t have long-lasting organizations. There’s no cultural memory on these sorts of things. You could’ve run a purge 40 years ago and they wouldn’t remember!"

Night continued to stare, then deflated.

"Fine. Retrieve Brawling’s badge. Make polite reminders about us being off-limits. Teach them that next time, I will do the reminding, and it shall not be polite."

A vision flashed through my eyes. Night, like the time we’d fought together on the frontlines, except instead of Formorians, he was standing on piles of dead [Thieves] – the fierce girl who’d tried to rob me staring at me with glassy, dead eyes from the bottom of the pile.

Nope nope nope. 1000% couldn’t let my badge get stolen. I wasn’t going to be the flashpoint for Night giving everyone a "less-friendly reminder".

"Any other business?"

"Yeah, real fast…" Ocean spoke up. "I think there’s something we all need to do before hearing Dawn’s after-action report. Sealing, would you do the honors?"

Ocean winked at me, before Sealing took action.

Sealing nodded, and a barrier sprang up around me – this one made out of reflective material.

Like. I was technically kinda trapped, but I had no fear. Kind of a dick move, whatever was going on, but if all the Sentinels wanted me dead, or captured, there was literally nothing I could do about it. Plus, Ocean had winked at me. Clearly, there was something fun going on, some surprise being arranged.

For me? Possibly! Some reward for Sentinels completing their first mission? Some "welcome in, you succeeded" tradition?

After a few minutes the barrier dropped, some fading words half-echoing.

Ocean looked like a cat with cream. Everyone else had various looks of greed, avarice, or in Night’s case, exasperation.

"Right. Dawn, report."

I gave my report, arriving in Deva, the Purple Flower bust – that got no end of laughter – the endless meetings and running around and general giant pain in the ass that was Deva.

"In conclusion," I said, wrapping Deva up before I got to the ‘returning home’ portion. "I found that I need some helpers, in the same way Magic has artisans working on his gems. I’m not going to be sent on missions for one sick person. I can’t see it happening, not even for a Ranger. Or rather, if they do happen, Sky will drop me off, I’ll heal them, then we’ll turn right around and head back. Either way, irrelevant."

"I’m going to be sent when there are hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of people hurt, sick, injured, and generally in need of healing. Spending all of my time running around, trying to organize things is a waste of my time, of my talents, it makes us look bad, and most critically – it doesn’t get people healed."

I took a deep breath before continuing.

"I could’ve knocked out the plague in a day with the right support network. Two days at most, because I recognize it could take some time. I lucked out this time, it was a shakedown run, to find out how things can go poorly. If this was a disaster where a rapid response was critical, where I was the first on the scene – I can’t be spending my time corralling people. I need helpers."

"On the helper note – I’ve extended an invitation to [Plague Healer] Caecilius to be a member of my team, exclusively for plague-related problems. I don’t want to go terribly in-depth on the reasoning why – it’s a long, detailed affair for another day – but I believe he’d be useful."

"The armor! Tell us about the armor!" Sky shouted from mid-air. "Don’t care about your team, we gotta know what happened to your armor!"

Night blurred and next thing I knew, there was a loud crack, and Sky was falling from the wall, groaning.

Night hissed at him.

"Patience while Sentinel Dawn is reporting on her mission, problems, and potential solutions. This may be boring to you. For her, this is her life."

Sky weakly nodded, and I resolved to go round to tap him later. Had to have something cracked at least. Didn’t feel that bad for him, although Night’s reaction might’ve been over the top.

Then again, Night seemed to be in a foul mood right now.

"Getting back was an adventure. After Ocean decided I was going back on my own," I shot Ocean a foul look at that, which he merrily waved off. "I decided to book passage on a ship. Taking some advice, I decided to travel incognito, not flashing around my status."

Night nodded. "Wise. A Sentinel, seeing which ship can take her home? A poor look."

I bit off a smart-ass retort. Night wasn’t in the best of moods. Don’t sass the moody 5,000-year-old vampire.

"Anyways. Since I’m a young, [Pretty] healer, I decided that ‘Healer Elaine’ should have bodyguards or an escort. Grabbed three adventurers from the local guild to act as such."

Ocean gave me an approving smile.

"They’re solid."

I shot him a withering look.

"Everything was fine, until we got raided by pirates. They didn’t attempt to board and murder everyone – they were simply ‘taking a toll’, which the merchant was unhappy, but willing to pay."

Some nodding around the room. Fairly classic tactics.

"Then they decided they wanted a high-level healer slave."

The room exploded into laughter at that. Sky and Magic were on the floor rolling with laughter. Brawling was giving great guffaws. Bulwark, a thin, reedy man with ink-stained fingers, who looked like he should be an engineer, not a Sentinel, was laughing so hard that he needed to take deep wheezing gasps. Even Night was quietly chuckling.

I explained how the fight went down, including being impaled and barely surviving.

"Wait wait wait no no no." Sky said, looking crestfallen. "Your armor got broken like that while you were wearing it?"

I looked at him. Everyone was staring at me intently, except for Night, who was rolling his eyes, and Sky, looking down at the ground, kicking some nothing. Hard to kick the ground while in mid-air.

"Er, yup!" I said.

The room exploded with noise, mostly Ocean.

"Ha! Pay up! All of you, pay up!" He cackled, as bags of money flew around the room, from person to person – most of it ending up at his feet.

The coin dropped.

"You were betting on me!" I said, with more than a bit of outrage. The privacy, the secrecy, the "surprise" – nooo, that was just making sure nobody could see me, and I couldn’t put my thumb on the scale while the betting pool of "how did Elaine’s armor get wrecked" was going on.

"Shamelessly." Ocean said, with more than a bit of smug.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Ocean was only able to call it because he got a sneak peek of my skills ahead of time, so he knew I could survive a blow like that." I announced.

The murderous looks on most of the Sentinel’s face, combined with Ocean’s look going from smug to concerned – priceless.

….

"Ahem." Night said, after the minor brawl. "Shall we return to business?"

‘First, do no harm.’ Was the start of my [Oath], and while sparring was kosher, brawls were not. Not that I was terribly likely to do well, or survive – Magic had started off by vanishing, Sealing threw up a barrier around himself, and Brawling…

Well. He hadn’t earned the Brawling title by accident.

RIP the furniture. I was getting myself a nice, soft, fur chair, and it was going to stay in my room, where it wouldn’t get wrecked.

"Mistakes Dawn made, and areas of improvement." Night said, clarifying.

"Got separated from her weapon." Brawling promptly said.

"I was pushed back! I wasn’t going to go deeper in to get it! I’m a mage!" I protested.

"Let yourself get dropped into the water when you’re unsuited for it." Ocean ticked the point off his finger.

Oh man. He was going to have no mercy.

"Didn’t try to fall in. I had no other directions I could go. Up wasn’t possible there would just be more ceiling and I can’t fly without light, not to mention cargo possibly falling on me, down would just be deeper into the ship, left and right were basically the same as down, I didn’t think I’d be able to win a straight-up fight, and I wanted distance and air." I desperately tried to counter.

"Didn’t just sink the boats and be done with it." Sky threw in.

I glared at him.

"I’m literally System-bound not to!"

Night held up a hand before it could devolve further.

"Might I remind everyone that Dawn operates under a stringent set of circumstances. Please factor those in when analyzing her performance. Dawn – this analysis does you no good if you simply protest every criticism thrown at you. Think, analyze, and learn. You have a skill for that, no?"

Whoof. Five sentences, and everyone in the room needed a visit to the burn ward.

There was a long thoughtful silence.

"Bit trigger-happy on the gemstones. Might’ve been able to use fewer. At the same time, not aggressive enough. You gave them time to regroup and think. Should’ve hit them like thunder and lightning. Shock and awe ‘em." Magic said, our resident expert on gemstones and how to optimally use them weighing in.

"Teach me at some point. Still new to using them." I said.

Magic grinned.

"Sure! Most of us need to adapt to how to use gemstones – they’re rare enough, and the kit’s large enough, that it takes time to get in the habit of it."

"I know you didn’t try to get in the water, but you still picked an overseas route while being unprepared for aquatic combat." Ocean said, quite a bit nicer.

"You didn’t have your own watch arranged." Hunting said. "You relied on the merchants to do things properly, which let them get the drop on you."

"You let your prejudice get the better of you." Acquisition said. "Once you’d regained – or were even considering boarding – the merchant ship again, you had three additional combatants nominally on your side. You didn’t even check if they would work with you, you didn’t see if there was something they could do. You just wrote them off, and almost died in an ambush because of it. If they had your back? You wouldn’t have needed to blow Sealing’s barrier; you wouldn’t have taken a harpoon through the back."

"I-" I started to defend myself, before closing my mouth and shutting up.

He was right.

Three dedicated combat specialists, who nominally were willing to throw themselves into danger for money – who’d already been paid to do so to boot – and I’d completely disregarded them. Heck, once the pressure was off, once they were no longer getting a sword to their neck while massively outnumbered, once there was a Sentinel they were supporting? It’s likely they would’ve joined me with great enthusiasm.

"I will do my best to remember it in the future." I said.

"Could’ve taken the pirates prisoner by imprisoning them on their ship, and having them towed behind the merchant vessel, using the former slaves as extra manpower." Acquisition observed.

Ouch. Right again.

More problems were pointed out. More roasting. More analysis.

More improvements.

However, salvation came from an unexpected direction.

"I want a number of [Nova]’s from you." Sealing said. "The ability to fire attacks out from inside my shield is great, and the current Radiance attack I have is worse than your [Nova]."

"Your use of [Invisibility] was great." Magic chimed in. "Textbook perfect use. Usually, it can last a bit longer, but…" He shrugged. "Lemme see if I can get you some more."

We went from a roast, to highlighting the good points, the strong points. Brawling was still circling my armor.

"I still can’t believe you survived that." He said, shaking his head.

"The hard part was it being stuck inside me. If it had gone straight through it would’ve been a cakewalk." I cheerfully said.

Acquisition went green. I had to remind myself that however low on the combat totem pole I was, he was lower.

"This is all well and good." Night said. "But the Hell Months are continuing, and I do believe we have spent quite enough time on this after-action report. Ocean. If you are not too busy, can you finish off the pirates please?"

Ocean thought about it a moment, then saluted. "I’m pretty sure I know roughly where they might hole up after a defeat as bad as Dawn’s talking about."

"Good. We can not let anyone with the idea of trying to murder a Sentinel live, especially after Dawn was so generous as to give them a way to simply leave the premise unmolested. As for the merchant captain…" Night said, tapping his fingers thoughtfully. "From the description Dawn has given, and the near complete destruction of both his cargo, and his ship, I do believe he will go bankrupt, unless ship prices have dramatically changed since the last time I checked. As his only crime was to… not stand up to pirates who were invading his ship, unknowingly letting them have a crack at a Sentinel – I can not place greater blame on him. Financial ruin seems appropriate for one ruled by greed."

Seemed a bit harsh, but on the flipside, he hadn’t done anything to me. Standing off to the side when threatened wasn’t a crime.

Unless you were a bloody adventurer hired to do something about it!

"As for the adventurers – Dawn, I trust you will handle their punishment."

Yesssss.

"I’d love to, but I need some ideas about what’s possible and not."

"Chop off a finger!" Brawling suggested.

"Take their weapons, armor, money, clothes, food…" Acquisition started listing off everything a person could possibly own.

More bad ideas from people. Lots of them.

"Send them on a quest! Oooh, make them get you mangos from Perinthus!" Sky suggested.

"Get them demoted in rank at the guild." Ocean finally weighed in.

"Ooooh, I like." I said. I’d have to work on it some, but yeah, apparently higher rank = better paying jobs, and getting demoted for failing a quest seemed like a painful, but reasonable penalty.

Also, there was no way I was letting them get paid for the quest. They’d failed miserably.

Or, at the very least, I was getting a refund. I was going to go in there, and raise hell until I got what I wanted. Sounded like fun.

"Right. Does anyone else have any other business before we adjourn, and go back to the Hell Months?" Night asked.

Nobody said anything.

"Right. Dawn, excellent job on your first mission. Everyone, dismissed." Night said.

Half the Sentinels, including Magic and Ocean, got up and started to walk towards the long corridor that led to the Ranger Academy island. I was slightly bored, and wanted to keep hanging out, so I decided to head down with them.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 51840/51840]

[Mana Regen: 42569 (+4049.1)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 150]

[Strength: 244]

[Dexterity: 202]

[Vitality: 600]

[Speed: 520]

[Mana: 5184]

[Mana Regeneration: 4908 (+1423.32)]

[Magic Power: 4517 (+46525.1)]

[Magic Control: 4517 (+46525.1)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 246]]

[Celestial Affinity: 246]

[Warmth of the Sun: 198]

[Medicine: 215]

[Center of the Galaxy: 242]

[Phases of the Moon: 246]

[Moonlight: 246]

[Veil of the Aurora: 216]

[Vastness of the Stars: 144]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 188]]

[Radiance Affinity: 188]

[Radiance Resistance: 188]

[Radiance Conjuration: 188]

[Radiance Manipulation: 188]

[Sun-Kissed: 145]

[Blaze: 188]

[Talaria: 163]

[Nova: 188]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 137]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 136]

[Bullet Time: 198]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 210]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 206]

[Persistent Casting: 55]

[Learning: 246]

Chapter 140 – Smoke and Mirrors

I jogged along with everyone, with the pace being set slow enough that I could keep up – along with Magic, and the other, less physically-inclined Sentinels. I had no doubt the physical ones could just blast ahead, and be there in minutes, but, well, being a Sentinel was a lonely job, and it looked like the companionship, and bond, was somewhat strong when we were all hanging out together.

Who else knew what we did? Who else could relate to the job?

"All in all, good work." Ocean said, jogging beside me.

"Yeah, fantastic job!" Magic said, on my other side.

I narrowed my eyes at him and poked him. My finger went right through.

"Even here?" I asked.

The mirage of Magic shrugged.

"Habit. If I’m never thinking ‘this is safe, I can show myself’, and ‘this is dangerous, I should hide’, I can never goof and get it wrong. You never know when you’ll be attacked, you never know when you’re in danger."

"Constant vigilance." I said, remembering Maximus’s lessons… among other things.

Magic – well his illusion – beamed at me. "Exactly! You get it!"

I studied his illusion carefully. It was so lifelike. Muscles moved and flexed as they should, his tunic fluttered as he jogged – it even moved a bit as I waved my hand near it.

"Cripes. You’re all control, aren’t you?" I asked.

"Control, Mana Regen, and physical stats, yeah." He answered.

"Dawn. Something for you to consider." Ocean said. "You’re likely going to be in this role what, 100, 200 years or so? You might want to do some long-term thinking and planning."

I immediately paid my full attention to Ocean, the rest of the world falling away.

"Tell me more."

"Well, you’ve leveled up fast. Insanely fast by normal standards, roughly on par with how most Sentinels end up. Well, skipping the boost at the front lines. Regardless, you’re approaching 256 on your primary class. It’s going to be your last class up. Now, if your classes were both dedicated towards healing, it’d be worth considering a reset. Granted, people that pull off a reset are incredibly rare, but the rewards are often worth it. However, that’s irrelevant in your case – what if you reset, and you need to handle another plague? No good."

"With that being said, you’ll want to stall once you hit 256 on your main class. Get your second class up as high as possible. The more stats you have, the higher your skills are, the better your options will be. The better options you have, the better stats you get, the better evolutions for your second class once it hits 256 as well. Unless you decide to reset your second class at 256. Gotta tell us if you do that though, we’ll stick you on the front lines to get that back up."

"Either way, my advice – stall out once you hit 256."

I thought about it. Made a ton of sense.

"Anything else on the long-term planning?" I asked.

"Cultivate contacts, resources. People your age who are high level, who are going places. You’ll bump into them often enough as time goes on." Ocean said.

Acquisition popped over, overlapping with Magic until Magic threw a disgusted look and dropped back.

"Might be worth talking with the Adventurer’s Guild, see who’s high level at a young age. What’s high level at a young age is for you to figure out. Bonus – it might help with your prejudice against them. You can also handle the failed quest while you’re at it."

"Screw that!" Sky said, flying aggravatingly above us. He was basically lounging, and letting the breeze he conjured up float him down the tunnel. "Let’s talk about Hell Months! Anyone got a trainee they have their eyes on? Anyone see any trainees they want to drop out?"

"Is it fair for us to target trainees?" I asked, somewhat bemused.

"Yes, but no, but really yes." Magic said, having enlarged himself, completely overlapping Acquisition. Scary stuff. Looked like one person, but I knew it was a different person under that.

"Magic, I swear to Xaoc, get this damn illusion off of me or I’ll steal all your gems." Acquisition cursed Magic out, the voice coming from the illusion. The illusion popped, and flickered into a new spot.

He shot Acquisition a dirty look.

Hang on. Wasn’t Acquisition supposed to be out stealing Brawling’s badge back? I started to try and poke him, and he expertly weaved out of the way.

"Magic. I swear to the moon goddesses, if you’re impersonating Acquisition as well, I will…" I couldn’t say I’d hurt him. "do something we’ll both regret." I finished lamely.

I am totally getting an anti-mirage skill at some point. I did not want to spend my life questioning what was real and what was fake, not when magic could create such perfect fakes.

Acquisition said nothing. He was either an illusion, or enjoying winding me up. I had a lot more respect for the poor Quartermaster who needed to figure out if he was issuing me stuff, or an illusion stuff. And from the sound of it – Acquisition also had disguise techniques or illusions.

Radiance was apparently great at killing illusions. Could only hope to get a skill for it.

Maybe… maybe I could lose [Nova]? I’d need to think about it more.

As Ocean said – I needed to do some long, long term planning on stuff, and my build. And I had numerous experts to consult.

I blinked.

I was also an expert, that people would be consulting. I needed to be knowledgeable, and I also needed people myself that I could talk with, and trust, who were around.

Like… a Ranger Commander, who probably had a high-level insight into the world, what was happening where, where resources were allocated.

Like… a Ranger, assigned to Team 0, an expert on all things social, able to navigate me through difficult situations.

Like… a brilliant and amazing mage who’d founded one of the first large-scale magic schools.

I could lean on them. They could lean on me. It sounded good.

Actually – could I start teaching at the school? Start training up a generation of healers, possibly steer some of them towards the Rangers? It’d meet Julius’s goal, it’d help me spread my knowledge – yeah, I had to go visit Artemis at some point.

I shook my head and refocused. Magic had been talking the whole time.

"Sorry – can you say that again?" I asked.

I got a sour look. I ignored it. It was an illusion – Magic could be projecting any emotion at all. But wow, what mastery of human emotion and facial expressions to just effortlessly project any emotion he wanted.

"Sometimes, we spot something in a Trainee we don’t like. Someone who won’t work with others. Someone who’ll throw others under a wagon. Or just our personal biases. Like Sky will try to snipe most potential fliers out – less work for him."

"Hey! I like having fliers!" Sky protested.

"You like having exactly one bad flier." Ocean retorted. "So you get your fun, but don’t need to actually do anything."

"Speaking of. Tall mage, black hair. I’m not completely sure, but he seems to be a Sand mage, and I swear he’s trying to foul other trainees when they run on the beach. There’s an unusually high number of trips and falls." Ocean said. "There’s been more sprained ankles this year than the last six Academy classes combined. 600 coins to anyone who can get him to drop out."

"Do we directly target him, or…?" I asked.

"Kinda." Ocean said. "Usually we find something that the Trainee’s bad against, and the take that particular problem up to 16. They dislike cold? Lots of cold environments. They don’t handle bad food well? Lots of bad food. Everyone’s equally miffed, but they’re hit harder than others. If they’re able to persist through it, well, they’re in. Helps stop our personal bias from gatekeeping someone who deserves to be in."

I thought about that. Kinda made sense. There was probably at least one person who didn’t like the idea of me or Artemis going through Academy, but they couldn’t target us directly – they could only do stuff we didn’t like to everyone, and hope they got us. If we persisted, pushed through the challenge – well, we’d proven we deserved to be there.

"Are petty grudges or attempts allowed?" I asked, having a plan.

"Yeah sure, but don’t be too surprised if we don’t go too hard for it." Ocean said.

"Petty. I’d like the bard out." I said.

"Why’s that?" Magic asked.

"Because I’d have to mentor him. Without him, I have no mentees, and more free time." I said, laying my cards on the table.

Sky laughed his ass off, flying high above us. We were in the long tunnel to the Academy at this point, a long underwater thing connecting it to the mainland.

I really hope the tunnel didn’t collapse, or get hit by a monster. Although, if it did, I couldn’t imagine wanting to be anywhere besides next to Ocean.

"Also, I got a new trick I’d love to try." I said. "Magic, can you give me a sound amplification?"

Magic said nothing, but there was suddenly a gemstone flying at me out of thin air. Magic’s hiding spot most likely – and equally likely that he’d moved right after throwing the gem, the same way I moved after hitting people. That was a massive level of paranoia.

Although – between Brilliant barriers, and Mirage illusions, which was stronger?

"Anyone know anything about unlocking the third class?" I asked.

"Should be level 512, although nobody’s ever been able to confirm it." Magic said. "Fits the pattern. First at 8, second at 64, third at 512. Night’s getting close, might get there in our lifetime."

Hmmm… Maybe I could aim for it. Seemed to be a solid long-term goal.

"We’re here!" Sky whooped, and darted ahead.

A twist, a jump, and a shout – thanks to Sky – and we were overlooking the Trainees being put through their paces by the Instructors, Quintis’s voice echoing all the way over.

"Cold?" Magic asked. Ocean shook his head.

"Let’s do rain. Give all the instructors a break."

I blinked at them. Wait just a minute…

Magic did something, and I saw the Instructors start to peel off one at a time, replaced by… an exact copy of themselves. Who were still yelling at the Trainees.

I looked at him, wide-mouthed. Ocean winked at me.

"Smoke and mirrors. This is some of the best non-combat experience Magic can get. Now, it’s my turn." He said, jogging down to where the Trainees were.

I saw a storm start to form – but only around the Trainees. From where I was standing, it looked flat, the backside of a storm, the CGI window laid bare. A grand illusion. As Ocean got near, it started to rain, and from my vantage point, I could see that Ocean was making it "rain" on the Trainees by conjuring water right above them.

To them, it looked like a bad summer squall coming out of nowhere. From where I was standing?

Smoke. And. Mirrors.

Sky nudged me.

"Go show us your new trick you were talking about!"

I glanced up. It was still bright and sunny everywhere the Trainees were not – and Instructor Quintis – no wait, he was grabbing a meal and lying down to take a nap, Magic, pretending to be Quintis, had all the Trainees drop and do a bunch of pushups.

