M35

It took Morgan a few moments to come back to his senses and grasp what had happened. The endowment of the fighting style seemed to have given him a vision of someone using the style. Was it the founder of the style? Or was it just a random person in the history of the universe that had mastered it? It certainly seemed like that man had been a master; Morgan hadn’t even been able to see his sword move. Reflecting on the vision, Morgan couldn’t be sure if the men he had seen fighting had been human, but that was the impression he had. How strange, really, to find a skill named after a bird on Earth here! Was this style from Earth? Was it from a world that was like Earth? The possibilities boggled his mind, but when it came down to it, there must be other planets in the universe or, as he’d come to understand it, the multiverse that resembled Earth.

Morgan turned his mind inward and tried to see what he had gained from the scroll. At first, he had a hard time distinguishing what he’d gained from the general Melee Weapons Mastery skill and the Fighting Crane Style. Concentrating on wielding a sword, he instinctively knew how he should hold it, how to thrust, how to parry, what a guard position was. He knew how to keep his center of gravity low while he advanced and how to move his feet without crossing them. Hundreds of little facts like this flooded through his mind, but then he started to see some specifics that had to come from the Fighting Crane Style; he realized he knew a series of five “forms” that were to be performed with a two-handed sword. They had distinctive names: “The Crane Forages,” “The Crane Takes a Minnow,” “The Crane Defends the Nest,” “The Crane Advances,” and “The Crane Flutters its Wings.”

Morgan could picture the forms in his head and how he was supposed to move, but he wasn’t so confident that he could pull them off in reality. Deciding that he had enough to work with as far as swordwork goes, he decided to put off buying more skills for now. Instead, Morgan navigated to the section of the Contribution Store where he could find weapons for sale. He narrowed the filter to swords and was surprised by the extent of weapons on offer. He saw everything from wooden practice swords for two contribution points to iron shortswords for ten contribution points to something called Ulnoor’s Hunger for 300,000. Morgan messed with the filter to only display two-handed swords, limiting the price to 15,000. This narrowed the list substantially, and he zeroed in on a fine-steel hand-and-a-half sword for 11,000 points.

He almost bought the sword, but then he thought about the vision in which he’d seen the master of the Fighting Crane Style. He thought about the sword he’d used, and something clicked in his head. Suddenly, he could picture what a typical hand-and-a-half sword looked like: the blade was the right length, but it wasn’t usually curved and had two edges. Morgan had read fantasy novels and seen plenty of movies, but he was by no means a sword buff. Somehow one of the two skills he’d just acquired had given him a basic knowledge about sword types. Morgan knew that the kind of sword he was looking for was kind of like a katana. He looked at the list again, but there, listed near the bottom, was Fine Steel Katana for 12,000. Morgan sold another two bolts of silk and two bags of Energy beads and then bought the katana.

Morgan picked up the katana. It was strange that the System had types of weapons that were, as far as Morgan knew, invented on Earth. Then again, he’d already given up trying to figure out how the System integrated everything, including their language, into its domain. For all he knew, the System took this katana from the databases on the Pilgrim-9 or out of one of the colonists’ heads. Morgan was pleased to see that it came with a polished, black wooden sheath and silky black belt. He tied it around his waist and drew the sword. It looked and felt pretty good in his hands. It wasn’t as long nor as wide as the sword the master in his vision had used, but it would do until he found something more appropriate. Morgan could wield it with one hand, but there was plenty of room on the grip for two, and he was pretty sure he’d be able to practice his forms with it.

Feeling motivated, Morgan stepped away from the Colony Stone and took a good look around. To the East, a crowd was forming outside the new bathhouse. From the angle up by the stone, he could see the new cobbled road that led out to the east gate. He could see that the road continued around the hill in a circle, and he moved around the stone to look north. The cobbled road continued around the hill to pass in front of the smithy. Smoke was billowing from the stacks on the smithy, and through the haze, he could see his tower off toward the northern wall. Morgan continued around the top of the hill, seeing that the cobbled street continued over to the western side of the hill, where the brewery and tavern sat near the little pond. Smoke was also coming from the chimney in the tavern, and Morgan could see quite a few people down there, hanging around on the little deck.

Morgan resolved to check out the tavern, but first, he continued his survey, looking out from the southern edge of the hill. The circular road around the grassy hill continued, and it stretched for about a hundred yards toward the south gate; apparently, that was all the council had purchased so far. Most of the population was in the southern direction, where most of the housing had been constructed. He saw groups of people milling around and getting started on whatever they had planned for the day. Morgan didn’t see any other new buildings, so he decided to head down to the tavern.

