“What do you mean, you ‘can’t let us back in?’” Komoriat questioned as attempted to get back inside the shit-hole called home. Raze smelled a fire circulating through her whole body.
She crossed her arms, clearly flustered by the situation.
“Sorry...miss, but we don’t want that criminal coming into our town or anyone associated with him.”
Criminal? Well, I guess that has a nice ring to it, Raze thought with a satisfied smirk.
He sat on the ground as Komoria debated with the guard to allow them back into the town.
“I can’t, sorry. Captain's orders and all. We can’t let you back in. On the bright side, the next town isn't too far, only a good thirty miles south.”
“Thirty miles! That would take us all day!” Komoria rubbed her hands with dread. “There has got to be some kind of alternative if you can’t let us in. Please. Anything will do,” she pleaded, her eyes as soft pillows and as moist as a wet towel.
He placed an armored hand to his chin. “Well… There's one thing…”
“You really do live in a terrible town. I don’t even know if I can still blame you for acting like you do—for the most part”
“Don’t compare me to those shitters. They are leagues below me.”
“Whatever. I really thought when they said they had another solution, it would be something more than—oh, I don't know—an old map! It's not like it's hard to go straight south! I'm a mage, so I don’t have the kind of stamina to walk for long periods of time...”
Plus—you're a girl, so you’re bound to be weak and slow, Raze thought as he absorbed her complaints.
“Haaaaaaaaaah.” She let out a large sigh as she walked back through the grassy fields of the Kamela Plains. The grass felt pleasant against her boots for the first part of their journey, but as time went on, it felt more like a chore to keep on walking.
My feet are aching and I haven't eaten since this morning. A girl shouldn't have to walk this far on her own two feet. Of course, I could fly...
Komoria cleared her throat. “Say, Raze, can I-—”
“—Not a fucking chance.”
Thought so. I can’t leave the savior on his own; I don’t even know if he can even read a map or even read…
That thought made her perk up, just a bit. Still, it was getting painful for her to walk non-stop after her escape from a Nation Breaker.
Now, they had come upon a forest of solitude, twigs cracking under their feet. Not a single enemy had been spotted since they departed from the open space of the grass-filled fields.
About an hour later, Komoria placed her hands on her knees and bent over, panting heavily. ”Can we..huff...take a...huff...short...break… Please?”
Raze didn't even turn around. “Why do lazy bitches always whine the most? We only have like twenty five more miles. No need to bark so much.”
Just how short does he think a mile is? Komoria furrowed her brow, and grimaced at his response.
However, it seemed luck was on her side. The clouded sky had grown dark and soon after, droplets of water descended from the sky.
No…way. Komoria couldn’t believe her luck.“W-well, would you look at that! It looks like we need to find shelter or our supplies and scanners will get damaged, right? Right?”
“Ah shit, you are right. I don’t want that old hag to get mad at me again.”
Kormia looked sad, but smiled to herself on the inside. Heh-heh-heh. He doesn't even know our scanners are waterproof even after standing in the rain and that my satchel was crafted from water-resistant fabric. Now we have to take a break and it's already getting late, so we will have to sleep in the forest or something. It's like a message from the gods!
“So, let's go make some shelter out of some trees or something over there. I'm sure it would suffice.”
“Yea that will do,” Raze said shortly after.
Komoria crossed her arms and squeezed her eyes shut. She was proud of how well she was handling Raze. Now if only he would treat me like a person, let alone, a girl…
Those wishes were all but delusions in Raze’s presence.
“What are you doing? You're the one that said we needed some damn shelter. Let's go!”
“W-wait! Not so faaaaaaaaaaaaaaast!”
He roughly grabbed her by the hand and dragged her into a spacious clearing that seemed to appear out of nowhere along the forest path. The area was both misty and had an ancient feel to it. Large stones lined in uniform directions all over the area.
“Wait, wait, wait—this is a cemetery. Where are we going to sleep?!”
He pulled her past the rows and rows of tombstones until they reached a large crypt before pointing. “In there.”
She followed his gaze towards a large dilapidated building that was covered in dust and moss. It seemed as if it hadn't been used in a century, which was probably the case. At least it still had a roof.
“That's a crypt! They keep bodies of revered people in there! We can’t possibly sleep in there...”
Raze released his grip on her and walked towards the rundown structure. “Suit yourself then, heh.” He cackled to himself as he pried open the moss-crusted door.
Ughhh. It's just one night. What's the worst that can happen?
