Touch of Fate

The group of four adventurers, Mike included, were walking down a well-trodden road leading to the west along the edge of the Wyrmrest Lake.

Kate cleared her throat before beginning her explanation of the request.

"Alright, our mission is relatively simple. We have to travel to the Palmeray Forest, a small region inside the Ash Foothills. The Palmeray Bees, a rare species of giant bee, make their home there. We need to collect two jars of Palmeray honey to complete the request, but there is one special stipulation. While we can kill any of the other bees, we can't harm the queen."

"Why is that?" Mike asked, genuinely curious.

Philip cut in on this, evidently keen on showing his knowledge. "Its so the species isn't wiped out. The drones are replaceable, but the queen isn't. Kill her and the hive will die out."

Kate continued, glaring at Philip for the interruption. "The honey is a potent alchemical reagent with a number of uses, so it can be considered quite valuable. Since the bees in question are extremely rare, the Adventurer's Guild only occasionally approves requests to harvest it."

"Hm, makes sense." Mike was forced to conclude. He was surprised to see an effort at conservation in this world, especially in the case of a group of monsters Then again it was a rare species, that produced a valuable commodity.

Kate and Philip started another minor argument about which fork in the road they needed to take, but Mike tuned it out. It turned out both were wrong, but luckily Shy was able to stop them before they got lost.

[I wonder if anyone has tried to domesticate the Palmeray Bees.] He briefly considered trying his hand at giant beekeeping before dismissing the thought. [It would probably be too much work. I can't even imagine how much food a giant bee would need, let alone an entire colony.]

"So these bees," Mike started, interrupting another iteration of the argument. "How dangerous are they?"

Kate broke off in mid yell to continue her lecture, much to Philip's annoyance.

"Well, they tend to be about the size of a large dog, weigh about 50 kg, and are mostly dangerous because of their stingers. Not only are they an effective weapon, but they administer a fairly substantial dose of poison. One sting is not usually enough to kill a full grown human, but multiple stings can be fatal. Most of the drones are considered mid Tier 1, but there is a larger and more dangerous variety called soldiers, which are typically low Tier 2s."

[Sounds like they will only really be dangerous to me in large numbers, but so long as I conserve my mana, I shouldn't have anything to worry about.]

"This is what makes the mission particularly dangerous. The drones can be lethal in groups, but one-on-one, a Rank 3 adventurer should be able to take them out. If we run into any soldiers, we will need to be careful and work as a team." She directed this last part to Philip, who only sniffed in response.

[Sounds like adventurers at my rank are supposed to be high Tier 1s, for the most part.]

He was suddenly alerted to a swarm of hostile presences that had surrounded the group. They were slowly creeping closer, so they must have just entered in range of his Detect Hostile Intent Skill.

"Everyone try to remain calm. We are completely surrounded. Don't make any sudden moves, but get ready to fight." Mike said in a calm and quiet voice while slowly drawing his sword.

"What are you on about now?" Philip turned to face him, leaving his back exposed to the surrounding tall grass. "There is nothing-."

At this point a reptilian creature sprang out of the surrounding grass, talons fully extended, ready to tear into the unsuspecting young man. A high-pitched screech seemed to signal the rest of the creatures, who moved with pack-like coordination.

[A velociraptor? No its way too big, nearly 2m by the look of it, but the skull doesn't look quite right to be a deinonychus, and there aren't any feathers. Must be another quasi-mutant based off of the deinonychus.] Mike's analytical mind was observing the creature, while his body was taking action.

Philip was turning to face the monster, already knowing that it would be too late. He could only feel the chill of approaching death, when a bright flash of metal pierced the dinosaur's chest, neatly impaling its heart. The blow managed to knock the creature off course, causing it to sail harmlessly by.

Kate was the first of the other three to react, drawing her own sword and turning to face the surrounding grass. "Plains Stalkers!" She yelled while bracing her shield as another of the monsters crashed into her.

Shy quickly drew a pair of long curved knives and got into position, forming a loose square. He dodged the first enemy, while delivering a pair of high speed slashes which left the dinosaur rolling on the ground, mewling in pain. This continued until another slash ended the creature's suffering.

Philip was able to gather his wits quickly enough to pull out his axe just before another of the plains stalkers launched itself at him. He was able to shield the majority of his body with the weapon, but still took a few cuts from scrabbling claws. With a roar he hurled the creature back into the grass, and ready himself to fight.

