Monsters and legends, p.58
Monsters and Legends, page 58
part #1 of Infinite Realm Series
“This Kingdom’s ruler, the Elder King. He is a High Ranker from the Second Iteration, one of the most powerful beings in the world,” Griss said.
“What is his focus?”
“He is primarily a Classer, but you will learn soon enough about the nuances of that,” Griss told him.
Zach looked at him, confused. “What do you mean?”
Griss glanced at him, his lips pulling up to show a row of sharp teeth in a smile. “I didn’t tell you before, mostly because I am not an expert, but once we reach the Citadel and you are accepted as a warden you will be given a lot of resources. Part of that is knowledge of how to best focus your powers and advance. Most people in these parts are Classers, but that usually means that they are using their Essence primarily to increase their levels, but they are still putting some into their other focuses, as you have done. But your focus can be in different degrees.
“For example, I am a Classer with a 80-20 split. I put most of my Essence in my Class, and the rest into my Cultivation path, using skills to complete my build. The Citadel has a lot of knowledge of various Classes, how to best build them, how to focus your stats, how to get specific perks. No one is going to force you to use that knowledge, of course—what you do with your own Essence is your business. But I would urge you to make use of what the Citadel offers.”
Zach wasn’t really surprised. Even on Earth, they’d had something similar. People who had advanced further would write down their experiences, letting those who came after have a better understanding of what they could expect. “Do you follow any of those guides?” Zach asked him.
“I do. My build is well-documented, one that many wardens make use of. Of course I have added my own spin to it, as almost every warden does. My titles are not the same as everybody else's and I don’t have the same skills,” Griss said.
Zach didn’t comment. Instead, he grew thoughtful as their mounts led them down the mountainside. It was true that he didn’t have a clear goal in how he built his power, which he realized now was a mistake on his part. But for so long, he’d only had one goal: to catch up to the monster that had killed so many people, Zach’s family included. But now, for the first time in a long time, he had an opportunity to take a slower path, to build up his power properly. He knew the moment when he realized just how massive this world was, how many people there were, that he would not find Ryun easily. This world had little in the way of centralized government, no means of spreading information quickly.
He was still glad he’d decided to join the wardens, even though he had acted rashly. Arriving to a new world was disorienting, and Zach always functioned better when there was a structure around him that he could rely on.
Once they got down from the mountain, Griss led them toward the city, and not up the path that led to the Citadel in the distance. Zach frowned and spoke up.
“Are we not going to the Citadel?”
Griss shook his head. “It’s late, we won’t get there until morning. Better that we get some rest in the city and head out tomorrow. Also, there are a few more things that I want to speak with you about before we go there.”
Zach had no reason to complain, and Griss did know better than him. The drake led them to the massive city gates, and Zach had to twist his head up to see the top of the walls from the base. The walls were enormous, at least four stories high, and made out of gray stone that was somehow smooth. The gate they approached was open, and Zach was even surprised to see that there was traffic entering the gate in the form of carriages and wagons pulled by many different kinds of animals. The guards at the gate were wearing gray plate armor and each had a shield fastened on their back and a long sword on their hip.
Griss led Zach past all the people waiting to gain entry and headed straight for one of the guards.
“Hey!” the guard called after he noticed them. “Back of the line!”
In response Griss just pulled out his warden badge and showed it to the man. The guard glanced at it, then sighed before waving for them to wait. He turned around, walking out to the small guard station built into the wall under the gate. He entered and came out a few moments later holding a small wand-like object in his hand.
Once he walked back toward them, he gestured to Griss. “Let me see.”
Griss extended his hand down from his mount and the man touched the badge with his wand. It glowed white and the guard nodded, waving them through without another word.
Zach waited until they were a bit further away before he spoke. “I assume that that is in order to check if it was real or not?”
“Yes. Impersonators are rare because the punishment is high, but it does happen occasionally. Anyway, your badge will only be checked when you take a contract, return it, or you enter one of the big cities,” Griss said and Zach noticed that he had tied his badge on his belt, so that it hung loosely and was clearly visible.
They lapsed into silence again and Griss led them through the streets of the city, clearly having his destination in mind. Zach kept his eyes on the new sights. Seeing so many people was not only shocking, but it also brought with it many of memories. The lampposts illuminating the streets were tall and sculpted as if they were a piece of art, growing out of the paved street and twisting upward until an umbrella-like head hung at the top casting pale light down. It wasn’t firelight, and from what Zach could see it appeared like the umbrella was made out of some kind of a gem.
The city didn’t seem to be in any way slowed by the fact that it was night, but Zach knew that with greater stats came the ability to stay awake for longer, so it did make sense. The buildings were spread out, each sitting by itself on a patch of land, with small yards in front, each meticulously kept. Some had gardens, strange flowers arranged in strange patterns, while others had statues, or colored pavement.
