by Brent Tyman
“Oh yeah, Juliana had me look at it,” I said. “So… ah, right.”
I finally got it.
“You want to raise some of your stats higher then, Anny?” I asked her.
“Yes,” she nodded. “Everything else other than my Speed stat is really quite low. My father had me run marathons around my estate, but… he didn’t teach me much else.”
When I didn’t say anything else, the panic returned to her eyes.
“I can still be useful,” she hurried to add. “Don’t forget about my Pathfinding skill!”
“I was just thinking,” I laughed. “Although, what does this skill do?”
“It will be really useful for us, handsome,” Clarissa answered. “Anny can find the safest route between two points and can sense any trouble in the surrounding area.”
“Huh,” I said, “really? How does that work?”
“I’m not sure…” Anny admitted, “but if there are any people in a town, I can sense them and relay that to you.”
“Sense them how? Is it like you can see people through walls?” I questioned. I didn’t doubt her, but this had gotten my RPG mind turning. I really wanted to know how this skill of hers worked.
“Well… not as such,” she said, “It’s more like… I can see people’s aura and then track them as they move about. To me, it looks like colors gently shifting along my field of view.”
This seemed pretty useful. Having more information before going into fights would definitely help—both with survival and with planning sneak attacks. I wondered if sneaking up on a monster or something would make my first attack do extra damage.
Some RPG’s had that mechanic after all. Another thing I needed to look into in the future.
“Alright, I’ll take any advantage I can get. Welcome to the party, Anny. Go ahead and send me the request to join the Clan.”
Anny smiled and nodded her head. A moment later, a message appeared in front of my eyes.
Anaisia Fardonna has requested to join your Clan?
Accept/Deny?
I glanced at it for just a moment before accepting, just as I had done for Clarissa.
Anaisia Fardonna has joined your Clan!
Current Clan Members has increased to 3!
Default Role Applied: Novice
“There you go, all done. Happy to have you,” I said.
“Thank you very much, Alex Sir, you won’t regret it,” she said, wiggling in place. I guess she did that either because she was nervous or excited.
Good to know.
“You don’t have to call me Sir, just Alex is fine. Also, I had forgotten that Clan Roles were a thing.”
“Oh, handsome,” Clarissa murmured, quickly latching onto my arm. “I wouldn’t mind being an Officer in the Clan. I would love to be able to recruit others on my own. I believe I have made myself quite useful to you, or would you prefer another demonstration…”
Clarissa batted her eyelashes and puckered up her pouty lips in that way only she could do. I longed to kiss her right then and there. This woman definitely knew how to get my attention.
“I guess so. While it’s fine to have more people in the Clan, I think for our core party, we need a recruit a Tank.”
“Ah, yes. I suppose you are done with leveling up that delicious Defense stat for now,” she said.
“Clarissa, weren’t you telling everyone in the Academy that your Defense was over one hundred? Couldn’t you be our Tank?” Anny asked.
I grinned at that. “She’s right,” I said. “You certainly have all the requirements.”
“Don’t be silly, handsome, and you too Anny,” Clarissa quickly said, her smirk fading. “A lady like me isn’t made for the front lines. Who will heal you?”
I laughed, and Anny chuckled. I was glad she was starting to feel more comfortable around me.
“Haha, I suppose that’s true enough.”
Clarissa poked my arm lightly before smiling. Her eyes perked up as she seemed to remember something. “Oh, yes. By the way handsome, there may be another teeny tiny reason we had to come all the way out here.”
“You don’t say?” I drawled, rolling my eyes. “And here I thought you came all the way out her just for little ‘ole me.”
“That was the primary reason,” she agreed, smiling. “But my father was approached by the city state council. Something about, umm…” Clarissa thought for a moment before shaking her head. “Anny, what was it again?”
“A Beastkin village is under threat of attack from Ogres, just north of here, and they require assistance,” Anny replied.
