6 Chapter 6
Athias took a deep breath.
Aimed.
Then fired.
An arrow soared between thin tall trees, between leafless branches, and pierced the head of a lone elk. It collapsed, dead long before it collided with the ground.
He released the breath he'd been holding.
「Alert: Numerous skills advanced」
「Sneak: 22 -> 23 Archery: 24 -> 25」
「Alert: Experience threshold met 」
「Advice: Rest as soon as possible to advance your level」
Athias ignored the dark windows of information and freed himself from the shrub he'd taken cover in, shaking off the snow that'd gathered along his shoulders from remaining still for so long. After a cautious look around the pure white landscape, he approached his fallen prey.
Hunting was not to his taste. It had its moments; tracking down a bleeding prey that managed to survive an arrow, lining up that perfect shot after a painstaking wait, and -most excitedly of all- those rare moments when predators were hunting him. So far, he'd only dealt with wolves which was probably for the best. He had no idea what level a frostbite spider or sabre cat would be on. He'd rather get the drop on them, if possible.
Those moments were short-lived respites in an otherwise boring wait.
He stopped not far from the dead elk, the once pure snow tainted by dark blood.
The hairs of Athias' neck rose and his gut dropped as though he had just stepped into a moving elevator. He readied an arrow and looked around.
Snow. The occasional tree, growing more frequent towards the base of the mountain. A lone hearty shrub that clung to life.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
Something was watching him. Athias knew that to be true.
Unable to do anything about it, he removed his bone arrow from the fallen animal and, after some adjustment, heaved it over his shoulder.
And thus began his trek down the snowy mountain, back to the warmer temperatures of the hold's forest, dinner caught and a distant predator stalking him.
Truly, there was no place like Skyrim.
Athias found himself humming some of the tunes he often heard from Auri, slowed but not truly bothered by the weight of the sizable elk. He was strong, stronger than most. And like Auri pointed out, he had stamina in spades, only ever worn out by extended battles.
If only he had a strength stat he could see.
These windows, or system as he's come to call them, that aided his growth, seemed to be just that. An aid. So far, no perks raised his maximum health, stamina or magicka and those things didn't increase with his level, nor could he use a perk point to up their maximum threshold. He had tried. The perks were focused more on subtle changes to give him an edge rather than stuffing him full of a power. Was it just opening up dormant potential he already had?
Athias still wasn't sure what to make of it. For now he was content to embrace it and keep the mystery at the back of his mind.
As he approached the base of the mountain, the snow that blanketed the ground thinning as it drew closer to the forest line, he turned. He could still feel something watching him.
Was it somewhere up on that mountain, blending in with the snow?
He turned back to the forest.
Or was it somewhere among the trees and bushes that separated the two environments?
No point overthinking it.
Ready to toss aside the elk and pull out his blade at any given moment, Athias kept going until he took his first step into the forest.
The slightest pick up in his heart rate gave him pause.
It was close.
Very close.
The bushes beside him shook. Something small, maybe a rabbit.
The branches above shook, a single leaf falling. Just birds landing.
A sharp cold grazed the back of his neck.
Startled, Athias dropped the elk and spun around, drawing his sword.
A sharp row of teeth greeted him.
"Dammit, Auri." Athias said, letting go of his blade. "You can't just wait for me out in the open?"
"No. Scaring you is much more fun." Auri said with a grin. She stood directly beneath the shadow casted by the tree beside them, having hid within it. Forest coupling is what she called it. According to her, Wood Elves could step into the shade casted by a tree and became one with it. He didn't understand it; in his eyes she appeared out of thin air with no prior warning. She tilted her head curiously. "Did you see me beforehand? It felt like you knew I was here."
"Not exactly. I guess you could call it a feeling." Athias said. It was the only way he could feasible explain his heightened awareness; after all, this newly acquired sixth sense of his was the result of a rather well used perk point.
"Good instincts then. I suppose adventuring into dangerous places would make you more sensitive to danger than others." Auri, satisfied with her own justification, kneeled down to inspect his fallen prey. "This was a good shot too. You've gotten better."
Auri had no idea how true that statement was.
These past two weeks, split between learning magic and Auri teaching him archery alongside the art of hunting, he's gained quite a bit.
=========================
「Alert: Overall Level Increased」
「Level 9 -> 10」
「Reward: 1 perk point」
「Advice: Invest your perk points as soon as possible」
He'd gotten use to leveling up but Athias still found himself grinning as he awoke to the familiar alert. Level ten felt like a massive milestone considering he started all of this by nearly freezing his ass off back on those mountains that now served as his hunting grounds from time to time.
