《Gecko》 Chapter 1 Blinking I squinted up at the blue sky as fluffy white clouds drifted by gently, obscuring the midday sun briefly before letting it shine down again. I sat up and looked at around at the tall grass swaying in the breeze around me, a gust of wind shook the leaves in an oak tree and I lookedup at the rustling of the vibrant green leaves.A small stone poked into my palmas I clenched it around the dirtand I glanced down. A scream tore through the air, birds erupting from their perches in the trees and a rabbit shot through the grass as I scrambled up, tripping over myself in the process, eyes wide as i gaped at my hand. It was blue. With scales. And claws. Franticly I tried to shake it off before falling onto the ground again and staring at it. Chest heaving I breathed through my mouth before jerking my other hand up to look at it. It was the same. Swallowing thickly I turned both hands over shakily, stretching the fingers with the short little claws at the ends. Pausing for a moment catching my breath I just stared, my hands were a shade lighter on the palms, but still blue and scaly. Experimentally I rubbed my fingers against my palms; the scales were soft and smooth, likemy friend''s pet corn snake. I sat there for a minute just rubbing my hands, the birds had settled back into their trees, the scene around me returned to its previous calm. Snapping out of my reverie, I grabbed the bottom of my plain shirt and yanked it up. Like my hands, my stomach too was blue and scaly. Poking it briefly to confirm that yes it was my belly, I leaned forward and took off a short leather boot and pulled off the brown sock. My foot like everything else was also blue and scaly. Not sure why I was expecting anything else at that point. Irritated I flicked the short stubby claw at the tip of my big toe. Something twitched in the grass next to me, I jerked back, but the snake shot forward following me. I rolled sideways gasping, waiting to feel fangs sink into me as I desperately scrambled to my feet, and ran screaming through the grass, one foot bare I could hear the swishing behind me as the snake slid through the grass. Sprinting I ignored the sharp stones tearing into my foot as I shot looks behind me to see it gliding through the grass so close behind me. Tripping on a tree root I fell face first into the ground, just about bracing myself on one arm, I spun around on the floor to face it, one hand reaching out to catch the snake and miraculously I could feel my hand close round its scaly neck even as it desperately wriggled in my grasp. Tightening my hold, I took deep breaths before inspecting the snake. A flash of panic shot through me, I hadn''t caught the head end but the tail end. It seemed to wriggle faster in my grip and my eyes followed its body trying to find the head before realising it was behind me, yelping I leapt up but the whole snake''s body came off the ground with me. Spinning in circles I jumped around trying to shake it lose before it bit me. My other hand reached around and grabbed the other end of the snake and yanked with all my strength. Fiery pain shot through me and I immediately stopped pulling but didn¡¯t let go. I froze and swallowed, slowly turning my head, eyes watering as I tried to see where it had bitten me. It was difficult to see past the rucksack but I craned my neck around since the pain originated right in the centre of my backside. I twisted a bit further and suddenly I was very aware of how stupid I looked, standing there with one shoe holding my tail aloft and staring at my butt. Very slowly I lowered my tail before letting go completely and peered around to see if anyone had seen my stunt. I stiffened when I saw a boy standing there gaping at me. His tousled wet brown hair stuck to his forehead and soaking wet clothes clung to his slim frame. I could feel my face heating up in embarrassment and I opened my mouth to say something when I remembered that this was a very human looking boy and I looked very not-human right now. A sliver of fear dampened my embarrassment; I needed to make sure I wasn¡¯t seen as a threat as I contemplated what to say. Suddenly the boy burst out laughing, clutching his side and almost gasping for air as he point at me and wiped at his eyes, embarrassment and anger came back in full force as he pointed at me "You.. haha" he laughed out "You.. you haha did you fall asleep with tail in river and get it bitten or something?" he wiped at his eyes and straightened up. "No, I just-" I paused, redness still spreading on my face "There was a wasp" He stared at me balefully "Sure there was" he looked down at my feet "Where¡¯s you other boot?" he grinned, "Did the wasp take it?" I glared at him and huffed straightening up to feel taller and noticed 2 things. 1, even though the boy looked around 10, he was still taller than me and 2, when I puffed myself up, I could feel something moving under my rucksack.Not to repeat the tail incident, I chose to ignore the movement under my rucksack and pray I had wings instead of a flesh-eating spider laying her eggs. "Why are you soaking wet anyway?" Ignoring his question as I glared at him, he looked away as his expression soured "None of your business" My tail lashed behind me a bit before I snorted and turned away, stomping back through the grass to get my lost boot. "Hey where are you going?" he called and ran after me until he walked next to me "I''m Aron by the way, you''re a Drake aren''t you? I''ve never met one before, lots of Lizardfolk though" he looked at me sideways "Sorry I er.. I know you lot don''t like to be compared or something" "It''s fine" I looked forward, so I was a Drake now? Well at least I knew my species "I''m Sasha" A sudden thought hit me "You''re human aren¡¯t you?" I asked just to double check. He scowled, hands going up to his ears "I know I have big ears, but I''m not a half-Elf or anything" Now that he mentioned it, his ears did stick out a bit. He glared at me and covered his ears with his hands, I opened my mouth and closed it, trying to force the words out "Ah I''m um" It felt like my insides where rebelling, I crushed the feeling and forced it out "I''m sorry" why was it so hard to apologise? I almost had to force myself to swallow my pride to do it, leaving a bitter wronged feeling in my stomach. "It''s ok, the other kids make fun of me for it too" He scowled and looked away hands dropping down. The feeling inside me eased a bit as my hurt pride was assuaged.Reaching for my lost sock and boot I sat down and proceeded to put them on again, before standing up and dusting myself off. "So where are you from? Did youcome with the traders?" An icy feeling in my stomach covered everything else, I was clearly not on Earth anymore, there were no Drakes or Lizardfolk or half-Elves there, so where was I? And what should I tell Aron? At leastgoing by Aron reaction to me, I wouldn''t be attacked by humans or anything, but what did I tell him? Should I make up a background story? But then what if it was disproven? I knew nothing about this world to back up my story so should I tell the truth? But it would sound ludicrous- "Heeeelllllloooo" he dragged out the syllables and leaned forward waving his hand in front of my face. "I don''t remember" I blurted out "What?" he looked at me in confusion. Well I''d already blurted that out, at least no one could disprove that and who knows, maybe I did have Drake family around here somewhere "I don''t remember" I repeated and stopped looking at him. "You don''t remember where you parents went?" he probed frowning. "No, I don¡¯t remember anything, my family, where I''m from or how I got here" I stared at the floor for a moment, the world suddenly seemed a lot less safe as it sunk home that I really had no idea where I was, how to get home or were to go from here. "Are you sure?" Aron asked nervously I glared at him huffing hot air out of my nostrils. Yes I had a snout but I wasn''t going to focus on that right now. "Ok well I guess I can take you to the village chief, she''ll know what to do" he said straightening his shoulders as he reached forward to pat my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me. A flash of irritation rose up in me but I squashed it when I looked into his earnest face. "Alright lets go see your Chief" I said. He grinned at that "Ok its this way, it''s not far" and started bounding back the way we came "If you''re hungry we can stop at my grandpa''s Inn, he makes the best pies ever, he''s a level 39 [Chef]" He said with obvious pride as his chest puffed out a bit as he glanced back, deflating slightly at the lack of reaction on my part. "Wow that¡¯s great" I praised, I had no idea what level 39 [Chef] was or meant but he seemed proud of it and I wanted to be nice. He grinned, straightening his shoulders a bit before chattering about all the different types of food his grandfather could makeand how good it was. Aron''s clothes and hair mostly dried in the warm midday sun and I nodded along until we came up to andwidedirtpath meandering through the grasslands. Following it, it curved around a hill and I could see an open village gate with a 3m wooden wall on either side, but what caught my eye was the massive minotaur standing guard with a human by the gate. My eyes grew wide as I took in the large curved horns coming out the side of his shaggy head just above his floppy cow ears. Fine short brown fur covered his face, which ended in a distinctly bovine snout and he must have towered over his human companion by a good foot.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. I slowed down slightly and interrupted Aron "Who''s that?" "Who?" Aron paused and looked forward "Oh uncle Rudy, he''s a [Guard], he''s friends with my grandpa, but I think my grandpa mostly likes him coz he eats so much" He looked sideways at me "First time seeing a minotaur? They''re not that common but uncle Rudys always been here so its no big deal for me" he bragged. I snorted and glared at him "No its not the first time I''ve seen one" I blustered, refusing to let him get the better of me. Why did I say that? of course I''d never seen one before, but the idea of Aron beating me at something was intolerable. "Oh yeah, how would you know, thought you didn''t remember anything" he glared at me, put out that he couldn''t show off. "I just know" I said, refusing to back down now. We simmered in silence walking closer to the gate until we went far off and the guards straightened to look at us. "Who¡¯s your friend Aron?" the Minotaur called out stepping forward calmly on cloven hooves, hefting his enormous battle-axe onto his shoulder, floppy ear twitching in the breeze. I tried to keep eye contact with him, but my tail sagged lower and lower the closer I got, part of me refusing to back down and the other very aware of how completely and stupidly outmatched I was. Finally coming to a stop in front of the guards, I could see the thoroughly unimpressed look in his dark brown eyes and my tail flopped to the floor completely, his gaze turned back to Aron. "This is Sasha" he said grinning "I''m helping her since she can''t remember anything, I''m going to take her to the Chief and see what she says" The human guard smiled andcame forwards to kneelin front of me, it felt strange that an adult was now almost twice my height "Hey kid, I''m Dante a [Guard] here, did you lose your parents? Where did you see them last?" I hadn''t paid any attention to him before but he had a friendly appearance with average features and a sword on his waist, but the way he called me kid rubbed me the wrong way. My tail twitched up and down behind him as I tried to control the urge to bite him, next to the minotaur he seemed a lot less dangerous. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself, seriously what was wrong with me, I''d never had the urge to bite a chunk out of someone before or ever been this proud or quick to anger. "I don''t know, I don''t remember anything about where I came from or how I got here" I said, quite proud of how even and controlled I sounded. The guard frowned and rubbed his chin "How old are you?" A nervous feeling filled my stomach and my tail swished side to side as I shrugged. "Alright how about we get your basic details from the scribe stone then" he said and stood up and started walking towards the wooden guard tower on the left of the gate clearly expecting me to follow. Slightly panicked I looked to Aron but he was already trotting after the human guard. I looked to the minotaur but he seemed to ignore my presence now, I stiffly walked forwards, trying to look like I wasn''t keeping an eye on him and then sped up a bit when I was past him, telling myself I was only trying to catch up with Aron. Icalled it a tower but it only had 3 floors and the first was simply a room with a desk and drawers, probably so they could keep track of trade goods and people as theycame and went. Aron already moved forwards to sit in a chair opposite the desk, legsswinging as the guard gestured for me to take the other seat as he rifled through some drawers. Nervously I sat down, my feet didn''t reach the ground, so I just dangled my legs waiting, what was a scribe stone and what did he mean basic information? "Alright got it" he took out a small cloth bag from one of drawers and pulled an engraved tennis ball sized stone out. Throwing the bag down on the desk, he pulled an empty card out from a pile on the desk and sat down on the opposite side of the desk. "Have you used a scribe stone before?" I shook my head "Alright don''t worry it''s easy, I''ll put the stone on the desk, put your hand on it and repeat "show my basic status", your basic status details will become visible to us and I''ll record it on this card, I''ll file it, we''ll get your entry to the village approved and I''ll take you to the chief who will see what we can do about finding your family, does that sound good?" I nodded, no idea what basic status meant but I doubted I''d get into the village without doing it, hesitantly I reached forwards and placed my hand on the stone, I expected it to burn or something, but it was cool like a normal stone. Glancing up at Dante he nodded encouragingly and I said "Show basic status" The engravings on the stone it up and a panel rose up out of the stone.
Name: Sasha Lanncaster Species: Drake
Gender: Female Age: 9
Class 1: [None]
Class 2: [None]
I stared at the panel projected above the stone in disbelief, I mean I had briefly considered that magic would be real but it was entirely different to see it.The guard reached forward and tapped the card to the stone, a flare of light covered the previously empty card and writing filled it. Hesitantly I took my hands from the stone and the panel disappeared and swallowed, well at least I knewtheage of this body now. "You can only get 2 classes? I can get 3" Aron boasted grinning, immediately my nervousness disappeared and I glared at him "I''ll still get better ones than you" I snapped out. Why did I say that, kicked myself, I didn''t even know what a class was or if some could be better than others but I just couldn''t let Aron win. "Nah uh" "Yes I will" We glared at each other and I harrumphed and turned away. Seriously what was wrong with me, I had never been a sore loser before and for god¡¯s sake even though I was stuck in a child''s body I shouldn''t be acting like a child. "Ok now that that''s sorted I''ll take you to the chief now" Dante ushered us both out of the room and closed the door behind us, nodding to the minotaur he stepped forwards and started walking down the cobbled street,buildingswhere mostly simple cottages and some shops in-between, people walked around, mostly humans but occasionally I saw non-human figures and though people did look at me, no gazes seemed hostile or lingered for long. It was surprising how many ordinary people carried weapons though, mostlydaggers and bows but some people had swords and axes to go with their rustic clothing style. I looked down at myself, not like I was wearing anything better, plain boots with brown trousers and a woollen shirt with an old rucksack. I didn''t seem to have a weapon but neither did Aron. We walked in silence until Aron nudged me and pointed to an Inn at the corner of the street near the centre of the small village "That''s my grandpa''s Inn" It had 2 storeys with a large sign hanging over the doorThe Stag''s Crown written in gold stylised writing. Flowers in bloom hung by every window and ivy crawled up the side of the sandstone, benches outside were filled with people eating lunch and the smell that wafted out was glorious. I inhaled deeply and my mouth started watering, how could food smell that good? I was suddenly aware of how hungry I was and looked at the Inn longingly, but the guard didn¡¯t slow down and I was forced to continue on. "We''ll go later, I promise" Aron grinned knowlingly at me, my stomach rumbled a bit and I nodded my consent. Dante stopped in front of large stone building, opened the door and walked in, I followed and looked up, the ceiling light looked like a glowing stone, similar to the scribe stone, if I had to guess, I''d say it too had engravings on it and that when activated made it glow. I looked down at the sound of a voice "I was just heading out, how can I help you Dante?" A middle aged woman stood in front of the stairs that she''d just come down, the hard leather armour and a sword strapped to her side she had an intimidating aura around her. "Aron found a young Drake out in the grasslands who can''t seem to remember anything about where she''s from, or where her family might be" "Hm take her to Tycel, she can do a blood scry and find her relatives, otherwise ask around and find someone she can stay with for now. I need to go but let me know if it doesn¡¯t resolve itself" Without sparing a look the woman walked out and closed the door behind her. I let out a breath I didn¡¯t know I''d been holding, my tail swaying gently. Dante turned around "Alright you heard her, lets go do a blood scry" Alarm flashed through me, I had no idea what that was, but it had the word blood in it and that did not sound good. "Don''t worry Tycel only needs a drop of blood" I relaxed slightly, as Dante headed off. My stomach rumbled again and Aron dutifully went along, I sighed and followed them. Luckily, Tycel was on the same street but on the opposite side and few buildings down. The shop had the unoriginal name Tycel''s Enchantments but inside was very organised with manyodd objects on shelves with prices and descriptions underneath. "Hey Tycel, you in here?" Dante called. A rustling from the back and a young woman come out through the door, short and pretty, she adjusted her bun and pushed her glasses up her nose "Ah Dante, what can I do for you" she smiled in a way that was a little too forced but cheerful non the less. Dante leaned against the front desk "I''m here by chief''s orders, I''ve been taking a little Drake girl around the village trying to find her lost parents but she can''t seem to remember anything so the chief thought you could do a blood scry to find her family"I stared at him as he tried to impress the woman who seemed vaguely uncomfortable but also used to this. "Ah I see of course" She turned to me and smiled, "Hey there, I just need to prick your finger and then we can find your parents, does that sound alright?"irritation flared in me at being talked down to but I supressed it and nodded. She took us into the next room and gestured for me to sit at the table, she rummaged around a bit while Dante attempted to make small talk and Aron inspected various shelves. "Ok here we go" she lifted an old irondeviceonto the table, it was a small tripod like stand with a horizontal arrow bobbing up and down on top. It too had engravings all over it. "Its a bit old so it can only scry in a 20km radius but that should be more than enough" she smiled and pulled out a needle "Just need to prick your finger now" I reached forward and gave her my hand watching carefully as she pricked the tip of my finger between the tiny blue scales there. I managed to suppress the urge to flinch and a drop of blood welled up, vivid red against the blue of my scales. She took my finger and wiped the blood on the tip of the arrow. The engravings lit up and the arrow started to spin in circles speeding up before slowing down and then just drifting slowly in circles. The light faded and eventually the arrow lost momentum and slowed to a halt. "Looks like you don¡¯t have anyone first or second-degree relatives within 20km, I''m sorry" she looked up at me. I hadn''t really thought about what this meant, its not like I really had family here or even back on earth but now it hit home that I was truly alone here. Tears gathered in my eyes and I tried to discretely wipe them away. From the look on Tycel''s face she clearly saw them but pretended she didn''t to spare my feelings. Not sure if that made me like her more or less. "It''s ok" Aron came up and started patting me on the head in an attempt to comfort me. Almost instantly anger flared and I glared at him, pushed his hand away and jumped up from my chair. "I''m not your dog" Aron pulled back, a hurt and confused looking his eyes "That¡¯s what my grandpa does when I cry" Guilt took over and I looked away "I''m sorry" I mumbled out, this time it was easier to apologise, maybe my newfound pride and anger could be controlled. Eventually. "It''s ok different people want to be comforted in different ways, or at least that what Dante said when hetook Melissaupstairs when she was crying that her cat ran away" Dante made a choking sound and coughed. I couldn''t help it looking at Aron''s serious face and a giggle escaped, as he looked confused, Tycel rolled her eyes behind Aron, I grinned and said "Thanks Aron, that helps" He grinned, a bit confused but happy "Let''s go to my grandpa¡¯s Inn, I can show you around and we can eat lots of food!" he grabbed my hand and started dragging me out the door while Dante said goodbye to Tycel. Chapter 2 Aron was almost vibrating with excitement ¡°Come on¡± he urged as he dragged me forwards with unexpected strength ¡°This way is shorter¡± he took a left down a short dirt alley between 2 cottages. I could hear running footsteps and Dante swearing somewhere in the street behind us but Aron seemed to have forgotten about him completely. Turning into the new street Aron abruptly came to a stop and I almost crashed into him, I swerved in the last second and turned to Aron scowling ¡°What was that th-¡° I trailed off at the look on his face and turned to where Aron was looking. Across the street a group of kids around Aron¡¯s age were talking and laughing as they walked along. A short boy with cropped blonde hair looked in our direction and immediately turned to say something to the tall ginger boy who looked in our direction. A grin spread across his face and he elbowed the dark haired boy next to him and pointed. They both laughed and said something to each other I couldn¡¯t make out. Anger curled in my stomach at the way Aron stiffened next to me and I straightened and turned slightly so I was a bit in front of Aron. ¡°Hey flower boy, did we water you enough today or do you need another dunk?¡± the ginger yelled across the street and the others burst out laughing. Aron didn¡¯t respond and stood silently watching them. I snorted blowing hot air out of my nostrils and glared at the group, though they barely acknowledged my presence, which only infuriated me more. I wanted to punch the ginger kid and claw his insides out but something inside me balked and absolutely refused to get involved unless Aron indicated that he needed help. This was Aron¡¯s fight and they had insulted his pride so I flat out refused to insult his pride further by giving unwanted help. The group lost interest though and walked on, at the back a Minotaur kid with stubby horns looked at Aron guiltily, he paused and looked from Aron to the group and then shrugged at Aron apologetically and ran after them. Aron seemed to deflate next to me as he looked at the Minotaur running to re-join the group. He turned away but not before I could see his watery brown eyes ¡°Come on, the Inn¡¯s not far¡± he said trying to sound unaffected as he walked briskly in the opposite direction the group had gone in. Sending a last glare at the group, which went entirely unnoticed, I turned jogged to catch up with Aron. I eyed him out the corner of my gaze, if he didn¡¯t want to talk about it I wouldn¡¯t bring it up. He looked morose and tense silence widened a gap between us as I tried to think of something to say. ¡°So what¡¯s the best thing on the menu?¡± I finally asked. That turned out to be the right thing to say as his face brightened a bit. ¡°Well of course it¡¯s all good, grandpa never makes bad food, but my favourite is the pies, he makes a special apple and rhubarb one just for me for desert sometimes¡± His hand came up to brush his hair out of his eyes but I could see him use his sleeve to quickly dry his eyes. ¡°But we just ran out of rhubarb so next best is the hazelnut cookies, they seriously just melt in your mouth. There¡¯s also carrot cake with whipped cream, grandpa makes the best whipped cream, I mean Hitch also makes good cream but grandpa makes the best. Also-¡° ¡°What about something that isn¡¯t a desert?¡± he paused and looked at me a bit surprised ¡°But deserts are the best¡± as if it was an obvious truth as we walked slowly. ¡°Don¡¯t you get sick of just desert?¡± I looked at him incredulous as he grinned. ¡°Never¡± He declared, ¡°Though this one time, we were washing dishes at the Inn and then Kaid-¡° he stopped abruptly and looked away. ¡°Who¡¯s Kaid?¡± I asked before I could stop myself ¡°He¡¯s- he was my best friend¡± he mumbled as he looked at the floor and looked like he was trying hard not to cry, angrily he looked up ¡°Now he¡¯s just a jerk coz stupid Carston said he could join their group since he got a combat class now¡± I flashed back to the Minotaur who¡¯d looked at Aron guiltily. ¡°Oh¡± I said ¡°He sounds like a jerk¡± I agreed, I had no idea what a combat class meant but ditching your best friend for the cool group was a dick move. ¡°Do you have a class?¡± I went out on a limb, hopefully it was ok to ask but he¡¯d already seen my status so it probably wasn¡¯t taboo. He sighed ¡°Yeah I have the [Cook] class and 2 free slots, grandpa made me take it as soon as I unlocked it, he wants to get to level 30 so I can upgrade to [Chef] and take over the Inn one day¡± I frowned about to ask if that¡¯s what he wanted when Aron jogged forwards ¡°We¡¯re here, I¡¯ll make sure you get a good seat¡± He grinned. A bell rung as he opened the door and I could hear the hubbub of voices from inside before a loud voice yelled ¡°Aron it¡¯s the lunch rush, where have you been, get in here and start serving tables¡± ¡°Yes grandpa¡± Aron yelled back, he grinned at me apologetically ¡°Just sit over there, I have some work to do but I¡¯ll join you as soon as I can¡± Aron raced away and disappeared into the back. A little lost I made my way over to an empty 2-seat table by the window Aron had pointed to. Sitting down I looked around, everything was a bit mismatched but it has a rustic comfortable charm as a waiter bustled about bringing a group of elderly Lizardfolk their drinks. The Inn was spacious inside with solid hard wood furniture with brightly coloured walls and tablecloths. Numerous flowerpots littered the walls on shelves or stood in corner of the room. A cold stone fireplace at one end of the room had a basket of chopped wood next to it and worn armchairs scattered around whilethe ugliest dog I had ever seen was sprawled out on a woven rug in front of the fireplace. It was a massive mottled beast that watched the room with blood shot eyes as its tail thumped against the floor rhythmically. The Inn wasn¡¯t completely full, but the majority of tables were seated and the smell of the food made my stomach rumble. I¡¯d forgotten how hungry I was. There was cutlery but no menu on my table and I briefly wondered if I would even be able to read it? I¡¯d been able to read the status so did they write in English here? I belatedly realised that yes they spoke English here. It was stupid to realise but it would have sucked if I couldn¡¯t understand anyone here. Or maybe they didn¡¯t speak English and some weird translation magic was going on? Since the chances of another world developing the same language that I spoke was incredibly unlikely. Aron suddenly appeared at my table wearing and apron and slamming a drink on my table ¡°Elderflower cordial¡± he said and grinned ¡°I¡¯ll get you some food in a minute but I need to help out or grandpa will flay me¡± Eyes bright he dashed off again. I guess it didn¡¯t matter how I could understand them, maybe they really did speak English, why not, a mystery for another time. I turned my gaze to the drink in front of me; it was a tall wood cup with a clear light green liquid. I¡¯d never had cordial before, but it existed on earth so it must be all right and I doubted Aron would poison me. Taking an experimental sip, my eyes widened and I gulped down a few mouthfuls, it was great, not too sweet, a hint of sour and an undertone I couldn¡¯t identify. I put the drink down and ran my tongue around the inside of my mouth and made a new discovery. Sharp teeth. Definitely not a herbivore; though the thought of eating vegetables wasn¡¯t bad so maybe I wasn''t a strict carnivore either? I lifted my hands to my face and felt my snout, it wasn¡¯t protruding far out, but my face definitely wasn¡¯t flat like a human¡¯s anymore and my nose consisted of2 small triangular nostrils at the end of my snout. I really needed a mirror. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Aron looked at me oddly as he stood next to my table holding a plate in one hand and a bunch of drinks in the other.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Feeling my face heat up again I jerked my hands down ¡°I spilled some cordial and was wiping it away¡± ¡°Ok then¡± he grinned and put the plate on the table, the smell wafted up and my mouth started salivating, it was some kind of sausages with a sauce and what looked like mash potatoes and various grilled vegetables ¡°I got you some venison sausages, enjoy¡± and he was off serving the drinks to a human family sitting near the door. Grabbing my knife and fork I dug in, I paused and savoured a mouthful closing my eyes. Damn I had no idea what was put into the sausages other than venison, but I could say hands down it was the best food I¡¯d ever eaten. I chewed slowly trying to make the taste last and swallowed looking at my plate in reverence; I had new found respect for Aron¡¯s grandpa. Its not like I¡¯d only eaten bad food back on earth, but this taste had to be beyond what was possible with convention means. I slowly cleared my plate, only managing to resist the urge to lick my plate due to the dent that would put into my pride, but I did make sure to get as much of the sauce as possible with my fork. Legs swinging under the table, my tail swished in satisfaction and I sucked the fork as I leaned back against my rucksack. I sat up, I¡¯d forgotten I still had that on and honestly I had no idea what was in it. I paused and looked around inconspicuously, putting my fork down. Should I check what was in it now? What if it had my possessions from earth in it? What if could call home from my phone? No that¡¯s stupid, there¡¯s no satellites or Internet or anything technological here. Nervous excitement buzzed in my stomach, even if I couldn¡¯t call anyone, having futuristic possessions would definitely help me somehow. I pushed the excitement down, no need to get ahead of myself and better to check when I was alone in case having technology here caused an uproar. I couldn¡¯t contain all my excitement and my tail thumped up and down as I considered the possibilities. The sound of sloshing liquid brought me back to reality and I saw Aron filling my cup up as took my empty plate and ran off again only to return a minute late with 2 smaller plates. Plonking down on the seat opposite me he placed a plate with apple pie and whipped cream in front of me before proceeding to scarf his own one down. I picked up the spoon and dug in, it was still hot but damn, nothing could compare, it was ridiculous how good it was. I sat there sucking the spoon when I felt something wet poke against my forearm. Surprised I looked down and almost shrieked as I jumped back, only just about staying in the chair. It was the dog, it stood there looking up at me panting; from close up I could see it was covered in scars with the left ear torn off and one eye disfigured where a bite had healed badly. I stared at it frozen, expecting it to bare its fangs and attack me but it just stood there panting staring at me with its blood shot eyes. Aron looked up and giggled ¡°Here Bandu¡± he patted the side of his chair. The massive canine slowly swung its head around at Aron before giving me a last look and slowly made its way to Aron¡¯s side of the table. Limping slightly, it sat down next to Aron and stared up at him. Even sitting its head came up above table height, what kind of dog was that. ¡°Sorry this is Bandu, I know she looks dangerous but she won¡¯t hurt you, she¡¯s half Gorik so she was used in fighting pits in the city before grandpa found her. She broke her back leg and it didn¡¯t heal right so she wasn¡¯t good for fighting anymore. We think that¡¯s why whoever owned her before threw her on the street¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± I said sitting back down looking at the dog. Now I felt like a complete ass for thinking of the dog as an ugly mutt. Even if I didn¡¯t know what a Gorik was, she still looked dangerous, even if she was completely calm and non threatening. I swallowed and sucked it up ¡°Can I feed her?¡± ¡°Sure¡± Aron grinned and patted her on the head and scratched her behind her only ear ¡°Though my pie is gone so you¡¯ll have to sacrifice yours¡± I rolled my eyes and shot him an annoyed look; I was planning to give her some of mine to begin with anyway. Taking a spoonful I slowly reached forwards and held it out to the dog. She looked back at me calmly before slowly leaning forwards and started licking the spoon, tail thumping against the ground. I froze and giggled a bit to see the massive battle scared dog being so calm and gentle. I ended up feeding her the rest of my pie and gave her the plate to lick. ¡°Can I pet her?¡± I looked up at Aron ¡°Sure, she likes having her ear scratched¡± I hesitantly leaned forward to touch her, even though I¡¯d just fed her, she was still an enormous dog with sharp teeth. She was watching me and when my hand got close enough, she nudged it with her wet nose and pushed her muzzle into my hand. I smiled and slowly started to scratch the coarse fur with my short claws. ¡°See she¡¯s just a big softie¡± We sat there for a while petting the dog and talking. Aron turned and scanned the room ¡°Hm looks like lunch is almost over, you can meet my grandpa then¡± he turned back smiling he started to say something else when Dante suddenly appeared at the table and glared at us. I looked at him guiltily, I had completely forgotten about him. Aron seemed to have the same realisation as me as we looked at each other. ¡°Ah hey, we lost you and couldn¡¯t find you so I took Sasha here for lunch¡± Aron attempted to cover but Dante just glared at him and he seemed to wilt in his chair a bit before Dante turned back to me. ¡°Don¡¯t run off again, I¡¯ve been looking for you all over¡± He continued to glare at me and I nodded in agreement before he sighed and pulled a chair over. ¡°Alright kid, when I was looking for you I asked around if anyone knew if there were drakes in the area or if anyone knew a blue drake kid, sorry to say that no one knew you or heard of drakes coming here. On the up side at least word is out and the local guards know about you so if someone is looking for you and come here, they¡¯ll be pointed in the right direction¡± he said seriously as he watched me ¡°Don¡¯t worry kid, we¡¯ll find your family¡± I nodded and looked at my empty plate that Bandu had licked clean. At this point I was beginning to be pretty sure that no one was coming to claim me because no one was missing me, I had just appeared from my world in a drake body. It was not like I¡¯d possessed the body of a drake whose family was coming for her, or I was pretty sure that wasn¡¯t the case. ¡°So for now we just need to find a place for you to stay while we wait¡± Aron immediately sat up ¡°She can stay with us, we have space and I''m sure grandpa would be ok with it¡± Dante blinked at him ¡°I¡¯d have to talk to your grandpa, but would you be ok with staying here for now?¡± he turned back to look at me. I nodded wordlessly and Aron jumped up ¡°Yes, let me get my grandpa¡± and he ran off to the kitchen in the back. Dante looked at the dog and me for a moment before saying, ¡°Jak is a good guy but if there¡¯s ever any problems just come let me know¡± ¡°Sure¡± I said, Jak had to be Arons grandpa then. A moment later Aron came bounding back with stout man sporting steely grey hair following him. The man was drying his hands on a dishcloth, which he tucked into his apron pocket. He wasn''t particularly tall but he had a stern no nonsense aura around him, which made him seem larger. Though not overly muscular, he had thick arms and a slight belly as he pulled up another chair and sat down with us. Looking me up and down he said ¡°So you must be Sasha, Arons been talking about you, heard you lost your family and need a place to stay¡± Suddenly a bit nervous at his sharp gaze, I nodded my mouth a bit dry. He grunted ¡°You can stay here for now, we¡¯ve got some rules but Aron can fill you in later. Can you cook?¡± ¡°Thank you and only a bit¡± I said warily, I was an all right cook, but far from the standard of this Inn. ¡°In that case you can be on dishwashing duty¡± I looked up surprised, child labour? But then I realised that Aron also worked here, it was probably normal for kids to help out here and I didn¡¯t want to seem ungrateful ¡°Of course, I can do that¡± He nodded in satisfaction before turning to Dante and they started talking. Aron leaned over the table and whispered, ¡°Lets go, I¡¯ll show you around¡± I looked at the adults to see if it was ok and then slipped out of the chair and followed Aron to the stairs. ¡°The guest rooms are up here, most travellers come stay at our Inn since it¡¯s the best in the village but there a few other Inns too¡± He talked about the Inn while we walked up the creaking wooden stairs and he walked past the numbered rooms and took another set of stairs at the end of the corridor with a locked door labelled Staff only. ¡°Grandpa and I live up here, but you can stay in my room¡± Aron pulled out a key and unlocked the door, going up the second flight of stairs we came to a small living room area with a few sofas and a coffee table. There were 3 doors and Aron pointed them out ¡°That¡¯s the bathroom, there¡¯s Grandpas room, don¡¯t go in there and this is my room¡± He went to the door on the right and opened it. There was a simple cot with a thin mattress, an old wardrobe and a desk with a chair. The roof was slanted above the desk and the foot end of the bed. Random items and clothes were strewn on the floor and Aron immediately ran forwards and starting shoving things in his wardrobe. His face was a bit pink ¡°Sorry I wasn¡¯t expecting company¡± I grinned as he changed the topic ¡°Lets get you some blankets and a spare mattress to sleep on, you can leave your bag here if you want¡± Slowly I took off my rucksack, it wasn¡¯t very heavy but it wasn¡¯t empty either, I put it down next to Arons bed and followed him back downstairs. Between the stairs and a guest room was another door also labelled Staff only which Aron unlocked to reveal a storage room. He snapping his fingers and the enchanted stone on the ceiling illuminated the dark room. ¡°Alright here¡¯s a pillow, a blanket and some sheets¡± he pulled the folded cloth and pillow from a shelf and handed them to me and the riffled around at the back before pulling a thin mattress out which he managed to fold in half and carry out. Snapping his fingers again the light went out and he locked the door behind us. Carrying everything back upstairs we set it down and Aron pushed the mattress on the floor against the wall opposite his cot. Putting on the sheets we set up the makeshift bed. ¡°All done¡± we stood up and surveyed our work, the plain woollen blankets and lumpy mattress wouldn¡¯t make the most comfortable bed but I wasn¡¯t going to complain, it was better than what I could have hoped for thinking back to waking up in the grasslands. Chapter 3
You have unlocked the Class: [Dishwasher]
I stared blankly at the innocuous panel in front of me, hands frozen in warm soapy water as I stopped rubbing the sponge against the plate. ¡°Hey Aron¡± I turned to look at him as he walked in and dumped more dirty dishes into the sink next to mine. The panel followed my vision. ¡°Yeah¡± he hummed as he added lathered up his sponge with soap and started cleaning a cup. ¡°I unlocked the [Dishwasher] class,¡± I said nervously, did this mean I would be dishwasher forever now? He stared at me in shock and stopped what he was doing ¡°Is this really the first time you¡¯ve washed up dishes?¡± No, I lived alone and didn¡¯t own a dishwasher so this was definitely far form the first time I¡¯d ever done the dishes. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I don¡¯t remember¡± I said, glad that I had that excuse. ¡°Huh, maybe you¡¯re like nobility or something and you had servants who did that, I mean some classes are a lot harder to unlock than others, but you only need to spend a few hours washing dishes to unlock [Dishwasher]¡± he leaned forward with a mock bow ¡°hello milady, good day-¡° I splashed water at him ¡°Idiot I¡¯m not nobility" He laughed and leaned back wiping the water from his face which his elbow ¡°You never know, could be¡± he grinned though he clearly didn¡¯t believe I was nobility either. I rolled my eyes and turned back to the dishes. The panel had disappeared after I stopped paying attention to it. ¡°So what other classes do you have unlocked?¡± he asked going back to scrubbing his dishes. I paused ¡°What do you mean?¡± He looked at me confused ¡°What do you mean? Like on your status, what classes have you unlocked?¡± I hesitated, when I¡¯d used the scribe stone, it had said basic status and that I didn¡¯t have a class, but the way Aron said it made it sound like he was talking about something else. ¡°My status?¡± I asked and almost jumped when a new panel appeared in front of me.
Name: Sasha Lanncaster Species: Drake
Gender: Female Age: 9
Class 1: [None] Class 1 Skill points: 0
Class 2: [None] Class 2 Skill points: 0
Health: 100% (0.05%/hr) Inventory (max=6Kg) Contacts
Stamina: 85% (0.2%/min) Available Classes Messages (0)
Mana: 100% (0.5%/min)
Base Stats: Augmented Stats: Bonus Stats:
Vitality: 8 8 +/-0
Agility: 9 9 +/-0
Strength: 6 6 +/-0
Scales: 5 5 +/-0
Perception: 9 9 +/-0
Efficiency: 8 8 +/-0
Wisdom: 6 6 +/-0
Available stat %: 0
I just stared at it, not really comprehending what I was seeing, this was very different from the basic status from the scribe stone. ¡°Well?¡± Aron looked at me expectantly, my eyes flicked to him and back to the screen, relieved I found Available Classes quickly I was stumped, how did I open it? My status had appeared when I said status so maybe¡­ ¡°Available classes¡± the panel in front of me changed.
