My eyes widened. She was definitely intense, but I was on the side of liking it now. I was left speechless, but Keres wasn’t done.
“Cernunnos teaches us about fairness. Justice. Where’s the justice in throwing your holiest beings like lambs to the slaughter? How can he justify this?”
I felt a tear stream down my cheek and laughed ruefully, remembering how he set the other priests up to fail to the point they’d rather join Cian or quit playing altogether.
“You don’t know the half of it,” I muttered.
“How long did you serve there?”
“A few hours were enough for me.”
Keres softened and let me go. She continued walking and I followed. “If you’re going to be excommunicated regardless, then why are you here?”
“You needed me,” I said immediately, instinctively. I thought about it and tried again. “I need money. I thought about setting up my own café. But I don’t know what to do next.”
Bri’jit smiled at me sadly. “Take a deep breath. Start with that.”
I did, just like I had instructed Rose earlier in the day. It did help.
“Liset,” said Bri’jit, gently, “where does your faith lie? What does your heart tell you?”
“I mean, I do like cooking.”
“Yes, because you like nourishing people, and cooking is one way to do that. But do you really think you’d lose your faith just because you lost your temple?”
I snapped a finger gun at her. “You got me there.”
Keres picked up a skip to her step again. “Tell you what. I’ll teach you a few—what’d you call them, Brij? — ‘PvP techniques’ while we walk. We’ll practice together. And if you do get excommunicated and want a new class, come back. You can always come home to us.”
“I’d like that,” I said. “Thank you.”
“Also, if you want to make money regardless, you know another way to fight?” asked Bri’jit.
“What’s that?”
“The market. Undercut their prices. Not enough to get them to have a discussion with you in a dark alley, but—here, look at this,” said Bri’jit, pausing by a gathering of wildflowers and herbs along the dirt road. She picked a Blighted Rosehip and held it out for me to cleanse.
“See, at the moment, all of these herbs are in short supply. Our Bee’s Nuts, a specialty only found here, is especially expensive because of the blight. What we do find, we sell for other food, because it’s in high demand but low supply. A handful of Bee’s Nuts can be bought for almost a whole gold coin in some places.”
I snickered and cleared my throat for her to continue.
“A handful of nuts won’t feed a lot of elves, but it will buy a lot of food,” she said. “Stuff like this Rosehip here will always sell well because people are always going to hurt at some point. Especially if you can turn it into something better, like a tea. Your skills as a healer could help make bandages, poultices, tinctures, and tisanes. Processing something makes it more valuable, and you could put that on the market.”
Bri’jit distracted me from the length of the walk by helping me hunt down the foraged items on my quest lists. Over many years, the elves naturally had the foresight to cultivate bountiful harvests within arm’s reach of a daily walk for future generations to enjoy. Stuff like Moonflowers only bloomed after dark, so I had to wait until evening to pick those, but she had some Sunroot to share with me. It could be turned into a holy powder that Keres used to dye her hair, and it was often used to stain sacred patterns into skin. Chickenwood was gathered off the sides of trees, along with other mushrooms. I thanked her, cleansed the plants, and stuffed them all into my inventory. I took some extras for myself, to sell later, on her advice. Bri’jit gathered some Funeral Bark off the blighted trees, before I cleansed those, too. By the time we stopped for a water break, my Herblore had leveled up significantly from her knowledge.
<<<>>>
Skill: Herblore
Herblore allows you to identify, collect, and utilize herbs of various types and levels. It also provides you with information regarding their potential utilization and what kind of effects they will have.
Skill Type/Level: Passive/Level 9
Cost: None
Effect: Able to identify plants and herbs of level 14; will display 2 possible uses per herb.
<<<>>>
Keres picked up a Woundwort and handed it over. “Here, try to sell it to me.”
I looked at it, then held it up. “Hey, you want to buy a plant?”
She bopped me on the head with her knuckles and took it back. “No. Find out what their needs are. Fit the product to them. They’re an adventurer? Oh, they’ll need these bandages and poultices. They don’t want to fail the quest because they got injured or died, do they? If they have comrades, shouldn’t they think of their health? Maybe they have a family to get home to, or provide for, so they need to take care of themselves, and you know just the thing.”
I nodded.
“Maybe they’re competitive,” said Keres. “Do they want an edge on others? Oh, well take a tincture to poison the blade. They’re a magic user? This gives a bonus to Intelligence and Spirit. Maybe they’re just stressed and want something to relax. And don’t discount the value of just making something look pretty.”
I nodded again. With Acuity, it’d be easier to cold read people and tell their needs.
“Be confident. Fake it if you have to. Make it seem like they shouldn’t walk away from this offer. Make them feel like they’ll miss out,” she continued. She put the plant back in my hand, and I inspected it against my pale skin. The clusters of tiny purple cups of flowers were so delicate and pretty.
Bri’jit smiled. “The trick is to let them hold it in their hands. Once they have it, they won’t want to let it go. They’ll consider it their property and pay you to return it.”
