If she could shine any brighter, she’d be the Sun.
Nova was like that.
Even now, looking at the city from the ruin of the clocktower, she shone brighter than anyone I had ever known. Not that I had known many at that point.
The City in front of us, so close yet so far out of reach, felt like light itself. Source of meaning and hope for many, and yet for me it looked just like a scratch in the distance.
Still, the City’s Flow bellowed for us to come, but we were not invited; we did not belong there, or at least I definitely didn’t.
Sundoor, the amber City, the City of Lights, the City of Gold, the House of the Sun.
I couldn’t help but look and gawk at its beauty. Even so far away from it, the shine and luster of its structures drove me to stare at it, almost forgetting where we were. But when from the center of the City, the pillar of light instantaneously rose tall, tearing its way into the afternoon’s sky and parting the clouds in its wake, the magic broke, and we knew it was time to depart.
We had seen it hundreds of times but really had no idea what it was, the clock-engineer said that they governed the weather with all that Flow.
For my perceptive eyes, the flash of light traveled through the atmosphere and continued on, bending at some point, or exploding in many particles, then disappearing in the distance.
However, if the City gave my sister the motivation she needed to keep going forward despite all that had happened to us, what made me go on was Nova herself, she was my guiding star.
Nevertheless, the City of Sundoor was a staggering contrast to the Shade-filled Dump extending around, a field littered with all the City’s waste that even during the day spawned Shadelings of every kind.
So, Lucid dream broken, I called for my sister, “Nova! Come on, it’ll get dark soon,” I said through our voice-bridge; it was the last pair the village had left.
The voice-bridge buzzed with its peculiar low-whistle, “I’m coming!”
The device was as simple as it was worthless, if we went farther than five hundred or so meters from each other it would not work; still, it was useful in here, where if we were not careful we could lose sight of each other, but in the Drylands outside of this place? Outside of the Dump? There was nothing that could make us lose our way in the Drylands. They were as empty and dry as the name suggested.
When Nova started descending from the tall tower, I followed her form and saw the difference that two points in Agility had given her during our month-long training. It meant a lot whether she was a Rogue or not; I could see the results now.
We had trained long for her to obtain the Class, and now she couldn’t help but show off her new levels of Agility.
As she took the fastest route down like I had shown her many times in the past, I nocked an arrow.
We were in the Dump, after all, a place where all the City’s waste was deposited. Clock-tech refuses, trash of all types, and even corpses.
Here, it took only a moment to get snatched away by a Rag-troll or even an overgrown Dire-rat. I saw it happen with my own eyes when I was still a Hunter in-training. However, my sister was somebody I could not allow myself to lose. She was the village’s only hope and grandpa’s salvation.
“Are you sure you want to get to the clearing?” She asked as she reached me.
Her eyes were of a beautiful light amber as she looked at me.
However, I noticed that her short Flow-blessed hair, dark gold but kissed by glowing amber lovelocks had started growing long again; I would have to cut them once more.
She was yet to flower, but she was definitely recognizable as a girl, and slave hunters did not wait for one to bloom; it was quite the opposite. The younger was better in their books, they could mold her in all the sort of nasty ways they wished. Even making her abandon her Class for a more… specialized one.
“I need to check our improvement with the Skill Tracer,” I answered, “since someone let the last one get destroyed,” I was stern, but, no, I wasn’t really mad. The Tracer was tough, and it had protected her from the worst of the trauma of her last encounter with a monster.
The Horned-barker had almost taken her away from me the other month. Thus I was really mad at myself rather than her. It was also the reason why we decided she had to take an agile approach to her lackings.
Nova had always dreamed of being a Mage with her main Class, but I doubted that dream would ever come true, not only she lacked the Focus for it, but we had no way to know how to form the Class that would lead her to become a magician.
Since the accident, we had trained for her to unlock her Rogue Class, thankfully she was young; Class training was that much easier when one was young.
Why not train her in archery, as I did? She did not need it.
She had a Sub-Class that would make her a Healer one day, well a rather close day if she kept leveling it at her current pace. We just needed her to be a Rogue to increase her chances of survival.
Rogues were very versatile, even as weapon choice stood, but most importantly, they learned evasive maneuvers that we very much desired in her build.
The adults said that a Class was the bread and butter of who you were, a Sub-Class was an addendum. But it wasn’t always like that, in Nova’s case, for example, it was the other way around.
“Are you ever gonna drop it, Loke? You’re gonna sprout wrinkles, like Gramps.” She placed her finger on my frown; it did indeed feel they were forming bumps.
“I’m too young for that. You don’t scare me,” I teased her.
