I enter the adventurer's guild, I can hear chatter and laughter. This place is noisy, I am not happy when I am here, so I avoid this place when I can.
I zigzag between the tables so I can talk to the man behind a counter.
The man notices me.
"Huh, I usually don't see you come in, you're like a ghost or something." He sighs. "Let me guess? More slime cores?"
I drop thirty-seven slime cores on the counter top, the man groans.
He touches each slime core, and they disappear into his inventory. "You've been adventuring for...what? Five years?" He pulls out his menu, tapping a few buttons I cannot see from this side. "Don't get me wrong, adventurers that bite more than they can chew are the first to die, but slime hunting for all your life can't be very profitable."
"Fighting stronger monsters would be unhealthy," I reply.
"Since when can you talk?"
"Two minutes."
He rolls his eyes and gives me my reward for the quest. That is all I was there for, so I try to leave, but a purple haired girl bumps into me.
"Whatever, sorry, you were in the way, okay?" she says, pushing me out of the way. People usually don't notice when I bump into them, now they do.
"No one," the man says to the purple haired girl.
"Come on! I even paid for an ad this time!" she slams her fist on the counter.
"Even if you had your face plastered all over the damn continent, it wouldn't convince anyone to invite a Hex Master to their party." He takes one of the slime core I gave him and slips it into a glass of water.
"I'M A HIGH RISK, HIGH REWARD ASSET! INFINITE POTENTIAL!" she shouts, and a few people's head turn towards us.
"You know what the issue is, missy. Maybe you should hire people to work with you instead of the other way around?" he shakes the glass a little and the slime core mixes with the water, he then pushes the drink towards her. "C'mon, bottoms up."
"Bleh!" She sticks out her tongue, but takes the drink anyway. "I don't have the money for that anymore, spent it all on the ad. Besides, paying people will make them think I'm really desperate."
"But you are," the man says bluntly.
Their banter continues for a while, I don't think they know that I am still here. I speak up to make them aware of my presence, "You can join my party."
They both flinch in surprise at my sudden intrusion into their conversation.
"Was he here this entire time?" she asks, "is he an assassin or some other cool class?"
"No, he's a cook that took up adventuring to get ingredients. He's just really hard to spot if he doesn't speak up--which is something I've only learned he could do ten minutes ago." His gaze goes between me and the purple haired girl. "I don't think you want her into your party, Hex Masters are-"
"SHUSH YOU!" she glares at him and turns back to me. "Sure, I'll join your party! All you need to do is tank for me, alright? Or don't! I just need you to be here! You'll see how powerful and cool I am!" Her face is now uncomfortably close to mine, I can feel her hot, alcohol smelling breath on me. I push her head away, and send a party invite with my menu.
I do not know why I invited her in my party. Maybe because I can fight stronger monsters with someone else, and gain more money. Maybe money will make me happy.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
****
The green wolves are circling around me, slimes are slow and predictable, but wolves work in groups and know when to retreat and attack again. We had to bait the wolves out of the forest into the green plains, the forest is too dangerous to fight in.
Even though the green wolves are some of the weakest monsters there is, my stick is barely damaging them. The purple haired girl--whose name is Lexia according to my party screen--said she had a plan and I just needed to be close to them, so I am doing that.
"Ahem..." Lexia clears her throat. "BEHOLD! THE POWER OF THE NEXT HEX GODDESS!"
HEX MASTER SKILL: MISERY LOVES COMPANY
Choose an allied living host capable of feeling pain, and up to 5 targets in your field of vision.
The targets will take 3 * INT damage per second. However, all pain that the targets should've suffered will be transferred to the host. The pain is incapable of killing or damaging the host, but it can incapacitate them.
Hurt.
Pain. Pain. My body is on fire, my blood is boiling, my brain is begging for my death. I collapse on the ground, I try to get up but the grass beneath me feel like razor blades. And yet, it is not the worst pain I have ever felt, I have burned to death before, I have cracked my skull against a sharp rock before, I have experienced torture before.
But this is still worse. It is not more painful, but it hurts for longer. The pain is high and unceasing, and my body refuse to adapt. The wolves are getting closer, one of them is about to bite me. I roll out of the way as I remember my promise, I need to be healthy, so I can't die here, I won't die here.
The wolf casually approach me, it cares very little for my pitiful attempt at survival, I roll again, but the beast jumps at me and-
It falls over and die. Two more wolves get closer to me, but they fall too. The pain is getting more manageable, it feels more like an intense fever now. It's still hard to think, but I can actually stand up now, as I take a look around, I see the last three wolves run away in fear--but they all meet the same fate before they can make it to the nearby woods.
The pain disappears, as if it was never there. But the memory of it still lingers, it makes me hesitant to move, as if the next step I take would leave me writhing on the ground again.
I can hear Lexia squeal in excitement as the level up screen blocks both our vision.
5 STARVING GREEN WOLVES DEFEATED!
125XP AWARDED TO THE PARTY!
122XP AWARDED TO LEXIA
3XP AWARDED TO JAMES
----------------------------------------
LEXIA LEVELLED UP!
LEXIA IS NOW LEVEL 4!
"Yes! Yes! I did it! I'm the best!" Lexia jumps around, shouting random things to no one in particular. Once I'm sure the pain is fully gone, I walk up to her. When she sees me getting closer, she takes a step back. "H-hey, if you want you can take the loot...you can kick me out of the party too! Just please don't hurt me!" she backs away every time I get closer to her, raising her arms defensively in front of her face.
"I'm still healthy, so it's okay." I drop my stick so she understands I won't hurt her. "You did a lot of damage, so you deserved most of the experience."
"H...hey? Really? You mean you're okay if..." Her eyes light up. "We can do this again, right? I know it hurts a lot, but I'll be able to do a lot of cool stuff when I level up enough! You won't regret it!" She grabs both my hands and raises them up to my torso. "Now, you and I! We're a team!"
As her hands touch mine, I can't help but feel a weird sensation, one I haven't experienced before. It's like a warm shiver, I want her to let go of my hands, but I also want to hold them longer, strange.
"Okay," I reply, "we're a team now."