"Crazy," Derick muttered. "I knew there would be dangers in their research."

Derick and Hunter had stayed the night in a hotel in the merchant guild's folded reality. Derick mentioned that members were allowed three free nights per week per city, which extended to friends, families, or workers.

As they left the city in their wagon, Derick grew frustrated with the morning's chaos. "One researcher starts screaming about doom and gloom, and the whole city freaks out; it's not like there is a monster blitz."

Derick still had to travel north to a town built over a Mana well.

"Oh, before I forget," Derick said with a big smile. "I got this for you." Derick pulled out a shimmering bracelet with a large orange stone in it.

Hunter stared at the bracelet in one word… pretty. Wavy interlocking metal wove around itself, culminating in a glamorous orange stone. Hunter hesitantly took the bracelet, giving a half-hearted and drawn out. “Thaaaannnks, I guess”

Derick didn't seem to care or notice, he said. "No problem. This low-grade protection gem runs off Mana and can protect you from weak attacks."

Hunter examined the bracelet with new appreciation. "How does that work?" he asked.

Derick's eyebrows tried to reach his head again. "If I knew that, do you think I would be a merchant?"

Hunter didn't answer, so Derick shook his head and continued. "I said I would help you grow stronger; this is some protection for my investment in you; just think about it like that. Additionally, you need a weapon."

Derick approached a large, long table and laid out a few weapons.

Gasping, Hunter stepped closer to the table; the first weapons to catch his eyes were two daggers, both about sixteen inches. They had a simple, straight design from the hilt to the blade, but they looked deadly.

The second was a crossbow with a simple, sleek design. Twenty-inch bolts were lying next to it. Hunter also spied a sword, a mace, and even some weapons where you could change the location of an axe head along a long pole.

Hunter felt drawn to the crossbow. He had always enjoyed playing with ranged weapons in games, and the idea of not getting hurt sounded appealing.

Derick made the other weapons disappear. "You can always switch. Fighting with a crossbow is difficult, and if you miss your first shot, you may not even get another. Do you need a backup weapon?"

Hunter shook his head, pulled the crossbow and bolts into his inventory, and pulled out his barbed bone. "I think I'll be okay; I've got this." The short man laughed heartily.

"You have this? With that?" Derick said, still laughing. He reached for the barbed bone, feeling its edge as his laughter finally died down. "This is bone." More a statement than a question, Derick saw Hunter's lack of understanding and shook his head. "Hunter, tell me, what would happen if you were to strike an enemy with this?"

Hunter felt lost. "What would happen?" he asked. "It's a blade; it would cut or pierce the monster."

Derick gave the weapon a few test swings and nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe." He said. "Or perhaps a more likely thing to happen would you would hit one of the monster's bones, and this thin blade would break; I have no doubts that monster would thank you twice, once for not hurting them much and the second for an easy lunch."

"It's not that bad," Hunter said sheepishly. "I killed a Cowird and a Plink with it."

Derick's face turned confused and amused at the same time. "You really don't understand anything about this world, do you?"

Hunter felt his face grow cold and then hot as his brain warred between anger and confusion about what to be angry about. Hunter clenched his fists. "I've been asking questions this whole time. Maybe instead of dancing around the answer for ten minutes, you just tell me."

Derick handed back the barbed bone. "Ok, ok…Calm down," he said. "Let me start with the plink; this is a normal carnivorous plant that is usually pretty weak; the Cowird, I would say, is slightly more annoying but is used as livestock."

Putting his weapon away, Hunter asked. "Livestock?"

"Yup," came a quick reply, "In fact, the meat in your food last night was Cowird."

Hunter started to feel gross as if he would puke, and then a thought crossed his mind. "Are these the equivalent of chickens? I can't be that weak, right?" He felt his heart pound and asked, "How weak am I?"

Derick suddenly got more serious and gave him an assessing glance. "Well, let me say this: if that Plink gave you a bad time, then the monsters out here will rip you to shreds. But that's why I'm here. Until you decide what you want to do, I will help you grow; it isn't all selfless, however."

