Beneath the Dragoneye Moons - Chapter 520: Changing of the Guard I

Vatius

Vatius believed he played one of the most important roles in the Exterreri Empire.

Sure, the Senate passed laws.

Sure, the Emperor ruled.

Sure, the guards, Rangers, and Sentinels took care of problems.

Sure, the various guilds ran the economy.

Sure, merchants made the whole thing run smoothly.

Sure, they’d all starve without farmers.

But!

All that paled in comparison to his work. His art.

Who would know of the Sixteen Trials of Sentinel Invincible if it were not for him?

Who would know of the great triumph of Sentinel Devour against the near-mythical typhon, if he didn’t tell the tale?

Who would ever hear of the greatest romance between Sentinel Dawn and Valkyrie Dusk, the two names oh-so-poetic, if he didn’t shout it from the rooftops?

Vatius was a [Bard], both best and worst of his type, and credit where credit was due:

Vatius was extremely well organized, and his favorite subjects were the Sentinels.

One day his genius would be appreciated and noticed, and he’d gain an official position – along with vampiredom – on his songs. Until then, he’d continue writing and studying the movements of the Sentinels, getting as many songs and inspiration as possible.

[Year 28,267] – The Twilight Romance – Sentinel Dawn and Valkyrie Dusk getting married.

Notes: Couldn’t find much about their early years together. It was like they just saw each other, said ‘let’s get married’ and went from there. Only the wedding is factual – the fights, duels, and feuding families are made up. Popular with the ladies.

[Year 28,268] – The Undying Legion – The Sixth Legion eliminating an entire Pekari army without a single casualty.

Notes: Not only did nobody in the Legion die, none of the ancillaries died either. Verses 3, 5, and 6 about them are unpopular, cut from further iteration. Extremely popular with soldiers.

[Year 28,269] – Bid for Immortality – Sentinel Dawn holding an auction in Sanguino.

Notes: The wordplay in this one’s excellent, but nobody’s interested. Use as reference. Might find more success in mortal lands. Look into translating into Yayoi.

Today was an important day.

It didn’t mean I was going to slack off.

Immortality, eternity, an easy source of income and a somewhat relaxed job made it all too easy and tempting to sit on my laurels, grab some mangos from the garden, kick up my feet, grab a book, and indulge myself. All day, every day.

I woke up to the smell of frying eggs, with salt, pepper, and a tiny dash of cayenne peppers. I inhaled deeply, enjoying the scent, and happy that I didn’t need to worry about how ungodly expensive spices were on Pallos.

I slipped into the small private kitchen, where Iona was expertly frying fourteen eggs. Two for me, a dozen for her. I grabbed a mango and orange out of the bowl, and started peeling both. [Rapid Reshelving] got me plates directly out of the cupboard and onto the table. The Valkyries that occasionally passed through the place got the large-scale kitchen, but our private domain was just for ‘the family’.

“Morning love! Sleep well?” She asked as I arranged the slices of orange artfully onto her plate.

Eh. I was up, I was functioning, I had a full day ahead of me, [Zenith Everlasting], go!

[*ding!* [Zenith Everlasting] leveled up! 600 -> 601]

Oh nice. It’d been a while since I’d seen that one level up.

Iona expertly flicked her knife out, slicing off two slices of bread. With a deft twist of her wrist, she sent them my way. [The First Rays of Dawn] was complete overkill for toasting bread, but it was fun getting both sides done completely evenly before they landed on our plates. I frowned at mine.

“Overlapped a hair here.” I pointed to the spot as Iona sauntered over with the hot frying pan filled with delicious dinosaur eggs.

Chicken, of course.

She squinted at the spot I was pointing to.

“I think I see it.” She removed any further analysis of my aim by dumping two eggs onto my toast. “Eat up! Big day today.”

“Thanks! They look great!” I chowed down with gusto. Iona started eating as well, eventually grabbing a pitcher of water and starting to pour it onto the table. Without a word I teleported a cup right into the stream, smoothly intercepting her pour before it could be a problem.

