Chương 345: (338) 5.34. Within the Keep

Sure enough, Vin received quite a number of angry looks from people as they walked through the keep. Countless eyes landed on his prosthetic arm and narrowed, before they found Tarnis' seal tied around his bicep and they begrudgingly walked away. It seemed in a society built around ranking each and everyone one of their near-twelve thousand warriors, having the backing of someone in the low double digits was no small thing. Granted, Vin barely paid any attention to the angry looks he was getting.

He was far more curious about the castle grounds they were walking through. The keep was almost exactly what he would have expected the exterior of a castle to look like, albeit far cleaner. There were market stalls set up where people were handing out fruits and vegetables, smithies clanging away on shining new breastplates, and people milling about all over the place.

He witnessed more than one group of warriors mock-battling with wooden swords, and others laughed and cheered as winning blows were struck and the warriors reset and went again.

"Are those one of the challenges you and Ponk talked about?" Vin asked as he witnessed a woman with what looked like a soft layer of scales over her skin nimbly duck under an overhead blow before ramming her wooden blade into her opponent's gut and causing them to go down hard, much to the amusement of the onlookers.

"No, challenges are far more serious things," Tarnis said, resting one hand on the hilt of his weapon as his eyes carefully roamed the crowds.

"They are required when one wishes to battle against a ranker holding a rank significantly different from their own. Though if one such as Ponk were to ever issue a challenge against me, it would be the last thing he ever did. Few ever choose to issue a formal challenge, instead choosing to rise up the ranks the more traditional way."

"And what way is that?" Vin asked, already suspecting the answer from how Tarnis refused to lower his guard.

"Defeating a fellow ranker close to yourself in rank," he grinned.

"For those of us within the top one hundred, we are only allowed to attack people within ten spots of our own. For those between rank one hundred and one thousand, they can attack those within a hundred spots of their own. For anyone greater, within a thousand."

"So anyone ranked between twenty four and thirty three… could just run up and stab you out of the blue?"

"Indeed. And should they manage such a feat, it would be quite a blow to my honor," Tarnis explained.

"But doesn't a system like that mean you guys are constantly hemorrhaging your most powerful warriors?" Vin asked, exasperated at this latest bit of culture.

"If you keep killing yourselves, how do you get anything done?"

"You misunderstand," Tarnis chuckled.

"Defeating a ranker is far different from killing them. It is why we all wear these breastplates," he explained, rapping a finger against the metal armor.

"They protect most of the vitals. There are few things more dishonorable than killing a fellow ranker, and doing so results in great punishment. The only time it is acceptable is if you are challenged by someone far beneath you in rank. In such cases, either warrior is free to kill the other with no consequence." Vin could only shake his head as they walked and he took in Tarnis' words. He wasn't one to trash another fragment's culture off the bat, but this fragment…

It was definitely barbaric, no matter how he looked at it. That said, he couldn't help but be impressed with how well their people were treated as a whole. True to Tarnis' word, it seemed all those who chose not to enter the whole scene of rankers were treated immensely well. Vin quickly realized that just like Terra, the keep didn't have any sort of monetary system. Warriors took what they wanted from stalls, which were then restocked without words ever being exchanged.

Yet despite the way the support and crafter classes all seemed to defer to the warriors, Vin slowly began to realize that such deference went both ways. When a farmer was walking through the street with a cart full of food, the rankers were quick to get out of the way and not impede them. When a crafter headed toward a wall to repair a crack in it, the rankers who were practicing nearby immediately stopped what they were doing and relocated so as not to risk injuring the crafter.

While many of the rankers had scars or bruises covering their exposed skin, Vin didn't see a single weaponless person in anything other than the peak of health. The further they walked into the keep, the more impressive the rankers he saw practicing were, and it wasn't long before he witnessed his first real fight.

While Tarnis led him across a stone bridge built over a flowing stream, Vin blinked as a woman leapt from atop a small house, smashing a warhammer down onto the shoulder of a man laughing with two comrades. There was a sickening crunch as the man's shoulder was utterly obliterated, and as he screamed out in pain, he was kicked roughly to the ground as his assailant stood over him.

"Do you yield?!" she shouted, bringing her warhammer up for another blow.

"I yield!" he shouted through gritted teeth, cradling his wounded shoulder. Just like that it was over, and the woman stepped back, smiling to herself as the man's companions roughly congratulated her and helped their friend to his feet. The three of them wandered off, presumably in search of a Healer, and the woman turned and headed in the other direction, beaming to herself. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"And there you go," Tarnis said, giving the woman an encouraging nod as she passed them on the bridge.

"That was your first example of a fight between rankers. You are unable to view ranks, disconnected from our system as you are, but her rank just shot up sixty three places. Granted, she is still up in the four thousands, so hardly anything of note."

"She ambushed him from a roof," Vin argued, staring at Tarnis.

"That didn't really seem like a fair comparison of martial might!"

