Chapter 6: Champion Road Part III

***

Deedee

Deedee had been amazed by Tobi from the moment they met. Or rather, the moment he stared at her invisible form and said hello.

Whilst it had been shocking, it had also been exciting and interesting. Nobody had ever just looked at her and said hello as if she wasn't even invisible. She had created the spell herself and it was her greatest achievement.

Many had names for her spell and the type of magic she used, but she didn't care for any of that. Concealment magic, Invisibility magic, Camouflage spell, Deception magic; pah! What do they know anyway?

Then along came Tobi who saw through it within a moment. It was partly that reason she hadn't jumped straight into the lessons like usual. She wanted to know more about him. She wanted to know what it was he carried, how he spotted her, why her husband immediately got out of his costume, why her husband had jumped backward into the room and not teleported to her like usual. It was all so mysterious and he just screamed the word 'exciting' every time she looked at him.

Well - there had been a few occassions where that wasn't true, but that didn't come until later.

When they'd been about to flee the city, she'd stood back and waited for Tobi to do his Lions Roar. After clearing his throat, she expected him to cast it instantly. Fortunately he didn't have to do it at all because a door across the street had suddenly blown up!

That's what she thought at the time anyway. As she dragged him off as fast as she could manage through the woods, he suddenly stopped. He wasn't strong enough to resist her (which amused her) but she stopped to ask what the big idea was.

Making sense of his babble at that point was impossible. Diary this, Diary that, nearly died, life on the line, chest and home. Who the hell would understand that kind of babble?

With their destination east toward Gilleous and then south toward Cohol, she was stunned to see him suddenly turn west and start walking beside the town wall. Guards walking the wall were lax but not incompetent. Even a wild beast could cause heavy civilian damage if it was a high enough level so they kept their vigil at almost all times.

"We're not allowed to travel this close to the city wall." She advised him.

He hadn't replied and seemed to be counting his footsteps along the western wall. After reaching the distance he seemed to want, he asked her to keep an eye out. Whatever that meant.

She agreed and waited, not taking her eyes off him for a moment.

"Don't know if this will work, but worth a try...right?"

Deedee didn't reply. She didn't even know what he was about to do.

Stroking his finger along the mortar between the bricks, he suddenly began to whistle. She didn't know the tune but it was kind of catchy. Whatever he expected to happen didn't and he started to rub his foreheard. It was a habit he had when thinking, she'd picked it up during the games of chess the day before.

Leaning right up close to the brick, he began to whistle again. This time he appeared to blow on the wall directly as he whistled.

After a moments pause, he began to celebrate before repeating the process with renewed vigour.

She didn't know what was happening at first but it soon became obvious. He was blowing the mortar from around the brick clean out of the wall!

After pulling the first brick out, he dropped to the floor exhausted and sweating. All the running, walking and doing whatever that whistling was had drained him. She couldn't blame him either. Hadn't he told her just that morning how he'd not slept the night before. She didn't get much sleep her self but he had spent the whole night making a chess set for Galven and herself.

Feeling sorry for him, she asked what was wrong.

"I unlocked Stamina earlier, I am just wondering what the difference is between Stamina and Endurance."

Deedee blinked a few times trying to process what he just said.

"Just unlocked Stamina? Like today?"

Tobi nodded.

"What the hell have you done your entire life to only unlock Stamina today?!"

His answer was a non-commital shrug that explained nothing at all.

How do you even explain the difference? People usually just know the difference by instinct, right?

"Hmm. Simple terms, Stamina is how slow your energy drops. Endurance is how much you can endure, like pain."

"I get that, but I have been running plenty of times. I only ever gained Endurance. Why didn't I ever gain Stamina until now?"

"How am I supposed to know? I've never known someone to live to your age and not unlock all the basic stats."

Tobi had shrugged again. His constant shrugging was starting to get on her nerves. Shrugging and nodding -shrugging and nodding. He was like a child! A genius - but a child. He was either the worlds dumbest genius or, the worlds smartest idiot.

Then again, hadn't she been the same way when she was a kid? They say you tend to clash with people who are the same as yourself. You get along with your opposites. Galven was her opposite in almost every way. Both being grand mages was one of the few things they had in common. That and being irrevocably in love with each other.

As a grand mage, that meant they both knew three forms of magic. She was proficient in water, air and light magic; Galven was proficient in fire, earth and shadow. She had been a genius from birth, he was the village idiot and worked hard his whole life.

Then there was Tobi.

"I have lived a pretty sheltered life, I don't really know much about stats or why mine are so bizarre. There is much about the world I don't know, but I am more concerned with the things I don't know about myself. Like the difference between Stamina and Endurance."

Looking at the stone Tobi had whistled out of the wall, she figured it was worth the attempt to explain.

"Before Travelers came, we had all wondered which stats we were born with and what stage they were at. It was one of life's mysteries to us. Ask any child old enough to speak and they would innocently and happily tell you their stats. Without fail there would be certain stats: Attack, Health Points, Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Defense, Endurance and Stamina. Many would include others like charm, compassion and maybe even piety. Some, usually if born into the right families would include nobility and charisma. When travelers came, we learned that they started with only eight stats. We concluded that Endurance and Stamina were not one of the ones we were born with."

Ignoring Tobi as he nodded, she tried to remember what she was getting at.

Ah! Endurance and Stamina

"When Travelers gave us the information, we watched them and studied them. We kept constant communication with our mentor, Vallen. He shared his research with us and we shared ours with him. We began to realize why children would naturally have Endurance and Stamina. Whilst Stamina allowed you to do more for a longer period of time, Endurance was persevering through the pain of your muscles. Travelers would complain at first that Endurance went up and Stamina didn't. Then their tune would change. By constantly running, their Endurance would eventually stop rising and their stamina would suddenly go up by leaps and bounds. If they kept running long enough, Stamina would stop rising and their Endurance would grow again.

