We were only a room away from the staircase back up to the surface when we heard a command ring out ahead of us. “Fight, damn you! Hold the line!” It was Greebo’s voice, and as soon as we turned the corner we could see him, his dagger held aloft, as he led a pack of Gremlins into battle. Behind him, a dozen soldiers were shrouding their King in a thicket of polearms and tower shields.
ATTACK! the Gremlins wailed in unison before lowering their pikes and charging. Only then did I see their enemy: a horde of Mimics of various shapes and sizes scattered about the floor.
“Aeshma, look! We’re not too late, we can save them!” I shouted.
My voice drew Greebo’s attention. “SO-CALLED MESSENGERS!” he cried, his face twisted in rage. “Foul pretenders! Your treachery has brought ruin upon us all! In the name of the Stocker… nay, in the name of Grick-Grak, I repudiate you!” Letting out a shrill howl, he lifted his dagger high over his head. But before he could lob it at us, he was bowled over by a flying Mimic-boot.
Greebo collapsed to the floor in a heap.
“Oh geeze,” I hissed. But no one was around to hear. Aeshma had already raced ahead toward the battlefield, leaping over downed Gremlins and bee-lining for the King. She was moving fast, but it was clear she’d never make it in time to help. Greebo’s howl seemed to have sent the Mimics into a feeding frenzy.
Before she even reached the outer perimeter of their little phalanx, all but one of the Gremlins had been eaten. The survivor turned to me and shook his wreath-crowned head sadly. Not a moment later, a Mimic-tile swallowed the Gremlin King whole.
Aeshma jogged back over to me and let out a panting sigh. “Ah, well. Let’s go get our reward, Roland. Maybe this all worked out for the best, huh?”
I didn’t respond. We stepped over a few stray Gremlin guts and started the long ascent up the stairs.
–
Aeshma pounded the sturdy door between us and our reward. “Watch out shopkeep! We’re coming in!” she announced as she flung the door open.
The shopkeeper was right beside us as we entered, folding some tea towels neatly on the counter. “You’ve taken care of them all?” he asked without looking up from his task. The store was mostly empty by now, with only a stray customer or two poking around the shelves
Moonlight filtered dimly through the windows. Apparently, Aeshma and I had been in the cellar all day.
“Yep!” said Aeshma cheerfully. I grunted my assent, but didn’t have it in me to add any extra details. I had too much blood on my hands.
The shopkeeper finally glanced at us, wincing as his gaze settled on our gore-soaked shoes. “Alright then,” he grunted. “But… ugh. Stay right there. I won’t have you tracking that…. that stuff all over my store.”
He bent down and fiddled with something under the counter, grumbling about Aeshma and my manners all the while, before eventually producing a small box and a small, white hand-towel.
“A starter kit, as promised.” He cleared his throat. “This box contains all the basic equipment a person needs to survive the gentler regions of Zone One, or any adventures rated for Levels Zero through Three. This starter kit has not been reviewed for use by persons undergoing adventures above Level Three. By accepting this reward, you acknowledge that you will not attempt to pursue legal action should the items in this kit fail to protect you under unreviewed circumstances, nor if the failure is attributable to user error.”
It sounded like the shopkeeper had recited this description many times before. He slid the box across the counter.
“And this,” he said, extending the hand-towel, “is on the house. Please wipe your feet off before you track any more blood into my establishment.”
“Sorry about that.” I took the cloth and wiped what I could from my sneakers.
“Ahem, shopkeep? Doesn’t a proper starter kit usually come with a weapon? And a shield?” Aeshma asked, eyeing the reward on the counter, which was obviously too small to contain even one of the things on her list. “Not to mention armor. Honestly I was hoping for something nice and sturdy for my companion. Chainmail, maybe. Or plate.”
The shopkeeper gave her an icy stare. “How much of a mess, exactly, did you two make of my cellar?”
“It’s… that’s irrelevant!” Aeshma said. “Look, dude, you told us to get rid of your Gremlins – sorry, sorry, Gremlins,” she whispered, dropping her voice so the lingering customers wouldn’t hear, “and we did! You didn’t say anything about, like, tidying up afterwards.”
“Ma’am, there’s a tooth in your sandal,” the shopkeeper said coldly. “I don’t know what you got up to down there, and frankly I don’t want to. But I suspect the cleaning cost alone will be more than it would’ve taken to hire a proper exterminator.”
Aeshma hemmed and hawed, but didn’t seem to have a rebuttal. Not that it would’ve made a difference – it seemed like the shopkeeper’s mind was made up, and I couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t our fault, not directly, but our little adventure had made a horrible wreck of his cellar.
