Chapter 597 - The Ranger, The Adventurer, and The Library (Patreon)

A year after the [Lifebringers].

The [Lifebringers] changed everything. It was hard to overstate their impact. From roosters crowing to wake us up to logs in the fire, from all the food we could want to mundane segisaurs nipping at the edges of herds, from milk to cocoa to sugar beets resulting in tasty, delicious hot chocolate, everything was different with the wave of a Classer’s hands.

The sudden abundance took some getting used to, but it was like tens of thousands of people crawled out of their hidey holes, the [Lifebringers] heralding a new era. Many of them flocked to Orthus Town and tried to settle down, to varying degrees of success. There was friction between the new and the old, and the cynic in me said it would last until there was another wave of immigration, and it’d be the same thing once again. Everything was different.

The grumpy old lady in me - I swear it was just a part of me, and I wasn’t a grumpy old lady, no matter what number the System was trying to put next to my age - said there was a distinct difference between the people who’d spent years sheltering, and the people who’d left the bunkers and worked their asses off through the apocalypse. Sitting around doing very little for years left an impact on people, especially those in their formative years, and I felt proper work ethic was simply rarer. Then again, I reminded myself I was being a grouch and potentially biased, and I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, nor let myself become prejudiced.

With the spare wood and time, Iona and the rest of the village wasted no time building out and expanding the town, erecting strong walls that we could scurry behind should disaster befall us. What sort of problem would be slowed down by wooden walls barely reinforced by skills but not immediately removable by the Eventide Eclipse, I had no idea - but the safety and reassurance was there. Not only did we make the walls of Orthus, but close to 200 buildings were erected, waiting for a better future. Most of them were townhouses, but we hopefully set up a smithy, a tannery, a drydock and other fishing buildings, a market square, a printing press - sans machinery - a brewery that was getting put into action before it was even half-assembled, a number of storefronts for whoever wanted to use it, and more!

Build it, and they will come.

Skye’s belief proved to be prophetic. Days after the drydock was complete, a pair of brothers were trying to get a fishing boat built. Auri’s burning desire for a bakery saw the rest of us making her dream a reality, the building standing alone deep in the future heart of the city. The prevailing wind did have the delectable smells wafting over, the phoenix working a quarter of the time. We were still small enough of a village where everyone just about knew everyone else, and we didn’t really have money yet. I knew I was sitting on enough coins to trivialize values, but releasing it all had dozens of problems. For now, barter, favors, and simply being a good neighbor carried the day, and I wasn’t going to be the one to start raising walls in the name of better flow of goods.  

My personal favorite? The library. 

I breathed in deeply as I entered, the smell of freshly varnished wood heavy on the air. There was a powerful feeling of wrongness to the library though, and I could immediately identify what it was.

The shelves were empty. Not a single book graced the endless rows of shelves. There was no [Librarian] waiting at the entrance, no quiet rustling of pages, no smell of books or little old ladies whispering hush.

Just as silent and still as a mausoleum.

No no no, this was all wrong. 

I didn’t have the time or ability to properly tend a library. Well, I wanted to, but there was too much survival work that needed to be done first. As much as I wanted to, as nice as it would be to kick my feet back, grab a book, and read all day, every day, I couldn’t justify it. Sure, Iona, Raccoon, Auri, and the rest could grow enough to feed all of us… but it wouldn’t be fair on them. No, best to run the library part-time, or better yet, run it in a self-sustaining way, trusting the residents of Orthus to treat the place with respect, and… okay, no matter how highly I thought of people, no matter what faith I had in them, there was no way they were going to properly reshelve books themselves. It was never going to happen, and I wasn’t going to delude myself into thinking it might. I’d need to visit every week, maybe two… if I could get everything set up properly.

I still had a solid amount of arcanite in my [Tower], constructed into a core that ran a ton of less-useful enchantments. There were also the decayed remnants of the turtle in the bay. Years had passed, and it was almost entirely true arcanite at this point. Between the two, I could probably enchant the library enough to keep pests, rain, and the degradation of time at bay, and give Orthus Town a functional library.

The hardest part was going to be deciding which books stayed in my personal [Library], and which ones I could unleash into the world again. Choices, agonizing choices…

[*ding!* [Everywoman] leveled up! 518 -> 519]

==========================

Five years after the [Lifebringers].

I was responding to a request from Skye, brought to me by the faithful [Constable] Raccoon. The little goblin was looking sharp in every sense of the word. From a beautifully polished uniform to pointy teeth, Raccoon was a surprising force for law and order - which Orthus Town needed more and more with every passing day.

