LEVEL UP

The words were thick, emboldened; they were his entire world. Yet his thoughts were not on the words, but rather what had happened. Even now he was so cruelly brought back to his thoughts, without a moment to rest and to sleep on the death of the barbarian.

Adam did not make a move to level up, not yet. His mind was occupied, the flashes of imagery that invaded his mind even though he was no longer within the world at present. He was neither within the world nor outside of it, he was merely in limbo.

“You couldn’t even give me a moment, could you?” he said. He stared at the two words for a long while before he sighed.

He could only pick one class, and that was the class he needed most the day before.

Priest.

EXP reduced by 500.

1050 EXP remaining.

GAINED: PRIEST (1)

SUBCLASS UNLOCKED!

He was surprised to see that he was able to gain a subclass from the first level, but he called through the list until he found a particular name.

SUBCLASS UNLOCKED!

UNDERWORLD LORD

Level up available!

EXP reduced by 500.

550 EXP remaining.

GAINED: PRIEST (2)

Level up available!

Though he still had a level up available, he could see his stats. They were absolutely insane considering he had barely spent a week in the world. Of course, he couldn’t play too safe, but his main statistic for the priest class was far too low and he needed to upgrade that as quickly as possible, which meant another level in warrior so he could gain the bonuses for levelling. He’d need to stick with these three classes for a long while in order to gain the extreme bonuses they would provide.

He was uncertain how he’d explain his myriad of skills. Could he lie and get away with it? He very much doubted that considering he only just received a skill to help him talk with other and it certainly wasn’t deception.

With that he allowed the blackness to take him.

He awoke in the morning to the ceiling he had become accustomed to. He was in the guild. He was in the guild?

He sat up and looked about. He had been changed into his bedroom attire and it seemed as though he had been bathed and tended to as well. He turned completely red at the thought of his dignity being undone by another. Who had done so? He shook his head to toss away the thoughts and then slipped out of bed. He changed into his daily attire and his armour before slinking his way down the stairs.

The guild was nearly empty, save for James in the corner drinking some milk and eating some porridge. James looked up to see Adam, tensed up a little, and then looked down at his bowl.

Adam stepped down to see Margh, who was currently rubbing a towel into a mug as she nodded towards Adam, who returned the nod back to her.

“Good morning,” Adam said to Emma, who was working at the front desk as usual.

“Morning,” she replied with her practised smile. “Did you sleep well?”

“Well enough,” he said, “all things considered.”

Emma nodded her head, taking a moment to catch a breath. “Paul was hoping to see you. He’s around back with… Jurot.”

Adam made his way back to see Paul was indeed here with the body of Jurot, which was no longer bleeding. The colour of Jurot’s skin was like spoilt milk with a drop of ink, and upon his eyes were copper pieces.

“Morning,” Paul said. “I hope you slept well.”

“About as well as I could,” Adam said as he approached the body. He almost reached for Jurot, but instead tore his eyes away as he looked towards Paul. “What are you doing with his body?”

“I’m taking it to the Iyr,” Paul said. “They’re close enough to the guild, and I thought perhaps you’d like to come with me.”

Adam stared at Paul long and hard before nodding. “I would, please.”

“I’ve had a priest cast a spell on him to keep him from decaying. It’ll last long enough to take him home.”

“Have you been to the Iyr before?” Adam asked.

“A few times.”

“For burials?”

“Once.”

“Whose?”

Paul looked at Jurot’s face, but his eyes went far beyond Jurot. “An old friend.”

Adam remained silent at that. What could he say to make everything less awkward? He couldn’t.

“I would like to ask what happened too, for the guild records, and for his family.”

“We were in the forest, searching for brown bears. We came across a herbearvore and then killed it. It wasn’t the most difficult thing in the world with the pair of us. We tried to drag it back and we were caught by two brown bears. Jurot stepped ahead and…” Adam stopped and cleared his throat. “He took quite a beating. I joined the fray, but he fell soon after. I was still in front of a brown bear and tried to deal with it first. I managed to slay it, but by then…”

Paul placed a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “I’m sorry that you had to go through that. You did good by bringing him back.”

“I couldn’t leave him.”

Paul nodded his head and squeezed the half-elf’s shoulder. “That says a lot about you. Since Jurot has passed and can no longer claim the reward, it goes to you.”

Adam looked up into Paul’s eyes. “Jurot and I, we split it in half.”

“You could give the coin to his family.”

“I will.”

“It’s a lot of coin. A hundred and ten gold pieces each.”

“When are we leaving?” Adam asked.

“Have your breakfast and then we’ll head out.”

Adam left Paul to whatever he was doing and returned back to the guild, where it was all silent. There was no jeering, no chattering, no humming from adventurers. Just silence.

He fell down and stared at the table, though he couldn’t quite see it. He fell into a deep thought. Jurot and he barely knew one another, but he supposed that’s what he was like. They had shared some jam doughnuts together. They had spoken about their type of women. They had gone on his first quest together, slaying those rats in the sewers. They had survived that, and they had survived the herbearvore too. Jurot was perhaps his first friend in the world and he had let the barbarian die, right there, inches away from himself.

Not anymore. Now he had a great many skills, the levels in priest would allow him to shield others from harm and to stop them from dying.

His thoughts were stopped by Emma, who had placed down a tray of food for him.

