Cheep!? 71 (Patreon)

The dining hall for the guild was large, with a ceiling that was at least five meters high, and large enough to sit dozens, if not hundreds of guests at once. Niko sat down at the end of a floor table, adjacent to a regular one, sitting on a pair of cushions since a single one wasn’t nearly large enough for him. He dwarfed the three beasts that sat around the shorter table, which reminded him of Japanese floor tables. To his right was Russell, the meter and a half tall Silverback Greir was happily gnawing on a snack bone until their meal was delivered. He was smaller than Niko, but the Phorus was currently watching him crack through a thigh bone with his short muzzle like it was a carrot, so he figured Russell had kept at least some of the traits that Ironback Badgers had. Russell’s body was squat, but he could stand up, albeit hunched over a bit, on two legs, then his two pairs of arms could then be used for combat.

Russell reminded him vaguely of an anteater crossed with a badger, which actually was a lot more intimidating than Niko thought it’d be. As a welcome difference, Russell did not inherit a badger’s short temper, though he was stubborn.

Which led to his current disagreement with Niko.

“I’m telling you, big bugs just don’t exist in the Evergreen,” The Greir shook his head, “They only get Necker’s in the Daurghast and Elder, they don’t roam into the Evergreen.”

“Russell, he just said it wasn’t a Necker. Giant arachnids are hard to miss.” Said Penelope, the only beast in the room that was anywhere near Niko’s size. Niko inclined his head to the lady-wolf in thanks. She was what Niko would graciously describe as a ‘big clucking wolf’, also simply called a Timber Wolf, at a healthy two meters at the shoulder. If she were any bulkier, she might even have him beat on weight, though admittedly Niko was very heavy for his size. She had a well maintained, lush coat of brown and grey, with a bright green collar that was decorated with several flowers that were woven into the threads.

The final beast at their table was some kind of devastatingly adorable salamander that looked more like an axolotl than not. Tonton was an exotic beast that hailed from the swamplands to the northwest, and had apparently damn near grown up with his humanoid companion. Tonton was, also, a vainglorious glutton, as far as Niko was concerned, since she was on her fourth plate of what looked like kibble before even getting to the main course.

“You eat like I do,” Niko blurted out without thinking, seeing Tonton finish another meal.

Tonton perked up, “That’s… not usually the first thing anyone comments about that.”

“Usually they call her fat,” Penelope supplied mischievously with a wolfish grin, happy to get off of the subject of bugs with Russell being so hard headed about it.

Tonton stared at her teammate with a flat glare, which, due to her natural facial structure, only looked cute, “That is not what they say.”

“Is it what they mean, though?” Russell tilted his head and asked innocently.

Penelope barked a laugh, and Niko only shook his head with amusement. Tonton huffed, her gill-fronds wriggling with mirth in spite of her seeming annoyance, “Anyways, I have to eat like this. When I adapt on the field, it takes a lot of calories.”

Niko thought for a moment on that, imagining what that adaptation might look like before considering himself. “Well, I guess I’m just fat, because I don’t do that.”

The other beasts laughed at the unexpected response, “Well, beasts get treated to one essence meal for free every day if we behave, but Marge slips in a second for me every now and then.” Tonton said proudly before startling, “Uh, oh, but don’t tell anyone else that. I think she’d get in trouble.”

Niko nodded, “Human things.”

The others nodded, saying together, “Human things.”

They turned their attention back to the table that was somewhat adjoining their own. The closest things to their handlers were nearest to them, with Skye and Priscilla sitting on the benches nearest to Niko and Russell. On the other side, Penelope’s and Tonton’s companions sat, but Niko hadn’t caught their names in spite of them having introduced themselves at least twice. A lot of names had gone over Niko’s head, though, considering nearly the entire guild had seemingly shown up tonight and pulled tables in closer to share in the newest gossip.

Much of which, the Wyldwalkers were the center of, what with having ‘stormed the Baron’s estate’ as rumors claimed. Niko had listened as Skye and Dachna told the story themselves, and had to privately thank Orson for having given them some practice beforehand. It wasn’t as good as what the man had spun together for them, but it was still pretty good. In fact, given how enraptured their audience had been, Niko realized that he might be entertainment numb from having lived on Earth. This world didn’t seem to have some of the entertainment he was used to, like television, for example. Though, there were games around that one could play as a group and enjoy together, so it wasn’t as though they were destitute of any kind of joy.