Orthus Town was rapidly growing. It wasn’t like thousands of people were descending upon us, but between plentiful land, hundreds of levels from surviving the cataclysm, new families and immigrants, we were growing at a brisk pace, relative to the numbers we’d started at. I was content in my not-so-small role in it all.

Death was nearly impossible. Childbirth was miraculously safe, and it was the deepest of tragedies if a child failed to reach eight years of age. A tragedy that the growing community had somehow avoided until now. It helped that I’d adjusted my healing image a hair. I didn’t want the community entirely relying on me to automatically heal them - hence educating them on how [Domain of the Healer] worked and all they needed to do was shout ‘Elaine!’ to get healed - but for children I had quite a few additional safeguards, babies were still fully healed, and I had a light image around catastrophic injuries and several forms of passing out.

It was weird - more and more children who could speak, talk, and reason had no memory of the Cataclysm at all. Around seven years before the [Lifebringers], another five after that, the natural inclination not to remember baby years, and there were solid 15 year olds working hard who had no personal experience with the ‘before’. It was wild to see - but equally interesting how the Exterreri culture was preserved in so many little ways, just in the ‘this is just the way things are done’ being passed on, father to son, mother to daughter, generation after generation.

I could glimpse why I’d been told to prioritize the preservation of culture.

On a completely different note, I was 123, older than the oldest person ever from Earth. The thought loomed over me like Black Crow’s vicious claws around my throat. But for the miracle of magic, for the miracle of the System, I would be dead. My life’s candle would have been snuffed out, the tale of my journey would have reached its conclusion. 

I walked through the town hall, skipping past a line of immigrants waiting for approval to join. The approval process was startlingly simple - let Iona take a glance to check for problem classes or skills. Obviously, we liked seeing skills like [Hard Worker], [Diligent], and [Thoughtful], and the rare [Thief] class or [Murder] skill weren’t allowed in. It got tricky with things like [Lazy], [Liar], or [Manipulative]. None of them were outright illegal, but they weren’t desirable. Possibly the worst part of the process was the arguing, and I was so glad I wasn’t involved. I’d probably end up violating my [Oath] a dozen times a day.

The people we didn’t want tended to be the loudest and most vocal about it. After all, they were being denied sanctuary and shelter while their friends and families were allowed in, over the say-so of a person who couldn’t possibly know. Liars lied, manipulators manipulated, and murder was technically illegal. Plus, nobody we’d actually want to join would sign up after we left poor uncle Joe in seven different pieces all over the floor. It was just unhygienic.

There was a push to empower Iona to simply say no and not allow arguing, but Iona of all people relished the debate and discussion. She was leveling from it all, mostly her [Valkyrie] and [Paladin] class, but [Social Lubricant] was making leaps and strides. Since she didn’t mind, we collectively shrugged and let immigration take its sweet time. We’d probably need to change the process once the numbers became overwhelming, but for now it worked.

I shamelessly spied on everything and everyone with [The World Around Me], and tried to surprise Skye by teleporting from the hallway directly into the chair across from her desk. The place smelled impossibly of sunshine and rainbows - Varuna, Skye’s unicorn companion, had been here recently. Probably through the extra large door-window in her office just for him stopping by.

Skye didn’t blink as I popped in, her head still down as she furiously scribbled away. I was a little fascinated, and refused to let Iona tell me the answer. Where did she get all the paper and ink from!? Was it a [Never Ending Quill] or something? [Reuse Old Paper] combined with [This Document Isn’t Needed]? Why did she need to write so much down if she had a perfect memory? Mystery after mystery, it was undeniable that our [Queen] kept it all running.

There was an election scheduled for next year which promised to be interesting. We laughed ourselves sick every time we imagined electing a monarch. It didn’t work that way! Buuut… it did if we said it did.

“Hey Skye! Need a hand with healing policy?” I asked her.

Skye consulted with nearly everyone. Tertius Nix - Secondus’s son, thank goodness I didn’t think I could handle another grandchild appearing out of thin air - was the resident expert on dinosaur husbandry. The Aratrum family was brought in when Skye needed to know more about tools, and what would help. I was usually consulted about healing and medical policy. My favorite time had been getting a few dozen copies of the Medical Manuscripts made and distributed. In rare moments of time for education, little boys and girls were learning their numbers and letters out of the Manuscripts, and the hope was the knowledge and the books were useful enough to kick start the next generation of healers. It had survived so long for a reason. 