“Eat up,” she said. “You’ll need the strength for the journey.”

“Right,” Adam said, “thank you.”

Adam stared down at the food. It was a mass of eggs, some buttered toast, porridge, a small wedge of cheese, as well as plenty of cut fruit. It was quite the feast. He looked over to Margh, who caught his look. Adam nodded a thanks to her and she acknowledged it before returning back to her mug.

They were good folks, these guild members. Adam would be sure to make sure he returned such kindness back to them.

He ate the food, which he was sure tasted great, but he couldn’t really taste anything. It should have been this moment that he shared that herbearvore steak with Jurot, but alas, that was how the world dealt their cards, or rather, dice.

“Adam,” called Paul who had appeared out of thin air.

“Yes?” Adam replied, finishing the last bit of fruit he had been toying with.

“I need your token to stamp. I will confirm that you have slain a herbearvore and two brown bears.”

Adam reached up to grab onto his token and then handed it over to Paul, who took it and stamped it.

QUEST COMPLETE

Slay: Herbearvore

Slay: Brown Bear

Slay: Brown Bear

STAMPS GAINED

4

EXP GAINED

QUEST (+100) = 100

QUEST (+100) = 100

QUEST (+250) = 250

SUB TOTAL

450

OTHERWORLDER BONUS (+450) = 450

EXP TOTAL

550 + 450

CURRENT EXP

1000

Level up available!

“Unfortunately I can’t rank you up so soon,” Paul said. “Guild politics. People don’t look too kindly to those that are shown special treatment, though by my eyes, you’re already a bronze rank.”

“Does that mean I can take bronze rank requests?”

“Some of the easier ones, sure. Though make sure you confirm with me when you do.” Paul returned the token once it had been stamped. He had five stamps now, though he wasn’t close to half way done. It seemed that this would need twenty stamps for him to rank up, which was about the same as before. He wondered when it would become harder. “Are you ready?” Paul asked.

“I just need my bag,” Adam replied. “I need to speak with Thundersmith as well.”

Adam grabbed onto his pack and then slung it over his shoulder. The pack felt heavier than ever. He wondered if maybe he should have summoned his familiar, but he decided against it for now as he didn’t want to keep Paul waiting. He did need a particular item, but he was a little too shy to mention it. He doubted that he and Paul would come under much trouble on the road, and some of his new abilities did not require the item.

“Do you have everything you need?” Paul asked.

“Most everything.”

“Get everything,” Paul said. “You can always take a while on the road to sort out any magic you want to cast,” the older man whispered. “Speaking of which, do you want some of your reward in powdered gems?”

Adam thought for a moment. “Could I get twenty golds worth in powdered gems and do you have a gem worth fifty?”

“We do. What about the rest of the coin?”

“Forty gold…” Adam thought. “Half in gems, half in gold? Is that alright?”

“Do you have enough in silver and copper?”

“More than ten each, I think that should do for now.”

Paul nodded. “Need anything else?”

“I need to buy a…” Adam paused. “Do you know of a god by the name of…” Adam fell silent once more.

Paul remained silent, not even raising his brow. It seemed as though Adam wasn’t going to be pressured.

Adam cleared his throat and whispered, “Belle?”

Paul nodded his head. “Belle, Chaos Belle?”

“I’m not entirely certain.”

“It’s the only Belle that I know.”

“Does he appear in a particular form?”

“No, not usually. I believe he usually takes the shape of someone familiar, or at least that’s what his apostles say.”

“Are you so familiar with his apostles?”

“A few of them,” Paul said with a wince. “Trouble makers, the lot of them.”

“Well… I’d like a… a holy symbol of his.”

“Of Belle?”

“Yeah, or someone of the Underworld?”

“If you want Underworld, Belle or Sozain work. Sozain lords of death and the half-realm beyond.”

“Is Sozain a nice god?”

“Sometimes.”

“How about Belle?”

“Usually.”

“Belle it is.”

Adam first approached Thundersmith, who was currently working on a blade. Thundersmith stopped and then looked over to Adam, pulling up his goggles as he did so.

“Adam,” he said.

“Thundersmith,” Adam replied. “I’m sorry to bother you.”

“How can ah help ya?”

“I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be gone for a few weeks and I’d like for you to hold onto the sword for me until I get back, is that alright?”

“Fine by me,” Thundersmith said with a nod. “Where are ya headed to?”

“I’m off to go to the Iyr.”

“Ah.” Thundersmith nodded. “Best of luck with yer travels.”

“Thank you, and I’m sorry about the inconvenience I’m causing.”

“Don’t ya worry about a thing, just means I’ll have more time ta work the steel.”

Paul appeared moments later with cash in hand, handing over the pouch. He also revealed a small amulet that was shaped in a bell.

CURRENCY

29 Gold

14 Silver

18 Copper

2x Obsidian Disks (10G each)

1x Black Onyx (50G)

“Here,” Paul said as he handed over the bell. “I found it in the back.”

Adam held onto it and instantly felt electricity flowing through his body as it shot through his entire core. He inhaled deeply as he felt the divine energy flow through him.

“Perfect,” Adam said. “How much do I owe?”

“Just take it. Are you ready to leave now?”

“Do we have enough food?”

“I’ve packed twenty days of rations, just in case.”

“I have about ten myself.”

“Great.”

With that the pair set out of Red Oak.