The Way Ahead

Chapter 22: Just Follow the Black Stone Road

Level Up!

Seeing Level 1516

Flexibility Level 1115

Athletics Level 2325

Visualization Level 2324

Alchemy Level 4143

Mana Infusion Level 5355

Firestarting Level 2327

Bomb Throwing Level 19

Walking Level 2021

Survival Level 1214

Language Level 3334

Packing Level 23

Breathing Level 1617

Congratulations! For leaving your lifelong home with no intention to return, you have unlocked the Wanderer path!

Congratulations! For being driven from your home on threat of violence should you return, you have unlocked the Exile path!

Congratulations! For freeing yourself from captivity you have unlocked the Escapee path!

Congratulations! For managing to defeat multiple trained soldiers of Clan Blackstone against all odds, you have unlocked the Blackstone Conqueror path!

You have unlocked the Intimidate skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

Congratulations! For lighting a powerful political figure on fire, you have unlocked the Pyromaniac path!

You have unlocked the Shield Block skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

You have unlocked the Reflexes skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

Congratulations! For surviving a powerful explosion, you have unlocked the Unkillable path!

Congratulations! For killing a sentient creature, you have unlocked the Killer path!

Congratulations! For blinding an opponent through severe chemical burns, you have unlocked the Alchemical Warrior path!

Congratulations! For killing an unarmed sentient creature, you have unlocked the Assassin path!

Congratulations! For attacking your mentor, you have unlocked the Traitor path!

Edwin was really glad he had updated the way his leveling notifications were displayed. There was already a lot to parse here, nevermind if it were interspersed with thirty skill increases. Huh. Counting that had been surprisingly easy. Apparently Mathematics was paying off.

Each of the Paths got a brief look-over, and a great deal of concern at the Assassin, Killer, and Traitor paths. Who did he kill? He wasnt exactly hoping to kill anyone, though with how sturdy all the dwarves. oh. It was probably Rashin, wasnt it? He was also probably the mentor attacked for the Traitor path.

Edwins excess mental chatter fell silent for a moment. Sure, the dwarf had arguably been the one to sentence Edwin to slavery, but it wasnt really accurate. Really, he had just been tasked by lord Sfishkill to keep an eye on Edwin, and as a result he was now dead.

It was a sobering thought to think that he had been directly responsible for the death of someone. Did Rashin have family? Edwin hadnt thought to ask initially, and ignored the few attempts at conversation Rashin had initiated while Edwin was captured out of spite. He couldnt say that he regretted what he had done, not really. But he still wished that he hadnt needed to kill anyone.

Had anyone else died as a result of his escape? He hadnt thought so, but then again he had thought that whatever kept Rashins skull intact when it was struck with a sledgehammer would have let the dwarf survive as well, when that was apparently not the case. Maybe not the dwarf that he had dumped Infused lime on? Edwin felt emotions well up inside of him, regret, sadness, a hint of self-loathing, but he steeled himself, locking that whole bundle of screwy emotions inside a solid box right next to where he was keeping his thoughts about being worlds away from everyone he knew. He did not have time for that right now. Okay, maybe he did. He absolutely had time to process being on Joriah in his month-long imprisonment, just No. He clearly didnt have time. Besides, his emotions were securely locked away, there was no time pressure, he could deal with them later. Later, Edwin. Not now. Once he was safe and secure somewhere, then he could deal with his emotions. Might not be the healthiest idea, bu...t nah. Itd be fine. He had loads of practice keeping his feelings separate from everything else because and nope! He was absolutely not opening that box right now. One day, maybe.

Oh look, something to distract him! More Paths!

Alchemical Warrior sounded incredibly fun, but at 90 points was a bit much. Pyromaniac, Exile, and Escapee were all 30 points, cheap paths with debatable value. He wasnt sure if he wanted whatever they might bring to his Class. Wanderer, at 60 was more promising.

Sure, calling the Blackstone Citadel Edwins lifelong home might have only been technically correct, and only from the Systems perspective, but at the same time, the sentiment wasnt totally off. With further thought, Edwin kind of liked the idea of being a wandering alchemist, traveling around and seeing everything Joriah had to offer. He couldnt really settle down, not with Blackstone likely willing to follow him to the far corners of the earth- far corners of Joriah? English expressions werent really made with other worlds in mind- to drag him back to enslavement. Granted, he could probably manage to avoid them by making political allies until it would be too complicated to pull Edwin back, but considering what had just happened, he was hesitant to run to another person in power and trust that hed get away totally fine. Heck, he might even be used as a way to get cheap political favors if he wasnt careful!

No, he would need to keep traveling to avoid his pursuers. Alone, preferably, then he wouldnt have to worry about anyone selling him out. Besides, he liked being alone. No emotional baggage or social intricacies to worry about. Just him and his thoughts. Yeah he liked that idea. Maybe he could be an adventurer! Show up, kill a monster, get rewards to fund his trek to the next town, repeat ad nauseum. Sounded good to him. What was he thinking about? Oh yeah! Paths.

