217. Southward: Wiremu

We need Monster Cores, and we will not find them on this cursed boat. I said that to Ruku, who told me about the flying fish delivering a core onto the boat to Northport. Truth Sensing said he was telling the truth, but it was hard to believe. It sounded like an old fisherman's tale, and Ruku is definitely an old fisherman. I don’t like deep water. I know I would sink and drown. I like fishing but only from solid ground. Ruku tried to distract me by teaching me to fish in the ocean, and I guess it sort of worked. Fishing went up into the Journeyman levels. The sooner we are off this boat, the better.

Mayakku spent most of the time on the boat trip refining the enchanting runes to try to give the Spiritual energy a flavour. Nyx and Puia provided the energy. Puia’s spiritual energy was more difficult for Mayakku to work with than Nyx’s. Puia’s was more intense and difficult to cleanse. Nyx’s was easier, and she collects energy through skills, but we need to get some monster cores to work with.

Mayakku started to work with a flavour she knew: Sharpness. She has been enchanting weapons with it for a long time and now has it as part of her own affinity. Enchanting focuses the spiritual energy into a flavour and applies it to an object. The energy empowers the object until it runs out and has to be replenished by an enchanter. This is very close to rituals. Rituals focus the energy to create or change something. The change is then fixed. For Rituals, the type of energy is important. The very first ritual I saw was a Goblin Chief using the blood of ordinary goblins to create a Goblin Shaman with a blood affinity. I am still not totally clear on how that worked, but for Advanced Class rituals, you need the flavour of a journeyman-level class holder.

Enchanting can change the flavour of the spiritual energy. Mayakku is starting to work with what she knows, but we will need to move on to the flavour of a Class. Basic and Specialised Classes add different layers of flavours, which is more complicated when you have multiple classes. We don’t have access to a Slave Taskmaster to find out their flavour, but just trying to create a flavour of a class, like Hunter or Warrior, is a big shift in the way normal enchanters work.

Mayakku figured out enchanting Skills are closer to Classes. For example, she knows how to enchant a knife to give a bonus to the Small Blades Skill. She can enchant to boost Resistances. Classes are more like a combination of Skills and sometimes Resistances. Modrica’s Unyielding Specialisation Class essentially boosts a lot of her Resistances. This is seen in the Armoured Skin Skill she received with it. It primarily resists Cutting and piercing, but also acids and possibly others. It has less resistance to blunt forces. To capture the Unyielding class flavour, you have to start with the skills and combine them.

Specialised Classes have a narrower focus than Basic Classes. My Hunter Class would be almost impossible to replicate as so many skills are involved. Hunter is a top-tier Class. Quarry Worker would be easier as there are fewer skills involved. A specialisation like Scout or Assassin has fewer skills required. Scout has vision, movement and mapping. Assassin has stealth and deception with sudden attacks. It is still far from easy.

Slave Taskmaster is a specialisation from administrator-type basic classes. It seems to have a singular focus on the Slave Bond. We hope my Bond Master Class will give us insight into it. Mayakku is worried as she knows of no enchanting around bonds. Ruku had some insight here as in his travels to Northport, he came across an Animal Tamer. This seemed closer to a Slave Taskmaster in that it forced a bond even though it was a temporary one. He didn’t have any Skills to see what was going on there, but it was a lead to follow. Animal Tamers are fairly common and combined with Animal Trainers to produce guard animals, pets etc. I am now kicking myself at the lost opportunity I had when I met the Animal Tamer outside Kirghiz. My bond skills were new then, and I was focused on finding a bond for Tāttā, but I still missed the opportunity to study what was happening.

At least we are off this blasted boat tomorrow. We are landing outside the nearest city. This boat is a smuggler contact of Tabitha’s, and we need to avoid population centres as we are a very noticeable group. Težka, Modrica’s massive Dire bear and Cōmpēṟi, Mayakku’s massive lion, are the main problems. We will establish a camp, and then some of us will visit the small city. Wild Bill and Rodion will go drinking and see what the local area holds. Monster stories are what we are looking for.

