Chapter 17.

CHAPTER 17.

It hadn’t been more than a couple of hours since they left Laria, but given they were alone in the frontmost wagon with only a single merchant that could overhear their conversation, Amber figured it was a good time to ask questions.

“So, why the caravan instead of just traveling alone?” Amber asked Liz.

“Well, a caravan is comfortable, and unlike you I’m just a mage whose physical prowess isn’t all that high.” She shrugged. “So it’s not like I’d travel all that much faster. Plus, you also have a super rare class,” she said the last part in a whisper.

“That’s fair,” Amber agreed. “I suppose your physical attributes are quite bad then?”

“They aren’t awful,” she chuckled. “But unlike warriors, us mages hardly get any type of physical enhancements at all, so we invest in Intelligence and Wisdom instead, Intelligence helps us deal more damage and Wisdom gives us more mana.”

Amber blinked, she wasn’t planning on asking about that but she was glad to have heard that, because now, she had a lot of questions.

“As a warrior, I have a skill that uses mana, should I be worried about Intelligence?”

Liz frowned. “Those skills are kind of rare, but to answer your question, unless you have a skill that is magical in nature probably not. But the possibility of your class giving you something that may scale with Intelligence also exists.”

“So, it’s fine to neglect it for now?”

“I suppose so, yes.” She tilted her head. “Where are you from, Amber?”

For a moment, she paused, tensing. Then she shook her head. “Do you ask because I don’t know basic things?”

Her lips curled into a grin as she began to whisper. “Partly, but also because I really am curious about your class, plus⁠— I want to get to know you more.”

“My class has nothing to do with my origins,” Amber sighed, mirroring her low voice. “I got my class from being stuck in a trap and surviving it.”

Liz blinked. “That seems a bit underwhelming doesn’t it? What kind of weird trap was it?”

In response Amber grinned, her tone returning to normal. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

This time, the mage sighed and shook her head with a small smile. Then, she turned to look at the surroundings. Amber followed her gaze, they were passing by a large plateau that oversaw a forest. The dirt surrounding them only had patches of grass present, and shrubs for plants. There were other adventurers present, but thankfully they had managed to get their own cart.

“You know, I don’t have any ulterior motives, right?” Liz asked.

“I know,” Amber readily agreed. “But it’s hard to know what information is safe to share given I hardly know what’s going on around me at all times. Plus we can be overheard.”

The merchant shuffled at the front but said nothing. It was apparent he wanted nothing to do with the conversation of the two adventurers.

“Well, I suppose that’s fair.” The blonde mage rested her head atop her shoulders. “Do you have any questions for me?”

“I don’t know.” Amber frowned for a moment before deciding to ask something in her mind. “How do you feel about killing other… humans?”

Liz blinked, turning to her in confusion before chuckling.

“Do I look like a mass murderer to you?”

Amber shook her head. “No, but you’re an adventurer, so I assumed that maybe you had to at some point.”

Liz sighed before closing her eyes. “I have done so in the past, it’s a necessity of life. I do feel bad at times but sometimes it boils down to kill or get killed; no guilt in that.”

Then the mage turned to her.

“What about you, what do you think?”

Amber frowned. “I do not know, I killed a man at the dungeon. He was demonified so maybe it didn’t bother me as much as it should have. It was that or let him completely summon the demon.”

“And somehow that bothers you?” Liz blinked. “You can’t be serious, right?”

Amber didn’t answer and her companion in response plopped onto the cart. She lay on her back, surrounded by the various goods as she stared into the sky. Finally, after a minute of silence, she spoke.

“You are strange.”

“In my eyes, you are the strange one,” Amber said, shaking her head.

Liz slowly got up and nodded. “I suppose that is true. Still, how about you join me in an alone talk?”

Amber blinked but ultimately agreed to her request.

* * *

After trading positions with the adventurers at the front, they found themselves truly alone. Walking a couple of meters ahead of everyone. Amber supposed that this was as private as a conversation would get.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” she asked.

Liz shook her head. “Not quite a conversation but rather, I want to talk about myself to you.”

Amber must’ve made a weird face, since the mage chuckled and continued.

“I figured that since you don’t tell me about yourself then I should be the one to talk,” she explained. “As you know I am⁠— was a noble,” she corrected herself. “A lot of people assume the life of a noble is quite luxurious but in reality there is a bunch of boring studying about politics, territories and all of that kind of stuff.”

“That makes sense,” Amber agreed.

“Yeah, so, even though I was aided by my family to obtain a relatively rare mage class, they still planned to sell me off for political gain, which is something I cannot understand till this day,” a sigh left her. “I mean, why force your kid through so much stuff only to try to turn them into a pawn?”

It was a rhetorical question so Liz gave Amber no time to even reply as she shook her head and continued shortly after.

“I don’t get it I guess, seems silly to me. Well, maybe it made me more desirable or something? I don’t know.”

“I’m sorry you went through that,” Amber said, as gently as she could.

“And here I was hoping you’d just ask about my class,” Liz said in a self-mocking tone. “Well, it is what it is, I suppose. Now, I intend to save my sister from being an object of political gain. I want her to be her own person, to have the freedom to choose.”

A gust of wind blew past, the dust of the ground picked up and scattered across the landscape as confusion settled onto Amber’s mind from the way things were worded.

“Wait, how old is your sister?”

“Oh, she’s just two years younger than me, but she’s always had trouble expressing herself,” Liz casually explained. “And I guess, as her older sister I feel responsible for saving her from that kind of fate.”

“Huh…”

I expected something else, she thought before smiling. Still, Liz is really a good person. Maybe it’s fine to share a bit more about myself…

“So⁠—”

“Liz,” Amber interrupted. “You wanted to know more about how I obtained my class and other things, right?”

