Marlin woke up starving as if he hadn’t eaten for a day. But other than that, he felt fine. He was in his room. His shield and gear had been propped up against a chair. His mother had already fixed the whole in his chainmail. He stroked it. Feeling some tender emotions.
Xp gain.
for relentlessly charging a higher level enemy
264 athletic’s XP resulting 26 personal xp.
For successfully frightening a higher level enemy
120 intimidation XP resulting in 12 personal XP
for weathering a barrage of arrows (20+) with your armor and shield
734 XP resulting in 367 personal XP.
For successfully knocking down a higher level enemy with a staggering axe throw.
178 axe xp. Resulting in 90 personal xp.
For delivering a Killing blow to higher level enemy with an improvised shield.
524 bulwark xp resulting in 262 personal XP.
The massive experience gain. More then he had gathered in his entire life told him as awesome as he felt about himself, he should have been dead.
It had been close, if it hadn’t been for the armor he himself had put together, if it hadn’t been for the shield, If he hadn’t successfully frightened him, If he hadn’t hit that man in the leg and make him stumble and, if it hadn’t been for his dad.
“Dead” he muttered with a big grin. He felt it, the battle, he had loved it. The exhilaration was still euphoric, just remembering, made him want to sing songs and drink blood wine.
Maybe it was his class, or the near death experience, or the simple clash of weapons. Whatever it was he wanted to do it again. Beat the odds like that.
He should have died, Marlin knows the outlaw was more experienced, that was obvious, 20 arrows? It had been 1 arrow per second or two while he had been running away, still striking with frightening accuracy. About 15 small scratches on the shield were proof enough.
20 fucking seconds is all it took for him to almost croak. He wasn’t afraid; shocked or traumatized. he felt he should be bothered by that but he couldn’t care. His mettle had been tested and he came out stronger.
Marlin knew most of his fights would be like this. His run in with bron and his 2 buddies.. He would have been dead for sure.
That Kotak fellow struck him as a far more cunning and experienced opponent as the now dead outlaw.
“Well… time to face the scolding i guess”. Marlin sighed, his mother must have had a heart attack when his dad had dragged him back. He could visualize, seeing her look at the shield with horror. it wasn’t a good thought so he shook it off.
He walked down and was really surprised, to not only see his parents sitting at the table but Milly too. The next thing he knew his mother hugged him.
It was the quiet that bothered him, she didn’t say anything. She let him go and there were no tears in her eyes.
”Are you ok Marlin”? Marlin looked at her, trying to figure out what was going on but for the first time he couldn’t read her face. “Yes I am, really hungry though”.
She nodded as she sat down, ow give him a hug you silly girl. Betty said to Milly who was awkwardly standing and gratefully did so.
”you do this with all the girls? Woo them? then scare them, with you nearly dead”? She whispered.
“I don’t make a habit of it”. Marlin hugged her back. She let him go after a while. So he could sit down and eat.
He devoured that plate but almost choked when a pop up screen informed him he had gained a new mistress.
He dismissed it fast, Milly mischievously patted him on the back, helping his coughing telling him he should take his time, his parents chuckled at his red face of embarrassment and Marlin was glad he could chalk it up this way. When Marlin was working on his second plate, Bradford finally asked.
“Do you want to talk about it”? Marlin nodded, “sure”.
And he told them of his encounter with Bron, Kotak and Itak. Milly got pissed off at bron. But Marlin assured her it was ok, joking about how he would probably be worse if he had a cute sister like her,
Which made her blush, Marlin’s parents nodding in agreement all mater of factly make her blush worse, couple of cute expletives about stupid men later Marlin continued.
“Seeing as i almost got killed myself yesterday Milly, i can totally see where he’s coming from”
”Then why did you run straight at death”?
She fumed. Ah there is the frustration, Marlin thought
“The day before yesterday”. Betty said. “You slept for the whole day yesterday”.
Marlin grateful enough he hadn’t entered a coma, continued. He spoke of the Battle with the outlaw. He didn’t really try and spice it up and simply told em what happened. He even told them what his thinking had been like, one part to try and assuage the ladies he wasn’t a reckless fool just a reckless person.
Milly still couldn’t believe he got shot in the head and survived. She was constantly touching the scar tissue on his forehead.
“Btw is it a cool scar”? “A cool scar!? You almost died and you are worried if it looks cool”!? Both the women upset.
