The Rifleman - Bk1 - Ch.20 (Patreon)

Chapter 20

Ch-Ch-Changes

Wesley smiled at the sight of the safe room. It was nearly identical to the one at the end of the first floor, and the place almost felt familiar now. The first thing he did was check out the whole place, noting the differences between the two rooms.

The beds were identical, and he couldn’t wait to crawl into the thick, warm furs and sleep… but first things first. The tables were the same, but there was a pair of tubs this time, which was handy. He started one filling straight away before moving on to check out the rest of the room. The Wyrd Watchmen were filing through one at a time, having stayed back for a moment. 

Wesley kept a wary eye on them as they arrived, not trusting them taking a moment alone before following him in. Clearly, this place was safe from anything outside, but that didn’t mean it could protect him from attacks from within the room.

“I think we all need to talk,” Pris said once everyone was there. “Before things get any worse.”

“Okay,” Wesley said, pulling the now full bath away from the spout and putting the other under the water before hopping up on one of the tables and sitting down, facing the Watchmen with his back to a wall. 

“Do you want to join us at the table?” Pru asked.

“I’m comfortable here,” Wesley said simply and tapped his table.

“First of all,” Pris said, standing up as she started to talk. “I feel it is important to say a couple of things. For one thing, I would be dead if it wasn’t for Wesley. He gave his arm to save me. I will always be thankful for that.” She gave a little nod to Wesley, “Also, if he hadn’t acted to help Alber and Pru when they were hit by the boar, we might also have failed to advance, or worse.”

“Wait, when did he do that?” Mace frowned. “I thought you both dodged the attack?”

“They did not,” Pris said simply. “Wesley used his healing on them both.”

“She’s right, Mace.” Pru sighed. “I was out of it for a bit.”

“For that, we all owe him our thanks.” She nodded again and sat down.

“Another point of note,” Alber said reluctantly as he stood. “From what I have seen of the strange wisp totem he has, Wesley could have left us behind in the last room.” He turned and bowed to Wesley, “I thank you for acting honorably.”

“No problem,” Wesley said honestly. 

“Why didn’t you?” Pru asked, seeing her party shooting her looks. “What? I would have if I could and didn’t know the people.”

“Because he is still trying to win us over,” Mace insisted stubbornly. 

“It isn’t about you,” Wesley said. “Any of you.”

He saw them looking at him.

“It’s about me,” Wesley said with a shrug. “I wouldn’t leave strangers behind, not and be able to sleep at night. In fact, unless someone was actively attacking me, I’d have done the same thing.”

“You expect us to believe that?” Mace asked.

“I couldn’t give a shit, mate,” Wesley said with a tired sigh. “Believe it, don’t believe it. I don’t care. I’m going to keep being me; it’s all I’ve got left.”

“The point of this conversation,” Pris said, glaring at Mace, “Was to figure out a way to work together to complete what remains of this dungeon.” 

“You at least need to trust us to watch your back and heal you,” Alber added. 

“Why would I?” Wesley asked as calmly as possible. “I could easily have died fighting with one arm or in the first challenge when Mace just stood aside.”

“I would have stepped in before that happened,” Mace insisted.

“Even if I give you the benefit of the doubt and accept that you would have tried to,” Wesley said. “You might have been too slow or not seen I was in trouble, like when Pru and Alber were hit by the boar.”

“I suppose,” Mace said. 

“Right,” Wesley said. “So you have proved that you won’t watch my back.”

“But moving away from healing,” Pru said. “That’s just….”

“You already refused to heal me once and skipped healing me multiple times,” Wesley said pointedly.

“When did I skip you?” Pru demanded. “I’ll hold my hands up to not regrowing the arm, but I never skipped you.”

“How many times have you healed me?” Wesley retorted. 

“Well, none,” Pru said. “But you never asked.”

“How many times did the others ask?” Wesley asked.

“You really never healed him?” Pris asked. “Not even once?”

Mace looked at his people and then down at the table. 

“You trusted us before you even knew us,” Mace said quietly. “Now you don’t?”

“Hey, look,” Wesley said with a shrug. “I took a chance. I offered trust in the hopes we would end up working together. All it got me was suspicion, treated as expendable, and my life put at risk.” He shook his head. “I don’t regret the risk; it was worth it, even if it didn’t end well.” 

“If we promise to heal you and watch your back until we get out of here, would you believe us?” Alber asked.

“Nope,” Wesley said honestly. “I’ll still assume it isn’t going to happen. I can’t risk being wrong and dying.”

“That’s fair,” Pris said with a sigh, “So, what do we do?”

