by Ivan Kal
The burly man made as if to follow the robed man, but the woman put a hand on his shoulder. “Let him go, Vall. We can’t afford to travel at night, not as injured as we are. And I will not risk my life for that fool.”
“He’ll die,” the burly man—Vall—said.
“Perhaps, but we are not responsible for him,” the woman said.
They stood there for a long moment, looking at the cave entrance where the man had disappeared through. Morgan leaned against the wall, waiting for them to turn around. When they didn’t, he started feeling a bit uncomfortable, so he coughed discreetly to get their attention. Both of them turned around, lightning fast, with their weapons ready.
Morgan’s eyes widened and he raised his arms. “Whoa there, that isn’t necessary.”
The two stared at him for a moment, and then both of them lowered their weapons.
“I’m sorry, we are a bit on the edge,” the woman said. “I see that you have recovered. You must have ascended; with your injuries I thought that you would’ve slept for at least a day.” She tucked a loose strand of hair behind what was clearly a slightly pointed ear. The action just drew Morgan’s attention to her face and he noticed just how attractive she was. She looked young, about the same age as Morgan himself, with piercing green eyes, a narrow nose, and lips made for kissing. He felt a flush coming on to his face as he stared for just a moment too long. So there are elves here—cool.
“Yeah, I ascended,” Morgan said awkwardly, looking away. Noticing the crude bandage around his shoulder, he remembered how he had been injured. “Thank you for coming to my aid earlier. I would’ve died if you hadn’t shown up.”
“It is we who should thank you—if you hadn’t come to our aid, we would’ve been dead by now ourselves,” the woman said.
“Yes, and the way that you taunted and drew away those goblins there was a very inspired tactic! Splitting them up gave us a fighting chance,” the man said.
“Ah… Right, right, right, yeah, I totally meant to do that. That’s what I wanted to happen,” Morgan mumbled and sat down on the floor.
“Oh, I’m sorry, we haven’t introduced ourselves,” the woman said. “I am Vestella, but you may call me Ves. And this is my brother Vallsorim.”
“And you can call me Vall,” Ves’s brother said as they too lowered themselves to the ground.
Morgan turned his eyes to the man, noticing that he had the same red hair and green eyes as Vestella, only his hair was cropped short. He noticed just how similar they looked—twins, I would guess. Then he realized that they were waiting for him to introduce himself and he shifted embarrassedly. “Uh, I’m Morgan.”
“That is a strange name. Where are you from, Morgan? I don’t remember seeing you around the village,” Vall said suspiciously. Ves hit him with her elbow and gave him a look.
Really? My name is strange? Morgan almost laughed. “Well, I just arrived here—like today, actually.”
Both of them frowned at that, and then Ves’s eyes widened. “Wait, are you chosen?”
“Uh, yes. I guess.”
“Wow, I’ve never seen a chosen before,” Ves said, her eyes wide.
Vall’s reaction seemed to mirror that of his sister. “Yeah, there hadn’t been a chosen in these parts in centuries. And I’ve heard from the other villages that there hadn’t been any new chosen anywhere else in decades.”
“Huh,” Morgan said. “Well, I don’t know anything about that, really. I just died and this dude in a wetsuit with some serious god-complex vibes made me an offer, and here I am. Stupid, really, from my part, but I really didn’t want to go to the light and being dead seemed like it would suck, so…” Morgan trailed off as he realized that he was rambling.
Both Ves and Vall blinked slowly, and just looked at him.
“Well…” Vestella started, then glanced at her brother. “We are glad that you came to our aid. You have our thanks.”
“No need, you saved my life as well. And it was the right thing to do,” Morgan said, ignoring the fact that he had almost decided not to help. “So, may I ask what you’ve been doing out here in the forest?”
“We want to be adventurers, and you can’t become an official adventurer unless you ascend to level 5 and then join a Guild. So we were here trying to gain enough exp to do that,” Vall said.
“Cool, and that other dude who just walked away?” Morgan asked.
“He came to our village a few months ago…and, well, he is the only other ascended there,” Ves told him. “We asked him to come with us, as it is safer for more people to go out into the wilderness. It is too dangerous for small numbers.”
Vall nodded his head. “It would’ve been better had we had five people for a proper party, but our village is small, and there are not many people who’ve even ascended to the first level. They are content to live out their lives behind the safety of their walls instead of risking ascension.”
Morgan frowned. “Wait—I thought that everyone starts at level one?”
Ves smiled. “I forgot that you chosen don’t know much when you just arrive. Only the chosen begin their ascension immediately. For those of us born here, we need to work hard in order to earn our first ascension. After we’ve learned a class the old-fashioned way, by training, we need to go out into the wilderness and defeat a beast that drops an ascension crystal. After we swallow it, our bodies change to be like yours, and we can ascend from there on.”
“Huh, that’s interesting. So there aren’t many ascended around here?” Morgan asked.
“Certainly not in these parts,” Vall began. “The two of us and Titus were the only ones in our village. There are far more across the mountain range in the big cities, and the closer you get to the Tower, the more ascended there are. Those living in the shadow of the Tower are almost all ascended.”
