Seleroan
Just a little heads up: I am going to start trying something a little different with my chapter releases for the time being. In an effort to improve consistency on the back end of things and attract new readers, I'm switching to a M-W-F schedule but chapters will be broken up into smaller chunks. I can only write so fast, after all, and having a decently edited 5k+ word chapter ready to go every single Friday is no mean feat, even with a backlog.
Hopefully, this will not ruffle too many feathers.
Thanks,
The author.
“An Engraver?!” Lynnria shouted. “What do you mean an Engraver? Is that supposed to be some kind of joke?”
I spread my hands, mystified. “Don’t ask me! All I know is—”
Lynnria swiped a hand through the air, cutting me off. “I’m not talking to you.“ She closed her eyes for a moment and took a calming breath. “Mia… would you please stop swearing long enough to actually answer—Mia for the love of—Argh!”
Frustrated to the breaking point, Lynnria began randomly punching and kicking as though venting her anger on some imagined foe. Probably Mia.
I clicked my tongue. My Faen had been pretty excited about exploring the girl’s new Class with her but, predictably enough, the conversation had gotten derailed rather quickly. I had hoped Lynnria would figure things out on her own, but it was not to be.
Still, I had to cut the girl some slack. Even Mia had not known what a tic was before I had told her, and it was her disorder.
“Maybe I should explain.”
Lynnria turned and marched up to me with a wild and breathless expression. “Explain? Explain what? Can you explain what this Class is supposed to be? It had better not be a crafting Class, or so help me…” She winced and slapped her hands over her ears, “Stop! In the name of the Three and the Two besides, I beseech you! Please… stop!”
I sighed. “Mia, I think it’s best you come back for a minute.”
“Donum, I am at my wit’s end!” Mia shouted suddenly, her arrival once again unheralded. Then she made a fragile little sound, almost like a sob. “Now if you will excuse me, I am going to take a bath. I need to relax.”
A bath? How is she… I shook my head. Not important.
Instead, I began to speak. As I talked, Lynnria gradually began to calm down, then her expression turned to one of both confusion and then shock.
“You’ve met the Lady?” she breathed. “In person?”
I nodded. Ruefully.
“How?” she asked finally. “Where? I don’t—“
I held up a hand. “I’d honestly rather not get into it. The Goddesses tend to be… a bit much. But to the point, Bline absolutely hates questions. Particularly ones She thinks are frivolous or stupid. And since Mia is a Faen created from the Lady, that hatred has manifested as an involuntary compulsion to swear every time she hears one.”
Lynnria mouthed the words ‘involuntary compulsion’ with a thoughtful expression. “You mean like… some sort of Status Ailment?”
I snorted. I could have sworn I had already had this conversation. “Something like that. Anyway, avoid direct questions where you can, and if you have to ask her something, stick to one at a time. Let her get the swearing out of her system, and you’ll be fine.”
She nodded seriously. “Okay… I think I can manage that.”
“Good. Now as for your Class…”
I hesitated for a moment. I did not actually know yet whether my intent had carried through, but from the name it was at least close. Still, there was the distinct possibility that because of the wildly open-ended nature of skills—and by extension, Classes—by speculating further, I could be doing more harm than good. So, I decided to change course.
Then a bit of a devilish grin slipped over my features.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll have fun figuring it out.”
“Have fun?! Wha… bu… Donum!”
My grin broadened. Teasing this girl was rather enjoyable, I decided.
“Mia!” she shouted indignantly. “Get back here and explain this at once!”
“Oh…” I somehow composed my expression into one of complete seriousness. “You’ll have to wait until she gets out of the bath.”
There was a beat of silence. “What?!”
Her expression of outraged bewilderment sent me into a fit of giggles. “I know right?”
“Donum, this isn’t funny!”
“I know, I know, but…” I waved my hands defensively. “You look so cute when you get angry. I can’t help it.”
“Cute?” She put her fists on her hips. “Don’t call me cute! You’re supposed to be the cute one.”
“I’m not one of your laoi males,” I shot back, still very much amused. “And I say you’re cute.”
She started blushing again and lapsed into silence. Apparently, she did not know how to respond to that.
I smirked, enjoying the turnabout. But I decided to have mercy. For now.
“Okay, okay. In fairness, I doubt Mia would have explained much anyway,” I informed her. “It all sort of goes hand-in-hand with the ‘no questions’ thing, but as I understand it, the Lady prefers people discover these things for themselves. Mia seems to operate… similarly.”
“You mean I have to figure everything out from scratch?” she whined. “Who does that?”
I tapped my thumb on my chest significantly.
Lynnria shot me a considering look. “I thought you said you were a Clan head. Didn’t your family keep skill records?”
