Rumors that the town is secretly run by Pure Humanity fanatics are simply that – baseless rumors. Sunland welcomes all under the wise leadership of the Gleason family.
- Fodorick’s Lonely Traveler – Guide to LA’s Townships and Minor Attractions
I nodded immediately. Sure, the odds didn’t sound great, but I’d just survived worse! Besides, the Delvers were my first choice, the key to the life of freedom I’d dreamed about. If Mason had rejected me, I would have tried to sign up with a caravan, or the Army. I’d have happily joined the Hunter’s Guild, but they weren’t often in Sunland. Only if I’d failed at all of them would I have considered joining the town Guard – and I knew I would have been miserable if things had gotten to that point.
“Glad to hear that. To be fair, I’ve got to mention one more thing – gun users are quite a bit more common in the Army. You won’t be the only one in the Guild, but they might be able to teach you better than we can. If you want to join up with them, I’d understand. I’m willing to let you travel to East Bank with us so you can catch up with their recruiting party.”
“No, I think I’d much rather be in the Guild!” I answered quickly. “You have a lot more freedom that way, right?”
“Definitely,” Mason replied. “You’d be signing up for the same five years with the Army, but you’d be following orders the entire time. With the Guild, you’ll have some amount of flexibility as soon as your training is over.”
“That’s what I want,” I agreed.
“Great,” Mason said with a broad smile. He rose and extended his hand, and I jumped up to shake it, only realizing after I’d grabbed it that he was actually handing me a Guild badge. I snatched it from him and examined it carefully. The Guild’s sign was an axe crossed with a sword, in front of a staff. No gun, sadly, but I still pinned it to my shirt with a huge grin.
“Thank you si- uh, Mason!”
“You’re welcome, Az. Now, if you feel comfortable talking about it, let’s go over your Aspect and talk a bit about your Class, too. Kitten here is an Archer, so his input might be valuable.”
“Why in the Wastes do you call him Kitten?” I couldn’t help asking. It just seemed so… ridiculous. He looked plenty dangerous to me, with his bright eyes and magical armor.
Mason’s grin turned sly as Block laughed and Hassan scowled.
“A lot of Guild members go by a callsign instead of their real name. Comes from the old days when there weren’t enough recruits, and the Guild had to take some… less savory types. Anyway, it’s a nickname, you don’t get to pick it yourself. Hopefully, you’ll end up with something better than Kitten! Not very fitting for a ranged fighter, is it?”
“I am a ranged artist, thank you very much! Guns are a brute’s tool. Give me my greatbow any day,” Hassan added with a glare at Mason.
I narrowed my eyes at him indignantly, then shrugged.
“I’d argue with you, but you’re probably right. I mean, I thought guns were weak! I never saw them as anything other than emergency weapons for kids and non-combat Classes. But my shotgun is way more powerful than the Level 0 pistol I had before, and honestly it is pretty brutal. And loud. So I wouldn’t say it’s very artistic. Not that I mind!”
Hassan looked like he was debating whether to be happy I’d agreed with him or upset that I didn’t care about making art with my weapon. Mason ignored him and looked at me.
“Tell us about your Aspect, Az.”
I explained what PAST had told me about it and the three of them – wait, where did – no, Block was sitting right there next to Hassan. The four of them followed along soberly. There is something seriously weird going on with this Block guy. He seems friendly enough, though.
“So,” I asked finally, “is it any good?”
Mason grunted. “Sounds about as good as any other Tier 0 Aspect, Az. It’s nice to get a couple extra points per Level, but since you can’t decide where to use them it’s not incredibly strong. Be interesting to see how it develops though, if you decide to keep feeding it.”
“Feeding it? Like a pet?”
Block laughed and spoke up for the first time.
“It’s a bit like that, actually. When you go up a Tier, you can Evolve or Refine your Class, right? Some of your choices will be compatible with your Aspect, and some not so much. If you pick a compatible one, you ‘feed’ your Aspect and it grows. If you pick an opposing one, you weaken it.”
My stomach cut him off with a loud grumble and I blushed.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Sorry everyone, I never had breakfast today and then you started talking about feeding…”
Vale looked at me critically, then turned to Mason.
“She’s too skinny, we need to put some meat on her. Burgers?”
Mason nodded. “Sounds good to me. Az, you want a burger?”
My mouth was already watering. I hadn’t had a burger at the inn since… my seventeenth birthday, more than a year ago, but I could still remember it vividly. I nodded eagerly, then paused abruptly.
“Uh, I’m not sure how much money I should spend on food…” I trailed off, but Mason was already waving me off and Vale had opened the door.
