Chapter 307: An Important Step (Patreon)

Author’s note: Hi guys.

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I believe all that needed to be said has been said, so enjoy the last chapter of this year. :)

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Chapter 307: An Important Step - Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/93817090

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Chapter 307: An Important Step

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“Hey Vara, how about sparring with me?”

“Fuck you, Clay! You just want to beat my ass.”

“Hmm . . . that doesn’t sound so bad, but no,” the man smiled, giving the guardswoman a wink. “In case you forgot, I’m standing here because I’m willing to swap my skills - well, one for now.”

“Just one? Oh, good for you. How about swapping them all?”

“Corporal, that’s enough,” Rayden rumbled. “I can tolerate a lot of things, and I understand how you feel, but as I said, I will not have you urging others to give up their guidance of the System. Do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Vara gritted her teeth.

“Good. We need to better understand how the whole thing works before we start using it more widely. Who knows, there may be a way to disable the System’s support for individual skills.”

“Like I care,” Vara remarked under her breath, only to straighten up under Rayden’s stern gaze. “S-sorry, ma’am. I get it.”

“You better. And as for the rest of you - I fully understand if you want to wait to see how the bravest of you end up, but know that the sooner you start, the better for you.”

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***

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In the end, there weren’t many. Besides Clay and Vara, Elira decided to throw away her fear and support her friend. Then there was Enola, the receptionist, who also chose to give it a try with one of her General Skills, and the same was true for five other guards.

The moment when each of them swapped their skill was so easy to spot. Their eyes widened; some even stumbled and gasped for breath. But regardless of the skills they decided to give up, all eight of them took the step.

A small step, for sure. An important step nonetheless, and they took it - that was what mattered.

Honestly, while in my opinion the best way, I could hardly imagine anyone doing what Vara did, without context, without proof. Well, nobody except Deckard. My mentor was a peculiar case, more desperate with his bottlenecks than he seemed at first glance. I guess his otherwise laid-back nature was to blame.

“What now?” asked one of the guards, beads of sweat trickling down his forehead.

“NOW . . . we’re going to play,” Idleaf chirped to her delight, scaring everyone with her sudden appearance.

“Any chance you could stop doing that?” Rayden asked, instead of agreeing to her shenanigans.

“Nope,” Idleaf shook her head, giggling mischievously - as did the little kitsune still tangled in my tail. While I had many questions for the tree spirit, this was not the time for them, nor for Ria to keep hiding.

“We still have a lot to figure out, Idleaf. Why don’t you go play with Ria again?”

Hearing that, the little kitsune slipped out of her hiding place and, within a few steps, she was beside the tree spirit. Much to everyone’s shock, she didn’t hesitate to perch on Idleaf’s bear-like lower body. Riding her like a horse, like a centaur, like Stella riding me.

The potential double meaning was not lost on my heat-driven mind, and blood rushed to my cheeks. My primal urges and fleeting glances at the surrounding males aside, to my relief, Idleaf didn’t seem to mind the little kitsune. On the contrary, she squealed with delight and took off with Ria on her back.

“Corporal Grey, I hope you realize this is no playground. I allowed Ria Kano’s presence because I felt it was necessary to show the next generation the importance of having an open mind. Not to do as she pleases.”

“I’ll - I’ll get her back right now,” Enola said, her eyes darting around in search of the two pranksters.

“Don’t. Better than having a bored World Tree spirit around. But I wanted to make that clear.”

“Understand, ma’am,” I said, amused at how Rayden saw Idleaf. Nevertheless, the truth was that there was little we could do to stop Idleaf from - well, whatever crossed her mind. Sure, she’d listen to me, especially if I explained everything, but . . . .her playful nature simply didn’t mesh well with the seriousness of most situations in the barracks.

Anyway, with those two rascals gone, Rayden’s attention turned back to us and her bold men and women. “As for you eight, it’s up to you now. You can either train with the chosen skill for a while, or you can re-equip the original skill and get back to the previous levels.”

“I would advise the latter,” Deckard chimed in.

“Sir?”

“It’s all nice and easy to talk about, but not so easy to do. Getting your skills back to where they were will take time and effort. As your captain said, the sooner you start, the better.”

