The three sisters had learned more completing that first quest then they had in Athena's hour long of lectures and explanations.
After figuring out that it was whoever struck the monster first who got the right to take whatever loot came out of it, they began taking turns so that each would have an equal opportunity to get something. The Young Nightsabers dropped Chipped Claws, the Young Thistle Boars dropped Broken Tusks, and both of them Ruined Pelts. However, aside from this apparently useless junk, they also occasionally dropped pieces of clothing or armour. Here the sisters bent the looting rights rule, trading to each other what each could best use.
For example, if Kasumi picked up a pair of Mail boots, they went to Akane, the Warrior. If Akane picked up leather gloves, they went to one of her sisters. Somehow each knew what sort of armour was best for one of their class to wear; Druids and Hunters wore leather armour, Warriors wore mail armour. They weren't sure how they knew this with such certainty, but they did. Sometimes they would find cloth-type "armour" as well, and that would go to whomever had no better armour for that part of the body. For example, if Nabiki picked up cloth wrist bracers, but she was already wearing the more appropriate and protective leather bracers, she gave the cloth ones to Kasumi, who at that point had no bracers.
It did not take Kasumi (the former Tendou family's resident seamstress and clothes washer since the tender age of 9) to notice that somewhere on the inside of each item of clothing/armour they found was a small tag, like the one for washing instructions on a shirt. This tag, however, held other information:
First was the proper name for the item, which they would later learn was printed in different colours depending upon the quality of it. All the gear they found killing the Young Nightsabers and Boars had a grey name, which marked these items as being of the lowest quality (and they certainly looked it, being shabby, worn, frayed, ripped, full of holes, etc). There was the general type of material it was made from (cloth, leather, mail) just in case it wasn't obvious from looking at it. Then there were the words "Armour Rating" and a number. Presumably this number reflected how much protection it offered from harm. The mail items had a much higher rating than the leather, which was itself higher than cloth, so the theory seemed sound. Later on, as the girls grew stronger and went farther, they would find that most better quality items they found also included a level restriction, meaning that they could not wear that item until such time as they had reached that level of experience.
That was the other neat thing that had happened on their quest. One after another, when they were having their turn at claiming the loot from the beast the 3 were fighting, a golden flash burst up around them beginning at their feet, and fading once it reached near to their head level. Nabiki had been first, and not a little startled by it.
"Nabiki-chan? Are you okay?"
"Oneechan? What was that light?"
Nabiki blinked in confusion for a moment. Something had changed inside of her. She felt just a bit stronger, hardier, faster and more co-ordinated than she had before. It wasn't a huge improvement, but it was significant enough to notice. Somewhere, deep in the back of her mind, she knew instinctively what this was. "I... think I just gained a level."
"Gained a... This isn't some video game, Nabiki-oneechan!" Akane rolled her eyes.
"Maybe not, but even Athena said this was a virtual reality designed to keep us entertained and occupied for some time. Maybe it's her game, in a way, but we're the one's playing it for her."
"I rather think we're 'playing' it for ourselves, Nabiki-chan. Athena is merely the architect of this world, which was made for us to experience and enjoy. I don't think she would appreciate you making her out to be some sort of evil puppet-master." Kasumi noted.
"Okay, so it's not a game, and this is our life-equivalent for the next little while... but is sure seems like Athena got a big fat load of her inspiration for designing this place out of a game."
"Weird. It's like some dumb, ridiculous otaku short-story or something." Akane commented. Then all three sisters began looking very uncomfortable and awkward, nervously glancing out of your computer monitor.
Clearing her throat to draw attention from her little sister's faux-pas, Kasumi beamed at her middle sister. "So Nabiki, you've gained a level! Congratulations!"
Akane clapped. "What are you going to do now?"
Nabiki grinned. "I'm going to Disney World!"
(The Author growls and shakes a branch, causing a Fel Cone to have an unplanned drop from the upper branches of Shadowglen to land on Nabiki's head. While the smartass girl is picking her face out of the 2-dimensional vines that make up the ground texture, the Author quickly casts a variation of Entangling Roots, muttering dark curses as the green tendrils seal up the gaping cracks in the 4th wall. Idly he wonders if he should not be trying to writing episodes in the wee hours of the night.)
The three had continued on in their quest, and when Akane and Kasumi took their turns, they as well increased to the second level. There were no numbers floating over their heads or tattooed upon their skin; it was just something they recognised on a near subconscious level. They knew they were Level 2 in the same way they knew their age. Actually, one supposed that now, in this world, their level was their age, or at least their most useful measure of their growth and experience.
When they'd all reached their quotas, the girls returned to Conservator Ilthalaine. He did not ask for proof of their deeds, and why should he? Half of their kills had occurred while still in his line of sight. Besides which... he couldn't for the life of him imagine that lovely young druidess trying to cheat him.
Ilthalaine offered them a bit of money and their choice of two items for their reward. A set of cloth bracers none of them really wanted, and some simple yet new-looking leather gloves whose tag read "Archery Training Gloves". The name of the gloves was printed in white, which they would later learn marked items of normal, if non-magical quality, like you might find for sale in a store. They were much nicer-looking than the ragged gloves that Kasumi was presently wearing (and frankly, none of the girls appreciated walking around wearing clothing that looked like it had been fished out of someone's trash can). Still, they were called " Archery Training Gloves", so she offered them to Nabiki. Ilthalaine then pointed out that he had more than one pair of each of the two items he was offering. Since they hadn't managed to find Akane any Mail gloves yet, all three girls took the leather gloves being offered.
