Matthew sat and waited patiently for several long minutes before Rebecca’s voice called out from around the corner. “Ummm… Okay, I guess I believe you now,” was the first low, hesitant words which Rebecca called out, followed by, “Matt… Matthew, you still there?”
“I’m still here,” Matthew answered calmly. “I guess you can see those health and mana gauges now?”
“Yeah. I see them,” Rebecca answered, after a moment’s pause. “Just out of curiosity, didn’t you say you had some new clothes or armor or something for me to wear?”
“I do. Why don’t you come out here and I’ll give them to you?”
“Can’t you just pass them around the corner to me?”, Rebecca asked, sounding hesitant.
His curiosity now starting to raise, Matthew asked, “Why? Is there a problem of some sort?” Slowly, he started to ease up from the corner he’d been sitting down and leaning against and started to walk up towards the entrance.
“There’s a problem all right,” Rebecca mumbled back from around the corner. “I can’t get dressed!”
Matthew stopped and suddenly blinked a few times hearing her words. “Wait a minute,” he chuckled, a smile half forming across his lips. “Does that mean you’re still naked back there?”
“Ye.. Yes, I’m still naked!” Rebecca’s voice rose slightly as it came around the corner, though Matthew couldn’t tell if it was from anger or embarrassment.
“So you can’t wear your old dress or skirt now,” Matthew asked, as the grin spread ever larger across his face.
“No, I can’t!” Rebecca snorted back. “I can’t put my legs through the bottom of the skirt and I can’t put my arms through the sleeves of the shirt! I can’t even put my damn underwear back on,” she muttered forlornly.
Matthew couldn’t help but chuckle slightly, as he slowly turned and walked back over to sit down at the far corner where he was originally. “I’ve got some things you can try and wear,” he offered kindly. “All you have to do is come on in here and try them on. Let’s see what you’re allowed to wear with your new class.”
“Come around there?” Rebecca sounded flabbergasted. “I just told you I can’t! I’m naked!”
“You can,” Matthew chuckled, “if you want what I’ve got in here. If you prefer to do without, that’s fine too,” he added sweetly.
“You… You… You jackass!” Rebecca slowly eased around the corner, holding her pile of loose clothes in front of her to try and hide herself as much as possible. “That’s just being mean, asshole.”
“Maybe,” Matthew admitted, as he stared at her unabashedly, “but I really don’t see what the big deal is. Did you agree that you’re going to let me do a whole lot more than just look at you, as long as the book was real and I told you the truth?”
Rebecca glared hard at him for several long moments while he purposefully let his gaze drift up and down her from top to bottom several times. Finally, she let out a deep sigh and eased over near to where he was sitting and slowly placed the bundle of clothes down on the floor beside him. With a long sigh, she finally eased down and sat on the clothes, pulling her knees up close to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. “i.. I agreed to that,” she finally admitted, “but that doesn’t make this any less damn embarrassing.”
“That’s okay,” Matthew whispered, as he reached out, placed his hands on her shoulder, and then tugged her swiftly and surely back against him. At first Rebecca seemed as if she was going to struggle and try to get away, but then she let out another deep breath and let him wrap his arms around her and pull her up tight. “If we’re going to be a party, we’re going to be seeing each other in every sort of embarrassing, frightening, awful, ridiculous way possible.
"You get sick and take a case of the shits, it’ll be my job to be there to help wipe your ass so it doesn’t get all raw,” Matthew added with a light chuckle as he leaned forward and slowly sniffed at her hair. “If I get sick, it’ll be up to you to take care of me as well. I was serious about wanting a true companion to stay by my side for years to come,” Matthew whispered softly into her ear. “I just hope you were as serious when you agreed to our bargain earlier.”
“I was. I am,” Rebecca assured him. Taking another deep sigh, she slowly leaned back and rested her head back against his shoulder. “It’s just so much to take in. So quick. I mean honestly, what the heck’s wrong with the clothes I had on before?”
“I don’t know,” Matthew answered honestly. “I’m not a spelldancer, so I don’t really know all the requirements or reasons for whatever those requirements are for your class.”
“So what class are you then? What’s your restrictions?” Rebecca asked.