She reluctantly followed him into the overgrown tomb.
———————————————————————————————————————
My dreams were somewhat pleasant for once. I was back in my old world, thriving on the suffering of others or something edgy like that. That was why I liked gaming so much: a good day for you was just a bad day for your opponent. This time I was playing Pyro. He was a cool character with a flamethrower that could torch any bloke in a matter of seconds. There was usually an imposter in our ranks, so I took the time in each match to torch every person, no matter how nice they acted on my team. It was so satisfying to watch that Spy burn to a crisp from my powerful wrath. Man, I miss video games. Life sucked without them….
I was thrown awake by an ungodly scream. It must have been the bat-thing that I was forced to babysit. I opened my eyes and peaked out from the metal bed that I had rested on. It was usually reserved for dead bodies or whatever, but I was lucky enough to find a spot—body-free! The bat had to sleep on the floor, as she should have. Wait, where did she go?
I'm sure she will be back in no time. Mmhmm…
I started resting my head on the cold cobblestone bed when a large fire burned something deep in the crypt. The bat ran back over to me, tears in her eyes, clothes somewhat ripped.
Was she mad?
“You didn't hear me scream as that undead dragged me away?!” She stomped her foot in rage. “I can’t believe you! “How can you even sleep on something so cold and uncomfortable?!”
Yep, she was mad.
As long as she was alive, I would be fine. No need to sweat the small stuff. Shit. I need to do another good deed since the day has been renewed. I could probably just do another quest and get the same result.
Sleep came first.
“Don’t you look away from me! I had to kill, like, six undead by myself! They tried to stri-strip m-me……………….”
I turned to look up at her face in the deep darkness; she was kind of pretty, but that's all women were these days. They were next to useless at anything else.
“Whatever. Just shut up and go back to sleep.”
“Grrrrrrr! Fine, but I can't believe you ignored your partner’s scream for help! How can I even sleep after that?” She pouted before laying back down on the cold hard ground and using her satchel as a pillow.
What a pitiful being she was compared to myself. Only one of us could obtain any form of greatness in reality. How could one deceive themselves on the daily?
The sun of the morning seeped through the wonky door of the crypt. It was enough to make me stir.
I sat up and rubbed my eyes.
It looks like it's time to get the hell up and continue on to the next damn town.
“Bitch, you awake?” I said politely.
“Ugh… Yeah, I’m up. Sleeping felt awful—and don’t call me a bitch!”
She quickly stood up, getting her things together, her face a mixture of annoyance and sadness.
“Sniffle, sniffle.”
“Dude, you kinda reek. You should go jump into a river or something.”
That seemed to grab her attention. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I bet I smell great and I haven't seen any rivers in this forest so far, anyway!”
It seemed my taunt was more effective than I expected. Girls were really sensitive about this stuff, weren't they?
Not like I care, though...
I wasn't lying when I said she smelled, but at that moment, something more pleasant wafted into my nostrils. It smelled truly sublime.
I re-equipped shitty armor and departed from the godless tomb with the bat in tow.
The thick mist was everywhere now, making it nearly impossible to navigate. It smelled really fucking good, though, and my stomach grumbled louder than I would have wanted to admit.
“Give me food.”
I held out my hand and gazed at her expectantly.
“...Are you foreal?”
I nodded.
The bat let out a sigh before reaching into the large sack that was usually tied to her back. She pulled an apple and orange and tossed them to me. She then took out a weird-looking fruit for herself and took a bite.
“I don’t have much more food saved up, so we are going to need to go shopping once we reach Listra.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
That was the name of the next town. With an ancient teleporter that would take us to the capital of this shitty kingdom, it was a hub that many traveled to to get around the kingdom. I heard there were quite a few of them sprinkled around the world and in this country. I wanted to get there as fast as I could, but now all that was on my mind was this pleasant smell.
I munched on my food while blissfully walking through the mist.
“You really can’t see anything out here. It's kinda scary, huh?”
How did she not notice the smell? I am one of a kind after all, so maybe I'm the only one that can detect it. Yeah, that had to be it.
“If you dont wanna get lost, then follow me. I know where we are going.”
She didn't respond, but I'm sure she needed me a lot right now. Useless bitch.
The wonderful scent led me back onto the forest trail. It didn’t take long before I reached the origin of the scent.
“This...wasn’t...here...before—was it?” The vexed bat tilted her head.
