Two Worlds – The Boy And His First Rune Stone
Chapter 2
Zrora was everything he’d heard and more, instantly visible after that bend in the road, the tall tree’s no longer blocking the view.
The middle of Zrora rose on a large hill, the western side facing Tanner looked like a quarter of the hill had collapsed and a large rushing waterfall fell down the hill perplexing Tanner as most of the rivers in this area ran in an eastward manner, but this waterfall had to be running west AND uphill in order to have a fall there. The buildings covered the rivers exit after the fall so that Tanner couldn’t tell where it went from there. Zrora had a theme with all of its buildings – Starlight, all the buildings were painted in dark colors with pinpricks of much brighter colors scattered around. Tanner had heard this color scheme was a testament to all the worlds that the World Eater had not eaten, and that Rivas would continue to stand among them.
The buildings blocking his view of the river were large, larger than Tanner had ever seen – some even as tall as five stories high. The complexity of their construction was well beyond Tanner, The tallest building in Barton was three stories tall, and people wouldn’t shut up about how it was the tallest building in the world. The buildings got progressively shorter the further out from the center of town one got, Tanner observed, there wasn’t a single building that obstructed the view of another building’s roof until his eyes hit the center of town. The reason for this eluded Tanner for now, but he would later learn that it was part of a defensive strategy in case they were attacked from the west by people.
People could be bastards, they were united against the World Eater for now, but one day they might not be, especially with no word from the capitol to the east in decades. Zrora was planned with this contingency in mind, archers could set up on the rooftops and pelt enemies, falling backwards along the skyline not giving the enemy a single ranged advantage during an assault.
To the east of the hill, far in the distance a great stone wall rose out of the ground, visible over the hill, over the buildings, even over the buildings on the hill. The wall ran from the northern side of the city to the southern side of the city, Tanner assumed there would be gates there somewhere allowing people to cross. The wall helped to prevent most monsters from crossing into Zrora, or bypassing Zrora and moving straight into the western side of Erebus. As Tanner observed the massive wall he noticed a shimmer to it, some sort of magical enchantment.
From what Tanner understood of the city, the hill contained all the city administrative buildings as well as the main building for the Two Worlds adventuring guild. There would be shops scattered around the city and he would have to spend some time tracking them down at first. He had heard that the shops on the eastern side of the hill would cater more to adventurers than civilians, but he could find weapons and armor just about anywhere. The far eastern side of the hill supposedly held the artisans area, all the crafters, armor-smiths, blacksmiths, and other artisinal needs one might have.
Housing could be found scattered all over Zrora with civilians sticking more to the western end of the city and adventurers taking residence in the east. The separation in housing wasn’t an attempt at segregating the adventurers out, it was more practical. Monsters attacked from the east, so that’s where the adventurers hung around. Taverns, gambling dens, and houses of sin were spread around the city in the way they were spread around any larger city of Erebus, the people enjoying their vices. Most of the common vices weren’t frowned upon by the law, but Tanner had heard of some more magical vices that were outlawed, such as an aphrodisiac sourced from some monster that Tanner wasn’t familiar with but had the unfortunate side effect of sometimes turning the user into a blood crazed berserker, usually to the detriment of their partner at the time.
Tanner had just split with Gregory and the caravan and was heading deeper east into the city. The sun had just risen above the World Eater, so it was early afternoon that Tanner found himself among the streets of Zrora. Main street ran east/west along the city spanning from the main Erebus highway to the eastern gates heading into monster territory. Main street was filled with shops selling all kinds of things, especially this close to the highway. Tanner ignored the temptation to stop and shop at these shops, wanting to save his money for a *Lunge* rune stone and make sure he had enough left over to tide him over until his started making money as an adventurer.
