Tatius and Pupius usually were the ones who interacted with the city guard when they needed to get into a city. That had been the rule ever since Ranthia had discovered the hard way that the guardsmen had no sense of humor (what, mockingly saying Tatius and Pupius were obviously her husbands when the guardsman had challenged her association with them was hilarious and definitely shouldn’t have gotten them detained).
Unfortunately, the men were dealing with their all-too-difficult client and Tatius’s leg hadn’t finished healing yet.
Thank every god and goddess that it would heal; Ranthia’s heart had felt like it had sunk into her stomach when the wolf bit into his leg. It was her fault that he lost that leg guard earlier in the journey, after all. Tatius had trusted her to lace the leg guards, and she had rushed it! If only she could go back and undo that bad decision…
They had been on the road for far too long and it had affected all of their temperaments more than a little. The merchant they were escorting was supposed to be a quick and easy job, just get him from town A to city B.
…Except the dense idiot gave them the wrong city name. Somehow this was their fault, of course. Ranthia recommended stabbing him and dumping the body in the woods, which earned her glares from her companions. When the second city turned out to also be incorrect, Ranthia was almost certain that Pupius was going to agree with her suggestion to just murder the idiot and be done with it.
Naturally, the man refused to allow them to stay in a city for longer than it took to resupply base essentials. The man complained nonstop about camping, yet when he finally had an opportunity to make use of an inn it was suddenly “a frivolous waste of his precious time.”
The third attempt seemed to be successful, at least from the noises the merchant had made on approach, but Ranthia was still in quite a foul mood. The merchant was already making noises about refusing to pay them the full rate over the “sheer waste of his valuable time.”
She really should have killed the asshole.
“What’s the purpose of your business in Aquiliea?” The guardsman asked.
“Adventurers. Escorting a merchant into the city.” Ranthia responded tersely.
“Are you all registered with the Guild?”
“Yes.” It was… close enough to the truth. Her status with the Adventurer’s Guild as a non-member part of her party was kind of murky, but that was between them and the local Guildmaster. Sooner or later, she hoped to find someone that wouldn’t mind granting full member status to someone as young and female as she was.
“Classes?”
“The client is a [Merchant], my two associates with him are [Warriors], and I’m a [Mage].” Ranthia answered frostily.
As if the guardsman didn’t have [Identify] and could see the answers for himself.
“You’ll need to expunge your mana before I can grant you entry.” The guardsman informed her in a dry tone.
It was one of the stupider rules Remus had. Most towns had waved her through since she was a child or just had her cast a single spell and assumed a child’s mana was exhausted with that. This was the first time she was faced with the full letter of the rule.
Probably because she was level 81 now. Her second class had been unlocked, which once again gave her [Child of Pallos – Water], and she had upgraded it to the somewhat underwhelming [Apprentice Mage – Metal] some time ago. [Apprentice Mage] was ready to class up and between the obnoxious client and her pending class up, Ranthia wanted nothing more than to just be done with everything and safely ensconced in the inn.
“This is such an idiotic rule. I’m a Light [Mage], my magic can’t do any real damage.” Ranthia tried bitterly.
“Expunge your mana if you want to enter the city.” The guard repeated dryly.
“What’s to stop me from just casting a couple of spells and lying about my mana anyhow?” Ranthia challenged.
“…Are you saying you won’t comply with the rules of the Republic?” The guard asked in a disinterested tone, with a single arched eyebrow.
“And if I am?” Ranthia asked smugly, as she completely misread the man’s tone.
His tone wasn’t disinterested, it was all business. Ranthia barely heard Tatius shout before the guardsman hit her with a buff that boosted her vitality—at the rapid cost of her mana—and pinned her down with some skill she had no chance to evade. More buffs were layered on, until her mana was exhausted before she could even put up a fight.
There had been more than one guard present, clearly.
Tatius and Pupius chose to leave her to get arrested while they accompanied the client to the local Adventurer’s Guild. The guards appreciated their willingness to let her deal with the consequences of her own terrible ideas and she found herself stuffed into a cell—still bound and drained of her mana—while everyone went on their way.
It was nearly dark before Tatius finally showed up to claim her.
“I can’t believe you left me there all day.” Ranthia groused.
“And I can’t believe you were stupid enough to mouth off to the guard, again. Just be thankful that they considered it a lesson taught and let you go; I was worried that we’d end up short on funds again.” Her pretend father snapped.
