As we made our way down the mountainside, I found myself next to the wizard of the party. Twenty minutes into our trek, and I couldn’t hold back my questions any longer. “Hey, I hope you don’t mind answering, but there’s been a few things bothering me.”

“I’ll answer what I can, but some things must remain secret.”

“Understandable.” I replied, glad he was going to at least try and answer. “I’m Sean, by the way.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Sean. I’m Harold.”

“First, how in the world did you guys get to the peak so quickly? We’ve been heading down the mountain for longer than it took you to arrive, and we still haven’t even come close to the halfway point.”

“That? Well, two things really.” He said with a quick chuckle. “First, we used the teleportation array. It’s only good for once a day, but it can get us most of the way up the mountain in one go. Did you notice that cleared area a few turns ago?” When I shook my head no, he continued. “Eh, it’s easy to miss. That’s where we jump to. After that, I used a haste spell to get us up there as quickly as possible.”

“Haste spell?” I immediately perked up. “Can you teach me? Or at least explain it? I don’t have many buff type spells that aren’t glaringly obvious.”

“Sure, but it has its drawbacks. You can use lightning, right?”

“Yeah. Carrigan can as well.” I nodded.

“Good. Well, the haste spell is fairly simple. You lower the target or groups inner lightning resistance.”

I sat there, gobsmacked for a few seconds. Did these people know that was how nerves worked? While I was underestimating them, he continued his explanation. “You have to balance it, as too much greatly increases the chance to injure yourself. But you can easily get a thirty percent or so increase in speed.”

“I see.” I nodded. “Any other drawbacks besides being more vulnerable to lightning attacks?”

“Caught the obvious, eh? Yeah. Your perceptions seem to slow down a bit, which can be unnerving. It’s best to slowly increase with your skills as you use it, as well as letting people practice under the delay. Otherwise they’ll do something stupid and end up with a sprained ankle. Or worse.”

“That sucks. Almost doesn’t make it worth it.” I muttered.

“Eh, nothing a little training can’t fix. It’s really helpful on trips where speed is essential, or when you are going to be fighting something you know doesn’t have any lightning magic. We’re good so long as the rocs don’t manage to obtain one of their better evolutions.”

“Oh? I’m not very well versed in monster evolutions. What’s the one you hope they don’t get?”

“Thunderbird.” He said, shuddering. “Slightly bigger, but their speed and agility are greatly increased. Add in that lightning heals them, and they can use lightning magic? Not something I want to tackle.” I joined him in shuddering at the thought, as something that fast and agile would be hard to hit with damn near anything except lightning. “By the way, I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about that flashy area spell you used.”

“Sure.” I nodded, not wanting to seem ungrateful for the rescue and information. “System calls it Solar flare. Have you unlocked baneflame?” He nodded, so I continued. “Well, add in a bit of light magic to boost the effect, and you can create essentially a plasma tornado. Be careful though, it takes a whopping 3,500 mana per cast.”

“Gods above, how are you still on your feet!” He cried, getting odd looks from several of the guards.

“Barely.” I nodded. “It’s definitely a do or die type of spell. Though just casting it once in combat like that gave me nearly a thousand experience for celestial sorcerer.” I said with a grin.

“Can’t say I’ve heard of that class. What bonuses do you get?”

“Not exactly sure, as I haven’t played a lot with it. Remember those obvious buff spells I was telling you about?” I asked, getting a nod from him. “Well, if I conjure a constellation above my allies, they get a boost based on what it is. The most useful are boosts to archery, lessened stamina consumption, and increased mana regeneration.”

“Really.” He said, stroking his chin in thought. “Does it have to be stars? Could you, say, conjure a fake moon?”

“Not really sure, but I probably could. Why though?”

“Well, since you are headed to Outpost you will come across them, but there are a few second tier classes that can gain some rather large bonuses depending on the phase of the moon. Lunar berserker being the most common. You would be a very popular mage if you could conjure a silver edged full moon on command.”

“Anything else you can tell me about Outpost? I don’t think anyone in our party has been there and I would rather not make a fool of ourselves.”

“Heh, sure thing!” He chuckled. “Life isn’t too bad out there, if you have enough strength. Since the entire town has to band together for defense, everyone has to have an Adventurer’s guild card. It will keep track of contributions to the own and how many resources you have consumed. Unless you enjoy walking guard routes, which pay the lowest return by the way, you’ll have to head out hunting. The central bell tower will ring if there is an all hands danger.”

“And the dungeon?” I prodded.

“Oh, the dungeon is one gold to enter, or ten percent of your haul. Unless you go deeper than level six or so, it’s best to go with ten percent. You can also trade in dungeon loot for resource points on your card. Party size is limited to five, but the tax is per person.”