It was their muscles, you see? Their muscles burned and whilst they endured the pain, they got the stat. When their muscles stopped hurting enough to push through the barrier, they got stamina instead. When their stamina was too high, they would start feeling their muscles burn again. It was a very unbalanced and inefficient way to train yet many travelers did it. Our children would gain both those stats growing up as babies. How you have only just got stamina is beyond me.

Now, will you explain how you whistled a stone as large as your head out of a wall?"

"I will but it will have to wait. I need to learn something from you first because how I did that is very similar to Elven Carpentry."

Deedee narrowed her eyes. She remembered the lie about a great-grandmother or some such that had been elf. They let the lie slide, but they hadn't believed it for a second - they simply believed it was a necessary lie.

---

Deedee had later felt she was right in thinking Tobi was exciting. Watching him whistle and sometimes even sing a stone out of the wall, she asked if there was anything she could do to help. It was taking a long time and his mana pool wasn't big enough to do more than one or two rocks at a time. Her own mana pool however was easily three times the size of his. Maybe more.

After learning of her elements, he told her to direct compressed wind magic in a constant stream against the mortar in the brick. After a few moments he nodded and told her to fuse a little water magic with it. Curious, she had listened. He repeatedly told her to 'add a little more water' and watched the results. When she got it to his liking, she could see the results instantly.

"I am cutting stone!"

Tobi had laughed at that and agreed.

She was only cutting the mortar really, but it was fun just the same. In all the years she'd been studying and applying magic, it had never come up. Magic was always studied for how much damage they could do, over what size area could it cause damage, how much power could it defend against, how could it be applied in battle. Earth magic was often used for building. Water magic used for extinguishing fires. Fire magic for funeral pyres. Every magic had common uses - but this was different. This wasn't fusing water and air to create mist or fog. This was fusing water and air in a completely different way.

When at last they were getting close to making a hole in the wall, Deedee finally asked what the hell they were doing. She'd been so caught up in Tobi's pace she had simply followed his lead without thinking for herself.

"We're breaking back in. I told you. I left a diary in my chest, I have to get it back."

"I get that books are important, I am a mage after all and they are like bread to us; but is a book really worth risking your life?"

"There were two men who thought it was worth enough to kill me. Fortunately, I tricked them into taking a different book and they let me go."

Carefully cutting out a small stone that was preventing the one behind from being dug out, she asked him how he'd tricked them into taking a different book.

"Both books were written in Elven. They didn't know which one was the one they wanted. One of the men had the ability to detect lies though, so I had to get them to take the fake book without telling them a lie."

Deedee stopped cutting the mortar whilst she tried to figure out the solution. "Why didn't he just take both books?"

"Both books were his. I think he wanted to deliver one to somebody with out letting that person know he had the other book. I don't know. The story is more complicated, but it eventually came down to two books.

Technically, I didn't have to trick him into taking the wrong book but he threatened my life. For that reason alone, I wanted to foil his plan."

"So you lied to him and stole his book?"

"No, you can't lie to him remember. He can detect any lie. A gift, ability, skill or something else I am not aware of. Either way, you can't lie because he will know.

Would you have given him the book if he threatened your life?"

"I don't know. Probably. If he was strong enough to kill me I would probably do what he said. So how did you do it anyway? How did you trick him?"

"I put the diary they wanted on a table and then took it off again. I then put the second diary on the table and called the man into the room. I told him; 'I put the diary on that table.' - which was true. I had put the diary on the table. After picking up the book, he asked if it was the diary he wanted. I looked at the book and asked a question in return: 'Why is that diary so important?'. I didn't answer his question at all, but he assumed I did. He then asked if I would ever tell anyone what had happened and I said no."

"But you just told me..."

Tobi smiled and nodded, "At the time, I used his wording to tell the truth. He had said: 'will you ever tell anyone about what happened. I decided that I wouldn't 'tell' anybody; I would just write it down and let the other person read it.

How I answered was true at the time, but there was never anything preventing me from changing my mind."

Deedee considered his words for a while, "Who wrote the Diary?"

"What's to stop me from telling you the truth?" Tobi replied with a smile.

Despite the cryptic answer, she understood the meaning. He wasn't yet willing to tell her and even if he did, the truth isn't as simple as it seems.

---

When at last they'd broken through the wall, Deedee extended her hand through. She was surprised at how thin the wall actually was. With her shoulder pressed slightly into the gap, her fingertips could almost reach the other side.

"How do the men walk on these walls if they are so thin? They always looked so much thicker at the gates."

She didn't expect Tobi to answer so was surprised when he did.

"Back when this town was a city, this western wall was the weakest. That was the wall that caused the fall of the city. The wall was rebuilt some two-hundred-and-fifty years ago but not for military defense. It was simply to keep the wild at bay.

They had always intended on extending the town back to its original size and just never got around to it. The wall was never supposed to stand for this long in the first place."

"That's why you chose this wall?"

"That, and because my bakery is about a-hundred yards away from this wall."

Rolling her eyes, she asked how much longer he expected it to take. When they started their work it had been light out but it was getting dark. At this rate, they wouldn't break through until morning and it would probably be found soon after. They also needed to rest. She'd slept six hours the night before and Tobi hadn't slept at all. She didn't know about him, but she wasn't going to last much longer.

"Don't worry. The hard part is done. Ever heard the saying: 'A chain is only as strong as its weakest link'?"

Deedee shook her head, "I heard something similar when I started my mage training, but I don't remember exactly how it went."

"Watch-"

Tobi prized his fingers behind the folds of a brick and started shaking his hands back and forth.

