Book 2: Chapter 85: 11 Days of Progress and Letter
As suggested by Sophie during his original two days of free time, Lone didn't try to level a single one of his skills for those same days allotted to him with his second official mission.
He hadn't left The Rusty Sprocket, instead choosing to spend all his time with Sophie, Soph, Kyuubi, and Breena.
Of course, even if he had abstained from active training, Growth Accelerator ensured some of his skills levelled up regardless of his will.
Bored as he lay on their bed waiting for Soph to finish her bath so they could leave for the guild to take any quests related to Krieg Stunfurn, Lone chose to pull up his full skill list.
'It's longer than ever,' he thought idly.
Lone mentally forced the system-generated list to mark which of his skills he had and hadn't registered with the guild's credit slate since that would be easier than him manually recalling such information.
'I can use Puzzle locked Mind's memory banks for that when I earn that effect, but for now, hoisting it on the system seems fair enough,' he chuckled internally as he made a note of which skills needed to be registered eventually.
While he was at it, he also directed the system to show him all of the notable changes from the past 11 days to include what training he had done during the week and change vthat Stoner Heeth wasn't available to see him.
The list informed Lone that he had yet to register 11 new skills, 32 level-ups for already registered skills, and a pair of skill rank-ups.
As far as improvements go, he actually hadn't levelled many skills during the nine-day stay in his cell, only improving Blood Clone by four levels, bringing it to advanced-level-three.
This was because he had been focusing entirely on trying to store his memories in his puzzles in an attempt to earn the additional extra effect that would grant him a perfect memory.
During those nine days Lone had also tried to manually restore the puzzles after Stoner Heeth defeated them, but he hadn't succeeded in either area quite yet.
Unlike with the skills themselves and with levelling them, he didn't seem to learn additional effects near instantly. Ungrounded had proven that already, but tangible reinforcement of the theory was always nice. It was something to occupy his time if nothing else.
While working on Puzzle Locked Mind, Lone had also been splitting his focus as best as he could to work on Blood Clone.
Now, as far as that skill went he had earned an additional effect. He got it when the skill was at advanced-level-two, proving definitively that a rank-up wasn't needed to gain an additional effect.
Lone pulled up Blood Clone's information and make it display the changes from the past 11 days.
Active Skill: Blood Clone
A skill popular amongst blood mages who have above average Vigour than the usual mage.
The host may create a connection between their blood and their mind, allowing them to control the blood to do their bidding.
The limits of the Blood Clone are defined by the host's ability and by the skill's rank in equal measure.
Maximum size: 4,213 [+3,021] drops of blood.
Maximum density: Each drop is equal in hardness to a grain of sand.
Maximum speed: 2.44m [+1.72m] per second.
[New!] The host can now create and keep the clone within their own bloodstream, allowing very precise control of said bloodstream.
Cost:3,000 SP [-1,000 SP] Mastery:Advanced Level 3
The additional effect was the one that allowed flight, or so the credit slate claimed. It wasn't very effective for that purpose since he had Ungrounded and even if the skill had graduated from centimetres to metres speed-wise, it was still too slow for combat.
Still, progress was progress.
As for skills he had accidentally levelled in the past two days of training abstinence, only a handful had improved. Some were expected, others were not.
Architecture Mastery has earned a single level from his in-depth inspection of the inn they were staying at. The steamforging used in the structure was inspiring to Lone even if his scriptures forbid him from touching them or even thinking of stealing them, causing his severe mental pain were he to do so.
Basic Massage Technique had gone from beginner-level-ten to intermediate-level-one, boosting its effectiveness by 10% but nothing else.
Chess Mastery had levelled three times since Lone had a craving to play against someone who wasn't Darkness. Breena was horrible at the game, as was Sophie, but Soph was surprising skilled for a newbie.
'You almost done?' he asked Soph telepathically since his thoughts had inadvertently returned to her.
'Just drying my hair now,' Soph sent back.
Lone nodded to himself and then started meditating without using the skill. Before long, Soph was finished, fully dressed, and completely armoured, so they collected Breena and left for the guild.
"You can't go to Krieg Stunfurn," the employee behind the counter shot Lone down.
Lone frowned. "I already am. The scripture magic Stoner Heeth put on me will force me if I don't do it myself."
