Jjhutto_Son of Flame
patreon
B2 Ch. 33 Next Stop, Camelot
🕑 Added 2024-01-15 22:25:04 +0000 UTCThe Wizard Apprentice met Tilly’s eyes after sharing a look with his silent companion, a complex expression on his face.
“I am afraid we most assuredly know where your quest objective is. That way lies the city of Requiem. It is the seat of power for the Whytes. They are a Faction formed formed of incredibly strong imprints left by those who have passed beyond the vale of this plane. For a long time, they remained neutral in this region, but now they face a siege many times greater than your own. Last reports place the majority of the Horde’s forces outside their gates.”
“That would make them allies,” Ichiro stated, not quite asking a question.
“Now, yes. In times past they stayed completely contained behind their nigh impregnable walls, and shear mountains. The Horde seems to have turned out in all force to break the city, which is another mystery to this recent shift in power…
“We call the Whytes, Bloodless because, while the strength of their presence creates a corporeal body, it has no life force from which the Strigoi or even we, could benefit. This has positioned them to stand apart from the conflict that has always marked these lands. In fact, unless you had access to a prohibitive amount of wealth with which to trade, you would hardly be worth their notice. And even in that case, you could only do business before the walls, never inside…
“However,”-- he said looking conspiratorially around to the group as he drew out the word - “I do know of one living being that has both entered and exited the city. He doesn’t speak much about the experience,” - The vampire stage whispered, before gesturing theatrically at the Knight, who remained completely frozen.
“I present to you, Sir. Micheal. His story is his own, but suffice it to say if you wanted to make it into the city, there would be no better guide, and he is not bad in a fight either, which you will probably need if you want to make it past the siege.” He finished with a flourish, obviously smug that he had something to weigh down their side of the scale.
The statuesque Knight slowly moved, looking over at Hilbert, who looked back after his presentation and shrugged. Finding some answer in that motion, the Sir. Micheal turned back to the group and nodded once, before returning to complete stillness.
“And so we are finally able to offer terms!” Hilbert said, clapping his hands together.
“Come with us to Camelot, rendering the aid we so desperately need. I can not make any promises or predictions on behalf of our leader, but no matter what, Sir Miles and I will accompany you to Requiem and do everything we can to get you into the city.”
Ichiro turned and looked at the others, not questioningly, but clearly opening the floor for input.
“It seems to me that the possible advantages outweigh the delay.” Ameli chimed in. Franklin nodded gestured in agreement, and Gorock wasn’t even looking at the group. He had sat through the conversation looking longingly back the way they had come as if reminiscing on the recently fought battle.
Ichiro then turned to Tilly, who considered the two before him with narrow eyes. There was more going on than the Wizard Apprentice had admitted, and the mysterious silent Knight obviously had more to him than stage fright… This could very well turn into a huge time suck with no gained advantage for their people.
Hilbert, as if sensing Tilly’s reserve smiled reassuringly, once again putting his two elongated kanines on full display…
‘Yeah, that's not helping dude.’ Tilly thought sardonically before deciding to ask one final question.
“Ok, so the leadership of your order are all vampires and dhampires… how much blood do you have to drink to survive, and how do you obtain it?” Tilly asked, interested to see how the Apprentice would handle such a broad question about his society. The Vampire’s smile damped, as he considered Tilly’s question.
“Yes, I can see why you would want to understand this before entering into an agreement with us. I will be brief. First, as to how much we must drink, it entirely depends on our level of activity. We may enter into periods of rest for decades and not drink for the whole duration. However, Sir Miles and I, with our heightened activity, will need to drink before we continue to Camelot. And likely again once we arrive in the city.”
As soon as he mentioned needing to drink, Tilly and several other members tensed, for the first time suspecting a trap…
“Do not worry friends!” Hilbert waved placatingly, harmlessly showing his empty hands.
“We would never embark on such a mission without our own supplies.” He said, slowly reaching into his robe and producing a silvery flask. He then looked over at Sir. Micheal and motioned for him to do the same. The Knight moved slowly, so as not to startle anyone and touched his right thigh, below his mace, coming away with an elaborate syringe-looking object, that differed greatly from Hilberts. It had been seamlessly integrated with his armor and Tilly had not noticed the object at all until the Knight pulled it away with a slight metallic release.
Hilbert held eye contact with the group as he opened the flask and took a long drink, before capping it. The runes along the side, glowed for a moment, before showing a circle that was a little less than half full of ruddy light.
The knight beside him lifted the syringe to his forearm and placed the strange glowing tip against the armor there. The metal folded back briefly, and a hissing sound shot out from the object as it touched the bare skin underneath. The normally stoic Knight experienced an involuntary full-body shudder at the injection, and then quickly put the object away before Tilly could get a better look at its composition. It snapped back into place under his mace and out of view.
