For the next several days, I spent most of my ti alone. Unsurprisingly, not many people wished to disturb the mysterious ‘sage’ that lived outside of town. Even the monsters often chose not to wander onto my land, the few that did only trying to devour a few fallen fruits or weeds before scurrying off.
While the days were peaceful, the nights were considerably less so. Not because of any sudden monster attacks or anything like that, but because Leowynn and I were continuing to practice our Aki Seppo techniques. Specifically, learning the functions of all the different constellations.
According to her explanation, the elven sky contained a total of thirty constellations. The five ‘skies’ had five constellations each, and each of the skies also acted as their own constellations. She even helped to identify so of them that she could identify from the beastkin continent.
Of the thirty constellations, we had been able to practice a total of twenty. The constellations from the Sky of the Goddess, as well as the five skies themselves, were all too powerful for her to access. Most likely, we wouldn’t be able to use those until we had reached the final step of Aki Seppo, or until Leowynn had beco significantly stronger.
Of course, these peaceful days couldn’t last forever. It took eight full days before the first guest arrived at my door, a large ursa man in studded leather armor. At his waist was a crude bronze sword, while on his back he had strapped a short bow.
He stood out in front of my shack, calling for . “I co to et with Tebor on behalf of the crown of the third Kelios Queen!” His tone was deep and commanding, yet I smiled as I detected a hint of a slight tremble in it. Ti to start the show.
“Yes, yes, I’m coming.” I spoke from within, leaning on my staff as I walked out the door. As soon as I laid eyes on the ursa man, I knew that he wasn’t one of the fad ‘pinnacle champions’. The level displayed above him had barely reached one hundred, so he was likely nothing more than a common courier for the army. “What is it?” I found my voice aged and cracking, unlike the normal youthful tone I was accustod.
The man looked at , obviously not believing that I really required the staff for anything more than comfort, yet refused to speak up about it. “I have an official quest, handed down by Lord Bulrin of Dyjorn with the seal of the crown. He wishes for you to take a look at it, and view the request favorably.”
After speaking, he pulled a folded parchnt out of the satchel on his waist and passed it to . I could see the print of a bear’s paw stamped into the back of the paper, likely the ‘royal seal’. Nonetheless, I unfolded the paper to look at the quest.
The Kingdom has need of your aid, Sir Tebor. With the approval of the Third Queen, we have issued this request to you, in the hopes that we may acquire your assistance. In fourteen days after the writing of this quest, a small fleet of ships will be departing from the port, their goal to find uncharted lands to the west. In order to ensure their safety, we are sending our most formidable citizens to protect and guide them.
All know the power of a druid, and what they can do at sea. With your ability, there is no doubt that you can easily see why we would ask this of you. We hope that you will protect our ships, and guide them safely by fair wind and weather. In return, you will be granted a noble title, and a domain of your own in whatever land the voyage settles.
Quest Objective: Assist the departing fleet in reaching uncharted lands safely.
Reward: Confernt of the Noble class, and the right to claim a domain.
Well, this is interesting. I looked at the quest, sowhat amused. For the nobles that offered this, they had literally nothing to lose. Not only did this get a potential threat away from them, but they wouldn’t even have to really offer the class in the first place, from their perspective.
I had a reputation of being a pinnacle power, aning that my level should be at the limit. With that, offering the noble class is nothing more than a title in na only. They would still need approval of a royal party to issue this as a quest reward, but if I could not accept the class, that was ultimately not their fault.
I never thought I’d get the chance to receive the noble class… though I suppose I could have done so easily at any point in the past. Just ask one of the gods to arrange things, and I’d have it. Bit of a waste, however. Well, one level won’t make much difference, especially once I start raising the cap so more.
After appearing to think it over for a bit, I could tell that the ssenger was growing nervous. Chuckling softly, I clenched the parchnt in my hand, speaking in a low voice. “I accept the quest.” If this had been a ‘contract of service’, the common na for a quest which was ‘failed’ by accepting, with the ‘penalty’ being a certain act, then I would have outright refused and found a different thod. But, it seed that the nobles didn’t want to get upset before they sent off.
Seeing place the quest scroll in my own leather bag, the man breathed a sigh of relief. “Many thanks, Tebor. I shall report such to the Lord.” After saying that, he turned and jogged away from my shack.
I waited until he was well past earshot before letting myself begin to laugh lightly. “Good, this will be interesting. I wonder if Udona and Keliope will make it in ti… or if they’ve been assigned to the ships already.”
I considered sending them a prayer to ask, but I thought it’d be much more interesting to wait and see. Of course, that hope was all but shattered two days later, when a booming female voice called out to from outside the shack, stirring from slumber. “Hey, old man! You gonna invite in or what?”
Thinking, thinking…oh. I could only think of one person who would be able to act like that around . I hadn’t set up any significant contacts which would address quite like that, which ans it’s not soone from my ‘reputation’. That can only an a goddess, and there was no way that Udona would talk like that.
“Yeah, yeah, co on in.” I called out with a grumble, sitting up in my straw bed and rubbing my back slightly. As expected, a dark-skinned ursa woman ca in through the door, nearly pulling it apart altogether as she used too much force opening it.
