Chapter 11: Sharing SecretsI handed the guys magic crystals and said, “We’ll take it pretty easy today, just a bit of a warm-up before going out to get supplies. I know you guys are experienced fighters, but let’s start by taking turns against some trees.”

  “Trees?”

  “Um, Needlewoods, I guess.” At least, that’s what the little HUD says. “Marcus, you’re up.”

  As expected of someone who leveled up the natural way, the weak monsters were brought down with ease. Marcus defended with a small shield and wielded a longsword with well-timed, but heavy strokes. Might need to upgrade his equipment soon.

  “No challenge, as expected. Theo, you’re next. I see one about 30 meters ahead.”

  “Yep, I see it.”

  Are meters actually used here? Maybe it’s from transtion or it was obvious from context since there are no other trees in the vicinity.

  Theo was quick and agile, as expected. His small shield seemed to be an afterthought since attacks were usually dodged. His short-sword attacks were accurate and effective. Basically, this is what real swordsmanship looks like. His light equipment seems about right for him.

  “Great. You both clearly show your experience and skill, just as I hoped. We should talk about configuration options, but first, it’s my turn to demonstrate since you’ll need to know what I can do too.”

  I thought about casting a ‘fireball’. Soon, the chant came to mind — thankfully in fancy English rather than Japanese or Latin. Actually, even the name ‘fireball’ was a na?ve assumption that paid off. Well, messing up during practice would certainly be better than failing when it really counted. Besides, I had no reason to act cool in front of employees.

  But now comes the real test. I focused on the spell and pulled out the wand hidden behind my back. Pointing at the approaching tree, I spoke the chant aloud and fired off a fireball: boom. Yes!! That was so cool!

  Marcus excimed, “Boss! You’re a Mage? I assumed you’d be a regur adventurer or fighter. This is fantastic!”

  Just barely suppressing the urge to shout like an idiot, I saw that the tree was still moving. I seemed to have enough mana so I fired off a couple more shots to finish it off. I should now be able to use single, multi and wall forms of the basic elements. I’ll check the actual names ter, but this ability almost, no, this actually makes up for getting abducted.

  “Yes! Um, I mean, yes, I recently obtained the Mage job. I’ll need the two of you to protect me while I get used to it.”

  “Of course, you can depend on us. Now I see why you accepted a two-man vanguard despite having a sword.”

  “Actually, I have more experience with a sword, so it’s only fair to show you this as well.”

  I considered keeping my OP sword a secret, but that’d be too great of an inconvenience. To use my new Mage job effectively, I’ll need Durandal’s MP-absorption ability to recover my mana, especially while my level is low. Since that’d be impossible to do discreetly, it’s better to rip off the bandage now. I reallocated bonus points to be able to call Durandal and attacked the next tree we encountered. Having no reason to hold back, I took it down in a single, broad stroke.

  Theo tilted his head in disbelief and Marcus blurted out, “Just what in the hell was that?! Um, sorry, Boss, Sir.”

  “Ha ha, perfectly natural to be surprised. This is in fact an heirloom sword.” (Well, the name Durandal does come from French legends.) [1] “The power behind my attack is thanks to the sword — my modest skills are nowhere near yours.”

  “Um, but, how did it… your other sword is still at your waist.”

  “You could say that this sword truly belongs to me since I can make it appear at will.” They’ll see me do it eventually so might as well tell them the truth — with a little extra fir to make it believable.

  My attack magic had been a surprise, but now they just stood there in stunned silence.

  “As you might expect, this is an even greater secret than my magic. I generally prefer to avoid any special attention. Since magic is usually just for nobles, revealing it makes people look too closely at me. This sword and my other skills are absolute secrets.”

  Still a bit shaken, Marcus managed to nod in confirmation, but Theo asked, “Other skills?”

  “Yes, I have a few thanks to my particur heritage, but nothing else is as fshy as this sword.”

  I drew the steel sword and pced it into my Explorer’s Item Box so I could pce Durandal into its custom scabbard. Already staring directly at me, this little action didn’t go unnoticed.

  “Yes, what you just saw was one of those other, special abilities. I retain some skills from my previous jobs.”

  Unable to contain his intellectual curiosity, Theo asks, “And what other amazing skills do you have?”

  Marcus admonishes, “Theo, you can’t ask that!”

  “Ha ha, well, it’s fine to ask, but I won’t reveal all of my secrets. Instead, I will let you know everything you need to know… and I hope that you’ll do the same for me.”

  “Of course.”“Yes, Sir.”

  “So, can either of you do any special tricks, like, breathe fire?”

  “Boss?”

  “Just kidding, though that’d be really cool. By the way, I feel that we should follow Marcus’ discretion in public, but Theo’s directness is good in the byrinths or private discussions. In particur, if you have a problem or serious concern, I want you to talk to me about it. Don’t let things fester just because the question seems impolite… as long as you know that I still might not answer.”

  Yep, don’t want another Tessa incident. I shouldn’t get too compcent, but these guys already feel like regur teammates. Still, this is just a comfortable level of trust, not deep friendship. I’ll wait awhile before showing my warp skill and I should probably keep job-list editing to myself. Showing one of my own extra-job skills was a bit risky, but Item Box is too convenient. Ciming that these extra abilities are connected to old jobs also allows some flexibility when introducing other oddities ter on.