“Oh! Skye! Let Dachna know I still want to play Jenga again so I can wreck him again! Loser buys essence meals for the other until they can’t eat anymore.” Niko called out, and Skye grinned.

“Dachna, Niko says he wants to play Jenga, loser buys essence meals for the other until they’re full.” Skye joyfully watched several eyes slide from her, to Niko, and then finally to Dachna with clear amusement on their faces.

Dachna flatly stared back at Niko after leaning forward to get a good line of sight to him from down the table, “I’d bankrupt myself if I lost, definitely not.”

Niko cackled loudly like a machine gun, startling several people, including the other beasts, “Damn! He’s got some lungs on him!” Shouted someone at another table.

Skye flashed them a grin, “Oh, that’s nothing. When I said he staggered people with his voice, I wasn’t exaggerating.”

“No kiddin’?” The man laughed before turning back to his table.

“My bad, I forget my volume sometimes,” Niko embarrassedly apologized to Skye, who gave him some head scritches before realizing what she was doing. Niko allowed it, though, so she kept on with it.

“It’s fine, so long as you don’t overdo it.” Skye said, “It’s kind of expected for adventurer’s to be loud sometimes, anyways.”

Scenn snorted, “That’s true. So, are you guys planning on hitting the Eldergreen tomorrow?”

“At least partly,” She parted from Niko’s head with a little pat, “We’ll see if our gear is ready, but we have an appointment with a specialist later tonight for pattern stabilization.”

“Oh!” The woman next to her, the Basiliskin Priscilla, as Niko had come to be aware of her race, nearly seemed to glow with excitement at that, “You guys are stepping into tier two tonight!?”

Skye reddened sheepishly, “Yeah, we’re hoping so. We wanted to wait until the whole lot of us could go up in tier together. Well, Niko aside. He just kind of happened to tier up, though.”

The woman nodded, “Russell was the same way. He grew into it and one day we just realized he was tier two.” She was too far away to give Russell any physical attention, but Niko felt a light pulse of intent-flavored essence move between the two warmly.

The two men across from them glanced at their own tames warmly, Penelope and Tonton basking in a similar connection. They were also a part of the adventuring team Aelphis, but as team one. Apparently the group was large enough that they had several teams, some in different cities, but they hadn’t yet earned a sub-division name, hence team one and team two. There was some lighthearted ribbing between the teams, but Niko noted that there wasn’t any real animosity, just competitiveness. It was frowned upon in most larger groups to pit individual teams too deeply against one another, since at the end of the day they were required to work together.

That was something Niko didn’t know much more about though, and he realized that he might need to know more about the ins-and-outs of what the adventurer’s guild might be required to do. Niko wasn’t sure if the guild was a neutral body or not, but that was certainly something he would need to work on in the future.

Niko looked over in time to see the gnome, McNabby, stand up on his bench with a beer in hand, “Oi! Give a cheer for the Wyldwalkers! They did a damn good job and they’re tiering up tonight! First rounds on me!”

That got a round of cheers from the guildees, and Niko couldn’t help but cluck with amusement that the gnome offering to buy rounds of beer for everyone actually happened. Then again, he was pretty sure most of these people would take any excuse to be boisterous, booze was just a bonus.

Niko looked further down the table on his side, noting the lineup. Skye, Priscilla, Scenn, Mithel, Dachna, Ronald, and then McNabby with the other two members of his team that hadn’t gotten to introduce themselves before the Wyldwalkers had to leave to answer the Guildmaster’s call. They were Daniel and Max, a dual-axe wielder and a heavy bow specialist, respectively. Daniel wasn’t what Niko would call taciturn, but he was quite stoic, whereas Max was quick with his humor. Niko noted that Max’s bow was also very large, the same as the man himself, though he supposed that actually helped. More draw strength, more power.

