I awoke to liquid hitting my lips which my half conscious mind had already swallowed before I had realised it.. A burning sensation surged through my body, erupting from every corner at once before eating its way inwards through me, closing in on my chest exploding and through my heart capillaries. The pain forced itself through me and my lungs clenched without my own doing a scream erupting from within me as I jolted fully awake.
I sat next to a muscle bound man wearing a leather apron. HIs red hair was tied to a ponytail which felt almost funny considering the horse ears poking out from the top. He looked like an older version of Pip.
“Rebecca′s uncle?”, I guessed, my throat scratching like steel wool. The man nodded. “This isn't how I expected to meet my niece′s husband." he said in a monotonous tone.
Rebecca entered the room. She was wearing a white shirt and a dark brown skirt. “Henry, you're awake!”, she said cheerfully and quickly made her way towards me. Her uncle stopped her.
“Beccy, he′s just sat up for the first time in two days, you'll break him all over again. Calm down.” Rebecca looked at her uncle for a few moments before taking a deep breath. “Sorry Uncle Timo.”
His face softened. “It's fine, just be careful.”, he said walking to the door. “Ill leave the two of you alone now. You should be fine now but give me a shout if you need anything.” He almost closed the door before peeking back in and saying. “Oh, and Henry, it's nice to meet you despite the… circumstances. Rebecca told me all about you. Glad to meet a noble who doesn't think of us as animals.”, with that he closed the door again.
We sat together for a few seconds before I tried filling the silence. “You look good in a skirt.”, I finally said. Rebecca snorted. “Thanks. I don't tend to wear them but my aunt insists on it. If you′re lucky you won't meet her.”
“Ill take your word for it.”, I said. “What did you do those two days?”, I asked.
“I was at the guild hall. I tried to see if I could get them to face any consequences for the way they acted.”, she sighed. “Had the receptionist and her supervisor not known you are a Rolander I wouldn't have even been heard out. And then it turns out that D-Ranks and up have Guild Protection from any nonlethal act with a less than 50.000 Retrae fee. I tried arguing that Henry is a noble but apparently past nobles made false claims against Adventurers that they had a problem with so that argument was tossed out immediately. And now they left town to who knows where.”
“So what can we do?”, I asked.
Rebecca sat on the bed. “Other than getting stronger than them and fighting them ourselves, not much. Adventurers have as little protection against each other as civilians have against them.”
“So once we are adventurers they can just kill us?”
Rebecca thought for a couple seconds before the blood drained from her face. “Yeah.”, she said. I took her hand. “How about later today we go back to the market?”, I ask. “Look around some more? You were really excited to check it out.”
Rebecca hesitated for a few moments. “I… I think that sounds good.”, she finally said.
“And after that, we can look at jobs we can do till we become adventurers.”
Rebecca looked at me with wide eyes. “You almost died, no, we would've both died if not for the town guard and we aren't even adventurers yet.”
I cupped her face with both hands. I could feel her jaw working as she tried to say something. “Rebecca.”, I said before she could resist. “You endured all sorts of treatment to get this far, you risked being sold off and you didn't give up. You took your chances to marry Henry, a guy you didn't know, for this. You fought off an instigator golem with your bare hands and growled at adventurers way beyond our level with no fear.” That part might have been a half truth at best but I didn't want her to give up her dream so half truths were good enough for now. “We can do this. You don't have to do this alone anymore.” She looked at me and swallowed.
“You′re right.”, she said.. I let go of her face after a few more seconds of deliberation. She stood up. “Youre right.”, she said louder. "YOU'RE RIGHT.”, she yelled. “Im not doing this alone anymore.”
I stood up and immediately regretted it when I felt the world shake under my feet, but Rebecca steadied me. "You're gonna go far and I'll be there with you, helping you.”
How I wished anybody had ever said something like that to me.
Rebecca smiled at me. “I appreciate it.”
“So, do we wanna go to the Market now?”, I ask. I had steadied myself but Rebecca's hand still rested on my shoulder.
“Id like that.”, she said, but we can't exactly afford to anymore.”
“What do you mean by that?”, I asked. She lifted her hand of me and I missed the warmth almost immediately.
“The potion needed to get you back to your feet was expensive.”, she said after some hesitation stepping from one foot on the other.
“How expensive?”, I asked in dawning horror.
“I had to beg the tavern owner to shorten our stay and return the remaining money.”
“So we got nothing left?”
She didn't look at me as she admitted: “I didn't even manage to pay my uncle for the armor yet, let alone the repairs. At least he's not gonna charge me interest on it since I'm family and all that..”
So we were in debt now. But then an idea came to my mind.
“Then let's go back to Henry′s mansion and pick up some money there.”
“That place is probably swarming with threats by now. Something like that old Instigator Golem would be the least of our problems if we tried.”
“Do you think so? I feel like the two servants at least appreciated Henry. You think they would deny him his own money if he asked?”
Rebecca didn't look at me when she answered. “That maid did more than just appreciate him.” She shook her head. “Anyway there is something we should do before we think about getting more money.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“And what is that?”
“We need to compare abilities.”, she said. “How else could we make a proper build for either of us? You mentioned yours before but I'd like to get a proper look if you don't mind.”
I showed Rebecca my Status Screen.
My [Emperor's Gaze] skill focussed on improving my vision both naturally and supernaturally, but at the current level it couldn't do anything but highlight something I could already see in order to make it easier to point out. Stronger abilities were also available at higher levels but it didn't say how to reach them. .
