The Pinnacle Warrior

The words, as Greely spoke them, made Astrid‘s eyes widen. Everything the man had said in succession had continued to keep her on her back foot, so she hadn’t thought about that most valuable treasure she and the party retained until that moment.

“You can’t just ask that question and then hold us all in suspense, old man!” Benedict jumped in, his eyes blazing.

“In addition to being a complete corpse of an exotic monster with draconic lineage from the inside of a volcano,” Greely repeated, ignoring Benedict‘s impatience, “this is a Boss monster. Their bodies are suffused with magic beyond the usual, and so your volcanic dragon turtle is another half again more valuable than it would have been if it was a regular monster. Of course, there’s the damage sustained to the body and evidence of Skills being exerted on it, but nothing that depreciates its value more than a couple dozen gold.”

Benedict squinted at the old man who obviously was relishing the opportunity to keep him in suspense, though the party all took note of how he counted several dozen gold as nothing compared to the body. After waiting for a few seconds, Greely continued, “And since you didn’t know, having a draconic lineage, something that the Great One itself acknowledges, is a warning to you as the delver that this is a creature you should pay special attention to with regards to harvesting its body. Anything called a dragon means that its materials are doubly valuable compared to something without that same lineage, even if killed and harvested from the same location.

“Finally, because this is a dragon turtle, its shell makes for immensely valuable armor within the Iron tier. Honestly, if you all weren’t nearly out of Iron tear yourselves, I would suggest replacing much of your equipment wholesale with equipment created from this Boss.”

“I think you’re milking the joke a little too much,” Saul spoke with a dry tone, “the teat’s dry at this point.”

“I suppose, if you say so,” Greely replied. “In total, with the quality of the corpse as it is now, the Guild will pay you one thousand, two hundred gold for the entire body.”

Astrid coughed in surprise, even as she’d tried to hold back her expectations. She swallowed several times, thinking of the debts that Klara had suggested they take on a year and a half ago. The Wanderers’ opinions had fluctuated wildly in the time since, but now, Astrid could begin to justify that willingness from the Guild representative. Her unconcern with a couple gold of debt that grew at a pace that seemed so fast to Astrid a year before was now something that, even if she hadn’t paid a single copper towards this entire time, she still would be able to pay without any issue. From her share of one Boss.

Sure, she wouldn’t be able to find another Boss like it anytime soon, and she and her party wouldn’t have been able to carry the entire thing back under normal circumstances, but that didn’t matter in terms of where she was right this moment. More than anything, this served as a glimpse into how little she understood about the world underneath the surface. Time and time again, these past days had worked to reinforce that realization, and though Astrid‘s vision clouded briefly with the thought of that much money, she was reminded of the regrets she had just been feeling.

If she wanted to, she could not buy this equipment, sell off her portion of everything, and take the 600 gold that would make up her portion and retire to wherever she wanted. Sometime, in the next five or ten years, she would reach level 50 and could evolve at that time to be an especially powerful Steel tier that could have a family, sleep in every day, and build a community of friends in whatever city she lived in.

For just a brief moment, Astrid allowed herself to dream about what life could be. She could be just like her mother, becoming a guard captain or even a trainer for prospective delvers. That, combined with the hefty savings she would enter into this mundane life with, would allow Astrid to be fine for the 150 or so years she would live as a Steel tear with physical attributes in the 400s and above.

Then, after entertaining the dream for a short time, Astrid quashed it. Yes, this life was more isolated and lonely than she’d thought it would be when she was a child. Chances were, due to her aspirations, it would be very difficult for her to find any long-term friends outside of her party. There were some who would be mentors, like Stark and Grom in Schteldt, but those would be left behind before long. After all, Astrid could guarantee that she was stronger than both of those men now. If they’ve had her potential as it was now, they wouldn’t have stuck around in Iron for so long.

“There isn’t anything we can actually spend money on out here, is there?” Astrid asked, pulling herself back to the present. “I’m happy to carry money around, after all, our spatial pouches will have plenty of space soon, but what use is money out here? Does the Verdant Sanctuary actually use money?”

