Experience Gained:

Jason was coming to. He was still on the ground and the elf was once more sitting in front of him in a meditative pose controlling or feeling the forest. Jason remembered how he ended up on the ground. He remembered starting the fight, deciding to attack the elf, and then he remembered the music. Oh the beautiful music.

As for the actual fight. Jason remembered bits and pieces of it. He remembered recklessly charging forth trusting in his luck, he remembered the elf sending daggers and branches shooting towards him at various angles. He even slightly remembered the very end where she was done but he wasn’t. The general idea of how the fight went was there but all the specific details were missing,

Groaning Jason rolled to a sitting position and sat there across from the elf. He didn’t say anything yet just sat there and closed his eyes listening to the wind and trees. Trying to find a glimpse of the music. He found nothing. He sighed and resigned himself to just feeling the wind and sun on his body.

He stripped off his wolf jacket and let the summer sun warm his upper body. He felt slightly jealous of plants being able to grow just by sitting there and letting the sun bathe them in its warmth.

“You’re up.” The elf said opening her eyes and staring at Jason. She didn’t look angry or disgusted by his last attacks when she thought the fight over.

“I am. Sorry about the last attacks there. I didn’t have full control.” The elf continued looking at him and then after a while nodded her head.

“We could tell. Battle lust is an interesting condition for someone to have whose stats aren’t battle oriented.”

“How did you kn--”

“We just fought did we not? It was easily seen when we exchanged blows. You rely on skills more than stats which is interesting. We noticed also that life tends to feed you opportunities for survival. You have a vast amount of points in Luck.” The elf quickly explained herself. Jason once more had to pause and think about what she was saying. Not because it was anything complicated to think about, but because Common was not his first language.

“I see… well I guess it doesn’t really matter right now as long as you don’t know the exact numbers in what. You said you would have some pointers for me after the fight? To help with my entrance exam.” Jason resigned himself to his fate of never being able to hide his Luck from anyone.Instead he put energy into trying to better himself.

“We have no advice for you. We had assumed you were building a Relentless, Turtle, or Regenerator build. We had no clue you were a Blessed One. We have no advice to give you. Except remember that Luck isn’t absolute. We’ve seen men with Luck stats of 200 fall to blades and arrows that found their mark. Luck isn’t going to save you every time. It’s a roll of the dice. You never know which side of fate that you will end up.” That’s what makes it exciting. Jason was frankly starting to get addicted to the feeling of the Luck stat. The constant good things outside of battle and then the stress and thrill of risking wounds in the slight hope that the blow will be miraculously turned aside.

“Thank you ma’am. How long was I out for.” Although Jason had gotten no advice from her that was worth anything he still felt that fighting the elf was worth his time. The music that he felt during the fight was beautiful. It felt like there was more to it as well. The broken and incomplete symphony he felt inside himself had to have some reason right? It felt like a vast secret that Jason had to unravel.

“We have already made it so you passed. All we did was tell the examiner that we fought you ourselves and that you deserve to be here. All you are required to do is receive your guild armour, clothes, and guild plate. To mark you as one of us. We have also decided to give you a gift you sorely need.” From nowhere the elf summoned a necklace. Another spatial pouch I see. This necklace was silver and on the small silver oval pendant it had was the guild insignia blazened in red. The elf reached across the gap and held the necklace by the chain letting the actual pendant fall towards the ground. Jason put his hand underneath the pendant and the elf gave it to him. Jason inspected the item.

Skill Sealer (Type: Necklace)

Seal Completely seals one skill active or passive that the wearer chooses Can unseal and reseal at any time Reduce Reduces the strength of all skills by 25%, 50%, or 75% depending on the wearers desire Can change the reduction strength or cancel it at any time

“We give this so you can stop reducing everyone’s Luck to the negative. Many deaths would have been caused if you decided to stay in the city proper. Here the people have leveled enough that they can deal with bad luck.” Jason looked embarrassed and horrified at the same time. Embarrassed because he realized how troublesome he was just to have around and horrified because he never considered how completely systemless people would be affected by his aura. They would probably literally be hit by bricks falling from the sky.

“Thank you for this. Baghric was going to get me one but he got distracted by meeting his party members after so long.”

“Yes, that dwarf is one to get distracted easily. If you have any questions We can answer them.” The elf was still sitting there, eyes closed. Does she move? Go to the restroom? Eat? What the hell is she doing? Jason had been wondering that for a while and so he took this opportunity to ask what it was exactly that she was doing.

