"READY!..... FIRE!"
E and Zane had both gotten a good look through the telescope at the target in the distance. Using their eyes however, caused a bit of difference as the snow was falling gently and caused a decent blur as the distance compounded the effect. E took a deep breath and calmed himself.
Long shot - Activated - 1 MP
E activated his long shot skill but waited. He looked to Zane who stood there, bow drawn to it's apex. Zane muttered out,
" Heh, to easy", and released his arrow. His bow was quite large for his size but it's draw weight and build was made for long distance shots. E on the other hand, had a bow just over three foot long, barely classed as a long bow at the three foot mark. Zane's arrow pierced through the air, with barely any arc, beaming straight towards the target.
E released his arrow a fraction of a second after Zane. The arrows whistled through the air, each of them drifting from the left of the target inward towards it's bullseye. At a mere ten to fifteen feet before the target, E's arrow came down in a sharp decent as if it had lost it's push, and it's target was there just short of the tree target. It fell right onto Zane's arrow snapping it sending E's arrow wildly and aimlessly off into the distance. Just as the arrows collided the breeze picked up into a gentle howl and then cleared.
" Are you fucking kidding me?" Zane looked over at E. " You dare even attempt such tactless debauchery? Fucking peasant." Zane scoffed at E and began walking towards the target even before Henry.
E hadn't quite digested what happened from what he saw the arrows simplly collided albeit barely and one of their arrows spurred off. He stood there bewildered at Zane's comment.
" Ho ho, you're carrying some brass kid. What a shot. Let's see who's closer shall we?" Henry slapped E's shoulder and quickened his pace to match Zane on the walk to the target.
E felt down he knew he didn't hit the target and he could feel that his bow barely had the pull to reach such a distance. He's need to reinforce it to have a stronger draw or at minimum find a better string, what he had was a type of sinew woven braid his father had made.
He stepped towards the target behind the two of them with his head down. " Shit if I return without a bow I'm useless to our party. And this arrogant jerk will make a laughing stock out of me. I'm sure he'd use this story to boast at any further tournament."
Everyone approached the target. E could see now they were still a bit short of it and neither had hit the mark. Henry stopped them both in their advance towards the target as he surveyed the situation. He got close and inspected the back half of an arrow that lie in the snow. Looking around he then went to E's arrow that seemed to have flung off the road the stood on. Henry looked back to Study the distance they both made towards the target. " Hmmm. Where's the other half of it?" Henry began to walk forward and look around careful with each step. Every once and a while kickin' up snow as if to see if the arrow had dug into it. After a few minutes of searching he grabbed the arrow pieces, and turned back to E and Zane.
" Well as far as I see it. You won kid." Henry let out a emotionless answer.
" What ? That's preposterous! As you can see my arrow is clearly further to the target, look at the snow, and on the road in front of it!" Zane replied. He looked at E with a rage filled gaze.
E stood there in disbelief. It would seem that the arrows both lay there at equal distance to the target but neither truly stood apart from one another if anything it was a tie. E didn't have a response and gave just a gentle nod. " Best to take it humbly." He thought.
" Are you fuckin kidding me? So this is how it is then you backwood lowlifes can't even have a fair tournament. You're in cahoots! This is a complete garbage assessment!" Zane was beginning to steam in the cold from his forehead.
" I assure you I am not. Look at your half an arrow's mark here in the road. And look to his. His is longer and it's closer to the target. I can't find the other half, it may even be behind us. Now are you going to dig in this snow ? Will you spend the time to look for it? If you can and find it and it's closer then by all means. I can wait."
Zane huffed and began to search obviously not giving up on his success. He didn't dare look behind them but continued to search towards the target. The arrows were both so close there wasn't much area to cover. After a few minutes he even began to search beyond the target.
" Here! I've found it! Just there right beyond the tree in the snow. See I've won. Serves you right you .."
"No. That only confirms his win."
" What, no I'm closer look by meters even!"
" NO. The contest was the closest WITHOUT goin over the target. Take your losses. I won't have any more lip. Worry not your taking second and third due to the dropout. Spin you tales that you saw it more worth it in that regard. I'll hear no more." Henry spoke back to Zane with bulging vein on his forehead obviously suppressing his anger. Zane look to E furious as well.
" I issue you a formal challenge! Three months time, the spring open in the capital, I'll prove to all that your not for shit with a bow. You've only won on technicality this entire event! Your mother was a hamster and you're father smelt of elderberries!" Zane spoke while unclasping the leather jerkin he wore and then stormed off back to the crowd.
E was in shock he stood there questioningly the outcome. And to be challenged by the Duke's son formally. He wondered what weight that carries. E look over to Henry who spoke to him as he regained consciousness after the heavy blow Zane stuck with his insult.
" Haha look at him storm off. If he wasn't a noble I'd have left him here in the snow. He wasn't wrong though without my quick kick of his arrow you'd have lost." Henry sluggered E a top his head. " You'd wager the bow my wife made you!? I'd ought to take it back then shouldn't I you ungrateful shit. Ahh.. Little light your to much like your father. Pissing off royalty and throwing in all your chips on a wager."