Derick's voice changed to a harsh tone, and he locked eyes with Hunter. "If you get strong enough, I would like you to help me find the man who killed my friends."

Although the malice wasn't aimed at him, Hunter still felt a chill. "You mentioned that guy was pretty impressive; if I get stronger than him, I will help you."

The bald man's pained expression cracked slightly when he said, "Thanks."

The wagon shifted, and Hunter was suddenly off his feet and flying. Luckily, there was just open space, so he and Derick both slid to a stop on the wood ground; Hunter felt a stinging pain from his arm, which he had landed on, but pushed up to his feet as he asked. "What happened?"

Derick was already on his feet and nearing the front of the wagon, he muttered. "We stopped, probably a monster."

Hunter felt his blood grow cold as his mind raced. "A monster? I know I said I was ready, but he said what I fought was weak."

"Get over here." The yell came from Derick, breaking his thoughts.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Hunter quickly got to his feet and rushed over, brushing his sore arm as he did so.

"Lorid's have a great sense of smell." Derick said, "Whatever it is, it probably doesn't know we are here yet." He jumped out of the wagon, and Hunter went down the ladder. "Here," the bald man said, handing him a dagger.

Hunter was about to hand it back again, but Derick's intense look had him put it in his inventory. He brought out his crossbow, pulling back on the string; Hunter didn't realize how hard it was to pull the string back but eventually felt a click and was able to let go; he pulled out a bolt and set it into the flight grove.

Hunter looked around for the monster. They had stopped in a valley, with green hills approaching the road at thirty-degree angles. No trees were in sight, and the only things he could hear were his breathing and Louie, who was letting out a soft whine.

Hunter then felt a little air in his ear as Derick whispered. "These creatures have four legs; they are slow but have a strong hide. Your bolts will be able to penetrate, so aim for their center. These monsters range from thirty inches tall to forty. Some of them have skills to make you stuck in place."

The bald man pointed over the left ridge, where a monster stood and observed them.

It stood atop the hill alone, and Hunter took aim; it was fifty feet away; the monster was a dirty gray, dirty, matted fir covered its hunched body. It had a long maw, much like a wolf but with longer teeth more akin to a saber tooth tiger; a low growl came from the monster as Hunter looked down the sight. "A little closer," he told himself, letting the beast slowly inch its way forward.

It was within thirty feet now, and it started pacing back and forth; Hunter aimed at its center, waiting for it to pace in the other direction.

It turned.

Hunter held his breath.

He squeezed the trigger.

The bolt flew, hitting the creature's shoulder. The bolt's power flung the creature onto its side, and it let out a grunting yelp.

Hunter stood there, surprised he hit it, but he was quickly brought from his thoughts when the monster got up a foot of the bolt still sticking from it and growled. It snarled at them, and even more rows of its yellowed teeth appeared.

Priming the bow again, Hunter loaded another bolt; the monster made a yelping sound as he felt the click, and Hunter looked at the beast as he placed another bolt on the crossbow.

The monster had somehow pulled out the bolt and was now bleeding dark, black blood. It let out a howling sound, and its matted fur stood up on end. Hunter was reminded of his ability and mentally thought, "Amplify," as he aimed down the sights.

A sharp pain shot from his arm to his mind; he dropped the crossbow as his arm muscles spasmed,

Hunter looked down at his flailing arm and let out a pained cry as he felt sweat bead his brow. Hunter gritted his teeth, blinking rapidly, anything to keep his focus on the monster.

The monster was rushing.

Hunter pulled out his barbed bone in his right hand and the other dagger in his left.

The monster lunged at him.

Hunter tried to dodge out of the way, but his body felt rooted in the ground.

He twisted his body just out of the way, slashing with his barbed bone at the temple of the monster.

The weapon dug into the monster's head.

Then shattered, the monster rocketing past.

The monster was now behind him, and his feet were tingling as if asleep; he tried to twist his body to see it, but fear and adrenaline rushed through him.

The monster lunged again.

Hunter fought against his own body to try and fight back.

His feet flew from under him. They were no longer stuck.

The monster missed him by inches.

On the ground, Hunter felt like he couldn't breathe. "How can I defeat this?"

