Chapter 117: Unearned Power

‘William Oh’s sheer manliness that exudes a potent miasma that unites people of all races, of all walks of life. They gather together, believing they have united to oppose a common enemy, but they have simply been chosen by The Tower to bear witness!’

• Jason Salazar

‘…Who am I even talking to? I am so damned bored.’

• Jason Salazar

***Orev Harti, Level 57 Trickster Raven***

“Children, what you see before you is the epitome of the Ranger archetype,” Orev said, gesturing to himself. “I’m the fastest sonovabitch that ever graced the Graneshian military. I’ve never let a target get away from me. My tracking ability could trace the sun through the underworld, and my arrow always takes down its mark. I could shoot here to the southern palace blindfolded and take the wings off a fly.”

All this is good, but you know what the most important tool in a ranger’s arsenal is?” The children’s wide eyes followed Orev as he paced back and forth in front of them.

He stood in the center of a clearing in the lush Ring, lecturing a group of snot-filled noble-sons. Several of the children unconsciously shook their heads while the rest gaped like beached fish at his question.

“The ability to adapt to unexpected circumstances!” Orev said. “You never know what the world is going to throw at you ne-“

Crunch! Crunch!

Orev glanced off to the side and spotted Caddock marching through the waist-high shrubs that afforded the lecture clearing a bit of privacy from the thriving city around it.

“Oh, look, it’s the high paladin Caddock. He was my commander in my twenties. These are the kinds of classes you’ll be working with as a Ranger, and they have a completely different style. You have to learn to accommodate their slowness.”

Poor old man must be going insane from his retirement. Probably here to make himself feel relevant. I suppose I could let him show the kids a thing or two.

“Caddock, would you like to demonstrate what a Paladin is capable of for the children?” Orev asked, gesturing towards the kids.

Caddock glanced at the children watching his steel-covered bulk with awe.

“Sure.”

Caddock’s arm snapped up and seized Orev’s ear before he started yanking him away, the sheer unexpected nature of the attack preventing him from dodging it despite having better reflexes.

“Ow, ow, OW!” The raven-feathered Ranger hooted in pain as he stumbled along behind the paladin’s determined march.

“Orev Harti, you’ve been conscripted into my Party until such a time as I release you from service. Do you accept?” Caddock said.

“Do I have an, ow, choice?”

“Not if you want to keep the ear.” Caddock replied.

Orev thought about that for a moment, until another tug from Caddock made up his mind.

“Fine, fine!” Orev said.

You have joined the Warbringer Party!

Orev’s eyes widened as he saw who was in it.

Caddock, High Paladin, level 65

Maybin Glasswind, Devastator, level 63

Imtithal Thuy, Bloodsoaked Berserker, level 61

Orev Harti, Trickster Raven, Level 57

“Is umm…the High Saint Council okay with you having this many people above level fifty in your Party?” Orev asked.

There was enough firepower here to topple a city. Or give the Church a run for it’s money.

“They declined to provide me the personnel I requested, but never explicitly stated I could not gather them on my own. I will avoid receiving any correspondence from them until I have settled my current conundrum, therefore I will not receive any order to desist, should they send one, which I am confident they will not. There is no conflict of interest.”

“The sheer balls on you, sir,” Orev said, accidentally falling back into his old way of referring to his commander. “What do you need us for?” Orev lowered his voice conspiratorially. “Are we hunting a Lord?”

“Nah, some fifteen year-old kid.” Caddock said.

Orev straightened.

“The Abyss do you need me fo-“

“A fifteen-year-old Deceiver who stole the Prophet out from under our noses and killed over a hundred level fifteen soldiers in the process as well as a handful of level thirty commanders and level twenty-five Scouts, without Kit, and with barely any Charge.”

“Oh.”

“We are currently in a race to get to him before he gets back to his kit, which has, at best, become a seven-part soft-set, and at worst, a legendary Set.”

