Before Akemi could react, a giant fishing net was falling over her shoulders; two armored boots followed, landing like mini anvils on her back. She was slammed into the dirt face-first, pain rocketing down her spine.
“Urgh. What the hell – get off me!” she screamed. She tried to slither away, or at least free her hands to cast Orb of Pestilent Bloodlust, but the weight on her back was too heavy. It was as if a small car had fallen on top of her. She couldn’t budge.
“No can do, madmoiselle. You have been gotten,” the man on top of her bellowed. He dug his heel deeper into her back. “What a catch, Gio. To think we were on our way to fry a much smaller fish, when such a delectable prize awaited us nearby.”
“It was quite the stroke of luck indeed, sir.”
“Would have never found her without that skill of yours, though. Detect Villainy, was it? Not that it was hard to detect someone blowing down half a forest.”
“A very obvious display of villainy, it was.”
“You haven’t seen a real display of villainy yet, you assholes,” Akemi growled.
She turned her neck in the dirt. She couldn’t get a good view of her captor, but she did spy the source of the second voice standing a few feet away. He was tall, young, and skinny, wearing a tightly-fitting butler’s tuxedo. His right hand was perpetually pushing up his round-rimmed glasses. Akemi instinctively couldn’t stand him, separate from the fact that he was trapping her like a zoo animal. He just gave her an annoying, goody-two-shoes vibe.
To her surprise, after a few moments of brainstorming ways she could stomp him to death, the blue screen reappeared in front of her vision. It gave her a small summary – what she assumed had to be his name and his class.
Gio Marino Lombardi | Level 5 Hero’s Squire
“Get off of me right now,” Akemi seethed. “Or I’ll blow your squire to bits.”
“Oh, you will?” the man atop her laughed heartily. “I don’t see any fireballs.”
The man looked towards his scrawny companion. Akemi could feel the weight on her back shift.
“Gio, is the netting secured?”
“Yes, sir,” the butler nodded.
“Great. Then let’s get on with it,” the man atop her said. “We’ll be the talk of the Bounty Round today with this one in tow. I can’t wait to see the look on Achilles’ face.”
Gio snapped his fingers. The netting instantly shrunk around her, fitting to her skin and enwrapping her body like a straitjacket. She writhed, unable to move her hands or her legs. Damn it. There was no way for her to cast Orb of Pestilent Bloodlust without any wrist control.
“Oh, you’re so going to regret this,” she screamed as the bigger of the two men hauled her over his shoulders like a camping backpack. “You just wait for me to get escape, and—”
“Yeah, yeah,” the man chuckled. “That’s what they all say.”
—
As her two captors progressed towards whatever diabolical destination they had in mind for her, Akemi got to work crafting an escape plan.
I think I got some kind of skill point from leveling up back there. I must be able to spend that on something. Hopefully something that will let me kick that arrogant squire’s ass.
She opened her System. To her surprise, she had a few unopened notifications. They had seemingly closed out automatically once she had been attacked. She reopened them.
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Tutorial Tip! You have received a SP, or Skill Point. You can spend this point in a skill tree of your choosing. Skill trees will decide your class. You may only invest in up to two skill trees at a time, and some trees are locked behind Level and Reputation requirements.
Despite bobbing up and down on some strange man’s back, Akemi was excited. She had been robbed of a good role playing game for decades – now she was getting to live one.
Available Skill Trees
This list has been pre-filtered for your reputation and your level. If you would like to see other skill trees that might become available to you in time, turn off the filter.
Barbarian – Reputation requirement: (None) – Level requirement: Lv. 1
Pit Fighter – Reputation requirement: (-100) – Level requirement: Lv. 1
Necromage Initiate – Reputation requirement: (-100) – Level requirement: Lv. 2
The first two sounded cool-ish, but Akemi wasn’t really into fighting with brute strength. First of all, it was boring. And second of all, it came with the highest likelihood of getting her teeth knocked out. The third skill tree was interesting – seemed like a necromancer class, maybe – but the System wouldn’t actually let her click on it. It seemed like some kind of bug.
Village Anarchist – Reputation requirement: (-200) – Level requirement: Lv. 2
Middle School Teacher – Reputation requirement: (-200) – Level requirement: Lv. 2
Akemi paused her scrolling.
Why does becoming a middle school teacher require a -200 reputation?
The longer she reflected on her childhood, the more it made complete sense.
She kept scrolling. Thankfully, she didn’t need her wrists to do so. All it took was guiding her eyes down the holographic page.
Accountant – Reputation requirement: (-300) – Level requirement: Lv. 2
Explosives Hobbyist – Reputation requirement: (-300) – Level requirement: Lv. 2
Cutthroat Warlock – Reputation requirement: (-350) – Level requirement: Lv. 2
Okay, middle school teacher I get – but accountant? What the hell?
The other options at least sounded scary. Unable to resist her curiosity, she toggled the description for the Accountant skill tree. It also gave her a preview of the first two skills she could unlock. The rest of the nodes in the tree beyond those two were blurred out.
Accountant
Punches numbers. Makes sure money goes where money is intended to go. Blah, blah, blah.
What even is this class description?
Unlockable Skills:
* Knife Fingers | Transform your fingers into knives. This is useful for shredding expense reports you don’t need anymore, among other things.
* Conjure Illusion | Conjure a temporary illusion that lasts for 5 seconds. This is great for distracting clients when you tell them you’re going to have to file for bankruptcy.
Wait, that first skill… that could actually help me get out of here.
But there was no way on Earth or, what was this place called? Kodra? that she was choosing Accountant as her class. She couldn’t think of a more ear-bleedingly boring profession. It felt like a complete waste to even invest a single skill point into something as drab as a number-puncher.
She looked through the others, desperate to find something equally as helpful for her current predicament. Village Anarchist and Explosives Hobbyist both seemed focused on bombs and traps, but both of those were useless without her hands, not to mention the crafting time.
Barbarian and Pit Fighter both would increase her Strength, possibly allowing her to break through the netting with enough aggressive flexing, but that wasn’t a given.
Finally, there was Cutthroat Warlock.
Cutthroat Warlock
Enter into a Pact with an evil deity of your choosing. In return, gain access to the unbounded power of the Gods: fires from the depths of Koverna, celestial illusions, murderous cantrips.
The first-level skills in this class are the same amongst all deities. At subsequent ranks, they will be decided based on which god you enter a Pact with.
Unlockable Skills:
* Conjure Elemental Weapon | Summon an equipable elemental weapon.
* Blast of the Great Beyond | Leveraging the power of the Great Reaches, shoot a ray of pure celestial energy at your enemies.
Wow. If this were a straight up video game, she would have picked that class, no question.
Unfortunately, now that she was actually living this shit, entering into a permanent contract with an evil deity seemed slightly less appealing. But only slightly. It was still cool as hell. And probably the best way to fast-track herself to ultimate power.
“Finally, sir,” Gio said. “We’re here.”
Their footsteps came to a halting stop. Being pinned to the man’s back, Akemi couldn’t see what they were looking at, but she could hear the sounds of people; lots of people. She smelled meat cooking hot on a fire. Beer and wine and frivolity. All signs pointed towards a celebration, and given present company, one of the heroic variety.
Shit. She needed to act now, and quickly. I don’t want to find out what happens when you get turned in as a bounty.
Seeing no way out, Akemi pressed down on Accountant.