Talyn: Rebirth Ch. 10

Not a long chapter this week, but hope you like it anyway!

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Chapter 10

The answer, Talyn decided, was that she was a slow, clumsy weakling who’d survived the fight with the cult leader and the alchemists more by luck and striking first than anything else. She tried to help, but out of the eight cultists who tried to stop them at the top of the stairs, she didn’t manage to get even halfway to the nearest cultist before a ball of fire exploded two of them and Aslith dealt with the nearby cultist. Melody was almost as superfluous, which comforted Talyn slightly, only contributing because she had a ranged weapon.

Of course, part of the reason that the cultists fell so fast was because of the group’s coordination. They didn’t even have to talk to each other about who took which targets, they just split them up without so much as a word, tearing apart the opponents with astounding ease. The only disappointment, from the group’s view, was that the alchemist appeared to have fled not long before.

Then they’d found the room where their gear had been stowed away, though some of it was missing. Nothing major, but there was some grumbling, and the remaining two cultists that’d tried to interrupt them died in rapid succession, leaving Talyn convinced that she had a long way to go… and somehow with enough experience to level up again anyway.

“That’s simple enough to explain.” Gordon said when she asked, now wearing a suit of scale armor. He had a shield slung over his backpack, and a mace hung from his belt. The man looked much more comfortable in his armor, and all of the adventurers looked much more relaxed. Reagan was performing some sort of ritual over the room with the altar, supposedly it was to allow them to destroy it without pissing off the Lord of Blood.

“The deal is that we’re grouped together, at least in all of our minds. If we honestly thought you were another group, it wouldn’t work. Anyway, you’re part of our group, and you were trying to contribute, so you got a bit of the credit, too.” Gordon continued after a moment. “Plus, Melody counts as part of you, and she did hit someone, so you got some credit there, too. Honestly, fighting someone more than five levels higher than you is risky business, so you get more experience for that sort of thing. You wouldn’t believe how many people get themselves killed trying to shortcut their levels a bit.”

“Agreed. I spent five years practicing cartography, learning to carve, farm, practicing with a bow and daggers, and other things around town after I hit puberty just to reach level ten safely. It also gave me time to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.” Aslith said, juggling three daggers idly as they waited. She was wearing black leather armor, which gave her a definitively deadly appearance. “Once you hit level ten, it’s easy enough to take a combat class and level up with it, then swap to another class if that’s what you really want. It isn’t really faster than practicing the other class for the same amount of time without insane risks and it means your skills are probably starting from scratch, but it’s an option.”

Pausing to digest what they meant, Talyn nodded slowly after a second. She thought she understood most of what they said, but there was one thing she had to clarify.

“I take it that means that when you change classes, your skills reset to the beginning?” Talyn asked.

“Yes and no. Say you had Enhanced Strength from a warrior class, or even Titanic Strength, plus, say… Blade Mastery.” Gordon said, tugging on his beard again. “If you decided to swap to Circus Strongman, you’d keep the strength skill because those are ones that the Circus Strongman can get, but you wouldn’t keep the Blade Mastery. If it was Hammer Mastery, you’d probably keep it. Which isn’t to say that you can’t abandon a skill if you don’t want to keep it, but it means that most people stick to swapping between classes that have the same types of skills.”

“Additionally, since some combat classes have very similar skill sets to non-combat ones, such as an Alchemist and Apothecary, a few people with them will switch between them frequently. They virtually never gain levels in their class, which keeps them at five class skill slots, but they do.” Elda said distractedly. She was wearing a set of red robes, and had a staff topped with a red quartz crystal, though at the moment she was examining a set of five crystals that had been pulled out of the group’s gear. They reminded Talyn of the crystals in the middle of her coins, which brought another question to mind.

“What’re those? They look like the crystals in the coins I found.” Talyn asked, feeling a little guilty about all the questions.

“That’s because they are. These are essence crystals, which contain magic used in a lot of enchantments.” Elda said, looking up at Talyn as she smiled. “These five came from the hydra we fought, fortunately the cultists collected them. Half the reason we took the request to kill the hydra was because it’s one of the few low-level creatures that has any essence crystals, and hydras tend to have one per head.”

“Which is good, since hydras are incredibly dangerous at this level. Sure, a small dragon would be worse, but that’s because they can fly.” Aslith said, her voice a bit sour.

“Okay… so—” Talyn began, but Reagan interrupted her.

“Alright, we’re good. Gordon, would you do the honors?” the dark elf asked, turning toward them.

“Can do.” Gordon said, unhooking his mace, then he took a couple of steps forward and swung his mace toward the altar with both hands. Talyn winced as the sound of metal on stone echoed through the room, and the altar shattered unnaturally easily, flying across the back of the room.

“Ow.” Aslith said, catching her daggers one by one, then reached up to clear her ear. “I could’ve done without that sound.”

“You’re the one who stayed in the room. I told you that we’d be destroying the altar.” Reagan said, rolling his eyes.

“Point. Shall we?” Aslith said, jerking her head toward the door. “We’ve already looted everything of value, so unless Talyn is too tired to go…”

“No, I think that I’d be perfectly happy to get out of here.” Talyn said quickly.

“She just wants a nice bed, and possibly a privy that wasn’t likely to knock her out due to how disgusting it was.” Melody chimed in, grinning.

“Fair. But just to warn, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. There’s a swamp above us.” Elda cautioned, slipping the crystals into her belt pouch.

“Ugh. Well, we may as well get it over with.” Talyn said, her enthusiasm dimming slightly. “I don’t suppose there’s a chance of a nice bath afterward?”

That brought a chorus of laughter, and for the first time Elda grinned at Talyn.

“Don’t worry, the inn we stayed at has excellent baths, at least for an inn.” The animus said, smiling. “Believe me, I tested them.”

“A lot.” Aslith said, walking out of the room. “But if we want to get there early enough to get baths, we’d best go.”

That was a fair point, Talyn said, and hurried for the door.