Chapter 2: Getting a Handle on Things

I watched as my hands and feet were strapped to a white, long operating bed. The nurse strapping me in stared at me with sympathy through her glasses. I grunted quietly at the tightness, trying to pretend that it didn’t hurt a little. She noticed my discomfort and gave me a small smile and a few nods before releasing each strap just a tiny bit.

The room was uncomfortably small, having just enough space to hold hospital equipment and a few doctors. On the left wall there was a door and a long, thin reflective glass that I could tell was a one-way mirror.

The door opened as a man in a black suit entered. Before the door closed, I got a glimpse into the other room and saw that it was filled with people in suits and lab coats, some with clipboards in their hands. The man walked until he was directly in front of me, pushing a few of the doctors out of the way.

He stared at me, a blank expression on his face, “as we discussed before, the procedure will be completely harmless. Your objective is to let us know what you experience and make sure to get back to us safely,” he finished with a smile.

I weakly smiled back, the final portion of the sentence confusing me, ‘what did he mean by get back?’

The man left quickly and a mask was placed across my mouth. “Countdown from 10 for me,” one of the doctors said. I knew that it would be a matter of seconds before I would be knocked out by the gas; I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, ‘for Rollen,’ I thought to myself.

“10.”

“9.”

“8.”

Whatever I had to go through, whatever pain I endured, it would be alright as long as my brother was safe and sound, as long as he was taken care of. All I had to do was get back.

“3.”

“2.”

‘But get back from what?’

“1.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I awoke with a start, my body jolting me upright on the bed. I was panting, beads of sweat dripping down my body. That was too real. Memories slowly came back to me, fragmented: a hospital, an operation, a way to make sure that my brother was healed. That had to be how I got here, whoever those people in that room were, they had forced me here, they had tricked me here. Without any useful information, I was given one goal- survive the world of Zepra.

I sighed, dropping back into my cold sweat. I directed my eyes towards the top right of my vision and saw that it was 8:00. At the top left was my character icon, a blank-faced teenage boy with dark black hair and black eyes. Underneath was my Health and Mana bar, both of which were full again. No matter how much I wished this was all a dream, it wasn’t. I couldn’t let my health go that low again, I had to be careful, smart, and observant.

There was a soft ray of light shining on my face from the window next to my bed. I was in a small wooden room sparsely decorated with a drawer, a mirror, and a desk with a chair. In the chair sat a girl staring at me intently. I was shirtless, my torso wrapped in bandages. I lifted the blanket, breathing a sigh of relief at the fact I still had pants on. I searched for my calf, briefly panicking at the thought my leg had to be amputated due to the wolf’s damage. It was there, wrapped in layers of bandages like the rest of me.

“Don’t worry, you’ll make a full recovery.”

I stared at the girl, a small curl to the edge of her lips. I blushed slightly, realizing her eyes had been following my gaze as I checked and groped various parts of my body.

“My name is Flori,” she started, getting up from the chair and reaching her hand out to me, “you can thank me for wrapping you up.” I accepted her handshake cautiously, “Isobel.”

“Where am I?” I watched as she grabbed the chair and plopped it down closer to me, turning it around before sitting, using the back as an armrest.

“You’re in the beautiful trading town of Senia, more specifically in the Senia Inn.”

I placed my hand on my chin, listening intently to Flori, “how did I get here?”

“I was about to ask you the same exact thing,” she said, her eyes narrowing as she spoke, “we found you in Venport Forest, running from a pack of wolves, blood pouring out of your leg. You’re lucky that we were nearby, that forest is packed with monsters. I don’t understand why anyone would go in there alone,” she said while shaking her head.

“How did I survive? My leg... it was bitten, bad”

“You survived because of pure luck. If we hadn’t had those bandages, we wouldn’t have been able to stop the bleeding or heal your leg; you would have bled out right there on the forest floor.” I felt chills run through my body as she said that.

The way that she scowled as she mentioned the bandages, it was clear she was frustrated about having to use them on me.

“Thank you Flori. I appreciate you saving my life and I’m sorry if I caused you any trouble,” I said in a soft voice.

