“Lios, what ‘ave ye fought before?” Adrien asked as we resumed our arduous walk towards Kinnesvile. We had enjoyed the remnants of the boar for breakfast, alongside some elvish tea that Liana made. I could tell the tea was caffeinated and it tasted better than any tea I’d had, even back on earth. I was somewhat shocked that between the five of us we were able to consume a full sized adult board in two meals, even with the foxes taking the occasional nibbles, it was a lot of food for this small group. I chalked it up to needing extra sustenance at higher levels.
“Oh uhm... Well those goblins and before I had the system a wolf. Otherwise it's just been hunting trips with pa, and sparring on occasion.” I felt a bit shy about it, when I had asked to join I felt I had talked up my abilities and was afraid to disappoint them.
“Gotcha. Hmm. Liana, can ya sense anythin’ out there?” I turned to the elf as she nodded and began chanting. After she finished she shook her head.
“Nothing of interest Adrien.” She shrugged, before lighting up a little. “Aside from a small caravan far far down the road. About two miles.”
“So at the edge of yer spell? Good ta know.” Adrien glanced back at me. “When we sense something it’ll be on you to take it out. Get your new class ‘n all dat.”
“Sure, that’s not a problem. I had planned on trying to find something anyway.” Out of the corner of my eye Luka flitted through the brush, this time with a small field mouse in his mouth.
He pranced proudly and walked in front of his sister, yipping in challenge. She immediately glared at him before rushing through the woods herself to find her own snack for the road.
“They are smart. Much smarter than the average fox. I think they are waiting for you to level.” Amelia intoned from behind me, I glanced over my shoulder and had to activate [Meditation] to stop myself from ogling her. There is just something about her... I thought as the skill leveled up. It was a tough one to level up, to some extent I could brute force it by meditating all the time but growth occurred more frequently when I discovered something or pushed to use a skill in an unusual way. I frowned slightly asI faced forward.
“Amelia, why don’t you tell Lios, surely you're not still playing with him are you?” Liana called out, a playful light in her eyes.
“Ugh But that's no fun. How bout this, same deal he gave you. Lios, I'll let you guess once a day.” Amelias laugh tittered closer and she hugged my arm, stepping up to my side. She wasn’t much shorter than me but she still looked up at me in a way that made my heart flutter. I noticed her lips twitch at that, and at my persistence in not staring at her.
“Guess at what?” I muttered, knowing she could hear me.
“That, young man, is for you to discover.” She teased me, though I had expected it.
I kept my skill active, feeling it strain a bit while so close to her. I turned my thoughts inward, but couldn’t quite put all the pieces together so I let out a joking guess. “You secretly fell in love with me because of the foxes and Liana is acting as your wingman?”
Adrien and Elric both barked out a laugh, and Liana couldnt stifle the giggle at her lips.
“Really, you would waste your daily guess in such a manner?” Amelia acted as though she were offended, glowering at me and releasing my arm. She put her hands on her hips and harrumphed.
“I didn’t hear a denial!” I found myself chuckling, putting her on the backfoot for once was hilarious to me.
“Whatever. That wasn’t the answer, better luck on the morrow.” She half pouted but I could see a smile underneath it.
“Eh, perhaps tomorrow you’ll be brave enough to confess the truth.” I shot back, and watched her eyes roll back in derision. I snickered, wishing she was embarrassed enough to blush like she had made me so many times.
“Speaking of guesses, Lios, I have one of my own.” Liana interrupted before Amelia could. “Does your magic come from the way you swing your weapons?”
“Not quite, Miss Liana. You’ll have to try harder than that.”
After that, we all walked in a peaceful quiet for a bit, occasionally Liana would chant her spell or someone would make a comment but it was all fairly idle. I quickly resumed my practice by jogging about a half mile in front of everyone and following it with practicing a dance for a few minutes or doing a calisthenics workout to keep in shape. By the time the sun reached its peak I was starving and asked the foxes, wondering if they’d understand me, to fetch me something yummy to eat. The two darted off and fled into the woods, the rustling of leaves the only evidence they had been there.
It wasn’t long before both rushed me, with squirrels dangling from their mouths. They proudly dropped their treats, and sat, looking up at me excitedly.
