The Axe Falls -Chapter 25- (Patreon)

“Doctor Palt?” asked Nick, stepping through the door and into the man’s office.

Once again, there was no one here. No one at the desk, no one in the chairs, and no sound of anyone nearby.

Claudia entered as well and looked around.

“Uhm, are we supposed to be here?” she asked, sounding quite nervous. Right now she was in her normal clothes. They still had an hour or two before they were due to meet up with Iris in front of the dungeon.

“Coming,” called Doctor Palt from the back.

Opening the door, the doctor stood in the doorway with a grin.

“Ah yes, I was expecting you two. Come on in Claudia, come on in,” said the man, waving them on. “I’ll take care of Claudia first, Nick. Could you wait out here?”

“Sure, no problem Doc,” Nick said and then took one of the seats as Claudia moved toward Palt.

“Well, look at you. Taller than I expected,” said Doctor Palt with a grin.

Claudia was staring at the man in an odd way. It wasn’t suspicion or distaste, but something Nick couldn’t place.

“Uhm, yes,” Claudia said after a pause.

“Come, come. We’ll just confirm your skill and get you moving,” said the doctor.

In seconds, Nick was left alone in the waiting room.

Should we… should we move to King-In-Hiding, now?

I never really asked why we didn’t go straight to the King instead of the prince. Kinda slipped my mind at the time and it didn’t matter since then.

“No, no. That would let the actual king know that his throne was in active dispute,” Lucian said quickly. “Prince-In-Hiding is perfect for us. It will grants us the benefits we need to maintain our royal attributes, like the extra classes, without really putting our name out there.

“We need to keep laying low. Being only a prince keeps us at a level that doesn’t cause a huge number of waves. We’re just not strong enough yet.”

Do we get more rewards as a King?

“Yes, though I’m not sure what, to be honest,” Lucian admitted. “I know that we likely have some skills that princes have as a Prince-In-Hiding. We’d likely have skills that Kings have once we move to that title.

“But I can’t even begin to guess at what they might be. There’s quite a few you know. Some of them would be absolutely worthless and some would make our life easier.”

Like what?

“Like Command, for one,” said Lucian. “Any non-noble can be Commanded by the king. Nobility have some resistance to that due to their class and it doesn’t work the same way. It’s more like Suggest to them, but it still holds great power. That would help us out a great deal.”

Mm. Makes sense.

“If we get something like Officiate, though, that wouldn’t be very helpful,” Lucian said with a laugh. “Unless we wanted to get into the matrimony business, but I can’t imagine that working out.”

Nick only grinned at that and shook his head. That didn’t sound like a very useful skill at all, but one that a Royal would actually need.

The door opened suddenly and Claudia came out with a wide grin. Practically bouncing over to him.

“Nick! I have a special skill!” she said excitedly. “I can cast Regeneration! Doctor Palt said it’s rare to have such a skill at level one! He thinks that if I level all the way up I’ll have even more special skills!

“I even have an offensive ability that isn’t that common either! I can cast Holybolt!”

Claudia clapped her hands together excitedly, then grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him up out of the seat he was in. Spinning him around she took the seat he’d just been in and made a hand flicking gesture with both hands.

“Your turn!” she said then patted her knees several times. “I’m going to just… sit here and practice casting!”

Looking down to her hands she then made a weird gesture with her left hand, as if she wasn’t sure what to do with it. A white glow surrounded her briefly then vanished.

Then she did it again.

“Well, have fun,” Nick said and then turned to leave the waiting room. Palt was waiting in the hall beyond.

“Close the door, come have a seat,” said the doctor. “I made sure we’d have a little extra time since… you have those extra skill numbers.”

Nick checked a sigh, then nodded his head, and entered the exam room.

“It’s still just Prince-In-Hiding,” Nick said, deciding to just admit to what the doctor already suspected. “And you’re the only person who knows.”

“Oh heavens,” muttered Lucian who then groaned. “Well, we did want to find out what skills we had. This’ll do that.”

Sitting on the table, Nick adjusted himself for a second before getting comfortable. Doctor Palt was standing next to the closed door.

“Huh. I… didn’t think you’d just admit it,” said the Doctor coming over to him. “That makes your companion even more amusing, I suppose. But that’s how it goes.

“Now… shall we take a look at those skills then? If we’re being honest, we might as well take a look at them.”

Doing as he did previously, Nick tried to open his skill list. This time he wanted to show everything to Doctor Palt.

“I… oh… well… yes,” said the Doctor, his eyes moving from the left to the right. Clearly reading through things.

“Dominic Randolph, the one and true king. Seems you’ve blended right in with the people already. If I were you though, I would be wary of the Count. He’s a smarter man than you likely give him credit for. He may not know, but I’d wager he suspects.”

Frowning, Nick wondered just how much Claudia had told the Doctor.

“Well, your Prince-In-Hiding skills aren’t exactly the most grandiose, but they might be useful. Depending on how you want to take up your cause, at least.”

