5.0

“If you’re considering taking a scaled one along on an adventure, remember this important fact. The strange, inhuman glint in its eyes as it looks you over is the same look you might give a freshly grilled steak.” - Yolo’s Guide to Monsters.

There were several requirements one needed to fulfil before they could start a Mercenary Guild.

First and most obvious, mercenaries, adventurers, whatever the hell you wanted to name them. To form a guild, you needed combat-capable people. The very minimum needed was ten people, one of which needs to be Silver Plated or above, who’ll become the Guild Master.

Secondly, one needed a Guild Hall. The definition of such a place is actually pretty broad, all it needs to be is a location where guild members can meet up and have quests posted. There were two ways we could procure such a location.

The third requirement would be the completion of a major quest. Most people default to fighting off Wayshard Rifts, but that is mostly because they are pretty regular and most other Campaign level quests require you to be of a famous Guild or Silver Plated otherwise the quest giver won’t even consider you.

The requirements are easy to fulfil in principle, but in actuality, there were several things we needed to consider.

For one, Noam and I already filled twenty percent of the first requirement. We have rather synergistic builds that can be easily leveraged with some degree of teamwork, but unfortunately, both of us shine best when dealing with huge groups of enemies and with large amounts of setup. Such strengths would be invaluable when completing the requirement quest if we planned on going the Rift route, however until then, we were only average in other areas. To better round us out, a single target damage front and back liner would be best. Along with some kind of battlefield healer. The question, however, was whether we planned on working together with non-Travelers.

I needed to ask Noam on his opinions of it, but it would be a mistake not to. NPC’s should greatly outnumber Travelers at this current time and that represents a great wealth of possibility. I can’t ensure everyone we pick up would be as good as someone like Naukoth, but to completely rule out the possibility would be foolish. At the very least we should form connections with talented non-combatants like crafters. If we were to work with NPC combatants, then there were two people currently that I had my eye on.

The second requirement was slightly more difficult. There were two ways I could think of to gain a Guild Hall. First and simplest, we purchase one, though prices would definitely vary. Anywhere from a thousand to millions of gold all depending on location and place. The second option was available only because this is still a medieval setting. We claim unclaimed land and build a location ourselves. That option is simpler in the fact we don’t have to deal with bureaucracy, however, we still need to deal with construction costs along with the fact that we will be tasked with defending ourselves. Most unclaimed land would be at the edge of civilisation, which forces us to be frontiersmen. It is a risk, I know all too well how colonies fail without outside assistance.

Regardless, it would be a high-cost investment.

“We could theoretically set up in a random hole in the middle of nowhere…”

That would technically fulfil the requirements, but it would be rather lacklustre wouldn’t it?

At minimum, I think we need somewhere in the ballpark of thirty-thousand gold to have a respectable base. The good news is that we didn’t need to use Traveler Gold for that, normal money would suffice just as well, though largely more difficult to get. Mostly because we were still unestablished murderhobos. As people we have little to bring to the table other than combat ability. In some ways being a mercenary wasn’t a choice, it was the simplest path we can take.

Which brings me to another tangent, where to bring my build?

“There are multiple paths currently.”

First I had to accept I can’t be a tank. I’m a tanky mage, but not a tank mage. It was proven well enough that though I can take a lot of hits, I can’t effectively hold my ground. A tank is about disruption via damage absorption and redirecting. Forcing enemies to waste their damage on non-key targets. While I could fill the role of an attack disruptor, it would not be in the form of damage absorption, but in CC and area denial.

At best I am a mid-liner, though at the current moment I could be said to specialise in area denial and information gathering. However, I was also not fully utilising my power.

Available Spell Slots:

T0: 2

T1: 2

T2: 2

As a mage with so many open Spell Slots, I was not even utilising half- no, seventy-five percent of my current potential. There was only one way I knew for certain that could get me spells, and that was questing back in Gaia. However, looking at Noam’s feats gave me some ideas.

Available Feats

Player Killer (3 SP): Your damage against Traveller's is increased.

Coup De Grace (3 SP): Your damage against downed or unopposing enemies is increased.

Mobile (3 SP): You gain a +2 to AGI. You instinctively know how to traverse difficult terrain, you may completely ignore non-magical difficult terrain when running.

Brawler (3 SP): You gain a +1 to STR or CON. You gain proficiency and knowledge with Unarmed Strikes or Improvised Weaponry. (Note, as you already have proficiency in Unarmed Strikes, your current proficiency will increase.)

Backpfeifengesicht (9 SP): You gain a +2 to CHA. All magical taunting effects you deal now have their potency doubled. All magical based charm effects you deal now automatically fail. Once per day you may choose to emit an aura that forces all creatures with visual sight of you to make an Intelligence or Wisdom save against your Charisma or be taunted into attacking you. This will last a minute and the affected may continue to make Intelligence or Wisdom saves to break out your taunt effect.

Jack of All Trades (6 SP): You gain proficiency and knowledge with all weapons you wield. If you already had proficiency, the level of proficiency does not increase.

Weapon Master (9 SP): You gain +2 to any Body stat of your choice or two +1s to any Body stat of your choice. You gain proficiency and knowledge with five weapons of your choice. If you already had proficiency with your chosen weapon, the level of proficiency increases. This increase can be applied multiple times on a single weapon.

What he decided to pick from this feat list was up to him, however, these feats informed me a crucial thing.

“Our actual skills matter and have a mechanical effect.”

Noam’s Brawler feat, my own Strategist feat, both mentioned that we already had proficiencies that were not listed on our character sheets. Not only that, the main draw of a proficiency was not the actual in-game effect.

It was the fact our real-world selves would gain that same proficiency.

