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(A/N: Don't forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
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Aerion tied the thick leather drawstrings of the sack, pulling them tight into a complex knot. The sack was incredibly heavy, weighing roughly fifty pounds in physical mass, but with his stamina and body that that have been trained today, he hoisted it much more easily over his shoulder.
He returned downstairs, walking smoothly back to the corner booth. He didn't slam the gold onto the table; instead, he casually dropped the heavy sack onto the bench right beside Sinmir. The impact made a dense, unmistakable thud that caused the wood to creak in protest which fortunately hidden by the loud bustling tavern voices.
Sinmir's eyes went wide as he rested a hand on the canvas, feeling the undeniable, hard shapes of thousands of coins pressing against the fabric. The reality of the situation had finally set in. He wasn't just a disgruntled drunk warrior anymore, he was a commander with a war chest.
"I will begin my work first thing tomorrow morning, boss," Sinmir promised, his voice thick with newfound purpose and a healthy dose of respect. "I'll scout the locations, put the word out to the men I trust, and start securing the steel. I will report back to you here when the foundation is laid, or if we run into any serious problems."
Aerion gave a firm, approving nod. "I trust you to handle the logistics, Captain. Build me a wall of iron. Do not betray the trust I have placed in you."
With the transaction complete and his private army officially funded, Aerion turned and walked back to the stairs, leaving Sinmir to quietly marvel at the fortune sitting beside him.
Entering his room for the final time that night, Aerion firmly locked the heavy wooden door, sliding the iron bolt into place. The noise of the tavern below was a dull, comforting hum. Lupin immediately hopped onto the foot of the bed, curling up into a tight, contented ball of fur, exhausted from a long day of pretending to be well behaved.
Aerion sat on the edge of the mattress, finally allowing his posture to slacken. It had been an incredibly long, wildly productive day. He pulled up his mental interface, focusing on the thirteen attribute points he had accumulated from his intense leveling sessions in the courtyard and his various successful persuasions and also increased smithing. It was time to solidify his gains.
He directed the points with a thought, feeling the immediate, physiological changes wash over his body.
He allocated 4 points to Health. A deep, soothing warmth spread through his chest and limbs, fortifying his bones and thickening his muscle fibers. The fragility of his pure mage build was slowly being erased, replaced by the hardy resilience of a true battlemage.
[Health increased by 40! Current Health: 200/200]
Next, he poured 5 points into Stamina. A rush of cool, electrifying energy surged through his veins, clearing away the lingering aches from his heavy armor training. His lungs felt larger, his heartbeat slower and more powerful.
[Stamina increased by 50! Current Stamina: 200/200] [Your maximum carry weight has increased by 25 KG! Current Weight Limit: 400 KG]
Finally, he dedicated the remaining 4 points to Magicka. The familiar, intoxicating rush of arcane power flooded his mind, sharpening his senses. He could feel the latent elemental energies of Nirn humming in the air around him, practically begging to be shaped by his will.
[Magicka increased by 40! Current Magicka: 330/330]
With his attributes spent and his body thrumming with new power, Aerion dismissed the interface. He unbuckled his heavy iron gear, storing the weapons and shield back into his inventory, and slipped out of his boots.
He lay back against the coarse pillows, staring up at the wooden ceiling. He had gold, he had magic, he had spies, and he had soldiers. He closed his eyes, the fatigue finally claiming him, and drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep, the steady breathing of his fox companion the only sound in the dark room.
Aerion woke up the next day as the faint, pale light of morning began to creep through the wooden shutters of his room, and he found Lupin already scouring around the room, sniffing here and there at the corners of the floorboards as if hunting for phantom mice.
Aerion stood up from the straw mattress, feeling the lingering phantom aches from yesterday's brutal physical exertion, before taking out the Iron Shield, the heavy Steel Mace, and the massive Steel Warhammer from his spatial inventory, wearing them exactly like how he wore them yesterday morning, strapping the hammer to his back and hooking the mace to his belt while sliding his arm through the straps of the shield.
He then left his room to head toward the Jorrvaskr training courtyard to train like yesterday, after all, he had made an appointment with the greatest warriors in the hold.
He couldn't wait to aggressively level up his one handed, two handed, archery, block, and light armor skills, knowing full well that spending another two thousand septims in exchange for his skills having crazy, unnatural level ups is a very worth it exchange if you asked him, a shortcut to absolute power that any gamer would take.
So he left his room and the Bannered Mare after that, walking up the wide stone steps to the Cloud District where the morning air was crisp and smelled of distant pine and woodsmoke. He then walked toward the upside down hull of Jorrvaskr, making his way straight to the training courtyard in the back.
He found Aela, Vilkas, Farkas, and Athis already waiting for him in the dirt ring just like yesterday morning, where Aela, leaning casually against a wooden pillar with her bow in hand, immediately looked at him and asked him where the arrows she had requested him to bring were.