“I would strongly suggest that you largely take the payment in coinage now,” Greely answered. “There aren’t stores out here, and the Verdant Walkers largely don’t use any currency. They will provide it to you in exchange for materials that you gather that they have a use for, but as a people, they don’t have an economy, per se. They think of themselves as part of the Sanctuary themselves, and though there can be contests between Groves, the good of the Sanctuary comes before the good of the individual.”

“There are materials here that you may find a use for,” Isana shrugged with a smile as she jumped in. “We will charge reasonable rates to you if you choose to pay us to enchant anything for you.” 

“Reasonable rates for you or reasonable rates for a group of Iron tiers?” as Benedict asked the question, he received no answer except for a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“That is an option to spend your money on,” Greely spoke again, “but there’s no problem with holding your funds for a while yet. Just food for thought, and, of course, you can hold onto as many of the materials as you would like as well.”

Astrid nodded, but was left again thinking about how much money they were talking about. She’d never thought too much about it, but her mother must’ve been paid a hefty stipend due to her existence as a high Steel tier working for a Mithril tier lesser noble. Astrid hadn’t ever had much of an impression of her parents being wealthy, but they must’ve had plenty of money, to the point of not needing to worry about it. Astrid‘s brief dream of retirement was, she realized, living her mother‘s life. But how did they deal with that money, since it wasn’t being spent on anything Astrid had ever seen? Her parents hadn’t ever had real conversations with Astrid about budgeting or anything like that, only saying, “Don’t live beyond your means, don’t take loans you can’t pay.”

“If we’re going to be walking around with so much money, I’m a little nervous about running into merchants that have strong mind affecting Skills,” Astrid spoke. “Skandr enjoys haggling, and that’s great, but if we run into, say, a Steel tier Merchant, who’s to say we aren’t going to be fleeced beyond belief?”

“A good question,” Greely nodded. “In reality, you’re not going to come into contact with Steel tier Merchants. There are very few of them, and they’re national assets, at least to the three nations that actively engage in trade. If a Merchant, through their own efforts, reaches level 50, the country will bend over backwards to ensure that they keep the Merchant in the country. Beyond that, if you’re concerned with the person you’re speaking to, at any time, you can ask that a Guild representative negotiate on your behalf.”

Astrid leveled a look at the Druid and he nodded once in acknowledgment of her reluctance to place blind trust in the Guild. 

“These negotiators gain experience and are paid off of how much below the median price for materials they are able to negotiate. In other words, it is very much to their benefit to ensure that you get the best deal,” he explained. “In your case, I would probably caution you away from this path unless you happen to have some treasure you find in the Dungeon that is worth more than your own current tier. It’s better that you be able to fend for yourselves, but the Guild will take care of you if necessary. Since Skandr enjoys negotiating and has a focus on mental attribute growth, his Acumen and Self-Mastery will ensure that you’re never getting robbed, even if you come out on the worse side of a deal.”

“Well, that sounds like fun,” the Wizard interjected. “There’s no more questions we have on that account.”

Astrid stepped back from that conversation, allowing Skandr’s words to serve as the end of her questions. Instead, she refocused on the question of what they were going to do now with the money that they were going to be paid. There was no reason to hold onto a large portion of the dragon turtle, so they would be receiving a hefty payment to work with, no matter what else they did.

“With our current levels being only one away from getting our last Skill selections,” Astrid answered for her party after glancing back and forth to gauge their reactions, “we’ll keep our equipment and look into replacing it at Steel instead of putting funds into it right now. I’m sure we all can deal with significantly better equipment than we have now without poisoning ourselves, but I’d also guess that Steel tier equipment is expensive.”

“That is a reasonable assumption to make,” Greely nodded. “I can tell you that the budget for the Iron tier delvers coming into the Wandering Trials is typically ten times that of the delvers entering the Bronze tier of the Trials.”

