Chapter 114 - A Second Path (Patreon)

Zeke wasn’t certain how he managed to maintain his grip as Pudge carried him through the mountains. A few times, the group had to defend themselves against stray giants or ambitious monsters, but they managed to proceed without much in the way of delay. Soon, the sun dipped below the horizon, plunging them into darkness. They couldn’t afford to stop, though. Not until they’d left the giants and zombies far behind. So, they continued along through the night, not even stopping once the sun began to rise on a new day. Morning wore on, turning into afternoon, and finally, into another night. Through it all, Zeke stubbornly clutched his companion’s thick fur. He had overtaxed himself during the fight, and the weakness that came after every usage of [Heart of the Berserker] was more powerful and longer lasting than ever. It wasn’t until that next night, when they’d finally stopped in a shallow glen abutted by steep mountains on three sides, that Zeke remembered to check his notifications.

In addition to the onslaught of experience that had come from killing the giants with the avalanche he’d caused, he’d received almost as much from killing Brynjar and his warriors. The result was that he’d reached level seventeen far ahead of schedule. After summoning his cottage, Zeke went up the stairs to the bedroom he’d been sharing with Abby. In the last couple of days, the cottage had evolved once again, adding a fourth floor and attaching a bathroom to the bedroom, which he didn’t waste any time in using. As he undressed, he was unsurprised to find that Abby had followed him. He stepped into the shower stall.

“Let me help,” she said, pulling the cord that released the cascade of water, pulling close. Zeke could barely stand, so he had to lean against the wall for balance as Abby helped clean the blood and gore from his battered body. [Leech Strike] had gone a long way toward healing his wounds, but it was far from perfect. Not only was he covered in deep, purple bruises, but he still bore dozens of scars from the battle. One giant had even tried to claw him to death, raking his fingernails across Zeke’s exposed neck. Against anyone else, it probably would’ve been fatal, but for Zeke, it was just one among many wounds that had been half-healed by his most important skill. It kept him going, often standing between him and a horrible death, but it wasn’t a ticket to invincibility. Once, that might’ve been the case, but the foes he faced now were more than capable of ending him, regardless of his stats or skills.

After helping him through the shower, Abby levered herself under his arm and got him into the bed. She asked, “Do you want something to eat?”

He shook his head, saying, “I don’t think I’ve got the energy, honestly.”

She sat on the bed, resting her hand on his knee as she stared at the floor. Finally, after a few seconds, Abby said, “I thought I’d lost you. When all those giants piled onto you, I was…I just…I thought you were gone. And there was nothing I could do about it.”

With an effort, Zeke sat up. Reaching out, he put his hand on her shoulder and said, “You did plenty. You got Tucker out. And I saw your arrows flying all over the place.”

“It wasn’t enough, though,” she argued, a tear glistening as it trailed down her cheek. “Talia did most of the work inside the city. I wasn’t much more than a distraction. I’m not strong enough for anything else. Not like you. Not like Talia. Or Tucker. Even Pudge did more than me.”

Zeke didn’t know how to respond. He wasn’t sure how he saw his relationship with Abby. Though they were close and had been sleeping together for a while, he hesitated to call it love. As a friend and companion, he cared about Abby more than he’d cared about anyone in his life. Even his relationships with his family back on Earth seemed shallow in comparison, though that might have been the time and distance asserting themselves. However, love was such a big, dangerous word that he was terrified of applying it and its implications to his relationship with Abby. One thing he knew for certain, though, was that he hated seeing her in such a state.

He did understand it, though. Abby was capable enough, and she had her strengths, but in their group, she was clearly the weakest of them. Objectively speaking, her stats were lower, and her skills were weaker. And she knew just how poorly she compared to her companions. No amount of bravado could change that.

Before he could think of what to say, Abby shook her head, wiped the tears from her cheeks, and said, “It’s fine. I’m fine. The solution is easy, right? Just get stronger. Did you get seventeen, too?”

“Abby, I think –”

“Don’t, Zeke,” she said. “My issues aren’t for you to solve. I’m already a dead weight during a fight, I don’t need to be an emotional one as well. You got seventeen. Did you already allocate your stats?”

Zeke shook his head. “I’ve only glanced at my notifications,” he admitted. “But you’re not a dead weight, Abby. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.”

