(A.N. Just a heads up Wrecker159753 the guy who usually helps me with these is having a really rough time right now and I had to do most of this on my own. ill likely have to reduce this at some point.)
You think being reincarnated into a fantasy world would be a good thing and to some extent, you might be right. However, having to start over from square one and learn a new language along with learning the world’s common sense. Then there is the fact you can’t let anyone figure out that you are essentially an adult stuck in a child's body and being stuck in a female body in a pre industrial monogynous society meant unless you were something special you aren't going far as a woman.
However with the unique skill reclass, Alexandra or Alex as she preferred meant she could perform any role or class to her relative skill level. Despite this, she had a hard time finding anyone who would take a chance on her. Worse still she had to have the appropriate gear for whatever class she was using, which was also currently limited to the starter classes being only level twelve. This meant she more or less had to work alone only occasionally she could party for a quest from the adventuring Guild when they needed a specific skill or class. Though most of the time that was as a healer or as a mage that could dis spell specific curses or some similar roles. These jobs while paying well gave her very little experience so she would often take multiple lower ranking jobs changing her class and weapons accordingly. Since she was using pretty poor gear she couldn't take jobs equivalent to her level she had to use her higher level to compensate for her poorer gear her armor was more or less the same regardless of class. A modified mage robe that was more like a hoodie than anything the heavily pocketed rogue trousers in standard plate mail chest plate and helmet leather arm and leg guards. A sword on her hip a knife in her boot a bow and arrows on her back and the basic training wand in her pocket. What she wouldn't give for a decent staff but she was already struggling to carry her base gear she really needed a bag of holding or someone who could help her carry or even share her equipment with. Due to this, her life had eventually boiled down to wake up, check the beginner job board for any low level jobs swallow her pride complete three to seven of them a day. Then once she had enough for the month’s rent set aside whatever was left for expenses. Once in a blue moon when she had scraped together enough shed buy a new piece of equipment or tool that would allow her to take on another job or use another class or even just replace a piece of equipment that had gotten too worn out.
Her luck only finally changed when she stumbled across a small girl dressed like a nun carrying a blessed staff. Which was odd even holy classes and healers tended to only use standard staffs. Even a simple blessed staff made of simple wood like the one the girl carried was way too expensive to be practical for anything other than a higher class holy magic user. Still, she wouldn't have thought much of it if a small group of male adventurers hadn’t been harassing her
“Hey back off do you wanna piss off the church? They offer their services to us at their discretion meaning if we piss them off they could withhold it. So the next time you're cursed or hurt you won't be able to go to them. Or worse yet they'll charge you an arm and a leg and they can do that quite literally I assure you.” I said doing my best to fake a male voice. Thankfully my new helmet covered my face because I'd never be able to pull this off otherwise.
“Wait, shit man? seriously?” One of the guys said before the other chimed in. “Fuck she doesn’t know who we are. Let’s just go before she gets the wrong idea.”
As soon as the three men were gone, I removed my helmet to smile down at the girl. Surprising her to see another girl in the guild. “Hey, you, ok? Those guys weren't causing you any trouble where they?”
“No, they just wouldn’t leave me alone.” She said so quietly I almost couldn't hear her.
“Yeah, there are a lot of creeps here they think since we female adventures are rare. We aren't as skilled or capable as they are.”
“bu-bu-but isn't that why there's so few female adventurers.” She stuttered out looking down at the floor in shame.
“No, the reason why they're so few of us is because people spread that lie around. So almost everyone just believes that the only way we get in is if we're overqualified. Speaking of which what's your class?”
“Oh, I’m a matron and what’s yours.” She said finally noticing my odd assortment of equipment.
“Oh yeah, it’s a special skill called reclass. So, I can be whatever low level class I want to be when I wanna be it. Problem is since I can fill so many roles I have yet to master one. So my levels lower than my actual capabilities. I'm at twelve but I pulled off missions that would normally be given to a thirty.”
“Wait I thought the Guild would only let you take a mission one sometimes two levels above your party’s level. How did you manage to get a level thirty job?” She said in shock.
