A Soldier's Life-Chapter 267: Investment Opportunities

Benito, not waiting for the stunned Castile to move, gently pushed her aside and stepped past her, entering the common room. “Nice place! I don’t see any food. Can you order some from the tavern below? The stew smelled good on the way.” Benito dropped his pack and sat heavily on the sofa. His pungent scent from being on the road for so long filled the room.

Castile finally regained herself and asked, “How are you here? How are you even alive? Cornelius told Konstantin you were dead.” She said the last word with finality.

“It’s Eryk. He is like crotch crickets. Always surprising you when you least expect it,” Lirkin said from behind Castile. He squeezed past her, too. His leg was bandaged and he walked gingerly.

“Drink this, and don’t complain about the taste,” I said, handing him an orc healing potion as he passed me.

Realizing what it was, he patted me on the back affectionately before sitting down with a groan and a sigh. His pack joined Benito’s on the floor, along with his sword belt. “Castile, if you are not going to enter, may I?” Mateo asked politely, unlike Benito and Lirkin. Castile numbly moved aside again, still processing my appearance. Maveith was greeting the men and pouring them cups of water.

“There is a bath,” I announced to those in the room. “You could all use it,” I hinted. They smelled of the road and horses. Blaze was the last one behind Castile, but he waited patiently, using the wall for support, his knee in a brace.

Castile finally stepped forward into the suite. Blaze entered behind her, and we briefly clapped each other’s backs in a brief hug. I handed him a Pathfinder potion as well. Lirkin warned him, “Ugh, Blaze, you might want to keep your limp instead of risking losing your ability to taste.” Lirkin was trying to clean his tongue on his shirt and spitting into it. “What foulness are you poisoning us with?”

“Pathfinder potions. I killed a few dozen orcs for them. I will remember that you are not interested in consuming them in the future,” I said with a roguish grin.

Lirkin immediately reconsidered and said, “I am sure they just take getting used to. Either that or eventually, I won’t be able to taste anything anyway and it won’t matter.”

Castile, looking at the men lounging as a beaming Maveith served them, turned to me. “Can we talk?”

“Let me feed the rabble first,” I said, smiling. I walked to the low table in the seating area and produced my last twelve burritos, along with two canteens filled with elven ambrosia.

Benito was already biting into the first one. His mouth full, he said, “This makes the walk here worth it.” Blaze reached for the canteen to wash the taste of the Pathfinder potion from his mouth. A loud conversation erupted as they ate and drank, and I moved away to talk with Castile in one of the rooms.

Castile immediately sat on the bed as I closed the door. Her feet and body were weary. “How did you get here?” I asked her quietly.

She exhaled in a long breath. Her tone was heavy. “Me first, then you. Zyna enacted the attack on the Emperor. He should have been spent but had a reserve of aether. It didn’t go well, and many were lost. The Empire was crippled by the number of mages killed in the rebellion.” I handed her some cold blood orange juice. Her eyes widened as she sipped it, and she licked her lips clean of the sweet, acidic drink.

“We slunk away after the battle and made our way east. There were fewer of us than planned, but it made it easier to move in stealth. We only traveled at night but were found by a mounted patrol. I overextended in the fight to make sure none of them escaped, and we took their horses.” She winced, and I assumed that was where she had burned her aether channels. “That night, Wylie rode back to the Empire. Probably to report to Firth.”

“The horses were a blessing. We rode them hard during the night for a week before they failed us, and we abandoned them. A few days later, we abandoned everything that marked us as Legion and served as merchant guards for a small, fast-moving caravan for a week. After that, we made our way to Gramney on foot. We arrived three days ago, weary, poor, but whole.” Castile finished with her very brief summary. She hadn’t even mentioned that a gnoll had wounded Lirkin.

It was my turn, so I began at the beginning. “After Hound training, I got a lookout position in Kraken Bay. Other than the loneliness, it was serene and peaceful. The Caliphate fleet sailed down the bay, and I was ordered to shadow them.” I eliminated most of my adventures and skipped over capturing the First Citizen Mage.

“The Caliphate put ashore a group of Pathfinders, and I noticed goliaths were moving the cargo. I wasn’t going to intervene, but was spotted. I was forced to eliminate the Pathfinders and free the goliaths.” Castile arched her eyebrow at how casually I talked about eliminating a Pathfinder squad. “One of the goliaths had news of Maveith’s sister. The news was ten years old, but gave me hope she was alive. I followed the largest part of the fleet until they spotted me again. I fled and managed to locate the Archives.”

Castile got excited, but it quickly faded. “You found the Archives? I suppose it is too late to return and destroy the samples.”

I produced Castile’s jar in my hand and handed it to her like a prize. “I destroyed the Archives—everything in it. I only took this to find you and the company.”

