Lone: The Wanderer

Book 3: Chapter 9: Item Examination and Guildmaster Brux

The host has developed the active skill: Item Examination.

Active Skill: Item Examination

An incredibly specialised skill designed to mimic the racial skill of the dwarven species, Stone's Vision.

Allows the host to gleam minute details about any object it is used on, though the level of detail will be dependent on the host's known information and the history behind the item.

Cost:10,000 SP or MP minimum. More intricate items with more history behind them may require a higher cost. Mastery:Beginner Level 1

'It took watching him examine close to a dozen items before I got the skill while also trying to examine them myself. The bone sword was unneeded, but still, can't go wrong with back-up plans. I wonder how willing Yulia would be to spam cast her distortion magic spells to earn 'em the same way?' Lone wondered. 'I can't see magic though so I wouldn't know where to start in developing the affinity and skills on my own. Mason's eyes glowed when he used Item Examination and that was barely enough for me to pinch the skill through observation...'

"So where is your next destination?" Yulia asked, her curiosity clearly being more polite than genuine.

"Hmm? Ah, The Adventurer's Guild in the fighter district," Lone replied absentmindedly.

"You know the way? Do we not need to ask for directions again?" Yulia wondered aloud.

Lone shook his head. "Soph knows where it is. She's leading for a reason."

"Yup! I'm a master scout. Well, better than a certain dwarf, at least," Soph proudly stated.

Yulia raised an eyebrow. "I suppose the arenas are easy enough to see from this high in the valley. Do you scout via magic? Even with our elevation advantage, one wrong street could spell our view getting blocked by buildings and us getting turned around."

Soph put a finger to her chin. "No? Not really. It's a passive skill. Anyway, it's a long walk. This is a big city. How does your dad fight? Lone could use all of the tips he can get for tomorrow's sparring match."

Lone resisted the urge to nod. 'What a masterful deflection away from Mana Sensing.'

"He is what is commonly referred to as a spell knight," Yulia revealed with no hesitation. "He is far more focused on the physical side of combat but his mana organs are awakened and he is a powerful enhancement and force mage - both schools he uses to add devastating power to his attacks. This combined with our bloodline skill, Mana Severance, makes father and his spear the subject of many people's fears."

'A spear and new magic school? I doubt I can earn enhancement magic from him. That sounds like it will affect his items, not his opponent, but force magic? Well, that sounds rather offensive indeed...' Lone was growing excited. "I fight with a type of spear too. A swordspear. Even heard of it?"

Yulia shook her head. "There are more weapon variations than there are schools of magic and I do not have the time to look into skills that don't further my research. I'm also not much of a combatant due to my mostly passive nature so weapons as a whole hold very little personal interest to me. I am curious though, what level is your Swordspear Mastery at?"

Lone deflated a bit. Seeing someone so interested in only one type of skill was a bit disheartening to his inner skill scholar. "Expert-level-three."

Yulia wore a shocked expression. "Impressive considering your particular talent for all things magical, though I do worry you are not as focused on what you would excel in. It is not easy to raise a skill to advanced, let alone expert, and given your awakenings, I would suggest putting your all into magic to prolong your draining lifespan."

"My moniker is Immortus the Immortal. There is a reason for that. You'll likely see why I have no reason to give a fuck about my awakenings come tomorrow's fight," Lone hinted. "Sooner if you stick around at the guild."

"Well, I look forward to it," Yulia replied. "Could you tell me more about your magical affinities and how you came about them all? Scripture magic in particular. I am sure there is a very interesting story behind that."

"Sure. At the same time, you tell me about every magical affinity you know exists," Lone answered.

Lone sighed in wonder as he and his group entered the city's largest branch of The Adventurer's Guild. "That's crazy. For there to be over 50 magical affinities..."

"That I know of," Yulia corrected. "I would not be surprised if there are more than a hundred. Most known concepts have magical schools, after all."

"Right you are," Lone replied. "Do we have to line up, by the way? I see some queues but some desks have employees behind them with no adventurers moving to get served by 'em."

