Chapter 23

“The reunion with the two idiots”

“You will need at least three health potions to heal your wounds and Gabriel's one. Plus, I can provide a bow and a quiver with twenty arrows for your brother and a sword for you to defend yourself... I don’t think you can do much with just a dagger, can you?” Gideon frowned.

“I repeat. What do you want in return?” He grunted and Kalysto gave him a half smile.

“First, let me ask you something. When you arrived here, did you see a road full of corpses in front of the walls of a city?” When they nodded, she continued, “Lead me over there and help me loot the bodies.”

“What, are you crazy? Do you want us to be put in jail for looting graves?”

“First of all, we are no longer on Earth but in another world called Elinor. And secondly, they’re not buried. I want each of you to collect 500 arrows and bring them to me, plus half of the loot you get, especially if it’s potions.” She said extending her hand towards them, but the twins, instead of looking at her, they just stared at something in front of them.

“How did you do that?” Amazement adorned their voices.

“Did what?” She frowned blankly.

“A screen appeared out of nowhere,” said Gideon, shooing it away like a mosquito.

“Do you accept, yes or no? I still have to go look for Edward so I can’t stay for long,” although it seemed strange to her that when she made a deal with them, the system responded. She had to concentrate on the important things for now.

“We accept,” Gabriel said immediately. But Kalysto waited until she received confirmation from Gideon.

“I accept,” he said reluctantly. Immediately, a purple window appeared before her.

[Does the user wish to enter into a binding soul contract with Gideon Black and Gabriel Black?]

“Yes,” she said, surprised by the unexpected event.

[Enter the terms of the contract below.]

And so she did.

As soon as they agreed, she handed them the vials of health potions and the weapons. As they had agreed.

-Is it safe to drink this? -Gideon asked suspiciously.

“You can drink it or apply it directly to the wound. In your case I recommend that you apply it, but drink only one potion. There is a prohibition in the system that you can only drink one potion every 10 minutes.”

“System? What are you talking about?” Gabriel questioned after obediently drinking his potion.

“Say status window” and they did so, surprised at the blue screen that popped up before them.

To Kalysto’s surprise, she could also see the information it displayed to them.

So this was why the boss insisted that I set my system to private.

It did not surprise her to see that Gideon was a rogue. Not with how flirtatious and charming he was, going from one conquest to another while trying to keep the others from noticing what he was doing. That and his ability to show up where you least expected it and in a strangely silent manner.

Either that or he definitely didn’t fit into any of the other classes.

Gideon wasn’t very athletic, but he wasn’t a wimp either. And while she had seen him work out and use the college gym a couple of times, he did it mostly to keep the attention of the ladies.

Gabriel, on the other hand, aside from participating in the archery club, didn’t excel at any sport. So it was no surprise that he was an archer.

Does the choice of classes have more to do with personality than a person’s physical statistics...? If so, why am I a wizard?

What did catch her attention was that, unlike her, they only had two tabs. One for skills and one for the status window.

Neither of them had an inventory.

How strange... she frowned, not knowing what to think about it. Then she remembered the blue system message, reporting the presence of an earlier version of her system when she first came to this world.

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She let them familiarize themselves with the system while they waited for the potions to take effect. As soon as everything was in order, they set off toward the corpse-strewn road.

“Are you sure we should go back there?” Gideon asked.

“The potions that saved your life are there. Besides, the dragon is already gone. As long as we take care that no other people see us and we stay close to the forest and away from the city walls, we should be safe,” She turned her head to look at them, “Do you really want to go around without at least a couple of potions as backup? And with those monsters roaming around?”

They both shook their heads and followed her silently, but doubt still shone on their faces.

After a couple of minutes of walking, Kalysto asked them.

“And how did you get here?”

“We were at home about to sit down to lunch when suddenly a light came from I don’t know where, and the next second we were here. When we arrived, there was a group of hooded people waiting for us, but soon after, monsters attacked us before they finished explaining to us the situation. Some of them fought them off as fire came out of their hands,” said Gideon, his face growing paler and paler as his story continued, “How crazy can that be? Since when can fire come out of people’s hands?”

“We are no longer in our world. Consider everything you see from now on as part of a great madness and just focus on surviving.”