“That’s it!” Clarissa declared. “Father needed someone to help those Beastkin. He was quite impressed with my Defense growth, Alex. So much so, he almost forgot to be mad at me for leaving his Clan.”
“So… You and Juliana have the same task then?”
“Is that why she ran off from the Academy?” she asked.
I nodded.
“I suppose so.” The beautiful blonde shrugged. “She spoke with me a bit about it last night, but we mostly discussed the man in our life.” She winked, and I wanted to groan.
Seriously, why was everyone talking about me all the time? I really wanted to know what was said. Curiosity sucked sometimes. They say it killed the cat, but my Defense stat should keep me safe enough. I hope.
Since Anny was now in my Clan, I wanted a sneak peek at her stats—just as I had done for Clarissa. I expected her Speed stat to be the highest, but there was only one way to find out.
I opened up the Clan Management screen and had a look.
Name: Anaisia Fardonna
Race: Human
Stats
Strength: 11
Speed: 71
Defense: 8
Magical Power: 35
Magical Capacity: 9
Luck: 3
Skills
Pathfinding - Always know the way forward, and know those in your way.
That Speed stat of hers was crazy high. I wondered how fast she could actually go, in terms of miles per hour. Based on her collision with me, she was much faster than Juliana’s earlier demonstration.
That Pathfinding skill’s description was not only non-descriptive, but was also strangely cryptic, too. I shouldn’t have been surprised, given the lack of information available on my own Growth skill, but Clarissa’s skills had been easy enough to understand.
I guess it was just hit or miss, on whether a Skill had a description that was clear and easily understood.
“Ah…” Anny said, wiggling in place.
“Hmm, what’s wrong, Anny? Is Juliana on her way here? She did say she wanted to talk in the morning,” Clarissa said absently, still latched onto my arm.
“Just these…” she said, pointing to something in front of her. “The Clan Messages are quite… ahh…”
Clarissa’s eyes immediately widened, and she dove forward to cover Anny’s eyes, leaving my side in the process.
“Don’t look at those! Those were private between me and my handsome Alex!”
I watched with a raised eyebrow as the two ended up tumbling to the floor in a tangle. The noise attracted enough attention that the guards I had seen outside earlier dashed in to find Clarissa on top of Anny, still trying to cover her eyes.
“Yeah…” I said, turning to the guards with a shrug. “I have no idea what’s going on either.”
I looked back to see Clarissa ordering Anny to get out of the Clan Messages. Anny did her best to fend off Clarissa’s hands and I could even see some slight blurring occur around her head and arms.
No doubt she was making use of her superior Speed.
I watched the two women quarrel for a few minutes before shaking my head. As far as I knew, there wasn’t anything overly private in there. I wondered what Clarissa was embarrassed about.
Although… there was that one night Clarissa mentioned some fairly lewd and spicy things that had raised my eyebrows and made my pants uncomfortably tight when I’d read them.
It could have been that.
“Ow, Clarissa!” Anny squawked. “You compared Alex’s abs to a washboard and said you wanted to…”
“No! Don’t say anything more!” Clarissa demanded, “It was for his eyes only! Stop reading those!”
Yeah, it was definitely that.
21
Behind closed doors, or closed tents really, Juliana and Clarissa begrudgingly agreed to work together to help the Beastkin town. ‘Begrudgingly’ perhaps not being quite strong enough a word in this case.
I had managed to convince them both that we would have better odds of surviving together, rather than apart, and they eventually agreed.
The rest of the day was filled with travel and I had the pleasure of having two beautiful ladies, one on either side of me, as we marched. Clarissa had shown off her well-groomed horse at first, likely to show off in front of Juliana, but soon opted to walk beside me when Julianna clung to my arm.
One thing I quickly noticed, though, was how tense the Sovereignty and Federation troops were. I asked Juliana about it as we forded a shallow river.
