Chapter 18: The Left of Bare Arms

Chapter 18: The Left of Bare Arms

It took Edwin three days of throwing rocks at the wall whenever he could and five levels in the skill before Edwins complete lack of talent was offset by whatever bonus he was receiving from Throwing Weapons and he was able to start juggling. Once he did so, he swiftly confirmed his suspicion that constantly keeping three balls in the air did help him level his Throwing Weapons skill, and the near-constant use of his skill (juggling was fun when you could actually do it!) meant it rose steadily. By the time he hit level 24, he could keep four rocks in the air or juggle two one-handed. That wasnt the only benefit, either.

Congratulations! For reaching level 12 in Throwing Weapons you have unlocked the Warrior path!

Attempting to juggle rocks while working hadnt gone well at all, which slowed his practice down some, but Edwin found that he could toss things from one hand to the other without his attention getting mad at him. Integrating his skill training into his every movement had paid dividends, and after several weeks, Throwing Weapons, once his lowest-leveled skill, was now at level 47, which, while not quite as high as Almanac, which had hit level 61 two days ago, was nonetheless quite respectable. Yes, his initial idea had been to just raise it high enough to afford the Bomber and Polyglot paths with it, but further reflection had him doubting if that was a good idea. It was, after all, easier to improve a lower-leveled skills level, and if he wanted to evolve all of his skills eventually, that meant he would similarly want to level all of his skills to the 60-90 range. That realization made him want to bang his head against the wall for trying to advance Basic Mana Manipulation at level 9, and that he had only been at level 14 and 22 for his other evolved skills. Gah!

Well, that was all in the past and there was nothing he could do about it now. Hopefully, Edwin would be able to get Throwing Weapons and Language up to that range before he had to break out. His last audience with Lord SFashkchlil (hitting level 24 in Language had gotten him to the point of being able to barely pronounce the tongue-twister of the name, though most of the time Edwin still preferred to use whatever insult came to mind when thinking about his captor) had been even rougher than usual and overhearing the chatter of other dwarves made him realize Stinker was under pressure due to something. He hadnt caught the details. Research seemed to combine well with his Language practice, and he was able to at least catch the gist of what was being said in dwarven most of the time, even if his ability to speak it was rudimentary at best.

Hmmm. Actually, if he wasnt mistaken, Edwin would probably be getting an audience with the esteemed head of Clan Blackstone today. It had been a few days, after all. He wondered what insults and threats hed be subjected to today. Would he stick with the digs against humanity, or would it return to the tirade against extraplanars? He couldnt wait to find out.

Almost on cue, the door opened and his guards- the same two Blackstone Sentries as always- entered, then stood aside for a third figure to enter. Rashin, for his part, stepped past the two mostly-alert figures and swept into the room. Edwin raised an eyebrow. That was different. As Rashin snagged Edwins notebook from the bench, he got very suspicious. The dwarves had always been careful to not make it obvious they were disturbing his stuff in the past, what changed?

As Rashin left the room, notebook in hand, Edwin shrugged and followed along. He knew the whole song and dance like the back of his hand by now, no need to rock the boat. To his surprise, the Sentries barred his way with their spears.

Wait, one of them said in dwarven, and Edwin looked at him dumbly.

Whats the holdup? he asked, in English naturally. No point letting his captors know he could understand them. It was, after all, the only way he had caught what little information he had from them. He merely grunted in response, and Edwin shifted from one foot to the next impatiently.The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

After about a minute, they uncrossed their spears in perfect unison (was there a Skill involved in those sorts of coordinated movements?), turned, and led Edwin out the door and down the hall, through the (currently empty) mess hall, up the stairs, up the other stairs, and into the throne room. There, flipping through Edwins notebook, was SFashkchlil, wearing the perhaps most displeased expression Edwin had yet seen on the man.

For the longest time, Outsider,

Ah, so it was an Earthling-insulting day. Good to know.

