They travelled the same way they had e from, and though it would snow every so often along their jourhey were barely impeded by the snow or the terrain.

  ‘Must be an Iyrmaure,’ Adam thought, looking to Jurot. ‘Or maybe this area is magical too?’

  The vilgers accepted them quite eagerly, and their , with Adam dropping a gold to each vilge for their fee, plus an additional gold every night for each of them.

  “Who is this handsome young man?” the Chief of the first vilge asked, looking to Nobby. “Are you married?”

  “No,” Nobby replied.

  “Then why don’t you marry my granddaughter?” the Chief asked, signalling to someo one of her granddaughters here.

  Adam quickly stepped in front. “Sorry, but he has no pns to marry at the moment. He’s currently going to higher education.”

  The Chief’s eyes fshed with shock. “Oh, I didn’t realise he was a Noble.” She quickly curtsied.

  “He’s not,” Adam said. “Jurot and I are going to teach him stuff, so he’ll be too busy to get married.”

  “Oh?” She looked to Jurot. “You are training him.”

  Jurot nodded his head. “He has the build to bee a Rage Dancer.”

  The Chief returned a nod, uanding what he was talking about. “Once you’re done, perhaps?”

  “Perhaps,” Adam replied.

  “You ’t call it higher education,” the Chief warned.

  “Why not?” Adam asked, straightening up. “I’m taller than…” Adam stopped. It wasn’t because of the Chief’s look of fusion, but because Nobby was about a palm’s width taller than him. “I don’t know. It was just a joke.”

  “Higher education is only for Nobles.”

  “Then I guess I o buy some more herbs,” Adam said.

  “You’d like some herbs?” the Chief asked, smelling the she was about to make.

  “e on, Nobby,” Adam said, quickly pulling away from the money hungry Chief.

  “I ’t get married?” Nobby asked.

  “Of course you , I’m just trying to save your life,” Adam said. “Plus, I know a beautiful woman who you meet.”

  Nobby nodded his head. He had long learo trust Adam when he spoke, even if what most of what he said was nonsense. After all the things he had seen, knowing a beautiful woman he could meet was the most normal thing about Adam.

  As they tinued along their journey, Adam kept his promise. Not far from the Iyr was a small vilge, a vilge with perhaps a few thousand folk, a few of whom shared names with each other.

  “Nobby, meet Merl, not to be fused with Chief Merl,” Adam said, patting the man’s back, motioning to the beautiful woman.

  “Hello,” Nobby said, looking down to the young woman.

  “Hello,” she replied, staring up at Nobby. If she hadn’t lived beside the Iyr her entire life, seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of Iyrmen travelling through her vilge, she would have been slightly intimidated by the heavily built mound of muscle which was Nobby.

  Nobby turned a little red.

  “Nobby’s a good kid,” Adam said. “He’s sixteen now.”

  “Are y to set us up?” Merl asked.

  “No,” Adam said. “I promised Nobby I’d introduce you, and that’s what I did. Whether or not you want to get set up with a soon to be Expert like Nobby is up to you.”

  Merl remaiaring at Adam, her brow raised. “Even if he is an Expert, why would I-“

  “He’ll be an Expert?” Chief Merl asked. “He’s a big d, but he looks to be on folk like us.”

  “on folk, sure,” Adam replied. “Means he’s a good man at heart, not yet seduced by wicked gold.”

  “He doesn’t look like an Adventurer, and from the way he’s built, I’d say he orter,” Merl said.

  “You tell that by just looking at him?” Adam asked.

  “He did carry with him twe packs, so I assumed,” she replied.

  “Oh.”

  “So how will he bee an Expert?” Chief Merl tilted her head towards Adam.

  “He’s going to be trained by Jurot and I,” Adam expined. “He’ll be an Expert in about a year or two, three at most, probably.”

  “Is being an Expert so easy?” Chief Merl asked.

  “Uh,” Adam said, looking to Jurot. “Isn’t it?”

  “It is difficult,” Jurot said.

  “Well, you and I are Experts, and it didn’t take us long,” Adam said.

  Chief Merl coughed. “Excuse me?”

  “That is because you are, as you say, built different,” Jurot said, early.

  Adam coughed, trying to tain his ughter. “Right. I guess we shouldn’t use the on standards when I’m involved.”

  Jurot nodded.

  “All the more reason to believe that Jurot and I train him up to be an Expert quickly,” Adam said.

  “You’re both Experts?” the Chief asked, looking to Jurot.

  “Yes.”

  “You’re just a wee boy still,” the Chief said, reag up to pat Jurot’s head. “How you be an Expert so soon?”

  “Adam,” Jurot replied, simply. He felt that it needed no further expnation, for his name held more questions than answers, questions he wasn’t equipped to answer.