“We’re controlling the roots of the trees. It’s one thing to control what you can see, but quite another to control that which you cannot. We have to feel the pathways using nothing but our magic.” Jason considered what she said. It made complete sense in his opinion at least. It’s always easier to do something when you could actually see what you are doing. Otherwise it does indeed become a little bit harder.

“Alright well how exactly do I form a party?” Baghric had always been very vague on this answer so Jason decided to get a much more useful source of information to tell him exactly what paperwork needed to be done.

“Grab people you want to party with, then go to the receptionist with them. Give a party name and show your guild plates. That’s all” So literally the same as any game ever. Go to Adventurer’s Guild Receptionist show proof of being part of the guild and then say you want to party with the people you’re with. Glad everything is still so easy to understand. Jason was completely satisfied with how this day had gone. Day?

“Come to think of it ma’am you never did tell me how long I was out for.” The elf waved her hand lazily.

“The sun barely moved from the center of the sky.” Great A sun user not a clock user. If there was one thing I liked about Baghric is that he really did like hard and sure times. None of this wishy washy nonsense. Jason had many many more questions about the guild. Which the elf admirably answered to the best of her abilities. Most of it was just general information.

Basic income, how we got quests, were they paid on a salary or a by quest basis? The last one was on a by quest basis which didn’t surprise Jason at all. Where do most people stay? There weren’t enough rooms in the guild itself so most either stayed in the city or outside city walls doing quests. What is the average level? Many more basic questions were answered by the elf.

The elf for her part was getting annoyed. Not once had he asked her about herself. He was too focused on the guild and stuff most people didn’t even consider. He hadn’t even asked him for her name or what she was within the guild. We see that he doesn’t even have basic manners.

At the end of the lightning quick Q&A session Jason got up and slipped on the necklace.

Would you like to seal a Skill or reduce all Skills

Jason mentally told the necklace he wanted it to seal a skill.

Choose a Skill

Wooden Fists [X], Stone Fists [X], Iron Fists [X], Wooden Bones [X], Wooden Muscles [X], Wooden Skin [X], Fast-Twitch Nerves [X], Primitive Runic Skin [X], Stone Bones [X], Stone Muscles [X], Stone Skin [X], Instant-Twitch Nerves [X], Iron Bones [X], Iron Muscles [X], Iron Skin [X], Automatic-Reflex Nerves [IX] (4010 / 29600), Lodenstone of Chance [X], Well of Fortune [X], Unnatural Endurance [IX] (1026 / 7400), Unnatural Speed [IX] (812 / 7400), Unnatural Flexibility [X], Unnatural Awareness [VII] (2970 / 4400), Unnatural Leap [VI] (220 / 3200), Unnatural Grip [IV] (1210 / 1400), Eyes of Inspection [X], Aura of Misfortune [X], Luck of the Draw I [X], Luck Would Have It I [I] (0 / 1600)

The next screen was simply a list of all the skills he had and their rank and current experience. Once again mentally choosing Aura of Misfortune another screen was brought up.

Are you sure you want to seal Aura of Misfortune [X]?

Jason idly wondered if whoever made this necklace programmed that in or if it was just the magic somehow doing it’s thing and adding in a security check. Once Jason chose yes again the screen went black. Then going back to his stats screen he saw that everything was the exact same except for the fact that Aura of Misfortune was now greyed out.

“Well ma’am I think I’m going to go find Baghric now. Thank you for everything and I have two more questions for you. These are the most important so I saved them for last. What’s the name of this guild? Baghric refused to tell me until we got there. What’s your name?” Jason had really only meant to ask the first one, but halfway though he realized that he hadn’t even asked for her name.

“Thank you. Our name is Valencia. We lecture on how to control nature and we are the guild master. Welcome to our guild, The Outcasts’ Resort.” Valencia was too preoccupied with her training to notice that Jason’s face was getting contorted.

Of course Baghric didn’t tell me. He knew I would’ve complained to the moon and back to him. God damn. Outcasts’ Resort. That asshole. Also guild MASTER?! She was the goddamn master of the guild and I fought her. I have no doubt that she was using a skill sealer to reduce all her skills by a lot, but I’m less worried about me damaging her physically and more worried about her reducing me to plant fertilizer because she wasn’t careful enough. With chaotic thoughts like these Jason made his way through the hellstorm of a sparring ground once more and into the main bar of the guild hall. I’ll just wait here for Baghric and complain to him for a bit. Then it’s off to find me a proper party to team with.