#Odd companions

"Don't react, but there are two bandits ahead, NPC's from their appearance" I told my traveling companion, the tailor-cum-merchant who was driving the wagon.

"Oh? The "Vision" skill is pretty useful isn't it," just like I told him to, Taylor (yes, I named him Taylor because he's a tailor... problem?) didn't react in any way to my news and kept the wagon moving at its normal pace.

After breaking camp that morning, I loaded my tent into my inventory (Taylor didn't have one sice he slept in his wagon) and continued down the road. The wagon was being pulled by a single chestnut gelding, since getting a knight's charger would be pretty pointless for such a menial task, even if one could afford it.

Taylor was an Intermediate-level tailor, bordering on Advanced. He made his living traveling from town to town buying as many rare textiles and crafting materials as he could and turning them into equipment. When rare and high-leveled materials started to dwindle from excessive purchasing and the prices for equipment started to drop from excessive selling, he moved from a different town and started all over again.

His code was that he would not make mediocre goods from mediocre materials, but only superior goods from superior materials.

Why he has such a large wagon even though he doesn't carry around wares is beyond me. He could probably travel faster on horseback.

And even though his level was much higher than mine, his fighting ability was waa-aay lower, which is one of the reasons he welcomed me with open arms.

We continued chatting in this nonchalant manner until we approached the bandits' ambush point.

"Hey, Taylor, do you know why the person seated in the front seat next to the driver is said to be "riding shotgun"?"

"Why's that?"

"It's because, in olden days, the person riding next to the driver would carry a shotgun so that he coULD DO THIS!!!"

Due to your "Point Blank" skill, Attack Pwr and Armor Penetration was increased by 25%

GuAAARGH!!!

Quickly raising my bow, I fired a snap shot at the closest fur-clad bandit hiding in a bush, instantly killing him.

But the second one was on the other side of the wagon and was leaping towards Taylor with his sword raised from a position where I can't shoot him.

Seeing this threat, Taylor calmly raised his right arm, while still holding the reins with his left, to ward off the blow.

The bandit, expecting to be able to slice right through him, was startled when his sword slid off Taylor's arm and instead bit into the wagon seat.

"This shirt is made from top quality Phantom Spider Silk! An attack as weak as that can't possibly slice through it!" Taylor proudly boasted, "Kick!"

At a shout and a flick of the reins, Taylor's horse suddenly lashed out with his hind hooves at the stunned bandit and knicking him to the ground.

Seeing this, I quickly stood up and fired a shot at the grounded bandit which killed him.

"HIGH FIVE!" shouted Taylor as he raised his hand.

"Ah... Yeah," I raised my hand and slapped his.

:Amazing!:

Ah...

That's right...

We have one more traveling companion with us.

Sitting behind us in the wagon was an aquamarine-colored translucent figure in the shape of a slender man (slenderman... lol). His features were blurred and we couldn't really tell much more about his appearance.

This person isn't alive, shouldn't be alive, and has already died.

Simply put, he's a ghost.

When he showed up last night, he definately gave us a scare

:If it's the two of you, you can definitely get this job done!:

This "job" he's talking about is the quest that he gave us last night (well, me, actually, since Taylor's a non-combat class).

Simply put, Slenderman (as we have decided to call him, since he can't remember his own name), was a soldier being sent out on his first mission.

His three-man squad was supposed to take out a small group of bandits that were causing trouble along the road between Groun and Rhesta. But when they arrived at the scene, the number of bandits were much more than they expected, and they were killed without being able to accomplish their mission.

Because of this, they died with regrets, and even though the other two members of the team were able to "let go", Slenderman had a particularly hard time since this was his first and only mission, and he wanted to see it done.

Hence, the following quest:

*New Quest:

Beyond the grave

The ghost of a dead soldier cannot pass on due to his lingering regrets.Help him to pass on by finishing his mission for him.

