The Elevator

It’s cold.
The floor is cold, hard, and slightly vibrating.
I’m groggy and sore, almost like I’ve been lying on this stone for hours. My mind is racing with everything that just happened, but I’m slowly piecing it all together.
Hard ground means I’m back in a body. It might not be my body, judging from what I was just told, but it feels better than being a floating ball of light.
Shaking. The opening stage of The Tower of Marketh begins with your chosen character riding a stone elevator to meet up with the randomised party you get.
Sitting up I finally open my eyes.
“Yep, pitch black.”
Just as I thought, I can’t see anything in the elevator. It has no light, natural or artificial, until the doors open at the top.
I have no way of knowing how much longer until that is, but there’s still a few things I need to figure out.
“The game was based on this world right?” I ask the darkness.
“Character.”
A menu appears in front of me. Oh thank god that worked.
First things first. I need to figure out what class I am.
While even in the game I’m used to playing, the character menu doesn’t state your class, I should be able to figure it out based on equipment and skills.

Weapon: Sword and Shield.
Okay, not really helpful. That’s like over half the physical classes.

Armour: Heavy.
Great, still not helpful. Still like fifteen classes that use both of these.

Both my skills and stats don’t help either. Both are just standard for physical classes.
“Damn it.” I sigh, closing the menu.
Oh. Closing the menu did actually help, not with my class, but it has made me notice that there is a strange weight on my legs. Only because I was going to stand and pace around in frustration.
A few classes start together, but most of them start with both of them awake and they normally get a small light so there isn’t any panic in the dark.
Wait. But that is only for playable classes.
I can count the number of classes that have an NPC companion on one hand.
Factor in the loadout I started with and…
Oh, this isn't good.
“Party List.”

-Retainer-

Staring me right in the face, one name confirms what class I've been forced into. The class which has the worst start, the worst events, and the worst time clearing the tower.
I’m the Paladin. A front-liner who is described as being able to not only take and heal a high amount of damage, but also dish it out.
Unfortunately, reality in the game was far from that.
Paladin had average stats with slow level growth, and the story events he got were always negative.
It was a running joke in the gaming community that you hadn’t actually finished the game unless you did it on Paladin, which I think was only about two percent of people.

Okay, okay. Calm down. This might be the game, but it’s also another world. I shouldn’t just assume it’ll be exactly the same.
Stretching, without disturbing whoever is lying on my lap, I try to get a feel for this body.
It seems to be pretty close to my actual body, maybe a bit more muscular, but height and proportion wise, nothing feels strange.
And I guess some good news is that I do start with the Paladin NPC.
Retainer may not be amazing in a fight, or camp skill wise. Or really useful for much. But it does mean I’m not alone until I meet up with my party. Small victories right?
The ground is still rumbling, meaning we are still moving, and with no way to tell how much longer until we reach the end I’m starting to get sick of this darkness.
“Inventory.”
Just like with my character list, a menu pops up. A quick check confirms that I’ve been given all the correct starting items.
Aside from the normal camp gear, potions, repair tools, and gold, there’s one other item I’m looking for.
“Ah, there it is. Lightstone.”
The menu closes and I feel two small pebbles form in my hand.
Good to know that’s how that works. I make a mental note and crack the stones against each other.
The light is almost blinding after sitting in the dark this long. But it does illuminate the entire stone elevator I’m sitting in. As well as the NPC with me.
Now, while most NPC’s are predetermined, Retainer is the only one with a few variations.
The one currently lying on my lap is what was called Retainer Type C. While type A and B were males. Type C and D were female. Type C is a young girl, around eleven, who this time is short, very pale, has long brown hair and what you would classify as cute, for a kid.
She was sent here with the Paladin as a means of punishment. Basically, she saw something she wasn’t meant to and was sent away in the hopes that she would be dealt with and never return. Her profile never explained any more than that, and even if she does survive the playthrough, nothing gets said about what happens after.

As I’m looking over the girl lying on my lap, her eyes suddenly shoot open and she rolls off, scrambling away.
“Woah, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.” I hold both my hands up as a show of peace.
Her head keeps looking around, her mouth opens and closes but only a faint sound comes out.
“Oh, right, the Vow of Silence.”
The Vow of Silence. A debuff a few characters start with. The most notable of them is Priestess. Makes whoever is afflicted by it unable to speak until it wears off.
The young girl keeps looking around, trying to speak.
My mind runs back through all my Paladin playthroughs, trying to remember my encounters I’ve had with this specific Retainer.
“Oh, your Notepad. You have a notepad to write what you want to say right?”
Looking around, the notepad in question is lying next to me. She must have dropped in when she scurried away.
I reach over and gently push it towards her, trying not to startle her, almost like dealing with a small animal.
She snatches it off the ground and moves to what I assume she feels is a safe distance. Which isn’t much considering the stone elevator we’re stuck in.
Looking down, I also roll one of the Lightstones over to her as well, spreading out the light more evenly.
The ground continues shaking as I watch her scribble something down in her notepad. Her eyes constantly flicked between the paper and me.
“You don’t have to worry so much, I’ll stay right here.” I try to break the tension a little.
She stares at me for a moment, a look of pure confusion on her face, before tearing off the front piece of notepad paper, scrunching it up, and rolling it towards me.
Let's see what we have here. Unraveling the paper, I’m met with a very simple question.
“Are you a hero?”
“Wait, you know?” She nods in response.
I guess it makes sense. At least for the NPC’s, it would be strange if people they had known before coming to the tower suddenly had completely different personalities and styles. And I imagine it wouldn’t be that hard for that Goddess to somehow inform a few people about what is going on.
“Yes, I’m one of the heroes that were summoned here,” I explained, “my name is Paladin.”
Huh, what did I just say? I swear I said my actual name.
Even the girl sitting in front of me looks confused.
“Let me try that again. My name is Paladin.”
Again, I said my name, but it’s almost like it’s being censored.
I try it a few more times, but every time Paladin comes out instead of my name.
“Right then, for some reason, I guess I can’t say my name. So, call me Paladin. Well, when you can.”
I don’t even need to see her face to know that she’s giving me a look that screams “You’re not funny.”