Community? I don't know what this is..." Ashton stared at the screen, but there was nothing else to be seen. No clues as to what functions this 'community' would have - it only had the date and time for when it opened.
Sam, who has had this notification for a while, didn't have any idea either, "This showed up on everyone's phones a few minutes after the main quest started. And this community thing opens right when that quest is over," Sam pointed out, "But also only on one of their phones. We have a few people that have multiple, like a personal and a work phone, and it only showed up on whatever they were holding at the time, and disappeared on the other."
Ashton thought for a moment, closing his eyes. There was so much about the system that he clearly didn't know yet, "I think... the system presents in unique ways in each world."
"... What's that supposed to mean?"
Ashton finished rolling his cigarette, taking out his lighter, "It sees the way the world already works, all the invisible 'systems' established by us. And then it takes those, and elevates them. Humanity as a species has managed to use technology to elevate themselves and communicate throughout the world. The system might now be trying to add that sort of function itself."
"Huh, so like a... chat in a game."
"Who knows? We'll see tomorrow, but... that really does make me curious about what other ways the world will integrate," Ashton lit his cigarette and quickly took a drag.
Sam looked over at Ashton, just staring at him for a while. The two of them stayed silent, until almost the entire cigarette was gone. Ashton kept glancing to the side, at the message windows that appeared before him.
[[Observer in the Veil] wishes to know more about the source of your knowledge]
[[Observer in the Veil] is curious about what else you may know]
[[Observer in the Veil] has gifted you 50 Coins]
"Dude, could you just bug off? I'm not going to tell you," Ashton sighed, annoyed by the persistence. But at least he could just try to ignore the Observer, at least for now.
"You're... you're okay, right?" Taking advantage of the broken silence, Sam looked across the table. Now that they were talking for a while, things felt... weird. Of course, he knew that he was talking to Ashton, but something was off. During the phone call they had yesterday, he sounded emotional and like he was genuinely just so happy to even hear Sam's voice, but now? Ashton felt distant. It was like he didn't dare show any vulnerability anymore.
"Oh, I'm fine, my wounds will heal pretty fast, as I said," Ashton pointed out, "I'll also drink a bit of the potion before I go to bed. Low-grade potions like this seriously knock you the fuck out."
"That's... not what I meant, I..." Sam sighed, looking over at his bag. He opened it up and pulled out a glass bottle and two small plastic cups. He had grabbed this from his office before coming up, "How about we have something else to drink?"
It was an unopened bottle of whiskey.
With a scoff, Ashton looked over at Sam, "You want to get drunk? Right now?"
"Maybe not drunk. Just... a bit tipsy."
"I still have a ton of stuff I need to get done. There's a boss monster in the botanical gardens that should provide some useful materials."
"And does that have to happen right now? What if you just go for it later on?"
Sam and Ashton locked eyes, "No, no, I really should get to it soon."
Nodding in agreement, Sam opened the bottle, "I guess you're right. In this scenario, you've got so much on your shoulders that you definitely wouldn't be able to have a drink." He poured some whiskey into each of the two cups.
"Yup, I've really got to lock in and just get everything done."
The two each grabbed one of the cups, clinking them together, before each downing the small bit of whiskey in there. Sam refilled both cups, and the two laughed a bit.
"There he is," Sam smiled, but Ashton quickly turned around to see who he was talking about.
"Who?"
"Dude, you. You weren't really acting like yourself."
Ashton looked down at his cup, "... You think so?"
"Yeah, man, of course. You were always a little on the unpredictable side, but right now... you're both weirdly open with your emotions and weirdly closed off," Sam pointed out, "I'm not going to pretend like I know what it was like to go through what you went through, but... Ash, is there anything I can do? Like... you sounded so happy and excited when we talked yesterday, and now you... I don't know."
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Ashton stared into his cup. Sam was probably right. For a moment there, Ashton had thought that he could get back to the life that he had lost, that he could forget about all of the horrific shit that was forced onto him. But then, that was ripped away, and he immediately found himself back in the world he had left, where one wrong move meant death, whether at the hands of the monsters or the Summoner themself.
But... that wasn't quite the world that Ashton was actually in. Of course, things were bad, they were terrible. So many people had already died, and that was on everyone's mind. The amount of corpses that Ashton had seen since he came back were enough to startle a mortician.
There was a single difference, though. Ashton was in control. For the first time in a lifetime, Ashton was holding the reins. And he had to make a choice.
Would he live a broody, miserable life filled with nothing but advancing forward, or... would he actually allow himself to slow down sometimes, and really enjoy moments like this with Sam?
"There's nothing you can do. I'm a different person than I used to be, that's just a fact. But... you're still my best friend, and I'm... I'm so fucking happy to be able to have a drink with you again."
A smile formed on Sam's face. It was a weird sensation. To him, Ashton had suddenly changed literally overnight. He felt so different, but his friend was still in there.
"Likewise, dude."
They started drinking and chatting a bit. Laughing. Crying. Just enjoying each other's company. It was nice.
At the same time, Ashton created a few more batches of potions, deciding to focus on some prep-work for today. Right now, he had exclusively made health potions, because he was still missing a few key ingredients for each of the other utility or combat potions he wanted to make, those needed to wait a little longer. But health potions were already a good start.
Sam raised a brow, watching as Ashton put away most of the materials he had used until now into the Backpacker's bag, instead getting a few others back. It was a plastic bag filled with small gemstones, a bottle of ink, and a stack of papers.
Ashton grabbed the Pen of Insight, starting to draw something onto the pieces of paper. Sam had no idea what it was that he was drawing, though it was pretty interesting to look at.
"Are you summoning something new?" he asked curiously, but Ashton shook his head.
"No, not right now. I've just got a few items I have to make. Especially if I'm going out alone, I need to be able to distract others."
Sam was taken aback, "Alone? You're going out there on your own again?"
"Yeah, I am. I'll take a nap later, and then head out once I've sobered up fully," Ashton said it as if it were obvious. And to him, it was.
"That's far too dangerous."
"... Okay, I think you might not get it yet, so... come out with me, and we'll get you your class tomorrow."
"Right, class. Uh..."
"I'll explain everything later, for now I need to concentrate," Ashton told Sam with a smile. For the first time today, he opened his status window.
[Ashton Garling] [Age - 23] [Coins - 1187 -> 3933]
[Stats]
[Power - 10 -> 11]
[Resilience - 10]
[Speed - 12 -> 13]
[Spirit - 16 -> 17]
[Classes]
-[Summoner - Level 5]
-[Aether Sensitivity - Level 2 -> 3]
-[Channel - Level 3 -> 5]
-[Summoning - Level 2 -> 3]
-[Construct Summoning]
[Pen of Insight - Level 1 -> 2]
-[Elemental Summoning]
[Lesser Salamander - Level 1 -> 3]
[Lesser Undine - Level 1 -> 2]
[Lesser Wisp - Level 3 -> 5]
-[Spirit Summoning]
[Backpacker - Level 2 -> 3]
Ashton clicked on the coins at the top of the window, and a small pop-up appeared. He dragged his finger to the right, and the number on that pop-up continued increasing, until Ashton let go of the window.
About twenty-five small, golden coins dropped down onto his palm.
"Wait- You can take those out?"
"Yeah, of course you can. They'll be the main method of trading pretty soon, but before the actual system-trade function comes in, you'll have to take them out and trade them manually." Ashton placed one of the coins onto the paper, "These things are basically pure mana. It's hard to pull that mana out of them, though, so magic stones are easier to use, but if you know what to do, they're a great receptacle for enchantments."
Ashton tried to grasp the mana in his vessel, and slowly activated the magic circle. Using his own mana as a conduit, just like he had done with the potion, he readjusted the pattern of mana inside of the coin. Grabbing a small portion of this orderly, cleanly stacked mana, he basically shoved it into a tight, tense ball. The process alone took a few seconds for a single one, but to finish this item off, Ashton had to keep going and fill this coin with at least a few dozen balls. The more, the better.
Finally, Ashton opened his eyes. It took around five minutes to finish everything. Especially the last few were pretty difficult to fit in, since he had to make all the balls fit in there tightly.
Sam had been quiet the entire time, just watching Ashton. Though, from his point of view, it was more like Ashton was holding his palm over a small coin. Though, in the meantime, he also took out a couple coins from the system window, trying to put them back in as well. He made sure to call over some of the people standing guard up here to tell them about this function as well, so that this would spread amongst people a bit more.
