Adventurer.
Larry was finally an adventurer! He was already twenty years old, which was a little late for most people to have picked their career in this dangerous world, but he hadn't picked a combat class until recently. He was already known in town as a journeyman Bowyer, so it made sense for him to become a Hunter, a person who specialized in roaming the wilderness and fighting at range with a bow. He could have tried to use guns, but there wasn't a Gunsmith in town, so he would have to travel to even be able to equip himself.
The small steel rectangle he was holding in admiration was only two inches by three inches, and about two millimeters thick with rounded corners, but it had his information on it that would let people know that he was officially an adventurer. That meant that he could accept tough missions, and be allowed to leave the safety of towns even if there was a Monster Stampede happening. He sat at a square table, sitting in an old style booth with old and creaky plastic booths surrounding it. His friends were idly chatting to themselves, having gotten their adventurer cards over a year ago.
His best friend in the world and partner in crime, Jordan, was a Shield-Bearer, so named for the tower shields they took into battle. Their goal was simply to protect everyone around them from the monsters, and it was one of the first classes that was discovered when the world had begun to change. He was one of the Porsine, also known as pig-folk. Domestic animals from the world-before were much more common in this new world, and that also was true of his other friend at the booth.
Allysa was an Ovine, or a sheep-folk. She was also a Light-Caller, or as some people liked to call them, a priestess. Trained in light magic she was able to heal wounds, cure illnesses, and conjure the light of the sun to attack. She didn't actually do anything related to religion, but it was something that stuck when the first healers were discovered after the change, as they were often either doctors or religious leaders.
Larry himself was a Leporidae, also known as rabbit-folk. He looked back down at his adventurer card, enjoying that his picture turned out fine, unlike Jordan, who had blinked at the moment the picture was taken. Retakes could happen only if your appearance changed, so he was stuck with his goofy picture for at least a few years. It also listed his full name, Lawrence Bon Rivers, his two classes and levels in them, and a basic rundown of his skills. Thankfully, the card was enchanted, so it would update any information automatically, except for the picture.
The restaurant they were in was well liked in their town, although it was a little pricey. They were able to find ways to recreate recipes from the world-before, and while Larry wasn't alive during that time, the elders were always very happy when they were able to treat themselves to something nostalgic. Adventurers could afford these prices easily, though, which was why the majority of people in the dining room were dressed in sturdy clothing or light armor, boasting about their exploits; monsters they had fought recently, old ruins they had found and explored, or the trails they traveled to be able to reach the town, as not every adventurer was a local. Some from the world-before might have questioned animal-folk eating something like a cheeseburger, but a lot of people reasoned that the only way to live was to eat, and they didn't have the infrastructure to be able to survive on an entirely vegan diet. Unlike the animals they were based on, it seemed like all animal-folk were omnivorous, like the humans they were before.
A burst of noise at the front door broke Larry's focus, and he turned around to see four well known adventurers loudly chattering about the job they just finished, easy to see with their armor being covered in scratches and blood that wasn't fully dried yet. Two of the members were Canids, dog-folk, one was a Vulpine, a fox-folk, and the last one, and certainly the loudest, was a Lupine, a wolf-folk. They were one of the groups of the Alpha Dog Clan, the largest Clan that existed in their region. They all sat down and ordered some of the most expensive meat dishes that the diner offered. The Vulpine, a young lad who liked to be called Tricky, made his way over to the jukebox and picked a song that the Alpha Dogs had claimed as their anthem before sitting back down with his teammates.
A lot of the other folks in the diner moved a little farther away from the Alpha Dogs, as the animal-folk that were originally predators had a tendency to be more aggressive than not, and sometimes it was impossible to tell what would set them off. Larry looked back to his friends and his untouched meal, the three coming to a silent agreement to just leave so they didn't accidentally cause any problems for themselves. As they got up to leave, though, one of the Canids saw Larry's adventurer card and snatched it out of his hand.
"Ha! Look at this, fellas, the little wabbit thinks he'll be an adventurer like us!" He showed the other Alpha Dogs Larry's card, before throwing it across the dining room. "Get this through your little prey head, rabbit; you need to stay safe in the town so you can make sure to keep us, the actual warriors happy. We've already told your friends there how these things are, but they haven't listened yet. Maybe something will happen out in the wilds when you're least expecting it. Who knows?" The four at the table started laughing together as Jordan and Allysa hurried themselves out of the diner, keeping their heads down so they didn't anger the group any more. Larry kept his head down as well, but he had to walk over to where his card landed near the old lottery machines, not noticing that he had been stalked across the room.
