Catpurr 27: Lying through my Fangs

“Priestess.”

“Yes?”

“Per your request, your inquiry for the person or term known as Eli has come up fruitless. My deepest apologies. Shall I put a request with the Grand bishopess for a deeper inquiry?”

“No. It is fine. Carry on.”

-Priestess Coco Viviane Velfett of the Six Pillar Church speaking with a nun regarding her search query.

Catpurr 27: Lying through my Fangs

“Magic Optimization?” Sehn recited, eyeing Adam quizzily. “For a base rogue class?”

“Maybe it’s because of his species. There's alot we don’t know about demi-humans.” Titania offered, the three back at the guild office standing in the middle of an isolated training room, the same one Ruebella had pulverized before. Except now, the place was back to its original shape, all traces of Adam being bullied by Ruebella’s frying pans erased. Even the black tile had been repaired.

Sehn sighed. “Please kid, just tell me why you picked magic optimization?”

“Uhm. Because magic is cool?” Adam said immediately, thinking of an excuse to the lie he had told to cover his sudden fluctuation of mana capacity.

“And you put all your stat points into arcana didn’t you.”

“Yup.”

Sehn sighed harder. “It’s fine, this is salvageable. You’re only level one right?”

“Yes.” Adam lied once more.

“Good. Rubella, Tilith, and Lunafreya are capturing monsters for you to earn experience. Actually, you haven’t met Tilith have you?”

Capturing monsters? Like bringing them here? “Uh, no I haven’t.” Adam replied, turning as a murder of shadowed crows suddenly appeared, depositing three figures in maid outfits.

Ruebella and Lunafreya Adam recognized, the buff woman carrying a massive iron cage packed tightly with jumbled up goblinoids screaming and wiggling about in outrage.

The last maid however, Adam didn’t recognize, presumably the one known as Tilith. She had rainbow colored hair, dark blue eyes, and held an umbrella in her hands to shade her from the light.

“HELLO!” The woman called out with jubilance, waving at Adam and the pair beside him.

“One cage filled with gobls as requested.” Lunafreya grunted, the titanic woman approaching and setting the packed cage of green bodies on the ground with a loud thud. “Fifty heads, each a hundred coopers, minus guild discount. Grand total is forty silvers.”

What? Adam frowned, watching as Titania deposited a handful of small coins into the buff woman’s giant palm. Oddly, he started to feel strange, like a sensation of guilt taking him as he watched Sehn fish out a coin from his boot and hand it to Ruebella, paying for the bag in her hands.

Adam knew the two had fiscal troubles, and watching the lengths they were going to help him, he felt bad about the lies he’d told.

But I can’t risk them ostracizing me. Adam rationalized. After all, all his life he’d been prosecuted and mistreated. First as an orphan, then as a necromancer. Who’s to say their opinion wouldn’t change when they realized he could raise the dead? It had happened before.

No…

It had to remain a secret. Just like his god, which they had thankfully, yet oddly asked nothing about. Right now he was too weak to expose himself, no, what he needed to do was stay under everyone’s watch.

Secrecy would be how he won. Secrecy would keep him alive. At least until he could rescue Schroedinger and get revenge on the fanatical church that had set him on this course.

“Alright lad.” Sehn said, plopping the bag on the ground. “We’re going to go over some exercises before we get you exposed to fighting.”

“Ok?” Adam said, raising his brow.

“Pretend I’m trying to kill you. How would you fight back or flee?”

“You want me to attack you?” Adam said skeptically.

“Yea lad, go ahead. Come on.” Sehn beckoned with his hands as he adopted a wide stance. He crouched low in front of Adam almost as if he were going to pounce on him.

“Are you sure?” Adam asked, all eyes on him.

“Yup. Go for it.”

“Uh. Ok.” Adam said before immediately kicking Sehn in the crotch.

“HULP!” The man wheezed out, his body spasming straight before crumpling into the sand with a thud.

“Oh my.”

“Oh dear.”

“O-o-oh!”

The three maids let out, with Titania devolving into a burst of uncontrollable laughter.

“Haaaah.” Sehn squeaked, out of breath and balled up as he clutched his nethers. "Haaaaaaaaah."

“Sorry?’ Adam said, gazing down at the man struggling to breath.

“N-no. No no. Y-you did good lad.” Sehn moaned, his body shaking. “You did… really… good.”

*****

After composing himself, Sehn opened the bag he’d bought from Ruebella, revealing a small set of leather armor that fit Adam to a T.

Putting it on, Adam tugged at the collar, the leather clinging to his undershirt and making him sweat.

“From this moment on, you will eat, sleep, and train in this armor daily.” Sehn declared, pulling the leather hood that was affixed to the armor over Adam’s head. “You haven’t gotten your quest update yet so theres still time to train. So we’ll utilize every second of it until its time for your trial. Understand lad?”

“Uh, yea.” Adam replied as Sehn moved him to the side away from the cage.

Yawning, the maid known as Tilith approached the iron cage, strolling around the contraption with her umbrella and lightly brushing against the metals. Squinting, Adam could make out what appeared to be spores leaving her hands, and flooding the cage, quickly making the squirming monsters settle down.

Titania walked over, opening the metal cage and grabbing a groggy goblinoid by the scruff of its neck, bringing it toward Adam.

“Alright.” Sehn said, taking out a metal dagger from the coffin he’d laid out on the floor. “This part is important Adam. So pay attention, this is for your safety, and your survival lad.”

Suddenly Sehn plunged the dagger into the creature, making it wake up and scream.

“These. Are monsters. Specifically, these are gobls. A creature, whose sole purpose is to terrorize and wipe out sentient life. They breed by capturing adventurers and forming raiding parties.” Sehn explained, the monster’s green blood oozing onto the sand. “It is important. That if you want to survive the trials, you learn how to take a life and not to hesitate when it comes time.”

“Uh… ok.” Adam said, unmoving as he watched Sehn adjust the knife in his hand and stab the squealing monster repeatedly. Adam was no stranger to violence, after all, he’d used hordes of skeletons to wipe out various monster waves in the past.

But Sehn didn’t need to know that. Instead Adam stood there, playing the part of a student learning from his master.

“Alright, You’ve seen how it’s done. Now, it’s your turn.” Sehn said, holding the dagger out to Adam as Lunafreya summoned crows and made the corpse vanish in a flurry of shadows.

Titania opened the cage, grabbing another "subject".

She brought the monster toward Adam, the creature hissing as it eyed the boy who now held a knife.

"It's ok. You can do this." Sehn assured.

Standing there, Adam frowned, eyeing the monster and remembering the last time he'd seen these creatures was when one had bashed him over the head.

Calming the rage of his previous death, Adam quickly stabbed the monster in its heart, ending it.

[+ 100 Exp!]

[100/2000 EXP]

Suddenly Adam received a notification, his experience bar rising.

At least earning experience is the same. Now all I'd need to do is find some secluded field somewhere and perform last rites. Adam plotted to himself, staring blankly into space. I'll have to test my skelliecat's combat ability.

"A-adam?"

Hmm. Maybe my next upgrade should be optimization. If I dump all my next level up points into Arcana, I should-

"Adam?" Titania said, resting a hand on his shoulder and jostling him away from his line of thought as he put her hand on the blade still plunged in the goblin's chest cavity. "Adam are you ok? Give me the dagger."

"Hm? Oh. Here." Adam said, removing his hand off the dagger with Titania hugging him.

"I'm sorry we're making you do this." Titania said.

"It's fine. Let's just finish this." Adam said, oblivious to the woman's concern as a notification hit his interface. Giving him a new quest. "Every bit helps."