A Soldier's Life - 267 - Investment Opportunities

Chapter 267: Investment Opportunities

Benito, not waiting for the stunned Castile to move, stepped past her, gently pushing her aside, and entered the common room for the suite. “Nice place! I don’t see any food. Can you order some from the tavern below? The stew smelled good on the way through.” Benito dropped his pack and sat heavily on the sofa. His pungent scent from being on the road for so long filling the room.

Castile finally regained herself and asked, “How are you here? How are you even alive? Cornelius told Konstantin you were dead.” She said the last with a finality.

“It’s Eryk, and he is like crotch crickets. Always surprising you when you least expect it,” Lirkin said from behind Castile as he squeezed past her, too. His leg was bandaged, and he walked gingerly.

“Drink this, and don’t complain about the taste,” I said, handing him an orc healing potion as he was passing me.

Realizing what it was, he patted me on the back affectionately before making to sit down with a groan and sigh. His pack, along with his sword belt, joined Benito’s on the floor. “Castile, if you are not going to enter, may I?” Mateo asked politely, unlike Benito and Lirkin. Castile numbly moved aside again, still processing my appearance. Maveith was greeting the men and pouring them cups of water.

“There is a bath,” I announced to those in the room. “You could all use it,” I hinted as they smelled of the road and horses. Blaze was the last one behind Castile, but he waited patiently, using the wall for support, his knee in a brace.

Castile finally stepped forward and into the suite. Blaze entered behind her, and we briefly clapped backs in a brief hug as I handed him a Pathfinder potion as well. Lirkin warned him, “Ugh, Blaze, you might want just to keep your limp or risk losing your ability to taste.” Lirkin was trying to clean his tongue on his shirt and spitting into it. “What foulness are you poisoning us with?”

“Pathfinder potions. I killed a few dozen orcs for them. I will remember you are not interested in consuming them in the future,” I said with a roguish grin.

Lirkin immediately reconsidered and said, “I am sure they just take getting used to. Either that or eventually, I won’t be able to taste anything anyway and it won’t matter.”

Castile, looking over the men lounging with a beaming Maveith serving them, turned to me, “Can we talk?”

“Let me feed the rabble first,” I said, smiling. I walked to the low table in the seating area and produced my last twelve burritos, along with two canteens filled with Elven ambrosia.

Benito was already biting into the first one. His mouth full, “This makes the walk here worth it.” Blaze reached for the canteen to wash the taste of the Pathfinder potion from his mouth. A loud conversation erupted as they ate and drank, and I moved away to talk with Castile in one of the rooms.

Castile immediately sat on the bed as I closed the door. Her feet and body were weary. “How did you get here?” I asked her quietly.

She exhaled in a long breath. Her tone was heavy. “Me first, then you. Zyna enacted the attack on the Emperor. He should have been spent but had a reserve of aether. It didn’t go well, and many were lost. The Empire was crippled with the number of mages killed in the rebellion.” I handed her some cold blood orange juice. Her eyes widened as she sipped it and licked her lips of the sweet, acidic drink.

“We slinked away after the battle and made our way east. There were fewer of us than planned, but it made it easier to move in stealth. We only traveled at night but were found by a mounted patrol. I overextended in the fight to make sure none of them escaped, and we took their horses.” She winced, and I assumed that was where she had burnt her aether channels. “That night, Wylie rode off back to the Empire. Probably to report to Firth.”

“The horses were a blessing, and we rode them hard during the night for a week before they failed us, and we abandoned them. A few days later, we abandoned everything that marked us as Legion and served as merchant guards for a small, fast-moving caravan for a week. After that, we made our way to Gramney on foot. We arrived three days ago, weary, poor, but whole.” Castile finished with a very brief summary. She hadn’t even mentioned how a gnoll had wounded Lirkin.

It was my turn, so I began at the beginning. “After Hound training, I got a lookout position in Kraken Bay. Other than the loneliness, it was serene and peaceful. The Caliphate fleet sailed down the bay, and I was ordered to shadow them.” I eliminated most of my adventures and skipped over capturing the First Citizen Mage.

“The Caliphate put ashore a group of Pathfinders, and I noticed goliaths were moving the cargo. I wasn’t going to intervene, but was spotted. I was forced to eliminate the Pathfinders and free the goliaths.” Castile arched her eyebrow at how casually I talked about eliminating a Pathfinder squad. “One of the goliaths had news of Maveith’s sister. The news was ten years old but gave me hope she was alive. I followed the largest part of the fleet until they spotted me again. I fled and managed to locate the Archives.”

Castile got excited, but it quickly faded, “You found the Archives? I suppose it is too late to return and destroy the samples.”

I produced Castile's jar in my hand and handed it to her like a prize. “I destroyed the Archives—everything in it. I only took this to find you and the company.”

