1.30 Preparations for Departure
Vicktor returned to Master Tosk house, he knocked on the door. After a moment, his mentor opened the door and waved him inside.
"Took you long enough! We were discussing the impacts of terrain on their primary weapons, nothing quite as entertaining as yours I imagine, I don't have physical props."
Master Tosk closed the door to the cabin. On top of the table was a diorama of terrain and glowing miniature trees, goblins, and four miniature versions of Master Tosk, Nora, Alar and himself. It was an impressive amount of detail, but the scale made everything a little cute.
Alar was talking, "You take out the one with the warhammer and I'll take out the one with the sigma- Oh hey Vicktor!"
Nora and Alar glanced in his direction and waved, before quickly turning back to the scene in front of them.
Master Tosk examined the scene for a moment then it disappeared in a silent pop. Alar and Nora looked aghast. "We were about to win!"
"Don't worry, I'll be able to recreate it later. I have one last thing I need to tell you in private. I have some codewords that we will need to use. It is an unfortunate aspect of dealing with sentients. Please pay attention and do your best to keep this all to memory, I won't say these phrases again."
He spoke to them of codewords, code phrases and counter phrases. It was a little complicated and nuanced, but Vicktor and the others understood it well enough to understand a few simple instructions.
After they were finished, their master told them to sleep and wait outside the builders guild after breakfast tomorrow. They would be leaving tomorrow...
"Bring anything you want to pass the time, there will be plenty of downtime. Perhaps a few books and notepads for ideas or sketches."
The three apprentices walked home together as the sun began to fade. Alar and Nora talked about their tactics for almost the entire walk to the barracks. He let them talk mostly, his mind was mainly focused on composing three messages, wondering if they would be his last.
The first thing he did when they returned to the barracks was to find a quiet place in a corner and record Selia a message through the device the dragon had given him.
"Master Tosk has returned. Tomorrow I will depart for an unknown amount of time to an unknown place. I will keep you updated each night. It is likely to be dangerous, please don't worry about me. I like you too much for that."
He walked back to his cot, Alar was still hurriedly writing down several letters. Vicktor knew Alar had family, maybe he should try to visit Alar's and Nora's family when they returned in a few weeks...
Vicktor did not dream, although he was well rested and thankfully not sore from his earlier fun.
The trio had a quick breakfast of sausage, eggs, and buttered bread. They quickly split off to gather their things and send letters.
Vicktor grabbed some of the books that Quinn had lent him as well as some paper, pens and ink.
He penned a quick letter to Quinn informing them of his departure and how long he was expected to be gone for. Vicktor didn't say what their goal was, similar to this message to Selia. He collected a few things that he guessed he would need and piled them into a small stack. He had nothing to compare to since Alar had put everything into his dimensional storage.
'If this is to be my last few days alive, I guess I should update them, huh...'
On a whim he wrote a short update to his family, to be delivered via archive connection. It cost a gold, but it felt needed.
He told them about his graduation, and some small stories of life in Allium. He specifically avoided anything too interesting. His family was a little too conservative, they wouldn't approve of his escapades.
He mentioned that he loved them still, and that he would try to visit the tribe after becoming a Rector, whenever that was to happen.
He signed the message as 'Vicktor Hornless, Mage of Humanity'
He waited with the two others in front of the guildhall.
Everything had fit nicely into the 'peculiarities and playthings' tote bag he had purchased. He got a few odd looks from some guild members but it didn't matter, goblins wouldn't know what it meant.
"I need you to grab a few provisions. Take these three dimensional storage backpacks. No need to worry about weight. Each of you will need food and water for 15 days. I'll let you choose your meals, we will have access to a heat source. Don't forget that you'll need to clean yourself." He waved them off, turned, and walked into the builders guild.
When they arrived at the market, it turned out everyone was slightly sick of their town's namesake. None of them bought any alliums.
Nora bought thirty pounds of various jerked meats and a hundred gallons of water. "I'm a catgirl, meow," she raised a hand to fake swat at them," what do you want from me? We probably shouldn't bring alcohol either."