“Wow, amazing! That was so fast!” I patted them both on the head before reaching for and beginning to skin them. As I did, Adrien called for us to break for lunch as he and the rest pulled jerky and bread from their bags. I started a small fire and roasted the two squirrels over it, cooking them quickly. They came out a touch burned but with the seasonings I added they tasted just fine. I fed the foxes a bit too, both wagging their tails excitedly as I did.
We left our impromptu camp after a short while and continued on our trek. It was nearing evening, the sun hiding behind the clouds didn’t let me gauge an exact time, when I smelled smoke. I furrowed my brow, noticing Luka and Sky rush back towards us down the road, having run off ahead for a bit in the woods. Luka frantically tugged at my leg and Sky did the same for Amelia.
“Guys, I think there’s-”
“Fire ahead. Smell of blood too.” Amelia sniffed the air as Sky pranced around her. Without warning the group surged forward, not waiting for me, dropping their packs near the side of the road for better maneuverability..
“Lios, catch up when you can, we’re gonna go see what's up.” Elric waved at me.
Not acknowledging him I raced off behind them after dropping my pack in the pile as well. These were much higher leveled adventurers and while there was no chance of me keeping up, but I didn't want to keep them waiting. Luka and Sky trailed at my heels, chattering a bit. Luka looked a touch jittery but Sky was fine. As we got closer I heard the sound of metal on metal, and started to feel the heat of fire. I halted to catch my breath when the conflict was in sight. Elric, Adrien, Amelia, and Liana were each off fighting a different person, and a total of twelve more were in the process of attacking the merchants guards around the three carts we could see. One was tipped over, and all had loosed their beasts of burden so they were stationary.
I gulped, this was my first battle with other humans. I turned to the foxes but before I could tell them to stay back Sky burst forward and leapt towards the kerfuffle. I cursed inwardly as Luka followed, knowing they wouldn’t hear much over the sound of clanging swords and screams. I darted after them towards a burly man holding a mace. The man turned towards me, offering a toothless grin and raised his mace as I drew my sword shifting it into a scimitar. Despite my training in combat, I froze. I was raising a sword against another human. I gasped as I came out of my head for a second just before the mace swung down at me. Unlike me, this man had no qualms for killing me. I grunted as my sword lifted, almost on its own, to block the strike and I shifted out of the way. I took two steps back, he followed.
“Tha’ rioight kiddo, run ‘way ‘fore I gatcha!” Toothless growled gleefully. His mace swung at me again, horizontally. I had to duck under it and was met by his boot to my cheek. Tumbling back I whimpered slightly. It wasn’t the first time I had been hit, of course, but it still was a shock.
I shot to my feet, not bothering to reply. I noticedLuka under him, nipping at and tugging at the man’s boots. He kicked my fox and I growled. Red cascaded around me and I lunged forward, ducking under his singing mace and sliding across the gravely earth road. My sword met his gut, slicing into the beer belly and flinging viscera after it. I grimaced as he winced but steeled myself again. He wouldn’t stop just because I had my inhibitions. A distance away I heard someone shriek out but brushed it from my mind. Nearby I noticed the body of one of the uniformed guards with his chest caved in, no doubt killed by this man.
A deep breath, to steel myself. I swung myself around, expending a small amount of mana to shift my sword. Each shift took around three percent of my mana. The sword changed from its wide, front heavy scimitar shape to that of a thin needle. A rapier that gleamed green and bluish gray and silver in the weakening sunlight. I let out a savage roar, and plunged the blade into the large man's back. I pierced his heart from behind. I glanced about for Luka and noted him limping behind the felled carriage. He was out of danger for now, and now I needed to end this combat. I needed to disable as many as I could before they got the upper hand. I could tell that the bandits were stronger, on average, than the mercantile guards.
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Panting I turned and saw Sky harrying around the feet of a swordsman who was fighting near a carriage. The guard he fought against was struggling, blood caked the side of his head and he was missing a hand. Not waiting to give the renegade a chance to kill, I leapt in as I started finally forming a dance, it was a lightning wave spell that would hopefully paralyze a significant number of enemies if I could position correctly.
I stabbed the bandit from the back as I finished the rune dance, then backed up until I was centered on the conflict with as few allies as I could fit in the range of my spell. I noticed he turned, panting but it was too late, the man behind him thrusted his shortsword into the man's gut. I winced internally, remembering the previous night, as I activated the runes. A burst of electricity sprang out from around me, striking anyone that was in range. Only two of the guards were hit, the conflict was relatively widespread, but I heard the yelp of more than a few individuals as they were electrocuted. I rushed towards the two allies first, quickly killing their foes. I breathed heavy, not from exertion but adrenaline and nerves. I had just killed people. Three people. Sure, they were bandits but... Ugh I need to focus.
