I couldn’t fall asleep. Something was bothering me. It was like that time a legend attacked me in my sleep. “Wake up!” a guard rushed into my room and shouted.
I sat up in bed and the guard raced over. “My apologies,” he said and quickly grabbed me around the waist, putting me over his shoulder. I heard shouting in other parts of the mansion. The only reason for a guard to quickly get me like this was that there was an ongoing attack.
Seconds after realizing that, there was a loud explosion and the entire building shook. The guard didn’t lose his footing as he raced down to the first floor. The rest of the family members were being carried into the deep underground bunker by elite guards, deep beneath the mansion.
Heavy metal doors were closed and powerful enchantments activated as everyone was quickly moved into the safe room. The elite guards who had brought us down here, stood outside the last door, while the Burnstock family was placed into the inner vault.
There was more ground shaking I could hear the bangs of distant explosions. “Good, everyone is here,” Duke Burnstock said while looking over everyone.
“Another attack. How annoying,” Dereck muttered.
“Probably the remnants of Crownsmith, making one last desperation move in revenge,” my father said as the ground shook again. “As long as they don’t have a legend, we will be fine. The guards are more than up to the task, and we have a large team of elites.”
The ground shook again. My father was saying things to try and keep himself and everyone else calm. If whatever force broke through, it would only be a matter of time until they broke through, especially if they were a legend.
“Well the Construction Mages need some funding anyways and redecorating isn’t a bad thing,” Dereck muttered as the ground shook some more.
“What is taking so long? That isn’t good,” Greg muttered.
“We just have to wait and be calm. The guards are well trained for such things. I doubt it is anyone truly powerful, since the threat of Supreme Warlady Elena would have scared them off,” he replied.
“Or they want to kill her son as revenge and don’t care,” Dereck said. His father sent him a glare, and he shrugged. “It isn’t unreasonable to say.”
“It isn’t. But we will stand or fall as a family. Being a noble isn’t always smooth sailing,” he replied. There was a bell chime. Everyone went quiet.
“Duke Burnstock, the threat has been eliminated. A final sweep is being done. Crisp cucumbers. The number eight. Black and white,” a guard said through an enchanted communicator from outside the bunker. The last couple of phrases were clearly pass phrases of some kind letting the Duke know everything was okay for him to come out.
“Good. That means we can leave this place,” the Duke said with a relieved smile. He went to the vault door and opened it. The guards all nodded towards him and escorted back up into the mansion.
The captain of the guard came over once we reached the exit to the vault staircase. “Duke. The attack has been neutralized. Six hostiles of elite level and fourteen of lesser levels were eliminated. No elite casualties on our side, seventeen regular guards were killed in the assault.”
The Duke let out a long sigh. “Arrange their funeral for tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow. Since the outside is a mess. How bad is it and what is the damage?” my father asked as we all listened to the conversation before going back to our rooms.
“The damage to the outside of the mansion and the grounds are extensive. The tier 4 skills of Fireball and Quake were used extensively in the battle. The structure of the mansion is quite sound, but it is being double checked along with follow up sweeps of the mansion and grounds for anyone that might be hidden. As for the attackers, they appear to be Crownsmith royal guards. A final desperation attack. An after-battle sweep has been done, but we will remain at full alert for the next three days, with active sweeps of all areas,” the guard captain explained.
“Three days, isn’t that a bit much?” Dereck asked.
“If these were mercenaries then yes. But this was a professional fighting force from another nation. They are likely to have individuals with stealth skills. Everyone will have one elite guard with them at all times for the next three days,” he explained.
“No arguing. Thank you, Captain. Your vigilance is appreciated. Do whatever you feel is necessary to ensure our safety,” Duke Burnstock said.
“As you command Duke,” the guard captain replied before assigning each of us an elite guard to accompany us at all times.
While it might not make sense to have assassins in the middle of a battle it was common practice to get around Danger Sense and similar skills and enchantments. There was probably no one, but my father was right to be cautious. There were too many assassinations in the history books I had learned from.
I went back to bed and the next morning, I got to see the extent of the damage outside the mansion. I checked it out before breakfast. It looked worse than when my mother had beaten Squire Jessica up, far worse.
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Large chunks were burnt, including several trees. There were large cracks in the ground. “A sight, isn’t it,” the guard captain said as he walked over to stand next to me as I looked over the damage.
“Good morning, Captain Johnson. My condolences about your men,” I greeted the man politely. He had done the initial training with me on my weapon skills.
“It was a tough battle. Their teamwork was impeccable. But without a legend they were unable to break through,” he said while looking out at the destruction.
“A legend could stop all of this?” I asked.
“It isn’t just the higher stats, it is the more powerful skills. Most elites have a couple tier 4 skills. A legend would have at least one tier 5 skill. That is when you get specialized skills that are unknown, which is far more dangerous than common spells like Fireball or Quake, which are still incredibly dangerous, but there are ways to deal with them,” he replied.