AKA, making it easier to maintain the illusion. AKA, giving all the Instructors a break.

Sentinel. Seeing behind the illusion, seeing the reality behind the hellish training, and how the combination of skills made it all possible. I was impressed.

Heh. I was going to make this insanely hard on Magic. Who knows, maybe the added complexity to the illusion would help him level?

"Switch them to jumping jacks. Or something else where they need to look up." I said to Magic – or at least where I assumed he was, it was impossible to tell – and got ready to take flight.

"Hang on." A voice came from next to me. "Are you going to do Radiance stuff?"

"Err, yeah, why?"

"Is it going to be complicated?"

"Yup."

"Yeah – let’s let them get soaked awhile longer. With how complex this is to hold, and with how Radiance burns though Mirage, you’d probably break the illusion. We’ll get them after they’re good and wet.

Sounded like a plan. Didn’t want to break the illusion for the Trainees.

I looked down. There were a lot of trainees. We must be fairly early into the Hell Months. Even as I watched, someone got up, and started stomping off to the gong.

"Oooh, Ocean got one!" Magic said.

"What, shouldn’t that partially count as yours?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I do so much, they all count as mine." Magic said, waving his hand.

I watched for some time more, before Magic spoke to me.

"Alright, do your stuff."

I grinned. I was going to have fun with this!

Ocean stopped dumping water on the Trainees, Magic had the storm "move on", and then I was up, flying above the Trainees as Magic had them start doing sit-ups.

"The Dawn has arrived!" I yelled, voice amplified, as I started to repeat the "bright pulsing light" trick – being careful that nothing was too bright as to cause long-lasting harm or vision problems – causing more than one Trainee to yell and cover their eyes – only for Instructors, a mix of real ones and Magic-mage illusions, to stomp over and yell at them.

This was fun!

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 51840/51840]

[Mana Regen: 42569 (+14233.2)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 150]

[Strength: 244]

[Dexterity: 202]

[Vitality: 600]

[Speed: 520]

[Mana: 5184]

[Mana Regeneration: 4908 (+1423.32)]

[Magic Power: 4517 (+46525.1)]

[Magic Control: 4517 (+46525.1)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 246]]

[Celestial Affinity: 246]

[Warmth of the Sun: 198]

[Medicine: 215]

[Center of the Galaxy: 242]

[Phases of the Moon: 246]

[Moonlight: 246]

[Veil of the Aurora: 216]

[Vastness of the Stars: 144]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 188]]

[Radiance Affinity: 188]

[Radiance Resistance: 188]

[Radiance Conjuration: 188]

[Radiance Manipulation: 188]

[Sun-Kissed: 145]

[Blaze: 188]

[Talaria: 163]

[Nova: 188]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 137]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 136]

[Bullet Time: 198]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 210]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 206]

[Persistent Casting: 55]

[Learning: 246]

Chapter 141 – Autumn

I had a ton of fun flashing all the Trainees.

Wait.

Phrasing.

After I’d had a ton of fun blinding the Trainees with light – getting two to quit, a solid first effort – I landed, and started to make my way back, Ocean keeping me company.

"Seriously. You did a solid job on your first mission." Ocean said. "My first was a disaster. I was too used to working in a team, and I kept expecting someone to cover me. It took some time, and a few mistakes, to realize I was on my own. Didn’t seem to happen with you – you just flawlessly moved into the role."

"There’s an added layer of complexity to dealing with experts in their environment, and not only that, but you pulled it off with no collateral damage. I’m impressed as anything. Do I wish you’d cleanly taken care of all of them so I didn’t need to clean up? Yes. At the same time, the number of missions where we don’t need some extra clean up are usually the ones where we’re cleaning up in the first place. Hell, even Night occasionally needs a bit of extra ‘help’ when people spot him in places he shouldn’t be, and he’s not leaving a trail of bodies as an example. Usually a quick chat and a large bribe’s enough."

Wow.

"You’re also not a combat specialist, and you performed admirably against dozens of killers. That also weighs in."

"Anyways, tell me more about the pirates… every little bit helps."

I gave as many details as I could remember, about both the pirates and the ship, watching Ocean wince as I horribly mauled nautical terms.

"I deeply regret agreeing that you didn’t need sailing lessons." Ocean said, with feeling. "Maybe we should fix that…"

A lightbulb went off.

"Oooh! Let’s do an anatomy lesson for the trainees! Let me know if you’ve got a spare body around, and we can see which Trainees quit as I dig around through an open corpse, displaying organs and explaining what they do!" I said. "Might as well figure out who’s squeamish now! Plus, it’ll let me get a head start on lessons. I am going to be teaching medicine and first aid, right?"

Ocean looked thoughtful. "It should work. We’ll see. Related – your stall’s all arranged. It’s up to you what hours you want to be there, apart from the morning meeting of course."

Ocean gave me directions to it.

"Perfect. Do you think the Quartermaster will make a slightly custom leather skirt?" I asked.

"Depends, what do you need?" Ocean asked.

"To not flash people when I’m flying."

Ha! Got him. Ocean looked slightly embarrassed at that.

"Ah, yeah, he can probably work something out for you."

Time to play a game. How many people can I make uncomfortable with my request?

One. The answer was one. Only Ocean. The Quartermaster barely blinked at my request before approving it.

"Speaking of, it’ll be a few days before your gear’s all set. You did quite a number on it. There’s a second set in an emergency, but it’s just normal armor, no inscriptions or anything. It’s already fitted for your size. Let’s hope there’s no problems."

Dude was in a foul mood. I could only hope the merchant came through for me.

"Oh right! Here!" I said, handing over most of the gemstones to the Quartermaster. I kept a few to myself – mostly Quartz, for Sealing to add more of his barriers to – but the rest I was happy to donate back to the community pot.

The Quartermaster gave me a Look. I gave him a smile.

Standoff.

He sighed.

"Fine, fine, thank you. Don’t make a habit out of it."

What was that supposed to mean!?

I suppose we weren’t supposed to usually come back with piles of loot from slain enemies. Something, something, bad habits, something, something, opening the door to grift and corruption.

I wasn’t keeping them for myself! I was…

No wait. I had kept half of them for myself.

I handed back the Arcanite I’d requisitioned – and I hadn’t even slipped a few away for my own use! I figured it was better to get on his good side now.

And with that, I had an open day! I popped down to what I was calling the mailroom, checking if I had anything. Letter from Albina, asking me to let her know when I was back in town. Letter from Artemis, asking me to swing by. Letter from my parents, letting me know they were off to move, that they loved me, they regretted missing me, and to stay safe.

Dammit! Missed them. I’d have to catch up with them another time. Needed to let them know about the house and everything.

I penned a quick letter to Albina, letting her know I was back in town, and ready to start our sessions again. With nothing else to do, I packed up my stuff, and headed out to my new healing stall.

I stepped out into the moderately busy street, and needed a moment to collect myself. The last few weeks had taken a bit more of a toll on me than I thought. I’d been living in my armor, prepared and ready for an attack at any time. Then an attack actually did come, and my paranoia levels had gone through the roof.

I refocused. I had skills. I was skilled. I’d been able to handle the pirates, one against goddesses-knows-how-many. I was in a town, the town, there were guards, normal people, and I wasn’t going to be ambushed by dozens of people with no help in broad daylight.

I was as safe as I could be.

I briefly debated walking around with my badge on my tunic, but axed the idea. Acquisition hadn’t gotten a chance to ‘talk’ with all the thieves yet, and I didn’t want to be the one raising my hand in tomorrow’s meeting, confessing that I’d lost my badge as well. If thieves could remove a badge from Brawling, of all people, I had no illusions that I could keep mine safe.

I was going to make it at LEAST a year before wishing I hadn’t ditched [Lost and Found].

I looked down at my coin pouch. I looked around where I was. Perfectly safe – at Ranger Headquarters – but in the rich, fancy district.

I went back to my room, dropped off almost all my coins, and rustled up a spare pouch, which I put where my coin pouch usually was, adding a few coins to it. I tucked my "nice" pouch into my tunic, along with my badge.

A nice, easy, "here steal this one", and a thief would need to be reaching somewhere real awkward to get the real pouch.

Unless they had a skill like Acquisition did, that let them teleport stuff around.

I’d love to wrap it in [Veil], but I still didn’t get to move my own [Veil] around. Hamster-balling my way around might be a bit broken.

[Bullet Time] activated on that one thief, but she didn’t look high level. I imagine high level thieves would have counter-counter measures. And…

There was probably a whole world of cat and mouse I didn’t know about. All I knew was, I was the cheese.

Eh, screw it. I’ll just leave my badge behind in my room, and I was going to be Healer Elaine today. Hopefully that wouldn’t cause any problems getting the stall, but… whatever. I’d take problems as they came.

What’s the worst that could happen?

I’d made it to the marketplace where my new digs were apparently located. Somewhere between here and there a master thief had lifted my decoy purse. If I were a master thief, looking to grab a Sentinel badge, I’d hang out near HQ, and try robbing everyone who left.

An actual master thief would probably have a better plan than that, but. Eh. Tomorrow, hopefully the thief question would be resolved, and I could go around in full gear and badge.

It wasn’t that I was afraid or concerned of getting stolen from – it was that I was afraid what Night would do to them. I didn’t want to be the inciting incident for a bloodbath. Plus – I could only lay low for so long! Might be fun to get to know my neighbors as Healer Elaine, instead of Sentinel Dawn.

Secret identity away! Not that there was any particular reason for it, or anything I was super worried about.

I wove my way through the crowd, merchants shouting their wares – and where they were from, which was a bit different from most towns – women and their children shopping, moms trying to corral kids while bartering, kids bored of being herded around trying to ESCAPE for ADVENTURE!

Heh. I remember doing that. It was tons of fun.

Well. The ones that did escape usually went for adventure, but half the time ended up brawling in the street.

Guards patrolled, keeping an eye out for thieves, thieves lurked, keeping an eye out for unguarded goods and purses, and merchants tried to grow extra eyeballs and mouths, to talk with more people, establish that personal connection to get people to fork over a few extra coins – all while lamenting how they would all starve at the price offered – skills fired, a chaotic mess.

You know. An average marketplace.

I got to my stall, and I had to hand it to the Rangers – they sure knew how to do things well, if sparingly. My spot wasn’t the prime spot, nor was it pushed to the edges. The stall had no frills, just a wooden "display" area, and a stool for me.

Clearly, no expense was spared.

At the same time – stall space was expensive. Honestly, I was kinda surprised that nobody had "liberated" the spot.

I sat down on the stool, taking my spot, when a little inquisitive voice started talking with me.

"I would not do that if I were you." A girl said to me, from my side, behind the stall.

I looked at her. Must be somewhere between 10 to 12.

She was great at making me feel short. She was taller than I was.

"Oh? Why’s that?" I asked her. Empty spot, local warning me off, I’d be an idiot not to listen – even if it was a kid telling me.

Wasn’t too long ago I was her age after all. I wasn’t going to make the mistake of thinking kids were dumb. I needed at least another decade before I was convinced they were idiots.

"The guard gets annoyed." A merchant – who I assumed was her father – answered.

"Do you know what about? Elaine, by the way. Nice to meet you." I said, offering my hand. Might as well get to know my neighbors. Who knew when we’d need to ask each other for some help here and there? Also, dude seemed to have some serious fruit selection, along with other odds and ends. A complete, detailed, and thorough scan of everything he had revealed no mangos.

What type of two-bit fruit merchant neglected mangos? Honestly.

At the same time – chance to get a good hookup.

"Neptune. Apparently, the stall’s reserved." He said, shaking my hand. "Whoever’s rented it out got some serious clout and money. Able to afford a stall, not put anything in it, then have the guard look after it?" He whistled.

"I’m Autumn!" The girl said. "What do you do? I neeeeeever see girls selling stuff. Plus, you don’t seem to have any stuff. If you need a break you can sit with us!" She said, suddenly getting an idea and brightening up.

"Don’t bug her Autumn." Neptune said.

I gave her a smile.

"I don’t mind. Really. Also, um, how to put this." I said, scratching my head somewhat awkwardly. "Pretty sure this stall’s for me."

Neptune pointed at a guard who was wandering over to us.

"I’m not the one you need to convince."

I sent a quick prayer off to the goddesses that this would be a quick and painless interaction.

"Excuse me miss – this stall’s reserved." The guard said.

"Yes – for me." I countered.

He frowned. No. Please. Shoot me now.

"Name?" He asked.

"Should be under Dawn. Probably." I said.

His frown deepened.

"Probably?"

"No idea what name it got reserved under. What evidence would you accept for this being mine?"

The guard muttered something to himself, and blessedly, left.

"Thought your name was Elaine." Autumn said. "It’s not good to lie to guards."

She closed her eyes, and like she was reciting a rule, she carefully enunciated.

"Rule 4. Only lie to people when they’re buying your stuff, and never lie to the guard."

"Autumn!" Her father said, horrified. "What’s rule 14?"

"Never tell other people the rules, unless – oopsies." Autumn said, looking slightly abash. "Forget I told you anything." She directed that second one to me.

I laughed at her.

"I have two names! That’s why I gave you one name, and the guard a second name!"

Autumn looked at me suspiciously.

"Girls don’t get two names. How did you get two names? Oooh! Are you on the run from the guard?"

Her dad cuffed her at that.

"Be nice." He said, then got distracted by someone trying to buy his stuff.

"If I was on the run from the guard, would I be happily claiming a stall? Would I be cool telling the guards to take a close look at me?"

She frowned at that. I could practically see the steam coming out of her ears.

"Ok. Fine. So what do you sell? You don’t seem to have anything. So that means you sell a skill. And you [Identify] as a [Healer]. You heal people!" Autumn said, clearly working it out as she went along.

"Yup!" I said cheerfully.

"Dad, dad, dad, can I hang out with Elaine? I wanna learn to be a [Healer]!"

"If she agrees. You need to pay for it with your own money." Her dad said, clearly well-rehearsed, and very distracted, trying to close the sale.

Well. The sale was going to be made. The only question was how many coins would be moving around.

I got the BIGGEST puppy-dog eyes from Autumn.

"Will you please teach me how to be a healer? Nobody ever wants a girl apprentice. I promise I won’t be a pest. I can pay you…" She started fumbling at her pouch.

My heart almost broke at the second sentence. She was totally right. Nobody ever gave girls the time of day, never gave them a chance to be an apprentice, to learn. Best-case is what she had – her dad teaching her the tricks of his trade.

"Sure! Grab a seat, pull it up, and I’ll show you how it’s done. For free." Autumn gasped, then turned around and bolted back to her stall.

With happy whooping noises, Autumn grabbed what was clearly her seat and wrestled it over to my stall, all of three feet.

"Ok, great! Tell me all about it. Although, um. You need a sign." Autumn pointed out. "Rule 6. Always let people know what you’re selling. Oh! We sell fruit."

Good point. I didn’t have anything to make a sign with – except, of course, skills. [Veil] would be perfect.

"How would you make a ‘Free Healing’ sign?"

Autumn looked at me with horror.

"Rule 1! The golden rule! Always always always get paid! Never do anything for free!"

"I’m teaching you for free, aren’t I?"

Ahhh. The delicious look of conflict. Her Rule 1 versus her desire to learn how to be a healer.

"Consider giving me a little help with the stall your payment." I said, unable to keep an amused note out of my voice.

"Alright! Nobody will believe free. Make it one coin. Then when people want to pay, you… you…" It seemed to physically pain Autumn to say it, and she croaked it out in a whisper. "You tell them it’s free."

I tapped the side of my nose with a finger.

"It’s free… but I accept donations. Sometimes, believe it or not, you can make more money by having people give you what they think is fair."

"Can’t you lose a lot of money like that?" Autumn asked me.

"How would I lose money?"

More steam came out of her ears, until the lightbulb went off.

"You don’t pay anything for your stuff! You can’t lose money! No, wait. Yes, you can. The stall fee."

I wasn’t paying it, not that I’d tell her that. Did remind me to give a portion back to the Quartermaster. They were providing me with everything, the least I could do was give some back.

Autumn rubbed her hands avariciously. Inspiration struck.

"Also, I’m going to have you collect donations from people."

"We have a deal! Rule 20. Only renegotiate deals if they get better for you." She recited.

I shot her a look. Little squirt thought she could out-maneuver me. I was mostly useless at this, but not entirely useless.

"It’s part of your apprenticeship, while you learn. I need my apprentice to be doing something useful – unless you can think of something more useful to be doing while you know no medicine and have no skills, hmmmm?"

I could see by the look on her face that I’d gotten her.

"Do you have a sign skill?" She asked.

"Sign skill?"

"Yeah, to make a sign for your stall. Are you sure you’re supposed to have this stall? Novice merchants don’t set up here. They need to be in the lower markets first, before they can get enough money to set up here. How did you even afford a stall in the first place?"

Smart kid.

I winked at her. "You’ll find out! I have a flashy skill I can shape, if that’s what you mean." I said, conjuring [Veil] up in the shape of a tiny stall. Took a bunch of focus to make something that detailed, as opposed to my usual "shield myself and don’t die", but hey. It was good practice.

"Yeah ok. Like. Make a broken arm or something as the stall sign. Have a single coin next to it. Healing, one coin. Ok, your turn, tell me all about healing."

Having felt that she’d finally paid her dues, Autumn’s merchant instincts took over, giving her the poise and confidence to make demands of me. Clearly, we had a deal, and in her mind, since she’d "paid" me already, she felt free to plunder me for all I knew.

Cute kid.

I threw up a three-dimensional sign of a broken arm, with the picture of a single coin next to it, then mentally "tied it off" with [Persistent Casting].

"Out of the eight basic elements, four of them can be considered ‘healing’ elements. Light, Dark, Water, and Wood. Wood is for making potions and other related remedies, Light is for creation and restoration – like [Restoration], which can restore limbs. Dark is destruction and removal – like diseases, and other icky things inside the body. Lastly, Water kinda does a little bit of everything, but it doesn’t do it as easily, nor can it restore limbs."

I smiled, repeating a lesson I’d heard a decade, a lifetime ago, on the basics, the fundamentals of healing.

"What are you?" Autumn asked, looking up at my sign, the Aurora Borealis swirling above us.

"Celestial. It’s a combination of Light and Dark."

"Woooooow. So cool." Autumn said, and I recognized the star-struck look.

I smiled at the first person that seemed to be approaching me for healing.

"While you can just throw mana and skills at a problem, it helps to know exactly what you’re curing, how it’s broken, and why your fix works. It can help you figure out bigger problems, along with being more mana-efficient. Less mana used means more patients seen, which means more money. Now, let’s see what’s wrong with this lady…"

Autumn nodded furiously, and listened with rapt attention as I talked with the lady, diagnosed her problem, explained what was wrong to both her and Autumn, then healed her.

Autumn was remarkably well-educated, as she pulled out some charcoal and bamboo, starting to take notes.

I was totally getting a cute apprentice out of this free healing deal.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Oath of Elaine to Lyra] has reached level 211!]

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 51840/51840]

[Mana Regen: 42569 (+4049.1)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 150]

[Strength: 244]

[Dexterity: 202]

[Vitality: 600]

[Speed: 520]

[Mana: 5184]

[Mana Regeneration: 4908 (+1423.32)]

[Magic Power: 4517 (+47654.35)]

[Magic Control: 4517 (+47654.35)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 246]]

[Celestial Affinity: 246]

[Warmth of the Sun: 198]

[Medicine: 215]

[Center of the Galaxy: 242]

[Phases of the Moon: 246]

[Moonlight: 246]

[Veil of the Aurora: 216]

[Vastness of the Stars: 144]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 188]]

[Radiance Affinity: 188]

[Radiance Resistance: 188]

[Radiance Conjuration: 188]

[Radiance Manipulation: 188]

[Sun-Kissed: 145]

[Blaze: 188]

[Talaria: 163]

[Nova: 188]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 137]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 136]

[Bullet Time: 198]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 211]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 206]

[Persistent Casting: 55]

[Learning: 246]

Chapter 142 – Schools

Teaching Autumn was fun! She drank up everything I had to tell her, and it was nice having someone else handle the financial side. She was ruthless.

"Just think of all the cosmetics you’ll now save on because you don’t have those scars!" Autumn harangued the latest patient, a woman who’d gotten badly scarred from a plague, scars all over her face now gone. "Surely, a lifetime’s savings should be worth more than a few coins today, as a gesture of gratitude! Why…"

Relentless. Best part? People didn’t feel entirely comfortable bartering properly with her. They did feel comfortable just blowing her off and walking away – but Autumn was telling something about "social gratitude" making most people at least stay and hear her pitch – at which point she roped them in, and ruthlessly milked them for everything they had.

Scary.

How much worse would the dad be when I tried to negotiate for a mango-line?

Oooh wait.

I could get Autumn to do it for me!

Autumn got quite a fat purse from the lady, and somehow, in spite of paying through the nose for free healing, she hummed a happy tune as she left the stall.

Wow. I should’ve gotten me an apprentice years ago. I’d be swimming in it by now!

"I leveled! I leveled! Dad! I leveled!" Autumn leaped off her stool, it clattering to the ground, as she rushed over to where her dad was mid-negotiation.

"Whoa! You leveled!" Neptune said, breaking off his haggling. Dude cared more about validating his kid than making his sale. Solid dude. "And you leveled yesterday as well! Nice!"

They gave each other a high-five, then he turned to finish his sale.

He quickly wrapped up his sale – not haggling anymore, just completing it – before turning back to Autumn.

"Have you learned anything interesting?"

"Yeah! Selling services is weird."

"What else?"

"I totally want to be a Light healer. I can make so much money! And I don’t even need to buy stuff!"

He ruffled her hair.

"Gotta get a Light healer to apprentice you first!"

Autumn ran over to me, grabbed my hand, and dragged me over.

"Elaine! Elaine will apprentice me! Right right?"

The merchant looked at me. Blinked. Blinked again.

I recognized the look. The "holy shit the System is telling me WHAT" look. Also known as "I just ID’d her and wow."

"What’s the price of apprenticeship?" He asked me, clearly re-evaluating me.

"Ask Autumn. She negotiated it."

"Sure, but as her dad, I’d like to hear it."

I shrugged.

"Help running my stall, mostly. Help negotiating deals. I haaaaate negotiating and wringing money out of people, she takes that burden, I get a bunch more, and I get to teach. What’s there not to like?"

"Well, I’m concerned you’ll get bored, or your husband or whoever will bar you from teaching."