“Oops, sorry about that. Not like it’ll matter much soon, but anyways.” Keliope grinned at , looking almost exactly like her real self, just several inches shorter. Above her head, I could see that she definitely was a pinnacle champion, her level capped out at two hundred and fifty. “How you liking the land of mortals, boss?”
“It’s dirty, there’s no proper plumbing, and I feel old.” I complained, though I had a slight smile on my face as I did. “So, I see that they really did manage to rope you into this?”
“Nope, I volunteered!” She answered with a proud grin. “I figured I wanted to go out and see new lands, punch new faces, and work for the good of our people. That and I was getting bored of doing the sa old thing in this life.”
“Martial arts, again?” I raised an eyebrow slightly as I asked that. I know she had been all but obsessed with that class originally. She might very well be one of the highest level martial artists out there.
“Yeah… I keep getting stuck at the ‘99 barrier’, though.” She awkwardly scratched the back of her head as she said that. “Apparently, you need to be able to perfectly mix the styles of your chosen art and develop your own, unique technique in order to reach triple digits. But the stupid system won’t recognize anything I co up with, because I am essentially taking tips from everyone else who already used those moves. So I have to be more original than the originals.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle as she sighed in defeat. “Well, at least it’s good practice. Have you considered creating a new type of martial art, based on all your experience?”
That earned a small chuckle from Keliope, who nodded slightly. “Yeah, I did once, but it’s hard for the founder of a style to get all the way up to the nineties in that style within their lifeti, so I ended up dying before that. Then on my second ti through with that style, one of my students had already started up a new school on it, so more masters had started appearing. So… sa issue. Honestly, I’m hoping that this trip will give so new inspiration, to let either create another art, or co up with my own unique move to use next ti. Obviously, can’t pass the wall now.” As she said that, she pointed up above her, where she seed to know I saw her level.
I nodded faintly at that thought. “That’s certainly understandable. But… there’s no way that they would have wanted soone that could only fight with their fists, right? In the sea, that wouldn’t exactly be useful, unless you were going as a laborer…”
Keliope tilted her head back and laughed loudly. “Hah! Yeah, right. , a cargo carrier? No, since I couldn’t pass the wall, I went ahead and got so monk training in. My first ti really practicing its advanced class.”
As if to demonstrate, she lifted her fist up and clenched it, and I could see a golden fla wrap around her fist. “Fire ki might not be the most useful in the ocean, but it allows so ranged attacks, and I can still fight if we et sothing dangerous.”
“Makes sense… Any idea what we can expect from Udona, then?”
Keliope grinned mysteriously at that. “She wanted it to be a surprise. Most excited I’ve seen her since Terra introduced her to comic books, so I’m not telling. Don’t worry, she’ll be here in ti for the party. By the way, you can call Kelly in this life. Since I was born looking like… well, , my parents thought it fitting.”
“And I’m Tebor… because it was the first thing to float into my head when designing myself.” I shrugged slightly as I answered honestly. From there, Keliope and I talked for a little bit, mostly just her quizzing to make sure that I knew everything I needed in order to pull all of this off. Once she was satisfied, she left to enter town.
With her gone, my quiet days once again returned. And with Udona wanting to keep her identity as a surprise until the last minute, I didn’t receive any other visitors. Just and Leowynn for two weeks… two long weeks. I was already starting to get stir crazy.
Thankfully, I was able to keep myself from going back to the Admin Room for those two weeks, and held out till the bitter end. Two weeks later, and I was in town, using my walking stick to help along towards the shore.
This was my first ti actually being in the city of Dyjorn since descending, and it was quite the active city. People of all four beastkin races walking to and fro, talking and chatting, preparing for the weekly D’ka. I hadn’t participated in the three that had occurred since my arrival, so none of that really mattered to . Instead, I made my way towards the shore.
Before I even arrived, I could hear a loud voice, obviously enhanced with ki or mana, drifting out to fill the area. “Alright, alright, everyone who has been recruited for the Uncharted Voyage, step up. We’re getting everything sorted now, so co up and tell your na and specialty, and we’ll get you on a ship.”
When I got to the source of the noise, I found a slim lycan boy with white hair. A long scar ran down the side of his otherwise unblemished face, his hair trying to cover it up. As people walked up to him, he took their quest scrolls as proof of identity, confird who they were, and then sent them off to one of twelve nearby people all dressed in official garb.
Walking up to join the queue, I waited until it was my turn, before handing over my own quest scroll. “Tebor, druid.” I said simply, leaning against my staff as I waited for him to give my assignnt.
“Don’t bother with that one, boy. He’s mine.” A female voice called out from the side, and I turned to see one of the twelve people lined up looking at with a grin. “Tebor, been waitin’ on ya. The Lord himself suggested I be takin’ ya on my crew.” She added with a playful wink.
Oh, you have got to be kidding … I instantly knew that this was Udona. Not because she was a silver-haired kitsune. Not because she had called out instantly. No… it was her outfit. She wore a long, leather vest with golden threads embroidered in thin, even stripes along the center. Beneath it she wore a tight fitting red shirt and pants, outlining her curves.
On her feet she wore leather boots with folded tops. A bronze cutlass, obviously carefully crafted, sat sheathed at her waist. But what gave it away most of all was the black hat. A black hat with a symbol that should be completely unknown to this world, the jolly roger.
Reviews
All reviews (0)