“Yeah?” asked Nick, not really sure.

“You have Appoint, Dismiss, Declare Nation Status, Negotiate Nation Status, Officiate, and Draft. Most of these are exactly what you would expect, I suppose,” murmured Doctor Palt. “I imagine quite a few of these would be more useful as you work to regain your throne. At the moment, as an adventurer, not that useful.”

Nick couldn’t help but agree with the Doctor. They were useful, but not at the current time.

“Well, that’s how it goes. Want to be the Royal Physician?” Nick asked with a chuckle and then a sigh with a shake of his head.

“Sure,” said Doctor Palt, still reading through Nick’s skills. “You additionally have the following by the way.

“Advance, Disengage, False Disengage, Lunge, and Parry. Your Slash and Pierce are both level two now. Slam is still there and is now level two, but you’ve lost Distract.

“Throw Dirt remains somehow and of course Execute. Though it’s level two now.

“It seems as if you selected Sorcerer, too?”

“Yeah. Swordsman, Sorcerer, Executioner, Prince-In-Hiding. Those are the four I went with,” confirmed Nick.

“Mm. Well, you have Firebolt, Ice-spear, Wind-blade, and Earth-shield all at level two, now. I’d recommend moving toward Mesmer or Conjurer in the future. You can enhance equipment with those or use status ailments. Those would be easier to hide then say… throwing a Fireball.”

“Makes sense,” muttered Nick. “Uh… I can upgrade one skill. What… do you think I should upgrade?”

Palt blinked and looked at Nick directly for a second before looking back to the skill window.

“Any skill?” he asked.

“Any skill, yeah.”

“Draconic Health,” said Palt immediately. “That or Draconic Regeneration. Either of those would increase your survivability.”

What do those do for me, Gramps? Do you agree with Palt?

If you do, which would you take?

“Hm. I do agree with him, actually. As for what I’d upgrade, it’d be Draconic Regeneration. Mostly because we’re not supposed to be taking hits.

“If we do take a hit, the faster we recover from it, the better. Given that Draconic Regeneration is also percentage based, that just makes it even better since our health pool is always growing.

“Actively we already heal at a rate that’s abnormal for humans. They don’t really get much back in the way of health recovery after taking damage. Stamina, sure, but not health.”

“Alright,” said Nick. Then he did something he hadn’t tried before. “Uh… hello… land… person, spirit, thing. I’d like to use my quest reward. I want to upgrade my Draconic Regeneration.”

Reward utilized: Draconic Regeneration upgraded!

“Bless me,” muttered Palt who leaned backward. “It really did move to level two. You’ll recover ten percent of your health every minute. That’s… you might as well be a dungeon monster at that point.”

“If we can upgrade it again,” Lucian said quietly. “Then you’d be at the level of an actual Dragon. This is… very exciting.”

“Well, we’re all done here,” Palt said with a chuckle. “Other than you making me the Royal Physician that is.”

“Wait, you were serious?” Nick asked, looking to Palt.

“Most definitely,” said Palt with a grin. “Besides, it’s not like you can show your skills to anyone else, now can you? I might as well get the stat bonus from the title.”

“Oh, then… I Appoint you as the Royal Physician.”

Household member gained!

Royal Physician has been assigned as Dennis Palt!

“Wow,” Palt muttered under his breath, staring at what was quite possibly a blue window similar to the one Nick often saw. “Right. That’s… a lot better than I thought it would be.”

Blinking several times, Palt looked up at him and then gave him a crooked grin.

“Good luck in the dungeon today, Sire,” said the doctor, still grinning.

***

Standing in front of the six doors of the Ashcroft dungeon, Nick wasn’t quite sure which one to take. He didn’t think Claudia would be ready for something like a Hobgoblin, but beasts and the like of the first would be nearly pointless.

“I say door two,” Iris said from beside him. “Goblins by themselves and in duos. She’ll need to get used to it. A group of three could be easily too much.”

Nick grunted at that suggestion. He agreed with the assessment as well as soon as she said it like that.

The last thing they needed was a goblin doing an end run around Iris and himself to get to Claudia. She would easily catch the aggro of a monster as soon as she started to do anything.

Unsurprisingly, Claudia had gone into the Caster class. Her stats supported it and would easily provide her far more power than the average.

Claudia had already decided to focus on using healing spells, however, which was very surprising to Nick. Up to this point he’d fully expected her to throw damaging spells from the backline.

Her weapon, clothes, and accessories, all which she bought on her own, enforced and enhanced her limited healing spells. Given what she’d purchased, she was easily at the first promotion class as far as power went.

Turning his head, Nick looked to Iris.

She was kitted out in similar gear to what he was wearing. Though she was also wearing additional equipment to that. A cuirass, gauntlets, and greaves. Not quite in full plate mail, nor relying on only chain mail as Nick did.

The visored helmet was open at the moment and she was once again staring at him. She held a longsword in one hand and what looked to be a large heater shield strapped to the other.