E nearly collapsed from Henry's clobber. He only half registered what was said but what rang true was he did actually lose. Henry kicked the other half of Zane's arrow passed the target barely winning the event for E. E teared up " Arrogant shit. I fell for his trap and dug myself a hole against him. Next time Zane..." E thought to himself. E looked over to Henry. " Little light... Your wife made my bow? How'd you know about the bet?" E looked at his bow again. It was obvious to him now the craftsmanship was beyond what his father could do. The string alone was something he had seen fashioned by him previously time and again for his previous bow.
" Yes. I can hear quite well even more so when you yell for a crowd to hear. We've got some talking to do Little light. Meet me at Jasper's bar tonight around 10. Now run off I'll bring your rewards then."
Henry began grabbing the targets as E walked back to the crowd. He had half a mind to ask Henry to make his reward a quiver but relented after the daunting weight of truth that only pity gave him victory. E was once again this day feeling inadequate. He took a deep breath and thought to seek out his friends.
After entering town again E went back to the stable as he saw Mae standing there talking to the stable hand. Seemingly upset at something. E walked up and attempted to diffuse the situation.
" Whoa whoa whoa, Calm down Mae, Bean what's the problem?"
Bean looked up at Mae and the stable hand then back to E then Mae talked over him as he started to speak. " He sold the horse! All he has left is the heavy horses and he was 20 gold for two weeks and a total of 200 if it doesn't make it back! Such a scam!"
E looked a little confused he told him to hold the horse. " I thought I told you to hold the horse for me, Why'd you sell it?"
The stable hand let out a sigh " Look I would normally hold onto it, but the buyer needed a horse right away and offered nearly double her price. Some Noble guy, he then rose her straight out of town through the far gates. Seemed to be in some hurry he barely had any gear on him and only a couple other men followed. They left their carriage here and said they'd be back in three days for it."
E's eyes went wide. " Shit must be Zane.. that bastard. Imagine having coin to blow like that. Fucker stole my horse!" he thought. Then he began to wonder why he'd be back and realized it might be best if they left town sooner than later. " Fine 20 gold. No selling the horse we rent alright! Mae shut it, I don't want to hear anything about it we will make do or you're gonna be on foot. Now follow me back to the room we have to talk." Mae grumbled as E handed over their guild card and signed for the horse. Then they began to walk back to the room.
Once in the room E locked the door behind them and sat down on the bed. He let out a deep sigh and flung himself back feeling the burden of being without mana was begging him to rest but he fought it off and sat up on his elbows. " Okay. Well I won.. But I pissed off a noble brat named Zane Hodd. I may have had a wager that won me his armor. And since I won the event he's sure to not live it down. Quite a few people saw the stunt and I'm sure he's going to get revenge in some manner. The other thing is that somehow the judge of the event... he knew my Dad. He called me little light, which is something my dad use to call me when I was small. I have to meet him at ten tonight at the bar he says we have to talk. I want you guys to come." E pulled back his shirt to reveal the jerkin underneath. It was oiled and hardened in the shape of a chisled physique. Bean and Mae admired it's luster and Make even briefly ran her fingers along it's abs causing E to sit up blushing.
" Wow you won huh. What's the prize?" Bean spoke out excited.
" Eh well I don't really know it could be a bow, arrows, or a quiver. I kinda left after the whole thing went down." E bluffed as if to not give away he had actually lost and tried to change the subject.
" It's just more archery stuff so no big deal. Anyways how was the shopping you got all the stuff you need for cooking?"
Mae spoke out next " Yeah I picked out some stuff, a bunch of easy things grains and stuff. I got some beans as well, Bean said it would be good to have in case of emergencies. I assume you can hunt the meat down as we go right?" E and Bean looked at each other seemingly understanding what kind of "emergency" was spoken about. They nodded to each other gently and then they all pulled out their food stuffs and collectively rationed it out together. He's magic coin purse came in handy here quite well. He was able to store around 40 pounds of weight in it with just the food alone leaving Bean his bag free to stuff with his javelins and a few small things. The bag sort of functioned as a quiver of sorts now which greatly increased Beans access to his weapons instead of E having them stored. Mae even unloaded her bag of her clothes and personal effects to E's coin purse. They all lightened their loads quite a bit since the coin purse didn't have the bearing of weight attached to it based on what it stored. As they began preparing their bags for travel E decided it was time to ask some heavy hitting questions.
" So Mae.. What do you know about classes? I was wondering if it's normal for people to have two."
" Haha no you're probably thinking of subclass skills right? Like proficiencies and stuff. Like let's say a Warrior wants to learn Archery to get a few levels proficiencies in that weapon so when they go to their advance class they might become a Warden or something. When you get skills for another class they are usually just in the proficiency area of your menu that shows where you lean on the scale towards your advancement. Like to become a Knight from a Warrior you need at least a level 3 shield and martial weapon proficiency. Likely a heavy armor proficiency as well. Is that what you mean?"
