Chương 25: Chapter 24: Conscript that Walf!

"I think tomorrow, we'll hit the dungeon." Roxala said into the companionable quiet of the kitchen as I cooked in the early morning dimness, illuminated mostly by the light of the oven, which I more or less kept going at all hours. It wasn't much mana, and it warmed the cold stone room up beautifully.

"It's high time we got on with it, or folk might start to worry for us. We have to get back someday soon in the next week or so." she said, and I felt the others nodding. Your [MONSTER, COMBAT, SYNERGY] Wolf-Ren skill has improved, and is eligible for rank up! Rank D is a free rank. [MONSTER, COMBAT, SYNERGY] Wolf-Ren, Rank D: 0% - The ability to see, hear, and smell things all at once in a synesthetic image of the world in your mind. Your senses are sharpened, and weather has less of an effect.

Their scents were all over this place. I could see where Fel had helped me make tea yesterday, and see not only where they were in my mind's eye, each of them, hear what they were doing and visualize it easily, but I could tell that all three of them were nervous - their scents changed. Gelidia too - even if her scents were different as a ghost. The dungeon, going into a dungeon, was dangerous business! Understandable. We were all nervous about this - what would wait for us inside? None of us really knew.

From what Gelidia had told me, it might not be anything like her ancestral home had been before it became a dungeon now.

"The good news is, we have a way into the dungeon from this building. The bad news is, that might not be the entrance we'd wish to take. Secret passages like that-" Roxala began, and Gelidia interrupted.

"-No, you don't want to go in that way. Those passages will have fairly deadly traps for people who aren't aware of them, and... I am not." she said.

"I never went that way - didn't know it existed until I saw it with my own eyes, to be honest." she said. Roxala grunted. I sensed a flash of irritation from her, but it was over in an instant. Schooling herself, she said.

"Such passages are heavily boobytrapped, because the families that use them do not want them to become secret entrances for thieves and killers. I've never met a noble who wasn't paranoid." the orc said, and Fel nodded, quipping"-For good reason!" Gelidia smiled sadly at that.

"Why?" I asked. They looked at me.

"Well, you see lines of succession are one reason - maybe your older brother is an incapable lout and he will inherit, but is too pig-headed to step down. Or some minor lord wants the money and power more than he wants your children to breathe. Or the crown is sick of your family mucking up the gears of good governance, or perhaps some other lord just hates your family and always has. There are many reasons to take such precautions." she explained patiently.

"They call it 'Intrigue'" Fel added.

"I call it 'lunacy'!" Torch quipped"Yeah? Well I call it 'focus on the task at hand'." Roxala growled grumpily.

"That entrance is definitely plan B, traps or no traps. If the main entrance is impassable for some reason, or if the traps are worse from that direction, or if there's some nasty guardian beast, we will take our chances with the secret entrance." she said.

"A dungeon is meant to be entered." She glanced at Fel, and a subtle nod deferred to him. The man cleared his throat.

"Indeed. A dungeon, miss Goldtail, is an expression of the world's power, and a means by which people walking it may test themselves and become stronger. The World gives them to us, and the dungeons, in addition to monsters, will create items and objects that are useful to the people who brave them, one way or another." he explained.

"Yup. Sometimes its treasure, Sometimes it's equipment, usually it's raw materials, but the rewards vary." Torch added.

"Oh sweet! Loot!" I cheered, and they blinked at me.

"Loot?" all four said.

"Like the music instrument?" Fel asked a beat later. I blinked at them, and shook my head.

"Nono, not with a U, but with two O's -" which only made Roxala more confused. Fel and Torch got it though, as did Gelidia.

"Is that a Riftwalker thing?" Roxala said, and I blinked at her. She grunted.

"Yeah. Torch told us you were, and World that makes a lot of sense, but you probably shouldn't share that - we won't tell anyone, but people will get... funny ideas." she said, and I could hear the warning in her voice. Oh! Oh great.

"Anyhow, is it?" I nodded.

"Just a word from my world, sorry." I admitted, and she grunted again. It seemed her usual conversational gambit.

"I won't tell anyone else. You're the only four that know." I said, and she nodded.

"You're coming with us, Emily - if you still want to?" she asked, and I nodded firmly, leaning forwards. To be fair, I would have gone in without them anyhow, even if she said not to.

"Good. Your strength will come in handy, and you're not bad in a fight." she said with a grouchy expression.

"That, miss Goldtail, is high praise from miss Roxala here." Fel said solemnly, and Torch chuckled.

"You're lower level than us, though. If we can help it, that should change. More training!" Roxala declared.

"What skills do you have that are below rank D?" she asked.

"Ummm!" I checked my character sheet. Name: Emily Goldtail the Twice-Cursed, Hound of Lambstock / (Emily Smith) Race: Human, Lycanthrope Class: [LIFE] Peasant Status: Healthy Skill Slots: 1/0 Skills: [LIFE] Peasant level 5 Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Peasant skill points: 5 Skills: [LIFE] Inspect, Rank D: 50% [CRAFTING] Toolmaking, Rank D: 40% [LIFE] Cookery, Rank D: 20% [LIFE, SYNERGY] Samu, Rank F: 30% — [MONSTER] Lycanthrope level 4 Lycanthrope skill points: 0 Skills: [MONSTER, SYNERGY] Bestial Vitality, Rank B: 4% [MONSTER] Lycanthropic Transformation, Rank D: 60% [MONSTER, COMBAT, SYNERGY] Bestial Might, Rank C: 30% [MONSTER, COMBAT, SYNERGY] Wolf-Ren, Rank D: 0% I shared what my skills were at and she grunted at me.

