Chapter 3 – Elvish

  True to Savgar’s promise, the next morning they were back to doing drills again. The only exceptions were Rayne and Teresa who didn’t need as much training as the rest of them and they would be more useful in searching the city for the trial. This also meant that Jack got out of training occasionally when they needed him to act as door-opener for them.

  Elizabeth joined their training, but Savgar mostly focused on building her Stamina and Strength throughout the day. Savgar refused to let her even hold a weapon until she had met the first threshold in her strength and dexterity stats. Elizabeth never complained throughout the training, doing everything she was told to the best of her abilities, all the while Reuf continued to work on regrowing her arm.

  Most of the others didn’t mind the training throughout the day. There was little else to do while they searched, and most buildings proved to be empty. With Jack being the only one able to open anything, it made it wasteful to have too many people searching the city at the same time. The exception was Daniel, who wasn’t a big fan of the physical training regimen the dwarf had them do.

  “I’m a Wizard,” Daniel complained, as Savgar had him doing pushups. “If I wanted to do all this training I would have picked the Fighter class. What do I need all this strength for?”

  “Strength training is for more than just fighting,” Savgar called back to him. “You need to build your stats with some kind of balance in mind. Besides, how can you expect to keep up with the team if you have no cardio.”

  “Pushups… are not…. cardio,” Daniel said between breaths.

  “Guess running is next then,” Savgar said.

  *~*

  After a week of looking, there was little to show for their efforts except the location of one of the libraries that Arbour had mentioned would be here. It was a huge building, containing possibly thousands of books and scrolls. Jack wasn’t about to count them, but his status as Associate in the Akashic Order only allowed him access to a small section of the building.

  Upon finding it, Daniel immediately took up residence inside it and often had to be reminded when it was time to eat. Elaine and Jack joined him in searching the library occasionally, but the tomes were written in a language none of them knew, and they spent most of their time trying to gain the language proficiency needed to read it, but it was proving to be difficult.

  *Language Proficiency gain: Karzasic (2%)*

  “We need some kind of Rosetta Stone,” Daniel sighed, after two days of searching through the tomes.

  “I might have a way,” Jack said, placing his book down on an ever-growing pile. “I got a quest a little while ago to become proficient in another language. The reward is proficiency in a language of my choice. I was planning on using it to get something like Draconian or maybe Tyrial, the tyrian language, those are supposed to be almost impossible to learn naturally, but I suppose I could use it on this Karzasic language instead.”

  “You got the Worldly quest as well?” Elaine asked.

  “Both of you got that quest?” Daniel asked. “I thought it was a Wizard’s quest. Perhaps it is something everyone can get.”

  “That works out then,” Jack said. “Only one of us needs to learn the language and then they can teach it to the rest of us. Can any of you?”

  “I can’t,” Daniel said. “I completed mine already and used the quest reward for learning Primordial. It’s a complicated language that dates back centuries.”

  “Same,” Elaine said. “I learned the Freodian language with mine. They were refusing to speak any other with me and they were the only merchants I came across when I set out with Victor and Teresa.”

  Jack sighed. “Guess it will have to be me then. Unless Victor or Teresa…”

  “Pretty sure they both already completed theirs,” Elaine said. “Afterall, Victor taught both me and Teresa Dwarven.”

  “Then it’ll have to be me,” Jack sighed.

  “It would save us a lot of time,” Daniel said. “I can teach you Primordial in exchange.”

  “Thanks. Just might take you up on that eventually,” Jack said.

  “What language are you going to learn to complete the quest?” Elaine asked. “Most of us know Dwarven. It’s not too difficult to pick up.”

  “Thought about that,” Jack said. “Savgar taught me a little bit already, but he likes to focus on the dwarven insults. I know a dozen ways to call someone stupid or ugly but not how to say hello. I would rather learn Elvish, and I am getting close with that one already. That could be fun to be fluent in.”

  “Good luck with that,” Elaine said. “Most elves don’t like teaching it. But Sylvian or Rayne might make an exception given the situation. I’m picking up a little bit at a time with their help.”

