The Pinnacle Warrior

As Muti led the way, Astrid made her way towards the settlement proper. With Liora, the practices the party went through were well and truly in the surrounding forest, while Gabriel only took the party on short excursions maybe fifty meters or so past the outside borders of Neverwood. It was only a few short seconds before the party was going past Vera’s shop, where Benedict was in the middle of talking to the Greenthumb. The walls of her building were open, and both waved at Astrid and Muti as they passed.

“You don’t want to talk to Olafson?” Astrid asked as she slowed her pace.

“Would I prefer to talk to this beautiful woman or to the old, decrepit Simian Kin man? Yeah, I know what the answer to that is,” Benedict rolled his eyes.

“I’m quite a bit older than Olafson,” Vera said, leaning towards Benedict. The way that the beautiful woman’s eyes flashed was positively dangerous as she forced eye contact with Benedict.

To his credit, after firmly putting his foot in his mouth, he had the good sense to only curse at his own stupidity for a brief moment before beginning to apologize.

“I’m sorry, I simply wished to illustrate the difference between the genuine pleasure that is your company and the more transactional nature of my relationship with Olafson,” he bowed his head. “He’s a friendly acquaintance, and I’m glad he’s home safe, but I prefer my time with you to that with him.”

“I wouldn’t call that especially good save,” Vera continued staring into Benedict’s face. “However, I suppose it was good enough for now. You are a Bard—I’d like to expect you to be able to be careful and deliberate with the words that you speak.”

Astrid continued walking past the shop, mentally deciding she never wanted to have a relationship like that. Vera almost seemed more like a mother than a potential lover, from Astrid’s point of view, and that seemed miserable, to be parented more than cared for as a partner.

She shook her head, hoping to shake her thoughts about romantic partnership from it as she did so. She only had limited success, but fortunately, at that point, they’d reached Olafson’s shop. The doors were once again open, and Felix and Skandr already stood inside.

“Welcome home,” Astrid said as she walked in. Olafson stood behind the counter, looking at his four visitors. Astrid glanced back and forth and felt a flash of embarrassment. “You just got home. I’m sorry, would you like us to leave you alone for a while, give you some space?”

“I figured I’d see you before too long,” Olafson laughed. “In fact, I came in not too long before midnight. If I hadn’t unloaded all of my things yet, I’d have closed the doors and kicked you all out long before we got to this point.”

“In that case,” Astrid grinned, “how was your trip? Have a good journey? You were gone for what, a month and a half?”

“That sounds about right,” he answered. “And it was positively restorative.”

The Wanderers looked at him, all a bit surprised at his turn of phrase and formality, but the Kin just laughed. Instead of answering any further questions, he said, “I have something for you, Astrid.”

Regardless of the abrupt change of subject, Astrid was more than curious enough to engage with the obvious subject change. “What is it?”

“It’s a surprisingly quick response to your letter, is what it is,” Olafson said, pulling a letter from his spatial pouch and holding it out towards her. “Just a few months’ turnaround for hearing from somebody inland is what I would call miraculously fast. Now, take it.”

Astrid didn’t hesitate to reach out and take the small envelope and pocket it. There would be plenty of time to read it later today, but for now, she and the rest of the party had plenty of plans to ask Olafson for.

“So,” Astrid said, “what were you getting? Was it a massive delivery? Or some exotic new material?”

“It was a pretty sizeable delivery,” Olafson shrugged. “Nothing especially huge, though. Some rarer materials, but again, nothing that would require me to go get it. Honestly, I just wanted to get out of town for a little bit, so I took the excuse.”

“Pretty nice, pretty nice,” Astrid said, not wanting to immediately start making demands but unsure of how to respond.

“So are you all here just to bother me, or do you have something you want to talk about?” Olafson asked, thwarting any of Astrid’s hopes to be at least somewhat polite.

“We are entering the final watershed of Steel,” Muti said, also choosing not to mince words. “Because of the levels we have gained so quickly, we believe we will be capable of upgrading our equipment even further before too long. You know what our equipment is, so we want to know what options for upgrading to Mithril-tier equipment might be available to us, even anticipatory to our evolutions themselves. As we will be thrust out of the Verdant Sanctuary upon evolution, we will need to be prepared.”

“So those shimmerbugs are giving you a good amount of experience, are they?” Olafson asked with a gleam in his eye. “Does that mean you’ve been hunting the reds? What kind of interesting materials do they have?”