“Well Simply put by complete accident. I was out doing another job and stumbled across the two headed bear. Now that was an amazing fight also an extremely painful one. I have never been so thoroughly thrashed in my entire life. If I couldn’t heal and tank at the same time, I'm pretty sure I would have died at least nine times over.”
“How were you only a level twelve?” The small nun asked in shock.
“Because experience is shared across all my classes. I can't level up till they all hit the next level. It prioritizes whatever I'm using at the time and once it's maxed out it diverts to the next one on the list. Thankfully at the moment I only have access to the starter classes but when I hit level fifteen and start unlocking the second tear classes it's going to get a lot harder.” I sighed as once I got the second tear classes, I'd get a heck of a lot stronger. It would be a hell of a lot harder to level.
“Oh, I'm sorry it sounds like you're at a real disadvantage.” The sister said.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Well yeah and no, it makes it hard to level up but the abilities and skills I get from all my classes mean I'm a lot stronger despite my level. For instance, if I switch to a knight class I can still use magic it's just a lot weaker than say if I use a mage class. Plus, I can change classes mid fight to get boosts and certain abilities. Simply put every time I level up it's like leveling up multiple times skills and ability wise. Anyways stats and such like that tend to not change that much unless I invest heavily into one class. As it stands If I could get my hands on a bag of holding and requip spell I'd be a heck of a lot more powerful unfortunately neither is cheap and I'm hard pressed for cash.” I side subconsciously putting a hand on the worn sword at my hip. I had been sharpening the blade by hand for months now and I just couldn't get the edge to stay sharp. Most likely it just needed to be replaced altogether but unless I found one in a dungeon, I wasn't getting a new sword anytime soon.
“I thought being an adventurer paid more than well enough to live off of? So why are you so short for cash?” The sister asked tilting her head and I swear for a second there I could see puppy dog ears on her head and a big question mark Floating above her head. However, as soon as I blinked, they were gone.
‘I really need to start getting more sleep.’ I thought trying to shake it off.
“Normally it does yes but I can't take many higher difficulty missions because I can't get a party. Partly because I'm a girl and partly because my level's low and don’t have a set role. I can't take that many decent difficulty solo missions most of the missions and thanks to my multiple classes I have to buy equipment and maintain equipment for those classes. a two or three person party would be enough to get me into the big leagues properly. Sadly, I'm on my own.” I said in annoyance.
“Wait so you're saying alone you can't make enough to get by but if we work together? we can maybe we can help each other out?” She said so timidly hopeful it was downright adorable.
“You want to form a party with me?” I said a small blush from the absolutely adorable display before me. Yeah, I had been working my way around to asking her to join up with me but I never expected her to be the one who offered first.
“Yes I am only a level nine but I'm a higher class. I figure if the two of us worked together maybe we can find someone who will join. Then we can form a proper party and take on more higher ranking jobs like you said.” She said looking at the floor.
“OK then let's get the paperwork filled out and we'll establish a party.” I said Pulling out my money bag hoping I had enough to pay for my half of the fees. Thankfully I did, though I’d have to earn a bit more money if I wanted to have dinner that night. However, I hadn’t needed to worry as the sister would do so before I even got a chance to offer. After a quick test to rate the sister's powers, they raised the level of missions that either of us were able to take so long as we remained as a duo.