" No I mean like a whole separate class. Like this one is a Cleric class and this one is a Warrior. And you have a menu tab for both."
" UHM no that's not how it works, like I said you can always learn skills and proficiencies of other classes to help push you into exotic advance classes but those don't always have good merits. For instance a Necromancer will likely be killed or pushed into the dark side of society, shunned by most because of the things they had to do to become that. Other classes like a Pirate could also be frowned upon because the normal rep those harbor are that of being associated with thieves. Compare that to a rogue and the lines kind of blur because not all rogues steal. Get it? Basically your skill sets and personality have a huge factor in your class to begin with. I'm a Barbarian class, which means more often than not of course not in my case though they are very hot headed and easy to anger, Your a Ranger so you're usually pretty upstanding folk with a care for the wilds, and Bean is a Javelineer which means he's meek and cowardly and fights from a distance, Sorry Bean."
E was in deep thought drowning out Beans defey against being a coward and Mae's apologies and deflection. " So I am special in a very different kind of way. I wonder how I got a whole second class. What about my abilities and personality gave me that??" he wondered.
" Okay so what about these fortitude, will, and reflex things on the stat menu? What is that? I drank some beer and it popped up with a fortitude rolled success thing, I assume it helped me not get drunk?"
Bean got quiet crossed his arms grumpily and Mae responded. " Yes and no.. So those are usually based on your stat points. Fortitude is what helps you fight off poison or disease, Reflex's are usually what helps someone react or act with their body quickly, and Will is quite a deep one but is something that helps you fortify your mental state from spells or skills that someone could use to manipulate or harm you. You usually get a stat point to apply to your main stats like once every four levels, sometimes with certain classes every three. And they can come from magical items once you attune to them as a sort of buff. Armors, rings, necklaces, capes, pauldrons, boots, belts and stuff. But those items are so expensive, we're talking like 2000 gold for low end stuff. Your bag of holding is usually around that price. So you're very lucky like extremely lucky, and probably shouldn't let people know you have that til you are strong enough to not be trifled with."
E felt pretty good about his parents gift after realizing how much effort they went to give him a leg up on things. He felt lucky, comparing himself to Bean, he realized how well off he was regardless of his current finances. " I see. How do people usually know whether or not something is magical? Like how come you can't tell this bad is magic at first glance? Obviously cause it's magic but, I mean like let's say we find something and it's auspicious?"
" That's were we all are lacking. None of us are spell caster's. I mean I'm sure we all can eventually learn spells but it usually is something taught to you before you get your class, afterwards it's kind of difficult unless it's in line with your class. So realistically we need to seek out a tutor or find another person who knows more about magic than we do. Like a Wizard, or Cleric."
Time went on as E inquired about other classes and skills trying to learn more about how the class menu worked and what to avoid doing with your skill points. He also learned that everyone's menu is unique, everyone see their menu in their own way. Some even access it differently, like it being ever present to the wayside of their peripherals and brought into view with a thought, some people had to be in a bath or laying down though usually special circumstances were for civilian classes. Most people ended up with an interface they could bring up with mental imagery and access through touch. Everyone has their native tongue and or learned writing language available to them and most without those get stuck with a menu useless to them until they learn to read. All in all the class menu's we're really cool and the basics for most things pretty universal there were even fables of those who were able to access something called a class store or even view other peoples class menus at whim.
E was pretty surprised with Mae knowledge on the subject so he thought to ask. " Is this something everyone knows? Like a basic knowledge or something I hate to say it's a bit overwhelming for it to just come out that quick into a huge explanation. We've been talking for hours already and I feel like there's still more to learn."
E look to Bean who seemed to only half understand most things Mae spoke of but E assumed it was because he was still in the dark at his own capabilities. E felt even more inclined to help Bean learn to read.
" Actually I was raised to become a Shaman in my village. I'm actually rather weak and small for the average orc. But my Great Grandmother slept with a human so the lineage after her is a bit smaller. It's actually how I got my name, Maeliv. I was so small at birth the Shaman of the village basically said I may live. And my mother liked that sound. Being small I wasn't quite able to keep up with the kids in their usual melee and was pushed into a more learned position, I learned from the Shamans and Mages until I was around 8 and they realized I didn't have any real arcane prowess. So they pushed me back out with the big kids and I learned to fight for myself. I guess it's common knowledge to those who have been schooled but many adventurer's aren't taught this, some as a sort of coming of age right of passage, or even so that they are shown a world of wonder. Some are even just neglected all together."
" Well I'm glad to have you. You might not know this but we kind of need to teach Bean to read and write. Common would be easiest. We can work together on it."
E look over at Bean with reassurance. Mae understood and didn't think to poke fun at him. " Well time to head to the bar, you guys ready?"