Khan didn’t seem to have heard the elf’s grumbling as he fastened the enchanted blades on his belt while walking closer a bit.

“How does the whole shardwaker thing connects to my attributes?”

“What do you mean?” Regis asked back, baffled by the surprisingly serious nature of the question.

“Lithia and a few of the other priests explained us how the soul-space worked and that we needed to form constellations, but they were quite hard to understand with all the roundabout scriptures about it. What I want to know is; how does it actually influence my strength and speed and whatnot?”

“Oh, that’s a broad subject, but I can try to simplify it to you, if you want.”

“Yes please!” Khan almost shed a manly tear as the dark elf made the offer.

“Basically, the Average Joe without a mark has his attributes capped at a maximum of fifteen. That means that no matter what, they could at best train up their physical body to the pro athlete level. If they get a Shardwaker’s mark, it increases the attribute cap, but it hard locks at twenty.”

“That is, if you’re not an aberrant,” Valerie cut into Regis’ explanation. “You’ve surely seen those people on TV that were doing the whole “Strongest man in the world’ competition. Those are folks that pushed beyond the natural human possibilities. They’re around eighteen to twenty-one points into the ‘Might’ department. This makes them an aberrant; a person beyond the rules. Very few such people exist though. Please, continue!”

“Sure. For us ‘normal’ people, we have to step on a pathway to further increase the max attribute cap with each Tier increasing it by five. Is it clear so far?”

“I think so,” Khan nodded. “But that leads to another question. Do I really need those constellations to increase my attributes? I mean there were times during fighting when these golden texts popped up to tell me that my deftness or my strength increased.”

“That happened to me as well.” Sophie agreed with Khan on the matter.

“From what I’ve read back home; there are three known ways to increase one’s attributes. Four, if we count the constellations. The first one is through ‘heroic’ deeds. That’s to say that something extraordinary happens to you that stirs your potential through your mark, increasing an attribute in the process. That’s when you get the pop-up message from the Hearth. The problem with this is that it pretty much only works until the 20th attribute point. After that, it gets soft-locked and you’d have to do something really extreme to get an upgrade this way.” He explained while re-checking his inventory.

“Okay,” Quentin nodded. “So we can’t count on these ‘heroic’ acts to take us all the way. What about the other possibilities?”

“There are elixirs that can increase certain attributes, but you’d need an expert alchemist to make them and the ingredients are also rare and pricy. That makes alchemy the path of the rich kids, obviously.”

“That’s an understatement,” Valerie scoffed. “I doubt there’s anyone in Hunor actually capable of making the simplest of elixirs. And even if they did, we couldn’t afford a single one after pooling together all our money.”

“True,” Regis sighed at the thought of the exorbitant price. “I’ve got to admit; constellations are a new thing for me as there were no mentions about it in our library. What we had some passing notes in our about were different ‘classes’ that were supposed to increase the attributes, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here.”

“I can help with that,” Fabien said with a giddy expression as he finally felt useful. “Our family library had an extensive collection of information related to the world system of the Shardlands. The constellations as you might have noticed; come in two different categories. They were recorded as unrelated and pathway constellations. Unrelated charts, like your legacy charts, only give you a flat attribute bonus and in some cases, an ability or skill boost. Pathway constellations however come with a Tier number that goes from one to four. We had records of a few paths up to Tier three, but anything above that is priceless and unattainable. It would mean…”

“So we have the extreme deeds, the potions and the constellations done. What’s the fourth one?” Khan cut into Fabien’s lengthy monologue.

“Natural and acquired treasures,” Regis answered. “There’s a one in a thousand chance that when you kill an enemy, one of their attributes coalescence into an orb that you can absorb to increase your own. Similarly, there are natural treasures out there that can outright increase an attribute if you consume them. Corpse sacrifice can get you arcana, fortitude and vigour shards that increase your three main stats. Greater corpse sacrifice should theoretically have the chance to get you an attribute orb, though I’ve only read about it.”

“Corpse sacrifices?” Amanda looked at the young dark elf with a slight disgust.