Skye looked up at me and grinned ferally. I did a quick scan of her desk, absorbing more information about Orthus Town in a second than I would in three weeks of wandering, and spotted a concerning proposal.

“Not today! I know you’ve got strong feelings about [Adventurers], and this proposal was submitted. I wanted your take on it.” She slid the proposal across to me.

How anyone had the time and resources to write out fifteen-page proposals was beyond me. We didn’t have the ability to make paper! Where was it all coming from!? I checked my library religiously, nobody was tearing out pages from the books and I personally hunted down every single one that was ‘lost’ - [The World Around Me] coming to the rescue again - where was it all coming from?! And why was nobody using all this lovely, magical paper to write more books for me!? Honestly, it was a shame.

I read it through. It wasn’t the best argument for [Adventurers], but they did sidestep one of my biggest issues with them by calling for them to be part of the government, officially sanctioned, licensed, and trained, with the ability for Skye or her agents to pull permits… once we got around to the stage of needing permits.

There were some superficial similarities to Rangers, but the devil was in the details. They were strongly self-organized in many ways. The teams were arranged themselves, the missions were brought to them, they decided what it took, they needed payment. There was no standardization, no true incentive or motive for them to properly risk their lives in dangerous situations. They’d be trained on our time, then got paid by other people and reaped the benefits for themselves. They were nominally under the government’s command, but who could tell how long that’d last in practice.

… I had some sour grapes that were coloring my perception of the whole thing. I had to remind myself that I was strongly biased, and to properly consider this.

It was more than that though. I felt I was at a crossroads, two ghosts over my shoulders. My father and Night, and yet there were legions more. The adventurers who didn’t lift a finger to protect me, the ones who tried to kidnap me. Amber’s stories of adventurers helping her out, and yet, all that was minor, tiny in comparison to the great looming shadow of Night.

This was the question, this was the crux. This was the moment that defined my starting outlook on what type of Immortal I was going to be.

I believed [Adventurers] were a mistake for a hundred reasons. Yet, they continued to crop up time and time again, the Adventurer’s Guild seemingly unable to die. 

Did I put my finger on the scale and kill it in its crib? Did I prevent the formation of an Adventurer’s Guild, secure in my knowledge that I knew better? Or did I take a leaf out of Night’s book, sit back, and let mortals figure things out on their own?

He’d told me the story of shields once, and that was all I needed to forever remember it. Was this time going to be better? Would it work? Would adventurers somehow defy their base nature and be good members of the community? Or would history relentlessly repeat itself?

What type of Immortal did I want to be? What did I think was right?

I didn’t want to blindly follow what Night did because it was what Night did. At the same time, simply picking a different option because it wasn’t what Night did was nothing more than a teenage tantrum, a child choosing a different option just to be contrary to the voice of reason and experience. 

I idly pulled out my pipe and some leaves, getting a small nod from Skye before casting my usual spell, a half-dozen circles linked into an array. A spark to light my pipe, some circles for smell, a cushion of air to rebuff the smoke from walls, noses, and all other surfaces, and to send it out of the window. I started puffing away as I examined the problem.

What did I know about the Adventurer’s Guild? What did I really, actually know, beyond my prejudices and poor experiences with them? What purpose did they serve, what hole did they fill? The continuous recurrence of the Adventurer’s Guild implied an economic need and a gap the government failed to fill being left behind. Which also suggested that we weren’t doing enough, that people needed to band together more.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I didn’t know. I hadn’t taken the effort to carefully educate myself on every last nuance of adventurers, simply dismissing them with all too real prejudice. I read through the proposal again, finding it lacking answers to the deeper questions I had and wanted answers to. Not enough to reject it out of hand, the sort of knowledge I was seeking could only be properly found at the School of Spellcraft and Sorcery, assuming it still existed.

It had to. Artemis and Julius lived there after all.

I was finding myself at Night’s answer, but along a different path, a different trail. For this one, my answer would be the same, but a different question, a different scenario, I might be more willing to put my finger on the scale. 

“I don’t know enough to comment.”

============================

Seven years after the [Lifebringers].

I looked down from the clouds over the volunteers, lamenting the small population we had to draw from and the need for the acceptance criteria to simply be ‘willing to show up’. My six wings slowly beat, keeping me afloat as I hid in a brewing storm. I’d have to send Fenrir a cask of whiskey as thanks for whipping up a storm for the event. Auri was off to the side a bit, sheltering heavy trays of her best baking, fanning her wings to let the drool-inducing smells wash over the volunteers.

