Despite Kaelen's persistent arguments against our current plan, we ended up traveling for the 4 days till we arrived at Lushfort. Everyone saw improvement too, I finally managed to get down the rhythm and pacing so I unlocked basic spearmanship. Jax got his lifeforce control skill ranked up to D, Thalia upgraded her strings from being made to tie up Kaelen who tried to run away numerous times, Kaelen upgraded his flames and Selene's trained her claws to be sharper, the only person who seemed a bit stagnant in this was Liora who seemed to be struggling with how best to apply the skill she had taken at level 10.
Glancing at my own system I looked over the skill I had selected.
Advanced Brewing(E)
Passive
Your knowledge of potions has grown allowing for you to mix their effects, you are able to merge up to 3 different potions together to make a fusion of all 3. The stability of this potion will make it last only for a short time however.
While this wouldn't do much in a basic situation I grabbed the skill because of something I realized about my spear.
One of the abilities it had been granted due to the scorpion parts was the ability to store and inject venoms from a small compartment. So while I didn't have any poisons, I did have Vials of Nausea, Irritation, and Firestarter. So if we were in a pinch I could definitely do something so we can all escape.
Never the less I had also been reading over the Accel Spearmanship book, most importantly studying its first technique called Piercing Hail(D), a technique that had one spend mana to build up power before releasing a barrage of attacks. The only problem is I still needed to develop my spearmanship more, at the moment I had Basic spearmanship(E), Combo star(E) and Accel thought(E), but Piercing Hail(D) required Accel spearmanship(D). So I need to train with my spear more so I could use it better.
As I drove, a bit lost in thought as Will and I discussed the logistics of how everything would need to go with our detour Liora from the back opened the window.
"Take a look at the skyline, I think that big rock is a part of the town."
Sure enough as I looked to the Horizon I could see a massive looming monolith of rock. It was artificial, a rectangular rock leading to a sharp point at the top as several glowing blue runes sat on the stone.
"T-That would be the teleport gate, the rock acts as a tuning rod of sorts. Thats how people teleport around to other ones."
Selene said as her arm shot out to grab Kaelen as he attempted to jump out of the vehicle for a 4th time today by grabbing the back of his shirt collar. As we drove into the town we were stopped by the guards, showed our paperwork, parked outside the city and made our way in.
"We really have got to name our vehicle something, just calling it the vehicle is getting stale, you know."
Kaelen said looking around with a hopeful expression. I sighed as I held the bridge of my nose.
"Kaelen, stop trying to distract us, we are trying to not be beheaded just because we know you here."
"To be fair, he does have a bit of a point, it needs to be named something."
Will said as he shrugged. We continued into town as Kaelen kept bringing up different interesting stores around us. Liora and I stayed strong despite several tempting options like potion recipe venues and a magic store.
Surprisingly Selene seemed the most susceptible, wanting to look at different things before we had to direct her back towards the teleportation gate. In a way it felt like she was sorry for Kaelen's situation and wanted to help him delay, even for a few minutes. Jax was also falling for it, mainly because Kaelen kept saying Jax's two favorite words, Beer and Nap.
Even Thalia fell for it once, but she didn't start to wander off, instead she just looked to a small children's toy store with a bunch of carved toys in the window as she kept walking with us.
As we approached the teleport gate the structure at the base was massive, at minimum 500ft from one corner to another, with several guards standing around its base, there were groups of merchants and more all lined up as if waiting for others to come trough. Making our way to the gate Selene flashed her noble status and the guards uncrossed their halberds as we walked in.
The inside was rather luxurious, with marble, and golden trims all over the place, a well dressed elven woman sat behind a counter writing something down as we approached.
"Welcome to the Lushfort city teleportation gate, my name is Lysithia and I will be assisting you in arriving to your destination, where will you be traveling today?"
The woman said as she picked up her pages and tapped them to straighten them before looking up at us.
"H-Hi, we are headed for Kambuldar today, were visiting family of a friend."
Selene said as she once again slid her verification as a noble across the counter. The woman took it and began to look trough a file behind her as she turned back to us.
"It looks like you all just became an adventuring party just a month ago, yes? Is this trip for mortuaries reasons?"
We all glanced between each other as Liora crossed her arms.
