So there's this saying. 'Don't judge a book by it's cover.' I'm finding that real hard with the man standing in front of me.

If I had to describe him in a word, it would be seedy. The man dressed in rags and looked fairly malnourished. His knives were rusty, his hair was messy, and based on appearance alone I would believe him if he said he hadn't showered in a year. Or conducted any sort of hygiene related activity really. The way he slouched fit his image perfectly, and I found it increasingly hard to believe that he was the C-Rank adventurer that was to escort me to Laputa.

The guildmaster introduced him as Jaque, and told me he would be taking me to the training academy. He rushed off immediately afterwards saying he had work to do, leaving me standing with Jaque at the town's eastern gate. Jaque then turned and introduced himself with a slight bow.

"As ya've heard, the name's Jaque. I'll be escortin' you to the academy over yonder, makin' sure you don't get lost, or get dead or somthin'. Pleasure to make yer acquaintance Miss Aer."

"Yeah... A pleasure..." Let me just...

He suddenly narrows his eyes at me.

"I'd 'preciate it if ya don' go scannin' me or nothin' a'ight? Privacy and whatnot."

Seeing me freeze in shock, he chuckled, and straightened up.

"Not everybody's gonna be ignorant to yer appraisals sweetheart. This was more of an... educated guess, but there are people with this thing called [Appraisal Detection], and they ain't too happy when it activates."

"...Thanks for the warning. I'll be a bit more careful."

"Great. So! Now that we've gotten all acquainted and such, let's get a move on while it's still early. Three day journey already and I don' want it to be four if it don' gotta be."

With that he turned around and started walking off. Slightly flustered, I hurried to follow him.

======================

The first day of the trip was pretty uneventful. I asked him why we had no luggage, and he told me he had a storage skill too.

That was the extent of our conversation.

We travelled until it got dark, then set up camp. We took turns keeping watch, and when morning came, we set out again.

Boooooooored. At this point I'm almost hoping for bandits. Heh, just kid-

"Well, well, well."

....You have got to be kidding me.

A group of around six rough looking men emerged from the bushes around us, wielding a variety of different weapons, all rather worse for wear. The one who spoke had a scar running down his left cheek and wielded a shiny scimitar. If weapon quality is anything to judge by, he seems to be the leader. Resting his sword on his shoulder, he continued.

"A pretty girl and an old man traveling alone. You lot aren't very smart are you? Now, how about you hand over everything you've got, and nobody has to get hurt."

Before I could even get around to appraising them, Jaque steps forward, cracking his knuckles and getting into a battle stance.

"How's 'bout you leave before I show y'all what pain feels like."

The bandits started laughing while Jaque stood there with a small smile on his face. Once they had quieted down, the leader pointed his sword at Jaque.

"You think you're cute old man?"

At this, Jaque grinned.

"Bitch, I'm adorable."

Suddenly Jaque spun and lashed out at the air with his leg. A bunch of seeds shot out of the ground near the leader following the arc of his kick. The leader reacted quickly and stepped back, but not before his scar got a little wider. Not wanting to let up, Jaque charged at him immediately. The leader tried to swing his sword to defend himself, but Jaque waved his hand and a small tree sprouted from the ground, blocking the leader's hand and allowing Jaque to land a solid blow to his gut. Jaque then spun, and kicked the leader in the face, sending him crashing down off to the side. This sent the other bandits into action, as several of them charged him at once. Jaque fought them with tremendous skill, weaving through attacks while sending waves of seeds at his opponents.

As I was watching Jaque, I noticed in my peripheral that one of the bandits was actually trying to sneak up on me. I pretended to keep watching Jaque, but as soon as the bandit got close enough, I lashed out at the arm holding his weapon, disarming him instantly with the surprise attack. While he was disoriented, I grabbed my knife and swiped at his throat. Unfortunately, he managed to step back in time, and raised his fists as he prepared to fight me. There was a lull after that, as I looked for an opening, and he eyed my knife warily.

With a growl, he lunged at me, reaching for the knife I held. His movements were sloppy, and I easily sidestepped his attack. I grabbed his arm and used his momentum to pull him closer, before stabbing him in the elbow from below. He howled in pain before trying to grab me with his other arm. Still holding his arm, I spun around his attack and kicked him in the back, before stabbing him in the arm again, this time from above. Pulling him along by the dagger, I skirted behind him before jumping unto his back. His head whipped around in panic, but it was far too late. With one deft motion, I slit his throat and jumped off. The bandit fell forward unto the dirt, lifeless. I was tempted to relish in my first real fight, but I remembered there were still more enemies, and turned to Jaque to see if I could help.