There was no visible result at first. A few seconds later however, the large brick started to rock back-and-forth before breaking free of the mortar and falling free to the ground. He did the same to three more bricks before he started to lose his breath.

"It's easier when pushing, but can't show you that until I reach the bricks on the other side. What's your strength at?"

"You aren't supposed to ask for other peoples stats, it is bad etiquette. Only children are innocent enough-"

"-Mine is now 19." Tobi interrupted.

Dumbfounded, Deedee realized why he asked, "I will do it."

The bricks were actually very easy to get rocking. As soon as she did, it was very little effort to keep their momentum and roll them free. She had created a large enough opening to climb into the wall within minutes. Another ten minutes after that, she was pushing bricks out of the opposite side and created the tunnel in no time.

"What now?" Deedee asked as she applied water healing magic to her fingers. They weren't damaged really but they were red-raw and the beginning of blisters were showing.

---

"I can't see anything, it is too dark." Deedee complained as they took a look toward the back of his bakery.

"Really? I can see it as clear as day."

Looking at him, Deedee took a surprised step backward. "What's up with your eyes?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"They're glowing."

"Really? What colour?"

"You didn't know they did that?" She whispered back in shock, "And what difference does the colour make?"

Tobi shrugged and looked back to his bakery, "I have heard my eyes glow before, but nobody has told me directly."

Watching him, she asked what he was doing. He'd suddenly put his eyes very close to the brick wall they were stood beside.

"I am trying to see if I can get the glow from my eyes to reflect off the wall."

Is he an idiot? - "Is now really the time?"

"Guess not," he replied.

Dropping into a half crouch, he began running toward the back door of his bakery.

Bending the light of the moon a little, she quickly checked the path for unseen dangers. Letting the light fall back to where it was supposed to be, she followed after him.

They were inside his bakery before she'd even noticed him unlock the door.

As he scurried around the kitchen area grabbing plenty of food, drink and other miscellaneous items, she wandered around admiring the little ornaments he had. Some she recognized as things you could buy at the market but others looked - different.

After picking up bottle with a boat inside, she'd been about to ask how it got inside. Unfortunately, Tobi had disappeared.

Looking back at the item, there appeared to be a little inscription: For Tobi. Made this myself. A reminder of home. You will not find the item anywhere here. Your friend. Lorry.

So he isn't from Brackley? I expected as much. Wonder where he is from though.

Putting the 'boat in a bottle' back down, she crept around the building looking for Tobi. Hearing a small sound upstairs, she went up as quietly as she could manage.

She'd been about to enter the room when a hands grabbed her around the shoulder and mouth.

Panicked and ready to scream and fight, a whispered 'shh' made her pause.

Tobi?

"There is somebody in there." Tobi whispered.

"What do we do?" She whispered back.

As able as she was, she'd never faced people in real battle before. Her fights were all mock battles or against monsters. Vallen had always warned her that fighting real people in real battles were a different monster entirely.

"You have concealing magic, don't you? Turn invisible and check the situation."

"I can't use it at night. I use light magic to bend the light and make myself appear invisible. Shadow magic can hide you at night but-"

"-light magic can't." Tobi finished.

"Hey. I am the only mage in the world able to use light magic to turn invisible." She growled quietly.

"I wasn't mocking you," he hissed back, "it's just a shame is ... quiet-"

Listening to the room beyond, there didn't seem to be any sound.

"You said shadow magic can make you invisible at night?"

After a nod, Tobi advised her to create as much water as she could and cause a huge puddle in the area. "Try to fill the room too."

She did as she was told. She had a feeling of what he was trying to do but it was a common trick. For those used to facing water, there were ways to hide the sound of moving in it. Slowly dragging your feet was a common method.

"I think the room has at least a small layer of water," She told Tobi quietly as the water started to rush out from under the door faster than it went in.

"Stand back."

Moving away from Tobi, she wondered what was coming and hoped it wasn't too reckless a plan.

Looking at the door, he said the words 'sonic boom' in a casual tone.

The words weren't loud but they weren't quiet either.

The result was instant. The door wasn't quite blown off it's hinges but it folded in on itself and the majority of it was ripped apart. Little more than splinters remained where the hinges had fixed it to the door frame.

The sound of the door exploding wasn't deafening, but it was certainly enough to wake the neighbours.

It was him at the town gate? Why did he say sonic boom? Didn't he say the ability was called Lions Roar?

Before she could catch up with the situation, Tobi had bolted into the room. Spinning on the spot not far from the center, he seemed to locate what he was looking for.

"Ra~rgh!"

This time his voice was loud - but that wasn't the problem. The problem was the resounding boom that followed. Without the time to even defend herself, she was hit by the shock-wave and everything turned black.

***

Tobi

Ringing pierced his ears and stabbed all the way through to his eyes. Opening them wasn't even possible and the slightest gap in his eye lids gave nothing but blurry, flashing lights.

Falling around as he tried to pick himself up, Tobi tried everything that came to mind in order to clear his thoughts and vision. Shaking his head, using the wall to try and stand up, rubbing his eyes, rubbing his ears-

What is going on? What happened?

Finally managing to keep his eyes open enough to see a constant red light flashing, Tobi blinked several times and tried to make sense of it.

With crystal clear clarity, the flashing light came into view and made perfect sense.

Holy crap! I am almost dead!

His life bar was blinking rapidly and showing he was in a critically damaged state.

What...?!

Looking around, he seemed to be in his shop but the place was a mess and rubble was everywhere. A big portion of the roof was missing along with a giant section of the wall. The majority of the damage seemed to be upstairs but it also extended into the kitchen.

Deedee!

Remembering everything that had just happened only moments before, Tobi's flashing Health bar went out of his mind. Running back through to the kitchen and turning toward the stairs, he found her. She was lay at the bottom in a crooked position with her head bleeding.