"But..." Some confidence left the short and stocky woman manning one of the guild's first-floor desks. "... all of the quests related to Krieg Stunfurn are restricted to gold plates or higher..."
Lone sighed. "My militaristic enlistment overrules that. Do I need to get Guildmaster Hilda here?"
Another employee at the counter next to the woman serving Lone leaned over and said, "The Immortal is right. Ya have to sign 'im up for those quests. All of them except any related to the recovery of steamforged artefacts."
Lone nodded, appreciating that even if not perfect, this employee was working hard to hide his accent like the other employees. "Gotta respect the local laws and customs, and thus, I am allowed to take these quests. If it's of any comfort, I appreciate your concern."
"I don't care about you," the dwarven woman grumbled. "I care about three people I assigned quests to dying on the job. Fine. What-the-fuck-ever. Take the feckin' quests."
The woman grumbled some more as she did some paperwork before saying, "Kill the blood mage, wipe out their army, retrieve the seven heirlooms, and make sure the enchantments at Krieg Stunfurn's local guild branch are stable. All in all, nine quests in total since two heirlooms fall under one quest."
She shoved a device into his hands. "Such a waste of money... use that to determine the state of the local branch's enchantments. Complete all of those quests and you'll be rewarded with 4 white-gold, 72 gold, 34 silver, and 13 copper."
"And a massive positive remark on your notes since that topsider mage killed the local guildmaster," the male employee who'd spoken up for him said with a smile and a thumbs up.
There were grumblings of surprise at 'Immortus the Immortal''s bravery and foolish hubris thinking he could take on a triple-S-ranker at his current strength, but no one stopped him to harass him about it. Everyone had heard about his duel with Hilda by now.
The female employee was about to shoo Lone away before she seemed to recall something. "Wait here for a second."
Lone raised an eyebrow and glanced down at his girlfriend who was barely a little over five-foot tall. "Any ideas what else she wants?"
Soph shrugged. "Dunno. Could be anything."
'You don't like my plan, huh? We can cancel. I'm sure the scripture magic won't kill me thanks to Basic Regen, so we can leave right now and let it try to crush me as I farm Scripture Magic Resistance levels if you'd prefer,' Lone offered seriously.
She turned her head to stare at him. 'The fact that your plan will probably work is what is bothering me. It's an SSS-ranker, for Pete's sake. It is Pete, right? I'm trying hard to recall your odd but charming phrases. You use a lot of them so it can, uh, it can be hard.'
'Hey, using the mage's army to gain and level Blood Magic Resistance before either Mental Destruction bombing or turning the mage into a tail-skewered kebab is a perfectly good plan even if it's simple. You know as well as I do that if someone can't destroy me entirely in one blow, I'm essentially immortal thanks to the master rank improvements, making those of a magical inclination a bad matchup against me,' Lone protested.
There was a pregnant mental pause before he added, 'Unless explosion mages are a thing. I fuckin' hope they aren't a thing... Oh, and, uh, yeah. It's for God or for Pete's sake. Considering your past with the big man, I'd say perfect usage.'
That got a giggle out of Soph. Just at that moment, the receptionist returned and handed a letter to Lone.
"Here, for you. You've got to pay for the delivery. The sender claimed to have no money but said you'd be more than willing to foot the bill when you learn who they are. At least, that's what the note attached to it said," she explained.
Lone eyed the letter suspiciously. "Who and where is it from? My only friends down here live in this krieg and the only contacts I have topside are stuck on an island in the middle of a fuckin' ocean."
Soph and Breena, too, looked curiously at the enveloped letter.
"It's from the guild branch in Golden Pass City, some topsider settlement that's a part of the Keining Principality. Know it?" the employee inquired.
Lone nodded. "I've seen it on maps. It's, what, 20, 30 miles north of Krieg Moor's topsider entrance?"
"Aye, that's the one. The sender is apparently some human teen called Hazel McCullen from what the note said. That fee, by the way? It's 25 coppers. If you refuse to pay, it'll get sent back and the sender will be charged double for the trouble," the receptionist explained.
Lone and Soph were frozen solid.
"Who... did you say it's from?" Lone asked hesitantly.