  The Chief looked to Adam. “I don’t believe you were an Expert when you came to us back then. I’d have said you were a little weaker than Jurot.”

  “He beat me,” Jurot said, fidently.

  “What?” The Merls gasped together.

  “Well, I mean, maybe,” Adam said. “If I use Phantom, I could probably beat Jurot.”

  “Without it, it would be much closer, but I believe you still beat me,” Jurot replied.

  “I don’t know,” Adam admitted. “I had to make aire neon to beat yrandfather, and even then I’m not that sure I beat him.”

  The Merls weren’t sure what to say or think as they heard the casual versation of the pair. ‘What are they talking about?’

  “You’re a lot strohan you think you are, Jurot,” Adam said.

  “You as well, Adam.”

  “You two are very strong,” Nobby firmed.

  “How did you bee an Expert so quickly?” Chief Merl asked, hoping to glean some information from the Half Elf. She could tell he was the kind to give up all kinds of information, he held that aura about him.

  “Did you fet that we faced against the Dragon not long ago?” Adam asked.

  “That was you! I remember now.” She rubbed her forehead. “Sorry, it’s just that with everything that’s going on, it’s hard to remember specifics.

  “What’s going on?”

  “The tour was retly held, and there’s the whole matter with the wilight Month which we’re preparing for, and the rising of the Undead.”

  “Does the Twilight Month affeuch?” Adam asked. “Sorry, I’m new around these parts still.”

  “Not much, but we still wish to be careful,” Merl replied. “Well, if you need help, I’ll be sure to help out.”

  “Is that a promise backed by Iyrmen?” Merl asked, looking to Jurot.

  “It’s a promise backed by me, the Nephew of the Rot family,” Adam said. “I don’t know what the Twilight Month is like, and if I’m not needed in the Iyr for whatever reason, I’ll e by and help out. If I ’t, I’ll send someone else fairly capable.”

  Merl sighed. “As capable as an Expert?”

  “Probably not…” Adam said, before narrowing his eyes. “Actually, there is someone who is more capable than an Expert. I mean, he’s not as strong as me, but he’s not so bad.”

  “Who?”

  “The other Half Elf we brought along st time,” Adam said. “Jonn. I’ll see if I ’t send him along to help out. He’s not sworn his Oaths to me yet, but I have Brittany e over to train too.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to marry my granddaughter?” Merl asked, causing her granddaughter to rub her forehead.

  “I’m sure,” Adam said. “I have no pns to marry for a while. Though, Nobby is quite a strong fellow.”

  “An Expert might be strong, but there are many Iyrmen who e along to help,” Merl said. “Experts aren’t quite as impressive as you think they are.”

  “Experts are exactly as impressive as I think they are,” Adam said. “You’re basically guaranteed a det life as long as you made the correct decisions.”

  “If you make him a Master, maybe I’ll think about it,” Merl said.

  ‘What?’ Adam thought, w how lewd the vilgers were for a moment. “What’s a Master?”

  The Merls raised their brows towards Adam.

  “A Master is someone who has stepped into learning the Fifth Gate of spells,” Jurot expined.

  “No,” Adam said, reag for his heart. “No.”

  “What?” Jurot asked, taken aback by Adam’s response. Somehow, the Half Elf could still surprise him.

  “So the step after Master is…” Adam asked, though he already khe answer.

  “Grandmaster.”

  Adam sighed. “Of course it is.” He rubbed his eyes with his wrists, shaking his head. “ you’ll tell me that the step is called an Immortal.”

  “No,” Jurot said. “They are knoaragons.”

  “Oh,” Adam said. “For a moment there, I thought this was a different genre.”

  “What?” Jurot asked.

  “Nothing.”

  ‘If he wasn’t so queer, I may have wao marry him,’ Merl thought.

  “Master, huh?” Adam said. ‘So what, that would be Level 9?’ Adam used the system to check out how much Experience he needed for the level. He shook his head, trying to tain his gasp, shog the others around.

  ‘Bell, what the fuck?’

  [What is the matter?]

  ‘Don’t start that nonseh me! You kly what I’m talking about!’

  [The XP required has doubled due to your quick progression.]

  ‘So it’s normally only ten?’

  [Thousand, yes.]

  ‘Why has it almost doubled?’

  [The moment you access a ier of Power, the level usually increases for the purposes of establishing the Tier of Power you have gained.]

  “What is the matter?” Jurot asked, noting the others were looking to him for answers as to why Adam was ag more queer than usual.

  “Sorry,” Adam said. “I just… I found out that being to too quickly has its sequences.”

  “So you do have some on sense,” Merl said.

  “No,” Adam replied. “I don’t.”

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  Adam trying to hook Nobby up with the pretty vilge girl? Lucy's in trouble.