Bradford handed him his small pocket mirror. And Marlin took a look and sighed
”Not as cool as i hoped, could have been worse. still as far as badges of honor go i can’t complain”.
”can’t complain he says”, Milly scoffed “the agony must have been completely debilitating with how your skull. Got. Chipped”. She made sure to stress each word.
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“yea it hurt a bunch”, Marlin chuckled “but it didn’t go through my skull. And yes you may all use that joke on me. I earned it after all”, he grinned which made them all collectively groan.
“Ugh, i just had to fall head over heels for a complete moron”! Milly didn’t seem to catch what she just said but Marlin and his parents did.
Marlin grinned wider, feeling his face split open. But decided to save her some face and changed the subject.
“So why where you on the lookout Dad”?
“Billy started flipping out”, Bradford responded. “He could actually feel the pain when you got shot in the head”, Milly and Betty gave him accusing looks, “yes Marlin poor Billy”, Betty said, “he was quite descriptive of how it felt, he was pawing at his own head for 5 minutes and that’s when Bradford rushed out”.
“im glad i made it on time”, Bradford sighs.
“So am I”, Marlin says grinning.
“So you certainly are ok”? Both his mom and Milly grabbed either of his hands and he grinned even wider. “Im certainly ok now~”
“ugh that’s what i get for showing concern”, Milly scoffed. Marlin pulled her in and gave her a kiss. “I do apologize for the scare i gave you”. He looked at her. “When did you come here”? She melted rather quickly.
“When your dad came to give the requests back”, she told him. “He told the guild you had been injured in an attack and would be sleeping of stamina exhaustion for a day or two. So i came along. I happened to be there as luck would have it”
Marlin reminded of his near brush with death was really curious about his massive xp gain and was dying to ask. But he figured it was probably not a good time to ask with mother dearest.
when did i get diplomacy? He checked his screen discreetly while smiling awkwardly, when Betty started regaling all the embarrassing things Marlin had done as a kid as punishment.
“Saved those specifically for now huh”? He grinned.
“Damn straight”, betty huffed, “I don’t get to tease my Son nearly as much as i would like to being so emotionally sensitive~”, Bradford grinned at that. Marlin couldn’t help but see a newfound respect for himself in his father’s eyes, he saw a little of it with Milly but none with his mom, which made him strangely happy.
It was Betty who had been the biggest influence on his emotional healing up until this point. Seeing that her love would remain steady no matter the circumstance, did him a lot of good.
Did he have a long way to go with his healing? Sure, even now he was pondering how easy it had been, for his traumatic memories to resurface back in town.
He nodded at his dad for him to follow him after Milly and Betty started talking girl stuff that was so utterly boring to him, he nearly fell asleep.
”Im going to check on Billy”, Marlin got up, “il help” Bradford offered. The two women barely registered, giggling about random stuff, it wasn’t about guys either but about some obscure ballad that he had no frame of reference for. Marlin assumed it was a dirty song disguised as a innocent love song, but he paid it no mind.
Outside Marlin couldn’t hold back.
“is it normal? To get this much experience for combat”?
“How much you get”?
“Over 700 personal”
Bradford whistled. “Do me a favor and definitely don’t tell the girls. They will tie you up and throw you in a dungeon”.
Marlin waited for him to continue.
”any … event or combat encounter you have. Is registered by the gods and they calculate how difficult, or how dangerous something is”.
“you will gain anywhere between 1 to 999 personal xp for any life or death situation, less if you go looking for it, you can’t get any higher then 999. at least not that i know of”.
Bradford continued.
“the higher the number the closer you were to dying. 999 means you had a 1 in a 1000 chance of surviving”.
“How do wars function then? Isn’t that like a constant influx of dangerous situations”? Marlin asked.
Bradford gave him a look questioning why Marlin immediately jumped to that.
“The return rates vs risk make war a Highly ineffective way to gain experience. The gods did that deliberately to ensure people wouldn’t fight constantly. Wars are rare, they are a giant waste of resources, and one of the worst ways to get experience. Especially when you consider the risks, yes battles will net you experience but your luck will eventually run out”.
He continued,
“and all those levels are useless in the short run because people still need time to master anything they gained out of it”.
Marlin nodded. Less then 30% survival against a man lvl 3. It made him smile. And said,
”Even if the odds were against me. That man. I don’t think he fought very well”.