“What is the Tower? I’ve heard some about it, but I don’t really know much.”
Vallsorim and Vestella exchanged a look, and then Vestella spoke. “The Tower was built by the Great Lord as the ultimate challenge for the ascended. Climbing the Tower is the ultimate goal of every ascended; but so far only three floors have been cleared, and it is extremely dangerous. Many who venture inside never come back out.”
“Huh, so like a raid or something like that, then,” Morgan said, more to himself than anyone else.
“The group assaults on the Tower are called raids, yes,” Vallsorim told him.
“Right, and how many floors are there?” Morgan asked.
“No one knows, and it is impossible to judge. Entrance to the Tower is done by a portal in its base, and once inside people are transported to the first floor, which is a lush forest. At the end of that floor is another portal that leads to the next floor, and so on. The entire first floor is larger than the size of the Tower in the World.”
“I get it,” Morgan said. It wasn’t all that different than many games he had played.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Ves said before turning around and rummaging through a pile of stuff.
Morgan noticed that they were in fact garments and weapons that the goblins had been carrying. She pulled a bundle of hide and brought it to Morgan.
“Here,” she said as she unwrapped the bundle, showing him about a dozen small blue crystals. “This is your share of the loot. And you can choose from the gear if you want, but the goblins didn’t have anything really useful. We were planning on selling the hides and splitting the coin latter.’
“Great,” Morgan said as he took one of the crystals in his hand. “So, what is this?”
“You don’t know?” Ves asked, surprised.
“No, should I?”
“Of course, you need those crystals to survive!”
“Ah… Say what now?”
Ves shook her head. “You are an ascended, and we are not like the regular people—our bodies have been changed in other to be capable of climbing up the levels. As such, we require different things to live than regular people. You need to consume ascension
crystals in order to survive.”
“Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool… You mean like die, or like die-die?” Morgan asked.
“I don’t know what you are trying to ask, but I mean die as in you will be dead, no more life,” Ves answered in a tone that Morgan most often heard used when someone was trying to teach something to a young child.
“Right, so I just need to swallow this?” Morgan asked hurriedly. Am I dying already? How much time do I have? Damn Oxy and Sabila for not telling me shit.
“Yes,” Ves said, and Morgan plopped the crystal in his mouth and swallowed. Immediately Morgan felt a flash of heat spread from his stomach to every part of his body, and then it passed.
“Well, that was strange,” Morgan said.
Vall shook her head and continued speaking. “The blue ascension crystals are the most common and the least powerful crystals. They usually drop from low-level monsters. But even low-level monsters are powerful enough to kill even experienced adventurers. It is why successful adventurers are rare; the fact that they need to kill monsters in order to merely survive is not an appealing prospect to most. Of course there are stronger crystals that allow an ascended to survive for longer without having to consume another, but they drop from stronger foes. You still need food and water to survive, but as long as you consume ascension crystals, you will not age. The blue ones will give you one or two days at the most, but there are supposed to exist others which give thousands of days to your life, some even hundreds of years. The crystals also give you some exp points, but these blue ones give one or two exp at the most, as they are not very powerful.”
Morgan put that information away, but turned to more important things. “Wait, I can be immortal?”
“Of course, every ascended technically is. But in truth, the life expectancy for ascended isn’t all that high,” Vallsorim answered.
“Why not?” Morgan asked.
“Most get killed by the monsters they need to hunt in order to survive,” Vestella said with a sad expression. Morgan though about prying; he could tell that something was on her mind, but he decided not to.
“So, I now need to kill monsters in order to survive? Is there a way for me to see how many days I have left to live?” Morgan asked.
“Yes, just bring up your character sheet and you will see it,” Vallsorim said.
Morgan focused on bringing his sheet up and it popped up into his vision almost immediately. He saw his stats, current exp—and, in the corner, he saw a timer which now said five days. He felt a surge of anger as he saw the timer. He hadn’t even known about that. Neither Oxy nor Sabila had told him about it. No wonder most chosen die; if they aren’t aware that they have a time limit, they probably just died after their time run out. It didn’t really change much for him, as he had already decided to get stronger, to make something of this new chance at life, and the prospect of immortality did appeal to him.
They lapsed into a silence, then, as night fell. Vall moved to take the first shift and watch the cave entrance, while Ves settled down in her sleeping bag and fell asleep. Morgan was forced to use the goblin-hide garments as his bed, which was not a pleasant experience seeing as they smelled awful.
He woke up in the morning to a soft conversation between the siblings. Morgan noticed that they hadn’t woke him up for watch, which he understood—they didn’t really trust him yet. But he would grow on them, he knew. He already had plans on how to ask them to let him join them. He really needed someone to guide him if he was to survive in this world.
“Good morning,” Morgan said.
“Good morning, Morgan,” Ves and Vall said in unison. Vall walked over and offered him a piece of clothing.
“My tunic!” Morgan said—he had slept shirtless last night. He was too embarrassed to ask about it yesterday, especially after the two had to have taken it off in order to treat his wounds. “And its clean!”
