The Pinnacle Warrior

Idle conversations persisted through the rest of the journey home, and Astrid knew she wasn’t putting on a very good show of being interested in them. She was too concerned with considerations of what she would be doing in the long term, of how she couldn’t think of many things she wanted to do other than continue doing what she was already doing. The thought of if there was something wrong with her continued to thrum through her with each step.

When they arrived back at Neverwood, less than a full day after they left, Liora, Olafson, and Vera were waiting for them. Gabriel was nowhere to be seen, which wasn’t too surprising. He had given himself his assignment just a short while before, and locating a place with Mithril tier monsters that weren’t the bottom of the barrel but were individually weak enough, while also existing in large enough numbers to make sure that the party got experience very quickly, wasn’t an easy task. Yes, if the Verdant Walkers had an answer, then it would be as simple as could be, but evidently, there wasn’t yet a location they knew of for the party to go to for their training.

“What Skills did you get?” Liora asked as soon as the party came into view. After receiving answers, she nodded once and pointed first at Skandr, then Benedict, Felix, Muti, and finally Astrid, saying, “You two, go with Michel. Skandr, you’ll have plenty of things you’ll want to look into, don’t limit your experimentation now. Go with him, Benedict, because Michel will help you work on using Purging Wave, giving you plenty of opportunities to test its limits. Michel will answer any general questions you have, as per usual, and he’ll also be focusing on making sure you’re all fed.

“Felix and Muti, work together for now. I want to better understand what kind of limitations there are on the specification ‘surprise to the target,’ so that’s what you’ll be doing. Astrid, you’re with me, and after a few minutes, we’ll join up with Felix and Muti. Gabriel should be back within the next 12 hours, and from there, we’ll see what kind of plan we want to go with.”

The lindwurm made the commands, then, realizing that she’d subconsciously stepped into the role as the leader, seemed to look at each of the party members to make sure that they were in agreement with what she was asking. They all nodded, and she turned on her heel and walked into the forest. The two casters walked into the inn while the final two jogged off towards one of the usual training areas. Then, Liora led the way onward. Once she and Astrid were about where the older woman usually conducted her training, she turned on her heel and stared at Astrid. As usual, her robe was tied up nearly to her chin, and her eyes were piercing as she stared at Astrid.

“What’s wrong? Are you doubting joining the war effort? If that is the case, you must say so, and sooner rather than later.”

“No!” Astrid shook her head emphatically. “No, that’s not it at all. If I can do anything to stop the nobles from exploiting people, I’ll be more than happy to do it.”

“Then why are you hesitant?” Liora dug in. “Something has given you doubt, and, if you are willing to share it, I would know what it is.”

Astrid gritted her teeth before staring at Liora and asking, “Have you felt like everybody else has everything figured out and you’re lost? That you’re the only one who doesn’t understand?”

“I will ask you to be more specific in your case, but yes.” As she said it, Liora nodded and narrowed her eyes. “I did tell you how I became capable of my transformation. It was a bone-deep need to be something else than what I was born as. My skin crawled when I looked in the mirror, and the thought of continuing as just a Tailor made me twitchy.”

“Your original Class is a Tailor?” Astrid demanded. “How did you end up like this?”

“With very concerted, deliberate effort,” was the only answer she got. “So, to answer your question, yes. Why do you feel this way?”

“Everybody I know, even in my party,” Astrid shrugged, feeling childish, “knows what they want to do more than just delve. Like, Muti wants to have children, and Skandr wants to build a tower, and Benedict wants to retire. Then I’m sitting back here, happy to spend most of my life in the Dungeon and only come out every once in a while. There’s nothing else I really want to do. Is there something wrong with that? Is there something wrong with me?”

Liora didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she smiled up at Astrid and then, with gentle but firm hands that Astrid knew she couldn’t escape, Liora guided Astrid to sit down on a large, flat stone. Then, sitting down, Astrid was still as tall as Liora, who cupped the taller woman’s face in her hands and smiled at her.

Only in that moment did Astrid realize that Liora’s eyes were entirely black, with no color other than the whites. They pierced into her, but before Astrid could begin to grow uncomfortable, Liora said, “I believe you have the makings of one of those deep Dungeon dwellers that people talk about in whispers. There must be something different about somebody who is willing and capable to do such a thing. The life that you lead now, the one in which you find fulfillment, is one that most people would hate to live. You are constantly mired in combat, your own blood and that of monsters covering you every day. Your life is in danger every day, and you lead on the front lines in the hopes that you might be able to help somebody. Now, you’re going to fight in a war you do not have to, in the hopes of standing as a shield for the innocent and the weak.

“Some people, some things, are given power from the moment of their birth. For them to be powerful is a given. Some people decide they must take that power. The reason for you seizing that power is, until now, selfless. Your ideal is heroic, and the actions you are taking now will form that reality moving forward.