If it worked like this, then it made sense for coins to turn into the standard currency.
"So, what did you do? Does that make the coin more valuable?" Sam asked curiously, and Ashton quickly shook his head, holding the coin in his hand.
"Oh, no, it's the exact opposite. This is absolutely worthless now."
"Huh? Then why would you..?"
Ashton smiled, and tossed the coin a small distance away. The moment it hit the ground, a loud crackling could be heard, as if firecrackers were going off. The coin started bouncing around, bending and twisting as it did. Sam was startled, and so were the others currently on the rooftop. It took around twenty seconds for the sound to stop.
"It's a lure. A lot of monsters are sound sensitive, and because the coin bounces around, it even alerts monsters that use vibrations in the ground to detect you," Ashton smiled, grabbing the next coin to get started, "Since this uses up the mana in the coin, it disappears afterward, but I think it's worth it."
Sam stared at the pile of coins, "I guess it's useful, but you're really going to use that many? I thought you said it becomes the currency."
"Well, yeah, but it's just one coin. They're not worth that much."
"Yeah, but 25 has to be at least a third of all the coins you have right now. That's at least two monsters' worth."
"... Sam. I have almost four thousand coins right now."
Sam stared at Ashton in slight disbelief, opening his mouth to respond, though only two words could escape him, "... I see."
And then, you just straight up-" Sam wasn't able to stop himself from laughing, "-you just straight up vomited all over that creep's shoes and trousers, and he just ran out of the club, and I don't think I've seen him since."
Ashton chuckled a bit, finally giving the Backpacker the last of the coins that he enchanted, "I did that? I do not remember any of it."
"I figured you wouldn't, you were so embarrassed about it, so it felt like you wanted to forget. But man, Clementine was all over you after that. I mean, she was already crushing on you so hard before then, but after you basically saved her, she got a lot more straightforward with you. Not that you noticed, even then."
Ashton stopped, and stared over at Sam, "Wait, what? Clementine? Uh... like..." he tried to remember. Well, he knew Clementine, obviously, she was basically his only other friend growing up beside Sam. If he remembered right, they hadn't spoken in a few months before all this started, though he couldn't recall why. More importantly... he didn't know anything about a crush, so he had to make sure he was thinking of the right person, "Red hair? Kind of on the shorter end? Drank energy drinks like they were water?"
Without hesitation, Sam nodded his head, "Mhm, that's the one."
"She had a crush on me?"
"Since like, year 7."
"Huh. I didn't know that."
"Yeah, that was very obvious."
"Did I have a crush on her too?" Ashton asked, genuinely not sure if he could remember those sorts of things. But Sam immediately shook his head.
"Oh, fuck no, you were really into, uh... What's her name, Bonny? She was such a word-I-won't-say-because-I-respect-women-too-much."
Ashton got up from the table, and started stretching. His injuries already felt a lot better, so moving was much more comfortable now. He should be able to fight without restraint by tomorrow.
But seriously, he couldn't remember any 'Bonny' at all. Not that it really mattered, "... Hm. Well, whatever. Do you know where Clementine is right now?"
"Well, her and I still hang out and play games sometimes, so yeah, I do. She's over in London right now, she got a job there a couple months ago."
"Let's hope she's okay..." Ashton sighed a bit. He didn't remember what happened between them, but he still cared for her, even if his memory was really hazy, "Oh, uhm, speaking of 'okay'. I met the dickhead trio yesterday."
"Seriously? Like, after everything started?"
"Yeah, like, right after. Chris got stabbed."
"Wait, what? Is he okay?"
"Uh... it was shoulder. So... maybe? I don't really care."
Sam straightened his back, "You didn't... right?"
"What? Oh, no I didn't stab him, it was a goblin. I gave them a few tips after that, so if they listened to me, they might be fine."
"I guess that's a relief. They suck, but you know... doesn't mean you want them to die, right?"
Ashton just shrugged. Frankly, he didn't really care if those guys died or not. He didn't want anyone to fall victim to this new world, but that wasn't realistic. People have died. People will die. Ashton felt like it was a waste to worry about people he used to hate.
It was clear that Sam could tell what Ashton was thinking. He had gotten a lot more expressive, and that look on his face couldn't fool anyone. Actually, the idea of how Ashton looked at the trio made Sam laugh a bit, "By the way, what are you doing?"
"Just stretching. I'm not really used to sitting and relaxing for super long," he explained, "I'm also using this time to think. I would really like to head out soon and get some things done before the quest ends."
"... It's going to get dark pretty soon, didn't you say you want to take a nap?"
"Yeah, like twenty minutes, wait until the potion kicks in and I sober up, and then head out."
"Wait, what do you mean? Does the potion sober you up?"
Ashton slowly nodded, "Uh... yeah, it's got some basic detoxifying qualities as well, so that it would be useful in the botanical gardens as well."
"And that works for alcohol?"
"In my experience."
"Could I..?"
"It tastes like death, but sure," Ashton replied with a smile on his face, walking over to the bottles of health potions that he had already prepared. He took a sip of the potion and downed it. It tasted bitter and spicy and sour, in all the worst ways. But well, as far as potions were concerned, there were a lot of things that tasted far, far worse than this. There were also potions that tasted a lot better, but they were annoyingly rare.
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Sam followed right after, taking a sip of the potion. The moment it touched his tongue, he held his hand in front of his mouth to try and stop himself from spitting it back out, and slowly forced it down his throat.
"Oh my god, this is horrific, why would you ever do this to yourself?"
Ashton smiled and gave the bottle to the backpacker, thanking them before looking back at Sam, "It helps muscle recovery, wound healing, blood production, and as I said just now, detoxification. The healing works better when applied directly to the wound, though."
"Urgh... you sure this doesn't just sober you up because of the bad taste?" Sam slowly up from his seat as well, but Ashton shrugged.
"As long as it works, I don't care. Now, is there any place I can take a nap?"
"... You can sleep in my office if you want. Those swivel chairs recline really nicely."
"Neat."
Ashton and Sam walked down from the rooftop, getting back to Calibur games. But when they did, a few people were waiting there by the front desk.
"There you are!" one of them yelled out. Ashton recognised him - it was that older investment banker who was helped clear the quest earlier. At first, Ashton thought he was talking to Sam, but no. He came straight at Ashton himself, "You! You can fight, can't you?"
"... Yes?" he replied, not sure where this guy was going, and the man quickly turned around to the others.
"See? So everything is fine! Just have him take my spot!"
"That's not- Everybody is supposed to do their part!" one of the guys in the party from earlier, the ones that helped guide Ashton here and helped this guy through the quest, quickly replied. He looked over at Sam, "That's what you said, right? That, if we want to get through this, nobody can sit on their ass!"
"Sitting on my- I'll have you know, I'm a very important man!"
Ashton looked over at Sam, raising a brow, "You know what this is about?"
Sam sighed, scrunching up his nose, "Mhm. Some people think they're too good to help out. We barely managed to get them to do something once their lives were on the line with the second quest."
"Huh. Well, I think it's fine if they do whatever they want," Ashton replied with a shrug, and Sam stared at him confused.
"What? But why..."
"Even he agrees!" the investment banker yelled out, "So I don't understand why you are being so difficult about this, I simply-"
"The people that just sit on their ass are going to die in the next quest anyway."
Sam was startled by Ashton's response, "They're going to... What do you mean?"
"The next quest isn't one that you can get help for," Ashton glanced down the hallway, wanting to just head to Sam's office to sleep, "You're going to need to get your class. If you can't, you die. And other people can't attain classes for you."
The people gathered here in the room stared at Ashton, startled. But he was pretty unbothered by that. He just said the truth.
"And... And how would you know what the next quest is?" the investor asked, "What even is a 'Class' supposed to be, this isn't school!"
Some of the others, mostly the employees of Calibur Games, let out quiet groans, "Obviously, it's not that kind of class... though I also want to know how you heard about that. Have you met anyone with a class?"
"I guess so."
Ashton just silently stared at the one that asked, and Sam sighed, stepping forward. With how tall he was, he was pretty effective at blocking out everyone's stares, "Ashton already has a class. And as for how he knows about the next quest, he... has a super power. Ashton can see the future."
"H-He can?" one of the people in the room asked, surprised, and even Ashton was a bit confused.
"I can?" Seeing Sam's deep glare as he turned around briefly, Ashton got what he was doing, "Right, yes, I can see the future. But it's very limited, so uh... don't ask me if you survive or whatever."
