Biter

“20 Silvers.” A guild attendant held a hand out.

[CoinPurse: 66S 59C -> 46S 59C]

Sebas scowls as the money within his wallet drops rapidly, leaving the company of the guild, Sebas washes himself out in the trough using a bucket to remove what blood he was able to from excessive force being used against a magical beast.

“Sebas?” Jenva Fayeth asked, knocking onto the wall.

“Miss Fayeth, I didn’t take you for one who spied on younger men.” Sebas said sarcastically while he poured an entire bucketsworth over his head.

“Would you like to get lunch?”

“Is it even possible for a young man to be allowed to go around with the rose of Eruka without incurring the wrath of the old hammer?”

“Oh hush, I’m just asking if you would like to eat somewhere. You’re almost as bad at Gis at hiding your feelings.”

“Feelings? Miss Fayeth I didn’t know you cared.”

“Yes or no?”

“Will you be purchasing?”

“Depends on how you behave.”

“Yes, madam Fayeth, I am honored by the opportunity.”

In the middle of uptown, crowded rows of shops and businesses line up the streets as multiple vendors attempt to get customers towards their door. Jenva along with a shabby Sebas wander throughout the town.

“Do you have any other clothes?”

“Not a bit.”

“I see…” Jenva said.

Dragging Sebas through an alleyway, Jenva brought Sebas to a small store with plenty of clothes that lay folded out, lacking any doublets or tunics, only shirts, leather pants, underwear, and kirtles were all that sat on tables while an old lady sat on a rocking chair made of wicker.

Jenva began to speak with the woman, while Sebas ran his finger over the tables, looking at the white material, some with various charcoal black dye bled onto the clothes. Sebas collected three pairs of long sleeved black cotton shirts, and three pairs of black canvas hose pants, and five pairs of underwear.

“Did ye find everything dear?” The woman asked Sebas, who responded with a mere shrug.

“It’ll do.” Jenva said

Sebas placed the clothing within his Magic storage, turning his attention towards the shopkeeper, “how much.”

“Twenty coppers dear, if that’ll do.”

Sebas recoiled at the cheapness of the items, despite how he felt for them, they were quality, but this woman wanted what was basically a day and a half of food.

Sebas discreetly slid a silver coin beneath 19 copper coins, turning away with Jenva following, after a small word of parting was said.

[CoinPurse: 46S 59C -> 45 40C]

“That was nice of you.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Do you have any other boots?”

“… don’t drag me everywhere.”

A silent smile is all Sebas received in response.

“Do you think Gis could make me some boots?” Sebas asked, swinging his new pair of shoes back and forth in a stool, they were clunky brown worker’s shoes, thick leather that felt like hardtack.

“What do you have in mind?” Jenva asked, a hand wrapped around a small sandwich of rabbit meat burger and cheese.

Sebas pulled out a white stag pelt, which gained an awe filled ooo from Jenva.

“That would do it, he would probably beg you to buy it.”

“How much?”

“Probably… 5-10 silver?”

“Hmm, not bad.”

“White stags do not come around here often; perhaps you’re lucky?”

“The stag wasn’t.”

“I can see that from the blood.”

“Ambushing is one of my learned skills.”

“How many is that now?”

“Three, I can , , and ”

“You sound like a desperate merchant.” Jenva said, garnering a snort from Sebas.

Sebas and Jenva ate lunch together, the small establishment served an assortment of aerated drinks that were able to be mixed with some sort of syrup and sugar, making Sebas enjoy himself all the more on the hot day in his black clothes that seemed to suck in the heat from the multi-sunned sky .

“Why are you doing this?” Sebas asked, concern assorted with heartfelt.

“Me and Gis were adventurers once upon a time, including those adventures, many betrayals were made, not just by us, it takes love, money, or corruption to make someone who you thought was family to kill you.”

“You mean to say that you believe I was acting in self defense?”

“Sebas, every single person in this world has something to hide, including red players, if you know about them you’re either a really bad person or you just killed someone.”

“But you think I’m a good person?”

“I know you didn’t lie when you said that you were the one who threw the first hit, and when you said it was to save your life, it isn’t a sin to save yourself.”

“Hmm.”

“Is that all your questions?”

“I suppose.”

