In front of me stands a beautiful young woman, around 20 years old I’d say.
Why is she looking at me like that?
“Hello?”
Then I take a look down and realize my clothes are covered in the ratmen’s blood.
No wonder she is shocked.
She blinks her eyes and tilts her head a little to the side.
“Hi, I’m Monica.”
Her voice is pleasant to the ears, complementing her pretty face.
Even though she is wearing plain clothes you can tell there is a stunning figure hiding beneath.
“Gabriel.”
“I’m sorry you had to see that, I don’t know where these rats came from.”
Oh… she is smiling, that’s good right? It’s been ages since the last time I talked to a girl besides my family.
“Don’t worry about it Gabriel, I can tell something strange is going on and it isn’t just those disgusting creatures.”
There is a familiar ring on her finger, so I’m not the only one.
But she isn’t carrying any weapon with her, I guess she hasn’t figured out how it works yet.
“I see you have a ring too.”
I show her my ring, she seems surprised.
“Evocatus”
The book appears in front of me.
She doesn’t seems surprised by the sudden appearance of the book.
“Good, I thought I was going crazy when a magic book appeared from this ring. Evocatus.”
Her book is similar to mine, floating in front of us.
“Let talk inside, I’m not sure how safe it is out here.”
I point towards the cabin behind me.
On the ground there are a couple of papers, I almost forgot about that.
With my ring I absorb the two pages I’ll check the book later.
“Are those useful? I got one when I killed one of those rats on the way here.”
She did kill one, I take a look at her and don’t see any wounds, a little cut in her head.
“Did the rat hit your head?”
Her hand touches the wound.
“It wasn’t the rat, my car crashed into a tree.”
Lucky her, she could easily have died from something like that.
I hold the door of the cabin open for her.
“Make yourself comfortable, sit anywhere you like.”
Monica takes a seat on the couch, I grab a chair and pull it closer to her.
“Do you have a phone I could use?”
“I do, but there is no signal. Internet is gone too.”
A contemplative expression on her face. I wait for her to talk.
“Can you take me to the city? I saw a truck out there.”
How do I tell her that I never learnt how to drive? Besides, I don’t even have the keys…
A few seconds of awkward silence.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to…”
She looks disappointed.
“It’s not that. I don’t have the keys, they are at the farm.”
Her face brightens.
Then she realizes there is a reason why I can’t go there.
“There are monsters over there, right?”
“Yeah…”
We can ignore my lack of driving skills for the time being.
“Not just ratmen, there is something far more terrifying.”
Her eyebrow raises.
“What is it?”
My eyes wanders through the room.
I have not even seen the creature, I just ran away as soon as I heard it.
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The problem is, how do I tell her that without sounding like a total wuss?
“I have not seen it.”
She blinks her eyes at me trying to understand what I mean.
With a hand on my head, an awkward expression on my face I look at her.
“I only heard its roar… it was enough for me to know that I don’t stand a chance against it.”
“I see.”
What is in her mind right now? She seems to be thinking about something.
Maybe she wants to take a look at the creature.
Meanwhile I summon the book and take a look to see what I acquired.
There are two new pages on the book.
Two daggers, exactly the same on each page.
The only difference is that on top of the second page it reads [Trading item], yet the rest it’s exactly the same as the other dagger.
If I’m not wrong I got two pages from the previous battle, my guess is both were daggers, one for me to use and the other to trade.
Simple Dagger
Level 1 – Experience 0%
Type: Weapon
Description: A dagger is a short killing weapon designed to stab only. It is double edged, tapered to a sharp point and a straight edge.
Skills available: none
I guess it’s better than the knife.
“Simple dagger.”
Its sheath replaces the one my knife was into.
Looks like I can’t have both of them at the same time, maybe I if store the short sword…
I make a few tries and that’s it.
Two weapons are the limit I can carry on my body.
Monica stares at me, astonished, her mouth wide open.
“How did you do that?”
I see, she didn’t know about the weapons.
“How do I explain this? You can bring them out from the book… just say the name of the weapon out loud and that’s it.”
She tries a couple of times, both knife and dagger appearing their sheaths attached to her waist.
Didn’t she kill one of the ratman before?
“How did you kill the ratman without a weapon?”
She tilts her head looking at me as if I asked the dumbest question ever.
“Isn’t it obvious? I kicked the rat until it collapsed.”
I picture what looks like a beautiful frail girl kicking a rat over and over until it collapses, for some reason in my mind she is smiling while killing the creature.
Well, that’s a scary thought.
Look at her blinking those big beautiful eyes, while looking like the most innocent girl in the world.
Mental note: Do not anger her.
“What am I supposed to do?”
For the first time I notice how frail she truly is, uncertainty in her voice, her body shivering.
Somehow she is managed to keep calm until now, but meeting someone else has allowed for that control to collapse.
Tears run down through her face.
Now I ask myself, what am I supposed to do with her?
I stand up from the chair and go hug her.
“Everything is going to be okay…”
For the time being looks like I’m going to have to take care of three people.
Annie, Monica and me.
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Please let me know if you find any mistakes, thanks!