Available Classes:
[Dishwasher]
Aron chortled ¡°What are you like 4? Saying out loud what you want to look at¡± I glared at him, my tail lashing behind me ¡°Shut up¡± ¡°So what do you have unlocked?¡± he asked curiously, ignoring the jab. ¡°Just [Dishwasher]¡± he stopped smiling and looked at me oddly. ¡°How can you only have one class unlocked? Have you never done anything? Like ever?¡± I opened my mouth and closed it suddenly realising how odd that must seem considering I managed to unlock [Dishwasher] after only a few hours of doing the dishes. By that logic people must unlock a bunch of random classes just by going about their lives so not having any classes unlocked even by age 9 was weird. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡± I said, my tail drooped down ¡°Please don¡¯t tell anyone¡± I turned to look at him. ¡°Well sure, I mean its your status¡± he said surprised, but seeing my pleading look he said, ¡°I promise I won''t tell anyone¡± with more conviction. ¡°Thanks¡± I said breathing out a sigh of relief; I really didn¡¯t want to draw any more attention to myself, better to blend in somehow. We both went back to washing, we¡¯d been doing this throughout dinner time, though Aron had gone out to help serve tables for a while when it got busy, but now we were the only ones left in the kitchen doing the last of the dishes. ¡°So what classes do you have unlocked?¡± I asked curious now. He sighed ¡°Nothing special, just the usual stuff and [Cook] is the only one I¡¯ve chosen so far, grandpa teaches me sometimes¡± I looked at him from the side ¡°So that¡¯s what you want to do?¡± he¡¯d mentioned it earlier but I hadn¡¯t had the chance to ask. ¡°Not really, I mean I love grandpa and the Inn and I like cooking but I¡¯m not passionate about food like grandpa¡± slightly upset he slowed down cleaning and reached for more soap. I waited for him to continue and it wasn''t long before- ¡°Ok don¡¯t tell grandpa, but what I really want to do is become a [Musician]¡± he turned to be eyes bright ¡°A few years ago, this theatre troupe came here and I just knew, like when that guy played the harp or that woman was strumming the guitar, I could feel it in here¡± he put a wet hand to his chest look at me full of determined awe ¡°I¡¯d never heard anything like that before, it was like I could fly¡± ¡°But your grandpa would be disappointed if you chose to be a [Musician] instead of taking over the Inn?¡± I guessed. He deflated slightly ¡°Yeah that and I have no idea how to unlock the class, I mean I don¡¯t even own an instrument. [Singer] is easy to unlock but I don¡¯t want to do that, I was to make real music¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t there any [Musicians] here that you could ask how to unlock the class?¡± He snorted ¡°Only drunk Al and he¡¯s a dick, I asked him once and he spat at me¡± ¡°Oh¡± then again this was a small village, I hadn¡¯t seen all of it, but there couldn¡¯t be more than 1000 people here. I mulled it over while we finished drying the remaining dishes, maybe I could help; I couldn¡¯t play any instruments, but I had still had music at school and could read sheet music. So far everything like language had been similar so maybe they had the same way of writing sheet music here too? And after everything Aron had done for me, I should help him out. ¡°Hey have you ever tried reading learning how to write music? You don¡¯t need an instrument for that and maybe it will help unlock the class?¡± I turned to him and it was his turn to look confused. ¡°What do you mean write music?¡± ¡°You know, people write down music so they don¡¯t forget the notes when they compose music and can teach the piece to other people¡­.¡± I trailed off as I watched his eyes get bigger as he stared at me. ¡°Do you-¡° he swallowed ¡°Do you know how to do that?¡± Big hopeful brown eyes stared at me. ¡°Well yeah a bit, but I¡¯m not a [Musician]-¡± ¡°Please teach me¡± he grabbed my shoulders ¡°I¡¯ll do anything¡± I leaned back and scowled pushing him away as his face came too close ¡°Sure, just back up a bit, but don¡¯t get your hopes up too high, you probably still need an instrument to unlock the class¡± he hastily retreated still smiling like it was his birthday. ¡°Yeah of course¡± he beamed at me, ¡°can you show me today?¡± ¡°Sure lets just finish up here first¡± we were almost done anyway so it didn¡¯t take long to dry the remaining dishes, pots and pans, put everything away and lock the kitchen door. It was already dark outside and most people who were staying here had already gone up to bed. Aron was visibly forcing himself to walk at a normal pace when we went up the stairs to his room. Jak was sitting in the living room reading a book and he nodded to us when we came up, but turned back to his book and didn¡¯t say anything else. ¡°Night grandpa¡± Aron waved, Jak grunted and I said ¡°Good night¡± since I wasn¡¯t sure what else to do. When we closed the door to his room Aron ran to the desk and started rifling through the drawers to pull out a paper. There was ink and a quill on the table already. I came up behind him and he pushed me into the only chair and sat down on the corner of his cot staring at me expectantly. ¡°Right¡± I cleared my throat, music had never been my strongest subject but I hadn¡¯t flunked it, I knew the basics and how to read it. I picked up the quill and drew 5 parallel lines on the paper while Aron watched me like a hawk ¡°Ok so first you need to learn the notes and the clefs¡±Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
I woke up as sunlight blinded my eye, I moved away in discomfort and sat up, a sheet of paper stuck to my face followed me and I blinked and pulled it away. Opening my eyes properly I saw a panel.
You have unlocked the class: [Teacher]
I ignored it and looked around; next to me Aron was half on the cot and half on the floor, paper with music strewn around him, mouth open and drooling a bit. I winced and stood up to stretch, sleeping in a hard wooden chair was incredibly uncomfortable. When I stretched I felt something move on me back again. I froze, I had completely forgotten about the potentially flesh eating spider on my back, though that seemed unlikely now. Turning my head I tried to look at my back, pulling the collar of my shirt back I inhaled in shock. Those were wings. I tried to stretch them and just like moving my tail, I instinctively knew how to do it. I lifted the back of my shirt so I could stretch them out and have a look. They were small, way too small and fragile looking to support my weight, but then again I was only 9 so maybe they would grow bigger? The widest part reached my butt and when I stretched them out completely they had roughly a 1.5m wingspan. They looked like bat wings, with a translucent light blue membrane stretched across a frame that had darker blue scales. I tried flapping them sending gusts of wind around the room. That caused a groaning sound from the floor and Aron started to move, sliding onto thefloor completely before blinking awake ¡°What are you- holy shit you have wings¡± he sat up quickly transfixed by my wings ¡°Do all Drakes have wings? Can you fly?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know¡± I said, suddenly embarrassed, pulling my wings back, they folded up neatly to press against my back. They really were too small to be functional. ¡°If you go flying can you take me with you?¡± he begged. I glared at him, ¡°I can¡¯t even fly by myself let alone carrying you¡± ¡°Well when you learn-¡° ¡°Fine¡± I said, I really didn¡¯t like having my shortcomings pointed out, which was stupid considering 10 minutes ago I didn¡¯t even know I had wings. ¡°Aron get a move on and bring Sasha,¡± a loud voice yelled from outside and a hand rapped on the door before footsteps trudged away. ¡°Coming grandpa,¡± Aron yelled back, ¡°Let¡¯s go¡± he said and got up, stretching his back and yawning before heading to the door. Discretely I tried sniffing my armpits but it seemed aright even though neither Aron nor I had changed out of yesterday¡¯s clothes. Downstairs Jak was already in the kitchen making breakfast and he shoved 2 plates at us when we came in ¡°Go eat, school starts in an hour and Sasha you¡¯re going with Aron until they figure out what to do with you, no point in you falling behind in your education¡± A pit formed in my stomach, school, would they expect me to know things like local geography and history? I don¡¯t even know what land this was. Or the date. Seeing the nervous look on my face, Aron whispered ¡°don¡¯t worry, the teacher is nice and you¡¯ve got me so you won''t be alone¡± I smiled at him trying to pretend that that was the issue, though honestly now that I thought about it, being the new kid at school always sucked. Wolfing down breakfast, Aron led the way to the school. Turns out in a village this small, there weren¡¯t many children and the 3 classes were divided into roughly ages 5-8, 9-12 and 13-15. That put me in the middle class with Aron. Walking into the classroom I took a seat at a desk next to Aron. Looking around at the 30ish kids here, roughly 90% were human; there was the Minotaur boy from yesterday who Aron pretended to not see and 2 Lizardfolk kids. Lizardfolk were all various shades of green with long limbs and slim bodies, their snouts were far more triangular than mine and some adults had brightly coloured crests or frills on their heads. I looked around at some of the humans; some of them looked at me curiously but otherwise everyone was already talking in their groups, waiting for the teacher to arrive. The door opened again and in strolled the ginger boy with his dark haired friend from yesterday. I stiffened and kept an eye on them but they took no notice and sat at the back with their groupies. Huffing I ignored them, at least they hadn¡¯t tried anything. The door opened again and a woman walked in, setting her things on the desk she turned to the class ¡°Alright everyone settle down, we have a new student today, please welcome her nicely, Sasha could you please stand up and introduce yourself?¡± she smiled at me and I stood up looking around the class. The entire class stared at me in silence, something proud in me preened under the attention and I stood straighter ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Sasha, I¡¯m a drake, I¡¯ll be joining this class for a now¡± There was rumble as people mumbled welcome and I sat down and class started. The structure of classes was 2 subjects in the morning, then lunch and on Mondays everyone was assigned village worker who they would apprentice under for the week to unlock their class and learn some crafts. The idea was to have children unlock as many classes as possible for when they finally decided to choose their classes and level to join the workforce. Today was maths and geography. Maths was ridiculously easy, I mean I technically I was a Uni student so it would have been embarrassing if I¡¯d struggled here. I knew nothing in geography but luckily the teacher didn¡¯t ask me anything either, though at least I learned that this was a predominantly human kingdom called Valansir with the capital city Holderm, which was just under a hundred km away. This village was on the eastern outskirts of the kingdom, near the border to the Republic of Sefir. Around lunchtime the teacher finished class and started handing out slips of paper to the students. I unfolded my piece of paper. Student: Sasha Lanncaster Apprenticeship: Kurt Darson [Blacksmith] Guess I was learning blacksmithing today then; I looked over at Aron who held up his slip Student: Aron Seylar Apprenticeship: Tycel Warcroft [Enchanter] Slightly jealous that he got to do something involved with magic I crumpled up my slip and put it in my pocket. I wasn¡¯t sure what I wanted to do yet, but magic was real, how could I not want to learn about that? ¡°So what happens now?¡± I got up as other students started standing and milling around comparing their apprenticeships for this week. ¡°We go find whoever we¡¯re shadowing this week, they help us unlock the class, we take the class and learn the basics and some skills, maybe gain a few levels, then at the end of the week we get rid of the class unless we really want to keep it and redo it with a differentclass next week¡± ¡°Wait so you level a class and then remove it from your active classes?¡± I was vaguely shocked, somehow I had thought that once you chose a class that was it, you were stuck with it ¡°So can I get a bunch of classes and rotate them around so I level whatever is relevant?¡± suddenly I could see myself levelling hundreds of classes instead of just the 2 I¡¯d been given slots for. Aron laughed ¡°No stupid, once you remove a class from your active slots, it starts to deteriorate, you loose the levels and skills so it¡¯s impossible to juggle classes¡± ¡°Oh¡± I was vaguely disappointed and kind of annoyed that he crushed my idea. ¡°Come on I¡¯ll show you to the Blacksmith, you can eat lunch there¡± we chatted on the way and eventually stopped at a building near the wall of the village. ¡°Well good luck, see you at the Inn later¡± Waving Aron ran off to his apprenticeship while I stood in front of the smoking building holding the slip of paper. Stepping forward I knocked on the heavy wooden door waiting for someone to answer. Thudding footsteps arrived and the door was yanked open. I large man with huge arms and bigger waist looked down at me. ¡°Well fuck, got a lizard this week¡± he muttered ¡°Well what are you, boy or girl?¡± Anger rose in my stomach ¡°I¡¯m not a lizard, I¡¯m a drake¡± I fixed my gaze on him, my tail stiffened and my wings flaring out slightly under my shirt. ¡°Same shit¡± he spat on the floor ¡°Whatever, you can sit over there and watch¡± he gestured to a corner in the dirty room, before turning around and walking back to his forge. I steamed a bit; I should have expected this, racism, specism? But being around Aron had fooled me into thinking everyone was accepting of other species. Head held high, I walked in, closing the door and went to sit on the floor where he had indicated. I sat with my back ramrod straight, refusing to show weakness and the man went about his work heating something in the forge before pulling it out and bashing it with his hammer. All the windows were open to let in some cool air, but even then, the room was extremely hot. Various tools hung on the walls, scraps of metal and items in various stages of making were scattered about on tables. He clearly wasn¡¯t planning on teaching me so I ignored him, sneering at his turned back, I refused to beg him to teach me as my pride wouldn¡¯t suffer it. Instead I took out my lunch and started eating the sandwich and apple. Swallowing some water, I was pretty bored when I finished. I sighed, I had a few more hours of this to go, and I¡¯d be doing this for the whole week. Irritated I leaned back against the wall. I decided to inspect my status. Nothing had changed since last time and now I could guess what things were. I''d overheard one of the girls in school bragging that her parents had gotten her a necklace that gave +2 bonus intelligence so I assumed that¡¯s what the bonus stat column was for, equipment, or maybe enchantments or magic or potions or whatever else in the world could enhance stats. Though I still had no idea what the difference between base stats and augmented stats was, the numbers looked exactly the same, but there had to be some sort of difference. And even though I could see what stats I had, I had no idea what they meant or how to quantify how good the numbers were etc. Looking at the bottom, I mentally selected inventory. Of course it was empty. When I opened contacts an error panel appeared.
Contacts requirement: Age >15
I scowled at the panel; well at least it made sense now that no one had asked me to message my contacts. Turning back the inventory I wondered how I could put stuff into it, it had a 6Kg limit, but it didn¡¯t say anything about volume so was there a limit to how big something was? I picked up a twig from the ground; there was a bunch of leaves and metal scraps that had been swept into the corner of the room. I looked at it contemplating how to put it into my inventory when a new panel appeared.
Twig is unclaimed
Claim twig: Yes/No?
I paused and thought yes and the panel disappeared. Nothing else seemed to have changed. I couldn¡¯t suddenly magically feel the twig or anything; it was still just a twig. I tried thinking about putting it the inventory again and a different panel appeared.
Place your Twig (82g) into inventory: Yes/No?
Selecting yes, the twig vanished. I checked on the floor, I hadn¡¯t dropped it, it had just disappeared, quickly I pulled up my status and checked inventory which now read:
Inventory: Weight:
Twig 82g
Weight available: 5.918Kg
I contemplated that, so you had to claim an item before you could store it in your inventory, I suppose that stopped people from simply stealing valuables from others by placing it into their inventory since I doubted you could claim an item that was already claimed by someone else. Focusing on the twig and willing it out of the inventory, panel come up:
Remove your Twig (82g) from inventory: Yes/No?
Selecting yes the twig appeared in mid air in front of me and I lunged forwards to catch it. I glanced up to see if he¡¯d noticed my antics, but he was busy bashing something on the anvil with his hammer. Bored I leaned back against the wall and started playing with the scraps on the floor around me. I decided to try and stack it and build houses, but it asn''t easy with such irregular shaped pieces of scrap and foliage. Finally I got something vaguely like a house with 4 walls to balance and when I carefully placed a leaf on top for the roof, the whole thing collapsed. I sighed frustrated and gave up. Looking around to find something else to entertain myself with. There was a fat spider building its web in the ceiling corner furthest from the forge. A couple of ants were running around, it seemed like they¡¯d found some bread crumbs from my sandwich and the apple core which I¡¯d put down next to me. Curiously I watched them work. At first it was only two or three, carrying breadcrumbs as big as them back into a tiny crack in the wall, but before long there was a whole train of them going back and forwards. I started putting obstacles in the way to see how they react, impressed by their ability to navigate a world with creatures so much larger than themselves. Then instead of making it harder for them, I started to build an easier road, I used a twig to widen the hole in the wall slightly and cleared away the scraps on the road so they had a straight path to apple core since it would be easier for them that way. After a few mishaps they quickly found their way and worked on dismantling the apple core and carrying small sections back into the wall. I wondered how many of them were down there in their nest. I watched them for a while longer when a large black beetle crawled out from under a piece of scrap metal and when an ant came too close, it pounced, pincers closing around the helpless ant as it quickly dragged it away from the others who barely seemed to notice their missing colleague. I frowned and glared at the beetle that had withdrawn under the scrap and was now devouring the struggling ant. I could crush the beetle but my pride refused, no, the ants had to crush the beetle. Scowling I cleared away the scrap except the piece the beetle was under and started to jam pieces into the ground so they formed a misshapen wall around the are the beetle was in. No escape. Then I lifted the last piece of scrap off the beetle and placed the apple core next to it. Immediately the beetle tried to crawl under the apple core for cover and I had placed it just so that it could wait there patiently. Then I used some scrap to guide the ants back into the right direction to find the apple core. They found it and quickly restarted dismantling the core when one of them happened upon the beetle. The beetle attacked, but now there were a bunch of other ants to back up their friend, they swarmed the beetle; it was swift and brutal revenge. The numbers overwhelmed the beetle and it too was dismantled and brought back as food. Satisfied with that victory I leaned back and a new panel appeared in front of me.
You have unlocked the Class: [Tactician]
Chapter 4 I had understood [Dishwasher] and [Teacher], but how had I unlocked [Tactician] after half an hour of playing around with ants? I sat back contemplating the panel, Aron had mentioned that some classes were harder to unlock than others so I guessed different requirements of various difficulties had to be met to unlock a class. So far each class I had unlocked had come after an action related to the class, so it was likely, you had to at least perform an action related to the class as a minimum hurdle. But since actions from my past life clearly didn¡¯t count towards unlocking classes, maybe knowledge did? After all, I hadn¡¯t forgotten things I¡¯d learnt, but the only things I could think of related to [Tactician] was having taken a course in politics at school, I¡¯d also worked in sales and been an assistant manager at Tesco, though I doubted those last two counted. So if that was right that meant I probably already met the knowledge requirement for a lot of classes and only needed to perform an action related to them to unlock them. Guess being from earth wasn¡¯t as useless as I''d thought it was. I grinned to myself thinking about all the potential classes I could easily unlock. ¡°What are you grinning at lizard?¡± the blacksmith glared at me ¡°You¡¯re not planning a prank are you? Coz if you are, I¡¯ll skin you and turn your scaly hide into decoration¡± I bared my teeth at him, snarling, tail curling in anger. ¡°Keep hissing you little beast and I¡¯ll pull those teeth out¡± Slowly I closed my mouth but kept glaring at him, a sliver of fear rooted in me at his threat, unsure of how serious it was. He turned around but not before I heard him muttering ¡°Fucking lizards shouldn¡¯t be allowed around people, no different from monsters¡± Anger warred with very real cold fear in my chest, how normal was violence here? A significant portion of the villagers did carry weapons; maybe pulling teeth was a standard punishment here. Distinctly uncomfortable sitting here now, I felt vulnerable and exposed. Scanning the blacksmith up and down I knew that I had no chance in a fight, and if I believed the status, then chances where he¡¯d levelled a class and increased his stats and at the moment it was an unknown how much of a difference that made. Feeling restless and trapped, I shifted around discretely, tail twitching and wings attempting to stretch under shirt, before folding down and repeating. When after a while nothing else happened, I calmed down a bit, unless I gave him a reason, he probably wouldn¡¯t bother me again. Just had to keep my head down and ignore him. After a watching him warily for a while I got bored again. He was likely all talk; they probably didn¡¯t pull teeth from children as punishment here. Reassuring myself a bit I looked back at the ants, they¡¯d made significant head way with the apple core; there wasn¡¯t much left. Looking around I tapped a claw against my leg. Being here really was a pointless waste of time. I remembered Aron saying that you could get rid of a class after you chose it. Thoughtfully I looked at my options, there was no harm in trying one out, and they weren¡¯t permanent after all. Looking at available classes, I selected [Tactician] since there was no way I was choosing [Dishwasher] and I didn¡¯t have any interest in [Teacher].
Are you sure you want to make [Tactician] your Class 1: Yes/No?
Pausing briefly I selected yes and the panel reverted to my normal status screen except now instead of [None], [Tactician Lvl 1] was written by class 1 and I had 10 skill point for it. I tried selecting [Tactician] and a new panel appeared.
[Tactician Lvl 1]
Skills points: 10
Skills: [None]
Skills available: [Motivational speech] - 10 Skill points [Battle sense] - 10 Skill points [Convenient Environment] - 10 Skill points
I tried selecting the Skills to see what they were but the only thing that told me is that they all cost 10 Skill points each. I frowned, so I just had to guess what they did, well I suppose it didn¡¯t matter what Skill I picked, so I picked [Battle sense] since it sounded the least boring and a panel appeared.
You have chosen [Battle sense] for 10 Skill points, are you sure you wish to proceed? Yes/No? Note: Skills cannot be changed at a later date
I hesitated, but I was only level 1 and if the Skill sucked then I could just get rid of the class and start over with different Skills so I selected yes.
[Tactician Lvl 1]
Skills points: 0
Skills: [Battle sense Lvl 1]
Skills available: [Motivational speech] - 10 Skill points [Convenient Environment] - 10 Skill points
I smiled; I had a Skill now, my first step of actually doing something, before I was just going with the flow, but now I''d chosen something. Now I just had to figure out what the Skill did and how to use it. I tried selecting [Battle sense] again and this time it actually had a description.
[Battle sense]
Increased awareness of your allies, enemies and neutral parties
Well damn I¡¯d been hoping for something that told me where fights were happening of maybe even predict when they would happen. Irritated I picked at the ground in front of me, digging shallow holes with my claws. Might as well try it, no harm in that. Testing how to activate it I thought [Battle sense] and suddenly the world took on a faint blue tinge. It was so slight I barely noticed it at first until I looked at the blacksmith and saw a faint red sheen covering him. It was barely noticeable but somehow I could still sense the red even with my eyes closed. I looked down at the ants and they had a light greenish glow around them. I almost laughed; I had ants as allies. Experimentally I followed their trail to the hole in the wall, beyond that there was a vague green aura but it was so faint I could barely see it when I squinted, I suppose that was the limit of the Skill at level 1. Well it wasn¡¯t entirely useless but not exactly useful right now either. Thoughtfully I watched the ants; I¡¯d unlocked the class playing with them so I should also be able to level it with them. Peeking another look at the blacksmith to make sure he was occupied I started building a defences along the ant train, walls of scrap and twigs, and I dug furrows on either side to make trenches. I leaned back to survey my work but no panel appeared and the ants didn¡¯t seem to care that I¡¯d defended their position. Honestly it was a sorry defence, and who was I even defending against? A spider would easily be able to get over that so it was kind of pointless. Frustrated I leaned back, its not like there was even a counter or some way to see if I¡¯d gotten any closer to level 2. Maybe there was a book on how to level [Tactician], I could ask Aron, but I hated admitting he knew more than me. Scowling I slightly slapped the side of my face; I really needed to get over myself, if Aron knew then I should just ask him. I yelped at the sudden hissing sound and explosion of steam as the blacksmith put something glowing hot into the water trough. ¡°If you can''t keep your trap shut, get out, I don¡¯t need you distracting me¡± he barked at me before turning back to his work. Cautiously I stood up and inched my way to the door, when he didn¡¯t stop me, I opened the door and left, breathing a sigh of relief when I closed the door. I suppose as long as the teacher didn¡¯t find out I wasn¡¯t doing my apprenticeship, it would be fine. Standing on the doorstep to the smithy I looked around a bit lost, I couldn¡¯t go back to the Stag¡¯s Crown for a few more hours and Aron would be busy with his apprenticeship.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. The smith¡¯s forge was near the village wall so I wandered up to it, the last buildings stopped roughly 5-10m away from the wall, leaving a stretch of land with short patchy grass before the wooden palisade started. Looking both ways, there weren¡¯t any people at this part of the wall, walking up to the wall, there were engravings on it too and I rapped it with my knuckles. No reaction, but the wood was thick and the poles had been planted deep into the ground. It had rudimentary scaffolding on the inner side so people could walk along and look over the top, but no ladder or stairs in sight. Walking to one of the support beams for the scaffolding I put my hands on it and tried to shake it. It didn¡¯t move an inch, satisfied; I looked around, still no one here. Testing my claws on the wood, they sunk in without a problem. I grinned, they might be short and stubby now, but they were sharp. Experimenting with how much weight they could hold I eventually put my feet on the beam and attempted to climb. The moment I let go with one hand to reach for the next hold, my other arm gave out and I slipped to the floor landing on my feet and managing to keep my balance by swinging my arms briefly. My claws had held up fine but it seemed like I didn¡¯t have the upper body strength to climb. Determined I tried again, trying to move as fast as possible, which didn¡¯t get me much further before slipping back down. Irritated I kicked the pole, which caused miniature reverberations and nothing else except a throbbing toe, which I ignored as I refused to jump around on one foot. Thoughtfully I looked at my boots and flexed my toes in them. My feet also had claws, so I sat down and pulled off my boots and socks, standing up to experimentally dig my toes into the ground, I looked back at the pole. I tried climbing again and this time digging my foot claws into the wood. It worked surprisingly well since my legs could support my weight and after a few mishaps I got the hang of it and made it to the top. Climbing onto the scaffolding and look across over the village. I could see most of it from here, if had to guess there were maybe 300 buildings in total with people milling about their daily lives and the wall curving around the whole village. There were 3 gates that I could see, the main one I had come through, a similar one at the opposite end of the village and a little on a bit further from where I was. Turning I went to the edge of the wall and looked out over the grasslands. It looked so peaceful, with the tall grass swaying in the breeze, a few trees and boulders dotted around the hilly landscape as a few dirt paths and a slow running river meandered through. Looking away from the idyllic scene I prepared for what I¡¯d come up here for. Standing at the edge of the scaffolding I looked down at the 2m drop I had climbed up. My boots, stuff with my socks, were neatly nestled against the pole. Taking off my shirt I stood there in my thin sleeveless undershirt, which allowed my wings room to spread. I dropped my shirt onto my boots and stood there cautiously flapping my wings. They really did not look like they would support my weight at all, but if I had wings, then they must be functional in some form. Taking a deep breath I leapt off the scaffolding spreading my wings wide and flapping a hard as I could. I dropped like a rock and managed to just about catch myself on my hands to stop myself from eating dirt. Reddening slightly I looked around to make sure no one had seen that. Relieved no one was here I stood up and brushed off the dirt, well it seem like my initial assessment was right, I had felt some resistance in my wings, but nowhere near enough to hold my weight to fly. Maybe I just didn¡¯t have the right technique?
Trudging back to the Inn bruised and dirty having attempted many different ways of flapping my wings with varying decreases of no success, I was tired and annoyed with a pounding headache. The bell rung as I opened the door to the Inn and Jak yelled, ¡°Get to the kitchen; there¡¯s dishes waiting for you Sasha¡± My tail dropped, damn I¡¯d forgotten about my restaurant duties. Walking into the back I rolled up my sleeves and passed Hitch who was busy chopping vegetables while Jak was adding something to a large pot. Aron wasn¡¯t back yet, so it was just me washing up in silence, taking care of dishes that had piled up from lunch to get ready for the dinner crowd. The bustling of the kitchen soon faded into the background as I focused on scrubbing the dishes attempting to ignore my aching body and head. I really shouldn¡¯t have thrown myself off the wall that often. I could feel my headache getting worse; it was like a constant thudding pain that refused to go away. With renewed vigour I scrubbed harder, I just had to get through this evening and then I could sleep and it would be fine. ¡°Hey Sasha, you never believe what happened today¡± Aron appeared at my side and I jumped looking trying to focus on his sparkling eyes and wide grin in his blurry face. Gradually I noticed he had a faint green tinge as suddenly the headache disappeared and I felt incredibly light headed. I dropped the sponge and let the cup in my hand sink underthe soapy water in the sink, gripping the side of the sink, the blue scales turning a few shades lighter. Was I on the floor? I looked at Aron¡¯s distorted panicked face as he gripped my shoulder, when had he come closer? Something was wrong with the kitchen; the sounds had changed from a steady hum to hurried noises, but I couldn¡¯t really make it out, everything was disjointed.
My head hurt. Blearily I opened my eyes, a panel appeared, but I couldn¡¯t focus and willed it away. My whole body felt as if it had gone through a meat grinder, my mouth was dry as I tried to swallow, moving around hurt but I managed to turn my head to the side. Aron was sitting on his cot with Jak and leapt up looking relieved and frustrated. I tried to say something but my mouth wouldn¡¯t cooperate. Suddenly he looked away but not before I saw the hurt in his eyes and he ran out slamming the door. Confused I tried to sit up but my arms could barely move let alone support my body weight. ¡°That was a stupid thing you did¡± Jak commented calmly watching me. I looked over at him and furrowed my brows, what was he talking about? ¡°Skill strain isn¡¯t a joke, I don¡¯t know what you were trying to achieve, but next time talk to me before you try to kill yourself. I know you must be going through a hard time, not knowing where your family is, feeling abandoned since no ones come for you, but I need to look out for my grandson¡± Kill myself? Skill strain? What was he talking about? I hadn¡¯t, I wouldn¡¯t, did he think I was that upset about no one coming for me, I knew exactly why no one came since everyone I knew was in a different world. ¡°I¡¯m not trying to be harsh here, but you can¡¯t stay here if you¡¯re going to pull a stunt like that again¡± Anger and worry gnawed at me, do what? I had no idea what he was talking about, I tried to ask but only a gargled sound came from my throat. Jak rubbed his forehead ¡°Listen Aron hasn¡¯t had an easy life, his parents were killed by slavers when he was little and he¡¯s not had many friends since. He¡¯s a sweet boy, a bit na?ve and not the toughest, but he¡¯s taken a liking to you¡± he sighed looking at me steadfast ¡°You don¡¯t know what he was like after his parents were gone. I can¡¯t let him go through that again, so I get it that you¡¯re going through a hard time, but Aron is my priority and if you can¡¯t keep it together, I need you to leave, someone else in the village will take you in, but I can¡¯t let you be around Aron, he¡¯s gone through enough already¡± I stopped trying to speak as I looked at him, its not that he lacked empathy or didn¡¯t care, I could see in his eyes that he thought he understood exactly what I was going through. But that he would throw me in front of an oncoming train to save his grandson, not out of spite or cruelty, but because he loved his grandson that much. There was no hesitation or confliction in his dark brown eyes, he knew exactly what he was saying and the consequences. Steadily I met his gaze, I hadn¡¯t tried to kill myself, but he wouldn¡¯t believe me now and it didn¡¯t really make a difference, he¡¯d made his stance clear and I could respect that. I managed a slight nod, not breaking eye contact. He nodded back, and braced himself on his knees as he stood up and looked down at me on my mattress ¡°I¡¯ll let Aron know you¡¯re ok, he¡¯s a good judge of character so I¡¯ll trust you for now, but no second chances¡± he paused impressing that on me, I met his solid gaze before he turned away, seemingly satisfied and walked out, closing the door behind him. Looking at the ceiling I tried to digest everything that had happened and what Jak had just told me. They thought I¡¯d tried to kill myself, the false accusation stung and I felt angry and vulnerable that I couldn''t defend myself. I was still unsure of how they thought I¡¯d done it and on top of that, learning about Aron¡¯s past, my chest ached for him. He seemed so bright and cheerful; somehow I¡¯d hurt him, after losing his parents like that, he must be terrified of losing someone else. Guilt welled up inside me, a torrent worse than anything I¡¯d felt here, claws digging into my hands I might have drawn blood as I swallowed harshly trying to stop tears from spilling over. Slowly the door opened and Aron stood in the doorway looking at me, but not coming closer, his face was grim and angry but his eyes revealed betrayed hurt. Struggling I opened my mouth, forcing every bit of strength I had into forming words I croaked out ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡± He seemed to break down at that and ran over, tears spilling over ¡°No I¡¯m sorry, I should have noticed and done something-¡° Guilt was clawing out my insides, he was the victim here and he was apologising to me for not helping me with a non-existent problem when he¡¯d gone through horrible things that I had made him relive. ¡°No¡± I bit out, somehow moving my hand to grip his wrist, trying to squeeze to press my point home but doubting I could exert much pressure ¡°My fault¡± I rasped out. He stopped blubbering and looked at me before wiping his eyes and looking at me, I could see he didn¡¯t believe me and started to apologise again. Narrowing my eyes I attempted to glare at him ¡°No¡± my voice was quiet and croaky, but firm ¡°My fuck up¡± I really couldn¡¯t manage sentences, pausing to breath in ¡°You helped me¡± swallowing with a dry mouth as I tried hard not to break eye contact ¡°Thank you¡± He looked ready to restart the water works but I dug my claws into his wrist, the pressure must have been slight, but it was the most I could mange right now ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡± He looked like he was going to say something again before stopping and wiping his eyes dry before looking at me less hurt and more determined ¡°Ok but promise me you¡¯ll talk to me before you ever try to do- do it again¡± he stumbled over the words a bit but carried on, ¡°I know you miss your family even if you don¡¯t remember them, I know what its like¡± he swallowed hard but continued, brushing past it, ¡°So I can be your family, I can be your big brother and I¡¯ll look out for you, I mean if you want and until your family comes¡­¡± he trailed off a bit going red ¡°I¡¯ve always wanted a little sister¡± he mumbled getting redder but determined. Bloody hell this situation had escalated so quickly. I swallowed and nodded, not able to form any more words, he grinned in relief, relaxing a bit ¡°I mean until your real family comes and all, maybe you already have a big brother¡± he laughed a bit rubbing his neck and looking away, before turning back ¡°But don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be a good big brother, I¡¯ll help you with school and show you around the village and teach you everything I know and protect you from bullies¡± his shoulders straightened and he looked at me with such honest conviction, my chest constricted and I snorted out hot air, looking away. Guilt still bloomed in my chest at the hurt I¡¯d caused him, how could I let him do anything for me now? I vowed then that if he could forgive me and wanted to be my big brother, from now on I¡¯d protect him so that neither I or bullies or anyone would hurt him ever again. Chapter 5 Aron had already left for school, but I had the day off, not that I could do much other than lie in bed. The pain was gone now and I could move again but my body felt exhausted, like every muscle had run a marathon. Wincing as I sat up, I reached for the cup of water of the floor next to me, which was an effort in, and of itself. Taking several large gulps I tried to get rid of the dried cotton feel of my mouth. Putting the cup down I moved my tongue around my mouth trying to coat the insides in saliva to get rid of any remaining dry spots. Closing my eyes I leaned against the wall. Yesterday had been a mess, everything had been ok until I¡¯d collapsed, I mean the blacksmith was an ass but there hadn¡¯t been any problems yet. Why had I collapsed like that anyway? I¡¯d been exhausted from trying to teach myself to fly but it wasn¡¯t that bad, just a strenuous workout. Nothing that food, water and rest wouldn¡¯t fix. Opening my eyes I looked up at the open window that let a rectangle of sunlight into the centre of the room. I could only see the blue sky and clouds gently drifting by from this angle. Sighing I looked at the floor again. Jak had mentioned something about Skill strain but forgot exactly what; I¡¯d been more focused to the suicide accusation. Vaguely I remembered a panel appearing when I¡¯d woken up but I hadn¡¯t read it. Frowning I tried to bring up my status but a different panel appeared.
You have reached [Battle Sense Lvl 4]
I blinked, how? Suddenly I felt like someone had dumped cold water on me, I¡¯d activated the skill but never turned it off, it had been barely noticeable so I¡¯d forgotten I¡¯d been using it. In a flash of panic I worried that it was still active, I had no idea how to check but somehow just thinking about the Skill told me it wasn¡¯t active. A bit calmer I waved the panel away and looked at my status, my health was at 79% and in the bonus stat column, every stat had a -2. That probably explained why I felt so terrible, but why did I have -2 for each stat? Trying to select a random Bonus stat and a new panel appeared.
Vitality Bonus stat: Cause:
-2 Skill strain
I suspected I knew what it was but I selected it anyway.
Skill strain
An effect caused by using a Skill for too long or using numerous Skill too often in close succession Causes progressively worse fatigue, pain, negative Bonus stats, a decrease in Health, Stamina and Mana and eventual death if Skill usage is not stopped. Effects may persist for hours after before gradually decreasing. Note: Tolerance to Skill strain can be built up
Exhaling slowly I realised how reckless I¡¯d been. I¡¯d treated this world and this system as something I could experiment with at my leisure, like a strange vacation. I could have died due to my own ignorance and stupidity. I couldn¡¯t afford to take this lightly any longer. At least I knew why they¡¯d assumed that I¡¯d tried to kill myself, everyone would know about this and would limit their Skill usage the moment they got the first signs of Skill strain so only people in desperate situations or suicidal people would get bad Skill strain. And ignorant stupid people like me apparently. Flopping back onto the mattress I relaxed and closed my eyes, I was still so tired, how to explain to them I hadn¡¯t tried to kill myself? Would they even believe me if I said I¡¯d forgotten I was using a Skill? It sounded so dumb when I thought about saying it out loud. A problem for later, I could feel myself drifting back to sleep so turned to face the wall and pulled the scratchy wool blanket to my nose.
Something was poking my face, I turned away but the poking followed, I batted at it with one hand and made an irritated sound. The poking became more insistent and my eyes fluttered open, turning to glare at the source; Aron was sitting on the floor next to me holding a bowl of frothy soup. ¡°I brought you dinner¡± he put it down on the floorboards next to my bed. My eyes flickered to the closed window and saw it was dark outside, not the city dark I was used to, but real countryside dark where you could see all the stars glimmering in the night sky. I sat up looking at Aron ¡°I didn¡¯t try to kill myself¡± I burst out before I could think about what to say or how to explain it. ¡°What?¡± he said confused and unsure. ¡°I didn¡¯t try to kill myself¡± I repeated ¡°I-¡° I stopped and looked away, my body didn¡¯t feel as weak now, just residual muscle ache ¡°I took a class and used a Skill and forgot to turn it off¡± I said deciding to go with the truth, I really didn¡¯t want him to think I¡¯d tried to kill myself and even if the truth was embarrassing, after all the other things he¡¯d revealed, I felt like I owed it to him. Looking back at him I watched his face go from confused to contorting in anger. Suddenly his had lashed out and he hit me on the head ¡°Are you-¡° he stopped and breathed in unsteadily ¡°How-¡° he started again, he let you a frustrated gargle ¡°You stupid¡± and he launched himself at me kicking, arms wind milling and yelling insults. I was caught off guard but when his first hit connected it brought me out of my stupor and I moved. Embarrassment and anger flared and we started rolling around on the floor, kicking and screaming. I pulled his hair so he bit my arm, yelping I grabbed his ear to yank him off so he head-butted me. The door burst open ¡°what the hell is going on here?¡± Jak yelled glaring down at both of us on the floor. We froze and looked up at him, I opened my mouth thinking about what to say but Aron beat me to it ¡°Sasha is the stupidest-¡° ¡°No name calling¡± Jak interrupted and Aron¡¯s mouth snapped shut and he looked like he¡¯d eaten something sour. Aron let go of me and jumped up running out of the room with an angry yell. Jak let him go before turning back to me and waited. Slowly I sat up, reddening a bit realising that I¡¯d just responded to and given into a childish tantrum. Shame welled up, I really needed to stop acting like a child, I may have the body of one but I was a goddamn adult. Rubbing my head where Aron had gotten a decent hit in I looked back up at Jak ¡°I¡¯m sorry, it was my fault-¡° I stopped and looked at him. I¡¯d been about to tell him I hadn¡¯t tried to kill myself but somehow I knew he wouldn¡¯t believe me. Steeling myself I decided to explain anyway, if he didn¡¯t believe me it was up to him. ¡°I know you think so, but didn¡¯t try to kill myself, I got a class and used a new skill and forgot it was on¡± I tried not to flinch at his disbelieving expression ¡°I know it sounds dumb but that¡¯s what happened¡± ¡°How did you not notice when the effects of Skill strain started?¡± he asked brow furrowed. ¡°I was jumping off the wall trying to learn how to fly so I figured I was just tired from doing that¡± my voice got quieter and the tip of my tail tapped against the mattress nervously. He scrutinised me, deliberating if what I said was the dumbest cover up or if I genuinely had been that stupid. ¡°Ok¡± he said and I looked up at him surprised ¡°I¡¯ll give you the benefit of the doubt, but you¡¯re my responsibility until your family comes so don¡¯t use your Skills for that long again and if you ever feel a slight headache, or get tired using them, stop using your Skills immediately¡± I nodded rapidly, eyes wide and relieved that he¡¯d believed me. ¡°Also no more jumping off the wall, its not safe near the grasslands at the moment, some [Hunters] found Orc tracks not too far from the village last night¡± So Orcs existed too I wondered as he turned to leave. ¡°What happens if no one comes for me?¡± I burst out. Jak turned back to me, suddenly I noticed he had the same eyes as Aron ¡°We¡¯ll figure something out then, but don¡¯t worry, if no one comes, we won¡¯t just throw you out. Eat your soup, you should be fine by tomorrow morning, as long as you survive it most people recover from Skill strain after a day or so¡±Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. He turned to leave again and I didn¡¯t stop him this time as he shut the door. Looking at the bowl I noticed the soup had miraculously survived my tussle with Aron. Picking it up I went to sit on my mattress and started swallowing mouthfuls. Like all the food here it was delicious, some meat and vegetables floated around in it and something that may have been pasta. It warmed me inside and I got a notification when I finished.
