Chapter 54: Toward His Destiny

  After getting his pride wounded and barely surviving the fight against Shadow, Tristan found journeying with Sophie and her astrals was surprisingly easy. He didn’t love that she kept saying she’d ‘saved him’ in Whiteholme, but for all the rest, having her and the astrals with him had done him a world of good.

  One of the first things Sophie did was persuade him to head back to Jamal’s Manor. She was reluctant to go in herself, but she insisted that Tristan had to let his master know that he was still alive, after all, so he put the next step of his quest on temporary hold as they backtracked to Rockmoor.

  The look of relief on Jamal’s face, though it was only there for the briefest moment, was priceless. Tristan saw the truth of how his mentor felt, and it warmed his heart.

  Jamal was too excited to move from the entryway, despite Cherry’s insistence. So Tristan went into a full telling of his fight with Shadow. He provided far more detail for Jamal than he had for Sophie, and his teacher devoured it. He immediately crowded the entryway further by summoning chairs for all of them and began leaning in as Tristan went through every brutal detail. It wasn’t until Tristan finished, and Sophie decided to finally come inside to chime in about how she’d “saved him,” that Jamal let his usual overconfident grin show again and finally spoke up.

  He started with pointed criticism, mostly about technique (including Tristan’s ‘subpar’ storytelling), then moved on to glowing praise--with the occasional, expected sarcasm. By the end, it was clear Jamal was quite proud of him and couldn’t wait to tell all who would listen about Tristan’s great victory! “I’ll make sure everyone knows how well I trained you,” he said, plucking a cherry from a bowl full of them, “that you went toe-to-toe with a tier 4 and didn’t get utterly obliterated. With apologies to your pa, you’re such a lucky bastard.”

  About then, Cherry, who’d gone to get the bowl of cherries during Tristan’s retelling, cleared her throat. “Maybe we could go into a parlor or sitting room now? Or, I don’t know, a dining room? It’s getting late.”

  Her question made Tristan shuffle anxiously, and Jamal must have seen it. He looked at Tristan with that glare that seemed to pierce through all his secrets, and he shook his head. “You are staying for dinner, aren’t you? And longer? To finish your training? Right, Tristan? You’re not a complete idiot, looking to run right out toward even more danger despite having so much still to learn, are you?”

  Tristan started to apologize, but Jamal looked away in disbelief. He held out his hand, and this time Cherry, wordlessly and without any further prompting, deposited an overfilled wine glass in it.

  Tristan couldn’t help but notice that Sophie had stepped back well behind him, providing no support whatsoever in his moment of need.

  He looked to Cherry, whose face was clearly unimpressed, and then back to Jamal. “Well, actually I discussed this with Sophie, and--"

  “Don’t pretend this was my decision,” Sophie butted in.

  The broad-shouldered swordsmith sighed. “No, you’re right. This is on me.” He lifted his chin and took Jamal’s glare without faltering. “I want to continue hunting the others.”

  First Jamal drained what was left in his glass. Then, as Cherry refilled it, Jamal’s shoulders slumped.

  “Why?” he asked. “Why can’t it wait this time? Is this still something you’ve got to do, blah blah blah? Same as it was before?”

  “Shadow... gave me a lead.”

  “And you’re just going to trust him?”

  For a moment, Tristan considered how to answer that. Why did he trust Shadow, a man he’d just tried to kill? “I think... for this next target, yes. It’s a bit complicated, but I think he wants me to kill Venom, and I think you would too.” He said before putting the final piece in place. “He’s a {Defiler}.”

  Jamal sputtered wine all over himself, and Cherry actually put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing, before releasing.

  Slowly, Jamal stood up. With a snap of his fingers, he completely replaced his shirt with another clean one. “Well, yeah, fuck that guy. His Path... You remember how I said your Path cares more about your growth more than your morality? Well, someone with that title, his Path only cares about being the worst kind of person.” Then he reached out and put a hand on Tristan’s shoulder. “But you’re only going after him, right? One more, and then call it good. At least for now. I’ve got way more to teach you, and we’re getting you into that Tier 3 Tournament. You already agreed, so no way you’re backing out after surviving all that!”