The mist led us to a town that looked straight out of a German children's book. Everything was built from bricks of all different colors. The normies were everywhere! Why did they smell so nice? I saw fat kids and plain men and women walking along the roads in true happiness. There were bakeries and restaurants and everything else that my shitty town lacked.
I wanna stay here for a while.
“C-can we….can we leave—p-p-please?!? Like r-right now? We should leave n-now!”
The audacity of this bitch. She can’t even appreciate a decent human town with such an awesome smell.
“Fuck no. I wanna see what this place has in store. I have never smelled something so nice in either of my lives.”
“But the p-p-p-people...they are—”
“Shut the fuck up,” I snapped. “I don’t want to hear it. I'm going to have a little look around.”
I left her in the dust—or mist—in this case and trudged into the heart of the cool and mysterious town. A man appeared out of nowhere and greeted me with a beaming smile.
”Welcome to our great town of Salus. Are you perhaps a traveler?”
I nodded. “This place smells so nice. It makes you never want to leave.”
“GAAH!” The bat shrieked from behind me. “WHAT IN JINZO’S NAME IS THAT?! H-HIS F-FACE!!!”
She pointed at the plain-faced man who was wearing a shepherd's cowl. He looked really ordinary—so ordinary that he seemed even less-important than a mob character. I wouldn't have given him the time of day, but he just smelled so nice…
I turned back to Komoria, irritation seeping into my words. “Why are you being so god damn rude? It's not a crime to be plain or forgettable. Didn’t your zoo—or wherever you came from—teach you any manners? Or is this because you’re just a stupid bitch who’s a long way from home?”
“...”
That sure shut her up.
“That's what I thought.” I glanced back over to the smiling plain man. “I apologize for my sidek—er—companion’s rudeness. Unlike her, I am very humble.”
He nodded, still maintaining the same generous smile. “Well, I am the village leader, but would you travelers like to meet our elder? I’m sure he would be delighted to see some fresh faces. He is getting on in years, after all. Could be good for him”
I scratched my nose and grinned. “Well, does he smell as good as you guys?”
The man clapped his hands together. “Even better!” He raised his arms up to the heavens. “No one can beat him!”
“Then take us right to him.”
“Sure thing. Follow me!” He sped down a yellow-brick road that led to a part of the town that was still shrouded by a thick milky mist.
“I’m not c-coming. N-no w-way… I’d rather take my chances with that plague-belching Scalelord”
The bat was shivering behind me, appearing more pathetic than she usually did. She really didn't want to go any farther, and was lightly gripping my arm as if to stop me as well.
As if that would change my mind!
“I'm not leaving you here to blow all our money on useless stuff. Now, come on—it won’t take long.”
I didn't know how long it would take, but I didn't care. The smell was too good to pass up.
It was calling out to me.
“T-that’s rich coming from you,” she quipped weakly, still holding onto my arm.
“Let’s go.” I grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her forward. The people around us all stopped to smile and wave. It was a bit creepy, but they all smelled so damn nice.
I can’t think straight. I’m on cloud nine!
“Eeeeeeeek! S-so many!” she shrieked like a bird.
She stood directly behind my back, her large tits squishing against me. The smell was ten times more pleasant than the feeling of two soft blobs against my rugged back.
What the hell is wrong with you, girl?
As she practically clinged to my body, we followed the village leader until we reached a large basin concealed mostly by mist.
We stopped right before it, letting the leader do his thing.
“Lord C’thagula, I have brought some visitors who would like to see you.”
The well shook violently back and forth, as if something large was trying to escape from within. However, a simple old feeble man ascended to the top, instead.
He smelled even better than the leader.
“AHHHHHH!! THAT’S EVEN WORSE! LEMME GOOO! LEMME GOOOO! RAZE, WE NEED TO LEAVE NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW!” The bat screamed, while her shivers were practically injected into my body from close contact.
She tried to pull me along, but I didn't budge. “Shit-talking a boomer for his looks just because you have a slightly pretty face? Wow, Bat, that’s pretty low, even for you.”
This would be the part where she yelled back to tell me to take that back, but she was instead paralyzed with fear.
I couldn’t figure out why she was being so wary around these people, but it was becoming a pain.
The old man continued to float above us, grinning wildly.
“I welcome you guests to our town. I would just love to have you two for a late breakfast.”
“You are a very nice and good-smelling geezer. I would fucking love to have more food.”
“That's n-not what he's talking about!” She moved in front of me, hastily taking in my confused gaze. “W-why can’t you see It?”
“See what?”