I tried again to sell them the plant. We practiced to fill the other part of the journey, role-playing, until I got a new skill notification:
<<<>>>
Skill: Merchant-Craft
Being a merchant is about recognizing value. At high levels, you’ll be able to tell what a customer or even a nation needs at a glance. What you do with that knowledge—profiteer or do-gooder, magnate or entrepreneur—is up to you.
Skill Type/Level: Passive/Level 1
Cost: None
Effect 1: You can sense if someone is cheating you. You won’t know why, or by how much, but at least you’re walking in with both eyes open.
Effect 2: You can sense if someone is rich or poor. This skill will also help you notice inconsistencies when someone is wearing a disguise.
<<<>>>
I let out a whistle. That would be useful. I wasn’t sure how to do that with healing. I still hated the idea of charging for healing spells, and honestly, without the temple I had no way to enforce collection. But if I became a mercenary healer, I could offer a discounted rate if they paid upfront and require some sort of down payment. Higher-level parties, factions, maybe, would bid for my services. Ultimately though, I was just one person. I couldn’t compete with the whole temple who supplied the Empire with healers. And I told them as such.
Keres pulled me against her side with one arm in a quick hug. “So don’t. Just do enough to live comfortably with your own morals.”
“I’m not giving you a discount, by the way,” I said. “But thank you again for the advice and help.”
Keres laughed from her chest and slapped my back. “Fair enough. You’re learning!”
The sun filtered through the trees and felt warm on my face despite the autumn chill. As much as I missed my friends back in Rowanheath, it was nice to know the world was bigger than my troubles with the temple. There were new people to meet and new friends to make. New skills to learn. New places to see. The elves accepted me readily, like a cousin they hadn’t seen in years. It was so unlike the cult my temple was, and my old coworkers who rejected me. There was a simple joy in collecting flowers and learning t
o defend myself and protect life.
If I had just gone south a few days ago, this might’ve been my life instead. I wouldn’t have had to work and fight so hard. I could’ve been someone wanted and valued.
It felt nice to taste it.
Knot My Problem
After a bit more walking and talking, I told them about my friends back in Rowanheath and how we met. Bri’jit, with her warm tones, and Keres, with her incessant prying, managed to pull out my true feelings on the group. Yvonne I trusted to have my back and do what was right, and though she wasn’t always the most polite about it, it was refreshing to have direct honesty. She didn’t waste my time with pretense, and I always knew where I stood with her. Corvus was weird, but I liked weird. They were always supportive and never made me feel judged or out of place, so I wanted to do the same with them.
And Kismet—
“Why don’t you tell Kismet how you feel about her?” asked Keres.
“I would, but what if she doesn’t feel the same way?” I answered.
Bri’jit laughed. “Okay, but hear me out here: what if she does?”
“Then why doesn’t she say anything?” I asked.
“Why don’t you?” said Keres.
Keres’ protective mother instincts kicked in when we heard something rustle in the bushes. She held out an arm to stop me in my tracks and grabbed the chakrams off her belt.
Kobolds, obviously distressed from the heat of the afternoon sun, dug in a clearing just off to the side of the road. I counted at least eight. Their claws tried to break through the thick intertwined roots of the forest floor to get underground. One kept gathering neat iridescent rocks on the ground, while another, frowning, crunched a rock and threw it against a tree in disappointment.
“Shiny?” it muttered.
“What’re they doing this far east?” asked Bri’jit. “Aren’t they from that mining dungeon?”
No, not rocks. Rainbow Stag Beetles. I nudged Keres and reminded her those were on our quest list. One stag beetle got away from its kobold captor, who chased it. The beetle, easily the size of my hand, turned around and snapped its pincers onto the kobold's ankle and tossed it unceremoniously into a tree with enough force to splinter the bark.
Seven kobolds, now.
We ducked under the debris and slipped into stealth by the bushes.
“Stag beetles are territorial and have kept most of the kobolds off our land,” said Keres. “Hey, Liset, in addition to that quest, if you can collect their shells, those are good for making drinks glitter, and they sell for more,” she said, handing me some ginger root.
I stared at the spicy yellow knob. “What am I supposed to do with this? Am I cooking?”
“Use it as bait,” clarified Bri’jit as she joined her partner in rushing out to join the fight.
Keres chucked one chakram at a kobold, knocking the candle off its head with a thwack to the skull. The chakram ricocheted like a boomerang to another, winged it in the arm, and pinned its backpack to the tree. Keres raised the second chakram high and channeled holy light from the sun that set the pinned kobold ablaze.
Bri’jit and Keres kept the kobolds busy. Keres seemed to have the same idea I had earlier with the rogues; her smite spells created enough light for her to effectively attract and tank the creatures.
I, meanwhile, had the attention of the stag beetles. Their beady black eyes stared at the knob of ginger in my hand and their pincers snapped in excited anticipation. One broke formation and gunned for me. I whacked at it using my holy book as a bludgeon, but it parried my attacks with its pincers. I wasn’t about to be bested by a silly bug though and tossed the ginger off to the side to get them out of our hair.
“Liset! Shield me!” cried Bri’jit.
I cast the spell instinctively, not looking to verify if she needed it or not. When I turned around, Keres was zipping through the kobolds like a rogue, hacking and punching the kobolds almost as fast as her chained holy fire. If I were back on Earth, I might’ve thought about saying something about her delicate condition, but it didn’t seem to slow her one bit.