  A bit choked up, Tristan grimaced slightly. “I don’t know, Jamal. I’d like to, but... I can’t promise that. If I see another one show up, I’m at least going to scout them out. And if I think I can take them...”

  Then his mentor, Jamal, the Unerring Blade, pulled him into a tight hug. “Right. Well, do try to stay alive then, regardless of how many you go after, yeah? You’re my best student after all.”

  Tristan chuckled nervously as he backed away. “I’ll do my best not to die, and I look forward to those future lessons. I will come back.”

  “It’s settled then!” Jamal answered, sitting back down and finally popping the cherry into his mouth. “Besides, you’ve got lots more to learn. And not just about swordplay.” He winked before quietly sticking out his tongue, along with the cherry stem, now tied into a perfect little knot. He offered it to Cherry. While Tristan was impressed by the act, she merely shook her head and rolled her eyes.

  “Now go off and be noble and shit,” Jamal continued. “You’re not going to let me stop you. So go on, kill that {Defiler} already. At least you know what you’re in for, this time.”

  They left shortly after that, along with some gifts from Jamal: a month's provisions, which at the time felt like plenty, and two horses. They were fine animals, too, as Sophie assured him each and every day. The horses sped up their travels, which was more important, and not only because their target had a big head start on them. Traveling faster also allowed them to spend time on other things during their journey.

  For example, Sophie convinced Tristan of the necessity of holding daily training breaks. She argued it was essential for her to have time to work with her astrals, and it would be good for his swordsmanship, too. Pushing that training idea further, they decided to stop at an early-tier-2 dungeon they were more or less passing by. It turned out to be a monastery overrun with demons or devils or something. Sophie had explained the difference, but since they both had horns and you fought them the exact same way, Tristan forgot which they actually were pretty quickly. He was just glad to tear through easy enemies again.

  By the end of that run, the young astralist reached level 9, and Tristan had gained a fair amount of experience, just not enough to reach level 15 yet. He’d also learned from his last dungeon experience, and this time he took the extra time to remove all the metal he could find and store it in his [Crafting Materials Bag]. So what if he had to melt down faux-religious candelabras and tons of snake- or dragon-like sculptures? It was all dungeon-created, right? And he’d never even heard of this god named “Szee,” or however the dungeon dwellers had pronounced the name of what they’d been worshiping.

  He knew that taking those materials would help him a lot in the long run, and that was what mattered in the end. He had to keep advancing his Path.

  Whenever they weren’t training, Tristan found himself sinking deeper and deeper into understanding and planning for his current target, the {Defiler}. After asking Sophie what the title meant, it was clear why Shadow had suggested this be his next target.

  Venom.

  The name was appropriate, they’d quickly learned, as it reflected his preferred weapon. Week by week, Tristan and Sophie followed his trail, which grew increasingly hard to stomach with what they found along the way. While they’d started with Shadow’s lead, leaving the Embrace’s domain and traveling to Lugarest, they arrived so late that there was no chance for Tristan’s quest to update with his location. That clearly meant that he’d already left the region. So they were forced to track him the old-fashioned way: by word of mouth.

  Each town where the {Defiler} had stopped was either recently recovered or still in mourning. While some towns were too big to offer information other than some kids had gone missing, there was always a trail. Always some pitiful soul who had known, or had heard, or had seen things that they dreaded trying to explain.

  Months passed.

  No matter where they went, Venom left atrocities in his wake. Once they were told why Tristan and Sophie were hunting him, they were all too willing to point out which way the {Defiler} had gone. A few even tried to warn Tristan and Sophie not to follow, since their levels were so much lower.

  That only pushed the pair to train harder while they traveled.

