Chapter 10: Unexpected, Mistakes, and Yet Progress

“The races Siw-...the lumberer told us were 6 in total.” Despite Shadow’s momentary hesitation, she continued not slowing her voice.

“As he said Birdfolk are found mainly in villages around Dockern, Kobolds are normally found deep in a volcanic mountain called Swornhelm… Apparently, it’s to the North-East, further than the map he sketched for us reached.”

Trying to keep her mind off the time-limit Waynev let her curiosity free. “Why are there kobolds here then?”

“Since we didn’t ask him we don’t know anything for sure but… I’m pretty certain that their escaped slaves” Shadow observations seemed to be right, Waynev remembered Siw-No the lumberer that Kobolds were made slaves due to their nature but… how?

“Skeletons, man, remember when he told us about the ‘undead’. “ Shadow giggled, getting a small huff out of Waynev.

In this world ‘skeletons’ weren’t made of bones, nor were they ever people, humans or any other race.

Skeletons were made of iron and steel, despite their name they didn’t look like our bones. Their limbs are apparently thin like ours but their faces and bodies were made up of spinning wheels and other parts that the lumberer couldn’t describe.

Robots? Robots.

Was Waynev’s take on it Shadow on the other hand, “Wayne I’m thinking Golems or automatons that function through magic, robots with intelligence wouldn’t make sense.” Shadow flabbergasted that Waynev still didn’t get that.

“Fine. Fine” Not in the mood for any kind of conflict Waynev easily gave in.

“Please tell me more about skeletons”

“Well, that’s all there is… He didn’t know much about them, Wulfr- his kid hasn’t even seen one!” Shadow’s voice sounded slightly exasperated.

Getting only silence from Waynev, Shadow took the hint and continued.

“Dragonkin and serpentfolk.” This put Waynev out of her mood.

“As in living dragons and snake people.” Her jaw and eyes widened slightly.

“That is one of the reasons why I wanted to fact check with Ciet, apparently the dragonkin claim that they were the dragon’s servants, thousands of years ago. While the serpentkin look similar to the dragons they have problems with keeping warm and generally stay near the beaches in Dockern.”

While Shadow explained her speculations on how the serpentkin came to Temporous Waynev remembered the ball of fire, the spark of magic that even Siward and Wulf couldn’t replicate. That was real power.

Closing her eyes she stopped walking and could feel the fire on her face but as she opened her eyes only the sun shining on her face gave any memberance of her recent brush with death.

That and the passion that was building within.

“Shadow.” Waynev’s footsteps began again, but her pace doubled.

“Imagine being able to use that kind of power, to have enough literal firepower to destroy a forest.” Her eyes blazing and Shadow’s surprise hidden, she continued.

“If that’s how strong [Hollowed] Rank 3 is… How strong are the [Forlorn]?” Chest feeling alight with a fiery passion surpassing even the flames she witnessed.

“We… could easily stop Ciet. The Old Wolf… Thomas before he even had the chance to act.” Shadow’s metaphorical eyes glowed with the same veracity that Waynev’s portrayed.

“That artefact that saw Ciet use as well or the one that Siward and Wulfrun used on their carriage. If we could make them for ourselves… we could bring a technological revolution! We could… make better food, roads, transportation, clothes.”

As Waynev got lost in her fantasies Shadow nearly followed but realised that their progress on the road had slowed to a snail’s pace.

As she was about to snap her out of it, Waynev concluded.

“And we could add electricity and… No, before we do anything like this we need to stop the inevitable. We need to become strong, then we can go big.”

“Actually. We could do both.”

“But for now we do need to prioritise the quest, we're running out of time.” Shadow moved away from the power-hungry conversation.

“We have… a lot to do in town. Also, the contract-” Waynev looked down at her wrist.

“I’m not sure if this is going to be enough to pass through, it worked for Siward and Wulf but Ciet wasn’t even fazed by my ‘contract’.”

“Mmm… There is something I’ve been thinking about in regards to that actually-” Her neutral tone turned to devilish soothes and instruction, their plans grew in scale.

“I hate how I’m not progressing in my stats fast enough.”

“Wayne people take years to reach ranks! Remember Siward?” Shadow stopped trying to skirt around the fresh wound.

“He was almost rank two, I’m pretty sure he was at least late twenties. We're not even 18 yet, do you think we can become [Hollowed] before him?”

A welling came up from Waynev.

“Yes. I do. I know we will.” The fire lit, the way shown. .

“If I don’t become [Hollowed] Rank 3, close to [Forlorn]. Close to real magic, how can I save Elise?”

The question turned out to be rhetorical. “It will happen. Shadow are you doubting we can do this?”

Silence.

“I don’t… not until we explore Aestern and see what our chances are, besides it’s not as if Siward put his all into ranking. He has a job and a family! We can easily pass him.”

“When we get to the village the first thing we do need to do though is getting a contract crystal… I hope having it in me doesn’t hurt.” Peering at her wrist, still walking and making progress closer to Aestern.

“We didn’t ask about books but I wonder, surely a world filled with ranks would have books. Though they would be expensive, maybe we could get a damaged one with advancement techniques in it.”

“Did our stats improve?” Saying the magical words her Status screen popped up again.

