I woke up to a throbbing headache, head foggy.
Where…right. Dungeon. Stabbed. Ugh. Fuck that guy.
I groaned as I looked up. Corby looked back at me and smiled, but it was a painfully strained smile.
“Oh thank Torrentus, you’re up.” Corby still looks somber, but relief washed through him.
“Mhm. Where are we and what happened?”
“We are just outside the city. I took finished off the guy that stabbed you and carried you out here.”
I winced at the pain clearly painted across his face. However, talking about it is for when we were sure I wasn’t dying.
Oh, my poor cute boy. Sorry I let this happen, even if you’ll never blame me. You’re too kind to be forced to do that.
My side was absolutely screaming at me. Corby had a few visible injuries, but more pressing was his obvious exhaustion. That boosting skill had one hell of a drawback, and he had carried me this whole way after using it and going through two fights back to back.
But I suppose the skill did help keep us alive just now. We should probably try to train the skill when we have lots of downtime for him to recover.
Corby carried me to the gate. The guards, a different pair than yesterday, gave us weird looks, but let us in after seeing our guild badges.
I guess I’d give weird looks to people coming to the city covered in blood and other stuff.
Our second entrance into the Guild branch was a lot less glamorous. Corby staggered over to a concerned, but not surprised, Grandle.
“Goodness, I didn’t think the first level would be that difficult for you, but I suppose one should never underestimate a dungeon.”
“Dungeon was challenging, but doable. Problem was getting stabbed by another Guild member,” I said.
Now Grandle was surprised. “You were stabbed?! By a Guild member? Details. Now.”
“A guy named Takan offered to join us for the dungeon because he said we had finished his work on the bounty. He went through the dungeon with us and pretended he got knocked out by the floor boss. After the fight, I went to check on him and heal him if necessary. Then he surprised and stabbed me. Then Corby killed him to protect me and carried me back here.”
I winced at having to mention Corby’s killing. He was just staring at the floor.
I wish I could hug him and pat his head.
“Did he perchance mention why he attempted to follow and murder you?” Grandle asked, face stern.
“He mentioned something about killing his brothers.”
Grandle blanched as she seemed to connect dots in her head. “Oh. I see. This is going to be a problem. But before we get to that, you both need to see our healer. You both look half-dead. Why don’t you hand her to me, Corbin. You look like you’re about to fall over.”
Corby’s grip tightened on me, fear all over his face. I nuzzled into him and he relaxed a little and handed me over. Grandle had a strong grip.
She led us upstairs to the healer. I did not appreciate the presence of stairs on our route, no matter how solid her grip was.
Who puts a healer on a third fucking floor?
Corby trudged up the stairs after Grandle and we made our way to the infirmary. A badgerfolk lady wearing a blue jumper with a symbol of Caddy on the front and the back. “Wow, you guys look like shit,” she said.
“Feel like it, too,” I mutter.
“Alright, take a bed each. I’ll give you a look over.”
Grandle placed me on a bed and Corby climbed onto one with some difficulty. She looked over Corby.
“Hm, injuries aren’t too bad, though one of them might be infected. But you need like a week’s worth of rest. So just lay back and sleep.”
She came over to me, and looked at my wound. “Hot damn, what dumbass tried to cobble you back together?”
“Uhh, me.”
“Huh. Ok. You did a terrible job.” She blinked after saying that, confused.
“Oh, sorry. Honesty aura thing.”
“Gotcha. But yeah, your wound looks like someone tried to fix a doll by shoving a whole ball of yarn in and calling it a day.”
I laughed a little, which hurt. “Sounds about right. Could you explain what you’re doing to fix it so I can hopefully do better next time?”
“Yeah, I’m gonna have to get rough, though. Can I use a numbing skill on you?”
I flinch at the idea of trusting someone I didn’t know to touch me right after getting stabbed by someone. “Do you want to do it to help or to mess with us or attack us?”
“Just trying to help, kid.”
I took a deep breath. “Then sure!”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
She numbed me up and started cutting up my patchwork healing. She was very good at explaining what she was doing. Explaining how blood tubes worked and how muscle and skin were different and how I couldn’t patch up a giant hole in my stomach with a bunch of skin and fat. She worked for a few hours, cutting and healing. It was a bit surreal to see myself getting stabbed for the second time today.
Pretty sure it was today. How long was I out?
When she was finally done, I crawled into Corby’s bed and fell asleep cuddling with him. I didn’t want him to wake up alone.
When I woke up, Grandle was standing over us, apparently talking to Corby.
“Did I miss anything?” I groggily asked.
“Leaving Oak Ridge,” Corby replied.
“Do I care why?”
“Not really. Suffice to say we made the government mad, so we shouldn’t come back for a while.”
“Alright.” I sat up and stretched, which still felt weird to do without half my arms.
“You’re so much like her it’s scary,” Grandle muttered. “But yes, we need you to leave once you’re rested. I would have preferred to have you stay around and show you the ropes myself, but alas the situation is outside our control. That said, I am not sending you out empty-handed. First and foremost, I’d like to congratulate you on becoming official C-Rank members of the Guild. As you may have noticed, however, C Rank doens’t require a lot of effort or scrutiny to obtain. Most C Ranks don’t advance, and use it as a pass to use the Guild’s services. In exchange, we get a cut of the resources they bring in, which is why you are required to sell your monster harvests here until you advance in rank. It also permits us to call upon them in times of crisis.”