「Alert: Achievement Unlocked」
「Achievement: The First Steps」
「Conditions: Reach Level 10」
「Description: Whether it be by your own freewill or out of necessity, you've begun to shape a strength of your choosing. How far will you go?」
「Rewards: Tutorial phase concluded. Multiple restrictions lifted.」
Confusion and traces of concern replaced any pride he took in his accomplishment.
Tutorial concluded? That carried so many different implications that could change everything.
Would everything sudden be twice as strong as before? Would his level up rate slow? Would-
Athias stopped himself. The best way to understand anything was first hand experience. Overthinking and theorizing would reveal nothing.
After putting on his armor, he emerged from the tent, focused on Auri who was beside the campfire, fashioning a flute like object from bones.
[Name: Auri]
[Race: Wood Elf/Bosmer]
[Level: 15]
The information over her head was the mostly the same, her level having gone up while traveling with him. That was-
「Alert: Willing party member found」
「Description: You and Auri share a growing sense of comradery. That fledging sense of trust has made her willing to join your party. Would you like to add her to your party?」
「Y/N」
Despite being taken aback, Athias found the answer to be obvious. He didn't know what would happen but why would he say anything other than yes? They already traveled everywhere together.
He hit yes.
Instantly, three much smaller bars appeared at the top left of his vision right below his health bar, so compact that they were touching. Auri's name was written right over them, styled like the bark of trees with roots branches growing off them.
So he could see her status, now? That'd certainly make it far easier to keep track of how she was doing in a fight.
Athias shivered, instinctively stepping away from whatever just brushed against his neck. Of course, it was none other Auri herself, a finger where his neck had been. She, as he's come to find out, had a far more lax sense of personal space than him, happy to poke and prod at him at the most inopportune times if it meant getting a reaction out of him.
It must be a cultural thing.
"What was that for?"
"You looked like you were distracted. Something on your mind?"
Athias shook his head. He must have either gotten too comfortable around her or so caught off guard by the changes in the system to just start reading the windows in front of her. Probably both.
"I just remembered that I should probably go pick up what I ordered from Lod. He should be done with those swords by now" Athias threw out the first thing to come to mind. They'd visited Falkreath a handful of times to sell off trinkets they found but they hadn't been in anything comparable to Shriekwind Bastion since Auri began teaching him archery.
Auri crossed her arms, staring up at him.
"If you're sure." She finally said before returning to the campfire. "We'll be visiting Falkreath after we eat then?" At the mention of food, his stomach released an audible grumble. Spending entire nights practicing spells built up quite an appetite. "I'll take that as a yes." Auri said, amused.
=========================
"Here you are, two swords made of elven steel."
Athias took the two yellowish-golden blades from Lod: a bulky nord with very short hair that acted as the town's local blacksmith. They were pristine. A graze would be more than enough to break skin.
He sheathed them, clipped one to his right hip while the other was stored in his bag, it's leather bound handle and golden pommel sticking out.
One would be used in combat, the other was mostly for an experiment. If said experiment was a success then he might use both.
"If you're a collector, would something from Hammerfell interest you?" Lod questioned, earning a raised brow from Athias. "A redguard merchant passed through town just the other day. A bit of an odd one, but his goods were of high quality. Bought a pair of those curved swords them redguards like to use."
Scimitars huh. Unfortunately for Lod, he was off the mark to assume Athias was a collector. He wouldn't have bothered with those blades even if he had the septims.
"Maybe I'll just hang them up then." Lod said as he returned to his work, not at all put off by Athias's lack of interest. "Use those blades well friend. Elven metal isn't my specialty but that's some of my finest work yet."
Athias nodded as he and Auri left the blacksmith, following dirt trails deeper into town.
"You sure you don't want anything, Auri?" Athias questioned. "Half of this gold is suppose to be yours."
"There's not much I would want to buy from a nord settlement." Auri said. She allowed him to have all the gold they earned from their adventuring despite the major role she played. It's the only reason he was able to afford buying two of those elven swords.
"Well if you ever change your mind, just let me know."
"I will."
Their next destination, Grave concoctions, sold alchemical ingredients and potions. He didn't know much about alchemy and Zaria, the redguard who owned the place, didn't sell any books on the subject so buying from her directly was more or less their only option.
One of these day's he'd have to head up to Winterhold or some other hold. How could a hold not have a court wizard?