While she was certainly grateful for the nice gloves, Kasumi couldn't help but wish that their reward would be something more... substantial to wear. The Frayed Robe she currently had on wasn't nearly as nice as the one she'd started with, but it was heavier material and had a much better armour rating. (She had not, however, thrown away the leaf-decorated robe, which she thought suited her quite nicely, despite the fact that it was about as much protection from injury as a sheet of paper).
Once the rewards for the quest were passed out, Ilthalaine handed each of them a short letter written on different materials. Akane's was a simple parchment, while Nabiki's was written on a thin piece of tanned hide, and Kasumi's painted delicately on what appeared to be birch bark. The girls read their letters, discovering that each was a personal letter of introduction from the local trainers of their classes. It seemed that Ilthalaine's quest was also a basic test, which they had needed to pass before these trainers would accept them as students.
Conservator Ilthalaine gave them each in turn directions to their individual trainers, then bade them return once they had finished their first lesson. He had another task already prepared for them.
So the sisters headed towards the huge tree-village they'd seen earlier, which dominated the centre of the Shadowglen valley. The tree-village/building, they learned, was called Aldrassil. Akane's trainer was waiting in a back room on the ground level, while Nabiki and Kasumi would both have to climb up the massive ramp which curled around the enormous trunk of the tree-building, leading to the upper chambers.
Before going anywhere though, Nabiki had spotted a woman standing patiently as though she intended to remain in place all day, standing in front of several items for display. Nabiki knew a salesperson when she saw one, though the set-up was a little more like that of a street vendor than a proper store, this seemed to be the way the elves preferred to do things. The main building itself was wide open to the elements. There wasn't even a wall on the entry side, let alone a door. Apparently, the entire culture was at least slightly claustrophobic (though Kasumi had suggested they might just enjoy the nice breeze).
Nabiki was delighted to find that this vendor was quite willing to purchase the assorted animal bits the girls had collected as "loot". She was somewhat less delighted that the woman would not barter.
"Child," the vendor had said, with the tone of and adult humouring a little kid, "These things are of no value at all to you, and only of very little to me. Do you take these damaged souvenirs of your little battles to be precious stones and minerals? They are what they are, and my offer... is my offer."
Nabiki had fumed, but Kasumi had quickly taken over and thanked the vendor for the generous price. Not that it had been especially generous, but with the amount of junk they were selling, it added up to something nearly respectable.
"Well, now that we each have a bit of money, perhaps we should shop for some nicer clothing so we can meet our teachers looking our best?" Kasumi suggested.
The vendor woman cleared her throat. "Pardon me, children, but if I may make a small suggestion?"
Kasumi smiled and nodded. "Certainly."
"Your trainers will not offer their services entirely for free. For each skill or spell they teach you, they will charge you a small fee in advance. As you gain in ability, the fees for the more advanced skills they can teach you will increase accordingly. I would recommend you see your trainers first, purchase from them what skills they deem you able to learn at this time, and then use what is left over to buy better weapons and armour. Don't spend a moment in worry about creating a bad impression; they're quite used to seeing novice trainees in rags and mismatched outfits. They would have begun their careers much the same way as you do now, and look at what they've accomplished!"
"Oh my... are you certain?" Kasumi fretted.
"Quite." The vendor woman grinned. "You could show up in your underwear and they wouldn't bat an eye. I recall one pretty young rogue doing just that, hoping to get her training for free. It didn't work out quite as she'd planned. Our resident rogue trainer simply asked her where she kept her purse. Oh, the look on her face... hee hee hee!"
Nabiki's mouth quirked a little. "Well... I don't think any of us will be trying that route..."
"I wouldn't speak to you for days if you did." Kasumi deadpanned. This set Akane snickering.
Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Aaanyway... If we're going to take the chea-- nice lady's suggestion, shall we all go hunt down our trainers?" The vendor woman raised an eyebrow at the 'slip', but otherwise refused to be baited.
"Split up, you mean?" Akane frowned.
"Well, it's not like our trainers are all in the same place. We did chose different classes after all."
"I suppose that would make sense, but where shall we meet afterwards?" Kasumi asked.
"Hmm... Well, we do have to go see the Conservator-guy again, and that little courtyard of his has benches to sit on." Nabiki suggested.
"That's fine then." Kasumi nodded.
Akane grinned. "Well, I just might meet you up top if I finish first. I kind of want to see what the view is like from way up there."
Kasumi smiled. "Alright then, if we don't meet each other in the upper levels, we'll go to Mr. Ilthalaine's courtyard to wait for everyone to show up. Agreed?"
Her two sisters nodded.
"Alright then. See you later Akane-chan."
"By Kasumi-oneechan, Nabiki-oneechan!" Akane waved as she headed to the back to the main hall. The two elder sisters left the building and circled the tree-village until they came to the base of the ramp, and began the long trek to the top. As it happened, both the hunter and druid trainers tended to hang out in the same room, 2nd from the top.
~ ~ ~
These would be their first lessons of their respective classes, the first skills they learned beyond the basics that had been pre-installed in their new bodies like default software on a new PC. There would be no flashes of light or instant knowledge this time. Though training would be efficient and timely --about an hour per skill typically, perhaps two if they were having trouble. Somewhere in Dolonaar was a cooking trainer who would soon be having a very long day)-- it would be real training that they would have to pay attention to learn from.
And now their first lessons were about to begin...
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(Posted Sun, 30 Apr 2006 08:34)
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