Chereads / Journey of the Slate-Book 1 / Chapter 9 - Chapter 7: What to do Next?

Chapter 9 - Chapter 7: What to do Next?

When Noah descended the stairway into the tavern, he was greeted with the familiar sight of it's emptiness. For the past two days since they returned from the goblin tunnel, the tavern floor of The Risen Moon was mostly unoccupied when he woke up in the morning. His days had been going slowly, as they were waiting for Lola to recover. Normally Noah's routine would put him down there for breakfast, sharing that meal with Teague and Roy. Rapide would join them all, and then Roy and Rapide would go on their way for the day, doing their Roy and Rapide thing as they explored outside Remnant some more. Teague and Noah would sit down at the bar, Teague bringing a hardcover and heavy tome down from his room, and the two of them would spend the day looking through the book. They stopped only to eat and pack the book up when the evening crowd came in, but otherwise the two were absorbed completely in the thing.

The book was talking about a group of people known as the Fynel Court. Teague told Noah that Fynel was the last dungeon at the end of Tera de Fantastique. The place was home to amazing treasures as well as terrifying monsters that guarded it. The book itself was an account of one of the denizens of Fynel before it had collapsed. Noah was fascinated as they looked at pictures of the marble metropolis, with huge statues of their worthier citizens. One of the pictures showed a statue made of emerald colored stone, and Noah immediately recognized what it was.

"That's a fae!" Noah remembered saying, his smile wide as he studied the picture and the information next to it. The pointed ears poked out of the stationary stone hair. It seemed to have been clothed in fine robes, but Noah couldn't make out the finer details in the garment. He did notice that there was some circular emblem holding the robe together even though he couldn't see what was on the emblem. In the fae's hand was an odd-looking weapon, long as midway up the fae statue's body, half composed of a handle, and half composed of the double-edged blade. The lengthy caption next to the fae's picture named him "Lisio," and it said that he was one of the most respected members of the Fynel Court. He had been appointed the responsibility of filtering the requests and concerns of the citizens of Fynel, but Lisio was once a ferocious warrior before he became a peaceful politician.

"Weren't you paying attention earlier?" Teague asked, pointing further down the page to another picture of a statue. This one was a bronze sculpture of a tall man with his hands on his hips. The statue was shirtless, but the imprint of a strap wrapped around the chest. Noah could see the hilt of a weapon that wasn't visible in the picture, slimmer than any of the ones he had ever seen before. This one was apparently named "Arito." Arito was something called an Easterman, a race that Noah hadn't heard of until reading that. The Easterman was the leader of the infantry units of Fynel's army, as well as the forerunner for Easterman's getting proper citizenship in the city.

"This book says that everyone eventually had a representative in Fynel," Teague said, his eyes still bright as he studied the picture of Arito. "So yeah, there would be a fae like you. But there's also Eastermen, like me!"

Noah had never thought that Teague had belonged to any specific race. He had always just figured he was just another human like Rapide or Lola. There seemed to even be differences between humans, and Noah noted that he would devote some time to reading one of the chapters in the Guide labeled race later. In the recesses of his mind, Noah remembered the awkward moment when Isdiel had laughed at him for thinking that she was a fae. Reading about the races would hopefully let him avoid further moments like that.

"That's where we're gonna go one day, ya know?" Teague said as he closed the book for the day.

"How long do you think it'll take to get there?" Noah asked, thinking not just of Fynel, but of all the different things that they would run into along the way.

"It'll be a while, dude." Teague was putting the book in the bag he brought it down in. There was a big grin on his face, one that would give the one Noah was wearing a run for its money. "'Focus on the present,' that's what Rapide always tells me. There's more gold in it."

The two of them shared a laugh, and as Noah walked past the chairs where he and Teague had planned further for how they were going to raid Fynel he thought more on the words of Rapide. They matched the words of Isdiel too well. He hadn't managed to talk to any of the party members about their lost memories. He wasn't eager to pry into their pasts, though he imagined that someone like Teague would be overjoyed with the opportunity to brag about past adventures. Noah more sought for some basic advice from Rapide's Friends.

After all, nobody else seemed to be as hung up on things they had forgotten.