"Halt there." A firm voice called out. A guard, face covered by the pointed helm so many of them wore, approached the two of them. "The Jarl wishes to speak with you both."
The Jarl? This was either really good or really bad.
"About?" Athias asked.
"I wasn't told. My orders are to bring you to see the Jarl, nothing else." The guard said.
Athias and Auri exchanged looks.
She was just as, if not more, anxious about the sudden news than him, trying to appear smaller than she already was. He couldn't blame her. Meeting the head nord in town with enough authority to have their heads lobbed off for no other reason than they displeased him wasn't a good time for anyone. Especially not in a hold known for its disdain for outsiders.
That said, they couldn't deny a summons from the Jarl. Not without some form of repercussions.
And he was curious.
The guard led them along the dirt trails of the town, past an archway and uphill to a mound where nothing other than a large lodge sat. It was far more grandiose than any other building in town. The guard stepped aside and waited, clearly making sure they didn't just skip town right then and there.
After one more exchange of looks, they entered, Athias first and Auri behind him.
Much like the outside, the inside was far grander than any other building. The Jarl's tall chair sat straight ahead, two parallel long tables spanning the middle of the room, and openings to large rooms on either side of the main hall. Two different stairways led higher up. To the private quarters of the Jarl and those in his employ no doubt.
Athias noticed something was off immediately.
The place was empty.
No one, other than the Jarl, seated in his throne like chair, awaited them. No steward and no guards.
"Finally. I have a task for you, outsider." The Jarl's voice carried across the room, loud and echoing despite his old age. Dengeir, a name Athias had heard mentioned once or twice in the town, was a wizened man, bald with a thick gray beard.
[Name: Dengeir]
[Title: Jarl of Falkreath]
[Race: Nord]
[Level: 40]
Level 40? What kind of foolishness was that? Anyone from the town could come along and put the old man down so why would the system label him with such a thing? He had his suspicions but, Athias was seriously beginning to think levels weren't a simple indicator of physical or magical power.
"What kind of job warrants getting rid of your own guards?" Athias questioned evenly as they walked forward, setting that thought aside for later. He didn't intend on showing any needless disrespect but he wasn't about to roll over for someone else's whims and act like this whole thing didn't stink.
"One that'll see your pouches filled with gold and the both of you out of my city." If it wasn't clear that the Jarl had no love for them before, it was now. "I need you to investigate something. A group of bandits have taken over a fort to the west of Falkreath that the Empire claims to have recently abandoned. Get rid of that scum and see what you find inside."
"You think the Empire lied to you?"
"Oh, I know they have. They're plotting against me you see. They've heard of my support of Ulfric and his stormcloaks and plan to remove me." Jarl Dengeir said darkly. "First my most trusted advisors turn their backs on me and now bandits are given the perfect opportunity to cause trouble in my hold. This is no coincidence. They want me to look weak, frail."
"Look?" Auri muttered from behind him. "I'm not one to judge by looks but has he seen himself?" Athias ignored the snide comment.
The old man sounded paranoid if nothing else.
"And you decided to trust outsiders with this? An imperial no less?"
Dengeir waved off the question. "Word of you reached me. A pair of adventurers who know little of Skyrim are of no threat to me." His deep frown shifted to an outright sneer. "That puppet of an Empire might be worthless but not even their agents would stoop so low as to parade around one of the man-eating monsters those damned High Elves have taken control of."
A low, almost animalistic, growl escaped Auri. Athias would've found it cute had it not been for the tense situation.
This must be one of the many early conflicts that preceded the civil war that would soon rage across Skyrim. To think he'd be somehow drawn into it while trying to mind his own business.
How unfortunate.
Athias wasn't stupid enough to imply rejecting this so called request so he was going to make the most of it.
"We travel by foot. Depending on the location of the fort the journey could take quite some time. If you would lend us a horse, we could see this task done sooner." Athias proposed.
「Alert: Skill advanced」
「Speech: 21 -> 22」
"Yes, best not to waste anytime." The Jarl muttered mostly to himself. Athias held back a chuckle. Was he a good bullshitter or was this Jarl so confident in his assessment of them that he didn't even consider such a thing a risk? Or maybe it was the paranoia dulling his decision-making skills. "Guards!" At his call, two guards posted outside the lodge came in. "Provide them with one of our fastest steeds and a map of the hold."
"Aye, my Jarl!" One of them said, leading the two of them out of the lodge.
Athias looked back one last time at the lone Jarl muttering to himself.
Excessive paranoia truly caused as many problems as it solved.
