Chương 43: Getting a Grip

The first thing Evan noticed was that he had gained a whopping three new attribute points. +1 Strength, +1 Speed, +1 Spirit. He also had a new achievement. [Achievement: Fighter for Justice Reward: +3 Strength, 300 Experience Points] Evan gazed at the little icon in his menu and smiled. It felt nice to be rewarded for doing the right thing. Even if their plan to protect the villagers had failed, the system seemed to have rewarded their good intentions.

He nearly fell out of the armchair when a second notification popped up. [Congratulations! You reached Rank 4] [You have 1 unused skill slot] [You can allocate 6 attribute points] The experience points from the [Fighter for Justice] achievement had pushed him into Rank 4! With great effort, Evan kept his mouth shut. He was ecstatic about reaching rank 4, but it felt insensitive toward Oliver to jubilate, while he was worried to death about his family.

So Evan kept quiet while he distributed his new attribute points. He wanted more strength; strength was always good, so he put 2 points there. The fight with the Beasts had left him winded, so Endurance got 2 points as well. The 2 remaining points went into Speed and Spirit. Happy with his choice, he checked his main menu to get an overview of his progress.

Name: Evan Randall Affinity: Celestial Rank: 4 Rank Progress: 7% Health: 27/75 Mana: 54/54 Attributes [Strength: 17] [Endurance: 11] [Speed: 12] [Dexterity: 10] [Perception: 7] [Spirit: 12] Evan was happy with what he saw. Considering he had started with a measly 4 points in strength, reaching 17 seemed like a big achievement. But it wasn't just a number going up. He felt stronger, too. When he had started out, swinging a sword left him exhausted and sore after just a few minutes.

Now the steel weapon felt so much lighter in his hands, allowing him to fight longer and with more precision. Although he'd noticed he'd missed more strikes than he would've liked during his last two sword fights with Crispin and Rat. Maybe putting more effort into increasing dexterity would be smart if he wanted to continue to build his fighting style around using both his sword and his magic. Evan checked his sword mastery quest as well and was satisfied when he noticed progress had gone up quite a bit.

When they'd left Stormhaven it had stood at 34%, now it was 52%. Progress of almost 20%. Apparently fighting for your life did wonders for quest progress and attribute growth.

"What are you smiling about?" Oliver asked. Evan flinched, but he noticed no hostility in his friends face or voice, just curiosity, so he decided to speak up.

"I reached rank 4," he admitted with an uneasy smile. To his relief, Oliver returned the smile.

"That's good news. It means you'll be stronger when we face the Beasts the next time." Luca had news, too, but he showed less restraint.

"You guys!" he exclaimed, jumping up from the dining chair he was sitting on.

"I did it! I reached rank 2!"

"Congratulations," Evan said quietly, throwing a nervous glance at Oliver, but to his relief, Olly seemed pleased about Luca's new rank as well.

"That's great news. We'll need all the extra strength we can get when we face the Beasts again."

"It will level the field somewhat," Jasper agreed.

"How are you going to spend your attribute points?" Evan asked.

"I was thinking two into spirit to increase my mana pool, one into dexterity to level up my current pull ability, because that's useful for a number of things, and one into endurance, because that fight left me winded as hell." Luca looked at Jasper questioningly and got a nod of approval from the more experienced mana user. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"Too bad we don't have access to the auction house to get new skill gems," Oliver said.

"Or the funds to actually buy them," Evan added.

"It's smart that you left your slot unfilled, Oliver" Jasper said.

"I've seen plenty of mana users end up with suboptimal skill sets because they used the first skill gem they could get their hands on. Thinking things through and saving up for the right gems is worth it. There's no need to rush." Oliver frowned.

"I don't know, I feel an extra skill would come in handy right now. Those Beasts completely destroyed us."

"Gaining a skill and using it in battle right after is a recipe for disaster. You need to learn how to control it first."

"True. Remember when I blew that hole into Thomas's barn trying to use my Comet Shot for the first time," Evan said.

"But Oliver brings up an important point," Luca said.

"How are we going to deal with those guys once we find their lair and the people they abducted?"

"We don't deal with them at all," Jasper said calmly. Oliver opened his mouth in protest, but Jasper cut him off right away.

"I'm not going to lead you three into some kind of suicide mission, Oliver. I know you care about those people, but we're not the right group for this job. The plan was to find them. Once we do, we'll call in the cavalry."

"How?" Oliver asked, barely restraining his anger. Jasper pointed at a little metal bird sitting in the middle of the dining table. Evan had noticed it before, but he'd always thought it was just decoration. Now he realized it was one of those messenger birds, like the one Headmaster Orva had used to send a message to his professor. It looked different from Orva's, less sleek in its design, but was the same size.

"How fast can they fly?"

"Very fast," Jasper said.

"It will reach Alexandra within a day, and you know how fast she can travel on her storm horses." Evan still struggled with getting a good feel for the power difference between ranks.

"Will Alexandra be enough of a cavalry? I know she's rank 11, but is that enough to fight three guys at once? Three really nasty guys?"

"Will she even be back from her expedition yet?" Oliver asked, sounding agitated.

"She will be, and hopefully she managed to recruit some of her guild friends during that mission who are willing to come with her and sort this situation out."