After turning around the corner where the bar was Noah saw the rest of his party standing and sitting around the stone hearth. The fire was gone for the first time since Noah had arrived, but he paid no more attention to it than just noticing. Roy and Rapide sat on the edge of the hearth, quietly chatting amongst themselves. Teague was bouncing a rubber ball off the wall, doing his best to get a rhythm going but dropping the little orb too much to get anything started. Isdiel was sitting down in the armchair, a tiny porcelain cup in her hand and her blonde hair in a tidy bun behind her head. Lola sat on the floor one side of the arm chair, and Noah saw that she had clean bandages wrapped around her stomach. He hadn't seen her since they returned, though Lola was already looking a hell of a lot better. Though anything looked better than lying on the bed, thrashing and sweating and screaming in pain from whatever the goblins had infected her with.

Seated on the other side of the chair was another girl that Noah hadn't seen before. She looked to be a head and a half shorter than the fae. While the word willowy would describe somebody with Teague's figure, this girl fit more into the lithe category. She was wearing a white shirt under a brown leather vest, both a size too big for her slim body, a pair of light green shorts. Unlike the vest that Teague usually wore, the girl's vest was littered with pockets and pouches. While her skin wasn't the same shade of pale that Isdiel's was, Noah assumed the girl didn't spend a good deal of her time darkening in the sun. Atop her head of long blue hair was a little black beret. In his endless curiosity Noah approached the girl and crouched down, looking at her face. Judging by her brows, the blue hair she had was natural. Her eyes were closed, and her soft looking pink lips were slightly open.

The girl snored softly.

"Morning, Noah," Isdiel said to him, hardly looking up from her drink. Isdiel's voice was apparently enough to make the sleeping girl beside her wake up. She glared up at Noah with her big brown eyes, and those soft looking lips of her started turning into a very angry snarl with a very sharp set of canines.

"Can I help you?" the girl said. Her hand shot up and grabbed Noah by his collar, yanking him by it so their faces were only inches apart.

"Sorry," Noah whimpered. It was a new experience for him to have a girl coming this close to strangling him. However, he wasn't so scared as to forget taking hold of her wrist, ready to tear it away from him at any moment.

"Down," Isidiel said. Her hand moved down to scratch a spot atop the violent girl's head. The sound that she hade as she closed her eyes and released Noah was all too familiar for the fae. Of course, it was an odd sound for him to hear from somebody else. As Isdiel continued to scratch the top of the girl's head Noah was sure that she was making.

The girl was undeniably purring.

"Good girl," Isdiel said with a little smirk before returning to her tea. Noah stood back up straight and fixed the collar of his shirt with a little frown. He had spent a whole twenty coins on the nice gray short sleeve and after the girl finished with it, the collar was pretty much ruined. He scowled down at the girl who was still basking in the joy of being pet.

"Don't be rude now," Teague said with a chuckle. He had apparently stopped bouncing his ball just in time to watch the scene unfold. "Introduce yourself."

Noah looked down at the girl in front of him. She had a similar frown on her face that Noah did, but she was no longer barring her fangs at him. Perhaps that meant she was ready to be friendlier. Noah held out his hand, muttering softly. "I'm Noah the Slate. Nice to meet you." He had learned from the first chapter of the Guide that stating your name and class was the proper way to introduce oneself to a fellow adventurer. With the thought that it would make him seem politer than he was when getting close and looking at her face, Noah changed his frown to a little smile as he kept his hand out.

"Katrine," she replied, slapping the hand out of the way. Or the girl wasn't going to return the politeness in any way and just stay mad at him. "Swordsman." The blue haired girl known as Katrine got up and walked over to one of the other armchairs that was far enough away from the shocked Noah.

"You two done?" Lola asked. The girl sounded like she had wanted to speak louder, but her wounds were still preventing her from doing so. Lola's call had drawn Rapide and Roy's attention, as the two of them immediately stopped their whispers and looked at the rest of the party.

"Glad we're all here and we've all gotten to know each other," Rapide announced to the group. "And it's good to see you're moving around again, Lola. How you feeling?"

"Much better," Lola answered, her voice still coming off as weak. "Izzy really knows her stuff."

"That's my job," Isdiel said. "You should be all clear to go, but just remember don't push yourself too hard."

Everyone looked at Rapide as the man grinned at Lola and Isdiel. The man seemed genuinely happy that Lola had made a full recovery, but Noah thought he could spot a tinge of worry in the leader's eyes when he heard that Lola couldn't perform of full potential. Whether it was concern for the young lady or not was beyond Noah's comprehension. He simply chalked it up to one of Rapide's oddities.

