Chapter 8: 8. Retreat to the Hare’s Retreat

[Class Aspirant detected. Druid. Touch of Chaos. Yes/No?]

Yes.

When Harold chose yes it felt like taking a giant step forward, and then he blacked out. When he came back to his senses, he was still standing, and had a vague recollection of rushing winds, primal storms and images of life finding a way despite the great forces all around.

Is that how it feels for everybody? What he saw next distracted him from properly analysing the memory of those strange sensations.

[Class: Chaos Druid]

[Skill added: Roar of the Wild.]

[Spell added: Nourishing Remains.]

[Passive added: Nature’s Resistance.]

[Skill added: Regenerating Form.]

[Spell added: Ruptured Earth.]

[Skill added: Bond of the Forest.]

[Spell added: Spore of Dreams.]

[Domain added: Primal Domain.]

[Spell added: Touch of Chaos.]

[Spell added: Voidthorn’s Grasp.]

It was the strangest thing he’d ever seen, and his drunkenness added a surreal quality to the experience.

The white text was floating in front of Harold, but Kalle clearly didn’t see it. Neither did Harold if he looked at a white cloud too close to the sun, but if he closed his eyes it was still there, clear as day.

Eventually the text faded, but Harold knew deeply that the words would stay with him forever. What the hell is a Voidthorn?

“Okay, I’ve got the Class,” He hesitated before blurting it out. “Touch of Chaos is the 9th Skill.” His wide-eyed look was mirrored by Kalle.

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“Damn, [Wailing Bolt] was only my 5th, I reckoned that might make me a king eventually, but then what the hell would that make you?” Kalle grinned widely after they both had a second to consider how the news felt.

Harold laughed for the first time in what felt like ages. “The god-spirit of your kingdom obviously!” He raised his arms and picked up the pace into town.

“Hah, as long as you’re ready to be the god of a bunch of [Heretics]” Kalle bantered.

“Never that, blasphemer’s will be bound by the Bond of the Forest and assailed for the rest of their short lives by the Spore of Dreams!” This strange pronouncement was met by Kalle giving him a queer look.

“Are those your new Skills?”

And of course, that was when Harold ran ahead shouting. “Wouldn’t you like to know”

---

Yes. They were laughed out of town. Showing up, half-drunk off their asses, and looking to make a business deal because of some vague new classes they weren’t willing to share had resulted in a very predictably failed venture, with hindsight. Kalle even forgot to activate his bangle, and realised too late how many people had already seen him come into town together with Harold. They still made a go of it, but it was clearly doomed from the start.

The lads retreated to the Hare’s Retreat.

“Listen, they’re not wrong about us being ill prepared, but remember what I said.”

When the still sobering Harold didn’t react with more than a raised brow Kalle importantly added. “Momentum.”

“Right, we didn’t lose it?”

“No man, the plan is still on. I know you’re not having regrets already, we just missed a few steps that’s all.” He was absolutely right. Harold had lost none of his determined look, even if the earlier artificially enhanced exuberance was gone.

“We should make one thing clear. Either we just travel together for the first few legs or we actually do this whole thing together. I do get it if you’re not sure yet, but I believe we’ll be safer from day one if we actually trust each other. That includes sharing all the details of our Skills and Classes, and figuring out the new ones later on together. We've both got a lot of growing to do, so we might as well grow together.” Harold had been nodding along until that last sentence, which made him unable to suppress a mocking smile.

“Yeah, yeah. I live with old folks, what can I tell you... I might have let them rub off on me a bit much.” He said the words but Harold caught Kalle's fond smile before he started heading out the door.

“I’ll go let them know what is going on and see what I can get to help us out on the road, you do whatever you need to prepare. I’ll swing by first thing in the morning and we’ll plan it out and make a proper go of selling this place. Alright?”

All of Harold’s earlier hesitations were gone, the more he thought about it the more he could picture himself in Kalle’s same mindset, searching desperately for opportunity, a year or so on. Especially with the way things had been going lately.

Now Harold just needed to see what he could figure out about all his new Spells. Oh, and break the news to his little brother.

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