  “Yeah, I been working with Sylvian on it, but she is busy with the others training right now. I’ll go bug Rayne. We can focus on exploring the city while I try learning Elvish,” Jack said. “Wait. What other languages did each of you learn to complete your quest?”

  “Gnomish, Dwarven, and Freodian,” Daniel commented offhandedly.

  “Dwarven,” Elaine said.

  Jack just shook his head as he left them in the library to go find Rayne.

  *~*

  Jack found Rayne heading back to where Savgar was training the others. She was looking for him as well.

  Upon seeing Jack, Rayne motioned for him to follow her. “I was just coming to get you. There is a building I want to investigate.”

  “Yeah, that’s fine,” Jack said, moving to follow her. “But do you mind if I work on my Elvish as we walk.”

  Rayne stopped giving a slight shudder. “Why?”

  “Need to complete a quest,” Jack said. “It will save a lot of time on searching the library if I can use the quest reward to learn the language in the tomes. I need to become proficient in a language first though and I am closest to becoming proficient in Elvish right now.” The last part was true if not the only reason for choosing it.

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  “Why not Dwarven?” Rayne asked. “Plenty of people in the group can help you with that one.”

  “I plan on learning that one as well,” Jack said. “But most of the others are busy training right now and I don’t want to distract them. No one else except Savgar knows any Elvish. I’m going to need to learn it eventually if we are going to work together on making this city, and I like the Elvish language more than Dwarven. Just don’t tell Savgar that. Since we are already going to be spending time together, searching the city, I thought I could work on that while we search. Like killing two birds with one stone.”

  “What?” Rayne asked. “We have to kill birds as well? I haven’t seen any birds down here.”

  “No,” Jack said. “It’s an expression. No killing birds right now. Is it a problem if I learn Elvish?”

  “I’d have to hear it,” Rayne said. “I even spent time learning your English to avoid the need of this.”

  “Is it really that bad? I could try not speaking it around you after I complete the quest.”

  “I suppose if we have to,” Rayne sighed. “Still don’t know why you would want to learn it.”

  “It sounds cool,” Jack said. “Like singing. I never had a chance to learn singing before.”

  “Fine,” Rayne said. “But just passively. I’m not going to teach it.”

  “That is fine,” Jack said switching over to speaking Elvish.

  Rayne grimaced but continued to lead Jack through the city. “The building I found is on one of the lower levels,” she said now speaking in Elvish as well.

  “What is… special about it?” Jack asked. He was trying his best to hit the right notes but based on Rayne’s reaction, he wasn’t doing a good job.

  “It’s of a higher rarity than most of the other buildings around here. Most of the buildings in this place are of Superior quality with a few Rare ones. This building is Epic rarity. There is a good chance that it was used for something important. Why dedicate the resources otherwise?”

  Rayne was referring to the item classification of the buildings. Jack had seen it with some of the items he had created and been rewarded with but had learned recently that it applied to all things including buildings. The rarity of an item progressed in terms of how likely they were to be found and the quality of their creation. They increased in rarity from the most common and most basic to the rarest and most powerful. In order, it went from Trash, Common, Uncommon, Advance, Superior, Rare, Epic, Mythical, Legendary, Spiritual, and finally Divine.

  Up until now, Jack had only managed to see a couple of things above Uncommon rarity. It took special skills to be able to inspect items and people, and Jack’s Analyze skill was still low level. He tried to Analyze some of the buildings but couldn’t see any information about the structures.

  Hearing that most of the buildings were of Superior quality or better was a bit of a shock to Jack. He could tell that they were well made, but there was more to creating higher quality items. You couldn’t just make a nice-looking building and expect it to get above Common quality. That meant that all the buildings in this city likely had more features or functions than they appeared to have on the surface.

  “You can see the item quality that high up?” Jack asked.

  “My inspecting skill is more general,” Rayne explained. “I can see the quality up to Mythical ranking, or the level of a creature that is fifty levels above my own, but little more than that. It’s tied to my Hunter Profession.”

  “I have that Profession as well,” Jack said. “Maybe I should spend some time leveling it up.”

  “You have a lot to catch up on,” Rayne said. “Twelve professions won’t be easy to keep up with.”

