Chương 40: An Old 'Friend'

"You brought Morph some water?" Lady Sage turned her head toward us. She balanced herself and leaned forward, holding herself up with her arms, while Morph, in the shape of a seven-foot-tall man made entirely of shifting, intertwined branches, scrubbed the windows of the keep with a rag. They weren't big windows, and they had previously been arrow slits, but someone had put lattice panes in them recently—probably due to the keep's conversion into offices for the Drillmaster and the higher up staff of the sappers.

I set my buckets down on the temporary scaffolding that ran around the back edge of the keep, and said, "Precisely. Lady Sage."

"You know my name?" She tilted her head. Morph, the forest golem, flicked his head toward me. His two amber eyes bored into my forehead.

"Yeah," I said.

"I suppose you wouldn't remember me."

"I don't remember any Duplicates' names. And I have seen your face a thousand times. Why should I remember you?"

"It also sounds like you don't have a team," I replied dryly. I can't imagine why.

"Well, leave the buckets here and go," Lady Sage said.

"I don't need an offer to join a team from a bottom ranker."

"Because you have other teams lined up?" I asked.

"Y—yes."

"She does not," Brawl said.

"I'll find something else. I always do. Now leave me, Duplicates." I rolled my eyes.

"Alright, we don't need her. We can find someone else."

"All the other druids are spoken for." Brawl told me.

"There is no one else. And she is lying when she says she will find a squad. Either we end this little alliance between you and me right here and try to fit into another group individually, or we convince her."

"I don't want to be convinced," Lady Sage said.

"And I don't want a rude, reluctant healer on my team. So—""Alas, I don't want your help either. Someone who dares to speak to a Lady like that deserves no help at all."

"So we're in consensus." Neither of us moved.

"I do not know what either of your strategies are," Brawl said, crossing his arms.

"But let us stop with the untruths. Levi, we have no other choice. Sage, you have no other choice either—"" Lady Sage," she stressed.

"I will call you a Lady when you act like one," said Brawl. She pressed her palms down on the wooden scaffolding below her.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"A lord or lady is gracious, honourable, and kind to those who are willing to help her—I would expect the same from your father." Brawl narrowed his eyes.

"I am the daughter of Lord Ceonwin, and you will treat me as such. And soon, I will fail this exam." She hung her head.

"I…will be on my way home, never to see or speak to you again." I sighed, recognizing the futility of my situation.

"Look, Sage. Lady Sage, whatever it is. You need us, and regrettably, I don't have time to find someone else. Do you want to get kicked out? Because—actually, you know what, fuck you." I scowled, tightening my fists.

"You know how you got here? Your little wagon ride? I was in the squad that was guarding you. One of my squadmates died to protect you. And you're just going to get yourself kicked out? Because why? What a way to honour Trench's sacrifice, huh? Just get yourself kicked out because you didn't even try to get into a squad? Did you even want to be here? I mean, obviously they saw something in you." I paused.

"Or maybe they just want Morph." Sage stared at me, and I found myself agreeing with Brawl's earlier sentiment. I'd treat her like nobility when she deserved it—from now on, I was just gonna call her Sage.

"What do you want?" she finally asked. Her face softened slightly.

"We need a druid, and you need a squad," I said.

"We only have one and a half days left, and I don't have time to argue with you. Either you join us, or you get kicked out."

"I only see two of you. That's no squad."

"We are working on it," Brawl said.

"We're the best shot you'll get," I said. She chewed her lip and glanced at Morph. He shrugged and opened a hole in his face close to where his mouth would be, then let out a warble that sounded like groaning wood and a shifting house. Stolen story; please report. Finally, Sage said, "Fine. I'll join your little squad."

"Why?" I narrowed my eyes, suddenly suspicious.

"I thought you wanted to go home or whatever."

"I never said that," she grumbled.

"I simply said I would fail soon. I have accepted my fate. As always." She paused.

"Besides, I thought you wanted me to join."

"We must take her, Levi," Brawl said. I shook my head, then turned to Sage and knelt in front of her.

"Find us after lunch."

"You still need a fourth member," she muttered.

"After lunch, we'll go looking. Maybe we'll find someone in need of help."

"Yeah. Helping people gets you so far." She glanced down at her legs.

"Helping people lands you in a chair for the rest of your life, and it gets you nothing in return." I snorted.

"Maybe I'm not looking for anything in return."

"That's easy for you to say. You haven't sacrificed anything."

"Others have sacrificed everything for us to be here. I'm not gonna turn my back on them." I crossed my arms.

"Get that chip off your shoulder and meet us after lunch." I turned back toward Brawl.

