Antimage: An Isekai LitRPG Adventure (Ends of Magic Book 1), page 21
The thin figure bobbed their armored helmet, giving no other answer.
Nathan shrugged. Regardless, it was time to move forward with what he had. He pulled up the box for his new skill and accepted it.
Congratulations, you have accepted the ‘Low-tier Dodging Footwork’ utility skill
There was one more question Nathan had for the two, though he primarily addressed Emerald. “Should I try to get armor? I took a heavy blow earlier during training and it seems like I should wear armor.”
Emerald started nodding, their helmet reflecting the light. “Armor is g-good. I can i-introduce…”
Artha cut in, stroking his silvery beard as he spoke over Emerald. “I must interrupt. A weighty apology, Emerald, but this is a place where I must guide Nathan on the Path of Rage, and I would ask you to depart so we may speak of it in privacy.”
Artha waited for Emerald to leave the room with the remains of their dinner before continuing. “There is an early branching in the Path of Rage, between those who fight armored and unarmored. If you fight and train to reach level 27 without wearing armor – while taking wounds – you will almost certainly gain a class skill that will enhance your toughness while unarmored, which holds obvious advantages for you. You have said you are unable to use enchanted items, and armor without enchantments holds limited use. You also seem to prize maneuverability and fast movement, which armor and especially unenchanted armor would hinder. Therefore, I recommend against armor for now, though you may give it more thought after class Development. I hope your [Regeneration] Talent can protect you for now, and when you gain the class skill I hope the benefits are worthy.”
That sounds like a pretty good argument. Armor would be uncomfortable, heavy and annoying to clean anyways. And expensive! I’ll probably need to buy more clothes though.
Status of Nathan Lark:
Permanent Talent 1: High-tier Magic Resistance 10
Permanent Talent 2: Mid-tier Regeneration 7
Talent 3: None
Class: Antimagic Brawler level 25
Stamina: 350/350
Brawler’s Indifference
Antimagic Blows
Utility skills:
Mid-tier Focused Mind 5
Low-tier Earnestness 8
Low-tier Sprinting 6
Low-tier Spellsense 6
Low-tier Notice 7
Low-tier Identify 3
Low-tier Dodging Footwork 1
Chapter 22
Backgrounds and Warnings
Nathan caught up on what the rest of the Giantraiders were doing – they all had a bunch of obligations before they headed back into the wilds, beyond just commissioning better weapons with their new cash.
Vhala was apparently stuck in an endless gauntlet of family obligations. The Bhos seemed to be a clan who did a lot of adventuring and catering to Adventurers, and Artha joked that her list of dinner invitations was taller than she was. She was also expected to share a few Insights with some kids against future favors. It sounded complicated in the way that only family politics could be, and Nathan wished her luck.
Nobody had seen Wiam since he’d disappeared into a wizard’s tower called the Tower of Trickery, where he’d been trained. It was a bit of a strange cross between an orphanage and a magical school – and was run by a birdfolk mage called Gale Shullet. There seemed to be a lot of jokes about Gale and the Tower of Trickery, since they disdained attack spells and primarily focused on stealth, illusion and area control like Wiam’s mud spell.
Okay, interesting. I was wondering why Wiam seemed less focused on direct conflict than the enslavement mages from Giantsrest.
However, Gale was unquestionably recognized as one of the stronger Adventurers of Gemore, leading a team called The Seven Fools. Her students had begun to prove their worth to the Adventurer’s Guild in recent years – in large part due to their ability to cast [Message].
After a friendly exchange of goodbyes, Nathan headed back to the training section of the Adventurer’s Guild. The cafeteria building was lit, and dinner was being cleared by a pudgy man with a perpetual smile on his face. He saw Nathan peeking around the door and gave a cheery wave.
Nathan explored further into the building. In the back were classrooms, some of which were occupied by students discussing things. They all looked at Nathan when he poked his head in, staring silently until he left.
Okay then. I guess some of the Heirs’ unapproachability has rubbed off on me.