Oh. No, no, no, no... "Deedee!"

Rushing over, he lifted her up. The moment he touched her he seen her health bar. Her bar was also flashing, but not in the same way as his. His was a blinking kind of flash which meant critical. Hers pulsed in two different shades of red which meant she was under a bleed effect. Her life was down to one third and dropping steadily.

Tobi knew that in reality she would have probably died, but this was Aevitas and there was still a chance.

Pulling her gently from the stairs, he quickly took off his shirt and applied pressure to the wound.

After trying to wake her several times, he started to panic. The health bar had already dropped to a quarter and it didn't appear to be slowing down.

The chest!

He had bandages in his chest. He'd bought them back when first opened the bakery and had never needed to use them. Leaving her head resting on his shirt, he rushed up stairs.

The damage was incredible. Remembering the two footprints stood in a small pool of water, Tobi had used almost all of his remaining mana to use Lions Roar. He didn't know what effect it would have on the unseen opponent, but he wanted it to be enough to at least stun him. After that, he hoped Deedee could deal with him. What came after that was still a blur.

His chest was on the other side of the room at the bottom of his bed. He'd been about to rush over to it when he heard a grumbling outside. A quick peek over the edge shown a large figure pulling itself out of the debris.

Caught in a moment of hesitation, he seen the figure stumble along the opposite wall and try to drag itself away.

Acknowledging that now was not the time, Tobi ran to the chest and opened it. As the owner, he didn't need to use a key or anything, it would automatically open and close at his touch. Anybody else would have to have really high lock picking skills or the ability to break the chest itself.

Opening the chest, he quickly tossed all the books onto his bed and pulled out the bandages.

Rushing downstairs to Deedee, he started wrapping her head instantly.

Tobi didn't know the first thing about first aid but he hoped it was enough. If the developers didn't expect you to be sword masters and gave you unique skills, hopefully healing was the same.

Her flashing Health bar stopped pulsing and remained at one fifth of her total health. Glad to be rid of the bleed effect, he started to calm down a little.

With his own Health bar still flashing, Tobi pulled one of the sweet-cakes out of his backpack from when he'd first entered the bakery. They didn't do much for restoring health but anything was better than nothing.

Wolfing it down, he wondered if he could force feed Deedee to restore her health.

"Tobi?"

Her voice was quiet and feeble but to Tobi it was the sweetest sound in the world.

"Deedee!"

"I have decided." Her voice was still a whisper so Tobi leaned a little closer.

"What is it?"

"You are an idiot after all."

Laughing like a fool, Tobi's fondness for Deedee in that moment was unrivaled.

"Your damage right now is really bad. You need to open your eyes and do that healing thing again."

"Give me a minute." She replied a little stronger as she lifted a hand to her head. Groping the bandages a little, she seemed to sigh, "Go get your books, I will be OK until you get back."

"No. I'm not leaving your side."

"That's sweet, but I'm OK now. Grab the diary so we can leave. We won't have much time."

Realizing she was right, Tobi nodded. Not that she could see his consent- her eyes were still closed.

Rushing up stairs, Tobi spotted the Diary instantly. He wasn't one to throw things away though so he grabbed the rest of his books and a few more items from his chest.

When he got back downstairs, Deedee was sat leaning against the kitchen unit with a ball of water attatched to the side of her head. Her life bar was now half full and pulsed from green to red. The obvious sign of being healed but curiously similar to the notification of being poisoned.

"Good to go?" Deedee asked.

"Yes, but you don't appear to be."

"You're one to talk. My life bar might be at half, but even if yours was full I would have higher health."

Tobi looked at his life bar. It was up to a quarter and regenerating slowly.

"Oh well, I feel fine."

"Me too, let's go."

The healing bubble of water disappeared and she jumped up, "Ooh. Maybe still a bit dizzy."

Looking at his health bar, she asked if he was feeling dizzy or anything. Tobi confirmed that he wasn't and felt almost as good as if the bar was full. If anything, he felt a little sluggish- weakened.

"As soon as we're away from here I will heal us both."

Tobi nodded and they fled the scene. At the same moment they left the back door they heard people crashing through the front.

---

After escaping the town the same way they got in and slipping deep into the wood, Deedee decided that Tobi was not allowed to do anything anymore. Not unless he got her permission first.

He'd wanted to argue back but after nearly killing her, it wasn't really optional. To top it off, his name had turned grey. It was an indication that he'd attacked and almost killed another person of the same race.

Curious about her wording, Tobi had asked if it would still appear if he killed a person from a different race.

As nothing like that had happened in generations, she wasn't sure of the answer.

The journey after that was mostly uneventful. They traveled along the roads at night and woods in the day. With his disguise, it would look like an eccentric wizard traveling with his apprentice; or so Deedee hoped. Without the proper camping essentials, they would often take turns sleeping in a clearing.

For food, Deedee killed the animals and Tobi prepared them.

To pass the time, they mostly just talked- or Deedee did. The conversations were mostly just Deedee talking about Galven and their adventures together. They hadn't really had much in the way of adventure as far as Tobi could tell, but even a date or picnic can turn into a story worth telling.

One of her stories had been about how travelers had mistaken Galven for her mentor. She had thought it was a little comical considering she was the stronger of the pair. His magic was hard earned but he mostly only passed on his knowledge. Her magic on the other hand was practiced and her proficiency was high. She also experimented and learned new skills.

Tobi had been interested in that and asked for more details. Unfortunately there wasn't much she could say. Although they were both grand mages in title, the truth was a little less impressive.

They had acquired the bare minimum for the title of grand mage: Knowledge of three forms of magic. A true grand mage would have mastered all three forms of magic. Neither of them had mastered any and technically should still be apprenticed to Vallen.

