(CS) Chapter 13. D1 (Patreon)

Name: Arik
[Blessing of Celestial Skies]
Age: 18
Stats:

Physique: 16

Limit: 15

Talent: 12

Wisdom: 12

Essence: 7

Purity: 19

Free Points: 0

Primary Class: [Stellar Paladin] (2)

Skills (3/5):

￮ [Heavily Armored] (1)

￮ [Bladework] (3) -> (5)

￮ [Starlight] (2) -> (3)

￮

￮

Secondary Class:

Tertiary Class:

Skill Points: 4

Arik looked over his slate with great interest. Just one day in class at the Citadel had given him equal gains to the entire week spent training beforehand, and that was even with the .

While the interest was quite large, comparatively, he knew that it actually made sense. He was in a high-Essence environment, and surrounded by Skilled teachers who were all extremely versed in their respective subjects. He was sure that Nisha was experiencing some truly rapid Skill growth, what with her knowledge- and learning-based Class.

Arik’s [Heavily Armored] Skill was falling behind, which was something that he’d have to fix in the future, but he wasn’t too concerned about it. He’d most likely be able to get something that would fit to use in all of his physical classes, and probably his Delving club too. He’d have to ask someone. Probably Mr. Illysius? Calling the noble a mister felt weird for Arik when their ages were as close as they were, but nothing else quite fit.

Arik pulled up the descriptions for his [Bladework] and [Starlight] Skills.

[Bladework]: Your Talent stat acts 10% (2n%) higher while learning to wield bladed weapons. Bladed weapons you wield act 5% (1n%) sharper.

[Starlight]: You summon an ethereal orb of Magick that sheds light for 6 (3+n) feet. This light counts as starlight. Drains Essence. Reserves 7 Purity.

Arik nodded, proud of the progress. While the gains, especially for [Starlight], may seem rather negligible, they were certainly worthwhile. He had to remind himself that he was only at the start of his journey, and it might feel slow at times, especially since he was reviewing his progress every night. It may be wise to avoid pulling up his slate too often, maybe restrict himself to doing so once a week?

Arik disintegrated his slate, along with the Skill descriptions, and leaned back to enjoy a night of stargazing within his own Waking Dream. However, just as he was beginning to get comfortable– a somewhat unique and challenging task when there was no gravity to speak of, nor any comforts in sight– the stars of his Dreamspace began to brighten.

He frowned at the disruption, colors now streaming across the expanse of the void, turning the once-darkened space into a colorful light display. Then, he felt something shifting in the Dream, and then a loud chime echoed across his Waking Dream, followed by his slate forcefully opening itself back up.

Name: Arik
[Blessing of Celestial Skies]
Age: 18
Stats:

Physique: 18

Limit: 16

Talent: 12

Wisdom: 12

Essence: 8

Purity: 21

Free Points: 4

Primary Class: [Stellar Paladin] (2) -> (3)

Skills (3/5):

￮ [Heavily Armored] (1)

￮ [Bladework] (5)

￮ [Starlight] (3)

￮

￮

Secondary Class:

Tertiary Class:

Skill Points: 6

What just happened?

Arik had never even heard of something like that occurring. He knew that high-level people could feel out their own Essence quantities, and that people were more sensitive to such things in their Waking Dreams, but he’d never heard of someone leveling in their sleep.

Perhaps I just leveled from the increased ambient Essence? That thought made him frown. Even with my low level, ambient Essence shouldn’t have been enough to do all that in just one night. But then, what happened?

Frustratingly, he had no answers to that question. Maybe Nisha noticed something. I’ll have to ask in the morning.

With that in mind, he bent his focus back onto his slate. After glancing wistfully at Essence for a moment, he shook it off and spread his points evenly between Wisdom and Talent. Essence isn’t that important right now, and I am at a school.

He once more closed his slate. The lightshow across the stars had died out, and now they were back to normal.

Arik once more relaxed himself, and started tracing out lines in the beautifully open sky.

===

Arik woke to a bell going off in the Citadel. For a moment, he was shocked, but he quickly recovered and forced himself to get ready for the morning. He rushed out his door in his Spartan uniform, and got to the Citadel’s main field in record time. The other students streamed in for a while, and after looking for some time, he spotted Nisha. However, before he could move to speak with her, the same Kho’Ya woman from the day before spoke up.

“Children! It has come to my attention that you do not know my name! I am Dris’Nihkaal! As one of your administrators, you shall call me Ma’am, Madame, or Mrs. Dris. In any case, ten of you were still three minutes two slow. Ten pushups for the lot of you!”

Once more, Arik’s body seemed to force itself into the position of a pushup, and it carried it out with ease. Those 18 points in Physique aren’t just for show! He poked at his own muscles once he was done, and felt that they were firm, and tight, even without him flexing. They were also growing somewhat, which he was more than fine with.

Looking back up, Arik noticed that Mrs. Dris was gone, and the students were dispersing. He looked around for Nisha again, but she was nowhere to be found. Hmm, Dris? Why does that sound super familiar? Arik scratched at the back of his head, knowing that the answer was probably something extremely obvious that he should’ve remembered. If only my life were like a book, and I could look at what happened, say, 7 chapters ago to find out what I’ve forgotten. He chuckled to himself at the thought. Now that would be convenient!

With little else to do, Arik headed to breakfast. He’d hoped to see Nisha here, but she was nowhere to be seen, so he once more ate with a quiet mind, albeit one that was somewhat concerned for his friend’s condition. Nisha wouldn’t miss a meal. Is her club doing something this morning? It would make sense if they decided to cook their own breakfast, but I didn’t hear anything about that…

He elected to push the thoughts from his mind for now. He’d see her later, and would just ask then.