I loved our teamwork.

“Are you up for hitting my armor after breakfast?” I asked.

Iona hummed and nodded.

“Yeah, I can make that work. Sharp weapons? I’ve got something I’d like to try, and dulls could ruin the effect.”

Titania was the only ‘squishy’ person around, and she knew to stay far away from the sparring room. Some Valkyries might also be using the salle, but this early in the morning they were likely doing other activities. A few little chores that helped keep the place running, alleviating the impact of their stay here. Iona and I cleaned up entirely after ourselves, and our housekeeper never entered. It was a safety thing, and it made it a little easier on us all.

I teleported into [Vault of Ages], mentally checking what my to-do list had.

Ugh. At some point I still needed to sit down and plot out the contents of every room at the level 85, 90, 95, and 105 markers. One thing I’d never considered with the skill – how often I’d need to manually pick up a bunch of stuff and move it around to a better storage layout when it expanded.

It was always worth it long term, but it sucked in the moment. The first half-dozen times I’d needed to replan and remodel had been fun, then it turned into a chore. Who knew a gigantic pocket dimension for storage could be such a chore?!

I passed through a nearby ‘broken and destroyed’ room, filled with armor sets that were battered and broken to the point of uselessness, and found one of my last remaining intact sets. I’d need to visit Harper soon, she had a [Smith] that repaired the sets for me. Good experience for everyone!

[Rapid Reshelving] was such a fun skill. I wasn’t finding huge amounts of use in ‘instantly move things from one spot to another’, apart from little gimmicks like Iona pouring herself a glass of water this morning, but it was incredibly useful for ‘getting things in the right configuration immediately’. Case in point – putting on a whole suit of armor took a thought, not thirty minutes and a [Squire]. I grabbed a short sword – swinging against an unarmed target was pointless, and it helped keep Iona mindful of her own openings – and I was set.

I popped back out into our sparring room, Iona slowly moving through a few katas with her glaive.

I hated the glaive.

I didn’t stretch or limber up, simply making sure [Etheric Aegis] was up and active. Most enemies wouldn’t give me the chance to prepare and warm up. Why should I practice under unrealistic conditions?

That wasn’t to say we were completely abandoning all sanity and reason.

“Ready to spar.” Iona said.

“Ready to spar.” I confirmed.

As the last syllable left my lips, Iona lunged at me with her glaive. I tried to dodge, but she’d been prepared and ready, and she promptly ran me through the gut. A fast jerk to the side ripped my entrails out, my healing reforming my body into perfect shape behind her, but my poor plate clanged against the far wall.

Iona grinned savagely at me, her eyes burning with unholy light. Naturally, she continued swinging. With the little bit of extra momentum from getting impaled, I was able to dodge the first few swings, anticipating with the familiarity of long practice where she’d move next and what blow was coming.

The Valkyrie quickly closed the momentum gap by sheer virtue of being faster than I was, and right before she was going to get me, changed her style anyway and slammed the shaft of her polearm over my shoulder.

My collarbone broke and my pauldron had it even worse, and we spent the next 20 minutes systemically wrecking every piece of armor I’d put on.

[*ding!* [Etheric Aegis] leveled up! 201 -> 202]

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Woo! Today was a good day! It had been a while since my last level up on the skill. I was getting a sense of deja-vu…

Iona managed to destroy my greave with style.

“Glaives aren’t supposed to bounce off walls.” I complained, yanking the polearm out of my foot. We were going to need to re-tile the room soon enough – we kept wrecking the floor. Who knew a good sparring room would be so expensive? My wife winked at me.

“You know I love you, right?” She said.

“I know.” I confirmed.

“Need a hug?” She opened her arms, and I wordlessly took her up on it.

I loved Iona for asking. Every day, every time we sparred, every time she spilled my blood, in the end she affirmed her love for me, and looked after my mental and emotional wellbeing if needed.

The room was coated in bits of torn metal and way, way too much blood. Fortunately, I had a handy spell for that!