I thought about that.

"Being concerned that I won’t always be around is a legitimate concern, especially because I do travel a fair amount, and I can’t – won’t rather – take her with me. I can leave teaching materials for her though. She can already read, which is a huge plus."

Neptune drummed his fingers.

"Maybe. We’ll see. Can she still learn from you without a formal apprenticeship?"

"Yeah, of course!"

Neptune could be a piano player with how fast his fingers were going.

"Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?"

Autumn piled on the charm, in the obnoxious way only kids could get away with.

"Alright, alright, fine." Neptune held his hands up in surrender. "Don’t take a second class without discussing it with me first, ok?"

Autumn nodded furiously, willing to accept any conditions.

"Alright. Have fun!"

"Ahem. Apprentice." I said, putting on my best "serious-face-and-tone."

"Yes Elaine?" She asked, immediately looking at me with all her attention.

"Your first official task…" I said, drawing it out.

"YES?" She was way too excited.

"Get me a deal to constantly buy mangos from that fruit vendor." I said, pointing to her dad.

Autumn paled in horror. Her dad starting laughing his ass off.

Ahhh minions. How did I ever live without them?

Autumn and her dad started to get in a heated discussion, which I kept half an eye on. Her dad was getting a proud look on his face, as this was probably the first time they’d earnestly conflicted on selling and buying – and she was holding her own.

I have no doubt they’d done hundreds, thousands of "practice negotiations", or even bartered over little things. Heck, it could practically be a tradition of theirs.

This was different though. This was a "real", large-scale deal.

I started chuckling to myself as I realized something. Sure, Neptune had a bunch of levels and experience on her, and in theory had the edge.

Except Autumn knew exactly what he paid for stuff, and knew that he had to say yes. After all – it was for Autumn’s teacher, and it was her first mission. He couldn’t make her look bad off the bat.

He might’ve been making it a bit easier on her – but maybe he was making it harder, both protecting his own pockets, and it would probably be better experience for both of them. The real thing always gave more experience than practice, and somehow, the System knew the difference.

I healed a few more people, noticing the hole in my money jar as Autumn wasn’t wringing people for everything they had on them, and spotted a familiar face through the crowd.

I waved to Kallisto. He waved back, mimed a salute, and vanished.

20 coins says that was the guard checking up that I was who I claimed to be, and Kallisto, being in town, was probably elected to be the one confirming it. I should hang out with them at some point. Maybe they’d need a hand on some mission or another, and I could quite literally save a life or two.

Shame he couldn’t hang out and chat. Was probably insanely busy with being a Ranger, and with his baby. I couldn’t imagine they were getting a lot of sleep.

Maybe I should see if they were down for dinner at some point? Eating alone at Headquarters wasn’t good for me. I needed people to chat with, friends.

Autumn negotiated me a deal that she assured me was "totally awesome", and rejoined me at the table for the rest of the day.

"One of my most powerful skills is called [Elaine’s Oath]." I said, deciding that the fundamental basics and philosophy of healing and medicine would be a good starting point. I also gave her the shortened version of the name, the one that people taking the [Oath] would get. "It works like this…" I said, explaining the [Oath], the reasoning, and the effect.

Autumn frowned at me.

"That’s a dumb [Oath]. Plus, who names a skill after themselves?"

Ouch. From the mouth of babes comes truth.

"Why’s that?" I asked her, between patients.

She didn’t answer, just rubbed her fingers together.

"Money! I can’t make nearly as much money if I take the [Oath], than if I didn’t have it."

"You can heal bigger injuries with it." I pointed out.

"Yeah, or I could just take more time. You instantly heal people. Probably way too much power. Mana Regeneration would be the key stat."

The hell kind of education was she getting that she was this knowledgeable about the System already!?

I decided not to tell her about bulk and mass healing.

I shrugged.

"Your call! That’s the idea and the basics. Let’s move onto diseases…"

This was great.

All things must come to an end, and the day was wrapping up. I bid farewell to Autumn and Neptune, and decided to head down to Artemis’s school. I’d deal with the adventurers tomorrow, when I could run around with my badge again.

Oh boy. I couldn’t wait to see the look on Autumn and Neptune’s face tomorrow.

I wasn’t bothered on the way out of the gates, but the guards did helpfully remind me that the gates were closing soon, and to try and make my way back before then.

The trip to Artemis’s school was uneventful. I made it to the school grounds as long shadows started to dominate. It looked like school was closed – I didn’t see lightning bolts raining down, nor flying rocks or any other obviously magical goings-on.

"Artemis! Hey Artemis!" I yelled out, wandering through the grounds. There was no sign about the place being closed. I was impressed. More buildings had been erected, made out of stone.

The really obvious bulb went off. Artemis. Artemis was single-handedly using major, large-scale manipulation to create the buildings. Sure, technically you could conjure them up, but then you get into the degradation problem, where conjured material didn’t last.

Either way. This was major, major, impressive stuff.

Although – was Artemis even here?

"Healy-bug! Over here!" A familiar voice called out.

"Artemis!" I skipped over happily, giving her a hug.

"Heya! How’ve you been? Missed you!" Artemis said, reciprocating the hug.

"Ooof. I was in Deva. Minor plague, Purple Flowers, and pirates."

"Tell me all about it." Artemis said, leading me to what I had to assume were her living quarters.

"Heya Elaine." Julius said once we got there. Hurray! More people!

"Julius!" I said, giving him a hug. Him calling me Elaine, and being so casual, meant that he was here socially, or at the very least, he wasn’t expecting us to be in Commander-Sentinel mode.

We sat down, Artemis poured herself a large drink of something that smelled terribly alcoholic, and offered me a pour, which I accepted. She filled Julius’s cup, and we all settled down to chat.

"Julius, quick, close your eyes." I said. I got a frown, but he complied.

I gave Artemis an Iolite gemstone, which I’d liberated from the pirates, then the merchants. Lightning was rare, and finding an Iolite gemstone was almost as rare. She happily took it from me, and I flashed back to the day all those years ago where she’d found a diamond for me to store my Light skills in.

I wasn’t quite supposed to have liberated the gems, but as long as I wasn’t too obvious about it, I wouldn’t get in trouble. Blatantly handing it off to Artemis in front of a Commander was being too obvious about it though.

Artemis pocketed it with a wink. She knew exactly what was going on.

"Ok, open your eyes Julius." I said.

"What, no present for me?" He teased.

The only answer to that was the dreaded tongue sticking out.

"You’re my boss, it’d look bad." I said with a straight face.

He just chuckled and rolled his eyes at me.

I told her the whole story, start to finish, and she was a fantastic audience. They groaned at the right places, laughed in the right spots, and commiserated with me over the uselessness of adventurers.

"After all," She said. "If they were any good, they’d be Rangers, not adventurers!"

We clicked our mugs together, and took another sip.

"How’s the School going?" I asked.

"Well enough. I’m crazy busy. Never a quiet moment."

"Thought about hiring other teachers?" I asked. "Maybe get some tutors in here?"

Artemis grimaced. "I’ve been trying. Either they’re unskilled, believe they’re better than me and want to take the whole thing over, or demand such outrageous sums as to not be worth it. Or all three!"

"How about administrative staff, to help things keep moving along, so you only need to focus on the important stuff?"

Artemis nodded at me.

"Yeah, I’ve got one helper for that. Dude’s a lifesaver. Handles all the payments, money, and logistics. Doesn’t help me when a student decides it’s ‘funny’ to show me what they learn and attack me out of the blue, and I almost take their head off as a result."

Wow.

Artemis, showing restraint?

Heck, these days, I might take someone’s head off before recognizing it wasn’t a real attack!

I poked Artemis, making sure she was real, and not Magic’s sick idea of a joke.

"Who are you, and what have you done with Artemis?" I asked.

She swatted me.

Rubbing my head, I figured I could give Artemis a hand.

"Hey. I’m probably not as good as you are, but I could teach some healing here on a part-time, nightly basis, when I’m in town."

Julius snapped his head towards me, staring at me intently. It probably sounded like a dream come true for him. A Sentinel and a former Ranger, both teaching at a school? People would, by sheer virtue of who their teachers and mentors were, be drawn to the Rangers. And since I was training healers, it was exactly what Julius wanted – healers joining the Rangers.

"I’ll see about getting you a sizeable stipend if Dawn teaches here." Julius told Artemis.

"Hey! Shouldn’t I be the one getting the stipend!" I protested.

Artemis frowned at that, thoughtfully swirling her wine cup.

I wanted to keep talking, keep making my case, but I knew I didn’t need to. Artemis and I were on pretty similar wavelengths. She knew what I could do, she could see the implications.

"Sure." She said.

I pumped my fist. More people to train!

We spent a few more hours catching up. Artemis, mom, and dad had indeed spent a ton of time together. Artemis was delighted to hear about Night’s offer for a house – mom and dad had asked her to see if she could find a location, and Night’s offer took one more thing off her plate.

Julius gave me a side-eye at that. He knew something had to be up, and with his relatively recent introduction to vampires, who knew what he was thinking.

However, I couldn’t miss the deep stress lines that etched Artemis’s face. She looked like she’d aged, something I’d missed last time I saw her, at graduation. The high of being promoted to Sentinel had caused me to miss a lot of things.

I felt a little bad. A little guilty. I’d persuaded her to leave the Ranger lifestyle, where she clearly fit, and try this out. A new thing.

"Artemis?" I asked, in a lull in the conversation.

"Yeah?"

"Are you happy?"

She took a large swing of wine, and her face just lit up.

"A student of mine got offered [Artemis’s Student – Lightning] yesterday. He took it. Another one’s been accepted to the army’s artillery mage training. A third’s been recognized by his parents. It’s just indescribable, the feeling of watching people grow and become stronger, their joy as they learn something new, as they get some new trick. Am I happy? Oh yeah. It’s all worth it, for those little moments."

I gave her a hug.

A moment passed.

Then a second.

"Heya Artemis?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you lift me into town? The gate’s probably closed by now."

Julius snorted at me.

"What, you think they wouldn’t open the gates for a Commander? Come on. Let’s head back."

Drat. I’d been half looking forward to breaking into town again.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 51840/51840]

[Mana Regen: 42569 (+14233.2)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 150]

[Strength: 244]

[Dexterity: 202]

[Vitality: 600]

[Speed: 520]

[Mana: 5184]

[Mana Regeneration: 4908 (+1423.32)]

[Magic Power: 4517 (+47654.35)]

[Magic Control: 4517 (+47654.35)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 246]]

[Celestial Affinity: 246]

[Warmth of the Sun: 198]

[Medicine: 215]

[Center of the Galaxy: 242]

[Phases of the Moon: 246]

[Moonlight: 246]

[Veil of the Aurora: 216]

[Vastness of the Stars: 144]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 188]]

[Radiance Affinity: 188]

[Radiance Resistance: 188]

[Radiance Conjuration: 188]

[Radiance Manipulation: 188]

[Sun-Kissed: 145]

[Blaze: 188]

[Talaria: 163]

[Nova: 188]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 137]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 136]

[Bullet Time: 198]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 211]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 206]

[Persistent Casting: 55]

[Learning: 246]

Chapter 143 – Companion information

Julius got us through the gates no problem, although he got a number of funny looks.

Entering late at night, escorting a woman less than half his age? I briefly considered spiking his wheel, but decided that we were probably going to have a long working relationship together, and annoying him too much was probably a poor idea.

"Leveled up a bunch from that?" Julius asked me, referring to Deva.

"Yup! Good experience." I said.

And that reminded me.

I’d been sitting on my free stats far too long, and I decided to finally allocate them, splitting them between vitality and speed, evening them out then splitting the remainder. I’d need to do some serious thinking as to which stats I needed to prioritize on my next class up. A solid discussion to have with Night at some point.

Before long I was back at Headquarters, had another luxurious bath, and the next morning was rolling around. Time for another meeting!

Ocean wasn’t around – on pirate clean-up duty – but Acquisition was looking smug.

"I’ve reached a compromise with most of the high-level thieves in the area." He said. "They’ll tell the remaining ones. Anyone who’s not high level we don’t need to worry about."

I raised my hand and gave him a Look. Thieves were the bane of my existence.

"Most mid and low-level thieves aren’t playing ‘best thief’ contest and trying to rob Sentinels." Acquisition said, giving me a flat look. "The deal I struck with them is we’ll have a cloth on us that they can try to snag instead."

Night gave him a Look.

"That is unacceptable. Sentinels are not playthings."

Glares around the room at Acquisition.

Acquisition held up his hands.

"I know. I KNOW! But they’re lawless. How am I supposed to get them to start following our laws? This is one of the only things they’d accept. They’ll get bored soon enough, plus," Acquisition grinned, like he’d stolen something invaluable. "the cloth in question is easy to manufacture and copy. I’m going to simply flood the area with it, soon it’ll be impossible for the thieves to tell if a trophy is genuine or not, then they’ll get bored and go back to robbing Senators and grabbing fancy statues and the like."

He turned to Night.

"Or just, you know, let me declare myself the best thief in Remus, prove it by robbing the Senators of their clothes while they’re in the Senate, and stop the pissing contest that’s thieves trying to one-up each other by robbing us."

I tuned out the rest of the argument and the debate. I thought being a Sentinel would be interesting and exciting, not arguing about the merits of government-sponsored thieves, and how to get thieves out of our business.

After a point, Night released us, but Brawling and I were the only ones to leave. Everyone else was enjoying the discussion too much.

Brawling headed out – he didn’t have tons to contribute to the Hell Months, being an almost pure physical Classer, and screwing with Trainees seemed a lot less fun without anyone else around. I gave them a pass. The Dawn wouldn’t rise this morning.

Make it even worse on them, if they could never guess when I’d show up and start a light show.

My armor was back and fixed, and I picked it up from the Quartermaster. They worked fast. Then again, 90% of their job was getting Rangers and their gear set, but the 10% of the job dedicated to supporting Sentinels? That got top priority.

I swung by the Gemstone dude, and we had a nice chat. The long and the short of it was – with my improved knowledge of the System with how [Persistent Casting] worked with my images, I made some of the Moonstones I was charging with [Phases of the Moon] "better". That was to say – some Moonstones I made good at handling cuts, some I made better at dealing with poisons – basically, they were all heal-alls, but some did a better job at healing a specific type of injury.

The Gemstone dude seemed to know exactly what I was doing though, and I trusted him to properly pass it off to the other Sentinels.

I cursed. Bluebeard. I still wanted a long chat with him about companions.

I hurried back down to our meeting room, and I was lucky enough to catch him.

"Hunting! Hey, Hunting!" I called out, waving to him.

"Dawn! What can I do for our newest Sentinel?" He asked me.

"Companions! Hoping to have a nice long talk about them. Hoping to get your input." I said.

He eyed me.

"Yeah, I can see why one would be perfect for you. Have you eaten breakfast yet?"

I shook my head.

"Why don’t we grab a bite to eat together, and I can tell you all about them? I’m not surprised you’re interested, not after seeing you with Katastrofi."

I blinked at him.

"You remember that?"

"Of course I remember that! Do you know how few people want to get near Katastrofi? Then there’s a girl, hanging out with a full Ranger team, who has [Detailed Restoration] of all the skills, who instead of fleecing me for everything I have on me wants a ride?"

Well. When he put it like that.

"Lemme gear up real fast." I said, quickly darting into my room, changing into full armor – with my cape.

The cape of "I’m here to look badass, not get in a fight."

Capes were terrible for fights, unless you had skills or something. Too easy to snag on things, and they did nothing for you in a fight.

Hunting quirked an eyebrow up at my outfit.

"Planning on getting a discount somewhere?" He asked.

I did my best flycatcher impression.

"A lot of stores will give us a discount if we show up looking like that." Hunting said, nodding at me.

"No – well, now yes – but no, I was planning on yelling at the Adventurer’s Guild."

"Careful with that. Yell at them for screwing up with ‘your good friend’, not with you. Reputation and picture of invincibility and all that."

Ooooh good point. "Yes, Sentinel Dawn hired adventurers to protect her" – everything said after that would go in one ear and out the other. The rumor mill would have a field day though. Not that the Guildmaster probably didn’t have my number, but again – plausible deniability.

"Sounds good!"

We wandered through the city, and I was a little surprised we didn’t just grab a bite at the first vendor and called it a day. Rather – I grabbed something, and was letting my breakfast rapidly cool as Bluebeard seemed to be picky, looking and dismissing vendor after vendor.

"Whatcha looking for?" I asked, after the 8th vendor in a row got dismissed.

"Bulk meat." Hunting answered. "First rule of companions – they eat before you do. Katastrofi requires huge amounts of food, and my usual vendor’s not in town, and my backup’s having supply problems. Gotta find someone who doesn’t screw with the meat too much, and who won’t charge me too much."

"Thought the armor was good for a discount."

"It is. But when a merchant smells money, and my need to buy? Doesn’t stop large scale purchases being expensive."

Bluebeard eventually finished his shopping, and we headed out of town. Bluebeard was balancing a stack of meat, all of it still raw and dripping.

I kept my distance.

My outfit got me a straight pass through the gates, and Bluebeard nodded in a familiar way to the guards, who just cheerily waved him through. If he fed Katastrofi daily – which was possible I guess, but I didn’t know enough about dinosaurs – the guards would get to know him real well.

My question of "where did you store a multi-ton dino" and "how did Hunting make this all work" were answered as we arrived at a large, sprawling villa located outside the town walls. A huge "pen" was arranged for Katastrofi, but given that I could hop over the fence, it seemed to be more of a social warning, than anything that could stop Katastrofi. She could literally step over it – or on it – and not even notice. Well-trained to stay inside.

Very graphic signs posted around made it abundantly clear, without using a single word, that stepping inside the pen would result in being eaten.

With Remus’s justice system, the guards might not even talk with Hunting over it.

Hunting whistled, and Katastrofi came bounding over, great footsteps shaking the earth as the Abelisaurus came bounding over like an overeager puppy. She gave me a look, a sniff, and having determined that I was no threat, and that breakfast was here, happily snatched huge chunks of meat out of the air that Hunting was throwing at her.

"It’s good practice." Hunting said, seeing my look. "Lots of small flying things that she needs to bite. Your companion is your life, your other half. Some treat them as just a pet, a tool. Then they wonder why they never bond, why the System never offers them the [Companion] skill. They’re so much more than pets."

"It’s almost a lifelong commitment to have a companion. They change you, change you in many ways unique to each bond, and you’re changed in return. Abelisauruses aren’t particularly smart, but Katastrofi’s incredibly intelligent. She got that from me. I’m stronger, faster, and heavier."

"It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. I’m meaner. Angrier. Quicker to lose my temper, to throw a punch. I’ve got self-control, but it’s an unpleasant feeling, feeling rage bubble up at the most innocent and harmless of things and needing to fight it down. Katastrofi’s missing some of her instincts, can’t naturally do things other Abelisauruses do without thinking. She eats tons more than other dinosaurs, but she’s a lot more energetic. It’s give and take."

"I also need twice the experience to level in anything. It’s mitigated by Katastrofi splitting any experience she gets with me. It’s why people don’t just bond with anything. When she was born, she was level 1 like anything else is. I was stuck at the same level for years while she grew up, until she caught up with me in level. It’s why people don’t just get a companion ‘just because’ – there are real downsides to go with the upsides. You need to make sure it’s worth it."

"You also lose a general skill slot, or with rare classes, you lose a class skill slot."

Hunting gave me some of Katastrofi’s breakfast, and I started tossing the hunks of meat to her, watching with delight as she snapped it out of the air.

"Oh! Something I almost didn’t mention. It’s hard, bordering on impossible, to bond with a fully grown creature. Their minds are formed already, their bodies have grown. They have a personality. You need to have almost exactly the same mindset ahead of time to bond with a grown creature, otherwise it just won’t work, for whatever reason."

I nodded. "You mentioned you thought a companion would be good for me?"

"Yeah. You’re young, which helps. You two can mold each other. It gets harder the older – and more stubborn and set in your ways – you get. You’ve got plenty of strengths, and some glaring weaknesses, which a companion easily covers. You’ve got a good, caring heart, which is a major plus. You’d do well, unlike, say, Magic, who’d just see the animal as another tool."

Katastrofi’s breakfast was over, and with Hunting’s encouraging nod, I moved forward, to slowly stroke her scaly legs. They were surprisingly warm to the touch, and she made a low growling noise, which almost sounded like a cat trying to purr.

A t-rex, making a content noise. What was the world coming to?

I had a thought.

"Can people bond with each other?"

Bluebeard sucked in air through his teeth.

"Technically – TECHNICALLY – it’s possible. I think. I’ve seen nothing to suggest it isn’t, but it’s like trying to bond a grown creature, but eight times as difficult. Both parties start off highly intelligent. Both parties have their own sense of self, have their own dreams and ambitions. If there’s any shred of doubt, it won’t work. And it’s all too easy to think ‘what if they’ll change in the future? What if…’. So many ‘what-ifs’. But yes. The famous romances bards sing about, when they sing of people in lifetime commitments, above and beyond mortal means – that’s usually bards taking a System bond and putting it into extra-flowery terms. If you somehow pull it off, congratulations, you’ve got a romance for the ages."

He eyed me.

"No offense, but I doubt that’ll happen with you. You’re too strong, too powerful, at a young age, isolated and alone. I have no doubt you’ll find a measure of happiness one day, but someone exactly like you who you’d bond with? We’d already know about them."

Well, Romance with a capital R was pretty far out of my mind at the moment, with my latest stab at it almost ending with me drained of all my blood. I was insatiable, and I wanted, needed, to know more. Interrogation away!

"What do you recommend for me? Also, Wolfy had multiple companions, how did that work?"

"Wolfy?" Hunting asked me.

Whoops.

"Erm. Dude in my graduating class, had two wolves as his companions."

"Ah. Generally, it’s hard to get multiple companions, but wolves are one of the exceptions. They naturally fall into packs, and his arrangement and bond with them is probably pack-like. Something more solitary – like a saber-tooth cat, like a bear – is unlikely to work for a multi-companion bond."

"Speaking of, that Wolfy of yours got extremely lucky with not one, but two casters. Generally, you bond early on, before you know what skills they’ll get. The smarter the creature, the higher chance of being a caster, and bonding does help with that. Still. Casters are rare."

"He’s not my Wolfy!" I protested.

Bluebeard stared at me, fierce eyes over blue… beard… examining me.

"As for you. You lack in the physical department. Low level, something like a wolf would work well, something that could carry you, move you quickly between places, and that could physically fight and block things for you. A saber-tooth cat is more of an ambush fighter, and doesn’t quite have the same ability to move or take hits for you, for example."