===

For the most part, Arik’s morning classes were uneventful. At least, nothing unexpected happened over the time he spent within them. Chasapi regaled them with a tale of a past battle that he’d commanded, Klandios cut a live Wood-type Essence beaver apart to show how its mandibles had been reinforced with wood, and display the toughness of its tail.

Spanaeia had introduced them all to one student’s Volcano Essence, which was actually quite uncomfortable, since it somehow felt muddy, dusty, and sweltering, all at the same time. Arik had seen Nisha there, but hadn’t had the opportunity to approach her, as she once again simply vanished after class. Alexander Illysius had talked them through the basics of battle formations– something that was also covered in Arik’s Delving handbook. Arik did actually get a chance to talk to him about getting equipment for his classes, but the man just waved him off and told him that they’d discuss it in class today.

Finally, it was lunch. If Arik didn’t see Nisha here, then the chances were high that he just wouldn’t get the opportunity to ask if she’d noticed anything last night. I mean, I guess I could talk to Zach about it, but if anyone would’ve noticed something, it would’ve been her.

He stepped into the cafeteria and immediately spotted her. Nisha’s shoulders were slumped, and her expression dour. Arik quickly got his own food and took a seat by her side. She didn’t even look at him, and wasn’t touching her plate, either.

“You alright there?” He nudged her shoulder.

She didn’t respond to him at all, and just kept staring down at her food.

Not knowing what else he could do to help salvage the situation, Arik just started eating his food. By the time he was finished, Nisha was just barely starting to play with her own noodles.

“I mean, if you’re not gonna eat it…” With a smirk, he pulled her plate towards himself.

She turned to him with a snarl on her face, and pulled the dish back towards herself, gobbling the entire thing up in seconds.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’ve got some sort of Gluttony Essence.”

The girl scowled at him. “I’m upset, and the best idea you can think of to cheer me up is to steal my food?!”

“You’re talking now, aren’t you?” In Arik’s defense, he was just trying to get some kind of reaction out of her. Her suddenly turning into a ravenous wolf was a reaction, if not the exact one he’d expected.

“Hmph. Fair, but there were better ways to do that.”

“Oh? Like what?”

“Well, uh, that…” She bit her lip, then continued, “I’m sure you could’ve thought of something.”

“Sure I could’ve, but that was much more entertaining than the alternatives.”

Nisha let out a groan. “Jerk.”

“You know it. Seriously though, what’s wrong?” For all that he was trying to play it off, Arik was genuinely concerned about his friend.

“Nothing too important to you. It’s just… my mom.” She wouldn’t look at him.

“Your mom? She’s here? What did she do?”

“Yeah?” She gave him a strange look. “You saw her this morning, Arik.”

Arik’s brain turned into static for a moment, then he remembered something. “Ohhh, that’s why her name seemed so familiar!”

Nisha let out a small, half-hearted laugh, before saying with a strained voice, “Yup, that’s my mom alright.”

“Not gonna lie, your mom seems pretty scary.”

“She’s definitely not someone you’d want to get into an argument with.” Her smile grew less and less real by the moment, and her voice grew small. “I’d know.”

Arik frowned. He didn’t want to make Nisha dwell in her memories any longer than she had to, but… “How can I help?”

The Kho’Ya girl shook her head. “Technically, you could, but I’m not going to let you.”

What? “Why not?” If Arik could help, he was going to help!

Nisha turned to look at him with a ruffled expression. “She’s looking to marry me off to the first noble with an interest, and says that hanging out with a commoner is going to hurt my chances. Also that I need to act more like a ‘proper lady,’ whatever that’s supposed to mean.”

…Oh.

“Oh. That’s… umm,” Arik stuttered on, “I don’t know how to react to that.”

Nisha nodded. “I don’t really know what to do about it. The only way you could theoretically help the situation would be by going away, but I don’t want that either.”

Arik’s eyebrows creased. “Is that why you were avoiding me earlier? Wait, you’re not going to go along with this, are you?”

She looked down at her empty plate, and her voice came out reluctant as she said, “I haven’t made up my mind yet. It would be a good opportunity for my family, for my tribe…”

“But you don’t want to,” Arik finished for her. “Nisha, you can’t allow yourself to be treated like something to be traded away for some political advantage. Your feelings mean more than that. Have you tried to talk your mom out of this?”

The girl cringed before replying, “...no? She’s my mom, Arik. I can’t just…”

“Yes, you can. Tell me, how old are you?” The question was slightly rhetorical, since he knew that she could access the Waking Dream, and the generally acceptable age for that was 18, but he was trying to prove a point.

“Eighteen?”

“I don’t know how it works down here, with your people, but up top, people who are eighteen years old are considered capable of making their own decisions. Look, you can love and respect your mother, but you’re an adult. You can’t let her control your life.”

Now Nisha looked at him, though the expression in her eyes was one of fear. “But what if she gets mad at me?”

“Nisha…” He felt bad for the girl. It was an awful situation to be in, especially for someone who seemed so overly nonconfrontational. “Tomorrow, we’ll go to talk to her. Together. Okay?”

She gave him a pained expression. “I don’t know, Arik. I’ll think about it.”

“You’d better. You’ve got until tomorrow morning to mentally prepare yourself. I’ll drag you there if I have to, these muscles aren’t for show!” He smiled at her panicked expression. That’s right, you’ve got no choice in this!

The students in the cafeteria started clearing out, reminding him that he still needed to change out of his formal uniform. “Well, Nisha, I’ve gotta go get ready for my next class, but I’ll see you later. Don’t think for even a second that you’re gonna be able to weasel out of that discussion with your mom, though!” With a chuckle, he picked up his trash and turned away from a girl whose mind was racing at a mile a minute.

Oh, by the gods, she thought, how am I going to survive this?!