In the next layer back were the dormitories, divided into suites much like the one Nathan had stayed in with the Giantraiders. Most of the doors were closed, but one was open and Aarl sat in a chair next to it. He was sharpening an enormous sword that was laid on a cloth across his knees. As Nathan turned the corner, Aarl was looking over his shoulder and back into the room, smiling as he did so.
He and his sister are just so pretty. Those eyebrows are amazingly sculpted.
And that sword was ridiculous. Aarl spotted him and stood, hefting the blade and slowly feeding it into his pouch. It was taller than Nathan was, much less Aarl. Damn, with that much blade no wonder it needed a lot of sharpening. As the wiry youth finished, he gestured for Nathan to follow him into the room. Sarah was sitting there, whittling what looked like arrow shafts.
Aarl spoke to Nathan. “We have returned early, and expect the others back soon. Did your afternoon serve you well?”
Nathan nodded. “It did. Artha is a good teacher, and Emerald taught me a skill.” He pointed to Sarah. “I’ll be ready for that dodging practice tomorrow.”
She smiled. “Good, I’m looking forward to another person’s movement to practice against. I know all the tendencies of this walking target.” She affectionately swatted at her brother’s shoulder as he came to sit next to her. “Now, I will tell you this because Khachi likely will not. Try to sleep early tonight, we will wake early, and both Khachi and Stella need less sleep than decent folk do. Don’t let them keep you up.” With that, she went back to her whittling, her rapid knife movements somehow sending the wood scraps into a neat pile on the table in front of her.
Aarl looked put out. “Ah, you warn him of what Khachi will do, while we had to suffer it firsthand! He should’ve stumbled through his first full day with half a night of sleep as we did. It would be good practice!”
Sarah pointed her knife at him. “Beware this mean streak of yours, brother. It will be your undoing.” But she tilted her head and waggled her eyebrows as she said it, which seemed to lessen the blow. Aarl only laughed.
Nathan spectated their interplay, amused. The two definitely seemed close. He was an only child, but few of the siblings he’d seen had been so friendly. They were making fun of each other, but there was no meanness to it. Then again, he hadn’t known any twins, so who knew?
Nathan didn’t feel comfortable going to bed yet, even if he was tired. He wasn't so much physically tired, just mentally exhausted. So many new things had happened. He needed to process and think, but there just hadn’t been time.
Now’s as good a time as any.
He said his goodnights to the twins and then explored the rooms of the Heirs. There were five bedrooms and one bathroom – again with the strange trough with running water. One of the bedrooms had no personal items, and Nathan claimed it as his own, laying out his stuff on the small table.
It was a pitiful pile for being everything he owned in this new world. The knapsack he'd gotten from the Vanguard, packed with clothes and blankets. Strings of coins, some knives, a few extra clothes. Back home he’d felt secure with his phone and wallet. It had been comforting to know that as long as he kept those two items, he’d manage decently well anywhere with civilization. Anywhere on Earth, that was. But all of that had been stripped away by Taeol’s spell. Now this meager pile of possessions was all he owned. However, it gave him a similar sense of security. He was starting to develop his place in this world.
Especially the coins. Starting from nothing, pulling myself up by my bootstraps! I’m such a capitalist.
So much of it had been due to his friends here. He’d found allies and a purpose; the money and belongings were incidental. In general, life was less comfortable than it had been back on Earth, but Nathan wasn’t sure he regretted the change. Life on Davrar was dangerous and often short, but Nathan remembered the intoxicating thrill of the fights he’d been a part of. Life here was exciting and adventurous. The night sky was a world, and Davrar was chock-full of secrets to be explored, new things to learn. The extreme sports Nathan had done felt like child’s play, a facsimile of the rush that was a real fight.