"What exactly does that mean?"
The woman looked up with a solemn look and asked.
"Are you traveling to report a death or deliver a casket?"
"No, I'm very much alive here."
Kaelen said from behind Selene as he walked to the counter. The clerks eyes widened for a moment as she put a hand to her mouth.
"Mr. Therindor, is that you? My goodness your parents have been so worried. What made you decide to return?"
Kaelen seemed uncomfortable as he scratched the back of his head and said.
"My friends here said that I should go home so my mother and father at least know I'm ok."
"That and the bounty they put out makes each of us a lottery ticket."
Kaelen said unhelpfully. The woman behind the desk nodded as she said.
"To be fair the bounty was made back when the assumption was that Kaelen was kidnapped, so it was meant to put a bounty on a kidnappers head instead of his rescuers, but I can see how the quest probably didn't mention that."
She stamped a page and slid it across the table as at the top a set of 6 small rectangles of paper sat.
"These are your tickets, when your ready to leave present them to the guards and they will send you trough, I am sending a message to Duke Therindor now so you all should have an armed escort waiting for you when you arrive so nobody tries to swoop in and claim the bounty by grabbing Mr. Therindor."
We all made our way back to a seating area as we looked over our tickets. Kaelen was scowling at a nearby wall with his arms crossed and his legs out in an obnoxious way. The rest of us sat and waited for our turn as Liora trying to improve the mood turned to Kaelen.
"Soooooo, what's your family like?"
Kaelen scoffed and shrugged.
"Dads a warrior who loves muscles more than anything, so as you can totally see I'm his favorite."
Kaelen said while holding up an arm and wrapping his arm around it to show how thin it was. He then turned to look at the skylight as he continued.
"Mom has always wanted to climb higher socially because she started as a merchants daughter and married my dad to gain nobility, so the marriage was mostly her, but dad didn't say a word to stop her."
"They sound…. Interesting?"
I said trying not to let the confusion seep into my voice.
"They sound like a bunch of damn lunatics."
Will said unhelpfully in my head. Kaelen turned as if to retort before our numbers were called. He turned to the rest of us with a look and said.
"Last chance, we can just walk away and not have to deal with all of this."
We all stared Kaelen down as he sighed and dejectedly walked towards the glowing magic circle in the middle of the room. As we all stood someone checked our tickets, made sure we were all standing in the right spot, and a minute later the magic circle began to spin around us, parts of the circle rising up and rotating before there was a flash like waking up with the sun in ones eyes as suddenly the air was much colder than it had been before.
Glancing around small details were different about the room as we were ushered off the platform and lead to the desk. Instead of the elven woman from before, this time a flamingo half blood seemed to be working the desk, their bill seemingly chewing something like a snack as they scribbled down our details. As we all stood waiting for them to finish the sound of rushing footsteps resounded as we all turned.
The man was an elven man with shoulders the size of my torso and deep tanned skin. A large scar ran over his nose and under his eyes and he had a set of deeper blonde hair that was tied in a ponytail behind his head. He wore a white undershirt and a formal black overshirt with a set of fancy dress pants, a longsword sat on his side, and seemed more ceremonial than anything.
This however wasn't the most striking part, what was is the fact that the man was vertical and flying in at a fast speed. Before we could do anything Kaelen was tackled around the waist as the two rolled and the man sprung to his feet, holding Kaelen under the arms like a kid as he bellowed.
"Kaelen, your finally back, you had your mother and I worried sick!"
We all stared at the man who we now knew was Duke Alvin Therindor.
"Would"
Liora said quietly as we all turned with a look of confusion. Liora turned back and gestured.
"Seriously? look at those shoulders, the man has a triangle back for crying out loud."
Before any of us could process that the duke walked over to us.
"I hear that I have you all to thank for convincing my son to come back home for a visit."
"I-It was no trouble sir, we saw the poster and figured you were worried sick."
Selene said holding up her hands, her left arm looking normal due to her using her hiding skill.
"It's been almost 100 years since he left, rewards are in order, please follow me back to my estate."
Without another word the Duke started to walk, Kaelen on his shoulders like he was a kid again as Kaelen was red in the face from embarrassment. Glancing between everyone we all shrugged and started after them.