A mage in the distance was saying something to level out the ground once again. The Construction and Landscaping Mages would be earning quite a bit putting everything back into place.
“What about a tier 6 skill?” I asked.
“That would be someone like your mother, with around double the level of an elite. A tier 6 skill is rarely used outside the dungeon.”
“No one has said what tier 6 skill she has, do you know?” I asked.
“No. Even the names of tier 5 and 6 skills are unique along with their effects. People who see such a skill tend not to be alive for long or they are close friends with the person who used such a skill and won’t speak of it. At that level of combat, surprise and speed are the most important things.”
“Not stats or skill level?” I asked.
“They help, but surprise is the most important thing in such a fight. I knew of the royal guards and their preferred method of combat, which was why we were able to counter them so effectively. My men used Stone Wall to counter their Fireballs over there. They then used Quake to try and disrupt our defenses, and my men split and used a combination of water and lightning spells.”
“No close combat?” I asked.
“Not for fighting against regular humans. That is needed much more down in the dungeon where Mana reserves are incredibly important to preserve as much as possible. In a battle like this, overwhelming power and finishing the fight as quickly as possible is more important. That is why we are guards first and not adventurers. Our skills are optimized for this kind of high speed defensive combat,” he explained and I nodded at this.
“Thank you, Captain,” I said.
“My pleasure as always. Enjoy your day,” he told me. The man had given me a lot of stuff to think about. While my plan had always been to follow in my mother’s footsteps and become a spellblade, it was just a job title.
Job titles normally aligned with class titles, but not always. Even if someone got a better class, they wouldn’t advertise that fact. But they did need to share what class they had to some degree to find work in their profession. So, while my mother was a spellblade, since adventurer was too vague a term for higher level individuals, her exact class name and its effects were only known by her. The title of Warlady was given by other legends and not by the System.
Like the guards defending the estate, a job title let people know what your skills were in general without revealing anything specific. A guard captain like Johnson would have specific skills and a class suited for his job which were different from Tutor Damian or Healer Castelle.
I noted they weren’t evacuated to the bunker. Non-family members who were guests got a separate hiding spot, just in case one of them was a hidden assassin. While rare, if anyone was targeted by such an individual it would be either me or my father. And after the last incident, no chances were being taken with my safety.
The guard following me stood behind me at a respectful distance as I looked over the grounds of the estate one last time before going back inside for breakfast. A high level fight really was destructive and magic was critical for combat. It was the deciding factor, but for the dungeon, it was a lifeline one could grab onto so many times before they were out of Mana.
I heard the sound of windows being replaced and the outside of the mansion being repaired while I worked on skills in the library. “Do you know how to fight?” I asked Damian.
“Hmm, not really, why are you curious?” he asked me.
“Just wondering how much you specialized. I was thinking about different jobs after the attack and how much classes played a role,” I replied.
“That makes sense. Adventuring to fight monsters and fighting humans has some overlap, but ultimately they are different focuses. Similar to teaching and research. Lots of mental skills and work to increase their level, but some key differences in a couple of skills used for one’s job. Classes play a role in this regard. The higher your level, the more specialized they become, so you need to be sure before picking certain classes, since it is damaging to your soul to change them up to level 60 and then impossible after level 80,” Damian said.
“Damaging how?” I asked.
“They tend to degrade by a color. The tier is based on level for a class, but the power behind the class decreases. Instead of larger percentage boosts, they would decrease. So most people don’t do this, but sometimes a person wants to change professions later on in life for personal reasons and it isn’t impossible with the help of a System Priest,” he explained.
“Where does one learning fighting skills, is there a place like the College of Advancement?” I asked.
“There are smaller schools, dojos, other institutions, and individuals that teach combat skills. But they are mostly learned and improved through fighting monsters in the dungeon. There is no better teacher. I suppose Last Bastion might be considered as famous as the College of Advancement, but in terms of martial achievements,” he answered.
That made sense. There really was no better way to improve fighting skills than fighting. “Then why does my mother have Squires?” I asked.
“It is a remnant of an older naming convention when legends used to be called knights or archmagis and took on squires and apprentices from before the time of the Eldarin Empire. Since most fighting in the dungeon is melee, they inherited the legacy of various high level knights, hence the term Squire. The idea being that high level people pass along how to get tier 5 skills in exchange for a period of service. It greatly reduces the headaches when trying to get a tier 5 skill and then level it up if you have someone to guide you,” Tutor Damian explained.
“Even for ten years?” I asked.
“Even in exchange for ten years. The levels they can gain from a tier 5 skill offsets this and opens up the chance to gain more levels and create a legacy of their own.”
“And the archmagi?” I asked.
“They came together as well and formed the College of Advancement long ago, or its precursor institution. I didn’t take on its more modern trappings until after the fall of the Eldarin Empire around a millennia ago cementing its reputation. While spell skills also improve in combat, there is much more that can be done outside of combat. While it isn’t ignored, it also isn’t the main focus of the College of Advancement.”