Elwen the Conquered

Elwen swept her broom from side to side, ensuring the floor was spotless as she passed. The trainers were walking around, inspecting everyone’s work. She did not want to fail their tests.

Thankfully, they were past the ‘boot camp’ phase of their training, so the trainers were a little more forgiving towards them. They were still super strict, but a failure usually resulted in getting scolded and instructed on how to do it better rather than whacked. That would only happen if it was a reoccurring failure.

Their days were now split into four blocks, making a 3-4-4-3 schedule, with a lunch break in the middle and a little bit of time on either side for meals and getting ready for the day or bed. The days were still grueling, but it was a lot better than before, especially as not everything they were doing was physical.

The first block of their day was an exercise block. They spent their time stretching, running, lifting weights, and other exercises. Elwen had a lot of fun when they went swimming, although she wished they had a better way of drying off, rather than just waiting to dry off naturally. It wasn’t quite warm enough when they went, so they were wet for a while after they got out. The trainers said this block was about ‘pumping stats,’ but she wasn’t sure what they meant by that. Weren’t they pumping weights? Or was that a different thing? She was confused but she kept doing whatever exercises they told her to do. They were hard, and she always felt exhausted after finishing, but she also really liked the bath at the end. It was refreshing.

The second block of their time was spent in a classroom-like building, where they learned about a variety of topics. Some were more scholastic, like geography, math, and history. Others were more… career-oriented, like how they were supposed to behave or speak. They also started learning a couple of common languages, which were much easier to learn as they functioned like skills.

After that, they would have lunch, which was usually some sort of tasteless gruel or oatmeal, and take a short break. It was about the only time they had to rest during the entire day, except when they were getting ready for bed.

The third block of the day was a training block. They would do a lot of the same things that they did during ‘boot camp,’ but the trainers were even more strict. However, they were also more communicative about how they were supposed to do things, so it wasn’t as stressful. Holding some of the poses was difficult, especially after they had an especially intense workout. They also applied what they learned in the classroom earlier, which she found to be super embarrassing. Still, being around a bunch of other people that were doing helped, and she eventually got used to it. Kind of.

The last block of their day was dedicated to job training. Currently, they were learning to be maids, so they were having them pick up as many related skills as possible, like [Cleaning]. It generally wasn’t required to have the related skill to do a task—in fact, doing so was usually how to acquire the skill—but it always made things easier, faster, more efficient, or simply better. There was also no limit to the number of skills one could have, so the trainers tried to make them learn as many skills as possible.

And that’s what brought her here. Currently, the trainers were trying to get them to pick up a [Cleaning] sub-skill, [Sweeping]. They had spent the last hour or so sweeping this same floor, and every time they finished the trainers poured a bucket of dirt over, making them start the process all over again. Elwen did eventually get the skill, but it was only in the last few minutes of the block.

Now, all they had to do was finish sweeping the floor one more time, and they would be free for the rest of the day! Not that that meant much, as all they could do is eat more gruel and go to sleep, but it was still nice to be done with the day.

One thing that Elwen did notice is that she could no longer change anything in her status, like allocating her free stat points. Varian had said that higher stats made things easier, so she was going to increase her strength and endurance to make the physical exercise portion of the day easier, but she found that she couldn’t do it, even though she had free points. Varian had shown her how to do it before, so she was sure she was doing it right, but for some reason it wasn’t working. Strangely though, she did notice that her stats were higher than she remembered them being by a few points, but she had no idea why.

Once they were finally finished sweeping the floor, and the trainers inspected it for the final time, they were led back to their rooms. They weren’t private rooms, rather they were large, dormitory-style rooms where a dozen or so people could sleep. They were bare, except for their comfy beds, which she quickly jumped into as soon as she could, just after changing over to her nightclothes. She fell asleep as quickly as she possibly could, exhausted from the day’s work, missing out on the little chat they usually had at the end of the day.

Varian sat up, well-rested from his impromptu nap and anxious to get moving. He looked over at the bloodied corpse of the beast, the ruins’ warden, and grinned. It was a hard battle, but he won. It only took him a few tries.

He made sure to harvest all the useful and potentially valuable parts from the beast. He couldn’t take it all with him, but he could at least take the good stuff, like the stinger, claws, and fangs. He still didn’t know how they could pierce his armor; They were sharp, but they should be sharp enough to pierce through steel plate. He made sure to drain all the stinger’s poison into a vial. Whatever it was, it was a strong poison. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find the snake head to do the same. He figured it must have been crushed at some point, or maybe it despawned. This world seemed so realistic at times that he had to keep reminding himself that it was a game, and that stuff like that was a possibility.

The goat, miraculously, survived the battle. It baffled him, but there it was. Standing there, still tied to the stake, munching on some wild grass. He decided that the little bastard would get the honor of carrying whatever loot he could fit on it. Which wasn’t much, considering it was just his storage bag that he had right now. But maybe, once he pilfered the ruins, he would have more to stuff on it’s back. Yes, now he was glad the goat survived. It meant that he could bring more back.

But that was dependent on whether the ruins actually held anything valuable or not. He pulled the stake out of the ground, holding onto the goat’s lead. It was time to find out if this was worth it.

