Lone: The Wanderer

Book 2: Chapter 81: New Skills and Hilda Arrives

Hilda swore under her breath as she stumbled out of bed wearing nothing but her sleeping shorts. It could get pretty stuffy down in the strongholds of the Farwinds without access to the right enchantments.

While she was a guildmaster, she wasn't exactly swimming in gold, so her compromise was to simply sleep in almost nothing. She waddled through her home like a drunkard before reaching her front door.

"Why're ye slammin' yer fist on ma door this late in tha evenin'?!" she yelled through the brass contraption that separated her home's foyer from the street.

"It's 'im again," a voice she recognised to be Wilson - one of her branch's employees - explained. "'E isnae rippin' the trainin' room up like last time wae Hamish, but 'e's got ah bettin' pool set up. Adventurers o' all types are puttin' coin doon on when someone'll finally win ah duel. Admittedly, it was one o' oor own who started it, but 'e's turned it into ah hybrid tutorin' session. If someone can beat 'im, he'll pay 'em ten gold, if 'e wins, they 'elp 'im train the skill Blood Clone. Us employees 'ad a mini meetin' an' all decided ye should be aware in case things get oot o' 'and."

Hilda scratched what little underboob she had as she sighed. "Ten gold? Feck. Ah could use 'at maself... Fine. Gimme five minutes tae make maself decent. Ah'll be in the trainin' room in ten."

"Ah'll return tae the guild, guildmaster. Ah've still work tae dae," the man said before he started walking away.

Hilda shook her head. "Am ah tae lenient wae the staff? Some guildmaster would discipline employees fae 'at much casualness wae the leader o' their branch... Ach, oh well. Feckin' fox... cannae stop daein' surprisin' shite fae mere than ah few minutes at ah time, eh?"

She didn't care too much about the duels in and of themselves. It was rare but not unheard of for this kind of thing to happen, but it was the fact Lone had apparently learned Blood Clone that startled her.

If he was so publicly training the skill, then that means he would have been doing it long before becoming a silver plate adventurer had he already possessed the skill. That meant he had earned it today after getting access to the Credit Slate. That also meant his registered skills were worth at least 2,000 credits.

Sure, during his promotion exam it was proven that he had close to a hundred skills while being a quarter of that number in years old. But still, seeing was believing.

'If he's made ah lot o' progress in the skill already then Oror may not be the only one interested in 'im. If he can grow quickly in any skill at all, then maybe 'e 'as 'igh enough Teaching Mastery tae 'elp me breach the border,' Hilda idly wondered as she got dressed.

One of the biggest reasons she had retired into the cushy if not busy life of a guildmaster was due to her stagnation. Maybe this summoned hero Golden Foxkin had what she needed to advance? She'd soon find out.

Hilda quickly finished getting dressed, making sure not to forget her adventurer's pouch, and she then locked up her home before rushing over to the guild.

Congratulations! The host's active skill [Blood Clone] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 6.

The was the sixth level-up since he'd started getting the dwarves that lost to him to strike him with his clone trying to block their attacks.

It took a lot of focus to control the clone, fight his next challenger, give advice to those he was fighting and those helping him, and make sure none of the dwarves attacking him to train his skill actually hurt him or themselves.

So far he'd defeated a total of eight dwarves and they were working as a team, switching out as pairs of two to attack his clone.

He'd gained two new passive skills and three new active ones from the whole thing so far, on top of the six levels to Blood Clone as well as four levels to Teaching Mastery, leaving that skill at intermediate level ten, a level shy of ranking up.

Lone had already paused to return to the third floor and had paid the needed 200 credits for information on Teaching Mastery to find out which secondary effects the guild was aware existed.

None were achievable for Lone right now, much to his dismay. The easiest one to do was to level the skill by teaching someone at least three ranks stronger than yourself, meaning at least an A-ranker for Lone.

Doing so would give the host some sort of radar that let them know when someone vastly stronger than themselves needed or desired to know something the host could teach them.

