Vin

LVL 9 Human Warrior

[ Great Hero ] [ Eternally Bereaved ]

Age: 24

Location: Unknown

Occupation: Adventurer, Class A EXP: 23 / 100% to LVL 10

HP: 100% | MP: 100% Status Sealed

"Haiiiiya!" My two-handed swing went wide, missing entirely, but the beast glaring back at me had recognized my feint and did not take the bait. Damn. Backing away from each other just a bit, we squared off, facing one another, circling around and around in that forest clearing on silent feet.

Staring me dead in the eye was a large wolf-like creature of a species I never seen before, with bright red and black fur covering it's massive body in uneven, mangy streaks. It had a tail more like that of a wild boar; its fur was short up until the ragged tuft at the end, which was thick, wiry, and black. Whatever this thing is, it is not friendly and it's definitely above LVL 5. And it's not stupid, either. Typical.

I'd been on the road for less than a week but had already culled several monsters that were completely new to this world. They were getting stronger by the day, too; at first I'd only found LVL 2s and 3s, but this one had to be higher. Maybe even a LVL 6 or 7. Not that the ending will be any different, though, I thought. I was human at that moment, sure, but had trained as a warrior since the day I was big enough to hold a sword. I didn't need spells or magic when tempered steel would do.

Adjusting the grip on my longword, an artifact weapon named "North Star", I continued squaring off, biding time until opportunity presented itself. I'm alone here. No matter how strong I am, I can still lose if I get too cocky. I need to be careful not to make a mistake. There's no one here to heal me if this thing takes an arm or leg off. It wasn't like I'd actually die; I'd get transformed back into my goddess-form. But that would almost certainly mean I would not be able to find the Hero in time to save the world. I could not, under any circumstances, let that happen.

It was several more moments before the red wolf-thing... Rolf? Reolf? Nah, too obvious. ...became impatient enough to make the first move. Which was exactly what I'd been hoping for.

The damn thing lunged straight for me, its mouth a mass of snarls, fangs, and foaming spittle. It easily outweighed me by at least a hundred pounds or more, but that didn't bother me. I've killed bigger things with knitting needles. I spun sharply to the left, letting the thing's momentum carry its huge form right past me, his teeth and claws missing their mark, if not by much.

My whole body sang with the thrill of battle and muscle memory took over; my spin ended, placing me directly behind the creature, in range for a perfect coup d'état. It was a glorious opening and I took it, pushing off the ground with both feet I sprung forward, while bringing my sword down with both hands as hard and fast as I humanly could.

North Star came crashing down on its back like a meteor, slicing cleanly through its spine and crushing anything else in its wake. The red wolf was dead before its body collapsed in the grass in front of me, that one hit depleting its entire pool of HP at once.

Vin gains 138 XP and is now 33% of the way to reaching LVL 10.

I straightened, my chest heaving from exertion, and looked calmly down at the corpse. "Hmph. Decent XP." Its form lasted only a moment more before it shimmered out of existence like a mirage in the desert...one second it was there, and the next, it simply was not. Even the blood that had splattered on my face and hands dissipated.

In the spot the beast had died, roughly where its heart would had been, lay a red cut gem the size of my fist. I knelt and picked it up with my left hand; it was still warm and I could almost hear it beating. "Ah, so you had a core as well? Good, thank you for your donation." North Star was once again strapped to my back and the core had been added to the others in my pack, though this was the first and only red core I'd encountered, so far.

Once I get to the next border town, or at least the building site for it, maybe there will be someone from the Guild there who can analyze these. That data could prove incredibly important after all of this is said and done. When Xael is safe again. I refused to entertain a future in which this world was anything but back to normal, along with my powers.

The sound of metal on metal clinking as I stood back up alerted me to the fact that my necklace was visible. Automatically, my right hand grasped the two trinkets on their long silver chain, preventing them from making more noise. I opened my hand and stared silently at the the two precious things in my palm.

One was a golden signet ring, far too large for my fingers or even thumbs, since it had been made for a man. A specific man. Twin flames climbed the sides of the ring where they cradled a huge square stone, so red it was almost black. It had been Magister Xael's ring once. It was all I had of him now except for memories. It was beautiful, and useful. A high-level magical ring meant to store mana within its stone, which had been crafted from the core of some great fire-based creature. It would passively pull mana from nature around itself, keeping its massive stores full to the brim automatically.

The other item was mine; it was a locket about the size of a baby's fist, covered in roses also created from silver. It had belonged to my mother, once, even though I'd never gotten to meet her. She'd died while giving birth to me, the last of 3 daughters. My father gave it to me when I turned 16 as a rite of passage and proof of my coming of age. Inside was a lock of my mother's hair tied in a lavender ribbon. It was my focus, my center, my anchor. And for now, it was also drawing mana from the ring laying next to it, maintaining a series of buff spells I had placed on it before becoming human. I could increase and decrease the buff amount by modifying the amount of mana it pulled. That was the ace up my sleeve. A bottomless mana pool and stacking stat bonuses. I have to be careful though because this human body can't tolerate the same stress that I can as a goddess. I may be able to cast [ Stoneskin ] or [ Iron Bones ] on myself 80 times, but diminishing returns meant that is was really just a waste of mana after the first few. Eventually, a mortal body just can't take that level of punishment and no amount of buffs in the world will change that.

