Born a Monster

Chapter 171: Servant of the Axe, 71 – New Traits

I had lost most of a month; it was only a few weeks before Hearth week, that time between spring and summer. Checking my System, it only awarded me the one birthday for that year.

It also removed any hope of the reset making things faster or clearer; it was the old interface, and responded only to properly formatted requests, and...

You know what? I was alive, and hale and well. So, I just wasn’t going to dwell on that any more than my [Gloomy] trait required.

Wait, Gloomy?

[Trait: Gloomy. +1 Resolve, maximum 5 resolve.]

I mean, I suppose I’d always been slightly gloomy, but to have it in my System like that...

No. I’m not going to do that to myself. New me was Gloomy with a capital G. Fine.

.....

“How are you, Kismet?”

“They work us like dogs. Good for physical regimen, not so good for my fur or the skin beneath.”

“Have any of our missing party members returned?”

“Not a one, it’s just the three of us. Oh, and you owe us somewhere near two weeks solid of spa days.”

“I notice my inventory is completely empty, to include the coin pouch. Let’s worry about getting somewhere with a spa, and then about how many spa days I owe both of you.”

“Deal, but you’ll owe us more the longer that takes you.”

“How is Blackfur?”

“Still in the wild. Turns out that you can’t keep your male population all hunting for one animal for too long, even if you promise them governorship of the town. The pups have been sighted, but the locals mistake them for wolf pups adopted by her. And get this – they still think she’s male.”

“Have we made contact with Igrun Sivert?”

“Near as we can tell, she isn’t here at the great hall. Not with the work force, not actually chained to the Jarl’s bed, not in the cellar with the mead and flour barrels. Not here.”

I sighed.

“Oh, and in the month you’ve been ... gone... they’ve repaired the wards on the hall, so there went our largest advantage.”

“Has it?”

“I just told you it has.”

“If we were here when those wards were fashioned, then we should be members of the household.”

“Slaves of the household, Rhishi. Slaves. Slaves in the Khanate had easier lives than free women do here.”

“All right, I’ve been unable to plan for a month or so, what have you and Madonna come up with?”

“Rhishi. If I didn’t have to churn butter with this hand, I’d punch you in the eye.”

“It’s okay. Turns out I’m durable.”

She snorted. “I could have told you that.”

Churning butter, as it turns out, is just not fun. Durable or not, the repeated plunging motion is hard on shoulders, back, and knees in particular, and secondarily on hands, ankles, and wrists. Or, more likely, I was doing it wrong.

“You’re very good at this.” Brigid said. “Would you like to take my spot, and I’ll just go and gather berries?”

“Fat chance.” Kismet said. “If I have to stay here and take my turn, you need to take yours.”

#

I don’t know how the Jarl knew I was back to myself (although his wife did supposedly have oracular powers), but I never did get to finish churning that butter. One of the huscarl (one of Thane Bjorneson’s lot) came to collect me. It was a day of court, where important matters such as the location of fenceposts and ownership of turnips were decided, so I just got dumped at the end of the line.

[You have accepted a quest to rescue Igrun Sivert, and avenge her upon her wrongdoers.

Required: Slay Sigmund Findseth, Reward: 10 quest points, not accomplished

Required: Slay Olaf Findseth, Reward: 10 quest points, not accomplished

Required: Slay Victor Findseth, Reward: 10 quest points, not accomplished

Required: Free Igrun Sivert from slavery, Reward: 10 quest points, not accomplished

Optional: Restore social status to Igrun Sivert, Reward: 5 quest points, not accomplished

Optional: Slay Agnar Oen, Reward: 5 quest points, task complete

Optional: Slay Jacob Hoyland, Reward: 5 quest points, task complete

Optional: Slay Odmund Kampen, Reward: 5 quest points, not accomplished

Optional: Slay Svein Bjornson, Reward: 5 quest points, not accomplished

Optional: Slay Tomas Istre, Reward: 5 quest points, not accomplished

Automatic Fail status: Death of Igrun Sivert.