‘Actually, with how many levels I got, it probably already was worth it… Wait, no! I still need to get money for Elwen…’ His eyes greedily turned toward the ruins. ‘You better be worth all the trouble I went through…’

It was another hour or so before he finally arrived at the base of the ruins. It wasn’t actually that far, it was just that the rough terrain made it difficult to move quickly. The goat didn’t help either, as he kept pulling him in different directions, trying to get to some tasty looking grass patches, and bleating annoyingly when he didn’t get his was. Varian ended up giving the little bugger a carrot to shut him up.

‘Tch! You better eat the entire thing!’ This greedy goat was eating his only remaining snack. It better not waste anything, or he promised to leave it behind!

He thrust the stake into the ground again, next to a big patch of grass, tying the gluttonous goat up to it. It could wait there while he went exploring. It would be too troublesome to try to bring it inside.

His first order of business was to find the treasury, and naturally loot it of any remaining coin. If these ruins were as old as they looked, he doubted that they would actually be immediately usable, but gold was gold, and he was sure that he could find a merchant to buy them. Or a collector, if those were even a thing here.

It only a few minutes until he found his goal, but he could only be disappointed. Instead of piles of gold, he instead found a pile of straw and sticks, with a few coins dotting the floor. Apparently, the monster had decided that this was a good place to make its nest. He still picked up all the gold pieces, which did amount to a sizable sum in the end, but the weight of his pouch still left something to be desired. Of course, that was after his coin purse’s enchantment to effect, so it was not like it was a small number of coins. But it could also be larger.

Next, he was off to search all of the rooms for anything valuable. Mostly, all he was able to find was dust and crumbling pieces of furniture, but he did manage to find some more coins, hidden away in beaten-in chests in a half-destroyed room on the second floor. The stairs collapsed behind him as he was descending the stairs, so he decided not to search up there again.

Eventually, he came across what seemed to be an armory. There were lines of strange, rusted armor, accompanied by racks of weapons. Some of the weapons seemed to hold up better than other, still holding a gleam in them, like they were just polished. He figured it was probably some kind of enchantment, so he grabbed them, hoping to sell them. They didn’t [Appraise] as anything too special, so he didn’t consider using them for himself.

In an alcove in the back of the room, he found a full set of armor, not unlike the others, but not covered in a layer of rust like the others. It was a dark steel, almost pitch black, with trimmings of red and silver. He figured that it was probably an officer’s or noble’s set, as he doubted that whoever occupied this fort would spend money on equipping the common foot soldier in armor as decorated as this. The fact that it was the only one in ‘good’ condition supported this. He would have taken it for himself, if it weren’t for the numerous gashes and the giant hole bursting through the chest just above where the heart would be. He questioned why the soldiers would even bother returning armor that was so damaged to the armory, but he had no idea of their situation. Maybe it was a part of their culture, or something. Like the suit was unique to the commander of the fort, and the commander had to wear it.

At the suit’s side was a collection of weapons, placed on a platform carved out of the wall of the alcove. A sword, a knife, and a whip. The sword was broken, shattered into pieces, and useless to him. [Appraise] didn’t return anything other than ‘sword fragment,’ so he decided to ignore it. The dagger, while intact, was covered in a film of tarnish. [Appraise] told him that it was a ceremonial dagger, something that he could guess by the intricate embellishments on the handle. It looked like it would be difficult to wield, the shape of the handle was far from ergonomic. Still, he decided to take it with him. Maybe he could find a buyer for it.

The last item, the whip, was certainly the most special. It was a terrible weapon, at least for those who faced it. It looked like an ordinary whip at first, perhaps a little more unique due to its black color, until he saw the metallic teeth hidden among the snakeskin-like body. A passing touch confirmed that they were still very sharp. There was an array of spikes at the tip as well, although he didn’t dare touch them. Something told him that would be something very dangerous to do. The handle of the whip looked like a coiled dragon, the head providing the pommel of the weapon, with what seemed to be red gemstones as eyes.

[Appraise] confirmed his suspicions, telling him that this beauty was [Malkar – Fang of Drakkar, Bane of Aelfine]. A named item. There wasn’t a chance in the world that he would sell it. It was far too valuable.

He could only laugh after he lifted it and claimed it as his own. The effects were incredible, although the requirements to truly make it his own were equally absurd. It seemed that this would have to be something he kept with him for awhile before he could unlock its full potential.

However, this wasn’t what made him laugh, it was the doors that unlocked in the system.

‘Grants access to [Dark Conqueror] class tree.’

‘Upgrade unavailable. Requirements not met. Requires [Conqueror], [Great Knight], or [Lord] class or Tier 2 equivalent. Requires [Dark Alignment] or [Dark Blessing]. Requires [Dark Core].

‘Grants access to [Slavemaster] system’

‘Upgrade available. Initialization ready.’

It gave him the one thing that he couldn’t get without selling Elwen to the slavers.

‘Damn it! If only I had gotten this sooner!’

Despite his curses, he knew that this was still the only way. He never would have made it here if he had kept Elwen with him. Still… It was frustrating.

He tied the whip to his belt, noting that it seemed to shrink and become smoother as he did so. His hand danced across it, noting that the metal teeth seemed to have retracted. It was as if the weapon knew what he wanted.

He grinned, reveling in the greatness of his new unique weapon. He would have to keep it hidden, at least for now, but he could already feel how useful it would be. How powerful it would make him.

It was fantastic!