“Then we can go our separate ways, unless you want Gis to make you a pair of boots.”

“We could take a visit, if you’re confidant I won’t get my teeth knocked in due to being…”

Sebas checked the list of materials he needed for his custom gauntlet request.

“Oh look at that, completely unable to fulfill the requirements of the order.”

“He won’t be happy, but the stag fur will probably make him giddy enough to forget.”

“I can live with a forgetful dwarf.”

“Dyknow how many people would pay for dwarven artisanal equipment, hand forged by the likes of me?”

“Lots?”

“Tons.”

Sebas swiftly pulled a white stag pelt, handing it over to Gis, “and I would love to see that in the form of a pair of boots, if you wouldn’t mind?”

“25 silver and the antlers.”

“And the antlers, what antlers, it had no antlers.”

Sebas is swiftly approached from below, and shaken upside down in a comical display as a short and stout dwarf lifted an entire human, albeit a young human. After enduring it for 20 seconds, Sebas relents and pulls a pair of ivory white antlers out of his magic bag.

“When did you get that fancy apparatus?” Gis asked.

“Red player.”

“Good on you boy, they sicken me.”

“Oh stop it,” Jenva began, ”not everyone who became a red player deserved it.”

“But these ones did,” Sebas said while upside down, dropped immediately after Gis collected the material, an oof sounded from him as skull met wooden panel.

“Any chance we could get rid of the color?”

“What’s wrong with white boots?” Gis shooed him off.

“It doesn’t match the whole evil mysterious vibe I got going on,” Sebas said.

“The last thing I would consider you is mysterious, and I’ve found evil more often in the toilet after a night at the tavern.”

“Gross,” Jenva said.

“Look, is there any way to dye it black, I don’t like bright colors.”

“Well…” Gis began, ”if you can get me a certain monster that doesn’t live in Eruka, sure.”

“What monster?”

“Obsidian Crab, need the shell.”

“Uhh… do you have any… leads?”

“Lives near volcanic coasts, regular obsidian would work out but it isn’t near as flexible.”

“Couldn’t you just dye it like cloth?”

“Needs to be made into an oil for leathers, it isn’t as easy as- well…” Gis stopped, “Can you get to the third floor?”

“In one piece?”

“Well… do you find yourself confident with an ax?”

“Hatchet or something?”

“Sure, that’d word.”

“Why?”

“Treant.”

“Gis, you’re surely joking.” Jenva says angrily.

“Why not? Their bark would work perfectly, tannins and the like would be a beautiful ebony that would make these into wonderful pieces of equipment you could probably use forever.”

“Because he’s squishy!”

“I am not that squishy,” Sebas bemoaned.

“Shut up Sebas.”

“Jenva, since when are you one to get in the way of an adventurer’s spirit?”

“Gis he’s classless and only a copper plate, a silver could solo one of those things.”

“…”

Sebas shrugged while the two of the couple argued about his apparently extremely important boots, placing himself on a small round table near the window of the smithy’s frontdesk , feeling safe enough to pull his chest out from his magic bag along with a single pick and a turner key. Fiddling with the materials he purchased, Sebas places the turner key at the bottom of the skeleton key insert.

Sebas fiddles around with the turner, unable to successfully move the lock, until awkwardly placing the key at an angle that reinforced the fact that he didn’t know what he was doing, approximately at a 45° angle from up to the right, when he was able to succeed in getting tension onto the lock.

[Notice: You have triggered a defense mechanism from the Enchantment Chest: ]

“Well. Shit,” Sebas said, re-illuminating his existence back into the conversation, where both Gis and Jenva watch as an electric shock violently threw Sebas into the back of their wall, knocking him out as the paired yelled at the now red veins covered Sebas skin, bloodshot eyes leaked fluid and the boy slumped over.

“I can’t hear you… what did you say?” Sebas thought as the slowly running figures dashed towards him.

“Why can’t I move?” Sebas thought.

His vision was oddly red, much more than it usually was.

“Muh h hur,” Sebas muttered to the pair, who immediately took action, both began to administer a low rank recovery potion as well as bandaged to his now burned arms.

“Oh gods. When did he start that? Why would he attempt to lockpick a chest!”

“I’ll finish bandaging him, you go get somewhere upstairs for him to stay, he won’t be able to move anywhere anytime soon,” Gis told his partner.