It took about two hours to walk across the city and climb the hill, crossing over into adventurer territory. Thankfully Main street kept mostly straight, making the trip a lot easier to manage than it could have been for someone unfamiliar with larger cities. From what Tanner understood there were around 80,000 people living in Zrora, far more people than he had ever seen. Thankfully, likely due to the spear on Tanners back, the residents of Zrora left Tanner alone, he wasn’t a known quantity having just arrived, so no one stopped to ask for favors. Tanner smiled at everyone as he walked past, however, small town habits take a while to break.
After passing the administrative district and making a mental note of where the adventuring guilds headquarters was located Tanner finally found himself a shop advertising rune stones. He stepped into the shop, a heavy wooden door separating the inside from the outside, he noticed a counter set back against the wall with a few rune stones displayed on the wall behind it. Various racks of weapons and stands with armor on them decorated the rest of the shop.
Tanner walked up to the counter where a man reading a book was sitting and said “Hello!”
“Huh? Oh, a customer, hey there kid what can I do ya fer.” The man behind the counter said.
“I’m looking for a rune stone of *Lunge*” Tanner stated without hesitation, perhaps a little too excitedly.
“*Lunge* huh, looking to become an Aerial Knight?” The man asked while standing up and taking a few steps down the counter and reached under it.
“Yep! That’s my dream” Tanner reacted.
The man pulled a oval shaped stone out from the counter inscribed with the runic symbol that Tanner had studied over and over in his free time. *Lunge* was right there, at his first stop, directly in front of his eyes, he couldn’t have missed it.
“Got it right here.” The man said, holding the rune stone up for inspection.
Tanner reached out for it but the man pulled the stone back and said “Ah ah, gotta buy it first, can’t have you activating it without paying.”
“Oh, right.” Tanner said as he fished out his coin pouch.
They discussed price and even haggled a little bit resulting in both people thinking they got a good deal off the other, Tanner not knowing exactly how much the rune stones here were marked up.
After purchasing the rune stone, Tanner held it in front of him and squeezed as the man said “Aw jeez, not here kid.” but it was too late. The stone shattered into dust sending small chunks of stone flying off in every direction, a few even pelting the merchant though not with any real force. It did however make a large mess, dust and debree covering half of the store. The man sighed and went into the back of the shop grabbing a broom and dustpan, walked back out to Tanner and held the two items out to him to clean up his own mess but Tanner was transfixed, staring off blankly into the distance. The man sighed and waited, having seen this before.
Tanner stared at the status screen that had appeared before his eyes when he crushed his first rune stone. It displayed information on him, he’d never seen such a thing before but he remembered talk about how adventurers had some method of tracking their abilities. The first few lines of the status page showed his name, a self portrait that he didn’t remember having had painted and a list of titles he had achieved. Currently the title section listed “Fresh” and he internally grumbled about that, however he then read that it came with reduced aggressiveness from most monsters and decided that Fresh was a good thing until he got his adventuring legs. The next set of lines showed his stats, after looking over them he made the assumption that civilians must have a "1" in all of their stats based on the level up bonus he received.
Next up was his class - Fighter, nothing special there Tanner had expected to become a fighter, it was the first step on his road to Aerial Knight. Affiliations was next but that was also empty, following that was his skills which listed the brand new *Lunge* skill he had just activated. Tanner beamed internally while reading over the *Lunge* skill, he would be bouncing with excitement if he wasn’t locked in place by the status screen’s first activation.
After about a minute or two Tanner snapped out of it, looking around, and saw the merchant holding a broom and dustpan. Tanner looked at the man confused, as he had teleported from Tanners point of view. The man pointed to the large pile of dust and stone debree that was all over the front portion of the store and once more held the broom out to Tanner. Tanner groaned but acknowledged the broom, grabbing it and the dustpan from the man and got to work cleaning up after himself.
*Mental note Tanner, don’t activate the rune stones inside* Tanner thought to himself.
A little bit later, after cleaning up Tanner thanked the merchant again and headed out towards the adventuring guild. Back west along Main street Tanner walked, excited about being able to activate *Lunge* soon, he’d have tried it here, but he was afraid he would skewer someone if he did as he didn’t know the skills full specifications just yet. He would have to play with it in a safe location very soon.
