B2 Chapter 135: The Return pt. 5
byAs soon as Kaius mentioned that he had become Observed by the system for consuming a Natural Treasure, the table erupted.
Each and every one started talking over each other, their responses ranging drastically. Sandor merely scoffed, rolling his eyes, while Eillish, Hurrin and Yanmi jumped to their feet, hammering him with questions. Illendra sat quietly, her jaw slack as she stared at him in shock.
Jekkar, on the other hand, howled with laughter, swinging back on his chair as he belted out his shock and mirth. After a few moments he rocked back forwards, the front legs of his chair smacking back to the floor with a loud crack.
“Quiet!” he boomed, cutting through the commotion. The other elders paused, looking at him. “Now I den know about ye, but I’ve never known young Kaius to be a liar, have ye?” he said in his thick frontier drawl, levelling his gaze at his colleagues.
“Thought not. Look, I’ve analysed the lad. He has a damned class, and we all ken he’s not yet hit his second decade. If anything, him bein a bloody myth makes more sense, not less. Let’s hear the lad out, he’s earnt that much trust at least.” Jekkar said.
Kaius breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Jekkar.”
“It wasn’t long after that that I met Porkchop. I was still in a large cavern just off the entrance room, undergoing a circumnavigation when I stumbled across him having fallen through the same portal I had. The same bandits had tried to chase him down, though lost him when he threw himself in the river. From what Porkchop saw, there were far fewer of them than had chased me.” he continued with his story.
His audience hissed, galled and mortified that even the lowest of society would dare to hunt a greater meles. Saldar especially looked apoplectic, his jaw flapping as he tried to get words out.
Eilish beat him to the punch. “Those bloody bastards. If everything else they’ve done wasn’t enough.”
Yanmi shot her a sharp look. “Hush, Eilish. Now is not the time.”
The head of the artisans grit her teeth, but nodded.
“What then lad? A few extra stats shouldn’t have been enough for you to escape, not against a Guardian.” Hurrin asked.
Kaius nodded, taking another drink to wet his throat. “It wouldn’t have been. That was only part of it. After meeting Porkchop, I learnt that the meles have oral histories of the Observed, that their power came from rewards granted by the system for performing great feats. We tore our way through our biome, and moved onto the next. It was there that I discovered what that was.”
He paused, allowing the moment to hang in the air. The elders leaned in.
“After I killed my third Champion solo, I received something called an Honour. It came with bonus stats, and a small passive boost with no scaling, though both were improved due to being the first to perform that particular feat as an unclassed. Not long after I got one for being the first to ‘discover’ glyph-binding. Let me show you.” Kaius took a moment to undo one of his vambraces, the elders watching him in shocked silence.
Letting the scale armour fall to the table with a clank, he presented his hand, showing off his Drakthar glyph, and the attached runic hymns. His audience leaned in in interest.
“Lad, is this how you could cast without needing to channel? I thought I saw that when you took down that deer.” Jekkar said with interest as his eyes traced the runic symbols burnt into his flesh.
“It is, though this one is from my class. It’s something Father had worked on, using his knowledge to come up with a prototype. According to my class guide, it was pretty jank compared to this, but being the first was enough to get me some great options.”
“And you got another one of these Honours for discovering this?” Yanmi asked.
Kaius nodded. “I only share because you mentioned that my class identifier is Spellsword. I think that is more to do with – well – my focus on both sword and casting. It’s going to be a lot harder to hide than I expected. I was hoping I would just get Sorcerer or Skirmisher, but such is life.. We chased Honours after that, and got Porkchop his share too. After a year it was just barely enough for us to take on the Guardian.”
Illendra’s jaw finally snapped shut at that. “You fought a Guardian? Do you have a death wish?” she accused, her voice growing shrill with concerned anger.
Kaius smiled sadly. “I wasn’t going to wait another year to find out what happened to Father, Illendra.”
His words took the winds out of her sails, and she paled. “Of…of course.”
Giving her a small nod, he returned to his explanation. “It is what happened from there that causes me to share a secret like Honours. It is my killing of the Guardian that set off the second phase.”
He was met with shocked silence, but he pushed on either way.
“I learned from the system itself that this is just the beginning. Someone will either achieve the requirements for more phases to progress, or we will inevitably be overwhelmed and perish.” Kaius finished, waiting for a reaction.
Yanmi collected herself, and focused on him intensely. “You are sure.”
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“I am.” he nodded solemnly.
“What of the Tyrants? The Crucibles? The Aspects?” Yanmi followed up with.




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