  “It happened just half a week ago,” the most recent man, a factory recruiter, said between sobs. And given the carnage they found...

  The bodies weren’t even fully dissolved this time. Or perhaps they were just dissolving more slowly. There were clearer bite marks on some of the victims, but others... Tristan stepped out before seeing it all, retching. At last he truly understood the title the monster wore, and why Shadow had said the {Defiler} had it coming. Tristan agreed, and he hated Venom for it.

  The title wasn’t one given out without cause, after all. Sophie, Jamal, and Cherry all knew. Yet it still alarmed Tristan to learn just how heinous it caused someone to be, and how rewarding it was when its urges were fed.

  The more remnants of his crimes they came across, the more obvious it was that feeding his title was all Venom was doing. Sophie always took it hard when they stumbled on another horrific scene, but she also stayed, soaking them in with tear-filled eyes. She said she needed to “bear witness,” that someone had to. Tristan joined her after she told him that; he acknowledged that someone should be there for these people in their deaths.

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  As the third month of traveling became the fourth, they finally had a breakthrough.

  The {Defiler}’s needs and patterns had made tracking him easy. Once they realized that all the towns where Venom had stopped had orphanages, teen homes, or places where children would be when they had nowhere else to go, that sped their chase considerably. It seemed like all Sophie needed any more was a glance at a map, and she could figure out Venom’s next stop.

  That was what brought them to Tenia, a small town only a day or so’s ride into the Sovereign’s domain. The moment they crossed the invisible border and entered into the god’s domain, Tristan was flooded with notifications, though he immediately dismissed all of the usual scroll in favor of the most important one.

  [Path Quest updated: Avenge the Brightshield]

  Find and deal with each member of the party that killed Hesden Brightshield. Targets’ locations will only be provided when you are in the same zone. Remaining targets:

  Curse

  Red Blade

  Shadow

  Timetwister

  Venom -- in Tenia

  As your targets are higher tier than you, you will be shielded from their detection until you reveal yourself or attack.

  Additional objectives may be unlocked.

  Rewards: Achievement, Smart Loot

  For a few moments, his eyes lingered over Shadow’s faint, struck-through name before moving on. He’d settled that score, though not in the way he’d originally planned.

  Venom would not be so lucky.

  With the quest arrow pointing them toward their next target, and the distance indicator rapidly decreasing as they rode on, Tristan grew more sober. He’d learned quite a bit from his experience ambushing, and then fighting, Shadow. He knew he could get an opening attack before whatever advantage the quest gave him was used up. He had to make that attack count. Though that also meant that Sophie would have to stay back a little while, just to make sure they weren’t given away too quickly.

  Tenia was a quaint little village, Tristan thought to himself, until the realization that it was probably only a bit bigger than Woodsedge grew a pit in his stomach. Whatever might happen here could easily happen in his hometown too. And when had such places started to feel so small?

  Still, it was a nice, little town. There was a cheerful brook and water mill along one side. It had two main roads that led in and met in the town center, which was actually cobblestoned and seemed well maintained. As he walked down the main road, he saw people that might as well have come straight out of Woodsedge, though it seemed this town also had a few more shops to offer. There was a carpenter, a tanner, and a tailor, as well as a dedicated leatherworker. They had docks supporting a few fishermen, two butchers (clearly competing with one another), three taverns, a dedicated trader, and more that Tristan would have loved for Woodsedge to be able to boast about.

  There were even two places of worship--with only one being for the Sovereign, something Tristan found somewhat bold within a god’s domain. Still, it was clearly the nicer of the two, with beautiful stained glass windows on three of the four sides. It was nice to see such things when they weren’t there merely to intimidate and scare like they had been in the Rockmoor Cemetery.

  Yet with every step he took into this cozy town, something bugged him. It felt homey, he thought, but it didn’t feel quite right, and it took an embarrassing amount of time for him to realize what was missing: the echoing sounds of a hammer striking an anvil.

  Tenia, apparently, had no blacksmith.

