Chapter 4: Broken and New Dreams

Astrid’s eyes were gritty and raw and she felt like a child. She’d abandoned Ahna because she was hurt. She’d left her parents behind, and then she’d locked herself in her room and sobbed for what might have been hours. Even though it felt childish, Astrid still felt justified. The only real dream that she’d ever had, and it was lost to her. Not the Class she wanted, and not the party she’d planned for. Could she even hope to find some way to delve now? There were loose and searching parties, but they wouldn't have the chemistry and trust that she’d had with her party.

And what was up with Liesl and Borus just… abandoning her? Jan was to be expected. He was tied to Ahna, and since she wouldn’t be delving, it was no surprise that he’d stick to town. He never really cared about climbing the tiers. Her father was only an Iron, and most people here in town thought that was impressive enough. The idea of becoming Steel or beyond that was just something other people did.

She felt her breath catching again, the unfairness and betrayal of all this coming back to smash into her like a cudgel. Instead of letting herself wallow in it again, Astrid stood up and wiped at her eyes. She hissed at the rough and tender skin, and walked out into the family room. Her vision was blurry, but it wasn’t hard to see both parents waiting for her at the table.

“Hello, my light.” Savraba said as he stood and wrapped her up in his arms. She clenched her teeth and didn’t respond, fighting to keep herself from breaking back down. “I’m glad you’re out here. Are you hungry?”

She just shook her head. Brighid stood as well and asked, “Do you want to sit at the table as we talk, or do you want to come sit on our bed where we can hold you?”

“Just here.” She answered in a whisper as she fell into her chair.

“Sounds good.” Brighid said as she pulled her chair around to sit beside her daughter. “I don’t need to have a conversation with you about this right now, but there are some things that need to be said. If you want to talk about them after I say as much, I’m more than happy to. Ok?”

Astrid nodded.

“Great. Here’re your options, so far as I can tell. The first is to stay here. Join with the guards, and be the best damned guard the Bulwark’s ever seen. I’d teach you, and we could fast-track you to serve wherever you want, make sure you get experience to get to Iron before too long. We can prep to give you better options at Iron, since you can choose from there on. Drill your Skills and get you strong enough to fit in wherever you want.

“The second is to enlist you. Until then, I’ll drill you on your Skills so much you’ll puke and want to cry and probably will. I’ll get you ready to be a soldier, and then we’ll send you on to the southern front. I know the general there, he was my lieutenant when I served, and I can get you a commission if that’s what you want. You’ll fight against the Hordes in whatever squabbles arise, and you’ll serve if the inevitable war begins in your time as a soldier.

“The third is to be a delver. You train here for a little bit, make sure you’re familiar with your Skills, and then we get you to a guild near the same Dungeon entrance you were already planning on cutting your teeth on. There, you’ll be in charge of getting yourself a party, finding who you’ll work with, and who you’ll trust your back to. You’ll get into the Dungeon, just without the party you’ve always planned with. It’ll be hard, and I don’t know if it’ll be the same experience you’ve always dreamed about. Your Class is one that doesn’t solidly fill any of the niches of a party, so you’ll be doubly disadvantaged, because nobody will know you.

“I’m sure I know what your choice will be, but I want to see the other possibilities for what they are–damned good ones. Probably better ones. But it’s up to you. It always was and always has been.”

Astrid nodded, drying her eyes that’d teared up again.

“I want to delve.”

“I know.” Savraba answered her. “You don’t understand just how hard it will be, but I also trust in your stubborn strength. We’ll help you however we can. I just want you to be sure before you make any firm decisions.”

“I think that’s all of that for now.” Brighid cut off her husband with a glare. “We support you. Now, do you want to tell us what your Skills are? I must say, I’ve been dying to know.”

Astrid gathered both her parents in her arms before answering. There were plenty of other problems that could occur, but at least she knew she had her parents on her side.

“I’ll pull them up.” Astrid said. Then, it took her a second to figure out what she needed to do. She hadn’t paid any attention to her Status or her Skills as soon as she read her Class. Pulling it back up, she made sure to actually look at what it meant for her.

STATUS

Name: Astrid

Class: Warrior (Bronze)

Total Level: 1 (0/1,000)

Attributes

Current

Per level growth

Power

12 (+2)

+5

Alacrity

9 (+1)

+3

Fortitude

12 (+2)

+5

Magical Potency

6

+1

Self-Mastery

7 (+1)

+1

Acumen

7 (+1)

+1

Astrid knew what this meant. From the baseline of 5 in each attribute, she’d trained hard enough to get a bonus to every attribute except Potency. Not too surprising, considering she couldn’t use any Skills or magic. It was basically half a level that she’d gained through her hard work, and she couldn’t help but feel proud of that. The +1 to every attribute from the Human race was expected, and though she still would have preferred Spellblade, it was obvious that Warrior was a Class focused on making her stronger, more durable, and a bit quicker. Like all Bronze tier classes, Warrior gave a total of 10 points to attributes, and that it gave none at all the the mental ones at least meant it was a well-optimized Class.