Tensions still ran high after everything they had been through.
“Please tell me we at least got paid.” Ranthia finally spoke after she forced herself to just breathe for a few moments before she foolishly managed to escalate their debate into an argument.
“Yeah, we did. But nothing extra, just the base amount we were supposed to get paid.” Tatius replied bitterly.
Ranthia had a thing about selfish prayers. In her mind, she was there to serve Xaoc, not the other way around. Those that made demands of the gods needed to be in a place of absolute desperation before it was even slightly okay to do so, and even then, they needed to have been pious beforehand and to show their gratitude nonstop after the fact. The gods had better things to do than intervene on mortal affairs. Too many people forgot that simple fact.
And yet she was still sorely tempted to pray for ill fortune to befall that jerk of a merchant.
“He said northern Remus! This city isn’t even close to being in the north! It’s extremely south-eastern!” She seethed.
That job hadn’t been even remotely close to being worthwhile. They deserved thrice what the job had quoted since it ended up as an escort mission to three different cities due to the man’s own stupidity. Tatius simply nodded miserably in agreement.
Ranthia sighed and tried to force the matter out of her mind. As far as the scenery went, well, Aquiliea was a decent enough town, she supposed, though she felt like it was a touch garish. The city was obsessed with the dyes it produced and, clearly, people tended to use them all-too-heavily. Compared to most cities, towns, and villages that she had seen, Aquiliea was comparatively a bit of an eyesore.
Horrible, ingrate clients aside, Ranthia was happy with her life. She was well aware that neither Tatius nor Pupius really needed her help with most missions, but she had gradually begun to contribute slightly more where she could. Under their tutelage, she had also developed muscles, or at least a reasonable facsimile of muscles for a ten-year-old child.
“You ready to class up, finally?” Pupius’ voice snapped Ranthia out of her thoughts.
Tatius had matched his pace to her own best efforts at a brisk walk, and they had arrived at the inn where they were staying at. Pupius had spotted them and greeted the duo without a hint of guilt about abandoning her to her fate with the guards.
Ranthia presented her middle finger to him before she nodded eagerly. He pretended to fail to notice the insult, so she added the second middle finger to try to get a rise out of him.
“Want to grab dinner while we wait for the slowpoke to do her class up?” Pupius asked Tatius, completely ignoring her increasingly energetic gestures.
“Sure.” Tatius replied immediately.
Ranthia glared at the two, but they pretended not to notice.
“If you two eat without me, I expect a biiig juicy chunk of roasted dino to be waiting for me the instant I wake.” She grumbled after she gave up on getting a rise out of them.
“Vegetables are important.” Tatius retorted.
“Rabbit stew then.” Ranthia replied sweetly, with a smug grin on her face.
Pupius just laughed. He had probably already figured out that she was just maneuvering Tatius into promising to find somewhere that sold her favorite food. It was far from the first time she had pulled similar moves, but Tatius seemed slow to learn how to counter her manipulations.
Tatius just cringed in an exaggerated way that she naively mistook for actual surprise and muttered something about looking into if anyone sold it. She had only discovered the dish a little more than a season ago, but it had immediately become her favorite thing to eat. The worst rabbit stew was better than almost any other dish made competently, in her mind. Everything just blended so delightfully on her tongue!
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Ranthia was well-aware that she was taking advantage of Tatius, but… well, for rabbit stew she accepted her ability to be a brat. It was a small price to pay, since otherwise Tatius would have purchased the blandest cheap and healthy thing he saw for her. She had suffered through enough bowls of raw vegetable chunks for two lifetimes.
Soon enough Ranthia made herself comfortable on her bed in Tatius’ room. No one made the mistake of classing up in an uncomfortable position more than once. Class ups tended to be quick, but the passage of time in the world within yourself was… difficult to predict. People could lose half a day to accepting the first class they saw immediately, while others have waffled between options for so long their inner guide got annoyed with them, yet they found that they were only out for mere moments. There was no way to predict it, but if you were in an uncomfortable position, that’s when you always ended up getting a class up that took forever.
The men tried to ask if she needed anything, but she just waved them off and hurriedly fell into herself. She had waited long enough and wasn’t about to let them delay her until something else came up to force her to put it off any further.
“Me again!” Ranthia announced on arrival to the temple armory.
“Yes, as opposed to all of the numerous other visitors that come by.” Her guide deadpanned.