Aerion didn't even blink and just said in a smooth, unbothered tone that he would simply give her some septims for the arrows he broke yesterday and the ones he was going to inevitably use today.
He then took out a small pouch and handing her twenty five septims, making it clear that this financial compensation would be how it will be going forward so he wouldn't have to bother carrying bundles of wood and iron feathers through the city.
Aela just let out a sharp tsk at that, shaking her head at the sheer arrogance of the wealthy elf, but she pocketed the coins anyway before then the four Companions began teaching him in turns like yesterday, falling into a grueling, punishing rhythm of strikes, blocks, parries, and evasions.
The training was intense, the ring echoing with the harsh clang of steel, the thud of the warhammer hitting the dummies, and the sharp hiss of arrows cutting through the morning air, where his physical combat skills skyrocketed under the pressure.
Over the course of the intense morning session, his One Handed skill leveled up 8 times under Athis as he learned to maneuver the heavy mace with better wrist control, his Two Handed skill leveled up 7 times under Vilkas's strict guidance on leverage.
His Archery leveled up 9 times as his grouping became frighteningly tight, his Block leveled up 10 times from taking Farkas's heavy, relentless blows on his iron shield, and his Light Armor skill leveled up 6 times as Athis and Vilkas tak turned to use him as a glorified punching bag to teach him how to roll with the painful impacts.
Aerion leveled up 5 times because of this massive influx of combat experience, hitting level 35, and a notification chimed in his mind informing him he was getting 5 attribute points to allocate.
He paid the agreed 2,000 septims for the training and the 25 septims for the arrows, walking away from the courtyard feeling exhausted but incredibly satisfied with his progress.
And so this is how Aerion spent the next three days after that, settling into a grueling but highly efficient routine where he trained with the Companions every single morning while he had the time to farm and level his skills with them.
Paying out 6,000 septims for their time alongside another 75 septims for the archery supplies in the process, treating the legendary warriors as his personal, highly paid tutors.
On the first day of this three day grind, right after his punishing morning training, he dragged his bruised body back up the steps to Dragonsreach and went to meet with Farengar Secret Fire at his cluttered office in the palace to utilize the arcane enchanter.
He had brought the Helmet of Magicka, the Cuirass of Minor Health, the Steel Sword of Embers, and the Dwarven Bow of Paralysis out of his system inventory of course using a sack he found in the tavern.
Laid them out on the runic table while Farengar watched with wide, scholarly eyes, and Aerion proceeded to carefully disenchant every single one of them.
The process of unraveling the magical weaves of the items was mesmerizing, pulling the arcane threads apart until the physical items crumbled into fine, glowing dust, which of course destroyed these valuable items in the process.
But in exchange the knowledge flooded Aerion's mind with the fundamental knowledge of how to bind magicka, health, fire, and paralysis into physical objects, causing his Enchanting skill to rapidly level up 10 times in a row.
On the second and third day, instead of dealing with magic after his morning combat training, he went down to the Warmaiden's forge to help Adrianne Avenicci in making the massive commissioned orders of swords and shields from the Battle Born clan for the Imperial Legion.
The heat of the forge was a different kind of exhaustion compared to the training yard, but he stood over the anvil, his golden skin slick with sweat, striking hot corundum and iron rhythmically.
Adrianne guided his form and corrected his tempering techniques, where he was paid a modest 150 Septims for the help he gave out each day, accumulating a total of 300 septims for his hard labor.
Through the repetitive, focused act of shaping hot metal for the legionnaires, his Smithing skill grew leaps and bounds, leveling up 9 times across those two afternoons as he learned how to fold the steel and sharpen the edges to military standard.
In these three days of relentless, punishing routine, Aerion's combat skills had also leveled up numerous times during the morning sessions with the Companions, where his Fast Skill Leveling ability turned the courtyard into a crucible of hyper accelerated growth.
Over those three days, the spikes of his learning curve multiplied drastically, his One Handed skill surged forward by 24 levels as he mastered the crushing arcs of his mace, his Two Handed skill jumped by 21 levels as Vilkas pushed him to his absolute physical limits.
His Archery skill terrifyingly increased by 27 levels making him a deadly marksman even among the elves, his Light Armor skill climbed by 18 levels as his body hardened to the impacts, and his Block skill skyrocketed by an astonishing 30 levels as he learned to perfectly angle his iron shield against Farkas's monstrous swings.
Because of this unprecedented, system assisted explosion of martial and crafting prowess, he leveled up a staggering 19 times over those three days, reaching level 54, and received 19 attribute points from the system.
In total now there were 24 unspent attribute points sitting in his system, a massive reservoir of potential energy waiting to be unleashed whenever he decided to allocate them into his health, stamina, or magicka pools.