"Due to our city's particular customs, service is strength-based here," Yulia explained. She pointed to an open desk. "That one is for S-rankers or above and gold-silver plate adventurers or above. I see no reason to wait unless you came here to take on a quest? If so, we will sadly have to part as I have no interest in leaving the city or doing something dangerous."

"I'm here to tutor," Lone said, his hunger for skills beginning to show itself in his tone.

Soph took his hand and gently pulled him along to the desk Yulia had pointed out while Breena and the aforementioned princessling trailed after them, one nervous, the other confused.

"Who might I be serving of your group?" the employee politely asked, not knowing if the SS-ranked Yulia or someone else was the one who needed help.

Lone reached into the collar of his shirt and pulled out his gold-silver plate. "Lone Immortus, Immortus the Immortal. I want to have a damage-resistant room or courtyard fully booked out for my personal use for the rest of the day. I'll be tutoring with my advanced-level-nine Teaching Mastery."

Many an ear twitched upon hearing Lone speak those words. It was rare to see someone with just intermediate-ranked Teaching Mastery, let alone someone with it so close to expert rank. Everyone quieted down a little bit as they went about their business, curious as to what terms Lone would set for his tutoring session.

Not a single person doubted his strength or words since even if many present could feel he was a C-ranker, his gold-silver plate was a form of proof in and of itself. After all, any plate at silver or beyond must be earned, not simply given or taken.

"Of course. What specifications will your tutoring session have, Mister Immortus?" the employee respectfully inquired.

"I specifically want people to use their skills on me with the intent to kill me. I plan to be the perfect training dummy given my Immortal moniker. The specific prices for this service and a pre-written announcement should be under my adventurer notes in your files. Please go look those up and announce them to the entire hall if that's okay," Lone requested. "I have the funds."

"Of course." The employee was happy to leave his desk and enter a staff-only section of the guild.

One of the guild's primary goals was to ensure the safety of its members and for that reason, skill tutors were highly regarded, to the point that odd or very specific requests would happily be fulfilled to ensure their continued tutoring of other adventurers. A pre-written announcement and the full booking of an entire courtyard could be considered rather tame as far as specific requests went.

As he waited for the employee to return, Lone turned his attention to the large collection of adventurers of varying strengths who were, in turn, paying attention to him.

He'd never been in a guild hall this large before and it made him excited just thinking about the possible skills in this room waiting to be added to his growing collection. He counted 342 present adventurers, all as diverse as they came. 'Not like Krieg Moor where everyone uses a hammer or axe with the rare sword-wielder sprinkled in.'

"I recognise the one in the robe. I've seen her at a ball before. Lady Yulia, no?"

"What? Doesn't she never leave the palace? I know the foxkin. He entered the city with Princeling Andrew and he had some sort of issue with Princeling Keith."

"Is he a friend of the royal family or something? I don't see a situation where Lady Yulia would follow him around unless Prince Keining had asked her to."

"I'm more interested in his story. How did a C-ranker come to be a gold-silver plate in possession of such an incredible grasp over the Teaching Mastery skill?"

"You heard him. He claimed to be 'immortal', right? Looks awakened to me, but I do need a reliable living target that won't fight back to practice some of my skills on. The activation time of my magic is too long for a real fight."

"Same here."

Lone resisted the urge to grin. 'There are different species here even if the majority is human but no one is discriminating against me, Breena, or Soph. What a breath of fresh air. Most importantly, however, they seem happy to use their skills on me. This is gonna be an afternoon to remember.'

The employee returned with a sheet of paper in hand. He cleared his throat and held up an artefact of some sort to his mouth, presumable to increase the volume of his voice.

