Dual Class [LitRPG] – Current Vol 4

Chapter 225: Or Forever Hold Your Peace

Drake’s eye twitched uncomfortably as Quetz bobbed back and forth on her heels, using his arm as an anchor as she hummed to herself.

“W-what is this?” he muttered.

“Do not be so dense, it is a home,” Natto said matter of factly.

“Yes, but why is it here? It’s only been a day! And why is it so big? I don’t need a house, I don't need to sleep!” Drake sighed, putting his hand to his head.

“It is not just for you stupid,” Natto scoffed.

“Oh? Who is it for then? You?” Drake asked accusingly.

Natto whistled in the other direction for a moment, “N-no… it is for all the stray kittens you seem to be picking up as well as,” Natto snickered, “Lovers?”

Drake flinched.

“Oh yes, my dear Patriarch, do not think I have not noticed the air between you two. Warmed up to you has she?” Natto smirked, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

“None of your damned business,” Drake muttered, “So are the kids here?” he asked.

“Yes, yes, they are inside. The house is still in construction. I took what wood we had used to temporarily make the frame, it should be finished by the time you come back from picking up your family.”

Drake looked at the massive three-story building on the island. It was a mix of traditional and modern style construction. The base frame was made of wood just like Natto had said, a wooden walkway circled the house with jet-black walls that seemed to be made from his own earth magic. The walls continued up with windows of wood marking each floor. The roof was made of the same black earth but turned into slated shingles that reminded him of the Auction house.

“So this is the style we’re going for in the town?” Drake asked, his heart beating a little faster as he looked over the house again.

“I assumed you would like it,” Natto smiled, “We unfortunately do not have the materials to do it justice but once we obtain some skilled craftsman and better materials it will be swiftly rectified. It should be mentioned we are in desperate need of materials, the resources that you obtained in the tutorial are wearing thin.”

“Already?” Drake asked surprised, “I had a mountain of stuff!”

Natto shook her head, “You had quite a lot for one person, yes. But we currently have,” Natto paused, pulling up a screen, “Just short of two thousand citizens and more by the day if you continue your recruiting efforts.”

Drake frowned, “I’m not recruiting anyone,” he sighed, “I just can’t help bringing people here because of the conditions outside.”

“Yes, well if you continue to do your hero's rescue for every lost soul. We will certainly run out of not only food and shelter but space and material to house them. The homes we have temporarily erected in the residential area are quickly becoming cramped. And we do not currently have enough mana iron ore to reinforce the waste collection system below the streets that will need to be built and many other ventures that we have promised. Which brings me to another point, have you collected any of the slimes I have requested?”

Drake shook his head, “I didn’t have a chance, I’ll make a point of doing it when I go out with the kids.”

“Shame,” Natto sighed, “Our current measures will only last so long before it becomes unsanitary I should have you know. This mass of people will only grow larger over the days I am sure which will also require more resources. This town was hastily made in order to have you gain a title, which we failed at I might add… However, we did not have the funds nor material to maintain this level of growth. If we had more personnel we may be able to stabilize,” she scoffed, “Thankfully we now have the library.”

“Oh, the manuals inside?” Drake asked.

“Yes. The manuals have helped in strides with the problem. And somehow the books you retrieved from the colleges have also allowed many of the people to gain more advanced crafting and non-combat classes. But it is still slow-moving as of now. They still need to be nurtured and given time to gather profession experience. I have to hand it to the Treant inside, his library is vast. Even at the lower level there are fighting manuals, profession manuals, and general knowledge that rival even my own.”

“Well technically it's better since he has manuals,” Drake teased.

“Then I suppose you would like to go read up on your questions instead of asking?” Natto huffed, turning her head.

“Forgive me, your greatness,” Drake apologized, bending down enough to have her fall off his shoulder.

Natto picked herself up from the snow-covered ground with a frown, holding her open hand up.

Drake smiled and placed a bag of cookies into it, “Will this suffice as an offering?” he scoffed.

“It is acceptable, although a pauper’s apology…” she sneered, quickly opening the bag and snapping a cookie in half as she leered at him.