“Yeah,” Nick said, holding her gaze. “You’re right. Can’t lose our healer before she’s even level two.”

Glancing over his shoulder he found Claudia right behind him. She was dressed in gear that was head to toe in it’s coverage and made her look more like a Ranged class. Though it was all picked out specifically as it had a very low percentage chance to cause spell-casting failure.

Guess the underwear armor is really just only in my wildest dreams.

“Indeed,” murmured Lucian in a dry tone.

Claudia smiled at him with what felt like every inch of her face. She also leaned toward him as soon as their eyes met. The long two handed staff in her hands was held in front of herself.

“Whatever you think we should do,” she said in a voice that sounded like it was going to crack.

Iris made a soft chuffing noise then turned and faced forward again. Her opinion had been stated and she apparently saw no reason to contribute further.

She wasn’t very talkative if Nick had to be honest about it. The longer he was around her, the more he realized she preferred to be silent.

“We’ll go with what Iris suggested. She’s right. As our front-line tank, she’s also the one at the most risk if you’re not trained up right,” said Nick, looking away from Claudia. He couldn’t handle looking at her too long.

The puppy love that radiated out from her toward him was a bit stiffing at times. It wasn’t that he could blame her for her feelings, or that he didn’t understand them, he just didn’t return them.

If it were someone else he’d try out a casual relationship with them but that was out of the question with the count’s daughter.

“Great,” Iris said and then opened the second door. “Been a while since I’ve been down this low, but it’s just good to be in the dungeon again.”

“It’s okay, Iris, we completely understand,” Claudia said with good-cheer. The young woman had been incredibly supportive of Iris and her plight.

Though not everyone had seemed particular pleased to see Iris in full-gear. To Nick it felt like there was an unspoken opinion against Iris’ kind.

Even Sara had been surprised this morning when Nick had turned the paperwork back over to her and it had listed Iris as being a member.

“Yeah,” said Iris, effectively ending the conversation. Stepping through the door she entered without another word.

Claudia went next and Nick took up the rear.

While Claudia was kitted out in a way that gave her a lot of benefit, her level and actual experience were still low. She needed to be coddled for a while.

Lost in his own thoughts and checking behind, Nick missed it when they’d passed to where the floor began. In fact, if it wasn’t for Claudia stopping in front of him he wouldn’t have noticed at all.

“Group ahead, just two goblins,” Iris reported.

“You hold one, Iris, I’ll hold the other,” said Nick. “Don’t kill it… just hold it in place. We need to get Claudia comfortable with this.”

“Yeah,” Iris said in the same tone from earlier. Her one word responses really were communication killers.

Moving around Claudia Nick saw the two goblins. They looked quite normal and didn’t seem out of the ordinary.

Iris strolled up to one and casually swatted at it with her shield. With a bang it sent the goblin stumbling backward. Nick moved up to the second goblin and leveled his poleaxe. Pointing the spiked head of it at them.

Warily, the goblin raised it’s club and hesitated. It didn’t look like it wanted to engage Nick at all. In fact, it’s eyes had already strayed to Claudia behind him.

Lazily, Nick jabbed out with his poleaxe and gave the goblin a shallow piercing wound in his leg. The goblin just about dropped his club and grabbed at his injured leg with one hand.

“Okay, Claudia, come on over here and get a good look at him,” said Nick. The goblin was keeping a good distance from Nick. It didn’t have much room to move so it could only go so far away.

The goblin was more or less stuck between Nick and it’s companion who was just about pinned to the wall by Iris.

“It’s… rather disgusting,” said Claudia, standing at Nick’s left side. “Okay… I can do this.”

Holding up her left hand, she pointed her palm at the goblin. A white light gathered in her palm, then zipped across the small distance to the goblin. Slamming into their chest.

A white patch of fire licked away at the goblin where it struck it before dissipiating.

Huh. Holybolt doesn’t look that bad.

The goblin shrieked then tried to run at Claudia. Only to be swept backward by Nick’s poleaxe coming out in a slash. The hammer head cracked into the goblin’s kneecap and bent it backward. Making it’s leg bend the wrong way.

Critical hit!

Leg fracture!

Ha! Pretty sure that’s worse than a leg fracture, I pushed his kneecap inside out!

Claudia grimaced, then held her hand open once again, and another spell slipped free and smashed into the goblin. This time it struck it in the head.

Screaming and pressing it’s hands to its eyes, the goblin didn’t even see the third Holybolt cast. Hitting it right in the chest once again.

Going silent, the goblin pitched forward and laid still on the ground.

“Okay,” said Claudia with only a slight waver in her voice. “That wasn’t so bad.”

Turning away from Nick, she marched off to Iris with a determined gait. While it was obvious she felt out of her element, Claudia didn’t look like she would back down.

Huh.

Maybe being an adventurer won’t just be good for her, but bring out similar strengths to her father.

Claudia lifted her hand and began casting Holybolt at the second goblin as soon as she came up to Iris’ left.