Except I was going to do it the hard way.

First I teleported back into [Vault], and dropped off my now-shattered gear into the collection, then grabbed an inkpot and quill from yet another room. I let the fact that blood was still dripping from my outfit roll off my back – I was used to handling it by now.

Back in reality, I grabbed a practice spellbook out of [Loremaster’s Library], and opened it up to a fresh page. Iona was performing maintenance on her own gear, and the two of us worked in companionable silence.

One of the things I was working on was using [Ancient Loremaster of Legend] to do more-wizardry-ish stuff, and some of the best practice was ‘mimic’ practice. Doing what I wanted to do ‘for real’ in practice.

In this case, the exercise was threefold.

First, I dipped my quill in the ink, and drew out the Jiwa rune for [Immaculate Purification] on the page. It was the wrong way to use [Lepidoptera], so it wasn’t actually a rune – it was simply a pretty picture. The intent and the exercise was there.

[*ding!* [Technical Drawing] leveled up! 55 -> 56]

[Parallel Thoughts] had indeed merged into [Luminary Mind], and after a short stint with [Visualization] that got merged with [Astral Archives], I picked up [Technical Drawing] as a ‘boost Spatial Wizardry’ skill. A little bit to help the class evolve in the right direction, additional skills and weight to help with the class quality.

I traced the rune over with my Radiance, ‘reinforcing’ the exercise, and more importantly – giving me a usable rune! I promptly activated it, cleansing the sparring room of all the body parts I’d left behind.

All hail magic. I turned the page of my notebook.

The second was a different, possibly more clever use of my skills, and I felt like a huge idiot for not thinking of it sooner. [Rapid Reshelving] was good for arranging things quickly, and I teleported a blot of ink onto the fresh page in the perfect shape of the same Jiwa rune again. It was Spatial, it was magical, and tracing over the rune again got me a usable rune, which I promptly used to clean out [Vault]. There was no question that I was getting a Spatial Wizardry class offered. The only true question was the quality offered, and I was working my butt off to make it a good one. Black quality stats were like a drug, one I was reluctant to quit. No way I’d get black, not on a side or downgrade to a class archetype I had little experience with, but I was hoping for at least green, especially with how long the 256 to 768 gap was. At the same time, part of my experience was suggesting that I’d get far better than green, but…

Eh. Set expectations low, be happy when they’re met. Secret to happiness in life.

[*ding!* [Rapid Reshelving] leveled up! 235 -> 236]

Okay, wow. Once happened, twice was a coincidence, three times was a conspiracy, and four was utterly undeniable. I faithfully practiced my skills and Skills every day, getting a bit of progress in here and there, but clearly the first time special weight of today was influencing my experience gain.

Speaking of [Rapid Reshelving], I had another exercise I wanted to try.

“Can you shoot me with your bow?” I asked.

Iona summoned her bow and arrows as an answer.

“Lots or a few?” She asked.

“Start off with a few slow shots, see if I can even manage it, and from there let’s either ramp up, or take notes for future practices.”

The blonde clicked her tongue.

“It’s getting later in the day, and I do have some plans. Can we make it a ‘notes’ session?” She asked.

“Yeah, I can do that.” I said

“Ready to spar.” Iona said.

“Ready to spar.” I confirmed.

She smoothly drew her bow back halfway and released a ‘slow, lazy’ arrow at my foot. To most other people the arrow would’ve been impossibly fast, but things got weird at high physical stats.

I was just barely able to track the arrow, and managed to get a ‘grip’ on it with [Rapid Reshelving] and teleported it to my hand, bleeding out the momentum entirely.

“Yes!” I triumphantly thrust the arrow over my head. “I did it!”

Iona lifted an eyebrow.

“Impressive!” She said. “I can see how that would need thinking on.”

I lowered the arrow in front of my face and studied it while thinking out loud.

“I wonder if there’s a way to preserve the speed, and just, like, teleport it back to you.” I said.