“Erg…,” the bat’s voice trailed off as she fell to her knees.
The bat was actually cowering below me like a dog.
She must have really hated old people, but who doesn’t? This place was just an exception for how great it smelled.
I felt like I wasn't truly myself around here.
“This smells sooo nice,” I said absentmindedly.
The bat’s eyes grew wide. “The smell! That’s it!”
She stood up…and punched me right in the nose.
It was a good punch, better than what I expected from a girl. It was probably because of our level difference.
“What the fuck, you bitch!” I went to hit her in retaliation, but I temporarily halted my attack when she pointed to what was behind me.
“Look! Just please, look at that!”
I had never seen the bat be so serious, yet so terrified since we unfortunately met.
I halted my advance and turned around. Everything had changed.
“What...the...FUUUUUCK?!”
The boomer and village leader were nowhere to be seen. It was a big ass plot twist.
In the village leader’s place was a creature with no eyes and a face that was sliced in half, revealing black tendrils squirming around idly as if they were half-asleep. His body was beyond gaunt and skinny, with horns sticking out of his cowl and body all-over. He had a hole where his mouth should have been and a lot of jagged teeth that seemed to go all the way down his throat.
That’s fucking creepy. Ew.
The village elder was something else entirely. It had mouths in every part of its floating body, with black tentacles pouring out of its chest, back, and arms. It had like ten, piercing milky white eyes in the middle of its bloated chest and spikes protruding all over. Gray seemed to be its primary color, but it also had nasty black spider-like feet below its chest. They squirmed around in the air, all eight of them.
“That’s…ugly as fuck. Ew. Let’s kill it!”
The bat weakly grabbed my shoulder and shook her head. I almost didn't even notice she touched me until she opened her mouth.
“You can’t! We have to run! Just look at his stats! They are beyond the understanding of mortals.”
Now that was a claim.
I shook her off of me and used my scanner for myself. The holographic-like image quickly appeared in front of me, displaying the information I sought.
[Name: C’thagula]—[Class: ???]—[Level: ???]
[Skills:Immunity Magic/Physical (MAX)]
[Status: HUNGRY]—[Attack: ???]—[Defense: ???]—[Magic: ???]
So, it’s immune to both magic and physical attacks? I can’t get anything else from this scanner. Is it broken? Shitty goddess and her shitty tech.
However, I did notice something in the corner of my display that I hadn't seen before. It was a small black dot, with a small glowing radiating around it.
I focused my eyes on it and spoke the command that was asked for.
“Eye of Truth, full function enlightenment—activate.”
A thin red beam shot out of my scanner, heading straight for the ugly village leader instead of my intended target.
It zipped right through his chest and went out the other end. “KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” it screeched, before collapsing dead on the spot.
Is this a fucking laser? Sick! It iced that fugly in one shot. Let’s go again!
I tried to use it again, but this time I wouldn't even let me view the dot.
It read “no mana remaining for activation sequence” every time I focused my eye on it.
Well, that sucks.
I checked my own stats for the first time in a while. I had no mana left. That meant I couldn't use any of my Skills until I got some back.
That one tiny laser shot had drained all of it!
“You killed it, but where did that beam come from?”
“ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARAAAAAAAAA!” the floating monstrosity bellowed with unbridled rage.
He must not have been happy about me banishing his friend to the shadow realm—or wherever Lovecraftian horrors ended up when they died.
It sent tentacles at both the bat and myself with incredible speed. I activated The Rabbit, with the few drops of mana I had already regained, allowing me to easily leap above its range while Komoria took to the sky.
“I know you won’t do much, but laser it from the corner of the scanner and shit. Just focus on it and fire!”
I knew this great advice wouldn't mean shit, but I needed time for my mana to recharge.
If she could prove her usefulness for once by pulling its agro, then that would be fine by me. I dodged more tentacles as I waited for her to attack; she was taking a lot longer than I did to use it.
“What gives?! Use it already!”
“But it's going to drain all my mana! I won't be able to heal us if this doesn't help!”
I could see the dread written all over her face. She clearly didn’t trust my idea. Seems like I needed to give her a push by yelling some words of encouragement.
“Stop being a little bitch and just use it! This tech is neither magical nor physical—I think. She called it ‘holy’, right? This Cthulhu-looking-ass has gotta be the opposite of that. It will do some damage. Probably...” I trailed off.
“Fine! But don’t yell at me if this doesn't work. Eye of Truth, full function enlightenment—activate!”