“Half-dead from exhaustion?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Alive,” he said. “I mean, if I hadn’t met you in Tua’ta’Alar, how long do you think it would’ve been before I wandered into some dragon’s roost or something?”

“Dragons don’t exist.”

“Wait, really?” he asked. “Every other fantasy monster is here. Why wouldn’t dragons be here, too?”

Abby shrugged. “You’re asking me, but who am I going to ask?” she said, her tone lightening. “I have no clue. That’s just the way it is. Besides, even if you did run into something like that, you’d just bash it with your club, right? You’d probably complete some sort of epic quest and get an achievement.”

“I would have died against the drachnid queen without you,” he said. “And after I got poisoned by those assassins. And when we got ambushed by the mercenaries. I would have died a dozen times over if you weren’t with me. You’re not a dead wight, Abby. You’re my partner.”

“Just your partner?” she asked. “Not your girlfriend?”

“I…I…”

“How can you still go red with all those bruises on your face?” she asked with a slight chuckle. “Seriously, Zeke. I’m not pressuring you to put labels on whatever this is, but…well, a girl does like to know where she stands. You don’t have to answer now. God knows we’ve got enough to deal with as it is without throwing that into the mix. But maybe give it some more thought, okay?”

He looked her in the eyes and asked, “What do you want, though? From us, I mean. You know my history. We’ve talked about it before. This isn’t something I have a lot of experience with. I like you, Abby. Maybe more. Maybe a lot more.” He shook his head, which was far more difficult than he could’ve imagined. He really was exhausted, and his neck didn’t want to move properly. Then, he said, “I don’t know, Abby. I really don’t. I just know I like being with you.”

“I want this,” she said. “You and me, together against the world. Getting stronger. Fighting and adventuring. And, you know, the other stuff. That’s fun, too.”

Pointedly, her hand crept a little higher up his thigh. Stopping herself, she continued, “I’m not sure where this is going to go, Zeke. A year or so ago, if you’d have told me I’d even think about tying myself down…well, I would’ve laughed in your face. But now? I can’t imagine being with anybody else. I want to be with you. Officially. I want you to be my boyfriend.” She gave a shiver. “Ugh. I feel like a teenager saying it like that. But you get my point, right? I don’t want to have to think about this anymore. I just want to be together.”

Suddenly, Zeke realized that he felt the same way. The notion of going through the world without Abby by his side was something he didn’t even want to think about, much less experience. He’d already made her a part of his long-term plans; he just hadn’t acknowledged what that meant. Now, he knew, and the knowledge was comforting.

“Me, too,” he said. He wanted to say more. He wanted to show her just how much he meant it. But at that moment, his fatigue chose to assert itself, and he lost hold of the energy it took to remain upright. After falling back onto the bed, he said, “Well, that wasn’t how I imagined that going.”

Abby laughed, then squeezed his thigh. “Yeah, I’d guess not,” she said, already gathering the blankets and throwing them over him. “Get some rest. We need to hit the trail again first thing tomorrow.”

Zeke didn’t even have the energy to respond, and a second later, Abby left the room. With a thought, Zeke extinguished the magical lamp and shut his eyes. However, as exhausted as he was, he couldn’t sleep. So, after a few minutes of restlessness, he decided to take the opportunity to inspect his notifications. He pulled up his status window. After attaining level sixteen, Zeke had followed his plan and allocated nine points into dexterity, bringing it above the two-hundred threshold. Then, he’d put the remaining six points into vitality, bringing the total closer to his goal of two-hundred points in all of his pertinent stats. Now that he had another fifteen points to allocate, he used fifteen points in agility, bringing it to a respectable number of one-ninety-eight. He looked at his status, a little surprised at the inflated numbers he saw.

It didn’t take him long to find the culprits. First, he inspected his first martial path, which had progressed to high novice proficiency. He focused on its listing, bringing up the sub-menu:

Martial Path: Blunt Weapons – Novice (High): You have begun to focus your Martial Insight, concentrating on blunt weaponry. +30 Str, Dex.

That was a lot of stats, but even so, the raw strength and dexterity paled in comparison to the insight he’d gained during his fight with Brynjar. It was only the beginning, though, because it seemed that he’d gained a second martial path.

Martial Path: Shield – Novice (Mid): Using a shield is acknowledging your place as a defender. You have begun to grasp what this means. +15 End, Vit.

