It turns out that the keep is somewhere deep inside the forest, which we just agreed I'm not supposed to go to just yet.

"Ho don't you worry, silly!" the little snake says with a glint of mischief inside his silted eyes "I wasn't going to bring you with me," it said in a calming voice, as if talking to a scared toddler.

I huff and cross my hands across my chest, feeling like this relationship between us is not going to work if it kept goading me like this.

"I'm going to go to the keep and get a quest from the great sage snake" the little snake continues not even looking in my direction "don't worry little brother, I won't be long at all!"

"Sure, I don't mind…" I say, shrugging.

"You should wait for me in that human village, since you look like a human, so they won't give you any trouble" this is the first good idea the little snake said to me, so I nod happily. I should have some money to buy starter equipment. I could do that while I wait for the little snake to come back.

I wave the little thing goodbye – good riddance – and enters the village with a skip in my step.

On the other side of the huge gates I see a village full of children, a few teens and some adults. Most of the adults are NPCs and will be able to communicate with us.

The road is full with sounds of laugh, pleasant talks and hissing. Each person in here has at-least one snake out, moving around.

Creepy crawlies.

I take a few steps back once the number of snakes' registers in my brain, but I'm not fast enough of turning around and running the hell away.

"Hey Lory21 I think the kid's waking up!"

I blink slowly, not really able to see yet, as a man's voice says from somewhere above me.

"Give him some space Gol, sheesh!"

A female voice growls in replay.

I keep on blinking until my eyes focus and I can finally see the due in front of me. Thankfully they are blocking my line of sight, so I don't have to look at the hundreds of snakes crawling around like little devils.

The guy is tall and wearing an armor, he's skin is brown sunny colored and he has a beard that's full and black as night.

The girl is tall and kind of plain looking next to the snake goddess, but she isn't ugly or something. In fact, she has the best pair of red ruby eyes I have ever seen.

She is dressed in practical clothes and I can see a short sword strapped to her belt.

Those people are the gate guards, aren't they?

I sigh. Way to go me, your first hour in and already building a reputation. I sit up and gets help from the guy, um... Gol? That's his name, right?

"I'm feeling kind of dizzy" I inform them, but I'm not really, it's more like – just like I didn't want to tell the little snake that I fear snakes for no good reason, I don't want to tell the rest of the world.

This is also why I didn't tell my new work place that I have problems with snakes. I lie through my teeth and smiled at them, assuring them that I will be fine and that it's really nothing.

"Get out of my way Gol, let me handle it" the girl, Lory21 is not an NPC now that I have a better look at her. I don't know why she works at the gates, but even her name shouts out player.

"Be careful with the little guy, he's dizzy" Gol says and moves away from me.

Lory21 moves next to me and without thinking much she takes out a bottle of water "here," she says "it's no healing potion, but it should at least help you a little bit"

Not feeling like arguing, I take the bottle away from her and drinks greedily. She says nothing, but after a little while I start to feel guilty.

"Thanks" I give her back her bottle and smile at her to show her my thanks. I believe she won't be able to understand my words anyways.

Her cheeks turn red and she hugs me tight to her chest. Not bad… a six out of ten. She picks me up and now I'm in the air. Great.

"You're probably hungry, right? Right" she nods to herself, "You'll mange alone, won't you Gol? This little guy needs my help!"

Gol only laughs out loud and shakes his head, "as if I didn't know that was going to happen, lass" he teased, "but didn't you notice?"

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Lory21 didn't notice, it was clear from her dense expression that she had no idea what the old man was talking about, "what is it?" she asked "is something wrong with this little angel?"

She sounds worried. It appears that I somehow attracted another annoying one without even trying.

Maybe I was right, this mark of Medusa is truly a curse.

"The little guy doesn't have his starter snake with him" Gol explains "you won't be able to talk, or rather, he won't be able to talk back to you" he pointed out.

I nodded along, because I didn't really want to go with that girl, she was acting too suspicious in my humble opinion. I don't know her and I look like a freaking kid next to her, so you'll forgive me for my caution.

"I don't mind" she said in that up-beat tone "I also like mute little kids, any kid that cute will be pampered and fed delicious yummy food!"

So, she's a lolicon…

I guess there are girls like that too, I muse to myself. Well, as long as she's willing to feed me… my hunger bar is getting pretty low.

Still, I take a step back and look at Sol, the only person present that can tell this girl that I am not a fucking toy.

"Could you tell her that as long as she keeps a respectable distance, I'm willing to let her buy my lunch?"