Astrid squinted and then looked at the Golden Fist, her quick mental maths making her have to fight to keep herself calm. “If that increase holds true, then equipment you prepared for this excursion into the Wandering Trials would have cost 2,500,000 gold for each of you. There’s no way, right?”

“Oh, no, of course, not,” Aleksandr laughed as he shook his hands in denial. “There’s no delver alive, at least on the surface, that has anywhere near that amount of money.”

Before Astrid could let out a sigh of relief, he continued, “Any equipment that somebody at our level has is effectively priceless, even at high Adamantite tier, much less Arcanite. We trade in favors, invaluable materials, and things of that nature instead of mundane coinage.”

“Much of the materials for the equipment that we use is sourced by ourselves,” Leah explained. “And we didn’t buy any equipment that would fit us at Arcanite. The evolution… well, it’s something we’re not at liberty to explain, but getting to level 200 is different, and the Classes—”

She stopped speaking with a choking sound, as if somebody had punched her in the throat. Her face screwed up in pain, and knowing how high her attributes had to be, Astrid felt her jaw fall open. After working her neck for a few seconds, Leah recovered and said with a scowl, “It’s different.”

Astrid nodded and accepted what she had been told and looked to her party. “When are we going to discuss this?”

“Later,” Aleksandr cut off any answers. “For now, you all are training, and your rest is over. Benedict, take this.”

The leader of the Golden Fist pulled a plain sword out of nowhere and held it out to the Bard.

“Can I ask why?” Benedict asked as he hesitantly took the weapon. He didn’t react to it, so evidently it didn’t grant any additional attributes. 

“Because you’ve got a well-rounded Class,” Aleksandr answered, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. “You’re never going to be a fighter like those three, and you’ll never have spells like a Wizard. Going into Steel, you’ll get to the point where you’re going to find your primary Skills and have to start developing secondary ones. Developing an ability to wield a weapon right now, when you don’t have a Skill for it, could potentially greatly help you in your next Class evolution options. Maybe not at Steel tier, but at Mithril and above, concepts such as cutting can apply to physical attacks as well as verbal ones. I’ve seen a Mithril tier Bard literally flay the skin from a monster with her singing.”

“Sounds like that would be spreading myself too thin,” Benedict disagreed as he let the sword’s tip dip. “There’s a reason why parties have five people, each one has their specializations, whether that be one, two, or even three aspects, but getting me to start wielding a weapon sounds like it will make me useless in the long-term. Healing, buffing, debuffing, and now weapons,” he ticked the items off on his fingers as he said it.

“That’s true enough, I suppose,“ Aleksandr answered, though his tone contradicted his words. “Even if you aren’t learning how to fight with a weapon, you need to better understand how to fortify your body with Power, Alacrity, and Fortitude-aligned mana, and physical training will help with that.”

“I’m not confident with Power-aligned mana,” Benedict allowed, “but with the others, I’d say I’m competent as somebody with a week of experience could be expected to be.”

“Then prove it,” Alexander snapped. “Astrid, you’re with him.”

The Soldier spared no further words to the two he decided to instruct, despite the unreasonable nature of his words and lack of explanation. In his hand appeared a staff, and he jabbed it towards Benedict. The Bard fled back several steps, keeping some distance as he obviously used Alacrity-aligned mana to keep himself fleet of foot. Astrid stepped forward and interposed herself between the two, but Aleksandr refused to engage with her. Instead, he skirted around her with steps that she knew were made quicker and more graceful by drawing on Alacrity-aligned mana. Different from any member of the Wanderers, the Soldier didn’t seem to be bursting with mana but still moved in a supernatural way that had Astrid wondering how he did it.

Unable to continue thinking about what Aleksandr was doing, she tried to get in his way. Astrid didn’t expect him to lower his center of gravity as well as his shoulder before, with all three of the physical attributes worth of mana strengthening him, smashing his shoulder into her shield. 