Cooked by a skilled [Chef] with the use of [Rejuvenating warmth] this soup boosts Health regeneration for a few hours.
Not sure why I was surprised anymore, I eyed the panel before it disappeared. I assumed Jak had made the soup and [Rejuvenating warmth] was a Skill he possessed. Grateful I put the empty bowl with the spoon down and lay back down. I thought about going after Aron but I doubted I could catch up with him now and he probably needed some space to cool down. So I lay back and waited, determined not to fall asleep until Aron was back, I needed to make sure we were ok and that he didn¡¯t hate me. The idea of losing Aron scared me, I¡¯d reached an understanding with Jak, but I didn¡¯t have anyone else in this world. I adjusted the blanket nervously and settled in to wait.
Jarring awake I saw the door creaking open slowly, a sliver of light from the living room came in as Aron peaked around and quietly entered before closing the door gently. I sat up and Aron jumped ¡°You¡¯re still awake? Sorry if I woke you¡± he looked nervous in the moonlight ¡°I shouldn''t have attacked you like that, I lost my temper and it was wrong of me, I was a bad big brother, I¡¯m sorry¡± ¡°It¡¯s ok, siblings fight, its what we do¡± I shot him a wry smile ¡°And I¡¯m sorry too, for scaring you by being stupid and reckless¡± He nodded looking a bit relieved and went to sit on his cot ¡°Sorry I assumed you tried to do that, next time you do something potentially harmful, I¡¯ll know its just coz you¡¯re an idiot¡± he grinned at me I glared back at him half-heartedly but mostly I was relieved that things looked like they would be ok so I ignored the barb and went to lie down again. He lay down too before shooting up again. ¡°I completely forgot to tell you, but you know my apprenticeship with Tycel?¡± ¡°You want to be an enchanted now?¡± ¡°What? No, but she has a lot of stuff in her shop and apparently drunk Al owed some money so he sold one of his lutes to Tycel and I found on one of the shelves and Tycel said she¡¯d give me discount if I worked hard and if I save up maybe I can afford it. I already have 3 Silver and 62 Coppers saved up and with a discount she said she¡¯d sell it to me for 4 Silver¡± he rambled looking at me eyes glowing, excitement rolling off him in waves ¡°I think its only that cheap coz one of the strings is missing but that¡¯s ok, I can fix it or if not that¡¯s ok too¡± ¡°Wow that¡¯s really great¡± I said, slightly cautious hearing that it was broken; hopefully he didn¡¯t end up getting his hopes dashed by a useless lute. ¡°I know, I¡¯m actually going to be a [Musician], I can''t believe it¡± he grinned and threw himself back onto the bed ¡°I only need another 38 coppers¡± I hadn¡¯t really thought about money before, Jak and Aron had given me food and shelter and school seemed to be free. ¡°How are you going to get more money?¡± I asked, Jak hadn¡¯t paid us for working at the Inn so far and I sort of assumed it was expected for children to help out with family businesses in the village but not that it was paid work. ¡°Mostly I do odd jobs and run errands around the village from quests at the adventurer¡¯s guild¡± ¡°There¡¯s an adventurer¡¯s guild here?¡± I exclaimed and sat up staring at Aron. ¡°Well yeah there¡¯s one in every village, don¡¯t drakes have them? How else do you find work or find people to do work for you?¡± he sat up on his elbows looking at me. ¡°What do you mean? Isn¡¯t an adventurer¡¯s guild for adventurers and quests to fight monsters and stuff?¡± He burst out laughing and fell back onto his bed ¡°Yeah maybe in big cities or places with monster problems but in our village its mostly used to connect people looking for a new job or wanting to earn a bit more money with busineses hiring or someone who needs an extra hand to do some work. Like when our last assistant [Cook] left, we put up a notice in the adventurer¡¯s guild and then hired Hitch¡± ¡°Oh¡± slightly disappointed, so it was a glorified jobcentre, that sort of made sense though, people would still be looking for normal work here, not just fighting dragons and so on. ¡°But there are real adventures here?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s any [Adventurers] in the village now, they don¡¯t really come here much since there¡¯s not that much going on here, but it¡¯s cool when they do. Last winter we had a group come they looked so cool and awesome with their armour and horses, one of them was a mage with huge staff. But uncle Rudy says they¡¯re all dumb shits with sticks up their arses who blow hot air¡± I choked and tried not to laugh, Jak would not be happy to hear Aron use language like that. He turned to me ¡°Have you thought about what class you want to take?¡± I looked at the ceiling, contemplating the question. This world had so many different possibilities that didn¡¯t exist on earth. Being an [Adventurer] did sound cool, though magic sounded even cooler ¡°Some thing with magic, maybe a [Mage]¡± ¡°That¡¯s ambitious¡± he rolled over and propped his chin on his hand ¡°I¡¯ve heard its really hard to unlock most magic classes, especially if you don¡¯t have someone to teach you and most of the mage schools in cities cost a lot to go to, mostly just nobility and rich people become [Mages]¡± He rolled over again and yawned ¡°Better start saving now, you¡¯re going to need a lot more than the 38 coppers I need for my lute, but good luck¡± ¡°Thanks¡± I rolled over too ¡°Good night then¡± ¡°Night night¡± he mumbled and I could see him drifting off to sleep.
The next morning I woke up feeling like I was in tiptop shape. My Health was back to 100% and the -2 was gone from my Bonus stats. I twisted, stretching my back and leaning forward yawning, stretching my wings out behind me before relaxing, tucking them back and rolling out of bed. Aron was still asleep but the first rays of the day¡¯s sunlight shone through the window so I hit him on the head with my pillow. He yelped and sat up waving his arms about. ¡°Get up sleepyhead¡± He scowled at me before flopping back into bed and burying his face in his pillow ¡°Its too early, you¡¯re only awake coz you slept all day yesterday¡± he muttered into the pillows while he relaxed and his breathing evened out again. Feeling slightly guilty about having misjudged the time I sat back on my bed and looked around. My rucksack sat forgotten where I had left it the first day at the foot of Arons bed. Inhaling excitement coursed through my veins as I jumped up and ran to pick up the innocuous bag, it wasn¡¯t very heavy but I could feel it wasn¡¯t empty. Taking it to my bed I sat down again and puled back the flap on top. Underneath it was closed with a drawstring and eagerly I loosened it. First I pulled what looked like spare clothes; 2 shirts, trousers, socks and underwear; all in this world¡¯s style. A bit disappointed I dumped them on my bed and checked the rest of the bag hoping for something from my world or something useful. The only other items in the bag were a wooden toothbrush, some dried jerky and an empty journal. The journal disappointed me the most, when I had seen the brown leather cover I had hoped to find a book giving me advice or at least explaining something but it was completely empty; I flicked through and checked every page twice. Nothing. Dropping everything I held the rucksack upside down shaking it to make sure I hadn¡¯t missed anything. I hadn¡¯t; no phone or magical ring or anything that would help me. Not to say spare clothes or a toothbrush were useless, but they weren¡¯t exactly life changing or something that really helped me figure my situation out. Putting the rucksack down I leaned against the wall eyeing my pile. Not exactly the treasure I¡¯d hoped for, but no point in getting depressed, it was better than an empty rucksack, though at least some money would have been good. I took the toothbrush and a change of clothes but crammed everything else back into the rucksack and went to the small bathroom by the living room to get ready. Going over to the sink, I paused to look at my reflection. I leaned in closer to inspect the mosaic of my scales; they were largest on the top of my head, gradually forming smaller scales closer to my eyes and snout. Ridges mimicking the shape of eyebrows shadowed my slate grey eyes and curved towards small pointy ears that fanned out from the side of my head. Pulling my lips back I bared my teeth and ran a pink tongue over them. Four of my teeth were noticeably longer, not like a vampire, but definitely build for biting into flesh. I tapped my tongue against the point of my upper left canine before leaning back and closing my mouth. Turning on the tap I started to brush my teeth with a small pot of toothpaste on the sink for the first time since I¡¯d gotten here. The feeling of a clean mouth was something I hadn¡¯t realised I had missing until I had it again and it was glorious. Spitting into the sink I stripped off my dirty clothes and went to the circular wooden tub in the centre of the room. I activated the enchanted stone at the edge of the tub and the pipe underneath started spewing cold water into the tub. Thank god for indoor plumbing. Unluckily heating enchantments were a bit too expensive so I would have to make do with cold water, but honestly I was just glad I didn¡¯t have to carry up buckets of water. I turned the water off when it reached a sufficient height in the tub and put a hand in, it was a bit colder than expected but I could manage. Better to get it over with I took a deep breath and jumped over the side of the tub, throwing my whole body in with a splash. Yelping I quickly grabbed the soap, I lathered up my hands and washing myself as I started shivering. Cleaning my delicate wings wasn¡¯t easy and even as I hurried the endeavour took longer than expected. Shivering as I climbed out the tub I noticed my scales were a shade lighter than before. Grabbing the towel from the rack I quickly dried my body, at least that was faster since I didn¡¯t have any hair now. Donning my new clothes I threw the dirty ones in the hamper and almost ran back to Aron¡¯s room to dive under the sheets to warm up. The cold was really unpleasant, I¡¯d always preferred hotter climates, but warmth seemed to be sapped from me a lot faster than in my old body. Sitting there, waddled up in the blanket, I crawled forward so I was sitting in the centre of the room in direct sunlight. Immediately I could feel the warmth of the sun on my face and I almost purred as I closed my eyes, lifting my head more fully into the light. Tail thumping against the ground in pleasure I basked in the sun, slowly letting the blanket drop so I could fan my wings out behind me to soak up the sunlight. ¡°Is that a drake thing?¡± Aron asked yawning. Opening my eyes, I almost retracted my wings, ready to shuffle away in embarrassment at being caught doing something weird again, but honestly the sun felt so good I didn¡¯t care and stretched my wings out to carry on. ¡°Yes it¡¯s a drake thing, we love the sun¡± I bullshitted turning my head back to the window and closing my eyes again. If sunlight warmed up other drakes like it did me, then basking in the sun had to be a drake thing. They were all idiots if it wasn¡¯t. ¡°Alright¡± he mumbled, I could hear him moving about, before I heard footsteps moving to the door as he went to the bathroom to get ready. Chapter 6 It was still quite early when we went downstairs, the restaurant area was still fairly empty, only a young couple sat by a window sharing what looked like pancakes. Jak had a green metal watering can and was carefully watering some of the flowers, he seemed to lovingly feel them with his other hand, pausing and closing his eyes before taking out tiny gardening shears from his pocket and snipping at some of the stems. Aron looked over and back at me as I watched Jak while we went to get our breakfast before whispering ¡°Yeah as much as grandpa loves cooking, I¡¯m pretty sure if it was a viable business plan he would have focused on [Gardener] and become a [Florist]¡± as he grabbed a cookie from a jar and shoved it into his mouth. Picking up plates of scrambled eggs, assorted meats and bread that Jak had clearly prepared for us we went over to a table and dug in. There were no special healing effects in this food, but then again we didn¡¯t need it and it was still delicious. Cleaning our plates, we pocketed our lunch of thick sandwiches and fruit and left the Inn heading to school. ¡°So when are you heading to the adventurer¡¯s guild?¡± I asked curiously as we slowly walked along the cobbled street. ¡°After my apprenticeship, if you want I can meet you by the blacksmith and we can go together since you don¡¯t know the way?¡± Turning into an alley ¡°Sure, I¡¯d like to check out some que-¡° A torrent of water drenched Aron and splashed onto me as laughter erupted above us. Rage rose up and a snarl ripped out of my throat as I glared up, lips curled back from my teeth. I hissed seeing the same ginger kid and 2 of his lackeys standing on the cottage roof holding an empty bucket of water. ¡°Hey flower boy, we just wanted to make sure you stayed cool and hydrated in the sun, heat stroke is a killer you know¡± he smirked down at us. Aron hadn¡¯t moved the whole time, shoulders sagging as he looked down before clenching he jaw and purposefully marched forwards. ¡°Hey where are you going flower boy, look I even brought a watering can just for you¡± he jogged along the roof to catch up to Aron holding a yellow watering can aloft and tipping it so water slowly poured on Aron''s head. Aron flinched, but kept walking while the ginger followed him slowly emptying the can on his head while the other 2 kids stood behind him giggling. Suddenly Aron stopped and looked up causing the ginger to over shoot with the watering can ¡°Just go away Carston, you¡¯re a jerk¡± he yelled clenching his fists. Carston just turned the watering can upside down emptying the remaining contents on Aron¡¯s head. Before I knew I was moving, I¡¯d kicked my boots off, claws ripping through the front of my socks, scaled the chimney of the stone cottage in seconds and launched myself at Carston claws outstretched and fangs bared. Panicked yelps from his groupies as they leapt out of the way and Carston took a step back, arms coming up in surprise. Digging my claws into his arm, I landed with my feet on his waist, scrambling for purchase and trying to claw him while I leaned over his arms trying to snap at him with my jaws. He stumbled back trying to hold me at arms length before grabbing my shoulder and physically ripping me off him and throwing me at the chimney. Twisting mid air I landed with feet and hands against the stone, claws instinctively finding purchase and I turned my head to hiss at him, tail arched and stiffened. Inwardly I was shaken, Carston was a head taller than me, but he had the spindly arms of a 12 year old and yet he had the strength to lift and throw me 2m with more force than should have been possible. ¡°Fucking feral lizard¡± he glared at me, shallow furrows in his forearm bled lightly where my claws had dug in. He wiped the blood on his shirt glaring at me as his groupies recovered from their shock and moved to back him up. ¡°I¡¯m not a lizard¡± I glared back meeting his angry look. Watching me steadily he moved his jaw ¡°Yeah that¡¯s right, I¡¯m sorry, calling you a lizard is an insult to all lizardfolk, you¡¯re more of a gecko¡± Nostrils flaring, my face contorted in anger ¡°I am not a fucking gecko, I¡¯m a drake¡± I snapped out, head lifting in pride. ¡°Really¡± he smirked tilting his head looking me up and down ¡°You look like a gecko stuck to the wall, do you eat mosquitos too?¡± Mouth working in rage I tried to find a better comeback than ¡®fuck you¡¯ as his friends grinned at each other voicing their agreement. ¡°Don¡¯t worry little gecko, I don¡¯t pick fight with yellow bellies, so I¡¯ll let you have this one, but if you attack me again I¡¯ll make you eat dirt¡± ¡°I¡¯m blue,¡± I snapped out belatedly realising that yellow belly insult probably didn¡¯t refer to actual stomach colour as he looked at me incredulously before laughing. Ifelt my face heating up, butI stuck to my guns and continued to glare at him while he ignored me shaking his head ¡°Come lets leave the gecko and flower, school starts soon¡± The group walked to the opposite edge of the roof, chatting and laughing before jumping off the cottage on the other side. Once they were out of sight I slowly dropped from the chimney onto the roof and looked back into the alley I had come from. Staring up at me wide-eyed, halfway up the wall was Aron. ¡°They¡¯re gone, are you ok?¡± I asked He looked at me and reddened a bit ¡°I¡¯m stuck¡± Snorting, I grinned at him, relaxing a bit and climbeddown the wall to stand underneither Aron ¡°Step onto my shoulders¡± ¡°What?¡± he tried turning to look down, honestly he¡¯d only made it up about 1.5m off the ground. ¡°I¡¯m right here just put your weight on my shoulders and then you can climb down¡± Hesitantly, he lifted one foot from the wall and swung it around and I guided it to my shoulder, but when he moved his second foot, he lost his grip and came crashing down on top of me. In a pile on the floor, my face was pressed into the dirt with Aron¡¯s butt on my head ¡°mrov¡± I tried to get him to move and he scrambled to his feet reaching out to help me up. Dusting myself off I glared at him rubbing the side of my snout ¡°Sorry¡± he looked for flustered ¡°For falling on you and for Carston¡± ¡°Its not your fault¡± I sighed dropping my hand. ¡°I was going to come up and rescue you¡± he blurted out ¡°That¡¯s what big brothers do, sorry I didn¡¯t make it¡± he looked a bit forlorn standing there soaking wet. ¡°Hey Carston picked on you first, I was protecting you, that¡¯s what sisters do too, don¡¯t steal my thunder¡± I bumped his shoulder with my fist and he looked up flashing me a grin. ¡°What¡¯s Carston¡¯s problem anyway? And what¡¯s a yellow belly?¡± I asked as his smile fell from his lips, he looked away again. ¡°Carston¡¯s dad is a really tough guy, he¡¯s Captain of the guard here and made sure Carston got combat class when he was little. Carston idolises him, but he¡¯s the kind of jerk who thinks everyone should have a combat class and if you don¡¯t then it means you¡¯re just a coward. That¡¯s what yellow belly means, someone who doesn¡¯t have a combat class, though I guess people also use it to mean coward¡± Thoughtfully my tail swished side to side, Aron really wasn¡¯t the fighting type so it made sense that Carston, someone who apparently looked up to his dad who thought that having some type of combat class made some people better than others, would look down on Aron. ¡°Come on, we¡¯re going to be late, we need to get a move on¡± ¡°Yeah we need to run¡± Aron agreed and we raced off towards the school, it wasn¡¯t far and we made it to the door at the same time as the teacher. She smiled at us and gestured for us to go in first. ¡°Feeling better today Sasha?¡± she asked and I nodded, Aron had told the teacher I had missed school because I was sick which was far better than saying I¡¯d had Skill strain. ¡°Did you go diving for Luck in the fountain again Aron?¡± she smiled looking at Aron bemused. ¡°Yes Miss Brethar, no Luck so far¡± Aron refused to look at me, ears reddening a bit at the lie and went to sit down. I followed him to my seat; I wasn¡¯t going to tattle if he didn¡¯t want to tell the adults that would just make it worse and break his trust in me. Today we had English and history, English, like maths was a piece of cake, and history was surprisingly interesting. They talked about the Battle of Gallenfield, which 200 years ago had been a pivotal turning point in the civil that had ravaged the kingdom for 2 years. Queen Rosthal of Valensir had defeated the Duke of Cavensar in a final battle which resulted in 80 000 dead including the duke, but had led to the firm establishment of the Rosthal royal family in the kingdom.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
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Waving the notification away I soaked up the history until class finished. Standing up a stone formed in my stomach, I really didn¡¯t want to go back to the blacksmith. Aron was smiling again as he ran off to his apprenticeship which was no doubt going better than mine. Dragging my feet I arrived at the smithy and tapped on the door. There was no response but I could hear the rhythmic clanging of metal on metal and smoke was coming out the chimney so cautiously I pushed the door open. The blacksmith had his back to me and was working on something so I closed the door quietly and went to sit by the wall where I¡¯d been last time. He glanced my and I froze but he turned back to his work wordlessly. I wondered if he even noticed or cared that I hadn¡¯t been here yesterday. Well if he didn¡¯t want to talk that was fine by me, unpacking my lunch, I started eating, wondering what the adventurer¡¯s guild would be like. My eyes trailed down and I almost jumped to the side, there was a millipede twisting around between metal shavings surrounded by ants that were attacking from all sides. Watching them I almost dropped my sandwich and edged away a bit. Fascinated by the disorganised attack, I watched the ants throw themselves at the much larger millipede, heedless of the personal danger and simply trying to overwhelm it with numbers to inflict numerous injuries to kill it before it killed them and got away. Taking another bite from my sandwich I wondered if I should intervene, hesitantly I thought about activating [Battle sense]. I hadn¡¯t used it since the first time and I had apparently levelled up to 4, but I was cautious about reliving Skill strain. Mulling it over I watched the millipede rear up, exposing its many short legs, before using its antennae to find a ledge on a rusty metal rod sticking out above it and started hoisting itself up onto higher ground causing most of the ants to fall off and run around in confusion trying to find their opponent. Deciding I would eventually have to use Skills again, I might as well do it now, so I activated [Battle sense] promising myself that if I got the slightest ache I¡¯d stop. The world turned blue again, much more noticeably than before, the ants were still green but this time I didn¡¯t have to concentrateon them to see it. The millipede showed up in bright red contrasting sharply with the rest of the area. Vaguely surprised that the millipede was classified as my enemy, I supposed it made sense since the ants were my allies and they were fighting against the millipede. The millipede crawled along the metal rod before reaching the pile of rubbish it was sticking out of and disappeared underneath. Rearing my head back I looked at the orange spot where the millipede had disappeared. That was new. Leaning around I tried to get a better look but I couldn¡¯t see the millipede, so I reached over and lifted some of the scrap off the top of the pile. I found the millipedes wriggling body stuck to the underside of the leaf I lifted and I jerked back throwing the leaf into the air, pulling my hand back flapping it around. The orange spot where I had last seen the millipede vanished and the red of the millipede was visible again. So orange was a warning of where I had last sensed an enemy that I could no longer sense. I suppose that meant [Battle sense] couldn¡¯t just inform me of enemy movements that would otherwise be impossible for me to know. If I really wanted to make the most of [Battle sense] I probably needed to improve my senses, not that I had that much interest in becoming a [Tactician]. Picking up my sandwich again I watched the ants swarm the millipede; I had inadvertently thrown it right back into the ant¡¯s path. I yelped as something hit me in the face and I rolled backward expecting another blow but nothing came. A wooden broom lay in my lap and the red tinged blacksmith was looking at me ¡°If you¡¯re going to be here, you might as well make yourself useful so go clean up¡± ¡°You¡¯re supposed to be teaching me blacksmithing¡± I snapped back before I could stop myself. He sneeredat me ¡°A lizard runt like you couldn¡¯t hack it so there¡¯s no point in teaching you, now get cleaning¡± Fuming I picked up the broom and angrily started sweeping, I was never coming back in here after my apprenticeship ended. Looking up at the blacksmith I could still see red surrounding him so I deactivated [Battle sense], didn¡¯t want to make the same mistake as last time. It took a while; there were a lot of metal clippings, scrap and junk all over the room, but I swept everything into neat piles and then brought of the bin. Moving around in the sweltering heat of the forge was unpleasant, I decided it didn¡¯t matter if I never unlocked [Blacksmith] I wasn¡¯t ever going to be a blacksmith. I tipped the bin on its side so I could sweep each pile into it. It would have been easier with a dustpan and brush but he hadn¡¯t given me one and I wasn¡¯t going to ask. The bin was overflowing when I dragged it back to its original spot and I was sweating in my shirt. I stood and waited for him to notice I was done but he didn¡¯t so I spoke up and he just grunted and waved me off ¡°Get out of here then, don¡¯t need you shedding scales now its clean¡± A bit insulted but glad to be able to leave I left, pulling out my unfinished sandwich and sitting down outside on some patchy grass to finish my lunch. I still had some time to kill before Aron would come to find me to go to the adventurer¡¯s guild. Bored, I stood up brushing my hands together to get rid of any crumbs and walked over to the wall. Jak had said not to go up since Orcs were in the area, but if I kept my head down beneath the top of the wall on the scaffolding, even if there were Orcs, they wouldn¡¯t see me so it should be ok. This time though, the wall wasn¡¯t empty; there was a guard looking out over the grasslands every 100m or so, presumably for the Orcs. Scowling I figured that meant they wouldn¡¯t let me up on the wall. Walking along the wall I decided to kill some time exploring before heading back to meet Aron. ¡°Hey kid, how¡¯s it going?¡± I looked up and saw Dante looking down at me from the wall. ¡°It¡¯s ok, are you on the lookout for Orcs?¡± trying to ignore the kid comment. ¡°Yeah, but don¡¯t worry, I doubt they¡¯ll come to the village, Orcs don¡¯t usually attack villages so we should be fine and as long as you kill the [Chief], they¡¯re not usually a problem, but still gotta keep a look out¡± ¡°Can I come up?¡± I ventured. ¡°Sorry kiddo, only for [Guards] and VIPs¡± being called kid was really irked me and scowled up at him. ¡°I¡¯ll tell the chief you lost me when we left Tycel¡¯s¡± I bluffed and he glowered at me ¡°Real brat aren¡¯t you¡± I grinned up at him and he relented ¡°Fine but if anyone catches you up here, I found you here and was telling you off¡± ¡°Sure¡± I complied takingmy boots and shredded socks off and before Dante could ask what I was doing, I climbed the support beams to the top in seconds. ¡°A brat and a monkey¡± he noted, ¡°You could have just taken the ladder", he pointed a bit further along the wall and I reddened a bit, I hadn''t seen it. ¡°This is faster" ¡°Yeah but now you don¡¯t have any shoes¡± I ignored him and walked over to the wall ¡°Woah not so fast kid¡± he grabbed the collar of my shirt and dragged me back ¡°Some ground rules up here, first, I¡¯m in charge up here¡± I scowled but nodded ¡°Second, if anything happens, you do exactly what I say, no questions or hesitating¡± I nodded, fair enough, ¡°And third, no coming up here alone, ok¡± ¡°Ok¡± he let go of my shirt collar and I rubbed my neck in exaggerated hurt, he only rolled his eyes and walked over to the wall, leaning against it to scan the grasslands. I walked up to join him peering over the edge. It was exactly the same as the last time I¡¯d come here; tree branches and tall grass swaying in the breeze as the wind rolled over the hills. I had planned to practice flying, but I didn¡¯t want to do that embarrassing show in front of Dante so I scrapped that plan ¡°How many Orcs are there?¡± He shrugged ¡°Dunno, a tribe usually has a few hundred members, hey shouldn¡¯t you be at school or something?¡± I made a face ¡°School is done and my apprenticeship sucks¡± ¡°Ah who¡¯d you get? I remember my fair share that sucked¡± well at least he wouldn¡¯t rat me out. ¡°The blacksmith¡± ¡°Yeah he¡¯s a grumpy fellow, but he does good work,¡± he said thoughtfully. Dante was human so he probably had different experiences with the blacksmith than me. We settled into brief silence and I decided to activate [Battle sense]. I stiffened as the grasslands lit up like the sky, but instead of twinkling white stars, there were uneven red blobs spread out near the village. Eyes widened I staredat the closest one; there was just grass there, though when I focused on it I could see it didn¡¯t move in quite the same way as the rest of the grass. Trying to decipher what made it different, the image of grass distorted and shattered as a dark figure stood up drawing back a bow and loosening an arrow while Dante yelled out and shoved my head down behind the wall. A pained screamed ripped out behind me and I turned back, to see Dante throw himself on the ground next to me. His left arm was destroyed above the elbow; the flesh and bone had been torn and splintered in a spiral fashion in the fist-sized wound around the arrow. Blood spurted out and splashed on my face as he tried to get a horn from his belt, which he almost dropped before put it to his mouth and blowing. A long deep sound trumpeted over the village causing a flurry of movement just as hooting and screaming erupted beyond the wall and dragged me out of my stupor. I ripped the bottom of my shirt off and pressed it around the arrow wound as Dante cried out in pain before clenching his jaw and helping me wrap a tourniquet around the arm, which hung limply at his side. I could hear footsteps running and more [Guards] and villagers flocked to the wall to help defend it. A lizardfolk [Guard] appeared at my side and helped Dante form a makeshift sling for his arm. His eyes were watering and I could see him straining not to scream at having his arm moved but she ignored him and in practiced moves finished the sling ¡°Can you walk to the infirmary?¡± she asked calmly as people ran along the battlements, taking up positions and exchanging arrows with the Orcs. Dante breathily nodded and rolled onto his feet, face pale as he jogged to the ladder, before using one hand to slide down it, face contorted in agony as he fell onto the ground before, struggling up and staggeringdown the street. Jerking back as an arrow embedded itself in the scaffolding in front of me I turned back and swallowed at the sight of people with round wooden shields defending against the heavy arrow barrage while others returned fire. The lizardfolk woman from before was firing a recurve bow and was yelling orders at other archers. Frozen I watched as crude grappling hooks appeared on different sections of the wall while people tried to pry them lose before Orcs could make it up. No one seemed to notice that I was here; they were too busy defending against the Orcs to lookbehind them. Turning to jump off the scaffolding to follow Dante into the village, I stopped horrified. There were Orcs in the village; from up here I could see dots of red flowing over the wall on the far right side of the village before slipping into the streets. Even though I couldn¡¯t see the actual Orcs, the red aura and slightly distorted images gave them away. I swallowed thickly, deliberating for a moment beforeI turned back and ducked down to crawl between someone¡¯s legs to get to the archer woman who seemed to be in charge. Reaching her I tried standing up and tugging at her sleeve to get her attention.She looked down angry before goggling at me ¡°Get this child out of here¡± she snarled at the person next to me and an arm started to drag me away but I held onto her sleeve ¡°Wait, there¡¯s Orcs in village¡± I yelled ¡°They¡¯re coming over the wall over there¡± I pointed desperately. She frowned at me looked over there clearly not seeing anything, but she didn¡¯t dismiss me completely ¡°Are you a [Scout]?¡± ¡°No but I have Skill and I can see them¡± she turned ¡°Point one out for me¡± impressedthat she could be so calm in this environment I point at an Orc climbing over the Wall ¡°Just past the red chimney, above tha-¡° she loosened an arrow which thudded square into the red spot I¡¯d indicated. Immediately an Orc became visible, clutching its arm and staggering sideways. Chapter 7 In retrospect, alerting the Orcs that we knew that they were there may not have been the best tactic, because now instead of slowly and silently infiltrating the village; they gave up on stealth, exploding into a screaming sea of black bodies that launched themselves forward. The archer woman was barking orders and across the village I could see figures that had been running to aid this part of the wall, change course to intercept the Orcs who were running wild in the eastern part. ¡°Get to the village hall, its safer there¡± the order jarred me away from the scene. ¡°I can help-¡° ¡°They¡¯ve stopped using their [Camouflage] Skill, so unless you have a combat Class, get to the village hall, you¡¯ve already helped¡± her slitted pale green eyes calmly impressed that order onto me and I bit my tongue, partly frustrated and relieved that I was supposed to run. Ignoring the clamour of voices and steel on steel behind me, I jumped off the scaffolding; landing on the hard packed earth and took off running down the street barefoot. Looking up at people with weapons running in the opposite direction, I had to flatten myself against a shop wall as not to be run over by the crowd. Faces pinched in anger and fear, the group charged forwards and I could see a teenager struggling to put on his bracers but running towards the wall nonetheless. Digging my claws into my palms I watched them, it suddenly became very real that these people were risking their lives to defend the village and if they fell, I would probably die too. Aron would die, Jak and even stupid Carston. Breathing rapidly through my open mouth, my chest heaved, tears stung my eyes; I couldn¡¯t do anything. Frustrated I kicked the wall and looked down the street. A flicker of red appeared at an alley entrance before fading into orange. Inhaling sharply a sliver of fear spiked in me as I looked back the way I had come; figures swathed in light green were busy yelling and pushing to prevent Orcs from breaching the wall. Swallowing I looked at the innocuous orange mist hanging in mid air in front of the alley. Feeling exposed and vulnerable on the now empty street, I slowly reached out to sink my claws into the shop wall, flicking a look back, I quickly burst into motion, heart racing as I pulled myself onto the roof before spinning around and flattening myself on the roof to survey the street. The scene hadn¡¯t changed and I strained my ears to hear past the uproarof battle from the wall, but if it weren¡¯t for the orange blob in the air, nothing would have given me any indication that an Orc had been there. Breathing slowing down I looked around, debating heading back to alert the Lizardfolk archer, when to myhorror I saw Carston and his group came out of an alley on my left, running across the street, heading right for the alley with the orange entrance. They stupidly seemed to be heading for the eastern part of the village where Orcs had already made it over the wall and were fighting in the streets. Mouth dry I tried screaming at them but no sound came out and I coughed, scrambling off the roof, falling to the floor ungainly, twisting my ankle I screamed hoarsly as I ran after them but the sound was lost or they ignored me as they entered the alley. Hobbling I managed to half sprint, reaching the orange spot, which promptly disappeared as I looked into the alley. Carston was halfway through the alley, his group behind him, grinning full of false bravado holding daggers and swords. Near the centre of the alley was a barrel the group was passing by and standing next to it I could see a red outline against the wall. My throat constricted as I looked at it loom over the unaware group, the red moved and suddenly my throat worked ¡°CARSTON¡± I screeched, pointing desperately. The ginger head turned just as the red blurred and came down on the blonde boy behind him. Liquid red sprayed out as an axe buried itself halfway into a blonde skull. The now visible Orc hefted it''s axe, lifting the limp body with it before it slipped off the axe with a sickening slurp and crashed to the floor, dead eyes staring up unseeing. It was tall, with dark skin and folded pointy ears with crude tattoos marking it''s narrow face and bare arms. Leather armour covered its torso and legs, mismatched fur boots and a claw necklace completed the outfit. The boy behind the dead blond cried out falling on his butt, scrambling back as the blood pooled close to him. A dark haired girl threw a dagger that bounced off the Orc¡¯s leather armour, and it turned to grin at her. Breath hitching at the sight of the amber eyes lazily flowing over the frozen group I met its intelligent gaze before Carston attacked with a angry yell, sword swinging forward. Too slow. I could see that the Orc would dodge before it happened. It sidestepped as Carston¡¯s swing went wide, almost in an after thought it brought the back of it¡¯s axe down on Carston¡¯s right arm, the heft shattering his forearm as he screamed out dropping his sword, somehow barely managing to throw himself out of the way of the next axe swing which would have crushed his ribcage. Leaning against the wall clutching his arm he glared up at the Orc who seemed unfazed. With a shout, the girl who¡¯d throw the dagger valiantly ran forward with her mace and the other 2, excluding the boy sitting on the floor, all charged the Orc together. The girl threw the first swing; the Orc didn¡¯t even bother to block as it lifted its axe, but her mace seemed to accelerate mid swing, crashing into the Orc¡¯s side making it take step to the left with an ¡®oof¡¯ leaving its lips. Surprise and anger crossed its face before it snarled, lashing out with the axe in a diagonal strike which the girl ducked under but the boy coming up on her right barely dove out of the way of. Scrambling backwards, the girl attempted to block a swing but the force of the hit lifted her off the ground and threw her, head cracking against the wall, but unsteadily she staying on her feet. Before the Orc could follow up, a shortergirl and lanky boy simultaneously stabbed into the Orc¡¯s arm and side with their spears. A tiny trickle of blood appeared where the boy stabbed the Orc¡¯s bare arm, but otherwise completely failed to penetrate it''s skin. The Orc turned to look down at the pair and grinned, rubbing its red tongue against a tooth. The boy stepped back, dropping his spear as his trousers quickly darkened. Frozen as the axe descended on him, the girl next to him shoved him out of the way, the axe catching her in the shoulder. A bloodcurdling scream ripping out of her as the axe buried itself halfway into her shoulder, snapping her collar bone, scapular and first ribs. Tearing the axe free, she dropped to the ground crying and gasping, holding her shoulder while the boy sat there frozen where she¡¯d pushed him. They couldn¡¯t win. The Orc¡¯s overwhelming power was too much for a bunch of kids. The red aura around it seemed to grow as I watched helplessly. It wasn¡¯t even a matter of winning now; it was a matter of getting them out of this alive. The Orc raised his axe to finish the crying girl when Carston leapt on its back from behind, using his right elbow to hold on, the forearm dangling uselessly at an odd angle, he attempted to stab at the Orc¡¯s neck with a short dagger. The first strike glanced off the leather armour as he missed and then the Orc spun, throwing Carston over his shoulder, slamming him into the ground with enough force to knock the air out of him as he retched on the ground gasping for breath. The mace girl threw a last desperate hit onto the Orc¡¯s thigh, mace accelerating again in the last second, preventing the Orc from dodging completely. Clipping its leg, she tried to bring her mace around to block the incoming axe but the axe snapped the mace in 2. She stumbled back, dropping the mace stump as blood drained from her face; she was the last one standing. The Orc took its time looking around as it advanced on her as a pebble struck it in the side of the head. It paused and narrowed its golden eyes at me. I stood there shocked, my hand outstretched from where I¡¯d thrown the pebble.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Well in for penny in for a pound. ¡±Hey ugly, no wonder the Orc girls don¡¯t like you, you can only fight children because you¡¯d lose against a real warrior¡± not the best insult, but he clearly understood me. His lips curled back, exposing his long canines as he snarled at me. ¡°You must be a coward if you¡¯re here hiding and attacking children instead of fighting where the real tough Orc warriors are fighting¡± his ears seemed to furl back as his snarl became more of hiss and his eyes seemed to glow with an inner fire. Maybe I¡¯d hit a nerve, I grinned at him, lifting my head and driving the point home ¡°Coward¡± My stomach dropped as he charged forwards with more speed than I¡¯d expected, and I leapt up sinking my claws into the wall, franticaly scaling the wall faster than I ever had before.Iheard the whistle of the axe moving through the air and the thud of it impacting the wall just by my tail before I heaved myself onto the roof. I glanced over the edge to see his large dark frame rapidly following me up, white teeth gleaming as he snarled. His axe tucked into his belt and golden eyes burning. Back peddling quickly, I ran to the other side of the chimney, he was almost on the roof, when I leapt across the alley, landing half on the wall, half on the roof and scrambled up. When I turned the Orc was standing on the roof on the other side of the alley. I paled; he¡¯d gotten up much faster than expected. He tilted his head, a smirk spreading on his face, he knew he was faster than me and I had nowhere to run. I swallowed thickly backing up slightly; he seemed larger now, and his strength too overwhelming, even the kids with combat classes could barely scratch his skin. Tears welled up as frustration and fear coiled inside me; there was nothing I could do when faced with strength like that. In a spray of gore, the Orc¡¯s head exploded, blood and skull fragments rained down as an arrow tore through his head, hardly slowing down before it knocked a good chunk of brick and mortar into the air coming to a stop in the chimney. The Orc¡¯s body stood there for a second before slowly toppling over to collapse on the roof. It lay still as blood sprayed from torn arteries and then slowed to a dribble, pooling along the roof and draining into the pipes. I almost didn¡¯t believe it until the red aura around him disappeared as he faded into blue to match the surroundings. He had seemed so strong, so unkillable, it didn¡¯t seem real that he¡¯d died from one shot. I sank to my knees and promptly sat down, adrenaline rush leaving me in one fell swoop. I hadn¡¯t been sure if the Lizardfolk [Guard] or even any of the archers would see us on the roof, but it had been my only hope. There was no way we would have won against the Orc in any scenario, so the only way to win was to get help from someone who could beat him. A notification appeared in front of me but I waved it away in favour of throwing up. I knelt there, pieces of partly digested sandwich and bile spewing out as my head spun. Retching a few more times, I wiped my mouth and sat back shakily. Crawling to the edge of the roof not trusting my legs I looked over the edge at the bloody display below. Mace-girl was trying to help the crying girl up and Carston was slapping one of the two boys sitting on the floor trying to get them to stand up. ¡°He¡¯s dead,¡± I croaked out, Carston looked up drawing his dagger in his left hand, terror but grim determination in his eyes. ¡°The Orc is dead, archer killed him,¡± I said a bit loader this time. The mace-girl looked up at me as Carston lowered his dagger hesitantly. My eyes were drawn to the dead blonde kid, he lay where he had fallen at the start, mouth open and eyes staring up blindly, he¡¯d never even seen the Orc coming. I didn¡¯t even know his name and now he was dead, the axe had caught him just to the right of a small cowlick on his forehead. Retching, I heaved up any remains of stomach acid I had left, throat burning from the sensation as tears gathered in my eyes. Ignoring the other kids, I rolled over to lay on my back, closing my eyes, trying to settle my stomach, swallowing heavily, shuddering as my hands shook. I tried taking deep breaths and eventually I felt like I could stand up again without a bowl malfunction. I rolled to the edge of the roof and unsteadily climbed down a look slower than before. My hands hadn¡¯t stopped shaking. On the ground, the worst off was the crying girl, who seemed to have lost a significant amount of blood and was loosing consciousness. The boy she¡¯d pushed out of the way was now crying and repeatedly apologising to her saying it was his fault she got hurt. The mace-girl was ignoring him and trying to bandage the girl with torn strips of clothing to stop the bleeding with little success. ¡°We need to get her to the infirmary¡± Carston said weakly but with conviction as he stood swaying, cradling his arm. Honestly I was impressed he was standing after being thrown around by the Orc. The other boy who¡¯d been frozen on the floor the whole time seemed to finally come too and stood up nervously. He hadn¡¯t been injured in the slightest but also hadn¡¯t taken part in the fight, though no one was addressing that. ¡°You need to go to the infirmary too,¡± I said looking at Carston, he looked ready to collapse for all his bravado. ¡°We¡¯re all going to the infirmary¡± mace-girl stood up, half dragging the crying girl up with her ¡°I¡¯ll take Jen, Karek, help Carston and Heret stop whimpering, you can help me with Jen¡± she turned to look at me ¡°You¡¯re coming with us?¡± I nodded ¡°Then keep look out¡± I was pretty sure I only got look out duty because she didn¡¯t know me enough to help them, but I was glad. I could do that, I¡¯d keep [Battle sense] on until we were safe, I¡¯d rather die of Skill strain than have an Orc creep up on me. The idea that one could be standing next to me without me knowing was terrifying. We set off at a sluggish pace down the empty street, the distant noise of fighting kept us moving but we were silent. I wasn¡¯t sure of the way but the others seemed to know exactly where we were going. Carston was leaning on Karek, the uninjured guy while Mace-girl followed behind with Jen slung between her and Heret who was still blubbering a bit. I scanned the streets and alleys but luckily nothing red or orange showed up though Jen left a trail of red dots and was now being dragged more than walking on her own. Turning a corner, I could see a more people in the street, rushing back and forwards to a large building, while others cried out in pain. I tried not to look too closely at those with gruesome injuries, my stomach beginning to feel queasy again. When we entered the buidling a man ran forwards to greet us, immediately rushing to Jen, he gave her shoulder a quick once over before tying a red cloth around her other arm. He sent mace-girl and Heret to carry her to a row of other people with red tags as he moved onto Carston who was given a yellow tag and told to wait with the other people in yellow. I stood around awkwardly. I wasn¡¯t really injured; a twisted ankle was a shameless thing to complain about when there were people holding their own intestines in, but I didn¡¯t know where else to go so I walked up to a woman who was bandaging a leg and asked if there was anything I could do to help. I spent the next few hours running around, carrying water and bandages, helping lift people and situating them in beds. It all turned into a blur as I tried not to concentrate on the bloody carnage around me and followed simple orders to run errands around the infirmary. Soon, there wasn¡¯t enough space and I helped set up tents outside to house extra people while they waited for the attention of the few healers. There was very strict and were carefully policy of administering healing potions to those who¡¯s situations they deemed desperate enough to warrant some of the dwindling supply, but not so desperate that it was doubtful they¡¯d make it. It seemed cruel at first, but considering the number of patients and the lack of healing potions, it made sense to prioritise. I don¡¯t really remember most of what happened there, I just kept going until the man who¡¯d first greeted us, told me to go lie down in the village hall. It was only a few buildings down and I walked there, not really seeing anything. A woman there sent me to where I think a bunch of other kids were sitting and I sat down next to them, leaning against the wall and closing my eyes.