“As for how we obtain this precious resource-” Hilbert continued, drawing the attention back away from his companion and to himself.
“We do so just like any political entity, through tax and trade. To enter our city, you will be taxed. We call it the ‘gift’ and through an enchanted object, you will donate a small portion of your life's blood. In return, you are promised basic rights in the city and a measure of protection. All citizens and allies of our order have the choice to pay the blood price or its equivalent in Mercantile Gold. Many do not mind giving up some portion of their health in exchange for what the order has to offer.
“We try to keep the number of turned citizens as low as possible to remain sustainable, but with the increased pressure from the horde… Things are not as balanced as they once were.” He finished, biting off the last words as if reluctant to part with them.
Tilly turned to Ichiro, whose expression remained unreadable.
“I think I agree with Amelia, there are certainly risks, and we are gambling with precious time, but the possible upside is too good to pass up.” He said, quietly. He knew everyone could hear him but he still wanted to signal that he was only talking to Ichiro. The lapin’s face remained unchanged as he took in the last of the group’s input and turned to face the vampiric representatives.
“As a representative of the Alliance’s ruling council, I formally accept your offer. We look forward to a possible partnership between our peoples… But be warned, do not be fooled by our level disparity. As you have already seen, we have much else to bring to bear besides simple stat superiority. So deal with us honestly, and we will do the same with you.”
Before Hilbert could answer, the Knight stood and moved forward. Ichiro responded gracefully and without hesitation, rising to his feet to face Sir Miles. The imposing figure thrust out his hand and Ichiro looked down at it for a moment before clasping it firmly, shaking once, and then stepping away and bowing. The Knight awkwardly mirrored his movements and then straightened.
“Well, this turned out wonderfully, just wait until we see the look on Mallytza’s face!” Hibert exclaimed excitedly. The whole group looked down at him questioningly.
“Ah, well, she is an ally we have in the court. She did… not think this was a good idea and is the only one who knows exactly where we went.” He said, his face becoming even paler if that was possible.
‘Is that the vampire version of blushing?’ Tilly thought to himself as Ichiro turned to face the group.
“Collect your things and prepare for another run. We will not stop until we make Camelot and we will be leaving shortly.”
Tilly reached for his bag and absently began to wonder how he would get his armor to turn back into its gilly suit form when the flashing icon at the top of his HUD finally got his attention. In all his worry about Kindle, the two vampires and his Spirit Walk, he had forgotten about leveling! He glanced up sheepishly at the flashing notification icon and the log appeared in front of him.
He filtered through the damage indicators, asking the System to summarize the net gains of the battle.
You have defeated eighteen Juvenile Strigoi in combat and assisted in the destruction of another seven. Due to level disparity, an Experience multiplier has been applied to your gains.
Congratulations, you have leveled up! You are now level 19!
Congratulations, you have leveled up! You are now level 20…
Congratulations, you have leveled up! You are now level 23! 1.3 million experience until the next level. You have 25 unspent stat points.
‘Woah, five levels! Man, not bullshiting around with a Mana feedback loop was awesome! If only he could find the time to grind!’ He thought quickly running through the math he needed to maintain [Resolute] which had once again saved his life. Despite the high cost, there was no way he could get rid of something that so consistently saved his life.
‘Ok, so from five levels, I gain forty stat points total, ten of which automatically went into Endurance. I’m going to need to double that if I want to keep the stat two times the others combined.’ He thought to himself, dropping another 10 into the stat.
The feeling was immediate, not as intense as it had been the moments before he had dived into the fiery cave so many weeks ago, but still significant. It felt like his physical form had become more substantial… No that wasn’t it. Dense?
He looked up at the others, who were almost ready to go and pushed off the musing for later. He still had fifteen more stat points to assign after the automatic single point added to Dexterity at each level. He pulled up and looked over his stat sheet critically.
Stats:
Constitution: 18
Endurance: 121 (133.1)
Dexterity: 40 (44)
Strength: 13(15.8)
Wisdom: 18(13.68)
Intelligence: 16
Ok, he was still taking a serious hit on Wisdom which had absolutely established itself as the bottleneck in his ability to output damage… And if he was being honest with himself, even though his crazy Endurance was soaking up a lot of damage up front, his fighting style was still taking him far too close to death for it to be sustainable. So Constitution couldn’t be ignored either.
Everyone around him stood and shouldered their pack, as Tilly made his decision. Ten in Wisdom, bringing it to 28 base, and five in Constitution taking it up to 23. He then hopped to his feet, and shouldered his pack, moving forward with the others as Hilbert whispered some arcane words, and the glowing symbols hemming in the group faded away.
‘Next stop, Camelot’
Comments
Joshua Hutto
ish, celtic maybe. That area of influence.
Wyatt Hilbert
So are the people of Camelot British?
Wyatt Hilbert
Thanks for the chapter.
