Pov Silven

“...And that right there is the bakery, it’s a place where a food called bread comes from. The bread comes from grains which come from the farms outside the city or from merchants! If you ever get a mouth and a stomach in your evolution, I’ll take you there!”

I said happily to the extremely excited juvenile moth which I carried openly in my right arm, as my left arm was, by the doctor’s words, ‘Forbidden from even twitching’. Just to make his point clear, the doctor forced my arm into a very uncomfortable sling and itchy cast. And I was supposed to wear the sling and cast for a week! Outrageous! How was I supposed to do missions now? I couldn’t help but continuously grumble. At least I got to see Eclipse just being the most adorable thing ever- ahem, I now have enough time to teach Eclipse about the world.

At first, I was worried on how I would be able to show Eclipse the outside world without catching attention, but it seemed Jack had other plans. For some odd reason he decided to join Eclipse and I, which I was thankful for as he took most of the stares of the civilians as he marched in front of us.

I wasn’t too surprised as this was the leader of the mercs, someone said to be champion rank, there was also the fact that he was broad and around 6’7” and he was wearing the menacing black and red heavy knight armor that he only wore for serious events. There were large and small spikes basically everywhere on the armor, this included the helm as it had 2 black horns protruding from the sides and forwards. He didn’t have a have a cape as he had a black great sword, as tall as I was, sitting on his back. There were some rumors going about that the armor and sword were forged from the remains of a dragon, but no one knows for sure.

You would think I would also be wearing armor, or something that wasn't found on the streets, but nope, I only had my bastard sword and spatial pouch sitting on my belt. Jack The Reaper was currently escorting a hooded 5’8” girl who was wearing clothes that suited a beggar. I am thankful I decided to wear a cloak even though it didn’t cover my front, as Eclipse wanted to see the world, but at least, I saved some of my dignity. I only got a few curious stares either due to Eclipse or the fact that Jack was escorting me. But due to Jack’s presence, they didn’t stare too long.

But that doesn’t mean I will forgive him just yet for yesterday...

I shook my head, as I didn’t want to ruin our excited mood. I was excited about going clothes shopping as I was getting tired of the rags that I somehow had an abundance of. Eclipse was excited about... well everything that it saw. Since it couldn't flap its wings due to how close we were, I decided to just explain most of the things we walked by. Which didn't help the sore throat I developed due to what happened yesterday.

"Hey, you sure you know where to go? We are entering the lower class area."

Jack suddenly said as he stopped and turned to look at us.

"Yes, I know where to go, just take a left in a bit."

I replied coldly, looking away from him.

Jack just looked at me for a bit before turning around and continued to march. The awkward silence between the two of us once again continued as the noises of the crowd surrounded us.

"The city is split into 5 areas. Slums, lower class, middle class, high class, and royalty. The slums are a dangerous place as criminals usually gather there as there aren't any guards patrolling that area-"

I decided that it would be a good idea to explain more of the city to Eclipse. It stopped looking around and placed all of its attention onto me when I was talking, which was adorable, but what wasn’t adorable was Jack being a jackass and interrupting me.

"It's also a place where you can find basically everything that isn't found in the marketplace!"

"Hey! I thought you said I have to raise Eclipse right!"

I stared at him intently as he merely said.

"Our rights and wrongs differ."

I opened my mouth a few times, trying to think of a good insult that included how edgy his armor looked, but I gave up after a few seconds of thinking. Grumbling, I looked back down at Eclipse and my mood brightened once I saw Eclipse tilt its head. So I continued my explanation.

"Anyways, the lower class is where we are at right now, the people here live stressful lives but it's a lot safer here as there's constant patrols through this area, but it's still not safe enough to be walking through alleyways and when it's dark as there are criminals-"

“Like that guy over there pickpocketing people, you can never be safe here.”

“Yeah, like Jack said- Wait what!?”

I exasperatingly looked where Jack was pointing and at the end of the street, I saw a bald old man being pickpocketed in broad daylight by a man trying to wear casual clothes. When I say trying, I mean the criminal forgot what session it was as he was currently wearing a thick black jacket and baggy grey pants. I couldn’t help but be disappointed at such a sad sight as this man was definitely new to the crime life considering how noticeable, slow, and clumsy the pickpocket was. I saw a dozen ways the man could do better, like he could start a conversation, or bump into him, but he was clearly walking beside the old man-! I mean there were barely any people in this part of the street, but still!

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I quickly snapped out of my thoughts as I heard quiet giggling coming from a certain lump of edgy metal. I felt a vain pop as I stared at the mercenary leader.

“What's so funny?”

I said, holding in my anger, and the bastard started laughing louder making my anger quickly grow. It halted the second I saw Eclipse look between the two of us, probably confused, it’s eyes were too beady to know for certain.