“Don’t tell me I didn’t warn ye!”
“Again trying to speak uncle’s accent?” I asked as we waded through the field of clock-scraps.
“Come on, Loke. It’s too cool! Lissen te this ye, basterd!”
Indeed, one of the villagers was a redheaded Outlander and spoke like that. I couldn’t help but chuckle. But, at a moment’s notice my lightheartedness disappeared, I felt the peculiar spike of fear-excitement coming from Ronda.
Ronda was my pet, my creature, and she had sniffed or seen something. One year had gone by since I had tamed her, and I still couldn’t distinguish the difference between the two, I still needed to get used to her.
“Incoming,” I said to Nova, raising my bow.
She was instantaneous, manifesting a blade made of pure Shade. She had gotten lucky with the Skill; like every Skill construct, the blade was extremely useful. She would never remain weaponless now. However, I wasn’t surprised; she had been born lucky.
I… maybe a little less so.
But there was no time to dwell on stupid topics; the creature was coming from the east, the shadow of a decayed building covered for it.
It was a Rag-troll, although this one was faster than average, and it was coming our way.
“Come,” I ordered as I bolted toward Ronda. We needed to get the high ground against it, or we would be trampled to death.
Luckily the Dump was full of high grounds; with tall-growing buildings, we would be able to climb easily.
I whistled to Ronda, made a circle with my hand, and pointed at the Rag-troll; she knew what to do now.
Ronda was a Flowborn, a creature belonging to the Flow, to the light; she would not be able to use any ability in the dark or during the night, but she did not lose her speed. And she was faster than us, or of a Rag-troll, a lot faster than a Rag-troll.
She was a Hound-hare. Her only weaknesses were her two big ears, she could store Flow in them, but they made her that much easier to hit. Even a superficial wound would weaken her Flow reserves, which meant that in such a Shade filled land, whether daylight was still present or not, could be a catastrophe, also, she would lose her ability to shock tissues with her bite.
As we climbed on top of a two-storey building, Ronda circled the Rag-troll, confounding it.
I perched on top of an exposed metal shaft; it was part of the internal structure of the massive building and took my aim.
My pupils enlarged, and three concentric circles sprouted around them; they were of the same midnight blue as my eyes.
“Trick Shot,” I whispered.
Saying the name of the Skill wasn’t really needed, but I did it out of habit and to amuse Nova; she was still no reliable fighter, so she was uncomfortable in fights. I could always tell from the way she clenched her jaw.
The scrap metal arrow left the bow with haste, and hit the neck of the three and a half meters tall troll; it would not be enough. But that was just regular damage; Trick Shot was still to come. The Shade arrow that followed my shot fell on its target the very next moment.
However, the troll had slightly moved away by then, following the momentum of the first shot.
The Shade projectile scratched its chin, which was technically a miss. I hardly missed my shots nowadays.
“Tsk.” I readied my bow to aim again and released another. My target would still be the neck; it was the second most vulnerable spot; my Skill told me that by highlighting its skin in orange.
But the troll knew of my attacks now, he evaded it, then roared at me; it was a damn Taunt, of course.
Trolls were tank creatures, whether they were Flowborn or Shadelings. With that Taunt I felt compelled to throw arrow after arrow at him; however, luckily, my Willpower and Focus were high, I could partially fight off the Skill.
“Focus!” Nova said, gripping my shoulders. I nodded.
What saved me was that I intended to attack the monster all the same. I would not have to fight off Taunt’s effect too much.
I would have to aim differently, adding a trick to the Trick Shot.
I got up, balancing myself on the steel pole, then I whistled. Ronda, who had abandoned trying to confuse the troll and was now looking at me. I made a ‘gnaw’ sign with my hand, and she knew she would have to bite. It was dangerous, but if the troll caught up to us, and it was indeed able to climb, it would be the end game.
The rag-troll was less than thirty meters from the exposed stairs; I needed to kill it before it reached that.
Ronda attacked that very moment. She silently closed in on it and bit down with her sharp teeth on the creature’s ankle.
The troll staggered; her bite could easily cut through tendons, maybe not troll’s tendons, still… The troll kneeled.
“Trick Shot.”
The monster was kneeling, its head was bending down, but I already predicted it, the metal arrow hit the center of its head, bouncing off, but it carried enough momentum to jerk its head back, and then came the Shade arrow; it was a kill shot.
It dug through its right eye, its red-highlighted weak spot. The monster remained still for a few seconds until it fell forward on the scrap littered ground. It was dead.
“That was kinda cool,” admitted Nova, “Was it luck, or did you actually predict that?”
“Luck, Nova? Really? Me? I don’t think so,” I answered as I sent Ronda to scout around.