Sam closed his eyes for a moment, wondering how it was possible that Ashton got even more brash than in the past, "Right. Anyway, that's why he knows some of the future quests."
The investor scoffed, crossing his arms. Some of the other folk here, who seemed to be that man's coworkers or employees, didn't seem to believe it either, "He can see the future? Do you really think we're in some kind of fantasy story?"
Ashton slightly tilted his head to the side, "Are you stupid?"
"H-Huh?!"
"I mean, come on, after seeing literal monsters out there, you're shocked at the existence of magic?" Ashton snapped his finger, and the Backpacker appeared right next to him, walking out from behind the front desk with the smartphone in hand, playing some games, "Magic is real, and so is the ability to see the future. You'll see, some of you guys will probably develop a few special abilities as well over the next few weeks. The important part right now is that classes are something personal. Though, it's not too hard to get your first class, either, if you just keep at it."
Ashton yawned a bit, looking up at Sam, "Can I go take my nap now? I don't want to linger around here too long."
"... Go ahead," Sam replied, and Ashton smiled and started walking down the hallway, quickly turning around to his friend before fully leaving. He, of course, also just ignored the messages of the Observer bothering him after that 'revelation' about his 'future sight'.
"Oh, and Sam. You got this. Don't let these guys push you around, and don't be the 'shadow'," he said, and then continued walking down the hallway with the Backpacker trotting along beside him.
Ashton woke up to the sun in his eyes, and squinted as he pushed himself upright in the chair, "But... that direction is east, why is the sun going down there?"
With a groan, Ashton looked down at his wrist, quickly figuring out what time it really was, "Oh fuck you, 6 in the morning? Why do I keep sleeping so much?"
He leaned forward, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. This space was quiet. Sam was laying on the ground in front of his desk, in a sleeping bag.
"Urgh..." Ashton slowly stood up and stretched. Surprisingly, he actually felt pretty good. The potion must have done its job, so at least he was recovered well enough now. And so, Ashton quickly started stripping to take off the bandages. They would just be an unnecessary bother if he didn't need them. Under the bandages, some slight gunk was left behind, and Ashton would love to clean himself up, but... the undine's summon had run out while Ashton was sleeping. And he didn't think it was worth it to call on them again just yet.
"Fuuuck," he said loudly. But with that, he seemed to have woken up Sam, who got up with a groan.
"Ash? You up already?" he reached up onto the desk and grabbed his glasses. He usually wore contacts throughout the day, though that would also change with time. Then again, Ashton did know a potion that could help with bad eyesight, so he could fix that soon enough.
"Yeah, I way overslept."
"Hah, yeah you were completely knocked out. I even tried waking you, but the Backpacker stopped me."
"... They did?"
"Yeah, they seemed concerned for you. They're a pretty cute little fellow," Sam smiled, properly sitting up while looking at his friend, "But, uh, could I ask you a question really quick?"
"Hm? Sure, what's up?"
Sam cleared his throat a for a moment, making sure to continue staring right at Ashton's face, and just his face, "Why exactly are you naked again?"
Okay. What kind of class were you thinking about trying to get?" Ashton and Sam walked down the road next to each other. The early morning sun was shining down on them, and even many of the monsters were only just waking up.
But Sam didn't quite have an answer to that question, "Mate, you didn't tell me what kind of classes there were. I don't fucking know."
"Did you want me to give you a list?" Ashton scoffed, raising his staff up and putting it behind his neck, "There's any class you can think of. Swordsman, mage, necromancer, fisherman, farmer, architect, blacksmith, librarian, entomologist-"
"Entomologist?"
"Yeah, you know... someone that studies insects?"
"... That's a class?"
"Why wouldn't it be? Any job title you can think of probably has its own class. Each class also has their own conditions that need to be fulfilled so that you can attain them. Every subsequent class will then have more complex and harder to attain conditions."
Sam widened his eyes, "You can have more than one class?"
"Mhm. Though realistically, the limit is three or four. Five is also technically possible, though at that point, your levelling speed slows to a total crawl," Ashton explained, but by then, Sam was already deep in thought, "But if you hit the right synergies between classes... the potential could be pretty high, right?"
It wasn't a question that Sam wanted answered - rather, even if Ashton tried, his words wouldn't get through anymore anyway.
Sam was mumbling to himself, trying to figure out some interesting or fun combos, even if he didn't know anything about how skills worked yet. That was just his game developer's instincts going at it. Though he was the Art Director at Calibur right now, back when the company started out, he did a massive amount of game design as well.
Somehow, now that Ashton had spent a bit more time with Sam again, he had come to remember a lot of the things that he couldn't recall just a day ago. It was a nice sensation. Even so, Ashton couldn't let him drift off right now.
He held his hand in front of his friend's face and clicked his fingers, quickly getting Sam's attention back.
"First and foremost, think about what you want your main class to be, meaning your first class," Ashton explained, stepping in front of him, "To begin with, you can divide the classes into four important fields. Combat, production, research, or leadership. They're pretty self-explanatory."
"... Would art count as-"
"Production, yes. Now, I know what you're probably thinking, that combat is the only one that makes sense, right?"
Sam shrugged, "Sort of. I've got experience and can handle a fight."
"Right, but you're also a great leader. People trust you. And since we're probably going down the 'War Route' here, leaders are a necessity. So even if you may not direct personal growth, that's still fine and useful."
For a moment, Sam kept thinking, though he was also preoccupied with looking around himself, to make sure there were no monsters sneaking up on them. Ashton seemed almost too casual about all of this, just standing here in the middle of the road.
"If I could choose... I think I would like to be an artist. But maybe that's not a good choice for now."
"... Right. Artists are a type of class that you can only afford once things are relatively safe. Or, you choose it as your secondary or tertiary class. As you were thinking just now, there are some unique synergies that can occur with skills. If you do things right, you can even get your hands on a specific skill that comes from two or more of your classes," Ashton explained, "But for now, you do have to consider something else. If you want, you can get rid of classes later, though you will lose most of your stat growth and all your skills from whatever class you get rid of. So... yeah, focus on survival for now."
"What would you recommend?" Sam asked, and Ashton smiled as though he was waiting to be asked this exact question. He turned around and continued walking down the road.
"For you, as your first class, I recommend a combat focused class. I know you've done a lot of martial arts growing up, so just pick your favourite and go for it."
Sam nodded, already considering all the choices, "Any reason why you want me to take a combat class first?"
"Of course. In the world we now live in, for at least a considerable amount of time, strength is what matters most. Now, if you had a lot of trusted, extremely strong individuals around you, you could get away with starting with a leadership class. But no, right now, a combat class is the best path for you personally. You can still be a leader without the corresponding class, but becoming a fighter without a combat class is much harder," as Ashton spoke, a group of three small goblins were coming across the corner. It was a bit of a shocking sight, since they weren't wearing their usual, tattered old clothing, but instead some kids' outfits they probably stole from a home. They were even wearing decent shoes. It was almost uncanny, "If you can't prove that you're strong enough to deserve your position, you're going to lose it, is basically what I'm saying. Plus, if you don't want to be a leader in the first place, that gives you the option for that as well."
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Ashton approached the trio of goblins. The moment they saw him, they yelled out and ran at him all together. One was carrying a regular goblin spear, the other a slingshot, and the last of them seemed to have swapped out its rusty old dagger with a meat cleaver. That one would actually be a pretty neat weapon to have around.
Sam was startled and a bit nervous, looking at the monsters, "And... what do I need to do to get a class once I've decided?"
"Using the method you want to get your class for, defeat a certain amount of creatures," Ashton said clearly. "With a sword, you'll get the swordsman class. With a staff, you'll get the staff fighter class." He used his staff to knock the three goblins down pretty easily, sweeping away the feet of two and hitting the last into the forehead.
"... Is any one better than the others?" Sam watched all of this, rather perplexed.
Ashton leaned onto his staff and thought about the answer for a moment, "Not really? They each have their benefits and shortcomings. It's more important to be comfortable with your class. If you choose to change from... let's say swordsman to staff fighter, there are ways to transfer a portion of your experience from one to the other. The system is shockingly accommodating for matters like that."
"... How stupid would it be to fight without a weapon?"
