Chapter 2
It is a fitful slumber, neither of us gaining much shuteye and whenever I fall asleep, I wake shortly thereafter when Alice stirs. Thus, when nature calls, Alice, foreseeing trouble, follows me to teach me not to soil myself. It proved unnecessary, when I approach one of the trees, I notice movement, and something starts charging in our direction with a loud yell resulting in me emptying my bladder.
Whatever is out there decides not to step in my piss and adjusts its charge, giving me just enough time to dodge. Afterwards, I hurriedly stand back up and look in my opponents’ direction. With the light coming from the moons through the sparse canopy I could make out a green humanoid figure slightly smaller than me attacking with a cudgel. I don’t have the time to evade again, so instead, I block the strike with my left arm and punch the attacker in the nose.
Meanwhile, Alice runs back to our sleeping spot to grab the spears we foolishly left behind. I see her creeping up on us, however, I am soon taught not to look away in a fight, because it distracted me long enough to take a hit on my head and knocking me to the ground.
Just as the creature starts its, follow up strike it is prevented by Alice killing it, striking one of the spears downward. When it connects the tip is ripped off the shaft and lodges itself in the brain.
“Are you alright?”
“I think so. Everything is a bit fuzzy, but I don’t think I have any lasting damage.”
Three more yells, coming from the direction the creature came from, make it clear we don’t have time to rest.
“Here, take the spear. I’ll use this as a staff.”, Alice says while throwing the intact spear to me and reading the one she broke.
And with that our foes are upon us.
I start with sweeping the spear sideways hoping to keep them at bay, but I overcommit and end up almost 90° to them, they do not waste the opportunity and quickly close the distance between us.
Thankfully, Alice is still there and interposes herself between us, swinging her staff like a baseball bat knocking one of them into a tree. Another one switches targets and moves to attack Alice, while the third plunges its knife into my arm.
I grit my teeth letting my weapon fall, instead, I grab the arm holding the knife. Then I pull it away and ram the creature, leaving us both tumbling on the forest floor with me landing on top. Wasting no time, I pull the knife out and wildly stab downwards until it no longer moves and then a bit more to be sure.
Looking up I see Alice struggling against the other two, so with the knife in hand, I sneak closer until I am almost behind the one wielding a dagger. When I try to get closer it notices me and turns around, but before it is able to, I lunge forward lodging the knife in its throat. It weakly tries to slash and claw at me, but I push us apart leaving me outside of its reach. Having one less opponent Alice manages to defeat the last enemy, and after making sure she was alive I quickly take the knife and dagger before heading back to the clearing.
Once there I view my health seeing that only approximately one-sixth remained, then I check all the notifications I received during combat.
Your Party defeated Goblin Level 1; experience has been deferred.
Select Class to gain experience and Level up.
Unarmed Fighting - Level 1
When words fail fists speak. Your fists have become more eloquent.
Your Party defeated Goblin Level 1; experience has been deferred.
Select Class to gain experience and Level up.
Stealth - Level 1
Not all attention is good attention. This Skill helps to remain unnoticed.
Small Blade Fighting - Level 1
Fists are usually not the best weaponry. Blades, even small ones, are a lot better.
Your Party defeated Goblin Level 2; experience has been deferred.
Select Class to gain experience and Level up.
Your Party defeated Goblin Level 1; experience has been deferred.
Select Class to gain experience and Level up.
Dismissing the messages, I look around and check if there are any more Goblins, cursing myself internally for not doing so when we arrived. Alice is blankly staring into the distance with the spear and her staff lying next to her on the grass.
The fight left me bathed in urine, blood, and gore, so I wash in the brook to the best of my ability and take extra care cleaning the injury on my arm. Then Alice comes over and I can see she is covered with small cuts and bruises as well.
Unable to sleep after that harrowing encounter, we drink our fill and set out at first light with the meagre equipment we had leaving an unlit campfire behind.
“I assume you also received notifications about defeating Goblins and gaining Skills?”
“Yes, I also checked to see whether Skills show up on the Status and there I noticed I have a Skill called Language Acquisition, but I don’t remember earning it.”
Prompted by her statement I open my Status as well.