If I could do that, my efforts at changing my shield could be entirely futile, since it would work entirely on non-vitality boosted abilities, just like an ‘annihilation’ shield worked on non-vitality boosted abilities. Still, there was the whole ‘throw everything and see what works’ aspect that I’d be entirely vulnerable to. Flames and sandblasts came to mind immediately, and-

Iona coughed, bringing my attention back to the real world. Shit! Right! She had things to do today, and I was delaying her by staring at an arrow, lost in space.

“Is being back here an hour before the ceremony suitable?” Iona asked. I nodded.

“Yup, that should work for everyone.” I confirmed.

A quick kiss later, and Iona was off. If her schedule didn’t change, I knew she was doing a clothing drive for the rest of the morning, helping in a soup kitchen over lunch, then acting as an escort for one of the [Priests] who was investigating a ‘thorny issue’. It was confidential enough that Iona didn’t know, but she promised that if it was something the guards should be looking at, that she’d loop them in. My personal bet was mediating a family dispute.

I walked outside to my orchard, and spent a bit of time tending to the trees. The mangos were growing well. A branch was starting to die on one of them, and my skill guided my hand to prune it. The bird’s nest was abandoned, the babies having grown up and left. I was reluctant to mess too much with the insects, not quite knowing which ones were beneficial, and which ones would be eating my precious mangos.

Soon they would be ready! Soon they would be ripe! And then I would feast, a monstrous beast coated in juice, surrounded by pits, a great devourer of all things mango!

Patience, patience… their time would come.

[*ding!* [Gardening] leveled up! 97->98]

I’d dropped [Imbue] after it became clear that [The Arbiter of Life and Death] had increased my healing to absurd degrees. I could heal at almost twice the distance my feathers could reach, which made the skill entirely dead for healing-related purposes. At which point, the question was – what did I take?

I went for something fun, for myself – [Gardening]! One day I hoped to expand it, but for now, it worked. It was a nice, peaceful moment.

A weak leaf fell off a tree, and struck by a moment of inspiration, finally remembering a test I wanted to run when I was in the right place, I summoned [A Raging Tempest of Golden Phoenix Feathers]. Well, the skill was a bit of a misnomer when I was only summoning one feather, but it was what it was.

In memory of Auri, I summoned a hummingbird’s primary feather, activated my anti-friction runes to not make a bunch of complicating wind gusts, and quickly moved it into position. I held it sideways, letting the leaf fall down onto it. The feather was so sharp, the leaf cleanly sliced itself in half.

[*ding!* [The Arbiter of Life and Death] has leveled up! 840 -> 860. +400 Strength, +400 Dexterity, +800 Speed, +800 Vitality, +1600 Magic Power, +1600 Magic Control, +1000 Mana, +9000 Mana Regeneration from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid) per level! +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration from your Element per level!]

[*ding!* Congratulations! [Butterfly Mystic] has leveled up to level 706->740! +8 Strength, +8 Dexterity, +70 Speed, +70 Vitality, +70 Mana, +70 Mana Regen, +70 Magic power, +70 Magic Control from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid)! +1 Strength, +1 Mana Regen from your Element per level!]

[*ding!* [Companion Bond Between Elaine and Auri] leveled up! 840->860]

My heart missed a beat as the notifications flared in front of me, the blue boxes somehow taking an ominous tint.

Auri.

Aoife Auri Stentor.

What were you doing?!

Twenty levels in a single go!? What was going on!? It wasn’t like I’d delayed the notifications or wrapped them up myself, she’d done one thing and gotten twenty levels from it!

I started to pace, nervously chewing on my thumb.

I’d promised her six years before I went to get her. Was she in trouble? Should I go now? Did she need me? Was she just having the time of her life, and would she resent my intrusion? Was she alright?

Questions, questions, a thousand questions. I reassured myself that my companion skill still existed – whatever she was doing, she was alive. I couldn’t stop worrying about her though!

I distracted myself by going back inside, and finding one of the endless moonstones Amber had placed all over the villa ‘as a reminder’, and charging it with [The Stars Never Fade].