"Not necessarily stupid," Ashton kept knocking down the goblins, avoiding killing them. It actually felt a little like he was bullying them, so he thought it would be great if Sam made a choice soon, "Now, as an unarmed fighter, you're putting yourself more into harm's way, but they're sturdy, can react at a moment's notice even when they're surprised because they don't need to ready a weapon, and for you personally, I feel like it might be a good match. You're a tall mountain of muscles, so you've got the weight advantage. And you've got experience with it."
"Okay, then I'll give it a go. And I have to... kill them?"
"Not technically. There's a lot of conditions that you can fulfil. You can choose to either kill a smaller amount, or knock out a larger amount. But even if you don't kill them, I will right after. Don't worry too much, though, they have artificial consciousnesses that are programmed to kill us the moment they have a chance. So if you don't kill them, they'll kill you or a whole bunch of other people. Come on already, I can only knock them down so many times before they just drop dead."
Sam let out a slight groan and nodded his head. Until now, he was carrying around a replica sword they had at the office, which was what he had used to kill the first main quest's monsters. It was just out of necessity, and because it was simply easier to do. But now, he gave it over to Ashton to hold.
"So do I... uh... just punch them?"
"Do whatever you want. I'm going to let them loose now, alright?"
Sam nodded, and Ashton stepped back. So that the fight was a bit easier for a classless individual, Ashton had pushed away the goblins' weapons with his staff. Sure, Sam might need to hit a lower count of opponents to beat if they were armed, but that was too risky for now. As there was no shortcoming of monsters to fight, it was better to be safe and give Sam more actual life or death fighting experience before amping things up.
Sam placed his left foot slightly forward and bent his knees just so slightly, holding his clenched fists near his chin. With a swift motion, he quickly and immediately struck sideways at the first goblin, hitting the goblin's cheek. It was knocked back and fell to the ground. The other two goblins jumped at Sam, but he quickly built distance and punched the next straight on the nose. It, also, fell to the ground. For the third, Sam left his boxing pose and swept its feet of the ground. While it fell, Sam reached down and once again punched the goblin straight in the face, knocking it down.
"That... was easy. Does that count?" Sam looked over at Ashton, who just shook his head.
"The opponents need to either be unable to continue fighting, or willingly give up to count as having 'beat' them. These guys will not willingly give up, so you have to either knock them out. Or, well, kill them. Also, watch out," Ashton looked down at his watch to check the time. It was 7am now. There would be a few hours between the end of quest 1 and the start of quest 2, and he wanted to make sure that Sam got his class before the second quest even started, to set him up for as much growth as possible.
For now, Ashton walked over to that meat cleaver he took from the goblin. It wasn't perfectly sharp anymore, since the goblin probably didn't use it perfectly, but that was relatively easy to fix.
By the time Ashton looked back over at Sam, one of the goblins was fully knocked out, another was struggling to get back on its feet, and the last was currently in a chokehold. The goblin was trying to claw at Sam's arm and pull it away, but before long, its arms fell limp to the side and Ashton just let go of it.
With the monster fallen to the ground, Sam walked past the last that was barely conscious, kicked it in the face while it was still on all fours, and also knocked that one out. He was breathing pretty heavily, but he was quite happy as well. He felt strong, taking out three monsters like that.
"Okay, perfect," Ashton handed the cleaver to the backpacker and asked for his knife instead, walking over to the goblins, "Three down. It took me thirty, so let's aim for that for now."
Sam's smile immediately disappeared. "Thirty? Are you serious?"
"Only if you decide to finish them off. Otherwise, I expect it's going to be more like... sixty, seventy, maybe?"
"... But... I can't just kill things like that, how could I..?"
Ashton stared at Sam, "You already killed 5 of them. Why is it a problem now?"
"Well, then I had to. I was going to be killed if I didn't, the quest said so," he pointed out, as if it were obvious, "Also, mate, for the record. It was... it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do."
Of course, Ashton also hesitated to kill for the first time. But again, it was unavoidable, "Okay, so if you don't kill them, they will kill you. Those are the only two options. You can't make peace, you can't talk this out. The moment they recover even a little bit? They're going to kill you. They are forced to do this. And trust me, I don't want to necessarily do this either, because I know what it feels like to be forced to kill, but-" Ashton was feeling himself get riled up a little. He closed his eyes, and sighed. "It's fine to not kill them right now if you're not ready yet. But if you can't kill them, just because you don't have a quest telling you to, then you're going to die. Or, well, you need to pick a non-combat class and let others do the fighting. But knowing you..."
"... I'm not going to do that. Okay, fine," Sam stared at the goblins. They were still unconscious, barely starting to wake up again.
Ashton watched with a weight on his heart. After all, Sam was the kindest person he had ever known, and he hoped that today would not change that.
Ashton was seated on a bench at the side of the road. This was a pretty well-used bus-stop just a few days ago. But now, its only use was for monsters to sleep on and under. Though the monsters that had occupied this bench were now laying dead on the ground.
"And that makes seventeen," Ashton looked down at his watch, "We're well en route. The first quest is about to end."
Sam stood there, slowly nodding his head. He looked down at the monster that he just choked to death, "... Maybe choosing to go for an unarmed class wasn't a good idea after all."
"You can still choose to go for a different one. But, well... make that choice soon, alright?" Ashton got up from the bench and walked over to the dead monsters. This was a group of 'Simids', a species of roughly ape-like monster. They were pretty strong, so until he was sure that Sam had it all under control, Ashton was right behind him and kept them away so that Sam could face the monsters one-on-one.
And now, it was time for Ashton to harvest some things from them. Beside the magic stone that he took from all the dead monsters, he also collected a small organ that this particular monster had, attached to their liver. Simids naturally came from an environment where it was hard to find a steady supply of food. So, this small organ collected specific qualities from the mana in the food they did eat and kept a store of it. And then, when they went with too little or without food at all for a long time, this special magic allowed them to simply persist longer. This was an extremely potent ingredient in stretching out the effective period of a potion.
Ashton packed the organ away inside of a small plastic container, wrote down what it was with a marker, and then gave it to the backpacker. Of course, the simid magic stones were also put into their own corresponding plastic bag and properly marked, just like all the others Ashton had collected.
"I still can't get used to this. Do you really have to dissect them like that, Ash?" Sam asked, turning away and covering his mouth with his arm, but Ashton simply nodded.
"Of course. All of these materials are useful for potions, magic items, summoning, enchanting, spellcasting, and such," he explained simply, a though it were the most normal thing in the world.
Ashton stood back up and cleaned his hands with a small hand towel. It was covered in dried blood by now, but Ashton should be able to clean it pretty easily soon.
Sam grumbled slightly to himself, "I really don't like this. Why does it have to be like this? Why do they even have those stones in their hearts anyway?"
"Because their bodies didn't necessarily evolve alongside magic, so their bodies can't process them properly."
"Wait... what? What do you mean, 'evolve'?"
Ashton slightly tilted his head, "Did I not mention? All these monsters come from worlds that failed to make it through the quests."
He walked past his friend and continued down the road, but Sam just stood there for a moment until he really processed what he had heard.
"What?!"
"Yeah, I know, I was pretty shocked as well when I learned about that."
"Hold on, does that mean that we're going to grow magic stones as well?"
Ashton thought about that for a moment. He hadn't grown magic stones in his chest when he was a summon, but that might also have been because his body was constructed of magic anyway, "I don't know. Maybe. We'll see."
Sam grimaced nervously, slowly following behind Ashton.
"Uhm... by the way, what did you, uh..." he cleared his throat, trying to just change the topic, "What did you choose as your reward for the quest?"
Ashton had actually been quite bothered by it. Not because he couldn't choose, but because the system message would float there until he did, "I haven't chosen anything yet. There was nothing that seemed useful. Frankly, the items are kind of... cruddy. I mean, come on, just look at this."
He pulled over the system window and snapped his finger. Just like that, he changed this window's 'setting' and allowed Sam to see it.
[You have completed [Main Quest 1- A Show of Dedication]! Please pick your reward]
[Fallen Soldier's Sword]
[Blood-Soaked Spear]
[Cracked Warhammer]
[Rusty War-axe]
[Retired Guard's Shield]
[Well-Worn Boots]
[Ripped Undershirt]
...
...
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...
Ashton scrolled through the options. There were a lot more than from the tutorial quest, about two dozen or so, but they were all... well, not all that great. They were just recycled items grabbed from other worlds that were thrown at people here.