“The Hogannans have always had a rocky relationship with my homeland,” Juliana explained. “When my father took power from my grandfather, the disorder and fighting escalated along the border—but it has always stopped short of all-out war.”
“A shame, really,” Clarissa commented from my other side. “I’m sure Hoganna would make short work of the Sovereignty.”
“Hmm, I don’t believe so,” Juliana retorted. “The Sovereignty encompasses a larger land mass than Hoganna and has done so ever since its inception.”
“Says the woman from the nation which was founded by invading any neighboring principalities too small to fight back. We do things much more… stimulatingly in Hoganna, wouldn’t you agree, handsome?”
“Haven’t really had the chance to see Hoganna,” I said. “Although I hear it has its own Dungeon, right? Wouldn’t mind seeing that.”
Clarissa clapped her hands excitedly, smirking all the while.
“Excellent, why don’t we arrange for a visit? I would love to show you all the alluring spots. My room has a hot spring, remember.”
“Hoganna doesn’t have the flowing mountains and lush valleys that Tasberg does, Alex,” Juliana blurted out, hooking her arm through mine. “You would be welcome in the Sovereignty. It’s far safer as well. That bandit attack I suffered before meeting you would have been impossible in my homeland.”
“Hoganna has the Grand Museum of the Stars. It’s a beauty to behold with many constellations mapped out on glass as fine as my fingernails. You would surely love it, Alex,” Clarissa purred as she grabbed hold of my other arm. She went one step further and pressed her soft breasts into my shoulder, showing off that perfect cleavage of hers.
It was a grand sight, indeed.
“Don’t be swayed by this vixen Alex,” Juliana said, squeezing my hand to grab my attention. “The Sovereignty’s Dungeon is vast, and I dare say that with your current stats, you would be able to reach the fiftieth level in only a few days… with my help of course.”
“Really?” I asked, my interest piqued. “Tasberg’s Dungeon is as big as the one in Tringall?”
“Perhaps not as big, but far easier to advance in. I would happily take you there during any extended breaks from my Academy studies,” Juliana assured me.
The women went back and forth, laying out a multitude of detailed reasons why their nation was the best and how I just had to visit. I mean, I wasn’t opposed to traveling, as that’s what anyone stuck on a fantasy RPG world would do.
It wouldn’t take much to convince me to travel. Both places sounded exciting, but I doubted anything I might commit to would stop their squabble.
“Hey, wait a minute,” I said, an idea coming to mind. “What about Yunissa?”
Both women immediately ceased their arguing to stare at me with wide eyes.
“Hmm? What about it, handsome?” Clarissa asked.
“Is Yunissa a good place to visit?”
Yunissa was the third nation that surrounded Tringall. The only one that I’d had zero interaction with. The only thing I knew about Yunissa was that they wore blue colors from the RGB color scheme that the three nations had adopted.
“Hmm, you would not like Yunissa, Alex,” Juliana said, all in a rush. “The terrible snow, the chilly atmosphere...”
“Yes, I also have heard that many travelers end up freezing to death there,” Clarissa agreed, shaking her head. “Such a terrible shame, really. It isn’t a place you would want to go.”
“Isn’t it a major nation? So, there must be a Dungeon in it somewhere?” I asked curiously.
“A very small Dungeon,” Juliana assured me.
“Tiny,” Clarissa added.
“Minuscule.”
“There are barely enough monsters there to light a fire with, I’d dare say.”
“I heard it’s somehow smaller than Daiver’s brain,” Kesara said from somewhere behind me.
“Oi!” Daiver exclaimed.
“There is no reason to even think about Yunissa, Alex,” Juliana said.
“Yes, handsome. Pay those insufferable warriors no mind,” Clarissa said.
Clearly, if there was one thing both ladies agreed on, it was that they weren’t fans of Yunissa. At all.
“What about their heir? I haven’t heard anything about Yunissa’s heir.”
The two women looked at each other. They apparently came to some kind of agreement as I watched them both nod their heads. It was as if they were somehow communicating without saying a word. They didn’t even move their lips.