Noam learned beatboxing in a night because of his class skill and I had little doubt that if I took up my cooking feat, then my real-world self would learn cooking, and if Noam took up Weapon Master, he would actually master a weapon.

Such mental enhancements while not illegal, was certainly treading a grey area. Mostly because it would render one of the few industries that still needed humans obsolete. While I wouldn’t mind never going to school again, many people still maintained that a school education was imperative for ‘social’ behaviour. They were the reasons why a person had to complete at minimum a Year 12 education before they can start receiving a U.B.I.

But that was not the important part here. These skills go both ways, there is a good chance we can have our proficiency increased by both our own improvements and the system’s assistance.

So, we broaden this theory. Would it be possible for me to naturally learn magic? And if so, would it take up one of my spell slots?

For the first, the evidence points towards yes. Though the hard rules of magic are rather wibbly wobbly, people do learn from different schools here and there are many schools of thought on how magic works. If it is possible for me to learn- say cooking, by practising it here, then the system should count it as a new proficiency given by the patterns from Noam’s unarmed combatant and my martial proficiencies.

As to the second, I had a lot less evidence for, but I was leaning to the direction that it would not consume any spell slots. Currently, I had two character sheets, the one I got from the system and the one from Analyse. The system does not seem to count anything not gained from it on its character sheet. Hence why my Analyse and Observe Paths along with our own learned proficiencies don’t appear on it.

As such, it should be possible for me to learn magic naturally, if not in the short term, then as a long term goal.

Which led me back to my Spell Slots.

If I could learn spells not limited by the amount of spell slots I had, then what I did with my spell slots mattered a lot less, however, until I have definitely proven that a Traveler was capable of learning spells, I should still spec as if I was limited by my spell slots.

Which meant I had a few calls to make.

With a lack of a global Traveler chat or at least forum board, I had to directly contact people to procure what I wanted rather than leaving posts and waiting for offers to come to me. Currently, I believe… Ah, Valhorn and his group were still inside Gaia, so was the potato man whose name was apparently Murphy. Peps moved inside Indiri, likely somewhere nearby though I wouldn’t be able to track him.

So for now, I sent messages to the people still in Gaia, a list of Spell Crystals and categories I was willing to purchase off them should they encounter it.

But until then…

In the distance, Noam helped Utoqa onto his feet. The lizard’s eyes glowed slightly blue in the dark and he was silent as he pulled out my corpse from behind himself. At the edge of Noam’s vision, I could see my knife holstered on one of Utoqa’s many belts.

I returned back to my view, seeing the well-lit waiting room we were given. On the other side was the elven swordswoman staring at her Bronze plate with a mixture of awe and disbelief. Celine had left long ago, and gnome whose name can fuck off was busy making sure her other friend had survived.

Standing up, I drew a glance from the elf, but there was something I needed to confirm so I paid her no heed.

I left the room, meeting the two outside as Utoqa stared at Naukoth’s corpse.

He noticed me, head jerking towards me in a slightly unused manner.

He was… surprised? No, something very close to it. Strange, his face showed no expression yet I could still feel it dimly.

“I guess I was right,” I started, gesturing to the empty spot where the knife was. Traveller bodies can remain under certain conditions. Unfortunately, I can’t dupe items.

“Perhaps use our new capital to dupe bodies for magical materials.”

That was one option.

Utoqa still stared at me, his face… unsettling yet familiar. Like an old friend I had forgotten.

We stood there, a strange silence Noam must’ve perceived as awkward because he swiftly tried to speak of another subject. “Well, it’s great that you survived.”

“Indeed,” the lizardfolk answered.

Something was strange about him now as he stared at Naukoth’s corpse. No, he didn’t change, I was the one that did. Somehow, I could see him slightly better than before. And in him, I saw two bundles of power.

Noam put a hand on Utoqa’s shoulder, “I’m… really sorry about your friend.”

“It is a loss,” he turned to me, “I was taught that those that help me should be rewarded. Else they won’t help me again.”

From one of his pouches, he pulled out a finger. My finger actually, wrapped carefully in the string mycelium.

I took it and felt a familiarity. A familiar but dim thrum of power, and with it I realised something.

“Hey, Utoqa.”

He stared at me, unmoving.

“What is a ‘friend’ to you?”

“Something that helps you.”

“And what is that?” I asked, pointing at Naukoth’s corpse.

“A pile of meat,” he answered frankly.

A slight chuckle escaped my lips, as Noam reached the same conclusion I did and began to frown.

I stared at the severed finger in my hand with renewed understanding of the nature of Utoqa’s first Path.

Scavenge.

To take from a kill, and create something with its former power. Always lesser, always scraps, but always something.

He looked at Naukoth’s body not because of grief, but because he was assessing what he could take out of that corpse.

“God he’s like a worse version of you innit?” Noam muttered with an eyebrow raised.

A true sociopath. Loyal only because it was beneficial. No goal and never seeking greatness, only survival. A scavenger content to live on the scraps of others, even if it meant desecrating a former friend.

Yes… I could see it now, I learned the first Path and now I glimpsed the second.

Paths you gained yourself were intrinsically based on you. I understood that better now. I am one who observed and analysed everything. He was a scavenger who took scraps, but he was also one with endless tenacity. A creature with no qualms about what to do in order to Survive.

“What do you plan to do now?” I asked.

“Get food and rest.”

“And further than that?”

“I do not know,” he answered honestly, not because he was honest, but because he saw no benefit in deception. “Naukoth helped me learn many things, without him it is difficult.”

A small smile formed on my lips, “Then, how bout you join us?”

If he were me, he would’ve shrugged, but he did not have that human gesture, so instead he simply said yes.