“Well, you do have a Flow Star, no?”
“I don’t think it will ever be enough to fight off the three Shade ones I’ve got, but it’s better than nothing.”
“Well, you should thank momma Jane for teaching you Taming then,” she said.
“I do, every time, however, after well… after what happened she didn’t really want to see me or anybody, really. That’s the second reason why we’re going to the forest. It’s been more than a month since we last checked on her.”
Nova nodded.
We got down and headed to check on the Rag-troll. The huge creature was a mess of different skin complexions, nothing related to my ability to see weak points; it receded when I didn’t need it. It really was his skin that was a mess of colors and bumps and scars.
The rag-troll could patch itself with every type of organic tissue it found; I remember seeing one that had a flower attached to his pinky finger; it had used that to replace its lost finger. I had no idea where it had found it, but it was a sight to see.
Thanks to my Sub-Class, Tamer, I could roughly guess which part of the monster was edible with my inner knowledge of my prey. But first, we had to take out his Stone, now Nova’s new Skill would really shine.
The Shade blade was strong and sharp enough to cut through it, not exactly as if it was grease; still, it was better than dulling the edge of one of my knives.
I instructed her as she cut open the monster’s thorax and dug inside of it. Removing Shade’s Stones was something that had to be done right away; if we left the body here to dissolve on its own, the Stone would do so with it.
After we were done, it was time to take a trophy, well, something for the people to eat. It was the first safe game of the day, and we had come out for hunting, after all.
The village’s stockpile was drying thin because we had spent almost a month without going out; Nova’s survivability had to be increased. And I enjoyed having her by my side. Before she decided to come with me, I was the only Hunter remaining.
Well, the only one still able to hunt…
We decided to take apart its leg and bring it with us. The Stone had been removed; thus, its huge body was for us to harvest.
I put the leg in my bag, carefully placing it upside down so that it would bleed on the ground as we walked. While I did so, I had to place my quiver on the front, it impaired my ability to shoot thoroughly, but it was momentaneous; if we faced another creature, I would drop the bag and right my quiver.
***
The Dump we delved through on our way to the Tracer was nothing more than a huge scrapyard. Right now, we were headed toward the Clearing, and to get there, we would have to pass through Little Bush, where momma Jane had her solitary abode.
We would most likely spend the night there. Or hole up on some tree. There was no way we’d make it back to the village at night. Not with only the three of us.
Little Bush was located past the Dump, and the Drylands, Flow creatures dwelled the land in the morning. Not all were nonaggressive, but it was a far cry from the inherent aggressiveness of Shade creatures. Thus after leaving the shadows of the Dump, we would find ourselves in a relatively safe location.
Ronda rejoined us as we left the Dump behind; I could feel the scope of my vision grow slightly duller when we left the Shade covered lands. She came trotting at us; her pale cobalt blue started shining as her ears began drawing in Flow from the atmosphere.
Nova turned toward the Dump, taking a last look at the City beyond, while Ronda licked the blood dripping from the leg.
“Do you think we will ever…” she did not finish the sentence but let out a long sigh.
“If we manage to fix the village, we might, who knows. They are always in need of Delvers there. We might cut it once we grow,” I said, trying to be optimistic.
Who knew, maybe if it was her, she might as well make it, but I? With my hair and skin? I would never be accepted in the city. They would shoot me on sight if I ever neared the gates by myself. That was for sure. But Nova? She would blend in perfectly.
My reverie was interrupted by a ticking I didn’t like from my left forearm; it was starting to get rusty again. I snorted.
There was no way they would accept me with my complexion, figures once they saw my clock-arm. However, I would never dare say it in front of Nova; she was still twelve, she was allowed to dream.
“Come on. There’s still a long way to go.”
***
The trip from the drylands with the crevices transforming the landscape into a huge web of mini-rifts required the right amount of Agility to make the trip injury-free.
There was a lot of jumping to do, and stable ground would present a different threat, the sandy earth could cave in at times, leaving one to dangle from a crevice. However, thanks to my Perception, I could trace the safest path to cross. Nova would just need to trespass where I walked. Ronda, instead, had no problem at all. She was half-dog, half-hare; she was a creature of Agility.
Around us, only critters moved about in the dry landscape, scorpions, snakes, mice…
But not all were that small.
“That’s a game,” I said when both my Perception and Ronda’s picked up a Red-fox. She was well-fed and would make for a perfect meal. Hell, a few days of meals.
“You are not going to hit her from here!” Nova whispered to me.
“If you place the Stone that we just dropped on my head, I might,” I answered.
“What? What would that do?”