“Besides, it is not wise to spread your focus too widely,” I added a bit of my own wisdom about the System.

“Quite true. Although you’re not the best example, are you, Little Beast?”

My mentor was right. However, that didn’t mean his stupid remark didn’t annoy me. “I can’t help who I am,” I said, clenching my fists.

“And who are you, Grey?” One of the guards asked, the others listening intently. There was no hate or resentment coming from the man, only curiosity. They knew me; they knew of Korra Grey, the one who had fun with them in Drunken Filly, who could turn into a beast and wield a presence that could kill weaker-natured folk on the spot. But they were far from knowing the real me. “I am many things by nature. Too many things. A shifter, a warrior, and a mage. But do I look like any of those things to you?”

Realizing I was asking him, the man paused and met my gaze - just a brief moment. Then his eyes traced my curves, which I displayed for him to admire. The false confidence driven by an urge beyond my control. Yet my pride took no blow. The man didn’t show open disgust at what he saw and thought.

“To me, you just look like a shifter - not like any shifter I’ve ever seen, but like a shifter.”

My heart danced. “That’s because that’s what I focused on. If I tried to be everything I could be at once - I would end up being neither.”

A twisted lie. There were reasons why I ended up training only shifting. I tried to train to be a mage, a warrior, and a shifter all at once. However, I could see the folly of it now. Sure, if I wanted to be a mage, I could, and with a little dedication, one of the strongest, if not the most powerful, among humans. However, that was my childhood dream, not who I really was now. And sadly, I wasn’t a warrior like Deckard either. I might have wished to be one - especially as his apprentice. It was so tempting to be tied to something more human in nature. But while I was still one at the core, it no longer defined me. I was - more.

“You . . . you have to find what you are - WHO you are, and based on that, what you want to be.”

“And most importantly, stick with it,” Deckard added, agreeing with me.

“So, the skills we chose?” Clay asked, pausing to look at the other guards. “Are you saying we shouldn’t even try to use them?”

“Well . . . ”

“That’s up to you,” Rayden cut me off. “It’s one skill. I’m assuming one that won’t greatly affect your ability to do your job. Try it, give it a day, a week - I don’t care. However, don’t come crying to me then that those who jumped into the training right away have their skills back where they were, and you don’t.”

“You can always try that skill later,” Stella threw in, seeing the disappointed faces of the guards. “Like in the evening or something. But you’ll always start from scratch the next day.”

“She means in terms of the System and the levels it shows you, not your actual skills. You won’t lose what you’ve actually learned,” I said quickly to avoid any misunderstandings. While everything had been said many times already, I knew myself how easy it was to disbelieve, question, and misunderstand when it went against your core beliefs.

“Good to hear. I really wanted to try the skill.”

“Now you’re making me curious,” Vara leaned toward Clay. “What kind of skill is it?”

“Like I told you.”

“Oh, come on, why not? Does it have something to do with what’s down there in your pants?”

“Fuck off, Vara. It’s my business, not yours.”

“So it does . . . or not?”

“Come on Vara, give him a break,” Elira stopped her friend. “I don’t feel like telling you either.”

“Traiana’s tits!You too?” the guardswoman groaned, hurt. “I thought we . . . you want to kick my ass like that bastard now that I’m fucked too or . . . ?”

“If that’s what you want - I’ll do it, Vara.”

“Oh, you’d like that, huh? Not my thing.”

“I know.”

“Youuu! Tits! That is so fucking . . . fucked. I wish I could swap a skill like you.”

“I think you still can, right Korra?”

“Sure,” I nodded back to Elira, amused by their conversation while understanding Vara all too well. I remembered well how I felt after appearing in the Echo, and especially how badly Stella took the complete loss of the System. Nothing compared to what happened to Vara, but still . . .

“I’m not going to swap my skills now that I’m as weak as - as . . . . see, I don’t even know anything that weak to compare myself to.”

“You’re overreacting, Corporal Vara,” Rayden grunted to stop her. While she felt sympathy for the guardswoman, her patience seemed to be running out. “To prove you wrong - pull out your weapon and spar with Corporal Farshine.”