“Oh, don’t make face like that,” Valerie chuckled as she saw Amanda’s expression. “It’s not a big deal. It’s a simple ritual that allows you to sell the useful essences of a corpse to otherworldly beings for a relatively fair price. You do have to decide what’s more important for you though. If you harvest the Amaranth from the corpse before sacrificing it, you’ll get less for it in return. I know it sounds weird and all, but you’ve got to make the most out of the enemies you kill. It’s survival of the fittest after all.”

“Ugh.” Sophie belched in the background at the thought of some profane ritual that desecrated her already down on their luck enemies.

“It might sound bad at first, but trust me on this one. The sooner you accept it and start to use it, the better. The shards you get from it can increase your chances of survival out there. Also, try not to do it in front of crowds, or you’ll get up in a heap of trouble.” Valerie patted Sophie’s shoulder before hurrying along towards the west gate.

“Well,” Regis sighed. “That’s about it. Do you have any other questions?”

“Just one,” Khan kept fiddling with his new weapons. “What’s to stop me from creating all seven of the pathway constellations? You know, to get the attribute point increases?”

“That’s actually a valid strategy,” Fabien nodded in agreement. “Of course, some of the paths have a minimum requirement like legacies do. For example, you’d need at least twelve points in your faith attribute before being able to create the noviciate constellation. The same goes for neophyte, but with twelve points in spirit. That means, you’d have to somehow raise certain attributes higher before being able to form all pathways. After that though, you’d get soft-locked.”

“What? Why?” The Mongol youth looked at him with his eyebrows raised.

“Because walking down on seven different paths is damn near impossible, especially if you get classes that clash with each other or downright lock you out from one another. Look at Val for example. She needed both the neophyte and the noviciate pathways for starting her journey, but if she becomes an official blood magic warlock through a class, that will lock her out of faith the based pathway for good. A lot of the good classes are simply incompatible with each other, so even if you manage to get all seven of the tier one constellations, you’ll likely lock yourself out from their tier two follow-ups.”

“Shit,” Khan cursed. “So much about attribute spamming.”

“The Hearth isn’t an idiot,” Regis sighed as he watched his fellow’s depressed face. “If anyone could become all powerful through such a simple loop in the system as attribute spamming, there would be constant battles between wannabe gods and whatnot. Don’t worry though; there’s plenty of ways for us out there to get strong.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Khan waved dismissively as the group walked along the cobblestone road.

“Regis!” A familiar voice called out to the elven youth from the direction of the gate as Norma waved the group closer.

“I’m glad to see you lot are still willing to join us.”

“Where else would we be? I’m sure you know what’s at stake here.”

“I do,” the guardswoman looked at the crowd of mercenaries and desperate refugees spreading outside the gates. “I can’t believe Verner would do this. We do need the reinforcements, but letting such a large rabble of desperate and untrained villagers out there is almost the same as slitting their throats.”

“It’s much worse than that,” Grego stepped closer to shook hands with the outlanders. “At least you lot know how to fight and take simple orders. This herd of fools will be more trouble than their worth. There have already been fights about who stands where. They think that having a weapon would be all they need to kill the fallen. Most of them will turn to stone the moment an enemy gets close to them and they’ll die like flies.”

“Where will be stationed tonight?” Regis tried to shake the guard captain out of his grim speech.

“We’ll be fighting in the same area as we did in the past days. It’s a good hundred meters from the gate. I’d say that’s neither too close nor too far. Did you younglings get some rest? It will be a long night.”

“Aren’t they all long nowadays?” Fabien shook his head sarcastically as they followed the guards towards the left side of the gate.

As the group walked along the ramparts, dozens of familiar faces greeted them, but at least half of the defenders were new people that gathered in small groups. Regis couldn’t help noticing several youths that barely looked fourteen. They’ve reminded the dark elf of his first night outside Hunor’s walls. He must have looked just as frightened and maybe even younger. He raised his voice as he looked at the group of boys and girls with their clubs and damaged bronze swords.

“Stick close to the ramparts and be ready to climb or run. Aim for their knees and bash in their heads once they fall on the ground.”

The youths looked at him with their mouths slightly ajar as he nodded at them and turned back towards his own group.