Odla was a small provincial city serving a large farming community. A dwarven duchess was in charge, but we hope never to meet her. From here, we head inland to Skog, which is on the kingdom's edge and the jungle's edge. Skog has a Duke not paying taxes. Tabitha will go and rustle up more coins for us and maybe for the king. Then we go to Waiouru, which is the large southern military city of the Kingdom. It is on the edge of the Great Desert. Then, we leave this Kingdom behind. There is a Lizardkin City state in the desert before we enter the Empire.

I am not going to be able to get an update on the Contract I put out on Slave Taskmasters until I get to Waiouru. It has a decent-sized mercenary Guild with a Communications enchanter.

We found a nice quiet gully an hour out of town to set up camp. There was an Animal Trainer on the edge of town, so Rodion and I stopped in. She mostly trained riding animals and sheep and cattle dogs for the farming community. There was an Animal Tamer who came through every couple of months, but she could not say when he would be back next. Rodion was taken with two new dogs, which she had just started training. They were mid-sized dogs, much smaller than Kryddor. Their fur was orange-yellow with black overlapping. They looked to be fast animals.

“Where are these dogs from?” he asked.

“They run in packs in the wilds not far here. They are a pain for the farms on the edge of the wilds, but when they are trained, they make good farm dogs.”

I used my Bond Care Skill, and being a canine meant Rodion had a natural affinity with them, but something was missing. I shook my head at Rodion, but said, “Close,” indicating he should not bond with the dogs, but we were getting closer. Something was missing.

“Tell me about these packs of dogs,” I said to the trainer.

“In the wild, the packs range in size from two to thirty adults and yearlings. They are highly social animals, and we can minimise that through training, but it is best if you have more than one. I will have these two adequately trained in two weeks.” She was looking for a sale here. She was going to be disappointed.

I thanked the lady and kept working with Bond Care, Rodion, and the dogs. Then it clicked. The flavour missing from a bond with these dogs was that Rodion had the Pack Leader Class. He needed to bond with the Pack leaders, not these two. Bond Care levelled to Apprentice. Flavours of a class can be sensed with Bond Care.

When I told Rodion, he wanted to go looking for a pack straight away. We would be heading out in a couple of days, so I cautioned him to wait. We would be weeks in the wilds in the territory, so we would have plenty of time to go hunting. Bond Care is making bonding so much easier.

The local ales were good. We would be a while away from civilisations, so we stocked up on ale for the trip. Astrid had a skill to keep things fresh, and Ruku could keep things cool. The two of them are going to be very useful. The only thing useful from the evening was the variety of ales to stock up on. There were no rumours of monsters.

It is going to be a busy trip. Now that Ruku is back, I want to concentrate on levelling my new Warrior Class. We also need to try to get Kelda’s Warrior Class to Journeyman if we could. She is not really compatible with it, but making specialisations available just makes sense, and it should make Monster Hunter immediately available from her monster kills.

Tabitha has the Journeyman level Riding Class and agreed to teach Kelda that. She already has the Riding Skill, so it shouldn’t take long. Scout is a specialisation from Riding if you also have Farsight, so if she can level that to Journeyman, that specialisation should be available. Scout may be available from the Observer Class anyway. All these Classes are more attribute points that she needs.

We will obviously work with Kelda to level her Targeting and Tracking classes. It is just a shame we don’t have anyone here with the Archer Class, as I think that would suit her well. My Hunters Marks are not at Journeyman level yet, so I can’t teach her that.

Kelda is also interested in learning my Map Making Skills, as she wants to learn to draw what she sees. I recently levelled it to Jouneyman on the boat by mapping Thermal Currents. She paid a Trainer in Kirghiz to teach her the Drawing Skill already, so she thinks the two will go together well. If she can get the Scout Specialisation, she will probably get the Mapping Skill, which would tie it all together. She can use the Skills without them, but she has to wait and draw where she can see the land, which takes time and is not as accurate.

Kelda made a good point. I am focused on wilderness skills, but when we get to the Empire, we will mostly be operating in the cities. We need skills for urban areas. Her Sparrow bond, Liten was chosen with the urban environment in mind. I guess she had in mind life in Hrothgar as the Duke’s Heiress. That doesn’t bode well for our long-term relationship. She is an heiress and will one day be a Duchess. I need to put that aside, or I will get depressed. I wonder if she thinks about us long term? Am I just a fling? Time for some more of that ale.