¡°Sasha, Sasha¡± a hand was shaking me and blearily I turned to look up at Aron¡¯s teary face ¡°Sasha¡± he burst into tears and hugged me, feeling the wetness on my own face I realised I was crying too and I started sobbing for real hugging Aron back. Snot leaking from my nostrils I bawled my heart out. Eventually we both calmed down and I felt a wet nose nudge my head, I looked to the side, not even jumping when I saw Bandu¡¯s large head next to me. She was sitting there looking down at us with those bloodshot eyes, a new shallow wound in her side, which she turned to lick occasionally. ¡°I was so worried about you¡± suddenly guilt gnawed at me when I realised I hadn¡¯t thought about Aron. I¡¯d been so caught up with the wall and then the Orc and the blonde boy who¡¯d died, his dead fish eyes staring- I turned and retched, only a few drops of bile coming up, my stomach was empty but I couldn¡¯t stop dry heaving as acid came up. Aron rubbed my back and when I turned back he held up a wet rag awkwardly ¡°You-, you have blood on your face¡± I flashed back to Dante¡¯s arm being eviscerated by that arrow as his hot blood splashed on me. He¡¯d saved my life, if he hadn¡¯t pushed me down then, I¡¯d be dead right now. Aron carefully dabbed at my face, trying to wipe away the blood and I let him, not moving staring at the ceiling. The paint was chipping at the walls, maybe from water damage. ¡°All done¡± he said pulling back ¡°I-¡° he hesitated ¡°I know the blacksmith is near the wall so I thought you might have-¡° he broke off ¡°I¡¯m just so glad you¡¯re ok¡± tears started pricking his eyes again as he wiped at them with his palms. I felt tears gathering in my eyes again as I looked into his hazel eyes, ears sticking out adorably from his tousled brown hair ¡°I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re ok too, I don''t know what I''d do if something had happened to you¡± I said honestly. Chapter 8 I jerked awake, accidentally throwing Aron¡¯s head off my shoulder as I adrenaline spiked before I realised the half-hearted cheer wasn¡¯t an attack. Blinking, Aron sat up next to be rubbing his eyes as the dishevelled village [Chief] stood at the front, blood smeared across her outfit giving a speech about how the Orcs had been driven out. I didn¡¯t listen to the details, but the undertone of the message was clear, we¡¯d won but ata cost. 29 dead. Somehow I¡¯d expected the death toll to be in the hundreds given the overpowering nature of the Orcs, but maybe the Orcs weren¡¯t so strong; maybe I was just that weak. My trembling tail curled around my legs as I hugged my knees, resting my forehead on them. I was weak. And no matter what I thought of doing, I just couldn¡¯t see myself having the strength to beat the Orc. I flashed back to the roof and tried to imagine launching myself at the Orc, claws and teeth ready to rip and rend, but somehow the closer I got to the Orc, the larger he seemed as he laughed, becoming an undefeatable monstrosity. Aron¡¯s arm came around to pat my shoulder sleepily as he yawned, ¡°It¡¯s ok, they¡¯re gone now¡± I stilled lifting my head; eyes dry as I looked around the village hall. Groups of people were huddled around sitting and standing, crowding in the large hall. They were all watching the [Chief] give her speech at the entrance before they all started standing up and moving about. I had missed what the [Chief] had said, but Aron was also standing up and stretching his arms above him, Bandu rising to follow him. ¡°Come on, we can go help in the kitchens while the other do damage control. Hopefully the Orcs didn¡¯t loot too much¡± Silently I got up and followed Aron, he seemed surprisingly ok, we¡¯d just been attacked and people had died. Clenching my fists I looked around at some people crying as others offered condolences but overall, people were moving on. No one was panicking or shocked. They were used to this. I felt like a gaping chasm opened up between us as Aron walking in front of me. This was normal for him, people dying was part of life here. I couldn¡¯t get the image of the dead boy out of my head, his empty eyes with the cleaved skull and blood running through his hair, I lifted my head looking up, taking deep long breaths through my nostrils trying to think of something else. This was not normal for me, I¡¯d never seen someone die before or even any serious violence outside of TV. A sponge was shoved into my hand and I looked down realising we¡¯d arrived in a cafeteria area at the other end of the village hall. Large pots of stew were cooking as Hitch was ladling some into bowls for people lined up while Jak and a few people I didn¡¯t recognise were tending to the pots and baking bread. Aron dragged me to where a few other kids were already busy washing dishes in water buckets while others were drying the bowls and cups. Grabbing a bucket of water and soap I joined them and started to vigorously clean bowls, handing them to Aron to dry. Aron chatted a bit while Bandu laid down to snore next to us but mostly I just focused on trying to forget the Orc and the dead boy.
Hours later, most people had left, going back to their homes, the Orcs had been rooted from the village and some [Hunters] had assured us that they had seen them moving off north east. Mostly food had been looted, apparently some Orcs had carried off an entire squealing goat from its pen, but they¡¯d also taken tools and clothes and basically anything else they could carry. Luckily the Inn was near the centre of the village, so no Orcs had made it that far, but even so, when Jak unlocked the front door, I shivered looking into the dark room, expecting an Orc to jump out. Clicking his fingers, the enchanted stones lit up the deserted room, revealing empty tables and chairs, just as they¡¯d been left with partly eaten food as people had rushed out when the alarm rang. Grunting, Jak started picking up plates and cutlery to take to the kitchen, Aron jumped to do the same, so I copied them and we cleaned up the room. The uneaten meat was fed to Bandu and the rest of the food was thrown and would be given to one of the [Farmers] tomorrow to feed to his pigs. Finally in bed, I lay there staring at the ceiling while Aron fell asleep in seconds, apparently unperturbed by todays events. I pulled the thin blanket up higher wondering what would happen if Orcs attacked again or maybe Trolls or Dragons or whatever else might be out there. I couldn¡¯t fight those things, if a spear couldn¡¯t get through an Orc¡¯s skin, what could my claws do? But the archer had destroyed the Orc with one shot. Breathing unsteadily I looked at the notifications I¡¯d received.
You have reached [Tactician Lvl 3]
You have reached [Battle sense Lvl 6]
You have unlocked the Class: [Healthcare assistant]
Even if I couldn¡¯t fight, I could help those who were fighting; I could level [Tactician] until I got useful skills that could help people fighting to protect the village. I could indirectly help protect the village, the Inn, and everyone else if anything attacked again. I looked over at Aron sleeping peacefully, mouth open, drooling lightly with an arm flung out over him. Unbidden the image of the dead boy flashed through my mind again, but this time it was Aron¡¯s dead eyes staring up at me. Swallowing the acid that threatened to come up again I looked back at the ceiling. I would make sure that that image never became real. I wasn¡¯t strong, I couldn¡¯t fight, I didn¡¯t have a combat class, the only thing I had was [Tactician] so I¡¯d level that to help the people protect the village. I selected [Tactician Lvl 3]
[Tactician Lvl 3]
Skill points: 20
Skills: [Battle sense Lvl 6]
Skills available: [Motivational speech] ¨C 10 Skill points [Convenient environment] ¨C 10 Skill points [Formation] ¨C 20 Skill points [Talent seeker] ¨C 30 Skill points
None of those Skills looked like they¡¯d boost defences or increase someone¡¯s ability to attack and the last one cost more than I could afford. I probably got 10 Skill points per level. Was that a normal amount? Did different Classes give different amount of points? Also did all [Tacticians] get the same Skills available as me? I really knew nothing about this world, so should I pick a new Skill now or wait? Logically I knew waiting was better, I couldn¡¯t change my Skills and I didn¡¯t know what any of the Skills did, but I was scared. What if an Orc climbed through the window now and if I picked a Skill, it could save my life. Not pausing to overthink that logic I selected [Convenient environment]
Error: Skill requires the Base stat: Luck to work
Blinking, anger surged, I¡¯d unlocked the class, levelled it and today I¡¯d almost died. What unfair bullshit was this and what did it mean I needed the Base stat: Luck. Checking my status I realised that I did in fact not have a stat called Luck, did that mean I could unlock other stats? Calming slightly I noticed something else on my status, the Available Stat % now read 20. Fuck it; Perception was my highest stat at 9 so I tried dumping it all into perception.
Are you sure you want to add Available Stats %: 20 to Perception? Yes/No? Note: Stats cannot be redistributed at a later date
Wavering slightly, I agreed.
Name: Sasha Lanncaster Species: Drake
Gender: Female Age: 9
Class 1: [Tactician Lvl 3] Class 1 Skill points: 20
Class 2: [None] Class 2 Skill points: 0
Health: 100% (0.05%/hr) Inventory (max=6Kg) Contacts
Stamina: 62% (0.2%/min) Available Classes Messages (0)
Mana: 100% (0.5%/min)
Base Stats: Augmented stats: Bonus stats:
Vitality: 8 8 +/-0
Agility: 9 9 +/-0
Strength: 6 6 +/-0
Scales: 5 5 +/-0
Perception: 9 10.8 +/-0
Efficiency: 8 8 +/-0
Wisdom: 6 6 +/-0
Available stat %: 0
My base stat was the same but the augmented one had increased by 1.8, exactly 20% of 9. Curious, I looked around the room; it wasn¡¯t that my vision had improved or anything, it was just that I was just a bit more aware of details like the crack in the paint in the doorframe or the tiny freckles on Aron¡¯s face where the moonlight shone on him. He looked so peaceful and unaffected by toady, I tore my gaze away and back to my status. My Base stats hadn''t changed, but my augmented stats increased by percentage increments of my base stats.The higher my base stats, the more of a difference each added percent made, so basically,if I didn¡¯t have good base stats, I would never excel in that area. Compared to someone who had a Strength Base stat of 20, with added 10%, that person would gain +2 in Augmented stats, whereas I would gain +0.6.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. If I was weak, stats would make me a bit stronger, but it would make strong people a lot stronger. Eyes watering, I really was weak andany fleeting ideas of becoming insanely strong by using the system and gaining high stats so I was untouchable slowly vanished when faced with reality. My tail curled around my legs and I rolled onto my side hugging my legs. But that was ok, I wasn¡¯t planning on fighting anyway, I¡¯d already accepted I was weak. It was still a bit depressing to see though; maybe there was a way to increase base stats? Ignoring that thought for now I turned back to the Skill options for [Tactician], I had 2 possible options left, but I had no interest in [Motivational speech] so I just selected [Formation], at least that sounded military like.
[Tactician Lvl 3]
Skill points: 0
Skills: [Battle sense Lvl 6] [Formation Lvl 1]
Skills available: [Motivational speech] ¨C 10 Skill points [Convenient environment] ¨C 10 Skill points [Talent seeker] ¨C 30 Skill points
Hoping for something good, I selected [Formation].
[Formation]
Urge Allies into your chosen battle formations and positions Note: Skill can be resisted
Well I needed someone to test that out on, but it seemed like a communication Skill for battle. It wasn¡¯t something that boosted defence or made people faster or stronger or anything, but I could imagine that I would be a useful Skill in battle. Not that I had an army to give orders to. Closing all the windows I lay back and relaxed, slowly becoming aware of how tired I was now that most of the adrenaline had left me.
¡°Rise and shine¡± Aron started pulling the blanket off me and instinctively I grabbed it, yanking back to cover my head. Grumbling as he pulled even harder, half dragging me off the mattress into the air with the blanket ¡°Ok ok I¡¯m up¡± I scowled ¡°Now let go¡± Grinning he dropped the blanket and I dropped to the floor, almost hitting my head but catching myself on my hands in the last second. Glaring at him, he grinned unrepentantly ¡°Come on, can¡¯t be late for school¡± he started trotting off towards the door. ¡°We have school today?¡± I asked surprised that life would go back to normal so quickly after an Orc attack. ¡°Sure, the school wasn¡¯t damaged¡± ¡°Oh¡± I said as if that made sense. Kneeling, I yawned; I guess it was better to leave village repair and everything else to the adults. Stretching my wings I got up and started getting ready for school. Breakfast was surprisingly normal, Jak was his usual grumpy self, tending the flowers while we grabbed our lunches and went on our way. ¡°Do you still want to come to the adventurer¡¯s guild with me later? We never got the chance yesterday since the Orcs and everything, but there should be a lot of repairs jobs and easy errands to run now¡± ¡°Sure, I can check it out with you¡± I was still curious about the guild, and making some money wasn¡¯t a bad idea. I currently had zero funds or any idea of how much things cost here, except that a discount broken lute was 4 silvers, but that didn¡¯t really tell me much. Walking along the street, we turned into the alley that Carston had bullied Aron on, but he didn¡¯t hesitate in the slightest. I swallowed briefly, almost missing my step, remembering the other alley I¡¯d seen Carston in, but followed Aron without slowing down. The walls seemed to grow taller and darker, closing in on me as I struggled to keep my breathing even as my heart rate accelerated. Suddenly we were out of the alley and back in the sunlight, shaken I shivered slightly, looking behind me; the alley was empty and shaded, harmless. Aron kept walking, unaware and I jogged after him deciding to ignore that for now. We chatted a bit and arrived in class on time. I noticed 3 empty chairs, Jen was missing, but Carston was sitting at the back, arm in a sling but otherwise fine. The rest of the kids seemed healthy and most of them were socialising like usual, even if they were a quieter. I noticed they were avoiding one of the empty chairs with some children mutedly sad. It was probably the dead boy¡¯s chair; I tried to push the images of him out of my head and focused on the teacher as she came in. It was harder to concentrate and the class was subdued as we had a moment of silence in remembrance of Tomak, the boy who had died fighting Orcs. I wouldn¡¯t really say he had fought; he¡¯d died before he had the chance to, but I wasn¡¯t going to add that minor correction, it would be a nasty thing to do and none of the other kids who¡¯d been there disagreed either. But then class moved on to maths and geography. Apparently there were only 4 subjects for this class. Maybe younger and older classes had different subjects like art, languages, religion or science, though I doubted that last one existed here given the lack of modern technology. After class, I heaved myself up, frustrated that id have to go back to the blacksmith now. Picking up my lunch, a shadow fell over my desk and I looked up. Carston was standing there with his arm in a sling and his group watching him ¡°Hey Gecko, I just wanted to say thank you for what you did with the Orc, you saved our lives- my life¡± he said meeting my eyes ¡°Also I¡¯m sorry for calling you a yellow belly¡± he added shuffling uncomfortably, pausing to look back at his friends ¡°We¡¯re going to the training grounds later if you want to join us?¡± I heard Aron inhale sharply next to me, but I kept my eyes on Carston ¡°Sorry I already have plans to go to the adventurer¡¯s guild later¡± pausing stiffly ¡°Is Jen ok?¡± ¡°Yeah she¡¯ll be fine, the healer gave her a potion, she¡¯s on bed rest and she should be back soon. But catch you another time then¡± he nodded at me, ginger hair falling in his eyes before he re-joined his group and they walked off. I turned to Aron who was watching me eyes wide as saucers ¡°You fought an Orc?¡± he gaped. ¡°What? No, I just ran away and made it follow me so an archer could kill it¡± I burst out, wanting to crush that embarrassing rumour before it started. ¡°Oh, but still, that really brave¡± ¡°Thanks I guess¡± I shifted uncomfortably, I had been useless, weak, completely unable to do anything while the Orc decimated Carston¡¯s group, I didn¡¯t want praise for running when they had fought head on. ¡°So does that mean you¡¯re going to hang out with Carston from now on?¡± he tried to say it casually, but it came out forced and I could see his hand shaking as he picked up his lunch. Thinking back to the Minotaur boy who¡¯d ditched Aron for Carston I vehemently disagreed ¡°No way, you¡¯re my big brother, I can¡¯t leave you alone, think of all the trouble you¡¯d get into without me¡± he grinned at me and I could see the relief in his eyes ¡°Besides, even if we¡¯re not enemies, Carston is still a jerk¡± We walked out the school and I waved goodbye as I headed to the blacksmith. When I got there, I could see [Guards] milling about and people repairing the wall. Blood had seeped into the ground in patches, but any bodies had been removed. I watched them work for a bit, insides going numb as I recalled that 29 people had died, not just Tomak. Quietly I opened the door to the smithy and went to sit at my usual place, barely looking up as I started eating. The Orcs hadn¡¯t made it past the wall here so even though the smithy was right next to the wall, it hadn¡¯t been damaged. I ate my sandwich calmly, ignoring the clanging of metal and similarly the blacksmith ignored me. Leaning against the wall I could see the same fat spider in the ceiling corner. Nothing had changed here. Even the ants were here, though now they had nowhere to hide since I¡¯d cleaned up. A thought struck me and I activated [Battle sense], the ants were still green, so I placed some crumbs into a pile and picked an ant. I tried using [Formation] to make it go to the pile. Something clicked, like a feeling that the Skill was working and the ant unerringly started heading in that direction. It wasn¡¯t smooth run, the ant went in different directions a few times, but was definitely heading to the crumbs. I leaned forward watching the ant, it wasn¡¯t like I had given it a spoken command, more like I¡¯d sent the intention of ¡®go there¡¯ to it and since it was exploring looking for food anyway, it hadn¡¯t been difficult to persuade it to go there. Not that I had felt it resisting, I hadn¡¯t felt anything from the ant; [Formation] was a one-way street. I watched the ant bring back a few crumbs and pretty soon a couple of other ants had found the meagre pile and had taken it all back to their nest. Since the Skill could be resisted I doubted I could make them do anything they didn¡¯t want to do, but maybe if they were fighting something like the millipede, I could make them attack in formations instead of randomly launching themselves at the enemy in hopes to simply overwhelm it with numbers. Maybe I could level [Formation] like that, experiment with the limitations of the Skill, though it would be better to test it on someone who could give me feedback. I¡¯d ask Aron later, I looked at the blacksmith; it was going to be a long few hours.
When I finally left, I was bored out of my mind. It was the first time id stayed the whole day and it was mind numbing. Glad to be free, I breathed in the fresh air outside the smithy, enjoying the cool breeze. I looked to the wall and my tail dropped as my mood dampened slightly. There had been progress, the wall was mostly cleaned up now, but the wood was shattered in parts and needed to be replaced. It would be while before the wall was in perfect shape like before and the dark patches on the ground weren¡¯t going anywhere until the next rainfall. Aron wasn¡¯t here yet so I decided to head to Tycel¡¯s to meet him there, but he came down the street just as I was leaving. ¡°Hey¡± he said breathlessly, eyes bright, he looked excited ¡°You ready?¡± ¡°Sure, lets go¡± We walked towards the village centre and then into a square I hadn¡¯t been to before. There was a large circular fountain in the centre of the square, maybe a few good 3m across. Young children were laughing, climbing up the sides and jumping in, before climbing out only to dive in again. Pushing each other, some were standing on a platform in the middle of the fountain with a statue of smirking blindfolded woman riding a lion like creature holding a dagger in one hand and flipping a coin in the other. Nearing the stone fountain I looked down and realised it was a decent 2m deep, but the children seemed happy to repeatedly dive to the bottom as some sort of game. ¡°What are they doing?¡± ¡°Diving for Luck, don¡¯t drakes do that?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± I frowned confused, looking I could see the children were picking up copper coins off the floor of the fountain, but then just throwing them back into the fountain after each dive. ¡°Well they¡¯re trying to unlock the Luck stat, didn¡¯t you play that when you were little?¡± he looked a bit confused and unsure. ¡°I don¡¯t know, did you?¡± ¡°Well yeah, I mean everyone plays as a kid, I mean almost no one actually unlocks it, but every few years someone finds a gold coin¡± ¡°Oh, so how many gold coins are in the fountain?¡± ¡°None¡± he looked at me strangely ¡°How else would you unlock the Luck stat?¡± We both looked at each other confused ¡°What do you mean, how do you find a gold coin if there aren¡¯t any in the fountain?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a Lucky fountain, you dive in and pick up a coin, if you¡¯re Lucky beyond what¡¯s reasonably possible, you come up with a gold coin and unlock the Luck Base stat, didn¡¯t you ever play diving for Luck?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t think I did¡± He frowned at me and his face cleared up a bit ¡°Do you want to play now?¡± ¡°What about the adventurer¡¯s guild?¡± I asked as he grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the fountain. ¡°We can go after, I''m your big brother, I can teach you how to dive for Luck, come on¡± he started taking his shoes off and reluctantly I copied him. I didn¡¯t really want to get wet but I was also getting excited at the prospect of unlocking a new Base stat. Standing at the edge of the fountain, we both looked at each other ¡°You can swim right?¡± ¡°Of course I can swim¡± I snorted back, pride a bit ruffled, ridiculous; as if I couldn¡¯t swim. Aron¡¯s grin widened, "Lets go then, good luck!¡± he leapt forwards, diving into the fountain, kicking his legs to reach the bottom and I quickly followed him. Cool water spread along my face and I shivered, kicking my legs hard, tail lashing the water asair bubbles surrounding me while I squinted to look. Kicking down I could see the shimmer of countless copper coins at the bottom, reaching out I grabbed blindly and even thought I grabbed a handful, somehow only one stayed in my hand and I twisted around, lungs burning, pushing off the fountain floor with my feet, aimingfor the sunlight playing on the water''s surface. Bursting out the top I inhaled a breath of air, slinging my arm onto the side of the fountain and catching my breath as I clutched the coin. Aron was next to me ¡°Ready?¡± he asked, eyes sparkling as the hot sun shone down on his wet hair. I nodded and lifted my hand out of the water at the same time he did, heart racing, hoping we looked at each other we opened our hands at the same time. Copper, disappointed I looked at Aron; his was copper too. ¡°Oh well¡± he threw his coin back in. ¡°Aren¡¯t you keeping it?¡± ¡°Its not gold, I don¡¯t want bad luck all day¡± he said as if it was obvious and started clambering out of the fountain. Frowning I let my coin sink into the clear water and hauled myself out after Aron. Chapter 9 We¡¯d dried off in the sun and were only slightly damp by the time we made it to the adventurer¡¯s guild. It looked like any other building here, it didn¡¯t have a grand doorway or monster skulls on the walls; it was just another unassuming small stone house on the street. Inside was much the same, I could have mistaken it for a post office if it wasn¡¯t for the sign. A few people were inside looking at a notice board and others were queuing up at the 2 counters available. Aron was already walking over to the notice board. Following him curiously, I had a look; it was divided into 3 sections with the most posters stuck to the section ¡®Inside Village¡¯ and a bit less were in ¡®Outside Village¡¯, with only a few in the ¡®Combat¡¯ section. Aron was scanning the section for requests inside the village so I wondered over to the combat section to have look, but it was mostly things like ¡®protection needed for a journey to xyz¡¯ or ¡®village guards are hiring¡¯, no cool monster slaying quests, but then again why would a village this small need to slay monsters. Most of the people here were peaceful farmers and crafters, if monsters came, either the [Guards] took care of it or well, I didn¡¯t really want to think of the alternative. Stepping back to Aron I saw he¡¯d picked out a request ¡°What did you pick?¡± I asked peering over his shoulder. ¡°Just to help out with a farmer¡¯s animals while they¡¯re repairing stuff.¡± ¡°Ah ok¡± I nodded looking at the request; it paid 6 coppers per hour for cleaning out pig stys and feeding them. I wrinkled my snout, it wasn¡¯t difficult or dangerous work, but I didn¡¯t really want spend my time clearing out pig shit unless I didn¡¯t have another option. Though maybe I was just accustomed to city life, it clearly didn¡¯t seem to bother Aron. ¡°Well I¡¯m taking this one, I¡¯d say you can come with me, but its only work for one person, sorry¡± he looked a bit guilty but I was a bit relieved I didn¡¯t have to muck out a pig sty. ¡°Its ok, I¡¯ll have look around¡± he grinned and trotted over to join the queue, presumably to sign up for his request. I scanning the section for ¡®Inside village¡¯, Aron had been right, the majority of new notices pinned up were related to repair and cleaning up after the Orc attack. I sighed, I¡¯d been hoping for something cool, this was the adventurer¡¯s guild after all, but it was mostly chores or people hiring for permanent positions, which I couldn¡¯t exactly apply for as a 9 year old. Disappointed I flicked through them, lifting the edges of pinned posts, hoping that I¡¯d missed something. Frowning, I found an older one that offered 10 coppers per hour for assisting with gardening and alchemy. The notice was a worn at the edges unlike the new ones hung up after the Orc attack, but it paid slightly better than most of the other jobs. Pulling it off the wall I noticed small writing at the bottom: free healing potions for any injuries received during work hours. ¡°Ah ugh, don¡¯t take that one¡± Aron appeared at my shoulder looking a bit anxiously at the request in my hand. His was rolled up and tucked in his pocket and he looked ready to go having finished at the counter. ¡°Why?¡± I asked apprehensively, the free healing potions remark at the bottom had been a bit ominous. He sighed, ¡°Aunt Summer is an alchemist and when she says assist with alchemy, she means she¡¯s going to test new potions and stuff out on you. It¡¯s an on-going request and the upper class has a dare at the end of the school year to see who can be her assistant for the longest. One year this girl was hiccupping soap bubbles for a week and a guy had purple sweat and tears for 2 days¡± his lips twitching in a smile. ¡°Well that doesn¡¯t sound like it requires healing potions¡± I said cautiously, that sounded more like she was pranking the teenagers. ¡°Yeah I mean those were funny, but if she doesn¡¯t like you, you¡¯ll be shitting liquid fire for a few days¡± ¡°Ah¡± I said hesitantly, staring at Aron¡¯s serious face, I wasn¡¯t sure if he meant literal liquid fire or burning diarrhea ¡°So does anyone take the request other than teenagers when they finish school?¡± ¡°Um not that I know of, adults avoid her, but maybe some kids do it on dares, but not usually, you¡¯re not thinking of actually going are you?¡± ¡°Well she offers free healing potions so-¡° ¡°That she made¡± he stated seriously ¡°I know it pays better, but if you¡¯re just looking to make some money, there¡¯s better ways to do it¡± I paused and looked down at the poster in my hands, I wasn¡¯t exactly in need of money or saving up like Aron, money was always useful to have and I would need it eventually, but it wasn¡¯t my driving goal right now. I¡¯d mostly followed Aron here because I wanted to see the adventurer¡¯s guild and now I didn¡¯t really want to leave and do nothing until the dinner rush at the Inn. ¡°I need to get going but good luck¡± Aron gave me a half hug from the side and ran off before I could do more than wave good-bye. I contemplated the notice I held; at least it wasn¡¯t going to be heavy manual labour or boring, besides, the things Aron had mentioned didn¡¯t sound terrible, just annoying and unpleasant, but not outright dangerous. If I hated it I could quit, I wouldn¡¯t be the first. Mind made up I went to stand at the back of the queue; I fidgeted as I reread the notice in case I¡¯d missed anything since it lacked any requirements. Some of the notices had required certain Classes or Skills etc. but there was nothing here, just the brief job description. When I finally reached a counter I just handed the man the post, which he took without a word and started filling in a form. Handing the notice back to me he said ¡°All done, I hope your bet is worth it¡± eyeing me before turning to the next customer. Frowning I took the notice and left, the address on the back indicated a house not too far from the village square so I took off in that direction. Like everything in the village, it wasn¡¯t far and I came to a stop in front of a cottage with a small overgrown greenhouse attached to it. It looked normal enough so I stepped up to the white door and knocked. Tentatively I looked around, there was no response so I knocked louder. A door slammed somewhere inside and footsteps came closer until the front door was yanked open to reveal a short middle-aged woman with a few auburn strands escaping her neat bun. She looked down at me even though she was only slightly taller than me and a bemused smile twitched at her lips ¡°You¡¯re here for the assistants position?¡± ¡°Yeah, I mean I wanted to check it out, I don¡¯t actually have any experience with alchemy though I¡¯ve done some gardening before-¡° ¡°Yes yes, not important¡± she waved me off, motioning for me to come in, blue green eyes watching me intently ¡°It¡¯s been a while since someone came, I get a bunch at the end of the year and never a drake before, I wonder how different drake physiology is hmm¡±A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. She grabbed my hand and started examining my claws ¡°Not retractable hmm lizardfolk have retractable claws you know¡± ¡°Uh ok¡± I said, uncomfortable at having someone examine my hand so closely and irritated at being negatively compared to lizardfolk. ¡°Which is odd you know, since I don¡¯t know of a lizard species that has retractable claws, but the world is a big place so who knows¡± she grinned and dropped my hand to look at my face ¡°No crest or frills, only young though hmm¡± she muttered ¡°Do you grow horns? Drakes don¡¯t usually come this far into human territories, so I¡¯m a bit unfamiliar with drakes I¡¯m sorry to say¡± ¡°I er, I don¡¯t think so¡± my pride a bit ruffled as she looked disappointed. ¡°Next time you shed, can I have sample? Lizardfolk get a bit iffy when I ask¡± My eyes widened a fraction, I hadn¡¯t thought about it, but reptiles shed their scales when they grew so chances were I¡¯d end up doing that too, which wasn¡¯t an entirely pleasant prospect to think about. ¡°Why do you need my shed scales?¡± I asked trying to think of a nice way to refuse. ¡°Just to see how they react to different substances, you know not everything can be tested on live subjects,¡± she said lightly. ¡°I see¡± I said, butterflies in my stomach urging me to get out of here, but she smiled broadly, eyes sparkling as she grabbed my wrist ¡°Come, I¡¯ll show you around, I do hope you last longer than the others¡± She was unnervingly chipper when she said that and significantly stronger than I expected for a woman her size as she dragged me through the living room; it had to be strength stats. ¡°Uh sure¡± I replied as I followed her, mostly not by choice. ¡°So here¡¯s the garden¡± she unlocked a door that led to the greenhouse. It was filled with rows of cubicles on shelves with engraved with glowing symbols, containing various plants. Each glass cubicle must have been a few feet across with a drain underneath with open pipes leading to a tank at the other end of the room. ¡°Now these enchantments let me keep the each plant at a different humidity and temperature.¡± she walked forward brushing the leaves of some plants ¡°I don¡¯t grow vegetables or anything, these aren¡¯t for eating, they¡¯re mostly herbs and plants useful for alchemy or with other special properties. You¡¯ll help me take care of them, but of course you won¡¯t be touching any of them until I know you can handle them¡± I nodded watching the neatly potted plants as sunlight filtered through the glass ceiling. That must have been expensive; glass wasn¡¯t a cheap commodity here. I followed her around as she gave some facts about a few plants until we came in a circle, ending by the door. ¡°Now onto alchemy, this is the part you¡¯ll be the most useful with¡± she beamed and the butterflies in my stomach came back full force. I was nervous but also curious to see how potions were made, there had to be a degree of magic involved otherwise healing potions just couldn¡¯t exist. Going back into the house, I followed her up the stairs to the second floor and then to the attic, which like the greenhouse was locked. Unlocking the door, I peered into the attic, which was shockingly clean and tidy; it could almost have passed for a lab with its stone counters and numerous stacked flasks and beakers drying near the sink. Several slanted windows on the roof gave the attic an open airy feel as it was lit with sunlight even though there were strategically placed enchanted stones on the slanted walls. I stood near the door unsure of what I was supposed to do as ms Summer walked of to a large cupboard, opening it to reveal numerous, neatly labelled boxes, containers and bottles with various substances inside. She pulled a few things out and started bustling around picking up measuring equipment and flasks. I was impressed by how precise everything was, I hadn¡¯t thought that there would be glassware like that in this world since the Inn mostly had wooden cups and plates, but then again, maybe she was a bit richer, she did sell magic potions after all. That had to be lucrative business. ¡°Alright, drink this¡± she said shoving a test tube with an orange liquid sloshing around into my hand, as she picked up a notebook and flicked through to a new page and sat down on a stool watching me intently. ¡°Um, what does it do?¡± I dubiously looked into the test tube; it was a bit thicker than water and the unhealthy shade of orange contrasted sharply against the rich blue of my scales. ¡°Its just an insect repellent I¡¯ve been tinkering with, I¡¯ve gotten rid of most of the side effects, but I haven¡¯t had anyone to test it on, but the chickens were fine¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a chicken though¡± I said annoyed, wondering briefly how an insect repellent would affect my allied status with the ants. ¡°Well obviously, that why I need you to test it on¡± ¡°Have you tried it?¡± She had the gall to look mildly insulted ¡°Of course not, first rule of alchemy: never experiment on yourself. That¡¯s a slippery road, also side effects can be so unpredictably unpleasant¡± I looked down the test tube one more time, well how bad could it be?