“Who would have thought,” Amanda chuckled. “Our grumpy wizard can actually care about others.”

“I’m not grumpy. I’m morose. That’s different. Also; I just gave them a simple advice.”

“True,” Quentin patted him on the shoulder. “But sometimes, even a simple advice is enough to save lives.”

“Enough with the cheesy talk,” Khan shrugged frustrated. “We’re here and the sun is down. Those bastards will be at our neck any minute now.”

“Just kill them as they come!” Grego ordered with a smirk as his guards made sure that everyone’s gear was in order.

“Is there still some space here for volunteers?” A familiar androgynous voice made the young dark elf turn back towards the gates.

“Who are you?” Grego looked at the source of the voice as a pair of familiar figures came into Regis’ view.

“My name is Osmond and this is Cruz and Letty. The roguish fellow over there is Aspen.”

It was indeed the pale skinned youth and the staff wielding elven girl Regis met before, but his eyes left the two and got stuck on the unfamiliar figure on their right. The new girl seemed to be a shy one as she half hid behind Cruz. ‘Hauntingly beautiful.’ That was the first thought Regis had when he looked at the elven girl that bore an uncanny resemblance to Cruz, except for the difference in hair colour.

Letty had a pure white hair and a lighter shade of honey brown eyes. Her face seemed to be softer and she lacked the obvious muscle packs that the other elf donned. She was staring at the group with a questioning gaze as Grego and the rest of the guards sized them up. Aspen on the other hand looked like a cosplayer trying their hardest to assume the rogues’ stereotypical looks. He wore dark leather armour with a black cloak and a shawl that hid most of his face. ‘Edgelord alert.’ Regis thought as he saw the dagger wielding fellow.

“Why do you want to join our troop? There are plenty of groups here that would welcome a few extra hands.” The guard captain asked with an obvious authority and suspicion in his tone.

“I’m an apprentice spell weaver myself,” Osmond said. “I figured that since you’ already let Regis join your group, you’re not against our kind. Most people would tell us to go and hang ourselves on the nearest tree, or they’d attack us the moment we let loose a single spell.”

“You know him?” Grego turned towards the young dark elf with a questioning gaze.

“We’ve met during the day when I’ve left Hunor to get some target practice with my new spells. He’s a shadow element wizard. I don’t know what the other two can do, since I’ve only met the brown haired girl and she only smacked one rat in the head while I was there.”

“I’m a monk.”

“More like a brawler.” Osmond corrected Cruz and Letty couldn’t stifle a slight chuckle.

“Brawlers are raging idiots. I’m disciplined.”

“Sure,” The pale youth shook his head. “As long as it makes you swing in the right direction.”

“I’m aiming to be a druid,” Letty spoke up for the first time. “I don’t have many spells yet, but I can stick to support role.”

“So we have a dark spell weaver that might turn insane at any moment due to the corruption brought along by the fallen, a fighter who obviously can’t hold her temper and a girl meeker than a sparrow. That pickpocket over there is an obvious troublemaker just from looking at him. You sure are a sorry lot. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t chain you to the wall and send for the church to get you judged?”

“I can give you a dozen,” Osmond smiled as he stood in place. “The 1st would be that I’ve been fighting near the west gate these past nights and none of the priests had found any corruption the mornings after. My 2nd and more relevant reason is that I’m an outlander and also a natural shadow touched. You need fire to fight fire and I’m as close as you can get to that. Cruz over here might seem temperamental, but the moment you point her at an enemy, her soul will become as still as the Dead Sea. Letty might be a bit meek, but her crowd control magic would definitely come in handy when things get hairy. As for Aspen; he’s very efficient in stabbing things at the right places. Do you still intend to chain me to the wall, or are willing to let us stay?”

“Fine,” Grego relented as he looked at the unlikely quartet. “You can stay, but if any of you endanger my…”

“We won’t,” Cruz stopped him. “Now get ready!”

The guard captain wanted to reprimand the elven girl for her quick tongue, but the finger Cruz pointed towards the first appearing undead and the sound of the horns made him swallow his words.