Bradford sighs,
“Because in a one on one, martial trained opponent almost always wins, unless there is a big level difference and i already see you wonder why not everyone just becomes a Martial”? Marlin nodded.
“You enjoyed it didn’t you? Don’t lie”. Marlin nodded slowly. “It’s ok, i do too, not as much as warrior’s usually do, but i still do in a way. Not the killing but the challenge of facing death and live”.
Bradford looked at Marlin face dead serious.
“Your mother? What happened when she saw death? How do you think Milly will respond? How did that outlaw respond? How did he fight”? Bradford inquired.
“he ran as hard as he could”, Marlin answered.
“Exactly, Marlin … you and I aren’t exactly right in the head but…”
“Ah here come the don’t underestimate them”.
“You can’t underestimate them. If that man had an accomplice even if both had been your level. You would never have won”.
“Called it”, Marlin thought. Bradford continued.
“Specialists thrive on the advantage. You give them an opening and they will bring you so much pain you wouldn’t believe”.
He went on:
“That outlaw put himself in a very disadvantaged position because he underestimated you, he thought you were a young boy with no real combat experience on hand. I knew the man for years. He was a very dependable up and coming hunter”.
”First of all dad, that, that my very first kill, first real combat”
“But about that hunter, If was so dependable, why was he… “? He struggled, his old world had been far more lenient, especially in the the last decades when it came to promiscuous behavior but that had inevitably lead to insanely high numbers of it, the numbers he had seen from dating app data, hadn’t exactly painted a rosy picture for him. Ivonne betraying him had hurt BAD, but it was par for the course in his old world, its why he had resigned himself to his fate why he stopped trying, stopped living
He was old school, he believed loyalty should mean something but he was still coming to grips with how extremely opposed this world was in regarding infidelity or breaking your word. Plenty of people slept around here casually, his 2 days to town. had confirmed that. So where the fuck was the line?
Did Milly consider their relationship casual? He hopes she didn’t he was bad at the whole casual thing. He had a hard time grasping the intricacy of this culture driven almost purely by trust.
“Life has no value in this world without trust. And only if your word is reliable and dependable can trust be exchanged Marlin. It’s how this world can function”.
Bradford continued:
“We do not have the luxury to question someone’s trustworthiness if we are besieged by a horde of goblins and pray to the gods we don’t get one of those”.
Bradford left Marlin to ponder.
Marlin sighed and decided he had to face the Music and look what this whole Mistress thing was about.
Mistress gained!
You have taken a pivotal step in your ascension to tyranny!
“Motherfucker! lay it on thick will ya sadanis”!? Marlin felt a migraine coming on.
all the members of the fairer sex or those you prefer, belong to you! Using your darkness on your mistresses you claim for yourself, will slowly mold them to your preference. This will slowly without their knowledge 😉enslave them all to your will for your personal pleasure and indulgence.
Marling closed the screen full blown panic set in. “Fuck me! Ok good to know never EVER use my Dark gifts on. Ow hey there Milly”!
Milly had sneaked up on him and he had jumped. “What’s got you all scared”? She had gone straight into his personal space pressing herself into him. looking at him with those adorable sparkly eyes.
Marlin had no idea how to break this to someone. Like “hey i might have accidentally enslaved your mind by accident whoopsie”! Yea nope no way.
“Hey Milly you… do you feel weird being with me”?
“What do you mean Marlin”? She leaned in closer lips almost brushing his.
Marlin gasped, as her hand went somewhere inappropriate. “Oh I don’t know, it’s been pointed out to me repeatedly im not exactly normal, just wondering if that had any effect”.
she leaned in close to his ear and whispered. “Do you know a place we can be alone, without your parents walking in on us?”
Marlin put his perception on full blast and looked her in the eyes tensing to see if he could detect any change in her behavior
Was he about to lose all control? Absolutely but he had to know for sure. “So no change since yesterday or today?” He inquired.
Milly sighed, “except for the part where I discovered what an absolute moron you are? No not much…. Well”. She looked at him and put all her charms on full blast.
“You shouldn’t look at a girl so intensely Marlin”, she bit her lip. “it might give her the wrong idea”. Her arms were around his neck as she pulled him in. She broke the kiss and looked at him.
”Quiet place Marlin”, her tone didn’t leave much room for debate.
5 minutes later a very quiet place was not so quiet.