"Being a warrior is more than just who can best other warriors in a fair battle," Tarnis said, shaking his head as they continued.

"Awareness of one's surroundings is just as important as the ability to wield a blade. He grew lax, and it was his downfall. A painful trip to the Healer and a few days of healing will help with that."

"Does he at least get some sort of time out from this whole ranking system while he's healing? Otherwise, what's to stop those below him from seizing the opportunity and coming after him?"

"Absolutely nothing," Tarnis grinned.

"Fighting while injured is an important skill to learn early. Most likely, he will attempt to hide until he is recovered, else he will continue to fall in the rankings. Now come, we are nearly there." Sure enough, the three of them were finally approaching the castle proper, and Vin stared up at the fortress as they approached a genuine drawbridge.

He wondered as to the actual use such a mechanism held when high-level warriors possessed the strength to simply leap across a simple moat, but he figured they had to have some reason for it. As the drawbridge was already lowered, they headed straight inside, and Vin blinked as he realized there wasn't so much as a single guard posted outside the castle.

"Can anyone just… waltz on in here?" he asked, looking down the long corridors of stone stretching out of the main hall they entered.

"Of course," Tarnis nodded.

"There are a few rooms which are off limits to those above a certain rank, but other than that, anyone is free to roam the castle." I guess if honor is truly as important to these people as Tarnis says it is, they don't really need to worry about assassinations, or anything like that… Hell, with how much they seem to pride themselves on battle awareness, if someone actually did manage to assassinate the current king, everyone would probably just shake their heads and say he had it coming.

"So, seeing as you're ranked twenty three, are there any rooms you're not allowed in?" Vin asked as they headed deeper into the castle, nodding to a few colorful humans busy cleaning the castle.

"The ranker king's personal chambers, and the council of eleven," Tarnis explained.

"As our strongest rankers, they and they alone decide how the kingdom is run. It is the king who actually makes all the decisions, but he must tell the council of eleven before he goes through with them. That way if any of them disagree, they are free to attack him for the position of king, and if they beat him, they may decide otherwise."

"Your system of rule is insane," Vin said bluntly, wondering what the hell Terra's own council meetings would look like if they could devolve into a bloodthirsty battle at any moment. One thing was certain, Phil would probably have a hell of a lot more sway in the council meetings than the rest of them. Unless Alice rigged the whole room to blow beforehand.

"Our system has worked fine for countless years," Tarnis grinned, motioning for him to follow him.

"Wait here for a moment while I go inquire as to the king's current whereabouts." Vin nodded, and Tarnis vanished behind two large double doors. Leaning against a wall, Vin shook his head as he thought about everything he'd learned. To think there was such a complicated culture of warriors only three fragments away from Terra. Tarnis had said they wouldn't have to worry about anything like war for some time, but that wasn't good enough for him.

Here was an entire society of warriors who functionally lived to grow stronger, to the point where they'd originally conquered their entire continent. Spur and the others needed to know about this place so that preparations could be made for the inevitable. While Vin mulled over thoughts about the future, something tugged on his attention, and he glanced to the side.

Despite the fact that the large hallway appeared totally empty, he got the sensation something was there, and he immediately realized what was happening. Artifact Extraordinaire was picking up on an artifact, off in the center of the hallway.

"Whoever you are, I know you're there," he said, turning and summoning his staff with Dimensional Sheath.

"Seeing as the rankers despise fighting with artifacts, I'm going to assume you're a member of this alliance I've heard so much about? Why don't you show yourself and we have a nice long chat about magic?" He wasn't sure if the wielder of the artifact he was sensing simply thought he was bluffing, or if they had some ulterior motive, but rather than show themselves, they started moving. Toward his current position.

"I really don't want to hurt you, but I will defend myself if you try something," he said honestly, tracking the invisible person with his passive as they slowly grew ever closer.

"Seriously, I'd rather make friends with any fellow mages than fight them. I'm not a big fan of needless violence!" The invisible foe continued forward unabated, and Vin let out a huff of frustration. Even if he'd wanted to, his divine boon prevented him from launching the first strike, but he didn't want to risk harming a fellow mage anyway. Perhaps this was some sort of weird hazing ritual the mages of the alliance did to all newcomers. Deciding to play it safe, he cast." Stone Wall."

Three rapid casts of the spell sealed his foe within a pyramid of stone, and he nodded to himself, pleased with his work. Without harming his foe, he'd shown that he both hadn't been bluffing about knowing their location, and that he was more than capable of defending himself. Walking forward, he cast Stone Shape and wiped away the top of the pyramid, preparing to threaten whoever was trapped inside to drop the invisibility and explain themselves.

But instead of an invisible foe, he revealed a floating ball with a crudely drawn face on it, hovering in the air before him. Vin stared at the ball in confusion, before he felt a gnarled staff tap him on the top of the head as a voice called out from behind him.

"Gotcha!"