Her expression softened as I offered my gratitude and apology, “it’s alright, we’ll play it safe until we can get a good medkit again, we’ll find a way to make the coins back.”

I hung my head low as she spoke, staring at my hands on the blanket. They had used valuable medicine on me without even knowing me, without them, I would be dead. I couldn’t stop thinking about the way she was describing the encounter… It seemed dangerous but normal, as though attacks like that were common in this world. Monsters were present and even expected based on where you were.

I thought back to when I had first arrived in Zepra, when I had chosen all the aspects of my adventurer. Aren’t monsters supposed to listen to me? What the fuck did I choose being a beastmaster for if something as simple at a wolf would attack me.

I noticed that I had been sitting in silence for a while, my eyes glazed over in thought. Flori seemed to understand that almost dying was a tough experience. “So, why were you in the forest,” she said.

“I’m… I’m not sure, I sort of just woke up there. I was surrounded by wolves and tried running away as fast as possible.” Her eyes scanned me suspiciously as I spoke.

I looked up and noticed a bow and quiver of arrows resting against the desk behind Flori, eager to change the subject I asked, “you’re a hunter?”

Flori followed my gaze and stared at the desk, turning back she said, “you’re damn right, the best damn hunter you’ve ever met! That wolf that was about to eat your face off last night died courtesy of these here fingers,” she held three fingers up, a big smile on her face.

I sat up a little in the bed, intrigued at how anyone could be so accurate with a bow, “you shot all of those arrows by yourself?!”

Flori’s fingers folded as her smile faded slightly, “well Naeva, the other hunter in the group, shot a few of the arrows too.”

“I see, I guess I owe her my gratitude as well. Is there anyone else I need to thank?”

“You’ll have to thank Artum too, our leader, for carrying your bloody body all the way out of the forest for us to patch you up,” Flori said, the glint returning to her eyes.

“Is Artum a hunter too?” I said as I leaned in closer, fully sitting up now.

Flori’s eyes opened wide before she burst out in laughter, rocking back and forth in the chair as she giggled. “Artum is much too clumsy to be a hunter, the best he can do is stand in front of things and swing his sword back and forth like the warrior he claims to be,” she wiped a tear away from her eye. “To be a hunter you have to be nimble, fast,” she pointed to her eyes, “and deadly accurate.”

I stared at Flori as she spoke, her long brown hair flowing down her shoulders and bouncing with her as she laughed. Her eyes were a beautiful, light brown that seemed to shine every time that the sunlight touched them. Flori wiped away the tears of laughter she still had on her small cheeks; her hands were tiny with thin fingers, perfect for the type of hunter she described. She was wearing a white shirt with three buttons, only one of which was being used. My eyes wandered to her brown leather pants before forcing myself to look at her face, annoyed at my lack of self control. I knew that she was deadly and could probably shoot a dozen or so arrows into me, but that didn’t stop me from acknowledging that she was pretty.

“What type of adventurer are you, Isobel?” She said, coming down from her moment of pure joy, “I saw you swinging around with your whip. Are you some kind of rogue or something?”

“What makes you think I’m a rogue?” The question came out more aggressively than I intended; I had read that a rogue was a basic adventurer with nothing special about them. The way she said it made it seem as though it was an insult.

“Well, rogue’s usually use unconventional weapons that only they can make work, I’m not sure how anyone else would pull off a whip in battle. The dexterity required to tie and choke your enemies as they shoot and swing at you… it must be intense.”

As she explained her assumption, it became clear that a beastmaster wasn’t a normal class, otherwise, she would have known immediately. I thought back to what I had read in the white room, there can only be one beastmaster in Zepra at a time. I had no clue how beastmasters were treated in society and I feared the worst. I would have to keep it to myself for now until I knew more about the world.

“Alright,” I said with a chuckle, “you got me, I’m a rogue.” I lifted my hands as though I was under arrest.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

She shook her head at my response, “of course, a typical rogue trying to keep things a secret.”

“Flori! Flori! Where are you, we’re having breakfast!”