“With Clay? Why him - ma’am? I’d rather spar with Elira . . . ”

“That’s an order, Corporal.”

“Tits!” Vara swore under her breath, only to salute without an ounce of vigor. “Aye, ma’am.”

While the guardswoman looked to go to the execution following Clay, the rest of the guards took it upon themselves to find partners to spar with.

“What about me?” Enola asked, the only one left standing alone. “I can’t fight them.”

“And no one’s asking you to,” Rayden said as she turned her attention to the receptionist. “You do whatever it was that got your skill where it was in the first place. Just so you know, I’m very glad you came. What we’re trying to do here may seem like it’s all about the combat classes, but that couldn’t be further from the truth, and it’s a fairly dangerous notion. Combat classes make up only about 30% of all human classes.”

“Wait! Are you saying that through me you want to . . . that you want to use me as an example to the rest of the city?” Enola paled at the thought. Despite dealing with people from morning to night, the idea of such attention clearly didn’t sit well with her.

“Don’t worry. I won’t do it without your consent,” Rayden assured her, glancing at the already sparring guards. “Who knows? Maybe it won’t even be necessary.”

“I h-hope so.”

“Depends on them - whether it’s just the few or whether the rest will have the courage to take the plunge.”

Enola nodded in understanding, her eyes wandering to her bare feet. My drunken self may have been the culprit, but it was the guards who turned the city’s shoe industry upside down.

“I think . . . I think I’ll take my leave.”

“Wait, like now, Enola? What about training your skills? Is there anything else you need to know? What about Ria?”

“Thanks, Korra, but I think of all the people here, I’m the only one who knows how to work with the skill. Besides, this isn’t the place for it.”

Despite knowing Freyde, the former [Bookkeeper], I couldn’t help but nod. Not everyone had his determination to change. “I imagine there aren’t many skills a receptionist could use in the training grounds.”

“No, there aren’t,” Enola nodded, smiling warmly. “Look, Korra. I can take care of myself. One skill is not the end of the world. And if I run into any hitches, I know who to ask. You should worry about yourself - and Idleaf. Actually, I should go find her and bring Ria back.”

“You can leave her here and I’ll bring her back,” I suggested.

“I would have thought you’d jump at the chance to test the System’s capabilities,” Deckard remarked, genuinely surprised. “I, for one, am itching to try what the Corporal did.”

“Deckard!” Rayden snapped at him. While my mentor obviously didn’t care, the City Guard Captain didn’t want everyone to know what he had done with his skills.

Much to her annoyance, he simply shrugged and flashed me a smile. “I was just saying - I hope my apprentice finds out quickly.”

“And I’ll do just that,” all the while Idleaf had fun with Ria. For me, it was a win-win situation - everyone happy.

“All right, all right, whatever you say, Little Beast,” Deckard waved me off, his eyes darting to the lieutenants. “Any of you want a round or two with me?”

While they moved to find a place to spar on the training grounds, Stella and I found as quiet a spot as possible - the shouts of fighters and onlookers still echoed from all over the place, even in the small corner we settled on - to test the old-new feature of the System.

“So what did she say it was?” I asked Stella after planting my ass on the ground, my back against hers. “Guidance of masters renounced? Seriously, how did she come up with that?”

“I think it’s more about meaning than words.”

“Sure, but then why didn’t we succeed before - I mean, I intended to turn off the System’s guidance.”

“Maybe that’s the problem, Korra.”

“What? Trying to turn it off?”

“No . . . actually, I might as well. I meant to think of the System as the system.”

“That doesn’t make much sense, you know?”

“Hear me out. In the past, the known past, masters were of great importance. And that was when Eleaden was already bound to the System.”

“Ah, I see. And they must have been even more important in Traiana’s time.”

“Yes, we could see it in how many people were willing to teach us. They were eager to pass on what they knew. They knew how important it was to teach the young, not like people today and all the secrets.”

“So you are suggesting that we should think of the System as a master or a mentor.”

“Well, it’s worth a try, isn’t it?”

“Sure. So what? Do I ask it - him, my master - to stop teaching me?” I asked, finding the whole thing rather bizarre.

“I guess so. At least, that’s the best I came up with.”