Niko’s gaze snapped to the direction of the kitchen as several waiters and waitresses streamed out with food on wide plates. Like a well-oiled machine, they spread out through the room, delivering food while taking additional orders. When finally they reached their table, Niko was practically salivating at the scents in the air.

“I’m so ready for food.” Tonton uttered, “Kibble is… okay, but I want real food.”

“I almost feel bad. It’s so hard to go back to eating camp food after this stuff,” Penelope sighed wistfully, along with an understanding nod from Russell.

“None of our people can cook well yet, so I usually just eat roots.” The Greir said.

“You eat roots because you like the taste of dirt,” Priscilla pointedly stated, “We eat just fine.”

“W-Well, I could eat other food if it was a little more earthy tasting,” Russell shifted with bashfulness at that.

Niko looked at the pitiful creature next to him, “Don’t worry, you’ll learn what real food is someday.”

Skye choked a laugh mid swig of her beer at that, joined by the other beasts at his table, save for Russell who grumbled at him.

Those grumbles disappeared when their food got to them.

“Whoa, that’s… interesting?” Niko said, first seeing Russells meal, which looked like it had something akin to black flakes on top of what might otherwise be an ordinary country meal of mashed potatoes, green beans, and a hunk of rare-steak, “What’re the black flakes?”

“Coal!” Russell stated happily before giving an animal grunt of thanks to the waiter.

He placed a pheasant in front of Niko with an odd look, which Niko returned with a tilt of his head, “Uhh… I didn’t order… Wait, why aren’t there any drumsticks on this thing?”

Skye looked over, frowning, before saying, “Is… that his order? Why no drumsticks?”

The waiter frowned with confusion, “Oh? But, we were told that he didn’t like drumsticks? Your friend should have them.”

Niko glanced to Skye, who seemed perplexed before her mouth snapped shut and her head spun fast to look at Dachna.

The man was whistling completely inconspicuously to himself, “Wow, these are some great drumsticks, huh, Niko?”

Skye turned back to the waiter, “Sorry, our team's idiot is playing at a prank, thank you.”

The waiter looked at Niko amusedly, “Would you like a different dish?”

Niko shook his head, and Skye filled in for him, “He’s fine. He’ll take care of it.”

The man nodded and slipped away to go back to the kitchen. Before he so much as got to the doors, though, Niko’s leg patterns activated and he shimmied low across the floor on his bird legs and clawed wing-arms. He rose up behind Dachna, arms out wide with his talons on full display as the dirty-blonde haired man paused just before he bit into a drumstick.

Dachna cleared his throat and briefly held up both drumsticks as he noted the table looking much more intently at something over his shoulders, “O-On the other hand, it was part of your dish in the first place.”

“Mmm.” Niko grunted at Dachna’s wisdom, albeit belated, before he claimed his prizes and returned to his seat, leaving behind a muttering rogue.

“I’ll get my vengeance yet, Drumstick.”

Niko trilled happily at him, as though to say good luck, before returning to his seat happily.

As he sat back down, the waiter returned, and only smirked at the sight of the drumsticks clumsily held in the Phorus’ claws. The waiter then placed a tomato soup with a bread roll down next to Niko’s dish, which was the thing he actually wanted to try. Skye looked at it approvingly, before a nearly identical but smaller one was placed in front of her. Both dishes had small amounts of essence in them, but not nearly as much as what Camilla had served them.

Nevertheless, it smelled divine and Niko openly declared, “Ronald needs to learn how to do this.”

“Definitely,” Skye answered, before her benchmates asked what he’d said.

On his side, the other beasts were likewise very interested in what he meant by that, and quickly became jealous that they had someone actually willing to learn how to cook in Niko’s party.

They at least had the presence of mind to whisper that, though, not actually wanting their respective companions to feel bad.

The rest of the night was pleasant, and Niko thanked the Guildmaster for effectively giving them an unlimited tab. Tonton was a worthy adversary for an eating competition, but eventually she lost to Niko’s indubitably, bottomless stomach.

“H-how could this be!?” Tonton stated dramatically, “I’ve been defeated?”

“Hohoho! You’re a hundred years too early to best me!” Niko rolled with it, much to the entertainment of the beasts.