“No,” I admitted slowly.
It was a technicality, but it was true. Most of my family had never even heard of skills. And as for my Clan? Well, we were still fresh off the boat, so to speak.
But the concept did sound pretty interesting. For a Clan, keeping records of what skills worked well and which did not might be quite useful. With time, you could come up with some pretty nasty combos that way. Although there was also the possibility that it could be quite confining if applied dogmatically.
And considering Mia’s little hint about this girl…
“So far, we’ve been concentrating on assembling a broad tool-kit of open-ended skills that are useful for a wide variety of situations. There are a few exceptions…” The lilim anti-Status-Effect skill-chain was powerful, but it was a bit of a heavy investment that needed streamlining. “We generally like to sit down and talk out our skill picks so that they compliment one another, but the final decision is always left to the individual.”
“That sounds kind of nice,” she murmured softly. Then she folded her arms. “But if you like to talk it out, why aren’t you telling me about my Class?”
“Because I don’t know about your Class,” I replied reasonably. “I only know what I tried for. Your Class could be something completely new. By telling you how it’s supposed to work, I could set artificial limitations on you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Think about it. How frequently do people end up with really unusual or unique Classes? Do you know?”
“No one has that I’ve met,” she admitted reluctantly. “Most people tend to end up with something similar to what their parents had. But my grandfather had this theory that a person could escape their fate through personal effort. It was why I had been training so hard to be a warrior.” She cast her eyes to the ground and sighed. “And with a Class called Engraver, I guess I got my wish…”
“We’ll have to see,” I said, though I reserved judgment on whether that had to do with her own efforts or my interference. “But to my point, I only had the vaguest idea as to what my Class was supposed to do or how it was supposed to work when I got it. And it has led to some… interesting outcomes. For the time being, all I am asking you to do is to experiment. Try to buy skills. Warrior skills. Mage skills. Whatever. See what you can get away with and what you can’t. Let your imagination go crazy. Who knows? Maybe you can be both.”
That had certainly been my intent. However, from her Class’s name, it sounded a lot more like she was meant to be some sort of enchantment specialist. And while that would certainly be cool, it was not anything like what I had been trying for. I did not want to say that, though. There was no need to disappoint the girl until we knew more.
“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try,” she admitted. “I do have the two skill points I can play with, and my physicals are still pretty advanced for the first Layer. Plus, it’s not like I’ve forgotten how to wield a blade… if I could just get my hands on one.”
Hmm… two skill points? Now that I thought about it, I had started with two myself. But both of the lilim had started with only the one. Was that because they were technically my summons or was there some other factor at play? Curious.
“You could use this,” I offered, drawing my knife out of its sheath. “It’s brand new. Bought it back in town before we went to your game-ball match.”
“You saw that?” Lynnria asked before accepting the blade hilt first. For a few moments, she made a show of inspecting it critically, though she kept casting furtive looks up at me. “What did you think? I scored the match-point, you know.”
“Uh… I was there on business, so I only managed to catch the one play. From what I saw…” It was incredibly violent, and the world would be a better place if it were banned permanently. “It seemed… fun? I think I might have even seen you score.”
A slight smile dimpled her cheeks before she returned her attention to the dagger. “This is Gnaffi’s work. Not the highest quality but decent enough for a town like Raialie.”
I shrugged. “Do you want it or not?”
“Better than nothing. I’m only High Intermediate with knives, though.”
“Good enough,” I said, then began untying the drawstring on my kilt so as to free the leather sheath.
Lynnria’s eyes widened, and she immediately spun around, her back ramrod straight.
I was more than a little shocked by the move. You’re kidding. There’s actually a person in this world with a shred of decency? You poor girl.
But I had no intention of popping that particular bubble. She would likely discover just how hard the Dungeon could be on a person’s wardrobe all on her own. So, I was careful to extract the sheath without disturbing the kilt too much. I could just imagine her reaction once she discovered I was flopping around au naturel.
“You can look now,” I said, then waited for her to take the proffered scrap of leather. She hesitated briefly before peeking over her shoulder.
“You’re very… unrestrained, sir,” she murmured before gently plucking the sheath from my hand.
“It comes with the territory,” I replied off-hand. “Now come on. We have a Dungeon to explore. Do you prefer swimming or flying?”
“Wha—well, flying of course, but… wait, what about my skills? I haven’t even picked anything yet.”
I shook my head. “I told you that’s going to have to wait. Mia is taking a bath.”
She stared at me. “You were serious about that?”
Seleroan By the by, I'm in the process of revamping the Patreon to follow this model as well and introduced new tiers for folks to enjoy content at different rates. Check it out if you are interested in supporting my broke ass.
Toodles.
