As Catherine and I get down to the underground floor we arrive in a wide room filled with all sorts of machines and contraptions, most of which I had no idea what they did or how they worked.
“Now then new guy, I saw the old grump upstairs talk with you, but I couldn’t hear you at all, issat some sort of telepathy?”
No, not really. Not at all actually.
She then jolts abit in surprise, I guess out of all the things she might've been expecting, blue text appearing on my face wasn't one of them.
“Oh. Well, before we start all the tests, what’s your name? Mines Catherine, but feel free to call me Cathy.”
I’m Plush, nice to meet you.
“Plush eh? Odd name, then again most of the new species we encounter tend to have lived in isolated tribes for a very long time, so no wonder if they get their own traditions and names. Either way, let’s start with what your species as a whole can do, what are you lot called?”
Honestly, I just found myself in a forest one day, no memories of any others like me so I don’t even know whether there are any more of… “us”. Either way, I suppose you can just call me a plushy for the meantime.
“Hang on…” She says as she picks up a pen and paper which were hanging on the wall.
*scribble* *scribble*
“...alright. Now then, before we continue, take this.”
She then hands me a small blue orb, the same blue color that the book's pages are when it’s active.
“Now, hold that orb to your forehead and you should start seeing some text.”
I do as I’m told and, sure enough, text starts floating in front of me when I remove the orb from my head.
“This text should tell you what abilities you have, as well as how you got them. No one else can see this so you’ll have to tell me what they are.”
And like she said, the text in front of me is the exact same as within the book, only difference being the color of it and the fact that the orb only shows skills, nothing else, making the book much better.
I then feel a small vibration coming from my back, as though the book is purring in appreciation for my compliment.
“Well, what does it say? And don’t worry if you can’t read, simply look at the text for a while and information should start flowing into your head.”
Ah, no, I can read just fine, I was just taken a bit aback by this.
“Oh yeah, I guess I should’ve expected that now that you say it.”
...Uhm, the first skill that says it was given to me due to my species is called Hunting Claws, it does this:
I then activate Hunting Claws on my right hand while holding it outwards to her.
“Hm… Hold that for a bit.”
She then runs off and comes back with a small hammer.
“This is to test how much more durable it become from the skill, shouldn’t hurt too much.”
She then proceeds to hit my claws softly with the hammer, producing small *tink* sounds.
‘How cute, since I haven’t told her I can’t feel pain she’s trying to be gentle.’
“Alright…”
*scribble* *scribble*
“Next is?”
The next one is called Lulling Touch, it says that it makes people that I touch fall asleep. Also it says that it works quicker the more of them that I’m touching, so it probably works better on small targets.
*scribble* *scribble*
Uhm… The next three are passives, they’re kinda embarrassing…
“That’s alright, I won’t judge.”
<*giggle*>
I can hear Lizz giggling from inside the book, I guess she knows what’s next.
*sigh* they’re called “Brainless”, “Heartless” and “Gutless”.
I look at Cathy, fully expecting her to barely be able to hold back her laughter, but…
“And what do they do?”
Seems Lizz is just as confused as me.
Hm? You’re not going to laugh?
“How rude! I did say that I don’t judge, right?”
She looks at me with clearly over exaggerated surprise and astonishment.
Right… Well, Brainless makes me immune to most skills with a psychological effect, Heartless makes me immune to most poisons and makes it so I don’t have to breathe, and Gutless makes it so I don’t need to eat.
“Wow… That’s really good…”
She looks at me again, this time however, her surprise and astonishment is sincere.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Err… Are you going to write that down?
“Oh! Right!”
*scribble* *scribble*
“Really though, you’re immune to poisons and psycho magic and you don’t need to either eat or breathe… Then what about sleeping?”
Well I can sleep, I’ve never really tried staying up though so I’m not sure if I actually need it. But one thing I know is that I have a really hard time waking up when I sleep.
“Ha! Don’t we all?”
Before we continue, can I ask you a question? It’s been nagging at me ever since I entered the guild.
“Hm? Sure, ask away.”
Well the man upstairs said that you guys get all kinds of species, which includes other ones that are also as small as you and me, right?
“Yeah?”
Well then why was the guild’s door to high up for me to use properly? This has been nagging at me since I came here, and especially when I saw that they already had people working here who were as short as me.
“Well… It’s kinda embarrassing but… Honestly the guild master thought it looked cool and he wouldn’t allow anyone to change it, even after the first small people were discovered.”
Wait, that’s it?
“Yup, nothing more, nothing less.”
She then looks away from me and walks to where the papers are hanging off of the wall.
“Okay, lemme just put this away real quick, here we go… there.”
Cathy then puts the first piece of paper in a box and picks up a new one.
“So if those were the skills of your species as a whole, then what about you personally?”
Erm… Do I have to say all of them?
“No, however the more you tell us the more likely you are to get direct quests.”
Okay, well… Actually I only have two personal skills, and I’d rather not say exactly what one it is, however I can say that it makes me very good at running, climbing, jumping, landing after a big fall and sneaking into places.
*scribble* *scribble*
"And the other?"
The other is the one that causes text to appear on my mask, I guess it's good for being able to communicate quietly?
*scribble* *scribble*
“Alright… Is that all then?”