“…Actually, I have no idea. Do like… Do guides get to hang out with other System bearers in the vicinity when we’re not classing up? Do you cease to exist?”
“If you were better company, perhaps I would look forward to social interactions when I am finally allowed them.”
“Ouch! Barbs out the gate, and here I thought we were becoming friends.” Ranthia mimed getting shot by an arrow.
“You are me. Befriending yourself makes no sense.” Her guide replied primly.
Ranthia just sighed, her fun ruined. After a moment, she withdrew the sword with the red-wrapped hilt and an amethyst pommel stone and set it down on the counter.
“Let’s see what Xaoc and my own efforts have blessed me with.” Ranthia announced, her voice quiet and reverent.
“Indeed.” Her adult self agreed, before the woman retrieved the sword and placed it in the same return basket that all of her former classes ended up in.
Though it was always empty every time she returned.
Ranthia waited while the guide moved along the racks of swords, mostly red, and more often pale in color than not, even still.
There were more colors out there. Class qualities didn’t stop at orange or even yellow. There were shades of green, then blues, then purples, and—ultimately—blacks. The knowledge was in her head, though she had no way to hurry the process along. It could be frustrating and dispiriting though to train and try so hard and still have so little to show for it.
Colors denoted class qualities, though that was misleading. What it actually designated were the stats available in the class; it was possible to get a class with high quality but poor skills or, indeed, the reverse. But she still wanted to hold a better blade. The yellowest of bright greens would still catapult her physical stats forward.
She hated relying so heavily on Tatius and Pupius. She needed to do more.
She needed to be able to protect them too. She had to improve, before she got one of them killed.
Despite her determined thoughts, her guide finally presented her with a short sword with a pale red wrap. It still had an amethyst on its pommel too, so it wasn’t like she was miraculously getting an advanced element already either.
“That’s the best I can get?” Ranthia asked in a dour tone.
“Try it out before you complain.” Her guide replied, her tone of voice dripped with annoyance.
Ranthia just swallowed the insult she almost spat at her guide—herself—before she accepted the blade and absorbed its story.
[Metal Menace – Metal] had a nice ring to it, at least.
A smile slowly spread on her face though while she absorbed the story.
“You were right.” Ranthia finally admitted.
“Aren’t I always?” Her guide replied frostily.
“Probably, but I try not to give myself too much of an ego.” Ranthia quipped before she hurriedly tried to sprint out of the armory with her new blade—her new class—before her guide could respond.
“Then try to be less of a brat too.”
Too slow.
The room was completely dark by the time Ranthia woke up. She wasn’t entirely surprised, but she could still be annoyed. Ranthia applied the free stats the backlog of levels her second class had provided and sat up with a stretch.
A bowl of—long since cold—rabbit stew waited for her. She grumbled to herself irritably about missing it while it was hot, but she still snatched up the wooden bowl and hungrily devoured both it and the now stale crust of bread that came with it. It was cold and greasy, but even a cold and greasy rabbit stew was still better than most other foods.
Ranthia reviewed her stat sheet while she ate.
[Name: Ranthia]
[Species: Human]
[Age: 10]
[Mana: 2240/2240]
[Mana Regen Rate: 2445]
[Stats:]
[Free Stats: 0]
[Strength: 35]
[Dexterity: 113]
[Vitality: 112]
[Speed: 49]
[Mana: 224]
[Mana Regeneration: 275]
[Magic Power: 244]
[Magic Control: 192]
[Class 1: [Deceptive Decoy Mage – Light (81)]]
[Light Affinity: 81]
[Light Manipulation: 81]
[Light Resistance: 53]
[Spell Reworking: 65]
[Homunculus of Light: 81]
[Light Conjuration: 72]
[Light Haze: 43]
-
[Class 2: [Metal Menace – Metal (54)]]
[Metal Affinity: 54]
[Metal Conjuration: 54]
[Metal Manipulation: 54]
[Metal Decoys: 1]
[Puppeteering: 1]
[False Armaments: 1]
-
-
[Class 3: Locked]
[General Skills:]
[Identify: 81]
[Combat: 81]
[Knives: 81]
[Dodging: 81]
[Boosted Reflexes: 81]
[Fast Learner: 69]
[Silent Steps: 16]
[Cute: 58]
Ranthia’s face tried to grin while she hurriedly finished her stew—which was a recipe for a mess, but fortunately she managed to avoid incident—before she grabbed her dinoleather cloak and rushed for the stairs. She was impatient to share her new class with her fellow Adventurers! Her contributions to the teamwork would be greater than ever!
