"I checked the other rooms, but didn't find anything of value," Domino said from behind me, but I ignored her in favor of moving further into the room. There were at least 5 shelves of books and each shelf looked to hold at least a hundred books. My grin faltered slightly as a thought occurred to me. Would I be able to even read the books? I could speak the language or at least one of the languages of this world, but would that translate into words as well. I walked to one of the shelves and pulled out a book. It had no words on the cover so I opened it to a random page.
"Earth is one of the most common affinities in the land of..." I read out loud. The words were definitely not English, but I could understand perfectly. I closed the book and sighed in relief. I didn't know much about the world I was in and these books could help me a lot. I should also probably ask Lory some more questions when I get the time. I placed the book back on the shelf and headed out of the room. Leone and Lilah were waiting for us when we arrived downstairs and Lilah carried a severed head in her hand. She offered it to me and I raised both hands, "Errr... you can carry it, Lilah." She nodded and I turned to Leone, "The girl?"
"The girls already outside," Leone answered. "We got there before he could really do anything and he didn't even have time to react before Lilah over here sliced off his head."
"So you're a woman?" Domino asked, looking at Lilah. Leone slung an arm over Lilah's shoulder and nodded at her, "Yep she may be quiet, but she's a hundred percent female," she said in a cheerful voice. Lilah's head turned to Leone and she shrugged off the arm from her shoulder. I couldn't see her eyes but I imagined she was glaring at the blond.
"Come on let's go and tell the villagers the good news," I said.
The villagers were talking with each other but quieted down when they saw us approaching. I stood in front of them and nodded at Lilah. She dropped the head of Rory in front of the villagers and I stepped forward, "Rorys dead and you don't have to worry about him ever again." There was a small cheer at that and I could that they were pleased.
"So, have you decided on who will lead you?" I asked when the crowd had quieted down. Almost as one, they parted to allow an elderly man to walk to the front and I was surprised to see Lory by his side. The man was a Beastkin similar to Lory and had grey cat ears and tail. His face was wrinkled and one of his eyes was fully white. He wore brown robes and held a walking stick in his right hand.
He stopped in front of me and bowed slightly, "I would like to thank you for helping our village. I am Dornand and I will be taking charge of the village." His voice was kindly and reminded me of my grandfather. That thought brought a small pang of pain as I once again thought of my family back home. I pushed the sad thoughts down and smiled at the man, "It's a pleasure to meet you Dornand and I have a favor to ask of you." I really wanted those books, but I wasn't just going to steal them even if I felt like I deserved them after what I did.
"Of course we will repay you in whatever way we can, but I beg of you to not harm or take any of the children," he replied in a pleading voice. What the fuck was he talking about? This kingdom really was fucked up if his first assumption was that I'd want to do something like that.
"Why would I want to hurt or take any of you," I replied, confused and slightly offended. He spent a long moment staring at me before his shoulders slumped, "I see."
"I just wanted to ask if I could stay in the chief's house and take some of his books when I left. I'm leaving tomorrow so it will only be for one day," I said. He looked surprised and tilted his head at me, "Is that it?"
I shrugged, "I mean I could use some coin and rations to take with me, but I understand if you need that for yourselves."
He smiled at me then turned to Lory, "It seems you were right about him after all." Lory had a pleased expression on his face and Dorand turned back to me, "It will be dark soon and we will eat in the chief's house later, as there is much I wish to tell you. As for books. You can take as many as you want." I nodded, pleased. I walked back to the chief's house and headed back to the room full of books. I did let Gible out at Leone's request.
"I am not to be disturbed until dinner," I said to my summons before entering into the room. Before I started reading I bought my new skill up.
[Commanding Aura: An invisible aura of command surrounds you. This aura will cause non-summons to have a higher chance of following a command given to them. The effectiveness depends on the will and strength of the target(s)]
The skill would be very useful in situations where I would need people to listen to me and could be toggled off and on. I head yet to receive an offensive skill/ability, but I was pretty sure that there was a system function for offensive that I would eventually unlock. I was also hoping that I would eventually unlock a system function that would allow me to learn or use the powers/abilities of my summons. I closed the tab and focused back on the room.
I took a deep breath and started reading. I didn't have time to read through each book, so I skimmed and searched for the most useful ones. Most of the books were stories and fiction, but there were plenty of books about the world and its workings. The first thing I noticed was just how enormous and diverse the world was. There were tons of different races and lands. Earth didn't even compare to the size of the world I was in, and that wasn't's even mentioning the other planes of existence. There were 4 books about the kingdom of Larra, which was where I currently was. It was a minor human kingdom that was part of the Tyrofell Empire. The book stated that it was founded a hundred years ago, but I had no idea what the current date was or when the book was created. There wasn't anything else of particular interest about the kingdom of Larra after that so I moved on.