Name: Freia Rosenstein
Race: Succubus
Married to Alice Rosenstein
Health: 19/112 Health Recovery: 128
Stamina: 57/89 Stamina Recovery: 81
Mana: 101/101 Mana Recovery: 109
Stolen novel; please report.
Class: None
Level: 0
Unused increases: 0
Strength: 8
Agility: 10
Dexterity: 11
Perception: 12
Reaction: 11
Intelligence: 11
Constitution: 11
Vitality: 13
Endurance: 9
Vigour: 8
Willpower: 10
Wisdom: 11
Skills:
Shapeshift - Level 1
Inspect - Level 1
Crude Weapon Crafting - Level 1
Charm - Level 1
Unarmed Fighting - Level 1
Stealth - Level 1
Small Blade Fighting - Level 1
I too have a Skill I don’t recognize called Shapeshift. Curious, I make a mental inquiry about what Shapeshift is.
Shapeshift - Level 1
During your transfer, your form was lost. This was given to you so you may regain it should you so choose.
The message brought a small tear of joy to my eye, which I quickly wiped away.
We arrive at where we fought the goblins, only to find the bodies missing. Alarmed at their disappearance we utilise our new Stealth Skill and quietly move away as fast as we can. After about 20 min we relax slightly, but continue our trek heading north.
Over the course of our sneaking away, the adrenaline leaves me, and I start feeling my chest constrict as I realise, I have just killed something. I try to rationalize it as self-defence, but the horrid feelings inside of me care not for the reasons for my actions. Slowly I realize that we stopped. Looking at Alice I notice her crying silently, so I pull her closer, and we both just lie there trying to find our bearings in this world we have been brought to.
After some time, we are reminded of our surroundings by some leaves rustling in a bush in front of us. Then a rabbit with a sharp horn atop its head rushes out and tries to ram the horn into us. Alice responds quickly and swings her staff sending the critter on a collision course with a tree, where it becomes stuck dangling half a meter above the ground.
The sight is so funny I can’t help but laugh and giggle until my stomach loudly reminds me that we haven’t had anything to eat yet and some tasty meat was right in front of us.
So, steeling my heart I walk to the rabbit and cut open the throat with my dagger letting it bleed to death to reduce its suffering as much as possible while also removing the blood as preparation for our cooking. During my bout of laughter, Alice collects wood and while she tries rubbing sticks on a piece of bark, I start field dressing the rabbit.
I first remove the intestines making sure not to cut them open, but everything else about the task eludes me resolving itself in a few morsels on a piece of the pelt, the rest of the body looking gruesomely butchered and pieces of various organs are mixed with the meat throughout the carcass caring not for where the organs were originally located.
Having thrown the inedible parts far from our little camp I use the small pause until the fire is lit to sharpen my spear with the dagger, internally promising myself I would actually start using it. This decision almost caused a forest fire when sparks flew from the dagger and hit the dry grass. After I manage to remove the fire hazard, I notice an intense glare aimed at me and Alice’s entire body seems almost like a manifestation of anger. Hurrying over I light the fire, skewer two morsels, and set to cooking them.
Finally, having some food placated her, even with all the meat being charred and amounting to less than half a meal. And thus, we set out to find some shelter again.
Curiously, this helps me deal with my emotional trauma, proving to myself consciously and subconsciously that killing has ever been a part of survival.
Travelling for another one and a half hours, we find a dirt road, it curves with one end going east and the other heading north. Since we have been walking north, Alice and I decide to continue that way, hoping we would reach a town or village before nightfall.
“Freia, where do you think this road leads? Do you think it could be a city more advanced than ours, magically floating through the sky? I think that would be cool.”
“Maybe, but the road leads me to think it might just be a small medieval village. Either way, I’m looking forward to wearing some clothes and having a proper meal.”
“We’d need money for that, and though two beautiful women walking around in the nude might make people think we are prostitutes, I have no intention of selling my body. Do you?”
“No, I guess we’ll have to find someone to barter with when we find a settlement.”
“Then we’ll give up the knife? I doubt someone would buy your spear and the dagger is the only proper weapon we have, selling it seems foolish with monsters prowling the countryside.”
