Sherry made green tea at exactly 79.4°C. Anything too hot hastened the extraction too much for her liking. If some uncouth fool offered to round it up to 80°C, she would sooner hang them by the feet from a bridge than bow down to such demands.
Obviously, time was also a factor. Leaving the tea in for too long extracted too much of the tannins. After two minutes and three seconds, the tea would be prepared—
Thump. She eyed the mega-slime approaching Kalender and friends. As big as it was, everything was but a dot at a distance of 200 meters.
Thump. The water in her tea cup was being agitated far too much. She stood up and took aim at the giant, left foot forward and body parallel to her line of sight. She was like an archer without a bow, her intent to find the mark being more than enough to guide the spell she muttered.
“{Explode that}.”
Compensating for the size of the opponent and the distance—she dumped 73 MP into it. A bright flash followed, and then the sound of the blast.
Ah! She might have agitated her tea too much with that. She would have to remove the tea bag two seconds earlier than usual.
Her lips curled into a smile, and she waved hello at Jyn. The Knight had little in forgiveness for the Maid to detonate the slime so close to her own supposed allies. The chain of command being non-existent, however, and Jyn could do nothing other than give the Maid a stare down.
Sherry sat down and removed the tea bag. Eh, one second too bitter.
***
“Page, Kalender, how are you doing?” Jyn asked. The former two were sitting on the grass.
“I know all we did was shoot at it, but somehow it felt like a lot happened?” Kalender replied.
“What he said,” Page said. “At least I got a level out of it!”
[+3 Excitement]
“Still tired, though…” she continued. “How about you, Kal? Got a level out of it?”
“‘Kal’? A-anyway, let me check…” Other than Page’s newfound nickname for him—which made him just a bit happy—he also wondered about another thing.
***
Name: Kalender
Age: 17
Occupation: Champion of Reincarnation
Lvl. 2 Human
HP:
MP: 20/20
[Skills]
All-Language Fluency (MAX)
Interpersonal Bubble (1/10)
Access Collection (1/1) (Temp)
[Companions]
Minimine (Flagged)
Vice-Goddess of Reincarnation
Affection: 68
Jyn (Sworn)
Knight of Lyrica
Lvl. 11 Human
Respect: 153
Companion Skills: Stand as Equals (1/5).
Page Turner (Flagged)
Librarian of Lyrica
Lvl. 6 Human
Excitement: 79
Companion Skills: N/A
[Blessings]
[Blessing of Reincarnation: Champion]
…
[Blessing of the ###### God: Like Moths to a Flame]
…
***
… And there it is. Page’s Excitement had shot up over the past hour. Ah, and he was nicely giddy about having twice the MP now, making a face that Jyn didn’t fail to pick up on.
“Gained a few levels?” Jyn asked.
“I’m Level 2!” Kalender cheered.
“Huh.” Jyn was genuinely surprised. “Strange. That should have propelled you to Level 4, at least. It was a Level 20 slime.”
“That was a Level 20 slime? W-why did we fight that—”
“Have you forgotten?” Jyn chuckled. “Levels aren’t everything here.”
Still, why did he only get up to Level 2 from that? What is he, an elf? Kalender saw her expression and finally remembered to explain this quirk of his.
“Ahh, right, my Reincarnation Blessing specifically says that I don’t get XP.”
"“Huh?”" Not just Jyn’s, but Page’s interest was piqued. [+1 Excitement]
“Then, how—” Jyn started, but Kalender interrupted.
“Instead, I just flat-out level up the moment I defeat anything five levels higher than me.” He thought for a bit. “I’m not sure if that means I’ll level up if I defeat something at Level 7 or 8 next.”
“Multiple people contributed to killing the slime, however…” Jyn wondered. “There must be some sort of contribution threshold for that Blessing’s quirk of yours to act.”
Kalender shrugged. “I think it’s meant to keep me from bottom feeding, and pressure me to keep on fighting tougher and tougher enemies no matter what.”
“That wouldn’t make sense,” Page added. “You could just kill high-leveled slimes all the time and you would level up really fast, wouldn’t you? Maybe there’s something else about it…”
They all put their thinking hats on while the flickering fire of the slime’s carbonized carcass died down. They ended up dropping the topic, though, especially after a platoon of town guards and several active-duty knights marched in from the direction of the town.