I finished cleaning my shoes and offered Aeshma the towel, but she refused to take it. She looked pissed; her hands were balled into fists and she was glaring daggers at the shopkeeper.
If I didn’t step in, things might go downhill fast. And I wasn’t looking forward to having the guards called on me on my first day in a new world. “Aeshma, come on, let’s just head to the Rusty Mug. I’m starving,” I said. “Besides, we’re still getting a reward, right?”
“Hmph!” Aeshma snatched the towel out of my hands and gave herself a cursory pat down under the merchant’s impassive gaze. “Well then, shopkeep,” she said dramatically. “I don’t know I could possibly thank you for this bounteous… this bounteous, uh… bounty. So I won’t. Goodbye.” She turned on her heel, starter kit and bloodied towel in hand, and walked out the door, muttering curses under her breath all the while.
“Erm, s- sorry about that, sir. Thanks for the supplies. And… sorry for the mess downstairs,” I stammered.
The merchant looked at me with his flat expression. “Careful out there, lad. It’s a dangerous world,” he said, and turned back to his work. I gave a last, wistful glance at the cellar and hurried after Aeshma out the door.
It was dark out by now, but the town square was even busier and more raucous than before. A sea of revelers caroused beneath the festive banners still strung overhead. The square was illuminated by paper lanterns and some other, less substantial motes of light that I couldn’t quite make out, all seemingly floating overhead, dancing in the cool night breeze.
Apparently the ‘official’ celebrations were over, because the official-looking stages and booths had been removed – but in their place, enterprising merchants had moved in, packing the square with little food carts and stalls.
“It’ll give you XP, it will! Five sips to your fifth Level!” one of them was shouting.
“Fresh butchered duck here, fresh butchered duck! Every one of ‘em a bastard, guaranteed!” called another. Before I had time to think about it too long, another vendor was already screaming out, “One silver for a portrait! One silver! My Arcanographs take off ten years and fifteen pounds!”
As Aeshma and I soaked in the scene, the little remaining color in the sky faded to a star-speckled black. It was a beautiful night, and in other circumstances it would’ve been nice to have let myself celebrate along with the rest of the town. But given the abject failure of the day, I didn’t feel like I had much right to do so.
Aeshma elbowed me hard in the ribs. “Hey, cheer up, Roland! I know things went kinda south back there with the Gremlins, but we… well, we did what we could, right?” She flashed me a smile. “C’mon, let’s go get some grub. The Rusty Mug awaits! Ooh, I hope we get there before they run out of supper portions. On Wednesdays they serve this mushroom-and-potato soup that’s so good, you just have to try it to see what I mean…”
She continued gushing about the Rusty Mug’s culinary offerings as we made our way towards the tram station. I was still feeling pretty down, but I had to admit: hearing Aeshma ramble on about soup was a welcome change-of-pace. I let out a breath I had been holding and tried to make myself relax. For better or worse, our cellar escapade was over and done with.
BA-DING!
A shower of colorful sparks erupted around me, eliciting cheers from a few of the nearby red-faced, drunken revelers.
“Eyyy! Good job, pal!”
“What a night for it too! Leveling up on Zone Unification Day, nice timing!”
“Congratulations! Here, have a potion on the house!” A vendor reached under his stall’s wooden counter and pressed a mug of gently burbling, lavender-colored fluid into my hand. It smelled sweet and floral.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
“Uh, thanks,” I said, confused. I guess gaining a Level was what the sparks and the chiming noise were about. I thought it would make me feel stronger, or smarter, or something. But I didn’t feel any different than before.
Aeshma turned to me, a silly grin painting her face. “O-ho-ho! Roland’s first level! Hm… why don’t we take a little detour before we catch the tram?” She tucked the starter kit under one arm and gestured for me to follow her. “And gimme a nip of that potion! I’m thirsty!”
We walked for a while, soaking in the sights and sounds while sipping at our fizzy floral beverage – or potion, I guess it was called here. It didn’t taste alcoholic, but drinking it was still lifting my spirits. Maybe the carbonation made me feel like I was still back home – like nothing had changed, and I could still call my parents if I wanted to say hello, or that I could go down to the corner store to pick up a snack if I wanted.
But one look at Aeshma, lilac-skinned, horns gleaming in the moonlight, was enough to dispel that illusion.
Aeshma poured the rest of the mug down her gullet and shot me a glance. “What’s on your mind? Still sad about the Gremlins?”
I nodded. It was probably better not to say that I had really been thinking about how weird she looked.
She put the empty mug down on a nearby cart. I noticed that she had led us to the very edge of the town square, where the plaza met a row of buildings. “Hmph. Well… I’ve got something that might cheer you up a little.” The hint of a blush danced across her cheeks, so faint that it might have been a trick of the lantern light.