¡°Oh, holy- wow¡± Aron coughed out holding his nose, eyes watering, ¡°You smell worse than me and I spent the last hour covered in pig poop¡± he rasped out covering his nose and mouth with the bottom of his shirt ¡°And what happened to your scales? You look diseased¡± I glowered at him from my seat on the mattress, the blanket wrapped around me so only my face was visible. The tip of each of my scales had turned bright orange, fading into a rusty brown before resuming their previous beautiful blue, giving me a mottled appearance with blue and orange patchwork scales. It was hideous and I was so outraged and horrified at having my stunning scales marred with this ugly orange I could barely breath when it first happened. I clenched my fists tighter into the blanket; I would make that beastly woman pay for what she¡¯d done to my gorgeous exterior. Ignoring the overpowering smell of sewage that I couldn¡¯t seem to wash off, I was beyond livid that my scales had been reduced to this- this abominable form. I hadn¡¯t even known I¡¯d cared that much about my appearance, but after that foul woman had tarnished them I¡¯d been livid, my beautiful gleaming sapphire scales reduced to this horrific orange rusty colour, it was a travesty and I would make her regret ever dabbling in alchemy. ¡°Are you going to wash or something?¡± Aron wheezed out. I glared at him from under my makeshift blanket hood ¡°I already did, nothing helps, that vile sadistic woman sullied my scales and I¡¯m going to destroy her¡± I growled out, eyes narrowed as I glared up at Aron. ¡°Right well, you can¡¯t help in the Inn smelling like that so I¡¯m going to clean up and er head downstairs, maybe you should open the window?¡± he said edging out the room trying not to cough ¡°Also I know you¡¯re angry and everything, and before you get to destroying and all that, I¡¯m just going to say, I told you so¡± I threw a shoe at him and he yelped and laughed as he ducked out of the room. I briefly got up to open the window, at some point I¡¯d gotten used to the overpowering stench and my eyes no longer watered breathing it in. Counting to ten I tried to regulate my breathing before my anger boiled over, she¡¯d violated my scales- I breathed in deeply, trying not to think of it, while I plotted her demise as my eyes burned holes into the wall.
¡°I brought you dinner¡± Aron mumbled as he pushed a plate towards me, startled I looked up and noticed it was dark outside as he rolling into his bed ¡°At least the smells mostly gone now, don¡¯t worry aunt Summer¡¯s potion¡¯s side effect usually wear of within a few days max¡± He yawned as my eye twitched; a few days with this diseased appearance was a few days too long. I absolutely refused to be seen in public like this- ¡°She¡¯s your aunt?¡± I exclaimed sittign up looking at him in betrayal. ¡°What no, its just what everyone at school calls her, I don¡¯t think she has any relatives here, she just turned up one day and moved in¡± I calmed down a bit and lay down, a suspicious back story for a suspicious evil woman, ignoring that I had exactly the same background. And why orange, it was the worst colour, clashing hideously with my magnificent blue; she deserved to rot. I hadn¡¯t had any particular feeling towards orange before, but now I actively loathed the colour. I picked up my dinner and wordlessly ate it, revising and ditching numerous plans for revenge. I know she¡¯d done it on purpose, all that bullshit about testing to see how it affects drakes, she knew, that heinous woman enjoyed doing this, she was probably cackling around a cauldron right now. ¡°You know I got 12 coppers today, in a few days I¡¯ll have enough to get the lute¡± Aron happily rolled over so he was lying on his pillow, head propped on his arms. He clearly didn¡¯t understand the mockery she¡¯d made of me, but he didn¡¯t have scales so how could he understand their importance. I flushed slightly, that was unfair of me; I hadn¡¯t had scales until recently and I understood, was I racist against humans now? Lightly slapping the side of my face, I focused on Aron; I shouldn¡¯t be so egotistical. ¡°I can help you some more with writing music if you want?¡± I offered and his eyes lit up ¡°That would be great, I¡¯ve been practicing, but I¡¯m a bit confused about- wait let me show you¡± he jumped out of bed and ran to the desk drawer pulling out stacks of paper and bringing them over to me to review. Chapter 10 Even though Aron tried to convince me to go to school, I flat out refused to leave the room until I was back to normal. I would not go out into public looking like my scales were rusting off and Jak made no attempt to force me go, simply grunting and going downstairs to start his day. Eventually Aron relented, I wasn¡¯t budging and he was going to be late otherwise. There wasn¡¯t much to do in the room by myself, but my pride couldn¡¯t suffer other people seeing my scales tainted like this. I tried to forget the humiliating run from her cottage to the Inn as my scales started turning. At least the smell had been useful for clearing people out of the way quickly. Sitting up, I wrapped the blanket over my head and went to the slanted window above the desk to look out. It was like every other day, peaceful clouds drifting across a sunny blue sky and gentle breezes flowing over the houses. Down below, villagers went about their daily lives, I could hear voices from the street but I couldn¡¯t make out any words. I jerked back as a small bird shot past the window, diving to seize its prey: a grasshopper. Or at least that¡¯s what I thought it was, as perceptive as I was; my eyesight was the same before. I watched the brown bird fly up and settle on the roof opposite me. A longing filled me as my unsettled wings flexed under my shirt. I looked at the clear blue sky dotted with occasional fluffy clouds, I¡¯d never flown before, other than planes but that wasn¡¯t real flying, I mean it was flying but not flying. My chest ached with a yearning that shocked me, and I grabbed my shirt over my heart. I looked down trying to breath slowly through my mouth, staring at the wood of the desk, focusing on the uneven twirls and lines. Slowly the feeling in my chest gave and I exhaled roughly, sitting in the chair by the desk. Hands shaking I looked at them, I¡¯d never felt such a strong urge to fly before, even when I¡¯d been practicing. Ignoring it for now I looked out the window again, this time avoiding looking at the sky or the bird. Soon it became boring watching people walking back and forth, stopping and chatting. I sighed, resting my head on my arms. Bored I activated [Battle sense], almost everything showed up as blue, though anything that showed up as red or green seemed to stay in my head even if I closed my eyes or looked away. Focusing on a spec of green I noticed ants I hadn¡¯t seen before milling around on the ground. Slightly surprised I watched them, were they the same ants from the ant nest at blacksmiths place or was I allied with all ants? How big were ant territories anyway, the blacksmith¡¯s place was near the village edge and the Inn near the centre which was only a few hundred meters apart and I doubted being friends with one ant nest made all ants like me. Watching them I saw trains of ants coming back and forth from an open window next door, I looked in and saw that someone had forgotten a half eaten slice of bread on the table and the exploring ants had discovered it. Now it had ants crawling over the plate, cutting off crumbs and carrying them back to their nest. I wrinkled my snout in disgust at seeing their tiny black bodies all over the plate and bread. I might be allied with them, but that was nasty. Looking away, I followed the lines of ants and could see them sticking close to the buildings as they marched down the street using cobble stones and short tufts of grass that grew near the walls as cover. A black cat slunk along the wall, pausing with one paw in the air to look around, before jumping on the windowsill and through the open window. It sat on the table; unperturbed and completely disinterested in the ants as it started grooming it¡¯s face, flicking the tip of its tail. It licked it¡¯s back a few times before yawing and jumping onto a thin pillow on a chair by the table. It turned in circles a few times before curling up take a nap. Snorting I looked away bored almost jerking back again as the same little sparrow from before flew across my vision and landed on the windowsill. Annoyed I glared at it twitching its head side to side as it hopped forwards and pecked down. Suddenly the bird turned red. Surprised I started at it, I mean I¡¯d been annoyed but was that enough to warrant enemy status? Watching it I could see it was actually pecking at the ants and eating them. Their dark bodies showed up glaringly against the white paint of the windrow frame and though confused at the break in the ant chain, they still ploughed forwards albeit a bit more erratically. Thoughtfully I watched them, chances were the bird was now classified as an enemy since it had attacked my allies, not just because I was annoyed at it. I reached out with [Formation] and tried to get the ants on the window to get off it and the ants still in the room to wait before moving past the bird. There was limited success as the ants under attack moved in irregular directionless motions in an attempt to get away from the larger predator. Though the ant train inside had managed to come to a stop, or at least I didn¡¯t see anymore of them coming onto the window anymore. Maybe stress or fear made the ants less likely to comply with my orders. Frowning I watched the ants systematically get swallowed up by the short beak and soon another bird joined its colleague seeing its success. Irritated I watched the ants get annihilated, frustrated by my own inability to help. I tried ordering an ant near the birds to bite into its spindly feet. The ant swerved towards the closest bird and tried to sink its pincers in, but either it wasn¡¯t strong enough or had missed since the bird hopped away and the beak of death came down on the failed assassin ant. I flashed back to the alley with the Orc; if you can''t beat them, get someone who can. Clenching my fists I focused on the ants inside the house and tried to urge them to go to the cat. Surprisingly quickly the whole stream made its way up the chair leg and started climbing around on the cat aimlessly. They made poor progress in the cats fur and though it twitched, it didn¡¯t wake up. Irked I urged the closest ants to bite the cat¡¯s ears. When the first ant reached an ear to bite into it, the cat only fluttered its ears, but soon more ants piled on as the cat scratched its head, suddenly jerking up yowling scrambling around on the chair sending the birds soaring up with flapping wings. Twisting and jumping mid air, it knocked the chair over in a loud clatter and before shooting off into the house shaking ants off it as it ran. Well even if it hadn¡¯t attacked the birds, it had scared them off so it was a success? Without having to give further instructions the ants resumed their previous behaviour of taking breadcrumbs outside without much fuss for their fallen comrades. I scowled at the 2 pests on the roof; they were hopping back and forth, beady eyes watching as their brown heads turning from side to side looking down at the window. And soon enough one of them deemed it safe and flew back down again to restart its ant massacre. This time, the second it landed I urged every ant to swarm the bird and bite it. They reacted better this time, probably since they hadn¡¯t been attacked yet, and most of the ants managed to head towards the bird, although a few failed and even fewer succeeded in a speedy charge. Nonetheless, considering the overall amount of ants, a decent amount made it to the bird¡¯s feet before it hopped away, but they clung to it''s feet biting. The bird fluttered its wings a bit as its head came down to use its beak to scrape the ants off, which was a mistake as it gave more ants the opportunity to catch up and join the fray. Soon the sparrow flew up shaking ants off and landed on the roof where it had started, feathers ruffled, it preened itself and looked around. I grinned at the victory, even if the sparrow wasn¡¯t really injured; it had lost the fight against the ants.
You have reached: [Tactician Lvl 4]
You have reached: [Formation Lvl 2]
I inhaled sharply forgetting about the ants and sparrows. How had I levelled from that, wasn¡¯t it supposed to be hard to level up? I mean I wasn¡¯t sure, but Jak had to be around 60-70ish years old and Aron had bragged that he was a level 39 [Chef] so if that was impressive then levelling had to be slow. Or maybe the first levels were really easy to get and it got exponentially harder to level later on. I sat back contemplating that, ignoring how quickly I¡¯d levelled, what about the how, I¡¯d only been messing around with insects out of boredom. I sat back a looked at my status. I¡¯d received another 10 Skill points and 10% available stats. Curious I decided to see if I had any new Skills available.
[Tactician Lvl 4]
Skill points: 10
Skills: [Battle sense Lvl 6] [Formation Lvl 2]
Skills available: [Motivational speech] ¨C 10 Skill points [Convenient environment] ¨C 10 Skill points [Charming disposition] ¨C 20 Skill pointsUnauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. [Talent seeker] ¨C 30 Skill points [Steel carapace] ¨C 50 Skill points
There were 2 new Skills, I couldn¡¯t afford either of them, but the last one gave me pause to think. A carapace was a hard shell covering that many insects had. It seemed like more than a coincidence that I had a Skill like that available after I levelled fighting with ants. I¡¯d been under the impression that Skills were either randomised or predecided by the Class, but this indicated that my actions could influence it to some degree. Then again, I hadn¡¯t done anything to really earn [Charming disposition] so maybe it was just random. The prices were both exciting and frustrating, a more expensive Skill likely meant it was better, but I also couldn¡¯t afford it. I flopped back in the chair, resting my head on the back of the chair and staring at the ceiling. I¡¯d kind of been excited about getting a new Skill, but now the only one I could afford to take was [Motivational speech] and that wasn¡¯t something that sounded particularly cool or useful. It would be better to wait and save Skill points to afford better Skills, but that was no fun. ¡°Uggghh¡± I rocked forwards on the chair and dropped my arms on the desk, guess I wouldn¡¯t be getting a new Skill for now. I thought about allocating my new 10% of stats, but it would be more useful to wait until I knew if it was possible to improve base stats first to get the maximum out of it. So waiting it was. I scowled closing all the windows, glowering at the red tinged bird sitting on the roof preening its feathers. It was boring and frustrating not to use what the level up had given me, even if logically it was the best move. Irritated with the whole thing I turned away from the window standing up and pulling the blanket higher up so my head was completely covered like some kind of miniature cultist. I shuffled across the room to the door, tightening my hold on the blanket and slowly opened it looking around. Realistically, Aron was in school and Jak was tending the Inn, so no one was up here and they¡¯d both already seen my disgraceful appearance so it a futile effort to hide, but I still bolted across the living room swaddled in the blanket until I was in the bathroom with the door locked behind me. Exhaling I dropped the worn blanket to the floor by the door and padded over tot eh mirror above the sink. Leaning forwards I inspected my face, it had been a day since the incident and luckily the disgusting orange was beginning to recede. In some areas it was faster than others, like at the end of my snout and around my eyes, which gave the appearance of a blue/orange panda. I brooded there in front of the mirror, almost waiting to see if it would dwindle faster, but there was no change. I loathed that infernal woman and I would make her suffer an equal indignity. I snorted hot air out of my nostrils, watching it mist up the mirror as my tail lashed quickly. I wasn¡¯t sure how I was going to do it yet, but I would destroy her, make her suffer the greatest humiliation I could. She hadn¡¯t hurt me physically, so I balked at striking her back like that, no she¡¯d attacked my pride and so I would obliterate hers. Satisfied that my normal colouring was returning I stripped and filled the tub with water. Jumping in I ignored the cold and scrubbed harshly at my scales, as if that somehow would remove the orange from inside, which of course it didn¡¯t. Frustrated and shivering I sat there in the tub and scowled at the wall. At least the smell had been completely gone by the time I had woken up so now it was just a waiting game for this abominable hue of orange to disappear. Looking into the mirror, I saw I was a shade lighter than usual and became aware of how cold I¡¯d gotten. Sloshing around in the water I stiffly got out and dried myself with a towel. Dressing myself and huddling under the blanket I raced back to Aron¡¯s room and sat down on the floor. Forcing myself to take the blanket off, I sat in the sunlight absorbing its warmth. It took me a moment to convince myself to reveal my wings, spreading them out to soak up the sun despite their stained complexion. Closing my eyes I settled in.
¡°Hey you¡¯re looking much better,¡± my wings automatically snapped back together and I spun around glowering at Aron, angry that he¡¯d snuck into the room without me noticing. Registering what he¡¯d said I paused and looked over my shoulder, hesitantly spreading my wings. The orange wasn¡¯t completely gone, but it was now reduced to patches along my wing frame and I breathed out relieved. By any luck I¡¯d be back to normal tomorrow morning. ¡°Yeah it¡¯s getting better. Did you just finish you school?¡± ¡°No dumby, its almost dinner rush, I just came from work, got another 12 coppers¡± he held up his bounty grinning before tucking it away into his trouser pocket. Looking out the window I saw how low the sun hung in the sky, had I been sitting here all day? ¡°How much more do you need for the lute?¡± I asked yawning as I got up to stretch. ¡°I¡¯ve made 24 so I just need another 14 and then I¡¯ve got 4 silvers to get it¡± excitement shone in his eyes as he bounced up and down ¡°I¡¯m actually going to do it, I¡¯m going to be a [Musician]¡± His smile was infectious and I grinned, ¡°Yeah you are, by the way you have 3 Class slots right?¡± ¡°Yup¡± he mock threw his fist into the air ¡°More augmented stats for me, boom¡± I froze as that sunk in, having more Class slots didn¡¯t just mean another Class and more Skills, it was also an extra income of stat %, so the more Classes you had directly meant higher stats. ¡°What¡¯s the usual amount of Class slots for humans?¡± I asked curiously fishing for information. ¡°I think 2 is most common but its not unusual for people to have 1 or 3, though I¡¯ve heard some nobility have 4 which is insane¡± he flopped down onto his bed leaning back on his elbows ¡°Is it different for drakes? I know some species tend to have more or less slots on average, I think lizardfolk are pretty much the same as humans in that regard though¡± ¡°Yeah its not too different for drakes¡± I said sitting down, hopefully that was true ¡°Have you thought about what to use your last slot for? I mean if you keep [Cook] and get [Musician]¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know yet¡± he slid down until his back and head rested on the bed and he folded his hands on his waist ¡°Hadn¡¯t really thought about it, I¡¯ve wanted [Musician] for so long¡± He sat up ¡°Hey what kind of Skills do you think [Musicians] get? Maybe if I play in front of the whole village I can get something really cool like [Harmonised soul fire] or [Mass healing note] or [Infuse giant¡¯s strength] or-¡° ¡°Are those even real Skills?¡± I eyed him sceptically. He paused to look at me, squinting his eyes, he gulping air into his mouth and puffed up his cheeks slowly blowing the air out ¡°Maybe?¡± I rolled my eyes and threw my pillow at him ¡°Idiot, you¡¯ll probably get Skills that make your music louder or nicer or something¡± He grabbed my pillow and threw it back at me lightly ¡°Yeah at first, but maybe I get really really really lucky and get something cool early on, you know like a Skill that you¡¯d get with a named Class at level 50+ or something¡± I was sure what a named Class was but I looked at him doubtfully ¡°First of all, that seems very unlikely, you don¡¯t even have a Luck base stat you can increase to give yourself higher chances of getting better Skills¡± I had no idea if that¡¯s how it worked, but I was going to bluster on unless Aron corrected me ¡°Secondly, even if you did have a Skill that people usually get at high levels available, you wouldn¡¯t have enough Skill points to get it¡± He winced and looked down ¡°Yeah true¡± he sighed, ¡°Skills get so expensive the better they are. You know I¡¯m a level 9 [Cook] and I only have 2 Skills. I¡¯ve been saving for [Soothing glow], I can get it when I level up to 10, but after that levelling is going to be crawl, I¡¯m not looking forward to that¡± he made a face at me. ¡°What¡¯s the best way to level?¡± He looked at me surprised ¡°You mean [Cook]? Do you want to learn cooking?¡± ¡°No I mean like in general¡± ¡°You mean like successfully doing new things, difficult things, risky stuff or high stakes stuff related to your Class¡­¡± he trailed off looking at me weirdly ¡°Or what did you mean?¡± he asked slowly looking a bit confused. ¡°No I was just asking because I got a new Class and I wasn¡¯t sure how to level it¡± I said hastily, he had told me what I¡¯d wanted to know, but I didn¡¯t want him to know I hadn¡¯t know something basic like that. ¡°Oh what Class did you take?¡± he sat up curiously watching me. ¡°[Tactician]¡± I said licking my lips deciding to go for it. His eyes widened ¡°Bullshit¡± ¡°No I really got it,¡± I asserted, my tail rapped on the mattress irritated he didn¡¯t believe me. ¡°How did you even unlock that? Don¡¯t you have to study at special schools to unlock it or something?¡± he sat up unsure watching me. I shrugged ¡°I don¡¯t know, maybe I studied it before I lost my memories and then I did something that triggered it to unlock?¡± I said cautiously, hoping he¡¯d buy it. ¡°Maybe you¡¯re like the daughter of a politician and you¡¯re actually rich and you had a bunch of cool Classes unlocked and you lost them when you lost your memory and now you can re-unlock them just by repeating an action similar to the Class¡± he rambled on excitedly ¡°That¡¯s so cool, what if you¡¯re like a [Mage] and you don¡¯t even know it? If you remember how to use magic, can you teach me please please?¡± he begged looking at me in awe. ¡°Uh I don¡¯t think I¡¯m secretly a [Mage]¡± the idea he¡¯d had about me losing my unlocked Classes with my memory wasn¡¯t actually terrible, I could use that to explain me quickly unlocking certain Classes which I had knowledge about from my life on earth. Though knowledge from earth definitely would not help me with any magic related Class. ¡°But if it turns out you are, can you?¡± he leaned closer and I pulled back a bit ¡°Yeah sure, I¡¯ll tell you and teach you if I ever unlock a magic Class¡± I passified him. ¡°Promise?¡± He held out is pinky finger. ¡°Promise¡± I said more firmly holding out my blue scaly pinky finger and we shook on it. I guess pinky promises also existed here. He grinned at sat back bouncing up and down on his bed ¡°We should go and find out if you can do magic, maybe not in here in case you set the Inn on fire or something, but we should go somewhere and practice magic¡± I could see he was getting convinced that I knew magic and just had to remember how to do it. I had to nip that at the bud. ¡°You know the chances of me actually having forgotten how to use magic are very slim? I doubt they teach many 9 year olds magic¡± ¡°They don¡¯t teach many 9 year olds strategy and politics either and you¡¯ve got [Tactician]¡± he countered and I floundered. ¡°Well I doubt they would teach a 9 year old both¡± ¡°Yeah maybe¡± he stopped bouncing looking a bit disappointed ¡°We can still try though¡± ¡°Sure, but don¡¯t expect me to start shooting fireballs¡± ¡°Yeah yeah¡± he waved me off ¡°But we need to go wash dishes, your face is mostly alright now, so are you coming down?¡± I hesitated, I could hide my wings and arms in my clothes and my hands were almost completely clear of orange now and leaving Aron to do my work felt wrong. I nodded sucking it up, I could make it downstairs and help out as long as I didn¡¯t have to go out and see people.
That night I lay in bed and thought about what Aron had said: successfully doing new, difficult, risky or high stake things related to your Class was the best way to level. I¡¯d levelled helping ants fight off a much larger predator. That had been new, but none of the other criteria applied to me in that situation. Maybe it was just very easy to get the first few levels; Aron had mentioned that levelling slowed down a lot after reaching 10. I sat up suddenly, or what if, due to the nature of my Class being that it revolved more around my allies than me, it levelled depending not only on my personal new/difficult/risky/high stakes situations, but those of my allies I was commanding? Chapter 11 ¡°Are you sure this is a good idea?¡± I asked hesitantly walking next to Aron as we headed for the village gate. It was Saturday morning and I had woken up with gloriously gleaming blue scales, without a trace of orange. Not giving me much time to bask in my own beauty, Aron had dragged me out of the Inn directly after breakfast. ¡°Yeah don¡¯t worry its safe, the Orcs moved on days ago and the [Hunters] or [Guards] would stop us if there was anything dangerous in the area¡± he hummed as he trotted along. I tried to think of a way to get out of this, both because I knew I couldn¡¯t do magic so this would just be disappointing and also because I really did not want to set foot outside the village so soon after the Orc attack. ¡°What if some Orcs stayed behind?¡± I said a bit desperately. He rolled his eyes ¡°Orcs are always in tribes, where there¡¯s one there¡¯s many, they won''t leave any behind, trust me, we¡¯ll be fine¡± I dragged my feet, slowing down the closer we got to the gate, Aron paused seeing I wasn¡¯t completely level with him anymore ¡°Hey I¡¯m you¡¯re big brother, I¡¯ll protect you if any Orcs come¡± he grinned as he made fists and held them in front of him in a mock boxer¡¯s stance. I smiled weakly, it was adorable to see him try to be tough, but an Orc would flatten him without even trying ¡°Sure, but lets try to not run into any Orcs¡± and if we did, I¡¯d distract them somehow and protect Aron. I couldn¡¯t let him die. I pushed the image of the dead boy away, feeling a bit queasy again. Steeling myself I swallowed and walked forwards; I couldn¡¯t sit and hide in the village forever. ¡°Yeah lets go, we can head to the river so if you set anything on fire, we can put it out quickly¡± he said enthusiastically jumping forwards. I sighed, there wasn¡¯t going to be a fire or anything magic but no matter what I said, Aron wanted to try and make me remember how to use magic. Coming up to the gate, a familiar figure waved at us ¡°Hey kiddos¡± Dante jogged over to us smiling. I almost missed a step seeing him with two perfectly functioning arms. ¡°Your arm, its¡­¡± I trailed off, that had been a debilitating injury; I had seen the shattered bone and torn flesh, that wasn¡¯t something that could be fixed so easily. ¡°Yeah I know, the healers did a really good job, probably would have lost the arm otherwise¡± he looked at his arm flexing it back and forth ¡°Just a bit stiff now, but otherwise back to normal.¡± Carston had only had his forearm broken and he¡¯d still turned up to school with a sling, but Dante¡¯s arm had been destroyed, mangled with bone slinters and flesh ripped asunder so how the hell did healers do just ¡®a good job¡¯. That was an insane display of medical ability. ¡°Glad to see you¡¯re ok though kid¡± he patted me on the head and I flushed red scrambling back trying to bat his hand away. I scowled up at him, I hated being called kid, but he just laughed and turned to Aron bending down to sling an arm around his shoulders ¡°So buddy, I hear you did an apprenticeship with Tycel, did she ever mention me?¡± I rolled my eyes and Aron just looked confused ¡°Are you an [Enchanter] too?¡± ¡°No, just did she mention if there¡¯s anyone she likes?¡± he asked lightly. ¡°Oh, well she likes me, that¡¯s why she¡¯s giving me a discount for a Lute¡± he grinned at Dante confidently who just looked at him deadpan ¡°Right ok kid, never mind¡± he straightened letting go of Aron who frowned a bit bewildered. ¡°Well if you kids are heading out try not to stray too far, it should be safe, but you never know¡± ¡°Yeah we¡¯re just going down to the river¡± Aron replied cheerfully. Dante nodded and looked ready to head back to his post before I interrupted. ¡°Thank you¡± I flushed a bit ¡°For saving my life I mean¡± shifting uncomfortably, he¡¯d only had his arm almost torn off because he¡¯d pushed me down. I knew that wasn¡¯t my fault, but I still felt a bit guilty that he¡¯d gotten injured protecting me. His expression softened a bit ¡°Sure thing kid¡± he a reached forwards to pat me on the head again and winked ¡°Besides, protecting people is a great was to level as a [Guard], also if you could put in a word about my heroics to Tycel-¡° he yelped loudly as I stomped on his foot glaring at him. I turned my head up and looked away in a huff, to think I¡¯d been impressed by him, he was just a dumb boy bragging to show off. ¡°Ungrateful brat¡± I could hear him muttering as he glowered at me clutching his foot. I had a flash back of him straining not to scream when the archer bound his arm, he hadn¡¯t panicked or cried out then. I got angrier realising he was putting on an act hopping on one foot pretending I¡¯d managed to hurt him. I grit my teeth in frustration, clenching my fists; I hated being treated like a child, even if he was trying to be nice goofing off with us kids, it was a stark reminder of my own weakness. As much as I disliked admitting it, he was impressive, I wasn¡¯t sure I could have remained calm after having my arm almost blown off, but he didn¡¯t take me seriously and that hurt me more than I expected. I angrily stomped off towards the gate determined to ignore him, tail lashing side to side in sharp movements. I could hear footsteps on the ground running to catch up and Aron appeared at my side, head turned as he waved in Dante¡¯s direction. ¡°Hey what did Dante mean about Tycel?¡± Aron asked questioningly when he turned back to me. I shrugged; I was not having that talk with him ¡°I don¡¯t know, maybe he wants to be friends with her¡± Aron started answering when he broke off and looked up to see him staring raptly at the gatehouse. I followed his gaze to see the enormous Minotaur from last time coming out; he had to duck to fit through the door and his battle-axe was strapped to his back, but that¡¯s not what caught Aron¡¯s attention. Following him was a familiar smaller Minotaur boy with stubby bumps instead of horns with an intense look of concentration on his long face as he nodded listening to Rudy. Kaid¡¯s big brown eyes flicked over to Aron and I could see him almost stumble, a flash of guilt in his wide eyes as his floppy ears dropped a fraction, before he fixed his attention back on Rudy steadfastly ignoring Aron. Aron quickly looked away the moment Kaid had glanced over and marched forwards. It seemed like they were both going to pretend they couldn¡¯t see each other. I gave Kaid the stink eye as we walked past, I wasn¡¯t going to get involved if Aron was going for the ¡®pretend he doesn¡¯t exist¡¯ route, but I¡¯d make my displeasure at his existence known. Rudy on the other hand, hadn¡¯t gotten the memo. ¡°Hey Aron, haven¡¯t seen you around at the house lately, you heading out? Why don¡¯t you bring Kaid, he can skip training for one day, kids need to have fun too¡± he smiled broadly as he clamped a hand on Kaid¡¯s shoulder and I could almost taste the awkwardness in the air as both Aron and Kaid stiffened and seemed to be suppressing identical looks of panic. ¡°Ugh dad training is import-¡° ¡°I¡¯m just showing Sasha arou-¡° They both paused as they spoke simultaneously, looking at each other uncomfortably. Kaid was shifting from leg to leg and looked like he wanted the earth to swallow him up as Rudy frowned ¡°Something going on here?¡± ¡°No its just that its a family outing, I¡¯m showing Sasha around. Besides training is really important, with Kaid being an important [Warrior] and all now¡± Aron met Rudy¡¯s eyes and I could see Kaid flinch and his ears dropped further. Rudy¡¯s frown deepened and he looked ready to say something but I jumped in. ¡°We have to go to work later so we only have a short time to have a look around now so Kaid should train otherwise we¡¯d have to ditch him pretty soon and he¡¯d be left alone¡± Kaid flinched slightly and Rudy surveyed us displeased but Kaid intervened before he could say anything else ¡°Yeah, I really should train, you were going to help me with stances for a battle-axe right dad¡± Rudy¡¯s ear twitched as he frowned unhappily blowing hot air out of his large nostrils, somehow I expected him to have a thick bull¡¯s nose ring but he didn¡¯t, that would be ridiculous. He was trying to work out what was wrong looking back and forth between us, but if I had to guess, social finesse wasn¡¯t his strong suit.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Alright¡± the massive Minotaur agreed eventually and both Aron and Kaid relaxed a bit ¡°But come by sometime Aron, its been quieter without you and Kaid running around¡± ¡°Sure uncle Rudy¡± Aron complied with a forced smile ¡°Uh see you around¡± he waved uncomfortably and Kaid hesitated and gave a nervous wave back before Aron walked off quickly and I followed closely behind. Finally exhaling and slowing down when we were a decent distance away from the gate, Aron paused and looked back before looking forward at the worn road again determined. Tall grass rising up on either side, green in some areas, but the straw colouring of dried grass creeping in. It was tall enough to hide an Orc and all my nervousness rushed back and butterflies filled my stomach as I quickly activated [Battle sense]. No red blobs of hidden Orcs, just the gently windblown grass turning a shade of blue. Relieved I exhaled, legs a bit weak as the adrenaline rush calmed. ¡°So do you want to talk about it?¡± I asked Aron cautiously. ¡°No, Kaids a jerk and I don¡¯t want anything to do with him, he¡¯s just stupid, dumb, idiot-¡° he broke off and I could see water welling up in his eyes as he angrily kicked at clumps of dirt on the ground as we walked. He wiped his eyes on his sleeve and walked forwards refusing to look back, head held high and I pretended I hadn¡¯t seen the tears. ¡°Yeah he is¡± I said, mentally scrambling for a topic of conversation that would cheer him up or at least distract him as tense silence stretched between us. ¡°So how do you want to practice magic then?¡± I tried asking casually as we walked down the road. Even though the grass was too tall for me to see over, I could still see the mounds of hills dotted around and the sound of slow running water was getting louder. ¡°I¡¯m not sure, I asked a [Mage] that came to the village once and she just said ¡®feel and direct the mana inside you¡¯ but I¡¯m not really sure what that means. She just got annoyed when I asked her to explain. Said if I wanted to be [Mage] I should save up to go to an academy in the city,¡± he said thoughtfully. Somehow I doubted that the [Mage] had been too friendly when pestered by village children on how to perform magic. ¡°Alright, any ideas on how to do that?¡± I asked glad he seemed to move on from the Kaid business. ¡°Well most magic users have staffs or wands or something right, so maybe we should get some,¡± he said getting excited. I looked him doubtfully ¡°And where do you propose we get magic sticks from?¡± ¡°We can just get branches from a tree¡± he shrugged grinning, ¡°I mean it can¡¯t be that different to a [Mage''s] staff¡± I scrutinised him doubtfully, I¡¯d never seen a real wand or staff before, but I was willing to bet they weren¡¯t just normal sticks, some magic shenanigans had to be going on there ¡°You think that¡¯s going to work?¡± ¡°Sure why not, just got to direct the mana you know¡± he got into an exaggerated fencer¡¯s stance and waved a pretend wand around ¡°Just like bam and kapow, fire and lightning, boom¡± I sighed, watching him I was getting less and less optimistic about this and I already knew that it wasn¡¯t going to work ¡°Ok lets get some sticks then¡± better to get this over with. He stopped swinging his arm around and grinned running into the tall grass, straight for a lone tall tree whose branches swayed in the breeze. I panicked briefly, what if there was an Orc I couldn¡¯t see, he wasn¡¯t exactly being quiet trampling the grass. Not wanting to be left alone on the road I ran after him, somehow the idyllic grasslands seemed more sinister as the gently swaying stalks of grass swallowed me up, rising above my head and partly bouncing back up behind me, obscuring the view to the road. My heart beat faster as I raced after Aron, picking up speed; I hadn¡¯t felt this way last time I¡¯d been here, but back then I hadn¡¯t known an Orc could hide in plain sight here. I followed his trail and broke through to the clearing around the tree, where Aron was standing trying to rip twigs off a long branch. The grass under the tree was significantly shorter and suddenly it seemed a lot less threatening out here. I swallowed looking behind me but Aron seemed completely at ease and I hadn¡¯t seen any red in the grass so I approached trying to breath quietly as my heart rate slowed. Aron threw the branch he was holding at me and I fumbled to catch it while he jumped up and caught a low hanging branch and proceeded to snap off a segment roughly 1.5m long like the one he¡¯d given me. He let go and the branch shot up rebounding in the air a couple of times before settling down. ¡°Lets go to the river, just in case we set something on fire¡± he said excitedly as he stripped the bark, twigs and leaves from his branch. I rolled my eyes and followed him through the grass, picking at the bark remnants on my branch. The tall grass seemed less intimidating as he chatted cheerfully at my side while I periodically scanned around for anything red. The rushing sound of water gradually got louder and I was glad Aron knew where we were going since it just looked like a lot of grass with some trees and hills to me. Not many defining landmarks to use as reference points, though I suppose after living here a while you¡¯d recognise individual trees and stuff to find your way around. The grass changed to reeds and abruptly we burst out into the rivers edge. It wasn¡¯t very deep, probably thigh high at the deepest if I had to guess, but fairly wide with long shallow stretches as it slowly meandered through the grasslands. The riverbed was predominantly pebbled and looking further up I could see an old stone bridge crossing the river where the road presumably was. Some type of ducks and other birds were swimming and wandering around by the river with frogs and fish occasionally making their existence known. There was a slight rushing sound coming from a short way down the river from a waterfall, though it was probably only 1m tall and the river flowed slowly enough that the baby ducklings had no trouble resisting the water¡¯s flow. Aron hiked up his trousers to his knees and took off his boots and socks, leaving them on a small round boulder at the river¡¯s edge before wading into the water barefoot with his branch. I hesitated and scowled at the water, even with the sun rising overhead warming the air to a pleasant temperature, the water would be colder. Aron stopped and turned ankle deep ¡°Come on, not scared of getting a bit wet are you?