The man nods and tell the disturbing girl exactly what I said, word for word.

"Really?!" she jumps up, stars in her eyes "you are the first that willingly agreed to come with me!" – scary, what did you do with those that didn't willingly agreed – "aren't you just the cutest!"

Since I was already in her arm, I didn't really need to do anything, she started walking all on her own. I let myself be carried, because frankly, it looked a lot more practical than trying to keep up with her much longer legs.

I also have a hunch that even if I made a fuss, she won't let me walk on my own. She looks like the type.

It takes a few minutes, but we finally reach where she intends for us to dine. It's a fine-looking place, a lot of wood was used to build this place, other than the fireplace and the area around it, it's all wood really.

"Something smells good" the girl says and we find an empty table and she places me in a high chair, much to my chagrin. I may look like a toddler, but I am a grown man you know?!

A busty waitress comes our way and each of us gets a menu – thankfully. It looks like the restaurant is handled by NPCs, so I can actually order for myself.

I look at the menu. It's ordered by the name of the dish, the price and some random number by its' side.

With one sweep I can see that there's a lot of meat, pasta and potatoes and not much veggies, the drinks are water, cola and soda in various tastes, there is also an option to order bottles of milk.

I can feel my eye twitch, as if anyone would actually willingly order a bottle of warm milk. I decide to order pasta and cola, it isn't expensive much, so I think the girl is going to be ok with it.

"Are you ready to order, sirs?" the busty waitress is back, she gives us a wide smile.

"I believe we are," I say "or at least I am".

"Level barrier?" the busty waitress asks in an understanding tone and I nod at her "you don't have your starter with you?"

"No, I left saying it's going to get a quest from the keep or something", she looks surprised.

"Ok, I guess" she gives another simile "so, what would you like to order?"

"Pasta and cola, please" I request.

"Ho, you can't get that yet" she says sheepishly, looking uncomfortable "certain foods are restricted by your level," she explains hurridly "if you look at the right side next to the dish's price, there's a number"

I nod.

"Well, that’s the minimum level you need to be at in order to get that dish" she gives me an apologetic look and turns to get Lory21 order until I… choose.

There's really only one option open for me, isn't there? I still look once more in order to make sure. Yup, the only dish that doesn't have a level restriction is that cursed milk.

I can't even ask that girl, Lory21 to order something for me because she has no idea what I'm saying!

In fact, the busty waitress isn't even waiting for me to reorder, she just leaves and soon returns with the cursed milk. It's in a sippy-cup. Gods, I can see why this game is no longer popular!

This is simply degrading!

But… but I'm hungry…!

I look at Lory21 potato chips and I give her a look full of longing. She moves closer to me with a knowing look on her face, "you know" she starts "little kids aren't supposed to eat adult's food" she says with glee.

Her eyes literally sparkle.

"You kidding me" I say sulkily "am I supposed to drink milk for a whole month?"

This game and my task look bleaker and bleaker as time passes by. What a shitty game.

"Ho, don't cry little one" she coos "don't cry"

I wasn't going to cry, you mad woman.

Having no choice, I grab the bottle and drink just what I need to, so that my food bar will reach its full capacity. The rest I don't intend to even touch.

I feel insulted and betrayed by Lory21, my pride had taken a blow and I don't really want to be near her anymore. It looks like she gets off of seeing grown men acting like kids.

I wave a brief goodbye and hightail it from that place.

I decide to go buy my starter equipment while I'm up, doing my very best to ignore the fact that I'm surrounded by snakes. If not for the fact that there is a snake free zone in the city, I don't think I could have made it.

I got a dagger, strapped it to my belt and got a few potions both for me and for my starter snake.

It took me some time because my legs are so short, but I finally finished. Next, I tried buying dried meat, but I was met with that level requirement thing again.

It seems that level one is discriminated against quite heavily in this town. Now that I think about it… there's a reason why. To become master snake, one has to increase the starter snake's level before his own.

This whole town makes you want to level up as fast as possible. Doing so will make you lose your chance of getting that title.

No wonder no one got that stupid fucking title! No one wants to stay level one if they don't have to! It stinks! The food's bland and degrading! It's not easy to get from place to place and no one knew about that little detail, so they didn't know what they are giving up on!

I, I got a hint from the snake goddess. That's the only reason that I don't go get a quest to level up right this second.

Ping!

'Little snake' sends you a message!

[Little brother!]

[I'm here!]

[Where are you?]