[New World Mental Block] as its main effect only stopped me from having a mental breakdown over the fact that I was transported away from everybody I had ever loved or cared about, that I was trapped in this world and would never- the gentle static in my mind that I had experienced a few times by now activated, slowing my train of thought. So this skill was the reason behind that. [New World Mental Block] could also stop effects such as Mind Control early if I was affected by them.
Rebecca blinked at me as she saw my third skill.
“So this is your unique skill then hmm?”, she said. “[Behind every great person, there's their spouse]. You didn't mention that one before. Hmm. I don't think I've ever heard of a skill like that. All the skills Rolanders had that I've seen in books would either boost you or allow you to do something that would let you boost yourself. And it doesn't seem like you can trick it either. You could use Incubus blood to raise my disposition towards you. But it says it's dependent on both parties' dispositions and nobody who′s seen the process would do it to someone they care about. Hmm. Unless you dose yourself with Scucubus blood too but if you are under the effect of it, the Incubus blood would no longer work on my end and vice versa.
She tapped the screen. “What would happen if you married multiple people?”, she asked. “Say someone with Mana or high levels in Mental. Would the most recent spouse get used as the skills target or would it pick the highest from each spouse?”
“I have no idea or that much interest in trying it to be honest. I don't wanna treat someone like a stat upgrade for me.” Rebecca's big hand rested on my head and stroked through my hair.
“You′re a good person.”
I felt myself lean into her touch before pulling back. “Goodness is not that helpful is it now?”, I asked. Before she could answer I sighed. “Enough on me, what are your skills?”, I asked.
Rebecca possessed two skills, a bloodline Skill, [Canine Sense] which halved her visual perception but doubled her scent or hearing based perception, shared by all wolf demihumans and [Swordfighting (Basic)] Lvl 1. which explained itself.
“Wait, only two skills?”, I asked, thinking back to it, Rebecca had more than once grown claws for combat, was that not a skill?
“Yeah, what are you missing?”, she asked.
“That thing with your claws.”, I said. “How you sometimes have claws and sometimes fingernails. Same with your teeth, sometimes they are more wolf-like and sometimes more human-like.”
Rebecca took a breath and her fingers changed before my eyes. “You mean this?”, she asked with a toothy grin before they shifted back.
“Yeah, that. Is that not a skill?”
Rebecca hesitated for a few seconds. “I guess not. It's a martial art to be exact.”, she explained. “One of the five core breaths.” She pointed at her head. “Seated in the head, the Energy Core of Water governs change and flexibility.” But you′re right, it doesn't show up in my skills at all.”, she looked at it with a puzzled look as if she could figure it out if she just stared enough.
“Interesting. Speaking of, what was in that book you bought?”, I asked.
“The one where you weren't sure if it was martial or marital arts?”, she asked, her face turning a shade of red.
“Yeah that one.”
“My aunt got her fingers on it and let's say…. why do you think she insisted I wear a skirt?”
I felt my face turn a similar color of red as hers and for a few minutes we just stood there, staring into nothingness, trying our very best to not look at each other.
Desperate to break the tension I said: “Then lets check out the Quest Board.” I took two steps before turning around. “After you put on some pants again.”
As we walked into the guild hall again, I once more felt the stares on me and Rebecca. I stepped aside so I'd stand between Rebecca and the staring crowd, though with her towering over me as she did, that did very little. I noticed the receptionist staring nervously at me for a few moments as well. The Board was separated in multiple rows, starting at “F” for non-adventurers and going up to “S”, noting that “SS” and “SSS” missions could only be requested at bigger guild branches.
My heart sank a bit thinking how the people who'd antagonized us just days ago had merely “just reached” D-Rank according to them. If F-Rank was anybody not registered as an adventurer and E-Rank just joined, how strong were the higher levels?
Rebecca′s hand on my shoulder grounded me once more. I took a deep breath and looked at the F-Rank Missions. There were currently three available quests, all three of them in neat handwriting and with the guild stamp on it.
Escort:
The demihuman trader (Addition because of past confusion: the customer is a trader who is demihuman, not a trader who trades demihumans), Lepus of the southern trading company requests guards as he travels towards the capital to sell his wares at the festival for the 650th Anniversary of Roland arrival in our world. Humans preferred.
Reward: 85 Retrae per week travelled with a bonus depending on performance.
Missing Person:
The Healers Guild of Ilmeterium requests help in finding a Healer who broke guild rules and fled. More details in the guildhalls of Illmeterium.
Reward: Five year Copper Customer Packet as well as repayment for expenses.
Search and Destroy
The nearby village of Esteria has had their livestock stolen since the beginning of the last quarter. A few days ago Goblin footprints were found nearby. While so far no villagers have been harmed, this is considered to be a question of when there will be harm to them, not if there will be. They request the goblin nest to be destroyed as soon as possible and the head/s of the goblin matron brought as proof..
Reward: Dependent on the size of the nest, to be determined.
I looked between the missions, unsure what to choose.
_________________________________________________________________________
Current Status:
Stats:
Power 2
Agility: 1
Toughness 3
Mental: 2
Perception: 3
Mana: N/A
Effects:
N/A
Skills:
[Behind every great person, there's their spouse] Lvl. 1
[Emperors Gaze] Lvl. 1
[New World Mental Block]
Known Ritual Spells:
[Determine Value]
[Simple Transportation Magic]
Thank you in advance.
Which Quest should Henry and Rebecca pursue?