Arriving at the Two Worlds adventuring guild a little bit later Tanner smiled his biggest smile at the guild receptionist as he walked up to her.
“Hello!” Tanner broadcast out.
“Hello.. Welcome to the Two Worlds adventuring guild, how may I help you out?” The receptionist asked?
“I just acquired my first skill and would like to sign up.” Tanner replied quickly, a bit too energetically.
“I see” The receptionist stated, and bent down under the counter to pull out a stack of paperwork. “Read and fill these papers out, you can read, yes?”
“Oh, yes, I know my letters. Numbers too!” Tanner stated proudly.
“Good, that will help. Read these papers, fill them out, and bring them back to me. If you have any questions please ask.” The receptionist said while pushing the small pile of paperwork over to Tanner.
Tanner nodded at the lady and grabbed the stack as well as a quill and small inkwell from her. He went over to a small chair that had a small wooden desk attached to it, the sort he was used to seeing at his small school back in Barton. He sat and started reading through the paperwork.
The undersigned acknowledges the potential difficulty of the tasks he or she may be assigned by the company and relinquishes liability of the company in case of death, dismemberment, injury both mental and physical….
Tanner scratched his head and continued reading. He had no idea what most of this meant having been written in legalese, however he still filled out what he could and signed where it asked. It didn’t matter what it said, Tanner thought, he was planning to sign up with the guild regardless. It took about an hour to read through everything and fill it out before Tanner got up, stretched, and returned the items to the receptionist.
“I see you finished, give me a moment to look the paperwork over.” The receptionist said.
She had him scratch out and refill a couple sections, and fill out one or two spots he missed entirely before she nodded satisfied. “That part is done, I’ve scheduled you a sparing match with one of our assessors to ensure that you meet our minimum requirements before we let you in. The match is in about an hour.”
“Oh, know where I could grab a small lunch then, I haven’t eaten since breakfast.” Tanner said while his stomach grumbled lightly.
“Sure, there is a food stand around the corner, they sell some meat on a stick, just don’t ask what its made from.” The receptionist said while giggling lightly.
“Oh, ok. Sounds good, thanks!” Tanner replied “I’ll be back in time for that match.”
Tanner found the stall easily enough, it was just a bit north at the next corner down – he followed his nose to find it. The stall sold a few different dishes, but he took the receptionists advice and asked for a skewer of meat, paying for it as he did, and wolfed it down. “famks mifter” Tanner said with his mouth full as he started walking away.
Across the street from the guildhall there was a small training area that had a sign in front stating it was “Open to the public”, grinning Tanner thought he could try out his new abilities before the match and see if he could adjust for them. He walked into the sand lot and found an empty training dummy, pulled out his spear and set to work. Simply doing some light stabbing work, a bit of slicing work, and some blocks to see how things differed from before activating the rune stone.
Tanner immediately noticed he was faster and stronger than before without even activating his skill. He could feel the spear snap harder as he blocked, he could feel the difference in his strikes as well. Thankfully though these training dummies were built with C.I.’s (Classed Individual’s) in mind so they were tougher than normal.
Tanner hopped back a couple steps in preparation and activated *Lunge*. All he had to do was think about it, will it to happen and it did. He suddenly shot forward, he body mostly moving on its own as if it knew what he wanted it to do. He took a few rapid steps forward, everything around him turning into a blur, and his spear shot forward impacting the training dummy square in the chest, causing it to splinter and explode outwards, shrapnel flying away from the impact.
“Holy crap!!” Tanner cried out, causing people to stop what they were doing and look right at him.
“Hey kid, don’t use skills against the free dummies, whats wrong with you?” Someone called out.
“Oh.. Sorry, I didn’t know it would do that.”
“What are you, fresh?”
“Yea… actually..”
