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Chapter 246 - Interviews
🕑 Added 2025-02-18 22:54:46 +0000 UTCChris
Letters and information continued to roll in from various outlets and all of them told of the same picture. Marcus and Ashton both sent messages that I had to respond to.
Ashton and his faction were doing their best to mend our relationship and I couldn't fault them for trying. Their letters were welcome and it was nice to have Marcus to cross-check them against, but there was one bit that Ashton had that Marcus didn't.
When the Demon threat arose, there were three pylons in range. Three Cities had the opportunity to stand against it and only two had.
Frostheim and The Fort had stood together, while the last had declined the chance to send aid.
I knew little about the third pylon at the time, but after quite the year, I learned much more than I had before and could now pin a name and place to a map.
The City was called Lakeshore and was located along the shores of Lake Superior, if that was what we were still calling it.
Farther to the South from us than the Fort, and much more defensive. They didn't like anyone nearing their City and even Scouts were turned away from entering. I wasn't even sure who led the City, let alone the name of the faction behind it.
I had sent a few representatives, but after having the third turned away, I stopped trying. If they wished to be left alone, I would oblige them.
That being said, Ashton was a lot closer and his people had a lot more interactions or incidents. I wasn't sure if they had come to blows, but I knew they were treading lightly when it came to their shared border.
In his opinion, from what his interactions and scouts indicated, Lakeshore was making no moves to travel South. They either didn't know or didn't care about what the obelisk meant.
Our response was still being discussed but it was something to consider. If we left with everything we had, we would be leaving our Cities exposed. I didn't need Ashton to tell me that much.
We-
Knock, knock, knock.
"Chris, they're ready for you," Abigail said through the door.
Sigh.
After a long relaxing Winter, things were picking up at a feverish pace. The literal timer ticking down had everything on a strict timeline. Having to juggle so many different things was annoying.
Hopefully, this meeting wouldn't be a waste of time and would work to alleviate some of my workload.
That was right, I was finally going to pick an assistant.
Abigail was less than pleased when I ran off before she could force me to pick. Not that I hadn't had good reason to do so, she just didn't agree with said reason.
I thought the timing was off. It would be pointless to choose someone and then go off for months leaving them to fend for themselves. Not only would that be cruel, it would be pointless.
There wasn't enough time for them to learn what I needed them to do and trying to rush it would only have made things harder when I came back.
Not that logic stopped my sister from nagging me.
Now that I was back, and enough time had passed to get everything back in order, it was time.
I stood from my paper-filled desk and pulled open the door, "All the candidates are gathered?"
"All the ones that passed muster."
Good. The list of applications was longer than I expected it to be, but after a preliminary screening, only about a dozen were left. Both my Mother and Abigail took it upon themselves to narrow it down for me.
Which was wonderful, because I didn't want to do more interviews than I had to.
Abigail and I walked toward one of the larger meeting rooms in the Castle and were quickly met with a nearly filled room of people. It was filled with all kinds of possibilities. Men, women, young, or old.
All were represented. A... higher than average number considering the total amount of people were younger women. I only raised an eyebrow at Abigail to which she acted like she didn't notice.
My Mother at work again.
You would think her meddling in my love life would've ended when the world did but I guessed not.
I nearly wanted to dismiss those options in retaliation but held off. It wasn't right for them to be dismissed like that. Not after being called here for the opportunity.
"Thank you all for coming." I said to the group, "This shouldn't take up too much of your time. I plan to have a quick one-on-one with all of you and ask some deeper questions that aren't listed on this sheet," said sheet was the application they submitted, "Afterwards, I will notify the person or persons that will be accepted."
All of them nodded without saying a word so I moved along, "First up is..." a quick look down to the top sheet, "Talia Richards."
The portly woman followed me out of the room and into a smaller one across the hall. She was older, not old old, but approaching middle age and looked like she had experience in the job previously.
A quick glance at her application sheet gave me the bare details.
Name: Talia Richards
Class: Mage – High F-rank
Profession: Secretary – High F-rank
Highest Stat: Intelligence
The sheet was much more extensive than what I could have done. The Scouts had grown tremendously in information gathering and the range of skills they had was continuously growing.
Some had upgraded [Identify] two times, and matched with a high Perception from their build, they got a lot more information back than what I could do. The group even had a few with [Sense Weakness], not that it was particularly helpful in choosing an Assistant.
"Tell me about yourself..."
The standard interview question I always hated answering. Mwhahaha, the shoe's on the other foot now!
~~
After Talia, came Sophia
Name: Sophia Reghetti
Class: Healer – Mid E-rank
Profession: Assistant – High F-rank
Highest Stat: Wisdom
"Next,"
Name: Matthew Smith
Class: Support – Low E-rank
Profession: Personal Assistant – Mid F-rank
Highest Stat: Acumen
"Next,"
~~
The interviews continued until an oddity appeared on the next sheet. One that should've been caught before getting this far.
"Abigail, can you come in here please?" I called out and looked at the sheet closer.
Name: Miles Whitmore
Class: Warrior – Mid E-rank
Profession: Artificer – Low F-rank
Highest Stat: Strength
"What is this?" I asked as she walked in.
She didn't even have to look at the sheet to know which one it was, "That was included on Hal's recommendation."
Hal? He wasn't even involved in the selection process. "Why? The man doesn't even have the profession."