Quest Objective:

Clear the bandit encampment

Quest Difficulty: C

Quest Requirement:

Must not be a production class

Must not be affiliated with bandits

Quest Reward:

Equipment based on your class

Taylor didn't much mind me picking up the quest since he was already heading in that general direction (a town somewhere beyond Rhesta, apparently), and I wasn't going to turn down the oppurtunity to get better gear.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

:How much longer is it going to take before we reach them?:

"As long as nothing happens, this baby here will take us to Groun by tommorrow night," Taylor said confidently, "And if your directions are correct, it'll be another day before we reach your bandits."

Other than a few boars crossing our path (which we simply let pass), the journey continued without event for the rest of the day. Perhaps word got out to the other bandits that we were dangerous. Perhaps they noticed that the wagon didn't actually have anything in it. Either way, we weren't attacked any more that day.

Thanks to the wagon, we made better time than we would have if either one of us was on foot (slenderman can just float there, honestly). Maybe that was the reason Taylor bought the wagon in the first place? Not to carry goods, but to carry passengers?

I guess traveling can get pretty lonely at times.

Heck, I got bored out of my mind after just one day.

We stopped for the day when the sun started to set in the western sky. Taylor went off to collect firewood while I set up my tent.

When he came back with an armload, I took out my flint and struck it against my Sword-Bow(patent pending) until the wood caught fire.

Speaking of flint, isn't it an amazing thing?

Originally used for making primitive tools, mankind eventually discovered that if you struck it against steel (or iron pyrite), it would produce a shower of sparks that can ignite wood.

If not for this discovery, mankind would still be rubbing sticks together every time we wanted to make a fire until we dicovered electricity, assuming we survived that long.

At any rate, once we got the fire going, we went straight to sleep so that we could get up early the next day.

Slenderman stayed up so that he could "keep watch", but honestly I think that he stayed up because he could not "rest".

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The next day started off well, but got worse soon after.

Dark clouds suddenly gathered, and before we knew it, it was raining cats and dogs (not literally, that would be scary).

I guess that's another reason to have a wagon.

The horse (that Taylor simply called "this baby over here") plodded on down the road while the three of us sat comfortably in the wagon.

I was suprised that Taylor didn't stop the wagon entirely to prevent the horse from getting ill, or getting injured. Apparently this particular gelding had special abilities that granted him immunity from illness (an ability named "Healthy as a Horse") and another that prevented him from slipping (which was called "Sure-Footed").

With nothing much else to do, I fiddled with my inventory and stat window.

I still had some materials left over. Blocks of wood. Screws and nails. A few metal bars.

I could conceivably make a whole new weapon out of them. But there's no way I could fire up my furnace in the wagon.

Oh, and of course, I still had the pelt from the Wolf-Queen.

Perhaps I could ask Taylor to make me something when we reached town.

When I looked through my stat window, I noticed that my Vision skill was slowly increasing. In fact it has been rising much faster than my other skills.

Was I using it without realizing it?

The Vision skill is primarily used to look at far away objects, but it also covers detecting hidden objects, examining items, as well as seeing in hard-to-see areas.

Come to think of it, I have been doing alot of that.

The Ant Tunnel could be counted as a "hard-to-see" area, since it was fairly dark, and I have been looking out for Bandits as well.

I guess this heavy rain could obstruct my sight enough to raise my Vision skill.

And it was partly due to said heavy rain, as well as my immersion in my own musings, that I didn't notice the man until we almost reached him.

At first glance he appeared to be a bandit, with the full pelt of a bear wrapped around him as a cloak. But no bandit would stand in plain sight by the road, and the longsword that he was holding in his hand was one I recognized as the "common store-bought longsword".

At that time, Taylor picked him up without much though, but neither of us realized the trail of corpses the man left behind in the rain.

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Authour's notes:

Hello once again!

Back to weekly releases, and hopefully for good.

So in one chapter Notrem found a ghost that provided him with a quest, a Taylor that will finally provide him with an upgrade to his armor, and a swordsman that will help with that quest.

Okay fine, the first two he found last week.

But I properly introduced them this week.

Because I couldn't think of anything last week.

I spent too much time trying to find the right picture of Scooby and Shaggy.

Oops.

But who is this swordsman?

And what is the reason for the trail of corpses.

Find out next time, on "Trust me, I'm an Engineer"!

Oh, and as usual, all comments and criticisms will be appreciated.