210. Stepping Up: Wiremu

It is hard to believe Tabitha is training the next generation of crime lords. Technically it is Ruku and Modrica who are training the small group out on the farm while Tabitha distracts and gains some insights. Julija and the team will need to devise a plan, and we are the backup. Not free backup. If they call us in, they will be hiring the Black Arts Mercenary group and paying accordingly. Hopefully, we won’t be needed. Of course, things are not going to go to plan. Adapting and dealing with that is a necessary skill.

Janez is fully on board. The rest of the Hazardirati will need more time. I think Janez is looking for someone to marry into our clan. Ruku is a widower. He might be open to that. The good thing is Janez is advancing us a loan, which will enable us to put a contract out on the first fifty Slave Taskmasters. According to Tabitha, we have the coin flow to support it but not the coins the Mercenary Guild is demanding as a deposit. The Guild requires the first thirty in an upfront payment. When their cut is added, it is an eye-watering amount. This sort of contract can only be done in a major guild hall. Khighiz or Hrothgar are the only two places in the Kingdom.

Deciding the evidence required to claim the bounty has been a hassle. Fortunately, the Empire licences their Slave Taskmasters with spiritually signed tokens. That, plus evidence of death, is one way. There are others for missing tokens. Finally, we think we had most loopholes closed off and shouldn’t get too many false payouts. Tabitha was a great help as she kept thinking about ways to fake it.

The Guild needed a name for the person behind the contract. A contract this size is usually signed by the King, but in this case, it is in the name of Wiremu Hunter. I recognised there would be returned contracts put out for Wiremu Hunter by the empire. I so seldom use that name that I am not sure it matters. It will be a couple of months for the contract to spread throughout the empire, and we are leaving about then. Two months for a return contract to get here. Tabitha convinced me to delay starting it till a month before we leave. She would prefer a month after we leave. She joked about how tales about ‘Hunter’s War’ will dwarf the tale of the Black Butcher.

I am still experimenting with this Slave Class and the ritual that requires a Slave Taskmaster’s spiritual signature. I don’t have any Task Masters to test things on. I need to finish up here at the Lore Society. The empire will have more information, and we may need to go there and hunt Slave Taskmasters to test things.

The Canine Queens have signed on as security for the Elemental Traders in Kirghiz for another year. They will work with Tāttā. The plan then is to make their way back to Jern via Hrothgar. I have officially resigned. We had been drifting apart for a while. I think Tāttā plans a permanent caravan route to Hrothgar and Jern and back. He also wants to start trade with the City States to the south and is muttering about contacts with the Mer islands.

I never thought Dianne would be the bookish type. I created her to be the assassin and Quinn to be the bookworm and metal worker. At the moment, Susie is off hunting the lore Society for any rituals she can find. She has found a couple. One is for testing unknown enchantments. Mayakku was rapt to have that. The other was for testing unknown potions. They were both variations on the Monster Core Ritual and minor variations at that. We cut out the variations on all three to see what was left, and we have called that the base ritual. What was obvious was the ritual locked the spiritual flow in one direction.

Could the flow be reversed? This was the essence of what Otto was trying, to get the affinity from the core into something or someone else. Otto’s experiments failed, but I had more information and more working rituals to compare.

I put that to one side for now, as the ritual I wanted to work on was the one to remove the slave Class. The Ritual itself was not complicated. It required a Journeyman Slave Taskmaster, the slave and the slave owner. If the Taskmaster was the owner, then you didn’t need anyone else. It required fresh blood from the slave that was used to draw a diagram on each hand and foot, then a different diagram on the forehead and a third over the heart. The Slave taskmaster had to power the ritual, channelling his Spirituality through the Slave bond. If the slave owner was there, they had to add their spirituality to the mix, so it was usually easier to transfer the slave to the ownership of the Taskmaster.

