The mission, unfortunately, wasn’t due for another day, so Prise advised Ezra to return home. She also recommended that Ezra pick up a cloak, as it was going to rain tomorrow. Luckily, Ezra still had the cloak he’d started his journey with—he just hadn’t been wearing it regularly, instead sticking to his jacket since it was thicker and more durable.
In between all of Prise’s statements, she’d glanced at Filamenta, clearly desperate to know about her. Filamenta reveled in the attention, turning her nose(?) up and giving ambiguous, vague answers about herself whenever Prise tried to learn about her. Except for her gender. Filamenta was very particular about that, and stopped wanting to be called ‘it’.
Ezra wasn’t interested in any of this and was far more eager to go back to the inn. Once he got back, he continued grinding his skills. It had resulted in yet more gains.
[Ranged Needle Mastery leveled up!]
[Ranged Needle Mastery leveled up!]
[Telekinesis leveled up!]
[Telekinesis leveled up!]
[Telekinesis leveled up!]
[Telekinesis leveled up!]
[Precision Prick leveled up!]
[Precision Prick leveled up!]
[Precision Prick leveled up!]
[Mana Perception leveled up!]
[Mana Perception leveled up!]
He adjusted his seated position on the bed and looked at his skills.
Personal Skills:
[Calm] - Lv. 14
[Inspect] - Lv. MAX
[Canefighting] - Lv. 3
[Needle Mastery] - Lv. 35
[Stealth] - Lv. 15
[Ranged Needle Mastery] - Lv. 20
[Precision Prick] - Lv. 15
[Air Attack] - Lv. MAX
[Spirtual Seal] - Lv. MAX
[Mana Perception] - Lv. 7
[Telekinesis] - Lv. 11
His abilities continued to grow. If he kept this up, it wouldn’t be long before he could defeat Idia handily. Then there was [Calm]. He hadn’t used it in a while—he suspected that he was getting used to the mental stress of combat, which was good. Still, it would be handy to have that in the back pocket. When’s the last time he ran down the timer, come to think of it?
Had he done that? He checked the [Calm]’s information screen.
[Calm] - Lv. 14
Stores emotions for later. After a timer expires, user receives all the stored emotions, experiencing them all at once and with their intensity amplified. The amplification can be decreased as the skill is leveled up.
Amplification: 5.5x
Timer: 7m
Mana Consumption: 8 mp/s
Cooldown: 3.5h
Seven minutes. That wasn’t good. The responsible thing to do would be to turn it on, then go to sleep and ride it out.
But if he did that, he would have to experience everything all over again—even if he wouldn’t remember it due to the sleep. Getting stabbed and used as a pincushion. Fear so strong that it was able to break [Calm], even temporarily. Not only that, but it would be five times worse.
People died from shock and mental stress. Ezra knew that full well. What if what he’d gone through was so horrible that he would have a heart attack in his sleep?
His chest pounded and his hands shook. His vision started to grow blurry. Was this a good idea? No, it was—he had to do it. He had to.
“Ezra?” Filamenta said.
But he’d be back there with that bastard, Idia, all over again, and he couldn’t do it, he just couldn’t do it.
“Hey, Ezra, what are you doing?”
What if he needed [Calm]’s abilities at a later date, but couldn’t use it because of his cowardice in this moment—?
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Something bit into his neck and he winced. He looked over at Filamenta.
She stared back at him.
The two watched each other for several moments.
“How much of that did you hear?” Ezra said.
Filamenta paused. “Not much. It all just sounded like a garbled mess to me. What happened?”
Ezra stared at the wooden floor before he let his head fall onto the pillow.
“Nothing.”
----------------------------------------
The next morning was cold and dark and miserable. When he stepped outside, rain pelted him and made it impossible to see more than a few feet in front of him. Filamenta jumped into his cloak, which meant he had the wonderful feeling of a bug crawling around in his shirt. Joy.
He made his way over to the location that appeared on his minimap. It looked to be at the eastern city gate. He tried his best to avoid bumping into anyone or getting run over on the way there. Eventually, he arrived at the gate. Four people were there to greet him. A woman in witch’s clothing, a man in the white robes of a cleric, an older boy with a dagger, and finally a man in full plate armor.
The man Ezra had beat up on his first day here. Nice.
Nobinar - Heavy Knight - Monster Slayer II - Lv. 51
Ezra had been lucky, springing an attack early on Nobinar. Now that the man had a better idea of Ezra’s capabilities, Ezra wasn’t so sure how a fight would turn out. He’d rather avoid one now, if possible.
“Oh. You’re the one who accepted,” Nobinar said.
“Yup.”
Nobinar looked back at the witch. She shrugged and Nobinar turned back toward Ezra.
“Right, well,” Nobinar said. “We’ve got a merchant we need to guard who should be coming out of town any second now. We just need to protect him. Should be a pretty simple job, all things considered.”
Raise those flags, pal. Ezra was looking forward to when they would inevitably be attacked by a hundred monsters out of nowhere.
The group hovered around in silence. Every now and then, one of the members of the party would glance at Nobinar and he would ignore them. Finally, he sighed.
“Look, I know we got off on the wrong foot,” Nobinar said. “But for now, let’s try not to cause trouble, alright? We can at least keep this civil.”
They weren’t being civil? Ezra thought this was normal behavior.
“Sure,” he said.
Ezra wasn’t interested in causing trouble right now. Maybe at a later date, but what with the rain and Nobinar’s high level…
Nobinar stepped forward. “My name is Nobinar. I’m a knight, and this is my party. There had been a miscommunication about the number of guards from the merchant, hence why you were hired on at the last second.”
Ezra shrugged. “Okay.”