“I have half an idea of what the Skill I unlocked last month does. I can sense it, but I want to be sure. Come on,” I nudged her, “I want to try. Let’s make a bet, if I catch it, you will be the one to carry it.”
She looked at me with half-moon eyes, “But if you don’t, you are going to carry all the other ones we catch.” she said, placing the Stone on my head.
“Damn, you’re greedy. Alright, let’s see what I can do.”.
A Rag-troll’s Stone was roughly as big as heavy as a fifty grams rock. It was black as the darkest nights and cold; it could freeze one’s hand off if held for an entire night. But she would only have to hold it for a few seconds.
Once again, there was no need to do something so stupid as to place the Stone on my head. I just did it to amuse my sister. Even if I just touched it for a few seconds and then placed it in my satchel it would bind with me, making me use the Shade stored within its small frame.
Yet, when she did so, I started feeling it, the same kind of increased Perception I had while we were still in the Dump, in a Shade-cursed environment.
I guessed my Perception increased by likely three points in a Shade environment, but there was no way to correctly tell without a Tracer.
Normally, we could hear the voice of the world, the whispers, only when we increased our level; but it did not whisper to us the secrets of our statuses.
There were very rare Skills and Classes for that, but they required luck or specialized training, we had been schooled by our villagers’ collective knowledge, which wasn’t much to say, but it was better than nothing.
There was the chance of me unlocking one since one of my Skills definitely fit the criteria, but it was really unlikely.
“Trick Shot.”
I used my only attack Skill, I would not be able to use it without Shade, but since I had access to a Stone now, it was better to use it than scare the fox away. Sending Ronda after it was too dangerous.
My target was at roughly two hundred meters, and I wasn’t confident I could pinpoint it perfectly at that range. I had been using my bow only since I was twelve. Four and a half years were not enough to build a Sniper.
However, I caught it right in the side, then the shade projectile pinned it down the ground.
I turned toward Nova with a smirk.
“Don’t gloat, just don’t,” she said. She shaded the sun with her hands. “Nice shot, though, really.”
“If only it didn’t only work in Shade, it would be better.”
“Don’t you have that other Perception Perk too?”
I shrugged, “I’ve grown accustomed to it.”
“Come on, now you are just being a baby, your sight is already that of an Eagle-rock, and your hearing is better than that of a Cave-bat! What more do you want?”
“Yeah, sure! Those creatures’ Attributes are in the high forties, if not more. With this perk, my Perception barely reaches twenty-three.”
“Well, then maybe in a few years, when we’ll be going in Dungeons your levels will soar. You can have all the Perception you want then!” She said, giving me the tongue.
“What are you even talking about…” I answered.
“Come on, let’s go! Momma Jane will welcome me back with glee!” She said, running toward the fox; she would be carrying it.
Other than that encounter and swift deal with a snake, that throwing her Shade dagger, Nova impaled, we did not meet any more critters.
Only later it occurred to us that the snake we killed was venomous; however, since it hadn’t been my prey, I did not gain knowledge on how to treat it; we dropped its body in a crevice. If Nova had burst one of the poison glands we would not be able to eat it. And we sure as the Abyss wouldn’t take that chance.
***
When finally, the drylands started giving in to patches of green, we knew that Little Bush was close in front of us. The sun, however, was almost at his hour-long Twilight.
Twilight and Dawn were the Blessed Hours. Flowborn creatures went to hide; Shadelings did not dare to step out in the direct rays of the sun. It was bliss.
In the village, we got things done, whether, at Dawn or Twilight, a couple of windows of one hour each was not enough time in a day, but important things could be accomplished even in such a short amount of time.
Nova and I trod through Little Bush, it was a relatively short trip toward the Clearing, but we broke into a run all the same because we would have to delve through the forest, and we would be cutting it too close to true darkness if we kept losing time.
Looking at her run, I knew I still had the upper edge even on running. I didn’t know how long that would be, not only because she was the embodiment of luck, but because her Sub-Class had gifted her with a fantastic boost in Constitution, she would become taller than me, stronger, and her Rogue Class would boost her speed more than my Class, Hunter, did.
And yet I wasn’t jealous, I was proud of her. Besides Gramps, she was all that remained to me of our family.
We reached the Clearing in less than ten minutes, the monolith paving before us. I had no idea what it was; what we knew was that a long time ago, our own villagers noticed its form in the ground so, curious about it they started digging.
They found a set of stairs that led them to a hidden chamber, a chamber with clock-tech that would make even Sundoor interested about it.
At times I wondered if they knew of the Monolith. It was unlikely they didn’t.