“Yes, Ves washed it in a nearby stream, and I dried it after,” Vall said.
“That’s great,” Morgan said and put it on. “How did you dry it?” he asked.
“I have a fire alignment,” Val said.
“Huh? But I thought that alignments just applied to what kind of abilities you can use?”
“They do, but if you have a good grasp on your alignment, you can use them in different ways,” Vall said as he walked over. “For example, I can manipulate fire and heat to a small degree, and as I grow stronger my abilities will grow stronger as well.”
“That’s cool, I have a nature alignment but I have no idea how to use it,” Morgan said.
“All you need is to make a connection. Meditate and reach out to your element. After that, it is all about practice,” Vall told him.
“Huh.” Morgan was eager to try it, but he could see that the twins were preparing to leave, and he was not about to be left alone in the forest.
“So, I assume that you are about to set off on your way?”
The twins exchanged glances, and then Vallsorim nodded to his sister. Vestella turned to look at Morgan.
“About that…” Vestella started. “We were hoping that you would join us on our trip. We are on our way to a town a few days’ walk from here, and we plan on hunting monsters along the way—enough to ascend to level 5. Then we were hoping to apply to join a Guild in the town.”
Morgan smiled. Looks like they had the same thought. “Sure thing! I was hoping to come with you. I don’t really know much about the World but I do plan on being an adventurer. Coming with you guys seems like the best way for me to accomplish that.”
The twins sighed in relief. “That’s great. The wilderness is very dangerous, and we were worried that we would need to travel with only the two of us.”
A flashing exclamation signal appeared in the corner of Morgan’s vision. He frowned, but focused on it. A moment later, words flashed in front of his eyes.
Casual party group created!
Morgan frowned at the words, but then shook his head and dismissed them with a thought. He had read something about groups in the guide, but he was far more excited to get started than to remember the details.
“Great!” Morgan clapped his hands. “Shall we?”
CHAPTER SIX
They set out of the cave after a quick breakfast. The twins had been kind enough to share their food and water with Morgan, and he was incredibly grateful for that. He knew intellectually that he knew how to hunt and skin and prepare game, but he wasn’t all that sure about how he would do it in practice.
Morgan put the rest of his blue crystals in a small hide bag that they found on the goblins and put it in his bag of holding. He had another ten crystals, enough for about a month of life. It made him a bit nervous to know that he would need to kill more monsters in order to survive; but as they walked through the forest, he couldn’t help but think about it. He distracted himself by looking around the plants on their path. He even realized that he recognized many, and that he knew their properties. He gathered a couple on their way, tying them in a bundle and putting them in his bag of holding—or BoH, as he had started calling it privately.
The twins had said that very few people actually become ascended, and even of those that did, few survived for long. That just didn’t make sense, even if there were powerful monsters around. All you had to do in order to live forever was kill the low-level monsters and extend your life indefinitely. After thinking on it for a while he broached the subject to his companions.
The twins shook their heads as they heard his questions. “It’s not that simple. As you gain levels, the low-level crystals lose their usefulness. The greater the level an ascended is, the less time he gets from a low-level crystal. It forces the ascended to always go after more dangerous monsters, and in doing so there is more risk of death,” Vallsorim explained.
Morgan frowned, but nodded. That explained quite a lot. And again he felt annoyed at Oxy and Sabila for not informing him of all of this before. But then again, he couldn’t be too angry—he did get
to live again. Even though I might not survive for long.
“So, you guys know a lot about this ascension thing? Any advice?” Morgan asked.
The twins shared a look, and then Vall shook his head. “We know some, not a lot. It is…difficult to find reliable information, at least as far as we can tell. This area has very little ascended.”
“So you are just stumbling along?” Morgan asked.
“Yes,” Vall answered.
Morgan grimaced. He had hoped on getting some advice on how he should use up his points as he leveled up, but it looked like he would need to use his best judgment.
As they walked, Morgan looked at their surroundings. They were walking on a small wooden trail, which to his eyes didn’t look like a well-traveled path. So he kept his eyes on the dark forest, looking for any sign of danger. Vestella had recovered his arrows, so he now had fourteen in his quiver. One was lost, as he had stabbed the goblin with it.
They made good time and didn’t encounter any monsters, which was actually surprising as the twins informed Morgan that they were in goblin territory. They were planning on checking out a reported goblin den on their way to the town, as the twins told him that they had to be at least level 5 in order for any Guild to even consider accepting them into their ranks. Morgan wasn’t yet sure why they needed a Guild, but he was content to follow their lead. At least until I find out more.
But as the night neared, the twins started to make camp and Morgan decided that this was a good time for him to test out his hunting skills. For a moment he had worried that his skill would be useless as anything he killed would just disappear into dust, but he had been told that that would not be the case. Apparently there were two types of life on the World: monsters and beasts. Monsters would turn to dust and drop loot, while beasts would leave behind bodies that could be skinned or harvested. Most of the animals were of the beast kind.