As Larry was leaning over to grab his card Tricky shoved him into the machine and held him down with his boot, still caked in bloody mud from their recent job. "Give up, bunny. Prey shouldn't risk themselves by joining the fighting. You're not built for it." Taking his boot off of Larry, he quietly walked back to his table before rejoining the festivities as their meals arrived. Heaping plates of steak and pork chops were set in the middle of the table. The Lupine met Larry's eyes as he took a massive bite out of the slab of meat in his hands, blood dripping from his chin and the incredibly rare steak he held.
Larry made haste to leave the room, hopeful that the Alpha Dogs would be done with his town sooner rather than later.
-----
Three hours later, Larry, Jordan, and Allysa were out in the woods around the town, patrolling for monsters. It was the easiest job available to everyone, even those who didn't choose to be adventurers, because monsters were always roaming around, but usually only the weak ones approached towns, often because they were pushed out of their former areas by stronger monsters. The only exception were the Monster Stampedes which occurred when too many monsters spawned in the same area, causing all of them to go crazy. No one was really sure how exactly monsters came to be, or how they were created, because they seemed to appear out of nowhere, and if you were near one as it was spawning, it would appear in an instant when you looked away. Thankfully, stampedes weren't common, with most towns only having to deal with one every four to six months.
Larry had his recurve bow in hand, but held loose, as he didn't have anything to aim at. A quiver of arrows hung off of his right hip, and a short sword that his family gifted to him hung off of the left. He wore sturdy clothing, with only his forearms and chest covered in leather armor, which cost him most of his savings after working for a few years. He had also bought a backpack and a few supplies, but since they were staying relatively close to town, he left those at home. His ears kept twitching back and forth as he used his superior hearing to hopefully catch anything before they snuck up on his group.
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Jordan was wearing a steel breastplate, as well as steel shin guards and bracers, but his thighs and upper arms were only covered in multiple layers of sturdy cloth. His head was uncovered, because helmets were complicated to make before having to worry about the different head shapes that the animal-folk had now, and that meant they were even more expensive. He did have a tower shield, though, wooden panels held together with steel bands, as well as a mace. His armor was well-made and fit better than Larry's, allowing for little excess material to clang and clink together.
Allysa was wearing durable, but light, clothes that weren't form-fitting, allowing for a bit more comfort than what the other two were wearing. She also left her backpack at home, so the only thing other than her off-white outfit that she had with her was a wooden quarterstaff. She didn't like the idea of getting blood on her outfit, since it was so hard to clean out, so bludgeoning weapons worked well enough for her. It was also a failure of the other two if anything got close enough to her for her to have to attack with her weapon, since she was their healer and magic damage dealer.
It was around two hours in their patrol when they heard the tell-tale sounds of something eating; wet smacking and tearing sounds. The occasional growl and yelp told them that there was at least two creatures, so Larry climbed into the trees, creeping along the branches from one tree to another to get a better look at what they were facing. In a small clearing, Larry saw what looked like a pair of wolves made of branches that had been interwoven to create the shape, with a faint green glow from where their hearts would be. They were tearing into the corpse of a cow, likely one that had escaped from the nearby dairy farm, not paying any attention to Larry in the trees behind them.
He made his way back to his friends, and quietly informed them that they were going to be facing a pair of Timber Wolves, a common nature elemental that formed in large forests. Jordan prepared his mace and shield, ready to charge ahead while Larry had to put his bow on his back and draw his short sword. Piercing weapons weren't very good against the wooden elementals, so he would need to try to chop pieces away with his sword. Thankful to be a Speed type class, the three moved closer to the wolves, trying to be as silent as possible. Around the ten yard mark Jordan let out a shout, causing the air to reverberate around him, before charging straight at the wolves. [Taunt] was a powerful ability used by Defense type classes, allowing their allies to not have to worry about being attacked until it wore off.
Allysa started to cast a spell, likely hoping to keep as far away from the sharp teeth of the wolves. Larry rushed forward, staying to the left of Jordan, and started to hack and chop his way into the timber wolf in front of him. This was their standard double melee formation, it allowed Jordan to have free movement with his mace, while also allowing him to quickly move his shield to protect Larry if he got into trouble. While it was Larry's first day as an official adventurer, and he wasn't a very high level in his combat class yet, he had been helping the others with their patrols since they had gotten their own adventurer cards.