We closed in, a sniffing Ronda in tow. We had come here often enough for her to understand that she had to check for people’s presence. Nobody other than momma Jane and… her now absent daughters came here. If there was a different smell, it meant trouble, sentients-related trouble.
This time too, however, she did not spot anything. She was half-hound, I trusted her smell, but I had Nova hand me the torch and the Crystal she carried in her backpack. Then I started descending, with my torch in my mouth. The Flow Crystal inside was dimming, it wouldn’t last long, but it had lasted enough now. It would probably shatter in a few minutes, giving us more than enough time to check what we needed to check.
The monolith’s stairs were dusty; it was safe to say that nobody had entered in a while. We hadn’t been here since last month; the only one close enough for it was momma Jane, and she was probably still in the middle of her mourning.
What was weird about the monolith was that no Shade monsters were sprouting around it or inside of it, where darkness reigned supreme. I doubted it was for the ever blinking lights coming from the sanctum, but I could not be sure. I was no expert in it, grandpa was.
We reached our objective in a minute. The mirror with a hand-shaped surface on its bottom was meant to act as a Tracer. I did not wait to check the corridors nearby; it was useless since I had done so many times and never found even the smell of a monster; besides, Ronda was calm. She smelled nothing.
“Let’s see if my hunch was correct,” I said to Nova, as I placed my hand on the contraption.
When I did, the Status page appeared in front of me in all its splendor; I smirked at it.
“Yup, I guessed correctly.”
“Really?” She asked.
“Take a look yourself,” I moved aside to show her the results that had appeared on the giant screen.
|
Loke Nightfold |
||
|
Class |
Hunter Lv. 24 |
Agi + 1, Foc + 1, Per + 1 |
|
Sub-Class |
Tamer Lv. 20 |
Foc + 1, Will + 2, For + ☆ |
|
Attributes |
||
|
Stats |
Natural |
Augments |
|
Agility |
14 + 4 |
Shoddy boots (+1) |
|
Constitution |
7 |
Shoddy clothes (+1) |
|
Strength |
14 |
Clock arm (+ 3) |
|
Focus |
12 + 2 |
|
|
Perception |
16 + 4 |
|
|
Willpower |
23 + 2 |
|
|
Fortune |
★ ★ ★ + ☆ |
|
|
Hunting Skills |
|||
|
Name |
Major |
Minor |
Passive |
|
Trick Shot – Agility |
★ A Shade projectile follows your shot |
Agility + 3 |
|
|
Hunting Tactics – Focus |
★, ☆ Your target’s weak points are partially exposed |
||
|
Trace – Perception |
★, ☆ Add a permanent Tracker on your target |
Perception + 3 |
|
|
Tamer Skills |
|||
|
Name |
Major |
Minor |
Passive |
|
Return to nature – Focus |
★, ☆ Gain minor knowledge about your prey |
||
|
Animal Instincts – Perception |
★, ☆ Partially feel your pet’s emotions |
★ Perception + 3 with Shade |
|
|
Together we are one – Willpower |
☆ You can tame weak Flow creatures |
Your creatures can understand you |
|
Root Classes like ours were given three abilities based on the Attributes that they boosted.
My Hunter Class boosted three Parameters so it went without saying which Skills I would get.
However, since the Tamer Sub-Class only boosted two Attributes, the last of the three Skills dedicated to Root Classes was unlocked at random. In my case, it had been my Perception Skill, probably because it was the next highest Attribute.
The bonuses, the numbers that came after the basic Attributes represented how powerful your Attribute could get while in combat, or so we had been taught.
While the last Attribute… Fortune. Well, it just didn’t count, or at least that was the explanation I had given to myself. No one in my backwater village really knew what to do with them; so other than the general knowledge, we didn’t know much more about it.
Shade Star for a Shade ability, Flow Star for a Flow ability. I had three Shade Stars.
When the Stars were on the Skill portion of the Status, it was good. It meant that your abilities could be used with the help of Flow during the day or Shade during the night, based on the color.
If there were none, it meant that the ability did not require its use. That was rare and was only common with some Passive Perks, but when there were both stars, the ability could be used both in the presence of Flow or in the presence of Shade.
Things were entirely different when the stars were on the Fortune tab.
In the village, it was well known that if there were Shade Stars, it was a symbol of bad luck. And I was born with three.
Usually, those born with three Shade Stars died when they were infants, those born with two died when they were teens, and I was just about to die when I was twelve. The only thing that kept me alive was, most probably, Nova.
Unlike me, she had three Flow Stars on her Fortune tab. How she was born in the same situation as me… that was beyond my understanding.
“Alright, you were right. It’s my turn now!”