Most of the buildings around them were shops, and most catered to fabrics from what Zach could see. Griss had them turn a corner and go down a smaller street with less people walking about. They continued on for what seemed close to an hour, which allowed Zach to get a better feel for the city. There was a heaviness around it, and an age. He could tell that everything around him was old, in a way that very few things on post-Framework Earth had been. But for all that age, everything was well kept. He saw no littering, no equivalent of graffiti, and everything seemed to be orderly and clean.
Finally, Griss led them to a section of the city where there were many residential buildings, and among them, nestled in a backyard corner, was their destination.
It was a three-story building that looked like it was made out of white bricks. Attached to the side was a stable, which was where Griss headed. A drake child was sitting on a chair below the roof of the stable and snoring. Griss dismounted and Zach followed his lead, and then the drake walked over to the child and coughed loudly.
The child’s eyes snapped open and he looked around himself quickly. “Sorry, sir! I’ll get—huh? Uncle Griss!” The child’s face went from embarrassed and scared to joyful in an instant, and he jumped up into Griss’s embrace.
“Sleeping on the job, I see!” Griss laughed as he hugged his nephew and then let him down.
The kid’s eyes widened. “Please don’t tell mom, Uncle Griss, she’s going to kill me. She already warned me once.”
Griss, still laughing, said, “Take care of our mounts and I’ll think about it.”
The kid looked around and saw Zach for the first time, then bowed his head sheepishly and moved to grab the reins of Griss’s mount.
“Zach, this is my nephew Telliss, my sister’s son.”
Zach smiled and shook the kid’s hand. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Telliss.”
He couldn’t help but be reminded of his own family, his daughter. He had lost everything on Earth, and sometimes just remembering hurt too much. He shook his head and pushed his thoughts aside. The young drake took the mounts into the stable, and Griss led Zach into what he now knew was an inn. They stepped through the wooden doors and Zach was immediately assaulted by a variety of smells; for a moment, it was as if he had been transported to a place he hadn’t thought about for a long time. Scents of freshly baked goods mingled with rich aromas that he couldn’t recognize, his ears were assaulted by clinking of glasses, scratching of plates, and all of it was framed by a jumble of conversations all building upon one another in a loud crescendo.
Zach looked around, seeing a large room filled with tables and chairs, along with people of all kinds sitting and talking, laughing, eating and drinking. He saw a minotaur in a corner exclaiming loudly as they brought their massive mug against the table, spilling its contents all around.
In another corner a Karura spread their wings and knocked a glass out of the hands of a Demasi sitting at the next table. The demon-looking man stood up and shouted, pointing his finger at the Karura, who screeched back.
And then a tall, red-scaled drake woman, wearing an apron, walked out of a doorway that seemed to be leading to the kitchen. She saw the brewing fight and grabbed hold of an empty wooden mug on the bar next to her. She pulled her hand back and then threw the mug at the Demasi, the spinning wood smashing into the man’s head and making him sit back down on his chair.
“No fighting, or I swear by the Dealmaker I’ll make you all regret it! Understood?” The drake woman’s voice thundered making even Zach wince at its intensity. The room quieted, and the subdued answers echoed around the room.
Griss exploded into laughter, and then started walking toward the woman. “You never change, do you, Beriss?”
The woman saw him, and her face changed from a thundering scowl to an expression of joy. She walked up and the two embraced.
“I didn’t know that you were coming back! Weren’t you supposed to be gone for another year?” she asked.
“Something came up,” Griss said with a smile on his face. Then he turned to Zach and gestured for him to come closer. “This is Zach, my new partner. Zach, this is my sister, Beriss.”
Zach bowed his head respectfully, but the woman just laughed and pulled him into a hug. “Any friend of Grissy is like family! He doesn’t have many friends, so we need to be extra inviting to those he does have, so that they don’t run away,” she added in a conspiratorial whisper.
“If you stopped hugging them, maybe they wouldn’t be running away,” Griss broke in.
Beriss chuckled and then opened her hands wide. “Welcome to the Redscale Inn! Any friend of Grissy is more than welcome.”
Zach couldn’t help but smile at the woman’s enthusiasm. He looked around and saw that the customers had returned to their prior level of revelry, and he couldn’t help but feel the warm atmosphere, the inviting nature of the hostess, the people around him. It had been a long time since he had felt like this, and he allowed himself to feel it fully, leaving his thoughts of the past aside.
CHAPTER 82 – PRESENT – Zach
High Ranker
Zach woke with the dawn, his eyes open and staring at the ceiling. Consciousness always came like that for him: an instant transition. He had trained himself for it. Being alert was the only way to survive the Framework. His head turned and he found himself in a small room, in a comfortable bed, the light of day shining through the open window and the quiet chatter of the city outside was filling the air.
He was tense, his hand ready to pull his sword from storage and fight, but there was no danger around him. He remembered last night, sitting in the warm room of the inn, drinking with Griss as people around him did the same. It was strange. He hadn’t been in such an atmosphere in years. The people in the inn had no worries. They were just…living their lives, like how it used to be on Earth, before the Framework had changed things. Zach had seen this on their trip. The frontier had been more what he had been expecting, people fighting monsters, but the further they went from the frontier and back to the core the more he saw the change. This was the only world that most of these people had ever known. They were not striving to survive, were not lamenting what they had lost. The Infinite Realm was their home, and it reminded Zach too much of his own.