“Relax, I told you we’d be paying for your room and board through training.”
I swallowed. The food here was expensive. If I remembered right, just a burger was around 3 talons – and another for fries. “PAST, how much money do I have?”
[You have 1 eagle, 8 talons, and 7 feathers! A veritable hoard!]
I was impressed. An eagle was a lot of money for me – not that I’d ever had a whole one to my name before. Ten feathers to a talon, ten talons to an eagle. The most I’d ever had at a time was three talons and a few feathers, and what little I did have was… still tucked away in my bed at the church.
Shit, that’s… well, it seems like a lot to me, but obviously it’s nothing for these guys. They are all way up there in Levels and probably make that much just from killing a single monster. I won’t argue about paying then! At least Yuna knows where my coins are, she’ll find them and hopefully buy something for the little ones. I’m not going back there for a talon and nine feathers.
Vale walked back in, looked at Block with a funny expression, then shook her head and walked back out. She was back a moment later, closing the door behind her. “Food’s ordered. Including for Block.”
Hassan picked up the conversation this time.
“Allright Az, let’s talk about your Class and Skills next. You should have a good idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are so far.”
I thought for a few moments before replying.
“Well, my strength is that I can do a lot of damage really fast, when my gun is fully loaded. My weaknesses are that it is hard to reload in the middle of a fight, and my gun isn’t strong against armor. My range is OK, but I haven’t really had a chance to test it. I can also run out of mana in a long fight, but my new Skill should help with that.”
I gave them the description for Tactical Reposition and Hassan nodded.
“I haven’t heard that name before, but a lot of Archer Skills are similar in concept. We tend to get bonuses for not getting hit during a fight.”
“Must be nice!” Block chimed in. “All of my bonuses require me to get hit!”
“Which is why you carry around that ridiculous shield!” Hassan retorted.
“My shield is quite tasteful, actually…” Block muttered, loud enough for me to hear, while Mason glared at them both.
Vale talked over him. “Why does it take so long to reload? Don’t you just swap in a new magazine?”
“It’s easier if I just show you,” I replied, then held out my hands and concentrated. Inventory->Class Weapon. My gun appeared in my hands, heavy, sleek, and reassuring. At the same time, my bandolier materialized, already in place around my body. I demonstrated how my weapon worked, racking the shells out without firing, before collecting them off the floor a bit sheepishly and reloading.
“So,” Hassan commented, “you’re basically a short-range Arbalist with a multi-use Quick Load Skill.”
“I guess that sounds about right, yeah,” I agreed after a moment of thought.
“Potent,” Block commented, definitely not startling me. “An Arbalist would need quite a few Levels in a Skill like that before they could fire six shots in a row. And your reloading is actually pretty fast compared to most cooldowns.”
Mason nodded, then commented, “There’s always a compensating drawback. Sounds like it’s the short range and lack of penetration. Can I see one of the bullets?”
“Sure,” I pulled one from my bandolier and handed it over. “But they’re not called bullets. According to my Shotguns Skill, they’re called shotshells or shells.”
“There’s certainly no comparison in size between this and a pistol or rifle round,” he agreed.
A knife appeared in his hand and he casually sliced open the shell lengthwise along the plastic part. A handful of small metal balls rolled out onto the table, along with what looked like some small pieces of… paper? Hassan picked up one of the pellets and examined it curiously.
“So, when you fire this… thing… these little balls all come out like separate bullets?” he asked.
“Sort of, they,” I made a gesture with my hands, “I guess they fly in sort of a cone shape, and the farther they go the more they spread apart. One of my mods helps control how wide the cone is.”
Hassan snorted in disgust. “A brute’s weapon, indeed. Might as well throw a Wasted sledgehammer at them.”
I was determined not to let his disrespect of my brutally beautiful weapon stand.
“Sure, if I get to throw my hammer six times in a row, then reload and do it another six times, and so on. Sounds like a sweet Class to me!”
Block laughed, “She’s got a point there, Kitten!”
I high-fived him while Mason smiled and Hassan glared. There was a knock on the door and Vale rose to open it, gesturing in Abel who was loaded down with a heavenly-smelling tray. I quickly stored my gun away while Abel distributed the plates. My burger was as delicious as I’d remembered, the yucca fries perfectly golden crisp and mouth-wateringly good. The conversation came to a halt as we all dug into the food.
Az's Delver's Guild pin
System Outcast
by Chimera Works
What to expect
- Epic adventures
- LitRPG and Progression Fantasy
- System mechanics.
- Compelling characters with strong worldbuilding.
- 5 Chapters per week (Mon - Fri)
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