“Right. Well, let’s work together well,” Nobinar said.
Ezra stared up at him.
Nobinar took an awkward step back, coughed into his hand, and strode back to his party.
Before long, the merchant rode out of the town gate on a wagon. “Gentleman.”
“Sir!” Nobinar said. “We’re ready to set off when you are!”
“Yeah, let’s get going. If we’re lucky, we might be able to get out of the storm,” the merchant said.
The merchant was about to hop into the wagon when he turned his neck and faced toward Nobinar and Ezra.
“By the way, sorry about the last-minute change,” he said. “The rising monster attacks scared me a little, so I wanted to get extra insurance.”
The group set off. Nobinar’s party already had a predesigned formation that they settled into. Nobinar stood in front, the man with the dagger took up the rear, while the cleric and witch were in the middle. Somehow, Ezra ended up walking next to Nobinar.
Filamenta crawled out of his shirt and poked her head out to look ahead.
Nobinar looked to the side at the same moment and stared at the spider.
“I’ve seen you with that creature. A familiar?” he said.
“I’m no mere familiar!” she said. “I’m his partner!”
Nobinar stepped back, his armor rustling.
“You have a speaking familiar,” he said. “Or partner, I should say.”
Ezra slouched his back. “Yeah, not by choice.”
“Rude,” Filamenta said.
Behind him, Ezra could feel the eyes of the cleric and witch staring into him.
“So that’s the One-eyed Merc, in the flesh.”
“I think you mean the Nameless Merc.”
“Whatever. Did you hear what Nobinar said? He has a familiar. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone with a familiar except for archmages and members of the royal family.”
Filamenta shuffled on his shoulder, doing her best to hide under the cloak while still being able to see.
“Perhaps you should get to know these people, Ezra,” she said. “They’d probably make good allies.”
“We’re here to work, not socialize,” Ezra said.
Filamenta grew quiet. Before long, they’d arrived at the village and the rain had started to settle down to a light sprinkle The merchant hopped off his wagon and approached the two of them. A small group of village onlookers had gathered around the merchant’s wagon.
“Gentlemen, if you could give me a hand with unloading, I’d appreciate it.”
Ezra raised an eyebrow. That wasn’t in the job description.
Nobinar stepped toward the back of the wagon. “Of course.”
Ezra stuffed his hands into his pockets and followed. He might as well see what’s happening. Nobinar was handling the heavy lifting while his party surrounded him. It was clear that they’d done this a hundred times before. The cleric glanced at Ezra, and then his eyes widened. After a few seconds, he opened his mouth.
“Is it true that you once fought off a horde of lesser demons?” the cleric said.
“No.”
The man pouted and looked at the ground. “Aww.”
Filamenta snorted. “Another brilliant reaction between Ezra and another human being.”
Yeah, what else was new? Ezra stepped away and leaned against a tree.
The man with the dagger glanced back at Nobinar. “You think we’ll be doing these types of missions much longer?”
Nobinar lifted two crates off the wagon, then set it on the ground. He reached up and rubbed the sweat off his forehead.
“I hope not,” he said. “You’re all almost ready for the C-rank exam. At that point, we should be able to move onto something more exciting.”
“Yeah, like even more dangerous escort jobs,” the witch said.
Nobinar chuckled while the man with the dagger laughed out loud. The cleric shook his head and smiled.
“They get along very well,” Filamenta said.
“Yup,” Ezra said.
“You should make friends with them.”
“No.”
She glanced at a puddle. It had the reflection of herself and Ezra looking down while she stood on his shoulder.
The next hour ticked away. Muttered conversation came from the group of adventurers while Ezra stood in silence. Filamenta would alternate between watching the group, crawling out onto Ezra’s shoulder, and then ducking back into his cloak.
Eventually, the merchant finished all his business and walked back to the group. “All done.”
Nobinar nodded. “Let’s head out.”
The rain continued to beat against Ezra. It hadn’t cleared up at all—if anything, it’d gotten worse over the past hour. Ezra drew his cloak tighter around himself and walked behind the group.
“Ezra,” Filamenta said. “I understand that you don’t like these people, but you need to find allies somewhere. Maybe not them, but—“
“Later.”
Filamenta’s legs dug into Ezra’s shoulders.
“I’m not a tool for you to use and ignore, Ezra,” Filamenta said. “Am I just your pet? A familiar? Do my opinions mean nothing to you?”
Ezra paused. The caravan drew away from him and he was able to get some privacy.
“Weren’t you the one talking about keeping a low profile?” He drilled his eyes into the ground. “Gaining allies and talking to people isn’t exactly a conducive way of doing that.”
Filamenta cackled. “Oh, that’s rich. This, after that little duel? You’re the talk of the town. Even these random adventurers recognized you. If you’re trying to keep a low profile, then you’re doing a terrible job at it.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Ezra started walking toward the caravan.
“That’s it? You’re just going to ignore me?" Filamenta said. "You do see me as nothing but an accessory, don’t you?”
The frustration boiled to the top. The lack of information regarding the System, the Demon King, and Filamenta had already been frustrating, but now? He couldn’t hold back.
“Because that’s the only option you’ve left me with, Filamenta,” he said. “I’ve tried to understand you, but I can’t. You keep everything locked away and hidden, giving me nothing of your past or who you are. For all intents and purposes, you’re a tool.”
The words hung in the air for a few seconds. Ezra immediately regretted it. He didn’t care much for Filamenta, but this would put a serious strain on their working relationship.
Ezra stood ramrod still for a few moments. He felt a shuffling on his shoulder.
He marched back to the caravan.
As if on cue, that was right when a loud explosion echoed up ahead.