"One of the Trackers in Hal's Order asked him for a favor." She said it like it all made sense now.
"But why?" I asked confused. Nothing about the application hinted at the man wanting to be an assistant, let alone being geared toward it.
"I don't know. Hal asked me to include him, so I did. If you want answers, ask the man yourself." She huffed.
"Fine, send him in."
The interruption was rather intriguing rather than disruptive. I was over halfway through and it was already getting dull. The same answers and similar enough stories that they were beginning to mesh together.
I had a feeling that this one was going to be different.
Curiosity peaked, I watched intently as the man walked in. Nothing about him screamed Secretary, which I expected from reading his sheet.
He wore standard clothing, much like everyone else that came in. Heavy furs were still in season and would be for a while longer. Even if Winter was waning, it was still nippy.
The first thing that stood out was that he was young. Not baby-faced or freshly Classed, but teenager age. Maybe a touch older as stats made things wonky.
He wasn't built, not like Vincent, but he was getting there. Stocky enough that it wasn't surprising he was a Warrior. His choice of weapon was a mystery, as he wasn't armed but I could tell he used plate armor.
The walk was subtly different, as if he was used to working around the restrictions heavy plate came with.
He used heavy armor and his highest stat was Strength, a man after my own heart.
I hadn't bothered to scan any of the previous interviewees as it wasn't worth it, but I made an exception for Miles. Aura scanning was still a newer art, but I was getting the hang of it with training.
Instead of using skills like my useless [Identify], I leveraged my stronger aura to feel out an enemy, or in this case, a potential assistant.
The man was strong for his level. Not insanely so, but enough to stand above the average. What killed him was his lack of Profession levels. He was missing out on a lot of stat points by leaving it so far behind.
That wasn't what I focused on. It was his affinity that I zeroed in on.
Wood.
It wasn't that rare, but it wasn't one I saw often. Usually, it was Plant, Nature, or something along those lines. Wood was a specific subset of Nature that not many people had.
And it didn't do well in the Cold.
It didn't take long to scan the man and give him a once-over. He had just finished sitting down by the time I was finished.
"Alright, level with me man, why are you here?" he flinched at my directness, but didn't shy away. Some of the others looked like I was going to eat them when I asked them questions.
"To become your Assistant," he answered firmly.
I eyed him up and down, "Yes, but nothing about this," I waved the application, "Says Assistant."
"I will work just as hard as a Professional Assistant, if not harder. There's nothing that they can do that I cannot," he said vigorously and intently.
While that was technically true, that was a rather bold claim. One I wasn't sure he would be able to back up. "Do you plan on changing your Profession?" I asked.
"No, sir."
"Don't call me sir," I said out of habit, "Do you plan on evolving it towards Secretary or Assistant?"
"I don't, my Lord."
I visibly cringed, "Wrong direction, don't call me that either." While Miles was a fun distraction to the rest of the interviews, I did need to get on with my day. "I'll ask again, why are you here?"
"I want to be your Assistant," He doubled down but before I waved the man out, he continued, "I'll work without pay if you'll let me. All I ask is you let me watch you fight."
That... made me stop, "You want to... watch me fight?"
The request was unexpected. Especially the offer to work without pay.
"Yes, I want to learn from you." He said sincerely.
A... complicated feeling arose in me. It felt good for someone to want to learn from me, but it also confused me. What was I supposed to teach? I wasn't a master with my weapon. I wasn't a master tactician. Most of my power came from pure effort, not some underlying mastery.
I took a second look at his information, "Tell me about your profession. Why is it so far behind?"
His face fell, "That... that wasn't my plan. I wanted to keep it near my Class level but circumstances weren't in my favor. The scavenging for food didn't leave a lot of time for Artificing, let alone gathering the materials required."
He went on to detail his rough return and the highs and lows of his journey since then. It was filled with tragedy and sorrow, but Miles didn't despair because of it but worked harder to move on.
It was a touching story.
At the end of it, I was actually considering hiring him. "Alright, I'll consider your application. If you could send in the next one please."
We do need an artificer. Phones would be useful, maybe he could re-invent technology.
I wondered if he was hell-bent on the Assistant job or if he would be open to something else. I doubted he would refuse and there were a lot of advancements he could do for us.
Comments
PWeygandt
Is there a chapter today?
Demonlord
Thanks for the nice chapter 😊 Good to see him finally going through the assistant list
Thomas Issa
Chris and Miles would get along extremely well, both studying engineering before the system, tad confused by artificing with the wood affinity though, should make for interesting crafting Also, all of the personal assistants seem iffy to me, the young women being pawns through meddling, the old people being likely to be the ones meddling and controlling, Also they need further testing, like what are they like in combat, and what initiatives to they want to put into place if they were to get the job Being Chris’s assistant is going to be dangerous and involve a lot of crafting, so Miles seems best based on what we have seen, but we should know if other people can fulfil the other duties better
Alexander C Hyde
Excellent chapter.
Alexander C Hyde
Curiosity (piqued)peaked, I watched intently as the man walked in.
Buck
My guess is that Chris hires Miles to be an Artificer and hires someone else to be his assistant. Just my best guess. It would be interesting to see just what an Artificer is capable of accomplishing. The military power of a a political entity is important but craftspeople and merchants are what truly allows societies to grow in a world like Chris is living in. Farmers, educators and healers are the support fields that allow for the growth of the above mentioned 3 fields. TFTC!
