Chapter 7: Day Before Departure (1)

A month had passed in the Elven city of Dormou, and days had gone by before I had even realized it. Vestiges of my prior uneasiness had transformed into scantly veiled afterthoughts, brushed aside for the time being. At my leisure, I was amid delving into a variety of experiments in between spending time within and outside the walls of Dormou and having daily chats with Marna. There was only one real issue.

“Human mage, come! It’s time for our daily duel!”

Kneeling on the ground, I couldn’t hide the distinct annoyance on my face as I recognized that haughty voice that rattled me time and time again these days.

“Captain Vaalyun, please... I told you already. At least give me a single day off! You’ve been doing this every morning!”
“And I remember stating to you that such a request is not possible, until I win, that is!”

The Captain had puffed his chest out, holding a wide and arrogant grin in comparison to my weary gaze.

“Seems like I really have no say against the guy with the losing streak, huh? I forfeit then. Congratulations, Captain Vaalyun. And goodbye!”

As I turned back toward the prior object of my focus, I could hear the Captain’s feet move closer toward me.

“I told you, that won’t do. A win for me only counts on the battlefield. So, arm yourself, human mage!”
“Aren’t you a Captain in the Elven army? A paramount in leadership for your people? How is that you’re not busy right now anyways?!”
“I am busy, but I was also scheduled to have a duel with you today.”

That was the first time I heard anything of the sort. A “first” that happened seemingly every single morning. His idea of scheduling was simply centered around whether he had spare time or not in between his workload.

“This guy...”

As I slumped forward knowing that I didn’t have any other choice—as always—another voice then came from a short distance away. Saving me, a usual face that was normally seen by his side had arrived.

“Captain Vaalyun, sir!”
“Tsk. Such bad timing these men have. I need to make sure to discipline them more properly on how to read the room. Well, hold that thought, human mage. I’ll be right back—so make sure to warm up properly!”

No, no, no. Don’t worry too much about me and take your sweeeet time, please. And teach yourself to read the room as well while you’re at it.

His voice had dominated the prior peaceful area, and after he was finally dragged away, that beautiful quietness had finally returned. It was still early in the day and I was currently testing a few things out near the back end of the training grounds. After spending a month in Dormou, I was able to get the gist of what I could do to an extent now. Even so, there was a few things I wasn’t able to do as properly as I was hoping I would. Thankfully, due to Marna’s explanation on magic, I had also finally settled on a sub-Class a few weeks back as well.

“It seems like he’s become rather attached to you, don’t you think, Sir Albel?”

A gentle voice, one I welcomed openly in contrast to the previous walking storm.

“Marna? Is that how you see it? He’s been dragging me around—left and right—having me deal with different things for him. I’d say it feels like quite the opposite for me...”
“Hehe. Mm, well, he doesn’t really have anyone else in Dormou that is stronger than he is and can properly spar with him at the same time. In regard to his strength—his own men can’t really hold a candle to him either. I’d say that he also has a considerable amount of trust in you now, very much so.”

As I gave her a side glance, she held a warm expression with her eyes closed. I personally couldn’t really agree with her as the one who was constantly being thrown around by the Captain’s whim.

“Even though he was so insistent on throwing me out in the beginning?”

It also didn’t help that, even though he acknowledged me as a proper Effigy, he still didn’t originally want to even entertain the idea of housing a human in Dormou at first.

“People can change, can’t they? It just took him a bit more time than it should have, but I’d say he’s finally seen the potential in you. Just as I have since the very beginning. Mm!”

Marna responded with her usual energetic tone as she decided to walk closer toward me. I still remained crouching near the ground as I continued to voice my differing stance.

“More like he changed right when he realized my potential in being able to do a large part of his workload. I didn’t think I’d be put on the monster extermination team as a guest, you know?”

She gave a small chuckle to my vented frustrations, but I couldn’t really get mad at her for something so inconsequential. She was the reason I was allowed to stay inside Dormou’s walls to begin with. I was given permission to remain in the city, and its castle, for far longer than I had thought I would be able to. Possibly even a bit too long.
I originally had told Marna that it would have been fine with me to leave immediately after our talks. Yet, she ended up just flat-out refusing my suggestion. Stating that she felt responsible for me as my primary summoner. I knew she was involved in my summoning before, but I didn’t know it was to that degree until that moment. It wasn’t until shortly after that I finally used [Investigate] on her and saw her true identity.

