Mark:
The fossilised prairie dog stroked his beard. “So, that is how they entered the city… I am such a fool.”
“For not shutting the gates?” Oh gods, did I say that out loud.
“No!” he said, glaring at me. “For not keeping a closer eye on you!”
“Woah, easy tiger.”
“Raagh!” He threw his arms in the air before coming to hover over me. “Have you awakened anyone yet?!”
“Umm, not yet.” I said meekly. If eyes could shoot flame from them, then that’s what he was doing.
“Oh-oh but I’m close, real close…” I lied.
“Brrrrr! Get it done! Or you will be done!” He turned and strode for the door. “Oh! I hold you entirely responsible for the monster attack,” he said, and then left.
“Huh?” but you were the one that had control over the doors!
There was a familiar distortion in the air and I knew what was coming.
“Hey you! Stop in the name of the LAW!” a guard said, before a message appeared in the air.
“Five hundred thousand?! He has got to be joking! I don’t have that kind of money!”
The guard levelled his halberd and slowly stepped forwards.
“Wait-wait… um do you take credit card? Ha-ha no? What about items of significant value?”
A trade menu appeared, and I breathed a little.
The rate of exchange was dismal, and I had to hand over all my loot from the tomb, even that wasn’t enough… I was 50k short… There was no way I was giving up any of the useable items! Urgh, I didn’t really have a choice though did I. It was either this or jail, and by the state of Catherine, I don’t think you get to keep any of your equipment then.
I reluctantly pulled off one of my rings and physically threw it into the trade menu.
The guard relaxed his stance. “Ahh, thank you for your understanding, [Tomb Raider], well, you have a nice day then, and stay within the law!” And he too walked out of the inn.
Bloody thieves! Whatever, I better get changed, bad enough Catherine saw me like this.
There were some footsteps from the stairs, it was Catherine, in her new outfit. The peasant’s clothes refitted to her body perfectly, even though I was sure the peasant wasn’t as gifted as her in the chest area, a white linen shirt came down just below her shoulders and finished at her forearms where she adjusted the laces on her sleeves, and a leather garter wrapped around her thin waist letting her chest express above it, a plain tortilla brown dress covered her thighs and was accented with simple embroidery.
“Umm, wow, it fits well on you.”
She scowled. “I’m not here to play medieval, Mark.”
“Oh right, yeah well, it looks like the monsters have been taken care of.”
Stolen novel; please report.
There was some relief on her face. “So, how am I supposed to level up?”
“Ahh, yeah I know a place. Hey, here take this,” I said drawing the reforged ornamental sword, “and follow me.”
“Fish…? You want me to fight those giant smelly fish?” she said looking out, concerned.
The fish continued uselessly flapping about on the waterless beach.
“Yeah, if you want these shoes, you have to level up.”
She grimaced but looked determined.
“Wait, where are you going?”
She stopped marching menacingly towards the fish.
“Yes?”
“Have you ever even swung a sword before?”
“Yes!” She shot back.
“Oh, okay then, well, like I explained before, we’ll juggle the aggro.” I said, but she looked confused.
“When it tries to attack you, you run and I’ll attack it, when it’s trying to attack me, I’ll run and you attack it.”
“Yes, I get it. So, what are we waiting for?”
I left Matilda and the rest in reserve and threw Gilbert’s Iron Ore.
Light sparkled off of the disappearing fish.
“You’ve never swung a sword before, have you?”
She avoided my gaze and sheepishly replied, “no… sorry, I didn’t think it would be that hard.”
Did she actually apologise?
“Umm, yeah no probs, maybe just try slicing from overhead next time? Keep it simple, you know.”
“Wait, what?! Next time?”
“Yeah? One fish isn’t enough for a level up, at least not for your class type. Oh, hey, did you lose any stamina?”
“Stamina, oh, no the bar is still full?”
“Strange… okay, whatever, you ready for more?”
“No…”
What seemed like hours later.
“You pulled to many!” Catherine shouted, desperately running away.
“Run to the mercenaries!” I shouted back, my heart beating faster than I would have liked. Behind me was a dreaded fish, slapping after me.