Castile reached for the inscribed jar but pulled her hand back before reaching for it again. She turned the jar over, looking at the square pieces of bloody fabric within. She was mesmerized by the tumbling fabric for a time before asking, “The Archives at the palace?”

“I don’t know. There was a fire at the palace when I left. Ignis supplied Imperial Legion armor to infiltrate them. Maybe she knows more,” I said uncertainly.

She looked me in the eyes. “How did you get here?” She stressed the question.

“After the Archives, I found Maveith in Sobral, and we went to the capital from there. We took an Adventurers Guild ship to Esenhem and teleported here from the elven kingdom. We have been here about two weeks,” I said, skipping the details. She didn’t need to know about the gnoll migration, First Citizen Boris, or the sahuagin swarm.

“Two weeks!” she said in disbelief. She almost dropped the jar. She laughed a little hysterically, like I had told a bad joke. “We spent nearly a month getting here. Every day was perilous and could have ended our flight.” She shook her head in disbelief, thinking I had taken a boat ride and gotten here relatively unscathed.

After she calmed down, I asked, “Benito said you were burnt? How bad is it?”

A pained look on her face made me want to comfort her, knowing how debilitating it was. “Twice I burned my channels. Once for the Bartiradian mounted patrol and once to hide us from a cyclops venturing out from a cave from the Endless Dark. I won’t know how bad it is until I can access a tablet reader, though.”

“Oh, you need a tablet reader? I have an elven one, but it is so old that it is configured for humans. It was one of the first built by elves, from my understanding. Do you wish to use it?” She cocked her head at my statement, and I knew I was showing off a little since I didn’t need to hold my secrets as tight any longer. She slowly nodded, and I produced the tablet. It barely made a sound as it settled on the floor.

Castile stood immediately, marveling at it in amazement. She looked at me and then back at the tablet in disbelief. Yes, Castile, I really am that big, I said in my head. Castile couldn’t read Elvish, but all the attributes and affinities were in the same order. She traced her hands along the tablet, hesitant to activate it. “Did you get this from Caelora?” she finally asked.

There was no reason to deny it. “Yes. Are you going to use it?”

Castile took a deep breath, reluctant to know the bad news, but she activated it anyway. My eyes immediately traveled to her affinities to satisfy my curiosity.

Elemental Magics (Common)

Fire

Air

Water

Earth

Lightning (Energy)

Spirit (Healing)

Unaffiliated Magics (Uncommon)

Charm (Mind)

Illusion

Clairvoyance

Protection (Guardian)

Abyssal (debuff)

Rare Magics

Space

Time

Displacement

Materialism

Worlds

Void

Convergence

I was underwhelmed by her affinity strength. But she was one of the most effective mages in Empire because she was adept at using what she had. Still, Renna was much more powerful when it came to affinities. Castile interrupted me. “Can you read me my magic attributes? I don’t know Elvish.” My eyes moved across the tablet and I read them to her.

Magical

Aether Pool

58/60

Channeling

44/50

Aether Shaping

64/68

Aether Tolerance

35/37

Aether Resistance

27/30

Prime Aether Affinity

Illusion

Minor Aether Affinity

Energy

When I read out the channeling rating, she nearly collapsed. I stopped reading. “How bad is it?” I asked, concerned.

“I lost three potential points,” she said numbly. “I will never recover.” She realized that she would be in pain for the rest of her life, every time she used her magic. I wished I could console her, but it would likely take a dozen or more apex channeling essences to restore her channels. They were just too rare. I sat beside her on the bed while she stared blankly ahead.

I waved at the tablet, “Your magic attributes put mine to shame, Castile. I will try to provide whatever you need to live a comfortable life here before I leave with Maveith.” She nodded numbly. A knock came at the door.

Mateo had slurred speech as he spoke. “Castile, we decided you should use the tub first. If you don’t want to, then we are going to draw straws.”

Castile hesitated before she stood. “I am going.”

After she left, I looked at the tablet. I could give it to her. It would be a very profitable venture for her. I was charged gold to use one in a Telhian city before I discovered the one in the Adventurers Guild. I cleared Castile’s reading, squeezed the tablet, and sent a pulse of aether to activate it.

Elemental Magics (Common)

Fire

Air

Water

Earth

Lightning (Energy)

Spirit (Healing)

Unaffiliated Magics (Uncommon)

Charm (Mind)

Illusion

Clairvoyance

Protection (Guardian)

Celestial (buff)

Abyssal (debuff)

Rare Magics

Space

Time

Displacement

Materialism 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Worlds

Void

Convergence

Relief flooded me. I had been worried the damage to my aether core might have affected my affinities. Would Castile be envious of my scores? There were some secrets that I was not willing to share. My eyes drifted to my displacement affinity. Worlds and displacement were the only two affinities for which I could inscribe a spell form. Maybe it was time to start focusing on a displacement spell form, even though I lacked the aether to use it effectively.