“Stephania is a boring prude, handsome,” Clarissa assured me.
“She has no class at all,” Juliana agreed. “And there is nothing else we can tell you about her.”
“Oh, really?”
“Really,” they both said in unison.
“I think the Sovereignty might not be so bad,” Clarissa said suddenly. “Far better than Yunissa.”
“And I believe I may have misspoken about Hoganna, it is far superior to Yunissa in every way.”
The women didn’t offer anything else as they smiled at each other. I was left baffled at the display. I guessed that if I wanted the two of them to get along, I just had to mention Yunissa to get them to play nice.
I looked around at the rest of the group and they didn’t offer any further comment at all on our conversation.
It was only when we neared our destination towards the end of the day, Juliana and Clarissa having mostly made idle chatter until they broke off from me to discuss some things in private, that I managed to get an explanation from Karl.
“I believe it unwise to involve myself with the two heirs and their… chatter,” he said, pushing up his glasses.
“My Lady becomes very… charged when mattered relate to you, Alex,” Vencia said. Her arms were crossed, but her eyes became wistful all of a sudden. “She has seemed much happier of late, though, so I cannot complain as such.”
“Ugh,” Daiver snapped. “To have Hogannan forces marching beside me but not being allowed to act… it makes my blood stir.”
“There are Hogannan students in the Academy, you doofus,” Vencia snapped. “Did your blood stir then?”
“This is most assuredly different,” he retorted, but in classic Daiver fashion, he didn’t elaborate.
“But I must say, your methods of seduction are quite intriguing, Alex,” Daiver commented. “You must be quite versed with the ways of women to have the heirs of two nations hanging on each arm.”
“Wait, what? I’m not seducing anyone,” I said. “It’s more like… well.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I like them, you know?” I paused, my face heating up a bit.
“I really like them, and things have been progressing well, on their own,” I mumbled.
“Oh, really?” Kesara grinned, “I would say things have been going better than… ‘well’.”
“Ahh,�
�� Anny said. She had mostly avoided all the new faces from Juliana’s retinue for the entire day. For some reason, she found it easier to walk alongside men armored in full plate, than at the front with us.
“Clarissa explained her night with you in great detail, Alex. I believe she really likes you, too.”
Kesara immediately jumped on Anny, causing the woman to recoil in shock. Despite Anny’s incredible Speed, she was no match for Kesara’s desire for a scoop.
In no time at all, Kesara had her arm wrapped firmly around Anny’s shoulder. “In great detail, you say? Come over this way, my new best friend, so we can talk all about Alex’s naughty escapades.”
“Wait! But!” Was all I heard before Kesara dragged her away.
“Thank the Gods we don’t have much further to go,” Karl said. “I ran out of ink a few hours ago.”
“I haven’t seen any signs of a town yet,” I said, looking around.
It was true. Still moving to the north, we’d mostly been crossing the same old grassland, with the occasional glimpse of forests in the distance. While the scenery was beautiful, I wouldn’t exactly call it exciting.
“The giant mountain in front of us. You see that?” he asked, and I nodded.
“There is a tunnel system there that leads down into the Beastkin town. Remember, their town is deep below the ground,” Karl explained.
“Ahh right, I knew I had forgotten something,” I said. “Underground, huh? Well, as long as it isn’t like the fifth floor of the Dungeon in Tringall, with its red lava veined walls and its terrible heat.”
“You will be disappointed then,” Daiver said, rolling his eyes. “It is even worse. Beastkin love the heat and have giant furnaces running along the ceilings. It will be a terrible inconvenience because of this armor, but I’m sure the ballads will sing songs of my heroics soon.”
Ah well, that was just great. I’d hated the heat on the fifth floor and having furnaces all around me, pumping out heat, didn’t bode well for my comfort. The others talked amongst themselves and I had a rare moment of solitude.