Castile reached for the inscribed jar and pulled her hand back before reaching for it again. She turned over the jar, the square pieces of bloody fabric within. She was mesmerized by the tumbling fabric for a time before asking, “The Archives at the Palace?”

“I don’t know. There was a fire at the palace when I left. Ignis supplied Imperial Legionnaire armor for men to infiltrate them. Maybe she knows more,” I said uncertainly.

She looked me in the eyes, “How did you get here?” She stressed the question.

“After the Archives, I found Maveith in Sobral, and we went to the capital from there. We took an Adventurer’s Guild ship to Esenhem and teleported here from the Elven kingdom. We have been here about two weeks,” I said, skipping the details. She didn’t need to know about the gnoll migration, First Citizen Boris, or the sahuagin swarm.

“Two weeks!” She said in disbelief. She almost dropped the jar. She laughed a little hysterically, like I had told a bad joke. “We spent nearly a month getting here, every day was perilous and could have ended our flight.” She shook her head in disbelief, thinking I had taken a boat ride and got here relatively unscathed.

After she calmed down, I asked, “Benito said you were burnt? How bad is it?”

A pained look on her face made me want to comfort her, knowing how debilitating it was. “Twice I burned my channels. Once for the Bartiradian mounted patrol and once to hide us from a cyclops venturing out from a cave from the Endless Dark. I won’t know how bad until I can access a tablet reader, though.”

“Oh, you need a tablet reader? I have an Elven one, but it is so old that it is configured for humans. It was one of the first built by elves, from my understanding. Do you wish to use it?” She cocked her head at my statement, and I knew I was showing off a little since I didn’t need to hold my secrets as tight any longer. She slowly nodded, and I produced the table in the room, barely making a sound as it settled on the floor.

Castile stood immediately, marveling at it in amazement. She looked at me and then back at the table in disbelief. Yes, Castile, I really am that big, I said in my head. Castile couldn’t read Elvish, but all the attributes and affinities were in the same order. She traced her hands along it, hesitant to activate it. “Did you get this from Caelora?” She finally asked.

There was no reason to deny it. “Yes. Are you going to use it?”

Castile took a deep breath, not wanting to know the bad news, but she activated it anyway. My eyes immediately traveled to her affinities to satisfy my curiosity. 

Elemental Magics (Common)

Fire0

Air26

Water 0

Earth0

Lightning (Energy)49

Spirit (Healing)0

Nature (Plant)0

Unaffiliated Magics (Uncommon) 

Charm (Mind)5

Illusion62

Clairvoyance46

Protection (Guardian)0

Necromancy19

Celestial0

Abyssal28

Rare Magics 

Space0

Time0

Displacement0

Materialism0

Worlds0

Void0

Convergence0

I was underwhelmed with her affinity strength. But she was one of the most effective mages in Empire because she was adept in using what she had. Still, Renna was much more powerful when it came to affinities. Castile interrupted me, “Can you read me my magic attributes? I don’t know Elvish.” My eyes moved across the table, and I read them to her. 

Magical

Aether Pool 58/60

Channeling 44/50

Aether Shaping 64/68

Aether Tolerance 35/37

Aether Resistance 27/30

Prime Aether AffinityIllusion

Minor Aether AffinityEnergy

When I read channeling, she nearly collapsed. I stopped reading, “How bad is it?” I asked, concerned.

“I lost three potential points,” she said numbly. “I will never recover.” She realized she was going to be in pain for the rest of her life every time she used her magic. I wished I could console her, but it would likely take a dozen or more apex channeling essences to restore her channels. They were just too rare. I sat beside her on the bed while she stared blankly ahead.

I waved at the table, “Your magic attributes put mine to shame, Castile. I will try to provide whatever you need to live a comfortable life here before I leave with Maveith.” She nodded but numbly, and a knock came at the door.

Mateo had slurred speech as he spoke, “Castile, we decided you should use the tub first. If you don’t want to then we are going to draw straws.”

Castile hesitated before she stood, “I am going.”

After she left, I looked at the tablet reader. I could give it to her. It would be a very profitable venture for her. I was charged gold the first time in a Telhian city before I discovered the one in the Adventurer’s Guild. I cleared Castile’s reading, squeezed the table, and sent a pulse of aether to activate it.

Elemental Magics (Common)

Fire0

Air0

Water4

Earth42

Lightning (Energy)8

Spirit (Healing)23

Nature (Plant)0

Unaffiliated Magics (Uncommon)

Charm (Mind)5

Illusion13

Clairvoyance0

Protection (Guardian)30

Necromancy0

Celestial (buff)0

Abyssal (debuff)0

Rare Magics

Space101

Time90

Displacement80

Materialism9

Worlds88

Void22

Convergence74

Relief flooded me as I had been worried the damage to my aether core might have affected my affinities. Would Castile be envious of my scores? There were some secrets that I was not willing to share. My eyes drifted to my displacement affinity. Worlds and displacement were the only two affinities I could inscribe a spell form for. Maybe it was time to start focusing on a displacement spell form, even though I lacked the aether to use it effectively.