  Jack nodded at that. Upon reaching level five, Jack got to choose his combat and profession classes as everyone did when reaching that milestone. Normally, you can only gain one combat and profession class at that time. You must work to gain more. Picking more than one of each was something few did and, even when they did, they would usually only pick a second profession to follow. Rayne did this, having both the Hunter and Leatherworker professions.

  Unfortunately, due to selecting an epic level profession and not fully understanding what the class he selected did, Jack had ended up with twelve additional professions with his main profession, Akashic Craftsman, tied to the lowest level of all his professions.

  “So, what do you think it was used for?” Jack asked partly to pass the time as they walked and to continue to work on his Elvish language.

  “I don’t know,” Rayne said. “All these buildings are foreign to me. And their form doesn’t appear to match their function.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You see it as well,” Rayne said. “Many of the buildings have glass ceilings. Why have a glass ceiling when there is only darkness and rocks to look at.”

  “I don’t think the city was originally built underground,” Jack said. “Even Daniel is not sure how old this place is yet. The only thing we do know is that it has been around longer than the elves and dwarves have been. Who knows what might have happened over the course of thousands of years.”

  “Maybe,” Rayne muttered. “But it almost feels intentional. Like you said, thousands of years of supposed unoccupancy but the whole city is intact and built directly into the surrounding cavern wall. Even that Foundation Crystal experiment was able to keep running without being disturbed after all this time.”

  “I don’t know about completely intact,” Jack said. “Most of the magical functions have stopped working or are having energy issues. Remember all those doors we couldn’t open.”

  “Yes,” Rayne said. “Still. It is strange.”

  “Maybe there is something in the libraries about it,” Jack suggested. “Right now, I can’t think of anything else that might answer any of our questions about this place.”

  Rayne nodded at that. “How close are you to reaching proficiency in Elvish?”

  “Let me check,” Jack said, pulling up his System screen. He hadn’t checked it in a while but knew he had to be getting close. He had worked on it periodically with Sylvian when they had a chance, and Rayne was proof that he was at least understandable at a basic level already. Still, Jack couldn’t help but be disappointed when he saw the language skill.

  *Language Proficiency: Elvish (63%)*

  “Only at sixty-three percent,” Jack sighed. “Thought I’d be closer than that by now.”

  “So, we might have to do more of these trainings sessions?” Rayne asked

  “Maybe,” Jack said. “It can’t be that bad.”

  Rayne sighed. “When you speak Elvish, don’t just try to mimic Sylvian and me. We both have different tones. You are mixing up the two and you are neither of them. Find what tone you are and speak through that. It is what usually stops most people from understanding the nuance of our language.”

  “Tone?” Jack asked.

  Rayne nodded. “I believe your species has something similar. Elaine spoke of it once to me. Something you call soprano or tenor.”

  “Oh, for singing?” Jack asked. “I heard of it, but I never learned about it. I think it was about the pitch or something of the singer. Is that what you mean? Like I’m trying to mimic you at a soprano, but I can’t hit the notes at a soprano, so it sounds off?”

  “Something like that,” Rayne said. “And it’s not singing. It’s speaking. Never try to sing in Elvish!”

  “Noted,” Jack said, marking the seriousness of Rayne’s last statement. He immediately tried to switch the subject. “I thought you said you weren’t going to teach me?”

  “I did not teach,” Rayne said. “I only gave a tip, to speed this up. We are here.”

  They came to a stop in front of a small building tucked away in the corner of one of the plazas. Compared to some of the other buildings they had searched already, it didn’t look that special. At least it didn’t fit what Jack was expecting when he heard it was an Epic rarity building. It was simple in design but with a few adornments marking the entrance.

  “You’re sure?” Jack asked.

  Rayne nodded. “I already circled the area. It may be small on the outside, but that doesn’t always mean it is small on the inside. See if you can open it.”

  “Alright,” Jack said, placing his hand on the door. The door, like all other doors in this city, had no handles or any other physical way of opening. The only way to access anything was to be part of the Akashic Order and meet the right access level. Thanks to Jack’s Associate status within the Order, he was able to open most of the buildings they had come across and like those other places, a message appeared after Jack placed his hand on the door.

  *Requirement met: Associate of the Akashic Order*

  Slowly, the door slid open.