A golden light shone as Gis began to chant.

“O mater vitae, eleison huic stulto agni.”

[Notice: You are dying]

[Notice: has been cast]

[You are beginning to heal]

[Notice: your Constitution is low, has damaged your internals.]

[Notice: your Constitution is low, has damaged your externals.]

[Notice: You have been inflicted with ]

Sebas began to puke as his insides healed, his lungs retching out a mixture of mucus and blood.

His first and last words were a scream with an off key beat to it, passing out shortly afterwards.

Sebas had several moments in between consciousness, Adam was there, along with an unhappy visit as Kessia Winter was verbally assaulted during Sebas’ feverish unconscious state.

The first thing he heard, when he was present enough to see straight, was:

[It has been 113 hours. Allocate your free stat points.]

[Notice: Party member, Level 5 Adam Rynard has Leveled Up, Level 5 -> Level 6]

[Notice: Party member, Level 6 Adam Rynard has Leveled Up, Level 6 -> Level 7]

[You are outside of the shared experience distance threshold, experience lost.]

[+122 Duplicate Messages]

Sebas rolled out of a Cotton mattress, passing by a sleeping Gis and Jenva who sat at the foot of the bed.

While on some sort of determined journey, Sebas honed in on a bathroom nearby, turning a tap with a water rune behind the cold knob, drowning himself in water as an unholy thirst for liquids demanded his wholehearted attention.

When he finally removed his head from the underside of the faucet, Jenva held him from behind, and softly said. “Thank goodness you’re okay.”

Sebas said nothing, freezing up to the affectionate touch, but eventually placed a single hand onto her elbow on his shoulder.

Noon, Gis’ workshop. Sebas attempts to help Jenva and Gis with a salad bowl, Gis yells every time Sebas cannot create a perfect cut on the green leafy vegetables, Sebas nags Gis every time he does something minorly inefficient, and Jenva smiles whenever the two of them get into a brawl.

“I look horrible.” Sebas said while looking at the electric shocks that run up and down his body, primarily on his arms.

“On the bright side, the fact that you survived will make it extremely likely that you will become resistant to electricity in some capacity,” Gis said while motioning a fork with a leafy green at the boy.

“I didn’t get any traits atall, all I did get is envy from Adam and his plentiful bonus stats.”

“The ones you occasionally get during level ups?”

“He gets two of them every level, it’s extremely unfair,” Sebas said matter-of-factly.

“That is quite odd. I even heard he got a hunter girl to join as his party member.”

Sebas laughs sharply, “it doesn’t surprise me, that kid is in trouble no matter what.”

“How come?” Gis asked.

“He’s girlcrazy, he’s got the holy prince mentality.”

“Ah, like Wrorry,” Gis said to Jenva

“He was quite the fan of me, opposite to you, if an assassin lured him in with legs, I’m sure he would’ve died.”

“Hey, did you guys do something with the chest?”

“Don’t tell me you want to kill yourself again?” Gis laughed the question, spitting veggie bits in between cackles and words.

“Just making sure you guys didn’t get rid of it, I want it still but obviously I’m not eager to open it at the moment.”

“You have a very poor self-preservation sense dear,” Jenva remarked, “you would make a good mage.”

“Come on, I said I wouldn’t… yet.”

Gis pulled the box out of a spatial magic inventory, a small rectangle that peered into the void was produced. A sinister casket with scorch marks and a pair of gray boots fell onto the table.

“Are those what I think they are?” Sebas asked excitedly.

“Yes, yes they are,” Jenva said before Gis mouth could out-snake Sebas snark, “happy late birthday Sebas.”

Those words broke the floodgates, and Sebas simply broke down, his body slowly began to rumble as he muttered thank yous to the both of them, the gratitude seeped out of his eyes and wet the wooden table he sat at a mere week ago since practically exploding earlier before.

“Thank you… Jenva and Gis. I don’t deserve this.”

“You paid for them, and you are a little brat who I could find a bit of use for,” Gis said to the young crying adventurer.

“All we wished for was your safety, after all you’re doing to build yourself and for us, it’s commendable, think of it as your reward for surviving.”

“Thank you.”

“Happy birthday Sebas,” The pair said.