She had been equally interested in how Tobi's abilities worked. He didn't seem to do much yet could cause varying amounts of damage with just his voice. When he finally admitted that he was applying magic to his voice, her interest became unrelenting.

For each piece of information she gave him, he returned the favour and gave some to her.

No matter what she tried, she couldn't apply magic to either her voice or her breath. She could make it appear like that's what happened, but not actually do it.

She also wanted to know why the spell she used to cut rock didn't enter her spells list. Tobi had no idea as he'd been having the same issues.

He'd tried Elven Carpentry to cut the mortar but nothing happened. Then he thought of Lions Roar and wondered if there was a way to mix both the skills.

Thinking of Lions Roar as the base, he applied magic to his voice and blew on the mortar between the bricks. There had been a slight shift but it wasn't enough.

Remembering the time he whistled and poked his finger into a piece of wood as though it were nothing more than butter, he adjusted his way of thinking. He applied the magic again but instead of blowing, he whistled.

The result was instant. He may as well have been blowing dust off a table for how well the mortar held up. The stone seemed unaffected at all but that didn't matter. Without the mortar, the rest was child's play.

For applying magic in a new way, he'd received stat gains in wisdom and intelligence but nothing was saved to his spells list.

He received more stat gains along with logic when he had Deedee apply her magic in a similar fashion.

When Deedee's stories started to run out or occasionally get repeated, she told him that Cohol was a day away.

"Finally. How long have we been traveling?"

"A month but that's because of you. I could probably do the journey alone in a week."

She'd been referring to the fact that his endurance and stamina were so incredibly bad.

"I am getting better though." He answered with a smile. Whilst Deedee continued to be agitated by his low physical stats, he was completely elated for every single stat gain that he received.

"Indeed. You can now run far enough to escape the smell of a Galven fart without slipping a disc."

Tobi mentally imagined the scene of running away from a green stink-cloud. She'd joked about how bad his gas could be a few times. There was more than one 'house-clearing story' in their past.

Despite the bad joke, Tobi knew what was coming. Since she'd taken charge of the journey to Cohol, she had him training once every day. Though he pretended to be bothered every time she made him do it, he was secretly enjoying it.

Slumping his shoulders as though resigned to his fate, Tobi asked what he had to do.

"Touch 'n go. 100 trees."

"Hundred...?"

Tobi looked at the trees ahead. Touch and go was one of the first exercises he did. He'd done it several times since then but it was pretty rare. His record had been a week earlier when he'd reached fifty trees before he could run no more.

Although it didn't sound like much, some trees were further apart than others. He basically had to run to one side of the trail and touch a tree - then run to the other side of a trail and touch another tree. He'd go back-and-forth like that for as long as he could. The only rule was that he had to stay ahead of her every step of the way. To make things more difficult she would occasionally increase her walking speed. On more than one occasion, he had to skip the tree he planned to touch and run to one further down the trail.

"What are you waiting for? Hop to it, Soldier!"

Tobi laughed at the remark and started running. She'd picked it up from a Traveler a long time ago but she pulled it off very well.

***

Cohol

You have gained 1 Stamina.

You have gained 1 Agility.

Panting as the city came into view, Tobi's thoughts were simple.

I wouldn't be able to cut through that wall inside a day.

Walking confidently out of the wood, Deedee didn't spare him so much as a glance. He'd failed to meet the 100 trees again and called him a failure.

Tobi didn't mind at all. She'd become very much like his sister and he enjoyed her company as well as her fake attitude.

The only real disappointment for the journey so far was their lack of opportunities to play chess. Due to the slow pace he forced on them both, Deedee had been unwilling to spend any more time playing games.

He knew she wanted to but once her mind was made up she was as stubborn as him. That's how he'd come to associate her with his sister. Lucy was the exact same way.

With Lucy, they could even stubbornly argue over who was more stubborn. And proudly too.

Missing his sister a little, he called his stat window to distract him.

StatsDistributable Points0Health Points54Intelligence113Strength32Wisdom77Attack11Dexterity69Agility35Defence9???-???-???-???-Logic62Stamina43???-???-???-Endurance32???-???-

Sighing, Tobi closed the window and followed after Deedee. He'd really wanted to get better stat gains than that. After a full month of daily exercises, it didn't seem like all that much had been gained.

Deedee had made him feel like he was making good progress during her rare moments of praise, but it only lasted until the next time she complained about his apparent weakness.

She'd told him that people usually applied stats where necessary when they were leveling up. As his gains were purely through effort, he was doing exceptionally well. More than she would have normally believed. She even compared his stat gaining ability as a rival of Travelers.

After a moments thought, she added that his stat gains might be even faster than Travelers as she didn't know exactly how fast they could grow. She did know that it was at an unprecedented speed though and Tobi had only been doing stupid exercises every day; not actual training.

Not wanting to put Travelers on a higher level than people from her world, she explained that Travelers had an advantage. Residents of Anderon would never go to the same extreme measures as Travelers for leveling and stat gains. They grew naturally and through their own respective interests.

Clearing his mind of idle thoughts, Tobi jogged to catch up with Deedee as she reached the guards on the gate.

As Tobi reached the scene, the guards gave a friendly nod and went back to their own business.

"Friends?"

"Haha, you could say that. I courted the bigger one a long time ago. Before I met Galven. We were little more than kids though; we didn't really know what it was to be in a relationship. We are more like siblings now but he still gives me a certain look sometimes.

Come, the mage guild is this way."

Following, Tobi rounded the corner and stopped.

"Mage Guild? This place is bigger than the Manor-Castle thing back in Brackley."

"Yes. That is the largest mage guild in the country."

