(Second Book Complete!) Runeblade: A Delving & Skill Merging LitRPG

Kaius leaned back into his overstuffed leather chair, enjoying the warmth of the fire that raged in a massive open hearth just to his right. He took a long sip from a tankard of something cold and herbal that had been shoved into his hand only a few minutes before. The alchemical tasted…sloppy in a way that he found hard to put into words, but it soaked into his bones with a delightfully soothing warmth.

Just to his left, Ianmus and Kenva had sprawled out over opposite ends of a massive four-seater couch, chatting away about their experiences in their duels. In front of him, Porkchop lounged on the thick furs in front of the fire — blocking off half of it with his bulk. Helena and her team had joined them, taking the seats at the opposite side of the fire.

Taking another sip, Kaius scanned the room, watching the mightiest warriors of the duchy down drinks like tomorrow didn’t exist. A cheer rang out as a rake-thin rogue downed a flagon the size of his head. He thrust the vessel to the ceiling, barely noticing the dregs of alchemically-fortified ale he dumped into his hair.

Kaius grinned. The top floor of the guild’s on-grounds tavern was much nicer than he expected, with a small bar against the far wall, and an onslaught of lounge sets spread through a low-ceilinged open room. Every scrap of wood, from the supporting pillars to the walls, had been stained a warm dark-brown which, with the soft orange wardlights, somehow made the place feel as cozy and inviting as a living room.

It was also half empty.

When they’d left the Pit, the sight of fifty-odd high-tier delvers had sent most of their weaker colleagues scrambling to get out of their way. The Guild might have been bursting at the seams with the chaotic scramble of another phase change, the packed square outside the mission halls had parted in front of them like a flock of starlings dodging a hawk.

That only continued when they’d entered the tavern. Kaius could only assume there was an unspoken rule at play, because his fellow high-tiered delvers had surged up to the third floor without hesitation. It had been busy, nearly full, but the patrons had taken one look at their group and gotten to their feet to try their luck on the even more busy floors below.

Minor benefits to being in a roving warband of excitable powerhouses, he supposed.

Kaius took another long drink, then eyed his flagon appreciatively. It was a nice drop, and the alchemicals in it had left him feeling rather comfortable. He wasn’t drunk though. Oh, Gars had tried, up to and including bullying him into drinking half a crate of fortified spirits that Kaius was pretty sure was actually floor cleaner. Rapid Adaptation had chewed through the harmless ‘poison’ in minutes.

It seemed he was cursed to a life of being pleasantly tipsy, and nothing more. How positively dreadful.

He took another drink, watching Gars lean over the back of his couch to have an animated conversation with a stocky silver that involved more hands than words. Helena smiled at him from the couch one seat over. Persellia was just next to her, sitting in silence while she nursed a drink.

“The four of you did good, you know?”

Kaius gave the woman a grin as the rest of his team turned toward them.

“I would hope so. We do have some rather obscene advantages.”

“I wasn’t talking about that,” Helena replied. “Though it is good you cemented yourself as strong. I meant you came across as likeable. It’s important, especially with all of this Shardworld business going on.”

Across the couch from Persellia, Nemtep nodded — as did the mage herself. She leaned in.

“She’s right,” Persellia said. “Just about the second one of those gates is found close to Baanswell, half of the people in this room will be high-tailing their way there, us included. Everyone within a month or two’s travel will. Shove that many people used to getting their way into the same place, and there’ll be plenty of old feuds and brittle tempers to cause problems.”

“What’s that got to do with us?” Ianmus asked.

“Everything,” Helena said. “Now, you have multiple Platinum’s and Peak Golds that can vouch for your strength. If you were entirely untested, some asshole would take a swing just to see if they could. Plus, if you’re a familiar face, people are more likely to have your back. It won’t just be delvers that come — nobles will too. Not all nations are as…relaxed as the Dukedoms.”

Kaius raised an eyebrow. While Julian and the other nobles hadn’t proven to be total scum, they were definitely easy to rub the wrong way. Still, he could see how so many nobles in the same place might go sideways. Especially if they were all competing over the same resources.

Persellia saw his expression and snorted. “Just wait till you visit Quesro, they’ve got some right bastards.”

“That I believe,” Ianmus replied, making a sour face.

Kaius shot his friend a questioning look. He’d never heard of the place — but then again, there were a lot of countries in Vaastivar, and his geography was shocking. He knew the broad strokes of the large powers, like the Dukedoms, or Garsum, or even the Triarchy on the south-eastern coast — but not much more.

“They’re a small polity just south of Franlen,” Kenva explained. “They’re a hierarchical military culture, and human-purists at that. Funnily enough, they share a border with a similar sized nation of felborn who are also militaristic supremacist nationalists — and somehow, they get along just fine…ish.”

Kaius’s eyebrows shot to the ceiling. “How in the hells does that work?”

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“Enough treaties for you to drown in, and a multi-league wide no man’s land between their borders that both treat as shared sovereign territory,” Persellia said. “Neither are particularly expansionist. The main thing is that they suck. Foreigners are treated as second to the lowest peasant, and if you have the gall to have the wrong colour skin or horns in the wrong place, you’d be lucky to avoid getting a knife through your ribs. Even the Hiwiann avoid trading with them.”

“That we do,” Kenva said with a wince.