A faint trail was worn in the grass around the Colony Stone and down the hill in various areas. Morgan thought about mentioning to Olivia that they should put some steps and walkways in, but then he figured that was pretty obvious, and they’d probably get around to it. He took a deep breath as he let gravity pull him down the hill, savoring the fresh, crisp air. He felt good. He supposed part of it was the hot bath he’d just had, but another factor was definitely his decision to take charge of his skill development instead of just letting things happen to him. Morgan would never resent the spear he’d used so effectively up to now, and he might come back to it at some point, but he was looking forward to practicing his new sword forms, so much so that he almost skipped the tavern and went straight to his tower.

That was when he smelled the unmistakable scent of bacon and eggs and saw that people were standing around with plates of steaming food, and more people were inside the tavern eating and laughing. The scene called to him on a visceral level, and Morgan pushed his way into the crowd, smiling and greeting everyone he passed. Everyone he passed was friendly, more or less, and when he got to the door, pulling it open, a familiar voice called out, “Morgan! Morgan! Come over here!” Morgan looked into the largely wooden common room of the tavern. He saw that a couple of dozen wooden tables were spread around the large area, and from one of the closer ones, Olivia Bennett was waving animatedly at him.

“Oh, hi, Olivia,” Morgan said as he walked up to her table. She pushed against the man sitting next to her, urging him to scoot down and making room for Morgan.

“Morgan! I’m so glad to see you! Bronwyn wasn’t sure what happened to you!” She slapped the bench next to her, and Morgan sat down, smiling.

“Ah, yeah, I got teleported. It’s kind of a long, sad story, actually. I’ll be glad to tell you about it sometime, but right now, how do I get some of that food?” Morgan was eyeing the wooden bowl a man across from him was eating out of. It was filled with scrambled eggs and thick slices of something that looked like ham. Was it possible they had ham? Was there a smoker operating already?

“Oh, one of the bar hands will bring you some; just sit tight! You don’t have to pay yet, either. Right now, we’re all kinda just pitching in. Once we get things settled, we’ll allow the economy to sort itself out, but that was the deal the council made with the tavernkeeper; he’s providing services for free while we supply him with the building and ingredients. Well, it’s not really free - he’s getting tons of improvements to his non-combat skills.” Olivia was beaming the whole time she spoke, and Morgan was struck by how pretty she was. Her silvery metallic eye glinted, and her blue eye sparkled, and her smile really lit up her face. He felt a slight pang of guilt when his thoughts inevitably turned to Issa, and he cleared his throat, smiling.

“You seem happy. Things going well?”

“Oh yes, the colony is shaping up. We do have the looming threat of the Urghat, but we’ve taken some good steps in forming a militia, and Bronwyn is working on other preparations for them. Did she tell you about the whole weird thing about her stealing a title from one of their leaders?”

“What? No! That musta not been something she wanted to mention when we were hiking out to that cave, hah.”

“Yeah, she’s convinced they’ll be coming to challenge her for it back. She’s tough, but I think we need to use caution, though.” Olivia shrugged, drinking from a wooden cup.

“What is that? Coffee?”

“No! I wish! It’s some kind of tea from local herbs. We have a few people that have identified some good edibles in the nearby woods.” As she spoke, a tall, thin fellow with stringy hair pulled back in a ponytail placed a bowl of steaming food in front of Morgan. Before Morgan could thank him, he was off to clear a nearby table.

“Goddam! This is ham! Where’s it from?” Morgan was already shoveling some of the food into his mouth.

“There are boar-like creatures in the woods. Our hunters are finding tons of game. Literally!”

“Mmmf, but, mmm, like, is there a smoker here or something?” Morgan tried his best not to spit any food while he spoke.

“Oh! Didn’t you see the smoke? The guy, Alec Green, who took the tavernkeeper job, built a smoker off the side of the tavern kitchen.”

After finishing his meal and promising to meet up with Olivia and some of the other council members later, Morgan took his leave and walked toward his tower. As he walked down the grassy slope to the northern edge of the colony, he noticed that his tower wasn’t alone anymore. About a hundred feet to the west of it, a sprawling villa-type home had taken shape. It was a rather impressive structure - two stories of whitewashed stone with a low wall encircling a budding garden. Morgan raised an eyebrow, resolving to meet his new neighbors sooner or later, but continued to his home. He hustled up the steps and laid his hand on the door, pulling it open as soon as he heard that tell-tale click of the lock opening.

“Welcome home, Morgan! I can sense you’ve experienced a lot - has it been a long time since you were home?” Tiladia’s lilting, tinkling voice had a note of concern about it.

“Not too long, Tiladia. I’ll tell you all about it, and maybe you can help me with some books and potions I found.”