After the meal and some relaxing, it had been, Niko reflected, a lovely time. It’d been a long while before he’d been able to socialize, and in spite of how odd it had been at first, he found it wasn’t odd at all to dine with other beasts. Plus, it felt like the waiter and waitresses doted on them. More than once he felt like someone was resisting asking to pet his feathers, which while he might have said yes, was still considered rude without at least introducing oneself first.

“That was really fun,” Niko chirruped to his companions as they walked the streets in the evening, a gentle warmth coming from the brickwork of the road mingling with the light cool of the air.

“It was,” Skye nodded, “We met a lot of the teams we’ll be working around in the Eldergreen, too.”

Ronald chimed in there, “I really like that Aelphis group, they seem to know what they’re doing. We’ll probably be basing out of the eastern parts of the Eldergreen for a while.”

“It’s a shame Niko can’t loot anyone else, they had some really nice gear.” Dachna sighed with faux dreariness.

Mithel slapped him, open-handed, on the back, “Shush, you. That’s in bad taste, even if they did have really nice stuff.” She grinned at him, “Besides, we’re getting our gear tomorrow, right?”

Skye nodded at that, “Stella should be done.”

As they traveled the streets, Niko still drew the eye of those around, but rumors had already begun to circulate about his presence for days now. There were plenty of watchers, but they very rarely had anyone actually come up to them after the first day. It likely had something to do with the Guard Captain giving the not-so-subtle reminder that swarming someone to talk to them was still frowned upon.

Eventually they arrived at the Guildmaster’s residence, and they were led in quickly by Crowe, who was currently in his butler attire and presented himself accordingly. “The Master suggests that you all allow Camille to oversee you during your tier up. She and I have both judged that you should be more than capable of forging or reforging your own patterns, but we will nevertheless be present for questions and suggestions.”

With that, Niko found himself sitting on a simple wooden floor while watching his companions sit down to form a rough circle, with Camille and Crowe sitting back to back in the center. He’d asked why they were sitting like this, but Skye informed him it had no real purpose other than to help get them in the right frame of mind.

“Alright, you may begin. Be careful that you do not overreach, and above all, follow what feels right.” Crowe stated.

“For those of you looking to change your patterns, depending on how much you want to change, you’ll need to sweep up the pattern in your internal essence reservoir and reduce it. Mental images help out a lot. I imagined my patterns being made of metal, and the rest of my essence as a raging inferno or molten metal that sought to reclaim the unmalleable parts. Anything that works for you, works.” Camille stated, and Niko couldn’t help but stare on with a quizzical expression on his face.

Yet, as he watched, he noticed one by one when the essence in each of his companions bodies somehow became brighter in his vision. Skye’s essence seemed to condense to a single point, before growing and branching out, like an explosion of plantlife. The image was so distinct in her body that Niko was briefly afraid that she literally had a plant growing there. Even so, after a few seconds it began to diffuse into the rest of her body, where detailed work beyond anything Niko could perceive began to occur. Each of them had something of a similar nature happen, but when he looked at Ronald, Niko noted something very odd.

He knew Ronald was stripping away what he’d said was a failed essence pattern, but Niko had never really learned what he meant. As he saw glowing bands of metal, misshapen and seemingly useless glow in essence before steadily shrinking inwards, Niko wondered what Ronald had gone for in the first place.

Then, as he watched, Ronald’s core lit up like an incandescent star, and Niko actually had to force his gaze away with a start. ‘Pecking wow, that’s some intense imagery.’

As much as Niko could see the essence moving, he quickly lost the forest for the trees, so-to-speak. The imagery, the intent, nothing of what was happening beyond the essence he could see around their bodies was at all clear to him. Even the patterns themselves simply looked like a murky fog in no time at all.

“Ronald, you’re fighting the form too much. Let it out a bit.” Camille’s voice broke Niko’s concentration. She was looking right at Ronald as she spoke, “Right there, perfect. Now you can continue, make sure to embody what you’re trying to do. Don’t just want it, you are your patterns, so right now you are what you will.”