Oh, it was different, incredibly so—the different races, the lack of technology, the desire for everyone to get stronger. The culture was vastly different, but it was still in some way at least civilized, except for the fact that the Framework controlled everything. He had seen many things since he had arrived in this world, things that Earth’s version of the Framework didn’t have. Half of it all he didn’t understand, but he knew that he needed to learn it.
Last night had been something that he had needed. Being relaxed, hearing the many voices in the background speaking in tones that were not tainted with worry, had been pleasant. Zach had forgotten what it felt like. Neither he nor Griss had spent a lot of time drinking before retiring to their rooms, having agreed to leave for the Citadel in the morning.
Zach stood, found his clothes on the chair next to the bed, and slowly dressed before walking over to the window and looking out. The sun was directly above them, as it always was in this world, by its brightness he estimated that it was still early morning. He looked around, seeing people walking up and down the street in front of the inn. The city seemed quieter than it had been last night, perhaps a short respite before it woke again, even for people who didn’t need to sleep as much it was necessary from time to time.
He took a deep breath and walked out of the room, heading up the hallway and then down the stairs to the common room. The tables were mostly empty, he saw, and everything was surprisingly clean. He wondered how that was possible, as the sheer amount of spilled drinks last night would’ve taken ages to clean.
But then again, this was a world where everyone had power.
His arrival was noticed by Griss’s sister, Beriss who was putting down chairs from their place on top of the tables. She smiled at him and gestured to one table that already had its chairs lowered.
“Good morning! Take a seat. I’ll have breakfast ready soon!” she said.
Zach greeted her in turn and then walked by the free table, joining her to help put the rest of the chairs down. She raised an eyebrow covered with bony ridges, but didn’t comment. Once they were finished, Zach took a seat at a table and she walked into the kitchen. Soon enough, sounds of cooking reached his ears as well as scents that made his stomach growl.
The entrance to the inn opened and Griss walked in. He saw Zach and walked over taking a seat across from him. “Morning,” Griss said.
“You got up early,” Zach commented.
The drake nodded his head. “I sent a message ahead to the Citadel that we are coming today.”
Zach tilted his head. The two of them had stopped occasionally at Adventurers Guilds for Griss to send messages and read the responses, so he knew that the drake was in touch with his fellow wardens. “Oh?”
Griss met his eyes. “I should explain. As I said last night, there are some things we should talk about.”
Zach gestured with his hand. “Of course.”
“Well, you are now a trainee serving under me. I have informed the Citadel of this, of course. But for you to become a full warden… Well, that is a bit more complicated. First, most of our recruits are young, and we are the ones who raise them up, help them advance and teach them. You are not, but while cases such as yours are not common, they do happen. There is something that you must do before you are allowed into our ranks.”
“What?” Zach asked.
“There is…a test, of sorts. People like you, whose loyalties we cannot be certain of, need to pass it. Now, because you are a Ranker of the Seventh Iteration, there is little for you to be worried about, as you couldn’t be involved with any other faction. Still, you being a Ranker brings other problems. You don’t know this world, the politics, the laws, the nuances. I have sent in recommendations that we be put together so that I may teach you, but…well, someone higher up wants to speak with you before they sign off on anything.”
“Who, and for what purpose?” Zach inquired, though it didn’t really bother him as much as it seemed to bother Griss.
“Well, the why is probably because you are a Ranker, and because I informed them where I found you. That has never happened before, and no Ranker that has just arrived has been as strong as you. They will want to know everything about how something like that happened.”
Zach nodded as he started to understand. “Ah, so they want to know my story?”
Griss nodded. “I haven’t shared anything but the bare minimum with the Citadel, just that you are a Ranker from the Seventh Iteration and that you didn’t appear in the arrival area with the others.”
Zach nearly smiled at Griss’s tone. People in this world were extremely secretive when it came to their power, and he could see that Griss felt like telling his superiors even that was a breach of privacy, but it didn’t really matter to Zach.
“It’s fine, Griss,” he said, and saw the drake relax immediately. “So, who is it that wants to speak with me?”
The drake’s expression changed immediately, and Zach was surprised to see fear in his eyes.
“Warden Commander Yirrel Annsi, the leader of the wardens,” Griss said.
Zach blinked. He hadn’t thought that his situation warranted such attention.
But before he could ask anything else, Beriss came out of the kitchen with two plates filled with steaming food.
***
After breakfast the two of them left the inn, mounted their hillasi mounts and started for the Citadel. As they walked, Zach looked at the city around him. Seeing it in daylight was much more impressive. The buildings were all extremely well built. Stone of different colors had been crafted together, and fabrics draped over them to make them seem even more rich and vibrant. They walked down a street that had curtains stretched between the buildings, but pulled on either side so that people could walk through. Awnings and canopies stretched from one side of the street to the other creating shade beneath them.
