“But I don’t really get it? What was that?”
“Dunno. I just got the hang of it while looking at the goblin in the square honestly. Something happened... I don’t really know what, but things are now a half fantasy. Wait.”
Adrian was until now looking outside for any sight of a new goblin, and saw something in the corner of his eye that shined.
“Huh.”
He stepped back into the cafe. The last goblin he punched was still lying there, his back on the wall. Empty eyes decorated the remains of its face while blood was slowly dripping away from its mouth. Osborn felt the urge to throw up again but held it in as hard as he could.
Dammit… I don’t even have anything to vomit right now.
Adrian walked close to the creature and crouched. Next to the creature, obscured to Osborn by its body was a small black dagger. Adrian held it in the same way that he held the butter knife.
“Hum, a drop.”
“You mean they drop items like in a-”
“Yeah. I don’t get it either, but it’s like these things are straight out of a video game. They behave very mechanically too.” He shrugged. “It could also be because they are just very dumb. Who knows...”
Osborn looked at the small blade Adrian held. He then tried to ask himself about the properties of the dagger like he did before, and heard a voice akin to his speaking inside his head.
Rock Dagger: A rudimentary dagger created by a primitive race for self-defense. It is not very sharp but can deal considerable damage to weak creatures in good hands.
Osborn couldn’t help but whisper a “huh”. This was a very otherworldly experience, but he shrugged it off. If that was the new state of the world, he had to get accustomed to it in a way or another. He also couldn’t help but notice that there were no numbers associated with the description of the item, leading him to a conclusion.
Even if we have multiple elements that look like those of a video game. Some are missing… Or are they?
He asked himself about his stats, but nothing happened. He then remembered the fireball and asked himself his class.
I’m an Elementalist. My affinity is towards… Heat…?
Osborn looked at Adrian, who was inspecting the dagger he found, he held his chin and flipped the weapon like he was looking for some imperfection.
“Adrian, can you ask yourself for your class.”
Without hesitation and without breaking a sweat, Adrian answered.
“Physicalist. And I think you already saw enough of a demonstration. Also, it seems that I can’t think on how to get my stats if that’s even a thing.”
“Me neither. I don’t really get it. But perhaps it is not quantifiable.”
Adrian started walking towards the door. He stopped when a scream echoed behind him and Osborn.
“Wait a second… Where do you think you’re going, sonny?”
He turned around and found a weirdly dressed man fixating him angrily. The way he was dressed reminded him of a painting from the Victorian era. His tight brick red suit was decorated with cravat at the level of his neck. His mustache also put Salvador Dali to shame while simultaneously resembling that of a villain straight from a movie made at the time of the Lumiere brothers.
“What is this mess you made? Do you really expect me to just let you go?”
“You can put it on the tab of the people who caused it. Or would you have liked these little guys to cook you up better than the minced meat you serve to people here?”
The man stood there, dumbfounded, while Adrian turned his back and hopped to the other side of the broken window. He cleared his throat, regaining his composure in the process.
“My name is Thomas, Thomas Damon Robertson.” He then bowed while still looking towards Adrian, who sighed. “What is the name you gentlemen were given by your caretakers?”
“Why do you even care? You were just screaming that we made a mess!”
“I am very sorry sir. It is a misunderstanding that will not happen again.”
Adrian turned towards Thomas and complied, answering the question.
“Adrian. Adrian Falkner. And your croissants are way too overrated.”
He then took a step away from the window. Osborn took this occasion to also move away from the counter, while repetitively whispering “Sorry...” to Thomas which just stood there with a mix of anger and astonishment decorating his face. Osborn opened the door, closed it, and then opening again, remembering what Thomas was asking for.
“V-Very sorry! My name is Osborn Esteban Armstrong! I left the money on the counter.”
Osborn hastily walked towards his friend until he caught up with him. He was slowly moving across the square, going for the convenience store on the other side of it. Adrian was lost in thoughts, hands in his pockets.
“I heard that this square is as old as the town itself.”
He knew that Adrian’s weak point was concentration, he was repetitively shunned by multiple of his teachers for it. He could definitely not explain how did he stay so carefree after discovering that the world itself was on the verge of crumbling on itself. However, Adrian still made sense in what he usually said, prompting Osborn to ask for the meaning of the words he just spoke.
“I don’t really know, why the question though?”
“Ever played a Single Player Fantasy game?”
Osborn shook his head, even in gaming, the two were fundamentally different. Adrian preferred Single Player games while Osborn could not imagine the thought of playing alone.
“Towns never end well. They become the den of either monsters or get deserted for cities.”
“Makes sense. I... “
Osborn suddenly thought about trying something he learned lately.
”I think I got an idea. Remember the Lunix class?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“What if we treated the thoughts as terminal commands?“
Adrian held his chin, clearly pondering about what Osborn just said.
“So in your opinion, those thoughts can be more complicated than just a single word?”
“Yeah, we gotta add up words to specify more details after thinking about a command.”
He then stood still.
Okay… Let’s try that… Dagger Properties Details.
Rock Dagger: A rudimentary dagger created by a primitive race for self-defense. It is not very sharp but can deal considerable damage to weak creatures in good hands.
Converts Blunt to Sharp.
Higher damage to creatures of Alpha to Beta stature.Breaks easily.
Alright! That’s more information! Now for something else… Class details.
Osborn Esteban Armstrong
Concentration: Elementalist - Stature: Beta
Moves: Fireball - Inspect
Affinity: Heat - Epsilon intelligence - Faith: Delta
Patreon