He recognized when he’d gained the new knowledge, too. During the fight against Brynjar, he had fallen into the same trance-like state that he’d experienced so long ago against the troll warlord. And looking back, he now knew that it represented the solidification of all the work he’d done since leaving Beacon. All of those drills, the sparring with Talia, and the fight against the caprids – it had all coalesced into an increased fighting prowess.

More, it wasn’t difficult to see what was different. Before Beacon, he’d relied solely on his physical stats to see him through battle. There was little in the way of technique. But after training with Master Silas, he’d gained new insight into what he needed to do to improve. He’d never lacked for work ethic, so with that knowledge in hand, it was only a matter of time and circumstance until his path came to reflect his efforts.

Finally, he looked at his artisan path, which had progressed when he had exploded the tower rune.

Artisan Path: Runecraft – Novice (Mid) – You have taken your first stumbling steps down the path to runic mastery, but you have only begun to understand how long your road will be. +15 Wis, +15 Int, +5% Wis.

All in all, he was pleased with his progress, at least from a perspective of raw stats. However, he couldn’t deny that he was missing a very big piece from his tool kit. Primarily, he needed something that packed more of a punch than what [Leech Strike] was capable of. Not for the first time, he wondered if he’d made the wrong decision when he’d chosen [Mark of the Bear] as his level fifteen skill. It was useful, but its effect wasn’t nearly as quantifiable as a flashy damage skill. Perhaps he would get a chance to add something like that at level twenty.

As he lay there, Zeke found himself wondering what the next step might be. With the frost giants behind them, he and his group still had a long way to go before they could reach the pinnacle of power within the Radiant Isles. Their journey wouldn’t stop there, though. Even that was only the beginning.

He sighed, shifting under the blankets as he looked back on everything that had happened. The troll caves seemed positively tame when compared to what he’d gone through in the subsequent three years. He’d fought trolls, goblins, drachnids, caprids, and giants, which wasn’t even mentioning the undead.

Along the way, he’d also made friends. Abby was his partner, and in more ways than one. Then there was Pudge, whose loyalty was unquestioned and wholly reciprocated by Zeke. Talia was a companion as well, and he hoped Tucker would be, too. They both had their own issues, certainly, but the pair of them brought unique skills to the table. On top of that, they seemed a little like him – broken, in a way that he couldn’t really explain. They were outcasts – Tucker by choice, Talia by virtue of her transformation into one of the unliving. And in that, Zeke found something of a kinship. In that, he saw the makings of something more than simple friendship.

Or perhaps that was the overwhelming exhaustion combined with wishful thinking talking. Either way, as Zeke drifted off into unconsciousness, he felt that he had reason for optimism. It was a comforting thought that let him sleep somewhat peacefully through the night.

The next morning, Zeke woke to find Abby’s arm draped over his broad chest. He sighed, unwilling to wake her up. Abby had her faults; Zeke wasn’t so infatuated that he couldn’t see them. She was stubborn to a fault, sometimes selfish, moody, and a little insensitive when it came to his feelings. However, she was also funny, protective, and fiercely loyal. On top of that, there was just a chemistry between them that Zeke couldn’t quite describe. It was as if they were reading from the same book, and so, they knew just how the other was going to react in any given situation.

But there were other, more concrete reasons Zeke liked her. He’d have been lying if he claimed that her looks didn’t have anything to do with it. It wasn’t on top of the list, but it was still there, nonetheless. It was the same with the way she smelled – a soft, floral scent that seemed to permeate everything about her. Or the suppleness of her skin. The curve of her hip. Even her physical flaws – that slight hump on her nose, the small imperfections in her skin, or the minute unevenness of her teeth – they all just served to accentuate her beauty. To Zeke, she was perfect.

Or maybe he was just smitten. Either way, he counted himself lucky that someone like Abby would ever give him the time of day.

She sighed, and without opening her eyes, she said, “Are you going to just stare at me all morning?” Her eyes fluttered open, and then she smiled. “It would be a little creepy if you didn’t look so cute.”

“Men aren’t cute,” he said. “We’re handsome. Strong, even. But never cute.”

“That’s cute that you think that,” was her response. Then, without another word, she reached out, grabbed the back of his head, and pulled his lips to hers. After that, Zeke lost connection with any response he might’ve had.