¡± he grinned, sunlight reflecting off his tousled brown hair. ¡°I¡¯m not scared¡± I glared at him and yanked my boots off; I just didn¡¯t want to be cold. I hesitated briefly standing up with my trousers up to my knees before dipping a clawed toe into the water and jerking back, it was cold just like I¡¯d thought. I didn¡¯t mind the water but I was really developing a dislike for the cold, steeling myself I plunged my foot into the water. I yelped as the cold shot up my leg and I jumped forwards, landing with both feet in the water and I ran forwards to catch up with Aron trying to lift my feet high keeping them out of the water for as long as possible. Aron was laughing when I reached him ¡°You look so stupid¡± he giggled as I stood next to him sourly trying to ignore the cold seeping through my scales into my feet. ¡°Are we doing this or not?¡± I scowled at him lifting my branch as he clamed himself grinning at me ¡°Sure sure¡± he lifted his branch as well and we both stood there thinking about what to do. ¡°So how are we supposed to feel and direct mana?¡± I asked glancing at him next to me. ¡°Maybe like this¡± he took a deep breath, a look of concentration filled his face and he wildly swung his branch forward yelling ¡°Fireball!¡± A gentle breeze rustled some reeds but otherwise nothing happened, the ducks didn¡¯t look too impressed ¡°hmm¡± he straightened contemplating his stick. ¡°Do [Mages] yell out the names of their spells? And really swing their staffs around like that?¡± I asked sceptically. He scowled at me, ¡°If you think you can do better, why don¡¯t you do it?¡± irritated I snorted and ignored him, lifting my branch. Closing my eyes, I focused inside myself, trying to ¡®feel my mana¡¯, it was like meditation, but I couldn¡¯t really feel anything special. I wasn¡¯t just going to stand there all day so I tried pushing imaginary mana through my arm and into the branch before swiping it forwards and opening my eyes, part of me hoping something would happen. A small ripple appeared on the waters surface ahead of me and my eyes widened; I¡¯d done it. Magic. ¡°I did it, did you see that¡± I pointed at the fading ripple as I jumped up and down excitedly, looking at Aron for confirmation. ¡°Are you stupid, that was just a fish coming up to eat a bug¡± ¡°Was not¡± I stopped jumping and glared at him. ¡°Was too¡± he glared back at me. ¡°No I did it, I did magic¡± ¡°Oh yeah, then do it again¡± he dared me. I scowled at him ¡°I will¡± I turned back to the river and settled into my stance from before, a nervous buzz in my stomach. I closed my eyes trying to ignore Aron¡¯s negative attitude. I tried doing the same thing pretending to force something along my arm and into the branch and swung it. I opened eyes; there was no ripple in the water this time. ¡°See told you, just a fish, not magic¡± Aron said smugly. ¡°I just didn¡¯t do it right that time¡± I scowled glaring at him, frustrated, part of me had really wanted to believe I could do magic. ¡°Oh yeah, did your mana go down at all?¡± I paused, that was actually a good idea and I checked my status, hoping that it had dipped proving I¡¯d somehow tapped into that resource. It was still at 100% and I moved my jaw, finding it hard to admit I¡¯d been wrong. ¡°Didn¡¯t change did it¡± Aron gloated and I kicked water at him ¡°Well not like you managed it either stupid¡± He blinked as the low splash caught his legs before springing into action and splashing water at me in retaliation. I yelped moving back as the cold water drenched me, but he followed, leaning over to scoop water up and throw it at me between kicking water as high as he could. I scrambled back almost completely soaked trying to get out of his splashing range before giving up and counter attacking. I dropped my stick at some point and copied Aron trying o scoop water up and throwing it at him catching him right in the face as he was bending over. He scrambled backwards, slipping and landing on his butt, waist deep in water and I seized the advantage hitting the surface of the water for the maximum splash factor. He blindly reached out with one hand, the other shielding his face and he grabbed my wrist pulling me down into the cold water while I screeched loudly trying to get up, my wings bursting out of my clothes to help balance myself, but he held on and I slipped falling completely into the water. Eyes squinting through the water I wrestled blindly with Aorn, both of us on our knees in the water sloshing around trying to push the other under and escape, when a searing pain erupted in my left wing and I let out a blood curdling scream. Jerking back from Aron I twisted to look at my wing. Uncomprehendingly I gaped at the profusely bleeding hole ripped through the taut leathery breadth of it. A splash and thud in the water next to me indicated a second arrow landing and I spun to look across the river. A lanky dark haired boy in light leather armour threw a bow aside and pulled out a long dagger. He started to charge across the river, splashing water loudly and I fell backwards in shock clutching my left arm near the damaged wing. A jittery smile tugging at his lips, but there was an unnerving excited glint in his pale blue eyes as he fixated on me. Chapter 12 Shrouded in red the boy charged right at me, slowing a bit as he waded through the waist deep water, almost falling forwards before righting himself and putting on a burst of speed when the water level dipped again. ¡°I¡¯m going to turn your hide into boots you fucking monster,¡± he yelled as I desperately tried to scramble up slipping in the water and falling backwards. Head going under I turned clambering for purchase in the pebbles with my claws and launching myself forwards when they dug in. Gasping for air, my head came up and I half crawled forwards through the knee-deep shallows, waterlogged clothes dragging me down. I turned seeing a haze of red out of the corner of my eye and I threw myself to the left spinning onto my back to see him hack down viciously with the dagger where I''d been a second ago. He¡¯d been aiming for my head. Gaping in shock I couldn¡¯t form words seeing the nervous excitement in his eyes as he went to slash at me again with his dagger. Aron threw himself on the boy¡¯s back with a scream, trying to wrap his arms around his neck, when they lost balance and the boy fell backwards onto Aron who went underwater. The boy flailed around with Aron¡¯s arms still wrapped around him, wildly swinging his dagger through the air. Terror flared in me as I saw him about to stab behind himself at Aron and I lunged forwards, my wing leaving a thin trail of blood in the water. I caught his fist in one hand but my right hand closed around the blade of the dagger and in my panic I refused to let go, gripping it tightly as he tried to break free. Eyes wide I saw blood trickling down the blade and over our joined hands but I couldn¡¯t feel anything. His other fist came up and caught me in the side of the head and I staggered sideways. Double vision blurring everything for a second and the next thing I saw was him standing above me raising his fist and bringing it down on my head again as agony bloomed. In the background I was vaguely aware of Aron bursting out of the water¡¯s surface gasping and choking for air, arms swinging and coughing out water. I was still clutching his hand and the dagger with both hands as his left fist came down again and reflexively I curled my lips back and jaws snapping, I lunged forward sinking my sharp fangs into this hand. He let out a high-pitched scream and tried to tear his hand away but I clamped my jaws down hard, tasting iron and feeling the nauseating sensation of bones grating against my teeth. He yanked back hard, dragging my head with him but I refused to let go and he fell on his butt screaming, I was half on him, still gripping his other hand and dagger tightly in mine. I could feel warm liquid oozing around my mouth and flowing over my scales. Bile rose up when I smelt the blood as it sloshed up my nostrils. He cried out, shaking his hand and I clamped down harder when there was a sickening pop and all the tension of him pulling my head was gone as my mouth closed completely. Dumbfounded, my tongue tapped forwards and I felt something thin and bony move in my mouth and I spewed fingers and vomit onto the boy, retching while he squealed holding up his left hand as blood poured down his arm. I continued emptying my gut still holding onto the dagger and his right hand like a lifeline, kneeling over the boy as he blubbered and cried sitting in the water. He raised his bleeding hand and half-heartedly started hitting me on the head, spraying blood in the air and on my face as tears poured down his face ¡°You goddamn monster, just die, why won¡¯t you die¡± I knelt there frozen ignoring his weak blows as my stomach contracted repeatedly and I tried to keep the remaining acid down. The sloshing of footsteps alerted me to Aron¡¯s approach and he caught the boy¡¯s wrist. ¡°What are you doing, why aren¡¯t you killing it? You should help me!¡± the boy stared at Aron, genuine confusion and fear marred his face. ¡°What are you-¡° Aron stopped, taking a deep breath as anger consumed his face ¡°You tried to kill my little sister!¡± he yelled and drew back his arm and punched him in the face, connecting with his cheek causing his head to snap to the side. I looked on wide-eyed; I hadn¡¯t thought Aron had that kind of punch in him. The boy looked dazed swaying slightly as blood and saliva dribbled out of his mouth ¡°I don¡¯t- ¡° he rasped, ¡°I don¡¯t understand, aren¡¯t we supposed to kill the monsters?¡± Oddly I remembered the Orc, it was a thing to be frightened of: something to kill before it killed you. I¡¯d looked at it as a monster, just like this boy had looked at me, something inhuman that wasn¡¯t even a person. I let go of his hand and the dagger abruptly as I sat down heavily in the cold water catching myself on my good hand, numbly looking at my cut one. I gently straightened the fingers wincing at the numerous lines cut deeply into the scales of my palm and fingers. A flash of white indicated the dagger had gone to the bone but I barely felt it as blood mixed with water ran down my hand. ¡°She¡¯s not a monster, she¡¯s my little sister¡± Aron looked down at him fiercely, breathing heavily as I sat there. I hadn¡¯t considered myself a monster, or even thought that others might, the concept had been so foreign. It was one thing for people to be prejudiced or racist (specist?) like the [Blacksmith], but to not even be considered a person was new. I looked over at the sobbing boy, dark wet hair plastered to his forehead with puffy red eyes. He¡¯d let go of the dagger, which had sunk to the riverbed and was clutching his bleeding hand. He looked so pathetic now; I¡¯d been terrified of him a minute ago. The excited look in his eyes had shaken me, he¡¯d been excited to kill me; I wasn¡¯t a person to him. ¡°Why did you try to kill me?¡± I asked emotionlessly scrutinised him. He stopped crying for a second just staring at me confused ¡°You can talk? But you¡¯re a monster¡± I scowled, nostrils flaring as my anger surged, tail slapping the water ¡°I¡¯m not a monster, I¡¯m a drake¡± ¡°But¨C but weren¡¯t you trying to kill him?¡± looked between Aron and me a bit lost as he loudly breathed unsteadily. ¡°No you idiot, he¡¯s my brother, we were just arguing and had a fight¡± clenching my fists, outraged at the thought that I would actually hurt Aron. ¡°Yeah it was just water fight, what¡¯s wrong with you¡± Aron stared at him angrily and the boy looked ready to cry again as we loomed over him glaring down at him. ¡°Are you-¡° he choked ¡°Are you going to kill me?¡± his voice got quieter and squeaked at the end. Aron looked down at him in disgust before looking at me ¡°Lets go¡± he stood up letting go of the boy¡¯s bloody wrist and reached out to help me up. I could feel his hands trembling, but he showed no other reaction to what had happened and we started trudging towards our boots. ¡°Wait wait, are you leaving me here?¡± I looked back to see the boy scramble up clutching his bleeding hand to his chest. His leather armour was soaked, the midsection covered in vomit and blood and I didn¡¯t want to look too closely at the fat twigs floating down river in some blood streaked vomit. ¡°What else would we do?¡± I asked, I knew I didn¡¯t look much better, vomit also caked my trousers and blood was running over my hand and forearm while the hole in my wing also hadn¡¯t stopped bleeding. ¡°I-¡° he stopped and started awkwardly ¡°I¡¯m Daniel, I¡¯m sorry, I don¡¯t know how I got here. I just, I woke up here a week ago and-¡° I stiffened as looked at him ¡°What?¡± I almost choked out. ¡°Yeah I know it sounds crazy but-¡° ¡°Wait wait wait¡± I stormed towards him again, he started to open his mouth again looking a bit fearful as he shrank away ¡°No stop¡± I said holding up my good hand. I was pretty sure I knew what he was going to say and I did not know how to deal with this right now. I took a deep breath, conflicted and clueless about what to do ¡°Ok Daniel, you attacked me-¡° ¡°You bit two of my fingers off¡± he exclaimed, but he wilted as I glared, lifting my head a bit, tail raised and stiffened. ¡°You attacked me¡± I repeated ¡°For no reason, you shot me! There¡¯s a hole in my wing,¡± I pointed at it ¡°And look at my hand, you can see the bone¡± I shoved my injured hand in his face and he paled. I didn¡¯t really open it to show him the bone, but that wasn¡¯t the point ¡°The only reason you lost your fingers is because you tried to kill me and you lost¡± I said flatly, suddenly reminded of the sensation of human fingers in my mouth and I involuntarily spat out a ball of saliva with some blood. I inhaled thinking about how to go about this ¡°Do you have a Class?¡± ¡°What? I mean yeah I¡¯m a [Scavenger], I got that a few days after-¡° ¡°Ok ok, I don¡¯t care right now,¡± I interrupted sourly, if he really was from earth as I suspected then I should build some kind of positive rapport with him and at least make sure his story didn¡¯t mess with mine. But even if it was a misunderstanding since he¡¯d obviously never seen a drake before, he¡¯d tried to kill me and I wasn¡¯t mature enough to forgive and forget immediately.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Ok Daniel, you can come with us and we can talk about everything else later after we eat something¡± ¡°What? He¡¯s not coming with us, he tried to kill you¡± Aron balked angrily, glaring at Daniel who shifted on his feet uneasily. I staggered a bit as the adrenaline started wearing off. My hand was beginning to hurt and I held it, squeezing rhythmically with my other hand trying to numb the pain, but it just intensified. My whole body ached and my left wing burned. I closed my eyes and focused on breathing, walking back to the boulder where my boots were. I sat down shakily ignoring the other two, trying not to cry out at the pain as it all became very real. I heard Aron splash water as he came and sat next to me. I heard cloth ripping as he tore off part of his shirt and reached out to awkwardly try to bandage my hand. His hands still trembled slightly, but I didn¡¯t resist, though I refused to straighten my fingers completely. He attempted to clean the wounds with river water, which was probably very unhygienic but then again the water had already gone into every crevice so it was kind of a moot point now. He wrapped strips of cloth around my hand but he used a lot of small strips, some didn¡¯t even go all the way around and the whole thing looked like it would fall off the second I moved. But something about the look of earnest concentration in his face as tried to adjust it made me break out in fresh tears and I turned away trying to muffle the sound of crying. I looked at my left wing, the searing pain radiated to my shoulder, but at least the bleeding had stopped. Dried blood crusted around the edge of the hole and it was congealing in watery trails down my light blue wing. The plum sized hole was right in the middle of my wing and I had no idea how to bandage it so we just left it. The dark haired boy was crying silently and standing there a bit forlornly attempting to use the bottom of his shirt to apply pressure to his stumps. At some point the red aura around him had faded to blue. Ignoring him I rinsed out my mouth trying to get rid of the taste of bile and blood while trying to scrap the most of the vomit from my trousers. Aron was wringing out his shirt, pushing his wet hair out of his eyes. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡± Daniel burst out and we looked at up him, ¡°I mean for attacking you, I thought you were a monster trying to eat him, I really didn¡¯t know, I¡¯m really sorry¡± ¡°Are you stupid?¡± Aron gaped at him incredulously ¡°What did you think she was? An extra tiny blue river troll?¡± Daniel flushed, eyes flicking to me and back as he working his mouth ¡°No I just, I mean she¡¯s not human-¡° I could see the anger contorting Aron¡¯s face ¡°So what if she¡¯s not human, she¡¯s not a monster, you attempted murder, if anything you¡¯re the monster¡± he stabbed a finger in Daniel¡¯s direction. Daniel paled, looking scared ¡°I didn¡¯t mean- it wasn¡¯t murder- I just, it was a misunderstanding¡± he swallowed nervously ¡°She¡¯s not a monster, I can see that now¡± he hastily added. Aron crossed his arms scowling with narrowed eyes ¡°Some misunderstanding¡± he muttered watching Daniel distrustfully. ¡°Please I''m sorry, you¡¯re the first people I¡¯ve met here, please let me come with you¡± he begged desperately. ¡°Give me your dagger,¡± I said looking up from my bandaged hand. ¡°What?¡± he asked fearfully. ¡°Give me your dagger, Aron can take your bow and arrows and we can take you back to the village¡± I paused ¡°Do you have any other weapons?¡± He looked relieved ¡°Ok sure of course and ugh no, just the dagger and bow¡± he looked around trying to see where the dagger had fallen in the river, leaning over to pick it up and awkwardly shuffled closer to us holding out the dagger hopefully. Aron reached out and grabbed it from him suspiciously but Daniel offered no resistance. Aron eyed him disgruntled and looked at me ¡°Why do we have to take him with us?¡± Aron whined, ¡°He¡¯s clearly a bad guy¡± ¡°He¡¯s injured, alone and stupid, if we leave him here then we¡¯re the bad guys¡± I retorted and Aron scowled unhappily. He turned to Daniel, pointing the dagger at him. ¡°Ok fine, but listen, if you try anything I¡¯m going to string you up by your ballsack and whip you within an inch of your life till you beg for your mother. Now go get the bow before I flay you, you little turd, go on faster¡± Both Daniel and I gaped at Aron and Daniel almost fell backwards into the water as he scrambled to the other side of the river. ¡°Where did you get that from?¡± I whispered to Aron, shocked he knew language like that. His ears turned red and his stance faltered a bit ¡°Its something uncle Rudy yells when he¡¯s training new [Guards], did I do it wrong?¡± he whispered back. ¡°No, that was great¡± I tried giving a thumbs up with my functioning hand ¡°Just don¡¯t let Jak ever hear you say that¡± He nodded, nervousness flashing through his eyes at the thought of Jak finding out. Daniel hurried back splashing through the water, struggling a bit to carry the rucksack, bow and empty quiver in his only working hand, which he quickly turned over to Aron. ¡°Grab the two arrows in the river, no point in wasting arrows¡± Aron said as he shouldered the rucksack and quiver, handing me the dagger. Daniel rushed to pull them out of the riverbed with one hand; luckily they were stuck in the mud instead of floating down river. He gave them to Aron who slipped them into the quiver while Daniel stood there swaying a bit, he was looking quite pale and his shirt seemed to be glued to his bloody stumps now. I tucked the unsheathed dagger into my belt and struggled briefly to put on my socks and boots with one hand. Standing up I stood at the rivers edge between some reeds while Aron walked over and crouched down to put on his boots. Daniel hesitantly followed; his boots were filled with water and squelched with every step he took. ¡°Alright lets go back,¡± I said, my legs felt a bit weak, but I pushed past it and turned to head back along the trail of crushed grass we¡¯d created on our way here. Aron followed me, shooting glare in Daniels direction before jogging to catch up with me. I could hear Daniel¡¯s squeaky footsteps as he silently followed a few meters behind us. My hand hurt, an intense pulsing pain emanated from it, but I was getting used it. It was the excruciating pain from my wing that made me want to cry every time I focused on it, so I was trying my hardest to ignore it and make sure that nothing jostled my partially extended wing. It hurt too much to fold it completely. I shivered as we plodded along, the cold finally making itself known as we walked in the shade of the tall grass. Some of the strips of my bandage came off but most of it managed to stay intact. Strands of grass seemed grab our soaking wet clothing, sticking to it, trying to drag us back. Annoyed I ripped through it focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. ¡°You ok?¡± Aron asked me, concerned filled his big brown eyes. ¡°Yeah I¡¯ll be fine¡± thinking back to Dante¡¯s arm, I was infinitely glad for the advanced healing available in this world. Aron nodded and inspected the bow. Before long he was trying to inconspicuously mime firing arrows, making quiet sound effects under his breath while we walked. A smile twitched at my lips as he tried to defeat invisible enemies. I breathed a sigh of relief as we broke out of the grass and onto the road; something about being in the grass scared me a bit. Looking back I could see Daniel taking unsteady steps, looking at the floor with laboured breathing as followed us, clutching his left hand to his stomach. I felt a tad guilty looking at his hand but I crushed it thinking about what he¡¯d done to my wing. A sense of vindictive satisfaction surged and I tried to shake it off, as much as he deserved it, I really shouldn¡¯t be proud of biting off someone¡¯s fingers like a savage animal. Even though, if I was honest, I was a bit proud that I¡¯d finally won a fight. My tail lifted a bit higher, as it swished side to side, betraying my feelings of satisfied superiority as we headed towards the village. The moment the gate came into view, I subconsciously straightened and squared my shoulders a bit, but coming closer I slumped slightly. Nervous butterflies buzzed in my stomach as I took in the sight of a group of large horses with armoured riders in uniform standing outside of the gate. They had a standard bearer with a blue and white flag flapping in the wind and we talking to Rudy and a few other village [Guards]. Rudy looked a bit unhappy but otherwise there didn¡¯t seem to be an altercation. ¡°Who are they?¡± I hissed at Aron quietly, panicking at the thought that they were here for Daniel or me. ¡°Oh they¡¯re from Lady Trostin¡¯s household, they come every year for the midsummer allegiance ceremony and to see if they can recruit anyone for the army from the upper classes¡± he paused thoughtfully, clearly unperturbed by their presence ¡°I always wondered, drakes don¡¯t have nobility, so how do you like keep a kingdom safe without nobility using Skills?¡± I looked at him blankly ¡°I don¡¯t know, maybe they have different people with similar Skills?¡± I guessed, but that really wasn¡¯t my main concern right now. ¡°Huh¡± Aron said turning away. Getting Daniel inside past the group without too many questions would harder now. I scrambled around as I thought of a solution, I came to an abrupt halt and turned walking up to Daniel quickly and leaned close to him even as he shrank back fearfully. ¡°Listen, you¡¯re an orphan, you worked for small time traders and you were attacked by Orcs on the road a few days ago. You¡¯re the only survivor and you attacked us because we surprised you and you were scared ok?¡± I whispered firmly, looking into his puffy blue eyes as they widened, something seemed to click and he started ¡°Are you like m-¡° ¡°Not now, later¡± I looked at him meaningfully as Aron trotted up to us scowling. ¡°What did he do?¡± he looked at Daniel suspiciously. ¡°Nothing, just making sure he knows not to freak out when he sees other non human people in the village¡± I looked at Daniel and he looked down guiltily. ¡°Ok lets go,¡± I said and we continued towards the gate, the mounted riders barely spared a glance towards us and I could see the village [Chief] was talking to the leader of the riders, but I couldn¡¯t make out what they were saying. The [Guards] also didn¡¯t seem too bothered until Rudy caught sight of us and stomped forward ¡°Aron what happened?¡± he exclaimed coming towards us, interrupting the discussion between the two leaders. The rider seemed irritated and the village [Chief] was sending murderous glares at the Minotaur. I had in inkling that this wasn¡¯t the first time Rudy had disrupted social decorum in front of the [Chief]. ¡°This idiot tried to kill us¡± Aron boldly stated and I wanted to throttle him, that was not how I wanted this to go, but Rudy just laughed. ¡°Got into a real fight did you? We can still make you into a [Warrior]¡± he patted Aron¡¯s shoulder and I could see Aron straining not to fall over from the force as Rudy¡¯s eyes danced with happy pride. He turned to look Daniel up and down, who gaped up at the enormous Minotaur and looked ready to shit himself when Aron said he¡¯d tried to kill us. Thankfully Rudy didn¡¯t seem to take that remark too seriously ¡°And you boy, don¡¯t worry, you¡¯re not left handed are you? We can strap a shield to your forearm and you can fight no problem, don¡¯t need all your fingers for that¡± Daniel looked up terrified at the massive [Guard] towering over him. He seemed clueless as to what to do with that advice and just nodded quickly. Rudy turned to me smiling, broad horns glinting in the sunlight ¡°You¡¯re going to have some battle scars too, have you unlocked any combat Classes?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to be fighter¡± I said trying to meet his gaze, as friendly as he was now, his physique was incredibly intimating. He nodded a bit disappointed ¡°Yeah it¡¯s not for everyone¡± he grunted, ¡°Better get to the healers though, don¡¯t want to get that infected¡± I nodded and hurried Aron on before he could start anything about Daniel, trying to ignore the looks from some of the riders and [Guards]. The [Chief] had gone back to talking to the leader of the riders but she did not seem pleased. Chapter 13 ¡°You might have a few scars, but they should be faint and you shouldn¡¯t lose any function in your hand as long as it doesn¡¯t get infected. Keep it still for a few days, but try to start moving it as soon as you¡¯re able, though it will be stiff at the beginning¡± the healer said as she finished cleaning out and suturing the cuts on my hand. Inspecting her work a bit longer she applied some salve and wrapped it in fresh white bandages.
Made by a skilled [Alchemist] with the use of [Prevent infection] and [Accelerated mending] this salve aids wound healing in areas applied and boosts Health regeneration for a few hours.
Relieved I watched her; she¡¯d given me some painkillers for later, but the moment she had touched my hand, all the pain had vanished. That had to be a Skill, but unlike with the salve I didn¡¯t get a notification when she used a Skill on me directly. She let go of my hand and pushed her glasses up her nose as she looked at my wing ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t have any experience with drakes and lizardfolk don¡¯t have wings so I¡¯m not too familiar about what to do, but I¡¯ll take a look¡± I tried not to flinch as she reached out to touch the wound in my wing, but the second her hand made contact, cool relief washed down my wing and I exhaled, releasing some of the tension I¡¯d been holding in. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and picked up some fresh cloth and dipped it into a clear liquid that smelt of alcohol and started cleaning the area around the hole. She inspected it again ¡°Can you extend your wing fully?¡± she asked and I complied, it was much easier to move it without the agonising pain. She reached forward testing different angles to try to close the hole and leaned back frowning. ¡°I could stitch it closed, but considering how taut the wings are when extended, I think stitching it might limit your full extension and their function in flight. I really don¡¯t know enough about wings to tell you what the best thing to do is, but leaving it as a hole might be the best course¡± I stiffened and looked at her horrified ¡°I¡¯m going to have a hole in wing forever?¡± I croaked, shame at having disfigured wings coursed through me. I¡¯d believed my injuries could easily be healed, but apparently real healing potions were only used for severe injuries, or if you could buy one. ¡°How much would it cost to get it healed with a potion?¡± I asked fearfully. She sighed, ¡°Even if you could afford it, a normal healing potion wouldn¡¯t help you, you need to regrow the area of the hole that was removed by the arrow and for that you need a regeneration potion¡± ¡°Well how much is one of those?¡± I asked mouth dry, dreading the answer. I could see a flicker of pity in her eyes and she smiled at me ¡°How about I bandage this up and get you back to your friends, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve got a cool story to tell them¡± I looked down as tears gathered in my eyes; I was stuck with a hole in my wing. I hadn¡¯t flown yet, but I¡¯d sort of believed that that was either because I needed to train my wing muscles or wait for them to grow bigger or something. But now, was it even possible or would the wind pressure rip through the defect and destroy my wing if I ever managed to fly? Function aside, my wings had been beautiful and now there was an ugly hole in them. My pride stung and my tail drooped. Orange scales had been insufferable, but at least that had been temporary. My eyes watered but the tears didn¡¯t spill over, I sat still, letting her work, she said something but I wasn¡¯t really listening and I just nodded along. I wasn¡¯t sad as much as I felt hollow and ashamed. I wanted to hide my wings, make sure no one ever saw their disgrace. The healer applied some salve and ended up wrapped the bandage around the width of my wing so it looked like someone had bisected my wing and she¡¯d reattached it instead of the hole that was in the middle. When she was done I went to leave and paused ¡°How do I pay?¡± I asked nervously, she hadn¡¯t mentioned payment at the beginning and I didn¡¯t have any money. ¡°Your total comes to 2 silvers and 41 coppers. Jak is your current guardian right? I¡¯ll sent him a copy of your bill¡± my shoulders sank and I looked at the floor. I didn¡¯t want Jak to have to pay for me, butI didn''t have any money. Guilt roiled inside me as I balled my hands into fists and nodded before walking out of the well-lit room into the corridor. Aron was sitting on a bench waiting for me, legs swinging in the air as he hummed. He turned when the door opened and jumped up ¡°How¡¯d it go?¡± he grinned. ¡°My hand will be fine,¡± I said quietly, I didn¡¯t want to think about the hole in my wing and I had to find a way to pay Jak back. Assuming he¡¯d pay for me, what happened if he refused? How much was 2 and half silvers anyway? ¡°That¡¯s great¡± Aron looked relieved, ¡°Daniel is still in there¡± he pointed at the room opposite the one I''d come out of. The hollow feeling inside me filled with anger that saturate my whole body, this was entirely his fault. My breathing sped up, if it wasn¡¯t for that idiot, I wouldn¡¯t have a hole in my wing and Jak wouldn¡¯t have to pay for my healthcare. At that moment the door opened and Daniel walked out, looking a lot calmer and steadier than before. He smiled at us and waved ¡°Hey guys-¡° My rage boiled over and I launched myself at him screaming, ¡°I¡¯m going to bite your other fingers off, you don¡¯t deserve to have any!¡± I tried clawing at him; arms lashing outwildly as he jerked backwards out of my range, tripping and almost falling eyes wide. Aron grabbed me from behind and dragged me back ¡°Are you ok?¡± he asked concerned,holding me and all the rage just drained out of me, leaving shame and sadness. I sagged and hiccupped before the fat tears rolled down my cheeks and started bawling ¡°He- my wing¡± hiccup ¡°Hole forever and-¡° I swallowed, shame at being a burden to the people who had helped me burning inside me ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡± I cried and broke down sinking to the floor as Aron patted me head a bit confused. I didn¡¯t bat his hand away this time. ¡°Its gong to be ok, you said your hand would be ok right?¡± he said awkwardly trying to comfort me ¡°Its going to be ok¡± ¡°No its not¡± I sniffled ¡°I¡¯m never going to be able to fly now¡± I rubbed at my eyes with both hands willing the tears to stop but they kept coming. ¡°Did the healer say that?¡± he asked cautiously crouching next to me, putting an arm around me. ¡°No, but she doesn¡¯t know anything¡± my breathing was evening out a bit and I pressed the heels of my palms to my eyes, swallowing thickly. Somehow I was terrified of never being able to fly. ¡°If she didn¡¯t say anything about you not being able to fly, then it means you¡¯ll probably still be able to¡± he said optimistically grinning down at me as I looked up at him hopefully. I knew he was just trying to comfort me but it was true; the healer hadn¡¯t specifically said anything about not being able to fly. Hopelessness slowly washed away and I flushed taking in the scene. I''d had a tantrum and broken down crying in the middle of the corridor. I quickly stood up wiping away any traces of tears though I suspected my face was still red and puffy. So embarrassing, I stood there trying to regain control of myself and saw Daniel pressed against the wall watching us carefully. Mouth dry I forced the apology out even though it burned my pride to say sorry to him ¡°Um sorry I tried to bite you again¡± He came off the wall and shuffled in our direction ¡°I¡¯m sorry about your wing, but hey you can still walk¡± he tried to joke but I just glared at him and the smile left his lips as he awkwardly stood there ¡°Sorry, I didn¡¯t mean, I just, I hope you¡¯ll still be able to fly¡± I rolled my eyes and looked away in a huff, he really wasn¡¯t worth my time to be upset over ¡°Lets just go¡± I turned to walk down the corridor. It looked so different from the day of the Orc attack. There was no tent outside and no cries of the numerous injured people crowding the building. Reaching the reception area I saw the front door open and mace-girl walked in. She looked at me and waved in recognition ¡°Hey¡± she jogged over ¡°What happened to your hand? And your wing? I didn¡¯t know drakes had wings...¡± she trailed off quietly. ¡°He shot me,¡± I ruthlessly pointed at Daniel who turned bright red and looked down guiltily. She peered at him ¡°Well looks like you got his fingers so guess you¡¯re even¡± I scowled shifting my weight on my feet; they really didn¡¯t take violence as seriously as they should here. She turned back to me ¡°You¡¯re Sasha right? Carston told me, I¡¯m Farel. You should come train with us, we can help you can unlock a combat Class if you don¡¯t have one, having someone who isn¡¯t a complete meathead is a good addition to our group¡± ¡°No thanks, fighting isn¡¯t really for me¡± I said a bit too curtly; I was done with any wishful ideas of becoming the greatest warrior alive. ¡°Alright, well come find us if you change your mind, I¡¯m visiting Jen, but see you around¡± she walked away down the corridor and I winced thinking about the girl who¡¯d taken the Orc¡¯s axe through her shoulder. ¡°See ya¡± I responded and noticed Aron standing quietly next to me looking at the wall. As nice as Farel had seemed, she hadn¡¯t acknowledged Aron¡¯s existence a single time and his blank expression filled me with anger again. She hadn¡¯t been there when Carston had dumped water on him from the roof, but if I had to guess, she¡¯d taken part in the bullying at other times. I turned to say something to Farel but she¡¯d already disappeared down the corridor. Irritated at myself I looked at Aron ¡°I¡¯m never going to join them you know right?¡± He looked at me and smiled weakly nodding before walking forwards. I frowned trailing after him; I was going to punch Kaid for ditching Aron some time. Outside the infirmary Dante leaned against the wall and stretched when we came out ¡°All done?¡± he asked yawning. ¡°Yeah¡± He had volunteered to bring us here and look after Daniel until they could decide what to do with him.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°Alright Daniel, now that you aren¡¯t bleeding everywhere lets take a look at your Basic status and get your permission to be in the village sorted, sound good?¡± he looked down at Daniel who hesitantly agreed. His left hand was cleanly bandaged now and I could see 2 short stumps where his little and ring finger had been. Dante turned and started walking back to the gate and we fell in behind him. I frowned as a thought popped into my head ¡°Hey how did you pay for that?¡± I asked Daniel indicating his hand. He looked down at his hand ¡°Oh, yeah I have some money¡± he patted a pouch at his side ¡°Honestly I have no idea how much its worth, but I could afford getting my hand looked at and its better than nothing¡± he whispered to me leaning in as his eyes flitted about nervously. I scowled irritated, how come he had money and I didn¡¯t? That aside, he had a bow and arrows and a dagger and leather armour, why didn¡¯t I have any of that? I touched the hilt of his dagger at my side and contemplated giving it back, I¡¯d taken it so he wouldn¡¯t attack us again, but now that he wasn¡¯t a threat anymore, I should probably give it back. Though I wanted to keep it because I wanted a weapon and to spite him: he¡¯d attacked us and put a hole in my wing so wasn¡¯t keeping it only fair? I sighed glumly and pulled the dagger out of my belt and held it out to him ¡°Here, its yours¡± no matter how much I wanted to keep that dagger, I was basically just trying to justify stealing. He hesitantly took the dagger and put it in to the leather sheath attached to his belt ¡°Ugh thanks, sorry again, for you know, before¡± he shuffled a bit awkwardly, looking down. I rolled my eyes and looked at Aron was trying to pretend he hadn¡¯t seen me give him the dagger. I nudged him and pointedly looked at the rucksack, bow and quiver Aron was still carrying. Aron looked at me a bit crestfallen and a slowly unslung the rucksack and handed it back to Daniel, who carefully threaded it past his bad hand and then put it on properly. I nudged him again and Aron looked at me a bit rebelliously and I glared at him before he let out a disappointed sigh and unslung the quiver reluctantly and handed it over to Daniel along with the bow. Elbowing Aron I grinned at him and he gave an irritated huff and looked away after one last yearning look at the bow. Arriving at the gate, the riders and [Guards] from before were gone, only Rudy was standing outside and Dante nodded at him before taking us into the Gatehouse. Aron immediately darted forward and took one of the two seats in front of the desk while Dante rummaged around taking out the same enchanted stone that had been used on me. I shot a glare at Aron who grinned back at me smugly swinging his legs as I stood behind him while Daniel took the remaining seat and Dante explained what to do. I rolled my eyes and looked to the stone. Daniel reached out and placed his hand on it, saying ¡®Show basic status¡¯ and supressed a surprised yelp when a panel appeared above the stone.
