Millie had no idea what to do. She'd just completed her first tutorial quest. Hadn't even been able to turn it in yet. And here was a four-star public quest with a rampaging owlbear easily twice the size of a normal one. And she wasn't even level 2.
Her gut told her to run. Her mind told her to run. But she saw the two people running toward her, and she knew that if she was going to be a good necromancer, then she needed to do good when she had the opportunity.
Trying to save these people—or at least help them complete the public quest—was precisely that. So against her natural instincts, Millie moved toward the duo, her two skeletal minions flanking her as she ran.
The pair of adventurers were still attacking the owlbear as it charged, one throwing bolts of blue magic over their shoulder with varying degrees of success, while the other would periodically jump, twist in the air, fire an arrow at the raging monstrosity.
Once Millie was in range, she began casting [Gravebolt], and the adrenaline in her system helped dampen the pain of her sacrificed HP. Twice more she flung the black-white bolts of magic at the massive beast, and as the third one slammed directly into its left eye, the owlbear turn its head toward her, roared, and turned its attention from the escaping pair and onto her.
[Death's Favor] appeared with barely a thought as Millie knelt down, her whole body tense and ready to move. "Go for its eyes," she said to her minions, and they ran toward their new target.
Millie's health slowly replenished, and she barely noticed the plants in her spell's radius weaken and shrivel.
The panicked duo immediately noticed the owlbear had swerved away from them, its attention turning toward Millie. If they were shocked, their actions didn't show it. They slowed their pace, and the spellcaster began to collect motes of blue magic around their hands. The archer pulled their bowstring back, a green glow appearing around their weapon. Both unleashed their spells at the same time.
The owlbear, for all its rage and power, couldn't stand up to the barrage of simultaneous attacks. Millie's skeletons neared the creature, one being crushed underfoot while the other managed to scale the feathered fiend—but just barely. The caster slung a spray of ice that hardened one of the monster's back paws. The archer's arrow flew in an upward arc, and as it pierced the ground just in front of the owlbear, vines, and roots erupted from the ground and wrapped themselves around its foremost paw.
The two snaring effects hitting at the same time cut the beast's momentum so suddenly that it staggered forward and lost its balance. Its beak cut into the rocky soil, and the weight of the thing drove it forward as the roots and ice tore away from the ground.
Millie leaped to the side as the beaked maw slid toward her through the dirt and halfway into her spell's area of effect. She sent another [Gravebolt] its way, and her [Giant Skelemated Rat] rushed toward the beast's right eye, gnawing and gnashing and thrashing at the soft tissue.
The owlbear roared, spittle flying at Millie and covering her. Fear of imminent death muted the pain and sickness as another [Gravebolt] tore her life away. Until that moment, Millie hadn't been aware that the spell could critically succeed, but as the black-cored magic flew from her palm, toward the open beak, she knew that's precisely what happened.
The ball of death she launched into its mouth was twice as large as any other she had cast, and as it struck the back of the owlbear's throat, the deathly fire expanded, the flesh inside deteriorated. Combined with the steady drain from [Death's Favor], which it was frantically trying to get itself out of, the public quest's target was looking a little worse for wear.
The other two adventurers continued to pelt their target from afar. Their constant flurry of attacks was definitely doing the trick.
As the beast finally rose to its feet again, looking harrowed and slightly emaciated, Millie's skeletal rat managed to burrow inside the eye socket. Splats of goo and blood erupted as it pushed its way through flesh and jelly, and the owlbear rose on its back legs, pawing at its face and head with its front paws.
It screamed. Millie threw another [Gravebolt]. The duo pelted it with ice and arrows. The rat clawed and ate its way through the creature's brain. Finally, the thing died, and a slew of notifications popped up.
The first was a simple one acknowledging that she had gained 250 XP for killing the owlbear. "Holy goblin crap!" Millie said, shocked at the amount a single monster gave her. That owlbear had to have been way over her level to grant that much XP from just the kill.
The second was the acknowledgment that she had completed the public quest.
******
[PUBLIC QUEST COMPLETE]
—Owlbear Menace Handled: 1/1
[REWARDS]
—XP: 500
—Reward Box: Uncommon
******
A box! She got a box! As she read the System message, a brown box plopped out of nowhere at her feet. A matte brown ribbon held the lid closed.
******
[ACHIEVEMENT EARNED: FIRST QUEST COMPLETE]
You have completed your very first quest. There was a problem, and you solved it! Now, do it again!
[REWARD]
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
XP: 100
******
Pretty standard stuff, but Millie was absolutely stoked to continue to gain XP at this rate. She knew it would taper off—and soon—but she was going to revel in it while she could.
******
[ACHIEVEMENT EARNED: FIRST PUBLIC QUEST COMPLETE]
You have found and completed a public quest! Unlike quests you pick up on your own, these missions are much more dangerous and unlikely to be doable without others. So you either found some other adventurers in the area, you're incredibly lucky, or you're a total badass and everyone should watch out.
[REWARDS]
—XP: 200
—Reward Box: Uncommon
******
Another box! She couldn't believe it. It appeared midair a few inches above the other one and dropped on top of it. The two were identical.
The moment it dropped into place, Millie felt like a gust of wind rushed past her. She felt refreshed, energized, and full of life. It was like she hadn't almost been eaten by a monster she had no business even being near.
Yet another notification appeared, and it was the best one yet.
******
[LEVEL UP]
Congratulations! You have reached level 2 in the Death Mage class. You have gained +2 CON, +2 INT, and 1 point to apply to any score you desire.
You currently have 700 XP out of the needed 1500 to reach level 3. Keep up the good work!