She stumbled back only one step, but that was enough for Aleksandr to get to Benedict. The Bard raised his sword in an attempt to fend off the attack, but more than that, he started singing while drawing on Hasty Rebuke and Doubletalk. Astrid felt herself hasten while Aleksandr’s movements slowed. She approached, hammer held high, but then Aleksandr flashed with a bright light. Golden armor surrounded him, and he evidently stopped being affected by Hasty Rebuke as he dodged out of her way. Then, with another display of Alacrity-aligned mana that was faster and simply better than Astrid could manage took him out of range. That he could so casually do so while also not seeming to be faster than she was seemed to be another insult he was adding.

Aleksandr snapped a step forward and, with a stabbing motion, cracked Benedict hard in the ribs with the head of his staff. Astrid’s ally’s face went white in pain as he was forced to stop using his Skills. Astrid hurried forward to try to help, but Aleksandr pulled back, not continuing to beat the lesson into either of them as Benedict wheezed. Isana stepped forward, and with a twist of her fingers, created a bright silver rune in the air that flew into Benedict‘s chest and let him begin to take deep breaths without obvious agony. He shot a hateful glower at the other man as he shrugged.

“Skandr doesn’t need to do this because he will learn chantless magic, and, eventually, even sigilless spells. You will not get that if you continue on your path,” Aleksandr instructed. “That’s not a problem, but if all that something needs to do to make you useless is keep you from breathing, there’s half a dozen ways that I myself can keep you from being able to breathe, sing, or whistle. Even in Steel tier, you’ll run into many more magical monsters, and they only grow more intelligent the higher tier they are. I don’t care what it is, but you need to have something you can do if something keeps you from talking. Skandr can overcome that because nothing can divest him of all contact with mana without killing him. If something can just kill him, you’re out of your league anyway.

“Benedict, an easy way to make sure that you have something to fall back on is to learn how to use a weapon. You’re never going to be a fighter. When you evolve to Steel, you’ll have seven Skill slots, and active Skills aren’t always going to be able to get you out of trouble,” the man spoke not unkindly, just maintaining eye contact with Benedict as he spoke. Astrid had to fight not to look at him as if he were an enemy.

“I’m happy to work with you and find something that does what you need it to, but I cannot be forceful enough when I say that you need to have something to fall back on beyond your active Skills because there’s so many ways to disable and cancel Skills, like you saw me use. It might seem like I’m talking in circles, and if I’m not clear, ask me whatever you need to make sure you understand. I have seen far too many promising delvers, especially people with supporting Classes, reach Steel tier and immediately die or get members of their party killed because they only have their active Skills. Healers especially run into this whenever there’s a bone lord that has healing cancelling Skills. Someone like you, if you run into a group of enemies that have strong resistance Skills, will find yourself sitting on the backline and twiddling your thumbs.”

Astrid shook her head for a moment and asked, “I’m really not sure what you’re saying. What is it about Steel that has you so insistent on him learning how to use a passive ability beyond his good existing Skills?”

Aleksandr nodded as the other Wanderers were pulled from their own practice. “I’m sure you’ve heard of them, mana eaters?”

“Monsters that appear in the Dungeon proper. They can dispel Skills and because of their immensely powerful Skills, they’re physically quite frail,” Astrid responded immediately.

“Yes,“ Aleksandr answered. “People talk about them with fear despite their physical weakness, and I’m sure you can understand why. Losing your active Skills is pretty dangerous, right?”

Astrid nodded, though she had to fight back a scoff. She hated being treated like a child, and this had her blood boiling. Yes, there were monsters that they each struggled with that was the whole point of having a party.

“You don’t really need to understand how they attack nor the principle of what exactly they do to mana as that doesn’t matter for the purpose of understanding why I’m saying this. Just know this: they range from level 51 and up, and they’re sneakier than you expect. For you five, encountering a small pack of mana eaters isn’t a definite death, but they are more dangerous than you think. Astrid, you wouldn’t be able to be healed at all until they were all dead. Not by your Skill, not Benedict’s Skill, not by a potion, nothing. Now, imagine that one got its fangs in Benedict and he loses his consciousness. You’d still have to kill all of the monsters before you could even administer a potion to him, and they have potent venom.“

“Even worse,“ Leah jumped in, “most people struggle to use even basic forms of mana while fighting within the dispelling auras from the mana eaters, even pushing basic mana aligned with one of the attributes into different parts of their body.”

