Blood splattered my face as Nora’s axe slammed into the croc’s gut hard enough to lift it off its feet. She dodged out of the way as I took aim and shot the bastard with an arrow. The ground shook slightly from the explosion. The crocs health bar flashed and vanished leaving behind its glowing corpse.
I sucked in a desperate breath and shoved my bow back in my bum bag wishing for the hundredth time that I had a quiver to hold my weapons instead.
I approached the corpse and looted its goods. It was my turn. Nora and I had worked out a way to share the lootables without pissing anyone off. I opened the loot window and focused on the loot-all option. Aside from the standard tooth I got one more item.
New Item Received: Small diamond ring
Description: The clarity is poor, and the size is minimal, but it sparkles!
I’m not sure what a croc was doing with a diamond ring. Maybe it had eaten someone wearing it or maybe this particular croc was engaged to be married. Either way, it should sell for a decent price. Hopefully, we’d run into Red sometime soon.
Nora crept up to the tiny cabin we’d been sneaking toward and glanced through a window. She straightened and flashed me a smile.
“It’s all clear. This was the only one.”
I sighed my relief and followed her inside, leaving Sob outside and bringing Stella with me. The inside was tiny. There was a single bed spanning the width of the back wall and an old rickety chair under the window. There wasn’t even a fireplace. It must have been a hunter's shelter or something of the sort.
Nora yawned and eyed the bed longingly. “Shall we split the sleeping?”
I nodded and grabbed the chair, turning it so I could look out the window. “I’ll keep watch. You sleep.”
She didn’t fight me on it, instead, she tapped her wrist and her armor vanished, replaced by simple cotton pants and a shirt very much like mine. I guess that made sense. It wouldn’t be easy to sleep in full steel armor. She placed her axe gently on the ground beside the bed and fell onto the thing. It creaked beneath her as she settled.
I yawned and looked out the window. It was dark, flat, and boring out there. Stella curled up at my feet and was soon snoring. I yawned a second time and leaned the chair back on two legs. It was going to be a long few hours before it was my turn to rest.
I fiddled with my menus but there was only so much I could do there. Frustrated, I let the chair land back on four legs, flinching at the bang it made. Nora snorted then continued to snore. I pushed to my feet and stretched. I didn’t like this being still and quiet thing, no matter how tired I was.
I walked outside and found a bush to water. Sob watched me which was a tad creepy but what could I do? I looked up at the clear sky and found the only three constellations I knew. Yep. I was officially out of things to do. Wonderful.
I walked around the tiny cabin, keeping as alert as possible. At the rear of the building, I found a small outhouse with its door ripped clean off. I guess that’s where the toilet croc came from. Cautiously I walked inside, holding an arm over my nose to block some of the smell. My curiosity was rewarded by a faint golden glow.
I reached for the object.
Insufficient inventory space!
For fuck sake. This was getting annoying.
“What the hell are you doing?”
I yanked my hand away from the hole of the drop dunny and turned to face a disgusted-looking Nora. She stood there in her full armor with her axe in her hands. Even in the dark, I could feel the judgment oozing off of her.
“There’s something in there.”
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“You had your hand in a toilet pit. Just when I think you’re normal you do crazy shit like this.”
I gestured at the pit. “Come look, there’s something there. I don’t have enough inventory space to pick it up though.”
She edged past me and glanced into the toilet, pinching her nose closed as she did. “What is that?”
“I don’t know. Pick it up and see.”
“No. I’m not sticking my hand in there. My skin with melt off,” she snapped.
I rolled my eyes. “Stop being such a baby.”
She growled, “you owe me for this.”
“Hurry up.”
She reached into the toilet pit, gagging as she did, and picked up the item. She ran from the outhouse into the open yard, bending over with her hands on her knees. I followed her trying very hard not to laugh. I didn’t want to feel the bite of her axe.
“What is it?”
She straightened and held the thing out so the almost full moon could illuminate it. The barrel glinted despite how soiled it was. Nora looked at me, her mouth hanging open. “It’s a gun.”
I stepped up close and inspected the small handgun. It’s not something we see a lot of in this country but here it was, and in a toilet of all places. My fingers itched to get a hold of it. It had to be more powerful than my bow.
She gagged as she put it in one of the many pouches she wore around her waist and frowned. I assumed she was reading the description.
“Hmm,” she said. “It says only gunslingers can wield it.”
“Gunslinger?”
“Yeah, it must be a class type, like how I’m a berserker.”
I scratched the slowly growing beard taking over my chin. If I had found Gordon’s gun, would I have been given that class instead of a thief? That would have been unbelievably preferable. I was still learning to use my bow, granted it seemed my class made that a little easier than it should have been, but a gun would have made my life so much easier. I was also running out of arrows very quickly, although I guess I would have had the same problem with bullets.
“I dirtied my hand for nothing,” Nora whined.
I snorted. “At least you might be able to sell the thing. I saw a barrel of water around the front, why don’t you go wash.”
“Okay, and then you can sleep. I’m a little too awake now.”
I wasn’t sure I would be able to sleep either so instead, I asked the question that had been burning in my brain since we left the witch’s swamp. “Do you know what a King Croc is?”
Nora dunked her hand in the barrel and started scrubbing. “No, I’ve never seen or heard of one. But if we need to hunt them, they must be out there somewhere. Probably in a city or something. We can ride the coach to get there so we don’t have to spend weeks walking.”
“Coach, what coach?”
She looked at me with that same odd look she seemed to favor. “The coach outside the Red Fox Inn. He can take us to all the major cities and larger towns, it just costs a bit of gold.”
“I didn’t see any coach.”
She slapped her forehead with her unsoiled hand. “That’s right, you’re not a level five yet. He only appears once you get to that level.”
I sighed, suddenly feeling tired again. “So, I have some grinding to do. Wonderful. Maybe you should just go on without me. Who knows how long it will take me to get to level five.”
“No, I don’t think I will. I know it’s a bit of a shock but I actually like having you around.” My chest swelled a little at that until she added, “you’re good for distracting the crocs.”
“So, I’m just cannon fodder to you?”
She smiled and I think she winked but it's hard to tell in the dark. “And don’t you forget it.”
“Nice. Real nice.”
She laughed and marched into the tiny cabin, pausing for a moment to rub Sob’s nose. The horse leaned into it. I followed her, reaching out to do the same thing but Sob turned his head away. Apparently, only Nora was allowed to pet him. Stupid horse.
I made my way to the bed and fell onto it. Nora settled in the chair, leaning back on two legs as I had done, and looked out the window.
I closed my eyes but it took a long time for sleep to come. When it did, my dreams were filled with monsters the size of skyscrapers, tearing us to shreds. Seriously, it was like I was watching a Godzilla movie only I was the one standing in his way. A word of advice, never get in the way of Godzilla.
It was near dawn when Nora woke me to change places. I scrubbed the sand from my eyes and took her spot. I’d only just turned my eyes to the window when Stella jumped to her feet and growled.
Nora rushed to her feet, clutching at her axe. I swore and grabbed my bow loading an arrow and throwing the door open.
The cyclone of scorpions came charging down on us sending Sob into a panic. Lightning flashed around us as he fired his magic haphazardly. I swore and rolled to the side to avoid getting electrified. Nora bellowed her war cry and charged, Stella close on her heels.
I maneuvered to a knee and fired, blasting the bulbous tails off two of the beasts.