His head was hurting, and he realized he had been holding his breath.

Hunter jumped to his feet, and his world grew dark.

He could hear the blood in his head as his vision swam, darkness filling it.

Hunter saw the monster turn as he felt the world spin, then nothing but darkness.

Hunter woke up with a rush, sitting up quickly; the monster's lower half was to his right, lying on the ground; he was being propped up, and he looked behind him to see a blanket.

"Not bad for your first real fight," Derick said.

Looking toward the sound, Hunter saw Derick holding a bloody sword in one hand and patting the Lorid as it ate with the other. Hunter looked closer and realized the Lorid was eating the monster. His stomach flipped again, but he held it down.

"Thanks for the help. You were right," Hunter muttered, looking at the hilt of the barbed bone on the ground, which was the only part left. Hunter looked around for the other dagger and opened his inventory to put it away when his eyes widened.

He must have been staring for a long moment since Derick asked. "Are you ok? I don't think the monster got you, did it?"

Hunter wasn't hurt; however, he was just confused, he stammered. "T-th…. I had flowers in my inventory, a lot of them… They are gone."

Derick picked up the other half of the monster as he responded. "Weird, you sure you didn't get rid of them?"

Hunter thought back but didn't remember throwing them away. "I don't think so." He said.

Derick threw the corpse to the Lorid, and it started crunching down the remains. "You could always ask the researchers if you're curious, but they would probably rather study you than some missing flowers."

Hunter put away his weapon and looked at the new notification."

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————

You have helped in killing a Porolf. 32 xp earned

Level up, now level 14

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————

"So get xp even if I don't kill the monster." Hunter thought, adding two points to durability and three to agility. He pulled up his stat screen to see the changes.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Stats:

Strength:

21+1=(+1 Hard-worker)

Durability:

19+3=(+1 Hard-worker +2 from achievements)

Agility:

21+0=(-1 Sloth +1 Hard-worker)

Intelligence:

10+4=(+1 Hard-worker +1 Good Liar +1 Daydreamer +1 Prey)

Wisdom:

11+3=(+1 Hard-worker +1 Daydreamer +1 Prey)

Level 14

XP 267

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Hunter sighed, looking at his stats, and said. "You're strong,"

He got a scoff from Derick, which surprised him, and he heard him mutter. "If only I hadn't hit my cap, I'd be stronger."

Hunter wanted to ask about that, but the bald man gave him a sour look, so he resolved to wait until later.

They were on the way again, finally having started moving. Derick and he were sitting in chairs across each other, drinking tea he had made. "What?" The bald man asked.

Hunter hadn't realized he had been staring, so he looked away as he asked. "Why did you become a merchant?"

Derick put the cup down and let out a long-suffering breath; he breathed in and said all at once. "I wanted to be an adventurer growing up, but I hit my limit."

Derick met Hunter's eyes and sighed, explaining. "I was going to school for adventuring and hit that… barrier." He spat. "I hit the barrier in my third year; what are the chances of being stuck so weak?"

"You seem strong to me," Hunter said.

Derick smiled sadly. "Thanks. You will grow stronger than me; I haven't even hit the first stage."

Hunter wanted to ask a million more questions, but the look on Derick's face was broken. Instead, Hunter looked at the crates, about half of what he initially saw still stacked up. "What are we delivering?"

Derick shrugged. "it's probably some new instrument or tool or something weird for the research institute. They have been going all out on inventing the future, so lately, I take a lot of shipments for them, and it feels like I'm more like a delivery driver than a merchant."

A pink glow caught Hunter's eyes, and he looked to the front of the wagon. The glow was emanating from something outside, so he got up and walked over to see.

The sky was a bright pink. He leaned out, looking behind them, and saw where the blue sky transitioned to pink. The direction they were going was even more so. "This is a beautiful sunset, " he said.

Derick laughed, "Not quite. That is caused by the Mana well. I guess we are getting close to Manarith."

Hunter looked toward the bald man looking at the sky and asked. "What does Mana do?"

Derick continued looking at the pink sky and said. "That's what they are trying to figure out. All I know is that it powers this folded reality and the one in Ilian."