Thirty people. It was both too many people, and not enough at the same time. Raccoon was practically strutting at the front of the group, confident she’d get in. We’d finally hit the critical population mass where we needed a few professional warriors.

I had dusted off my Sentinel armor for the occasion. My badges were shined, needle and thread fixed my billowing cloak, and hours with a rag had my armor polished to a gleam. I could’ve done it faster, of course, but there was something soothing and meditating about spending the time polishing. A nostalgic feeling of memory, bringing me back to my roots. When I polished in the Argo, the Ranger’s wagon where I couldn’t really call myself a child anymore, nor was I properly an adult.

I missed them. I missed them all.

It was a good thing I’d spent so long polishing and gotten those emotions out, otherwise I’d break down in front of everyone. 

It was time.

I dropped down like an angel of wrath, pulling up a good dozen feet above the recruits, blessing Harper once again for integrating shorts under the long metal skirt. I pushed the grief aside as I flared my wings, glowing brightly with my halo on and [A Light in the Darkness] shining like a thousand suns, making it almost impossible to see me. I mentally noted who pushed through their tears to look at me, and who couldn’t bear to face me.

An early trial, one that wouldn’t be used to judge anyone, but I was already taking notes. I was willing to bet anyone who couldn’t look at me wouldn’t pass, and that already eliminated 2/3rds of the volunteers.

I pitched my voice to command and grab attention with pure skills, no wizardry, magic, or System-granted skills involved, except for a little bit of [Everywoman]. Because that was part of everything.

I didn’t like to brag much. What was the point? The things I’d done in the past were in the past, what mattered was what I was doing today, and what I’d do tomorrow. However, there was a time and a place for everything, and it was now.

“I am Sentinel Dawn of Remus, of Exterreri, and now of Orthus. My accomplishments are literally legendary. I am the creator of the Medical Manuscripts. I am older than the first Remus Empire. I have battled monsters forgotten by myths and legends. I have flown with phoenixes and gone to the moons. I have invaded the realm of the fae and returned with both my sanity and my life. I am Dawn. You may have heard of me.”

I let them soak in my words. They knew I was high level, they knew I was strong. They also knew me as Elaine, who lived over there and would tell great stories to anyone who brought me a mango, who pulled silly faces with Auri and skipped over the road just to feel the wind in my hair, cartwheeling the whole way back. The woman who smoked with Fenrir and never aged a day, the person who loved to string flowers in her hair and would also tie them into the hair of any kid who asked.

They didn’t have a good sense of how strong I was. One iceberg looked a lot like another, and it was difficult to see the hidden depths. A bolt of lightning cracked at the end of my speech.

Bless you Fenrir, you magnificent Storm Classer. 

“You come before me to join an ancient order, one older than I am. Throughout the years, throughout history, before [Knights] existed upon their shining steeds, before [Slayers] hunted monsters that went bump in the night, before [Paladins] smote evil wherever they were found, the line was held by the elite Rangers. The bold, the brave, the proud, Rangers were called to serve. Today, you take your first step in the long journey to decide if you will join their ranks. We will separate the wheat from the chaff. We will discover who has the mental fortitude to continue, who is worthy of wearing the eagle, and who will only be able to watch enviously from the sidelines.”

I paused, and Fenrir didn’t disappoint, a chill wind howling through before a freezing rain - the edge of his weather abilities, he didn’t do warm very well, not as the [Lord of the Frozen Skies]  - came crashing down on the recruits. I cheated a bit, amplifying my voice to be heard over the weather.

“At this time, you will all be offered the skill [Ranger’s Renown]. If you are confident in your abilities to pass, you should take the skill. If you drop out, I regret to inform you the skill will likely not help you much, and you will be set back to level 1 in a general skill slot when you replace it.”

A hand went up. I lifted an eyebrow. Someone dared interrupt? They… okay, some of them might be idiots, but it was worth hearing them out. If the question was dumb, I’d castigate them, otherwise, I looked like a reasonable leader.

“Yes?” I asked.

“I’ve been offered [Ranger’s Lore] instead of [Ranger’s Renown]. Is the difference significant?”

I felt my eyes prickle with tears. Don’t cry, don’t cry, I can’t cry in front of the trainees. 

“[Ranger’s Lore] is a more primal version of the skill, only offered due to my presence. Yes, it will work for you.” I managed to say without my voice cracking.

I sped up my perception and thinking speed to the max, then mentally slapped myself around until I was in a frame of mind to continue on.