I looked over at my attributes.

Physical

Strength (+5/+2) 67/84

Power (+5/+1) 62/88

Quickness (+1/+0) 54/62

Dexterity (+1/+0) 64/75

Endurance (+3/+0) 79/98

Constitution (+2/+1) 61/73

Coordination (+2/+1) 57/69

Mental

Intellect (+3/+2) 38/58

Reasoning (+2/+1) 53/62

Perception (+1/+2) 57/64

Insight (+0/+0) 37/52

Resilience (+2/+0) 56/71

Empathy (+3/+2) 22/26

Fortitude (+3/+0) 63/90

Magical

Aether Pool (+0/+0)24/26

Channeling (+3/+0)39/61

Aether Shaping (+1/+1)9/9

Aether Tolerance (+0/+0)50/56

Aether Resistance (+1/+0)16/19

Prime Aether AffinitySpace

Minor Aether AffinityTime

My potentials had not changed significantly due to my limited access to essences. My physical attributes had only seen modest improvement in the past few months. I was fortunate that the essence prevented me from losing points during periods of laziness or illness, such as when I needed to heal naturally for two weeks. I reset the reader and returned it to my dimensional space.

I walked back into the common room to a quartet of drunk legionnaires. No, they were no longer legionnaires, even if they still wore pieces of armor stained black. “Do you have any more of this?” Lirkin asked, waving the empty canteen in front of himself.

I produced the black jade chalice from the dungeon, and they were familiar with it from the dungeon. I transmuted a quart of water into Elven whiskey—called ambrosia. Benito snagged the canteen after I filled it from the chalice.

Mateo looked me in the eyes, “Maveith told us about his sister. If you can wait, once we get Castile settled, we will go with you.”

Blaze added, “I always wondered what it would be like to be an adventurer. Killing monsters, rescuing citizens, always on the road to the next fight.” He was grinning madly at the thought that he would be doing the same thing as when he was a member of the legion.

Benito finished his pull on the canteen and handed it to Lirkin, “But we get paid more, right? Adventurers are rich?”

The door opened, and Ignis walked in, causing the group to go silent. “So, you found them. The mage didn’t make it?” I pointed at the bathroom, and she nodded. Ignis looked at me, “I sold one of the weapons and found a forge on the outskirts of the trade district. The smith is moving to be with his aging parents in the village where he was raised.”

“How much?” I asked, getting to the point.

“Eight hundred gold, but I will talk him down to seven hundred tomorrow and explore getting a loan.” Ignis said as she moved to sit with the stunned men.

I introduced her as she wasn’t making an effort to do so. “Everyone, this is Ignis, Master Imperial Blacksmith.”

“Master Armorsmith,” Ignis returned coolly. As they introduced themselves, I added six loaves of the delectable Elven bread to the table. The hungry piranhas made short work of it.

I got into a conversation with Ignis. She had gotten 97 gold for the sword, and it was the best of the three. The non-artifact armor would only fetch 15 gold, in her estimation to a collector. Since she was going to be about five hundred gold short, I handed her the silver earrings shaped like leaves from the Shimmering Labyrinth. Maybe they had some artistic value.

“Are these valuable?” I said placing them in her free hand, the other occupied with a loaf of the desert bread.

Ignis took the earrings and tossed them lightly in her hand. She studied them closely, then looked at me. “You are full of surprises. Where did you get platinum earrings?”

“Caelora,” I responded, not mentioning that I thought they were silver. I should have realized it by their weight.

Ignis seemed to consider the two swords and the earrings, nodding to herself. “About five hundred gold. I can make it work.”

“You said you needed seven?” Twenty large gold coins appeared on the table as I placed my hand on it. All eyes looked at the stack and then me.

Mateo's eyes widened at the stack of gold, “Oh, mighty djinn! I wish for one thousand gold coins!” He bowed to me and nearly stumbled to the floor, the ambrosia was a powerful drink.

Benito chirped in, “You still owe me seven silver!”

I was trying to gradually introduce them to my dimensional space. I waved my hands again, and they followed them intently, but all that appeared was a bright red apple that I bit into casually. Castile remained in the bathroom while we celebrated, and we only checked on her once. She exited shortly after and went into one of the rooms I indicated instead of joining us.

As everyone moved to find sleeping accommodations, Lirkin came to talk with me. “Someone should stay with Castile. It feels like we are abandoning her here. If it’s okay with you and Maveith, I will stay with her. I can find work at an eatery in the city and watch over her. I heard many mages have trouble dealing with the burn.”

I patted Lirkin on the back. “We don’t mind at all. Have you ever thought about running your own tavern?”

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