Then, having looked at her Status in detail, Astrid pulled up her Skill list.

SKILL LIST

Level 1 Skill Choice (1) Available

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Level 1 Skill Choice (2) Available

Level 1 Skill Choice (3) Available

Skill Choice (1): Swordsmanship (Untiered), Spearmanship (Untiered), Blunt Weapons Mastery (Bronze)

Skill Choice (2): Armored Defense (Untiered), Steady Load (Untiered), Shield Wielding (Bronze)

Skill Choice (3): Shield Bash (Untiered), Quick Recovery (Untiered), Overhand Blow (Bronze)

“So?” Brighid asked. “What did you get? How many Bronze?”

“Three.” Astrid answered. Then, after a moment’s thinking and mental fiddling, she was able to present the options she’d received to her parents. Similar to what happened at the Bestowal, her information appeared in a window in front of her. She knew she shouldn’t show it to people she didn't trust, but she trusted both her parents infinitely. Both read through her status and got immediately to the Skills.

“Those are good.” Brighid said right away. “I know what I’d take, but I wanna hear what you think, Savraba.”

“I think I lost the bet because she didn’t get Spellblade.” He grumbled, then flinched and looked at Astrid. “Sorry, my light. I think there is a clear choice for all three.”

“The Bronze in each, right?” Astrid answered, already nearly selecting all three.

“Nope!” They answered in unison.

“What? Why?” Astrid asked.

“You know what most of these Skills do right off the top of your head, right? Can you see which of the Bronze Skills we don’t want you to take?”

“The weapon Skills are self-explanatory, they give knowledge to wielding the weapons and a passive increase to the damage dealt.” Astrid answered, chewing on her bottom lip, “And while I’d prefer Swordsmanship, it’s just way better to have the Bronze Skill right at the beginning. Did I get Blunt Weapons Mastery because I did all my training with blunted practice weapons?”

“Almost certainly.” Brighid answered. “So should you take that one?”

“Yeah, like I said, not having to use one of my Bronze Skill selections later on on my weapon Skill will let me get more active Skills faster. Plus, it’s a general weapon Skill. I’ve always heard that general Skills that cover multiple things are better.”

“Not always.” Brighid corrected. “For a weapon Skill, Blades Mastery is superior to Swordsmanship and Blunt Weapons Mastery superior to Clubmanship. The adage applies almost exclusively to weapon Skills while other Skills depend on what your hope is to do with the Skills. Regardless, Continue.” Brighid waved for Astrid to keep her deductions going, more in her role as an instructor than a mother at the moment.

“Shield Wielding is just as straightforward as the weapon Skills. Armored Defense is basically a weapon Skill for armor, and Steady Load will help me stay more limber when wearing heavy armor or carrying a heavy backpack. Even carrying an injured party member. I’ve trained enough with heavy armor that I don’t think I need Steady Load, and Armored Defense and Shield Wielding are basically a wash, so take the higher tier Skill.”

“Close enough.” Brighid shrugged.

“So, by process of elimination, you don’t want me to take Overhand Blow. Why?” Astrid asked. “It’s a good Skill, even if it’s not versatile. It should combo well with a blunt weapon, especially if it's a maul or warhammer.”

“You probably won’t ever be using a maul, so get that out of your head.” Savraba said. “If you take Shield Wielding, you better be wielding a damned shield.”

“Ok, but it’s still a good Skill.” Astrid insisted. “It’s a great finishing blow, and it’ll use my mental attributes that, otherwise, will be pretty useless to me.”

“All that’s true, so think about why I asked if you knew what all the Skills do. It’s not that Overhand Blow’s a bad Skill, but another one is better.”

Astrid listened to her mother and put some more thought into it. Shield Bash was a similar Skill to Overhand Blow in that it would draw on her mana to empower a hit she made with her shield. It wasn’t as good as a finisher, but instead as something to get her some more space from whatever was in her face. She’d used an approximation of the Skill against Johannen, and it would be useful if she was getting overwhelmed. Even so, the Skill wouldn’t be useful enough to take it over a higher tiered Skill, especially since Blunt Weapons Mastery should help a little with that.

Quick Recovery. She hadn’t ever heard of it. Fortunately, the Great One would give her more information, given that it’d provided the Skill as an option to her.

Quick Recovery, Untiered: Increases the passive rate of mana, health, and stamina recovery by 20%. Once per hour, the Skill’s holder can activate the Skill to recover 10% of all mana, health and stamina.

Mana, health, and stamina were all vague and never quantified by the Great One, but everyone knew they existed. That this untiered Skill could, effectively, bring her back up to peak fighting condition without resting in ten hours was basically divine!