“Hail!” The knight approached the three, somewhat intimidated by the fact that they were black silhouettes with the embers of a rare monster known to be able to singlehandedly destroy villages in their background. Still, she was a professional.
“Were you three the ones to slay that slime?” she asked.
Jyn looked away into the distance. Sherry was gone, along with her picnic set. Damn, I can’t drag that Maid into this, after all…
The knight interpreted this ‘looking away’ thing as something that cool people did on instinct. It was better not to ask about it.
“T’was us, yes,” Jyn replied.
Page used her staff to support herself as she got up. The knight saw this—saw her staff, and unconsciously gulped as the weapon looked oddly specialized. When Page started reordering the spells in the stack, this just reinforced the knight’s belief that she was looking at something that was beyond her domain.
“I-in recognition of your valor, please report to the guard barracks in the plaza. I’m sure a reward will be dispensed for slaying a rare monster as that!”
“Ah, if we are to meet Commander Tana, we can make our way there ourselves,” Jyn said.
The knight, hearing her commanding officer’s name, decided not to think about things anymore. “Yes ma’am!” Why did she say that? “A-ah, the materials—”
Jyn looked over her shoulder. There was nothing left but ashes. She looked back to the knight and shook her head. “Don’t bother. Also, what’s your name?”
“Soldier Eren, ma’am!” What am I saying?! It was Leadership passively leaking out.
After helping Kalender up, the trio tiredly made their way across the field to the east gate—Jyn would not waste this opportunity to stock up on cash. Though, truth be told, Page and Kalender would rather chill somewhere rather than further exhaust their minds with officers’ pleasantries.
“In that case, why don’t I go, myself?” Jyn proposed. “You two go … wherever. Just meet me in the plaza in an hour.”
The two happily agreed. They still followed Jyn halfway to the plaza, but they broke off with a light ‘bye’ before going around.
“Honestly, I’ve never been to these parts of town,” Page remarked. Few people walked the street here, and there were a lot of side alleys and footpaths narrow enough to be called crevices instead, from which Page imagined a thief’s hand would reach.
“A bit sheltered, are we?” Kalender chuckled.
“Ehh, well…” She was embarrassed to admit it. It was a strange feeling to be born among nobility, yet to feel as if she was missing something when she didn’t know how majority of people lived.
If commoners lived in a ‘common’ way—a ‘normal’ way—then shouldn’t it be sensible to know what ‘normal’ meant in the world she lived in?
She looked around. How could anyone live here? It’s so scary! [+1 Excitement]
“Everyone here knows everyone,” Kalender remarked, ignoring Page’s conflicting emotions. “The first thing you gotta check is if people are minding their own business. The second thing you gotta check is if people are being suspicious of you. The third thing is if there are people at all.”
Page looked around. There was a little bit of each of Kalender’s points—in that there were two aunts trying to play chess at the side of the road, but they keep shooting looks their way.
“And the fourth thing,” Kalender continued, “is if the lighting’s good.”
Even if the street was only wide enough to fit a small cart and a person, the surrounding houses didn’t try to overshadow it. Despite being quite late in the afternoon, enough light filtered through that it could be as good as an overcast sky.
As they walked, Page noticed a slight smile on Kalender’s face.
“Why’re you smiling?” she asked.
“Hm? Oh, nothing,” he replied. “Okay, fine, I’m just happy we’re walking together.”
“Oh, shucks.” She lightly punched him in the shoulder.
“True, though!” Kalender said with a chuckle. “You’re just so nice and excitable, it’s like you’re a kid.”
“Huh?!” That’s what you think of me?!
Kalender just chuckled and patted her on the head—except she shrank down to avoid his hand. They both froze in place, Kalender’s hand just hovering there, and Page in a backwards dodge. She didn’t register the act as a headpat at first, but seeing his hand hovering in the air, she realized what it was about.
Perhaps the realization registered on her face as well, since Kalender inched his hand just one bit closer. Page didn’t shrink back further, which confirmed that she was accepting it.
His hand finally landed on her head. Soft pat. Soft pat. She was still frozen in a backwards dodge, though.
“… Can you, like, stand normally?” Kalender said, tilting his head.
