Recruiting The Paladin

With the last of its hit points drained, the paladin flicked any residue off of his blade before returning it to its scabbard. Taking a deep breath, the man looked down to the Imp, seeing him lying there face first on the ground before walking towards him. “Hey, that was a heck of a fight man, you okay?”

Ember uttered a mix of growl and a groan before he suddenly pushed himself up and his glare darted towards the Paladin.

“What do you think!? That thing almost landed on me!” He shouted before the rage on his face suddenly washed away and he slumped back down onto the ground. “Umm, sorry about that. I-I think I’ve cooled off now.”

The Paladin flinched for a moment before chucking as the Imp seemed to settle down, making his way over and offering him a hand. “It’s okay man, I getchya. That was some pretty scary fighting for a little guy like you.”

Ember turned his head, looking to the Paladin’s hand before pushing himself back up.

“Yea, thanks, still kinda learning all this stuff.” He said as he began to brush himself off.

The Paladin nodded before looking at the corpse of the bramble bear they had slaughtered. He then proceeded to undo his backpack before opening its UI. Moments later, he pulled out some sort of small knife before he began to dig into the hide of the bear with it. Ember looked on in confusion at the sudden action.

“Umm, what are you doing?” Ember asked.

“Harvesting the corpse. You can sell the hide for some gold or craft with it. You need a skinning knife if you really wanna get the valuable bits off of monsters.” He explained.

Ember glanced between him and the corpse. He hadn’t actually looked into any additional details regarding monster hunting as of yet, but nodded in affirmation. Still, now that things had calmed down, Ember took a moment to focus on the Paladin. He Already had a pretty good sense of who he was, but he just had to be sure. Unfortunately, he could no longer see the names of people naturally. Instead, as the masked man had suggested, he needed to focus on them, want to see their names, and what he had seen by looking at the Paladin confirmed what he already suspected. This was him, the man he was searching for.

“So, you’re Moze Lionheardt, aren’t you?” Ember asked.

Moze slowed down and stopped what he was doing for a moment before looking to Ember.

“Yep, that’s me. You uhh, one of my fans?” He asked, before continuing on his work.

Ember shook his head. “No, not really. Yesterday was the first time I’ve heard about ya actually. But, yea, I have been wanting to talk to ya.”

Moze glanced at him once more. “Oh, I see. About what? If it's about the streams or something, I’m afraid I’m on kind of a hiatus at the moment.”

“Yea, I’ve heard. Some girls back in town were mentioning that.” Ember remarked.

Moze’s expression suddenly darkened, turning bleak as he continued his work.

“Yea, sorry about that.” He mumbled, his voice leaking remorse.

Ember looked down at him, watching as he stared unblinkingly at the beast he was harvesting. A frown crept upon Ember’s face as he fully turned to face him.

“It's… I don’t think it's your fault dude. You uhh… have that mark don’tchya?” Ember asked before Moze suddenly stopped carving.

“What mark?” He asked.

“The one called Chosen. Looks like half a greatsword… Probably orange now I take it?” Ember explained.

Moze looked down, taking a moment before he began chucking to himself. “So… You know about that huh? How’d you figure it out?”

“Because. I have it too.” Ember said, retrieving his codex and holding the page out to him.

Moze looked it over, examining the page as he found the orange trident icon in the same category his own was. The man just smirked and shook his head.

“So, I really wasn’t the only one, huh? I’m… not really sure how to feel about that. Tell me, what’s your name?” Moze asked.

“Ember. I’m sure you seen it on my profile. Heck, you can probably see it over my head if you really try.” Ember replied.

Moze shook his head. ”No, I mean your real name.”

Ember went silent for a moment. He hadn’t pondered this question since last night, yet even now as he actually had the chance to dedicate some time to thinking about it, the only answer that would come to his head was Ember, Ember von Scorch.

“Ember.” He replied.

Moze chuckled to himself. “Haha, I see… I take it you must’ve forgotten it then.” Moze remarked.

Ember’s cheeks puffed out in a scoff. “Y-yea! Well, what’s yours then!?”

“Moze.” He replied with another chuckle. “Yea, I seem to have forgotten mine as well. Here, let me finish this up. We can continue this at my camp.”

Ember stared at him in a moment of contemplation before nodding. Ember then silently watched as Moze continued his work, watching him gradually peel away the beast’s hide. Despite the exposure of the muscle underneath, it was almost uncanny seeing no blood come from the beast. Ember could only associate this as an intended game element. Before long however, Moze had pulled away most of its hide. It was a choppy and messy pelt, but there was quite a bit of it. He proceeded to fold it up and stow it in his bag before getting to work on the meat underneath.

“Dang, you seem pretty familiar with that.” Ember noted.

“Heh, you’d almost think so, wouldn’t ya? Honestly, I’m just following the directions that appear in front of me. My hunting skill’s still pretty much non-existent, so it’s taking forever. Not to mention what I get is a complete mess, but it’s better than leaving valuable resources lying around.” Moze explained.

“Wait, hunting skill? And aren’t you a Paladin? What would you be doing with hunting skills?” Ember asked, confused.

“Haha, yea, different kind of hunting. Guessing you didn’t know about the trade skills in this game… or, world… You can find trainers around who can tell you more than I can. There’s a bunch of different utility skills you can kinda pick up on the side. Hunting’s a gathering one. All you need to get started’s a skinning knife like this one and you can collect pelts and meat and stuff… basically the useful parts of monsters that you can’t just pluck off of them when you kill them. Wild thing though, I’ve never once hunted or butchered an animal in my life, yet with the couple levels I’ve gained… It’s hard to explain but it kind of feels like I’m learning in fast forward. Every level is a jump in my understanding of how to actually dress a carcass. It’s… surreal, I guess, is how it feels.” Moze explained as if still trying to understand it himself.

Ember took in what he was saying, but he could practically feel his brain trying to reject the sheer notion of what he was describing. It made sense, but truly experiencing something like that was something his still mostly human mind could not quite fathom.

“Oof, yea, thinking about that is making me dizzy.” Ember replied, holding his head.

Ember leaned against a tree, staring at his long tail as he waved it around, still mesmerized by the fact that he possessed it. At roughly twice his own body length, he could only hope that he could keep it out of the way. Meanwhile, Moze began stowing several hunks of bear meat inside of his backpack, then a handful of bones and a tangle of now lifeless brambles. Ember just stared quizzically at him, wondering what uses he would find for such things. Eventually, Moze finished his harvest, leaving nothing but bits of botched butchery and other scraps behind. Moze then gestured to Ember, beckoning for him to follow along. With a sigh of gratitude for finally being able to leave this encounter behind him, Ember obliged him, following him deeper into the woods, well off the beaten path where the foliage grew dense.