An odd effect, but an interesting one in Lone's opinion. He wondered if it would let him abuse the effect to somehow detect powerful people in need of teaching, such as an assassin gunning for his life who secretly really wanted to learn the Pet Mastery skill or something of that ilk.

There was a similar effect for those weaker than you but it was supposed far more tedious to gain according to the credit slate.

Unfortunately, Lone had only been challenged by the initial C-ranker, five more C-rankers, and two B-rankers thus far.

This krieg was a border one so expected anyone stronger was foolish. And it seemed like those below C-rank didn't feel the humiliation of loss was worth the potential skill level-ups, a mistake their seniors were avoiding.

Regardless, his five new skills were as follows; Bearded Axe Mastery, Greataxe Mastery, Stumbling Sweep, Drunken Fist, and finally, Stone Slap.

Lone was a bit bored with his current challenger, the weakest one yet, and the first below C-rank, an F-ranker wielding an axe - apparently the preferred weapon here.

That being the case, he split his attention and chose to check out the improvements to Blood Clone as well as see what his new skills did in more detail.

Active Skill: Blood Clone

A skill popular amongst blood mages who have above average Vigour than the usual mage.

The host may create a connection between their blood and their mind, allowing them to control the blood to do their bidding.

The limits of the Blood Clone are defined by the host's ability and by the skill's rank in equal measure.

Maximum size: 660 [+342] drops of blood.

Maximum density: Each drop is equal in hardness to a triple compressed drop of blood [up from a drop of blood].

Maximum speed: 41cm [+22cm] per second.

Cost:4,000 SP [-1,000 SP] Mastery:Intermediate Level 6

'Fantastic! So it being attacked is a viable method to improve the hardness. The size improvements are nice, it's still slow as fuck right now, and I don't really care about the cost reduction. The numbers seem in line with the improvements at beginner rank so I guess it won't grow faster at a higher rank? Shame,' Lone thought as he felt his challenger's weapon bounce harmlessly off his armour.

Passive Skill: Bearded Axe Mastery

A child skill of the parent skill [Axe Mastery] commonly used as both a one-handed and a two-handed tool of death and carnage among axe enthusiasts.

When using a bearded axe one-handed, it will move 5% faster but inflict 95% less damage on Impact.

When using a bearded axe two-handed, it will move 95% slower but inflict 5% more damage on impact.

Cost:N/A Mastery:Beginner Level 1

'Huh. That's super interesting. My first instinct is to think the skill's demerits shrink when it ranks up while the merits grow, so at intermediate, that 'When using a bearded axe one-handed, it will move 5% faster but inflict 95% less damage on Impact.' will instead become 'When using a bearded axe one-handed, it will move 15% faster but inflict 60% less damage on Impact.' and so on and so forth until the positive is at 95% and the negative is at 5%,' Lone speculated, his interest having been piqued since he'd never seen a passive weapon effect like this before.

Passive Skill: Greataxe Mastery

A child skill of the parent skill [Axe Mastery] commonly used by barbarians and those of great Strength to cleave their enemies in two.

Greataxes used by the host will cut things 5% more easily.

Cost:N/A Mastery:Beginner Level 1

'Sweet and simple. Nothing new or interesting there,' Lone thought.

He was aware that the skills' active effects were Split and Cleave respectively, both allowing the invoked action to be far easier much like his Swordspear Mastery's Pierce.

What came next were the new active skills.

Active Skill: Stumbling Sweep

A common bar fight skill.

Instantly juts the host's leg out in a sweeping motion with 5% more Agility than would normally be possible for the host.

Limit: Will only trigger if the host is drunk.

Cost:1,000 SP Mastery:Beginner Level 1

'Useless since I have Intoxication Resistance. Then again, it is only at beginner level two so I could try levelling them together, one builds the resistance, one levels while I'm pissed. Hmm,' Lone considered.