“Don’t run from me! Get back here and die!” she screamed at them, laughing.
Bri’jit spun her staff to deflect a kobold’s pickaxe, jammed it into his gut, and sent him flying into Keres’ chakram. Within a minute, all the monsters were dead.
Keres caught her breath and wiped the sweat off her brow. “See? Easy.”
She drank greedily from a waterskin. Bri’jit peered behind me.
“Liset, you put the ginger into a pit, right?” she asked, worried.
“No,” I answered. The blood drained from my face. “Should I?”
I looked around and saw some of the deeper holes the kobolds had dug. She was right. I was wrong. We were screwed.
Bri’jit spun me around in time to see the stag beetles had finished chewing on the ginger root, and were once again eying us, the invaders. They charged as one solid black unit, their pincers clicking furiously.
“Hold them off me for a second,” said Bri’jit, raising her staff and closing her eyes.
Keres leapt into the fight. One of the beetles grabbed her chakram and threw her into a tree as well. My fingers motioned to cast Prosperity, my heal over time, or HoT. But now all the bugs’ attention was on me. I shielded myself and made a break for one of the large holes. If I could leap over it in time, maybe—
Bri’jit’s holy nova sent out a wave of searing light as my sandals left the ground. The horde of beetles sizzled in their shells and drew in their legs. The hole acted as a sort of firebreak to keep me from being hit, and I dropped to a knee to catch my breath.
Keres recovered, hopping to her feet, and rubbed her belly. She appeared unharmed and tossed me a few Rainbow Stag Beetle Shells. Enough to complete the quest, and a few more to process later.
I accepted her waterskin to take a drink myself while Bri’jit rifled through the kobolds for loot. My Divinity meter had gone up slightly from the fight, even though I had only cast three spells. It seemed like my party members’ actions contributed to the meter as well. Once that leg of the circle was filled, supposedly I could cast a miracle.
“Is that all of them?” asked Bri’jit, handing me my portion of the earnings.
I popped Acuity. It wasn’t strong enough to show me people in stealth or hidden behind walls, but sometimes I could see their nameplate easier. In this case, I felt someone above us, and looked up.
“By the Seven, I am so glad you three showed up when you did,” said an Imperial man hanging by one leg off an elm tree.
Keres threw her chakrams to cut the rope. I healed him up when he hit the ground. Judging by his soiled toga and sandals, he was a Viridian from out east. Bri’jit handed him a snack and I handed over my waterskin.
“Were you just going to stay silent the whole time?” asked Bri’jit. He ignored her.
“How did you end up hanging from the tree?” I asked.
“A dusky knife-eared son of a horned goat tied me up!” said the man. Bri’jit and Keres stiffened, and I saw the corner of Keres’ eye twitch at the slur. Acuity told me the man’s name was Octavius. I took my waterskin back and asked Keres to go refill it, trying to diffuse the situation.
“Without using pejoratives towards our people,” said Bri’jit, gripping the man’s arm a little too tightly, “could you describe what he looked like?”
“He was a Murk Elf. Identified himself as part of the Eldgard Rebellion. Gray skin, Mohawk, notch in his left ear, nasty temperament—”
“Did he sic the kobolds on you?” asked Bri’jit.
“No,” said Octavius. He took a deep breath to calm himself. “I was calling for help, and they showed up shortly after and scared him off.” He munched on a piece of dry shortbread. “The Broken Hill Mining Corp sent me to investigate why operations were halted. The Travelers sent to protect me ran off when that Murk Elf showed up.”
“Anything else you can tell us about him?” I asked.
&
nbsp; Octavius munched another piece of shortbread and thought about it.
“He wore red and purple.”
Bri’jit and I exchanged glances.
“Does that mean anything to you?” I asked.
She shook her head and snatched the snack from Octavius. “We’ll keep an eye out. Head on down the road but be careful. If you can get to Ravenkirk, I’m sure you can hire someone more reliable.”
Octavius stood without a word, not even a thank you, and found his way back to the road.
“You aren’t going to send him to Ascomere?” I asked, wrapping up the rope used to trap the man. It seemed useful. Everyone could always use some rope.
Bri’jit shrugged and accepted the waterskin from Keres when she returned.
“I’m not keen to send him to my people if he’s going to call us ‘knife-eared.’”
It wasn’t much longer back on the road that we came across more kobolds, this time gathering around a Dawn Elf woman in a bear trap. Several Mammoth Caps, giant, humanoid mushrooms with dotted red heads, circled around the trapped young woman. Off to the side, on the other side of the kobold group, was a [Dryad] spirit, her limbs made of dry, gnarled branches and her hair of vines. The Dryad screeched at the kobolds and sent out a flurry of razor-sharp leaves that scratched the creatures’ hides.
I shielded the woman, but it wasn’t necessary. The mushroom people collapsed around her in a phalanx formation to shield her. The Dryad turned to us, her wooden mouth snarling, and raised her long, thorned fingers.
Viridian Gate Online: Schism: A litRPG Adventure (The Heartfire Healer Series Book 2) Page 9