Pupius was with a woman in the inn’s common area. She was leaned against a wall and he had his arm braced on the wall while he leaned in and quietly wooed her with… mildly exaggerated stories about some of the adventures they had been through. There had been only two dinosaurs, not six, and none of them had been that large. …Also, hey, Tatius was the one who did that!
Usually Ranthia had the decency to let Pupius have his fun… But she was impatient for a team meeting—aka bragging about her new class upgrade—and the woman was married if Ranthia was right about her assumptions about what that piece of jewelry meant. She really wasn’t in the mood to deal with angry spouses—again—when they had barely spent any time in the town.
“There you are, Father! Mommy will be upset if she finds out you’ve been doing this again!” Ranthia called out as she ran up to him with a worried look plastered on her face.
Pupius eyed her with an intense lack of amusement while the woman discreetly shifted away.
“Your father was just… helping me with something, but I’ll be going now. So, there’s no need to get your mommy involved, okay honey?”
Ranthia allowed the woman to pat her on the head before the woman made her escape.
Pupius and Ranthia silently eyed one another before he finally threw his hands up in frustration and beckoned for her to follow. …It was probably a bad sign that he wasn’t willing to say anything, but Ranthia wasn’t feeling the least bit apologetic. Behind the inn they found Tatius helping to hold and soothe a horse while a woman—honestly, far more attractive than the one Pupius had been trying to pick up—carefully replaced a horseshoe.
“Hi Dad! She’s pretty, is she going to be my new Mom?” Ranthia called out while she sprinted over the moment they were done. On arrival she threw an arm around his waist and smiled at the woman.
The woman’s face had turned scarlet over the question and stammered something before she hurriedly backed away.
Tatius cuffed Ranthia on the back of the head—not entirely gently—with a roll of his eyes. He apologized to the woman, but the damage was done. The woman seemed inclined to be on her way sooner rather than later.
“Since when do you do things like that?” Tatius grumbled.
“She screwed me over too.” Pupius added with a scowl.
“Okay, first of all, if you’re both trying to pick up women at the same time, where do you expect me to sleep? Because it’s already late and I am not watching that. Second, the walls in that place are thin, I can hear everything from two rooms away, let alone one. Please save it for when we have more privacy.”
A brief dramatic pause.
“Aaand of course, third, my class up was a success!” Ranthia replied smugly, ticking her fingers with each point.
The men communicated silently with a set of expressions and looks that Ranthia wasn’t quite able to decipher into meaningful information, before Tatius sighed.
“Fine, we’ll find a place with better privacy after we get some work. No one’s around, can you show us what you can do?” Tatius prompted.
Ranthia checked that the coast was clear for herself before she nodded. [Metal Decoys] plus [False Armaments] created…
A vaguely human-ish smooth and round shape that had a simple shield and short sword, a bit less than half her own height.
That cost nearly all her mana.
She had even made it hollow!
“Um… tada?” Ranthia was already feeling wildly unimpressed with herself.
Pupius knelt down and poked the sword.
“Completely dull.” He announced.
Tatius flicked the shield, which crumpled under the force of the simple little blow.
Ranthia just cringed while she watched what she had been so proud of prove to be so worthless.
Pupius knocked on the [Metal Decoy] itself, but at least it held up. …From an intentionally gentle tap.
“…I think her Light decoys managed to impress me more, but at least this is Metal.” Pupius tried to whisper to Tatius, but he wasn’t quite quiet enough.
Ranthia fought against the tears that threatened to spill out of her eyes—she wasn’t really a child, she angrily reminded herself—before she desperately tapped into [Puppeteering] and tried it out. The doll took a clumsy, overly large step forward!
…And immediately fell over.
Pupius tipped over almost immediately after, while he laughed his ass off. Tatius offered her a tight smile that came off as a terrible blend of sympathy and regret.
“They’re new level one skills, you’ll see! I’ll make a great [Metal Menace] someday!” Ranthia snapped—far more shrilly than she had intended—before she dismissed the fallen figure and bolted back for the inn.
Pupius’ laughter redoubled over her unfortunate phrasing.
“…She gets the weirdest class names.” Tatius groused while he watched her flee in embarrassment.
Unfortunately, Tatius also knew that he was going to have to bribe her, again, to get her to let him into his own inn room.