I stepped to the side and waited for the short, weak paralysis to wear off in the next six seconds. Noticing that only Adrien and Elric were still in combat, with Liana and Amelia rushing to help. It seemed my spell had given the guards enough extra time to take out the remaining bandits, by allowing them to gang up on the ones that weren't hit by it. I took a moment to make sure I hadn’t been injured and looked for my foxes. I ignored the notifications on the outskirts of my vision, even with them turned off there was an indicator that they were there. Both Luka and Sky were fine, I discovered as the last of the fighting was wrapped up. I was convinced the only reason I was able to kill the first two was because the first underestimated me, and the second was facing the other way.
As Luka and Sky waddled up to me, Luka limping a little and blood splashed across Skys fur, I saw that I had hit six with my thunder wave, one who seemed to have resisted but the sudden attack staggered him and he was chopped down by his foe who was only a foot out of range. The two guards I had hit snapped to their feet the moment the spell wore off and my shoulders sagged with relief. My eyes fell on the three I had killed.
Blood rushed to my ears. I couldn’t hear anything but the waterfall cascading around me. My eyes flicked from one to the next to the next and I sank to my knees. My hand mindlessly pet Luka after he waddled up to me, but still I could not tear my eyes from the bodies. Only one of them was facing straight up, so I could only see the one face, gods be blessed.. Something warm and wet traced down my dirty cheek. Warbled voices rang out around me, but I didn’t pay them any mind.
And then, a hand clapped on my shoulder. A stern face stooped before me, Elric. His hand left my shoulder as he knelt in front of me and unexpectedly pulled me into a hug. “Lios, they were gonna kill everyone here. There’s no need to waste your tears on them.” His voice was soft in my ears. His words broke me from my stupor, and I swallowed down my tears for a moment. I hugged back for a second. He wasn’t one I expected to offer comfort, to be so kind. If anyone I had expected Liana to comfort me before any of the others. “You saved lives today, even if you took others.
“Thank you, Elric. But even so I cry for myself not for them.” I tried to convince myself before turning my bleary eyes to my companions. Sky was at my side and Luka in my lap.
He pulled away and gave me a tight smile. He nodded towards the bodies. “You’re welcome to a share of the loot. I’d like to say it gets easier but, for the kind, it never will.” He walked back towards the others who were gathered before the remaining guards. A rotund man in opulent garb spoke to them, probably the merchant in charge of this caravan. I noticed a man coming down the road with two delogia, the boar-like creatures that people used to pull carts, in tow.
I spent a few moments checking over the foxes and, aside from Luka having been stepped on and bruising his leg, they were both fine. After I approached the body of the first bandit I had killed, the one with the mace. I started riffling around the folds of his clothes and found a pouch with a few coins rather quickly. There was a ring on his finger and an anklet on his left foot that I took as well, but otherwise his pockets were empty of anything worthwhile. It made sense, why go on a raid with your favorite possessions?
I dumped the coins in my own pouch as I approached the main group, sliding in between Amelia and Elric who patted me on the back. Luka and Sky were curled up where I had my mini panic attack, before Elric had broken me from it. They needed some rest, especially after dodging and tripping folks up.
I caught the tail end of the conversation, Adrien’s voice ringing out. “- we c’n join ye’s till Kinnesville, but it will be a bit ‘fore we head to Ironfell. We tend to spend a number of days in each town.”
The rotund man glowered a touch before righting his expression into something more amicable. “Surely, esteemed adventurers like you would be well compensated for escorting us...”
“With all due respect sire, tis not ‘bout the money. But we’d be glad to join ya till Kinnesville. First though we should find some’ere ta make camp, aye?” Adirens amicable smile never left his face despite the merchant attempting to bribe him.
I left them to their negotiations, I wasn't in the mood to deal with a pompous man of wealth. Amelia stepped away with me watching me carefully. I knelt by the second body, the one who fought a guard who had lost his arm. I had stabbed him through the back. I took a deep, laborious breath to steel myself as I started to pick through his belongings. I unhooked the sheath from his hip and slipped it onto my belt. It took a moment to remove the sword itself from his hand. It was a basic steel blade but I could still find uses for it.
“You okay kid?” Amelia asked as I took a second heavy breath.