I have allowed your behavior to slide. I believed you indeed had some form of reasoning behind your endless repetition and inane work. You recorded so much in your journal, which I had believed held countless insights and notes to the process you seemed so insistent would provide results,

The dwarf was half-yelling now, and Edwins eye itched. It was really annoying, he wanted to rub it but figured his Blusteriness wouldnt be amused. Oh, he was still talking,

-that whatever you were writing was unreadable even by Magistrate Rashin due to poor handwriting,

Well. That was a bit harsh. In his defense, the quill and inkwell they apparently expected him to write with were impossible to use. He would have to make a fountain pen as soon as he had the chance and remembered how to

-find out that you have been writing nothing but actual nonsense interspersed with insults towards not only myself,

In hindsight, it may not have been the smartest idea to actually write his thoughts about lord Sfishkill down, especially as his quill-work was actually half-legible at that point, but he had really needed to vent at the time. The drawing may have been a bit much, though. Hm. Did he have a skill pertaining to volume? Could Edwin go deaf from overexposure to this loud of a voice? Could Shouter go deaf? Was that why he was always so loud?

-so you have three days to give me something I can actually use in this Gorkcha-damned war,

They were at war? Interesting. And was Gorkcha a god? Were there gods on this world? He probably should try to find that out.

-swear to you, I will have your head cut off and mounted upon a stake. Do you understand me?

Edwin nodded vaguely, then caught what exactly was said, Wait, what?

The dwarfs face somehow grew even more thunderous, which Edwin hadnt thought possible, I said, your Task is to, within three days, show me the results of your work, and they had best be impressive, or I will cut off your head and mount it upon a pike.

Edwin was taken aback. Well, beyond the fact he had never promised anything, what was more surprising was the direct threat to his life. Sure, ominous-sounding warnings and insults were par for the course, but never before had he been actively threatened with death if he didnt produce results. This was probably serious, then. Darn it. He was nowhere close to ready, but it sounded like he was out of time. This would be a few very busy days.

Edwin was snapped out of his musings by his notebook impacting his shoulder with a very painful smack. Gah, that hurt. It didnt feel like it broke anything, but it would probably leave a welt. He tuned out something about getting out of my sight as he picked up the slightly battered notebook. Flipping open to a random page, he checked to make sure it still was working properly.

Identify

No noticeable variation between plaster made of Infused powder and made of nonmagical powder, Infused following mixing it with water. Namely, higher mana content stiffens the plaster slurry, allowing it to be set quickly.

Okay, that was a relief. The damage to the notebook hadnt affected his Almanac entries at all, not that he had really expected it to. Sure, he had most of his critical notes saved on other things- materials or generic items, generally- but the notebooks pages were where it was most organized.

Sure, his advisor would probably throw a fit about these records being editable, but he didnt need to sign and date the pages to deal with possible patent disputes anyway, and there wasnt a Carbon-12s chance of decay that hed write out everything using a feather quill. So, he had just used Almanac and Identify for his notes. His skill levels loved it, and he was at 273 characters these days, so he could actually get most of a paragraph in a single entry.

As his cell door slammed shut behind him, his feet having walked him back to his room nearly on autopilot, Edwin caught himself absently tossing his notebook from hand to hand. With a sigh, he tossed the slightly-tattered tome onto a small patch of empty counter. Checking the kiln, he found that his latest batch of lime was done, so he scraped out the rubble and replaced it with fresh limestone. The next few days would be crazy busy, but he needed to start slow. He had done enough odd things that making a few spheres out of mortar wasnt that strange, but if he was too blatant, the dwarves might notice what he was doing and that would be Very Bad. Also, hed have to work around his Tasks compulsion, which. Wait.

Perfect.

Name

Edwin Maxlin

Age

22 years

Race

Extraplanar Human

Class

Alchemist Outsider

Attributes

Mana 5

Skills

Magical

Basic Mana Sense: 29, Firestarting: 23, Alchemy: 41, Mana Infusion: 53

Physical

Athletics: 23, Breathing: 15, Flexibility: 11, Nutrition: 16, Packing 1, Seeing: 15, Sleeping: 20, Survival: 12, Walking: 20

Mental

Identify: 27, Language: 33, Mathematics: 37, Research: 40, Outsider's Almanac: 61, Visualization: 23

Combat

Bomb Throwing: 1

Paths

Skill Points: 206

Very Much Yes- Eventually

Micro-Biomancer 0/90, Path Less Traveled 0/90, Realm Traveler 0/120, Scientist 0/60

Promising

Stonehide Vanquisher 0/60, Titan Slayer 0/90, World Traveler 0/60, Researcher 0/60, Explorer 0/60, Outsider 0/60, Linguist 0/60

Maybe One Day

Survivor 0/60, Athlete 0/60, Daredevil 0/60, Pioneer 0/60, Novice Pyromancer 0/60, Warrior 0/60

Meh

Lumberjack 0/60, Way of the Empty Hand 0/60, Trapper 0/60