Active Skill: Drunken Fist

An uncommon bar fight skill that is widely recognised as a martial art form.

Allows the host to use the basic forms of the Drunken Fist martial art form.

Limit: The host must be drunk to use this skill

Cost:10,000 SP per second. Mastery:Beginner Level 1

'It's so different to Sophie's Wing Chun. That's passive, this isn't. The cost is insane... It didn't seem that impressive but to be fair, the dwarf who gave me it along with Stumbling Sweep was so sloshed he could barely stand. At least he's sobered up a bit since he started helping with the Blood Clone,' Lone thought.

Active Skill: Stone Slap

This is a skill often gifted to those deeply attuned to the Stone.

Allows the host to channel the will of the Stone into their slap. Be warned, the Stone may choose to ignore the skill's activation and not allow the host to channel its will at all.

Current limit: 5% of the Stone's will.

Cost:N/A Mastery:Beginner Level 1

'My first active skill with no cost - didn't know that was a thing until just now, but it's also super unreliable. Sounds like a kind of world skill, but it's clearly not since the system labels it as an ordinary active skill. I wonder if a non-dwarf has ever earned this skill before? Maybe a Shale has like Guildmaster Oror?' Lone didn't know.

He wasn't intent on ever trying to train a skill that sounded so unreliable, so it would likely get shelved and forgotten.

At this point, the man challenging him had used up his ten chances to make Lone bleed. He'd only received so many because he was an F-ranked wooden plate adventurer, basically a fresh soul with little-to-no power in Lone's eyes.

"Join the rotation of the others since you lost," Lone said.

There was no need for him to attack and draw blood as he had in his first duel. Only those at C-rank or higher were allowed that condition since anything less and Lone felt he'd gain no experience out of it.

The dwarven man sighed sadly but nodded as he walked over to the group of adventurers busy helping Lone level Blood Clone.

"Well, this is interestin'," a familiar voice stated.

Lone recognised Guildmaster Hilda as she pushed her way to the front of the crowd that was now 60 or 70 dwarves strong.

"I haven't broken any rules, have I?" Lone asked with a smile on his lips.

"Normally," Hilda started, "folk pay other folk tae 'elp 'em train their skills. 'At's what the 'ole tutor programme is all aboot. Duels are fae settlin' matters o' 'onour. Disputes an' arguments. 'At sorta thing. Tournaments are fae learnin' fae one another - we've nae 'ad one of 'em locally in years. Things are different in the guild branches in other nations, but nae 'ere. This is the first time ah've seen an adventurer combine the tutorin' programme with the duellin' system. What's mere surprisin' is 'at the only coin changin' hands is from the sideline bets."

Lone laughed. "I haven't lost yet. Care to try your hand at duelling me? You stand to earn 10 gold coins and only stand to lose some time."

The crowd hemmed and hawed in excitement and the prospect of watching the guildmaster finally slap Lone around a bit since no one had been able to yet.

Hilda smiled. "What rank an' level is yer Teachin' Mastery at?"

"Intermediate Level ten," Lone answered honestly.

Many of the gathered adventurers wore expressions of gleeful shock. While on the grand scheme of things, intermediate wasn't an overly impressive rank for a skill to attain, however, that wasn't the case for a skill like Teaching Mastery.

It was as hard to level if not harder than even Enchantment Magic Resistance. This was on account of it being just as reliant on your ability to teach as it was on the subject matter, the duration of teaching, and on the student themselves.

Some respect entered the eyes of the spectating dwarves when they gazed upon Lone and just a sliver of their derision for his criminal history receded into the back of their minds.

Hilda, meanwhile, looked slightly disappointed. With his foxkin hearing, Lone heard her mumbling, "Not high enough..."

She sighed then stepped forward and cracked her neck. "Why not? Ah was woken up fae this shite, so ah may as well 'ave some fun. Ah'm an SS-ranker at the higher stage, so what rules dae ye suggest that'll make this even remotely close tae bein' fair?"