Astrid laughed and raised her hands in surrender. “Honestly, I think it’s mostly just the same materials as before, just better. It does have a horn, though, and that’s pretty strong for a Steel tier, but nothing that I think would be too interesting to you.”

“Well, there’s very little in Steel tier other than irregular or Boss materials that would ordinarily matter at all to me. The regeneration organs, however, are extremely valuable, even if only used as an auxiliary product in various different enchantments or equipment,” Olafson spoke conversationally, though his gaze was focused on Astrid. “How potent was the recovery of the reds?”

“Quite,” she shrugged. “However, I think we’ve sold everything we’ve got. It’s been a month since we were delving. We’ve just been practicing, preparing ourselves for evolution, and making sure that the Skills we get offered at 81 are the ones we are hoping for. That said, I’m getting a little antsy. We’ve been sitting around for so long.”

“Of course, I’m so happy to sit around,” Skandr chuckled as he leaned forward. “But now that we are going to be getting Mithril tier equipment, what’s going to be the difference in your turnaround for production?”

Olafson let out a long, slow breath at that.

“There’s going to be a very marked difference in my production times, that’s for sure. If I was to guess, going from about one day of solid work to complete some of the simpler pieces of your previous equipment, it’ll become about one week for each piece of equipment that you’re wanting from here on. In some cases, like Astrid’s hammer, I’ll be able to perform an upgrade primarily in enchantments with your help, and that will be much quicker.”

“So, even though you said before that this was equipment that could stick with me for a long time,” Astrid said, smiling, “it might need some adjustment?”

“It’s more than capable of being used in its current state for a long while yet,” Olafson shrugged. “If you’re wanting to keep it from being upgraded, I have no problem with that. Just refining it a little bit further will make it significantly more effective for you, though.”

“I see that my teasing has no effect on you,” Astrid joked. “Of course, I’d be more than happy to accept your offer. The real question becomes regarding payment—do you want us to pay with money or with materials or what?”

“That can be arranged. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. We have a good enough relationship that it shouldn’t be any issue to delay payment or shuffle things around if that’s necessary. Just go ahead and let me know when you think you’ll be able to do the upgrade, and we’ll get things sorted out.”

“Sure thing,” Astrid said, leaning forward and shaking his hand. “Glad you’re back.”

The rest of the party, sans Benedict, gave their own greetings, though Muti leaned forward and started to explain her thoughts for ways that her swords could be changed and Felix stayed by her side. So far as Astrid could tell, the ideas she was putting forward were pretty good, and she looked forward to seeing what Olafson might be able to do with the suggestions.

“Any idea what’s gonna be in the letter?” Skandr asked as they left the other two Wanderers behind.

“I’d imagine it won’t be anything too interesting,” Astrid shrugged. “Just checking in with what is happening at home, some information about friends, I’m sure. I know that my best friend from childhood has a kid, though I can’t remember how old he is. It’s been, what, most of a year since I saw my parents? So I just guess that they’re gonna tell us what’s happening with the Delvers who have come out and caused some trouble. Hopefully, it’s nothing too crazy.”

Skandr nodded, keeping pace beside her as they made their way towards the inn. Once he realized that that was where she was going, he asked, “Are you coming to ask Michel some questions?”

Astrid shook her head. “I wandered off in the middle of taking a lesson from Gabriel. I’m sure he’s gone home. I’ll call the rest of the day just a self-study day after I read the letter. Might as well get an early lunch while I’m at it.”

“Then can I join you?”

For the first time since the awkward, painful conversation about their future, there was the opportunity to spend some personal time together. Skandr had made the offer with a gentle tone, obviously giving her an out if she wanted it. He had been very patient with her, and Astrid wasn’t sure if she liked the consideration or hated the almost patronizing care he’d shown for her.

Actually, she knew it wasn’t actually patronizing, even if she felt uncomfortable. And it wasn’t that he was doing anything to make her uncomfortable, it was just her own self-doubt and recrimination.

“Yeah, let’s have lunch,” Astrid said. “I can fill you in on any of the interesting things that my parents say.”

“Sure, you can read that while we eat if you’d like,” Skandr said, his tone leading. “If you’re okay with waiting a little bit, I’d like to actually have a conversation with you instead of just sitting near you.”

“Ah, yeah, of course,” Astrid blushed.

A part of her couldn’t help but have her mind go to the dozens of times that she’d uncaringly stripped down to change or get into the bath in front of him, even using his spells to clean herself while in the Dungeon. Why was that what filled her mind when she thought about having a conversation over lunch?

