01.11 - Swordsman Level 9: I May Be an Otherworlder but I’m Not the Elden Lord

“Do you have any specific calling in mind?” asked Alfred.

“Not really,” I said. “I was thinking maybe Alchemy?”

“Alchemy?” Alfred asked. “We did have some books on it, but I still think you would make a better swordsman. Maybe you should give Officer’s school a second thought? If this is about Dawn, she will stay in the Magic Academy dorms soon enough, so you don’t have to worry about your mother’s mood swings.”

Red me like a book. Well, almost. Even without the need to look out for Dawn, I had no plans to step in my ‘father's’ footsteps or perish in his wars. Nemesis or not, that ‘Seth’ guy could stay busy dealing with other people.

“Has that already been decided?” I asked.

“It is not set in stone,” said Alfred. “But it’s the most likely outcome. Your sister is of the Elden Lord’s blood, and given her above average potential, I am sure she’ll be able to get into the academy without issues.”

I looked at Dawn. “What do you think about all this?” I asked.

“I wanna go,” Dawn said. “We can still see each other on the weekends or meet after school in town, right?”

I nodded.

Tia patted Dawn's head. “A tea party every day!” she said with unmasked enthusiasm.

“Maybe every other day,” I said. “If our financial situation improves.”

—

Speaking of our financial situation, I gave the adventurer's guild another visit a few days after my second evaluation.

Given the new results in combination with the recent hunt, they promoted me straight to ‘Bronze’, skipping ‘Copper’ and ‘Brass’. With only ‘Iron’ separating me from Tia’s ‘Steel’ rank. The gap was still massive. The higher ranks were exponentially harder to obtain.

With that done, we could finally take on more serious quests, instead of slime hunts every day.

We didn’t waste any time.

There was a three day excursion quest to collect rare ingredients.

Two days of travel to a forest, there and back again, and one day of collection.

It was marked as an escort quest, with additional rewards for assistance in collection and transportation.

This was killing more than a few birds with one stone:

The potential for Experience points to level up Skills by defeating stronger enemies, acquire more Classes and Skills from the clients without them noticing, getting to know good sources of plants to forage, the potential to forge bonds with people related to the local Alchemists, and of course, the quest reward itself.

Tia and I met up with the quest giver on the outer city gate two days later.

It was a human girl, probably about three years older than me, so around eighteen.

She had light green eyes, her long green hair was formed into twin tails, and she was dressed in regular foraging gear, wearing a backpack and a smaller side bag filled with flasks and tools.

This called for ‘Know Your Enemy’:

//========================================

// Human - Lvl. 27 - Isabella Tria Prima

// Classes & Skills:

// Alchemist Lvl.24

Potion Brewing

Decomposition

Transmutation

Elixir Crafting

Poison & Antidote Mastery

Distillation

Reagent Identification

// Herbalist Lvl. 8

Herb Gathering

Plant Identification

// Botanist Lvl. 8

Plant Analysis

// Stats:

Physical Power 14

Physical Resist 26

Special Power 34

Special Resist 32

Status Power 14

Status Resist 12

Random Power 14

Random Resist 26

//========================================

And my Level was down to 9 again.

Not just from this one encounter. I still use ‘Know Your Enemy’ quite a lot these days.

The Experience points received by defeating enemies were based on the relative Level difference after all.

I had originally planned to reduce my level back down to zero, but decided against it for now, just in case the client, or someone else, could have one of those portable evaluation spheres. Although they didn’t seem all that common.

After exchanging pleasantries, Isabella gave us a quick rundown of our tasks.

“You’re part Elden, right? Is this your first escort quest?” Isabella asked as she looked first at my pointy ears and then at my guild tag.

“Kinda,” I said, “been mostly dealing with slimes, but if push comes to shove, Tia will bail you out.”

“Right…” Isabella said as she eyed Tia. “And you're his… maid?”

“Yeah,” Tia smiled back at her and presented her with her Steel tag.

“Oh… OH!” Isabella. “Sorry, I didn’t think you… nevermind.”

We should probably buy some armor for Tia one of these days. Or change her transformation? I wasn’t even sure she was wearing any real clothes right now. Come to think of it, Alfred provided her with her first uniform, but then it seemed to grow with her… Nevermind.

“Anyway, it's a one day trip to the forest in question.” Isabella said. “We absolutely have to be there by tomorrow. If we don’t make it in time, the quest is off.”

“Not like we’d blow it, but why the hurry?” I asked.

“We are looking for a very special ingredient,” Isabella said. “A precious flower that only opens once a year, at noon on a single day. I need to extract its nectar without damaging the flower itself.”

“Sounds tough,” I said. “Why not just force it open?”

“The quality of the nectar is very important,” Isabella said. “And the flower is rare. If I bust it open, there might not be enough flowers in the years to come. We also have to find it first. But that’s my job. You’ll get paid in full if we make it there in time, even if I don’t find a flower. If you find one before me, you’ll get a bonus. But only if the flower stays unharmed.”

I looked at Tia.

“Got it,” Tia said. “Don’t touch any flowers.”

—

We set out on our journey to the forest, following a well traveled road.

No highwaymen to be seen.

No packs of wolves hiding in the undergrowth.

Only one lone Horned Rabbit sat in the middle of the road, feasting on a Fernhogs leafy corpse.

Wait, what?

“That looks like...” Isabella and Tia began in unison.

“...trouble,” said Isabella.

“...dinner,” said Tia.