Wanderer sounded good to him, though when he would take it Eh, at some point. Unkillable sounded very appealing, but at 90 points fell firmly behind the other Paths with a similar cost. Blackstone Conqueror sounded like it was a Trophy path, like his Stonehide Vanquisher path. From what Rashin had said, it would probably give him a skill with a physical manifestation. Something made of Blackstone, perhaps? That would be cool.

Also, he had skills to reject! This always hurt a little bit, but if he were offered them again he might reconsider. Intimidation and Shield Block were both easy rejections- he had no desire to scare people to get them to cooperate, it just wasnt his style, and he had no real intention to use a shield in the future. He could have taken them anyway, but then he would just be dealing with extra skills that he wouldnt be using and thus not providing the skill points needed for their own evolutions. Reflexes Reflexes was a significantly harder decision. He still declined it, but was much more hesitant to do so. If he wanted it at some point in the future, he could probably re-earn it, but there was no way to remove a skill once you had it. So, rejecting was temporary, accepting was permanent, and he didnt feel committed enough to it to make that choice.

He needed to sit down and figure out some long-term plan, though. Blindly stumbling through things and accepting all skills offered might have worked for him so far, but that could only take him so far. Failing to plan was just planning to fail, after all. The only problem with devising a build was that he didnt know enough about the System to make informed decisions, and he doubted that he would trust anyone enough to share the details of what he could do any time soon. Not after that last fiasco. So, blindly stumbling around looked like the name of the game for the near future. Still, it had worked out decently well fo far. After all, he liked roughly what sorts of skills he had- an eclectic mishmash of abilities which worked together well. He might have unintentionally crippled his mana usage, but even what he could do was clearly enough to take down really spectacular odds.

It is a pity, Edwin mused, that I probably wont have access to any workshops near as nice as what the dwarves provided. They had a really nice kiln and lots of tools, way more than I could reasonably carry around even if Packing gets really high-leveled. Just too cumbersome. Ooh! I wonder if spatial bags are a thing. That might be helpful in terms of carrying stuff around, not to mention all the physics-breaking fun that could be had with something like that. Edwin shook his head to clear it, Anyway, I wish I had been able to take more tools with me as I left, all that sort of thing is bound to be even more expensive here than on Earth, so I wont be funding a lab for myself any time soon. Heck, I dont even have the right protective equipment anymore

Edwin was broken out of his thoughts by a branch falling somewhere off the path, not terribly far away. He froze, not wanting to attract the attention of any kind of predator that might be lurking nearby as he carefully scanned his surroundings for something that might have knocked a branch down or made a sound that was really similar to one. They might still be invisible, though. He never did rule out the possibility that predators might well have insane Stealth skills. If anything, running into a bear the size of a train just made that there were invisible panthers hanging around somewhere all the morelikely.

Still, scanning the woods carefully had its own benefits. Off the path a little ways, Edwin caught sight of a trickling brook, cascading off the edge of a small rocky bluff. It looked close enough to what Edwin was hoping for that he decided it was worth a try, and given he would have never noticed it without looking closer specifically here, it was probably hidden enough for his purposes.

He shivered as he left the road. Apparently, the Blackstone had been keeping him warmer than he realized. Still, the site seemed to suit Edwin well enough. A tree had grown up right next to the exposed rock, creating a small, sheltered space beneath its branches that was just large enough to hold him if he was curled up. While there may have only been a trickle of water flowing by, it was better than nothing, and Edwin settled in for the night.

His first step was to dig through his backpack to find his water canteen, which he gratefully gulped down. Then, he dug out a heating stone and his bowl. Unfortunately, it seemed as though a spare crossbow bolt had struck the heating stone, cracking it and rendering it useless. Well, at least he had a crossbow bolt now, he supposed? Not sure what he might do with it, but it didnt seem like anything else was ruined- a couple loaves of bread had a hole through their centers, but that wouldnt really make a difference. A bit more digging turned up another heating stone. While it wasnt as nice as the broken one, it still got hot enough to boil the water Edwin had collected in his bowl. Once it was boiling nicely, he took a handful of rags from his bag- well, they had been sacks, but a few cuts with his knife tore them into strips- and shoved them in the water, hopefully sterilizing them. He was pretty sure this would work, anyway.

The bandages were dripping wet when he removed them from their bath, naturally, but he dried them out by laying them directly on the heating stone, where they started steaming. While they were drying, Edwin turned his attention to the real problem at hand, so to speak.

Fortunately, the quarrel hadnt gone too deeply into his shoulder. Unfortunately, that was because it seemed to have hit his shoulder bone, which Edwin was pretty sure was Very Bad. The arrowhead hadnt buried all the way inside, though, which should make it easier to remove, especially as it wasnt serrated or barbed in any way, just a leaf-shaped tip on a broken, slender wooden shaft. After sterilizing his knifeblade via a quick application of Firestarting, Edwin carefully poked at the wound, opening it up just enough to let some blood out, then attempted to slide the crossbow bolt out. He had to abort that attempt when he was left seeing stars, same with the next and the next and the next and eventually he worked it all the way out, but it left his shoulder bleeding at an uncomfortable rate, but he brought up a handful of bandages to stem the flow. It was half successful. Still bleeding an uncomfortable amount. Gah. This was why everyone always said to not remove the puncturing object, because it would just bleed more. That worked great when you had 911, but out here? Not so much.