Internally I winced at the mention of the Adventurer’s guild, and I really hoped they were different than the ones in the human kingdom. Conversation drifted a bit after that, though I wasn’t particularly paying attention. I was more thinking on how to expand my celestial capabilities. Phases of the moon were great, but could I boost shadow magics with a conjured eclipse? What about calling forth comets or even better! Could I summon the strongest mage spell in most games? The dreaded Meteor? Of course, if I did I would have to limit the size of the thing. Too big, and I would absolutely destroy anything I was trying to protect. I sort of drifted for a few hours, until we made it to the gates of Penultimate.

Penultimate wasn’t that advanced of a town. The entire southern side was devoted to caravans and livestock. The northern portion was mostly barracks and training yards, with a few inns. There was a blacksmith and fletcher shop, and one tailor, but that was it. “Not a lot of non-essentials out this way, huh?” I asked as we strolled through the gate. Because of our escort, the guards didn’t ask us anything.

“Nah, not really. Can’t even entice someone to open up a brothel this close to the wildlands.” As we entered the fort, we headed straight towards one of the training grounds. An older woman was overseeing several guards practicing formations with their eagzards, sitting confidently on a grizzled eagzard of her own. It’s tail flicked as it picked up on us approaching, and when they turned, it glared at us for a second with it’s one good eye.

“Commander Ironheart, reporting in.” The guard leader said, saluting her. Unexpectedly, her eagzard took a few sniffs and sauntered over to where Elendria was sitting quietly. The mounts started chittering at each other, as everyone stared in shock.

“I don’t believe it.” Harold spoke in a hushed whisper. “Ol’ One Eye is being friendly with someone he just met?”

“I take it he is a bit of a grump?” I asked.

“That’s an understatement.” Harold replied.

“Enough of that.” The commander hissed, tugging firmly on the reins. “Someone give me a quick report!”

“We caught the Thompkin brothers fleeing the pass where the rocs were attacking.” The guard leader said. “Once we had them secured, we started heading up to assist any survivors. Turns out the survivors here managed to drive off the birds, and managed to capture the final brother as he waited in ambush of them.”

“Very well. Search everyone for contraband, and let’s see if we can’t figure out why Helios here is so enchanted with the new arrival.”

The guards jumped into action, pulling the brothers and giving them a rather thorough search. I simply watched, as they then went through all the saddlebags as well.

“You could always make this easy and confess.” The commander said as she stared at the brothers.

“Piss off, we didn’t do anything.” One of the brothers said, only to be interrupted by a shout.

“I found it!” We all turned to see Harold holding up a strange charm that had appeared around the neck of Elendria’s eagzard. “Looks like three roc feathers wrapped around a mana stone to charge a concealment spell. Judging by the reaction of the eagzards, they probably added a bit of pheromones as well. No wonder the rocs attacked.”

“Ain’t no proof we did that!” One of the brothers shouted, while their leader simply smiled.

“Finding the proof is only a matter of time.” The commander said. “Though now we know why you always have one person stay behind. One of you has to stay back and get any evidence the rocs leave behind.”

I wasn’t too sure. The men obviously didn’t have anything on them, or else they would draw the wrath of the rocs when they escaped. The saddlebags were rapidly emptied as well, but there was nothing in there either. And it didn’t look like they had any extra dimensional storage items like my ring. Even under mana sight, nothing looked out of place.

It was Carrigan who caught it, though I have no idea. “WAIT!” He cried out, causing everyone to stop. “How come you guys are glossing over the hidden compartment?”

“What compartment?” The commander asked.

“There, the one closest to you. On the back side of the the saddle there. There’s a hidden compartment.”

“What are you talking about?” The nearest guard said, running his hand over it. “The saddle looks normal. It’s even got the right stitching!”

“Let me take a look.” Harold said, strolling over. “If you don’t mind, Carrigan was it? Please stay back. That way if you are proven correct, these fellows can’t claim you interfered or planted evidence.”

“Gladly.” Carrigan said, relaxing and waiting for Harold to figure out what he already knew. Harold held a hand out, slowly moving it along the side of the eagzard. As it slipped forward, his other hand slid from the saddle itself to meet his other hand. To everyone’s surprise, they never met.

“Well, well, well. Looks like there is something here. DISPELL!” The mage cast something, focusing a large amount of magic power and sending it coursing between his hands. With a pulse that was felt in the chest, the spell shattered to leave a bit of an ingenious hidden compartment. Like the guard had noticed, the saddle had the proper stitching to make it seem like the compartment didn’t exist. I noticed the brothers were all sweating a bit more as Harold reached a hand inside the compartment. “And, yep! Two more of those roc attractors.” He said, pulling out bundles of feathers.