"But you’re Sentinel Dawn. You can do better than a single wolf. I won’t discount the value of a pack of casters, but that’s a different story."

I could see that Hunting was working towards something here, and was basically thinking out loud.

"Bears start to look more attractive, and are a solid option. They can be tricky, along with anything that gives live birth, because you want to bond early – but the momma bear is going to object. Usually violently. And bear cubs need a lot of coddling when they’re very young. It’s tricky striking the right balance. Still. You’ve got the time, money, and resources to do it right, so they’re on the table, while they might not be an option for people without a support network."

Made sense, made sense. I could see myself riding a bear, then curling up with it in the evening, basking in its luxurious fur.

"Now, I’m horribly biased, but I’m a big fan of Abelisauruses. Large. Powerful. Will eat all your problems. Egg-based. Doesn’t need a lot of care early on. Long lifespan. Carries all your stuff. Keeping them as an adult is tricky," Bluebeard gestured behind him, at his massive villa and even larger area for Katastrofi to wander around in. "but the payoff is worth the price."

He looked at me, continuing to look thoughtful.

"Now, you’re small. Lightweight. And can fly. Which means fliers are on the menu. There’s nothing worse than being in a bad spot, being able to fly away yourself, but needing to leave your companion behind. I know of at least two Rangers who probably could’ve saved themselves, but chose to stand and fight with their companion and died as a result; who didn’t want to leave their companion to die on their own. Knew one Ranger consumed by guilt for leaving their companion behind to die. There are a dozen different types of fliers, but all but two aren’t worth mentioning, for reasons I’ll get into."

Hunting leapt, in a single bound, up onto Katastrofi, then beckoned to me, indicating that I should climb up. With a delighted noise, I nimbly climbed up – a far cry from the first time I’d done this.

I sat down in front of Hunting, and with barely a movement, Katastrofi started to walk, then run, then run. With great bounding strides, she ate up ground, and I could feel my hair waving behind me wildly – probably annoying the shit out of Hunting.

I couldn’t help it. I let out a scream, the exact same I would going down a rollercoaster.

"Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

We slowed down to a more reasonable, less hair-in-face pace, as Bluebeard finished up his lecture.

"The first option is an Ornithocheirus. Nothing wrong with them, they’re common, their nesting grounds are easy enough to find – heck, we’re constantly tracking them and trying to cull their population down, and dozens of eggs enter circulation annually as a result – we know how to saddle them, how to train them, and more."

"Most other fliers aren’t native to Remus, and will only fly over rarely, and it’s even rarer for them to nest here. They’re also weaker than the second option, and both being harder, being rarer, and being weaker are all enough strikes against them that it’s not worth bothering to go after them."

"No, the creature I think you should aim for, that if you’re game for we’ll try to find, that you could put a quest in the Adventurer’s Guild for, is one of power and strength. One that can create thunder with its wings, and Lightning from its eyes."

"A Thunderbird."

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 51840/51840]

[Mana Regen: 42269 (+17791.5)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 244]

[Dexterity: 202]

[Vitality: 635]

[Speed: 635]

[Mana: 5184]

[Mana Regeneration: 4908 (+1779.15)]

[Magic Power: 4517 (+47654.35)]

[Magic Control: 4517 (+47654.35)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 246]]

[Celestial Affinity: 246]

[Warmth of the Sun: 198]

[Medicine: 215]

[Center of the Galaxy: 242]

[Phases of the Moon: 246]

[Moonlight: 246]

[Veil of the Aurora: 216]

[Vastness of the Stars: 144]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 188]]

[Radiance Affinity: 188]

[Radiance Resistance: 188]

[Radiance Conjuration: 188]

[Radiance Manipulation: 188]

[Sun-Kissed: 145]

[Blaze: 188]

[Talaria: 163]

[Nova: 188]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 137]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 136]

[Bullet Time: 198]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 211]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 206]

[Persistent Casting: 56]

[Learning: 246]

Chapter 144 – Adventurer’s Guild

Bluebeard gave me a bunch more advice on companions, and more on getting a Thunderbird. The long and the short version of it was – nobody was known to have a Thunderbird in Remus currently. The last one had died 40 years ago, and while Thunderbirds were rarely seen high up in the sky, usually front-running or in a storm, acquiring an egg was rare.

"Put in a quest at the Adventurer’s guild. There’s enough lunatics around that might go for it. Of course, you won’t be the only one trying to get one, but the answer to that’s easy. Tell them we’ll outbid anyone and everyone else. There’s having a status symbol, then there’s trying to out-bid the Sentinels, who are officially trying to acquire one. Yeah, it’ll cost us, but we’ll all chip in."

"Lemme guess. If something else cool comes in, like more ironwood, I’ll chip in to help get that?" I asked.

"Exactly! It’s not that we’re poor, but we have limited funds, and putting up a bit of our own cash goes a long way to convincing other people to open up their purses."

Made sense.

"Why the Adventurer’s Guild though?" I asked, making my distaste for them abundantly clear.

"Well, it’s kinda their niche. They’re basically a clearinghouse for Classers who don’t want to join the army or the guard, or find honest work as a bodyguard. Going out on a potentially futile, multi-year excursion is a terrible waste of resources for us, let’s be honest. Can’t send a Sentinel after it, although I might have a slim shot at finding one. Can’t send a Ranger team after it. Our support staff isn’t equipped for that sort of thing, they’re too weak. No way the Army goes and gets it. Not their purview, and if they did find one by some miracle – whoever’s in charge would claim it for themselves, and there’d be an "accident", and whoops, a general has a new Thunderbird. Hiring someone to try and do it is like trying to find a single, specific coin in the entire city. Better to put a bounty on it, then pay up when some lucky fellows stumbles on it. That way, we don’t need to pay all the people who try, and fail, to acquire it. Believe it or not – it’s cheaper and faster this way."

My world was crashing around me. Adventurers. Potentially useful.

I needed a few minutes to come to terms with the fact that, yes, this might actually be a solid job for an adventurer.

But – but then I’d be indebted to one; I’d need to feel gratitude towards one.

"Why don’t other Sentinels have companions?" I asked, changing the subject somewhat.

Hunting started to tick off his fingers.

"Night apparently tried one a long time ago, but the heartbreak when he inevitably outlived his companion was, in his own words, ‘a horrendous experience that I do not wish to repeat.’ Magic’s got the wrong temperament, nor does it fit his style of being hidden. Destruction’s been on the lookout for one, to help guard him while he channels a skill, but his standards are high. He’s trying to find a fully-grown caster that he can bond to, he’s unwilling to wait and gamble on a newborn. Bulwark, Sealing, Acquisition, and Brawling have no desire to have a companion. Ocean has an open bounty on ‘something big’ that’s aquatic, although none of the proposed creatures so far have met his exacting standards. Nature prefers to subvert large numbers of creatures, talking with them and bending them to his will, instead of a true partnership, and I dunno enough about Toxic to speculate."

I thought about Arthur, and his great love for hunting, and his slight cruel streak. Maybe he could bond with a venomous snake or something. Would be a pretty good fit.

Bluebeard and I kept chatting for some time, continuing to ride Katastrofi the entire time. This was really nice. Yesss. One giant companion, just what the healer ordered.

I thanked him for his time, and headed back into town. I grabbed lunch, got directions to the Adventurer’s Guild, and once again found myself outside a hive of scum and villainy.

To be fair – and I was trying really, really hard to be fair – it was a very nice building. Polished marble and the like.

I entered, in full Sentinel Dawn gear, and immediately had the undivided attention of everyone in the lobby.

Conscious of everyone staring at me, I walked up to one of the clerks at the counter, completely bypassing the line. It wasn’t that I was a line skipper, nor did I think myself too good or something to stand in it here or want to show them up – but literally nobody was moving or doing anything, and it was in all our best interests for me to get taken care of, and keep moving along.

"Hi. Sentinel Dawn for the Guildmaster, or someone similar in this building."

That got things moving again, and I was efficiently bustled away to a very nice-looking office.

"Sentinel Dawn. A pleasure to meet you. I’m the Guildmaster." A man walked into the office a moment later, powerfully built with a close-cropped blond haircut and a purple tunic. I quickly identified him as I shook his hand, my eyebrows quirking up.

[Mage]. Over level 330.

He also looked significantly surprised at seeing me, and he kept glancing off to his right.

I suppose the Rangers didn’t have a monopoly on powerful Classers, and the dude at the top of the Adventurer’s Guild was probably no slouch.

As much as it pained me to admit it.

"Guildmaster. How interesting to meet you!" I said, keeping my thoughts and feelings about adventurers out of my voice.

I couldn’t say I was pleased to meet him, or anything like that, because it’d be a bald-faced lie.

Twisting the truth I was ok with. Flat-out lying? Less so.

"Sit, sit, what can we do for you?" He asked.

I had a choice, which order I asked for things. I decided a high level, read, expensive quest would put him in a better mood for when I asked him to bring down the hammer.

"Two things! The first one is on behalf of the Sentinels." I said, and that got him even more at attention.

"What can we do for our illustrious guardians?" He said, looking over to the right again.

"What’s over there?" I asked him, my curiosity finally outweighing my desire to place my quests.

He grimaced at me, and with an apologetic tone, explained to me.

"Anti-mirage inscriptions. You have no idea how often someone figured they’ll disguise themselves as someone more important to get a meeting with me. Usually, I get told there’s a Sentinel waiting for me, it’s some poor mage who’s quite surprised that I can see through them. The fact that it’s not working now means you’re the real deal – although I keep checking to confirm that yes, it’s still working."

I gave a light chuckle at that.

"I get that a bunch. Real deal. Anyways. I’m hoping to put in a quest for a Thunderbird egg, if anyone can find it."

The Guildmaster leaned back in his chair.

"We already have an open quest for one. We know we can always sell it if we find it. What makes yours special or different?"

I shrugged.

"Not a ton, but we’re willing to pay quite a bit more for it. We’re hoping the Adventurer’s Guild would think of us kindly if they ever got the chance to dispose of one. It’s not like you’d take a financial hit."

I was channeling Night a hair, aiming for some nice, flowery language, especially since it didn’t sound like this was something they were jumping at, nor were particularly excited for.

"I’ll make a note of that." He said neutrally.

Welp, so much for buttering him up.

"On a different, less happy, note, some adventurers recently had a B-ranked escort mission to get my good friend healer Elaine to the capital. Instead of escorting her, they attempted to sell her to pirates, which forced my personal intervention. I am not happy with them, to say the least." I said, crossing my arms and staring daggers at the Guildmaster.

I was selectively presenting the truth, tilting it in the worst way possible, but I felt fair was fair. Taking payment for turning a blind eye to pirates trying to enslave me was basically the exact same thing as selling me into slavery, and I wasn’t feeling particularly generous.

"That sounds serious. How did you find out? And what do you want done?"

"I was nearby. I’ve thought about it, and I believe demotion would be most appropriate for failing a B rank quest so abysmally."

Oh, I wanted a heck of a lot more to happen to them. A heck of a lot more. But if I asked for too much, I’d get denied entirely. Probably. Hard to tell.

"I’d suggest Cassia be demoted to C-Rank, and I can’t remember the other two names, but I’d suggest they get demoted to D or E-Rank. She was moderately useful after the action."

"I’ll keep that in mind." The Guildmaster said.

"Possibly a refund, if possible."

"If Healer Elaine comes and personally asks for one, she’s likely to get it." The Guildmaster said neutrally.

Damnit! He was onto me.

I eyed him unhappily. Fine. I wasn’t going to scream and rage against him, and insist I get my way – I’d just send Night or something after him, to "remind" him where adventurers were in the food chain.

"Lovely. Thank you so much." I said.

Eh. Let’s throw him a bone, get some more patients, and start spreading my healing through word of mouth. After all, I’d sworn that when it came to my patients, I’d see them as nothing but another creature in pain, regardless of how sketchy their life choices may be.

"As part of what I’m doing while I’m hanging out in town, not on assignment, I’m offering a mostly free healing clinic. Feel free to send adventurers who lose limbs and the like my way. I take donations, but if they can’t pay anything, that’s fine as well."

"What can you do?" He asked me. I stopped myself from sighing. It was a fair question to ask a healer. Still.

"I am Dawn. I was promoted on the basis of my healing power."

I turned and left at that. He could figure it out from there. I wasn’t going to carefully hold his hand and explain it.

There was a bard singing in the main room when I got back, putting on a performance. That reminded me. I still had a minor grudge against Glacia, and I had the perfect revenge. Equally petty. Would take a bit of time.

I made my way back to headquarters, where I got directions to the Quartermaster, after trying and failing to find another Sentinel. We were all busy people after all, anyone trying to find me would have one heck of a time with all the bouncing around town I did.

"What." The Quartermaster asked me.

Grumpy grumpy. Just because I’d destroyed thousands, if not tens of thousands, of coins worth of armor, inscriptions, gemstones, Arcanite, supplies, and more on my first trip. You’d think a Sentinel never limped home with most of their stuff destroyed before.

"Hoping you could direct me to one of the bards we use?"

"I suppose you’ll be wanting coin for that as well." He grumbled at me.

"Yup!"

Lots – lots – of grumbling as he walked back into the storeroom. "Coins not growing on trees." Was shot over his shoulder, along with "bloody Sentinels never footing the bill", and "Sentinels being a bottomless money pit."

Yikes, ok, ok, hint taken. I was going to pay for stuff out of my own pocket. Like the second song I wanted the bard to make. And the scroll.

I grabbed my scrolls – my personal set of the Medical Manuscripts, for copying – then headed back out.

Busy busy busy. I almost missed being a Ranger, where the days were a little easier in a lot of sense. On the other hand, I was in a position to do a lot more good, to help a lot more people. Trade-offs. This would pay dividends down the line.

I went to the scribe, and got myself another set of copies of my scrolls – only costing 10 coins a scroll this time, as opposed to the 32 coins per scroll I’d paid last time. Steep discount for being a Sentinel.

I got all but one sent out to random healers – literally, I asked them to just send them to random healers – then made my way to the local bard, one that had a good relationship with the Rangers.

He had a pretty sweet deal. Only sing good things about us, and we’d keep sending songs to him.

"Sentinel Dawn!" He cried out effusively, seeing me enter. "The newest, prettiest Sentinel! I’ve been dying to meet you! You’ve been the talk of the town! The name on everyone’s lips! I’ve gotten a dozen different tunes penned just for you! Seeing you now, in the flesh, my muse, a dozen new tunes have sprung to my lips! Yes, yes, you…"

The dude had a gift for gab, and I was not immune to flattery.

I liked this dude!

I let him go on in the same vein for quite some time, enjoying someone who seemed to unabashedly enjoy me being around. I suspected a small part of it was the ability to write a woman heroine – he mentioned something about "not needing to write bulging muscles this time" – but he seemed to genuinely enjoy his work.

"So!" He finally said, after I-don’t-know-how-long. "While my work is brilliant enough, has enough genius for you to personally seek me out just to hear it direct from my mouth, I have no illusions that you came only to hear my singing. What can I do for you; how can I make my favorite muse happy?"

I explained about Deva, and the pirates.

"Adventure! Saving lives! Darring-do! Yes, YES! I can make something work with this. But this feels, ah, forgive me, almost mundane. Regular. You do not seem to seek fame and fortune, I doubt you’d remember little old me without prompting. Something else brings you to my door! What tale would you like to hear, what song would you like me to sing!?"

I grinned at him. His sheer energy was infectious.

"Oh, it’s a fun one. Self-deprecating. A bard cut me out of the song of Perinthus entirely, after I was one of the main contributors. I’m still feeling just a hair sore over it, and I was wondering – could you write a song about bards cutting people out of songs? Could be a fun way to poke at your fellow musicians. Preferably if their name rhymes with ‘Blacia’"

He looked thoughtful for a moment, tapping his lips with a single finger, before snapping his fingers and pointing at me.

"Yes!"

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 51840/51840]

[Mana Regen: 42269 (+17791.5)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 244]

[Dexterity: 202]

[Vitality: 635]

[Speed: 635]

[Mana: 5184]

[Mana Regeneration: 4908 (+1779.15)]

[Magic Power: 4517 (+47654.35)]

[Magic Control: 4517 (+47654.35)]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Healer - Celestial: Lv 246]]

[Celestial Affinity: 246]

[Warmth of the Sun: 198]

[Medicine: 215]

[Center of the Galaxy: 242]

[Phases of the Moon: 246]

[Moonlight: 246]

[Veil of the Aurora: 216]

[Vastness of the Stars: 144]

[Class 2: [Ranger-Mage - Radiance: Lv 188]]

[Radiance Affinity: 188]

[Radiance Resistance: 188]

[Radiance Conjuration: 188]

[Radiance Manipulation: 188]

[Sun-Kissed: 145]

[Blaze: 188]

[Talaria: 163]

[Nova: 188]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Identify: 137]

[Recollection of a Distant Life: 159]

[Pretty: 136]

[Bullet Time: 198]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 211]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 206]

[Persistent Casting: 56]

[Learning: 246]

Chapter 145 – Sentinel Dawn

Well, with the bard done, and the day elapsing, I wanted to make my way to the market, and start building a reputation. Get some experience in, maybe get a level. Although, normal, single-person healing in a safe location, when the injury was relatively mild was terrible experience these days. It’d take me weeks, if not months, to get a single level – and that was after [Learning] had boosted my experience. Most people who worked their profession their entire lifetime ended up with a lower level than me. I couldn’t expect good experience and levels from this – but it wasn’t the reason I was doing it.

I was doing it because I wanted to. Because that’s what drew me to healing in the first place. A calling, a way to make the world a better place, one [Phases of the Moon] at a time. Sure, in the grand scheme of things fixing cataracts in an aging woman was minor. For her? She could see so much better. She could see her grandkid’s face clearly. It meant the world to her.

Sometimes I’d be healing a splinter. Sometimes, I’d be restoring an eye. Either way, I needed to stop thinking about it, and go and do it.

Being in Sentinel gear was great. Crowds parted before me like the red sea, and the hustle and bustle and pushing through crowds that I needed to do in my normal clothes wasn’t present. The only thing I needed to be concerned about were wagons, who couldn’t move fast enough to get out of my way.

Which didn’t stop [Wagon Drivers] from apologizing profusely. I just smiled, told them it was no problem, and walked around it, like a normal person.

It was funny that because of my size, most people didn’t see me until I was nearby, at which point they started as they tried to clear a path. After the 5th "don’t worry about it" I gave up, and saved my breath.

I made it to the marketplace where I had my stall, and winked at the guard who’d accosted me yesterday, who’d tried to – probably correctly in his estimation – kick me out. Gently. Not too hard.

I held no grudge. From his point of view, it was perfectly reasonable.

I made my way giddy with glee to my stall, to find Neptune and Autumn at the next stall, busy bartering and trading with passing customers. They didn’t seem to notice me, so engrossed in their trading, and I took a seat down at my stall, still as sparse as ever, and put my bag down next to me.

"With all due respect, Sentinel, I believe the stall’s taken." Neptune said, as politely and as deferentially as possible.

Oooooh, I was going to have fun with this.

"Oh? Tell me more." I asked, leaning over and looking at him, smile dancing on my lips.

Autumn had gotten a good look at me, and she was starry-eyed, bouncing up and down with excitement. I winked at her, and put a finger on my lips. The universal signal for "shhh don’t tell him."

She didn’t, but she grabbed his hand and tugged at him.

"The spot’s taken, and while I’m sure the owner won’t mind…"

Ah, I’ve had enough fun. He had turned around, and was busy staring at my chest – namely, my badge.

"Dad!" Autumn exclaimed.

"I’m-" He started to say.

"Hey. My eyes are up here." I said, note of amusement in my voice. No way to see anything, not with the armor I had on, but hey. The line was still good.

Instead of looking up, he looked down.

I rolled my eyes. I was trying here!

"Autumn, would you do the honors?" I asked her.

She nodded furiously, so hard I was afraid she’d hurt herself.

"Dad! It’s Elaine!" The words exploded out of her mouth, practically tripping over each other.

"Wha?" Neptune looked up, and blinked, mouth forming a great big O.

The look on his face!

The look on her face!

Priceless.

Me sitting down, clearly claiming a spot, had, like moths to a flame, drawn quite a crowd towards me. It was almost impossible to have a quick, private chat with Neptune, as dozens of people pressed forward, all wanting a "quick chat" with me.

I hadn’t quite thought this all the way through. I’d assumed it’d be like when I was a Ranger and healing. Rangers, however rare they were, weren’t that rare. You could see a half-dozen every few months in town, and there was a squad permanently running around in the capital.

Sentinels, however, were an entirely different breed. We were the venerated best, with the closest contact most people had with one of us was Brawling at the arena. Even then, he was hyped as a celebrity, and all of us, and the organization, were all considered A-list celebrities.

And I’d just sat down in the middle of town, and basically made it known that I was open to chatting with everyone.

At first there’d been a sort of nervous crowd. Who wanted to talk with the Sentinel first? Who knew what my temperament was?

Autumn sadly betrayed me. She was fearless – still a kid – and rightly assumed that I’d be the exact same as "Healer Elaine". Which opened the floodgates.

Mostly to people who didn’t want or need healing. Which was defeating the entire point. Still, I was polite, chatting, and desperately needing some help.

"Autumn." I bent down to chat with her quickly, throwing a [Veil] up for privacy. "Could you get a few guards over here? This is going to cause some problems."

She nodded, immediately getting it.

I dropped [Veil].

"Alright, go!" I said, watching her expertly scamper through the crowd – even sliding between someone’s legs at one point when the press of bodies was too much.

The guards arrived in a quick manner, and broke the crowd up somewhat. Mostly, they focused on stopping the press of bodies from getting too large, which would inevitably turn out poorly.

I really, really didn’t want to know what poorly entailed.

I eventually solved my problem with the most unlikely of solutions.

Autumn.

"You know," I said to her, faking how casual I was being. "If there are all these people who just want to talk with me, and not get healing, we get paid a lot less. Which means you get paid a lot less. Isn’t me talking with all these people and not getting paid a violation of your rule 1…?"

The little merchant was off like a shot. People were standing between her and her precious, precious coins.

"Hi! Here for healing?" She asked the next person, really aggressively.

"Well, no, I heard that-"

"Well clear out! This is for healing! NEXT!" She shouted, shooing the dude away.

I had to bite my hand to stop myself from laughing out loud. The way my shoulders were shaking made it obvious what was happening. Neptune had no such reservations.