Name: Daniel Reid Species: Human
Gender: Male Age: 11
Class 1: [None]
Class 2: [None]
Dante tapped a card to the stone and writing appeared on it before he filled it away as Daniel slowly drew back his hand, still eyeing the enchanted stone in poorly concealed surprise. ¡°Ok all done¡± Dante said siting down smiling at Daniel, ¡°Now, can you tell me what you were doing out in the grasslands? It can be dangerous, did you get lost? Separated from your parents?¡± ¡°I¡¯m an orphan,¡± Daniel blurted out nervously, clenching sweaty hands under the table. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear that¡± Dante frowned ¡°So who was looking after you?¡± ¡°I worked for some traders¡± he swallowed but stuck to what I¡¯d hastily told him ¡°But we were attacked by Orcs about week ago on the road, I was the only survivor¡± Dante inhaled ¡°It was probably the same Orcs that attacked us last week, you¡¯re lucky to be alive kid. Do you remember where it happened?¡± Daniel shook his head looking more nervous by the second, which Dante luckily mistook as Daniel remembering traumatic events. ¡°Its ok kid, I know it¡¯s not easy, we can talk about the details another time then. We can figure out where to get you settled for the time being, do you have anywhere else to go? Any remaining family or something?¡± he said coming around the desk and rubbing Daniels shoulder comfortingly. ¡°No¡± Daniel said thickly. He was about the say something when the door opened and Dante jumped to stand up straight as the Lizardfolk archer from before walked in, ¡°Dante we need more-¡° she cut off and scanned us briefly before settling on me ¡°You¡¯re the drake girl who could see the Orcs right?¡± ¡°Yeah¡± I said cautiously. ¡°Good job for spotting them coming over the eastern wall and well done for keeping calm during the attack, any interest in joining the village [Guards] one day? We can always use people who are level headed in a fight,¡± she said calmly, eyes briefly darting through the open door at Rudy leaning against the wall cleaning his battle-axe. ¡°I¡¯ll keep it in mind¡± I was not going to keep that in mind, but I couldn¡¯t help preening a bit as warm pride made me stand a straighter, tail lifting and wings flaring a bit. I could see Aron slouched in his chair rolling his eyes next to me but I ignored him. She nodded and flicked her pale green eyes to Daniel before looking at Dante ¡°What¡¯s happening here?¡± Dante stood a bit straighter ¡°This is Daniel¡± he indicated the boy ¡°He¡¯s an orphan who worked for some traders and they got attacked by Orcs roughly a week ago. He was the only survivor, he made it to the village today and has no remaining family to take him¡± Daniel wilted a bit at depressing description while the Lizardfolk woman eyed him with interest ¡°You survived in the grasslands by yourself for a week? Are you a good archer?¡± she looked at his bow. ¡°Not really, but I¡¯d like to learn¡± he said awkwardly looking at her triangular reptilian face. ¡°Hm well you¡¯re going to have difficulty finding somewhere to stay now that Lady Trostin¡¯s contingency is here, everything is going to be full¡± She paused thoughtfully ¡°You can stay with Dante for now¡± I could see Dante cough trying to hide a choking sound ¡°And if you¡¯re interested in archery, you should join training, if you¡¯ve got any talent, we¡¯ll see about unlocking a combat Class and maybe you can join the [Guards] when you¡¯re older. Though in the mean time if you really have no family or guardians to return to and you¡¯re settling here permanently, you should look into getting a job,¡± she advised. My wings drooped a bit and I felt incredibility guilty and lucky that Aron and Jak had taken me in. There didn¡¯t seem to be any sort of welfare system and I figured the only reason Daniel wasn¡¯t left to completely to his own devices was that he was a child. But even then, he was expected to get a job if no one took him in and Dante clearly wasn¡¯t overjoyed at having a child forced on him. I peeked at Aron who looked fairly unbothered about the situation. I squirmed, I felt like I should ask him to take Daniel in too, but he had made his dislike of Daniel clear and it really wasn¡¯t my place to ask him and Jak to take in more strays. It still felt wrong though that I¡¯d lucked out with them so I looked down, guiltily avoiding looking at Daniel. ¡°Ok sure¡± Daniel agreed looking a bit unsure. ¡°I need to talk to Dante about some [Guard] things now so if you children could wait outside¡± she dismissed us which irked me a bit. Even if I understood this was private [Guard] stuff, I still didn¡¯t like being treated as a child; it ruffled my scales and scowled as we walked out. ¡°Oh and Daniel, I finish my shift in about 2 hours so meet me back here then and I¡¯ll show you to my place¡± Dante called as we left and Daniel nodded before he closed the door, leaving the adults to their business. Standing near the gatehouse doorstep Aron turned to Daniel stating ¡°I have to go to take care of Mr Ferguson¡¯s pigs, but if you hurt my little sister while I¡¯m gone, I¡¯m going to beat you up¡± he tried to look menacing, but ended up looking sort of constipated and my lips twitched in a barely contained smile but Daniel nodded stiffly. Aron had managed quite well in the heat of the moment, but without adrenaline, threats and intimidation were not his strong suit. ¡°See you later¡± I said giving Aron a light push and he scowled at me before giving Daniel one last glare and jogged off down the street. I turned to Daniel ¡°So, you need a job and honestly so do I, so I¡¯m going to take you to the adventures guild¡± I said and his eyes lit up as a broad smile took over his face. ¡°There¡¯s an adventurers guild? That¡¯s so cool¡± he whispered excitedly. ¡°Yeah don¡¯t get to excited, it¡¯s basically a glorified job centre, though apparently monster slaying quests do exist in bigger towns and cities. Also you don¡¯t have to whisper,¡± I added when he leaned in to whisper again. He reddened slightly and drew back, jogging quickly to catch up with me as I started walking. ¡°So you¡¯re like me right?¡± he looked around and leaned in ¡°From earth? How come you¡¯re not human?¡± he whispered. I almost tripped on a cobblestone, I¡¯d gotten so used to being a drake, I hadn¡¯t thought about the fact that Daniel had stayed human and I hadn¡¯t ¡°Yeah and I¡¯m not sure¡± I paused looking at him ¡°Also you¡¯re younger right? I mean you weren¡¯t an 11 year old on earth?¡± He shook his head ¡°No I was 29, it was strange to wake up as a child, but I got kind of used to it, though I keep having childish reactions that I can¡¯t control¡± ¡°Yeah me too¡± I said slightly relieved I wasn¡¯t the only one ¡°Also do you look like yourself? I mean like a younger version of yourself or like a different person?¡± I tensed a bit nervously waiting for his answer; if he looked like a different person then maybe we somehow possessed other people¡¯s bodies. It wasn¡¯t exactly something I could check myself, with my change in species I was definitely going to look different. ¡°No I look like me, I mean a bit thinner than I was, but roughly same weight I was when I was this age I think, not completely sure though¡± he said and I exhaled relieved, the idea of being in someone else¡¯s body was quite uncomfortable. ¡°When did you get here?¡± he asked. ¡°Same time as you, I woke up in the grasslands a short distance from the village about a week ago¡± I replied. ¡°Oh so you were alone when you woke up?¡± he looked out at out of the corner of his eye trying to be casual. I narrowed my eyes ¡°Yeah, just me, you weren¡¯t alone?¡± ¡°Uh not really, I mean there weren¡¯t any live people¡± he looked away uncomfortably ¡°I woke up in this camp in the middle of the grasslands, there were a lot dead people around. At first I thought I¡¯d killed them or something, but that¡¯s stupid, whatever killed them had completely crushed them, like one of them had his entire ribcage flattened. No human could have done that, whatever killed them was really really big and strong.¡± he started breathing quickly looking away, taking a moment to calm himself ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure they weren¡¯t traders though, they all had weapons and didn¡¯t have any goods to trade, they were around a destroyed campfire and some tents, but didn¡¯t really look like quality stuff¡± ¡°Bandits?¡± I asked hesitantly, that must have been a terrible scene to wake up to in a new world, but it didn''t sound like an Orc attack. Not that I was an expert or anything, but excluding Skills usage, Orcs weren''t significantly larger than people and hadn''t seemed to rely on overwhelming brute blunt force. Also they probably would have looted. He shrugged ¡°Probably, I¡¯m just really glad that whatever killed them wasn¡¯t there when I woke up and never came back. Its strange though, whatever killed them didn''t eat them or take anything, just smashed and ripped them to pieces and left¡± he was getting paler looking a bit grim ¡°That¡¯s what made me think that I was in a new world and it was humans against monsters here and I kind of started thinking I could be a cool monster slayer¡± he glanced at me guiltily ¡°Again, I¡¯m sorry for thinking you were a monster¡± I sighed ¡°Its ok, I get it you woke up in a shitty situation. By the way, didn¡¯t you say you were a [Scavenger]?¡± ¡°Yeah I¡¯m not sure why it didn¡¯t say that was my Class, I unlocked it a few days after I woke up here. I stuck around the camp for the first few days, eating their food rations and sorting out anything good to take with me. I slept in a tree at night¡± he reddened a bit ¡°I know its sort of stealing, but its not like they were going to use it and I didn¡¯t have anything else¡± ¡°Its ok, I get it, I would have done the same if I were you. Also it sounds like you only unlocked the Class, you actually have to activate it to add it to your status to level it¡± I told him knowingly. ¡°Oh¡± he frowned looking down ¡°I kept trying to say Class or [Scavenger] or ask for the notification to come back but it didn¡¯t work so I thought I¡¯d imagined it until you asked me about a Class¡± ¡°Think status¡± I relished feeling a tad superior. His eyes widened as he came to a stop and looked at something invisible in front of him. ¡°Yeah I know, kinda cool right, I¡¯ll explain things to you later, but lets get some jobs first¡± I turned left and opened the door to the adventurers guild. Daniel shook himself out of his stupor and followed me. He looked visibly disappointed ¡°This is it?¡± ¡°Yup, told you not to get your hopes up, though apparently [Adventurer] is a real Class and so is [Mage]¡± I said trying to make it into an offhand comment. ¡°Seriously, magic is real? I mean I hoped it was, but damn, I can learn magic¡± he grinned excitedly as he followed me to the notice board as I tried to suppress a grin, keep it cool. ¡°Its probably best you pick a job in the village and that you can do after school¡± I said scanning for a post I had skipped over last time but that I was quite excited to take now. I could see Daniel make a face at the mention of school but I ignored him, zeroing in on my chosen notice. Beekeeper assistant required. Chapter 14 ¡°You¡¯re being an idiot¡° ¡°It will be fine, I¡¯ll be careful¡± ¡°I¡¯m telling, this is a really really bad idea, that spiteful hag will experiment on you and-¡° ¡°Look I just won¡¯t drink anything weird¡± ¡°You realise that¡¯s literally the only reason she wants an assistant, so she can pour faulty potions down your throat¡± ¡°Ok but you have to admit, alchemy and potion making is really cool, besides its the only job in the village that involves something sort of magical¡± As we left the guild I opened my mouth to retort but closed it again, if he wanted to fart for 3 days non-stop, I had done my civic duty to warn him. Also I couldn¡¯t deny that I would enjoy his suffering a tiny bit, I was still sour about the hole in my wing. A bell tolled once and as the sound rung through the whole village and my heart started racing. Immediately activating [Battle sense], I looked around frantically, but there was no sign of any red from hidden Orcs. I slowly calmed down when I noticed that no one else seemed to be panicking or worried, most people looked a bit annoyed or excited. Everyone on the street started to walk in the same direction and people even started coming out of their houses to join them. I looked at Daniel and shrugged before he could ask me what was going on. Pocketing my job notice I hesitantly stepped in to follow the crowd, the beekeeper wasn¡¯t expecting me until tomorrow morning anyway. Even the receptionists from the guild locked up and grumbling as they pushed past us ¡°Excuse me, but what¡¯s going on?¡± I politely asked an older lady leaving the guild. She looked down at me with a forced smile ¡°Probably some announcement by Lady Trostin¡¯s emissary, nothing for you to worry yourself about dear¡± she said before looking forward griping ¡°I hope they¡¯re not increasing taxes, all these stupid wars, all the nobles need a good whack on the head¡± I bobbed my head in agreement and fell back to walk beside Daniel, it looked like they were headed to the village square for some mandatory village announcement. I was getting increasingly nervous the closer we got, it was fairly unlikely that they¡¯d mention people from another world coming here, but it was still possible and I wasn¡¯t sure how people would react to that. Turning into the square I could see a good deal of people spread about looking towards the far side of the square where a rickety wooden stage had been set up. People in uniform were standing around on the stage in loose formation waiting for everyone to arrive. More people poured out of the side streets and I scowled, standing on my tiptoes trying to keep an eye on the stage but I was too short to see past the adults. ¡°Want to try to get closer?¡± Daniel whispered, I hesitated, this didn¡¯t seem dangerous but what if it had something to do with Daniel and I and we¡¯d have to escape or something? Someone knocked into me from behind, throwing me against a man in front of me. I uttered an apology and turned to glare at the kid who¡¯d pushed past me, but he was already slipping between two adults in front. Right behind him were 4 other kids I vaguely recognised from school, who boldly darted forwards following the first kid. Daniel grinned at me and shrugged before slipping through the opening they had created. I deliberated for a second before I followed, I didn¡¯t want to be left alone and I was pretty curious about what was happening. Besides one benefit of being a child was that you could get away with more. We pushed and squirmed our way through bodies to get to the front, eliciting angry huffs and irritated glares but otherwise people seemed resigned to kids shoving ahead of them. Squeezing past a rather rotund man, I finally burst out of the crowd where several other children had already taken up front row spots to look up at the stage. From here I could see that the village chief and a good deal of village guards accompanied the uniformed people around the stage, though only the chief, one guard and 5 in uniforms were on stage. One of them held the blue and white flag up while a guard held up a red and gold flag next to it. A middle-aged man in a slightly more elaborate white and blue uniform came up on stage to stand next to the chief. His sharp eyes roved over the crowd who was quieting down. He paused for a moment before settling on the middle of the crowd ¡°People of Dalhurst village, as you know I¡¯m here for the midsummer allegiance ceremony which will be held here in 2 days time¡± low cheering and quiet clapping followed ¡°But before we get into that, I have the fortunate of bringing you good news, Duke Rostrik has defeated the cowardly Duke Waylin in battle, his armies marched forward and took the city of Renyn causing the traitorous Duke to flee. No doubt he will be captured and executed soon allowing the kingdom to return to order¡± clapping exploded and people cheered; I started clapping as I watched kids around me hooting and jumping. The man held up a hand and the crowd quietened ¡°Our most gracious queen thanks our Duke Rostrik for uprooting the traitor and asks him to hold the city of Renyn in her name until the time until that the traitorous Duke Waylin can be found and executed and his successor instated as the new Duke of the northern province¡± Cheering was a bit quieter this time, I assumed that meant soldiers weren¡¯t coming home yet. I frowned thoughtfully, even though this Duke Rostrik was being lauded as a hero for defeating a traitor, he was no doubt profiting from holding another city captive, even if it was in the Queen¡¯s name. Besides, they hadn¡¯t even mentioned how this Duke Waylin was a traitor, though maybe since this was the end of the war everyone here already knew. ¡°Pss hey gecko¡± I turned to see Carston waving at me from down the line of kids, I started waving back with my bandaged hand before shoving it down, turning my snout up and looking at the stage as I remembered what he did to Aron. We¡¯d formed a sort of truce after the Orc attack, but I wasn¡¯t going to foster any type of friendship with a bully like him. The man started talking again, looking grim this time, steely eyes boring into the crowd ¡°Unfortunately I do have troubling news. A week ago our mages detected an enormous mana wave crossing the continent originating from deep within the Republic of Sefir, As of now our mages are hard at work determining the exact source and purpose of this event, but we fear they were testing a new weapon or performing a dangerous ritual with the intent of war on Valensir¡± Groans and shouts of anger filled the square as the man once again silenced them, his voice rolling over the square. I tried to keep my breathing even but I was starting to feel sick, a massive mana wave one week ago? That couldn¡¯t be a coincidence. ¡°Our righteous queen wishes to avoid bloodshed between our nations and has send numerous requests imploring the Sefirans for an explanation, but alas they refuse to reply. We can only take their silence and lack of honour as confirmation that they are indeed planning on waging war¡± This time he didn¡¯t try to silence the crowd as the shouted in anger, stamping their feet and his voice seemed to boom louder than should be possible ¡°But we are not weak, we are not cowards, if it is war they want, then it is war we will give them. Valensir will not fall prey to some green newborn welp of a republic, our illustrious history goes back hundreds of year, filled with valiant victories borne on the back of brave Valenians just like yourselves¡± he pointed out at the crowd and they cheered, chanting ¡®Valensir¡¯ as I paled. I put my hand to my mouth as bile threatened to rise up, if I remembered correctly, the Republic of Sefir was east of Valensir and this village was on the very eastern outskirts of Valensir. Looking around there were some people who were not caught up in his speech, who seemed to have realised the same thing and were looking a bit uneasy. ¡°We will fight for our homes, our family and the glory Valensir. If it is blood they want, we will make them bleed¡± he finished ruthlessly looking across the square stonily. People were riled up; even the children were into it, jumping up and down grinning as they too joined the deafening chant of ¡®Valensir¡¯ which rumbled across the square, drowning everything else out. I briefly looked over to the chief whose expressionless face was betrayed by the grim look in her eyes. She hadn¡¯t said a word, but had stood next to him in unwilling support and now followed him off the stage. She understood what war meant for this village. The speech hadn''t been long, but there was a lot to think over.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. The roaring of the crowd eventually calmed down and people slowly drifted away back to where they came from. I looked to Daniel who looked at me nervously trying to causally indicate that we had to talk in private. I nodded, irritated that his poorly concealed attempts at communication would draw attention, but no one was looking at us kids. ¡°Hey¡± Aron said neutrally tapping my arm appearing at my side and I spun to look at him ¡°Hey where did you come from?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°I was on the right side,¡± he pointed near the right corner of the stage ¡°I saw you but figured I¡¯d come over after the speech¡± the dark look in his eyes worried me a bit. ¡°Yeah what did you think?¡± I asked watching him carefully. ¡°I hope we kill every single one of them,¡± he said vengefully, clenching his fists, narrowing his watery eyes in angry loathing. He blinked quickly and the tears receded leaving a deadened angry look in his eyes. A pang of sorrow filled me as I watched him; Aron wasn¡¯t an angry hateful person so for him to react like this, there had to be some deep-rooted suffering. ¡°Hey¡± Daniel said shuffling closer now that the crowd had mostly dispersed ¡°Some speech right¡± ¡°Yeah¡± I replied not taking my eyes off Aron ¡°We should go to the Inn, everyone is going to be talking about this so I have a feeling the dinner rush will start early¡± I tried to sound more jovial, but it fell a bit flat. His cold look abated a bit as his eyes widened ¡°Yeah that¡¯s true, grandpa is probably going to be swamped¡± he made a face ¡°People are going to drink to much and throw up everywhere, I hate cleaning up vomit¡± though he looked mostly like himself again, something lingered in the back of his eyes and his smile didn¡¯t spread across his face as far as usual. ¡°So I¡¯ll go back to the gatehouse then¡± Daniel said a bit awkwardly and I looked at him, a flicker of guilt ran through me, I¡¯d almost forgotten he was here. ¡°Sure, Dante is probably waiting for you¡± I said trying to smooth over the sudden awkwardness ¡°And good luck with aunt Summer tomorrow, let me know what happens and I''ll see you at school on Monday¡± ¡°Oh no school or work on Monday¡± Aron piped up ¡°Midsummer allegiance ceremony so we get the day off¡± ¡°Ah ok, great¡± I blinked, should have predicted that, I really needed to ask what happened at this ceremony ¡°Well see you then¡± I waved goodbye at Daniel before I realised we were headed in the same direction. I flushed and dropped my hand, Aron grinned, nudging me knowingly and I looked at through the corner of my eye before ignoring him and walking back to the in. Aron and Daniel both jogged to catch up ¡°Hey so you know the way to the gate..?¡± ¡°Yeah, its not far from the Inn¡± I replied and Daniel looked relieved, the village wasn¡¯t that big, but it was still confusing for a newcomer. I should look into getting a map, [Tacticians] had to use maps for war, maybe also when deciding on voting constituencies and building planning or was that last one more of an [Architect]/[Engineer] thing? I looked down, honestly, I wasn¡¯t entirely sure what [Tactician] actually enclosed other than battle strategy. Some of the available Skills indicated that there was a less violent route I could take. I wasn¡¯t really interested in politics though I strongly suspected that doing a politics course back home was what had helped provide me with the required knowledge me unlock it in the first place. Come to think of it, I¡¯d been in 2 fights now and I knew some background on fighting and weapons, I mean not too much but I¡¯d done some jiu jitsu at school for a year. Not that I¡¯d been particularly good or gotten very far, I doubted I could utilise any moves but its not like I remembered much from the politics course either so shouldn¡¯t that be enough to unlock a combat Class? ¡°Hey Aron, how do you unlock a combat Class?¡± I asked curiously. He looked at me surprised ¡°Depends on the Class I guess, different Classes require different training and knowledge on the fighting style¡± he paused thoughtfully ¡°And you have to kill something using that fighting style¡± Well that was why I hadn¡¯t unlocked anything then ¡°For all combat Classes?¡± did that mean if I karate chopped a chicken I could unlock [Martial artist]? ¡°Think so, but it has to be against something that¡¯s an actual threat, that could kill you and doesn¡¯t work if you have someone that helps you or anything, uncle Rudy explained it to me a while ago¡± ¡°Ah¡± no wonder it was a bigger deal to unlock a combat Class than other Classes. Also the term ''threat'' was relative, so I doubted someone could get strong first and then fight something that used to be a threat because then it wouldn¡¯t work. Would it still work if you had someone supervise your fight ready to step in in case things went sideways? I shivered thinking about Carston and his group, they were still children and had unlocked combat Classes, so they must been in fights and killed. ¡°What¡¯s the best combat Class?¡± Daniel asked and turned to look at him incredulously ¡°That¡¯s your question? Did you not hear that you have to be in a death match to unlock one?¡± ¡°Yeah I mean its dangerous, but its also cool. Though I am thinking of sticking with the bow for now, monster slaying still seems pretty awesome and its better to know what the best option is¡± he turned to Aron expectantly who looked a bit annoyed and flustered. ¡°Ask Dante, he probably knows more about that stuff¡± he said blurted out looking away. ¡°Ok sure, will do¡± Daniel deflated a bit pulling back as we reached the Inn. As predicted it was fuller than usual at this time of day and more people seemed to be heading this way. ¡°Gate is just up the road that way,¡± I pointed and he nodded, I felt bad just leaving him but Aron had already opened the door and Jak was yelling for us to get into the kitchen. ¡°Well see you Monday then¡± I hadn¡¯t forgiven him completely for the hole in my wing, but like Farel had said, I¡¯d also bitten off his fingers so we were even in that regard. Even if I was sore about it, he seemed ok-ish so I should probably try to work on forgiving him ¡°Yeah see you around¡± I waved back as he trudged off down the road.
¡®Honey for sale¡¯ was written on painted sign with little bees and honeycomb drawn around the words. I lifted my hand to knock, unsure if I should wait of just go in since the door was slightly ajar. I¡¯d come here first thing in the morning and the sun was still low in the sky casting long shadows as I pushed open the door ¡°Hello?¡± I called looking inside. In contrast to the evil hag¡¯s place, it was cluttered and disorganised with old furniture, books, clothes and random items lying around. I jumped as a door opened and a tall man walked out cleaning his large round glasses ¡°Well hello there, are you here to buy some honey? The Orcs got into my stocks but the [Guards] chased them off so I¡¯ve still got a good bit left¡± ¡°No sorry, I¡¯m here for the assistants job¡± I held up the post to show him. ¡°Ah yes, I need another hand around here, the Orcs really got into everything, broke some hives while they were here, not to mention they wrecked my stables and stole most of the milk and eggs, made off with a good bunch of chickens too¡± he grumbled. ¡°So what do you want me to do?¡± I had no idea what beekeeping actually involved. ¡°I already started working on new hives, most of its done but its calving season for the cows and I don¡¯t have time for this, but I can only stop the bees from swarming for so long. Come on, I¡¯ll show you what needs to be done¡± he gestured for me to come in and the closed the door behind me before walking down the narrow corridor, past a small kitchen and opening a back door into a small garden. A multitude of blooming flowers covered every inch of the garden and the buzzing of bees thrummed through the air. One side of the wooden fence around the garden was smashed and the hole was shoddily boarded up ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we have protective gear?¡± I asked nervously watching hundreds of bees flying around and crawling over flowers. The bees seemed to be drawn to him and landed on him crawling and moving their antennae before returning to the flowers. ¡°Nah, I¡¯m a [Beekeeper], they know me and I have a Skill that dissuades them from stinging¡± he ambled down a step and onto the slabs of stone resembling a path ¡°I¡¯ll explain how to fit it all together and I¡¯ll show you how to check the hives and clean them. Though let me be clear¡± he turned and looked at me intensely ¡°You break anything or hurt my bees, you can forget about being paid¡± I nodded ¡°Sure¡± I said running my fingers over my bandaged hand. Though I was partly doing this for money to pay Jak back for my treatment, I was also curious if I could level [Tactician]; bees were new for me and were much better equipped to fight than ants, not to mention they could fly. ¡°Just so we understand each other and I¡¯m not paying you for slacking off either¡± he nodded and turned to walk over to the hives. There were rows and rows of wooden hives lined up at the back of the garden, several hives on the right side had clearly been damaged and had been roughly fixed up but were in dire need of replacing. The one on the furthest edge looked ready to collapse at any moment. A small paved clearing in front of the hives (possibly the only part of the yard not covered in flowers) was littered with evenly cut stacks of wooden slates, frames and other parts along with an open toolbox. ¡°For now you¡¯ll just put new hives together, I¡¯ll show you how to do it but then I have to go, the cows need milking and one of the calves is coming today. Also don¡¯t go near the bees or the hives, we¡¯ll see how you do today, I don¡¯t have time to show you how to clean and check the hives, so if you manage alright today we can cover that tomorrow¡± he walked towards the piles of materials on the ground and started picking up pieces, barely sparing me a glance. How he was so sure that a cow was going to give birth today? Maybe it was a Skill or they were inducing birth. One hive was already partly put together so he started showing me where all the parts went. He didn¡¯t give me many opportunities to talk as he rambled on about how to attach everything, before hurrying off talking about the calf coming. The door slammed shut as he disappeared into the house and I stood there, surrounded by bees holding a book with instructions on how to build a hive. I swallowed suddenly feeling very alone when the door clanged shut, did the buzzing get louder? I turned to look at the hives and the bees that had previously been avoiding me, fluttered closer. I stood stock still, breathing through my mouth, suddenly very aware of the sheer amount of bees in this area and how much I did not want to piss them off. He¡¯d said we didn¡¯t need protective gear due to his Skill, but did that also extend to me when he wasn¡¯t there? A bee buzzed closer and I watched it slowly zooming around in front of my face before settling on my shoulder. Chapter 15 Activating [Battle sense] I carefully watched the bee on my shoulder; it was blue but had odd green tendrils curled around it. Looking around at the other bees, they too all had the gently swaying green streaks wrapped around their furry bodies. I had never seen something that wasn¡¯t just one colour, but it was probably the beekeeper¡¯s Skill persuading the bees to view me as an ally even though they might not have been inclined too. Breathing out shakily I slowly sank to my knees and sat down between the piles of materials. The bee on my shoulder fluttered off and joined the mass bees bumbling about as a gentle breeze stirred them up before they settled on the multi-coloured flowers again. Curiously I attempted to use [Formation] on a bee to get it to fly up but I could feel the Skill failing, I supposesince we weren¡¯t really allies it wouldn¡¯t work. I looked down at the book in my hands and flipped it open to the bookmarked page. It was a detailed diagram of a completed honeybee hive with labelled parts and the next few pages explained how to build one. I sighed in relief, the beekeeper¡¯s explanation had been quite rushed and I wasn¡¯t sure if I could have managed without instructions. Looking up I surveyed the area around me; the toolbox was open with a small bag of variously sized nails propped against it. A lot of the tools were missing or strewn about the floor between stacks of materials and bees were currently crawling over everything. I was getting more worried about how to do this without getting stung or accidentally squashing one inadvertently making them my enemies. If I could make them my allies first, I could use [Formation] to get them to move out of my way to build the hives in peace. Thinking back, I had made the ants my allies by helping them in a fight but as far as I could see the bees weren¡¯t fighting anything, just flying around gathering nectar and pollen. Other than bears, what would attack bees? I doubted a bear was going to waltz into the village to steal honey and even if it did, its not like I could fight a bear so it was a pretty pointless thought. Ants had tonnes of predators, which made it a significantly easier to practice fighting since they were constantly being hunted. Then again, they weren¡¯t fire ants so they were sort of terrible at fighting back, unlike bees, which made my job as [Tactician] harder. Maybe if I built them a new hive they¡¯d view me as an ally? I didn¡¯t have many other ideas for becoming allied right now but building the hive without getting allied status first would make be harder.Out of ideas I read the instruction book and satisfied that it wasn¡¯t too complicated I reached for the bag of nails and hammer, almost dropping it when I picked it up.
Made by a skilled Blacksmith with the use of [Enforce power], this hammer provides +3 strength Bonus stats when wielded.
I paused to inspect the hammer, it was lighter than expected, but maybe that was just due to my increased strength. It just looked like a normal hammer; a long wooden shaft with a comfortable grip and a metal head with theheavier side shaped in a flat circular surface and the other side flattened with a triangular gap for pulling out nails with. Nothing stood out or indicated it had any bonus stats before I¡¯d picked it up. I knew items that increased Bonus stats existed, but this was the first time I¡¯d come across any. I checked my status, which did indeed have +3 under Bonus stats for strength next to it. I put the hammer down and the +3 changed back to +/-0 and back to +3 when I picked it up again. I grinned; my strength was 6 so +3 made a very significant difference. I tucked the hammer into my belt to pull over the half built hive, but the +3 disappeared. Frowning I thought back to the notification; I had to wield the hammer for the strength bonus. It turned out that literally just meant I had to hold it in my hand, anything else and it didn¡¯t work. Irritated I clamped the hammer against the hive under my hand and dragged it over, that way I was technically holding it, even if it was a bit awkward, but my overall strength was still increased. I sat down and held up the materials, luckily they were all cut into the right sizes so all I had to do was put it together. With the sun over head and bees buzzing around me I got to work, I had to stop occasionally to refer back to the manual or to carefully shoo some bees away, but overall I made good progress. I hummed lightly as I worked; this type of work was far more gratifying than washing dishes.
You have unlocked the Class: [Carpenter]
I was about to brush the notification away, but hesitated, though I really had no long term interest in carpentry I could always get rid of a Class; people did it every week at apprenticeships so why not take it? It might help with building the hives and I was curious about different Classes. Selecting [Carpenter] I took a look at whatSkills I had available.
[Carpenter Lvl 1]
Skill points: 10
Skills: [None]
Skills available: [Find flaw] ¨C 10 Skill points [Measure materials] ¨C 10 Skill points [Equal edges] ¨C 10 Skill points
Just like with [Tactician], at level 1 I received 10 Skill points and 3 Skills costing 10 Skill points each. Maybe that was the standard for level 1 of every Class? I wasn¡¯t sure if the first 3 Skills would be the same for everyone, though I was pretty confident that later Skills would vary among people. I wasn¡¯t going to keep the Class so it didn¡¯t really matter which Skill I picked, though since all the materials were already the right size, I doubted I wouldneed [Measure materials]. I wasn¡¯t sure how the other two worked and deliberating a bit I picked [Find flaw] since I figured it might at least tell me when I did something wrong.
[Find flaw]
Detect errors in constructed items
That was a predictable description and not too complicated. I tried to activate the Skill, but even though I could feel the rightness of the Skill working, I couldn¡¯t notice anything different. Frowning I focused on the almost finished beehive. Still nothing. I reached over to turn it on its side and the moment my hands made contact, the beehive lit up in faint soft golden hues with smaller areas of light red. Pausing I took it in, just like with [Battle sense] the colouring was faint since the Skill was only level 1, but unlike [Battle sense] it seemed like it was confined to items I was touching. I sat back a bit disappointed, a small part of me had hoped that I¡¯d gotten rare and special Skills, but now if I had to guess, [Battle sense] was probably a fairly common Skill available to [Tacticians]. I briefly thought back to [Steel carapace], it was my most expensive Skill and maybe it was a rarer Skill as from what I knew, most [Tacticians] unlocked their Class through a school and training, so chances were they didn¡¯t practice with insects. Though that didn¡¯t necessarily mean it was better than what other [Tacticians] unlocked, I really had no reference points to compare and all of this was based on assumptions and speculations. Looking back at the hive I was holding, I focused on some of the red areas, mostly it was nails that hadn¡¯t been hammered in perfectly straight and some wooden boards that weren¡¯t perfectly aligned to fractions of mm. I scowled at it, the Skill was over critical, the hive was fine and what difference did it make if a nail was half a mm to the left of being completely straight in the wood. I glared at the hive, the Skill was just making me feel bad about the hive, I thought I¡¯d done pretty well. I suppressed the irrational urge to kick the hive across the room. Closing my eyes I took a deep breath before picking up the hammer and nails again to finish the hive. This time using the Skill to alert me when something wasn¡¯t exactly perfectly lined up, even though it did drive me bit crazy with how hard it was to satisfy the Skills definition of ¡®not flawed¡¯.
¡°Hey not too shabby¡± the voice jolted me out of my concentration and I almost dropped the nail I was holding. I turned to see the beekeeper standing behind me scrutinising the completed hive and the new one I had started. My progress had slowed down as I became a perfectionist, but the end result was a structurally sound hive. ¡°Thanks¡± I said watching him, the sun had moved across the sky and I looked like I¡¯d been here for halfof the day. I deflated a bit; maybe I should have done more? It was probably fine though since the hives were fairly large and the beekeeper seemed okwith my progress. ¡°Calf came, male unfortunately but nothing to do about it. Stable hands can handle the rest, anyway I came back to check you, but you finished a hive so lets move the bees into their new home¡± he straightened and moved to start lugging the new hive towards the broken ones. I stood up and trotted behind him as he settled the new hive next to the most damaged one, before carefully moving the considerably heavier damaged one to the side and putting the new one in its place. ¡°Now then¡± he turned to squint down at me as he leaned on the new hive with one tanned arm ¡°The bees won¡¯t be happy about being moved, I¡¯ll keep them calm so they won¡¯t do anything unless you do something stupid, so don¡¯t do anything stupid ok?¡± I nodded nervously. ¡°How many bees are in that hive?¡± I asked ¡°About 60 000¡± I honestly wasn¡¯t sure if that was a lot or not so I just nodded a bit cautiously. ¡°Now this hive is quite damaged, I¡¯m not sure how many frames are salvageable, it was only so much I could do to stop the queen form taking her bees and swarming¡± ¡°Why do bees swarm?¡± I hoped that wasn¡¯t a stupid question as I watched him assess the old hive. ¡°Swarming is when the queen takes half or so of the worker bees and looks for a new home, usually in spring or if there isn¡¯t enough space for expansion¡± he said absent mindedly as he peered through the large hole in the hive before pulling back ¡°Alright, some of frames in the brood chamber are damaged, but I think we can save maybe 6 of them¡± When I had made the new hive, the brood chamber had had 10 frames so assuming the old one was the same then that wasn¡¯t too bad considering the extent of the damage.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. He opened the hive and very carefully lifted out a frame positively covered in bees and very gently moved it into the new hive. I watched wide eyed very aware that I had no protection and was relying on his Skills to protect me ¡°Ok you can do the next one, its not hard¡± I stared at him and hesitantly move to the hive, I really needed gloves ¡°Hold it here¡± he indicated where to hold the next frame and I reached out putting my hands on the frame, inhaling sharply and freezing when bees touched my fingers. Their feelers investigated my hands but didn¡¯t attack. I fought the urge to snatch back my hands and I lifted it out slowly like he said and carefully moved it over to the new hive, inserting it like he said. When I finally let go I frantically rubbed my hands trying to get the feeling of insects crawling over them off. I helped him add the salvaged frames and 4 new ones, not quite getting used to the feeling of bees crawling along my hands, but tolerating it and at some point the blue bees streaked with green had changed to solid green. Though only the bees from this hive changed to green, the bees from other hives didn¡¯t seem to care either way but that was to be expected. The beekeeper added the bees from the damaged frames into the brood chamber near the new frames before fixing the queen excluder on top, which was basically just a horizontal grid with holes large enough for worker bees but too small for the queen to fit through. Similarly, on top of that came 2 honey supers with 10 frames each, which were unfortunately far more damaged than the frames from the brood chamber. These 2 supers were where most of the honey was stored, though it would be a while before they would be ready to collect. Finally the crown board and roof were added.
You have unlocked the Class: [Animal handler]
I frowned, wouldn¡¯t it have made more sense for me to unlock [Beekeeper]? I watched as the beekeeper inspected the 13 damaged frames from the honey super and sighed, parts were broken or missing, clearly the Orcs had made some attempt to take honey, but hadn¡¯t had time or finesse to do it properly. ¡°We¡¯ll give them some time to get used to the new hive¡± he commented looking around at the other hives ¡°We still have 2 other hives that need replacing, the restcan probably get away with just having a few parts replaced¡± he looked down at me critically ¡°You managed better than I expected, we¡¯ve still got half a day so go eat lunch and keep working until I get back, I need to sort out some things with the cows, the stable hands can only manage so much before something goes wrong¡± his expression soured a bit, hand scratching his short gray hair. ¡°See you later then¡± he started walking off before turning around ¡°Oh and don¡¯t get overconfident thinking that coz you helped move one hive that you can handle the bees. Don¡¯t touch the hives, or try to open any of them, or try to move a new hive by yourself. You will get stung, a lot and I won¡¯t pay you if you mess up, clear?¡± he looked at me intensely, impressing that message on me and I nodded quickly. ¡°I won¡¯t touch the hives¡± ¡°Good¡± he nodded and disappeared into the house, closing the door behind him leaving me with the bees again. Only this time, one hive was allied with me; a smile curled my lips as I looked back at the new hive, and the faintly green bees buzzing around it. I thought back to the [Animal handler] notification, maybe that would help with directing the bees, besides, [Carpenter] hadn¡¯t levelled and honestly that experience had been more frustrating than rewarding. Without pause I tried deactivating [Carpenter] and a new notification came up.
Are you sure you wish to remove [Carpenter] from your Class 2 slot? Yes/No? Note: All level progress, Skills and augmented Stats will gradually be lost
Selecting yes a wave of nausea hit me and I folded forwards clutching my stomach, falling to my knees and bracing myself on one hand as the feeling roiled through me. For a good minute I was bent forwards mouth open trying not to retch with my eyes closed. My whole body ached and thrummed with displeasure. The feeling receded as quickly as it had started and I was left sitting on the floor panting as the scent of flowers permeated the air and bees flew around unconcerned by my nauseous episode.My[Carpenter] Class had only been at level one, it must be god awfulto remove a higher-level Class. It hadn¡¯t lasted long, but why hadn¡¯t anyone mentioned this would happen if I removed a Class?Then again, this reaction to removing a Class was probably fairly common knowledge since school children routinely took and dropped Classes on a weekly basis for apprenticeships. My breathing slowed and I began to rethink taking [Animal handler]. I mean what could I really gain from that at level 1, I could already direct the bees with [Formation] and I was here to level [Tactician]. Also as short as it was, that minute had dragged on and the nauseas episode had been really really unpleasant. My legs felt a bit weak as I stood up and my vision wentdark for a second before going back to normal. The light headedness receded and the rushing in my ears slowly quieted. I blinked shaking my head a bit trying to get rid of any residual unpleasant feelings. Sitting back down near my partly constructed hive, I pulled out my lunch and started eating. Using [Formation] I was now able to direct green tinged bees to fly to unoccupied flowers instead of buzzing around me or reaching flowers which already had other bees on them. At first it was strange to plot a path through the air, but not difficult once I got used to it. They didn¡¯t always fly where I wanted them to, but mostly they followed my orders, but I did notice that I couldn¡¯t persuade them to veer from a job they were already doing, if one bee was flying back to the hive to deliver pollen, I couldn¡¯t get it to turn around to gather more. Maybe at a higher Skill level I¡¯d be able to do that, or bees were just particularly stubborn and dedicated. A significant portion of bees had landed on the broken frames, which the beekeeper had left on top of the empty damaged hive. Though the vast majority of the bees there were green, and in the process of transporting the honey back into their hive to put on the new frames, blue tinged bees had also landed on the frames and were stealing some of the honey. Very quickly those bees changed from blue to red. I stared at the scene unfolding, I¡¯d been preoccupied thinking about bee predators to fight, that I¡¯d completely missed the obvious that since these bees were from different hives, they were all in direct competition with each other. I stuffed the rest of my sandwich into my mouth and barely chewed before swallowing and ran over to the bees in a slow jog so not to alarm them. Standing Iwatched them; numerousgreen bees were focused on gathering their exposed honey to take back to the nest and while they did fight when they encountered bees from another hive, they did miss a lot of bees in their hurry to save as much of their honey as possible. I left any bees transporting honey back to the hive alone, they could do their job well enough, instead, using [Formation] I focused on those bees already in the process of defending. They would be the easiest to direct to fight since they were already fighting. Though in the whole garden a single hive was outnumbered, on these broken frames, my hive vastly outnumbered the intruders and I made abundant use of that advantage while it lasted. Grouping fighting worker bees together I directed them towards single red bees, letting them converge to either drive it away or kill it. It was a little gruesome to watch and order bees to murder each other, but they readily launched themselves at the red bees, stinging repeatedly and crowding them until the bees died. It was difficult to focus on fighting on so many fronts at once but my eyes flickered over the frames time and time again finding red bees and letting workers gang up on them. The mortality rate for red bees was far higher than for green bees since they worked in groups, driving home the advantage in numbers. But slowly that advantage was decreasing as the sweet smell was attracting more and more foreign bees to the site. Working desperately to protect as much of their hard earned honey as possible, I tried to ensure the survival of green bees while driving away red ones, but it was a race against time as more and more red bees landed, making off with precious honey. I wasn¡¯t sure how long I but it must have been a while since I slowly felt a headache coming on from the repeated use of [Formation] and I immediately discontinued both [Battle sense] and [Formation]. I rubbed my temple and looked down at the bees, now it just looked like an indistinguishable pile of bees crawling all over the broken frames. I had no idea who was ally or enemy, it just looked like a disorganised mess.
You have reached: [Tactician Lvl 6]
You have reached: [Battle sense Lvl 8]
You have reached: [Formation Lvl 5]
My irritation washed away and I grinned, that was exactly what I¡¯d hoped for. I looked back down at the bees longingly, this was a fantastic opportunity to level [Tactician] but I had promised myself that if I ever got the first signs of Skill strain, I would stop using Skills for a while. Slightly morose, but excited and sporting a mild headache I walked back to the partly constructed hive. Sitting down, I couldn¡¯t hold back my curiosity anymore and decided to see what new Skills I had.
[Tactician Lvl 6]
Skill points: 40
Skills: [Battle sense Lvl 8] [Formation Lvl 5]
Skills available: [Motivational speech] ¨C 10 Skill points [Convenient environment] ¨C 10 Skill points [Charming disposition] ¨C 20 Skill points [Project voice] ¨C 20 Skill points [Talent seeker] ¨C 30 Skill points [Massive march] ¨C 30 Skill points [Quick counter] ¨C 30 Skill points [Frenzy fight] ¨C 40 Skill points [Steel carapace] ¨C 50 Skill points
I had been level 4 with 10 Skill points and so far at each level I had gained 10 Skill points, but now I had jumped 2 levels and gained 30 Skill points. Maybe going form level 5 to 6 had given me 20 instead of 10? It would make sense to gain more Skill points the higher level someone was. I still couldn¡¯t afford [Steel carapace], but I really wanted a new Skill now, undecided I eagerly scanned my options. It was all I could do not to bounce up and down. There were quite a few that looked useful or interesting; this would be easer if I actually knew what any of them did. There was only one Skill that cost 40, so that had to be the best one I could afford right? Also [Frenzy fight] did look like it would be useful in a fight, I mean it did literally have the word fight in it.I deliberated on whether or not I should wait and gather Skill points but in the end I couldn¡¯t resist getting a new Skill. Hastily I picked it before I could change my mind and closed my eyes, peeking through one a bit to read the description.
[Frenzy fight]
Temporarily increase strength, stamina and effectiveness of offensive Skills while decreasing fear and fatigue of allies. Following Skill usage, recipient allies will experience a recovery period of increased fatigue and decreased stamina regeneration. [Frenzy fight] cannot be used on recipient allies during this time period. Note: Results of Skill depends on recipient ally¡¯s current statuses and overall condition. Skill cannot be used on self.