"That's a new one - Samu. Seems like that's the only one lagging behind, but you seriously haven't spent a single peasant skill point? Unbelievable." she growled.

"They level more slowly I guess." I said, rubbing my arm. She pierced me with a grumpy glower.

"What is Samu exactly?" she asked, and I shrugged.

"It just says it reduces my stamina consumption when working, and helps me recover mana more quickly." I said, and she blinked.

"What? That sounds like the Labor skill mixed with a Meditation skill." she said, and I nodded.

"That's exactly what it is, yes!"

"Interesting, a variant skill! It must have something to do with your class combination." Felorikaan said, and I felt Gelidia give me a warning look. SHE WARNS OF DANGER my wolf said I SEE NO DANGER! WHAT DANGER? I got it. She didn't want me to tell them about my subsumed class, didn't want it to come up. Given what it had been, and what I'd felt from it, that was probably for the best, honestly.

"Exactly, it's a Life skill, changed from Labor." I said, not exactly lying. Fel nodded at this, didn't even bother to wave his hand at me to detect my genui... genu.. to tell if I was telling the truth or not.

"So I do have an empty skill slot - is there anything I could pick up that might help?" I asked, and the group looked at each other. As one, they said"Conscript." in four voices.

"Conscript? What's that one?" I asked, and Gelidia took my hand under the table.

"It's a skill for Life classes, though I've heard of Crafting classes getting it too. It lets them fight alongside a trained warrior in a battle and not just get in the way. It's a big help." she explained"It's all about teamwork and use of weapons, armor, and siege equipment." Gelidia explained.

"It also helps in the quiet periods before and between fights." she explained, and I perked up a bit! That DID sound helpful! I didn't intend to be a soldier, but maybe it would be a good combat support skill for when I want into a dungeon or had to defend the town? I nodded eagerly!

"Alright! How do we do that? Get me a specific skill?" I asked. Oh boy. Next thing I knew, I was outside with the poisonstone spear I'd made and improved with the glue and bindings. Roxala glowered at it dubiously, it really wasn't much, and she did not look impressed at all. She snorted, and moved to her pack.

"That's... well, a Spear is a very conscripty weapon. On the other hand." she reached and detached a short pole from her bag, screwed it together with another pole, and produced something like a pick head from her bag. It had a sharp bit on the bit, but the scariest part was a crow beak like pick-axe head on one side of it, and what was clearly some kind of spiky looking hammer thing on the other. She screwed that on too, and once she did, the thing clicked together into one single object.

I inspected it critically as she offered it out to me. Collapsing Lucerne Hammer, uncommon, crafted by Snorri Snorrison. A polearm with a weighted spike for piercing armor.

"You can keep this." Roxala said gruffly"It's just takin' up weight in my bag now that I got Shield to rank B." she said. Snorri was a funny name!

"Snorri, son of Snorri?" I asked, pronouncing it like snore-y. She nodded - wait, I'd got that right?

"Yup. Best blacksmith in Rucksberg. Know how to use it?" she asked, immediately changing the subject back on topic, and I weighed it in my hand. It felt solid, and I swung it a little, looking to see her reaction. My feet were closer together, and I held the thing like a house proud spouse disposing of a dead rat, and she did not look impressed. She sighed.

"Oh yeah, this will take some work." she said, and moved behind me. She held my hands to the polearm, and pressed in behind me. I could feel her voice shaking my chest, and it made it... really hard to concentrate as her deep tones tickled my ears.

"Widen your stance like this." she said, and gently kicked my feet wider with a foot.

"And turn your hips like this. If you're not ten feet from your enemy, keep the pointy bit sticking out at them, and keep them at bay. Like THIS." she said, and thrust my arms into a pointing position. She let go.

"Now you try it." I was blushing continuously, but I did as she commanded, and the motion felt more solid as I got used to it. She made me repeat getting into the stance, correcting me each time until I got the hang of it. The Lucerne Hammer felt top heavy, but not badly so - it felt like it should have been much more awkward than it was, but it felt easy enough to use! I was getting the hang of the stance thing, and the thrusting. Once I could do it without instruction, she nodded.

"So the other pointy bits." Roxala began"This pointy bit" she said, and pointed at the pick head"is for driving into things. Ideally, you're swinging it with all of your hips, but really, I figure you can menace just... about anyone with even a casual swing. No reason to get sloppy though." she said, and we practiced a few movements carefully. High stance, low stance, side stance, and middle stance.

Thrust and parry, step and different lengths of thrust, with her giving me gentle guidance every step of the way, correcting my mistakes. It felt like... a lot to remember, but I tried to keep up with her instructions, tried to retain this in my head. Eventually, You have learned a new skill: [LIFE] Conscript. Due to synergy, your [LIFE] Conscript skill has evolved into [LIFE, COMBAT, SYNERGY] Sohei. The skill is returned to rank F and any invested skillpoints are returned. Whoah!

I guess I should have seen that coming, honestly, but that was a new one on me. [LIFE, COMBAT, SYNERGY] Sohei, Rank F: 0% - You are a woman of peace, trained for war. That was so true. I didn't want to fight... but if I was going to have to, if I needed to defend my home, and my friends, I vowed I would be ready. Suddenly, I just... knew things. My grip on my weapon changed a little, and my stance sank a little lower as I let the knowledge flow into my hands and feet. It felt... I felt...

it was different, that was for sure.

"Ah. You got it. That's the way." she said, with a grin.

"I figure you'll be a scary woman with that thing in your hands. And if all else fails, you can always just punch them." Roxala said, and shrugged. GOOD STICK my wolf said, amused at this as she watched from the sidelines of my mind.