“That’s all I need. I’ve waited a long time to say this, but I find all the Thompkin brothers guilty of attempted murder via monster. Due to the matching circumstances, I’m adding on at least six counts for each of the previous attacks you mysteriously survived while I have been commander here.”

“Yeah? You can’t do that, we’re citizens of the empire.” The eldest brother sneered.

“And you aren’t in the empire, fool.” The commander spat. “The mountains are the end of it. I am the law here, and I sentence all of you to death.”

“YOU CAN’T DO TH-“ His cry was interrupted by a gag that was swiftly placed in his mouth. They were led off, kicking and fighting the entire time.

“As for you.” The commander turned to our party. “I’m not really sure what to do with your group. They didn’t have much in the way of possessions, at least not nearly enough as recompense for nearly killing your group.”

“We’ll be fine with a good meal and a good night’s sleep.” D’Vaen quickly said. “Just make sure to pass along to the other side’s guards what happened, so that they can take measures to prevent it from happening in the future.”

“Very well. Harold will escort you and set things up. Thank you all for being so understanding. We can do a bit better though. While the day’s trip to Outpost is mostly safe, we can still spare a group of guards to help you just in case.”

“Far be it from us to turn down good help.” D’Vaen said with a grin. “Thank you, commander. Perhaps I could buy you a drink later tonight?”

“Bold.” The commander said with a grin. “But bold without the ability to back it up is pointless. I don’t think I could possibly accept a drink from someone who had never sparred with me. Care to cross blades?”

“Oh? Do you have some equipment the others don’t know about? Don’t think that will stop me!” D’Vaen said with a grin, leaping off his eagzard. “So, we doing this as pure technique? Or are skills allowed?”

“Let’s go with technique.” She said.

“Perfect. I can show you my skills later.” He chuckled, wiggling his eyebrows at her suggestively. They headed over to the training area, that had cleared in record time.

“Alright, pull any lethal blows. First blood from the torso?” She asked, getting a nod. While D’Vaen pulled out a pair of long knives, she drew a traditional longsword. “BEGIN!” With a shout, she lunged forward, only to have the tip lazily deflected by one of the knives.

“Pitiful. Trying to bait me in with a fake like that?” D’Vaen chuckled, dancing away when most people would have counter lunged to get around the reach of the sword. They danced around the area for a while, testing each other out. “I love how you work the tip, but you’ll never finish the job if you don’t take it all the way!” D’Vaen taunted.

“You sure you can handle it? I hate to break my toys before I’m done with them.” She countered, before switching to a one handed grip and pulling a dagger from her belt. “But if you insist, I suppose we can stop with the foreplay.” Closing the distance, they started trading blows in earnest. D’Vaen seemed to be on the defensive, having to watch the reach of the commander’s blade. Not only that, but it took both of his knives to deflect some of her more powerful blows. When he did manage to get around it, her dagger was waiting. Suddenly, he slipped forward, sliding a knife blade along the sword’s edge. The commander seemed to be expecting this, using a twist of her blade to disarm D’Vaen. That didn’t stop him, as it seemed he willingly gave up the dagger. Using his now free hand, he grabbed the wrist that held the dagger, pulling the commander off balance and slipping around behind her.

“I know we said blood from the torso, but surely a surrender would be just as good?” He whispered in her ear, his remaining blade at her neck.

“Hmmm, baiting me into disarming you so that you could pull me off balance? Impressive. I yield.” She said, though she seemed rather excited to have lost. “I just hope not everything you do is so fast. You’ve earned your drink at the Crested Roc. See you then.”

“Lookin’ forward to it, darlin’.” D’Vaen drawled as he reluctantly let the commander go.

“Alright, show’s over! Back to drilling!” The commander shouted, getting a chuckle from Harold who was right next to me.

“She’s gonna break your friend there.” He said.

“Hmm?” I turned, question in my tone.

“She threw that fight, and they both know it. If she were serious, that flick of hers that disarmed him would have been to the inside, so that he couldn’t slip past her blade.”

“You know a good bit about fighting for a mage.” I said, as we turned and headed towards the inn. “You do a lot of training?”

“Oh yeah.” He nodded. “I prefer sword and board, but as the captain is fond of reminding us we don’t have an infinite mana pool. Sometime, somewhere, an enemy will catch us without mana to defend ourselves. We had best have a few skills up our sleeves, just in case.” I nodded in agreement, and headed to the inn. I had enough of today, I was really looking forward to getting to bed. Hopefully the rest of the trip to Outpost would go smoother than this portion of the trip had.