The receptionist scrunched up her brow. "Your ears not workin', Mister 'Immortus the Immortal'? I said her name's Hazel McCullen. Some human girl who claims to know you."
Lone slowly put the envelope into his Dimensional Storage via his adventurer's pouch before he nodded. "Take the coppers from my account."
He grabbed Soph by the hand and walked out of the guild, followed by a very puzzled Breena.
As soon as they were outside, Soph's voice cracked as she called his name, "Lone! T-That na-"
Lone shook his head. "Not now. When we're in the Farwinds, we'll decide what to do."
Soph looked conflicted but slowly nodded. At this point, Breena was damn-near breaking on being fully bamboozled.
"W-Were they r-rough with you?" Breena asked when she and Mistress Soph met up with Master Lone again.
Too often she erred on the side of being passive but she had decided to put all of her courage into asking that question of her guardian.
Even if the subject was serious, she felt that she could brighten Master Lone's mood by showing some initiative since whoever this 'Hazel McCullen' person was, they had upset him. She wanted to fix that.
Master Lone looked down at her in joyful surprise before he smiled. "No, not really. I think they may have heard about my fight with the guildmaster. Don't want to rough up the bloke who took two hits from a physical-focused SS-ranker right? Not to mention the C and B-rankers I duelled with couldn't so much as touch me."
Breena nodded, proud of herself to get a smile out of him despite his sour mood.
She watched as he brought out a leather-bound thing she rarely saw of his even though he claimed to write in it every day - his journal.
With swift movements as they walked, leaving the Farwind junction and entering the dedicated road that would eventually lead them to Krieg Stunfurn, Master Lone drew in his journal.
"Cartography must be helping me here. This looks much more like her than I would have expected given my shitty drawing sk- Really? One portrait and I get both Art and Drawing Mastery?" Master Lone looked both jubilant and overcome with dismay. "Such easy to get skills hidden under my nose..."
Breena watched as he finished drawing the visage of a young girl about her own age, perhaps a year older than her.
There was a slight resemblance to her guardian but considering he was a foxkin and the drawn girl was a human, they couldn't be connected.
'Master did say he was from the same place as 'him' though... He was a human before, right?' Breena thought. 'So maybe this girl is related to him... Why is Master Lone drawing her though? Is she this Hazel person?'
She watched as he passed his journal to Mistress Soph before ordering, "Follow the roads heading to the principality. If you find her on the roads or in Golden Pass City, bring her to me, would you?"
Mistress Soph took the journal and looked at the drawing intently. "You, uh, you really think it's her?"
Master Lone shook his head. "I doubt it. I think there's a 90% chance it's a trap by another Primal like Darkness. If you find her and you feel powerful magic rolling off of her, kill her or return immediately. I'll leave the decision up to you. If she's weak as she should be assuming she's real, bring her to me. I need to confirm it myself."
Soph nodded confidently.
Breena wished she could be like Mistress Soph. Mistress Sophie was far too intense and mean to be a good role model, but Soph was the perfect mix of softness and logical calm to inspire her.
Mistress Soph was either bubbly and shy most of the time but when the going got tough, she wouldn't hesitate to do anything to get results. Breena wished she could be like that.
"I'll be back in a few minutes, ten or so at most if it's only 30 miles away," Mistress Soph declared. "Ah, by the way, Hamish is hiding over there," she said as she pointed down the road at a small branching intersection before disappearing.
Breena was exciting to learn from Mister Hamish again but her curiosity got the better of her in regards to the girl in the drawing. "Um... who is she? The uh, human girl."
"Not a fuckin' clue," Master Lone answered with a far-off look in his eye.
A sighing dwarf rounded the distant corner and started walking towards them as he grumbled about Mistress Soph's nonsensical magical sensing ability.
"Best case scenario?" Master Lone asked in an obviously rhetorical tone. "It's some monster that somehow knows what my sister looks like and is trying to bait me in some way. Why it sent a letter through the guild, I have no idea. Maybe the lockdown stopped it from being direct."
Breena was shocked. That human girl was her master's sister? 'But wouldn't that mean she's a summoned hero too if it really is her?'
"Uh... and, em, worst case?" Breena asked.
Master Lone frowned deeply. "It's actually my sister and she somehow got summoned to this fucked up magical world."
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