Current Status: ([Uncontracted] Rank)

Agility:

1.35 → 1.4AH

Strength:

1 → 1.25AH

Vitality:

1.2 → 1.3AH

Wisdom:

1.65 → 1.7AH

Mana:

(Locked)

Sighing she waved the screen away, recently her stats began slowing… her diet and exercises hadn’t changed, maybe a more intensive routine was needed? Or more likely a-

“Advancement Technique, when we get to Aestern we need to find one or a few, maybe more techniques the better? Or some are better than others, hmm.” Descending into thought again, Waynev finally made her way to a wide path.

Made for large vehicles, hopefully, common in the city.

Waynev began making her way closer and closer to her target, large red and blue stained walls came up in the distance, both sides equipped with watchtowers and impressive looking symbols carved into the walls.

Even looking at the symbols from a distance gave her a slight headache, looking away from the walls she saw the guards and dozens of people lining up waiting to enter, most were walking past the guards with a simple wave.

All around Waynev people were in pairs of twos or threes, with the occasional loner and his cart.

Talking about the costs of grain, new imports from Swornhelm and a festival that was coming up soon.

Paying attention to the people around her, she began checking out some of their stats.

???’s Status:

Agility:

1?AH

Strength:

1?AH

Vitality:

14AH

Wisdom:

?AH

Mana:

(Locked)

???’s Status:

Agility:

13.5AH

Strength:

1?AH

Vitality:

1?AH

Wisdom:

5.4AH

Mana:

(Locked)

???’s Status:

Agility:

1?AH

Strength:

14.8AH

Vitality:

1?AH

Wisdom:

3.2AH

Mana:

(Locked)

They all looked to be around [Hollowed] Rank 1 or 2, as it stands she couldn’t see anyone with stats as low as hers.

“This looks worse than I expected, stick to the crowd. Stick to the sheeple. Blend in but never forget we’re not like them. We have a purpose.” Shadow’s voice back to a whisper in her head, letting Waynev focus on her surroundings.

“The quest, I’ve seen other races but perhaps it means more than just seeing. When we’re in the city let’s see if we can talk to a shopkeeper or if it comes to it some rando.”

Slowly moving up through the line, people lined up behind her, eyeing her clothes but generally giving her a wide berth, unlike the people around her whose clothes were tinted dark red to light red or dark blue to light blue her clothes were brown.

Muddied, sullied, it seems like the fashion here was red and blue… same as the walls.

“It could be the country's colours? Before flags, I think in medieval times they used colours to mark their territories, add your clothes to the list of things we need to adapt.” Her observations either on point or speculation, either way fitting in with the crowd sooner rather than later seemed to be good, considering she was a ‘brute’ or ‘barbarian’ as Siward called it.

Waynev also began noticing through the long clothes and deceitful hats that lots of the ‘humans’ around her were in fact… Serpents? dragonkin? She also saw a few feather and crystal here and there but the sight and realisation froze her.

She was [Uncontracted], she was one of the only humans here and she was alone.

Her watch served as cover but would it fool the guards?

She needed a plan.

Getting closer to the front of the line, the person in front of her who was also a loner pulled their carriage through waving at the guard, their crystal shining with the guard nodding for them to pass through.

Walking to the guards she smiled and went to wave her watch at them, clicking a small button to make the LED light up as her hand went up. The guards' eyes locked to the device, then at each other.

“Miss we haven’t seen that type of crystal contract before… were going to need our specialist to verify your contract.” Two more guards came from the side.

“Shit. Plan B then Wayne.” Shadow’s voice

“Sure, lead the way. I’m from the mountains so our contracts are a bit different.” Smiling and acting calm she was escorted from the checkpoint, deeper into the city and into a building next to what looked like the barracks.

The city was massive, the air cleaner than any city she’d ever been to.

She noticed the road she walked on was similar to cement but with bigger rocks and more pebbles, like how the Romans used to create their roads she thought, maybe this world was more advanced than she first thought.

Looking down the street at the shops, instead of ones from Earth however they all seemed more enclosed, none of them had a large clear window showcasing their wares. Instead, they had small windows from the sides and door’s wide open, with signs above each store.

She guessed that the buildings without signs were houses or apartments.

Quest:

Find Aestern.

Reach the city before nightfall. Meet two races other than humans. (1/2)

Consequence:

Elise will not live to see you succeed.

Time Limit:

Zero days, 4 hours, 21 minutes remaining.

Plenty of time to meet one of the scalier inhabitants, and hopefully make a lasting friend or-

“WAYNE.” Shadow shouted Waynev snapped out of her stares and thoughts.

“Jesus,” She whispered back angrily.

“I know we’re in trouble but I’m trying to stay calm, what’s the problem?” Annoyed at the stares she was garnering from the escort Waynev’s patience was fading.

“We’re getting ‘escorted’ to a ‘specialist’, what do you think’s going to happen?” Shadow’s voice began to rise.

“What if they enslave us, hmm? Or throw us in jail because we were lying about our contract, we have no allies, nothing. We have our wits. Our cunning. Our minds.”

“I’ve also scanned the guards already, want to guess their stats?” Shadow’s sarcastic voice stopped, waiting for Waynev to check as the guards were beelining to one building.

Guard’s Status:

Agility:

??AH

Strength:

??AH

Vitality:

??AH

Wisdom:

1?AH

Mana:

(Locked)

Guard’s Status:

Agility:

1?AH

Strength:

??AH

Vitality:

1?AH

Wisdom:

??AH

Mana:

(Locked)

Trying to read the stats to the two guards in front of her proved fruitless.

She was out of time.