“What, the stew you were raving about?” I asked hopefully.
Her stomach gurgled at the mention of it, but Aeshma said, “No, not food, dummy. Just… argh, just come with me.” Her eyes darted to either side, to make sure no one was watching – then she grabbed me by the hand and led me into the alley between two buildings.
Once we were properly out of view of the festivities, she turned to face me. “Okay. First, let’s get you Leveled up. I’ll show you how to check your stats and allocate your points and everything. And then…”
A mischievous smile was spreading across Aeshma’s face. What… oh! Now I had a level, which meant it was time for us to… well, kiss.
Now I was smiling too.
“Okay so, just stand there and… and close your eyes,” Aeshma said. “Good, nice, now… uh, look inward? Relax a little, there you go. Loosen up your shoulders. Yeah, perfect! Now pretend you’re looking at the back of your head.”
I followed her commands to the best of my ability, but it was hard to simultaneously relax and roll my eyes back as far as they’d go. “Do I have to do this every time I check my stats?” I asked.
“You don’t have to do it at all. Just a little trick I learned to make things easier,” Aeshma said. “So is it working? Are you seeing anything yet?”
I focused on the blackness of the inside of my eyelids and tried to keep my head clear. “I… no, I don’t think so. Nothing yet,” I said, leaning against the stone wall of the alley. “I don’t see anything. Is it usually this hard for people –”
I felt the UI more than I saw it, a baffling collection of words and numbers overlapping in my mind. I relaxed my eyes against the darkness, trying to put my vision totally out of focus. That seemed to do the trick, and now the UI was in clear relief. “Aeshma, I can see it! Oh geez, are those my Stats?”
I flicked my eyes around uselessly – looking at the words wasn’t the important part. But still, I saw that I was surrounded by lists of skills and figures, none of which seemed particularly heroic: ‘Somersaulting: 1’, ‘Pumpkin pie baking: 0’, and ‘Rock skipping: 4’ floated into my attention. At least I had a few points in that last one.
“How do I change what I’m seeing?” I asked. “Like if I want to check my core stats, or whatever?”
“You just… focus on whatever you want to know,” Aeshma said. “Take your time, dude, no rush. Next tram isn’t for another twenty minutes at least.”
I tried to ignore the sea of information at the front of my mind and dug deeper, for my base stats. When I finally got there, I was greeted by a pretty predictable Attribute list: Strength, Sociability, a dozen others. And all the values were in the low single digits.
“So, what’s the, like, average stat spread for someone at Level Zero? Because I don’t, uh, have anything over a ten.”
“Oh, man. I mean, uh… don’t worry about it! That sounds… perfectly reasonable,” Aeshma replied, sucking air through her teeth. “Besides, your Skills will still go up with practice, even if your Attributes don’t!”
Oh, right – if she was planning to siphon off every Level I got, I’d be stuck with my current Attribute spread permanently. Not just a Level Zero, but a weak one, at that. No wonder Aeshma was trying to reassure me that my starting stats were perfectly fine.
The UI fizzled away into nothing as I opened my eyes. “So I’m gonna be stuck like this, huh? Just a boring, baseline Human. Forever.”
Aeshma clicked her tongue. “C’mon, you’re gonna be getting all the loot, remember? You’ll be kitted up with magic items in no time flat. Besides, plenty of people keep their Attributes where they are and put their Levels directly into Skills. It’s not like you’re gonna be the only person running around with their baseline stats.”
“Yeah, it’s fine, I guess,” I grumbled. “I can’t say I understand why anyone would waste Levels on Skills, if you can boost them with practice...”
Aeshma shrugged. “If you’re not doing anything dangerous, why would you need to boost your Strength or Reflexes? A lot of people are just happy for the chance to improve at something they like to do. Anyway, just hurry up and Level! I can’t ‘collect’ until you slam your Points in.”
“Okay, okay! Let me just…” I tried to conjure the UI without closing my eyes, but the words and numbers all muddled together indistinctly. I begrudgingly went through Aeshma’s suggested steps, focusing on allocating my Levels. A panel appeared in my mind’s eye, which read:
Congratulations!
Select one: Class
AND
Select one each: Attribute and Skill to raise by one
OR
Select two: Skills to raise by two (you may select the same Skill twice)
Under other circumstances, this would’ve been a pretty big decision-point for me – choosing a Class, drawing a line in the sand of what kind of person I’d be for the rest of my life. But as Aeshma was going to siphon my Level away immediately, it didn’t really matter what I chose, so I might as well have some fun with it. I concentrated on the idea of being a Wizard, then on doing backflips. It must’ve done the trick, because the Leveling menu faded away and I felt a change; a burst of energy, of power, unlike anything I’d ever known.