Now, on the afternoon of the fourth day, Aerion was finally resting inside his room in the Bannered Mare, lying flat on his back on the somewhat lumpy straw mattress.
After all this three days of constant fighting, hammering, and arcane unraveling was a very tiring set of activities he had been doing, leaving his muscles aching in a deep, satisfying way that proved his mortal vessel was getting significantly stronger.
Lupin was lying around near him, the cinnamon colored fox sprawled out on the small rug by the bed, occasionally twitching his ears as he dreamed of sweet rolls and chasing the market chickens, enjoying the peace and quiet of the dimly lit room.
The silence was suddenly broken when there was a heavy, rhythmic knock on the wooden door of his room, causing Lupin to lift his head and let out a low, curious boof sound.
Aerion stood up from his bed, stretching his sore shoulders with a wince before then he walked over and opened the door.
Standing in the hallway, taking up almost the entire doorframe with his massive, armored bulk, was Sinmir. The veteran Nord warrior let out a wide, genuinely excited grin that practically split his heavily bearded face, looking like a man who had shed ten years of bitter depression and found a new lease on life.
"Boss," Sinmir said, keeping his booming voice respectfully low so as not to carry down the stairs to the tavern patrons below, "I wanted to report that I have done the recruitment exactly as you asked. I have also managed to find a place that could become our permanent base of operations. It has pretty good rent as well and a large enough enclosed space for the men to train without the city guards snooping around too much on our business."
Aerion, hearing that fantastic piece of news, let out a pleased smile and nodded his head approvingly, feeling the deep satisfaction of his investments finally beginning to bear tangible fruit. He crossed his arms and asked where exactly is this place he rented and how many men he managed to pull from the gutters.
Sinmir chuckled, adjusting the heavy sword belt on his waist, and responded by saying, "Why don't I just show it to you, boss? You need to see the perimeter for yourself to approve the defensive perimeter, and I could also introduce the people I recruited to you as well, let them see the man whose coin is putting fresh meat in their bellies and good steel in their hands."
Hearing that entirely reasonable suggestion, Aerion agreed without hesitation and told Sinmir to lead the way, grabbing his outer robes and throwing them over his shoulders, and he turned to look at Lupin, calling the fox with a soft click of his tongue to follow them.
The fox immediately hopped up from the rug, trotting obediently to his master's side, to which then the three of them went down the wooden stairs of the Bannered Mare together.
They weave through the afternoon crowd of the tavern and leaving the warm, noisy building behind, heading out into the cool air of the Wind District and making their way purposefully toward the main gates of Whiterun to inspect the birth of his new private force.
As they walked down the stone paved streets, passing by the various market stalls where the vendors were hawking their wares, Aerion couldn't help but run the numbers in his head, pulling up his mental interface to verify the sheer absurdity of his current power scaling.
He had spent thousands of gold pieces, broken numerous arrows, and taken a hundred bruises, but he was no longer just a fragile mage who relied entirely on distance and destruction spells.
He was becoming a true juggernaut, a battlemage who could stand toe to toe with the hardened warriors in the hold and walk away without a scratch.
The guards near the main gate nodded respectfully to Sinmir, who was walking with a newfound posture of authority, his chest puffed out and his eyes scanning the perimeter with professional scrutiny, a stark contrast to the slumping, angry drunk they had ignored for months.
They passed through the heavy iron portcullis, stepping out onto the cobblestone bridge that spanned the rushing waters of the moat, and began to make their way down the winding dirt path that led away from the city walls and toward the sprawling plains of the Whiterun tundra.
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[Main Panel] Name: Aerion Race: High Elf (Altmer) Health: 200/200 Stamina: 200/200 Magicka: 330/330 Level: 30 ➝ 54
Skills: Animal Affinity (MAX LEVEL), Fast Skill Levelling (MAX LEVEL), Fast Magic Mastery (MAX LEVEL), Destruction (Fire/Lightning) (Level 29/30), Persuasion (Level 54), Smithing (Level 22), Sneak (Level 16), One Handed (Level 59), Restoration (Healing) (Level 7), Two Handed (Level 59), Lockpicking (Level 9), Archery (Level 69), Alteration (Level 4), Enchanting (Level 19), Light Armor (Level 40), & Block (Level 56)
[Inventory Panel]
1x Steel Dagger, Long Bow, Potions of Minor Stamina, Small Sack, Poacher's Axe, Copper and Onyx Circlet, Mammoth Tusk, Iron Shield, Steel Mace, & Steel Warhammer
2x Gold Garnet Rings, Gold Ring, & Scroll Of Fireball
3x Silver Garnet Rings, Silver Rings, & Sapphire,
4x Lockpicks, Potions of Minor Magicka, & Amethyst
6x Potions Of Minor Healing & Ruby
8x Iron Arrows
Weight: 92 KG / 400 KG
Septims = 60,651