Eventually, the novelty of Sentinel Dawn hanging out in the marketplace wore off, helped considerably by the guards and by Autumn chasing off hanger-ons, keeping the stall for just healing.

Not that all manner of extremely minor, questionable healing was suddenly and mysteriously showing up. I’d never seen anyone come to a healer for a scraped knee before, but now they were everywhere. Ah well. I wasn’t about to start sending the message that I was for "serious healing" only – it’d just scare off people who thought "Oh this is no big deal" and miss a serious tumor growing or something.

During one lull, I finally got a chance to talk with Autumn and Neptune properly.

"Why didn’t you say you were a Sentinel at first?!" Neptune asked, still bowing and scraping somewhat deferentially – but more towards a "client with a LOT OF MONEY" way than a "sucking up" way. Similar, but slightly different. A hair less odious. I was pleased that his merchant instincts were taking hold again. It meant I couldn’t have caused that much brain damage.

I shrugged at him.

"Mostly because I’m Healer Elaine first and foremost, and it’s a better way of getting to know people. Plus," I said, lowering my voice conspiratorially and throwing up [Veil] around us. "Between me and you, thieves are the bane of my existence, and there had been a sort of game to grab Sentinel badges. We get in serious trouble if we lose one."

Autumn’s eyes went wide.

"Wait. You can get in trouble?"

I chuckled at her.

"Of course, I can get in trouble! Everyone’s got a boss. Except maybe your dad."

Neptune snorted at me.

"I have a boss. My clients!"

Fair enough. I wasn’t going to debate merchant-ness.

I pulled the Medical Manuscripts out of my bag, one scroll at a time.

"Anyways. Here. For you to study when I’m not around. It’s just about all of my healing knowledge in one spot."

Autumn immediately tore into the first scroll. Neptune coughed.

"Ahem. What do you say?"

"Oh right. Thank you for the present." Autumn said, almost automatically, eyes still glued to the manuscripts.

She brought a smile to my face.

"You’re welcome! When I’m traveling, you should read those! Ask me questions about them when I’m about. Plus, you get to see more healing!"

I looked at Neptune. He looked back.

I could see that he knew now. When I said I was "traveling", I was on a mission. Something so big, so nasty, that a Sentinel was called in to fix.

Something that meant that I might not be coming home after.

I dropped [Veil].

"Right! Next patient!" I called out, getting Autumn’s attention, and continuing her education.

I was glad that she was treating me, more or less, the same as before. A nice touchstone.

All good things must come to an end, and as the sun was setting, the marketplace was closing up.

Neptune and I had a long, long talk about Autumn and apprenticing. Who would’ve thunk, being a Sentinel radically changed his ideas and thoughts of Autumn being my apprentice.

I’d decided. When I was walking through the streets, whenever I could with the moons up and out, I’d blast [Moonlight], just generally being a solid healing beacon for anyone lucky enough to be nearby. It probably wouldn’t help terribly with my experience, but again. It wasn’t about the experience; it was about helping.

Ok, fine, I’d probably get a solid chunk more experience from walking around with [Moonlight] up than I would from the marketplace. Still. I was doing good things for the Sentinel’s reputation, and that had to make Night and others happy.

Which reminded me – I’d need to start doing social events again.

Speaking of social! Albina was waiting for me at Ranger HQ when I got back!

"You’re back! Alive! Are you ok? Were there any problems? Come, come! You’ve gotta tell me all about it!"

I let Albina start to drag me off, before realizing she had no idea where to drag me off to. With a laugh, I showed her to my "public" quarters, which I’d barely visited, and let her do her thing, while I gave her an extremely pared-down version of what had happened.

For example, the pirates were pared down to "a small spot of bother". She didn’t need to know how close I’d come to dead, how much of my blood I’d left behind.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Pretty] has reached level 137!]

The Sentinel morning meeting, the next day. Usual round of business, and I was quite frankly surprised how much business we could generate daily.

"Dawn has begun to work in the marketplace, offering steeply discounted healing. Her work has been exceedingly popular, and according to the local guards, popular to the extent of nearly causing a riot." Night said, once the meeting had gone on for some time, and it was my business being discussed.

Whoops.

"With that being said, now that the local guard is more apprised of the situation, I do not anticipate the issue arising again. The novelty of Dawn healing in public should wear thin after some time, and I would like to recognize her excellent contributions."

A brief round of applause, somewhat cursory. I didn’t mind. Anything to keep the meeting going faster.

"With that being said. Dawn. You are correct in that you need someone to help handle the large-scale organizational aspects when you go on a mission, which is somewhat unique to you, and your situation. Bulwark occasionally faces similar issues, however, he simply needs strong locals to assist, which is entirely different from the large-scale organizational issues you find yourself presented with. We have worked out a person to go with you on some of your larger-scale missions, to handle the organizational aspect while you handle the healing."

Oh great. They picked someone without checking if I’d work well with them. With how casually sexist most of the country was, it’d be a miracle if they were happy taking orders from a girl, likely one half their age.

"Ranger Kallisto seemed to be the perfect fit for the assignment. Not only do the two of you have a prior history – I am correct in understanding that it is a positive prior history, yes?"

I mutely nodded. Right. Kallisto would be absolutely perfect.

"The two of you not only have a prior history, but Ranger Kallisto is a member of Ranger Team 1, permanently stationed in the capital, has excellent social skills, can smooth multiple paths, and, the Quartermaster was particularly insistent on this point, doesn’t cost anything more." Night continued.

"Additionally, you have your first meeting with Command later today. It is expected that you will dress well."

Groans from the other Sentinels.

"Those are the WORST." Sky yelled. "Run Dawn, run now before they catch you! You don’t get in too much trouble for skipping meetings!"

Night turned to glare at Sky.

Sky bailed.

The last shred of an illusion I had of Sentinels being highly professional bailed with him.

I spent the morning screwing with the Trainees along with the other Sentinels, then before long, I was at the doors to Ranger Command.

"Sentinel Dawn. Enter." Julius’s reassuring voice called out. Was he speaking on the basis of being the most junior Commander, or on the basis of knowing me personally?

With sweaty palms, I entered the room, head held high, projecting more confidence than I felt. Fake it till I make it. I’d heard for ages that there was a Sentinel to break ties if Command disagreed or was split on something, but there was none now.

I guess – I guess I was the tiebreaker. Able to cast votes and make decisions that would impact the entire Ranger organization – and my vote was the only one that mattered. Since I’d only be voting when it was a draw, when I needed to decide the course of the organization.

I felt the weight of my obligations settle on me, and I could see why Sky wanted to be slippery, why he wanted to avoid it. It was heavy, a pressing, crushing weight of responsibility. A wrong vote could literally end with a city destroyed, as resources or people were in the wrong spot, at the wrong time and place.

I wasn’t going to be Sky.

I wasn’t going to dodge and skirt my responsibilities.

I was going to rise to the occasion, rise to the challenge.

"Sentinel Dawn. Thank you for making time for us." Julius said.

I saluted him.

"Commanders. What can I do for you?"

"Well, fairly routine. We’d like to know how your mission in Deva went."

Ranger Command Scrolls on Sentinel Dawn, nomen Elaine, written by [Historian] Herodotus.

Promoted to Sentinel on the Ranger Convocation of 4798.

Class 1: Healing, Celestial

Class 2: Mage, Radiance

Promoted to Sentinel at level 240, on recommendation from Ranger Julius. See scroll: "Commander Julius, 4798-48XX."

Feat: Single-handedly curing a town of 60,000+ of multiple plagues, including a deadly Classer responsible. See scroll "Plague of Perinthus, 4795"

Voting: 5 in favor. 4 against.

Of note: First woman Sentinel. First Sentinel promoted on a healing basis.

Experimental. Watch career closely, determine if additional Sentinels on a healing basis are desired.

Date: Summer, 4798.

Mission: Deva. Minor plague. Dawn petitioned to attend to the plague as a test run of her abilities and equipment. Motion approved, 8-0.

Result: Plague cured within days. Medium-sized illegal drug operation destroyed. Medium-sized pirate crew entirely destroyed.

Petitioned to have a team member to handle organizational matters, to allow Dawn to focus on healing.

Petition approved, 6-2. After a brief search, Ranger Kallisto was assigned to the matter. See scroll "Ranger Kallisto, 4794-48XX"

Petitioned to have a team member that additionally handled plagues.

Petitioned denied, 8-0. Reminded Dawn that this was her area of expertise.

Date: Winter, 4798.

Mission: Massalix. Tsunami destroyed a large portion of the city. Motion to send Bulwark and Dawn approved 7-1. Motion to send Magic denied, 5-4. Bulwark and Dawn sent to restore the city walls, and cure injuries in the population.

Result: Outer walls rebuilt in two days. Population ‘fully healed’ within seven days. Three sea monsters slain. One bandit group eliminated.

Date: Spring, 4799.

Mission: Volcanic eruption in Pompius. Motion to send Dawn approved 8-0. Motion to send Brawling denied, 7-1.

Motion to send Brawling approved, 8-0.

Result: Brawling dug out significant portions of the town. Dawn healed a large number of civilians, curing crippling injuries from toxic gasses, among others.

Pompius declared destroyed. Scouting for a location for a new city.

Brawling and Dawn escorted the survivors to a new location.

Ranger Kallisto widely praised by both Sentinels for his organizational efforts.

Date: Summer, 4799.

Mission: Rebellion entrenched outside of Aquiliea. Destruction sent to handle the problem. Dawn petitioned to join. Denied 5-3. Petitioned a second time, strongly. Mentioned Aquiliea is her hometown. Additional arguments made. Approved, 5-4.

Result: Rebellion refused to negotiate. Attempted to kill Destruction and Dawn. Fought their way out.

Destruction destroyed the entire settlement.

Dawn healed the survivors. Schism reported among the survivors, causing infighting.

Rebellion crushed.

Recommend sending Dawn on additional rebellion suppression missions.

Date: Summer, 4799.

Mission: Plague in Genua. Motion to send Dawn approved 8-0.

Result: Dawn sent. Plague cured within two days. Reported a potential problematic Classer. Follow-up report sent to the guard, to pass onto the next Ranger squad.

Date: Fall, 4799.

Mission: Ranger Team 13 reported massive casualties, in Virinium. Reported Virinium has no Light healer capable of healing them. Requesting assistance. Motion to send Dawn approved 5-4. Dawn broke the tie.

Result: Sky ferried Dawn over, Team 13 was fully restored, and able to continue, instead of all needing to be retrieved. Additional Ranger team in the field.

"Discussion on Rapid Deployment Healers" scroll directly related.

Incidents with Sentinel Dawn.

During her first mission in Deva, one pirate was taken captive. Had significant complaints about Dawn torturing him, by constantly healing him as he took repeated sword strokes, without any form of pain blocking.

Complaint was found to be substantiated, with extenuating circumstances excusing Dawn. Dawn is additionally System-Bound to not cause incidents or harm in a deliberate manner.

Dawn was not reprimanded in any way for this.

Dawn repeatedly requests deployment to the frontlines, to provide additional healing and experience. Requests generally granted. Dawn is still a lower level than we’d like for a Sentinel.

During her mission in Massalix, Dawn located and healed a number of a local Selkie tribe, against the objections of both the locals and Bulwark. Refused to back down in her defense of them, refused to allow their extermination. Bulwark was unable to publicly refute her, due to the current policy of not allowing Sentinels to violently disagree in public.

Tribe of selkies escaped whole.

No selkie attacks reported in Massalix.

Date: Fall, 4798.

There were hopes that Dawn could provide a social face for the Sentinels and Rangers, to provide a friendly face.

This hope has been entirely dashed.

Motion to disallow Dawn from attending any other social gatherings passed 8-0. She may not attend, even if she wishes to with an invitation.

See scroll "After Action Report on the Pastos Incident" for full details.

Dawn reports seeing Toxic on the frontlines, but that Toxic will not meet with her. Dawn has expressed concern over this, given a prior positive history.

Dawn is reminded that Ranger Command doesn’t get involved in personal matters between Sentinels.

Mission: [REDACTED]. Date: Fall 4799. See scroll: [REDACTED].

Result: Dawn missing in action.

Presumed alive.

Chapter 146 - Major Interlude - Iona - The 300

Iona grunted as she was thrown to the ground, air exploding out of her lungs.

"Point!" The arbitrator yelled. "Match! Winner – Hrund!"

Hrund grinned down at Iona, offering a hand. Iona took it, letting herself get pulled up by Hrund.

"Good bout." Iona said, keeping the bitter feelings of loss out of her voice.

"Good bout. Hey, maybe if your Dark class wasn’t restricted, it’d be a better fight." Hrund said.

Iona let the bitter feelings of loss wash over and through her, letting her normally cheerful disposition show.

"Yeah! Hey, you did great. Regardless of how restricted I am, you would’ve beaten me. You got this! You can win the Yuletide Games!" Iona said, patting the shoulders of the shorter girl.

Hrund’s face lit up.

"You really think so?"

"Yeah! You’re strong, and you’re fast. Hit ‘em before they know what’s coming. Who knows, maybe you’ll impress the Valkyries so much that they’ll call it your feat of bravery!"

Hrund pumped her fist.

"Yeah! Although, it’s usually a feat of bravery in battle to get promoted from squire."

Iona shrugged. She knew that was the case, but she was trying to encourage Hrund. It was what friends did. Iona would feel a heck of a lot better losing in round one if her opponent managed to take down the entire tournament.

There was a world of difference between "I lost round one." and "I lost round one to the person who won the entire event."

Wishing Hrund luck once again, gathering her practice weapons – a wooden shield and a practice axe – Iona carefully and neatly put everything away, then headed down to the stables.

The Yuletide Games were a good event for the Valkyries. Most of them wintered at Castle Valkyrie, staying out of the howling blizzards while winter passed through Rolland and the surrounding countries. It was a good time to meet and greet, to get in touch with the rest of their Order, to train and cross-train squires.

So many high-energy [Knights] in one place needed to burn off energy, and Yuletide was the perfect time for a tournament. The [Knights] didn’t have one of their own. They were passionate women, and fatal accidents happened one time too often.

Being a squire sucked in a bunch of ways. She had to run around, do all the chores of her knight, then do chores of other Valkyries, depending on if they had a squire or not, and if their squire was around or not. "Cleaning the stables" was high up on the list of shitty tasks, but work was work.

Iona was no stranger to hard work, nor did she have any fear of it.

Plus, winter bonus - the shit smelled considerably less bad than in the summer! Small victories. It’d be better if the stalls were entirely mundane, then it’d freeze solid and Iona wouldn’t have to smell it at all, but alas. Enchantments helped keep the stalls warm, and stopped the dinosaurs from having a bad time in the cold.

One day Iona would be a Valkyrie, then she’d be the one with a squire to do her tasks.

Sure, she’d probably have even more on her plate, but the tasks would be more fun. In theory.

Iona shook off the negative thoughts, and focused on the positive. Training. Resources. A big honking castle to live in. Friends, companions. A mission.

"Heya Iona!" Alruna called to Iona as she trudged through the stables. "How’d it go?"

Iona wanted to shoot Alruna a glare that said "I’m here mucking out the stables how did you think it went", but instead sighed, and bent the knee to Alruna, clasping her hands awkwardly in a salute.

Saluting with a pitchfork was strange. Iona had a brief flash of regret that she didn’t drop the pitchfork beforehand. Whatever.

Alruna gestured for Iona to get up, which Iona promptly did. She gave a glance to her knees. The day, somehow, had managed to get even shittier.

"Hrund beat me in the first round. She was too fast and strong."

Alruna shrugged.

"Happens. Don’t let it get to you. The tournaments aren’t that important anyways."

"Yeah, but I wanted to get permission to class-up!" Iona said, no small amount of frustration in her voice.

"You’ll get it eventually. Patience. It’s not like classing-up is a guaranteed reward for winning. Heck, getting permission from winning a tournament has only happened, what, three times in the last ten years? Plus you’re here, and not, oh, mucking out the stables in some village." Alruna said, having Iona wince at how accurate the comment was. Without Alruna’s generosity, without her agreeing to take Iona with her, Iona would be a farmer’s wife in all likelihood right now. The unspoken message, "be grateful for what you have", was all too clear.

And Iona was grateful.

Still. Right here, right now, there wasn’t a lot of difference between "Mucking out the Valkyrie stable" and "mucking out a normal stable". The animals were a bit larger, much deadlier, and the remains were an order of magnitude grosser.

"Your build – heck, my build – isn’t suited to fancy tournament fights and flashy displays. You knew that when you decided to follow in my footsteps. Is it any surprise that someone with a build dedicated to single combat beats you?"

Iona frowned over piles of muck that she was cleaning out of Trikey the Triceratops’s stall. Alruna had the worst naming sense.

Well. Not the worst. Second worst. Sigrun’s was terrible, and she was in charge of titles.

Iona really, really hoped that Sigrun was in a good frame of mind, had inspiration, or better yet, someone with a good naming sense whispered a title into her ear. Sigrun was self-aware enough, and humble enough, to take good advice when she got it.

"No…" She said reluctantly.

"Cheer up!" Alruna said, grabbing a package off a shelf. "I got you a Yuletide present. Our best [Enchanter] worked on it!"

Iona stepped up the pace. She’d love nothing more than to just throw the pitchfork to the side, and tear into Alruna’s present, but she did things properly. Correctly. Slowly and carefully, making sure all the t’s were crossed and the i’s dotted. Which sucked when there was a Yuletide present waiting.

Iona wasn’t expected to get Alruna anything. As her squire, what could she possibly acquire? No, it was on the Valkyrie to get their squires something nice and practical, and some made a game out of it, trying to one-up each other.

Alruna kept playing with Trikey as Iona worked around them. Occasionally Trikey would rub her tail up against Iona, but apart from that, the two of them were in a world of their own. Companions. Partnered for life. Taking a simple joy in each other’s presence.

Squires weren’t allowed companions. Instead, they were expected to learn how to treat and handle a massive variety of animals, from small, knee-high shadow cats, to the powerful Griffin fliers, all the way up to the largest beasts. Sigrun, the grandmaster of Order Valkyrie, commanded a massive Spinosaurus, which towered over most of the other creatures.

Serratrix had a separate pen. Not only did rank hath its privilege, but size, power, and pure logistics did as well.

Sorok, and a few other "supermassive" creatures also got their own place. Squires generally didn’t tend to them. Too easy to get squashed.

It made Iona wonder – given the chance, would she take a supermassive creature? They were superexpensive to go along with supermassive. She had a long shortlist of creatures she’d like, with a triceratops topping it. Alruna’s influence.

The Valkyrie’s philosophy was to expose the squires to a wide variety of creatures, and see which one clicked and meshed with their way of thinking. Years of working with the animals, becoming accustomed to them and their needs also helped dramatically with bonding down the road. Florence’s Friends were always happy to provide potential mounts and steeds - for a hefty price.

A few Valkyries were unable or unwilling to bond to a companion to use as a mount, and while they were still Valkyries, they were lower down in the invisible pecking order among them.

Still heads and shoulders above the squires.

Who in turn were slightly above a number of the support staff, but that relationship was tricky, to say the least. On paper, a squire outranked a [Scribe]. In practice? It came down to years in service, and pure usefulness.

Sigrun’s [Assistants], for example, outranked nearly everyone in practice.

Trikey’s stall cleaned, Iona decided to forgo her usual generosity. It was her birthday after all. Instead of cleaning a bunch of other stables, she instead carefully unwrapped the present Alruna had gotten for her.

She weighed the flat, heavy package, about as long as her arm. Heavy. She had an idea what was waiting for her inside.

She slowly, carefully unwrapped the package, carefully preserving the paper wrapping. A gleaming axe, curved with a wicked edge, revealed itself. A leather grip, a slight bend. A short axe designed for war, for killing.

"Enchanted for durability and sticking to you, mainly." Alruna said, letting Iona admire the weapon for some time. "With your skills, you don’t need sharpness. Also. I’ve been planning out next year’s round. Was thinking of you as well. Rolland, Xerius, Silver, Lithos, Tuvan, The Great Tang, then back to Rolland. Should be able to swing by your village while we’re at it. You’re skilled. You’re brave. We can probably find you some scrap that’ll count as a feat of bravery. Anyways. You’ve got years before you’re 22 and need to find something else to do. I know you’ll make it."

Overwhelmed with emotions, Iona wanted to hug Alruna. Holding a deadly weapon was not proper hugging procedure though, and it’d have to wait.

Trikey nuzzled Iona, almost bowling her over.

Alruna smiled, seeing the look on Iona’s face.

"Again. Happy Yuletide. Why don’t we do some training together, while everyone else is busy watching the tournament?"

Iona wanted to pump her fist. Years of discipline drilled into her stayed her hand – but not a grin on her face.

Woo! Personalized training time with Alruna! Didn’t matter that it was Alruna’s responsibility to train Iona, she still looked forward to it.

Iona was on a run around the castle. It’d been a week since the tournament and Alruna’s present. The sun was shining, the weather was unseasonably warm, and Iona’s long strides were eating up ground, long blonde hair tied into a neat braid. She was running with a bunch of other squires, all of whom were at level 128 in both classes, all waiting for permission to advance.

They’d trampled the sad, pathetic snowfall ages ago, and it was practically like a springtime run.

The squires with a Wind-aligned class took the lead, followed by the Fire-aligned squires, then the Water-aligned. Wind was speed, and Fire being strength let those squires abuse their power, to convert it into speed. Water was careful and flowing, elegantly and precisely placing their feet in the right places.

But as time went on, the Fire-aligned classes flagged and fell behind, as they burned energy faster than anyone else. The Earth-aligned classes plodded along, massive endurance letting them keep going at their slower top speed for longer. As Wind and Fire classes became exhausted, they fell back, behind the Earth-aligned classes. And the Light-aligned classes.

Light didn’t directly help. Iona wasn’t faster, wasn’t stronger, nor was she tougher. What she did, better in some ways than Earth, was last. [Overflowing Invigoration] gave Iona nearly endless energy, allowing her to run, and run, and run, and run, and run. It’s why if she got lucky in the first few rounds of a tournament, she had a strong shot at winning the entire thing. Everyone else would be exhausted, and Iona was there, fresh and ready, eager to go.

It was a toss-up if the Light class or the Earth class was better in the long-haul. It really depended on the respective stats everyone had, skills, and most importantly – grit.

There was one other squire with a Light class, and she also had a Wind class. She was aiming to be one of the light, fast Valkyries, riding a pterodactyl, griffin, or some other fast flier, screaming from the sky to hit and run.