If completed now, quest awards 10/70 quest points.]

I suppose that was the good news, that we hadn’t failed either quest. That said, we were nowhere near completing the main objectives of either, and we’d lost... well, the Norvik said it for us.

So durable or not, athletic or not, all of my statistics came up to the same end numbers, there were just no bulk biomass purchases for raw statistic points anymore. The closest were evolved traits like Opposable Thumb, which granted a +1 to Agility, but only to a max of three, so it was inactive.

Which, I noticed, didn’t stop it from being useful. I left it flagged for a default of active for any form that had thumbs (or the ability to have thumbs).

My reptilian default form hadn’t changed much. The scales, skin, blood, and lungs were still level 2, but what that meant had expanded. There were options, some of which required maintenance. Some were inherent, and others were activated like abilities, complete with uses per day and cheaper charges that were expended when used.

It was new, and complicated, and good gods, I was so glad I hadn’t even tried to deal with all of this without three each of Insight and Resolve. My daily biomass required was ???, with a note that I needed to manually calculate it.

Thanks, System. Always useful.

“Hey, hey. Let me get your opinion, which is worth more, one tenth of a piglet, or a bushel of maize?”

I considered it. “How big is the piglet, and is the maize fresh on the cob, or dried?”

But fortunately for me, they were the next to court.

#

“Ah, Tyr be praised!” Jarl Findseth said. “Is court finally over for the week?”

“So it seems.” Lady Ingrid said, doffing her crown and hanging it from her right arm-rest. She took the smaller silver circlet from her left and adjusted it on her brow. “I swear that thing gets heavier as the day goes on.”

Sigmund placed his crown on a pillow held by one of Tomas Istre’s huscarls. “It’s lighter than my helmet, but not by much” he agreed. He made no move to don said helmet, instead sitting it in his lap with a cream-white housecat that now used it as a shelter.

“So. My wife tells me that you are back to yourself.”

“After a fashion, although it still feels very much like a different but similar version of myself.”

“And that you are likely to be the death of me, unless I kill you first.”

“Huh. Am I supposed to beg for my life, then?”

“Do you feel like begging for your life?”

“Not particularly.” I said. Hey, when had I learned common Norvik? No, focus, talking now.

“Then don’t. I don’t care to talk about your life. I don’t care about your life. Let us instead talk about a thorn in my butt. Namely, the Cousin of Fenris.”

I shrugged. “I guided one of your thanes to its lair.”

“And have you seen it since?”

“I have, although due to my mental condition at the time, I cannot recall the exact days.”

“Can you summon it now?”

“I hope not, I couldn’t summon it before. I could only wonder what else I could summon if I had that power and range.”

“Do you know where the Fenris wolf is?” Ingrid asked.

“I do not; I can tell you if the wolf-folk is within sixty feet or so, but that is the closest I can come to location. It is more likely that the Fenris finds me at its own will.”

“Your demon wife,” Sigmund said, “claims you speak thoughts-to-thoughts with the Cousin of Fenris.”

“I can do this, yes. The Cousin of Fenris is a folk, able to think as a human does, but also with the instincts of its wolfen ancestors. Combined with its senses and magical prowess, it is not unusual that it has evaded your efforts to find it.”

“I am prepared to offer it a truce, then. Already, it has slain one in twenty men among the island’s people. If it will refrain from hunting my people, I am prepared to leave it the northern half of our forest as its own.”

“I can ask when I next speak to the Fenris.” It was increasingly hard not to use the pronoun HER during the conversation.

“See that you do. Have you any clue when that would be?”

“It seems to me that the visits do not happen on a schedule, but rather when the Fenris desires my company. I honestly don’t remember what we do, but I’m certain it...”

“I do not care. Just be sure you offer the monster my terms of peace.”

.....

#