I looked over at my attributes.

Physical

Strength (+5/+2)

67/84

Power (+5/+1)

62/88

Quickness (+1/+0)

54/62

Dexterity (+1/+0)

64/75

Endurance (+3/+0)

79/98

Constitution (+2/+1)

61/73

Coordination (+2/+1)

57/69

Mental

Intellect (+3/+2)

38/58

Reasoning (+2/+1)

53/62

Perception (+1/+2)

57/64

Insight (+0/+0)

37/52

Resilience (+2/+0)

56/71

Empathy (+3/+2)

22/26

Fortitude (+3/+0)

63/90

Magical

Aether Pool (+0/+0)

24/26

Channeling (+3/+0)

39/61

Aether Shaping (+1/+1)

9/9

Aether Tolerance (+0/+0)

50/56

Aether Resistance (+1/+0)

16/19

Prime Aether Affinity

Space

Minor Aether Affinity

Time

My potentials had not changed significantly due to my limited access to essences. My physical attributes had only seen modest improvement in the past few months. I was fortunate that the essence had prevented me from losing points during periods of laziness or illness, such as when I had needed to heal naturally for two weeks. I reset the reader and returned it to my dimensional space.

I walked back into the common room to a quartet of drunk legionnaires. No, they were no longer legionnaires, even if they still wore pieces of black-stained armor. “Do you have any more of this?” Lirkin asked, waving the empty canteen in front of him.

I produced the black jade chalice from the dungeon, which they were familiar with. I transmuted a quart of water into elven whiskey—called ambrosia. Benito snagged the canteen after I filled it from the chalice.

Mateo looked me in the eyes. “Maveith told us about his sister. If you can wait, once we get Castile settled, we will go with you.”

Blaze added, “I always wondered what it would be like to be an adventurer. Killing monsters, rescuing citizens, always on the road to the next fight.” He was grinning madly at the thought of doing the same things he did as a member of the Legion.

Benito finished his pull on the canteen and handed it to Lirkin. “But we get paid more, right? Adventurers are rich?”

The door opened and Ignis walked in, causing the group to go silent. “You found them. The mage didn’t make it?” I pointed at the bathroom and she nodded. Ignis looked at me. “I sold one of the weapons and found a forge on the outskirts of the trade district. The smith is moving to be with his aging parents in the village where he was raised.”

“How much?” I asked, getting to the point.

“Eight hundred gold, but I will talk him down to seven hundred tomorrow and explore getting a loan,” Ignis said as she moved to sit with the stunned men.

I introduced her, as she wasn’t making an effort to do so. “Everyone, this is Ignis, Master Imperial Blacksmith.”

“Master Armorsmith,” Ignis returned coolly. As they introduced themselves, I added six loaves of the delectable elven bread to the table. The hungry piranhas made short work of it.

I got into a conversation with Ignis. She had gotten ninety-seven gold for the sword, and it was the best of the three. The non-artifact armor would only fetch fifteen gold if sold to a collector, in her estimation. Since she was going to be about five hundred gold short, I handed her the silver earrings shaped like leaves from the Shimmering Labyrinth. Maybe they had some artistic value.

“Are these valuable?” I asked, placing them in her free hand. The other was occupied by a loaf of the elven bread.

Ignis took the earrings and tossed them lightly in her hand. She studied them closely, then looked at me. “You are full of surprises. Where did you get platinum earrings?”

“Caelora,” I responded, not mentioning that I thought they were silver. I should have realized they were platinum by their weight.

Ignis seemed to consider the two swords and the earrings, nodding to herself. “About five hundred gold. I can make it work.”

“You said you needed seven?” Twenty large gold coins appeared on the table as I placed my hand on it. All eyes looked at the stack and then at me.

Mateo’s eyes widened at the stack of gold. “Oh, mighty djinn! I wish for one thousand gold coins!” He bowed to me and nearly stumbled to the floor. The ambrosia was a powerful drink.

Benito chirped, “You still owe me seven silver!”

I was trying to gradually introduce them to my dimensional space. I waved my hands again and they followed them intently, but all that appeared was a bright-red apple that I bit into casually. Castile remained in the bathroom while we celebrated, and we only checked on her once. She exited shortly after and went into one of the rooms instead of joining us.

As everyone moved to find sleeping accommodations, Lirkin came to talk with me. “Someone should stay with Castile. It feels like we are abandoning her here. If it’s okay with you and Maveith, I will stay with her. I can find work at an eatery in the city and watch over her. I heard many mages have trouble dealing with the burn.”

I patted Lirkin on the back. “We don’t mind at all. Have you ever thought about running your own tavern?”