“Is that what you are doing?” As she nodded, he kept silent.

“And what happened after that?” Kalysto asked them, wanting to know how they had come to be in that part of the forest.

It was Gabriel who continued.

“Then more green monsters arrived. One of them had a strange staff and seemed to command the others. Apparently, he could also do magic and could eliminate several of the hooded ones. Then we heard a loud roar, it almost sounded like it came from a dinosaur movie, so we ran as far as we could to get away from there. And as you could see, some of them chased us...” then he kept silent and lowered his head, “a young girl escaped with us but they killed her... we couldn’t...”

“We barely escaped with our lives and then we found you,” interrupted Gideon, giving his twin a warning look to keep his mouth shut.

“So you left her to die while you escaped,” Kalysto concluded.

“You weren’t there. You have no right to criticize us! Besides, it’s not like we didn’t try to help her, it was because of her that they discovered our hideout in the first place! And we had risked our lives to help her just before! I got the first wound because of that!”

“And I was stabbed several times just because I tried to save you two, and yet all this time I haven’t heard any words of thanks from you,” as soon as she saw him open his mouth to refute her, she continued, “So all that talk about helping each other in times of trouble was nothing but a bunch of convenient garbage, eh?” She mocked them. And while Gabriel avoided her gaze with his face bathed in shame, Gideon glared at her angrily.

Edward can be as annoying as you want, but he still threw himself into a dangerous situation without hesitation just to try to rescue me.

Less than five minutes later, they reached the edge of the forest and the road that led into town. There was the equivalent of almost four blocks of dead bodies. She and the twins were almost at the end, so Kalysto looked around to make sure they were alone.

“All right, it’s time to hold up your end of the deal!” She bent down and picked up a bag full of potions. “This is what I want you to pick up for me. This and arrows. If you pick up any other weapons for yourselves, that’s your problem. But stay low,” she said and prepared to loot another nearby body. She had gotten another ten bags of potions and a couple more swords to sell when she noticed the shadow of a person on the other side of the forest.

“Gabriel, Gideon, it’s time to go. Someone’s coming!”

“What? But I still need to get more arrows!” Kalysto rolled her eyes.

“You can give them to me later. We have to get out of here now!” And without waiting for them any longer, she ran to the edge of the forest. Soon after, they both followed her and, after handing her another forty arrows each and another five leather bags with potions, they fled.

Gideon and Gabriel took the opportunity to stock up on swords themselves, which they had strapped to their waists, along with three potion bags. But it was obvious that all the extra weight was a problem for them. And while Gabriel had taken on two more quivers, Gideon seemed to have a waist full of swords.

Still, Kalysto didn’t offer to help them and put their excess baggage into her inventory.

It was when they were almost at the end of the long line of bodies, as they took advantage of the shade of the trees and leafy bushes surrounding the road to hide, that Kalysto heard a scream.

That’s Edward’s voice! Then she stopped. And scanned her surroundings carefully. Until she finally found him at the edge of the forest on the other side of the path. And although several trees concealed his figure, she knew his awkward movements well, and recognized all too easily those of Koden Scott, her athletic partner, and in his words her rival.

How can he consider himself my rival when he has never been able to beat my marks despite winning a bronze medal at the last Olympics?

Still, she looked at the twins.

“Stay here and hide as best you can or follow that path and look for the next city!” She ordered them, pointing down the path ahead of them to the opposite side of the city walls.

“What? Where are you going?” Gabriel replied.

“To save those two idiots.”

“Isn’t that the guy who’s with you at the athletic club?” Kalysto wanted to turn around and look suspiciously at Gabriel.

And how do you know that? She wanted to ask him, but refrained from doing so.

She had more important things to do.

And with all the speed that characterized her as the captain of the athletics team, she ran with all her might to the other side of the wide street, then evaded two trees, jumped over a small bush and pulled an arrow from the quiver she still had stuck against her back.

“Edward down!” Kalysto shouted, and like the obedient son of his parents that he was, Edward’s body reacted to the order given and without him even thinking about what he was doing. Just in time to evade the blow of the orc’s axe in front of him.

Then Kalysto shot an arrow into each eye of the huge green orc and a third into his neck.