Both of us looked towards the doorway, the soft voice of a girl calling Flori’s name from down the inn’s hallway.

“I should go, Naeva’s looking for me. I’ll bring you back breakfast.”

Flori stood up and placed the chair back next to the desk, slinging her bow and quiver onto her back before waving goodbye. I waved back as I watched her leave.

I laid there, my hand on my chin as I stared out the window. While Flori had provided some good information, I needed to understand more.

“Menu.”

A semi-transparent brown box appeared in front of me, the Character tab open, showing me my body and equipped items. I saw that there were 11 slots total for armor: head, neck, chest (shirt), chest (armor), chest (tabard), rings (left), rings (right), legs (underclothes), legs (armor), socks, feet. Only two of the slots were filled: Common Tunic and Common Trousers. Both had grey names and offered no changes to my statistics. I really got the worst clothes possible. Wait… I don’t even have shoes?

I closed the menu, pulled the blankets off of myself, and stared at my empty feet. I scanned the room, noticing my shirt and whip on the dresser. Not a single pair of shoes in sight. “You have to be kidding me.”

I reopened the menu, pissed at the fact that whoever put me in this stupid world couldn’t even be bothered to give me something to cover my feet. At the right side of my body, I could see my level and all of my stats broken down: Strength (10), Vitality (10), Defense (10), Dexterity (14), Intelligence (12), Wisdom (12), and Charisma (12). I was level one, with my stat amount in parenthesis next to each category. At the top, it said “5 attribute points available.” Each stat had a plus sign next to it, indicating that I could increase them.

I thought for a moment about how I should prioritize my attribute points. First and foremost, I had to be stronger, I simply wasn’t hitting hard enough when I was fighting those wolves. Sure, I had stunned one of them momentarily, but I needed to be able to kill monsters, not just daze them. I added two points into Strength, bringing it to 12. I stared at all of the bandages wrapped around my body and decided to add another two points in Vitality, bringing it to 12 as well. I read a description of the rest of the attributes and decided to put my final point into Intelligence, bringing it to 13. Intelligence would allow me to strategize better, identify weak points in monsters, and use my mana efficiently. I figured that a beastmaster would benefit from getting more information about monsters.

At the bottom of the page were my beastmaster class attributes. Each level I was allowed to put a point into my Beast Handling or Beast Training, both of which were at 0. The former would allow me to tame stronger monsters while the latter would allow my beast to be stronger under my command. After thinking about it for a moment, I decided that it was most important for me to actually be able to tame a monster before I worried about making them stronger. I put my class attribute point into Beast Handling.

I went to the next tab, Inventory. All that I had was 2 bronze coins, my shirt, pants, and “Isobel’s Whip,” written in gold. The Damage was awful, just one extra damage due to the whip. However, it had a Unique Ability that read, “Can be used to tame monsters. Grows as its wielder grows.”

I turned to the Skills tab and was greeted with hundreds, maybe even thousands of possible skills: Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Metalworking, Fishing, Cooking, Survival, and hundreds of others. After briefly reading through some of the skills, I added my 1 skill point from leveling up to Survival, allowing me to make campfires and the most basic shelter.

Turning to the Map tab, I was greeted with a greyed out map, showing Senia in the center and an arrow with my face above it. I zoomed in mentally, looking for other aspects of Senia. There was a marketplace, a town hall, a river, a small trading dock, some houses, and a building called Zepra Guild Association.

The Quest tab was separated into Main Quest and Side Quest, both of which were empty. The Party tab let me see who was in my party with more detail but I was the only one there. The Clan Management tab seemed to be related to the guild association and building a clan. Establishments was empty, the words “Inquire with a shop owner to purchase an Establishment,” in the middle of the screen. The Dungeon tab said, “Enter a Dungeon to use.”

There was a knock on the door, causing me to close the game menu and cover myself with the blanket again.

“Come in!”

The door opened and Flori entered, carrying a wooden bowl filled with food. My stomach grumbled as she placed it on the bedside table next to me. It looked absolutely delicious with an omelette at the center of the plate, a piece of toast and bacon on the side.

