Ash. The Legends of the Nameless World. Progression Gamelit Story by Kirill Klevanski (essential reading .txt) 📗

“You’re still too focused on tracking where the weapon is going,” Lari said, plopping next to him. “You need to be more aware of your arms and shoulders...”

Ash closed his eyes and nodded. Under normal circumstances, he would’ve killed Lari in a heartbeat, but he had to restrain himself and upkeep his image of a foolish, naïve mage. This surprisingly turned out to be more difficult than any sort of training.

“I know, I know...” He sighed.

“We’ll continue in half an hour.”

Muttering something in a very offended tone, Ash opened his eyes and rolled them. Mary, who was watching them train, smirked and crossed her arms. It wasn’t that she was enjoying Ash’s pain, just that she believed that it was good for both the body and the soul to train as hard as one could. She also believed that there was no time for fooling around when the life of a princess was at stake.

The rest of the squad, however, was less uptight than her and even found Ash’s cheerfulness refreshing. Alice cast a glance in the mage’s direction, imagining him as the hero of the romance novel she had been immersed into. Had he not been so lazy and childish, he would’ve made for a good prince. Tul and Blackbeard were playing chess and discussing politics, trying to guess which state would go to war first and with whom. Such conversations had long become commonplace so no one really paid attention to the two as they could go on about it until the cows came home.

“Look! Herald!” Alice exclaimed, sitting in the shade of the cart.

The rest of the group immediately turned their gaze in the direction in which Alice was pointing and saw a small dot approaching the clearing. It gradually grew in size, becoming more and more visible until it turned into a pigeon with a folded newspaper attached to it.

If you told someone that a pigeon could carry such a weight, they’d probably laugh at you, but the answer was simple — magic and gnomish engineering. The pigeon wasn’t a living, breathing being, but that made of metal and cogs. Its iron feathers sparkled in the sun, and its glassy stare oftentimes frightened the receivers of its messages.

The pigeon landed on Mary’s shoulder; a slit appeared in its chest, into which Mary put three copper coins that she took from her pocket. Satisfied, the bird let out a mechanical whistle and took off, squeaking with its metallic wings.

Mary looked down at the latest issue of the Herald. She’d always order the newspaper when they were on a long journey in order to keep up with the events going on in the country. Information was, after all, vital in her line of business. The subscription fee wasn’t all that high, so it wouldn’t leave a dent in their budget

“What’s the news?” Lari asked.

Mary gave him a reproachful glance. She knew that Lari was more interested in rumors than news. Particularly rumors about Ternites who had gotten themselves into some serious trouble. As she flipped through the pages she noticed someone named “Krivolap” be mentioned quite often.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she snorted.

Continuing to flip through the pages, she soon found what she had been looking for — reports on recent duels and fights. These reports, written by that moron Perot, were something that interested almost everyone.

“Guys!” she exclaimed, attracting their attention. “The Order got a new Master.”

“Urg?” Blackbeard asked. “Don’t give me that look, it’s no secret that he’s ready to do just about anything to get a spot there.”

“Smartass,” Mary snorted. “Yes, Toothless defeated Drunken Lee, the warrior monk, and took his place in the Order. He’s the eleventh one.”

 “Shoddy luck.”Lari spat. He had dreamed that one day he’d join the Order of the Dozen, but getting into it wasn’t so simple as the Order was an informal organization. One could say that it didn’t exist at all, because, unlike the Guilds, it didn’t have a coat of arms issued by the king.

It always had twelve members, consisting of the most powerful Masters of the Mormanon Continent. It was said that each of them was equal in strength to a small Guild and that their rank in the Order corresponded to their power. No one knew how the most powerful member of the Order looked for no one had ever seen the Master.

Little did the Wandering Stumps know that amongst them was the twelfth member of the Order. However, truth be told, Ash got this position by accident. It was because of this misunderstanding that those who wanted to become members of the Order would challenge the eleventh Master to battle. No one wanted to fight against the “demon in human clothing” after all.

“It says here,” Mary continued, “that the duel took place on Bourbon Hill, which cartographers have renamed to Toothless Hollow.”

“At least they didn’t decide to duke it out in the city,” Blackbeard muttered. “I remember when Ash and Gawain Ironhead had their duel... They leveled an entire city with the ground.”

“It’s hard to believe that such monsters really exist,” Alice whispered, a little scared, and covered her legs with her robe as she was feeling chilly.

“Those rumors are exaggerated,” Ash exclaimed, eyes still closed. “They didn’t destroy a city, just blew up a powder mill.”

“And how do you know that?” Lari asked, chewing a blade of grass.

“Well, I’m E’sh, after all.”

Chapter 14

T here was silence and then everyone burst out laughing. Lari’s roaring was the loudest, enhanced by him hitting the ground with his fist. Ash smiled as well, pleased that he had once again managed to make them laugh.

“You don’t look like him!” Alice giggled.

“How so?”

“They say,” Tul winked at Alice, “that his staff is