“So how’s spells?” she asked, literally grimacing as she wondered how she’d suddenly become so inarticulate.

“Spells is hard,” Skandr laughed back, mirroring her speech pattern. “I am making progress though.”

“What spell have you recently made a breakthrough on?” she asked, desperately grateful to have a conversation topic that she could engage with without thinking about relationships.

“I already had a pretty good understanding of how the mana storm would work,” he said. “I’ve been adjusting that to make the other different storms so far, but so much of what I’ve done has been pretty heavily reliant on the staff to bridge the gap between my own knowledge and what is possible. I thought that practicing out here would change that, to force me to default to regular storms again.”

“In Neverwood?” Astrid clarified.

“No,” he shook his head. “In the Verdant Sanctuary. I haven’t seen a whole lot of a reason to stay right here as I’m testing out spells, so I go a little ways out into the forest. I’ve spoken with one of the Wardens to make sure that I can, and they don’t mind. However, depending on where I am around here, the storm that the environment is best suited to isn’t a rain, wind, or even a lightning storm. Instead, it’s what I can only call a life storm. Honestly, I have no idea how it works, and it’s entirely due to the staff, but the view that I’m getting into the runes that make the spell are helping me to further bear down on the permutations and variations within different storms.”

He evidently saw Astrid’s eyes beginning to glaze over as he chuckled and raised his hands.

“Basically,” he shortened the explanation, “There’s a whole lot of parts to the spells I create at this point. When I’m creating a lightning spell, I basically know the ’language’ that I’ll have to use to make the spell. I know how to shape and change lightning, to adjust the mana draw and potency in efficient ways. I can tell how to change one thing or the other, and it goes quickly for me. When I’m doing something that’s newer to me, it takes a lot more effort to find out how I can learn and adjust the spell to suit my needs. I’ve spent a lot of time learning spellcasting in general, like using Saul’s techniques, but now I need to conduct research, and I’ve spentt very little time doing that so far.”

“And the more you learn in general, the better you are at each aspect of the adjusted spells?” Astrid asked as a golem brought out the meal. 

“That’s about right.”

The two settled into a comfortable conversation, talking about their hopes for what Skills they would qualify for, though, just like she had said to Olafson, Astrid was becoming more eager to get back into the Dungeon.

“Honestly,” Skandr laughed, “I’m more surprised that you’ve made it this long without complaining too much.”

“Hey! I can stay out of the Dungeon for a month,” Astrid scowled jokingly.

“If, instead of delving, you’re training like a madwoman to be better once you get back in the Dungeon,” Skandr raised his eyebrows at her.

Astrid shushed him as she dug into her dessert with a broad smile. Today, it was a flaky cookie with a light dusting of sugar that had been caramelized over the top. She relished the tasty treat, and, once she was finished, licked the sugar from her fingers. As she sucked on one of her fingers, she noticed Skandr staring at her lips. Noticing her noticing him, Skandr laughed and shrugged helplessly.

“I’m sorry,” he laughed, embarrassed. “I saw a beautiful woman licking her lips and sucking on her finger, and I couldn’t help myself. I’m only a man.”

Astrid didn’t know what possessed her, but she smirked at him as she took her final finger, her thumb, into her mouth and chewed on it briefly. In truth, she felt pretty stupid doing it, but going off of how Skandr suddenly went from trying his best to be charming to nervous and stuttering, she’d call that a success.

She didn’t continue doing whatever that was for long, quickly standing up and asking, “Do you want to come see what my parents have to say?”

“Doing that to me and then inviting me to your room to read a letter from your parents is just plain unfair,” Skandr laughed, shaking his head. “However, I’d be happy to join you.”

For a moment, doubt plagued Astrid. She hadn’t thought of the fact that she had just invited him to her room after she was flirting with him, but, going off of his teasing, it was obvious that he also recognized it. It wasn’t an invitation for anything. Astrid stopped second-guessing herself and led the way up into her room, where she was grateful to have spent time in the past month fastidiously cleaning everything that had gone on, only getting maintenance instead of full cleaning.

As a result, her armor actually was currently hanging from its stand in the corner of the room, the faint smell of oil filling the air from its latest polishing. She was going to have to go through the process of putting it back on sometime soon, but being able to look at the equipment all laid out was a pleasant sight, if nothing else.

Then, leaning into the feeling of risk-taking from earlier, she sat on the bed and patted next to her as she pulled the letter out of her pocket. Pulling the letter out, she cut open the envelope and started to read.