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The ring and the locket got tucked snugly back under my shirt, next to my heart, where they belonged. Xael's ring thumped against my breastbone heavily, and the feeling comforted me. I could have resized it with magic and worn it as a normal ring but I preferred it this way... Perhaps a part of me still hoped he would return for it. But the kind of death he suffered was not something easy to come back from. He'd likely been reincarnated on that world, which was a very long time ago. All this memories would have been wiped. If only...

But there was little point in wishing for a different past. Even as a goddess, that kind of miracle was out of reach.

I suppose it's time to figure out something for lunch. That's a problem I can solve, at least.

* * * * *

Opening day, at last.

Everything was set up and ready for what we hoped would be the first rush of new adventurers. We had pictures posted of various locations nearby where different types of creatures and plants could be found. We had a Help Guide book placed out on a pedestal for folks to look up information on their own. We had pictures and charts up showing the types of rewards were available. We had quests ready to go; a good two-hundred quests of all types had filled that cork board next to me just that morning, on little slips of paper that looked like receipts.

I stood behind the reception desk with my smart new uniform on. They even gave me a badge with my name and job to help adventurers remember me.

King, Zachary

Receptionist, Stillwater Adventurer's Guild

Teak was ready, too, and sat on a specially-created perch just for him. He still wore his customary scowl, though... I don't know if he'll ever fully warm up to me. He did have his heart set on a lady receptionist, but he got stuck with me, and I definitely not his type. Oh, well. His loss, not mine.

The clock on the wall next to me began to chime, and my gaze shot to the front entrance, which was set to open automatically at 7 AM every morning. And open it did, the wooden door swinging inward with no indication at all that it had been done by magic. And the first gaggle of adventurers indeed had been waiting; they entered now in groups of twos and threes, with only one or two lone wolves.

"Good morning!" I waved to the first in line, beckoning them over to the reception counter. There were two of them, a man and a woman, wearing matching leather armor. They appeared to be a young couple in their early 20s and were obviously trying not to hold hands as they approached the desk. "Did you both want to register as adventurers?"

"Yes, please," the young woman chirped in a high but pleasant voice. She giggled softly and cupped a hand over her mouth, "Sorry, sorry! I'm just over-excited."

Her partner beamed down at her and smiled, "Don't worry about it, love." The man looked up at me and continued, "And we'd like to accept a quest if there are any available."

"We've got plenty available; I'm sure you'll be able to find the perfect one." Reaching down under the desk, I slid two sheets of the sturdy parchment from earlier out and placed them both down on the desktop. "Teak, you're up."

Teak had been pretending to be asleep, so when he suddenly grumbled and "woke up," it understandably startled the couple. How else would someone react to an owl statue coming to life, and with the personality of flat soda to boot?

"Yeah, let's get it done with." The chubby little while ball of frustration begrudgingly left his perch and walked over to the two parchments. He lifted one of his stumpy arms toward the man first, as if expecting something was going to get handed to him. Of course, Teak was proving to be uncooperative.

"All you need to do is let Teak here shake your hand," I chimed in, doing this part of Teak's job for him.

"Really?" They both eyed the faerie creature with doubt, but the woman was more brave than her boyfriend. She reached out to give Teak her finger to shake, shoving her man to the side a little in the process, as her hand was far too large.

Teak gripped her finger and squawked, "Name?"

"Pardon?"

"Your name, lady. What is it?"

"Oh! Sorry. It's Vendree, Opal Vendree."

"Got it." Teak kept hold of her finger and reached out with a single bear cub-like paw and touched the piece of paper closest to the woman it was to be for. The parchment suddenly flashed and shimmered, its surface taking on that familiar glitchy look for a split second before a proper adventurer's character sheet faded into place. At the top was her name, Opal Vendree, and apparently she was a LVL 1 Human Archer with no titles. Teak let go of the woman and her parchment and went to help her partner.

Meanwhile, I glanced over the newly-minted character sheet in front of me. It seems like it's all correct but - would I know if it wasn't? It's got to be fine. My signature was required at the bottom along with the date of acceptance into the guild; that way, there was a paper trail should anything ever go wrong. The quill still felt foreign in my hand but I still managed a half-decent signature and jotted down the date next to it.

As soon as I lifted the quill pen's tip off the parchment, the ink I had left behind shone a bright purple-white, flaring like refracted sun rays. Then the purple-white light dimmed and disappeared, leaving set and dry ink in its wake. Ink that held a magical unique identifier that proved this parchment was legitimate.

I flipped the paper around with a finger and pushed it gently to its owner back across the desktop. "There you go! All registered." She didn't look convinced and almost seemed...unnerved? Huh. That's unexpected. Why would she...?

When it came time for Miss Vendree's partner to get registered, he also reacted similarly to the magic the blazed around my signature as it "set in" to the parchment. Am I doing it wrong? Can there even be a wrong way to sign your own name? Oh, well, I'll think about it later.

Back then, I didn't understand why she'd looked at me that way, but I get it now. See, purple magic, especially the color of purple lilacs, is associated with the world's patron Goddess, Yvinne, and no low-level back-water human should ever have had lilac-tinted magic.

Why didn't Laerell immediately send me off to Guild HQ to get poked and prodded, you ask? Fuck if I know.