It wasn't a quick fight, as the mace only broke small pieces at a time, much the same with the short sword. Allysa's spells weren't terrible, having more effect on the wolves than the weapons, but they were Light-aspected, not fire, so they didn't deal any extra damage. About ten minutes after the start of the fight, it was done. Jordan ended the fight by smashing the neck of the last wolf with one of the flanges of his mace, causing a final loud crack before the wolf completely collapsed to the forest floor. They hadn't been injured much more than a few scratches, the sturdy cloth was very good against claws and teeth, but they were still tired. Allysa was the most tired, as casting spells over and over took more mental energy than swinging weapons and dodging strikes could.
As Jordan and Allysa rested for a moment, lamenting leaving their water bottles at home, Larry went over to the two elemental corpses, digging through the branches until he found the source of the green glow. A pair of small glowing gems sat in his hands;
Today had been a good day, for Larry's first day as a rookie.
-----
Back in town, Larry and his friends were back in the diner, celebrating a good day of not dying with a cold beer each. Larry didn't actually like beer, but it was the tradition in adventurer culture, so he put up with it. The diner was full again, as it was dinner time, and the other patrons were all talking about their exploits for the day, trading stores and boasting, telling embarrassing stories of stupid things that had happened while they were out and about.
A clap of thunder outside warned them immediately before a storm started to heavily drop rain on the windows, almost drowning out the jukebox in the corner. The owner of the diner, a heavy-set bull-man, often just called minotaur, walked to the jukebox and turned up the volume a little bit, causing the patrons to have to yell a little louder to be heard. Despite the terrible weather, everyone was inside and they were done with their patrols and jobs, so they only had to get wet just long enough to get home, which was fine by most everyone here.
What wasn't fine with everyone, however, was what walked through the door a few minutes later.
A human.
All conversation stopped, as they stared at the new arrival. A leather duster covered the body, completely soaked through, and it didn't have a hat on, so the long hair was dripping and pulled over the human's face, the only break in the wall of hair was over one eye, caused by the blood red crystal that jutted out of it's forehead, looking like a menacing horn. Everyone knew the stories, though. That wasn't a horn, it was magic made physical, a pure manifestation of the magical energy of their new world. Humans were terrifying examples of raw strength, as the least capable human that had been recorded was able to defeat scores upon scores of adventurers that had been sent to bring it down.
That was just talking about their physical capabilities, as all humans were gifted magically, as well. While most of the animal-folk had tendencies based on what animal they were for the different aspects of magic they could learn, humans had no such limitation. Larry knew that if he wanted to learn magic it would have to be Nature or Air related, and Jordan was much more likely to be an Earth-aspected mage, since they taught those basics in school in preparation for when they had to choose what class they were going to be.
Not even the Alpha Dogs dared to speak out at the newcomers, waiting to see what would happen. Humans were notoriously unpredictable, almost completely incapable of keeping allies for any length of time due to instability, they were prone to fits of rage and were sources of complete destruction for some communities. Thankfully, it was estimated that only about 5% of the former population of Earth was still human, but they now lived for far longer than the humans before magic had become intwined with their bodies.
Dark brown hair, almost dark enough to be called black, moved slightly to allow the golden glowing eye to take in the diner. Larry felt his heart skip multiple beats as the human looked in his direction. He wanted to look away, but every instinct told him that this predator was something to not ever look away from. Another rabbit-folk in the room passed out when the human's eye crossed over her, but no one was brave enough to move while this apex creature stood in the doorway, occasionally backlit by the flash of lightning outside.
"Can I sleep in the storage out back? Just until the rain lets up?" A male voice came from the human, as he looked at the minotaur behind the counter. The only other sounds came from the kitchen and the jukebox, creating a very eerie atmosphere.
"Uh... sure. Don't break anything and you can rest as long as you need." The minotaur answered, clearly afraid of what might happen if he said no to the terror in front of them. Larry couldn't see a weapon on the human, but his duster coat was big enough to hide something one-handed, and he was certain he didn't want to find out what was hiding if there was something.
The human nodded once before heading back outside, moving around the building to where the extra storage was. Larry knew that the only things back there were broken kitchen appliances and a couple of motorcycles that the owner swore worked, but nobody had ever seen move from their spots in storage. A collective sigh escaped from everyone in the room, as they had all been holding their breaths.
What a way to end a first day. Hopefully tomorrow would be a little less interesting.