To my dismay, there were only 2 books about magic and 1 about Kords and Mages. One of the magic books was utterly useless as it was an advanced book about fire magic and fire affinities. The other was more useful, but still pretty useless as it all talked about was magic ranks and cultivation. It seemed there was a sort of cultivation system in this world and ranks which people progressed through as they got stronger. The book about Kords and Mages was far more useful. The world had two main power sources, Mana and Kor/Kordred Energy, although not everyone could use them. People found out which they could use when they awakened, which usually took place between the ages of 6-8 although the book did say it could happen earlier or later than that. It was different for some races and some races could only use Mana while others could only use Kor. There was plenty more information about artifacts, ranks, and potency of mana and kor and I filled all the information away into my head. I didn't know if I wanted to learn to use Mana or Kor, but I was considering it.
The next books I focused on were about the world in general and some of its history. There were plenty of books that spoke about other kingdoms and I stored all those books, as some of the kingdoms that were spoken about sounded very interesting and when I was more confident in my strength and when I had more summons I would definitely visit some of them. There was one book that spoke about strong and famous figures throughout history and as I read through it I quickly realized just how lucky I was to have the system. The higher-ranked Mages and Kords held absolutely insane amounts of power.
Menron Rend was a famous human Kord warrior whose hobby was splitting mountains and islands in half, and he wasn't even that high ranked according to the book. Not to mention that he'd been killed by an Arachne Necromancer and raised into her undead army. I really hoped that I got some stronger summons in the future because I would definitely need them. I continued reading for a while longer and stored any book I thought would be useful. At one point I came across a pile of erotic fiction and was surprised at the sheer detail that went into some of the books, I'm not ashamed to say that I stored some of them... or maybe all of them. I was reading a book about orc mating rituals in the queendom of Orsame when Leone popped in and announced that dinner was ready.
I made sure that I hadn't missed any important books and then headed downstairs. Leone led me into a dining room. Everyone was seated at a large table in the center of the room, even Lilah was and I didn't think that Lory knew that Lilah didn't actually eat as far as I knew. I had thought about asking Lilah to unmask, but I was pretty sure all I would see was a rotted face since she was undead, but I did promise to myself that I would fix her body and face. I sat down next to Leone and looked at the assembled food. There was actually a wide variety of food including, meats, loaves of bread, soup, steak, and a salad made of fruits and veg I didn't recognize. Everyone started digging in the moment I sat down and I quickly made a plate for myself.
"Gible! Gible Gible." I looked down to see Gible jumping up and down. "You hungry?" I asked and he quickly nodded. I took 3 of the baffle corpses from inventory and placed them down next to him.
"Gible!" he shouted in joy and tore into his meal with fervor. I smiled and focused back on my food. We ate until each of us was full and afterward Dorand had one of the villagers take our plates away.
"Gible!" the sound of laughing and Gible caught my attention and looked to see Lemma rubbing Gible's stomach and petting him. I smiled and leaned back in the chair to let the food settle. Once I felt like I wasn't going to explode I turned to Dornad and Lory, "I have some questions for the both of you." Lory nodded, but then worriedly looked from Lemma to me. I quickly got his meaning and turned to my summons, "Why don't you guys take Lemma and Gible to one of the other rooms and play with them," I said. Leone looked confused, but then just shrugged, "Ok." Domino and Lilah both nodded.
I smiled, "Thanks. I can always count on you guys." Leone actually blushed a little while Domino sent me a wink. They left the room with Lemma and Gible in tow.
"Sorry about that," Lory said in an apologetic tone. "I don't want her hearing anything scary or depressing."
"No problem," I replied. "Now can you tell me more about the current state of the kingdom?"
Dorand nodded and sat up straighter in his chair, "Well the first you should know is that there's a civil war going on, and it's caused a lot of problems for the kingdom," he began and the sadness was plain on his face. "I actually lived in a town before here, but it was destroyed in a battle between two of the factions vying for power," he continued. "I managed to survive and arrived here days later. The people of the village were very nice to me and I quickly earned the friendship of the previous chief before Rory." Rory's name was spoken in disgust and contempt.
"Who are the factions vying for the throne? and how did the war start?" I asked in a curious tone.