The so-called 'Mage Guild' was made up of three buildings. To the right was a long, three story building that Tobi couldn't classify into any kind of building. In the real world it would be similar to a long three story hotel type building. The middle building was more like a castle that stood alone and proud. The one on the left looked more like a school- if it wasn't for the old style building method, he'd swear that's exactly what it was.

The buildings were each surrounded by a large crop of land which in turn was surrounded by a castle-type wall.

Looking to the right side of the gate, Tobi read a plaque welcoming guests.

On closer inspection, the over-sized plaque appeared to contain many different languages. He could read the 'human' one fine, but Elven didn't appear for a while. Strange squiggles he couldn't make heads-or-tails of separated human from elf and then turned back into weird squiggles.

"Hey, Deedee. Which language is Malanchite on that?"

"What is Malanchite?"

I don't know myself...

"Malanchite is the seventeenth language on the plaque." Came a commanding voice from behind. It was the kind of voice principals had that scared the witts out of their students.

"Vallen!" Deedee squealed and ran to give him a hug.

Tobi didn't care how long he was under Vallen's care; he would never even dare act like that with such a person.

After casually shrugging Deedee off and patting her head, he turned his attention back to Tobi, "Why did you ask about Malanchite of all languages?"

"Why? Is it odd? I just have a friend who claims to speak it and wondered what it looked like to read."

"So how does it look?"

Tobi looked for the seventeenth language. "I can't tell where one language ends and another begins."

"Can you read at all?"

"Yes, Engli- er...Human and Elven."

"Beginner Linguistics then. You will need advanced to tell apart languages. Come, we shouldn't stand talking around the gates and we have much to discuss."

Following Vallen into the grounds, Tobi stayed on the opposite side of Deedee to Vallen.

---

Tobi had been playing catch up from the moment they entered the guild grounds.

After being escorted to the building on the right, Vallen assigned him a room with his own personal chest. It turned out that the building was for residents to the guild. All apprentices of Cohol Mage Guild stayed at the residence until they completed basic training.

The central building turned out to be one seriously big library but Tobi wasn't allowed in until his registration with the Guild was official.

The opposite building did indeed turn out to be like a school. It was a research building where Mages both studied and taught the application of magic.

He was still playing catch up the next day after breakfast when he and Deedee had been called to his office.

Whilst Deedee recounted everything that had happened since she met Tobi, Vallen sat in complete silence.

The questions came afterward.

"How did you figure out their trick in the mage guild?" Vallen asked first, starting his inquiry from the very beginning.

"I don't want to ruin it for Deedee. She seems impressed with it so I will answer that when it is just the two of us."

Nodding, he moved on to Lions Roar.

"I am here to learn because of such abilities. I stumbled upon it by accident and now I need to know how to control it."

Vallen didn't seem to like that answer. Suspecting that Vallen had worked it out already, he hoped to be more ambiguous with future answers.

"For someone with relatively good intelligence, what you did in your bakery was incredibly stupid, what excuse do you have for that?"

Resisting a smile, Tobi shrugged, "There are two mages, one has low intelligence, the other has high. Who does more damage?"

Vallen didn't deign to respond but Deedee answered the question without hesitation.

"Apply the same thought process to an accident or mistake. If the one of low intelligence makes a mistake, the damage is low. But if the one with high intelligence makes a mistake..."

"...the damage is high." Deedee finished.

"If only all mistakes could be dismissed with such an easy play on words." Vallen replied in a reprimanding tone. It was only slightly spoiled by Deedee laughing.

Next was Tobi's turn to tell his story. He started from the day he decided to make a chess board and how he went on to join Joe in cutting wood with mercenaries protecting them. He included as much as he could remember in the right order; including how he received the Elven carpentry book from Jasper and how it led to being asked to find a Diary by Ranall.

He knew he forgot minor details (or omitted them, like how he collared the priest outside the church) but he gave a pretty detailed summary of his accounts. The only significant part he omitted on purpose was the names of the Diaries.

His story ended with storming out of Jasper's place and walking to the mage guild.

"And you still have both the diary and the brooch given by Ranall?"

"I do."

"May I see the brooch?"

Tobi fished it out of his back pocket and passed it to him. Almost immediately after beginning his inspection, Vallen quickly dropped the brooch onto his desk, "I think I will keep hold of this for now. You may have it back at any time. At that time however, you will be kicked out of the Mage Guild."

"Is there something wrong?" Tobi asked looking at the brooch and wondering what he'd been carrying.

"I will answer that when you take it back. Or are you ready to leave now?"

Tobi shook his head and remained quiet.

After grabbing a box from inside his drawer, he used what appeared to be wind magic to blow the brooch off his table and into the box. Closing the lid, he placed the box on a high cabinet shelf and locked it behind a pane of glass.

"Now." He called as he clapped his hands together, "About this game of chess."

His smile was completely opposite to the impression Tobi had received so far. Confused by the sudden change in attitude, Deedee laughed again.

"Tobi, meet the real Vallen."

Vallen chuckled and excitedly returned to his table, "Come on, I've been waiting for this for a month."

----

How Tobi had ever thought of Vallen as imposing or intimidating, he could no longer guess. The man was a great big kid. Clever as hell and enough magical ability to raze half the city - but give him something fun to do and he was like a kid in a candy shop.

Tobi concluded that Galven's acting abilities had come from Vallen himself. When there was official business, the fake personality was put on like a mask. The man behind the mask however was something completely different.

"Check mate." Tobi called for the seventeenth time in a row.

"I don't get it!" Vallen cried out in frustration. "How do you keep winning?"

Tobi smiled and remained silent. In the back of his mind he was actually sweating. Tobi had underestimated Vallen and nearly lost; twice!

Tobi was no longer messing around and playing at his best. Since then, Vallen had been crushed repeatedly.

You have gained 4 intelligence.

You have gained 2 wisdom.

You have gained 3 logic.