  We continued to plow through the first floor, taking turns as we went. Strategies like defensive positions weren’t needed here. The usually quiet Theo braved another question when it was Marcus’ turn to fight trees, “Um, Boss? Did you happen to know that the attacker was going to, um, burst apart like that?”

  Crap, he noticed something either during the event or maybe afterwards… yep, I was way too calm. Trying to curb my excitement of soon being able to use magic just made me look suspicious. Oh well.

  Theo deserves a better response than “none of your business, sve.” I could lie, but I probably wouldn’t be believed and that would backfire if I ever needed to use this ability again. I have no obligation to share or to even be honest, but keeping too much distance doesn’t help me either.

  “Actually yes, I did know… because I was the one who made it happen. It’s a very risky and painful skill, but I can do it when necessary.”

  “Oh… I see.”

  “Of course, I already recognized him as a Bandit. Calling out to him was both a way to confirm his intent and to let him know that I recognized him. If he got away, he could alert other criminals so they could set up an ambush.”

  Theo simply decred, “Those scum deserve no mercy.” After a long pause, he added, “And I’m starting to understand why you need to keep secrets.” Well, that sure sounded ominous, but it should be fine as long as he doesn’t start gathering kindling for a bonfire.

  We eventually reached the floor boss where we finally got in a few hits together. I casually asked Theo to fetch the drop so we’d have the option of setting his job to Herbalist ter on… possibly even with his permission. Instead of continuing with the second floor, we returned back to the inn — we’d already strayed well past a quick warm-up.

  “Hey Marcus, want to switch to the steel sword I was using? I don’t really need it anymore.”

  “Well, sure. I’ll gdly take it, if you don’t mind.”

  “Would either of you rather use a different weapon than what we have here? An axe, spear, whatever?”

  “Nah, these swords are good, but, since you’re asking, and you said to speak freely, I wouldn’t mind eventually getting a bigger shield.”

  “Sure, no problem. Go ahead and bundle up the swords you don’t want and we’ll go sell them before we go shopping.”

  At the armory, we picked out a medium-sized, steel shield for Marcus — not cheap, but worth it for my vanguard. Of course, I picked one with open skill slots. I told them that we’d hold off for a bit before getting our main armor upgraded.

  The weapons merchant gnced at the scabbard he made for me, but, of course, didn’t mention it. He also didn’t ask why I was selling so many swords again though he’d probably guess correctly. Hope he thinks I’m a bounty hunter rather than a hit-man though both sound better than serial-killer.

  Finally, I had the guys pick out what they needed from the general store. After a casual nod, they understood that I’d approve of any reasonable requests. It all added up, but I still had plenty on hand after paying for these guys. With full backpacks, we went back to the inn to offload.

  “I’m going to the river to wash up. Want to come along?”

  “Uh, sure. That’d be great.”

  We walked over to my usual spot, which was practically empty this te in the day.

  “Boss, are we really allowed to bathe here?”

  “I don’t know, but no one’s come to compin so far and I don’t see any signs saying that we can’t.” (Not that I’d be able to read them.)

  I skipped washing my hair this time, but it still felt nice to clean up before dinner. We walked back, changed and ate at the inn.

  “Unless agreed in advance, we’ll meet down here within an hour after sunrise. I’d rather not have to go wake you up.”

  “No problem, Boss. Anything less would be unacceptable.”

  “Also, outside of a real emergency, I won’t disturb you after you go back to your room. If you come to me, it’d better be pretty important.”

  “Um… thanks.”

  Felt a bit weird to be acting like their parent, but technically, it’s almost like I am. Presumably, if they damage something, I’d be held responsible, at least financially. This heavily stratified society seems oddly stable and I have yet to find an abused or even dissatisfied sve. So, it’s yet another aspect of this world that feels completely artificial.

  I don’t know if I could ever accept this strict hierarchy as good, but it certainly could be worse. In particur, Marcus and Theo probably assume that I’m something like a noble. Of course, I leaned into that a bit for my own advantage. I’m not perfectly comfortable with the expectations of my perceived status, but being the boss does make things easier.

  I grabbed my crap from their room and relocated to my new single. I made sure to leave a little money with them so they could get hot water, mp oil, etc, but not enough for them to sneak off to a bar. Maybe I’m even stricter than a normal parent, but I don’t really know them yet.

  Just leaving my junk in a pile, I warped over to Tuuli’s. The warp already felt notably easier than before. Tuuli seemed to have been waiting for me, but not angry. Wonderful.

  This time, we practiced some clumsy nguage training by ntern-light. She tried to teach me some basic phrases in the local nguage, but I found them almost impossible to reproduce let alone understand. Anyway, it was better to concentrate on teaching her since she’ll benefit more than I will. It’ll probably take a long time before either of us reaches fluency, but the process is quite fun.

  In some ways, our current retionship is a limited, but much less disruptive version of the original deal of teaching her the privileged nguage. She doesn’t work for me and I don’t support her financially, but I enjoy the other aspects of our retionship. Of course, that part of the deal seemed to have been assumed by everyone else from the start.

  In a sweet voice, Tuuli calls out, “Tsu-tsu.”

  Ah, that I understand — time for bed.

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  [1] The sword carried by Rond, the epic padin of Charlemagne. Rond was real but the stories took some liberties.