I grabbed the plate and began digging in with the fork Flori offered me, “I figured you’d be hungry,” she said with a slightly disgusted face as she watched the drool drip from my lips.

“Fank Yuh,” I responded, my mouth already filled with food. It was absolutely delicious and each bite seemed to warm every single inch of my body. With just a few bites I felt better than I ever have, completely filled with energy. Flori brought the chair next to the bed again before continuing our conversation from before.

“So, are you registered with the adventurers guild?” I shook my head as I ate.

“Well… you’ll have to change that if you have any intentions of becoming a serious adventurer. Despite the fact that the Terrifying Trio started just a few months ago, we’re already an E-Class clan!” She looked at me expectantly, a wide smile on her face.

I swallowed a mouthful of food, “is that… good?”

“Is that good!?!” Flori looked at me, her mouth open as if I had said unspeakable words to her, “it’s phenomenal, it can take up to a year for a clan to become E-Class. You have to prove yourself by doing plenty of unranked quest for the guild association and show that you’re real adventurers. The fact that we saved you helped us get a bump in rank much faster than expected.” Her face beamed with pride at their accomplishment.

I was shocked to hear that it could take so long for a clan to reach the very first rank in the guild association, however, only a few months of training didn’t seem too difficult, “I see. So you’re basically brand new adventurers?”

“Brand new?!?!” Once again Flori’s mouth dropped as she looked at me in shock, insulted by my words, “you think that just anyone gets accepted to the Zepra Guild Association? You have to work hard and train just to get considered for E-Class. An E-Class clan can take on serious quests that require them to kill monsters, they don’t hand that honor out to anyone!” She shouted at me, standing up from the chair and staring down at me, her arms crossed as she huffed in annoyance.

I gulped, not realizing that saying that would offend her so much. It seemed logical to me that such a low class wouldn’t require a lot of work to get into. “I’m sorry! I didn’t realize it was so hard to become an adventurer!”

She looked at me, her eyes scanning my face like she had when asking me about the forest. “Falling on your head must have seriously messed with your memory then,” she said as she sat back down, still wearing a small scowl. “If you want to be an adventurer, you have to at least know the basics,” she gave me a disapproving look as if she was disappointed in me.

I finished my meal before responding, “you’re right, I’ll do my best to learn everything quickly.” She nodded, approving my response as satisfactory enough.

There was another knock on the door, followed by a tall, muscular man walking in. He had luscious brown hair, brown eyes, and a dazzling smile that easily attracted your attention. He looked first at Flori and then at me, smiling when he saw me.

“You must be Isobel! Flori was telling us about you during breakfast, it’s nice to see that you’re alive!” His voice spread through the room easily as he walked over to me, patting me on the shoulder.

“I owe you a great deal of thanks for carrying me out of the forest, Artum,” I said with a sheepish smile that he instantly waved off.

“Don’t worry about it, the whole point of being an adventurer is to make the world a better place!” He smiled at me warmly before continuing, “speaking of which, I just accepted an E-Class mission to handle a few boars on the outskirts of town!” He pulled a rolled-up piece of parchment with a grey seal out of his pocket.

Flori jumped up from her chair, her hand over her mouth as she began to jump up and down, “yes! Finally, we get to be real adventurers!” The two of them hugged before Artum handed the parchment to Flori, which she opened eagerly. “Kill 10 Boars on the Outskirts of Senia.” She stared at the parchment in amazement, her eyes sparkling and her mouth open.

Artum tapped me on the shoulder, “I would love for you to come if you feel up for it.”

I thought about it for a second and decided that I had nothing to lose. My Health and Mana bars were completely full and I couldn’t learn anything more about the world stuck inside the inn. If I wanted to start testing my beastmaster skills I would have to get out and fight monsters.

I pushed off the blanket and stood up. I hopped around the room a few times, testing my legs and showing that I could run just fine. “I feel great thanks to you guys. I would love to help you out with your quest!”

“Alright great,” Artum said, “we’ll wait for you at the inn entrance.”

“Quest Started: Help the Terrifying Trio Kill 10 Boars.”

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