Page nodded and did so, and as she did, Kalender lifted his hand off—but his hand didn’t go far, as Page blocked it with her hands with all the force of a feather, and carefully pushed it back down to nest on her head. They stayed like that for a moment, her hands on top of his, and his hand as her crown.
“You, uh,” Kalender asked, “touch-deprived or something?”
Page choked. Truer words had never mercilessly struck her so. He floofed her hair as the coup de grâce.
***
Jyn walked alone, without Page nor Kalender. She remembered Kalender’s words.
Do you enjoy walking with me?
At the time, she thought nothing of it. What’s this feeling? She must have gotten used to the constant buzz of banter around her.
She next found herself in Commander Tana’s office.
“You were the one who defeated it?” Tana asked. Of course they did. The Inquisition did not skimp on talent selection.
“Together with two others, yes,” Jyn replied. “I was informed by Soldier Eren that we would most likely receive a reward for it. Embarrassing as it is to admit, but we do not have … an operational budget.”
Tana nodded in solidarity. Half of the town guard were volunteers paid in “field experience.” Members of the Inquisition must be living in tough times.
“Of course,” she replied. “It will have to be processed by the treasurer. Please see me tomorrow about it.”
Jyn bade her leave, and later found Kalender teaching Page how to read the chicken scratch on the side of a signpost on the other side of town. She remembered how Kalender used to teach her how to read Lyrican characters.
“You two, the sun is retreating, and so should we,” she called out. They didn’t turn around, however, and so she went closer and called again. “Kalender? Page?”
The two jumped and finally turned around—with complicated expressions.
What on Gaia? “What’s wrong?”
“Kal… There’s no way you’re wrong, right?” Page asked.
Kalender nodded. “All-Language Fluency is at max. There’s no way.”
Jyn eyed the chicken scratch. “What does it say?”
***
BRNG PRSTS T NRTHWL AT SNDWN
***
… Bring Priestess to Northwell at Sundown.
[+10 Excitement]
KeeperAbra You thought this story was becoming action-oriented? Wrong! This is all just a setup to put everyone in one bed!
Sherry made green tea at exactly 79.4°C. Anything too hot hastened the extraction too much for her liking. If some uncouth fool offered to round it up to 80°C, she would sooner hang them by the feet from a bridge than bow down to such demands.
Obviously, time was also a factor. Leaving the tea in for too long extracted too much of the tannins. After two minutes and three seconds, the tea would be prepared—
Thump. She eyed the mega-slime approaching Kalender and friends. As big as it was, everything was but a dot at a distance of 200 meters.
Thump. The water in her tea cup was being agitated far too much. She stood up and took aim at the giant, left foot forward and body parallel to her line of sight. She was like an archer without a bow, her intent to find the mark being more than enough to guide the spell she muttered.
“{Explode that}.”
Compensating for the size of the opponent and the distance—she dumped 73 MP into it. A bright flash followed, and then the sound of the blast.
Ah! She might have agitated her tea too much with that. She would have to remove the tea bag two seconds earlier than usual.
Her lips curled into a smile, and she waved hello at Jyn. The Knight had little in forgiveness for the Maid to detonate the slime so close to her own supposed allies. The chain of command being non-existent, however, and Jyn could do nothing other than give the Maid a stare down.
Sherry sat down and removed the tea bag. Eh, one second too bitter.
***
“Page, Kalender, how are you doing?” Jyn asked. The former two were sitting on the grass.
“I know all we did was shoot at it, but somehow it felt like a lot happened?” Kalender replied.
“What he said,” Page said. “At least I got a level out of it!”
[+3 Excitement]
“Still tired, though…” she continued. “How about you, Kal? Got a level out of it?”
“‘Kal’? A-anyway, let me check…” Other than Page’s newfound nickname for him—which made him just a bit happy—he also wondered about another thing.
***
Name: Kalender
Age: 17
Occupation: Champion of Reincarnation
Lvl. 2 Human
HP:
MP: 20/20
[Skills]
All-Language Fluency (MAX)
Interpersonal Bubble (1/10)
Access Collection (1/1) (Temp)
[Companions]
Minimine (Flagged)
Vice-Goddess of Reincarnation
Affection: 68
Jyn (Sworn)
Knight of Lyrica
Lvl. 11 Human
Respect: 153
Companion Skills: Stand as Equals (1/5).