At the end of the run, Iona was in 7th place. The Wind + Light runner was in first, and a number of non-human recruits were between Iona and her. Most were beastkin of various sorts – Rabbit, cat, dog, fox, even a lumbering bear-kin – and the last was a werewolf.

Stats multiplied what was already there. Humans were on the physically weaker end of the spectrum as far as elvenoids went. Minotaurs were stronger. Centaurs were faster. Beastkin were stronger. Gorgons had their hair and…

Needless to say, in most grand ranking of elvenoids, humans consistently ended up near the bottom. Never last, but never above the halfway mark.

The [Biomancer] had helped Iona, but he’d also helped everyone else. It only narrowed the natural gap between Iona and the other non-human squires, it didn’t close it entirely.

With stats multiplying what was already there, a catkin with the same Speed as Iona was usually faster than her. A werewolf with the same Strength as Iona was usually stronger than her. A large part depended on how fast the catkin was naturally, and how they worked on their personal physical fitness and form. A werewolf was stronger than Iona, but only if they focused on exercising, if they made sure they had the base muscle mass to multiply.

Life wasn’t fair. Iona had gotten used to it a long time ago.

Iona did have some advantages. She’d won the genetic lottery in combination with the [Biomancer’s] gift, and ended up strong and tall. It gave her an advantage in reach, in leverage, and gave the System a solid base to multiply with stats.

The bear-kin was also the only one taller than Iona, and it was by a hair as the bear-kin was 6 foot 2 / 188 cm.

Really, it was frankly unfair how much of an advantage the System gave non-humans. They were showered with stats, while humans had to deal with only a +1 Free Stat. Not only that, but raw, baseline, they were significantly stronger than humans were. Nothing the [Biomancer] had done could change the stats the System granted.

At least humans had the flexibility to assign their stats where they wanted to. It made them better casters, better mages, by a small margin. They also tended to have some of the best endurance, but that was it. Just another elvenoid race living on Pallos.

Iona was toweling the sweat off of her when the grand central bell started to toll. She frowned – it shouldn’t be the top of the hour, that bell had gone off recently near the end of their run.

It kept going, and going, and Iona looked around at the other squires.

Something was wrong.

At first one squire, then the next, then all of them, abandoned the next part of the daily training, and started to stream back to Castle Valkyrie, to find someone who knew what was going on, and ask them for help.

They weren’t knights, they weren’t Valkyries – yet. Still in training. They’d brag and boast how they were the future leaders, the knights in shining armor that everyone would look up to. Yet, when push came to shove, they were lost, still looking for guidance of their own.

The Valkyries had a grand hall, a room where they could all fit. Iona squeezed in the back, seeing over most of the heads of everyone there, to where Sigrun was standing, in fierce discussion with a number of other senior Valkyries – Alruna included – along with a scout.

Iona couldn’t quite tell which organization the scout was from, but he was the center of attention.

A decision was reached, and Sigrun made an announcement to the room.

"A goblin horde is coming from the mountains, tens of thousands strong, if not larger. If they make it through the Wobby pass, they’ll spill out into the plains, scatter, burn, murder, loot, rape, and pillage their way through Rolland. They’ll be nearly impossible to stop. The mountains force them to come through the pass though, and we’re going to head off to stop them. We’ll be calling for reinforcements from the Order of the Red Lions and the Righteous Divine Fist Sect, along with calling for the King’s army. We’re also sending out messengers to as many other organizations as possible."

Sigrun took a moment, a heartbeat, letting it sink in.

"Valkyries. Move out."

Iona had to rescue one of the smaller squires from the sheer crush of bodies as everyone tried to leave through the same door at the same time.

"Squire Iona." Alruna said, arms out stiffly as Iona bustled around her, fastening clasps and tightening straps, getting Alruna into what she called her "serious war gear."

"Valkyrie Alruna." Iona said, mimicking her formality.

"You’re coming with me on this. We need everybody."

Iona fumbled the strap she was currently trying to thread, needing three tries to stabilize her hands enough to get it threaded.

Finally, when she thought she had control of her voice again, she responded.

"I’m honored."

Alruna snorted.

"Don’t be. Tighten that strap more. More. MORE! There you go. This isn’t some honorable fight we’re going to. This is a slaughterhouse, bloody butcher’s work. What Sigrun didn’t mention was how many of us were going."

Iona froze, doing some mental calculations.

"Hang on…" She said, thinking about how many Valkyries there were. How many squires.

How many goblins.

"300. 300 of us are going to hold the pass, including squires. Not including companions." Alruna said.

Iona froze.

"We’re all going to die." She whispered.

"Yes. We are." Alruna grimly agreed.

==========================

Iona was riding on the back of Trikey, swinging her new axe experimentally. Fearfully. Iona was suited up as well as any squire was – as well as the rest of the squires were – which wasn’t saying much. Sure, the dinosaur-hide vest was well padded, she had armored gauntlets, a strong round shield, a helmet.

Iona shot an envious look at Alruna.

She looked like a moving, metal fortress, wings on her helmet the only minor decoration.

Trikey was nearly as well-armored, with a few more open joints to better move – or charge. Trikey was running, faster than any human could run, a full stampede of all the other Valkyries and their varied companions with them.

They kept a solid distance from each other. No telling when a stegosaurus would lash its tail out, or when one of a hydra’s heads would want to take a bite out of someone. All the animals were trained, and bonded – but why risk an accident?

"Iona." Alruna directed behind her without saying anything. Iona instinctively straightened up, something in her tone of voice making her pay attention.

"You didn’t hear this from me." She said, and Iona leaned closer, as close as the straps keeping her secured in Trikey’s saddle would allow, letting Alruna whisper to her. Not that it was really needed, not with the distance between each of the Valkyries, not with the thundering roar from each of their mounts.

"Class up." Alruna said.

"What, right now?" Iona asked in disbelief.

"Yes, right now."

"I don’t have permission." Iona protested.

"Who cares? You’ll either be dead, or be able to beg permission after. I can’t imagine anyone applying the penalty to a survivor of this. Might as well see what the System gives you."

Iona hesitated. She wasn’t supposed to class up, not without permission, and Alruna, nice as she was, wasn’t technically allowed to give permission.

"I know what you’re thinking. I’ll send you back if you don’t class up." Alruna threatened.

Iona was many things. Among others, the threat of being called or thought a coward was a powerful motivator. She leaned forward, focused on classing up both of her classes, and fell into the world of her soul.

Iona opened her eyes. The temple was somehow even larger, even grander. Her guide Priestess was there again.

"Iona. Welcome back." She said, with a voice full of warmth.

"Priestess. Thank you." Iona said.

"Let’s go." Priestess calmly said, leading Iona deeper into the temple.

Iona had time, if she wanted. Time to check all her options, time to read over every choice.

Time – that could be better used adapting to her new classes, her new skills. With the fight upcoming, Iona had no time to spare.

Planning. Training. Years of calculation, accumulated knowledge of the Order Valkyrie, and long discussions with Alruna had Iona’s next class-up pre-planned. She knew what would be offered, and she knew what she’d take.

Or rather – she had a strong outline of what she’d be offered, and what she’d take. Any minor variation would be just that – minor.

Still. As Priestess led Iona to the altar where she’d pray and change her class, Iona still stopped and prayed at the altars to the gods and goddesses. It was only right, it was only natural, to give them their due, to show loyalty, fealty, and devotion.

Iona believed that you kneeled to exactly three people in your lifetime.

Kneel to your mentor, your trainer, your teacher, the one who’s given you everything. Usually also your parent.

Kneel to the gods and goddesses, the divine beings above who watch over everyone, who give you life, who give you purpose.

Kneel to your lover, the one who drives you forward, who makes you more, who makes you strive to be the best person you can be.

Iona didn’t believe in such nonsense like "completing yourself", "the other half of a soul", "fated lovers", "love at first sight", or other such nonsense. Relationships, she gathered, were not like that at all.

Not real relationships.

To neutral or unaligned altars Iona prayed to Lunaris and Selene, her favorites.

They got to the room hosting the classing-up altar, when Iona hesitated.

"Did I get…?" She asked, trailing off. Priestess understood.

"Of course. A minor variant, as you’d expect. Still. Exactly what you’re looking for." She said.

The tension went out of Iona’s shoulders.

"Good. Good! I can’t wait! And the second one?"

Priestess gave Iona a Look, like she was a moron.

"Yeah, ok, ok, I get it. Of course it’ll be there."

Iona opened the door to the room, eyes fixed on the altar. She knelt, prayed, and felt the class change, evolve.

Merge.

[Constellation of the Warrior – Celestial]

The second class was even easier. A well-worn, well-tread level 8 class. Well known, well-defined, Iona had made sure she’d gotten the requirements for it a dozen times over. Her efforts were rewarded by a higher starting color than usual, and a minor variant.

[Smooth Shot Archer – Water]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Warrior] has leveled up to level 169! +2 Free Stats, +15 Strength, +15 Dexterity, +15 Vitality, +15 Speed, +9 Mana Regen, +2 Magic power, +2 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

Iona took a quick look at her new skills.

Strength from the Stars: The boundless stars forever twinkle, as boundless energy courses through you. Improved stamina per level. -36000 mana/day.

Blade of the Crescent Moon: Imbue your weapons with the sharp edge of the moon, cutting and slicing through all that would block your way. Deeper penetration per level. Costs mana per activation.

Moon’s Descent: The moons above, endlessly heavy. Lift the moon up, imbue your strikes with their weight. Converts strength stat to mass when striking blows. Improved strength to mass ratio per level. -24000 mana/day.

Gaze of the Stars: The stars look down upon you with perfect clarity, as you see the flow of battle and combat with perfect clarity. See in the dark. See through light obfuscation. Improved perception per level.

Iona started with surprise as [Cute] merged into the next skill she got. Surprise! Minor variations did change things up.

Stellar Body: The constellations above shine down, immovable, immutable, in the same way your body shines, empowered by the stars to be tougher, stronger, better-put together. .5% increased Vitality per level.

Nothing was mentioned about [Cute] or looking good, but it had to be in there somewhere. Skills sometimes did more than described, especially when other skills got merged into them. Iona would bet that the [Cute] merger basically, well.

She groaned as she realized the pun.

In some ways, a bit of a downgrade. Mergers were like that. In many ways, an upgrade, and Iona got a ranged class to go with it!

Also, new free general skill slot! Iona needed to think. She needed something to help survive the coming fight.

[Smooth Draw] was self-explanatory, but [Still Water] needed a look.

Still Water: Your mind is as tranquil as the surface of a pond. Any impacts simply ripple through, restoring the mind to its former calm. Increased calm per level.

Iona wanted to pump her fist. A mental stability skill! Yes! She’d lost her old one as her Light and Dark class merged, but the System taketh, and the System giveth.

Shame that it was at level 1 though. It would’ve been nicer at a higher level.

Iona had no doubt that it’d jump by leaps and bounds in the upcoming fight.

While she was still alive.

Over 40 levels of accumulated experience though – yes please. Iona was delighted to say the least.

Trikey moved again, Iona’s head smashed against Alruna’s unyielding back, and Iona was reminded that, yes, the world kept moving around her in spite of her focus on classing up.

"Welcome back." Alruna said, sensing Iona starting to move under her own power again, as she leaned back, rubbing her head.

"Most uncomfortable class-up ever." Iona complained.

"Got what we planned?" Alruna asked.

"Yup! Celestial warrior, Water ranger." Iona said. "Also, a new free general slot!"

"Nice! What merged?" Alruna asked.

"[Cute]."

Alruna twisted in her saddle to give Iona a Look.

"The hell were you doing to get that skill to merge!?" Alruna yelled at Iona.

"I dunno! I got [Stellar Body] and it just did!" Iona protested.

Alruna started laughing.

"Well, grab something like [Dodge] or [Reflexes]. Should help a bit."

Iona decided on trying to get [Dodge]. Better to not get hit at all, right? [Reflexes] would just be her trying to dodge things anyways, might as well get the narrower, more specialized skill.

"Good work. I think we’ll have some time for you to get used to it. Anyways, now that you’re a squire with a ranger class, you’re going to be assigned to Sorok."

Iona shot Alruna a betrayed look, that Alruna obviously couldn’t see.

"Why!? I’m your squire!" Iona protested. "I’m supposed to cover Trikey’s rear. You can’t do that alone!"

"You’re not geared for what we’re heading into." Alruna said, briskly rebuffing Iona. "You can make full use of your new ranger class on Sorok’s platform. You’ll be safer. And, more importantly, you’ll have a larger impact on the battle from there."

Iona gave a leery look at Sorok, a massive brontosaurus that the Valkyries had built a solid platform on. He was practically a mobile fortress, and the only reason they weren’t moving faster was they were moving at Sorok’s maximum speed already.

Iona opened her mouth to argue more, then closed it.

"Yes, Valkyrie Alruna, the Perpetual." Iona said, agreeing, letting her minor displeasure be known by giving Alruna’s full title.

"Look, I know you don’t like it. You’ll change your mind after this is over. Hey! It could be worse."

Iona quirked an eyebrow up.

"How could it be worse than outnumbered hundreds to tens of thousands, when we’re all going to die?"

"It’s not an Immortal. It’s not the start of another round of Immortal Wars."

That was an excellent point. Iona shut up, and worked on getting used to her new skills before the battle.

The Valkyries had made it to the pass before the horde. Some scouts were sent deeper in, to raise the alarm when the horde arrived. Some Earth mages were busy reshaping the terrain to better favor them. The one Arcanite mage was busy setting up some large-scale wards and buffs, sacred ground that when one of the Valkyries were standing on it, she would be stronger, faster, tougher.

Well. As long as the Valkyrie’s mana lasted. It was a rare build for a reason.

The pass was a bit too wide to collapse, too wide to build long walls tall enough to matter in time. Instead, the decision was made to get the ground as flat and level as possible, to allow the Valkyries and their companions perfect footing. 150 Valkyries and companions, side by side, with Sorok anchoring them in the middle, and they still all had plenty of room between all of them. At the level the Valkyries operated at, blows and swings were large and lethal, which meant for practical purposes, they could hold the pass.

Collapsing enough rocks that the clever, burrowing goblins couldn’t get through or around? An impossible task in the timeframe. Instead, narrowing the narrowest portion of the pass, and improving the terrain for the Valkyries and their mounts, took priority. No more ankle-breaking holes, no more awkward ledges that’d come up suddenly and break a raptor’s leg.

Alruna worked with Iona briefly to get [Dodging] offered to her, which Iona promptly took.

"Could probably get something a bit better if we had time and the records." Alruna said. "This’ll do in a pinch. Now."

"Sleep." Alruna said, still in her full gear, lying down on a thin blanket. Between the size of the blanket and Alruna’s weight in her gear, Iona didn’t see it improving anything. Still. It was Alruna’s call. "We don’t know when you’ll get another chance."

Iona mutely nodded, her stomach clenching and unclenching.

Hastily, she erected a small altar – really, just a stick stuck in the ground, with a crude symbol carved into the top – knelt down, and started to pray.

Selene. Lunaris. Hey again! Hope you’re doing well.

I’m going into battle soon. Don’t know if I’ll make it.

Hope I’ll be able to talk with you again soon!

Don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope it’s some time before we meet in-person. Like, I’m not opposed, but I don’t want to die just yet.

All the best,

Iona.

Iona opened her eyes to two women standing next to her. They were wearing long, flowing robes, a radical departure from the leather and metal everyone else was wearing. One was dressed in soft yellow, the other in a light cyan. They were larger than life; one was taller than Iona, the other shorter.

"Iona. My child." The first one, the tall one in blue, said, her voice like twinkling chimes in the wind.

Lunaris.

"Iona. My friend." The second one said, her voice the warmth of a meadow in spring.

Selene.

The two voices spoke together, spoke as one, interweaving and overlapping.

Welp. Iona had just mentioned not wanting to meet them quite yet, and, well, whoops. Here they were.

The goddesses in person. Divinely manifested, away from the realm of the gods.

Awkward didn’t begin to cover it.

"You have a bit of a trial ahead of you." They said, clearly highly amused.

"You’ve been faithful your entire life, giving with barely asking anything in return."

"Except Lux." Iona said, hardly daring to believe the words coming out of her mouth. Alruna was going to beat her black and blue for the sass.

Well, it wasn’t really sass. More like, correcting a potential…

Well. Goddesses didn’t make mistakes.

"We are sorry. She is dead, and gone." They said, sorrow, raw and present, in their voices. "On this eve of the trial, we have a blessing for you, most faithful believer."

Their voices split again.

"From me, sight." Selene said, moving to one side of Iona, somehow still standing up, and kissing Iona’s right cheek at the same time. "The moons see all, and now you can see everything the System grants to any living being."

"From me, comprehension and speech." Lunaris said, kissing Iona’s left cheek. "May no language bar you. May you understand, and be able to speak with, all of humanity, elves and their ancient tongue, and every other tongue spoken under the vast sky."

Iona’s mouth opened and closed wordlessly, tears streaming down her face, the tears somehow avoiding the two kisses placed on her cheeks, shining in the light.

The goddesses embraced her, one on either side, lifting her up from the ground.

"Of course. That’ll only help if you survive this." They said.

"Good luck!"

And with that, they were gone.

A shimmering barrier of celestial light that had surrounded Iona vanished with them.

Sigrun was waiting there.

With a lot of other Valkyries.

"What the fuck just happened?" She demanded.

Iona gulped.

Getting to the head honcho’s attention had not been on her to-do list.

A long interrogation later, some practice with her blessings, and the Valkyries mostly left Iona alone.

Iona mentally cursed Alruna for sleeping through her entire ordeal. Although, it would be just like Alruna to crack an eye open, see they weren’t under attack, and figure whatever the problem was could be managed the next morning.

Iona noted with more than a bit of amusement that after Sigrun’s interrogation of her, and the Valkyries confirming that, yes, Iona was now goddesses-touched, an absurd number of makeshift altars had been raised, with a number of squires and knights kneeling and praying to whichever god they worshipped.

Suddenly, everyone had found religion. The gods and goddesses directly manifesting tended to do that to people.

Sigrun had been slightly pissed that Iona’s blessings didn’t seem to directly relate to the fight at hand, and had cursed thoroughly that she didn’t get something like "one against one hundred thousand" or some absurd blessing that would save them all.

She’d been extra-pissed when Iona had said that she didn’t think she could call down a miracle. "What’s the fucking point of fucking religion if you can’t fucking call down a fucking miracle!?" Sigrun had yelled, before storming off.

Iona hadn’t realized that Sigrun’s cursing could be quite so verbose. It was like she worked in swears the same way others might work in oils or clay.

She settled down on a blanket, the butterflies in her stomach gone. Entirely.

Iona spent some time trying to identify what she was feeling.

It was… peace.

Iona had gotten her biggest hopes, her biggest fears, validated. Lunaris and Selene were out there. They heard her. They listened. They knew of her.

They had blessed her.

They had let her know that Lux was gone, forever. No divine intervention would fix or change that. It was freeing, in a way.

There was clearly something of an afterlife. If the gods were real, there had to be something after death, right? "Gone" wasn’t entirely annihilated, right?

Either way. Iona was much more ready to meet the goddesses again.

Iona laid down on her own blanket, staring up at the sky. She blinked, and –

And the sun was coming up, as scouts were running through the camp, yelling that the horde was almost here.

Iona scrambled to get Trikey something vaguely resembling breakfast, since it was likely his last meal.

"Sorry they’re not apples." Iona whispered to Trikey, patting him on his beak-like snout as he chowed down. He nuzzled Iona, almost bowling her over. How aware was he? Did he know this was probably the end for him?

"Iona. MOVE!" Alruna yelled at her, and Iona scurried over to Alruna’s side, to help secure the straps that would keep her attached to Trikey, for better or worse. She got the last strap set, as Alruna threw a pack at her.

"Yours. Get to Sorok." Alruna ordered, then flicked Trikey’s reins to get him into position.

Iona grabbed her shield, slung it over her back, then took her pack – much heavier than normal – and ran through the camp, dodging all manner of other Valkyries, companions, and squires getting ready. She made it to Sorok, with two long rope ladders leading from the platform down to the ground.

One for going up, one for going down.

Iona grabbed the ladder, and nimbly climbed up to the top.

"Goddess-blessed." Hrund said at the top, greeting her.

"Don’t give me that. Please." Iona said. "I haven’t earned a title, and-"

Iona couldn’t bring herself to say "it wasn’t a big deal". Because it was. Effortlessly understanding all the languages Sigrun had thrown at her last night had been eye-opening, to say the least.

So was seeing Sigrun’s stats, not that she’d ever admit to peeping.

What sort of monster had three well-developed classes before 40?

"Still! I can’t believe they let you class up because of that!" Hrund asked Iona.

Iona winced at the memory of Sigrun tearing into her over classing up without permission, all while Alruna had blissfully snoozed. Iona wasn’t about to throw her mentor under the bus, and took the entire brunt of Sigrun’s displeasure.

Not fun. Sigrun had blessedly ended it by throwing her hands up, and promising to punish Iona once this was all over.

Iona really, really, really hoped that Alruna was right, and that if they lived, she’d be let off scot-free. With the way Sigrun’s eyes had promised murder, Iona almost wanted the goblins to get her.

Still. Iona didn’t want even the misconception to spread. She interpreted her [Vow] to correct misconceptions that she herself inadvertently spread.

At least, that’s what Iona told herself.

"Alruna told me to. Said I’d either end up dead here, or get forgiveness." Iona said, giving Hrund a Look.

Hrund understood it.

Iona got a bow, and found where the arrow stashes were. They were deeper on the platform. It was going to be obnoxious, shooting a dozen arrows, then running back for more. At the same time – the platform swayed and moved with every step Sorok took, with every sweep of his giant tail. Too close to the edge, and things risked tipping over.

Hence some safety railings.

Iona looked around from her position on Sorok, high up above the battlefield.

The Wobby pass was a bare, rocky pass, a relatively thin slice through the mountains, with high rocks on either side. Impossible to climb, even for the bold and tenacious goblins. It was cut so deep, and so sheer, that rumor, accepted as fact, was some great blow by a creature with thousands of levels had made it.

The local geography demanded that creatures – or goblin hordes – emerging from certain places all needed to travel through this one, relatively thin pass.

Relative, for a mountain range.

Of course, it was still wide enough that 150 Valkyries and their mounts, Sorok included, all arranged side-by-side, still had significant gaps between them. They couldn’t dismount and lock shields together like legions of antiquity.

The flipside of that was, each Valkyrie had enough space to strut their stuff, to fire off their largest, most powerful attacks without fear of hitting each other. Additionally, it meant they could all be mounted.

