Skill Gained: Speed Reading Tier 0, Rank 1
I’d decided to start looking through the manual again, trying to go over the material I’d fallen asleep to. The second reading definitely helped, though it didn’t help the information from being tedious. I didn’t understand why I needed to know the legal justifications for some of the rather horrifying sounding punishments moderators were apparently capable of.
Though one section did stand out regarding moderator duties:
Part of the duties of a moderator are to regulate the problematic elements that can develop in any system. Some users will use the Vendal systems to cause severe mental or physical harm to others. Vendal’s creators have allowed activities that would typically be deemed ‘criminal’ to be allowed, if not strictly legal. Things like theft, assault, and murder are not the purview of moderator duties. Things like kidnapping, torture, rape, and slavery are, however, deemed suitable things for a moderator to involve themselves in, from an authoritative viewpoint. Moderators are allowed to pursue other things as they deem fit duty.
I tried to think and find the logic within the rules. Why would theft and murder be fine? There were more things that were on the list of moderator duties, but there didn’t seem to be any reasoning behind it. Poisoning someone wasn’t a moderator’s responsibility, but spreading a disease was. Murder was fine, but someone going around cutting off limbs wasn’t.
I thumped my head against the back of my seat again, trying to stop thinking of all the horrible things people could do to each other. I heard a responding thump a moment later, and looked behind me in surprise.
“Everything all right, my lady?” The driver asked in a half shout.
Oh. Right. He was still here. I tried to think of something. “Yea… Just… bored.” I said in a raised voice.
I had to pause as I spoke, though, since I still wasn't used to how I sounded. I didn’t notice when I was engaged in something, but with just me in the carriage I sounded… weird. Too soft. Too high.
“Know how you feel. Come join me on the bench. I'm just watching the guards training anyway.”
I tried to open the door to do so, but found it wouldn't open. “The door's stuck.”
The carriage rocked a little, and I could feel when he got off the front seat. A few moments later, there was a click. Then the door swung open to reveal the scrawny man I'd seen before. “Don't know why they bothered, Lady Danielle. Not like you're going to take off, right?”
I shook my head and hopped out of the carriage, taking the man's offered hand. “Thank you… Samuel, right?”
“That's me, Lady Danielle.” He looked at me curiously. “Though you seem different from before.”
As he closed the door and hopped back up onto the front seat, I had to pause and think how I wanted to handle this. “I… a lot of things happened.”
“You don't got to tell me twice.” He let out a small grunt as he helped me up and I got the impression I was stronger than he was. Which, checking my stats screen again, was a little odd since I only had a 10.
I settled myself onto the bench and looked around. From this vantage point I could see over the small wall surrounding the much larger wall that led to what I could only describe as a small castle in what appeared to be the middle of the city. Between the walls, a number of people were training in various amounts of armor.
“I love when I can park my carriage near the barracks. All the strong, capable men and women running and swinging heavy things around.” He made a pleased ‘mmm’ sound as he watched a trio running along the inner wall, one running backwards as he shouted at the other two.
I tilted my head as I looked at him. “Ever think of joining them?”
“Oh, core no. I struggle to walk from the carriage to the house sometimes, no way you'll catch me running.” He sighed, “Though I wouldn't mind trying to keep up in other ways.”
I didn't know how to interpret that, so I just ignored it. “So, how does the carriage work?”
Samuel startled slightly, “Hm? Oh, I use mana on the steering crystal. It's not too difficult, but it's hard to find people with it in the area.”
“Why is that?” It didn't seem like it'd be hard, just add a stat point to it.
“Cause it's restricted, duh.” He then blanched as he remembered who I was, “I mean… uh…”
He was starting to panic, but I just kept going with my questions. “How is it restricted?” I figured the why would come to me eventually.
Apparently, Samuel was conversationally adept enough to notice when I was ignoring a slight, because while he did straighten up, he only hesitated a moment before responding. “Well, anyone with mana is taxed on experience unless they belong to a noble family, like yourself.”
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“How do you tax experience?” I said as I blinked in surprise, trying to comprehend the process. Might be something in the manual…
“It just happens.” Samuel said, sounding more than a little bitter, “Anyone born with mana of any kind gets heavily taxed.” With a heavy sigh, he leaned back in his seat and stared up. “I didn’t even get to level 4 in my base class cause of it, and that was with my family helping.”
I followed his gaze and frowned. Above us was a pale blue sky, but something seemed… off about it. It was bright out, but there didn’t seem to be an obvious source. And the sky seemed… wrong. Like if I stared hard enough, I could look past the curtain and…
“Lady Danielle?”
I jumped a little, startled and shook my head. “Sorry, did you say something?”
“No, it just looked like you were spacing out.” He gave a polite chuckle, though his eyes showed he was nervous.
Assessment has ranked up
Assessment: Tier 0, Rank 5
I sent the notification away and returned my attention to the driver. “So… when my family hired you, how long did it take to level?”
