Chapter 34: Kin

Chapter 34: Kin

“No, it should be shear. That’s the obvious choice.”

“What? Why? What’s he need that for, Jamus?”

“Come on, Carten, can’t you see how powerful it could be? It says ‘not occluded’. Do you have any idea what that means?”

“’Course I do. Means it goes through stuff. What’s so good about that? It’s still too weak to do anything.”

“Come on, think about it! Once he gets the range up, he could kill things on the other side of a wall for crying out loud!”

“How about just go around the wall, then kill the things? Works fine for me.”

“Carten, not everyone wants to be surrounded by a pack of monsters.”

“I suppose that makes sense coming from you, you twinkly orange beanstalk, but it doesn’t apply to Rain. Why would he pick auras if he didn’t want to be in the middle of things?”

“I’m sure he had a good reason.”

“And what reason would that be?”

“He said he wanted to be useful, you dolt. Weren’t you listening? That ‘mana well’ thing is stupendous! Do you have any idea how big of a deal it is to not have to worry about conserving mana? He’s going to have his pick of any party he wants!”

“Doesn’t do anything for me. Like I’m sayin’, he needs to get the health regen aura.”

“Aaarg! You’re impossible! It doesn’t make sense to pick that right now. We have scrolls! It would take ages for him to get it to the point where he could unlock the direct healing aura. He needs other things right now!”

“Fine, how about one of the defensive ones? Total damage immunity sounds great to me! Plus, he kinda needs it if he doesn’t want to get splattered.”

“It isn’t immunity, you should know that. Nothing is absolute. It takes mana.”

“Yeah, but he’s got mana out the ass. What’s the difference?”

“Carten, do you even know what a third means? It doesn’t even block everything unless he amplifies it, and even then the efficiency would probably go down, just like the mana transfer one.”

“Fuck you, Jamus. I know my numbers. See, this is why nobody likes mages.”

“Fine, fine, sorry, that was a bit out of line, but come on!”

“He could jump off a mountain and not get hurt when he hit the ground. That sounds like fun.”

“We don’t even know if there is one for physical damage. He said he couldn’t afford the next tier to check right now.”

“You know just as well as I do that it’ll exist. You’re just being contrary.”

“Ooh, big word.”

“Listen here, spongecake-”

“GUYS!” Rain yelled, interrupting.

“What?” they both shouted simultaneously, turning to look at him.

“I said we’re leaving. Come on. The others already left. You drove them away.”

“Fine, but first, tell this musclebound idiot that shear is the best choice.”

“Oh no, I’m not getting involved in this again. I regret ever asking you two for advice.”

“What? Why? You were listening to that Ameliah woman,” Carten said.

“Yes, I was. She hasn’t been arguing in circles for the last thirty minutes.”

“Rain, this isn’t a decision to be made lightly,” Jamus said.

“Enough!” Rain shouted. “I’m leaving. You were paying attention when Ameliah explained the plan, right?”

“What plan?” Carten asked.

Rain sighed in exasperation. “Jamus, explain it to him.”

“Um... I might not have been paying attention either.”

“Unbelievable,” Rain shook his head. “One person stays with Tallheart and the cart, two walk ahead, and two stay behind. If you see someone coming, send one person to warn Tallheart to hide. You got that? You’re the rear group.”

“Simple enough,” Jamus said, “Now if you could just tell us- Hey, where are you going?”

“We’re stopping at that big rock. You remember the one I’m talking about. Don’t follow us until we’re out of sight.”

Rain rolled his eyes as he walked towards the road.

“Right, so anyway, we need to convince him to train his offensive auras so he can get shear, then he can-”

“Yer not listenin’ ta’ me! He doesn’t need shear!”

The noise of the two adventurers faded as Rain left them behind. He hurried to catch up with the others, who he could see waiting for him at the road. Had he known how heated the argument about his build would get, he would have never even brought it up.

He’d been telling Ameliah what had happened to him since he’d last seen her, and that had turned into a discussion of how he had ended up in the forest via teleportation. Ameliah had suspected something of the sort, but she had still been shocked to learn that he wasn’t from this world at all. Even though he had only hinted at it with the others, he’d felt comfortable enough around her to come right out and say it directly. However, before he had been able to go into too much detail, Carten had wandered over and started listening in.

The large man was a bit of an unknown quantity, so he steered the conversation back to safer territory by asking him for his opinion on a few of the skills he was considering taking. Eventually, Val and Jamus joined the discussion and it quickly devolved into a heated argument about his class and his skill choices. It seemed that the taboo only applied to direct discussions about someone’s stats or level. Wild theorycrafting was considered perfectly acceptable, but Jamus and Carten had taken it to the extreme and it had started to get on the others’ nerves.

“They’re still going at it, huh?” Val asked as Rain approached the cart.

“Yup.”

“Are they coming, or...”

“They know the plan. Come on, let’s go.”

“Who’s scouting ahead?”

“I’d like to walk with Tallheart, if that’s alright,” Ameliah said. “No offense, but I need a little quiet after...that.” She gestured in the direction of their wayward party members.

“What happened?” Ameliah asked, looking at Rain with concern in her voice. “Are you sure you’re not hurt?”

“I almost got us killed is what happened,” Rain said, not looking up.