“Yeah, ok,” Drake chuckled wryly, “Can you go grab everyone Quetz? We’re going to go to the system center together,” he said turning to the humming avian.

“Ehhhhh…. But, but, I don’t want to…” she groaned.

“Be a good girl and go get everyone alright?” Drake admonished with a grin.

“Fine…” she chirped, walking off with dramatic strides, her arms swinging at her side showing off her colorful feathers changing different shades of a playful orange.

Once she was inside the house Drake turned back to the snacking Natto.

“Alright, can you go over the skill stones I will need for the kids? I might be able to get a few rares with the loot I got from the vampires on the way back, but I’ll need a comprehensive list. And I’ll also need one for the twins.”

Natto gave him a lazy wave of her hand, “Yes, yes. I’ve had dear Theo purchase a few of the stones. But I had to turn him down when he tried to give me his entire inventory… He needs to manage his coins properly if he is to be a father soon,” she said, sighing exacerbated remembering the exchange.

“The children that you have so far… Let me see. As I have told you, the girl, Charlotte, is straightforward. She will start from a warrior class upgrading into a Lightning Spearman Main Class, yes?” Natto asked, to which Drake nodded.

“Then she will require several Lightning Skill Stones. She can either use common body and warrior stones to fill some of her slots for her more general use skills or if you wish to have something more specific there are uncommon Spearman skill stones. Her Subtree can either be the commonly used Internal Mastery or something similar. Most of that rarity are very general purpose and all-around beneficial for any fighting class. If you wish to have her trained in a specific direction though, there are other options. She could focus on pure technique over the elemental augmentation the class uses, going for combat-oriented Sub-tree boosting stones. Like the Vanguard Sub-tree, but it is unfortunately another rare stone. You would be able to access the same skill pool from a Guardsman Subtree, but since it is an Uncommon rarity there are more duds in the pool. My suggestion however is to have her lean into the elemental augmentation of her future class. It may be expensive but a Valkyrie variant of Substone would be perfect.”

“A variant? Why not just get the Valkyrie stone itself?”

Natto shook her head, “You are asking for too much. The specific Valkyrie Stone is a Main Class Stone for one, and the stones within the same category are Epic Rarity. The Valkyrie are also a powerful race within the multiverse so the stones are hard to come by, the equivalents however are of Rare and Uncommon rarity, making them more accessible. They are the Clouded Skies Sub-tree Stone and Warband Subtree Stone. I would have her take the Clouded Skies Stone and pair it with a specific weapon mastery stone. Perhaps a lance or short spear specific.”

“Short spear or lance, huh? Why not just a regular spear or maybe a pike? Is there a reason she needs to have something shorter? I don’t think her strength will be lacking due to the system helping with stats,” Drake asked.

“Without waiting for higher quality stones and a proper teacher for her class, she will not be able to have the proficiency needed to adopt a full-length spear. I believe she will need to supplement it with either a shield or another short spear. Hence the suggestion for the Valkyrie Stones.”

“I’ll take a look when we go to the system center. I know they have up to uncommon rarity stones for sale on the cheap so we might have to work with what we have or end up waiting. With me around I don’t think there is a rush to finish their classes, but we will need the subtree stones to bring them up to F-Rank… Then there’s the problem of a teacher. Not many people I’ve seen use a spear and most of the Orcs are ax wielders…” Drake mused, “You said Theo purchased some stones?”

Natto nodded, pulling out ten crystalline stones, “He was able to purchase ten in total, based on what you have told me there are two lightning stones, two wind stones, two ritual stones, one clouded skies subtree stone, one fierce gale subtree stone, one transcendence stone, and one meridian stone. Unfortunately for the Orc boy, there were not many stones available for purchase for the class you planned for him. Ki User is a versatile class however and almost anything will work well for it.”

Drake eyed Natto with a slight grin, “You suggested some of the stones you already had Theo purchase?” he scoffed.

“I certainly may have thought ahead a bit,” she smirked, “The other boy, Landin, was it? His class is another versatile class but the stones required are always in demand. Honestly, they ate through most of poor Theodore’s reserves. Ritual Stones are multi-use stones for summoning and taming classes which are in high demand in the multiverse.”

