“I just want to go home and see my wife and kid!” Sett slammed his head down on the table, Morgan at his side patting his back “Why couldn’t you just have said it was 20 or something normal for a wizard!” He then shot up, snapping his finger towards her “You aren’t evolved either?! Are you?! This would make it so much simpler if you were!” He paused, then slammed his head on the table again “no it won’t! I don’t know!”

“Evolved?” Mia heard that term flung around a lot, particularly towards people who could probably still kick her butt despite her newfound strength. So it just meant someone strong without being a hero? “…no?”

“…Truth…” Morgan was averting her eyes at this point, clearly finding this troubling.

“Argh!” he hit the table, causing a crack to run through it “I could already buy that maybe, just maybe, you have had a tough life or the fox people train their kids to be monsters or something and you were just higher level, like maybe 35 or even 50 with some weird skill, but nope.” He slapped the desk, leaning back heavily in his chair “150 in strength, kid, do you even know how stats work?”

Mia shrugged “not really.” She has had it explained to her before but…. She may not have been paying attention.

“Oh I just want to throw you on a boat and have Lexon deal with this…” he sighed, finally giving up and resigning himself “Listen, when someone level’s up in this world they get stat points, several things play into what you get, blood line, status, job, all of that.”

She nodded, following along. This part was one she was most familiar with.

He held up five fingers “Five, five is the absolute lowest. Ten is the next step up, then it fluctuates between 10 to 40 for higher level jobs like knight, guard, adventurer, scholar, and all those nobles who have kept up their bloodlines…really its just them having kids when thee parents have high levels.”

He waved his hand, frustrated “It gets convoluted, titles come into play, people evolve, it’s a mess.” He paused, then looked at her “but one thing is for certain, the highest an unevolved person can get is 50. And that is reserved for royalty, high-born races, and heroes…. Which one are you?”

Mia covered her mouth, unsure of what to do, scared of what to do. Her mist was getting thicker, the room colder as her fear ran rampant.

Sett noticed her shivering, he gave it some thought before easing up “…look, you are not in trouble, we just want to know what we are dealing with.” He motioned towards Morgan, who answered-

“Truth.”

“With what you have told us we want to help you, especially after learning your circumstances.” He paused, waiting for Mia to respond but seeing she had withdrawn in her seat that had frozen over he continued “Well…stop me if you need to, last time I checked and I am by no means an expert in how beastmen tribes work, the fox tribe doesn’t have royalty and are not a high-born race.”

Mia slowly nodded, confirming it for him.

“Aaaand you are not evolved…”

She shook her head, still not knowing what that entailed.

“And your level isn’t higher than…hrm…fifty?” he guessed.

She nodded “…forty…” she choked out.

He slammed his head into the table again, this time breaking it with his skull, he then shot up and pointed at Morgan “You better say she’s lying!”

“…Truth.”

He slumped down in his chair “Figures, hero.” He slapped his head “Didn’t even know they HAD a hero.” He chuckled “A run away fucking hero…”

“S-s-sorry” Mia sniffed, looking down into her lap “S-sorry…”

“Shit! No!” Sett got up “You are not i- hey!”

Morgan had slapped him, she then reached up and removed her hood “Jerk, you made her cry.” She said, her voice losing its bell-like tone, sounding lower.

“I didn’t mean to!” Sett protested “She has been telling us all this outragio-“ he stopped, realizing she had removed her hood “wait, you are still on duty.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Morgan stepped over to Mia, kneeling down next to her “I have relieved myself, Gaia can forgive me this much.”

Mia was crying, trying to hold back tears that wouldn’t stop. Why was she getting yelled at? She had answered all their questions and now that they find out she’s a hero she’s getting yelled at. She didn’t ask for this, she technically wasn’t even the hero with her aunt still alive, it was just a dumb thing with her skill. And she certainly wasn’t a runaway! …She may have run away but she was going to go back once she was stronger!

Mia felt something wrap around her, bringing her out of it for a moment she looked to see what it was, see it was a lady in a white robe, with long blonde hair and purple eyes, with her long pointy ears being her most defining feature.

The women, Morgan, smiled “There you go, calm down, its ok.”

Mia felt an unnatural calm wash over her; it was warm…it was calming. The feeling washed over her and stopped her fit. She blinked, surprised that she no longer felt sad “What was…?”