"Good, good," Rapide said. "I'm glad that we're all here and we're all in one piece. It means we can get down to business proper. I have a very important announcement to make about our next plan of action!" Rapide was obviously getting excited, and everyone seemed to lean in closer, eager to learn whatever it was that the man had to offer to them. All except for Roy who was still sitting behind Rapide and resting his eyes. Suddenly, Rapide turned and slapped the back of Roy's head. The fuzzy-beast-man (as Teague was apt to call him) looked up with his big yellow eyes at his leader. Rapide kept smiling bigger and bigger at Roy, and finally the black furred man stood up with a groan and began to speak.

"I made a mistake of sorts," Roy began. He held his hand to his side and suddenly his Item Box popped into existence. Roy reached into it and retrieved a long parchment scroll, rolling it out and showing it to the rest of the group. Teague let out a groan, Katrine scoffed, and though Noah couldn't see it Lola had a look of confusion like his own. The scroll had a single line written in golden ink along the top.

Eliminate the evil threat near the town of Remnant.

"That's a very big mistake there," Isdiel commented.

"What the hell is it?" Noah asked, confused and curious as to why a single piece of parchment was a mistake.

"So he really is a seri," Katrine said, a little smirk forming and letting out a soft giggle.

"Yeah, I am." That and a glare from Noah seemed to quickly stop Katrine's fun. He turned back to Roy and the parchment and he continued. "So what's up? Were you not supposed to take that?"

"I wasn't paying attention to it," Roy answered. "We're allowed to take it, but it's highly recommended that we don't."

"It's a legendary quest, Noah," Teague explained. "You can tell by the color of the ink."

"Legendary-?" Noah started.

"Quest," Lola finished for him. "Damn Roy. That's a pretty big screw up."

"Don't put this all on him," Katrine said, glaring up at Rapide and then swapping her gaze to Isdiel. "One of you two should've double checked on it."

"Wait wait wait," Noah interjected. "What's a legendary quest?"

"Do you know anything at all?" Katrine asked. She looked ready to get up from her chair and get in Noah's face yet again. Noah didn't look any calmer, doing his best to stare as many daggers Katrine's way as he could.

"Katrine, stop," Isdiel ordered. It wasn't a shout, but it was loud enough that everyone paid attention to her. Katrine sunk down in her armchair, embarrassed in a way that only a mother's chastising could do. Then Isdiel turned to Noah, taking one of his hand in hers and looking up with him with a mix of concern and frustration. "Noah, you need to spend less time goofing around with Teague and more time reading your Guide. Understand?"

"Yes," Noah answered. He wasn't any less irritated with Katrine's jibes, but he found himself a bit less focused on the matter. Noah hadn't seemed to realize that Isdiel's gentle caresses with her soft fingertips were slowly soothing him.

Tenderness. A high elf racial skill. Contact allows transference of positive emotions that calm an aggressive individual.

"Good," Isdiel said, smiling warmly as she released his hand. "I'll be quick. A legendary quest is the hardest kind of quest that there is. And before you say any 'I like the challenge' stuff you boys like to spout, don't even try."

"They're that rough, huh?" Noah asked. He was about to say something about liking the challenge but feared a personalized chastising from Isdiel if he had even tried.

"We definitely aren't ready for it," Rapide answered. It was the first time outside of fighting that Noah had heard him sound so serious. If even their jokey leader was having reservations about the "legendary quest," it was likely a matter that the party shouldn't fly into with reckless abandon.

"So what you wanna do?" Teague asked, going back to bouncing his ball off the wall. "Does the quest have any kind of deadline?"

"Not from what I can tell," Roy answered. "Which means-"

"Which means I came up with the idea for the next step," Rapide interjected. There was a harsh cough from the crowd, but when Rapide looked over to the source he only saw Isdiel sipping the last of her drink. "We came up with the idea for the next step."

"Don't tell me, I think I can guess," Lola said.

"I know just what you're thinking," Rapide replied. "And yes. It is indeed that."

"We're all going on training assignments," Isdiel explained. There was a collective groan from Teague, Katrine, and Lola. Noah continued to stand there, doing his best to not show his optimism that he'll be off on another fun training mission.

"Spend today doing your preparations," Roy told them. "We'll all be departing in the morning. And Noah?" The fae instantly turned to face Roy. As far as he remembered, it was the first time that Roy had ever spoken specifically to him. "Be sure to read your Guide when you get back here tonight."