“Look,” Helena cut in. “The point is that this Shardworld will be dangerous, and it’s not Celestine essence beasts that have me worried. The four of you are quite literally the most talented people I have ever seen, and far stronger than you should be — but you are still Silver. If some noble Gold warband spots you trapesing along with heaven-sent wealth, there’s a very real risk they’ll start thinking about how much better suited they would be to your fancy sword and whatever is in your storage artefacts.”

“I’d like to see them try,” Porkchop growled.

Nemtep snorted, before downing his drink. “That is foolish. What if there are eight Golds? Multiple High-Platinums? You might kill some, or even all of them — but can you do it before they slip around your formation and kill your mage? These will be men, not beasts. And it won’t just be nobles, either. Not all delvers are honourable.”

That Kaius agreed with. They’d found delver medallions on a few of the hired blades that Old Yon had sent after them when they’d finished their most recent delve.

A clear wave of discomfort flowed through Kaius’s bond as Porkchop let out a huff.

“A fair point.”

“Be aware of it, and you’ll be fine,” Nemtep added.

“The main thing is that after today, you will have Platinum and Gold looking out for you,” Helena said. “You now have people you can work with if you run into each other. Plus, a team of Gold killers will think twice of taking a shot when they hear that you shrugged off multiple hits from a Platinum, or Kaius went toe to toe with Ivar the Bleeding and came out on top, or Kenva bested me in the worst possible match up, or that not even the hells-cursed Weavebane could disrupt Ianmus’s casts. As long as they feel some of them will die, they’re less likely to bother.”

It was a strange thought, that personal renown might save them from unnecessary grief. Kaius shifted uncomfortably. After so long hiding how capable they were to protect themselves, it felt like he was handing someone a knife.

Things changed, though, and he wouldn’t be the fool that refused to adapt. Plus, he hadn’t missed that some of the more critical information about their capabilities seemed to have gotten buried in all of the excitement. More than once, he’d caught his fellow Baanswell delvers making incorrect assumptions about their age. He’d heard the chatter that they were young, but no one had guessed they were barely into their twenties.

Maybe that was the way of it — lean into their greatest, most obvious strengths, and let people make their own assumptions about the more delicate issues they didn’t want spread widely.

“Will the four be journeying to the Shardworld?” Ianmus asked, curious.

“After everything we learned today? Most definitely,” Helena said. “We’re dead set on completing our Aspects and Refinement before we rise to Platinum. With how rare Tyrants have proven, this will be a safe bet.”

“And the Proving?” Kaius asked.

The Shardworld itself seemed plenty dangerous on its own, but if he had learned anything, it was that the challenges brought by a phase change were not to be underestimated.

“We’ll play it by ear,” Persellia added. “It entirely depends on how well we can manage ourselves. We have a few tricks up our sleeve that will give us an edge.”

“Oh?” Kenva said, leaning in.

Helena winked. “You’ll see soon enough. What of your own plans? After the frenetic pace of your rise, waiting around for a greater gate to be discovered close enough can’t be easy.”

That it certainly wasn’t. They did have more than a few things to do around the city, though. They wouldn’t truly be wasting time for a good few weeks yet — hopefully by then, a gate would be found.

“Prep-work, mostly,” Kaius replied. “We still have to settle accounts with Lord Flowers, and there’s no way in the hells I want to leave Baanswell without getting ahold of that gear. Plus, that’ll give us plenty of funds to prepare for this expedition a bit more thoroughly.”

“Kaius and I should probably check in with the Collective and local Spire as well, amongst other business we should attend to before we vanish for an unknown length of time” Ianmus added.

Kenva nodded emphatically at that, no doubt thinking about her own need to meet with a Hiwiann caravan at the soonest possible opportunity. They had to pass on forewarning that the Bloodstones were potentially being targeted by the Onyx.

“And training,” Porkchop said. “Always training.”

Everyone nodded at that. While practice was never as good as battle for raising raw levels, diligence off the field was how one really mastered their abilities.

“I think everyone in this room will be of a similar mind. I have a feeling that the Gold rated practice halls are going to get very crowded,” Helena mused. “How would you feel about sharing? We don’t get as much opportunity as I would like to practice against ‘brawling’ focused teams, and we’d be much more likely to get favourable slots with eight of us.”

Kaius had noticed the distinct lack of a vanguard or bastion in their number. With two mages, a skirmisher, and a rogue-skirmisher hybrid, Helena’s team would be absolutely lethal — but they would be heavily reliant on well-prepared ambushers and hit and run tactics, too.

Actually, that might be perfect for them to practice against. It would be easy to simulate an ambush by giving Helena and Persellia time to channel before they sparred — and that was the exact scenario they would have to be careful of in the Shardworld.

Kaius and his team shared a look, before they nodded.

“I don’t see why not,” he said.

“Great!” Helena grinned. “Where are you staying? It’ll be easier to coordinate if we don’t need to leave missives at the guild.”

“The Ruby Crown,” Porkchop replied. “I don’t fit anywhere else.”

Persellia raised her brow at that. “How convenient, so are we — as is half of the room.”

“How about we finish our drinks and head there?” Helena said. “We’ve got about an hour before this little event gets messy, and trust me — you want to beat the rush to the Crown at the end of the night.”

Pausing his conversation with the next table over, Gars leaned back over the couch to pout. Kaius laughed, and raised his cup in a toast.