“Who the abyss is this kid, William Oh?” Orev asked, his long legs easily matching his commander’s stubbier pace. The man was big, but he didn’t have grace.

Caddock glanced back at him meaningfully, but didn’t respond. Allowing Orev to draw his own conclusions.

“No way. I thought William Oh was a joke character that people liked making up stories about. Abyss, I’ve even made a few William Oh jokes myself in the bar.”

Orev processed that for a moment.

“Wow, I’ve never killed someone famous before.”

*** Jason Salazar, level 1 Prophet of the End***

Jason took a deep breath and began shoving the chest.

He was wearing both rings, amulet, boots, and the dagger on his waist. Together the Relics made him feel like some hero of old, his strength and stamina more than doubled. Jason felt his face turn red with effort as he shoved the chest with every fiber of muscle at his disposal, aiming for the Door.

This time, the chest moved.

“I am a golden god!” Jason shouted in triumph as the chest began sliding easier and easier under his powerful shoves until it slid right out the Door.

Jason followed shortly afterwards, eager to complete his Trial and become a real Climber. It was what he’d been waiting for his entire life.

Welcome to your Trial, Climber.

The danger hits immediately. Jason remembered Will’s warning, his head rearing up to scan the environs. He was on the slopes of a mountain, with short, dead grass that spoke to a dry spell.

To the west is a group that have defected from their clan in order to worship your patron freely.

Their clan did not take kindly to this betrayal, and has sent a war-band to eliminate the cult.

Neutralize the threat, keep your patron’s worshippers alive, and you will be qualified to join the Climb.

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Jason narrowed his eyes and peered down the mountain, spotting a puff of smoke near the bottom of the mountain.

I can see further than I used to. Jason thought, able to make out a few figures shuffling around the firepit.

That’s probably the people I need to save. I can’t believe my Trial is an escort mission. Nobody likes escort missions.

It made sense though. Hype didn’t exist in a vacuum. He needed people to hype up…Or I guess, prophesize to?

It was starting to niggle at the back of Jason’s mind that maybe he was involved in something a bit bigger than doing a hype job for a friend for five silver.

The biggest question now…

How the Abyss am I supposed to get this chest all the way down there? Jason thought to himself, peering down at the box.

I’m not supposed to take them out before they’re done baking. Abyss, I don’t think I’m supposed to take them out at all. Guarding Will’s shit wasn’t part of the plan.

Jason glanced up at the distant people, and caught a hint of movement inching across the horizon.

The war-band.

There was no way he could expect to wait long enough, nor did he have time to go grab the people down there and guide them up the side of the mountain.

Leaving Will’s stuff unguarded felt like leaving your hard candies unguarded at the orphanage.

You just didn’t do it.

Well, I mean, have I even checked it recently?

Jason had peeked into the chest several times a day in the beginning, but he’d eventually gotten bored with it, and simply amused himself by skipping the pits of dried fruit off each other, inventing complex games with intricate scoring rules for the sake of maintaining his sanity.

Never again.

When he drank the final sip of water, Jason had decided that it was time to go.

How long has it been?

There wasn’t exactly a day or night in the room, so he just ate when he got hungry, slept when he got tired, and so on.

Jason pried open the chest and peered inside.

The ash inside was dead, having spent all its miasmatic glow.

Just to make sure, Jason lowered the lid, shutting out as much light as he could and peering into the crack.

No light whatsoever.

It was dead.

Was I in the room longer than I thought? He’d had a Class and been wearing the relics the whole time, did that…slow his sleep and eating down?

“Huh,” Jason mused, opening the lid again. If it’s done baking, I guess the easiest way to carry them would be to put them on and then I wouldn’t have to worry about dropping it or anything.

Jason reached in and fished around with his hand until he felt the handle of Will’s axe, pulling it out, ash sloughing off of it to reveal the axe’s silvery exterior. It seemed to have gained some kind of gemstone in the feathers, and the serpent’s eyes had been filled in with stone that seemed to create an iris that followed Jason.

Weird.