“Finally,” Aleksandr continued, “the most dangerous part is something that none of you have truly come to understand yet. You all have grown so much through the influence of the Great One that you certainly can’t compare who you are now to who you were at level 20. Back then, if you’d had your mana disrupted, which is what mana eaters do, it would have been unpleasant. Now, it’s agonizing, and will only grow more debilitating with every level you gain, and mana eaters and other monsters aren’t the only things that can do this and they’re far from the only threat that’s approaching you.”

That last warning set in as Aleksandr spoke with a deliberate timbre that let Astrid know that there was a reason why he wasn’t saying it outright. This was the Golden Fist, the premiere delving party on the surface, and they were concerned about the Wanderers coming in contact with assassins or abductors who could cancel active Skills.

Astrid paused, and, though she felt that the explanation she had ever received was at best, rough and unclear, she began to understand what he was getting at without saying anything directly. “You think this is something that Benedict should do to make sure that he stays safe in the long run as well as keep the rest of us safe from hidden threats, wherever they may be. The rest of us can defend ourselves with the strength of our arms or spells, but Benedict is the only one who is entirely reliant upon Skills, and there are plenty of beings that can circumvent those.”

Alexander nodded, and Benedict shook his head, also understanding. Looking around, Muti was struggling slightly with the oblique explanation, but Felix whispered in her ear and she started nodding.

“So why didn’t you say something like a regular person?”

Aleksandr cocked his head and was about to say something with a flabbergasted face when Benedict pointed at the staff that the soldier was holding. “Not the thing you’re obviously hiding for some reason. I mean the reason. I grew up on a farm. I’m not a Spearman or Soldier, but I can use a pitchfork and I’ve used sticks and slings to chase wolves off since I was ten years old. There are plenty of things that are a lot better for me to use than a damn sword, things that I know how to use and are much simpler to learn, since I’m never going to be the party’s swordsman when our golden haired friend is around.”

Aleksandr opened his mouth just a touch then closed and bowed his head. “You’re right. You want a spear? If you’re not looking to become a full fighter, a spear is easier to get the basics down with. No need to worry about making sure you’re catching things with the edge if all you’re trying to do is stab whatever comes close to you.”

Astrid shook her head in disbelief and looked at the rest of the assembled people. Somehow, now that she was out of the Trials, she felt like she was back to being in her hometown. People overwhelmingly stronger than her kept telling her how to act and what to do, and blind obedience had never been her strong suit. 

“Come over here,” Miriam commanded before Astrid could continue to think. “We’ll get you some practice.“

Astrid shook her head and did so, deciding to continue to enjoy the training opportunity that was presented to her instead of questioning it. 

“How is it that Aleksandr is able to move like that?” Astrid asked as she stood near Muti. “I can feel that he’s not spending more mana than I am, but he’s getting more out of it than I am.”

“He understands the mana channels in his body better than you do,” the Assassin explained simply. “Do you remember when I controlled you through your shadow?”

“Yes, of course,” Astrid answered with an involuntary shiver. 

“That’s an extension of that understanding,” Miriam continued. “I have a Skill that is, in effect, a binding Skill, but due to my understanding of how the mana actually makes the Skill work, I can make the target move as well, depending on the attribute disparity between us. We’ll work on understanding the flow of mana through your legs for now. Get in a squat and fortify yourselves first with Fortitude.”

Miriam gave her instructions, and the day passed as Astrid made slow strides in better understanding how the mana worked through her, and she couldn’t help but laugh a little at how little she understood what she was doing. When Isana listened, she finally delivered a casual, if withering, evaluation.

“You throw mana around like a fat man in a fight. It gives you strength, but it is only luck that gives you the ability to fight.”

With similarly cutting remarks, the days blurred together, and on the last day that the Golden Fist was meant to be instructing them, Greely returned with the Wanderers’ first visitors.