The adventurers could only watch in dismay as more and more of the plains stalkers emerged from the grass. Mike counted up to thirty of the monsters before he gave up, there were probably even more still hiding. They were evidently being cautious after losing three of their number, but it was clear that it was only a matter of time before they swarmed the four humanoids.

[I could use fire magic here, but it would likely ignite the surrounding grass. I don't really want to be responsible for starting a wild fire.]

He was still debating about simply accepting any ecological damage as a necessary cost for survival, when he remembered one of his oldest skills that he had largely neglected up to this point.

Lowering his sword his stepped out from the little group.

"What are you doing?!" Philip hissed.

"Trying a possible solution."

By this point Mike had gained the attention of the majority of the plains stalkers. They were fixing bright, predatory eyes on him, but their body posture suggested that they didn't quite know how to respond to his actions.

He took a deep breath and tried to concentrate mana in his voice. With a strangely large amount of effort, he was able to speak with a deep resonant voice that seemed to carry far across the plains.

"LEAVE!" He commanded. "You will find naught but death here. Leave now, and I will spare you."

For one brief moment, the whole area was still. The plains stalkers had frozen in place at Mike's powerful message. The adventurers were too stunned to react. The insects that had been creating an incessant drone all morning, went quiet. Even the wind died, leaving that small patch of road utterly silent.

Then, almost as if they had decided that it wasn't worth the effort, the plains stalkers drew back into the grass, vanishing from sight. A few seconds later the wind and sound returned, seemingly louder after their brief absence.

Mike cleaned and sheathed his sword, before walking over to the monster he had killed. He crouched down and lackadaisically poked it with a finger, before turning to look at the other three.

"So, is there anything valuable about these guys? I guess they can always be used as meat, but I suspect they don't taste particularly good." He considered it for a second. "Then again, they might taste like chicken. I'm going to have to try this."

"Wha.....wait, wait, wait. I'm going to need a bit of an explanation. How in the hells did you get them to leave just by yelling at them?" Kate asked, a little panicky.

"Would you believe me if I told that I'm just very persuasive, and those monsters simply listened to reason?" He replied with a small smile.

Kate glared at him. "No! I'm not quite sure how you did it, but it felt like you used some kind of verbal magic. Convinced them to leave simply with your words. I've never heard of anything like that."

Mike sighed. "Isn't it considered bad manners to ask another adventurer to reveal his trump cards? Aren't I allowed to have some secrets?" He wasn't sure how rare Communication Magic was, so he felt hesitant to reveal that aspect of his skill set.

Kate was quiet for a moment. "While it is true that its considered taboo to try and force an adventurer to reveal their secrets, you have to understand where we are coming from." Shy nodded his agreement.

Philip, still looking a bit shaken from his near death experience, added his commentary. "Whatever you used was dangerously close to Mental Magic, and if that's the case, I don't want you anywhere near our group."

"Alright, fair enough. In my defense, I do know Fire Magic. I just left out some of my other abilities. I've had some issues with overexposure in the past, and I was hoping to avoid drawing too much attention to myself." Mike sighed, looking around at the trio. He was tired of having to lie about or hide his abilities. He understood the reason for it, but it nevertheless made him feel guilty.

Deciding to come clean, at least to a certain degree, Mike spoke with some resignation in his voice. "I have a rare skill that allows me to communicate, to some extent, with any living being. When you saw me simply tell the plains stalkers to leave, that was really all I was doing. I just enhanced my voice with some mana to make it more persuasive."

"Still sounds a bit like Mental Magic to me." Philip said while rubbing the back of his head. "But you did save my life back there, and probably saved the entire party while you were at it, so that's good enough for me. Just don't try to manipulate any of our minds, or I will make you regret it!"

Mike smiled. [It looks like this guy isn't so bad after all. He understands how to be grateful, even if he is a brat about it.]

Kate looked solemn as she spoke her piece. "I understand that you probably have a lot of secrets you don't want to share with a bunch of strangers, but we do need to have a good estimate of your capabilities going forward. I'm not asking you to reveal anything sensitive, but could you at least tell us what Tier you are in?"

Mike didn't see any harm in it. Tiers seemed to be vague enough that sharing it didn't really give anything away. After glancing at his [Status] and seeing a few changes he would have to investigate later, he gave his answer.

"Looks like I'm now a low Tier 3, not sure when that happened." He said while shrugging, not really thinking too much about it.

The other three were speechless, stunned into silence. Then, all at once, they yelled the same thing.

"""What?!!"""