Chapter 33

One Thousand

We amassed quite the inventory and coin. Our loot had been evenly split, and we earned a generous amount of coin. I was able to afford higher quality clothes that were lighter, warmer, and offered more armor.

Pelle and I often paired up for dungeon runs and quests for the rest of the season. Arris sometimes accompanied us. We had to deal with unsavory party members every once in a while, but we were more prepared to handle them then ever before.

Training went well, although we didn’t run into any legendary items since the dungeon chain. I fell into a routine at Magic & Lance. There didn’t seem to be many moments where I wasn’t busy. The times I did have a few moments to myself, I dove into as much literature as I could. I spent a few hours every day cultivating my mana pool.

By the third year at the guild, I’d amassed around 234,000 mana points.

“So,” Pelle said, “Are you excited?”

We met up at the healer’s lodge and decided to go to the trading post for some creamed ale, bread and soup to celebrate. My flagstaff was at level 999 and I was about to add another article which would bring it to level 1000.

“I am,” I said.

“Are you?” Pelle said. “You seem preoccupied.”

“This is our last month at Magic & Lance. I honestly have no idea what’s next.”

"Adventure," said Pelle.

We passed by the ancienne’s lodge. Spring brought warm weather. Hedges were writhing and growing extraordinarily fast. Everything that grew around the ancienne’s lodge grew in a single hour to full maturity. In the next hour, they either died or slowly expanded, and the process began all over again. It had become a source of wonder and entertainment for most of the students, and we navigated between groups of students.

“Yea,” I said, “but there’s more I want to do than just adventure.”

“You still want to get to a holy plane and create your legendary well,” Pelle said.

“Yea.”

“Have you settled on who you’re going to approach first? Is it still Vicen?”

“Yea. Vicen.”

“Don’t you need to seal a legendary dungeon first?”

“There’s a few things I need to do. That’s one of them.”

“Why Vicen?”

We rounded the warrior’s lodge. The trading post was in our sights at the base of a hill across the guild. There weren’t a lot of students since it was the weekend and most had gone out dungeon diving. A figure waved in our direction by the entrance of the trading post. Pelle returned the wave and I squinted to see who it was.

“Arris,” she said.

“Oh that’s awesome. He was on the fence about taking a day off right?”

“He wanted to celebrate with us.”

We passed by a trellis wall overflowing with creeping vines and trumpet flowers. Hummingbirds threaded through the vines and their needle beaks entered flowers.

“So, why Vicen?” Pelle said.

“Vicen. Right. Well he has the least demanding requirements to access the plane. The only thing I”m worried about is my flagstaff. I’ve got many articles that aren’t specific to the healer class. Ghospo—for example—is a goddess of cure poison.”

“That sounds like something a healer should be able to do,” Pelle said.

“Yea. Obviously, right? Well things aren’t so simple when it comes to classes, as we’ve learned. Most of these deities and divines require such a strict devotion to the healer class. Ghospo herself is not a healer. I don’t think she has a class. I think she’s her own thing.”

“Wait. So, even though Ghospo can cure poison, Vicen won’t let you enter his holy plane because she’s not a healer.”

“Exactly.”

“That’s so dumb.”

“Yeap. The more I read about holy planes, gods, divines and deities, the more I’m finding out how they see the world. There is a lot of pride and prejudice among higher powers. Purity is very important to them.”

“Hmnh,” Pelle said.

“Think about it. Some of these higher beings created these classes. They’re very protective with what their classes will allow or not. That’s why it’s so important to stick to a class. It really matters when you start to deal with legendary adventurers and higher powers.”

“Well there’s a bunch of other higher power healers right?”

“Yea, so that’s another matter. Alliances. That’s the part I’m having trouble with.”

“Why’s that?”

“Vicen isn’t allied with any higher power healers. He’s the only one.”

We arrived at the guild post and Arris greeted us warmly. Of our little group, he’d gone through the biggest transformation over the years. He tripled in mass, with huge bulging muscles. His chest had expanded like wings. His arms were as thick as his neck. A long scar ran from behind his eye down to his jaw line. Instead of healing, it scabbed over with bark. I had to be honest with myself—his scar was horrific.

“Good to see you guys,” Arris said. “It’s been a few weeks.”

“Yea, you know, busy,” Pelle said.

“Isn’t that the truth. So we’re celebrating your first item to reach level one thousand, right Tosin? How does it feel?”

“I haven’t leveled it just yet. I thought I’d wait until we were all together.”

“Excellent,” Arris said. “Let’s grab some food and ale first.”

We ended up getting a couple pitchers of creamed ale and three tankards. We shared a basket of sprouted rye bread and huge bowls of noodle soup.

“Before we celebrate,” Arris said, “I wanted to introduce you guys to Tangpi.”

Arris clicked his tongue. A small, bright, venomous looking spider crawled up from the pocket of his cloak hood. It posed upon his shoulder. It was the size of a coin purse and could easily fit in my palm.

“This is Tangpi. He is a Golden Bluefoot. We became friends last full moon when I entered the Daeder Oak. He’s super curious, but timid for the time being.”

“Looks deadly,” Pelle said.

“I was just thinking that,” I said.

“He will be quite venomous,” Arris said. “His bite isn’t lethal quite yet, but as he grows and evolves, he’ll become lethal. For now, hiis bite stings and makes you go numb.” Arris sighed wearily. “We’re still getting to know each other, and I’ve been bitten several times already.”

“That can’t be good,” Pelle said.

“Actually it is,” Arris said. “It’s to be expected and encouraged because it helps me become more immune and resilient to. It’s just hard sometimes. I couldn’t talk yesterday after he bit my cheek. You want to hold him, Pelle?”

“Erm, no,” Pelle said.

“How about we toast to higher levels!” Arris said then, lifting his tankard of creamed ale high above the table. We toasted and each took a mighty swig.

“Alright,” I said. “Here goes.”

I brought out a blue elongated flask that hung from thick twine. The rope was tied around the neck of the bottle. The twine had a collection of bone beads right above the neck. I held it out for Pelle and Arris to see.

“Shintur Mana Bottle,” I said. “Level one. One durability. Distributes mana to every teammate in my party. Once I level up its capacity, and speed of effect, I’ll be able to replenish everyone’s mana quicker than anything else I’ve run into.”

Arris and Pelle fawned over the item. It was currently empty and they replaced the corck before handing it back to me.

“So this is it?” Pelle said. “Once you add that to your flagstaff, the whole thing is at level one thousand?”

“Yup. Here goes.”

I had one of my Spectre Sentinels hold the flagstaff as I stood on my chair and sifted through the hundred items on my flagstaff. There were tons of ribbons, flags, banners, chains, and a multitude of artifacts. Every flag arm had a dozen items. I had one left. One that I was saving for my Shintur Mana Bottle.

I threaded the twine through the grommet of the flag arm and tied it off in a loop. Then I put the bottle through the loop and let it hang. After casting my mana bar out wide and dropping my flagstaff in the middle, dozen of circles of gold brackets appeared above each item. It was my very first item to reach level one thousand.

My heart felt full. I felt accomplished. We celebrated with ale, rosey cheeks, drunk eyes, and enough food to put us to sleep for a week. Pelle and Arris meant a lot to me. After Pelle and I dragged ourselves through the guild to our lodge, I wondered if we’d keep in touch after the summer when our training at the guild came to an end.