"Attention all present adventurers! Gold-silver plate adventurer Lone Immortus, bearer of the adventuring title Immortus the Immortal, will be using courtyard three to tutor skills. I will now read out his terms for said tutoring. 'Anyone is welcome to come and train any skill they wish. I will use my Teaching Mastery which is currently at advanced rank to help as much as I can but the biggest service I offer is that I'm more than happy to have you test your offensive skills on me instead of just demonstrating them on the air as is typical. This, combined with my Teaching Mastery, will be more effective than any normal skill tutor's words of advice. Non-mages between I and C-rank must pay a silver coin, mages of the same rank must only pay 50 coppers. Non-mages between SS-rank and B-rank must pay 10 coppers, mages of the same rank will not be charged for the tutoring service. Anyone above SS-rank will also not be charged but they may be refused tutoring,'" the employee finished before nodding his head.

"You can find Mister Immortus in courtyard three just as soon as he has finished with his paperwork. Thank you for your attention," he said before putting the artefact away.

A large chunk of adventurers immediately left the central hall, presumably to go to courtyard three. Not everyone was happy or on board, however, and Lone noticed that with his sensitive hearing.

"How arrogant. The guy somehow got a gold-silver plate at C-rank and a decent level in Teaching Mastery but wants to waste our time with an announcement and thinks he can charge weaker people more money?"

"Something's wrong with his head. Does he just want to die? Plenty of unhinged powerful mages in this guild who are too violent to become silver plates."

"Just ignore him. We'll find out how it goes by tomorrow. Let's head out now. Quest won't complete itself."

Yulia wore an awkward look. "That was... unorthodox. I didn't realise you were allowed to just make guild-wide announcements."

"They're expensive," Soph noted from Lone's side.

Lone nodded. "But money doesn't matter to me. So, what paperwork do I need to do and all of that nonsense? Take the fee for the announcement from my account, by the way."

"Of course, Mister Immortus. I've read your file's notes so I'm perfectly aware of your capabilities, but I'll still need you to sign a couple of waivers in the case of grievous injury or an unfortunate fatality..." the employee started.

"Someone paid for an announcement on the first floor?" Guildmaster Brux noted as he stroked his beard of black bushy hair. "How many years has it been since someone's done that here?"

His assistant wore a pensive look before replying, "17 years I think, sir. Not since Princeling Glen needed to amass a force to drive off those nesting Black Highgrovian Wyverns."

"What a fun campaign," Guildmaster Brux nodded in reminiscence. "Well, details, Thomas? Who's used it this time and for what? Something fun I hope."

"You won't weasel out of your work that easily, sir," Thomas replied which earned him a glare. Acting as if the glare had never happened, the assistant answered, "His name is Lone Immortus, a Golden Foxkin with three awakenings dubbed Immortus the Immortal. His awakenings are for Darkness, Sky, and the one the Church of the Primals doesn't like being mentioned. He's a C-ranked gold-silver plate adventurer which is rather fascinating. Every detail of his file is public knowledge at his own request."

"What about his skills?" Guildmaster Brux asked.

Thomas shook his head. "Only his Teaching Mastery is on his files. I will note, however, that he has completed some very high-ranked quests due to a cultural loophole since he was militaristically enlisted as criminal punishment by the dwarven Greater Council. The most noteworthy of those quests being an adamantine plate restricted quest to slay a lesser eldritch horror, which he succeeded in doing. As for why he made an announcement, he intends to use his body to hone the skills of our fine establishment's members."

"I hate when you do that. You know I hate when you do that. Don't make things needlessly ambiguous," Guildmaster Brux sighed. "Context, I guess. He's called Immortus the Immortal. Tutoring. His own body. He's gonna be a living target dummy? Interesting. No way he killed an eldritch beast without some very powerful skills. It's settled. Thomas, you manage this paperwork for me. I'm gonna investigate."

"No, you are not. I do not have the authority to do this work and no, before you try again, you do not have the authority to give me that authority. Sit still and be a good guildmaster," Thomas ordered his boss.

Guildmaster Brux deflated. "Why did I ever decide to retire and take up clerical responsibilities?"

"Because Senshal the Unstoppable cut your right leg off and left you crippled for over three centuries," Thomas.

"Shut the fuck up, Thomas. I was being rhetorical," Guildmaster Brux sighed.