"Yessir," Noah replied. Roy's eyes widened, and Rapide chuckled a little. Noah wasn't sure what was so funny, but he didn't worry about it for much longer. Isdiel had gotten up from her chair and wrapped her arm around Noah's.

"Hope you're ready to do some shopping," she said with a big, bright smile on her face. Noah smiled back at her, and she immediately started dragging him to the front door of the tavern. Katrine and Teague followed behind the pair silently, whilst Lola returned to her room and Rapide and Roy took their spots in the now empty armchairs. Noah was so absorbed in Isdiel's glee to travel around the stores and giving her proper tips for shopping that he didn't even respond when he walked right past Raelynn and her greeting.

--

It was the first time Noah had left the inn since they were returned. Not that he was being trapped in there or anything. He just didn't have a reason to leave. The inn had food, warmth, and his friends. All his equipment was just sitting in his Item Box, which had grown and expanded to fit his sword. Noah wasn't too worried about getting rusty with his blade work, but since he was going to run off for training soon, he thought he should take some time on his return to take a few practice swings.

The immediate thing that Noah noticed was that the streets of Remnant were even busier than his first day spent wandering them. Adventurer and villager alike walked up and down the road. While some were clearly taking leisurely strolls and enjoying the cool, sunny weather, there seemed to be an aura of urgency from most of the adventurers. Their hands were full with various supplies (from weapons and jewelry to potions and scrolls) and many of them were moving at a brisk pace. As the four of them made their way into the weapon shop, they had to squeeze their way between two burly elves showing off the tools they had bought.

"Come in, come in!" the elderly merchant of arms called from behind the counter. "And close the door behind you." Teague, as the last one in, obeyed the man's orders and slammed the door shut. Noah could spot the frustrated look on the old man's face, but he also spotted Teague smirking out the corner of his eye.

The weapon shop was as full as the streets. Adventurers were gathered around the tables and racks loaded with some of the most diverse weaponry that he had come across. There were swords and axes like Noah had seen the other day of course, but there was so much more for the shop to offer. Lances and glaives stood tall in their racks. On the tables were knives, some made to keep in one's hand, and other slimmer ones made to throw. Gloves of metal and leather were sitting in a display case on the table, each with the letters R M N T written across the knuckles. What cost Noah's eye the most though was a weapon hung up high on the wall behind the shopkeeper's counter. It was a sword unlike anything he had seen yet. The blade was the same length as his own longsword, but it was much slimmer. It curved ever so slightly, with one sharp edge facing towards the ground. The hilt was longer than the one Noah had, probably even long enough to even use the weapon with two hands, and there was no guard on it. It was just slightly wider than the blade.

Noah wasn't the only one to take extensive notice of the weapon. Teague, Katrine, and even Isdiel were looking up to the weapon. Katrine especially had her mouth open in a big smile with bright beaming eyes. From what he could figure, somebody called a Swordsman would definitely be interested in such an exotic looking weapon. The merchant was starting to be bothered, giving that the four of them were blocking his counter to get a better look at the weapon. Before he could chastise them though a deep voice spoke from behind them.

"Excuse me," they said, pushing the group to the side. The owner of the voice was one of the burly elves that had been outside of the store, now holding a heavy looking wooden bow in his hands. Katrine's bright, happy face started turning into a scowl as the elf engaged in meandering haggling conversation with the merchant, but a hand on her shoulder from Teague took her focus off the man.

"It looks to be overpriced, anyway," Isdiel remarked. Noah looked up at the weapon again and noticed that there was a price tag lazily tied to the end of the hilt. The number 16,000 was scrawled in black ink on the tag.

"What the hell is he trying to pull?" Katrine asked, not even trying to keep her voice down. "That thing is barely worth a tenth of that."

"Katanas are probably really rare out here, Kat," Teague proposed.

So that's called a katana, Noah thought as he heard the strange word. A fancy sword like that definitely deserved a fancy name.

"Is it any good?" Noah asked.

"Are you kidding?" Katrine asked with a look of utter shock on her face. "Katanas are fantastic. You'd be hard pressed finding anything of higher quality craftsmanship as far as swords go. They say the metal on them comes from-."