My eyes snapped open and locked with Aeshma’s. She raised an eyebrow. “Are you finished?” she asked.
“Almost. Check this out,” I said, launching myself in the air and using my newly improved Skill to rip out a sick flip. I landed on my feet – but my angle wasn’t quite right, and my momentum made me stumble into the alley wall. “Did you see that, Aeshma?” I asked excitedly. “I did a flip!”
“Uh-huh. Very cool,” Aeshma said, rolling her eyes.
But I wasn’t done yet. It was time to see what being a Wizard was like.
I focused on the arcane energy I could feel roiling inside me, a fount of boundless power, waiting to be tapped. I outstretched my hand, palm out, being sure to point it away from Aeshma. I wouldn’t want her to get hurt – or even killed – from being in the line of fire. With a grunt of exertion, I unleashed my magic into the world.
A spray of bubbles shot out from my hand and drifted through the alley. They smelled like mint when they popped.
Aeshma laughed. “You blow through all your Mana with that trick?”
“I think I did, actually.” The power I had felt was gone, utterly vanished, like it had never even existed. I couldn’t have mustered up even one more bubble. Maybe being a Wizard wasn’t as exciting as I had imagined.
That’s what I told myself, at least. It lessened the sting of handing my Level, along with all my newfound powers, right into Aeshma’s velvety palms.
“So, uh… are you ready?” she asked quietly.
“Yeah, I guess so.” I knew the kiss would be transactional, just a means to an end. But as Aeshma stepped closer to me, I felt my face grow hot with nervousness, nonetheless. I was eye-level with her collarbones, and I looked up past her full, gently parted lips; past her delicate, if slightly crooked, nose, no doubt broken in a fight; and finally into her eyes, which shone like cut rubies behind her feathery eyelashes.
“Last chance to back out, dude. You sure you’re good with this?” she asked. Her breath smelt like flowers and honey. I nodded. “Okay then, here goes.”
She leaned down and planted a big wet kiss right on my mouth. It was probably inelegant but still surprisingly nice. It didn’t even come with the overwhelming feeling I’d experience down in the cellar, just the normal hazy tingle when she was trying to hold back her inborn Succubus powers.
BA-DING!
A flurry of sparks erupted around Aeshma her as she pulled away, and the sound of her leveling echoed through the alley. We both glanced nervously towards the way we came, to see if any passing revelers might have heard. Luckily, it looked like the few people who might’ve been in earshot were too absorbed in the festivities to have noticed anything.
Aeshma grinned. “Level Nine! Oh man, I think this is really gonna work! If I had to grind out the actual XP it would’ve taken forever! I’m gonna be crazy overleveled soon – the Queen’s not gonna know what hit her!”
She cleared her throat. “Oh, and uh… thanks for the Level. That was even kinda fun,” she said, a hint bashfully.
I was still dizzy and out-of-sorts from the sensation of… well, whatever had just happened. “Oh. Yeah. I, uh… saw a couple videos that showed how to do it. Uh, kissing, I mean. Just in case I ever got the chance,” I admitted. I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth.
“Haha, what? Videos?”
“Nevermind, doesn’t matter,” I said, trying to collect my thoughts before I embarrassed myself any further. “So, Level Nine, huh? What’s that like?”
But Aeshma didn’t take the bait. “Were you like, researching how to kiss a lady? Like, out of a book?”
Books, scrolls, internet, her basic idea was right. I saw no need to bog her down in the details. “Yeah, basically,” I said.
“Hah! I guess I don’t totally have the right to make fun of you, though. Back at Succubus Camp, I once stayed up all night trying to decipher one of the forbidden kissing scrolls.”
“Oh, so you were learning a kissing technique out of a book, too?”
“I’m not some kind of nerd, if that’s what you’re trying to imply. It was a forbidden scroll. It was cool to try to read it.”
“Did you end up learning the forbidden technique?”
“Oh, yeah. Obviously,” lied Aeshma. “But it’s pretty dangerous. I don’t think you’d be ready for it. Now let me slam this Level in before I forget! Leveling on a holiday is only good luck if you actually put the points in.”
Roland’s inventory
----------------------------
- Jeans
- Inoffensive t-shirt
- Shoes
-Socks
- Five dollar bill
- Flare disk (lesser) (broken)
Aeshma’s inventory
----------------------------
- Draconic leather chest armor (lesser)
- Draconic leather waistcloth (lesser)
- Flask (empty)
- Box (full)
- Fine towel (soiled)
- Old dagger (stolen) (unidentified)