"Did you have anyone in mind? There have to be some other outcasts that we can rope into our scheme."

"I have no one in mind," Brawl said.

"Do you?"

"I just got here, man. Maybe we check the ranking board and search for anyone else near the bottom."

"Agreed, brother," Brawl said. Then he held up a finger and said, "And do not call it a scheme. You are not a schemer. You have been honourable so far." He paused.

"And if it is truly a scheme, I want no part in it."

"No schemes," I said.

"It's just a saying. Come on, though. We're going to get in trouble if we keep lingering here." ~ ~ ~ At lunch, I kept my eye out for a fourth team member. There were a few problems I had to consider. If I picked randomly, the chances of me getting a useful fourth member for the squad were astronomically low. I couldn't just choose someone and hope it worked out. Even if I did make a team, there was no guarantee of succeeding at the exam. We had Brawl who could hit hard and soak up some hits if he timed it right.

It wasn't like he was completely indefensible, but he was exposed and easily overwhelmed if someone got too close. I could be a front line with him, with a good mix of offence and defense and the ability to keep others off him. In theory, we had Sage to support us. Whether that would work out long-term or not was another question, but for now, we had a healer. Maybe we could replace her later if she proved too much of a problem. What we needed was a sniper.

Someone who could precisely pick off enemies at a distance. If we'd had a good sniper at Slowbend, we could have killed the orc shaman so much easier. Shave wouldn't be dead.

"You seem lost in thought, brother," Brawl said. He was sitting beside me, eating as quickly as he could from a bowl of soup. Meanwhile, there I was, picking at my stew. I should have been hungrier, but I just wasn't.

"Sorry," I said.

"Just thinking about how we're actually going to get a fourth member."

"We need someone strong," he said.

"I have fought plenty of weak men who pretend to be strong, but cannot fit into a team."

"Right," I replied.

"Well, I was thinking we needed an archer."

"Don't you have an archery Skill?"

"Well, yes," I replied.

"Technically. But I don't have a bow on me, and I'm not that good." When it came to my archery Skill, I had no plans to get rid of it, but I couldn't ever be our squad's main archer. I added, "Even when I do start really learning, I'll never be able to match a dedicated archer. Besides, aren't archers supposed to put a lot of points into Perception?"

"Correct."

"I've been working on Focus, not Perception."

"What's the difference?" I snorted.

"I take it you don't have many points in either?"

"Strength and Vitality, brother." I rolled my eyes. Coming from anyone else, that 'brother' might have sounded like it came from a surfer. But he spoke it like an acolyte of a holy order.

"We'll go on the hunt in the afternoon, then," I said.

"How does sparring practice actually work? Do we just…head to the pits and duel each other?"

"Correct. But not all of them have to be official duels. You may simply choose to practice with someone. There have been those who abstained entirely, and those who have prioritized the archery range above all."

"You'll have to show me the archery range." After lunch, we navigated to the sand pits and the sparring fields between the inner wall and the outer wall and waited for Sage. There were a few people here already, but the point of this exercise only seemed to be raising your ranking to make yourself more attractive to other squads, or to simply show off your Skills and hope that someone accepted you into their squad. That would have been fine for me if we'd arrived earlier, but it was quiet.

Everyone had already formed up their squads, and the few who remained were the stragglers for these last few days. I hated leaving them all behind, but I couldn't take everyone. After a few minutes of watching and waiting, and checking the ranking board to see who was ranked the lowest, I was about to open my mouth and say something to Brawl—something like, "We should stop waiting and just go find the archery range already." Sage had probably abandoned us.

But before I could speak, a rustle of leaves and the groan of shifting wood interrupted me. I turned around to find Sage. She sat on Morph, who had shaped himself like a regular stool (but with six legs), and used them to walk.

"You thought I wouldn't come," she said.

"Yeah, pretty much," I replied.

"But at least we're not too hard to find, now that I'm sticking with Brawl."

"I don't like your tone."

"Yeah, and I don't like yours either," I replied.

"I—I am coming."

"Yeah, I gathered that." I stepped closer to her.

"But I need to know one thing. When it comes down to it, are you going to have our backs? Will you heal us when called upon? Or will you let us die?"

"I…I will heal you and whoever else we get in the squad."

"Good. Your word?" I held out my hand.

"That's not binding. And we can't form soul oaths until we reach Titanium." I rolled my eyes.

"That's not the point. I want your word." She reached out and clasped my wrist.

"My word, then. I will heal you when called upon."

"Good. Now let's go check out the archery range." Besides, I had other plans once I got there. This was the first time I'd actually get to try resonating my [Archery] Skill, and I wanted to see exactly what it would do.