Iona looked down, enjoying the perspective for a brief moment. Sorok had turned to the side, letting all the squires not mounted with their knight be on a single side, facing the incoming horde. They were all issued a fairly standard bow, with three specialized squires having snagged longbows. A half-dozen Valkyries were also on Sorok, either not having a companion, or having skills more of the long-range variety.

"Heya Iona." Hrund said. Iona glanced at her with her new blessing, and saw that Hrund had taken the chance to class up as well.

A quick look down the line of squires showed an overwhelming majority had gotten a similar sort of talk. There was barely a squire at 128 left.

Can’t be executed if you were dead.

"Shame we don’t have a Forbidden Four mage with us." Hrund said. "They’d be perfect for this."

Iona looked at Hrund standing next to her with shock.

"They’re illegal! The only thing they’re good for is mass-murder!" Iona protested.

"Yeah, but… isn’t that kinda what we’re doing here?" Hrund pointed out.

Iona opened her mouth, thought about what Hrund was saying, and closed it.

She hated to admit it, but Hrund was right. A Forbidden Four mage would be perfect right now. Deadly clouds of Miasma, aerosolized poison, or self-replicating spores would do horrible things to the goblin horde. Illegal in every civilized nation, which didn’t stop a number of them from keeping a few hidden, in reserve.

Nobody – not even the tiny Nime nation, who openly strutted a number of Forbidden Four classers, promising a terrible toll on anyone who tried to invade – would condone or tolerate a Void mage. They tended to randomly explode, and take out whole cities with them when they did. At a minimum. Nobody quite knew why.

A few times in history, a brave man or woman would take a Void mage class, and attempt to take meticulous notes, which were immediately sent out from their location. An attempt to record their skills, their experiments, to see what was happening.

Some would randomly blow up. Some lived long lives. There was no difference detected between the two.

Nor had a Void mage managed to – with what scarce records there were – deliberately blow themselves up. It was hit or miss, seemingly entirely random.

One extremely high-level researcher from the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft had two classes devoted to survival and self-regeneration. The best tank of several generations. She took a Void mage as her third class, went to the wilderness, and attempted to cause an explosion.

She survived, had no idea how it had happened or what she did differently, and swore off using Void magic, switching into something a bit more reasonable.

Immortals were a little crazy like that at times.

Void warriors, artisans, laborers, and more were all permitted and allowed. Mages were not. Similar to how Spore was one of the best elements for a farmer. A level of fear and paranoia surrounded the element, and people who decided to walk the path were well-advised to keep their Void element as their highest class, so they’d identify properly. Otherwise, mayors, magisters, and mobs didn’t have a very high tolerance towards people with the Void element.

A horn blew, and the first goblins started to make their way over the crest, funneled into the pass.

Drums started to beat, pulsing waves of energy coming off of Sorok’s back as a Valkyrie began her beat. Iona felt energized and strong. She jumped a few times, just to get some of the jitters out of her system.

"Hold!" One of the Valkyries that Iona recognized as Hara, the Incandescent shouted, raising her hand in a fist. The tiny gnome was standing on a crate, to better let everyone see her.

Discipline was good. None of the squires made it as far as they had by having terrible nerves, or by ignoring orders – especially before a battle.

The first goblins made it, and were easily, almost carelessly, dispatched. Iona watched Alruna use an incredibly long, flexible sword, and just sweep through the goblin, meeting no resistance as she did so.

[*ding!* Congratulations! Your party has slain a [Fleet-Foot Goblin] (Gale, 171)// [Quick Goblin Scout] (Wind, 165)]

Iona turned off notifications for goblin kills that she wasn’t personally involved with. She would need them for when she was fighting, to make sure a blow was lethal. She didn’t need to know about everyone else’s efforts.

Alruna’s classes were Void and Brilliance. Void gave her weapons unparalleled piercing strength, able to simply go through nearly anything, at the price of mana and skills. It was expensive to do, but that’s what her Brilliance class was for. Mana, mana, and more mana, along with boundless energy to fight for hours on end.

Days on end.

Hence her title, "The Perpetual."

Alruna, when geared for what she called "a real fight", used two swords, one in each hand. Both were incredibly thin, needing no mass or weight behind them – only Void skills – to simply carve through steel, flesh, and bone. The first was long, great for massive sweeps. It was slow though, and some small, nimble, goblin could dodge the blow, and come in close while Alruna was overextended.

Which is what her second, much shorter sword was designed to handle.

Iona’s musings were interrupted as more and more of the horde came over the hill, and Hara, the Incandescent, dropped her hand.

"Loose!"

Iona bent her bow, feeling it smoothly bend in a way she’d never experienced when training on bows before. Already, the effects of her new class were being felt. Iona loosed her arrows, along with the other squires.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Smooth Draw] has reached level 2!]

There wasn’t a need to aim.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Smooth-Shot Archer] has leveled up to level 9! +1 Free Stat, +3 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +1 Vitality, +1 Speed, +1 Mana Regen, +2 Magic power, +2 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Dexterity from your Element!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Archery] has reached level 2!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Water Affinity] has reached level 2!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Still Water] has reached level 2!]

"Fire at will!" The Incandescent shouted, before starting to fire off her own attacks.

Iona suppressed a moment of annoyance at the small sun’s worth of Radiance magic radiating off of Hara. She was the Valkyrie. Iona was the squire. The pecking order was clear.

Plus.

There was an advantage to fighting an entire army’s worth of creatures. Iona didn’t even need to look. Just fire arrows as fast as she could into the squirming, endless horde.

Free levels!

Free stats!

She’d need every stat once the arrows ran out.

The horde was streaming down the pass, being crushed and compressed into a small area. A writhing mass of green flesh, with glowing, crimson eyes. Weapons of all sorts, magic staffs, crude bows, rusty knives, sharp claws, foul teeth. The goblin horde had arrived in strength, and were moving and roiling over one another, chittering and yelling, as they boiled towards the line the Valkyries had established.

With the fluttering of a banner, the Valkyries charged.

Hundreds of tons of expert flesh, glowing enchantments, plain steel, and a few weapons edged with magic metal moved with thunderous power towards the horde. Iona saw goblins go literally flying as the press of companions, squires, and Valkyries met the front lines of the horde.

Iona loosed the rest of the arrows she had with her, then sprinted back to get more, remembering to breathe around a nervous lump in her throat.

This was it.

This was life or death.

Not just for them, but for huge portions of Rolland. Goblins got out here, they’d split and scatter, burning and looting their way through the kingdom.

There was a girl out there. Somewhere, in some village. Iona’s efforts here would keep her safe, would protect her from goblins bursting in the middle of the night.

Iona almost stumbled as she felt her [Vow] take hold, boosting her physical stats more than five times. She was protecting. She was defending.

This was her cause. This was her calling.

She made it to where the spare arrows were kept, and grabbed a handful of "fake" arrows.

They had an expert in making arrows with them, although sadly she didn’t have access to the Arcanite reserves. The arrows being conjured up weren’t quite as good as "real" arrows, mostly because it was more valuable to have two smaller, lighter arrows instead of one big arrow. Still. The expert had solid mana regeneration, and had been constantly pumping out arrows ever since the call had gone out. Stacks upon stacks of arrows surrounded her, barrels were filled, and "fake" arrows were replaced nearly as quickly as they were grabbed by the squires.

They were better than nothing.

Iona’s eyes wandered over the battlefield.

Shiva, the Destroyer. A dragonling. She stood on top of a sarcosuchus, whirling a massive glaive around her in a complicated pattern. All Iona could see was a bloody blur as goblin parts rained around her, unable to get past the shimmering metal cage formed around Shiva from her deadly dance.

More goblins went into the sarcosuchus’s mouth than there was possible room inside the dinosaur for.

Tavi, the Voracious. Darkness and Decay, she used a spear – along with having a devastating "deathtouch" ability, where with a simple touch she could carve out and remove important parts of a goblin, set their flesh rotting from the inside out. A success story – an orphan from the streets, raised up to become a Valkyrie, one of the best, one of the elites. She never got over starving as a kid, and somehow had the standard Valkyrie figure, in spite of constantly eating. Even as flesh rotted around her, even as blood sizzled near her.

Quinta was, of all things, a slime companion. Deadly Acid and Ooze, the slime simply engulfed bodies, and you could see the faces contort in silent screams as they were dissolved. Eaten alive by the slime.

The Inviolate. A cyclops. She wielded a mace and a massive tower shield, and was a combined healer-warrior. Sadly, her healing was focused entirely on herself, and her class was focused on taking and holding ground. Nothing short of death could get her to move from her position, and her insane self-regeneration on top of thick armor and thicker shield made that a nearly impossible proposition.

Speaking of healers. The only healer the Order had was an old man, entirely unsuited to a battlefield, perpetually stuck at level 256. Healers weren’t allowed to go any higher. Nobody – nobody – would give them permission. He’d only be a liability. He’d demand a squire attend to his every need, regale them with how "genius" it was that the author of the Medical Manuscripts had signed his name only "Healer", and be entirely unable to get to a Valkyrie in battle. He’d been left behind. Any survivors would be able to get to him, to fix any wounds, any injuries.

Ha. Like there’d be any survivors.

The Unstoppable. A bearkin, Storm and Lava. She towered over most of the other Valkyries, armed to the teeth. Quite literally. She had sharp metal caps over her teeth. She was slow to get moving, but once she had a bit of momentum, well – The Unstoppable.

The Unbreakable. A saurian, modeled after an ankylosaurus. Gravity nonsense. Blows that came to her were lightened, which made them nearly unable to break through her armor, let alone the tough, thick scales nature had blessed her with. She’d lash back out with a thin rapier that hit like her Tyrannosaurus Rex.

A kitsune, with the title of The Untouchable. Mist and Mirage. She was somewhere inside the thick mists, and flowing blood from the region attested to the deadly butchery she was performing. Can’t hit what you can’t see, and the tiny amount of visibility every illusionist needed to see was offset by the confusing, shifting mists hiding even that tiny weakness.

The Shiny. A fantastic example of Sigrun’s terrible naming sense in action. A dullahan who polished her armor to the point where Iona could see her own face in it, and whose classes reflected it. Mirror on Mirror, every blow returned, every skill mimicked back at the caster.

The Creator stood on her golems, pseudo-creatures of metal and stone pummeling down on goblins, impervious to their blows. The kobold had always said the golems were her companions, that they could do anything a companion could do.

Iona doubted they could give affection back, although she had to admit it – The Creator looked at her golems the same way Alruna looked at Trikey. Small creator, giant creations.

The Swift, screaming - quite literally, the banshee’s voice was a powerful weapon - down with her griffin from the skies above, impaling a high-level goblin casting powerful spells in the backline, then back to the skies in a flash, too fast for a counter-attack from the endless goblin horde.

Sigrun herself.

Valkyries weren’t like the crazy Sects, who somehow had it in their head that might made right, and the highest-level person should be the boss. That was, quite frankly, crazy talk, and more than one Sect had fallen to pieces when a powerful individual, with no leadership qualities to speak of, ended up the boss. No. The Valkyries selected their leader on administrative and leadership qualities, a Valkyrie with a vision, one who could weave a path through the complicated world. Sigrun was the leader on those qualities, and those qualities alone. If she was level 260, she would’ve still been selected to be the Grandmaster of the Order.

Her monstrous level and abilities were simply Sigrun being Sigrun, a peerless Knight in addition to her leadership and administrative abilities.

Three classes. Iona had gotten a look at them, and could now see and recognize them in action.

Mantle. Sigrun’s blade was impossibly sharp, and when it inevitably chipped, simply reformed anew. Any blow that dented her armor was fixed and restored the moment later. Offense paired with defense.

Verdant. Not a choice most warriors went for, but one Sigrun clearly had seen potential in. The ability to make small changes to herself – effectively self-doping, along with granting the boundless energy of plants and sunlight.

Lightning. Sheer, raw speed. [Lightning Step] moving Sigrun from one place to the next in a flash, blade cleaving all along her path.

Attack. Defense. Sustainability. Speed. Resilience. Sigrun had everything but weight, which was entirely irrelevant when it came to dealing with a goblin horde. She was everywhere at once, shining shield on one hand, gleaming sword in the other, goblins falling to pieces all around. A Valkyrie on one side of the battlefield could have a problem, and Sigrun would be there, covering her back silently, without a word, then in a flash be on the other side of the battlefield, running some powerful spellcaster through.

150 Valkyries. Each one trained for years, each one specialized, each one a lethal killing machine.

150 Squires. Trained… for a few less years. More generalized, eyeing up a specialty to branch into in the future. A future that would never come for most.

It wasn’t enough.

It wasn’t close to enough.

Three hours in, the first squire fell. A lucky blow from a goblin took her head clean off, riding on the back of the Valkyrie’s megalania.

Valkyries were a practical lot.

The Valkyrie simply cursed, and with a pair of blows, separated the squire’s body from the harness, letting it fall into the seething horde.

Not a hair was ever seen of her again.

It was only two hours after that the first Valkyrie fell.

The Spider used her long, long hair in several thick braids to lift herself up, above the battlefield, then dozens of thinner strands of hair with Darkness to puncture through eyes, chests, heads, and more. She would brag of being a "front-line mage", and gave all sorts of shit to "weak mages who stayed in the backline." A long running feud with Incandescent.

The goblins had figured her out, and a team of suicidal goblins had thrown what could only generously be called "expired cooking oil" all over her.

A second suicidal team of goblins had jumped on her with torches.

It wasn’t enough to kill a Valkyrie, but with her hair burning and falling around her, she was unable to keep herself up and supported, and fell into the horde with a scream, a sea of sharp blades ready to catch her.

Other Valkyries had seen what was going on, and were charging their way over.

Still.

A mage, surrounded by rusty blades on all sides, missing the flagship part of their kit, didn’t last long, regardless of training, armor, Sigrun cutting through half of them, or anything else.

Her body was recovered, dozens of blades held by dead goblins indicating how she’d died.

The Untouchable must’ve died around the same time, mist slowly dispersing. How do you kill a hidden, invisible killer?

The goblin answer was to flood the area with bodies until one bumped into said killer, then start hacking away. The Untouchable was primarily focused on evasion, with invisibility being her strength and forte. Without that, she was weaker, and her tactics left her plight unknown to her fellow Valkyries. They hadn’t even been aware that she’d been in danger.

Iona fired, and fired, and fired, unceasingly into the endless horde.

It was like half a cup of water into a forest fire.

A full day, defending the pass.

A full night, without a single goblin passing. No low cunning, no tricks, no attempts to flank or sneak succeeded.

And yet.

The bodies started to pile up.

Eight fast Valkyries behind the main action ran down goblins who tried to dodge fighting and slip through.

The rocks ran slick with blood, the freezing night turning the pass into an ice rink of blood.

Footing became treacherous, even with incredible Dexterity.

Nearly irrelevant for goblins. A major disadvantage to them didn’t really matter, with how poorly the odds were stacked against them in a single fight anyways.

Significantly deadlier for a Valkyrie. A horse slipped, going down screaming, pinning its rider’s leg under its crushing body.

Life was so fragile.

It only took one blade finding the right gap to end a Valkyrie.

And yet.

Feats of heroism at every turn.

Alruna carefully killing every goblin above a downed squire in a single sweep, letting her get back to her feet, buying enough time for The Swift to swing down for the rescue.

Sorok moving into position, wiping out hundreds of goblins with every sweep of its metal-spiked tail.

A squire leaping off of her Valkyrie’s mount, tackling and killing a goblin who’d gotten into The Creator’s blind spot, who was moving in to assassinate the coordinator of the fearsome golems.

Any other time, the squire would’ve been Knighted on the spot. Nobody had the time to Knight her.

It was worse for Iona when they ran out of arrows. Well – ran out of arrows for squires. The remaining supply of conjured arrows went to the one Valkyrie who used a longbow, who lacked the skill to conjure up her own arrows.

Iona swore to get an arrow conjuration skill, to never be left in a pinch like this again.

She looked around at the field, at the situation. Evaluated what she could do. No way could she survive the drop down into the battle. It wasn’t the fall that was the issue, so much as the forest of steel waiting on the other end. Not that they were inclined to let the squires into the battle without a Valkyrie.

Alruna, for example, was far too deep in the fighting for Iona to join her.

The sun began to set once again, and exhaustion began to set in. Wounds started to accumulate. Nothing serious, but the invincible image each Valkyrie had started to crack as their armor bent from heavy blows, bruises accumulating.

Small, slow trickles of blood like the laziest river emerging from cracks in their armor, from the small joints. Nothing big. Nothing deadly. Not yet.

But it accumulated. Slowly. One small cut at a time, with each small drip of blood, they slowed. As time went on, wounds festered.

Poison was in the goblin’s bag of tricks. It wasn’t honorable fighting, but the only creature in the pass that had any illusions of glory was The Vainglorious.

Goblins weren’t insane enough to use airborne poison, nor did they have the desire – or time – to poison the earth itself. Blades, barbs, sticks, claws, feet, gloves, [Poison Bite] skills and a thousand more methods and deliveries the goblins used. It made it extra-hard on the Valkyries. It was impossible to tell if a blow was going to be harmless, or poison.

Even poison was shrugged off by most of the Valkyries, their massive vitality helping their body fight off the crude methods of the goblins.

And yet.

Now and then a goblin would’ve found a particularly nasty snake, located a deadly spider. The poison from those wounds would also be fought off, but not before flesh rotted, before muscles decayed.

Without a healer, there was no restoring a leg with a gaping hole in it. A bitten arm would have muscles weakened.

The System improved what was already there. A warrior with 500 strength was stronger than a painter with 500 strength. A bearkin was stronger than a human. When muscles rotted away, when poison took its toll, there was less for the System to work with, less for the System to improve and amplify.

Fighting was generally quick, brutal work. Fights were fast, even faster if they were deadly. A short struggle, a knife across a throat, a blade between ribs, a skill in the right place at the right time – a fight lasting more than fifteen seconds was exceedingly rare, and usually only happened when both fighters had better defenses than attacks.

Battles often lasted for hours, but again, it was rare for an individual to be involved in a battle for more than a few minutes of screaming and blood. A front-line soldier was the only one fighting, at least until they slowed down, and died.

To be replaced with a new front-line soldier, joining the bloody fray.

Or the commander might be sane, and just rotate out tired troops for fresh ones.

As for armies, the vast majority of them were made out of conscripts. Peasants, given a spear and told to march in a particular direction. Some were smart or lucky enough to have a [Soldier] class, the rest were farmers with a pointy stick.

Armies like that tended not to have huge amounts of cohesion or discipline, and fell apart quickly once they started to take losses. As few as 2% losses were enough to break and rout the army, and a single, extremely powerful, Classer could do that alone.

The Valkyries? They’d been at it for an entire day. Then a second day. The attack had started at sunrise, and as the shadows grew long, they were still at it. The sun rose, and goblins continued to die. The sun set, just as it set on the goblin’s lives. The Valkyries had taken significant losses, but showed no signs of stopping, of giving up, of routing. If anything, they simply dove into the fray once more.

But slower.

Slightly slower.

And with slightly fewer of them.

Shiva slowed, her deadly whirling glaive becoming just barely visible to Iona’s eye. Small gaps started to appear in her defense, and she retreated to a more defensible position. More goblins trailed around her.

The Swift had slowed down on her snipes, a goblin every four minutes becoming a goblin every five. Every six.

Every ten.

The Unstoppable. Every volcano cooled after erupting, every storm blew itself out.

The Banshee, whose voice was getting hoarser and hoarser. Ironically not a banshee herself.

Indeed, as Iona looked around, there was one group, and three Valkyries, who weren’t slowing down.

The squires stuck on top of Sorok’s platform. Unable to reach the thick of the fighting, for now. The future of the order, somewhat protected. The goblins occasionally took potshots at the poorly-protected girls, but the rest of the Valkyries were keeping them busy.

Frustrated. Angry. Watching the girls they’d grown up with, trained with, lived with, get cut down, one after another. Watching their mentors, their teachers, die, one at a time.

Honestly somewhat useless with the current formation. They didn’t have the combat capabilities to be in the midst alone, the armor, the levels, or the stats. Squires were paired with Valkyries for a reason.

Sigrun, the Grandmaster. Leaning on her monstrous levels and stats, leaning on her Verdant element.

The Creator, with golems that never tired, never needed a break. They wouldn’t slow – if they ran out of mana, if the Arcanite in them ran dry, if The Creator ran out of mana, they’d simply stop.

Alruna, the Perpetual. A build terrible for tournaments, for honor duels. A build designed for war, for large-scale conflict. She just kept going and going and going and going and-

"Iona." Hrund said to her, in a low, urgent voice. "We can’t stay up here."

Iona slowly nodded in agreement.

"We should ask Incandescent to leave." Iona said.

Incandescent worked by firing bursts of burning Radiance into the horde, then pausing. Iona knew she was sitting on a ton of Arcanite, but hadn’t used any of it.

Iona was judging Incandescent somewhat for it. Sure, she knew the theory that it was only for emergencies, but if this wasn’t an emergency, what was?

"We did. She said no." Hrund whispered back.

"Then it’s a no." Iona said.

Hrund shot her a look, but left, talking with other squires.

Iona watched them, conflicted.

She glanced at Incandescent. Incandescent looked back, frowned, shrugged, and fired off another burning ball of Radiance, exploding once it made contact.

"I know what they’re doing. I disapprove, but I can’t stop them. Too busy." She said. "Stay."

Iona stayed. Stayed as the rope ladder was thrown down. Stayed as the squires "stealthily" climbed down it.

Walked over as the last one went down, and pulled the ladder back up. It felt cruel on one hand, but Iona wasn’t going to let the goblins have an easy path up. Easy access to Sorok’s flanks.

Winced as Sorok didn’t give two shits about the squires, and kept moving as he needed to, as he was directed, crushing one underfoot with a sickening squish, a scream cut short.

Watched as the squires formed a solid shield wall, working in concert. Just like they’d practiced a dozen times, this one for real.

Watched as most of them got ripped apart. They didn’t have the gear for what they were trying to do, not at the level they were at. It wasn’t play. There were no holds barred, no rules of war.

There was a reason squires were paired with Valkyries. There was a reason they’d been told not to go down.

A number of squires broke at the casualties, turned and ran.

Some escaped.

Some.

A few squires that stayed made it, the nearby Valkyries picking up who they could.

The only thing that was seen of the rest was a single arm, taken by a goblin as a trophy, used as a demoralizing weapon.

That goblin died fast, even by the standards of the slaughterhouse that Wobby pass had become.