Katrine continued her explanation of the glory that was katanas with Noah doing his best to keep track. As she went on about the greatness of the materials that formed them and how great they were to use, Noah took notice of just how overjoyed her face was. It likely resembled whatever face it was that Isdiel had told him he possessed. That look of wonder and eager excitement to learn something new. Isdiel was covering her mouth and stifling her giggles as Teague just lowered his head and sighed. Noah could imagine getting one of these speeches every single time they had come across a new and interesting weapon.

"-but they'd be tough to use for you," Katrine said, her glowing face reducing slowly to a simple smirk. "Since you're a seri and all." The faces of the two behind Katrine had switched places, with Teague stifling a little laugh and Isdiel groaning in frustration. Noah meanwhile was getting annoyed (pissed off would be a closer analysis) with the blue haired girl constantly calling him seri. "Seri" this and "seri" that. It had been a constant stream of snide remarks out of Katrine's mouth about how "dumb" she had thought Noah was.

"You know I have a name, right?" Noah said as he stepped closer to Katrine. Katrine's smirk died down as Noah looked down at her, and it was quickly being morphed into a glowering stare.

"Doesn't matter that you have a name because you're still a seri," Katrine replied, poking Noah hard in the chest with her finger and unusually sharp nail. "And as far as I'm concerned, you'll always be a seri."

"You think you're that good, huh?" Noah replied as he looked Katrine right in the eyes.

"Noah," Teague tried to interject at the same time that Isdiel attempted to with a weak "Kat."

"Better than you."

Customers were starting to notice the argument. The merchant meanwhile was doing his best to sell extra features to the same burly elf as before, attempting everything he could to avoid what everybody else was hoping would devolve into a brawl.

"Fairy boy," Katrine said.

"Blue haired weirdo," Noah replied.

"Seri."

"Sword brained know it all."

"Incompetent brat."

Noah was stuck. He had no further comebacks, though the ones he had been using weren't exactly the greatest. Finally, an idea came to him, and he smiled down at the girl who was still slowly digging her long nail into his chest.

"At least I haven't been hiding up in my room while all the rest of us were being useful," Noah said confidently. Clearly it got to Katrine, but perhaps it was a bit too far. Though Noah didn't find himself being too concerned about it. However, Katrine was not going to just take that lying down. After a few moments, she came up with her own biting insult to sling Noah's way.

"Rapide picked me up because I am useful." Katrine replied, her own smile coming back. "Unlike you, who just got picked up because you're a cute little lost puppy."

Why Noah felt the urge to reach out to grab for Katrine's collar and hoist her up by it remains unknown to him. What Noah did know is that he attempted to act on it, his hand shooting forward immediately. Katrine saw him do this, her eyes widening with shock while her hand move down to grab for a sword that wasn't there. Noah didn't want to hurt her, or that's what he was telling himself. He just wanted to scare her. Scare her away from ever saying anything like that to him again.

Something had stopped Noah's attempted assault though. It was a hand on his wrist that held him back. Noah looked to the hand and up the arm, expecting to see either Teague or Isdiel had taken ahold of him. It was neither of them. Instead that arm was attached to somebody that Noah had never seen before. He looked older than Noah, but not quite reaching full manhood yet. His clothes were made of strange looking materials, with the black long sleeve shirt made from some kind of silky thing that seemed to shimmer in the pale light of the store and his pants made out a tougher looking, blue cloth like material. The shirt was unbuttoned to halfway down, exposing his bare chest beneath. Noah spotted ears that resembled Isdiel's, so his immediate thought was that the guy was an elf. However, his hair was black, fluffy, and in an untidy mess. There was a crescent shaped scar that went around the right of his green eyes, with the wound being the apparent only blemish on his otherwise handsome face.

"Now Monsieur Fae," he said, his voice cool and smooth. "You wouldn't be thinking of hitting this pretty young lady here, now would you?"

Noah shook his head and pulled his arm free of the stranger's grip, pulling it back down to his side and rubbing where he had been grabbed. For such a skinny looking dude, Noah thought that he had one hell of a hard grip.

"Thought not," he continued. He took hold of Katrine's hands suddenly and looked directly at her as he spoke, his voice suddenly becoming deeper. "Are you alright, sweet little Mademoiselle?"

"Yeah," Katrine answered with a little mutter as she took her hands back from the stranger. If Noah didn't know any better, he thought he could see a little pink appearing in Katrine's cheeks.

"Who the fuck are you?" Teague asked. He stepped between Noah and Katrine and stood before the stranger, standing face to face with him. Despite his harsh tone, Teague didn't look to have any signs of aggression on his face.