  Tristan shook his head. This was absolutely the kind of place where he might have set up shop... if he could have made gear for other people. That, of course, would have required him to make a different choice in his Awakening, which would have put him on a different Path. Now, Tenia held little more for him than a target.

  As the distance indicator grew smaller and smaller, Tristan motioned for Sophie to slow down. He indicated with a glance the direction the arrow was pointing. It was holding steady now, pointing toward a rundown-looking building at the far end of the street. It was clear from the overgrown grass and untended hedges that this place wasn’t as loved as the rest of the town was.

  “Shall we scout it out, just to be a bit safer?” Sophie offered.

  Tristan nodded. “Sneakers, before I head in?”

  “Naturally,” she said, leading him toward a bench beside the stone statue at the center of the cobblestone courtyard. With a kiss on Poof’s nose and a swift apology, Sophie dismissed the adorable mage in a swirl of meeps and smoke, and she summoned her gold and green scout.

  Tristan sat down, trying not to stare too hard at anything, especially not the building on the outskirts of town, though that was the direction the bird-like astral immediately began flying. Instead, he tried to distract himself by taking a guidebook from his pack. This one they’d picked up a few towns back, and like all the rest of Dungeon Delver Dave’s guides, it went into great detail about the dungeons in the Sovereign’s domain. The distraction only half worked. He still found himself glancing after the distant bird, and its target, or at the girl beside him who had closed her eyes as if she were sunbathing.

  But he knew what she was really doing.

  It still amazed Tristan just how powerful Sophie’s connection with her astrals was. She didn’t need to speak to communicate with Sneakers, for example. Even more impressive was how she could see through Sneaker’s eyes while he was scouting, all while maintaining a running conversation with Tristan.

  “What do you see?” he asked without looking up from the guidebook, unable to hold back his curiosity any longer.

  “It’s an orphanage.”

  “Of course,” Tristan muttered, internally cursing the {Defiler} again.

  “He’s in there right now, playing a game of some sort. Or that’s what it seems like. He’s got several children around him, and they all seem to be smiling and laughing. Something’s moving...”

  “How many kids?” Tristan asked.

  “Nine right now, though there could always be more in another room. Want me to check?”

  Tristan ground his teeth. “Yes, but not right now. What else is going on? You said something was moving?”

  Sophie sucked in a breath. “There’s a snake, Tristan. It’s freaking huge. It could probably eat Sneakers or Poof whole.”

  Thinking back to the most recent scene, he spat with disgust. At least that explains some of the marks, but not all of them. He refocused on the current situation. “Are there any other adults, like someone who should be watching over for these kids?”

  “I... don’t see any,” Sophie said. “Hang on, Sneakers is moving to a different window.”

  Sophie inhaled sharply, causing Tristan to look at her immediately. Tears were beginning to roll down her cheeks. “I found the adults,” she whispered. “They’re... in the kitchen.”

  Tristan translated what she didn’t want to say: They’re already dead. He shut his book and stowed it back in his pack. “Then we can’t wait. It has to be today. Now.”

  “What will we do about the kids?”

  “Get a full count as quickly as you can,” Tristan shot back, barely containing his rage. He could feel the fire building up in his chest, stoked by the memories of what they’d found in each of the towns they’d left behind. He didn’t want to see that happen to any more children.

  “Tristan, there are nine kids in the room with him right now. What are you planning to do? I can practically hear your mind at work. Talk to me before you just go rushing in there!”

  “What kind of building is it?”

  “Tristan, are you listening to me?”

  “I’m talking, aren’t I? Tell me what I’m about to rush into!”

  Sophie sighed. “There’s a small vestibule--or entry room,” she quickly added, “then it’s mostly a big open space, with toys and... just junk scattered all across the floor. So watch your step. There are tables near the back, a few chairs in sitting circles. Stairs lead up from there. The other rooms on the ground floor are a kitchen and I think a bathroom? I can’t see into it. The upstairs just looks like a big, communal bedroom. Cots with blankets.”