A smile crept over my face, no matter how vague the description was, the gist of the Skill was it would give my allies a brief offensive boost followed by a recovery period where they were more vulnerable. It didn¡¯t say how long the boost or the recovery period lasted but it probably varied depending on what allies I used it on going by the note at the bottom. Hopefully levelling the Skill would mean bigger a bigger boost for longer and a shorter weaker recovery period. I definitely had to test it some time to see how effective it was, and how did increasing effectiveness of offensive Skills work? I frowned looking over at the bees; honestly I had no idea if bees or any non-sentient being even had a status, or could use Skills for that matter. I mulled it over, its not like they would be able to read a status but if I had one why wouldn¡¯t they? Or was there an intelligence line for qualifying for a status? I shook my head, I had no way of finding that out without asking someone right now and I didn¡¯t want to look stupid again. A little giggle escaped me, maybe I could just get Daniel to ask the stupid questions. That was a bit mean though, but I hadn¡¯t completely forgiven him so maybe it was appropriate. Mournfully I closed all panels and restarted work on the hives; as much as I wanted to test it out, if I didn¡¯t do the work I was paid for, I wouldn¡¯t be here much longer. I focused on building the hive and ignoring the buzzing bees that was concentrated around the broken frames. It was still frustrating to miss that opportunity to level. Chapter 16 I lay in bed staring up at the ceiling fingering the coins the beekeeper had given me. It was dark, but cool moonlight lit up the centre of the room and Aron¡¯s gentle snores broke the silence occasionally. I¡¯d been at the beekeepers for 8 hours and minus the half an hour lunch break, he¡¯d paid me 52.5 coppers at 7 coppers per hour. It was the first time I¡¯d seen coins close up; they all had 8 edges with slightly rounded corners and displayed a coat of arms on one side and a blooming flower on the other. I¡¯d gotten 3 coins; one was significantly larger than the others had ¡®50 copper¡¯ stamped across the top, whereas the other two were a lot smaller and had ¡®2 copper¡¯ and ¡®0.5 copper¡¯ across the top respectively. I rubbed the cool metal between my fingers, feeling the smooth edges of the engravings against my scales. There was something profoundly satisfying about it. I¡¯d never cared about money much before, even though I hadn¡¯t been particularly rich or poor, money was important, but it hadn¡¯t been a priority. Now though, I very much liked having money. I disliked the idea of parting with it even more, I almost wanted to see how much I could accumulate and hoard. The ridiculous idea of swimming in a pool of gold coins like scrooge mcduck was suddenly incredibly appealing. Even though realistically that was an incredibly dumb use of money and I would obviously I would never have enough money to try it out. Sitting up I looked at the coins, turning them to admire the moonlight glinting on them. First though, I had to pay Jak back, I disliked a debt more than I disliked the idea of spending money. Guilt was still rooted in me that I had been a burden to Jak and Aron when they¡¯d helped me so much already. Carefully I tucked my coins into my inventory; it took up a total of 9.7g, plenty of space left, not that I had anything to use it for. I lay back down on the lumpy mattress before shooting back up and crawling forwards to rummage around in my rucksack. So far I¡¯d sort of used it as a mock wardrobe, but I¡¯d almost forgotten about the jerky and journal at the bottom. I flicked through the leather journal half-heartedly hoping I¡¯d missed something but it was still empty. Weighing it in my hands I put both it and the dried jerky into my inventory, putting my total weight at 785.4g. I didn¡¯t really need it, but I didn¡¯t have anything else to store in my inventory and maybe it would come in handy. Dried jerky would keep for a long time anyway, or would it even go bad in my inventory? It probably would eventually; I doubted the inventory froze its contents in time; that was a bit too crazy. Though I did wonder where things I put into it actually went. Folding my clothes a bit more neatly I tucked them back into my rucksack and lay down, pulling the thin blanket up to my chin. Pausing, I lifted my bandaged hand into the air and unwrapped the bandages. Incredibly, the wounds had already sealed leaving several pink lines across my blue palm and fingers. Not completely healed but not open wounds anymore. I traced the lines with my claws, there were no scales covering the skin there. My fingers felt stiff when I tried to extend them, but it didn¡¯t really hurt. I probably didn¡¯t need the bandages now, there wasn¡¯t really an infection risk anymore and the bandage hampered my movements. Throwing the used bandage at the bin, it slowed down mid-air, unravelling and drifting to the floor just short of the bin. I scowled at it willing it to move into the bin but it just lay there. With an irritated huff I stood up and stomped over to pick it up and throw it in the bin with a bit more force than necessary. I went to sit on my bed again. I swallowed hard, taking a deep breath I lifted my shirt to extend my wing. I looked at the clean bandage wrapped around it''s width. Carefully I slowly unwrapped the layers of bandages, hoping that somehow the hole had closed. It hadn¡¯t. Something in me broke a little seeing that plum sized hole ringed in soft pink tissue in the centre of my blue wing. Breathing heavily but slowly through my mouth I tried to control the urge to cry. Even when it was fully healed with blue leathery skin covering the scar tissue, the hole would still be there. Always. Quickly I folded my wings and lowered my shirt over them, still holding the bandages. I closed my eyes and tried to regulate my breathing. I squashed the feelings of shame that rose up at having my wings marred. I felt a bit hollow at accepting the reality, logically I wasn¡¯t even sure why this was so important to me; its not like I¡¯d had wings as a human. My mouth opened a bit wider as if to laugh but the movement ended there. It was important. Opening my eyes I looked outside at the night sky, turbulent emotions settled leaving me with grim acceptance. I had a hole in my wing and that wasn¡¯t going to change. I bunched up the bandage in my hand and threw it across the room, this time it landed in the bin with part of it hanging over the side. That was fine though. I lay back down hugging the pillow. I really needed to think about my long term plans here. So far I¡¯d been bumbling around trying to fit in without being discovered and learning more about this world. Magic. I wanted to learn magic, but that was a distant goal, I couldn¡¯t do that here. For that I had to travel to a city and get large funds to go to a school to learn. Honestly that looked very far-fetched and unrealistic in my current situation. [Tactician] had sort of grown on me, I hadn¡¯t ever planned on being one, but now that I was one, I kind of liked it. It was also the only thing I could cling to that would allow me to help if we were attacked again, especially if war was brewing. I hated standing by and doing nothing while other people fought and died but there was no way I could do anything against an Orc by myself. Maybe if I was older, maybe if I was stronger, maybe if I could do magic, but I wasn¡¯t any of those things. My tail calmly curled around my leg, the tip tapping my calf rhythmically. Besides, right now there were so many unknowns about my situation, so many important unanswered questions that I needed to address: how had I gotten here, why was I a child, why was I a drake, how could I get home? The only clue I had to go on was the mana wave from a week ago in Sefir, and I wasn''t even certain it was related. Pausing I rolled over to look at the ceiling, did I want to go home? I had no family and no one depended on me, I mean I had been doing ok, but its not like I had great prospects. I had friends that might miss me, but they would be ok without me, its not like I even had a dog to return to. I mulled it over. In the end I was undecided; this world wasn''t home and was considerably more dangerous than earth, but it was so different. I¡¯d only seen a tiny tiny part of it, but I wanted to find out what else existed here that was only in fairy tales on earth, what magic could actaully do and what mythical creatures lived here. What things I could do that would be deemed impossible on earth. Excitement bubbled up in response to endless possibilities. I might be able to fly. My smile dimmed a bit but didn¡¯t disappear, I would be able to fly I amended. The yearning to explore the sky hadn¡¯t disappeared; clenching my fists around the blanket I locked my jaw and narrowing my eyes at the bland ceiling. I promised myself then and there that no piddly little hole in my wings would stop me from soaring through the sky. Nodding to myself in satisfaction, some of the shame at having defective wings washed away a bit, I would still fly. Anyone who looked down on me for it could go fuck themselves; my wings were still glorious, with or without the hole. I relaxed a bit a looked over at Aron, drool was hanging out of his slightly opened mouth and his arms were splayed on either side of him. Mixed feelings of affection and gratitude welled up; I was going to protect him. Not just from the dangers of the world, but also he demons that plagued him. I sobered a bit and the smile fell from my lips as I flashed back to the look in his eyes when he said he hoped we¡¯d kill all the Sefirans. ¡°Whyr yu lookin at me like that?¡± Aron mumbled blinking his eyes blearily, yawning and rolling over to rub his eyes. ¡°I wasn¡¯t looking at you¡± I spun my face away from him scowling, kicking myself that I¡¯d been caught staring. ¡°Were too¡± he retorted waking up a bit. ¡°No I wasn¡¯t¡± why was I even denying it? He glared at me ¡°Fine¡± he fluffed his pillow aggressively and fell down on it turning away from me. ¡°Fine¡± I muttered and copied him turning my back to him. Something hit me in the back of the head and I spun around angrily to find his stinky sock hanging from my ear as he looked at me surprised, arm still outstretched before he grinned and giggled falling back onto the pillow. ¡°That went better than I thought¡± he chortled and I scrambled to yank the sock off, throwing it at him as hard as I could. Being a sock, it didn¡¯t land very hard but he still reflexively flinched and tried to block it.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. My irritation drained away slowly as I rolled my eyes and huffed trying to ignore his giggles ¡°Are you excited about tomorrow?¡± He shrugged and the smile on his face lost its brightness ¡°No school and lots of food, anyway I¡¯m going to sleep, night night¡± he yawned and rolled over again closing his eyes. I debated asking about the threat of war hanging over Valensir but thought better of it. Silently I watched the ceiling until I could hear his snores again.
¡°What¡¯s that?¡± ¡°Shut up¡± Daniel glared at me, voice muffled as he had a strip of cloth fastened to his nose with a laundry peg. A grin curled at my lips ¡°You drank something that hag gave you right?¡± He glared at me silently. ¡°What did it do?¡± I asked, straining to control my smile. ¡°None of you business¡± he turned away and I lunged for the peg but his arms came up and he blocked me. Unfortunately for him, Aron came up behind him and snatched the peg before jumping away waving it in the air. ¡°Give it bac-¡° he lunged forward and sneezed. Purple soap bubbles erupted from his nose and rose into the air, shiny and squishy they floated before bursting with audible pops. Eyes wide we stared in silence. He sneezed again and we burst out laughing, ¡°Don¡¯t say I didn¡¯t warn you¡± I crowed in cruel delight that I wasn¡¯t the only one who had suffered while Aron ran around me in circles as Daniel chased him angrily. ¡°Aron give him his stuff back¡± an irritated voice came from ahead I looked to see Jak giving us and annoyed look ¡°Sorry grandpa¡± Aron came to a stop, reddening slightly and shoving the laundry peg back at Daniel who managed to stop sneezing purple soap bubbles long enough to fasted it to his nose again. Jak looked forwards again and kept walking while we trailed behind quietly, it was around lunchtime and everyone was headed to the village square. A lot of houses had flags hanging from the windows, both the striped blue and white one and the decorative red and gold one. I really needed to find out what those were for; I assumed one was the national flag. I leaned sideways to gloat ¡°I told you so¡± I whispered to Daniel grinning. ¡°I¡¯m not giving up¡± he retorted glaring at me. The smile fell from my lips and I looked at him incredulously ¡°You¡¯re actually going back?¡± ¡°Of course; she makes magic potions. I can cough up all the soap bubbles in the world and it would be worth learning that¡± he looked at me determination blazing in his blue eyes. Irrational anger surged ¡°You¡¯re still going to regret it¡± I said sourly looking away; it irked me that I¡¯d failed and given up whereas he¡¯d continued. ¡°No I won¡¯t¡± he said smugly ¡°I¡¯m going to be the greatest archer-alchemist-adventurer in the world¡± he bragged. ¡°You¡¯ve only got 2 Class slot idiot,¡± Aron added and I nodded ¡°Yeah how are you going to get around that?¡± He eyed us from the side as we walked ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll figure something out, its got to be possible to unlock more Class slots¡± Aron looked at him incredulously ¡°Yeah possible, but almost impossible, you¡¯d have more luck unlocking 5 new base stats. Only insanely powerful people manage to unlock a new Class slot and get an awesome epic rare Class and you¡¯re definitely not one of those people¡± he looked at Daniel a little haughtily and I nodded in agreement though that was new to me. ¡°Yeah well I¡¯m going to be the greatest adventurer there ever was so I¡¯ll definitely unlock a new Class slot!¡± Daniel said hotly glaring at us, the tips of his ears turning a little pink. The laundry peg on his nose made it impossible to take his claims seriously. ¡°No you won¡¯t¡± Aron sneered ¡°Besides I already have 3 Class slots¡± he bragged proudly and I rolled my eyes a bit at the posturing. Daniel ground his teeth and was about to reply when the thick crowds ahead erupted into cheering. We all turned forwards, we¡¯d just about reached the village square, but we were stuck behind a wall of bodies and I was too short to see over the adult crowd. ¡°Come on¡± Aron grabbed my wrist and darted forwards to duck and weave between bodies. Daniel quickly followed and I could see other children doing the same, just like the last time I¡¯d been here. Squeezing between bodies we came to an opening along the empty path down the middle of the square leading to the stage. This time the square had been decorated with numerous brightly coloured flowers. Banners in blue and white and red and gold had been hung everywhere and we¡¯d arrived just in time to see the small parade of soldiers in ceremonial uniforms marching down the central path to the stage. Behind them rode the man who¡¯d given the speech and a few others, all in uniforms covered in golden tassels and fine embroidery. They waved as they passed by and people clapped and cheered. When they reached the stage, they dismounted and walked up onto the stage. The uniformed soldiers took up places around the stage, sun glinting off the decorative sheaths and belt buckles. Their blue and white uniforms, while pristine, looked a bit impractical for battle but I was assuming this was all ceremonial get up. I clapped slowly, taking it all in. The same man from last time lifted a hand and quieted the crowd. He then proceeded to give a very rehearsed speech about the greatness of Valensir and the honour in fighting for our country and the royal family. There were some mixed reactions in the crowd but most people nodded along though going by some of the glazed expressions, I assumed it was the same speech each year. The man paused and looked across the crowd ¡°And now, I would like to welcome this year¡¯s children in their journey to adulthood by pledging their allegiance to country and crown¡± he made a hand gesture and the crowd turned to the other end of the central path were a group of roughly 12 teenagers had gathered; I recognized most of them from the upper class at school. Dressed in what were presumably their best clothes, the group of 15 year olds started walking towards the stage. The crowd cheered them on too and I could see the varying expressions of excitement ranging to nervousness. One short girl near the back was looked very pale and like she was about to throw up under the pressure. In contrast, near the front swaggered a tall lizardfolk girl grinning and waving in supreme confidence as she led the rag tag bunch of teenagers to the stage. They stopped just in front of the stage and lined up in practiced even rows looking up at the uniformed man on the stage. I noticed this time the village chief wasn¡¯t on the stage though it was quite possible that that was normal for this ceremony. ¡°You¡¯ve all learned the oath and now it is time for you to swear your allegiance. If you chose not to, you understand that you will no longer be under the protection of her majesty the queen and lose all rights as a citizen of Valensir¡± his sharp eyes scanned the group, some stood taller under his gaze and others stared at the floor nervously. I shifted uncomfortably, clearly everyone knew this, but losing citizenship just because you didn¡¯t pledge allegiance to the queen went against all my modern values of freedom. Also I assumed losing protection of the queen meant the army, village guards etc. would no longer be obliged to help you. While it was presented as a choice, it was a pretty harsh choice to offer a 15 year old that clearly didn¡¯t have many other options; it was basically coercion. I frowned as I watched the tall lizardgirl walk onto the stage to a podium with an enchanted stone on a deep red cloth with golden embroidery. She confidently placed her hand on it, speaking loudly and clearly, her voice rolling over the crowd ¡°I hereby pledge my allegiance to Valensir, the royal family and the rightful ruler; I pledge obey their rule and heed their call to arms to defend Valensir and the crown against any who seek to harm them. I pledge allegiance to Lady Trostin and her heirs¡± the stone lit up ¡°I pledge allegiance to Duke Rostrik and his heirs¡± the stone lit up again ¡°And I pledge allegiance to Queen Rosthal and her heirs¡± the stone glowed a final time before she removed her hand as the crowd clapped. The soldiers saluted her and she grinned saluting back before she moved to take a place on stage. I watched a bit worried, the enchanted stone glowing strongly indicated that this allegiance pledge wasn¡¯t just words, there was likely some real meaning and consequences. Also notably there was nothing about following and upholding laws, just about obeying and being ready to fight for the current ruler. I frowned, what happened if you broke the pledge? And if I remembered correctly, Duke Rostrik was the one who had recently won against that other Duke and taken a city. The next teenager walked onto the stage and repeated the same oath the first girl had given. At some point I stopped listening, only clapping when other people clapped until they all stood on the stage; none of them had refused to pledge allegiance. The heavily decorated soldier stepped forward again and looked over the assembled teenagers ¡°Now, those of you wishing to train as soldiers step forward, the very best of you will one day serve in Lady Trostin¡¯s guard¡± about a third stepped forward with little hesitation and uniformed soldiers walked along the rows handing out what looked like small brass tokens which they proudly pinned to their shirts. The man nodded and cracked a thin smile ¡°Alright, that¡¯s it, lets celebrate¡± and the crowd erupted in cheers as the teenagers enthusiaticaly hopped off the stage to rejoin their parents and friends. The crowds broke as people milled about while others quickly set about opening stalls in the square, mainly selling food, toys and miniature flags along with other bits and bobs. The whole thing was a little reminiscent of a school fare. ¡°Come on, I want to see if Tycel is here so I can get the lute before we have to go help grandpa¡± Aron said urgently tugging on my wrist, eyes bright. I grinned and followed him as he dragged me through the moving crowd, ignoring Daniel¡¯s shouts for us to wait. Zigzagging along the lines of stalls rapidly being set up he barely slowed as he scanned them trying to find Tycel¡¯s. Spotting her suddenly he lurched in her direction, still dragging me and I almost tripped. I scowled but didn¡¯t say anything when I saw his oblivious expression as he fixated on Tycel, almost bouncing when he arrived at her stall. ¡°Did you bring the lute?¡± he burst out excitedly as he came to a stop and I swerved to avoid crashing into him. ¡°Well since you repeatedly asked me to bring it today since you would have the money, yes Aron I did bring it¡± she looked down at him amused as he tried to restrain himself from jumping up and down. ¡°Yeah 4 silver¡± he impatiently thrust a hand in her direction with 2 silver coins and a bunch of copper coins. Aron didn¡¯t seem to notice that she hadn¡¯t even finished setting up her stall and he was holding her up but with a mixture of exasperation and affection she took his coins, looking them over briefly before pocketing them ¡°I kept you lute separate since I figured you¡¯d want it quickly¡± She bent over behind the stall and opened a box before pulling out a medium sized wooden lute. It was well worn and the varnish was chipped in places ¡°I had the missing string replaced for you, don¡¯t worry I won''t charge extra¡± she smiled down at him as she handed it to him. He swallowed looking at it in awe ¡°Thank you¡± he looked up eyes watering as he clutched it to his chest. ¡°But be careful with it, its not very durable¡± she warned him and he nodded rapidly ¡°I¡¯ll take good care of it¡± he swore and turned to me, beaming, eyes glistening he whispered ¡°I¡¯m really going to do it¡± he held the old lute almost reverently and I couldn¡¯t stop the smile spreading across my face. ¡°If we work really hard at the stall, I¡¯m sure Jak will let us go early and you can go try it out¡± He nodded absentmindedly stroking the lute before it vanished. I curbed my surprise realising he must have tucked it into his inventory. ¡°Yeah lets go¡± he looked up grinning brightly. Chapter 17
You have unlocked the Class: [Hawker]
I waved the notification away as I drizzled the steaming venison meatball kebab in a white sauce and handed it to the waiting woman. She quickly handed it to her impatient 5 year old and gave me the money with a friendlysmile. I smiled back, cheeks aching a bit from all the forced smiling I¡¯d been doing ¡°Enjoy your food¡± I said as she left and turned to the next customer. Nodding along I passed the next order to Hitch who was frantically trying to keep up as Jak churned out order after order. The delicious smell of cooking meat wafted from our stall and luckily handing out most of our food on sticks meant there was almost no washing up involved. We¡¯d been at this for a while and from the corner of my eye I could see Aron¡¯s leg was shaking up and down as he took orders. Occasionally he discretely slipped Bandu some scraps though I knew for a fact Jak had seen him do it but was ignoring it. Her wet nose kept gently nudging his thighas she sat hunched under the stall table. I was impressed with how patient he¡¯d been considering how desperately he seemed to want to get this over with to try out his lute. ¡°Alright, you can go, we can handle it from here¡± a roughvoice grumbledfrom behind us and I twistedto see Jak watching us over the grill ¡°Its midsummer, you should go have fun and you clearly have places to be¡± he grunted and waved us off. Aron¡¯s face split into a smile and he tore off his apron ¡°Thanks grandpa¡± he hugged Jak around the waist while Jak grumbled and patted him on the head before Aron ran out of the stall. ¡°Thanks Jak¡± I said nodding and following Aron without looking back. Aron stopped and spun around looking determined as he pointed at me ¡°It¡¯s your first midsummer here so as your big brother I¡¯m going to show you around¡± I looked at him a bit surprised ¡°Don¡¯t you want to try out your lute?¡± I asked cautiously, tail swishing in confusion. Thedetermination in his eyes flickered but he stayed on course ¡°I can do that anytime but I can only show my little sister around her first midsummer festival once¡± he said proudly, before adding ¡°But we don¡¯t have to stay for the whole thing yeah?¡± slight hopefulness in his voice made me grin and I nodded ¡°Sure, lead the way and we can leave early" He beamed and turned ¡°Ok first thing, we need is flags¡± he strode to one of the stalls selling numerous miniature flags on little sticks that you could wave. Curiously I followed and he lifted up a small pair, close up I could see the first one was divided vertically with what looked like a griffin in the middle, the front half was gold on a red background and the back half was red on a gold background. ¡°Here you can have Valensir¡¯s flag¡± he handed me the red and gold one ¡°And I¡¯ll take the Trostin¡¯s flag¡± he kept the other one which had a symmetrical blue and white flower on a stripy blue and white background. Together the flags cost 2 coppers so we paid for one each. Clutching them we ran past colourful stalls, darting between people, pointing out anything interesting and stopping to look at anything cool. ¡°Hey guys!¡± a voice called and I looked up to see Daniel waving at us, smiling as he made his way to us. Aron scowled and tugged my wrist ¡°Come on, before he catches up¡± Letting myself get dragged into a gap between 2 large ale barrels infront ofa stall I whispered, ¡°He¡¯s not that bad you know¡± as we crouched down, ducking our heads down to the stall table level. Aron made a face at me ¡°He¡¯s annoying and I don¡¯t like him. Besides he shot you and almost drowned me¡± he did have a point there. ¡°It was a misunderstanding¡± I said a bit weakly ¡°Besides I bit his fingers off so we¡¯re even now,¡± I rebutted. ¡°Even with you maybe¡± he glowered ¡°I still don¡¯t like him, you should have bitten off all his fingers,¡± he muttered. I rolled my eyes and bumped his shoulder knocking him off balance a bit. He lost his serious expression looking a bit flustered before grinning shamelessly. He looked up and lost his smile ¡°Damn it, he¡¯s still coming this way, no don¡¯t look, your blue head stands out too much¡± he shoved my head down as I started lifting it and I felt mild outrage at that comment but let it slide as he pushed me under a stall table ¡°Go go go, before he gets here¡± he hissed and crawled under the stall table to hide behind the long blanket handing over the side. ¡°Can I help you two?¡± An irritated, overly polite voice sounded from behind us and we turned to see a very annoyed looking stall owner glare down at us hiding under his stall table. ¡°Ah sorry we were just going, sorry¡± I squeaked, god this was embarrassing. Daniel was near the stall now calling our names. Mentally swearing I crawled forwards under the table still clutching my flag in one hand, ducking under the blanket of the next stall as Aron followed me. Coming out now would make us look stupid and mean, both of which we kind of were. Cheeks burning I whispered apologies to the stall owners when they noticed us. A few stalls down, there was a gap between the stalls large enough to fit through. I wriggled between them, trying to draw minimum attention to us before popping out the other side. It was quieter and more shadowed there, an empty space between the backside of the stalls and the edge of the square. Aron squeezed through behind me ¡°Great I think we lost him¡± he said turning to peer through the gap we came through. I glared at the back of his head and punched him in the shoulder ¡°That was so unnecessary, if you really don¡¯t want to hang out with him you could have just told him we were busy or had to work or something¡± He rubbed his shoulder in exaggerated movements and then shrugged ¡°Didn¡¯t think of that¡± ¡°You- idiot¡± I tried punching him again in exasperation but he dodged back almost tripping on some unused wooden planks on the floor before catching himself ¡°You¡¯re the idiot¡± he shot back. I rolled my eyes ¡°That doesn¡¯t even make sense idiot¡± He grinned unabashed walking passed me to look through the gap again. Losing his smile I stood on tiptoes to look over his shoulder, Carston and his whole crew were there buying snacks laughing and jostling each other. Somehow Daniel had attached himself to their group and was talking to Kaid. I pulled back watching Aron who stiffly glowered through the gap. ¡°Come up, let¡¯s go, it doesn¡¯t matter¡± I walked a few meters along the square edge, stopping at the opening of an alley and looking back at Aron who hadn¡¯t moved. He already didn¡¯t like Daniel and watching him get cozy with Kaid wasn¡¯t going to help that. Hearing muted voices I peered around the edge of the alley to see the chief and the soldier guy from the stage with bleak expressions along with a bunch of other uniformed people and guards standing in the alley talking quietly. I ducked back around the corner nervously and pressed against the wall, straining my ears to try to hear what they were saying. ¡°-happened last night, we only just got the message, but apparently they¡¯ve been in contact for the last few days¡± the deeper rolling male voice said. ¡°How soon will the army be here?¡± a grim feminine voice responded and my heart rate quickened, probably the chief. ¡°Not for a few days-¡° I strained but missed some parts due to a loud commotion in the square ¡°-uke Rostrik doesn¡¯t like it, he doesn¡¯t want to move and give up Renyn but he doesn¡¯t want Duchess Korsin¡¯s army here either, he¡¯s in a bad situation¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter, Sefir¡¯s army is weak anyway and they can¡¯t fight on multiple fronts¡± a younger arrogant male voice chimed in. ¡°Idiot, their army might not be as big as ours, but slave trade has made them rich and they have a lot of backers. They¡¯ll buy mercenary armies to bolster any gaps in their defence and they have the coin for good equipment. I hate to say it but one on one we¡¯re probably outmatched, just be glad Feldorn also declared war on them¡± the older voice retorted harshly. ¡°But we won¡¯t lose right?¡± the younger male voice sounded more hesitant. ¡°Of course not, Valensir hasn¡¯t lost a war in several hundred years, but we don¡¯t have to be stupid about it, overconfidence will get you killed¡± the deeper voice was grim but unyielding. I breathing through my mouth I held still in shock, it sounded like war had been declared ¡°We''re heading back to Lady Trostin within the hour. It only happened last night so chances are Sefir won¡¯t move yet, besides this is only a small village, they¡¯re far more likely to strike a city if they can even manage to mobilise for an attack before our army gets here¡± he tried to sound optimistic but I caught the underlying truth; if Sefir did strike first, our village was screwed. Backup wasn¡¯t coming for a few days so we could only pray we were insignificant enough to fly under their radar.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°I¡¯ll make an announcement later, we¡¯ll prepare for evacuation and ready supplies for when the army gets here¡± the chief responded somberly. Our tiny village was on the land bordering the republic of Sefir, but the border was long so hopefully we would be fine. I swallowed stiffly as I heard receding footsteps in the alley, shortly after I dared peer around the corner, but it was empty, nothing to prove what I¡¯d just heard. Leaning against the wall I sank to the floor. We were at war. Why? No idea, something had happened with a massive mana wave that Sefir wanted keep hush hush and apparently our Queen and some other country called Feldorn saw that as a threat, but the republic of Sefir would rather go to war than explain. Then again that¡¯s what I could surmise from what the grunts in a tiny village had been told. Chances were there were other things going on behind the scenes. I shuddered and rested my head against the cool stone rolling the stem of the tiny flag between my fingers. In a world with monsters like Orcs, why would people still fight each other; we should band together and protect each other. Looking up at the blue sky, I calmed down, I suppose in all worlds people would find a reason to fight each other. ¡°Hey you ok?¡± Aron crouched in front of me looking at me with big brown eyes; I hadn¡¯t heard him come closer. Should I tell him? I shook my head and met his gaze, the chief was making an announcement later anyway and I wanted him to play the lute once without it being marred by the knowledge of war hanging over our heads. ¡°Yeah I¡¯m fine, what happened out there?¡± I nodded towards the stalls distracting Aron who readily burst into explanation ¡°Daniel got into a fight with Carston, don¡¯t know why but he got punched in the face and has a massive black eye¡± he said enthusiastically and I rolled my eyes, of course he¡¯d be happy at Daniel¡¯s misfortune even if it was at Carston¡¯s hands. ¡°So in a fight between them you¡¯d pick Carston¡¯s side?¡± I asked experimentally. ¡°Of course not¡± he exclaimed looking at me a bit outraged ¡°Daniel is annoying and I don¡¯t like him but Carston is just horrible¡± he paused ¡°Doesn¡¯t mean I didn¡¯t like seeing Daniel get knocked down¡± he grinned a teeny bit chagrined. Made sense I suppose. I stood up dusting my butt off ¡°Come on, I think we¡¯re done with the midsummer events, it¡¯s a bit loud here so lets go find somewhere quieter for you to play your lute¡± A broad smile split his face and he bounced up immediately ¡°Yes yes, lets go, I know a place no one will be now¡± and he trotted forward, urging me to speed up as he stopped every few meters to turn back and jump on the balls of his feet. ¡°Yeah yeah I¡¯m coming already¡± I said amused as I jogged after him as he tore down the alley previously occupied by the guards and soldiers. Stopping at a large double door halfway down the alley he hefted the large iron handles and pushed the door open. I stopped cautiously in surprise and looking up to take in theold stone building with a large tower attached to it ¡°Are you sure we can go in there?¡± I asked hesitantly. ¡°Of course, it¡¯s an Olde Church, anyone is allowed to go in¡± he slipped through the gap in the heavy doors and I darted through after him not wanting to be left alone in front of the ominous doors. A thin shaft of sunlight trickled in through the slowly closing gap but otherwise it was shickinlgy dark inside, before my eyes adjusted to the dim lightlet through the large windows covered in dust and cobwebs. It was a lot quieter inside, the hustle and bustle of the square seemed muted and far away suddenly. The tall ceiling rising hauntingly above us was only interrupted by thick stone columns holding it aloft and casting long shadows across the room. Aron confidently strode forwards throwing up small clouds of dust and I could see a worn path down the middle of the aisles where a few people had recently walked. I nervouslyhurried after him; sometimes I was impressed by his lack of fear when at other times he seemed so weak and fragile. I didn¡¯t like the large dark and empty aura of this place, it felt wrong and desolate. Jogging a bit to catch up with Aron I whispered ¡°Why are we here?¡± I winced, as my voice seemed to project through the large open space. He shrugged ¡°No one comes here¡± he looked at me intensely flushing slightly ¡°I like to go to the bell tower sometimes when I want to be alone, but don¡¯t tell anyone¡± ¡°I won¡¯t tell anyone,¡± I promised and he nodded, the tension in his neck relaxing a bit. Heducked under some faded red ropes and pushed open a wooden door carefully peering through. I frowned ¡°I thought you said we were allowed to be here?¡± I whispered. ¡°Yeah, just not up the bell tower since its still occasionally used for announcements. Besides, uncle Rudy usually gives bell tower shifts out as punishment because it¡¯s so boring so the guards are usually sleeping¡± true to his word I could see a man in guard armour slouching in a chair in the room, 2 long ropes dangled down near him from far over head. ¡°Come on, just be quiet¡± Aron whispered and snuck forward to the circular stone stairs next to the door. Softly stepping up them he disappeared around the corner and I quietly followed him. The guard didn¡¯t move and inch and I relaxed a bit once he was out of sight. Aron grinned at me conspiratorially and I returned the look, some elation at breaking rules washing through me. Silently we made our way up and I startedgetting frustrated withthe amount of steps. Every few meters slitted open windows with small alcoves appeared giving us some indication of how high we were getting. Breathing hard, we broke into a room with a single large polished bell hanging from the ceiling. 2 thickropes hung from inside it and dropped down the hole under the bell. Edging forward I leaned over to look down; it was more than large enough to fall through and I could make out the small form of the sleeping guard sitting in the room on the ground floor. Vertigo made me step back and looked at Aron who motioned for me to be quiet as he walked over to another wooden door. He opened it to reveal another set of stairs and I made a face at him while he rolled his eyes motioning for me to come closer. Quietly walking across the dusty room I walked up the first steps and Aron closed the door behind us. Jogging up the remaining steps we came out onto the roof of the bell tower. I squinted inthe bright sunlight before inhaled sharply as I adjusted to see the sunny blue sky spread out above me. Almost dropping my flag I ran to the edge of the stone bannister surrounding the flat roof. This had to be the tallest point in the village and you could see everything from here. The grasslands spread in every direction and I could make out tilled fields south of the village. Looking down I could see the small colourful figures of people moving around the square looking at stalls and the gentle breeze brought up the sounds of life from below. The almost looked like ants from up here and I felt no fear or vertigo in this open space unlike with the bell shaft. I leaned over the edge, breathing in the clean fresh air and part of me wanted to jump and spread my wings, taking to the sky, but rational thought dragged me back. I couldn¡¯t fly and a fall from here could kill me. I turned and jumped down from the bannister and looked at Aron who¡¯d already taken out his lute and was strumming it with utmost concentration. I couldn¡¯t help but smile as I watched him ¡°Need any help?¡± ¡°Nah I¡¯ve got this¡± he said jerking the lute away from me protectively as I came closer. ¡°Fine fine¡± I held my hands up in surrender and left him to figure it out. I walked back over to the bannister, looking out across the rolling hills and swaying grasslands, but I focused on the sounds coming from behind me. I tried not to wince at the out of tune twangs as he tried to adjust and tune the old lute. Slightly bored I rested my head on my hands eyes tracking random people and i could make out uniformed riders leaving the west gate before I sighed and dropped down a bit bored. Thoughtfully I straightened and took out the empty journal. Reflexively looking through its empty pages I asked, ¡°Hey do you have something to write with?¡± Aron looked up ¡°Sure, got a quill, why?¡± ¡°Can I have it?¡± ¡°Why?¡± he asked he stubbornly. ¡°I want to draw the village, now give it here¡± I held out my hand demandingly in irritation and he pulled out a quill and inkpot from his inventory, holding it up high ¡°What¡¯s the magic word?¡± Glowering at him I lunged and snatched it from him, luckily the inkpot was corked and didn¡¯t spill. He looked at me sourly but made no move to take it back ¡°Spoil sport¡± I huffed annoyed, refusing to give him the satisfaction of winning and stalked back to overlook the village. Sitting down I looked through the slats of the bannister and started to map out the village. I calculated that there were roughly 300 buildings, but I couldn¡¯t be bothered to draw all of them so only drew about 100, but I labelled all the main thingsI could identify. It was only a rough map, but I worked on it in deep concentration for a few hours, trying to get the proportions right.
You have unlocked the Class: [Artist]
Wouldn''t [Cartographer] have made more sense? Ignoring the notification I looked at the map spanning 2 pages in my journal. Kind of satisfied I leaned back toexaminethe finished product, it was a first draft and needed some work, but I¡¯d gotten in most of the places I knew and though the scale was a rough estimate, I knew the height of the nearest hill for a fact from geography at school. The other height lines I¡¯d added were honestly just guesses and I probably got them wrong. A shout came from behind me and I spun to see Aron standing grinning so broadly it must have hurt his cheeks. Eyes sparkling he looked at me ¡°I did it, I unlocked [Musician]!¡± he jumped up and down and I stood up tucking my journal into my inventory. ¡°Awesome, what Skills did you get?¡± I asked excitedly running over as he calmed down and focused on something in the air in front of him. ¡°Not sure, let me check¡± Waiting for him to finish reading through the options, I briefly scanned the horizon and froze, a sick feeling rising in my stomach. An enormous mass of riders was galloping towards the village. They were using the hills as cover and must have been out of sight of the few guards on the walls. I could hear Aron saying something but I couldn¡¯t focus on the words as I saw them break out from behind a hill and charge towards the east gate. They would be here within minutes. I jolted out of my daze as the sounds of their screaming battlecries in the distance became audible. Turning to Aron I could see his numb lax expression as he gaped at the oncoming horde. AN Hiatus Hey, I''m really sorry to anyone who enjoyed the story, but I''ve tried to write the next chapter multiple times and I realised I just didn''t enjoy it. If it was just one chapter then I could get through it, but this is the chapter where she uses her [Tactician] Class for the first time in a real battle and I kind of realised that I as much as I liked the story and characters, and I did have a lot of plans for what was going to happen, I just didn''t look forward to the prospect for writting about a [Tactician] character like I thought. Not to say I don''t like writing fight scenes, those are fun, but it was just a chore to write this and I came to the realisation that since there would eventually be a lot of war/fighting scenes in the future written from a tactical viewpoint, I would either start disliking the story or quality would drop to get it over with and I don''t want to do that. Otherwise I did like the story and I might return to it one day (Please don''t wait coz I''m not sure I will), its just that right now I feel like I bit off more than I could chew with this story. Writing about battles from a tacticians view instead of getting into the middle of the nitty gritty parts of a fight kind of came off as boring to write for me. Maybe I just didn''t do it right and I''ll find a way to portray it better in the future and I might return to this story, but right now it all felt flat and cold when I was trying to write this chapter and I don''t want to release a chapter I''m not happy with.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. So again, I''m really sorry to anyone who liked the story, sorry to dissapoint, but I don''t want to force myself to write a story I don''t enjoy writing and then have it go bad. Instead I am thinking about starting a different story (not sure how soon), something more centered about fighting, magic, romance etc, so standard RR stuff, nothing new and out of the box, but something that I would enjoy writing more. Not that I minded writing the slow start and pace of this story, but just where this was headed wasn''t something I looked forward to writing about. This was my first attempt at writing a story and I know its frustrating when an author drops a story so I am really really sorry to anyone who liked it. I know a lot in the story hasn''t been explained yet but I don''t want say anything here in case I do return to the story, but if anyone really wants certain things explained or is curious about where the story was going, feel free to PM me and ask. Thanks and sorry again.