Push: successful!
A long and thick violet laser bursted of her scanner like a college kid shotgunning a beer.
It cleaved the large horror in half before making a horizontal slice along the side of its body, reducing it to four large chunks of pale flesh. It splattered to the ground and all over the bat.
“Pleh! Pleh!” She spat some vile-looking green liquid. “Ew! It's in my mouth! Did… Did I get it…?” the bat asked as her feet touched the ground.
I didn't want to answer. I was fueled by rage.
“What the fuck! You KS-ing piece of shit!. How could you kill it in one shot?!”
I shook her back and forth, my body like a raging storm of anger.
I didn't expect her attack to one-shot the creeper. Its defense must have been rather low, but it made up for it because of its near invincible skill. Hell, there was a chance it only had a single bar of HP like one of those cartoon monsters with maxed evasion!
Komoria had tears in her eyes and green ‘blood’ all over her face. She really was crying...and a lot. “I’m so soowwwwwwy. These things were so scary and I j-just wanted to leeeeave!”
It was hard to watch the bat cry, and it was even harder to stay mad at her because I still got some XP, albeit not much.
I was now level 10. I don’t know if I fucked up my one deed a day or what, but I felt the urge to be slightly nicer to her for some reason. “It's fine.” I gave her a light slap on the back. “Let’s just get the hell out of here so I can unclog my nose and you can clean yourself up.”
“Ok…ay…” she replied with a slight nod. Her droopy ears seemed to perk up a little when I said that.
I looked back to the village. It was all gone. All of it.
There were just dead trees with these ugly slit-face tentacle creatures walking around. I must have been deceived this whole time.
Me? Deceived? They must have had Illusion: 100 to pull that off.
We exited the town by cutting through the forest behind the newly abandoned well. I wanted to fight more and loot that monster’s lair, but I also wanted to have my nose patched up. After all the adrenaline had left my body, all that remained was an aching pain.
We found a riverbed deeper into the forest along with a path in front of a road sign that read: Listra—10 miles west/Axoria—40 miles north.
It seemed we were very close.
I cleaned my nostrils with the mostly clean river water, while the bat started to undress.
“Look away. I need to wash myself, ” she stammered in embarrassment, eyeing me like a scared rabbit who had just been discovered by a bear.
Sure…?
I turned away and crossed my arms before dropping a witty comment. “It's not like I'm missing out anyway, heh.”
She eyed me with a combination of agitation and sorrow on her crestfallen visage.
“Hey! I'm doing this to not smell bad for you too!”
“I thought you said you smelled fine,” I shot back, my voice dripping with sarcasm. I wonder if they knew what that was in this world? The idiots back home sure didn't...
Komoria’s anger dissipated as quickly as someone would flick a lightswitch. Was she even that pissed in the first place? She sighed and sat down on a large rock.
“I was born without a sense of smell, so I can’t really help without the guidance of others… That's probably why I could see all those monsters for what they were...”
No sense of smell? Maybe that’s why she was always a bitch? I would be in a foul mood as well if I couldn't smell the wonders of the world.
Maybe… Maybe I could be a little easier on her. I feel kinda bad now.
Of course, I will never say that aloud.
I said nothing more while she cleaned herself.
It also crossed my mind that the scanner really must have been made out of some sort of divine or holy material to be able to penetrate through a being with full immunity. That could be useful in the future.
After she dressed herself back in her clothing, I started to wonder how much higher her stats were than my own.
I used the scanner again, while she cast a healing spell to fix my nose.
[Name: Komoria Vato]—[Class: Beast-kin Beast-kin Sorceress]—[Level: 20]
[Skills:Soul Link (MAX), Fireball (RANK 7), Healing Ward (RANK 8), Flight (MAX), Night Vision (MAX), Skill Share (Recipient) (MAX)]
[Status: Afflicted by the Unknown]—[Attack: 100]—[Defense: 200]—[Magic: 500]
Hmmm… She was ten levels above me. That creature must have given her a lot of XP. Her magic was also way higher than mine as well. That had to be why the laser was able to put out way more power than mine could.
There was one thing that stood out to a scholar like myself. Below her status, the words “Afflicted by the Unknown” were printed. I never cared to look at her stats before and I still don’t really care, but that seemed...different.
I wonder if she always had that? Well as long as it's not contagious, I don't really care…
At that time I wished I asked her about it, but I don’t think it would have been easy to cure her.
That would become quite a problem for me down the line, though. I just didn't know it yet.