Niko wondered then if her ability to perceive essence was just that much better than his, but no matter what, he couldn’t see anything particular within them. Certainly, the ambient essence was going wild, pulling into the team like an ocean flowing down into a suddenly opened crevasse along the seafloor. He suspected he should see something that was going on, but the more involved the process seemed to get, the less and less he could actually witness.

Crowe and Camille spoke out several more times, and each one kept their instructions vague, but seemingly helpful enough. Niko couldn’t tell, and what frustrated him more was that he should have been able to see at least something. Skye’s pattern had been visible at the beginning, but now it was utterly invisible to his eyes.

And then, just as suddenly, Skye’s pattern was visible once more, bare to the world. Only, it was far from what he’d seen before. It was throughout her entire body, expansive, and while he didn’t know what any of it meant, he could feel the intent behind it. Skye’s body pattern had a distinct flavor of just being more of oneself, more strength, speed, vigor, awareness, but there was a shift of something more primal there. Like the touch of a primordial forest, there was a weight and raw kind of visceral desire for life that Niko found more than a little intimidating.

Then as the essence in the air ebbed away from her, her pattern was no longer visible at all, once more.

“It worked!”, she exclaimed with a broad smile, before quieting herself down upon realizing that the others were still going. She seemed surprised to see that she was the first done, leading Niko to wonder if their perception of time was different.

Mithel finished second, and he felt a sense of duality from the two patterns she had within her. A flood of water, but not quite water, something more abstract. Niko felt that anything fluid in nature was malleable to her, and more so, the second pattern seemed to be an amplifier of sorts, but Niko didn’t understand it enough to be able to pin down more than that. Especially because her essence stabilized even faster than Skye’s had, and then an exhausted, but broadly smiling Mithel opened her eyes.

“Huh, you’re done already?” Mithel looked at Skye with surprise, “I’d have thought I had a good handle on things this time.”

Skye shrugged abashedly, “W-Well, I decided to lean into what I saw. How about you?”

Mithel nodded, “Same, kinda. I’ll see how it works out.”

The two turned as they felt fluctuations in the air coming from Dachna and Ronald. Yet, after they waited for a minute, neither showed any sign of stirring. Niko wandered up next to the two and sat down, giving them both low chirps of congratulations.

It took another ten minutes for Ronald to finish his pattern, but the essence in the air absolutely rippled with its completion. He came out of his trance gasping for breath, and Camille beamed at him as an intricate and complex framework flashed with light for all of a moment before it vanished. Niko griped to himself that he didn’t even get to see it when Camille said, “Very good! It’s damn near impossible to break, though, so I hope you’re happy with it.”

Ronald chuckled, “It’s near as perfect as I think I can get it.” He looked up to see Skye and Mithel looking quite impressed as well, and waved to them weakly.

Another few minutes went by before Dachna stirred. Oddly enough, the essence in the air slowed until it stopped entirely for several seconds before Dachna opened his eyes.

“That is fascinating…” Crowe uttered, and Niko nearly threw a fit when he didn’t get a single look at what Dachna had created.

Camille gazed at Dachna with a complicated expression, “That’s going to be hard to build on, you know?”

Dachna only smiled at them, “It felt right, though.”

They said nothing else at that, only nodding slightly to him before Camille spoke to the group at large, “You’ll all need to be sure to practice a lot going forward. Not one of you picked easy patterns,” Camille said that with some pride, “Niko’s got the most straightforward patterns out of all of you now. Just remember that you’ll have to get really good at essence control, or you’ll burn out long before any enemy will.”

The Wyldwalkers all nodded at that, before Camille and Crowe stood together. The former said, “Congratulations on breaking into tier two. This is where the fun stuff really starts.”

Niko once more complained to himself before pausing.

‘I wonder… Can I make a new pattern?’ He thought back to when he’d made the three he currently had. If becoming tier two allowed his companions to make another pattern, maybe he could manage something, too? Niko rose alongside the rest of his team, deciding that he’d have to sleep on it. Ronald and Dachna virtually dragged themselves back to the guild, and after some waves and a round of cheers from the Aelphis teams at their successful rise to tier two, hauled themselves upstairs to their suite and to a wonderful, deep sleep.