“Oh right, s’pose I should introduce myself. Name’s Louis, something of an Adventurer. I like going to dangerous places like this, they tend to have much rarer loot than if you go any other time.” Lucifer takes a good look at the man, he has messy brown hair and a kind face. The eyepatch over his right eye gives the impression that he’s seen many battles in his life, or just a pirate if they weren’t miles away from any coastline. “So what should I call you, young miss?”
“My name’s Lucifer, Mage.”
Louis looks at her “I can see that, you scarcely look like you could hold a blade. Anyways, Lucifer… I’ll have a hard time remembering that, so I’ll just call you… Luci, it’s certainly a heck of a lot cuter!” He laughs, embarrassed that he has such a hard time remembering names.
“Luci…” she thinks, “wow, never thought I’d get a cute nickname.” She nods excitedly at Louis as they both begin to head deeper into the forest, the fog that envelops the forest getting progressively thicker.
—
“Fire Bolt!” “Rising Slash!” The two start finding plenty of enemies to fight as they explore the forest, mostly wolves as well as a few spirits. “Luci, I’m trusting you to keep the spirits off my back.” Louis specializes in primarily physical attacks, which can’t touch spirits.
“Yeah, you got it.” Luci prefers it this way, since she won’t have to expend as much MP taking out all the animals.
| Level Up! 2 Skill Points obtained. Parameters increased. |
“Luci, have you been remembering to collect those enemy drops? We can sell them when we reach town for a decent bit of coin.”
Luci, being a long-time RPG player, has dutifully been collecting her rewards, which includes several wolf pelts, claws, as well as some ghost ash.
“You’re planning to get me to split all these winnings with you, right?” Despite the snarkiness in her voice, she was planning on doing it anyway.
“Nah, whatever you get for it all is yours. Just get yourself some new equipment with it, all I ask is that I get to see how it looks on you.”
Luci blushes a bit and turns away, but still gives a slight nod. “... Sure.”
—
“Hey Louis, we’ve been walking for a while… How are we going to get to the town?”
“Oh, we’re just about there, actually. This phenomenon has been going on in this forest for ages, so there’s tons of signs and such to get travelers through the fog. We’ve just passed by the 19th sign from the south forest entrance, so we just have one more to go and it’ll be just past there.”
Soon enough the two pass through another brush and find the last sign that should lead straight to the village. They start to hear the sound of water and the jovial behavior of townspeople. “I can hear them!” exclaims Luci, prompting the duo to run towards the sounds.
“Not so fast, humans!” Another spirit blocks their path, a Banshee. Her wails call more wolves to surround the duo.
“Shit. Luci, take care of the Banshee. I’ll keep the wolves off you.” Louis starts cleaving through the wolves with his longsword with expert finesse.
“Quicken!” Luci feels the magic take effect and starts casting her offensive magic at the Banshee.
“Dirty rat!” The Banshee swipes at Luci but the speed boost allows her to deftly dodge out of the way before responding with another round of “Fire Bolt” and “Ice Shard”.
It is then when she looks back at Louis, who grows increasingly worn out by the large presence of wolves, even if the pack is noticeably thinner than it used to be. “Light Heal!” Louis feels his strength reinvigorated by Luci’s spell, but it puts further strain on her MP reserves.
“Shit, I’m almost out of magic.” Luci starts backing away from the Banshee as Quicken’s buff expires. This time the next swipe connects causing her to lose a chunk of HP.
“Spark Blast!” Louis sends a magic spell of his own towards the Banshee which finally deals lethal damage causing the remainder of the wolf pack to run away.
| Level Up! 2 Skill Points obtained. Parameters increased. |
“Louis, this entire time you could use magic!?”
“Yeah, Adventurer’s get a little bit of everything after all. I just didn’t see a reason to use it with you around. Besides, my magic isn’t nearly as potent as yours.” He laughs nervously.
Luci rolls her eyes and the two cross the final barrier in their journey to Everglade Town.
“Welcome to the Town of Mystics, Everglade. All the best mages in Lunaria come from here, with skills like yours I almost thought you were from here myself.” Louis pats Luci on the shoulder and smiles at her. “They’ve got everything an adventurer needs. Alchemists, tailors, blacksmiths, general goods. This will be the place to stock up before the Capital.”
They reach the town square, signified by the magnificent fountain that stands in the center with plenty of merchants on all sides.
“Let’s split up for now and reconvene later, yeah?” Louis says to Luci before walking off towards the blacksmith, to which she nods and heads to the general goods store, already knowing exactly what she wants.