After this, I quickly nabbed up my usual jobs herb collecting basic extermination errand delivery. Before going to the main job board to nab us a basic dungeon clearing mission. Most new dungeons were only available to mid or high ranking solo members but could be handled by most low to mid ranked groups. Previously cleared dungeons would occasionally become inhabited with the new monsters seeking shelter and drawn to the dark aura of the previous inhabitants. These new inhabitants would need to be cleared out from time to time lest the monsters get too comfortable and think they can start rating human settlements. The dungeon listed on the request was one I had gone to two times before. One when there was a nasty goblin problem and the guild was taking volunteers to clear them out. The other I had snuck into because I had heard it been cleaned out not too recently and figured I could get some good experience wiping out whatever was left. Usually, there weren't many monsters in a dungeon after it was cleared out. However, within a day or two the carrion eaters would swoop in, slimes rats, and the occasional meat eating rabbit. I hung out in that dungeon for three days just wandering around aimlessly. The dungeon wasn't too big or hard to navigate as it was essentially just five big circles with smaller tunnels shooting off into cavern’s rooms or other rings. It was more that I was just wandering around endlessly looking for anything to wipe out. The only reason I left was that I couldn't carry that much food in, to begin with, and while I could live off of slime fluid and cooked rat, I wasn't eager to try unless absolutely needed. So, when my food all but ran out I left apparently this time goblins had moved in again. The guild wasn't looking for a full extermination, yet they had apparently attacked a carriage and while the guards had managed to drive them off. They had managed to steal some noble’s bobble. Since they were all but able to be wiped out by a handful of guards the guild hadn't listed the group too particularly high. Only listing them as a level ten mission and recommending a party of five but with the sister whose name was apparently Marinette our combined skill level was only seventeen. Even though she was only level nine she still had some powerful skills at her disposal. Though mostly I just need her to act as healing support so I can invest more of my skills points into other skills though the extra damage was nice. Now to clarify the way skill points work in this is a bit different than what you might thank from video game skill points let you get skills for outside your class. Every ten levels you can choose to pick up a new class or you can wait until you're fifteenth level and upgrade your existing class. Most early levels choose to upgrade their existing class instead of learning a new one. Those who were more intelligent plan for it picking useful skills from classes they'll never use and only leveling up classes that they know will be useful later and selecting the classes with the most useful skills first. However unlike Alex's reclass they only had to level up once as an individual this convenience came at the cost of permanence. Once skill points are spent, they cannot be returned once a class is picked or upgraded it can't be undone. Where reclass lets her perfectly reset herself to reselect skills and classes she wished. She could be an Archer who could wear heavy armor and heal she could be it mage who is this swift with the sword as any night and be able to pick any lock she came across. She should have been a highly valued asset and the other three she knew who held the same skill she did were. Unfortunately of those three one was the daughter of a very rich noble and the other two were men. She was a poor orphan turned adventurer who is renting out the attic of the adventuring Guild. Because it was the only place she could afford and that was mostly because the old lady who cleaned the building felt sorry for her and let her stay there for three silvers a month.
Regardless, it was just another expense to her before she could delve too deep into that depressing thought. She and Marinette found themselves at the opening of the dungeon.
“Ok, so I’m assuming this is your first proper dungeon raid. So, some basics tips and general information you need to know first. The monsters were most likely to see in here. Slimes, rats maybe a meat eating rabbit But we will definitely be seeing goblins. First thing to remember when dealing with goblins is and though I will constantly be reminding you that we girls are just as capable as the guys. We are actually at a disadvantage with these monsters. There are no female goblins, so they won’t be trying to kill us they'll try to capture us, to turn us into breeding mares. So, since there's a horde of them in there we're most likely going to run into someone whom they've already captured. We might have to put them down if they can't be saved. So just, Just, keep that in mind.” I said taking a deep breath looking at her seeing her fear.
“look keep your cool whomever they have in there is most likely a villager or someone whom they managed to nab by surprise on the road. Hell, there's even a few cults of girls who will literally hunt down goblin dens strip naked, and walk in willingly.” I said unable to hide my smirk when her whole face turned bright red.
“Regardless they are very little threat to us at this stage and they just had a significant loss. Look since they weren’t even able to stand up to a few carriage guards we should be able to hand it. These nests pop up all the time all over the place and they're wiped out as common pests. it's only when they reach the stage where they can actually attack a village are they a threat and it's rare they can get to that size. I've been an adventurer for five years now and I've only seen two of those raids ever pop up on the board and both of them were for nests that had survived for close to 10 years. A lot of times nests will move around and usually only survive by the intelligence of a kobold or higher level goblin. So unless this group is the first batch of a surviving old nest there isn't going to be a single goblin in there that you or I can't beat by just whacking it with a stick” I said gesturing to her staff.
“Regardless we are going to take this slow steady and cautious because I'm not taking any risks with you and these bastards. Now take your time while we're still outside and prep anything you need a dagger on your hip potions in a pocket you can easily reach and say a prayer to your patron God. I don't know what prep rituals you have or are trying to develop but best you them now.” I said reading my own.