Seleroan
Just a little heads up: I am going to start trying something a little different with my chapter releases for the time being. In an effort to improve consistency on the back end of things and attract new readers, I'm switching to a M-W-F schedule but chapters will be broken up into smaller chunks. I can only write so fast, after all, and having a decently edited 5k+ word chapter ready to go every single Friday is no mean feat, even with a backlog.
Hopefully, this will not ruffle too many feathers.
Thanks,
The author.
“An Engraver?!” Lynnria shouted. “What do you mean an Engraver? Is that supposed to be some kind of joke?”
I spread my hands, mystified. “Don’t ask me! All I know is—”
Lynnria swiped a hand through the air, cutting me off. “I’m not talking to you.“ She closed her eyes for a moment and took a calming breath. “Mia… would you please stop swearing long enough to actually answer—Mia for the love of—Argh!”
Frustrated to the breaking point, Lynnria began randomly punching and kicking as though venting her anger on some imagined foe. Probably Mia.
I clicked my tongue. My Faen had been pretty excited about exploring the girl’s new Class with her but, predictably enough, the conversation had gotten derailed rather quickly. I had hoped Lynnria would figure things out on her own, but it was not to be.
Still, I had to cut the girl some slack. Even Mia had not known what a tic was before I had told her, and it was her disorder.
“Maybe I should explain.”
Lynnria turned and marched up to me with a wild and breathless expression. “Explain? Explain what? Can you explain what this Class is supposed to be? It had better not be a crafting Class, or so help me…” She winced and slapped her hands over her ears, “Stop! In the name of the Three and the Two besides, I beseech you! Please… stop!”
I sighed. “Mia, I think it’s best you come back for a minute.”
“Donum, I am at my wit’s end!” Mia shouted suddenly, her arrival once again unheralded. Then she made a fragile little sound, almost like a sob. “Now if you will excuse me, I am going to take a bath. I need to relax.”
A bath? How is she… I shook my head. Not important.
Instead, I began to speak. As I talked, Lynnria gradually began to calm down, then her expression turned to one of both confusion and then shock.
“You’ve met the Lady?” she breathed. “In person?”
I nodded. Ruefully.
“How?” she asked finally. “Where? I don’t—“
I held up a hand. “I’d honestly rather not get into it. The Goddesses tend to be… a bit much. But to the point, Bline absolutely hates questions. Particularly ones She thinks are frivolous or stupid. And since Mia is a Faen created from the Lady, that hatred has manifested as an involuntary compulsion to swear every time she hears one.”
Lynnria mouthed the words ‘involuntary compulsion’ with a thoughtful expression. “You mean like… some sort of Status Ailment?”
I snorted. I could have sworn I had already had this conversation. “Something like that. Anyway, avoid direct questions where you can, and if you have to ask her something, stick to one at a time. Let her get the swearing out of her system, and you’ll be fine.”
She nodded seriously. “Okay… I think I can manage that.”
“Good. Now as for your Class…”
I hesitated for a moment. I did not actually know yet whether my intent had carried through, but from the name it was at least close. Still, there was the distinct possibility that because of the wildly open-ended nature of skills—and by extension, Classes—by speculating further, I could be doing more harm than good. So, I decided to change course.
Then a bit of a devilish grin slipped over my features.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll have fun figuring it out.”
“Have fun?! Wha… bu… Donum!”
My grin broadened. Teasing this girl was rather enjoyable, I decided.
“Mia!” she shouted indignantly. “Get back here and explain this at once!”
“Oh…” I somehow composed my expression into one of complete seriousness. “You’ll have to wait until she gets out of the bath.”
There was a beat of silence. “What?!”
Her expression of outraged bewilderment sent me into a fit of giggles. “I know right?”
“Donum, this isn’t funny!”
“I know, I know, but…” I waved my hands defensively. “You look so cute when you get angry. I can’t help it.”
“Cute?” She put her fists on her hips. “Don’t call me cute! You’re supposed to be the cute one.”
“I’m not one of your laoi males,” I shot back, still very much amused. “And I say you’re cute.”
She started blushing again and lapsed into silence. Apparently, she did not know how to respond to that.
I smirked, enjoying the turnabout. But I decided to have mercy. For now.
“Okay, okay. In fairness, I doubt Mia would have explained much anyway,” I informed her. “It all sort of goes hand-in-hand with the ‘no questions’ thing, but as I understand it, the Lady prefers people discover these things for themselves. Mia seems to operate… similarly.”
“You mean I have to figure everything out from scratch?” she whined. “Who does that?”
I tapped my thumb on my chest significantly.
Lynnria shot me a considering look. “I thought you said you were a Clan head. Didn’t your family keep skill records?”
