Chapter 38: 38. Saving Esper Kalle

Oscar had followed Kalle for most of the first day, but when the [Esperlock] made it clear that he planned to keep going, for another day and probably even some more, was when Oscar sensed trouble brewing and returned. He couldn't follow any further, Kalle was setting a pace and Oscar had already skipped lunch and supper both at that point. Neither him nor Kalle carried provisions, Kalle hadn't said anything and it made Oscar assume none were needed. Kalled agreed with that sentiment fully.

When Oscar returned on the second day, early in the morning, he immediately went to wake Livia and Harold, who happened to already be up. It took mere seconds for the [Business Guild Master] to grasp the situation despite her groggy state. They went to collect blankets and apples to bring for the trip. Liam and Ella were worried sick, but they didn't have the fortitude to run out there heedlessly.

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Kalle was exposing himself to the friction of the waterfall for hours at a time. When he needed rest he went to hide from the wind in the lee of a tree. He had no food, and he had been doing this since he arrived late yesterday. But Kalle had discovered something amazing. Just like with Harold gaining such a rate of recovery and not to mention energy because of always being surrounded by such massive forests, when Kalle was at his lowest point and truly feared for his life and even his choices, that he was never going to get close to Harold who had been granted a tier 9 Aspiration Spell, because of the Class he had been granted. That was when he had suddenly felt a new source of energy and noticed how his distress had had an effect on the surrounding energies that had made him chose this glade, with its high level water affinity, in the first place.

His Class was empowering him, and he felt like he was getting closer and closer to the deep truths of his chosen vocation with every minute he endured. The feeling was addicting. But as he left the waterfall a final time he realized he might well have pushed his luck too far. His clothes were torn off since yesterday and his skin felt like it was sliver-thin and that was only where he was lucky enough not to have had the water mix with blood.

His mind felt fuzzy, but the source of power was still there. He desperately chose a direction, one he was sure looked like the path he'd taken when he came upon this place, and his stumbling from tree to tree to hide from the wind while he got a chance to dry up was a pathetic sight. If only he had done this closer to home, if only home wasn't so far away. If only he had thought to bring some food for afterward. He could not recall the reason he didn't. He had no idea how much time had passed since he left the waterfall. At least he was in a forest, his stumbling happened to bring him to a bush with berries, and he recognised the red color even in his delirious state. He ate them all but it was like throwing pebbles down the void of a well. No sound was heard at the bottom.

When he went to get up he found he couldn't make it all the way, he leaned against the rough bark of a tree, the texture tremendously painful. When he pushed off tiredly and tried to keep finding his way home was when he finally went down. I've fucked up again.

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When the fellowship found Kalle he was in quite the state. If it weren't for Mossy unexpectedly showing up to guide them part of the way, before disappearing again, it would have been likely that they arrived too late. They immediately wrapped him in blankets despite the fact it woke him up and made him hiss weakly with pain. They were clean enough, and he needed to warm up immediately. They carried him, swaddled, while Harold cast his [Regenerating Form]. It reminded Kalle of being carried home as a child after having been out on the town for a drunken revelry in Dormata.

When the group was a day out from Salcret was when they saw a surprising sight.

"Headwoman Tyresa, what are you doing out here?" She wasn't alone, more than a dozen other townsfolk were right on her tail, some quite high level [Hunters] and workmen like [Hammerer] and [Forester]. Even the Captain.

"Esper Kalle, it seems you young people tend to forget at times, but we take care of our own here in Salcret. Your Liam came into town and told us you were in trouble, so here we are." Harold was the one who reacted to their sudden appearance, but Tyresa directed the words at Kalle regardless. That the town leadership knew the specifics of Kalles Class was news to the group, but the man himself was too delirious to note the fact. Livia explained the situation as a training exercise gone wrong, and assured the mob that she would have a stern talk with Kalle about his Class when he was in a state to retain the words. The mob assured her they would be doing the same.

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Kalle had really messed himself up, the brave idiot. Livia knew why he'd done it, in a sense, but there was still such a thing as taking it too far. Then again Livia had been pushing the 'we can be the ones to save Humanity!'-bit a touch too far, maybe. But she had had the same thing done to her damn it, and it wasn't always so easy not sharing the burden.

Kalle was down with a fever, and both Harold and Oscar were looking demoralized, sitting by his bedside. He was young enough and had a strong enough Class that he was going to be fine, but the emotional mood was helping so it wasn't like Livia was about to tell them that.

Her own Class she was still ironing out the kinks of. She had a couple of her Skills left to figure out. [Basic Bookkeeping] was obvious, but Livia was working on upgrading it soon. And [Pitch Perfect] was something that would work better the more she got to know the various talents around town. A few had already caught her eye as potential future guild members, but she could tell it was going to be a tough sell. Salcret was just too damn cosy.

Now [Extended Halls] was already working at full power, but there was only so much it could do with a run down house originally meant for a family to live in. Once they built their real stronghold was when the Skill would show its true worth. Low level dimensional Skills were not that rare, even places like the Salcret orchard had one, but upgrading it was a different matter, and Livia had her unfair advantage in that regard. A couple hundred years ahead such things were no longer considered so enigmatic.

[Nurture Talent] was simply helping her see if there was anything missing in terms of motivation or resources for the lads, it was still up to them to actually find a path to walk, but they were doing a solid job thus far. Ignoring the taking it slightly too far at times. Harold had apparently been given a tier 9 Spell as his Aspirant Spell for the [Druid] Class, indicating he was beyond fit for the lifestyle in terms of affinity. Despite Kalle starting out 3 full levels ahead, they were both now level 6 and so the older boy was feeling the heat, even feeling pushed into a sense of inadequacy, which wasn't all bad, he was an [Esperlock] after all, if it was one thing he needed to get good at quick it was handling his emotions. But it was clear he needed more attention and support than Livia or anyone else had been providing to this point.

[Play the Host] and [Conflict De-escalation] were both self-explanatory, and would come into their own once their [Guild] was properly established, but the rest of Livia's Skills were proving a tougher nut to crack. She had an inkling about all of them, and even the Domain Skill was familiar, although it wasn't something she had expected to see so early in a civic leadership Class. [Pitch Perfect] helped Livia read the target and how they were responding to her words, not to mention helped prevent things like thinking of the perfect argument right as it was too late and you were walking off.

All in all Livia felt like they were right on track.

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