Book 1: Chapter 37

Book 1: Chapter 37

Eleniah pushed open the door and walked into the house she was renting. She still didn’t think of this place as “home”. She knew she would leave Tumbling Rapids someday, and she just wasn’t attached to the building. If she never saw it again five seconds from now, it wouldn’t be that big a deal.

“Kay? You here?” She called out, to no reply. She shrugged and walked into the dining room, where she’d left her note a few days ago. There was nothing on the table, and a quick look around a few other rooms showed no note for her anywhere.

He probably didn’t know exactly when I’d be back. Or maybe he just didn’t think of leaving me a note. She settled in to wait for Kay to return.

As she sat in the comfiest chair in the living room, she mentally examined what evidence she had from her last two days of investigation. The Nelamian from the Illuminators had been a lead, yes, but a mostly pointless one in the end. He wasn’t doing anything of note, just bribing various public figures that had mild importance. Like most places, bribery was an accepted practice, as long as you didn’t get caught at it. But even then, exposing a minor figure bribing other minor figures wasn’t going to impact the Nelamian plans in Tumbling Rapids.

Why did I let Alahna get me in this mess? She asked herself for what must have been the hundredth time. I’m not a damn Investigator! I’m a Teacher! Why the hell do I care about some random city being annexed by another country!? She seethed at the memory. “Hey, Eleniah! I’ve got a great job for you to do in this city called Tumbling Rapids! It’ll be a big favor to me, and it’ll get you some good will from the Adventurer’s Guild too!” And then I show up and they’re expecting me to deal with this mess! Last time I read a letter from her. She sighed and stood up. Bygones were bygones. Her cousin had once again mousetrapped her into some complicated scheme that she hadn’t wanted to have anything to do with. That’s the real reason she’d left, she admitted to herself. She loved her cousin, but the bullshit she kept pulling her into turned out to be too much.

She decided to head out back and do some shadow boxing. It would be relaxing and useful all at once and it would pass the time till Kay showed up. That was at least one good thing from ending up in Tumbling Rapids. She’d met Kay here, and they were becoming really good friends. She might not be the best personal mentor, but she didn’t think she’d been doing that bad at it. She probably shouldn’t have approved that first solo job he went on though. Letting him go up against a random unknown enemy? Not smart on her part.

She was about to open the back door, when she heard knocking from the front.

At the front door was a young woman wearing traditional messenger gear for this side of this continent, a leather harness built to hold several message tubes, and a strange, flat hat with a brim. “Message for Eleniah Selthoran?”

“That’s me.”

“Here you go! Already been paid for!” The messenger ran off as soon as Eleniah had the tube.

I’d hope so, I sure as shit aren’t going to pay for a random message. She pulled out the roll of paper and looked it over.

The thin tube made of cheap metal squealed as she crushed it in her fist. She glared down at the message in her other hand.

“We have your student. Your looking into our affairs has gotten aggravating. Once you sign an Agreement to leave our interest alone, he’ll be released.” Underneath that was a location in the city, and a time the next day that they demanded she meet them. The message was unsigned.

I’m a Teacher dammit! Fear and rage danced through her. What the hell am I supposed to do here? Thoughts of her unsuccessful investigation, her cousin’s expectations, the wants of the local Adventurer’s Guild branch, and more all rolled through her head as she debated what to do. Eventually it all clarified down to one thing. Her student was in trouble. Good teachers didn’t leave their students in bad spots, and she was a damn good teacher.

She stomped back into the house to grab her gear. She knew that Graceful Success and The Illuminators were Nelamian fronts, everyone did. Proving it was an entirely different matter, but she didn’t care about some investigation anymore. She just needed to find some of their members and make them tell her where Kay was. Then she'd just have to hit anyone in her way until she got to him. And even though it was a skill, and a Skill, she’d picked up later in life, Eleniah Selthoran was very good at hitting things that were in her way.

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Well, I don’t know what this stuff is made of, but it isn’t normal metal. It’ll take too long this way.

He started inspecting the door and the lock, hoping to find a weak point. Maybe... Kay glanced at the floating blood as an idea came to him. In his imaginings of various paths he could take when he grew his classes, one of them had stuck out to him. An image of him with a sword and shield in hand, both of them made of deep red blood.

Didn’t the Class Progenitor title say it would give me instinctual understanding towards possible class upgrades, or something like that? Why don’t I try...

Keeping the blood a liquid, Kay filled in the keyhole in the lock until it was completely stuffed with blood. Then he concentrated on making the blood as dense as possible, while keeping it the same shape. As dense as it could be, as if it were a solid and not a liquid. Minutely, and then more and more obviously, the blood began to crystalize bit by bit, until there was a shiny red key sitting in the lock.

Kay reached through the bars and turned it. With a clank noise and the squealing of metal, the cell door swung open.

“Huh.” Kay said as he stared at the open doorway. That actually worked.

The light of his notifications flashed in the corner of his vision and he stopped to look at them.

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- New Skill!

- Skill: Shape Blood gained!

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Skill: Shape Blood

- With your magic and your will blood becomes more than just a means of life or death, it becomes a medium of creation. Form blood into solid objects. The complexity and size of the form, as well as the durability and strength of the objects will increase as the level of this skill increases. Created blood objects will last longer the more mana that is infused into them during the creation process.

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The building shook again and yet another piece of the ceiling broke against the floor. Kay jumped and put away his menus. Time for that later!

He walked out of his cell and slowly peeked around the door the guards had left through, into the room beyond.