“Why’s that?” Drake asked surprised, “His class is a cleric base class, I would have expected more people to move towards pure buffing or healing classes with that initial selection.”

“That is certainly logical, but with summoning classes, the summons are usually immortal in a sense and can be used indefinitely for battle so long as the summoner is alive and has a large reservoir of mana. Ritual-type classes that also use the stones need to be done in large groups for massive war arrays and battle circles. Because of that, older empires and forces quickly buy up the stones for their auxiliary forces. But we were able to get two without much trouble,” Natto said proudly, “Although at a high premium cost…” she added quietly.

“Then what about Quetz?”

“The birdbrain is somewhat straightforward, much like the other girl. The class you presented me with, the Wind Gunman can branch into many other classes once it reaches its second upgrade but for the most part, she simply needs dexterity-oriented stones. I suggest peppering in a light smattering of Assassin and Stealth stones for good measure and survivability, but we did purchase her a Fierce Gale sub-tree stone which will turn her into a flying little monster…”

“Then we have most of what we need for them already?” Drake beamed.

“For the most part, yes, but you will pay Theodore back. He may willingly follow you but he is not a piggy bank. He has his own family to think about as well. While none of your party members seems to have brought family with them, which is terrible. He is building one here with Harley,” Natto said firmly.

Drake grinned at her, his eyes thinning, “Awe, look at you! I always knew you cared,” he teased.

Natto humphed and turned just as the sound of snow-crunching footfalls came closer.

Drake turned and gave a wave to the group, “Yo!”

“Good morning,” Charlotte said, giving a wave back, her face slightly flushed.

“Greetings Lord Drake,” Atropos bowed slightly, her brother, Clotho, following suit without a word.

“Yo,” Landin waved back, “I thought you were gonna be a few more days?” he yawned.

Surprisingly Kalik Tu’ was also here, staying just slightly behind the others as he greeted Drake only with his eyes before turning his head away.

“Some stuff came up and we’re removing up the schedule. Bad people doing bad things and all that,” Drake said in a light tone, trying to keep the conversation bright for now.

“The new boy Daniel is already inside the house,” Charlotte reported before Drake could continue.

“Oh good,” Drake replied, “Hope he gets along with Brodie and Cid. He’s been through some stuff… Damn it feels like I’m saying that about everyone recently,” he sighed.

“I’m going to be very direct with you all,” Drake said to the six teens, “This is the last time I will ask if you wish to back out. Once we start, there is no turning back. You will no longer be kids in my eyes, you will be adults and I will instruct you as such.”

Charlotte and Landin shuffled on their feet a bit but said nothing.

“Since you saved me, I have always planned to follow you and repay you with a life debt, Lord Drake,” Atropos said, bending at the knee to kneel, “By my clan, I will serve you beyond the best of my ability.”

Drake was taken aback by the abrupt declaration and the turn of her head Atropos gave Charlotte before facing downwards again. Her brother Clotho, looked to have chewed on something sour before he also bent at the knee and bowed his head slightly without a word.

“I have never been a child. If following you is what I must do to protect my tribe, I will suffer through the dishonor,” Kalik Tu’ said from behind the twins with a scowl.

“Dishonor….huh?” Drake muttered sourly.

“Hey, hey. Quetz will go anywhere with Drake. I don’t have anyone else so Drake is my flock now,” Quetz answered, her face curved into a smile, but her feathers turned a deep purple betraying her expression.

Drake looked sympathetically at the teens. He knew they had all been through different troubles, but all had been through things many adults couldn’t even compare to. And he would have to force them through even harder trials still.

“Then, speak now, or forever hold your peace,” Drake said coldly.

He looked at them, knowing he had to lock away the part of him that wanted to call off the whole thing and put everything on his shoulders regardless of the consequences. Regardless of how insurmountable the task seemed or what Natto told him was impossible for one person. He wanted to protect these kids, protect everyone he could. But he couldn’t stop what he had put into motion now. The waves of change brought by the system were too big.