Name: [Marna]
Rank: [Elven]
Level: [27]
Class: [Divination/Shaman]
Alignment: [Neutral Good]
INFO:
Titles - [First Princess of Dormou]
[Divine Elder]
[Bearer of the 7th Heavenly Virtue]

I had not only found out that she was the “Divine Elder” of Dormou, but that she had a title that I had never even seen before in MO. She was seemingly embarrassed and apologetic about hiding the fact that she was the Divine Elder when I had happened to mention it in passing to her, and yet, she couldn’t—or possibly wouldn’t—comment in detail about the unknown title.

"Hmm, I'm surprised you could see that as well, Sir Albel... I can't say what it is personally, but I don't think you should worry too much about it for now... Also, please keep it a secret, okay?"

She held a slightly quivering smile as she said this to me that day. Thus, I refrained from probing any further. It seems that the once common skill, [Investigate], was actually a rather rare skill here—especially with it being maxed out. Due to that, no one else but her family and close aides had ever seen her status. I had also happened to find out that she was a bit younger than myself despite being of Elven blood. She was only 24 years old, to be exact.
Incredibly young for someone in her position as, not only the First Princess of the Elven race, but also as someone that held the title of Divine Elder. She carried a lot on her shoulders. The latter was a title only obtained by whomever held dominance in the realm of the Divination arts. I had heard about it briefly in MO’s lore, but didn’t know it was tied only to the Elven race. You would think that someone like myself that toted the Diviner title would be able to claim such as well, but it had only applied to their people.
The Divine Elder was tasked with continuously keeping their people safe with their abilities. Meaning that—without a doubt—she was the one that had foresaw the chaotic area ahead; amongst other things.

“I thought you had something to do in the castle today, Marna?”

She was now leaning against the side of a warehouse wall near me. She usually spent her mornings perusing important documents that pertained to her position. It wasn’t common to see her out and about during morning hours. Even when she’d rush her work in order for us to have lunch together, that work would still take her into the afternoon.

“Mm, I did, but I decided to take a small breather for a short while. What are you currently doing at the moment, Sir Albel? Practicing again?”
“Ah, something like that. Just a little bit of trial and error with summoning magic. Seems like I still can’t it right with just Wizardry...”

Going by what Marna had told me a few weeks prior, about how magic held no restrictions in this world; I began testing different things out. One being a separate form of summoning magic from a Wizard’s perspective. And after several weeks of attempts, I had successfully summoned a spectral familiar—not once—but twice. Even if it was just a rat of all things.

Like, it was a success, but...what exactly am I supposed to do with a spectral rat?! An inconsistent one at that! If summoning a rat is this difficult, I can’t even imagine how hard it is to summon something useful using this method...

“Still? I thought the new Class you had chosen with your Unique SKILL already did that for you?”

I had informed Marna about a few things regarding my status during our daily chats. One of those had been about my Unique SKILL and my sub-Class choice.

“It does, but in order to further attempt something else I want to try, I have to learn how to do it properly with this sub-Class as well. Or at least, I believe so.”

In MO, Wizards didn’t have any early spells that dealt with summoning creatures. Even the weakest spells of that specialization were locked behind the separate Conjurer Class instead. The Conjurer specialized specifically in summoned creatures, while also having the ability to buff and heal them. This made for some aggressively powerful allies via summons. And that’s exactly what I had chosen for my sub-Class—Conjurer.

“I feel as if you’re just exerting more effort than you need to, no? Is whatever it is you’re planning on trying worth all the effort you’ve been putting into learning that?”

It was a reasonable question from her. I had yet to go into deep detail about my reasons after all. It was an idea that was originally lingering on the precipice of limbo. I still wasn’t entirely sure it was possible to even succeed.

“Well, for now, I can’t really say for sure. But I guess that’s just how theory-crafting works though. I won’t know until I get to that desired point, on whether it was worth it in the end or not.”

Having been crouching for quite a while, I decided to rise to my feet and meet her at eye level. I could feel a tinge of tightness in my muscles as I began stretching a bit and continued on.

“Well, either way, some failures here and there aren’t going to stop me that easily.”
“Hmm...”