Page Turner (Flagged)
Librarian of Lyrica
Lvl. 6 Human
Excitement: 79
Companion Skills: N/A
[Blessings]
[Blessing of Reincarnation: Champion]
…
[Blessing of the ###### God: Like Moths to a Flame]
…
***
… And there it is. Page’s Excitement had shot up over the past hour. Ah, and he was nicely giddy about having twice the MP now, making a face that Jyn didn’t fail to pick up on.
“Gained a few levels?” Jyn asked.
“I’m Level 2!” Kalender cheered.
“Huh.” Jyn was genuinely surprised. “Strange. That should have propelled you to Level 4, at least. It was a Level 20 slime.”
“That was a Level 20 slime? W-why did we fight that—”
“Have you forgotten?” Jyn chuckled. “Levels aren’t everything here.”
Still, why did he only get up to Level 2 from that? What is he, an elf? Kalender saw her expression and finally remembered to explain this quirk of his.
“Ahh, right, my Reincarnation Blessing specifically says that I don’t get XP.”
"“Huh?”" Not just Jyn’s, but Page’s interest was piqued. [+1 Excitement]
“Then, how—” Jyn started, but Kalender interrupted.
“Instead, I just flat-out level up the moment I defeat anything five levels higher than me.” He thought for a bit. “I’m not sure if that means I’ll level up if I defeat something at Level 7 or 8 next.”
“Multiple people contributed to killing the slime, however…” Jyn wondered. “There must be some sort of contribution threshold for that Blessing’s quirk of yours to act.”
Kalender shrugged. “I think it’s meant to keep me from bottom feeding, and pressure me to keep on fighting tougher and tougher enemies no matter what.”
“That wouldn’t make sense,” Page added. “You could just kill high-leveled slimes all the time and you would level up really fast, wouldn’t you? Maybe there’s something else about it…”
They all put their thinking hats on while the flickering fire of the slime’s carbonized carcass died down. They ended up dropping the topic, though, especially after a platoon of town guards and several active-duty knights marched in from the direction of the town.
“Hail!” The knight approached the three, somewhat intimidated by the fact that they were black silhouettes with the embers of a rare monster known to be able to singlehandedly destroy villages in their background. Still, she was a professional.
“Were you three the ones to slay that slime?” she asked.
Jyn looked away into the distance. Sherry was gone, along with her picnic set. Damn, I can’t drag that Maid into this, after all…
The knight interpreted this ‘looking away’ thing as something that cool people did on instinct. It was better not to ask about it.
“T’was us, yes,” Jyn replied.
Page used her staff to support herself as she got up. The knight saw this—saw her staff, and unconsciously gulped as the weapon looked oddly specialized. When Page started reordering the spells in the stack, this just reinforced the knight’s belief that she was looking at something that was beyond her domain.
“I-in recognition of your valor, please report to the guard barracks in the plaza. I’m sure a reward will be dispensed for slaying a rare monster as that!”
“Ah, if we are to meet Commander Tana, we can make our way there ourselves,” Jyn said.
The knight, hearing her commanding officer’s name, decided not to think about things anymore. “Yes ma’am!” Why did she say that? “A-ah, the materials—”
Jyn looked over her shoulder. There was nothing left but ashes. She looked back to the knight and shook her head. “Don’t bother. Also, what’s your name?”
“Soldier Eren, ma’am!” What am I saying?! It was Leadership passively leaking out.
After helping Kalender up, the trio tiredly made their way across the field to the east gate—Jyn would not waste this opportunity to stock up on cash. Though, truth be told, Page and Kalender would rather chill somewhere rather than further exhaust their minds with officers’ pleasantries.
“In that case, why don’t I go, myself?” Jyn proposed. “You two go … wherever. Just meet me in the plaza in an hour.”
The two happily agreed. They still followed Jyn halfway to the plaza, but they broke off with a light ‘bye’ before going around.
“Honestly, I’ve never been to these parts of town,” Page remarked. Few people walked the street here, and there were a lot of side alleys and footpaths narrow enough to be called crevices instead, from which Page imagined a thief’s hand would reach.