"I mean, sure, if someone has nothing at all to work with before, it could give them an advantage, but it's basically just something they throw at people to make later rewards seem even better," Ashton clicked his tongue, "The first main quest is literally just about making sure people have the baseline qualifications to survive. It's a bit stupid, since there's way more than just combat classes, but I guess they just want people to prove their will to survive."
He turned over toward Sam, who was just staring at the window confused, "... What? You can show these windows to other people?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, just think about it, and it's going to make them visible to anyone around you. But don't do it too often, you need to keep your secrets. Unless you open these windows to everyone, even those guys can't see them," Ashton looked over at the system messages from the constellations he was getting, and made them visible to Sam as well.
[[Observer in the Veil] agrees to the useless nature of the quest rewards]
[[Executor of the End] points out that there is a reason why these items were left behind]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] believes these items to be a grand challenge to the people of this world]
"... You have three constellations watching you? When did that happen?"
"I don't know. I woke up, and two more had just popped up. It's probably because of the 'private conversation' and the corresponding quest that the Observer provided yesterday. Do you still just have the 'Shadow behind the Throne'?"
Sam slowly nodded, looking to the side. He awkwardly held his hand forward and tried to snap, like Ashton, but, "Erm, is it working?"
"Hm?"
"I snapped my finger, like you did, so can you see the window?"
"Oh, yeah, sorry, I should have explained," Ashton shook his head. He snapped his finger again and made his own windows visible to just himself, "You don't need these motions. You just need to concentrate on it. But for these abstract concepts, it makes sense to connect it to a physical action. For me, snapping just felt right. Don't worry, you'll figure it out at some point. Anyway, what did you pick?"
"I haven't picked anything either, yet. Some of the others did, though, and it all looked pretty..."
"Shit?"
"Yeah, it all looked pretty shit. I was wondering if you had any suggestions?"
Ashton looked through the list, thinking about it for a moment, "Hm... Pick a supplementary item. Not something that's directly useful for the class you want to get."
Sam frowned lightly, confused, "What? Why?"
Ashton smiled in response, "You'll get everything you need for your class later today. Which is also why I'm going to pick... Hm. None of them, I guess?"
He had hoped that there would be something good in this list after all, but no. There was nothing that seemed like it would be useful for him. There was a staff in the list, but it was probably just some kind of random stick.
So, he rejected the offer.
[You have refused the Quest reward. You will instead receive a corresponding amount of Class Experience]
[Class | Summoner - Level 5 -> Summoner - Level 6]
"Neat," Ashton shivered slightly as his body was strengthened.
"What is?"
"Oh, I just rejected the reward and got some experience instead. Looks like I was right on the edge and levelled up again. You can do that too, but only a small amount will be attributed to you when you get your class."
"... Why is none of this explained? Shouldn't that have happened in the tutorial?"
Ashton stared at Sam, nodding his head furiously, "That's what I'm saying! The guys that designed this whole questline just suck."
"Mhmm..." Sam agreed, as the two of them finally continued on walking down the street. Right now, they were just walking through the city centre, trying to find monsters to take down. Of course, that part itself wasn't hard, but Ashton tried to direct them to only encounter small groups of monsters to make it easier to ensure Sam's safety.
And before long, a new message appeared in front of Ashton's eyes.
[[Main Quest 1] has ended! [Main Quest 2] will soon proceed]
"There we go," Ashton waved the message away. Now, it was exactly 10 in the morning. He was about to tell Sam, but he had already taken out his phone to check things out himself.
The 'community' should have opened now. Ashton quickly walked over and looked at Sam's screen, as he was checking out the new function installed on his phone. And as of now, it was... empty.
Sam looked around the screen. There were a few different tabs.
'Group', 'Region', 'Country', 'World'. However, all of the tabs beside 'Region' were greyed out.
"There's nothing here, what is this?" Ashton asked a bit confused, just staring down at the phone. But Sam just glanced back at him.
"Calm down, there's a button here. Also, I have my profile up here? But let's look at this first," Sam said, clicking on the small plus-button at the bottom of the screen. A small pop-up appeared.
Do you wish to create a post for 100 Coins?
"Oh! Okay, okay, that's useful. Pretty expensive, all things considered, but... useful. Wait, so do you think that everyone in the 'region' can see these posts?"
Ashton was thinking, slowly nodding, "Probably... Though I don't know how big a 'region' is. It could be the city, or the entire county, maybe? It could also be the entirety of southern England," he suggested, but really, this was completely new to him as well. Rather, it was actually kind of exciting that there was something he had no idea about whatsoever. Terrifying, but exciting.
"Wait, there's a post here already!"
"Already?" Ashton asked surprised, staring at the screen.
Help! by userA54GZ1851
Please, please, please help! We're in the south of town, at Drakewood Primary School! We have tons of kids here, and those things are gathering outside!
Anyone, please come help us!
Sam's face dropped immediately, "Oh my god, kids... I didn't even think about kids, how are they supposed to survive, I-"
"Calm down. There... there will be plenty of kids that pass, and the very thought makes me want to vomit, but... there's an extremely powerful constellation that made a deal with the council. Their modifier is 'Guardian of the Innocent'. I don't know until what age it would be, but all children and, depending on their age, their direct guardians get special benefits. For one, a lot of their quests are simpler, monsters are generally less aggressive toward them, and the youngest get some growth boosts once they join the mainstream questlines. Toddlers should be completely exempt from quests, by the way."
A wave of relief came over Sam, as he looked back down at his phone, "Okay, okay, got it. So... these kids will be fine?"
Confused, Ashton looked back at Sam, "Huh? What are you talking about, absolutely not. I said their quests are easier, not that they can't die. I'm going to rush over there the moment you get your class."
"Okay, yes, please do."
Ashton nodded, cracking his knuckles, "So... let's hurry the fuck up and get to it, yeah?"
Sam stood over the corpse of a goblin, breathing heavily. Blood was dripping down his bruised knuckles, as he stared into the air in front of him.
He looked over at Ashton, who was still currently holding off the other goblins in this group, "I, uhm... I did it, I think. It's offering me the 'Unarmed Fighter' class."
Ashton smiled immediately, "Perfect, finally! That should be a great class for you. You don't stick to a single type of fighting, either, so a class that boosts your general unarmed fighting ability is an amazing match."
Sam nodded, though it was pretty obvious he wasn't really listening. He stared at the window and selected the 'yes' option.
From how Sam's eyes were darting around, it was obvious that he was getting quite a few messages right now. Ashton also had to deal with quite a flood of them.
For now, Ashton slammed his staff into the face of one of the goblins he had pushed down, crushing its skull. The other one quickly earned a broken sternum and a heart attack. As for the last, with a swift swing of the staff, its neck was broken.
Sam turned toward him, still startled by how swiftly Ashton took out those monsters, "I could tell you were bored, but have you really been holding back that much this entire time?"
Ashton shrugged, "Yeah, of course."
"... How long until you get that Staff Fighter class?"
With a raised brow, Ashton walked over to Sam, "I'm not choosing the staff fighter class. At least for the time being, I'm sticking to being a pure Summoner."
"Wait, why? You're already so strong with your staff, why wouldn't you choose a class that makes you even stronger?"
Ashton just smiled a bit. Before long, the things that he could do with a staff right now would seem like child's play to Sam, "Because I need to focus on the growth of the Summoner class. You get new skills every ten levels, and there are a few more that I would really like to get my hands on."
Though Sam had already gotten used to the vague way that Ashton spoke about these things by now, that didn't change that he was a bit nervous. Especially considering that Ashton was going to just run off alone after this.
"I'll be fine, don't worry," Ashton patted his friend's back, "Anyway, once you get back to Calibur, test out your skills. It should feel pretty natural to use them, almost like second nature."
"Yeah, I think I already feel it a bit. One of my skills is called 'Body Strengthening', and my whole body just feels so full of energy."
"It'll do that. Anyway, I'm glad. Now, you'll clear the next quest immediately once it comes, so just take the rewards and use that to help the others in your group get a class. Explain to them what I told you, and you'll be fine. It should be a one-week period, but if they put in the effort, it's going to take a day."
Sam slowly nodded, still looking over his new skills a bit as the two started walking, "Okay, so, how about the second class? What if we get one of those already?"
Ashton scoffed, "Yeah, no, good luck with that. Not gonna happen."
Sam raised a brow.