Closing off the box, Vallen seemed to be looking at a box of his own.

"Incredible. Not only is my logic increasing, I just got an intelligence gain. Do you know how many years it has been since I got one of them? In fact, I don't remember myself. Let's go again."

"I will make you a chess set. I am here for other reasons, remember?"

Sighing, Vallens jovial face straightened instantly. "I am aware, but we can't proceed with your training yet."

"Huh?"

"I can teach you what I know, but you must have received gods window already. Your magic is Arcane so what I can do for you is limited. You must find a different mentor."

Deedee who'd been following each game intently enough to gain some intelligence of her own suddenly sat back in surprise.

"Really? Is that true Tobi?"

Tobi admitted it was true.

"Gods window should have advised you to find a master. It didn't mean 'any' master. It meant a master of Arcane Magic."

"Do you know of one?" Tobi asked. Vallen's wording had basically told him he needed to find the person himself.

"Can you think of no-one?" Vallen asked in turn.

Of course he could, but not how to get to them. "The elves."

All humour gone, Vallen nodded, "And they will likely kill you on sight. All I can do for you is teach you what I know and help you grow in other ways. You don't have to worry too much, you already received the tool Elves use to get their magic under control."

Only one thing came to Tobi's mind, "Elven Carpentry?"

"Yes. All Elves -as far as I am aware- use their magical singing to train the Arcane abilities. As soon as you mentioned Elven Carpentry I knew. You can't use Elven Carpentry without an Affinity for the Arcane."

"How did you learn it?" Deedee asked.

Tobi had already explained that in his story earlier. He'd simply blasted a rat in panic.

"He was born with it." Vallen answered, "In the library there is a book by a mage that tried to learn it. After three decades of studying, he learned there was only two ways to get arcane magic. First is to be born with it. Second is to be taught it before any other element."

Noticing Tobi's interest, Vallen shook his head, "The only other thing it says is this: Those who have Arcane magic are as limited as their imaginations.

I wouldn't take that statement to heart though. I think the man was just overly obsessed with his dream. You don't see Elves flying around like dragons do you? I know for fact that one Elf had that very dream. Llewellyn of Eirias. I used to have her diary, but somebody stole it."

***

After Deedee left for Brackley, Tobi's spirit seemed to slump.

"Your moping is infectious you know?" Vallen sighed.

Tobi apologized but it didn't sound genuine at all.

"Tobi, if you don't mind my asking- may I know your stats?"

"I don't mind. Would be easier if I could just show you though."

"You'd do that?"

Looking up in surprise, Tobi asked if it was possible.

"Possible? Yes. Advisable? No. You have to trust the person completely or else have absolutely no reason to not show them."

"Then I will show you. How do I do it?"

"Well, you have to call on Gods window and ask the Gods to show me your soul."

"Huh?" Show my soul? What kind of stupid crap is that? "Open command list."

Viewing the commands list, Tobi scrolled down until he found the option to share his stat window. He'd always planned on reading the full commands list, but he never got round to it. Mostly because he couldn't be bothered.

To share his stat window he had to know the name of the recipient. In the case of an NPC, he had to know their full name and possibly their title.

-A bunch of example titles followed such as 'Lord such-and-such' or 'King so-and-so'.

"What is your full name and title?" Tobi asked.

"Vallen Chaucey. I don't have the kind of title you would require."

So NPC's know even that much. Do they have a command list to? Probably looks different to mine if they do.

"Show Tobi of Brackley Information to Recipient: Vallen Chaucey."

Technically, it was supposed to say 'Show User Information to Recipient:', but that was a dead giveaway to NPC's that he was a Traveler. He could only hope that his title would work.

Window Sharing: Vallen Chaucey; Tobi of Brackley;

Name: Tobi

Level1Health: 545/545Mana: 1364/1364Energy: 82/100Satiety: 71/100

TITLESInventor

Inventor of Chess

Tobi of Brackley

[td100]STATS[/tds]Distributable Points0Health Points54Intelligence135Strength32Wisdom93Attack11Dexterity63Agility35Defence9???-???-???-???-???-Stamina43Logic81???-???-Endurance32???-???-

[td100]Additional Information[/tds]RaceHumanGenderMaleAlignmentNeutralClassNoneAffinityArcaneAllegianceUndeclared

"You're level one?" Vallen replied after a while. Tobi had closed his window almost immediately, he was keeping track of his own stats quite well without the window.

"Was that a Rhetorical question?"

Blushing a little, Vallen made a swipe with his hand. "I don't know what to say. On one hand, your stats are amazing, on the other, they are atrocious. The fact that you are level one just blows my mind."

"Then how about advice on what to do next?"

Vallen stroked his chin in a similar fashion to how Galven had done many times. "OK; most stats aren't all that important for a mage. What you need is already there but you do need to raise endurance, stamina and defense. I recommend getting all basic stats to 100. Whether you choose training or leveling is up to you.

If you choose leveling however, get your Elven Carpentry to Intermediate level. By then you should have your Arcane magic under control enough to use it relatively safely."

"Sound's good, but to raise Elven Carpentry I need wood. Is there somewhere safe I can go chop trees to gather it?"

Vallen smiled and told him he'd purchase all the wood Tobi could want. He also explained that the Guild had plenty of Alchemists so acquiring dyes and varnish was also easy. And more to the point; free.

After giving it some thought, Vallen also advised him to learn Herbology, Alchemy and Tailoring. The stat gains 'granted by the gods' for leveling those professions were perfect for mages. In the case of Tailoring, it was just good for fixing or making clothes ideal for mage classes.

Tobi agreed heartily and tried to decide on what kind of chess set to make. Whilst crafting one for Galven and Deedee (partially at least) he'd learned that basic sets didn't level either the profession or the stat very well. Making unique pieces were harder, but the gains were better.