The Taskmaster then had to prick the centre of each of the diagrams connecting them to the slave's blood, which seemed to control the flow of the Spiritual energy. Then, it was a matter of the taskmaster applying enough Spiritual Strength, which was focussed on by the ritual in the class. This had to be kept up until the critical moment the class was at breaking point, and then both energy and class were sucked out, and the class levels would drop to zero, and then it would be removed. The higher level the Slave Class was, the more energy it required to remove.

In order to identify the Spiritual Signature flavour of a Slave Taskmaster, I need to separate out the different class flavours. Those with an affinity have that flavour strongly dominating, but the underlying classes are still there. I am getting more flavours from those without an affinity. Mutalil and Āṟṟal, for instance, have the flavour of fierce fighting, probably from the warrior class. Next was a swift hunter. Is that from his new Hunter Class or Āṟṟal? Trying to untangle individual flavours from the Bond Analysis will be difficult.

Deborah owned slaves, and her flavour dominated the bond. I need to go back and examine it more, as maybe the Slave Taskmaster who created the bond might have left some of their flavours. That will depend on whether the Bond is created with the Taskmaster's input or wholly created by the class. I don’t know, and it is in none of the books. As the Taskmaster becomes the initial owner, I would suspect they have an input.

Analyse Bonds was mid-apprentice. I need to get it to Journeyman Level to get close to seeing enough detail. The advantage to the Slave bond was there was nothing I could detect of the slave. The owner dominated, and I couldn’t tell if there was more. The Slave Taskmasters probably vary in their Spiritual Signatures depending on the influences of their other classes. I had a feeling I was coming to the end of what I could discover without a Slave Taskmaster at hand.

I seem to have read all the information the Lore Society had on advanced Classes and Slavery. I would continue to improve my general knowledge, but I needed more physical exercises. If I hadn’t had the forge to work at in the evenings, I would probably have gone crazy by now.

I decided to visit Bodin and discuss my Metal Working Class. He and his wife Nissa seemed happy enough to continue working for me in the Smithy. He has his new arm now and is getting it back to strength and speed.

“Quinn, are you here to help?” Bodin asked.

“Absolutely. I also have a couple of questions.”

“Nothing new there.”

“My Metal Worker Class is now Apprentice Level, and I had the Metal Shaping Skill. Shouldn’t I be able to upgrade the Class to Metal Shaper?”

“What Level is Metal Shaping?”

“Four”

“Bump it to Apprentice, and you probably will be able to upgrade the class. No guarantees, though, as your compatibility to the class plays a part.”

“Can you help me level it?”

“I have just the task,” he reached over and picked up a copper pot. “I want you to change the shape of this pot into a copper kettle. The spout should come from the bottom here and curve evenly so it pours well. It will need a lid and a much fancier handle. Make sure the handle will still carry the weight of a full kettle.”

He gave me some copper, and I got to it. It was trickier than it looked. I had to reshape the spout five times before I was happy with it. I used the copper to narrow the top of the pot so the lid would be smaller and created a lid that wouldn’t just fall off. The handle was the easiest part.

This was definitely pushing the Metal Shaping Skill to Apprentice Level. What would I have to do to get it to Jouneyman? A full metal sculpture or something? I felt the class wanted to change. Metal Worker gave three attributes per level, Metal Shaper gave four, and Blacksmith gave five. The level of the Class didn’t drop, but I understood that was because it was at the bottom of the apprentice Level; otherwise, it would have dropped to this level. The extra attribute was free and was equal to the class level. I suddenly had five free attributes. That was well worth it.

I suddenly looked at my Quarry Worker Class. If I could get Stone Shaping and upgrade the Class to Stone Shaper, it would drop to Level ten, Journeyman Level, but I would get ten free attributes. I need to find a Stone Mason to work with. With my Granite Manipulation, it should be easy.

That would be for another day. Tomorrow is Kelda’s first day out of the army, so we are going out to the farm together. We will check on the trainees, but I want to push my archery and see if Kelda’s Flame Senses will work on my arrows. Fire arrows are quite noticeable, but it might be a way to get information in a walled city.