New Approach to Rulership, for Better or Worse?
As Aiden skimmed the article Thalia had handed him, his eyes drifted over to where Jax, Sir Oinks-a-Lot, and he lay in a line of towels on the lakeshore.
They were each wearing sets of swim shorts Thalia had made, letting the sun warm and tan them while, farther down the beach, Liora, Selene, and Beatris played in the shallow surf.
At least, it had started as playing.
At first, they had been splashing each other and running around.
By this point, the three were using skills to launch frankly overkill amounts of water at each other, complete with war cries and the occasional shaking of the ground from impacts.
"What's this about?" Aiden asked as he sat up and looked over at Thalia.
She was standing with them now, probably having been sent flying by the aquatic warzone's casualty zone.
"It's an article about the new government that was set up in Frigund," Thalia said. Her monotone voice gave no lean one way or the other on the matter. "Apparently, it's leading to a bunch of innovations."
"Huh," Aiden said, shrugging as he snuggled back into his towel to continue sunbathing. "Good for them, I guess."
"You do not seem very invested in such big news events," Thalia said, leaning in as if concerned by his nonchalance.
"Hey," Will said inside Aiden's head, "last time we were concerned about big events like that, we found out Grandpa might have banged a sword."
Next to him, Thrive nodded with his arms crossed.
"Just thinking about it hurts."
An uncomfortable squirming moved through all three of them.
Aiden shifted on his towel before turning back to Thalia.
"It's another country we haven't even been to," Aiden said. "While it's probably got some big stuff happening, I can only get but so invested."
Thalia stared at him with a disgruntled look.
Then she turned away and walked back toward the A.T.V.'s trailer, shutting the door behind her and hanging the changing within sign out the small window before drawing the little drapes.
She had been oddly particular about big things lately.
From what everyone could tell, Thalia had become enthralled and fascinated by anything pertaining to the Fateless.
It had been almost three months since the Zilla attack on Bear Reach.
They had been traveling along the coast of Alucan on their trip to Selene's home in Tessegog, and while they had conflicts here and there, the journey had been mostly uneventful aside from some small gathering quests.
Aiden mumbled the word, "System."
The familiar screen appeared.
So did the newer, more annoying one.
Aiden Hallowcreek
Age: 23
Class: Alchemist — Lv. 20
Locked until evolution
XP: 24,811/55,000
HP: 83/83
MP: 107/107
Stats:
Str: 23
Dex: 32
Con: 25
Int: 39
Wis: 21
Cha: 0
Skills:
You have reached level 20.
You have achieved something grand.
Favor of the Scion of Pride.
Your class is ready to evolve.
Available Evolutions:
Catalyst Crafter (D)
Toxicologist (D)
Ancient Physician (B)
It had unlocked after Aiden reached level twenty.
Though, it seemed that out of everyone, he was the only one who got his choices ready immediately after reaching level twenty.
They still had no idea who the Scion of Pride was.
But apparently, they were the reason his class evolution was available.
The whole party had talked it over, and everyone came to the agreement that Aiden should wait until the others got their evolutions, that way they could all power up together.
Which made sense.
It was practical.
Fair.
Reasonable.
It was also like making a kid watch presents being slowly brought out a week before their birthday and telling him not to touch them.
Aiden had been patient.
But he would not lie and say he had not read over the descriptions time and time again.
Catalyst Crafter (D)
While finding their origins in the production of potions, Catalyst Crafters step away from potions with the goal of refining ingredients to be better.
Unlocking Condition: Ingest 50 raw ingredients.
Toxicologist (D)
While potions can lean toward help and harm, Toxicologists lean toward harm more than help. Paralytics, laxatives, suppressants, and more. The darker sides of alchemy and its processes will give you an edge.
Unlocking Condition: Ingest 10 different poisons.
Ancient Physician (B)
Alchemy, like any study, is prone to change and alteration over time. Yet as quantity became the focus over quality, much was lost. An Ancient Physician is one who turns to the past for solutions in the present.
Unlocking Condition: Brew a potion that has not been brewed again in 10,000 years.
In all honesty, the choice was obvious in many ways.
And yet, because Aiden had been forced to wait, it felt more like a trap.
"Oh gods," Thrive grumbled, despite his original interest in the topic. "He's going down this tangent again."
By around the two hundredth time Aiden had brought it up, Thrive had become annoyed at even the mention of it.
Both Will and Thrive quickly made their way to a small corner of the mind space as Aiden continued his thought process.
On one hand, the rank alone was a good reason to select Ancient Physician.
But it could also be a trap, requiring a bunch of absurdly expensive and fancy materials they simply did not have access to.
Toxicologist could be good, especially with the testing Aiden had done on his World Will technique.
But if it limited his options for medical applications, their party would go from one-third of a healer to zero healer.
Then there was Catalyst Crafter.
Personally, it was probably the weakest of the three in terms of the kinds of things it would allow him to do.
Practically, though, it made a lot of sense.
They could develop and sell alchemical parts for extra money, and using the parts he made could maybe even push potions beyond their normal capacity.
Jax noisily sipped his drink through a straw beside his towel.
Aiden's thoughts paused for a moment.
He nuzzled deeper into his towel, just happy to be relaxing, lying on a towel instead of sand, and enjoying the sun.
"ACK!" Beatris yelled from the water. "Be careful, Liora! You knocked Selene's top off!"
...
On second thought, the towel also worked great as a blanket.