“There are three ways to fail this exam. Sabotage a fellow entrant, refuse to obey my orders, or quit. Anyone who’s done simply needs to signal me, and moments later you will be at your home, safe and warm in front of the fire. There will be good food and drink, the tender embrace of your loving family. Why stay here, when it’s not worth it? There is no shame in quitting. Almost all of you, if not every single person here, will fail out. Why go through the months of torture? Why push yourself?”

I let everyone think over the answer for a few seconds while they shivered and rubbed their arms, Raccoon blowing rain-drenched bangs out of her eyes. One of the trainees raised his hand, and Auri knew the drill. Warm flames immediately wrapped around him, turning into a seat and whisking him off to Auri’s little flame-covered stall. She promptly pampered him, thrusting cookies into his hands while a pair of her [Mage Hands] started massaging him. Cider was offered and accepted. Four more trainees promptly quit, and I shared a grin with my little phoenix friend. Success! Warmth, coddling, good food and tasty drinks were just a small gesture away.

It made my next move all the more devastating.

“Alright!” I screamed at them in my best [Drill Instructor] voice. “Everyone drop in the mud and roll! Now!”

One more quit on the spot, electing for Auri-ministrations over the abuse I was preparing.

Ooooh, they had no idea what was in stock for them. Whispering Mists of insanity, the worst Ooze elvenoid kind had ever invented, endless, sleepless nights and unfair games and trials designed to test them and drive them apart from each other, only to force them into unfair and cramped quarters again. The idea was to test mental flexibility and being able to work with people they didn’t like, only for the harsh conditions to end up forging an unbreakable bond. Running through a wall of Inferno from Auri, hidden pockets of solid flames to trip and frustrate the candidates. Storms were going to blow away their tents, nettles would have to be crawled through, and equipment was going to break at the most inconvenient time. Iona had volunteered to ‘spar’ with them and leave them with devastating injuries, to see if they could push through them. I liked the idea, even if I could never say it or execute on it. Heavy logs with enchantments to modify their weight - couldn’t crush the rest of the recruits if someone quit - then make them run through rain, sleet, and burning winds. I even had a plan to bury them alive! Only a little. That was alright.

I rubbed my hands together.

If anyone wanted to take up the title of my Rangers, they were going to earn it.

[*ding!* [Everywoman] leveled up! 549 -> 550]

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 125]

[Mana: 19,460,500/19,460,500]

[Mana Regeneration: 66,129,009 +(221,754,112)]

Stats

    [Free Stats: 0]

    [Strength: 157,876 (Effectively: 1,263,008)]

    [Dexterity: 182,132 (Effectively: 1,939,342)]

    [Vitality: 702,545 (Effectively: 10,977,266)]

    [Speed: 689,777 (Effectively: 13,576,881)]

    [Mana: 1,946,050]

    [Mana Regeneration: 6,929,816 (+ 22,175,411)]

    [Magic Power: 2,916,209 (+ 202,822,336)]

    [Magic Control: 2,915,082 (+ 202,743,953)]

[Class 1: [The Elaine- Celestial: Lv 1391]]

    [Celestial Spirit: 1391]

    [Domain of the Healer: 1391]

    [A Drop of Eternity in a Sea of Starlight: 606]

    [Luminary Mind: 1391]

    [Universal Cure: 1391]

    [Clad in Twilight: 560]

    [The Mantle of Dusk and Dawn: 900]

    [Elaine Eternal: 1391]

[Class 2: [Seraph of the Dawn - Radiance: Lv 1024+]]

    [Radiance Mastery: 1024]

    [A Light Shining in the Darkness: 941]

    [The Rays of the First Dawn: 1024]

    [Radiant Angel's Spear of Obliteration: 480]

    [Celestial Dew: 1024]

    [Sunrise Halo: 1024]

    [Wings of the Seraphim: 1024]

    [Six Wings, Six Million Feathers: 1024]

[Class 3: [Sage of Tomes - Spatial: Lv 1010]]

    [Spatial Authority: 1010]

    [Scripture Savant: 1010]

    [Teleportation: 1010]

    [The Library of Infinite Wonder: 1010]

    [Tower of Knowledge: 666]

    [Reality, Writ As You Will: 1010]

    [Astral Archives: 1010]

    [Endless Pursuit of Knowledge: 1010]

General Skills

    [Long-Range Identify: 643]

    [Everywoman: 550]

    [Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 1391]

    [The World Around Me: 606]

    [Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 1391]

    [Sentinel's Superiority: 1391]

    [Persistent Casting: 1391]

    [Tender Gardening; Industrial Farming: 900]