My objective in this ongoing experiment was to unite three different power sources—the varying energies of life—and summon something beyond the norm. Currently, I drew power from the Arcane and the Divine with my initial Class of Divination Wizard. The former pulled energy from a separate plane, whereas the latter from prayers—or in my case—my equipment like my rings and necklace whenever I rested.
The Conjurer pulled from neither of those two, and instead, drew from the Primal—the lands and spirits that dwelled within. There were other minor sources as well, but these were the main three.

“You see, I can summon a few Lesser familiars with my Conjurer sub-Class—with it being only Level 29—as well as healing and buffing totems. If I can manage to combine all three main power sources, I might be able to summon something amazing! I’m getting excited just thinking about it!”

I could feel a sparkle in my eyes as I gazed into the distant sky. I was truly looking forward to seeing the end results.

“Mm! I can’t definitely see that, Sir Albel. But are you sure you should be spending all of your time down here—today of all days?”

I could feel my face shift into a state of puzzlement as I glanced in her direction. It took me several seconds of eye contact before I realized what she was implying.

“Oh! That’s right! Today was supposed to be my last day, huh? Tomorrow's finally almost here. I completely forgot about that.”
“I mean, there’s no reason for you to rush leaving, right?”

As she pushed herself off the nearby wall, she now stood in front of me at a slight tilt in my direction.

“I told you before, you may stay here for as long as you’d like, Sir Albel. You’ve already been accepted by the people of Dormou as well.”

I wasn’t completely against the idea of staying in Dormou for longer, honestly. I hadn’t fully leveled my Conjurer sub-Class despite all of the excursions outside the walls of Dormou. Surprisingly, even with a passing month, the rate at which you leveled was far different than in MO. It would have usually taken less than a month to reach Level 50, and yet, I could only get the sub-Class to Level 29. Even the fact that I was going against monsters that were of a higher level didn’t seem to matter all too much—EXP wise.

But...I feel like I’ve definitely overstayed my welcome here. Yeah. I think it’s finally time for me to set out and see what this world has in store for me.

I was able to familiarize myself with how this world works while staying in Dormou. That seemed like more than enough for me.

“No, I think leaving tomorrow would be best for me after all.”
“Hmm. I wonder why is it that Sir Albel is so adamant on leaving? Do you not like our city that much?”

She still remained in front of me, now with an adorable pout that accompanied her tease-like question.

“Huh? Why would you even think that? I’ve even been able to walk around in town and talk with the others fairly well, and quite often too. Dormou is definitely a beautiful and kind place to live in. It’s also oddly comforting...”
“Hmph! I don’t think I can trust in your words anymore when they’re so clearly negated by your current choice. It's contradictive!”

Marna shifted her face away from me, only strengthening her tactical pout.

Ah, there she goes again. I’m guessing this is why she decided to come down from the castle today, huh? Well, I’m probably also to blame for that. It has been a few days since our last noon get together. Maybe she’s feeling lonely all of a sudden?

The foremost reason I had stayed this long in Dormou was because Marna would constantly nudge me toward that direction. It didn’t feel right upsetting her and so I decided that I’d continue to stay on the basis of leveling my Conjurer sub-Class in mind.

“Sorry, Marna. You probably won’t be able to persuade me this time around.”
“...Mm, I guess not...”

I could hear the apparent smidge of dejection in the tone of her voice unintentionally escape her lips. Her face had matched that for a slight second before she continued in her usual upbeat demeanor.

“Mm! Then I’ll make sure the maids take care of everything properly tonight! So, don’t you dare be late for dinner, okay?”

She created a gap between us, twirling around, leaving her back to me now. It was a small habit of hers that I had noticed after spending some time with her.

“Well, you know I can’t exactly promise you that—”
“Sir Albel!”

Marna exclaimed in a sudden reversal back toward me, now with a crease in her forehead that I couldn’t help but chuckle at slightly.

“Yes, yes, I know. I’ll definitely make sure to be there, Marna. Make sure to tell them about serving that stew again from the other day as well, please. I don’t think I can leave without trying that out at least once more.”
“Mm! I will!”

As she finally ran off toward the castle with her usual smile, I figured it was just about time to wrap up my training session for the day. Captain Vaalyun hadn’t returned either, and I didn’t like the idea of staying here and having that change. Instead, I decided to walk around the town for a bit and kill a few hours by talking to the locals again—one last time—until evening.