“Hah... Ha... You should’ve seen your face! At first you were so surprised but when you saw the guy pickpocket you got all serious, clearly thinking of a better method to pickpocket, and then you looked like a disappointed mother! I felt that if Eclipse wasn’t here, you would’ve went over there and shown him how to properly pickpocket.”

I felt my face go hot as Jack replied, barely holding the laughter as he explained. I would’ve done something to the man if one of my hands was free, it didn’t matter if it was effective as I was only doing that to show my displeasure. I wanted to say something, but I couldn't utter a word as I felt some of the people look over at me due to Jack.

“Just... Shut up... Go be useful for society for once and go help that old man out."

I angrily whispered out, and the lump of metal decides to do something even worse, he fucking goes into a formation that royal knights use, one where he stands with his feet shoulder width apart, balls up his fist and places it across his chest. Then he says louder than necessary a phrase that got many people to look over.

"Your wish is my command, your highness!"

And then he jogs towards the thief. Oh, how much I wish he didn't exist. Thankfully I decided to wear my hood today, so I quickly looked down at Eclipse and tried to make myself smaller as I felt a lot of heat gathering on my face.

I'm not here, I'm not here. Jack just has a few screws loose, ignore him...

But it was too late, I heard whispering amongst the small crowd that formed. This of course reminded me too much of a past I wished I could forget, and I felt panic creep in. Thankfully it seemed Eclipse understood that I didn't really like what was happening and nuzzled into my stomach, which caused the panic to disperse. I noticed I had started to hyperventilate so I had to steady my breathing before I could say something to the little angel I was holding.

"Thanks for that Eclipse. Just a bit farther and I'll release you."

I then decided to ditch Jack and started jogging into an alley way. For once I was thankful for a crowd as I was hidden from Jack’s sight. Thankfully this alley looked familiar to me, so I continued as I heard the whispering reduced to just my footsteps. Some people had tried to follow me, but they gave up as I went farther in. I sighed in relief and decided to take a small break before continuing with my journey to the clothes store.

I let go of Eclipse and it jumped down from my arms. It did a few test flaps with its wings before trotting over to a flower that had yet to sprout with black spots and stared at it.

"You should try out that new skill you got on the plant."

I suggested. Eclipse blankly looked at me before slightly flapping its wings. I couldn't help but mentally face palm at my stupidity.

"Sorry about that Eclipse, forgot you’re new to all of this. Alright I want you to concentrate at the plant and think of the word [Appraisal] really hard."

Eclipse looked at the plant once more and stared again for a few seconds before it suddenly jumped back looking at the wall in front of it. I couldn't help but chuckle at Eclipse's first interaction with [Appraisal]. It looked at me and the [Appraisal] window quickly.

"That's the [Appraisal] window, it tells you the necessary information about an object or person. The amount of information you can get from [Appraisal] increases with each level, but there are some items that can hide or change information about an object or person. Be careful when using [Appraisal] on unwilling creatures and sapient species as it'll make them angry. I'll allow you to use it on me, but you won't be able to see much of my [Status]"

I explained and I felt a tingling sensation after a few seconds. Eclipse was probably reading my general information which included: name, level, species and class- wait can Eclipse even read?

"Hey Eclipse, do you like.... understand the symbols that are appearing in a blue rectangle?"

I asked and noticed that Eclipse raised a leg and flapped its wings again. Something it did whenever it partially understood something.

“Ah ok, sorry but I won't be able to talk about your [Status] here as I don’t know what you’re confused about. Once we get back home, we’ll use a Reader, and you can point to the words you don’t understand.”

I said guiltily as I already did something similar back at the tunnel. And then a thought crossed my mind.

“Wait I can explain a few words!”

I moved over to sit beside Eclipse and activated [Appraisal] on the plant it was looking at before.

“Alright since this plant is an organic being, it’ll show more information than some rock-”

And then I froze as I saw the description of the plant.

[Epic Blooming Undeath] A flower that consumed too much high ranked death essence and died before being resurrected by the very same high ranked death essence.

[Blooming Undeath] was not rare as one could find a couple at a graveyard and anywhere where a war happened. But those are usually [Common] and maybe the odd [Uncommon], but this was [Epic] and inside a city. There was no logical way that a flower such as this would suddenly appear.

“Eclipse I’m sorry again, but we need to find Jack.”

I said hurriedly as I stood up and picked up the juvenile moth once again. It wiggled a bit, but I couldn’t focus on that.

High ranked death essence in a city could only mean that there was a litch or a Necromancer inside the city using their magic without a license, since a licensed litch or Necromancer wouldn’t leave residue behind/train in an alley way.

I needed to find Jack, and quickly.