He thought about it, “Well, after the initial push to get my base class to 10, and then the fee to get me the Initiate class, I’ve been leveling pretty fast. I just hit 9 in Initiate, so I’m almost half way to till I can branch off into an Elementalist like I promised.”
“And that’s what you want to do? Be an Elementalist?” I was fishing for more information, since it sounded like a class and I was interested.
“Oh, absolutely. Getting to move fire around with just my mana is going to be awesome! I can already do a bit of it now thanks to the school I’m being sent to, but it’ll be soooo much easier once I get my class upgraded!” He was getting really excited. “Plus, if I get the Fire Elementalist class, I can help with the family dungeon and actually make some real money.”
“Will a Fire Elementalist help that much in the family dungeon?” Apparently, the Rosecrest family has a dungeon. Good to know. I was going to have to ask Calmar about it.
“Well, not in a combat sense.” He said, glummly. “Since it’s a fire oriented dungeon, I won’t do a lot of damage, but it’ll make gathering things a breeze!” He leaned in close and whispered, “Especially since I’ve learned all the good stuff is hidden behind flame walls and in the fire fields.”
I wonder if that’s true… I was just getting all kinds of questions for later. “Would a different kind of Elementalist do as good a job?”
Samuel leaned back in his seat again and tapped his chin, “Hm… I suppose a Wind or Earth Elementalist could be useful, but Earth requires a LOT of mana, like about ten times more than I’ve got to work with. And Wind needs a lot more control than I’ve got. I’ve also got an affinity to fire, so it offsets a lot of the costs.”
I sat back and watched the guards training as I considered what he’d said. I wonder how many elements there are. It just highlighted more that I’d need to figure out, and I was already getting tired of needing to ‘find more information later’.
“By the way, I finished that book I borrowed from you.” He said after a few minutes of sitting in silence.
“Book?” I asked, confused.
“Passion and Vengeance. I liked Whips and Thorns better cause it had a lot more sex, but Passion and Vengeance moved the plot along better.” He grinned, “That and the heroine convincing the assassin to elope with her was great.”
I blinked in confusion and had no idea what he was talking about. “I… don’t remember how that happened.” I said, trying desperately to not give anything away. “I’ll have to reread it.”
“I’ll make sure to get it back to you soon, then. Hopefully I'll have enough PEC to get the next novel.” He said, looking excited. “Hopefully they finish up the plot involving…”
I tuned him out as he started talking about his favorite parts. From what I gathered, it was a very… involved story. I should actually check it out when I get a chance.
Instead, I watched the guards training, and wondered how hard it would be to convince them to let me join. If I was supposed to find the source of those… What were they? I pulled it up again to check. Power spikes.
“Hey Samuel?” I asked, interrupting him as he started to go into a theory of his about some love triangle that was really a pentagon.
“Hm?” He said, stopping.
“Has the dungeon gotten stronger recently?” I asked, without prompting.
He tilted his head and stared up at the sky. “Now that you mention it, yea. It’s part of why your father has been stuck monitoring it. Why?”
I shook my head, “No reason. Just wondering if they’ll let you go in as a fresh Elementalist, or have you level somewhere else.”
“Huh. I hadn’t thought of that.” He got quiet, continuing to think.
I was glad I pulled that out of thin air.
“I could probably level my fire skills with some missions from the Carnival. They deal with a lot of undead from the Grave Woods, so I can go on cremation detail. It shouldn't be too bad.”
I had a mental image of Samuel looking at a horde of shambling humanoids and cowering behind a stone rampart. “...I'm sure you'd be fine.”
Add undead to the list of things I know about. I guess. The information that came to mind was that fire was only good post dismemberment, and burning zombies were terrifying.
“Yea! It'll be just like the accounts of Paladin Renfield in the Woods and Death. Right before he got turned by the vampire and became her concubine…” Samuel paused, “Actually, that might be a bad idea.”
“You're absolutely correct, young Samuel.” Said a voice from behind me. It was the captain from last night. “Unfortunately, the romantic aspect of his demise was more explored than the tragedy it was.”
Shit, I forgot his name. It started with an S I think… “Captain. It's good to see you again.”
Behind me, I felt Samuel try to shrink out of view, hiding behind me. I didn't think it was working.
“Relax, Samuel. I just wanted to talk with Lady Rosecrest for a moment. Can you excuse us?” He held out his arm for me to take, trying to help me down.
I, instead, hopped down. My borrowed dress almost slipped off and I regretted the action. I caught it before it fell below my chest, but it was close.
“Ugh, I need a shirt and some pants.” I complained.”
The Captain chuckled, “I'd offer some from the guard store, but you'd have to enlist.”
“That's a more tempting offer than you realize.” I said, finally done adjusting the garment. “Please, lead the way, Captain.”
“Of course.” We headed towards the other side of the carriage, out of earshot of Samuel.