“A calming spell. Removes negative emotions and effects.” Morgan giggled, stepping away from her while messing with her frozen sleeves “You can continue, Sett.”

“…Thank you, Morgan.” Sett rubbed his temples “Mia, you are not in trouble, its ok, I’m sorry for getting upset. We will get you on a boat as soon as possible.” He then brought out the papers again, looking threw them “For now, we will get you a room at an inn with a guard…”

Mia blinked “eh?” the shift was sudden; weren’t they mad she was a hero? “Confused?”

“We can’t give the cult a chance to get their hands on you.” Morgan said “Especially for revenge.”

“As she said, don’t worry, we will keep your situation as secret as we can.” He shook his head “With your magic we could get you on as a crew member, hopefully we can figure something out in…”

“Question.” Mia raised her hand.

“Hrm? What?” Sett looked up from the paper.

“Why change?” She asked, asking why the sudden shift to helping her as soon as possible “Hero important, why?”

He looked conflicted for a moment before answering “It’s uh… simple answer, heroes are important, how depends on the people you’re the hero of, for us. We just have a duty to get you somewhere safe… no one explained why the fox hero was important in their tribe?”

“Ehm…” Kinda? ‘That situation is more complicated than everything else in my life…’ she didn’t know who to trust when it came to that.

“Ooook, I can see it’s complicated…so for your inn we will- yes?”

Mia had her hand raised again; she asked a question that has been weighing on her mind for awhile “What’s evolved?”

“…” Sett looked over to Morgan, as if asking for help but she turned away, abandoning him “Well uh, evolution is what happens when someone gets to level 100 and meets certain requirements. Their level resets to 1 but they keep all their stats. Even better they get a multiplier attached to their level up.” He laughed nervously “So say uhm, someone who gets 10 points evolved, those ten points would get doubled, or maybe even tripled for every level.”

“Hoooh” so that explains why, despite her boosted 50 stats points, people were way stronger than her.

“Yeah, it even stacks! If they get to level 100 again then another multiplier can get added onto it. “ He laughed excitedly “sure it gets harder to level up after the first time, but some people have managed to get to it. Those people are legends. Or monsters depending.”

Mia smiled, now she wanted to level up even more, she wanted to surpass all those people who slung her around like a doll “Can’t wait.” She happily said.

The room suddenly went silent, the two looking away from her “eh?” she glanced at them, but they averted their gaze. “What wrong?”

“Well, uh…”

“You see…”

Both were avoiding her “What? Tell.” She demanded.

“Well, sweetie…” Morgan started, walking over to her “Heroes are different, they get strong really fast, to defend their people. But when they reach level 100…”

“They don’t evolve.” Sett finished “We don’t know why, they just don’t.”

Mia’s eyes went wide “What?” they couldn’t be serious, they had to be lying. If that was the case then she could never catch up to the people who beat her, they would just always be higher than her, right? If they got 40 and it doubled… that’s higher than 50… so that would mean no matter what she did, people would surpass her once they got to 100.

Instantly, the image of her aunt atop the hill flashed in her mind, the girl drinking her time away in that shrine… shirking her responsibilities, not bothering with her duties like the dungeon upkeep.

No, they had to be something she could do! Must be something she was missing, that didn’t sound right! What was the point of a hero if they were just going to get out leveled! Her eyes swam, trying to make sense of this, anywhere, anything, she swore she saw something in the past…

“I know it must be hard to take in, but heroes are fast response to an imminent threat.” Sett said as softly as he could “it takes the average human years to reach level 40, you did it before you were 10. That is still a huge accomplishment.”

“Yeah, no need to feel bad or disappointed, you did stop the cult at the gate, that was a major accomplishment, you even did it without killing them. That takes some skill.” Morgan added.

‘Found it!’ She shouted in her mind; she had pulled up the description of her title.

[Title: Shrine Maiden. The hero of the fox tribe, their leader, their protector, the blessed one chosen by the last maiden through bloodline. Effects: Base stat points set to 50 on level up. Experience needed to level up is halved. Training to receive certain skills halved. Evolution unique to the fox tribe’s hero unlocked.]

‘Right there, at the end, evolution.’ That was all the proof she needed, why they thought she couldn’t evolve was no longer her concern, she had a bigger priority now.

She saved.

‘I hope Cy doesn’t remember this far back…we are pretty far away, both ways but…’

Then loaded slot 1.