“Is there something wrong with wanting to be a hero? No. Is it something that many people can do? Also no.”

“Yeah, I want to be a hero,” Astrid said, averting her eyes, “but I can’t pretend that it’s altruism that’s guiding me. I like to delve. I like to fight. I want to help people, but I also want to be something more than just a regular person. That’s not self-sacrificing. That’s putting myself above others and I can’t pretend like it isn’t shallow.”

“Have you ever saved somebody?” Liora asked, completely pulling Astrid’s thought process away from what she had been saying.

“Almost,” Astrid said, thinking of Guinevere and Bertrand.

“Did you feel like you were successful at any point? Did you feel like you’d done what you were trying to do?”

As Liora pressed, Astrid remembered bringing Bertrand back to town, of him and Guinevere being able to speak. The hope she felt, the excitement of being able to save his life.

“Yes,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“It felt good, didn’t it?” Liora asked, her tone gentle but insistent.

“Yes.”

“The turn of phrase ‘virtue is its own reward’ is half platitude and half truth. Doing good, helping people, saving people, feels good. It isn’t selfish to save people. Just because you feel good pulling an infant from the jaws of a wolf doesn’t mean that the child wasn’t saved and their parents spared from the grief of loss. It just means that, on top of everything else, you also feel good.”

Astrid relaxed a little, her shoulders slumping as she looked at Liora. Seeing that she had the younger woman’s attention, Liora continued, “Just because you enjoy delving and are going to be doing it anyway doesn’t mean that any good you do along the way didn’t save lives and make you a hero in the process.

“But we’re getting off topic,” Liora waved her hand as she stepped away from Astrid. “I always hated people telling me this when I was young, and I’m sure you’re going to hate hearing this, so please bear with me. However, Astrid, you’re still a child. I don’t mean that literally, but in terms of experience compared to me, as well as most people your level, you’re a child.”

Astrid bristled, even though she knew it wasn’t an insult, and Liora demanded. “What level are your parents?”

Astrid paused for a second. Liora stared at her expectantly. Finally, Astrid shrugged, her voice quiet but still more than loud enough for the Adamantium tier to hear as she said, “My father is a high Iron tier. My mother will be gaining levels for this war, but last I knew, she was level 78, I think.”

Liora nodded slowly, staring at Astrid. After making sure that Astrid was understanding her own answer, Liora said, “Do you know your parents’ ages?”

“Both are in their mid fifties, I’m pretty sure,” Astrid shrugged. “They never really cared to tell me specifically. I should’ve been better about asking them.”

“Nobody cares if their children know exactly how many years old they are,” Liora shrugged. “The point is, your mother is about your same level. If she’s fifty one, younger than you seem to think she is, she’s had her Class for longer than you’ve been alive, to say nothing of your mere few years as somebody with a Class. Do you think that the life that she lives now is the one that she was living when she was in her early twenties?”

Astrid didn’t need to say anything to let Liora know what the answer to that question was. The experienced woman smiled.

“It might be that, for now and forever, the number one thing that you enjoy doing is delving. If that’s the case, good on you. You’ve found your lifelong passion early. In the likely case that you end up continuing to change throughout your life and find other things you want to do, congratulations, you’re like the rest of humanity.”

Astrid smiled and nodded as she looked at Liora. Then, standing up, she stretched her arms out to give the older woman a hug. She wasn’t sure how the stern woman would react, but she very easily took Astrid into a hug, though the height difference meant that Liora’s face reached just under Astrid’s breasts. Astrid laughed as she pulled back.

“You’re a better mentor than the Golden Fist,” Astrid said, looking down at the older woman as Liora started stripping off her robe to begin her transformation.

“I would hope so,” the answer came, her voice transitioning from regular to the twisted words that were pulled from the lindwurm’s throat. “I’ve been around much longer than them, and I trained one of their teachers.”

Astrid barely had any time to have her jaw begin to fall before the massive lindwurm loomed over her and said, “Show me the power of your Smite.”

Knowing what Astrid did about Liora and her affinity with night as well as shadow, Astrid rolled her shoulders, made sure all of her equipment was on with a thought, and pushed a full fifth of her mana and stamina into a radiant-attributed Smite. Then, activating Body Surge, setting her stance, and swinging with her whole strength, she smashed her hammer into Liora’s neck, just above where her arms sprouted from her body.

A blinding light flashed before Astrid’s eyes, and she blinked a spot out of her vision as she tried to see what had happened to her target.

Liora stretched out her neck to show where Astrid had hit, and Astrid saw an angry red spot that was quickly healing. The scales that had shattered from her attack were growing visibly as Liora settled her stance and looked at Astrid.

“That’s what I would call a finisher,” Liora rasped, her draconic jaws spreading in a smile. “How does it work with your other Skill at the same time? Can they stack?”