******
Millie squealed and hopped up and down. She had waited for so long for this, wanted it so badly. Even though it was just the first level, it was the first step on the road she'd wanted to walk ever since she was a little girl.
******
[ACHIEVEMENT EARNED: YOU'RE A BIG KID NOW]
Don't expect to get an achievement every time you gain a level, but this one's special. You've never had it happen before, and it's a big deal. Relish it. Embrace it. Now get out there and do it a hundred more times!
[REWARD]
—Reward Box: Common
******
This box dropped on top of her others, stacking up. The new one looked similar to the others, it was obvious that it was made out of a lower-quality material. Thinner, a rougher texture, tied with a string rather than a flat ribbon, that sort of thing.
After the third box appeared, Millie paused before doing anything else, waiting on another notification. Nothing else came. She breathed a sigh of relief. As exciting as all that was, she was actually shaking from the adrenaline and craziness of it all. She hadn't even had time to process what had happened. She'd just been overwhelmed by…well, by everything.
She reached down and took the [Reward Box: Common] into her hands. She pulled the string and undid the bow, but before she could open it up, the other adventurers trotted in her direction and one of them held up their hand and shouted a greeting.
"Hey! Hey, hi there!" said the archer, a woman in green-dyed leather armor and her bow slung across her back. "Thanks for the help. I don't think we'd have been able to do that on our own."
The mage, a short-haired woman wearing a drab robe, corrected: "I know we wouldn't have. We were doing okay in there. We have a quest from a [Leatherworker] to bring back some owlbear pelts, and we were doing okay in there." She pointed toward the Pines and then grimaced. "But we got overwhelmed by this big fella while harvesting a normal one, and, uh, well, you saw."
Millie smiled. "I did. Fortunately? Unfortunately?" She laughed. "I'm Millie, glad I was here to help." She took a couple of steps forward and held out her hand. "I'm new here. Well, not Cragfall, but out here." She made a circular gesture with her pointer finger to indicate the area outside the city walls.
They both reached out and shook it in turn. The mage first, "I'm Quinn," she said, and the archer followed it up by saying "Pax" as she shook.
Wet slurps and gurgles started to come from the owlbear's corpse, and every one of their eyes shot back to what should be a dead creature. Millie's minion was making its way out of the corpse's skull the same way it went in. It scrabbled to Millie's side covered in grey matter, eye goo, blood, and what looked like shards of bone from the skull. It sat upright like a dog or cat, dripping viscera, waiting for orders.
While all of this was happening, Pax and Quinn were preparing to attack. Pax had their bow pulled and was nocking an arrow as the skeleton moved, while Quinn's fingers frosted over as she formed a shard of ice to hurl at the rat.
Millie protectively stepped in front of her companion. "Hey, hey, it's okay," she said, holding up her hands. "It's with me."
"What?"
"Yeah, I had two, but the owlbear crushed one on its way toward me. This one managed to get inside its head through its eye. I think it ate through its brain! How wild is that?" Millie was beaming.
Quinn and Pax, though, could only blink. They held their attacks, though, ready. Millie briefly wondered how it would work if they attacked one of her skeletons unprovoked. Would the System react the same way it did when they attacked another person, flag them as criminals?
"What's going on, guys?" Millie asked. "I think you ought to pull back on whatever it is you've got prepped here, alright?"
The pair looked at each other, and then back to Millie. "You're a [Necromancer]?" asked Quinn.
"Yeah!" Millie said excitedly. "A [Death Mage] technically." She smiled and looked back and forth between them, making eye contact with both.
An uncomfortable silence hung between them as the ice melted from Quinn's fingers as she let the spell's magic go. "I saw the things running toward it, but from where we were back there, I thought you were some kind of [Summoner] or even just had a couple of familiars."
"I mean, I kind of do," Millie said, looking down at the rat. "It's okay, you can say hi."
The gore-covered skeleton slinked around Millie's legs and looked up. It squeaked at them and held one paw forward a little. Both Pax and Quinn stepped back.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Pax said. "No, thank you. I, ummmm…we appreciate your help and the save and all, but uhh…we should…uhh…"
"…uhh…yeah, we probably should skin this thing and see if the [Leatherworker] wants it, right? Right, yeah." She sidestepped toward the corpse, but she never moved her eyes off of the [Giant Skelemated Rat].
Pax followed suit and pulled out a knife. "Yeah, we definitely should, uh, do that, yeah."
Millie patted around her cloak and pants, checking to see if she had a knife. "Gah," she said, "I don't think I have a knife on me to help. You have a spare?"
"No!" Pax said far too quickly and at far too high a volume. "No, just the ones we've been using. We can handle it. We got it. Yeah?"
Quinn nodded and pulled out her own.
"Sure, yeah," Millie said. "Whatever."
The duo started skinning the corpse from the rear, keeping one eye on Millie and her companion the entire time. Or trying to. She could see them occasionally poke their heads around the carcass, checking to see if she was still there.
Their reaction hadn't been so much a surprise, as it had been a disappointment. She'd essentially saved their lives. Had saved their lives, as a level 1! She'd really thought there was a chance at making a couple of friends out of the situation. Not that that's why she did it, but saving someone's life tended to make you friendly at least.
And it would have. If she had been just another run-of-the-mill pet class like they'd assumed. But since she was a [Necromancer], of course people got weird about things.
It's not even that she got her hopes up, either. The shunning from other people was always in the back of her mind. It just stung a little because it happened so often and so regularly. And it hadn't even been a full day yet.
Millie sighed, shook her head, and went back to opening her reward boxes. At least they wouldn't disappoint her.
The rat skeleton beside her chirped. She saw that it was looking directly up at her. "No, you didn't disappoint me, either." Millie knew that if the undead rat had lips, it would have smiled.