“No,” I admitted slowly.
It was a technicality, but it was true. Most of my family had never even heard of skills. And as for my Clan? Well, we were still fresh off the boat, so to speak.
But the concept did sound pretty interesting. For a Clan, keeping records of what skills worked well and which did not might be quite useful. With time, you could come up with some pretty nasty combos that way. Although there was also the possibility that it could be quite confining if applied dogmatically.
And considering Mia’s little hint about this girl…
“So far, we’ve been concentrating on assembling a broad tool-kit of open-ended skills that are useful for a wide variety of situations. There are a few exceptions…” The lilim anti-Status-Effect skill-chain was powerful, but it was a bit of a heavy investment that needed streamlining. “We generally like to sit down and talk out our skill picks so that they compliment one another, but the final decision is always left to the individual.”
“That sounds kind of nice,” she murmured softly. Then she folded her arms. “But if you like to talk it out, why aren’t you telling me about my Class?”
“Because I don’t know about your Class,” I replied reasonably. “I only know what I tried for. Your Class could be something completely new. By telling you how it’s supposed to work, I could set artificial limitations on you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Think about it. How frequently do people end up with really unusual or unique Classes? Do you know?”
“No one has that I’ve met,” she admitted reluctantly. “Most people tend to end up with something similar to what their parents had. But my grandfather had this theory that a person could escape their fate through personal effort. It was why I had been training so hard to be a warrior.” She cast her eyes to the ground and sighed. “And with a Class called Engraver, I guess I got my wish…”
“We’ll have to see,” I said, though I reserved judgment on whether that had to do with her own efforts or my interference. “But to my point, I only had the vaguest idea as to what my Class was supposed to do or how it was supposed to work when I got it. And it has led to some… interesting outcomes. For the time being, all I am asking you to do is to experiment. Try to buy skills. Warrior skills. Mage skills. Whatever. See what you can get away with and what you can’t. Let your imagination go crazy. Who knows? Maybe you can be both.”
That had certainly been my intent. However, from her Class’s name, it sounded a lot more like she was meant to be some sort of enchantment specialist. And while that would certainly be cool, it was not anything like what I had been trying for. I did not want to say that, though. There was no need to disappoint the girl until we knew more.
“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try,” she admitted. “I do have the two skill points I can play with, and my physicals are still pretty advanced for the first Layer. Plus, it’s not like I’ve forgotten how to wield a blade… if I could just get my hands on one.”
Hmm… two skill points? Now that I thought about it, I had started with two myself. But both of the lilim had started with only the one. Was that because they were technically my summons or was there some other factor at play? Curious.
“You could use this,” I offered, drawing my knife out of its sheath. “It’s brand new. Bought it back in town before we went to your game-ball match.”
“You saw that?” Lynnria asked before accepting the blade hilt first. For a few moments, she made a show of inspecting it critically, though she kept casting furtive looks up at me. “What did you think? I scored the match-point, you know.”
“Uh… I was there on business, so I only managed to catch the one play. From what I saw…” It was incredibly violent, and the world would be a better place if it were banned permanently. “It seemed… fun? I think I might have even seen you score.”
A slight smile dimpled her cheeks before she returned her attention to the dagger. “This is Gnaffi’s work. Not the highest quality but decent enough for a town like Raialie.”
I shrugged. “Do you want it or not?”
“Better than nothing. I’m only High Intermediate with knives, though.”
“Good enough,” I said, then began untying the drawstring on my kilt so as to free the leather sheath.
Lynnria’s eyes widened, and she immediately spun around, her back ramrod straight.
I was more than a little shocked by the move. You’re kidding. There’s actually a person in this world with a shred of decency? You poor girl.
But I had no intention of popping that particular bubble. She would likely discover just how hard the Dungeon could be on a person’s wardrobe all on her own. So, I was careful to extract the sheath without disturbing the kilt too much. I could just imagine her reaction once she discovered I was flopping around au naturel.
“You can look now,” I said, then waited for her to take the proffered scrap of leather. She hesitated briefly before peeking over her shoulder.
“You’re very… unrestrained, sir,” she murmured before gently plucking the sheath from my hand.
“It comes with the territory,” I replied off-hand. “Now come on. We have a Dungeon to explore. Do you prefer swimming or flying?”
“Wha—well, flying of course, but… wait, what about my skills? I haven’t even picked anything yet.”
I shook my head. “I told you that’s going to have to wait. Mia is taking a bath.”
She stared at me. “You were serious about that?”
Seleroan By the by, I'm in the process of revamping the Patreon to follow this model as well and introduced new tiers for folks to enjoy content at different rates. Check it out if you are interested in supporting my broke ass.
Toodles.