"Pardon my friend," Isdiel said, shoving Teague out the way and taking the spot in front of the stranger. She was looking up at the handsome gentleman with a smile on her face, as if she was expecting something. The man reached down and took her hands in his. Slowly he brought them up, and Isdiel was left giggling as he slowly leaned his hand down and planted a soft kiss on her hands, muttering something that Noah couldn't make out.

That's not his, an angry little voice growled at the back of Noah's mind.

That's not mine either, Noah told the voice, quieting it immediately. He was right. Isdiel wasn't his. That kiss that he got a few days ago was just her teasing him as far as Noah was concerned. The fact that Raelynn had been so busy with the inn the past two nights had nothing to do with him overthinking his discomfort seeing this strange man being so affectionate.

"I suppose I should introduce myself," the stranger said as he released Isdiel's hand, leaving her smiling and fighting the urge to make more happy noises. He flicked his wrist and suddenly a small card appeared in his hand. He extended to Noah (for some reason). Written on the little black card was a large D in pretty handwriting and light blue ink.

"Name's Dietrich," the man explained. "But everybody just calls me Dee."

"Hello Mister Dee," Isdiel said, still absolutely filled with giddiness. "I'm Isdiel, and these are my friends. Teague, Katrine, and Noah."

"Well hello to all of you," Dee replied. He had a smile on his face, and oddly enough his smile reminded Noah of Rapide's. Something about it just seemed to ooze charm and well meaning, but there was more to it than that. There was just some bizarreness to Dee's charming smile. It was like there was something else that was hidden underneath that.

"Thanks for stepping in," Teague said to him, giving the man a handshake. "These two hotheads would've likely torn apart the store."

"Hey!" Noah stated. "She started it!"

"And thankfully, this nice man intervened and stopped it," Isdiel said. Her giddiness had faded, and now Noah was getting the stern look that the elf definitely reserved for reprimanding wrongdoers. Noah wasn't alone in being fussed at though, as the moment Katrine started to giggle at the chastising Isdiel directed her harsh gaze right at their blue haired friend.

"Don't say I stopped it just yet," Dee said, drawing a curious look from the four others. Dee's smile got even bigger as he continued. "I just would rather not see people get in trouble when there are such nice facilities for you guys to settle this dispute of yours."

"Wait," Katrine spoke up. "You don't mean a duel, do you?"

"Of course, I mean a duel, darling. After all, isn't this simply a matter of finding out who has the greatest capabilities?" The way that Dee said his final word sounded like he meant something else. Noah just wasn't sure what he had intended to say because someone else continued the conversation before he could finish that thought.

"There's an arena in this town?" Teague asked, looking more curious about the matter than everyone else. Isdiel was pouting off to the side. Katrine, on the other hand, was left with a big stupid grin as she looked over to Noah.

"What's that look for?" Noah asked, a little frightened of the new look he was getting from Katrine.

"This look is my very happy face, Noah," Katrine answered with genuine contempt in her face.

"Because you and I are going to duel. And I'm going to kick your stupid, seri ass."

--

From the Adventurer's Guide

Section on Actions, Skills, and Passives

Basic Actions aren't so basic

Adventurer. I cannot tell you my full name, as you would never be able to remember it. Just call me Lam. That's fine though, because what I have to share with you is far more important than just a simple name. What I want to share with you is the importance of Basic Actions.

Basic Actions are a set of abilities ingrained in every adventurer's mind. Regardless of origin, class, or prior capabilities, all adventurers are able to perform these Actions to some rudimentary level. Also important to note is that all Basic Actions will consume some HP with every use. Following is a list of the Basic Actions:

Attack-Launch an attack with your weapon or even your bare hands if so desired. The harder you attack, the more HP it'll take. Every strike done in this manner will apply on-hit effects (someone else will tell you about those).

Defend/Block-Stop a foe's attack. The stronger the attack you block, the more HP you will take. However, it is usually a better idea to defend yourself rather than just take the attack. Normally the damage will be greatly reduced.

Evade-Sidestep an attack to avoid damage completely. Always takes a fixed amount of HP to perform an evade.

Dash-Move at max speed. Drains HP constantly as you do so. Cannot stop dashes instantly (usually).

All of the Basic Actions can be affected by various passives. Use a combination and experiment in order to find what works best for you.

I will leave you be now. Maybe we shall meet one day.

Lam.