[*ding!* [The Stars Never Fade] leveled up! 50 -> 51]

There was no surprise there. For whatever reason, every time I used the skill, I got a level. I wasn’t complaining.

Ugh, it was still morning. I was too excited and nervous to properly focus.

I took off and flew over to where the Sixth Legion was camped, the trip taking up a nice chunk of time. Katerina and I had a good system worked out. I checked my mail, seeing if she needed me for anything, or if she had any messages to pass along. There was one, and I quickly scanned it.

Dawn,

We’ve finished dismantling the [Battery] line, as per your request. Nike has remained with the Sixth, while the rest have been redistributed to the other Legions as per their need.

I hope we don’t end up regretting this.

Legata Katerina.

Short, simple, and thankfully no ‘our scouts have found traces of a monster. Standby for extermination’ messages.

My job done, I flew back home, the trip having calmed me down. I took the time back to simply enjoy life, enjoy flying. How the wind whistled around me. How the air seemed to wrap around me like an old friend.

It was wonderful. Why couldn’t life always be like flying?

I suppose the lows and the boring parts highlighted the fun parts, and made them all richer. There was no such thing as light without darkness, after all.

Back home I shaped [Shroud of the Stellar Sea] into a cup, poured some water into it, then flipped open a spellbook to a simple Fire spell, which I shot into the water.

Steam hissed and the water frothed and roiled, and I sighed at the exercise.

It was boring, but I wanted to see if I could get a neat shield skill out of it, to study the effects and the offered power if nothing else. I glanced at the sun, and almost had a heart attack.

Moldy mangos! I was going to be late!

I dropped my spell and shield, uncaring of the spilled water that went everywhere – Sorry Titania, I didn’t usually leave my messes uncleaned, that was unkind of me – and bolted out the door at top speed, flying to Sanguino with my anti-friction runes glowing blue against my skin, in stark relief against the marriage tattoo on my back.

I had a meeting with Night, and if it didn’t happen today, it could be months before I had another chance to talk with him.

[Name: Elaine]

[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]

[Age: 35]

[Mana: 3,494,560/3,494,560]

[Mana Regeneration: 9,983,821 +(20,085,302)]

Stats

[Free Stats: 0]

[Strength: 34,398 (Effectively: 275,184)]

[Dexterity: 58,974 (Effectively: 627,955)]

[Vitality: 143,144 (Effectively: 2,236,625)]

[Speed: 130,376 (Effectively: 2,566,191)]

[Mana: 349,456]

[Mana Regeneration: 1,085,692 (+ 2,008,530)]

[Magic Power: 392,514 (+ 16,878,102)]

[Magic Control: 392,235 (+ 16,866,105)]

[Class 1: [The Arbiter of Life and Death – Celestial: Lv 860]]

[Celestial Mastery: 860]

[Aurora Curialis: 770]

[The Stars Never Fade: 51]

[Luminary Mind: 588]

[Universal Cure: 860]

[Etheric Aegis: 202]

[Shroud of the Stellar Sea: 640]

[Zenith Everlasting: 601]

[Class 2: [Butterfly Mystic – Radiance: Lv 740]]

[Radiance Affinity: 740]

[Radiance Resistance: 740]

[The Rays of the First Dawn: 740]

[Lepidoptera: 740]

[Nectar: 740]

[Solar Corona: 740]

[Wings of the Mythical Sunbird: 740]

[A Raging Tempest of Golden Phoenix Feathers: 740]

[Class 3: [Ancient Loremaster of Legend – Spatial: Lv 256]]

[Spatial Authority: 256]

[Manuscript Mastery: 256]

[Blink: 181]

[Loremaster’s Library: 256]

[Vault of Ages: 81]

[Rapid Reshelving: 235]

[Astral Archives: 256]

[Lust for Lore: 256]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 530]

[Technical Drawing: 56]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 860]

[The World Around Me: 203]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 860]

[Sentinel’s Superiority: 860]

[Persistent Casting: 640]

[Gardening: 98]