"The war started because the king died a few weeks ago without officially naming an heir," he replied. "As for the factions. There are three factions who want the throne," he continued. "The first prince's faction who believes he should be king because it's the law and his right as the firstborn. The second prince's faction who thinks that the first prince is too cruel and unfit to be king and that the second prince is a better choice and more loved by the people." he took a deep breath, "And finally, we have the princess's faction. Arguably the most loved of the royal children, the princess believes that's its time for a woman to take the throne and that she should be that woman." He brushed a hand through his graying hair and sighed, "Even though this it's just a minor kingdom, things like this still happen. People are drawn to power like flies to honey," he finished.
My mind raced to process all the information and I wondered who Dorand supported. "Who do you want to take the throne, Dorand?" He let out a hollow laugh, "Hah, I don't think any of them deserve it." His eyes were full of anger. "Look around you, Nathan. Look at this village, look at the refugees, and condition the people are in," he growled. "If they actually cared about the kingdom then they'd find another way to decide who takes the throne and not shed innocent blood."
There was a loud cough and we both looked to Lory. "I actually heard about something interesting from a merchant on my way here," he began. " The merchant said that there's going to be meeting or some sort of gathering of the 3 factions in the capital to decide who should take the throne. Apparently, none of the heirs want to be king or queen of a wasteland, so they going to meet and decide a different way to choose who takes the throne."
[Quest received: War of Three: Head to the capital and take part in the gathering of the three heirs: Reward: 2 Summoning Tokens, 1 Situation Token, 1 Skill]
[This quest has a time limit: 4 days]
I held back the urge to whistle when I saw the reward. My original plan had been to grind some levels for my summons and myself and then head to the closet kingdom, but the reward for the quest was too good to pass up. I would have to figure out how to get into the meeting, and that probably meant having to pick a side, but I'd figure that part out when I got there.
"Dorand can you tell me the strength of the factions?"
"Well this is just a minor kingdom so most of the kords and mages will be low to mid-rank novices and the strongest of them will be high-rank novices," he replied and shot me a serious look. "but even novices are far more powerful than normal people. The only real threats are the heirs as they're most likely low ranked apprentices, probably rank 10 or 11."
I went to ask how he knew, but he interrupted me. "But it's not just about rank. It's also about how a person uses their power," he said in a matter-of-fact voice.
"How do know all this?" I asked. I was beginning to wonder if Dornand was a mage or Kord, but then realized that he probably wasn't because if he was then why hadn't he dealt with Rory before I came along.
"You're not planning on going to the capital, are you?" Lory asked in a worried tone.
"Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself and I'm not reckless," I replied in a confident voice. He looked skeptical but nodded nonetheless.
"Just one more thing before we finish," I said. "Can you tell me more about beastkin?"
Dorand and Lory exchanged a glance before turning to me, "What do you wanna know?" asked Dornand. I just shrugged, "Just give me the basic's I guess."
"Well there are many types of beastkin and there are many different ways beastkin work and live depending on where you're from," he began and I couldn't help but notice the look of anger and sadness on Lory's face. What was wrong with him? "Well me and lory." he motioned to himself and Lory, "come from kingdoms which are very hierarchy based." he placed a hand on Lory's shoulder, but it didn't seem to help and I noticed that Lory's eyes had become watery. "Our Kind," he said as he turned back to me, "Are near the bottom of that hierarchy and are seen as nothing more than manual labor and soldiers." Lory had started to shake and I was shocked by the sheer anger and sadness in his eyes. I hadn't known Lory long, but I had never seen him act anything like this.
"A lot of our kind end up as slaves and playthings as well. Not all places are like that and I've heard that in faraway lands and other planes there are kingdoms and places where all beastkin are equal," he said in a sad voice. "But this world is vast and for our kind who are oppressed and hold no power, there is no way to reach such places." Tears had started to fall from Lory's eyes and he quickly stood up, sending his chair falling to the ground. He glared at me and Dornand before storming out of the room.
I stood to go after him but felt Dornand grab my wrist. "Leave him be for now. He will calm down and then if he wishes he will tell you why he reacted in such a way," Dornand said. I was silent for a long moment. We may not have known each other for long, but I did kind of consider Lory as a friend and I just wanted to help him.
"OK," I finally replied. "I'm gonna go head to bed now."
He let go of my wrist and leaned back in his chair. "Tomorrow I'll have some of the villagers prepare some rations for your group and see if we have any spare coin," he said and then wished me a goodnight.
I did the same and thanked him before heading out of the room. My mind was stuck on Lory as I made my way upstairs. Why had he reacted like that? Had he been a slave? or did it have something to do with Lemma's mother? The look of sadness on his face had bought up memories of a similar look on my mother's face and I could feel my sadness and regret creeping back up. How had this day ended so badly? All I had wanted to do was ask some questions. If I had known Lory would react in such a way I wouldn't have asked them in his presence. I sighed and my shoulders slumped in defeat. I needed to sleep this off.