“Fucking Kin spotted us before we could get the jump on them. Rain wiped them out with that cold aura, but I got caught in it too.” Val shivered. “Thanks for healing me. You got anything that can help me warm up?”

“You’ll be fine. Rain, what do you mean you almost got the two of you killed?”

“The kin were eating...something. They didn't see us. Val... Val said I should go down and wipe them out, but I... I couldn’t. I froze.”

“Damn things rushed us. Don’t beat yourself up over it, Rain. It happens,” Val said.

Rain breathed out, then looked up, meeting Val’s eyes. “Why are you being so nice all of a sudden? If I had just done what you said... We could have died, Val, and it was my own stupid fault.”

Val grimaced and walked over to him, crouching down. “Sometimes I forget how new you are at this,” he said. “Look, it happens. You’ve been an adventurer for, what, a month? You’re not used to it yet. This will be my...sixth brush with death. You froze, yes, but we’re still alive. Shit, I’m not even hurt thanks to Ameliah. All you need to do is get back up and get on with it. Next time, you won’t freeze.”

“He’s right, you know,” Ameliah said, pulling Rain back to his feet. He felt stamina flooding into him at her touch, followed by healing, though he didn’t need it. “He might be being a little bit too cavalier, but he has a point. You’re still new at this. Freezing up is understandable.”

Rain looked at Val. “You don’t blame me? Really?”

Val shook his head. “I don’t.”

“There they are!” Carten’s voice boomed as he crested the hill blocking them from the road. “Shit, that’s a lot of Kin.”

“Mmm,” Tallheart rumbled, surveying the scene as he and Jamus followed Carten over the hill.

“Kin? Here?” Jamus said, peering out from behind Tallheart. “Oh, yeah. Those are Kin alright. Rain, did you do this? They look frozen...”

“Jamus... what? Where did you all come from?” Rain asked.

“We got bored,” Carten said. “Didn’t see anyone on the road for hours and it was starting to get dark, so we figured we’d catch up. Looks like we still missed all the action.”

“You were yelling pretty loudly. We had just reached the cart when we heard the screaming. Ameliah took off, and we followed.”

“Damn you can run,” Carten laughed, moving to clap Ameliah on the shoulder, but missing as she dodged.

“Does anyone know what rank this area is?” she asked.

Carten shrugged and Val shook his head. Jamus wasn’t paying attention, bending over to poke at the pile of thawing Kin. Seeing that nobody else was going to answer, Rain replied to her question. “Zero, I think. At least, that’s what Jamus said last time we were out this way.”

Ameliah looked confused. “What? What was that first word, sorry, I didn’t catch it.”

“He means that this area is rankless,” Tallheart clarified.

“That ain’t what he said,” Carten commented. “Seer-o. What’s that mean, eh?”

“I’ll explain later. Sorry, could you guys just give me a minute? I don’t feel so great.”

“What, didn’t she heal you?” Carten asked, peering at Rain’s face. “You look fine to me.”

Ameliah shook her head. “That’s not it, Carten. Take Val and go get the horse; we’ll camp here tonight. Nobody goes off alone until we know if there are more Kin out there.”

“Aww, but—”

“Carten,” Jamus said, having returned from inspecting the bodies. “Do it. If there’re Kin here, there could be worse lurking. It shouldn’t be possible, yet...”

“Fine. We’ll make up the time tomorrow,” Carten said, stomping off towards the road. Val moved to follow.

“Rain,” Jamus said, “Think you can do something about this?” He indicated the pile of Kin corpses. “I know you’re tired, but I really don’t fancy spending the night near a pile of monster corpses, once they all start thawing out.”

“It’s ok, I’ve got it,” Ameliah said. Jamus raised an eyebrow as waves of purification started rolling off of her. From the way the light flowed out across the hilltop, it was clear that she, not Rain, was the source.

“What, you too?” he asked.

She tilted her head as she looked over at him, raising an eyebrow.

“You’re an aura user?” he asked.

“I’ve just got the one.”

“Why just one?” Rain asked, looking at her.

Ameliah smiled, but didn’t answer. She canceled the aura as the last remains of the Kin melted away, leaving a faint glimmering of Tel scattered across the hilltop. She held out her hand, palm up. “Attract.”

Rain started as a sudden wind rushed across the hilltop. The scattered Tel were swept up and deposited in a pile in her open palm, which she held out to him.

“Here,” she said, taking his hand and transferring the small pile to him.

“Handy,” Jamus said.

Rain looked down at the pile of Tel in wonder. A glint of red in the pile caught his eye, and he sifted through it, pulling out a slightly larger red crystal from the pile of white Tel. “What’s this?”

“Heat Cryst,” Tallheart rumbled, holding out his hand. “May I?”

Rain handed it to him. “Is it valuable?”

“Not very,” Ameliah shrugged. “Worth a couple Tel if you can find a crafter to buy it.”

“Can you use it, Tallheart?” Rain asked.

The antlered man nodded slowly, examining the crystal. “It is intact. Yes, I can use it.”

“Keep it,” Rain said. “I’ve got no use for it. I don’t think a few Tel is going to make much difference in the end.”

“Thank you.”

“Right, time for soup!” Jamus said.

“Just don’t let Val help you, whatever you do,” Rain said, smiling softly. He felt a bit better. The comforting presence of his companions was helping. He closed his hand, grasping the small pile of Tel.

Still alive.