“How was this Skill offered so early?” Astrid asked instead of answering her parents’ question about what she should pick as a Skill. “It seems to be something that even an Adamantite tier delver would want!”

“Absolutely.” Brighid nodded. “This is a life-saving Skill. That you’ve gotten it offered right now… well, it’ll be immensely impactful for you.”

“I’ll give you some information that’s never mattered to you.” Her papa said, cutting off Brighid. “My owner, before I escaped, was a Steel tiered Hordemaster. Even so, he wasn’t afraid of any same-tiered Assassins from the walls of the Bulwark. In fact, when ambushed, he killed two Assassins, and that was because he had the Steel tier of Quick Recovery. Given the strengths of the Hordemaster, which is an evolved Berserker Class, he was, or probably still is, immensely tough, and with his Class complementing that, it was impossible for the people who found him to kill him immediately. Then, he could recover from all that damage he’d taken when his foe was exhausted, and his Class’s other Skills gave him greater strength the more health he lost.

“You need to take this Skill. It will make us much more willing—” He cut himself off. “This Skill will make us feel much more secure about your safety. It will serve you much better than either of the other two Skills.”

“There wasn’t any need to convince me!” Astrid laughed. “I know that any Skill that offers an active and passive is almost always better than the rest.”

“So make sure you always read all the options available to you moving forward.” Brighid chastised her daughter. Astrid bowed her head, embarrassed.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“So, select your Skills, and we’ll go out and get you a drink. Remember, this kind of Skill is your hidden dagger. Only reveal it to people who are in your party for the long haul. Not many people can be trusted with this kind of information about you. Even your other Skills should be hidden from people who might not keep that information hidden from those who might do you harm. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Astrid replied, some cheek in her tone. Brighid shook her head with a smile.

“Then, we’ll get you a couple drinks then back home to sleep it off, and I’ll train you tomorrow. I bet, if you ask him nicely, your papa will too.”

“You’ll train me?” Astrid turned straight to her dad. “You can train me?”

“It’s true that my Class has never given me a single point in Power or Alacrity. However, I’m also high Iron, specifically level 45, and I’ve gotten a point in every attribute every level I’ve gained. And you think a physical labor slave never gained a single level of Power, Alacrity or Fortitude? Yes. I can train you. I can drill teachings into your head as well as your dear old mom.”

Astrid hadn’t ever thought of that before. She’d know that her dad could protect himself, and she knew that an Iron was nothing to scoff at. But she’d only ever thought of him as a Talismartist and his physical conditioning would be negligible at best. Instead, his Power, Alacrity, and Fortitude were probably all at least 5 times higher than her own. She went to open her mouth, to say something, but she was cut off.

“Get changed into a nice tunic. Wash your face. Get pretty, and we’ll get you a couple drinks. You deserve them.” Brighid pushed her daughter into her room, and Astrid did as she was told. Maybe it could have been strange or uncomfortable for her to have spent the night of her Bestowal with her parents, but they were there for her, and she refused to feel anything but grateful.

Turned out that, even though she was nearly the tallest person in the town, Astrid wasn’t so good at holding her drink. Two ales in, she felt the room spinning, and though she slowly nursed the third, she couldn’t remember anything but flashes. Her mom and dad dancing. Johannen’s face uncomfortably close to her own. A couple accusatory fingers from both sides. A grumbled apology. Maybe a response? Her mother pushing her back to their table. Then… Nothing else.

—-

Astrid woke with a pounding headache. Her mother was shaking her shoulder, and long after she stopped shaking her daughter, Astrid’s head continued spinning. As the retching began, Brighid grabbed Astrid’s hair in her fist as the newly minted adult vomited repeatedly into a bucket that must have been prepared for this purpose. It was a while before Astrid even felt a little like herself, and she woozily stumbled to her feet.

“Why haven’t you used Quick Recovery yet?” Brighid asked. “You must have a weak stomach if you’re still this sick after sleeping all night with Quick Recovery helping you out.”

Astrid blinked owlishly a couple times as she fought to understand her mother’s words. Then, she realized she’d never officially selected her Skills the night before.

“Great One… I want Blunt Weapons Mastery, Shield Wielding, and Quick Recovery.”

There was no response, just her mother’s laughter. “Not how that works.” Brighid managed to say after collecting herself. Astrid finally understood, opened her Skill List, and selected the Skills.

Would you like to confirm that your selected level 1 Skills as a Warrior are: Blunt Weapons Mastery (Bronze), Shield Wielding (Bronze), and Quick Recovery (Untiered)?

“Yes.” Astrid said, and immediately her head began pounding even more painfully. Clarification on how to best strike with blunt edges, how to use a staff as a deadly weapon, and more filled her head. The movement of a shield was different, but she learned a lot about that. More importantly, though, she understood how to activate Quick Recovery. As soon as she did, the improved clarity of her mind washed through her. With a wide grin, she looked at her mother.

“Alright, what are we doing today?”