"Oh, sorry, that's not because of you. The saying is, 'first a day, then a fortnight, a year, a decade, and at last a lifetime'. That's how long it takes to get each consecutive class," Ashton explained, "If you were able to get your second class in a week, that would be great, but I doubt it. I also don't know if you'll get any more rewards for it. But it's possible. If anyone can do it, they should go for it, whatever."
"Okay. And you're going to head straight to the school?"
"Mhm, as fast as I can," Ashton replied, looking down at his watch, "The period between quests is used to flood the world with more magic faster than during the quests, so monsters will be strengthened a bit more now. I need to hurry up before it's too late. Oh, can you reply to the post for me and tell them that someone's on their way? I'll try to get my hands on phone myself or something."
"Yeah, sorry, I completely didn't think, otherwise I would have given you one from the office. We should have been able to find a spare one."
Ashton shook his head, "No, don't worry. Keep an eye on the botanical gardens. There's a boss monster in there, and it's going to grow pretty strong soon. I'll come back to take care of it after I clear out the school and bring them all somewhere safe."
"We'll do that. I was a bit worried about it, anyway. I heard that some people saw weird monsters in there, so I don't mind keeping an eye on it. And do you have a place in mind for the kids?" Sam asked, but Ashton immediately shook his head.
"No, not yet, but I've got some ideas. Again, a place like a primary school shouldn't be a massive target for monsters," Ashton explained, turning around, "Alright, man, see you later, man."
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But before he could walk away, Ashton felt a hand on his shoulder, "Mate, you don't think you're just leaving like that, right?"
Ashton stared at Sam and sighed a bit. He felt so uncomfortable with physical contact like this right now, but he knew that he couldn't escape from it. Sam pulled Ashton into a hug, "Be careful, yeah? I'm going to kill you if you die."
With a scoff, Ashton slightly pulled away, "That's what I want to say. Don't worry, I won't die anytime soon."
And with that, the pair split up again. Sam went on his way back to Calibur Games, which was just down the street anyway, while Ashton would head south to the primary school.
However, now that he was alone again, Ashton had a few things he had to do. For one, he had the Backpacker give him some of the food that he had made before. It wasn't perfectly fresh anymore, but the void in the spirit's bag seemed to extend the shelf life of things at least a little bit.
Ashton also grabbed one of the pre-made wisp summoning circles and placed it onto the ground in front of him.
"Come to me, lesser wisp," Ashton spoke, his words filled with a bit of magic, as the food inside of the container fell apart into glistening dust. That dust soon came together and formed the body of the lesser wisp. The container itself was perfectly clean as well, so Ashton would be able to reuse it soon.
The elemental immediately flew over to Ashton, nuzzling itself under his palm, as if trying to be pet, and the summoner quickly obliged, "Sorry, I meant to call on you last night, but the plan changed a bit. There are a few more things to take care of right now."
---
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] stares at the elemental in confusion]
[[Executor of the End] questions how you could have possibly formed such a contract]
[[Observer in the Veil] smugly tells the other constellations to back off]
---
Ashton sighed a bit. The constellations were annoying, but attention wasn't a bad thing. Plus, while the Summoner didn't garner too much attention from the Daughter and the Executor, Ashton had heard of them. While they weren't known to be exactly 'kind', they also weren't absolutely evil constellations. Though, basically every constellation had bad rumours surrounding them, and even a famously good constellation like the 'Guardian of the Innocent' was known to be ruthless when it came to anything beside children.
If Ashton played his cards right, this could actually come in pretty useful. But for now, they were really just a little annoying.
He looked over at the Backpacker to give back the food container, but the spirit was still standing next to him with the phone in their hand. They were playing around with something. And when he took a glance at the screen, Ashton was not just surprised, but confused.
"Wait, can you turn the screen to me for a second? Isn't that the community?"
The Backpacker looked up to Ashton, nodding their head. Their hood slipped over their face a bit more, and they held the phone forward while fixing it back up. Ashton slowly grabbed the item. It was irreversibly linked to the Backpacker now, so even if he tried to take it back, he couldn't. The phone would just disappear when the Backpacker went back into his vessel.
"Huh... Does the phone still register as 'mine' as far as this part of the system is concerned?" Ashton wondered, scrolling through the community for now. There were a few more posts in the 'region' tab now, mostly people asking for help, or making posts about safe spots they found. Actually, there were even some other categories now that you could sort the posts by, like 'tags' connected to each post.
'Seeking Help', 'Offering Help', 'Safe Haven', and 'Point of Interest', "Interesting. Hey, bud... can you read and write, perchance?"
The Backpacker looked up at Ashton, nodding their head. Right, of course. Most summons immediately knew all the languages that the user knew. That was good for Ashton, "Want to help me out here, and manage my community account?"
Of course, he could do it himself, but frankly, he was so totally not used to phones anymore. It took him forever to even find the song that he distracted the orc and goblins with at the park the other day. But the Backpacker seemed weirdly savvy with it.
Though, the spirit seemed a bit apprehensive, and the phone disappeared from Ashton's hands, reappearing in the Backpacker's.
"Of course, it's still yours! Just think of it as... an extra trade! I'm sure now that the phone is so important, there must be ways to charge it. The battery is at just 23 percent now, so it's going to turn off pretty soon. How about this - in exchange for me making sure that the phone is always charged and usable for you, you make posts and alert me of anything useful or interesting going on in the community. Alright?"
The backpacker seemed hesitant, so Ashton smiled a bit more, "And I'm also going to try and show you how to play those games you've been trying out."
And with that offer, the spirit seemed way more interested all of a sudden. It stretched out its hand, and Ashton shook it in turn.
"Let's get started with that when we take our next break, okay?" Ashton suggested, and the Backpacker agreed without hesitation. They gave Ashton some other things he asked for, and then disappeared back in the their summoner's vessel.
And with that, it was time for Ashton to get moving. He now had someone that could monitor the community for him, and he could stay out here and focus on the quests and his growth. If it was a situation tough enough to threaten group of children protected by such a powerful constellation, Ashton needed to be as strong as he possibly could be.
He placed a pre-made summoning circle and a coal briquette into the lantern, and put a bottle of water onto another circle next to that lantern.
"Oh Lesser Salamander, oh Lesser Undine, both of you, come to me."
The salamander's summoning circle lit up in a slight flame, and the paper itself was burnt. The flames soon enveloped the coal briquette, and the Salamander's body was formed within the fire.
As for the undine's summoning circle, the paper fell apart as though it was being washed away bit by bit, and the Undine soon swam out of the bottle.
This would be Ashton's first time trying to channel more than one summon at a time - just having the three elementals out here at the same time was straining enough. Keeping summons actively outside of his vessel drained mental strength pretty fast.
---
[Skill | Summoning - Level 3 -> Summoning - Level 4]
---
And this was why he had to do it - the more one struggled, the faster one grew. Again, the system was fair about things like this.
So, to grow enough to make sure he could ensure the children would be safe, Ashton made a very obvious choice.
It was time to power-level.
Ashton walked through the middle of the road, his staff on his shoulder and three elementals by his side. The undine's bottle of water was in one of Ashton's pockets while undine themself swam above his head, the salamander was burning away inside its lantern, and the wisp was floating closely by Ashton's side.
Just this alone was decent practice. Having three elementals out at the same time that he was subtly channelling, to keep prepared for any possible attack, was a decent strain. It was a bit like that pressure you felt behind your eyes right before you had a big migraine coming on. But it was something that he had to figure out how to do sooner or later. And in this case, sooner was much preferable to later.
By now, Ashton would have liked to imbue a spell into the wisp already, but when he thought about it, he had a very late realisation. While he may know how to manipulate mana pretty well, and could change its state and do whatever was needed for enchanting or potion-making, Ashton didn't actually have any practical knowledge of spellcasting.
Sure, he knew some spell circles; he was forced to learn them as it may have helped during enchanting, but actual spellcasting? No, he never learned that part. And it wasn't the sort of thing that could be done purely through knowledge.
Different spells had different components, some visual, physical, material, or vocal. Ashton knew the visual and material portions of certain spells quite well, as they represented the actual spell circles and the literal materials that had to be used in the process. He had to study and understand the former, and prepare the latter for the Summoner. But as the Summoner wasn't exactly... human, in any way, shape, or form, the physical and vocal components were impossible for him, at least the way the Summoner did them. Of course, the actions required for the physical component done by someone with dozens more limbs than Ashton weren't exactly achievable for him, same with the vocal aspects.