There was no chair, so Nathan sat on the bed to meditate. He glossed over his experiences of the day. There was no rush, just examining each thought in turn until there was nothing left. Then Nathan focused on the breath until his mind felt clear. He began to examine the flow of his feelings. What did he feel like? After the last few days he should be flushed with stress hormones, sick to his stomach. But he wasn’t. He felt invigorated. Strong. And underneath it all, like a hidden flame in the center of his being, was a banked ember of anger.
Nathan examined that anger, studying it thoroughly. In this meditative state, he could dedicate the time to investigate. Why was he angry? What was the source? Was it justified? He remembered his introduction to Giantsrest, the damning words from Taeol’s own mouth that had led Nathan to oppose him. Then there was the mind-fuckery that he’d barely escaped. That had made it personal, and when Nathan had broken his restraints Taeol had cringed and fled.
Coward. Fleeing the moment consequences could threaten him.
Nathan breathed out, feeling like fire was escaping with each breath. There’d been the fight at the ford, where the enslavement mages had gloated at the idea of recapturing Emerald, the escaped slave. Nathan’s fury peaked, and his arms trembled. He wanted to run to Giantsrest and tear down their walls, break things until not one stone stood atop another.
He breathed in, keeping his eyes closed. He breathed out, feeling the anger wash through him in waves. It felt purifying. It felt like it gave him strength. And on Earth, that would have been a lie. Here, it was not. Artha’s lessons made it clear that anger was a power, and a power that he could use.
After a time, Nathan dropped back, clearing his mind and focusing only on his breathing. He breathed clean, cool air in through the nose, breathed out his Rage through the mouth. A few minutes later, he opened his eyes. The anger wasn’t gone, just receded, like a coal smoldering inside of him. Nathan was sure with a moment’s thought he could call it back to him. Before him floated another blue box in acknowledgement of that.
Pending utility skill: Anger Control
You have demonstrated excellent control over your anger. This skill will help you control your anger in the future, allowing you to control your Rage and direct it as you see fit.
Artha had warned him about this. It could be a useful skill to somebody on the Path of Rage, to be sure. Nathan would have been wary of taking it because it gave Davrar control over his emotions, but Artha had further cautioned him against it. His tribe had learned that those who took skills to control their Rage ended up weakened. Their anger became a shallower thing, a switch to be turned on and off, and their future classes were weaker. So, Nathan refused the skill.
He rested on the bed for a little longer, thinking about the day. He seemed to be doing alright with the Heirs, if only by not taking their bait. Being the serious adult seemed to be paying off. That situation seemed fine. And he'd known them for less than a day. They seemed... alright. Still a bit of that teenage idiocy, but they wanted to be serious.
Well, Nathan still had traces of adrenaline in him from his meditation on anger, but he should heed Sarah’s advice and try to sleep.
At least there aren’t computer screens keeping me awake anymore!
Nathan rested, feeling at peace with the day. He lamented only that he hadn’t gotten more of a chance to explore Gemore, to see the novelties of Davrar. But, there were good arguments for learning to defend himself as rapidly as possible. And here was where that happened.
Chapter 23
Basic Education
True to Sarah’s word, the next morning started early. There was a pounding on Nathan’s door and Khachi’s enthusiastic voice sounded loudly. “Get up lead-foot! We’re headed out. Don’t hold us up!” Nathan heard a chuckle, then the pounding resumed.
Nathan had been warned about this, so his clothes were laid out and ready. Less than a minute after waking up, Nathan unbolted the door and stepped out. Khachi hid his surprise well, but seemed a bit put out that Nathan was up and dressed so quickly. Nathan hurried through his morning ablutions and emerged into the common room to find everybody just finishing getting ready. Stella and Khachi were almost insultingly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, with Aarl and Sarah visibly annoyed about it.
What followed was a series of exercises that reminded Nathan of descriptions of boot camp training. It had clearly taken on the form of a ritual to the Heirs as well. Calisthenics, running several loops around the training hall, before taking on some of the obstacle courses in the pre-dawn light. Nathan kept up, if only by leaning on [Sprinting] and spending Stamina freely. They hadn’t eaten yet, so it wasn’t replenishing much, even when they did stop to take a breather.