“A bit sheltered, are we?” Kalender chuckled.
“Ehh, well…” She was embarrassed to admit it. It was a strange feeling to be born among nobility, yet to feel as if she was missing something when she didn’t know how majority of people lived.
If commoners lived in a ‘common’ way—a ‘normal’ way—then shouldn’t it be sensible to know what ‘normal’ meant in the world she lived in?
She looked around. How could anyone live here? It’s so scary! [+1 Excitement]
“Everyone here knows everyone,” Kalender remarked, ignoring Page’s conflicting emotions. “The first thing you gotta check is if people are minding their own business. The second thing you gotta check is if people are being suspicious of you. The third thing is if there are people at all.”
Page looked around. There was a little bit of each of Kalender’s points—in that there were two aunts trying to play chess at the side of the road, but they keep shooting looks their way.
“And the fourth thing,” Kalender continued, “is if the lighting’s good.”
Even if the street was only wide enough to fit a small cart and a person, the surrounding houses didn’t try to overshadow it. Despite being quite late in the afternoon, enough light filtered through that it could be as good as an overcast sky.
As they walked, Page noticed a slight smile on Kalender’s face.
“Why’re you smiling?” she asked.
“Hm? Oh, nothing,” he replied. “Okay, fine, I’m just happy we’re walking together.”
“Oh, shucks.” She lightly punched him in the shoulder.
“True, though!” Kalender said with a chuckle. “You’re just so nice and excitable, it’s like you’re a kid.”
“Huh?!” That’s what you think of me?!
Kalender just chuckled and patted her on the head—except she shrank down to avoid his hand. They both froze in place, Kalender’s hand just hovering there, and Page in a backwards dodge. She didn’t register the act as a headpat at first, but seeing his hand hovering in the air, she realized what it was about.
Perhaps the realization registered on her face as well, since Kalender inched his hand just one bit closer. Page didn’t shrink back further, which confirmed that she was accepting it.
His hand finally landed on her head. Soft pat. Soft pat. She was still frozen in a backwards dodge, though.
“… Can you, like, stand normally?” Kalender said, tilting his head.
Page nodded and did so, and as she did, Kalender lifted his hand off—but his hand didn’t go far, as Page blocked it with her hands with all the force of a feather, and carefully pushed it back down to nest on her head. They stayed like that for a moment, her hands on top of his, and his hand as her crown.
“You, uh,” Kalender asked, “touch-deprived or something?”
Page choked. Truer words had never mercilessly struck her so. He floofed her hair as the coup de grâce.
***
Jyn walked alone, without Page nor Kalender. She remembered Kalender’s words.
Do you enjoy walking with me?
At the time, she thought nothing of it. What’s this feeling? She must have gotten used to the constant buzz of banter around her.
She next found herself in Commander Tana’s office.
“You were the one who defeated it?” Tana asked. Of course they did. The Inquisition did not skimp on talent selection.
“Together with two others, yes,” Jyn replied. “I was informed by Soldier Eren that we would most likely receive a reward for it. Embarrassing as it is to admit, but we do not have … an operational budget.”
Tana nodded in solidarity. Half of the town guard were volunteers paid in “field experience.” Members of the Inquisition must be living in tough times.
“Of course,” she replied. “It will have to be processed by the treasurer. Please see me tomorrow about it.”
Jyn bade her leave, and later found Kalender teaching Page how to read the chicken scratch on the side of a signpost on the other side of town. She remembered how Kalender used to teach her how to read Lyrican characters.
“You two, the sun is retreating, and so should we,” she called out. They didn’t turn around, however, and so she went closer and called again. “Kalender? Page?”
The two jumped and finally turned around—with complicated expressions.
What on Gaia? “What’s wrong?”
“Kal… There’s no way you’re wrong, right?” Page asked.
Kalender nodded. “All-Language Fluency is at max. There’s no way.”
Jyn eyed the chicken scratch. “What does it say?”
***
BRNG PRSTS T NRTHWL AT SNDWN
***
… Bring Priestess to Northwell at Sundown.
[+10 Excitement]
KeeperAbra You thought this story was becoming action-oriented? Wrong! This is all just a setup to put everyone in one bed!