So, at least for now, the only spells that Ashton could even imagine to make use of were ones that required only visual and material components, but most of those materials were currently inaccessible, and there were only a handful of basic spells that only required visual components.
And for that... the issue was that Ashton couldn't figure out how to form a spell circle quite yet. And as far as he knew, he basically had to form such a spell circle within the wisp's body to imbue a spell into them. But it was way harder than he thought to keep up such a complex shape.
However, there was something else that the wisp was good for, which he wanted to experiment with now. The wisp, a being of pure magic, could take in clean elemental magics from others to some degree, so that would be a good start in learning how to imbue proper spells. He just needed a few... test subjects.
Soon, Ashton encountered one of those test subjects. It was a small pack of 'Red Wolves'. Though, they looked a bit different to how Ashton was used to seeing them before. In the wilderness of the other world, they were these deeply feral, massive creatures that perfectly represented the image of a 'wolf'. Their fur was a dark, almost black, red that looked like they were soaked in blood.
But the pack that Ashton was seeing now? They were a bit smaller and weirdly looked like they had been groomed just a few days ago. Rather than wolves, they seemed more like stray dogs.
Of course, they were very clearly still 'Red Wolves', that much was obvious. That soft, blood-red glow in their eyes was proof for that. But it was still an unexpected change to these monsters.
The pack of four ran at Ashton the moment they saw him, snarling and growling as they did, showing their sharp teeth that still had flesh and garbage stuck in them.
But Ashton reacted just as fast. He pulled a flame from the lantern and quickly moved it in front of him. Out of all the elements, fire was the most intimidating. Most beings either knew instinctively or out of experience that they had to stay away from fire. And while monsters were forced to fight, that wasn't enough to make them go beyond their instincts. And animalistic monsters often followed such instincts more than humanoids.
They backed off at the sight of the flames, waiting for the opportunity to attack. But at the same time as he moved the flames back and forth, Ashton had the wisp move forward. He had to move both hands to manipulate two of the elementals at once right now, and he couldn't quite afford to just stand back and do nothing but flail his arms around. He had to be able to use his staff, just in case.
So, Ashton brought the flames and the wisp together. Almost immediately, as though it had been waiting for it, the wisp absorbed the magical flames, taking on a red hot glow. The slight mist that had been surrounding it this whole time was now dark red fire.
Almost immediately, channelling the two elementals together became much easier, not just in terms of the physical action Ashton needed to do, but also the mental strain.
Ashton waved his hand around, directing the flaming wisp around. While the red wolves were still hesitant to attack, Ashton took the initiative, slamming the wisp into the closest wolf.
The wisp's blunt impact combined with the explosion of the salamander's flame, and the red wolf was thrown away with a whimper. It tried to land, but one of its legs buckled. Its fur had also just caught on fire, melting all over its body. The flames soon died down, but it was still engulfed in flames for a moment.
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By the time the flames went out, Ashton had already directed the wisp at the next wolf, slamming them into the front of its snout. Half of its face was singed off almost immediately as the forceful impact broke its jaw and cracked some teeth out of its skull.
Though it whimpered, Ashton quickly moved on to the next red wolf, spinning his staff around with one hand to build momentum, quickly fending off the wolf that was currently lunging at him. He hit the side of its body, cracking its ribs, before turning the staff around and striking directly at its spine. While the monster fell down, Ashton doubled-up on the wolf's spine with the wisp, finishing it off while its neck was broken.
[You have killed a [Red Wolf]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 17 Coins]
With one of their pack fallen, the other wolves reacted quickly. They barked and howled, even the one with some teeth knocked out and its jaw broken. But no matter how much they wanted to, they couldn't overcome Ashton.
He hit them with the staff, crushed their bones with the wisp, singed their fur and roasted their flesh with the salamander, and wiped out this small pack.
[Skill | Aether Sensitivity - Level 3 -> Aether Sensitivity - Level 4]
[Skill | Channel - Level 5 -> Channel - Level 6]
[Contract | Lesser Salamander - Level 3 -> Lesser Salamander - Level 4]
"Okay, good start," Ashton smiled, approaching the bodies of the red wolves. He cut off bits of their fur and pulled out some claws and teeth. They could all be used as ingredients for potions or items, or for enhancing certain types of weapons. Of course, Ashton also extracted their magic stones and placed them into a new small plastic bag.
This only took a few minutes for Ashton, but red wolf materials were too good to just leave behind. He could justify not collecting things from kobolds or goblins right now, considering the situation, but red wolves? No way would he let up that chance.
But the moment Ashton was ready to move on, he did. And rather than just walking through town, he started jogging. Out of all of his stats, his 'resilience' was the lowest, and things like one's stamina were collected under that stat. Sure, it was at '10', which was still almost 50% higher than what he started out with, but compared to his other stats, which were closer to doubling compared to his original, it was a bit lacklustre.
As he moved through town, Ashton spotted a few more groups of monsters, though he wanted to try his best to avoid them unless he couldn't avoid it or he hadn't encountered them here before.
Or, well, unless they were extremely useful or rare. He came by two more red slimes - one of them was tearing apart a car, while the other was currently eating through the metallic back door of a restaurant. The slime that he had gathered before kept almost eating through the simple plastic bottles, so he had to keep moving it from bottle to bottle.
Once he had some time and the tools for it, he wanted to see if he could turn some glass bottles into ampoules with the help of the salamander, but that was something to worry about later.
Ashton continued jogging, at times even sprinting momentarily. With his '14' speed, he was moving way faster than he normally would be able to. It was still far slower than the max he was used to, but if he tried to fully sprint with the proper technique, he could probably win some world records by now. Though, once others got their classes and started levelling up, especially with physical classes and the proper skills, Ashton would fall behind in physical capabilities. So he should just enjoy this feeling for now, being the only one that could do these things here.
On the way, he spotted a few more monsters, confirming just the variety of things that were scuttering around. For one, all the scavenger species that now existed with that massive amount of corpses laying around.
Carrion crows; not the normal one that was seeing all over the UK even before this, but rather a type of extremely aggressive corvid about three or four times the size of normal crows. They had a single large eye in the centre of their head, and their strong beaks folded open into three rather than two, with sharp teeth in there that were just perfect for tearing away any and all flesh.
Inside of the corpses, small monsters were gathering as well. Insects, specifically. Worms, beetles, fly larvae - they were all incredibly useful ingredients.
For example, the bone beetles. Not only did they break down bones into small dust that was great fertiliser, but they were stock full with magic and, if you weren't squeamish about what they ate, were a great source of nutrients.
Also, the best part about these monsters was that they weren't as aggressive as others, since they had a different purpose to the red wolves, goblins, orcs, ratmen, or all the other monsters roaming around here. While those were brought here to kill anything they saw, scavengers were brought here to clean up those kills.
It also meant that they were a bit easier to kill, though they barely brought in any coins. The insects didn't give any, just a notification that they died, and that was it. Even so, when he spotted a few, he dropped down and gathered them.
At some point, the backpacker even tried stopping him, showing the community post about the school, but Ashton didn't quite know what to say. He had turned into a compulsive gatherer.
"Sorry, I'll make sure to hurry up. I can gather up these guys later, as well."
Ashton kept on running, trying to make up for the time that he lost.
He ran and ran, killed some monsters that he had no choice but to. Sometimes he used the salamander's flames alone, sometimes he combined it with the wisp, or just used the wisp as it was. He also made sure to use the undine's water-whip as much as he could whenever it seemed useful. This led to the undine reaching level 4, the salamander level 5, and the wisp also seemed at the brink of levelling up once more.
But before long, just two hours after he left, Ashton felt like he was getting close. Sam made sure to remind him of the route before he headed out. He turned around the corner. The primary school was at the end of the road. But right in front of it, a group of monsters had settled.
At least five orcs, and a whole bunch of goblins. They were practically camping out in front of the school's gates, as though they were waiting.
They had a few corpses laying in front of them. The orcs were ripping the people apart, trying to cook them over fire.
"They realised that if they stay here, people will come and try to save the kids..." Ashton stared forward, grinding his teeth together. His words barely left his mouth as he spoke, and then he looked back at the elementals, "You guys ready? We've got some hunting to do ourselves."
Ashton slowed down a bit. There were a lot of monsters there, but he didn't have a good view of every single one. It looked like they had taken over a building, or at least part of it, as there were plenty of goblins walking in and out.