The group was clearly used to pushing each other, and while Stella lagged in the running, she didn’t drag or fall behind. Nathan did notice that there was something wonky going on with her run – as if each step was propelled by extra force.
Khachi led the exercises, disgustingly cheerful as he vaulted over obstacles in full plate, calling out to everybody in a sing-song chant. Nathan wanted to resent him for it, but the wolffolk just seemed to be having so much fun with it. Nathan didn’t want to snark at his good mood, even if he wasn’t a morning person himself.
After their exercises, they trooped into the dining hall as it opened up. The same pudgy man was depositing trays of food on the buffet table. The food looked basic, but delicious. Meat, eggs, starchy tubers and piles of vegetables in a rich gravy. The chef winked at them, wiping his hands on a stained apron as he walked out the door to fetch another load.
The Heirs loaded up their plates and sat at the same central table as before. Nathan asked the Heirs to stash food in their various magical holding items for him to use later, and they acquiesced with humor. Khachi joked that he wished he could replenish his Faith resource by eating instead of praying. But then he smugly mentioned that Faith allowed for miracles, and he didn’t see Stamina pulling off any of those. Nathan waved his left arm at Khachi dismissively.
I think regrowing an arm is pretty miraculous.
Other teams were filtering in, but it didn’t seem like anybody else had the morning exercise routine of the Heirs. Nathan asked about it, and apparently Khachi had inherited it from his mother. The parents of the other Heirs had leaned on them to participate, and now it was a habit. Stella did an impression of her father extracting a promise from her, clasping her hands in front of her before softly and seriously saying, “For no matter the power of the mage, sometimes it is smart to run away very quickly. And you can’t fly yet, so you can't use that as an excuse like we can.”
Nathan noticed that he wasn't sore after the morning's exercises. Probably [Regeneration] healing his muscles. Nathan wanted to find out if that strengthened them or not – but it was something he'd need to keep an eye on over time. Maybe tomorrow he should bring a snack and try to test it out.
Next they were off to classes and bid each other farewell. Nathan headed to his lesson on reading and writing, and received some ribbing for needing to learn to read.
His response was sarcastic. “I know how to read and write perfectly well, thank you very much! Just… not in whatever the local language is. You don’t even use the characters I’m used to. Very rude. You should just use the twenty-six characters I’m used to.”
Nathan spent a few hours with Velek – the clerk who had taken him to the Guildmistress – learning the characters of the local system. It was a phonetic alphabet, with only twenty characters. But there were four modifiers that could be used to change some pronunciations enough that it was closer to thirty-five. At least the modifiers were standardized. In fact, the alphabet seemed less like something that’d evolved naturally, and more like something somebody had designed at some point. There weren’t as many idiosyncrasies as there should have been in a naturally-evolving language, and the use of the four modifiers was too systematic.
So? I don’t exactly have proof, and even if I did it doesn’t mean a lot. The Korean alphabet was also designed by some king who decided to design it from the ground up to be easy to use. It worked, too.
Nathan was just glad it wouldn’t be too difficult to properly learn the language Taeol’s spell had taught him to speak.
After that, Nathan was reunited with the Heirs in a large room with all of the other trainees for their next class. Jolba stomped into the room, freezing side conversations with a stern look, and lectured them on the rules of Adventurers. It was a dry list of responsibilities, expectations and privileges, but Nathan found the new information fascinating.
As Adventurers, they were neither free agents nor entirely in service to Gemore. It was more like committing to some amount of public service, which was tracked, and receiving special privileges in return. They would be provided housing, basic necessities and the “Adventurer discount” while being active Adventurers, but were expected to take up jobs in a ‘reasonable’ timeframe, and work not for their own enrichment but for the good of Gemore.
Jolba emphasized this multiple times, his favorite example being an anonymous adventurer given the choice between finding a magic item and stopping a ravening monster – called a muckgrabber – from entering a town.