“So how do we get to Rank B?” I asked.
“You will need to obtain recommendations from 5 different branches, and one cannot come from the city you registered in; it helps reduce favoritism for known locals. Recs are given out at the discretion of the guild receptionist, so try not to piss us off, yes?”
“I don’t try to piss people off; I just do it naturally,” I protested.
Grandle just sighed. “The second point is that I have secured you a job that will take you out of the Wild Lands and into Fernia. I doubt either of you have had much experience with human cultures, so a word of warning: they do not like our kind, or any kind other than humans. Fernia isn’t as bad as Cadeumia, but it’s still far from ideal. I’ve also heard from some of the branches in Fernia that the country is experiencing some economic turmoil, so it’s possible the situation is worse than I suspect.”
Humans hate us? I thought it was the other way around. Most of the beastfolk in Laketown didn’t like Reuben.
“If they’re going to hate us, why are we going to a human country?” I asked.
“Because if you want to advance in the Guild, you need to be able to work with most races and countries. There’s a reason one of our main tenets is service. They don’t need to like you for them to need your help. Having a problem helping certain countries or species means you aren’t a good fit for the Guild. That’s also why the particularly devout tend not to advance–too many problems with churches and their associated nations fighting one another. ”
“So what actually is the job we’re doing on the way to Fernia?” Corbin asked.
I am so glad he keeps track of the important stuff.
“It’s a courier job. Client wants some books transported to his residence in Fernia, on the outskirts of the city of Freshna.”
That’s at least a better name than Laketown.
“We have already procured the books in question for you, as well as the supplies you left in the forest. We also harvested the dungeon boss on your behalf. In part because we wish to repay you for the harm our own guild member caused you, and in part because we don’t want to risk you being out in town any longer than is necessary,” Grandle said.
“That restitution for your injuries also brings me to the matter of your pay. I have elected to waive the tax on your monster harvest and pay you in full for the items you have procured. The total comes out to two silver.”
Corby and I were both shocked. Two silver was more than I earned in a year of running things around Laketown. No wonder cities always pop up around dungeons.
After that, we were left alone to recover. Corby needed a lot of bed rest since, but I was out of bed after a day. I spent the time helping out the healer whose name I still didn’t remember. I was an extra mana pool for her to tap for weak injuries, and she was able to teach me more about how to treat more complex injuries. She also taught me that trying to magically heal bruises is a bad idea because then the blood—that’s apparently what the purple and yellow stuff was—just gets stuck and causes clots and problems.
The training really paid off, as my skill got upgraded.
Corby meanwhile volunteered to help with paperwork while he was bedridden. Neither of us liked sitting around doing nothing, and Grandle was very appreciative of the help.
I also took plenty of time to cuddle and check in with Corby. He didn’t seem to be having nightmares, but it was still bothering him.
“I think what bothers me most is how little I’m bothered by it,” Corby confessed. “I just knew that he had hurt you and was still a danger to you, and that was enough for me. I can understand why you made the same decision back in the forest now.”
“I’m sorry you had to make that choice to protect me.” I nuzzled into him. “There are a lot of things I can’t help with, but I wanted to help take that burden for you. Not that it worked out for very long.”
“It’s not about what you can or can’t do. We protect each other. I have your back, and you have mine. And you gave up your hands for me. If you won’t let me be in your debt for all the times you’ve helped met, I’m never going to let you be in mine for helping you.”
This otter is just too precious.
The stay at the Guild branch also meant one other thing: food! Warm meals and meat and three servings a day. Three! And on top of all that, I didn’t have to eat any turnips. Almost made me glad I got stabbed.
That’s probably not a great thought, but eh. Too full of good food to care.
We took the down time to write home to Corby's folks and the twins. We left out the stabbing part. I was worried Corby's moms would chase us down to check on us if they heard about that.
Sadly, it was soon time to go.
Wait, not sadly. Corby is recovered and we can go on more adventures. The lure of good food is scary.
We got escorted out of the guild under hoods and soon found ourselves back on the road. We were finally C Rank adventurers on a mission. It also meant that even after leaving Laketown, I was still acting as a courier.
The more things change…
Name: Nymia
Age: 18
Species: Rabbitfolk Lv. 30
Class 1: Bard Lv. 13
Class 2: Locked
Stats:
Bonk: 56+4
Zoom: 129
Sturdy: 44+4
Senses: 126
Brain: 53
Mana: 66
Willpower: 113+30
Free points remaining: 0
Class Skills
* Sound magic Lv. 13
* Soundproof Lv. 13
* Story Time Lv. 8
* Very Good at Word Stuff Lv. 13
* Find stuff Lv. 13
General Skills
* Blades Lv 30
* Dodge! Lv 30
* Barefoot Lv 30
* Sneaky Lv 28
* Stubbornness Lv 30
Species Skills
* Rabbit’s Foot
* Enhanced Senses
* Forage
* Burrow
* Cuddles