Alar bought ten pounds of jerked auroch, ten pounds of seeds, ten pounds of dried crickets and sixty gallons of water. "Hey they're cheap, nutritious and whoooo' cares, my feathers prefer sand over water anyway."
Vicktor, at least to him, thought harder about it. He needed plenty of food and water to drink, cook, and clean with, but maybe by–
He ended up stuffing his pack with fifteen pounds of jerked auroch, five gallons of casked kumis, ten pounds of oats and eighty gallons of water.
Getting the food and water into the packs was a strange experience, the opening to the extradimensional space was a flat plane a few inches into the bag. It had black sloping sides that extended two feet down past the where the bag should have ended and three feet wider than the bag should have ended.
Master Tosk had been correct, anything that passed that invisible flat plane became unaffected by the pull of gravity.
When they returned In front of the builders guild, Master Tosk was waiting for them. Numerous items piled up on two portable tables.
He waved to them.
"Each of you take two of these, mana potions" he handed over the grey iron vials. "These are tens of gold each, try not to abuse them. They contain about as much mana as the average Mage. A significant amount will flow through your body instead of in your Ruakh, so expect some losses. It does beat the stars out of coffee though. Vicktor specifically, you won't benefit as much from it as you think, but it'll still be a useful backup if you run out."
Master Tosk gestured to several uninscribed leather and iron toolboxes lying on the portable table.
"Alright now for the truly nasty stuff. These are all terrible, but none of us is a healer and I couldn't requisition one for this 'small' of a task. All of these might save your life, but they aren't a dedicated healer."
"First" he pointed to a group of 4 yellow green vials padded in auroch hair.
"These are healing potions, they will attempt to send your body's natural healing process into overdrive. Don't expect these to save you every time, they only work if you expect to find a healer in a day or three. They will give you about a dozen different cancers. Fixing your tumors won't be pleasant, but you won't die."
"Next", he pointed to a different set of four vials. These were just a thick dull yellow.
"These coagulate a wound and stop it from bleeding, you might get two or three uses out of them. Again, removing them is not pleasant, but it beats the alternative."
Master Tosk pointed to four wrapped packages.
"These are bone-stitchers, they are like magnets but for bones, activate them on each section of a broken bone and use these wands. Point the white end at the target. Careful, if you use the wrong end your finger bones will fuse. If you thought curing a dozen cancerous masses would hurt... Well then, unfusing your hand requires you to be awake the entire time, too many small bones, muscle, and sinew."
Master Tosk pointed to three silver medallions, laying on linen bags.
"These are engraved similar to the Chosen's martial training devices. When activated, these will convert all incoming kinetics to be applied evenly across your body. Instead of the full body defenses that the Chosen use to spar, these only will protect your head, spine, heart, lungs and diaphragm. This is intentional for two reasons: First is because they don't have the amplified ambient power of the city to power them, they need to target a smaller volume. Even still, I need to recharge them every night. You might be able to recharge them enough for one or two mild hits, but no more. Secondly, I want you to feel the consequences of your actions, I don't want you to feel invincible, or that I will be able to save you at the last minute."
He stared at each of them with a stern face. Any hint of joviality disappeared in a flash.
"We could all die, it's an unfortunate possibility. I will not lie to the three of you, I have lost apprentices before and very well might again in the future, our bodies are fragile. But! It is significantly more likely that one of us will get severely hurt, especially if we get caught off guard. These tools will greatly reduce the risk of death, but they will not alleviate it entirely."
The three apprentices nodded. With the mood partially soured, they packed their bags.
Nora cleared the silence after they had fully packed the new equipment in small side pouches and Master Tosk made the portable tables disappear into thin air.
Clearing the tall city gates of Allium, they stopped and looked back at the city walls. The gatehouse was only a fifth or so of the massive structure. The walls
Master Tosk stood and said a short prayer:
"Let us hope we all return"
"So that we all may learn"
"A shred of wisdom we may pluck"
"And may we advance with luck"
Master Tosk paused and looked around with a shit-eating grin.
"And may we all return home to fuck!"
The three apprentices chuckled openly. The four humans turned their back on the city of Allium, tall walls obscuring the bustling city.
They were off!