“Oh.. well, head over to the guild and pay for the damage.”
“Sorry…” Tanner said, as he slumped and walked back to the guild.
He explained what happened to the receptionist who laughed. “Hahaha, don’t worry about it, first dummy is on the house..” she chuckled.
“It is? Oh.. Thank you..” Tanner said, dejectedly.
“Heheh, go have a seat, the assessor will be out shortly.”
Tanner nodded and went to a corner, sitting back down.
Tanner mentally went through his spear forms again while waiting, after a bit this large man came of a hallway leading deeper into the guildhall. He was more grisly than Tanner had ever seen. Tall, standing a full head taller than Tanner, the man had a scar down one eye, the eye looked like it was still functional, but it looked like it might have been a close thing. Unshaven, the man had multiple five o’clock shadows stacked together, it was unkempt and grew in multiple directions, but Tanner wouldn’t have called it a beard. He had short cut hair, and leather armor on.
“Tanner?” the man called out while walking up to him.
“That’s me!” Tanner said, perking up.
“Great, lets see what you’ve got, follow me.” The man said, turning around and walking towards the hallway he had just come out of. “I’m Gris Akermane, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you Gris.” Tanner replied.
Walking through the hallway it came out into a training hall. Clearly reinforced training dummies, far more so than the free ones outside, covered in armor. There was an archery range at the far end of the hall, leather punching bags for brawler training, and a corner of the hall had weight lifting equipment.
“Nice setup” Tanner said, awestruck. This was the biggest training hall he had ever seen.
“Haha, we put a lot of effort into training up our members.” Gris replied. “Now, we’re going to spar. Anything goes, give me everything you’ve got.”
They set up across from each other, a couple of the other people in the training hall stopping what they were doing to watch. The pair nodded and once more Tanner moved first, showing his impatience. Gris however was no mere civilian guard, and blocked the first thrust Tanner made, the second and third thrusts were easily thrown off mark by Gris’s dual wielded short swords. Tanner struck out over and over, trying to gain an advantage but had no luck so after six or seven unsuccessful strikes he backed off a half dozen steps, Gris allowing him the distance. Tanner shifted his hands on the spear, walking them back giving him more reach and mentally activated *Lunge*.
Tanner shot forward, faster than he was used to moving, and struck hard at Gris, but once again Gris slid the attack off to the side, Tanner was expecting this however and bled off the excess speed he was moving at into a 360 degree leg sweep, spinning faster than he’d ever spun. This almost took Gris by surprise, but at the last moment he hopped up and over the sweep.
“Good move Tanner, keep it going.” Gris called out while throwing a few strikes of his own at Tanner to see how he blocked.
Tanner responded well to each strike blocking to the right, sweeping to block left and swinging directly into a backwards downward strike with the flat end of the back of his spear. This was blocked as well.
The two separated again and before Tanner could lunge once more Gris held up his hand and said “Wait.” Tanner stopped.
“Good work, not bad at all, got a long way to go if you want to join the Knights, but its a great start. You pass, kid.”
Tanner, breathing heavily this time, bowed and said “Thank you!”
“Head back up to the receptionist and she’ll fill you in on all the membership details.”
Tanner thanked Gris again and jogged back down the hall to the receptionist’s desk.
“I passed!!!” He said while bouncing back and forth between his feet.
“Haha, alright, got the energy of a puppy about you. You passed, huh? Great news!” she stated. “Membership gets you access to the training hall of course, not to mention the barracks in case you don’t have a place to sleep, the in house tavern – though that one isn’t free it is discounted, and then most importantly – The Quest Board!.”
“We put requests up that come from the citizenry, the mayor, or the guild itself there. That is how you get paid by the guild, completing quests.” She further explained.
“Great! How do I go about finding a party?” Tanner asked.
“We have a Looking For Group board as well, you are welcome to look it over.
“Okay, I’ll do that in the morning then, its getting a bit late. Where are the barracks?”finl