Turns out he needed no assistance.

In the time it took me to deal with that one bandit, he had already dealt with four. It was just Jaque, and the bandit leader who had gotten back on his feet. Everyone else was a bloody mess on the ground. Jaque and the leader were going at it heatedly, Jaque waving his arms around, pelting his opponent with a hailstorm of seeds, while the bandit leader tried desperately to get close to Jaque despite the wounds covering his body. After a short while of this exchange, Jaque suddenly stopped and turned around. The bandit leader seemed to think that this was his chance, and rushed Jaque immediately. However, Jaque gave a small smirk, and raised his hand.

"Game over, kid."

Jaque then snapped his fingers, and suddenly the bandit leader had small trees sprouting all over his body. They continued to spread until it looked like a tree had grown through the bandit from the ground. Jaque lowered his arm and the tree withered, leaving a hole ridden bandit corpse to collapse into the dirt. The battle over I walked over to him with a chuckle.

"You took the word 'seedy' and just rolled with it, didn't you?"

He grinned. "A seedy C-Rank who fights with seeds. It's kinda fun to say, 'aint it?"

I returned his grin and responded, "Y'know, I think we'll get along just fine."

He gave another chuckle before turning to the bodies around us. As he turned back to me, he had a confused expression on his face.

"You uh... ya don't seem to be bothered none by all the carnage. Figured ya wouldn't be too keen on the whole 'killin people' thing."

I tilted my head in confusion. "Why? They were trying to kill us."

He looked like he wanted to say something, but decided against it, so we continued on.

===========

The rest of the journey was as uneventful as the start, though there was a bit more talking. I asked him a bit about how leveling up works because it seemed to bit a bit different than I was used to. Thinking about it, I really should have gotten this info from Richia, since she thought I barely remembered how status works at all. There seem to be a number of things we kind of... skimmed over.

Anyway, what he told me mostly confirmed what I thought. When people level up, their stats are increased by one, seemingly at random. Having a class makes certain stats more likely to increase. Most people not born with a class attempt to gain one as early as possible because of this, seeing as the effect is small on its own. The class system seemingly only allows for one class at a time, something I had my suspicions about, which makes me rather glad I never showed my other classes to Richia. He also said that, aside from some rare items, there's no way to suddenly gain stats. I couldn't ask him specifics without being suspicious, but seemingly stat points and skill points just aren't a thing here.

I kind of have mixed feelings on that. On one hand, the people of this world have much lower potential, and it makes me kind of sad for them. On the other hand, me having skill points is an immense advantage, and probably makes my leveling speed a pretty understandable nerf. I'll likely be underestimated by most people, but I can probably work that to my advantage.

Moving on, I had finally started to see a town in the distance. There was a massive stone wall surrounding it, with a few battlements along it. When it came into view, Jaque quickened our pace. As we walked, he turned to me and started explaining.

"Alright, see, this here's a pretty import'nt town, so the guards're gonna wanna see some identification, unlike in Mareva. Part o' why ya couldn't come alone. Y'know, other than the danger."

When we got to the gates, we joined the line of people waiting to enter the town. For some reason, though I could see a town beyond the gates, I couldn't really make out anything. I questioned Jaque about it, and he said it was a barrier.

"It's a sort o' security measure. At least, I think it is. The guards 'aint got a problem seein' through it so it's prob'ly got somethin' to do with security."

We passed the rest of the wait in silence. Once we got to the front of the line, a man with what looked like a clipboard approached us.

"Names?"

"Jaque. This here's Aer."

"Spelt with an 'E'." I quickly added. The guard raised an eyebrow at me, but moved on.

"IDs?"

We both pulled out our guild cards to show him. He took each of them and pressed them to his clipboard thing, before handing them back.

"Alright, head on in. Next."

We stepped past the guard as he began to process the next group. Just before we crossed what seemed to be the threshold for the barrier, Jaque turned around to face me.

"We're about to head into one o' the most advanced cities in the country, so try to keep calm in there. And since this here's your first time, I'd like to be the first to say, welcome to Laputa."

And with that, we stepped beyond.