Gah, stupid heart, don’t fail me now! That same grasp on my heart came again, but I wasn’t going to let it beat me this time and I strained against it. This can’t be hap—
Catherine:
“Mark?!”
Oh-my-god, did he just faint?
The mercenaries were just up ahead, but there wasn’t enough time.
Mighty Strike? He said only use it in emergencies…
“Okay here goes!” I spun and faced the five fish chasing me and let them clump together. Keep it simple. I rose the sword above my head. Okay, here goes.
“Mighty Strike!”
The sword glowed with burning lights, plumes of searing red and white arched off the blade. It was beautiful, like visual music.
When I brought the sword down, it was like pushing against an ocean, but when it connected with the first fish in line, the fish exploded into sparkles of light, the rest were hit, and though knock back a little, were still standing.
“Mark?!”
Mark had come to, but each time he struggled to get up the fish would knock him back down. I rushed over to him, shoulder low and smashed into the fish.
“Mark, are you okay?!”
He looked surprised, that made sense, I was surprised too, when I gained levels I got noticeably stronger and faster.
“Yeah thanks! Come on, let’s let the mercenaries handle the rest.”
Mark:
“We managed to clear out the entire left section of the beach.” Catherine said.
“No… you did. You pretty much did that all yourself.”
We stood at the edge of the beach, where the precipice dropped down into the deep canyon that stretched to the horizon.
“Ha-ha…” Catherine chuckled to herself.
“W-what?”
“Hahaha-hahaha! Hahaha!”
“H-haha?” Now I was laughing. We laughed together for a bit.
“Why are we laughing?”
“Oh, hah, it’s just, haha, it’s so funny. It’s just so funny… hahha.” But slowly her laughter turned to whimpers and then, oh god?! She was full blown crying.
“Oh, what the? Umm, are you okay, what’s wrong? I mean yeah this whole situation is crazy…”
She sniffed. “My family’s dead…”
What, huh, what-what-what? I mean… realistically…. No… “No, I’m sure they’re fine.” I said, wanting to sound reassuring.
“I was there when they died… the whole house collapsed… not long after I finished making that stupid character.”
Wait, huh. How could she watch her family die… “Ca-Catherine… what, how did you survive?”
“I didn’t.”
The verbal guillotine sliced through the air.
So… does that mean if I hadn’t had my headset on that time, and that smoke monster got me, I would have spawned as ZoohMyGod? except ZoohMyGod was dead already… Wait-a-sec, she must have used the body scan to create her character! Which explains why she also has a combat job-class! Woah-woah-woah, does that mean she also purposefully made her boobs bigger?!
“Mark?”
“I’m… I’m sorry…” Got to stop spacing out! “At least you know…”
“Excuse me?!”
“Oh, umm, err, I mean, shit, sorry…”
“You have hope Mark! Never-ever give up the hope that your family are alive! OKAY?!”
“Umm, yeah, okay, sorry-sorry.”
“And I’m sorry too.”
“For what?”
“You know what. I took my frustrations out on you and was really rude. I’m sorry” She said again.
My heart fluttered a bit.
“Do you want to tell me what’s wrong with you?”
“Oh, this old thing? I’ve had it for a while now, it’s not really worth talking about.” She gave me a look saying if I didn’t tell her, she would beat me up, at least that’s what I thought it meant.
“Umm woah, okay, hold on, well, I have a heart condition, it’s really rare, like I’m probably the only person in the world, well from Earth for it to have happened to. Basically, I had a really bad anxiety attack during a competition I was in, and well it was so bad it damaged my heart…”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, maybe you can tell me the full story some time?”
“Umm, yeah, sure no problem.” Wait, was that like an invitation?
“Hey, Mark?”
Was this it? Was I finally going to go on a date with someone?
“What’s that down there?” she asked pointing down into the canyon.
There was movement, creatures, climbing up the side of the canyon. Ugly things, with giant toad heads, gangly arms, donned with crude leather armour, wielding hatchets or spears.
“Oh no… it’s the Beastmen invasion.”