‘Sometimes, I question my life decisions.’ Adrian talked to himself while he finished his beer. Considering the size of the jar, he had drunk more than a liter of that junk. The drink tasted more to alcohol than barley. Adrian needed to drink some water, or he felt he could pass out.

Initially, his plan was to rent a room in an inn and bring the party to Czecheri. But between the beer and the fact that they still needed to eat, it was wiser to reserve that privilege once they collected the lair quest reward.

Adrian went to the guild shop and bought another three two-day adventurer rations. After paying for them, and another food sack because he didn’t want to put the rations in a place where had been mantises’ arms had been laying, he was left with fifteen copper, or another day worth of rations. When he opened his purse to pay the shop keeper, he remembered that he still had two copper coins laying around when he was at the tavern. He didn’t need the change for the beer, but well, he at least learned something with the conversation with the bartender.

As the Time Weaver left the city, he repeated the activity that had become a routine: changing his time perception. It not only was useful but also had spared some boredom. Slow time at combat, fasten time when doing nothing.

Before going to the campsite, Adrian stopped at the river. Not only he was thirsty, but he wanted to remove the beer smell that haunted him. He expected that the group wouldn’t take it well if he spent their money on beer, even if it was only one copper. After he was satiated, he continued his march.

The party was gathered around the lit campfire, everyone was talking except Aby, she still was sleeping.

“She will have the first watch turn.” Adrian announced his arrival while looking at Aby. He then sat at the closest log.

“Everything okay?” Dale asked Adrian. Adrian had the sensation that Dale wasn’t asking about his wellbeing, but he was worried about his future adventurer status.

“Yeah,” Adrian responded as he left the ration sack on the ground. The shop still had no cheese in stock. “The guild officer told me that another one will examine the lair tomorrow and we should come back in the afternoon. I also bought food.”

“Ah, thank god. I was starving.” Kayle said as she leaned towards the sac.

“Yeah, thank god and not the actual person that brought the food.” Adrian joked.

“It’s a saying.” Kayle frown at him, but she was also joking.

“Nye, nye.” Adrian responded with a weird sound and facial expression and then grabbed his corresponding ration.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The party had finished eating their rations when Aby finally woke up. In the end, she had slept for almost three hours. She grunted as she rose up from the ground, the cloak that Axel used to cover her falling to the dirt.

Aby blinked twice and then looked at the party gathered around the fire. “Did you eat without me?”

“Really, Aby? That’s the first thing you asked after you collapsed?” Adrian asked her.

“We were hungry to be fair.” Dale’s voice could be heard in the background.

“Toss me some food, I am starving.” She told to Axel, the one who had the bag closer to them. Aby then noticed that her cup was next to her. Someone had filled it up with water from the river. “Why, thank you.” And then she munched the bread and jerky once he gulped almost all the water in the cup.

“So…?” Dale asked at Aby.

“So, what?” Aby spoke when she finished her jerky.

“The class,” Dale specified. “What class did you obtain?”

“Oh, the class. I forgot. Let me see.” The party waited as she read the invisible [Status] window. “Did someone obtain a [Tarot] card?”

“That’s me.” Kayle told her.

The party had commented on the upgrades they got while Aby was still sleeping. Axel’s [War-bond Tower] debuff now could be applied by party members, Dale’s [The Fool’s Wheel of Fortune] chance to evade attacks now applied to allies, and finally, Kayle’s [The Priestess’ Star] reduced the cost of her light-based abilities, plus converting 20% of her [Procesa] into [Atravesta]. They didn’t know the exact cost reduction, but at least it was something. Also, if [Atravesta] worked like Charisma in RPGs, Kayle would be the one doing the shopping now.

“Huh? The buff is good.” Aby referred to her own [Tarot] boost, not the others. “If I am separated from [Tarot] users, my previous boosts are kept.”

“That’s nice,” Mike commented. “A bit useless, though. We are not going to actively separate.”

“True,” Aby said as she read her new class. “[Rare], Mentalist.” She briefly spoke and returned to reading, probably she got new abilities. “100% boost to [Procesa], accelerated decision-making, and whatever a grimoire is. That’s just the class effect.” Adrian recalled that he didn’t mention them that [Time Magic] was a grimoire. The rest of the party probably heard it first from Kayle at the lair.

“That’s pretty good.” Adrian told. Her class was pretty similar to Adrian’s Time Weaver.

“Now the abilities.” Everyone noted that she used the plural. “[Forgotten Horror]. I may interfere in enemies’ casting and casting upon enemies has a chance of inflicting a [Madness] debuff if they fail a [Voluntat] check.” Adrian thought that Aby was a bit scary, but she went from a strict teacher to a Lovecraftian god in a second. “And [Mind Magic]. Two spells came with it. One fused with a [Title] to create [Forgotten Horror]...”

‘So [Title Fusion] does exist.’ Adrian thought as he had yet to see or know one. He also noted that Aby’s [Title] was [Unique]. That meant that it was powerful in some way, at least to his previous knowledge. Maybe the [Madness] debuff was better than it seemed.

“… and the other one is [Mind Tick I]. It consumes mild mental power to lower the accuracy of the target. It has a chance to slow the enemy that scales with [Procesa].”

“Well,” Dale commented. “We now have a debuff support.”