“I don’t know. Never... never killed anyone before.” I nodded at the corpse. My wandering hands quickly found a second meager coin pouch, Inside this one however was a gem the size of the one on my necklace. It wasn’t a lumina stone but I was certain it was valuable. The blue stone gleamed as I pulled it out and quickly placed it in my own pouch.
“I know... I’m here if you need someone to talk to.” She frowned a little, as though wanting to say something else.
“Thank you. I’ll likely take you up on that. Really, thanks Miss Amelia.” I moved to the last corpse, the one who had been struck by my thunder wave and who I killed just after. I picked through his pockets but found no coin, only a small knife which I tucked into my belt.
“Were you hurt at all?”
“No, not even a little. Was that supposed to be so easy?” I tilted my head towards her then looked up the road, in the direction we came. “Should we go gather everyone's packs?”
“Yeah, we can do that.” She rubbed my arm reassuringly, not knowing how to answer my other question. “So, did ya level up at least?”
Not answering, I checked the notifications that were waiting for me. I was inundated with pinging and blue light but kept walking. I wasn’t sure how far we had run and was hoping no other travelers had seen our pile of stuff. I waved through the kill notifications first.
You have slain a Human Warrior LVL: 51
You have slain a Human Fighter LVL: 48
You have slain a Human Thief LVL: 53
You have aided in the slaying of 5 humans between the levels of 46 and 54, extra experience distributed.
Internally, I sighed in relief. I half expected the system to tell me their names, and wasn’t sure what I’d do if they had. I decided to keep my level ups for last and instead turned my attention to the two achievements I had gained. I sighed in anticipation for whatever lunacy it would offer this time.
[Savior]
You saved five or more people from their impending death. Not too difficult, so don't whine about your meager rewards. I mean all you did was stab a bloke, and fart thunder on everyone, why should you get a reward? Unfortunately, I am mandated to give one so you’ll get the minimum prize for being a decent-ish human. Say thank you, bitchfuck.
Gain a small amount of extra experience whenever you save someone from certain death.
I sighed in exasperation as I read it. Amelia cocked an eyebrow, aware that the reason I wasn’t talking was because I was reading the ethereal notifications. I waved a hand and showed her the notification, making it visible for her with a thought. As she started reading it I checked the next.
[Murderer]
You did it, finally went off the deep end. I bet you were expecting something like [Backstabber] but no. You killed a defenseless man, who couldn’t even move to fight back. Could have captured the ugly dude but instead, you killed him. Good job, killer. Do it again, make Papi proud and commit more crimes.
+1 to STR
I showed Amelia that one too, as she came off of a giggle fit from the last. After reading it she looked at me with brows furrowed. “It wasn’t murder. They are bad people who want to hurt others. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
I shrugged. We were getting closer to our items and I saw that they were still there. Though, a wolf was sniffing near Adriens pack, but as we approached it fled off. Animals had a decent intuition and could smell danger, my guess is that it was lower leveled than us.
“By the way, does the system always talk to you like that? I’ve never seen anything like it.” She asked after a few moments of my brooding. That made me smile a little at her.
“My parents said it's different for everyone. But yeah, it's always like that. By the way, how hard is it usually to get an achievement?” I shouldered my bag and hefted Elrics and Adriens as well as she got hers and Lianas.
“It’s not too hard to get a bunch of them, but the only ones that are worth it are hard as hell to get. So don’t worry. But I really haven't seen anything like this from the system. Normally it isn’t so aggressive and rude.” We started back, and I thought it over, thinking of all of my messages from the system. “What about levels? Did you get any?”
“Oh, I forgot to check. I’ll look when we get to camp. I may need everyone's advice before I choose my second class, though I have a pretty clear path forward.”
“But... Why is that stopping you from checking now?” Amelia seemed genuinely confused, her face was scrunched adorably.
“Hmm I guess I just don’t see a reason to do it now. It doesn’t do me much good yet, especially because skill evolutions are only available when you acknowledge the notification but otherwise won't expire. I don’t want to choose yet in case I get the companion pact upgrade.” We closed back in on the others quickly, the conversation dying at that.
The caravans were already picked up and the bodies of the dead guards were stowed in one of them. Everyone else, our friends included, had started to make their way down the road to break for camp, leaving the bandits corpses on the side of the road. Once we caught up we gave everyone their bags back and I found both Elric and Liana holding a sleepy fox.