=========================
Back inside of Auri's pod for the first time since they met -the odd place actually felt rather homey now that he was use to roughing it in forests- Athias unfurled his map as well as the detailed one of Falkreath provided to him across the table of roots. As he looked over the latter, icons appeared to represent the new places on his map. Most of them were of notable places in Falkreath though they documented the other holds and their significant towns. The symbols were faded out rather than the few vividly colored icons that represented places he and Auri had discovered on their own.
A way to track where he has and has not been maybe? Convenient if so.
"Can you believe what he said?" Auri grumbled from across the table seated in a chair. She had been steamed the entire trip here and while being free of the wood filled town alleviated that somewhat, the insulted fury was still very much present. She narrowed her eyes at him. "I have to ask, is that how you see my people? Monsters to be shown off?"
"Don't be ridiculous." Athias looked back to the map, wondering what they should do. "You saved my life without expecting anything in return. You taught me to hunt. You even follow me into whatever dangerous places we happen to come across without taking any of the gold we make from exploring."
"True, your diet is something I doubt many would be okay with, but it's not like you actively seek out people to chop into lunch. We may not have known each other for a long time, but I know that if your people are anything like you, none of them are monsters."
"Good, that's good. I'm relieved to hear it. I-"
"Besides, just look at you. You barely reach my shoulders. I've never know a monster to be so small." He added.
"Really?"
"And your ears wiggle when you're excited. That's the opposite of threatening."
"They do not!" Auri denied fervently.
Despite the staunch denial, he glanced up from the map to see a smile on her face. If she was happy then his job was done. He deserved an increased to his speech if you asked him.
Alas, the system did not see fit to reward him with any alerts.
"Where do you think we should go?" Athias asked, focus back on the map. "I was thinking Whiterun. We can take the scenic route rather than going straight through Riverwood."
"Whiterun? Don't we have to do what that old bastard ordered us to?"
"Why in-" Athias caught himself. Hell wasn't the right word, not in this world. "-oblivion would we do something like that?"
"But didn't you-" Auri's eyes lit up with realization. "You lied to him?"
"Naturally. Say we did what this Jarl told us do and his paranoia actually ended up being justified, we would be accomplices in an act against the Empire. I may not be a soldier, but I don't have any reason to go against them. I'm sure not looking to get in trouble with people who, at the moment, have the most control over Skyrim."
"Now a Jarl, who has authority in one hold, can't do much against people like us. We're adventurers, wherever in Skyrim we happen to be is our home. If we said no to the man we would've been banished or worse, so I took advantage of his paranoia and got us a free horse."
"I'd say we have a week at the most before there's a bounty on our heads in this hold, so we need to get moving." Athias rubbed his chin, recalling a conversation with Solaf and what he knew of this world as a game. "I'm sure people will be calling for a new Jarl sooner or later. We might be able to get it all cleared up when that happens. If not, oh well."
"Wow…" After a moment of silence Auri began clapping. "We should celebrate."
Athias looked on her oddly. He just told her they'd have a bounty put on their heads and she wanted to celebrate?
"In Valenwood thievery is considered an art. If you manage to steal something without being caught, you have the right to demand payment when you return the item. The way you did it was a bit roundabout but you technically stole from someone while talking to them. That would've earned you quite the bit of respect among my people." Auri explained. Huh, so the Khajiit are often looked upon as thieves in Skyrim while the Wood Elves have an entire custom dedicated to it? How ironic. "I have a feeling the Jarl won't be giving you anything if you go back and tell him that though. So let's celebrate on our own."
"What do have in mind?"
Auri headed over to her kitchen like area and revealed a pair of bottles. "Some jagga, of course."
Alcohol.
He should've known; in a world with so little in the way of technology how else was one expected to have a good time.
He'd like to get a move on as soon as possible but it's not like they didn't have time to drag their feet.
And his curiosity about the alcohol would never be sated until he tried some.
"Why not."
=========================
Baldurs Gate 3
Pathfinder: Wrath of The Righteous
Star Wars
It wouldn't have any systems like this one but if I were to write another fanfic which would interest you guys the most? Been looking at a lot of content for all three. Wouldn't be able to update it much compared to this story, maybe tuesday and thursday, but I'm just asking.
Anyways toss you boy some stones and maybe check out the patreon. It is now 7 chapters ahead. And if you aren't interested in early chapters but just want to help me turn writing into a full time thing, there is a cheaper tier to help me out.
patreon .com/TheExpGarden