Not having a better idea myself, I took a breath, closed my eyes, prepared myself, and made the thought. After so many failed attempts - millennia of unuse, forgotten even - the function of the System did what it was designed to do and showed me what I had truly mastered.

For all my caution, the truth did not strike me with lightheadedness or knocked-out breath. All I lost were a few levels here and there - nothing major. After all, in the Echo, I had grown up to be myself, learned so much, and found out how much I still had to learn. Geran and Vienlin may have shown me the way to be a shifter, but what kind of shifter . . . that was something I still didn’t have an answer for and I alone had to find out.

“You all right, Korra?”

“Yeah, just . . . a little lost in thought.”

“Skills?”

“Sort of. It worked.”

“Same here. Did you lose a lot?”

“Just a few levels?”

“Me too? I guess the part where the System already started showing us the way. Makes me wonder if it’s possible to do that with just one skill, but . . . ”

“No way to find out now, huh?”

“Exactly,” Stella sighed, her movement tickling my wings. “Honestly, Korra. I’m afraid of what lies ahead. This is going to change the whole Sahal Empire - the world.”

No doubt. “And we will get through it, just like we did in Fallen’s Cry. Besides, this time it’s not just the two of us.”

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***

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Unbeknownst to the two of them, in fact, to everyone on the training grounds, their little sit-down and the entire previous briefing had not escaped the attention of the uninvited guest in their midst. At first glance, an ordinary man, a guardsman like any other. But beneath the veneer of magic, a man whose name was well known to the city’s core defenders.

Cenberet Waldobert Liryadon.

“What an intriguing female,” the man hummed to himself, content with his breath and his spells, as he casually made his way across the training grounds to the gate. “Too early to judge her - though, it’s going to be interesting.”

Approaching the barracks gate, he stopped and turned, his fiery amber eyes scanning the human men and women now training, some already testing the true capabilities of the System.

“What are you going to do now, Eleaden?” he inquired with a slight smirk on his lips, before turning back to the gate and disappearing into the streets of Castiana unchallenged by the guards.

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Name: Korra’leigh Grey

Race: Human/Beast

Gender: Female

Age: 30

Main Class: Deviant of Humanity

Sub Class: Slave

Level: 153

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STATS

Constitution: 266 (41)

Strength: 139 (31)

Endurance: 81 (30)

Dexterity: 74 (31)

Intelligence: 136 (29)

Wisdom: 92 (28)

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CLASS SKILLS (8/8):

Indomitable Will (Passive VI): lvl 170 → 172

Behemoth (Active III): lvl 40 → 45

Wrought Hide (Passive V): lvl 111 ← 112

Unbending Resilience (Passive V): lvl 106

Mantle of Magic (Active III): lvl 49 → 50

Ride of Ancestors (Active V): lvl 118 → 121

Call of Nature (↑Passive V↑): lvl 102 → 152

Beast Core: (Passive III): lvl 45 → 46

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GENERAL SKILLS (10/10):

Perfect Equilibrium (Passive V): lvl 119 ← 121

Spatial Domain (Passive V): lvl 136 ← 137

Beast (Passive VI): lvl 189 → 191

Never-Dying (Passive V): lvl 149

Tail of Poison Empress (Active III): lvl 44

Heart of Magic (Passive III): lvl 59

Striving Mule (Passive V): lvl 147 → 153

Dancer’s Stride (Passive V): lvl 147 ← 148

None to Squander (Passive III): lvl 43 → 45

Roundhouse Kick (Active I): lvl 2 ← 7

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Author’s note: Well, I did try to give it some sort of closure before my December break. Cutting it off somewhere in the middle of the scene would have left me with a bitter taste, so I'm glad it turned out the way it did.

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However, I cannot allow myself to leave without saying how grateful I am to you for being here with me for another year (minus December :D). Honestly, I still can't believe how far the story has come. But where I take it next, how I approach writing, and other things I hope to sort out during my break. I may not be going into it in the best shape (the fucking flu), but I firmly believe that I will meet you in the New Year with renewed vigor and determination.

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Until then and unless something comes up, which I would inform you, enjoy your December, and especially the Christmas holidays!

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See you in the New Year. :)

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