If it were just goblins here, Ashton probably wouldn't have much to worry about. Though he would like to avoid it, considering that these were a good bit stronger than the tutorial goblins, he could just storm in there and take them all out. However, there were orcs there as well.
And yes, sure, boss monsters were more powerful than normal, but it was still possible that the tutorial boss monster that Ashton faced in the park the other day was around as strong, or weaker, than these orcs wandering around. Plus, there was something else off about their behaviour.
They were just sitting there, clearly waiting for people to come by. And the fact that the orcs were cooking their food before eating was also a little weird. Ashton had already encountered one - a monster with surprising intelligence. In one of the first groups of goblins that Ashton encountered, there was one that was noticeably smarter than the others, taking on a bit of a leadership role. The system considered it just the same as the others, and it gave the same amount of coins, but it was different. It probably had a 'trait' that made it smarter.
Traits showed a different aspect of the system compared to skills and abilities. Skills could be grown through effort, where the user had to actively work on improving them. Abilities were things that simply grew stronger alongside the being that possessed them.
Traits, similar to those two, were factors that changed something major about a being's very nature. However, they didn't 'grow' directly, though they could advance and evolve over time, or even disappear. They were simply like a modifier. 'Hungry', 'Talented', or in this case, maybe 'Intelligent'. They changed the behaviour of the being they were on, or adjusted their growth in certain directions.
There were people with such traits as well, but it was more common to see them in monsters. Ashton didn't know why, though. Maybe it was just because they were beings that naturally had traits more often, or the council just made it easier for them to be 'born' with traits. Whichever it was didn't matter much. The only important thing one had to know was that a trait could make a simple, everyday monster extremely dangerous.
Considering how this group was acting, it was very likely that there was one with a similar trait that made one of the monsters here into the leader. Usually, even with a trait like that, they would go for the mass of humans they must have noticed hiding inside of the school, but maybe because of the protection of the Guardian of the Innocent, they could just camp out here without feeling the need to storm the school directly.
For now, he had to get into the school to make sure that everyone was fine. If these monsters weren't actively trying to kill the students, then he could take his time and properly scout these guys out.
It was likely that there were more monsters hiding out by other potential exits or entrances, trapping the people in the school.
He just had to open a path into the school for now, preferably without being noticed.
Ashton looked around, noticing a group of goblins that seemed to be a scout party. The others didn't seem to be paying any particular attention to what was going on around them.
He momentarily channelled the backpacker to select three of the altered coins, which the spirit quickly gave to him. There was a narrow alley nearby, between two residential buildings, and Ashton quickly threw one of the coins in there before hiding back around the corner.
He could hear the loud crackling of the coin as the mangled spheres of mana within it were set off, and it was likely that the monsters heard it as well.
A few moments later, the mischievous chuckling of goblins sounded out, as they disappeared into the alley. Ashton pulled the salamander and wisp back into his vessel. They were too conspicuous to use in a fight. The undine could at least be used to silently choke a monster if he came across it, rather than blowing them up outright.
Quietly, he snuck by the side of the road, hiding behind the cars that were littered around. The scout goblins soon came back out of the alley, looking around confused. So, Ashton threw another coin back over to the place where he was standing just a few moments ago, luring them a bit further away.
Ashton kept an eye and ear out to make sure he knew where the monsters were. But soon, he got to the walls. He could climb over them easily enough, but he would be completely out in the open. Peeking through the windows of the car he was hiding behind, Ashton tried to find a good angle, and then threw the last coin as far as he could over the small monster camp. It didn't have to work for long, it just had to be enough to make the monsters look away from the wall.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Once the coin began crackling and the monsters' attention was grabbed, Ashton jumped up onto the wall and pulled himself up. In this body, just a few days ago, he wouldn't have been able to do this, but now, it was easier than ever.
He climbed up and over, dropped down onto the school's property, and then proceeded to silently sprint through the school yard until Ashton got to one of the windows. They were all perfectly barred up. Many of them were broken, probably shattered by the monsters, but there was still no way for them to get inside.
Ashton snapped his finger and called the Backpacker out, "Can you check the post? Is there any more info of where to go?"
The backpacker nodded their head, pulling out the phone. They opened the post and turned the screen toward Ashton. Commenting under posts just cost a single coin, so there were a fair amount of unrelated comments by people also looking for help here. But Ashton had to focus on this for now. The same user also posted a comment here, telling people to go to the red door at the side of the building and knock five times.
Ashton went around the main building, avoiding the few goblins that were running around on the property pretty easily, and soon found the bright red metal door mentioned in the comment.
He quickly knocked five times, and waited. Then, he knocked five more times, and waited again. But nothing happened.
"... Backpacker, can you post a comment? Say that we're at the red door, but nobody is answering."
The spirit nodded their head, quickly tapping away on the screen. Ashton double-checked to make sure that they could actually write, and though the message was a bit barebones — 'Am here. Red door.' — it should do the job.
Ashton waited a few more moments and then knocked five times again. This time, someone seemed to unlock this emergency door and opened it up, letting Ashton inside.
"Thank god!" the one that let him inside was a young woman, probably in her early to mid thirties. From her appearance, she seemed like one of the teachers here at the school, "Is your group here to take out those monsters?"
Ashton looked around while the teacher locked the door again, "I'm here on my own, but yes. I just need to get to a better position to scout them out."
The teacher stared at Ashton, startled, "You're alone? Christ, of course, the one person that finally responds to us is here to kill himself..."
[[Executor of the End] agrees that it seems stupid to face such a group on your own]
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] is curious about your confidence]
Ashton glanced at the windows and just waved them away, "I'm not here to kill myself. Just calm down. First, you're injured. What happened?"
Though she was hesitant, she knew that she had no choice but have at least a little hope, "There was a... a quest that appeared, like in a game? A 'bonus quest', beyond the main one. It said that if all the surviving teachers can take out ten of those monsters, none of the children have to complete the quest. So, we gathered together and tried to fight them. Most of us made it through and some didn't... but a lot of us got hurt."
"I see," Ashton muttered. So that was the deal that was made for places like this. In exchange for a harder challenge, these teachers could protect the students, "How are the kids doing?"
"They're... holding on. They're scared, obviously. Asking why they can't go outside. Some of them saw terrible, terrible things that I would not wish upon anyone," the teacher explained, looking away bitterly.
"Are any of them injured?"
"... A few. Most of them aren't serious injuries, though, we were able to protect them for the most part. But... there are a few that we are worried about. But we can't leave from here and go to a hospital right now, either. If hospitals are even still a thing."
"Hm. Okay, don't worry, I can help with that. Please show me where the people with injuries are, whether they're kids or faculty."
The teacher's eyes widened, "Are you a doctor?"
So that he wouldn't worry the teacher further, since explaining that he had some potions and trying to use them to treat the kids' injuries wasn't exactly inconspicuous, Ashton just smiled and started walking down the hallway.
For now, the teacher led Ashton further into the school. It looked like most of them were gathered in the gymnasium. Considering this place was filled with young kids, the silence was just that much more deafening.
But soon, as though he was trying to avoid having to see the expressions on the kids' faces, Ashton looked around. The doors directly outside were blocked with solidly-built walls made from tables, "Who built all those?"
"Ah, that was Rory, our janitor. He's always been good with these things, so he got right to work when we needed him to," the teacher explained. Ashton was pretty curious, but for now, that wasn't what he should focus on.
"Got it. So, where are the people that are hurt?"
Quickly, the teacher led Ashton to a small, sectioned-off area the corner of the gymnasium. There, on those thin, way-too hard gym mats, a few people were sitting or laying, trying to relax and recover, "We gave them some pain meds from the nurse's office, but for some of them, they're not working very well..."
"Is the nurse here?"
"No, she wasn't around when all of this went down... She's usually just here on one or two days out of the week."
Ashton nodded in understanding, and started approaching everyone there. There were three teachers here that were hurt, and about five kids sitting there on the ground. All the kids had been staring at Ashton since he came in anyway, and these ones weren't different. But more importantly, one of the teachers jumped up almost immediately.
"Is that- Did you come here because of our post in that community thing?" he asked, desperation in his eyes. Ashton slowly nodded.
"Yes, I did."
A smile appeared on the man's face, which faded as soon as it came when he also realised, "You're... alone?"
"I am. But don't worry, I'm more than enough. For now, though," Ashton clicked his finger, and the Backpacker appeared beside him, giving him one of the potion bottles, "Show me where you're hurt. Those monsters can wait."