“How about we just try to get along until we are out of this dungeon?” Wesley said. “Then I go my way, and you all go yours.”

There wasn’t much more to say after that, so Wesley put some screens around the two tubs and heated them. He took one of them for himself but let the others know hot water was available. 

Fifteen minutes of soaking in the warm water was heaven. Then he rewashed his gear, putting on his spares, minus the leather chest piece he had lost, and dried the rest before the fire while he cooked some more food. He turned down offers of supplies from the others, even the salt from Alber, but he did so politely. 

It sucked a little to be on guard again, but it was better than before. The tension seemed to have dropped in the room. While the others ate at the table, he ate alone and repaired his gear again while trying not to eavesdrop on the group, but it was kind of hard not to, being in the same room. 

Finally, he came to his broken and battered bayonet. The front half was simply gone, and the blade was chipped in several places. He really should have locked it onto his M1 before he used the upgrade token on it. Now, he just had to hope he could get a blacksmith to fix it.

“Excuse me?” Alber called.

Wesley turned to see both Al and Pris looking awkward.

“What’s up?” He asked.

“I was wondering if you could do some repairs for us.” Al showed a ripped sleeve on his gear while Pris held a shirt.

“Oh, sure,” Wesley shrugged. It was only the work of a couple of minutes, but it brought better rewards than he had expected. The moment the patch faded into Pris’s shirt, chalky writing began to scroll across the wall.

Profession Unlocked!

Requisite activities for Profession: Steward completed!

Make camp for yourself x3 - Complete

Assist travelers in need - Complete

Repair ten items - Complete

Provide facilities to others x2 - Complete

Travel to at least three zones - Complete

Complete a dungeon solo - Complete

Steward:

Yours is the gift of the host! You have helped those in need and provided aid for friends and strangers alike, yet you are no timid one and have proven yourself strong, capable, and kind!

Profession level - Rare

Skills - 3

Skill: My Domain

Claim skill is converted to claim a hex as your own. It is transformed into the chosen form until you leave the zone.

Cost: 1000 Influence (refunded on release of the claimed hex.)

Current Form - Dungeon Safe Room(Group).

Upgrade to gain extra hexes and other forms.

Skill: My Will (Passive)

Skills, Spells, and Abilities recharge at an increased rate within your domain.

Upgrade to increase recharge speed.

Skill: My Shield

Summon a magical Barrier to defend yourself or your guests.

Within Domain: 10 Charges.

Outside Domain: 3 Charges.

Barrier scales with Toughness.

Upgrade to increase charges and number of shields. 

Note: You can only have a single Profession.

Profession scales with your Tier.

“Fuck me,” Wesley whistled.

“What’s wrong?” Pru looked over at him.

He gestured to the writing.

“What?” She asked. “It’s just a wall.”

Wesley realized that no one could see the messages except him. Now that he thought about it, he’d never seen anyone else’s messages either.

“Nothing,” Wesley said, “Just a system message.”

“Oh, right,” Pru turned back to the others. 

Wesley felt like he had won the fucking lottery, but he tried his best to think. He reread the messages again, this time paying attention to the details. Any way he looked at it, it was a massive upgrade. 

There was a warning at the end about not being able to have more than one profession, and it wasn’t like this actually created anything. In the long run, he might be better off with a profession that allowed him to make something. Potions, armor, something like that. 

A new Bayonet, for example. 

It almost seemed like the perfect profession for him. He could actually have a camp in any zone that he ended up in, and he was reasonably sure that it would persist through a zone change as well, making him safe if caught in a change of state.

It was clear that his domain would not be an actual safe room, as the shield spell specifically mentioned him having to defend it if attacked, but it was one hell of a lot better than a tarp stretched over a stick. 

The shield was another big selling point. A magical barrier to hide behind while firing sounded like a good addition to his fighting style, and since it scaled off Toughness, a stat that was at Tier 4, plus the extra from tempering as well….

Wesley accepted the profession. 

A chalk-lined grid appeared over everything in the safe room.

My Domain Form Chosen…

The chalk lines faded, and Wes looked around the room and smiled. The smile turned fragile as he felt new tattoos burning their way into his right arm, but he kept quiet and breathed through it as he headed over to one of the beds and took off his freshly repaired tunic to get a look. Three new tattoos had appeared. 

One was an architect's drawing of the safe room that wrapped around his upper arm. Above that, but below the red cross, was a small infinity symbol, which he guessed must be the passive.

The final one was on the inside of his wrist, which had hurt like a bitch. It was a transparent blue shield symbol with little lines coming off it. All in all, it looked pretty good.

Wesley finally let himself slip into the furs and was asleep before he knew it.