Oh wait! There's one more thing I forgot about, but this one probably counts for my entire species.
“Right, let me just go get the other paper… There we go, now what is it?”
Uhm… Have you heard of spirits of the mountain?
“Yeah… Most everyone here has, how so?”
Well, I was told that they kill anything they see that’s covered in flesh, right?
“Everything covered in flesh? I thought they just killed indiscriminately…”
Well, I actually came across one of them when I was in the mountains forest pretty close to here.
“Wait what!? How did you run away!?”
Erm… I didn’t? He just sorta stopped in front of me and we had a nice chat, he told me that they don’t like... err… What did he call you again? “Fleshies”? Something like that. Either way what I’m trying to say is that I can meet up with spirits of the mountain without them trying to kill me.
“Hang on!”
*scribble* *scribble*
She then runs back to the wall with the papers and grabs a third one and scribble on it as well.
“Well we’re done with the examination, but if possible could you follow me to the guild masters room? This stuff about the spirits, if it’s true it could mean a lot for us!”
Well… Sure… But is that really it? I’m an adventurer now?
“Oh, sorry! You will still need to do some guild issued quests first to see how adept you are at certain tasks before we can really call you one of us. And sure, this whole thing was supposed to tell us what you could do for the same purpose, but talk is cheap so until you can prove that you can’t just use your abilities, but also use them in the right way you will need to do some work.”
Fair enough.
“Then let’s hurry to the guild master!”
We then start walking back up the stairs.
When we get to the top of the staircase, rather than go out the door we came in through we instead walk through the other, and come out in a room filled with doors on our left and a bookshelf between every door.
“Shhhhh!”
I follow her into the room, taking care to make as little sound as possible.
We arrive at the third door from where we entered, and I can now see that there were five in total, so this was the middle door.
She then goes to the bookshelf on the other side of the door and signals me to go on this side of it.
She then grabs a hold of her side of the shelf and I do the same with my side.
When I feel her pushing from her end I start pulling from mine, and since there's no one here I phase my fingers into it to get a better grip.
‘We look like two kids pulling a prank’
Once we get the shelf in front of the door Cathy starts going back the way we came, this time exiting through the door leading to the room with the tables.
She suddenly runs up to the man with the goat horns and, with sparkling eyes, she talks to the man.
“Hey! Is the guild master in!?”
“Hm? What? Why would you need to talk to that old man?”
“This new guy has info on the spirits! We might even be able to talk to them!”
*SLAM*
“WHAT!”
The man suddenly slammed both his hands on his desk, stood up and ran towards the door.
*SLAM*
“FUCK!”
Only to run headfirst into it, the door not budging and inch.
The man falls on the floor of the booth with a *thud*, leaving two marks in the door from his horns.
Cathy falls on the ground laughing, and I can hear Lizz doing the same in my head, while i realize that we had indeed been pulling a prank.
The man then gets up with an angry look while covering his face in one of his hands and using the other to steady himself.
“Ha. Ha. Ha. It was so funny I almost forgot to laugh. I’m guessing the whole spirit thing was all just a part of the prank?”
“Nope, that part was real, but the guild master did tell you that you needed to not run out of your booth when you get overexcited, right? So, can I meet him?”
“As much as I want to put the replacement door on your pay, you raise a fair point, somehow, and I’m sorry to say but the guild master isn’t in right now, but he should be back within a day or so.”
“Oh. Well Plush, in that case I guess you can start with the preliminary quests then? Long story short, you get three quests of each different kind, killing monsters, gathering resources and delivering packages, you have one week on you to finish as many as you can, and depending on how many you clear your starting rank might change.”
Rank?
The goat man then chimes in, explaining:
“Adventurers are split in different ranks, you’ve already been told about how the guild can send each adventurer direct quests when they’re deemed needed for the success of the quest, but there are also general quests, hanging off of those three boards over there.”
He then points towards the wooden boards hanging on the wall.
“Each of those boards have a quests of different types, monster hunting, resource gathering and deliveries, each adventurer has three ranks, each corresponding with the three types of quests. Depending on what rank the adventurer is they may challenge harder, but better paying quests.”
I see… But what about the fourth board?
The man then corrects his glasses again, as though waiting for me to ask that.
“That is the board for special quests, they are quests that can’t be associated with the other types, such as escort quests or other jobs that don’t correspond with the main three, due to there being much less of all the other types of quests than the first three they are all bundled together, and since they vary in what you need to do to clear them they don’t have a rank attached to them either."
I get it… But then these three quests, can I start them now?
Cathy then starts talking.
“Just one moment.” She then goes to each of the three main boards, climbs up on a nearby stool and grabs three papers from each of them, she then comes back and gives them to me.
“One thing I didn’t get to say is that if you clear all nine quests your ranks can increase further depending on how fast you do it, so if you beat all quests of one of the types come back immediately or they’ll still count as incomplete until you do come back.”
Okay...Well I’ll be off then, Bye!
I then wave back and walk out through under the door as I hear the goat man ask Cathy to remove the bookshelf and Cathy answering by telling him to wait for when someone called “Grizz” gets back.
'Wait... If it's so important to communicate with the spirits, and I'm the only one that can do it... Does this mean I'll be able to meet Charlton again in the future?!?'