  Tristan knew exactly the type of place she was describing. They’d seen too many of them destroyed since they’d started their hunt. “I need you to get all the kids out,” he said, “and make sure it’s all of them, okay? Do that first, before you come help. Let me handle Venom.”

  He cracked his neck and drew his [Oozebane Greatsword]. Based on what they’d learned from the other stops along his trail, Tristan suspected that he’d be relying on its unique [Incorruptible] property pretty heavily. Then again, maybe that was why he’d crafted it in the first place--his Path had prepared him for this moment.

  [Incorruptible] While wielding this sword, negate all damage from enemy damage-over-time effects.

  Another sigh from Sophie, louder this time. “Of course I’ll prioritize the children. But Tristan, you’ve got to be careful! I can’t tell what level Venom is, and based on everything we’ve seen he’s at least tier 3!"

  “Anything else you think I need to know before I head in there?” He already knew the things that she’d been saying. An outsider looking in would think the odds were stacked against him. That was how it had been against Shadow, too, but he’d managed to survive anyway.

  At least he was guaranteed an opening strike with the buff his Path quest gave him. The buff had hidden him from Shadow until he’d struck, and even a little beyond, if the bladeweaver’s reactions had been any indication. Tristan assumed he’d get the same treatment this time too, but even if not, he wouldn’t wait any longer. The {Defiler} had done too much already, enough that Tristan more or less knew what types of attacks to expect from him in a fight. Unlike the complete unknown of what he’d rushed into with Shadow. Honestly, he’d been ready weeks ago.

  It was time the {Defiler}’s Path came to an end.

  Sophie shook her head and said, “Just that I’m worried about you and hope you’re as good as you think you are.”

  With an eye roll and a quick thanks, Tristan ran down the street, pushing his legs as fast as they could possibly go, ignoring all the onlookers. He was focused, like a hammer beginning to work a fresh piece of metal. The broad strokes would come first, and then the finer details.

  With Sophie getting the kids out of the way, he would find a way to beat Venom.

  The moment his feet hit the small stones leading up to the orphanage’s front gate, he felt the buff take hold, as the world around him felt a little lighter, a little less real. He saw the icon in the corner of his display and checked it just to make sure it was the same.

  [Avenger’s Stealth] You are undetectable to quest targets above your tier. Upon dealing damage, you will gradually be revealed.

  Word for word, it was the same. Since last time it had not only hidden him from sight but also hearing (and any other ways Shadow might have had to notice him), it had made sneaking up on Shadow trivial. Tristan assumed it would be the same here.

  He opened the building’s front door, raised his greatsword again, and walked toward his destiny.

  Tristan Hammerson

  Human

  L14 Swordsmith/7 Swordsman

  {{Student of Jamal}}

  Stats:

  STR 57 (+10)

  AGI 27 (+3)

  END 58 (+7)

  INT 15 (+1)

  WIS 17 (+1)

  WiL 32 (+1)

  Core: [Soul-Forged] Items you craft replace a portion of the required materials with soul, are greatly enhanced, and become Soulbound. You may only use Soulbound items.

  Titles: {Awakened}, {Fledgling Dungeon Delver}, {Lonely Dungeoneer}, {Soulscarred}, {{Student of Jamal}}

  Skills: [Blade Echo], [Craft Armor], [Craft Shield], [Craft Tool], [Craft Weapon], [Create: Portable Forge], [Gather Ore], [Identify], [Permanent Party], [Repair Item], [Rivalry], [Sharpen Blade], [Work Metal]

  Attacks: [Blade Flurry], [Cleaving Slash], [Piercing Thrust], [Riposte]

  Passives: [Agility Up I], [Blade’s Resolve], [Born Blacksmith], [Combat Reflexes], [Endurance Up I], [Enhance Craft I], [Heat & Fire Resistance], [In a Hurry], [Strength Up II]