^Wait!^ he indicated in hand speak.
Yoshi’s face displayed more emotion that Richter had ever seen on it before. A murderous anger crossed his face, and his lips thinned in fury. His fingers moved to ask a single word.
^How?^
Hand speak was not conducive to long conversations, but Richter did his best. ^My ability. You trust me. I hold secret.^
Yoshi’s expression changed somewhat. He was still pissed, but he rolled his eyes showing some of that anger was focused on himself now. The adept had known about Richter’s Gift of Tongues ability, and he realized that he was to blame for the chaos seed knowing yet another sprite secret. The Warrior’s fingers moved again.
^Why stop us? Why show you know?^
Somehow the creepy half-sprite had guessed that Richter had been tempted to keep his knowledge to himself. The chaos seed decided to ignore the second question, and answer the first, ^Too many goblins. I help.^
Yoshi shook his head, ^Must kill silent.^
Richter had anticipated Yoshi’s argument and had issued a mental order. His shale adder silently rose up behind Yoshi and flicked its tongue out to lick the half-sprite’s face. The sword adept startled and grabbed his sword hilt before seeing what was behind him. He didn’t make a sound, but it was clear that he had been surprised. The adder’s scales were completely black now, showing that its nickname of “The Unseen Killer” was both apt and appropriate. No one laughed, but more than one sprite hid a smirk within their hoods.
^We kill silent,^ Richter signed with a firm expression on his face.
Yoshi stared at him for another moment, then simply nodded, ^Then see.^
Richter’s vision came alive with tactical data. It was similar to the information that Sion could give when he served in the Scout position in the war party. There was so much more, though. The chaos seed could immediately see the name, level, health, mana and stamina of everyone in the group. Even better, looking off into the forest, he could see red triangles hanging in the air. With a flash of excitement, he realized those must be the enemies. Yoshi also seemed to be able to toggle who had access to certain information, something that Richter couldn’t do at his current War Leader rank. The chaos seed couldn’t wait until he leveled the skill more.
Richter reviewed the new data he had; then a thought occurred to him. With a flexion of will, he accessed his interface. Sure enough, the tactical data that Yoshi had shared had been auto-updated on his map. Enemy positions showed up just as the adept had seen them. The closest was only two hundred yards away, and most looked to be clustered in groups of two to three. None of the red triangles were moving, however, showing that the information was still subject to the fog of war. It was only as good as the latest info they had, so the enemies remained in exactly the positions Yoshi had seen them in. Richter quickly pulled out the physical version of his Traveler’s Map and gave a mental order to Alma.
He showed Yoshi how the enemy positions were showing up and a faint smile creased the stern adept’s face. He waved everyone in and started to give kill orders to individual sprites, but Richter asked him to wait again. The adept nodded without complaint or question. Richter felt slightly honored that the half-sprite was putting faith in him. All of the other sprites went back to scanning the surrounding trees. Less than a minute later, what Richter had been waiting for happened. The triangles began to move.
A few of the red triangles jumped position. The goblins they indicated had moved since Yoshi had seen them. Even more important, Alma found hidden enemies. Two were perched in trees hidden by leaves and two more huddled deep in a bush. It was easy to see how Yoshi had missed them. Richter told her to fly around the areas two more times, but she couldn’t spot any further goblins. He had her hover above the area to continue giving real time updates.
Yoshi’s eyes had widened slightly at seeing the updated information, but the man was a professional, in both senses of the word. The Warrior wasted no time. He assigned Richter to the Scout position in his war party. The info that Richter received through Alma got a tactical upgrade. The enemies that Alma had spotted adopted red triangles, and even better, they now displayed tactical information. A small line extended from the triangles showing each goblin’s station and level.
The sword adept looked at the revised information and started handing out kill orders. This time, he included Richter and Sion in the attack. The basic plan was simple. Knots of enemies would have to be eliminated quickly and quietly, but also in a certain order. That way neighboring clusters would not be aware of the sprite’s presence until it was too late. After the adept was done communicating in hand speak, Richter provided one last addition to the plan: the vials of poison Tabia had given him.
As Yoshi read the stats of the Poison of the Muddied Leech, a brutal and wolfish smile grew on his face. The grin was so out of place on the adept’s stern visage that it might have been comical if it wasn’t so disturbing. It did answer one question for Richter though. He finally knew where Sion had learned the expression from.
CHAPTER 27 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
Richter’s decision to help was noticed by more than just Yoshi and the sprites. The Universe apparently took note.
Congratulations! Your actions have reaffirmed your previous Quality. You are: Honorable. When faced with a potential personal gain, you placed the well-being of your allies above yourself. Your Quality is improved to Honorable II. Charisma bonus increased from +2 to +4. The previous 3% decrease in critical strike chance and critical strike damage is hereby negated. Be true to yourself to find your specific power.
Richter hadn’t even known that his qualities could be improved upon, but he would take it. He wished he knew how to unlock more of them, but as far as he could tell, they were only triggered in moments where he wasn’t making a conscious choice. They only seemed to appear when he reacted to reveal his core self.
His Resolute quality had occurred after his first death, when he had found the strength to face the horror of his rebirth. Implacable had appeared on his status page after he had saved Terrod despite knowing that he faced overwhelming odds. Finally, he had gained Honorable when he had a split second to decide between killing an enemy and saving an ally, in the sewers beneath Law. It was easy to see the corollary between that situation and the choice he had just faced.
One more prompt was waiting for him after he had finished speaking to Yoshi.
For being honest and improving his mission’s chance of success, you have gained 312 Relationship Points with Yoshi. Total Relationship Points: 2,574.