Edwin knew what he should probably do- use Firestarting to try and fuse the skin together, but he didnt want to do so. For one, it might not work. Two, it would hurt a heck of a lot, and three, setting himself on fire didnt strike him as the smartest idea. Still, it would also probably sterilize the wound, which if he wanted to avoid infection, he would need to do. He still couldnt believe he forgot to bring soap.

He took a deep breath. Maybe because it was magical fire, he could somehow attune it so it wouldnt hurt as much? It was magic, anything was possible. That thought was enough to get him to set on a course of action. Hed do it, hoping it went alright. Hey, hed done stupider stuff in the past, right?

The first thing Edwin did was prep the surrounding area, Infusing his bandages and shoulder with as much mana as he could provide. He hadnt tried infusing himself before, and it didnt really take. He might have Infused the bone or something, but he didnt really get the sensation that he had Infused his shoulder.

With a deep breath, Edwin imagined a spark of fire alighting on his severed blood vessels, cauterizing them. Elsewhere, he imagined fire dancing along the surface of his skin, scorching right outside of it without touching or burning his actual flesh. Above all, though, he saw the fire not going inside of him, but instead staying purely topical. Then, with a few deep breaths to calm himself, poured as much mana into the forming Skill idea as he could and pushed.

Firestarting

The pain was intense, as it felt like his shoulder was briefly lit on fire which, Edwin supposed once his wits returned, it was. Fortunately, the majority of the pain went away decently quickly, leaving only a lingering burn and AAAHHH THE BANDAGE WAS ON FIRE.

Anyway. Once the burning rags were thrown into the brook, where they now sat smoking, Edwin turned his attention back to his shoulder. The skin of his shoulder, now a painful shade of red, was definitely burned, but the cut seemed to have been closed well enough to slow the bleeding enough that a fresh set of bandages was able to stem it. Hed have to keep a close eye on the burn to make sure that didnt get infected, though.

Tying bandages around his shoulder with a broken arm was awkward, to say the least, but he managed eventually with comparatively little pain, then shrugged his shirt back on. All that finally taken care of, Edwin checked the notifications which had been tugging at his attention this entire time.

Congratulations! For successfully closing an open wound on your own in the wilderness, you have unlocked the Field Medic path!

Congratulations! For unlocking the Cauterize spell, you have unlocked the Mage path!

You have unlocked the First Aid skill!

Accept Skill? Y/N

You have unlocked the Cauterize skill!

Accept skill? Y/N

Level Up!

Firestarting 2729

Mana Infusion Level 5556

Visualization 2425

Wait, the Mage path? Didnt he already complete that? Huh. He did. Could you re-earn Paths? Was it only completed Paths? It had to be that. Edwin couldnt imagine not re-unlocking the Daredevil path after his sledding incident if you could have multiple of the same Path as the same time. That was interesting. Granted, he didnt know what he might be able to do with that information, but it was still interesting.

Also, even more skills to choose between? Cauterize being a spell sounded really, really cool. An actual spell! Were they different from normal skills in some way? If so, how? Gah Edwin felt torn. On the one hand, he would hopefully never need to use it again, so it was a wasted skill. On the other, it was a System-recognized spell! Then again, like with Reflexes, if he somehow needed it again, he knew how to unlock it. First Aid, though, was an absolute necessity. He needed something like that, if his misadventures so far were any indication. Plus, hed need all the help he could get for his arm.

Level Up!

First Aid Level 14

First Aid

Youve had one, yes, but what about Second Aid?

Patch up wounds

Effectiveness improves with level.

Edwin vaguely wondered what the dwarves would think about him, not following any particular legacy, just grabbing whatever skills he thought sounded useful. He did really need the help, though. A couple of half-remembered classes about first aid was not enough when there was nobody to go to for a better job after he first patched himself up.

Level Up!

First Aid Level 47

I miss Improvisation. Edwin thought as he tried to work one-handed with his swiftly-dwindling stock of cloth, I dont think Im any worse than before, but I could have gotten so many levels if I still had it.

Edwins forearm was wrapped up tightly, the swelling on his arm mostly manageable now, and with a few more minutes of work, he even had a makeshift sling to help keep it immobile. With no way to set the bone, or even the knowledge needed if he could, all he could do was to hope that his bone would heal correctly on its own.

Curling up while trying to avoid disturbing a broken arm wasnt easy, but Edwin managed it eventually. It had been a long, exhausting day, so pretty much as soon as he had himself situated in a half-decent position, tucked beneath the tattered remains of his coat, he was fast asleep.

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