Plan set, he just needed to wait for the wood.

---

Loving the guild life, Tobi didn't need to be using his Carpentry profession to be caught singing.

Every morning he got up and went to make food in the kitchens free of charge. He could use any materials he wanted and make food for either himself or as many people as he was willing. The new items to use in recipes had finally started leveling his cooking again.

After breakfast came Carpentry where he continued experimenting with making chess sets.

Come afternoon he had physical training in one of the training fields and a daily review with Vallen after that.

Then the gates were opened and Tobi's day really began. Vallen had spread word that 'Tobi of Brackley' had invented an item that unlocked Logic and brought it to Cohol; anybody who wanted to try it was welcome to the Guild every evening.

Tobi had been unable to deal with every body alone so Vallen set up some extra tables. Using sets made by regular Carpenters and Carvers, Vallen along with some able apprentices had games against their guests.

To Tobi's amazement, the mages didn't want to face anybody but him. When they'd learned that even Vallen couldn't beat him, even the lord of Cohol wanted a game against Tobi.

How many times had he wished for chess to be more popular?

How many times had he wished for more chess partners?

It was heaven.

His stat gains were slowing down drastically, but Tobi didn't care at all. If he played anyone as capable as Vallen the gains were still there - it was just beating the novices that gave no results.

Some people only came to unlock logic, others became as addicted to the game as Tobi.

At night after everyone left or went to bed, Tobi trained his Linguists. He couldn't sleep as often as the NPCs even if he wanted to so he didn't even try.

Things continued that way until Tobi finally found a theme for his chess sets. He had about 17 boards and countless pieces, but none were part of a set. They were all just random figurines and nameless chess boards he'd created to level Elven Carpentry and Dexterity.

When he finally had a theme and made the set, Tobi went to show it to Vallen.

Timeless Chess SetThis chess set was created to reflect on the past deeds of all races within the world.

Representing a time when each race of the world clashed against themselves and serves as a historical reminder to all.

This chess set was made by , and bears the mark of; Tobi of Brackley, Inventor of Chess.

Picking up each piece in wonder, Vallen asked where Tobi got the idea. He was currently holding a pawn which was secretly one of Tobi's favourite pieces.

"The war 500 years ago. I have heard so many details about it I just thought that it was a perfect theme for a chess set. Having it turn out like this surprised even me.

"Gives me a new perspective on chess." Vallen murmured, more to himself than Tobi.

Each pawn was a Dwarf and each identical to the others. the only difference between any of the dwarf's were the colours. One side had 8 dyed black, the other had 8 dyed white.

Each of the 4 rooks were identical Orcs. Tobi had a great urge to paint them green but stuck to keeping them their proper colours.

The Knights were Racian and Beastman. He didn't know how to represent them really, so he just opted for a cat head on top of a human body with a matching cat tail.

The Bishops were human but unlike all other races, each side had one male and one female. He didn't know why'd he'd chosen to do it that way, he just did.

The Queen was a female Elf for both sides. He'd struggled to make them identical but they were near enough perfect copies.

The King was the easiest to make and yet the most profound. Sat in a little Moses basket wrapped in a blanket was a baby of an unknown race. If you picked it up and inspected it, the piece even had it's own name: "Half of the worlds' children."

With both sides having the same 'baby' as king. It meant that every child in the world was on the board.

"Between this chess set and your original, which do you treasure more?"

Now he'd been asked, he didn't know. On one hand, his first chess set had emotional value and included pieces of himself. His sister was there too, along with the woman that broke his heart.

On the other hand ...

Torn between the two, Tobi went with what he felt at that very moment, "I think I prefer this one. I would sooner sell or even give away the original chess set rather than part with this one."

Vallen seemed to expect the answer and smiled, "Would you put it up as a prize in a chess competition?"

Tobi's eyes lit up.

"A chess tournament?! Why hadn't I thought of that? Yes! A chess tournament would be awesome. Hm. I think I should be the one to host it though. I haven't been beaten and people would think my participation rigs it. The only one that is able to even come close to beating me right now is you."

"How about this then. We make a festival out of it. You will get the majority of the profits which will in part pay a fair price for your original chess set. In turn, the winner will get the option to face you at the end?"

Tobi was quickly warming to the idea as his mind raced.

"That will work. We will call it the Cohol chess tournament. Whoever wins will get my original chess set and the title of 'The Cohol Chess Champion'."

"Hoho? I think I might like to have that title for myself. What about restrictions? Cohol residents only?"

"No way, that's boring. Everyone is invited."

*****

Back to Main Page

---

Authors notes: (inside spoiler because was long)

Spoiler :

I decided not to deviate from my original plan of the story and include fight scenes and stuff just yet. I had a plan in mind like when he gains his first level and such, but due to inactivity within the story itself, I was thinking to add a little excitement ahead of schedule.

Thanks to comments by readers, I have been able to stand by my guns and stay on track.

I omitted a lot of boring scenes like how he crafted each chess piece, what kind of physical training he was doing, what kind of food he prepared, who he prepared food for, etc. But it was all just filler and didn't really move the story along.

It did show you EVERYTHING that he did, but seriously... I didn't want to torture you with endless, tedious activities.

Mostly, I wanted to get the story to where it needs to be and in the way I originally imagined and planned it.

~Aspirer

P.S. As always, let me know if I missed any mistakes, typos, Grammatical Errors or anything else worthy of note.

I will take it as constructive criticism and add it to my knowledge base.

Such advice is needed for me to provide better work for you.

If you don't spot anything though: "Yay me" ^_^

Feel free to share your views of the chapter - feedback (good and bad) helps my motivation.

{{Big shout to David again for spotting an error <3 }} (forgot to change 'he' to 'i' during an edit)