“I’m a Hero,” Matthew answered with a light chuckle, causing Rebecca to turn slightly in his arms and look at him. “I’m not making it up,” he assured her. “My class has me listed as a Hero. I can use any type of weapon and wear any type of clothes or armor – unless it’s specifically restricted to a different class, that is. And,” Matthew bragged lightly, “I’m got some basic magic I can call on now.”
“Magic? What type of magic?” Rebecca asked curiously.
“Most of my magic seems to have cheesy old-style RPG names,” Matthew answered with a lightly self-depreciating laugh. “Heal One, Fire One, Ice One, Lightning One, Return, and Outside. They work basically like you’d expect with such cheap names. I can slightly heal someone; use fire, ice, and lightning to attack something; and use magic to move me instantly outside of a building or cave, or to send me back home.”
“There was this odd blue window that appeared in front of me when that book disappeared,” Rebecca told him. “It mentioned that I’d acquired the Spelldancer class, and that I’d learned the Dance of Avoidance, the Dance of Striking, and the Dance of Soothing. It’s odd, but when I think about them, I can remember the steps to each of them, as if I’d known them for years.”
Nodding, Matthew told her, “That’s how this crap works now. You don’t need to actually read a book anymore to know what’s in it. All you have to do is pick it up and stare at it for a few moments. The higher your intelligence, the higher your skill in reading, the less time you have to spend staring at the book to comprehend it.
“In fact,” Matthew added, “everything is like that for me and you, now. We don’t have to learn things like other people, and we’re not limited by the normal human limits anymore. As odd as it sounds, I’m probably going to beat the snot out of you later…”
“What?!” Rebecca jerked upright and pulled half away from him, before Matthew tugged her back down.
“Give me a moment to finish explaining, dammit!” Roughly, he tightened his arms around her and tugged her back up tight against him. “It’s not because I’m mad at you or anything. It’s not because I’m some nutcase with a sadistic tendency. It’s actually for your own good!”
“How the hell is it good for me to have the hell beat out of me?”, Rebecca demanded.
“Because we’re no longer bound by those old human limits,” Matthew tried to assure her. “You get hurt a few times and you’ll develop a physical resistance and a physical endurance skill. The higher those go, the easier it is for you to resist curling up and just dying whenever you might get hurt – and you will get hurt. This new world isn’t all unicorns and cotton candy you know. There’s a lot of things that are going to want to kill, eat, maim, or mate with you out there. If you don’t have the fortitude to keep going – even when injured – you’re not going to last long in the game.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“And, there’s also the added benefit of increasing your natural recovery rate as well,” Matthew added, as he slowly relaxed his grip around her once again. “It’s a talent that goes up agonizingly slow, but it will go up with you over time. In the last year, I’ve gotten three points in physical rejuvenation, and from what I can tell I heal about three times faster than a regular person does now. If a cat scratches all up and down my arm, it doesn’t stay red and inflamed for a week. Usually within a day or two, I’m all better.
“A talent like that can’t be just ignored. It can be the absolute difference in life and death for you,” Matthew muttered softly, before suddenly changing the topic. “Anyway, let’s see what I might have that you can wear. As much as I think I could come to enjoy watching you streak all the time, I don’t think it’d be all that safe for you.”
“Up, up, up!” Gently, Matthew pushed on her shoulders, trying to get Rebecca to stand up. Hesitantly, she slowly stood and then turned to face him; blushing a bright crimson from head to toe. With a light whistle, Matthew chuckled and made of point of visibly looking her naked body up and down.
“That’s enough of that for now,” Rebecca said, as she tried to cover as much of herself as possible with her arms. “Do you got clothes or not for me? Tell me you weren’t joking about having armor earlier,” she half pleaded.
“I’ve got armor for you, no problem,” Matthew said, half smirking. “Clothes on the other hand, I don’t know. Like I say, I’ve never actually played a spelldancer, so I don’t have a clue what your class is permitted to wear or not. Is it the material that you’re restricted by? No cotton? No polyester? The color? The shape? Size? Damn if I know, without some trial and error experimenting,” he added.
“Then how the hell do you know you have armor I can wear?” Rebecca asked, trying not to let any tears form in her eyes.
“Simple,” Matthew answered, half-grinning as he rubbed a simple silver ring on his left hand. After a moment, a small black circle appeared in midair and hovered in front of him. “It’s a dimensional ring,” he told her, seeing the puzzled look of astonishment on her face. Smiling lightly to show that nothing was amiss, Matthew slowly stuck his hand into the black hole and then pulled it back out a moment later.