The Valkyries continued to slow. There was no one heroic goblin taking them down, no massive skill coming out of nowhere. Just the slow accumulation of damage, pain, poison, cuts and bleeds.

If there was one small blessing, it was that the goblins weren’t entirely suicidal. They lacked Forbidden Four mages as well. Didn’t stop their poison, but it was small-scale, localized. Less deadly than the occasional Darkness warrior, who tried to pierce and void armor and limbs. A Forbidden Four mage might have done terrible things to the Valkyries – but it would’ve backfired on the goblins even harder.

Rather. It was possible they had some. They weren’t using them if they did.

Did it matter? Iona didn’t think so.

The Valkyries continued to slowly die, the ever present drumbeats echoing throughout the pass.

And as a Valkyrie died, a hole appeared in the already stretched-thin line. Causing each one to stretch more, to cover impossibly more ground.

Letting more goblins stream through.

Surround them.

Kill more.

Mitigated by the sheer volume of dead bodies forming walls.

Choke points.

Kill corridors.

The fight was ever-changing, ever-moving, ever-shifting. Iona found it impossible to follow, even as her [Gaze of the Stars] leveled like crazy.

The moons rose above the fight, the omnipresent eyes watching and seeing what happened below. Iona kept thumbing her axe nervously, taking her shield off her back, pacing, then putting it back. She wasn’t in the fight – yet. She was ready.

Why wasn’t she being allowed in!?

Iona looked around, and had a startling moment of clarity as she saw The Shining die.

We’re on the verge of a total rout.

Iona obviously wasn’t the only one who’d seen this, and a trumpet blast rang out, blasting through the battlefield, cutting through the din, blaring over the endless drumming. The Valkyries started to group up, get closer to each other, and fight their way to Sorok.

Slowly dismounting as they got near the brontosaurus anchoring the line.

Covering each other.

Leaving massive holes in the line.

Holes that goblins started to stream through, stream past, into the widening pass.

Out to the greater kingdom.

Failure, on most counts. They’d barely held for three days and nights at this point. Without break, without rest. Losing a significant portion of the Order.

A knight on a fast mount could cover two hundred miles in a day. They might not be ready for a fight at the end of it, but the distance was manageable. Reinforcements should be near.

And yet. They weren’t.

The Valkyries were grouping up, bunching together in the middle of the pass. A hard rock, jamming the flow of ceaseless goblins.

"Down." Incandescent ordered, and Iona needed no further prompting.

Four other squires had stayed behind.

Only one other followed Iona.

With the dismissive look the Valkyries gave the three remaining squires, Iona wouldn’t be surprised if they were booted from the order for cowardice.

Not that it would matter.

They were all dead, one way or another. What was the point of being a coward now?

Iona made her way down the ladder, getting rope burn as she mostly let herself drop, only grabbing on the rope to slow herself down somewhat. She hit the ground, and moved to where she belonged.

Alruna’s side.

Iona had been in fights before. She’d been on extermination missions. These weren’t the first goblins she’d faced.

But seeing the unending horde charging at her gave her pause. Made her hesitate. Caused fear and terror to strike at her heart. [Still Water] helped.

Iona didn’t crush the fear. She didn’t purge the terror from her heart. She simply lived with it, letting it lend fuel to her first desperate strike against a goblin, empowering her blows.

Iona waited for the first goblin she’d have to fight to come to her. Alruna had done a mighty sweep, bisecting a dozen goblins, and only a few had the reflexes and cunning to dodge. Two were heading towards Alruna.

One was heading towards Iona.

Iona felt her heart thundering in her chest. This goblin was using the most gobliny of weapons – a crude knife. Another close-in fighter, like Iona was. She let the goblin strike at her, letting her shield take the blow. Her arm, empowered by stats, by her [Vow], moved her axe, enchanted by the best the Valkyries had, wicked blade gleaming a light cyan by [Blade of the Crescent Moon], cleaved through the goblin with barely any resistance.

[*ding!* Congratulations! Your party has slain a [Shanker Goblin] (Acid, 199)// [Goblin Chef] (Poison, 185)]

Iona did a double take. Two advanced elements? Yikes.

Also, a Poison-chef? Iona did not want what he was cooking.

A rock came whizzing out from the crowd, Iona dodging. Barely registering the level-up notification from the skill.

Hearing a yell from behind her as it hit the back of the head of another squire. A potentially fatal distraction, if not outright fatal on its own.

Another goblin. Iona took a strong blow to her shield.

Another one.

Another one.

Another one. A cut to the shin, so bad it briefly forced Iona to one knee.

Another one.

Another one. Stabbed by a wooden spear, impossibly manipulated through a skill. No room to dodge properly. Weakened by the padded armor, still cutting through some abdominal muscles. A brief chill, a vicious splash of blood, mingling with everything else’s.

Another one.

Another one.

A Valkyrie fell. The circle tightened. The speed of goblins slipping through increased, just a hair.

Another one.

Another one. A rock to the head, Iona’s life saved by her helmet. A cut opened up over Iona’s left eye.

Another one. Iona lost use of her left eye, as blood from the cut made it impossible to see.

Another one.

Another one. A strong slice on Iona’s axe-arm, as she misjudged a distance.

Another one.

Another one. Iona’s axe was wrenched out of her hands, made it a few inches away, then magically returned to her hand, letting her bury it in the surprised goblin’s head. Her life saved by the enchantment.

Another one.

Another one. Iona felt her shield-arm crack in the most disconcerting way, as a particularly burly goblin smashed a large club into her.

Another one.

A companion fell. The circle stayed the same size, the stegosaurus’s incredible bulk forming a natural wall of steel and flesh.

Iona was sent to guard the back, to kill goblins trying to make their way over the corpse. Or through it.

And the circle shrank, just a hair, by the absence of a single squire.

Iona nearly died as she slipped on the smooth stone slick with frozen blood.

Drowning in one of the shallow stone depressions was a real risk. It was how they’d killed The Inviolate. Tripped her and drowned her in a pool of blood. Sigrun had been otherwise occupied, unable to flash to her rescue, rescuing a dozen others instead.

Not all the goblins were idiots. Crafty, smart goblins were legion, and once they’d noticed The Swift was no longer picking goblins off left and right, some seriously powerful goblins took to the field, raining Lightning down on the circle.

Incandescent demonstrated what "an emergency" was, as she filled that particular section of the horde with an ungodly number of blasts. A smooth, glassy circle was all that was left of the spot when she was done.

Only for blood to start seeping in, pooling and filling it.

The hydra roared, as a head was cut off, and Iona watched in sick fascination as two heads grew from the stump.

Angry.

Rapidly snapping at goblins, who screamed and tried to flee. Too many goblins pressing in gave them nowhere to run to, and they went down the hatch.

The sun rose. The sun set.

Half the Valkyries were left.

Half the companions were left. Not always the same half.

Only a small number of squires left. Mostly the lucky few who’d survived with their Valkyrie so far, or who hadn’t left Sorok of their own volition.

It was noon on the second day when it hit Iona - delirious from a lack of food, from having sweated out most of her water, yet another crude poison coursing through her veins, causing her vision to swim, making her hallucinate – when the truth of the matter became reality for her. She’d denied it in her heart of hearts, believed that this would just be another tale, her moment of glory.

Ha. Glory. There was no such thing here. Just butchers. Chop. Chop. Chop.

I am going to die here.

This was her grave. This was her funeral.

Iona shook her head, casting aside the fatalistic thoughts, getting a small ember, a small spark of hope.

I will survive.

Alruna seemed to have come to the same conclusion, a grim look on her face replacing her usual calm demeanor in fights.

The goblins had figured out how to make the Valkyries angry. Drag a companion’s body away. Cook it in front of them.

Eat it in front of them.

The goblins that did so were of the particularly stupid variety, as not only were they making it harder for their fellow goblins to get into the fighting, but they’d all die, as the Valkyries targeted them.

Targeted them – over closer, more dangerous goblins. After all, a detached [Strategist] would note that goblins eating mid-battle was no threat. A [Historian] might note the poor decision making.

Ha.

Who were they, what were they, to pronounce judgment from so far away? When had they seen their friends, their companions, their lifelong partners eaten in front of them? Anyone would be enraged.

Nobody broke. Not anymore. Nobody ran. Not after the squires had bailed, only for whooping goblins to run most of them down. Nobody offered surrender.

What was the point of breaking?

Where could you run to?

Death was preferable to surrender at the hands of goblins.

The only thing they could do was stand, and fight.

Fight to the last woman standing.

Fight to buy time.

Fight to slow the horde down.

If they were not here, this tough bunch of Valkyries, the horde could pour through uncontested. As it was, goblins couldn’t physically pass through the Valkyries, had to engage them. Had to fight them. It was only on the fringes, the edge, where more cowardly goblins slipped through, down the pass, out into the plains.

And villages.

A few – only hundreds per hour, as opposed to the tens of thousands – was a manageable number. Difficult. Damage would be done. But possible to hunt down, to exterminate. Cities wouldn’t be sacked; towns wouldn’t be pillaged. Only villages would be burned.

Iona was hellbent on there being one less village burned. One more life saved. It would be her invisible, unknown legacy. Someone out there was going to be alive because of her actions here, today. Iona had no idea who it’d be. They’d have no idea who Iona was.

But.

Her. Actions. Mattered.

Could there be a finer end?

"Out!" The Creator yelled, and the circle shrunk again, as the golems were left on their own for one last set of attacks, before running out of mana.

Left frozen, they were quickly dismantled by goblins, never to be reanimated again.

A goblin swung at Hrund, and she weakly attempted to parry. She was unable to keep a grip on her blade, pure exhaustion having weakened her.

She barely resisted as she was run through, glassy eyes staring at the sky. All the strength, all the speed, all the dexterity, didn’t matter before the cruel realities.

Injuries. Wounds. Bites. Scratches.

Exhaustion. Fatigue. Weariness.

Cuts. Stabs.

Poison.

Exactly what Alruna’s build was designed to defeat.

Exactly what Alruna had insisted Iona build around to beat.

Boundless energy. Peerless penetration. A build unsuited for tournaments. Perfect for slaughter. Why injure, when you can kill? Why overpower, when you can outlast?

The sun set, and there were eighty in total. A rider with a red banner, not a Valkyrie, flew overhead. Circled them once.

Left.

The sun rose on thirty left. Barely a speedbump at this point. Goblins swarming around them, after better, easier, more plentiful prey. Why fight the powerful warriors, when there were fresh villages out there, ripe to burn and loot?

Sorok had died, brought low by powerful skills and rocks slick with blood, crushing a number beneath him as he fell. The drums were silenced at last.

The Valkyries drums. The goblins had their own sick beat, their own tempo they moved to.

"Where. Are. They!?" Alruna yelled at Sigrun.

"Why the fuck do you think I know?!" Sigrun yelled back. "They should’ve been here yesterday!"

Iona had kept a small spark of hope alive. It died at that.

The rider had seen them. Had signaled to them.

The sun was setting on thirteen of them left.

Companions included.

No reinforcements had come yet. None of the Orders or Sects that the Valkyries had messaged showed up.

The Swift was no longer around, her and her griffin brought low by a trap. It had required goblins to sacrifice themselves, but when had they not?

The Voracious had died, goblins willing to die to land a blow. Her build didn’t matter in the face of suicidal foes, of accumulated harm.

There was now a great stampede around the Valkyries, goblins climbing over the bodies of their fallen dead to reach the plains below. The Valkyries could barely slow them down at this point, forcing those nearby to reckon with them, not nearly enough of a presence to force a large number to stop, to significantly slow the horde.

The Valkyrie’s intel had been bad. It wasn’t tens of thousands - it was hundreds of thousands of goblins, pushed out of the Below Levels by some greater force, causing a mid-winter migration. An entire nation on the move.

As ferocious as the Valkyries were, as deadly and lethal that the Wobby pass was - the force behind the goblins was scarier. The goblins were content to throw themselves into the meatgrinder, sure that it was the best option they had.

The Valkyries, the measly 300 of them, had slaughtered tens of thousands of them, gotten their bodies stacked so high that the size of the pass had shrunk, forcing the goblins to constantly contend with them. That is – if they could properly turn dead goblins into building material. If goblins had any problem at all over walking over their own dead.

Iona shuddered at a goblin casually reaching down and ripping off the arm of a dead goblin, and starting to happily chow down on it, barely giving the Valkyries a glance as he strolled down the pass.

Barely caring as his fellows died to the Valkyries.

Others took to the high ground made by the bodies. Pelting them with slings and primitive arrows.

Throwing skills at them. Mages and skills weren’t restricted to humans, and with The Swift no longer assassinating powerful goblin mages, with the high ground, with the ability to reach out and kill goblins from a distance all but gone, more and more mages were coming out of hiding.

Not just mages had skills.

There was no such thing as a primitive arrow shot, not when skills were involved.

And then there was 12.

And then there was 11.

And then…

The goblins…

Stopped.

They stopped trying to run around. They stopped trying to kill the Valkyries.

They did keep climbing up the bodies though. Over and through, down the pass.

Through the crowd, a particularly large goblin emerged.

In a broken language spoken by the Valkyries, he spoke.

"Surrender. Or. Die." He croaked out, clearly unused to the tongue.

Sigrun held up her hand, reminding everyone that she was the boss.

"We’ll discuss it." She said.

Shocked and betrayed looks from half the survivors.

The other half knew it was a ploy to stall for time, to stall for some mythical reinforcements. To give them all a breather.

"Short time only." The goblin said, before vanishing into the crowd.

"We’re not-" Iona started to say, before Alruna covered her mouth.

"Shhh. Dunno if they can hear us. Drink." She ordered.

Iona brought her waterskin to her mouth, hoping against hope that she’d gotten another miracle and the waterskin had been magically refilled since the last time she checked.

Nothing.

The world was still blurry around her.

The last Water mage squire died yesterday.

Sigrun took a moment.

"All of you here, present now." She said to the three remaining squires. "Can call yourselves Valkyries."

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Squire’s Steadfastness] has evolved into [Valkyrie’s Valor]!]

Iona smiled, happiness blooming in her heart, even through the terrible conditions. She’d spent more than half her life working towards this goal, waiting to hear those magical words from Sigrun’s mouth.

The situation could be slightly better though. Like seeing the next sunrise. Being able to tell someone about her promotion.

"You decide now." The grouchy goblin was back.

Sigrun looked at the Valkyries. Looked at the goblin, head held high, back straight, sword and shield relaxed by her side.

"No." She declared.

Sigrun had a slim chance of getting out of this alive. She could blitz down the pass, fight and escape out on her own with sheer power, speed, and skills. A few of the other Valkyries might be able to succeed in a fighting retreat.

The goblin grunted, and Iona realized she understood him.

"Fire." Was what he said, and the goblins that had been climbing up the mountain of bodies unleashed all manner of stones, arrows, skills, javelins, and more, down upon the hapless Valkyries.

The Valkyries interlocked shields and huddled under it, Serratrix curling up intelligently, creating a massive Spinosaurus-size bulwark.

"We are so dead." Alruna said.

"You don’t say." Iona retorted, all fear of retribution gone, an exhilarated thrill running through her as she broke the rules.

What was Alruna going to do, kill her?

Somehow, that broke the tension, and the Valkyries laughed.

What else was there to do, when death was rattling on their shields? Heating up their shields, so hot they’d need to drop them, open a hole in their wall, rain arrows in through it. Kill more. Cascade harder.

Rain started, a pitter-patter, rapidly becoming a downpour.

But – hang on. Iona frowned. There wasn’t the distinct sound of water hitting metal that she’d expect to hear from rainfall. The rain wasn’t hitting their shields at all.

Instead, screaming, high pitched cries of agony that twisted the knife right in her ears.

Slowly, one at a time, the Valkyries peeked over and through their shields, to see what was happening.

Green rain was pouring from the skies, leaving a neat circle around the Valkyries untouched. As each droplet touched goblin flesh, smoking, sizzling holes were left behind.

The screaming was stuff of nightmares.

Iona looked up.

High in the sky, a figure floated, wearing the customary yellow mage robes of a level 2000-2500 member of the School of Sorcery and Spellcraft.

"The rat-faced BASTARDS." Sigrun yelled from on top of Serratrix. All the Valkyries were on Serratrix. Him and the hydra were the only two companions who survived, and the hydra was in a foul mood. The Valkyrie who was his companion had died, and he’d left. Nobody tried to stop him, not after the fight they’d all bee through. Serratrix’s glorious sail was shredded and torn, and he was barely limping along. The Order of the Red Lion had "patched him up the best they could", which was a bald-faced lie.

The Valkyries had waited until the acid rain had ceased, then needed to wait even longer before the pass was safe enough to walk down; that they wouldn’t dissolve in puddles of deadly acid left over. The fumes though – all of them needed serious attention from healers after what the acidic fumes had done to all of them.

The Order of the Red Lion, the kingdom’s army, headed by the 2nd prince, and the Righteous Divine Fist Sect had met them halfway down, taken care of them, and helped them retrieve what little was left of the bodies of their fallen, including wrapping up most of the weapons and armors for easier transportation. At which point, the Valkyries promptly left, not wanting to be gawked at. Wanting to lick their wounds at home.

"What happened?" Alruna asked. They were finally far away enough from the other forces to have half a conversation.

"They set up a second defensive line further back, and left us all to fucking die. I know the Orders don’t get along, but trying to wipe us out?!" Sigrun yelled. "The only reason any of us are alive is the fucking School of Sorcery and Spellcraft had a bored Classer wanting to take a look! The Orders wanted to loot our dead fucking bodies! Even as-is, we don’t have a fraction of the bodies or armor we should have, and I fucking know the goblins didn’t take them all!"

Sigrun wasn’t quite making sense – being up for that many days in a row, with that much of an emotional rollercoaster would do that to anyone – but the point was there.

Iona didn’t quite agree with Sigrun’s ranting and raving. By the time the scout had flown overhead, the horde was pouring around them. Any defensive line constructed would’ve needed to be much, much larger, and much longer. They couldn’t let goblins escape anymore than the Valkyries could, for much the same reason.

And pushing back against an unending horde, when disadvantaged and on the back foot? Sending in a strike team to retrieve them? Iona didn’t think it would be a wise move. It was unfortunate, but between the risk of losing their own line, and letting the horde break out, versus saving some powerful warriors who signed up for it?

Enough knights in the Red Lions had [Oath]s that demanded they act honorably. That would’ve frowned upon deliberately leaving a nominal ally to die when there was any other choice.

And there were literal mountains of dead bodies. Finding all the fallen Valkyries and their gear, especially when some had been stripped and carried away mid-battle, was impossible given that Sigrun had them moving out in less than a day.

It didn’t stop Sigrun from being pissed as hell, and blaming the Order and Sect for the massive losses the Valkyries had taken.

"But we survived." Iona pointed out, feeling a lot more confident, a lot more at ease. Blessing every breath of air, every blade of grass, every caress of the wind, the setting sun, the twinkle of the night stars.

"We did. It was a pyrrhic victory though. They won. The Valkyries have been destroyed." Sigrun said bitterly. "After we saved their kingdom and lands to boot. They were all ‘oh, it’s such a shame your numbers have been reduced so far. We’re going to take over managing Soria town.’ And the worst part is I can’t even say they’re wrong! We can’t manage Soria town anymore, or almost any of the others."

"We’re as good as dead." Sigrun finished.

Iona took a moment to look at her level-ups. "Epic" didn’t begin to cover it.

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Constellation of the Warrior] has leveled up to level 256! +2 Free Stats, +15 Strength, +15 Dexterity, +15 Vitality, +15 Speed, +9 Mana Regen, +2 Magic power, +2 Magic Control from your Class! +1 Free Stat for being Human! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regen from your Element!]

All of her skills had also capped out at 256 – except her Water archery skills, which were all capped at 32. Iona had no doubt it’d shoot up massively once she classed it up.

"Sigrun. Permission to advance my class again?" Iona asked.

"Yeah, fine, whatever. I don’t care. We’ll just say it was needed in the heat of battle. Nobody’s going to give us any grief, not when we’ve been practically wiped out. You can all advance." Sigrun said bitterly. "Might as well do it before we’re given the official notice that the number of Classers we can have is being reduced."

There was no joy in Iona. Not with the loss. Not with all her friends dead.

A pause passed, before Shiva spoke up.

"Gotta title the new Valkyries." She said.

"Ah right. You." Sigrun said, pointing to the first of the three newly promoted Valkyries. "Errr. The Goblin Slayer."

The Goblin Slayer took her new title with a neutral expression. It wasn’t the best, but it spoke of an epic feat, and expectations to come.

"You." Sigrun said, pointing to the next one, pausing a moment, straining hard to think of something, coming up basically blank. Her terrible naming sense took over.

"The Goblin Smasher."

Everyone winced at that one. The newly titled Valkyrie didn’t look happy. Sigrun pointed to Iona last.

"You." She said, and everyone waited for the hammer of terrible names to swing and smite Iona. If it was bad enough, nobody would ever call Iona by her name ever again.

"I have a Celestial element!" Iona said, thinking fast, hoping to derail Sigrun into a different thread, a different terrible naming sense. Anything to not be "The Goblin Musher"

Sigrun looked around briefly, at the twinkle of the new stars, the last rays of the sun vanishing over the horizon, at the rising of the moons, and named Iona.

"The Dusk."

[Name: Iona]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 16]

[Mana: 2520/2520]

[Mana Regen: 152256]

Stats

[Free Stats: 378]

[Strength: 2309]

[Dexterity: 2310]

[Vitality: 2579]

[Speed: 2579]

[Mana: 252]

[Mana Regeneration: 1946]

[Magic Power: 462]

[Magic Control: 462]

[Class 1: [Constellation of the Warrior - Celestial: Lv 256]]

[Celestial Affinity: 256]

[Combat Instincts: 256]

[Weapon Mastery: 256]

[Strength from the Stars: 256]

[Blade of the Crescent Moon: 256]

[Moon's Descent: 256]

[Stellar Body: 256]

[Gaze of the Stars: 256]

[Class 2: [Smooth Shot Archer - Water: Lv 32]]

[Water Affinity: 32]

[Archery: 32]

[Smooth Draw: 32]

[Still Water: 32]

[Blind Shot: 32]

[: ]

[: ]

[: ]

[Class 3: Locked]

General Skills

[Analyze: 180]

[Valkyries Valor: 256]

[Dodging: 256]

[Footwork: 256]

[Vow of Iona to Lux: 256]

[Charming: 169]

[Education: 222]

[Dinosaur Husbandry: 234]

Other

Blessing of Selene and Lunaris

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