"Is this the only messenger bird we have?" Evan said, eyeing the delicate mechanical construct.

"No, don't worry, I have two spares. We'll stay close to the Beasts once we've found them, and if anything changes while we wait for Alex, we can inform her." Evan nodded, then gave Oliver a soft nudge with his elbow.

"I know you'd rather charge in headfirst, but this sounds like a pretty decent plan."

"Yeah, I guess…" Oliver mumbled.

"I'm glad you're being reasonable," Jasper said.

"I'll prepare dinner now, then we sleep, and tomorrow first thing, we'll take a look at your village and find out how many people are missing." Despite his exhaustion, it took Evan a while to fall asleep. With the adrenaline from the fight fading, his many injuries started to ache, and whenever he closed his eyes, images from the flight flashed behind his eyelids. He heard Oliver pacing in the room next to him and considered heading over to comfort his friend, but he wasn't sure his comforting words were wanted.

From his work at a hospital, he knew that sometimes it was better to give people space to work through their feelings instead of trying to placate them with empty words. Before he could make up his mind, the exhaustion of his body finally overpowered his mind and dragged him down into a deep sleep. He was the last to awake the next morning. Jasper was in the kitchen, cooking scrambled eggs, and Luca sat at the table, devouring a buttered toast with one hand while flipping the pages of a book with the other.

"This is great," he mumbled, mouth full.

"Thank you for lending this to me. Oh, hi, Evan, you're awake. Look at this book Jasper gave me. This is a guide to building a skill set. It has some great chapters about healers and healer-adjacent builds."

"It's not fully up to date," Jasper said before dumping a serving of scrambled eggs directly from the pan onto Luca's plate, "but it's better than the lackluster guide from the guild."

"I might have to borrow that book after you're done with it," Evan said.

"Where's Oliver?"

"Outside, oiling his sword and stewing in his own thoughts," Jasper said.

"Do you want scrambled eggs?"

"Yes, please." Evan pulled out a chair and sat down next to Luca.

"This is all really hard on him. He's usually not that rash or irritable, but these are his friends and family members. People he has known and loved all his life."

"I understand," Jasper said, putting a plate filled with eggs and toast in front of Evan.

"It's too close to home. Literally. Of course his judgment is clouded."

"Has he eaten breakfast?" Evan asked.

"Not yet."

"Then I'll bring him something."

"Good idea. Give me a moment. I'll prepare a plate for him." Evan left his own breakfast behind half-eaten and left the tent cottage with Oliver's plate in hand. He found Oliver just a few feet away from the entrance, practicing with his sword in the light of his own floating light orb.

"You alright?" Evan asked as he walked over. Oliver stopped what he was doing.

"Yeah, I'm okay, just trying to work on that Sword Apprentice quest. I'm at 88% already." Evan held up the plate, filled to the brim with scrambled eggs, fried bacon, and toast. Oliver hesitated for a moment before putting his sword back into the sheath.

"Good idea, probably. My mana still isn't fully refilled."

"Can't say I'm surprised to hear that," Evan said as they sat down side by side on a nearby rock sticking out from the earth, "Heard you pacing half the night. I can't imagine you got a lot of sleep." Oliver stared down at his plate and sighed.

"I had a lot of thinking to do."

"Oliver, you know—""Don't worry, I'm okay now." He picked up the fork and started eating.

"It took me a bit to get a handle on my feelings, but I'm okay now, really. Last night I realized you're right. You and Jasper. Trying to go through walls head-first and moping around whenever I'm not doing that isn't going to help anyone."

"It's your hometown. It's understandable that you have… feelings about all that."

"Oh, I sure do, but feelings need to wait until we've freed all those people the Beasts abducted. We need to be smart about this, and I haven't been acting very smart in the last couple of days. Sorry about that." Evan watched his friend eat for a while before he spoke again.

"We're going to return to Silvercreek today."

"Yeah…"

"What happens when we go to your farm and find your family missing?" Oliver paused mid-motion, fork loaded with eggs. He took a deep breath.

"Then we're going to find them and free them, just like the rest of the abducted villagers." Evan clapped Oliver on the back.

"You're being very mature. I'm proud of you." Oliver shrugged.

"I'm doing my best. Don't get me wrong. It's hard. But I'm a mana user now. That power comes with responsibilities. My personal feelings can't get in the way of the mission. Too many lives depend on us keeping a clear head."

"What brought on that change of mind? Yesterday evening you were ready to run into the Beasts' lair and strangle them with your bare hands." Oliver tapped the hilt of his sword next to him, leaning against the tree trunk. Evan looked at the sword in confusion before Oliver explained himself.

"Polishing the sword Maya gave me. I couldn't help imagining what she'd be saying if she were here right now." Evan let out a chuckle.

"She'd probably smack you across the head."

"And tell me to get a grip," Oliver added with a grin.

"Rightfully so. We might squabble, but she's still my big sister, and I don't want to let her down by getting myself killed at the first opportunity." He shoveled the last remains of his breakfast into his mouth and rubbed his stomach with a satisfied sigh.

"That was amazing. You have to give it to Jasper, the guy can cook."

"How's your mana looking?" Evan asked.

"Almost completely full. Let's get the others and head back to Silvercreek."