“Look, the forest is clearing, and I can see hills replacing the trees. There could be a village just out of sight and then we could interact with people again.”
It takes another hour to crest the hill, arriving at the top we look onto a small town nestled into the valley, and completely miss the two people walking up the hill and almost crashing into us. When we finally notice each other we all move to evade the collision and stop to size each other up.
One is a beautiful young woman slightly taller than Alice, with clear blue eyes, a slim figure, and a large bosom, but most striking are her long pointy ears with the tips parting her long emerald green hair. She wears a green dress which accentuates her figure with its golden embroidery.
The other is a girl, fox ears adorn her head and at least two foxtails are swishing around her lower back. She has hair, ears, and tail all a nice auburn colour with white tips, making her just as beautiful as the woman and she is clad in a maids’ uniform.
I have been so entranced by their appearance; I only notice now that we’ve been standing here completely nude in front of strangers. I attempt to remedy this first by holding my arms and hands before the more private areas of my body, then remembering my wings I clumsily move them in front of me and cover up my torso that way. Though I try something similar with my tail my control over these new body parts is still too unrefined for such a task.
My movement ends the moment and the fox-girl says something to us in some foreign language I don’t recognise. Seeing our blank expressions, she tries again in what I think is a different language though it has the same result.
“Hello. We only just arrived here and know nothing about this world. Could you perhaps spare some time to provide my sister and me with some information and perhaps some clothes or a little bit of money?”
The confusion seen on their faces makes it clear to us all that communication between us is not possible at the moment.
After a short discussion between themselves, they motion for us to follow them then they leave in the direction of the forest. Since they give the impression of being amicable, we follow along.
On the way, I point at various items taking care to properly enunciate the words. Realising what I’m doing the maid takes over pointing at the road, a stone, a tree, a stick and back at the road; slowly teaching us their language.
Eventually, after reaching the forest and leaving the road we come to a stop by a small river, which is meandering at the bottom of a cliff with a cave visible on the other side. As soon as we arrive, we are directed to wash ourselves. When we are clean two outfits, another maid uniform, and a tunic with leather trousers appear in the maids’ hands accompanied by appropriate underwear.
She helps us dress, going as far as helping me manoeuvre my wings through two slits she cut into the dress. Later, when we donned our new clothes, I realise that they are almost a perfect fit for Alice and me, excluding the chest area. My breasts are big enough to strain the fabric, while Alice has the opposite problem, having to adjust to her slightly too large brassiere.
The girl then leaves us and confers with the woman. I use that moment to check on all the notifications I received.
Stealth has reached Level 2.
Your Party defeated Horned Rabbit Level 1; experience has been deferred.
Select Class to gain experience and Level up.
Butchering - Level 1
You have extracted meat from a carcass. Next time less of it will be spoiled in the process.
Stealth has reached Level 3.
Charm has reached Level 2.
Immediately, after reading through them I organize the message to display similar notifications together and bunch up skill level increases. I tell Alice to adjust her settings and before I realise it the break is over, the woman waiting for us to continue our lesson.
Before we can begin anew the loud rumbling of two stomachs protest the lack of food Alice and I had since arriving here. To answer our bodies demands our teacher materialises two bowls of soup with a loaf of bread and gives each of us a bowl and half of the loaf, a concerned, almost pitying look in her eyes.
It might have just been because I am half-starved, but that meal is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. During the meal, I notice that the girl is gone, but the way Alice and I are eating, our dinner is over, and the lesson restarted, too fast for me to think further about her disappearance.
Both of us make significant progress in learning the language, which is called Elian, gaining a Skill, and increasing the Level to two and three, respectively. Alice has the higher level because her Language Acquisition helped and levelled alongside the Language Skill. In the end, with Alice helping me both of us should be able to communicate using Elian in only a few days.
When dusk falls the maid returns carrying a huge boar, which she dresses and grills turning it into a tasty supper for us all. I spend this time closely watching her hoping to learn something after my failure with the rabbit earlier in the day. Afterwards, we retreat to the cave and Alice and I sleep together while the girl keeps watching over the entrance.