“Let’s find out,” Astrid grinned back, her energy having been restored both by the conversation she had with Liora as well as the opportunity to experiment with her new Skill.

***

Before Astrid could use her sixteenth charge of Physique for her practice, Liora perked up and stopped the three Wanderers who were working with her.

“Gabriel’s back. Come.”

As she said it, she slithered over to the other side of a large stone, where she shrunk down to her Human form and emerged with her robe cinched back up tightly around her waist. She led the way back towards the settlement, and in the course of just a few short moments, the party was reunited at the inn. It had been about half as long as Liora had said they would have, about six hours since they arrived back at Neverwood.

The grizzled commander wore dark chain mail, which looked generally unremarkable when Astrid saw it. In truth, he looked like maybe a mid Bronze tier, wearing that chain shirt, a simple helmet, heavy leather boots, and carrying a spear. He was drinking deeply from a cup that Michel handed over to him, and as the Wanderers were all gathered together, Gabriel held up a finger, stopping any questions before they were voiced.

“Long story short, I found a place,” he said, not giving any explanation yet. “It’s a bit of a ways off, so instead of our previous plan of having you travel back and forth pretty frequently, we are going to get any of our planned training out of the way right now and then, once we are all confident that you’re moving the way you should be, I’ll escort you into the Dungeon proper. While you’re gone, Olafson and Vera will do their part, so we’ll ask that you all use some replacement equipment for whatever Olafson is looking to upgrade in that time, because, at your speed, it’s about a full day’s journey to get to the entrance and then to the location.”

“That seems pretty fast to have found that place so quickly,” Astrid said, looking at the man who found this perfect location for them.

“It was,” he shrugged. “So if you have any training to do, do it now. Otherwise, get some rest, and it won’t be long before I take you all there. I’ll stay nearby, because to get the perfect location actually means that there will be some stronger, too-dangerous Mithril tier monsters nearby. Otherwise, it’s the perfect location for you.”

“Do you want me along?” Liora asked, cocking her head.

“You’re welcome if you’d like to come, but I’ll be fine without you.”

“If that’s the case, then I will wait for your return.”

At that, the decision seemed to be made, and the Wanderers came together to confer with each other on what they all needed in terms of preparation.

“I’m ready to go immediately,” Felix opened the discussion. “There’s not really anything that I’m getting from being here, and I just want to finish this preparation period already.”

Astrid nodded in agreement, not voicing anything else as she looked at the rest. Benedict seemed to be of the same opinion, just saying, “I’m ready.” Muti, of course, was always looking for more action, so Skandr was the final person to give an answer.

“I don’t know if I would say that I’m ready right now,” Skandr said, “but if I have half a day to continue to focus on a couple of these spells and then experiment to make sure that they’re functional, I’m happy to get into the Dungeon proper and put them to the test.”

“That’s all the answer that I think we need,” Astrid nodded. “Are you tired enough to need rest, or are you thinking that if we plan on leaving in about a day, you’ll be ready to be moving?”

“Eighteen hours should be fine.”

“You hear that, Gabriel?” Astrid asked, turning to the older man now that the Wanderers had made their decisions.

“What I’m hearing is that I’m gonna get a good sleep before y’all have me running ragged,” he answered, grumbling, though there was a twinkle in his eye.

“Basically,” Astrid shot back, making her voice unnaturally chipper. He grumbled and waved her off, though he smiled as he turned to go into his home.

“There are two hours until nightfall,” Liora spoke up, drawing Astrid’s attention back to her. For the first time, Astrid realized that the Lindwurm was haggard, looking genuinely exhausted. “With that being the case, I will take this time to rest. In three hours, I will come out and be ready to resume practice with whoever wishes to do so.”

She didn’t say anything more as she turned and began walking towards her own home. With a start, Astrid jogged towards her mentor that Astrid was realizing more and more she looked up to. Then, walking in stride with Liora, she asked, “Would you like company? I’m sure you’re not nearly so fragile as to need help, but would you like it?”

Liora chuckled and patted Astrid’s elbow. “I’m more than fine. I’ve spent about as long as physically possible transformed under the light of day today. It’s exhausting, and I’m ready for a break. That’s all. As for your offer of company, I appreciate it, but you’ll find it unnecessary, as I will be taking my rest and will be bad company at best. I do appreciate your offer, though.”

Astrid nodded and stepped back as Liora continued walking steadily, her hands crossed behind her back as she strode home.

“We have learned that Liora is far too aware of her surroundings for me to be able to ambush her,” Muti said, pulling Astrid’s attention back towards her. “We shall see if you are able to do the same.”

With a smile, Astrid rolled her shoulders, ensured her entire body was covered with her equipment, and nodded. “Once we’re finished talking with Olafson about what equipment he’ll be taking, we’ll see what we can do.”