“Here, put these on.” Reaching out towards her, Matthew held out two elaborately engraved silver bracers. “Just snap one of those around each wrist and forearm, and they’ll protect your torso. They’re bracers of protection and anyone can wear those.”
Hesitantly, Rebecca took first one with her right hand and fastened it around her left forearm, and then she took the second one with her left hand and fastened it on her right forearm. Once the second bracer clasped firmly shut, they both let out a gentle white light that shimmered from arm to arm and across her chest. “That… That felt odd,” Rebecca muttered, as she slowly rubbed the goosebumps that had appeared across her upper arms.
“That’s just the magic settling into your skin to protect you,” Matthew assured her, as he reached into the hovering hole and pulled out another pair of larger bands. “For your calves,” he explained, holding them out to her. “These will protect you just as well as any thick leather jacket would. You could ride down the road on a motorcycle wearing nothing but those, and you wouldn’t have to worry about any bugs smacking into you…”
“Yeah well, I might have to, if you don’t have some suitable clothes in that hole of yours,” Rebecca muttered, interrupting him as she fastened the bracers around the bottom of her legs.
“You’re not bullet proof by any stretch of the imagination, but you’re a lot better protected than you were a second ago,” Matthew continued, ignoring her interruption completely. “Don’t go to thinking that nothing can hurt you now. You’re not Supergirl, you know.”
“More like Nakedgirl,” Rebecca griped grumpily as she pointed to the hole. “Clothes. Now. Please,” she finally added as an afterthought.
“Fine. Fine.” Half laughing, Matthew reached into the bag and pulled out a long white robe. “Here, try this first. It’s a simple enough thing to wear.”
Reaching out and taking it, Rebecca tried several times to put her arms through the sleeves, before finally giving up and disgust and tossing it on the ground. “Can’t wear it,” she complained, bitterly. “Just like my damn top, I can’t put it on no matter how much I try.”
“Fine. Try this.” Reaching back into the hole, Matthew pulled out a long black dress and passed it to her – only for the same thing to happen again. A jacket was next, followed by a pair of pants, then a pair of shorts, and then various other articles of attire. In the end, all they accomplished was to leave a large pile of discarded clothes on the floor and a disgusted scowl across Rebecca’s face.
“None of these damn things work,” she gripped moodily. “What type of damn class is a spelldancer, that they have to run around naked all the damn time?! Who the hell came up with these rules anyway?” Disgusted, she flopped down and leaned back against the wall across from Matthew. Snorting once, she spread her legs wide and lifted her arms up above her head and then slowly wiggled her chest. “Take a good long. Take a damn long good look,” she muttered. “It’s not like everyone else isn’t going to be able to god damn look as well.”
Staring over, Matthew ran his eyes up and down over her a few times and then whistled lightly. “Well, from my perspective, I have to say that I don’t see a damn thing wrong with the view from here.”
“Shove it, perve boy.” Draping one arm across her eyes, Rebecca leaned her head back against the wall and got silent.
“Giving up so soon?”, Matthew asked, with a half chuckle. “If you’re happy with it the way it is, I can’t say I’m going to complain.”
“And what the hell else am I supposed to do,” Rebecca snarled bitterly. “You don’t have anything else to try on in that damn hole of yours, now do you?”
“Nope,” Matthew agreed happily. “I’m afraid that’s all I have for now. You’re just going to have to do without for a bit, I’m not afraid to say.”
“Great. Just great,” Rebecca muttered.
“There is some good news though,” Matthew offered. “I think we’re probably in one of the best places that we possibly could be, in order to find something suitable that you can wear.”
“Oh really?” Slowly, Rebecca moved her arm down away her eyes and stared at him. “And how do you figure that?”
“All we have to do is pack up, take a little hike outside, and head down to the auditorium. They have a huge ass assortment of different clothes, costumes, and outfits there. They store all the things back there that the drama club uses to put on the plays that they do.”
“You really think we’ll find something there I can wear?”, Rebecca asked, starting to sound a little hopeful.
“I can’t swear to it,” Matthew answered, “but I’m certain of one thing. You certainly aren’t going to find anything waiting in here with me.”