The blonde mage immediately perked up. “Yes⁠—”

And at that moment a whistle resounded in the air. The unsheathing of swords echoed. And a voice called.

“Monsters ahead!”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Liz immediately frowned, and turned to look ahead where she saw the shadows of approaching figures. They were so far in the distance that they were hard to notice. Amber squinted her eyes and observed they looked like jackals, and there seemed to be hundreds of them, all coming in their direction like a stampede.

What a surprise… It was truly a surprise. A smile spread across her lips. I can test my advancement… She wanted to see how much better she could fight the monsters, how much faster she could do it⁠, how reckless she could be against them. She grabbed onto her sword and saw Liz pointing her staff into the air, aimed in the direction of the entire caravan. Crimson light gathered and then, she spoke.

“Hellfire Falling Wall.”

A projectile shot into the air and a second later⁠— it exploded. Amber’s eyes went wide as the sky turned crimson and fire rained from the sky⁠. In an almost perfect circle, splotches of crimson flames fell all around the caravan. The adventurers gasped as they reached the ground, burning brightly.

At that moment the jackal-like monsters arrived. Some tried to jump through and immediately began burning, screeching in pain as they seemingly turned to ash in a couple of moments. The stampede immediately came to a stop. Some of the archers began to shoot at the pack circling the fire, and all Amber could do was just stare.

“What the fuck⁠—”

“Sometimes, it’s best to avoid certain fights,” Liz explained, taking deep breaths. “If they reached us, casualties may have occurred.”

Amber blinked, looking at the blonde mage. She is right⁠—

“Plus, I wanted to hear you talk as soon as possible.” She weakly smiled, sweat going down her forehead.

Amber paused before scoffing.

She found the blonde mage to be ridiculous, but at the same time her reasoning was logical— even if it had most likely been just a justification to stop the battle. Amber sat on the ground as she watched the flames burn.

“If you’ve always been able to do that, how come you almost died to those monkeys?”

“Monkeys?” The blonde woman frowned thinking for a moment. “You mean the Simia Insani?”

“Yes.”

Liz shook her head, sitting down next to her.

“And burn the forest?” Liz scowled. “No thanks, I’d rather save myself any trouble that may come with that. I’m sure it's the property of some city or something. Arson isn’t on my list of things I want to become a fugitive for.”

“And can’t you do something else?” Amber asked, now more curious than ever.

Liz lightly nodded. “Small spells sure, big spells? All fire, every single one of them are fire related. As you can guess it has to do with my class. Anyway, yeah I didn’t want to burn the forest so that fight was bad for me. And by the time I didn’t care about burning it, it was a bit too late.”

Amber felt like asking about her class but ultimately just decided to look at the blazing inferno around her. It was quite hot. The monsters were at this point beginning to retreat. And with it, her chance to test her class advancement.

“Tell you what, you tell me your class and I’ll tell you mine.” Liz smiled.

And a moment later, Amber stood up, ignoring Liz’s offer.

“I’m going to go through the fire.”

The woman’s eyes grew wide. “You what…?”

“I want to test my class advancement before it’s too late,” she explained as she unsheathed her sword. “So⁠—” And Amber paused feeling the mage grab onto her leg. “What are you doing?”

“You can’t go,” Liz said with a frown. “We will get fired for abandoning our post.”

Amber blinked. “You can’t be serious, right…?”

However, in response the blonde mage shook her head. And all Amber could do was watch as the monsters left.

* * *

Minutes later they departed in silence, and finally after an hour of silence Liz asked.

“Are you still upset?”

“Of course I’m upset, what stupid bullshit is that?” Amber asked. “I’d be fighting the monsters for free yet I’d get you fired? It’s ridiculous.”

Liz’s lips drew into a thin line, evidently not agreeing with the statement. However, instead of refuting it, she sighed.

“Unfortunately, we were hired to protect, not to chase monsters around. If you went and we got attacked by something else, it would make you the worst escort to ever tread the land,” Liz explained.

“I know but I still find it bothersome.” Amber kicked a rock on the road. They were still leading the caravan. “I just wanted to test my advancement, that is all.”

“Must have been very good eh?” Liz smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get to enjoy yourself sooner than you expect. These regions have quite a lot of monsters, no towns around.”

“Now that you mention it…” Amber frowned. “I haven’t seen a single town in all my time here.”

“Towns aren’t a thing in Cytel.” The mage waved her hand dismissively. “Too many monsters across the kingdom, it’s better to centralize manpower in cities. It’s called the Kingdom of Prospects after all; there are a bunch of monsters to kill.”

Amber blinked. “Oh, interesting.”

“So, how about you tell me your class and I tell you mine?” she asked with a smile.

That offer again…

“Fine, I’ll bite. What is your class, Liz?”

She smiled and leaned to whisper.

“Flametouched Witch.”

Amber blinked for a moment. “You are a witch…?”

“Fancy word for mage, but yes.” She nodded. “So, what is your class? You’ve been keeping it from me for so long, it better be good.”

“Cursed Chosen Berserker is what it became after the advancement,” Amber sighed. “Before that it was Cursed Berserker.”

“Wait… what…?” Liz almost stopped walking before she forced herself to. “Chosen, you have that in your class?”

Amber blinked before shaking her head. “See my apprehension towards sharing information that may or may not affect me?”

“No, no, no⁠— it’s not that,” Liz said in a hurry. “It’s just…”

“It’s just…?”

“Well, if your class has the word Chosen in it then it can only mean one thing,” she explained.

“And that is?” Amber asked.

“You’re favored by a Primordial Spirit.” She breathed. “Is that why you are so curious about them? Did you meet one⁠? No⁠— I’d like to know but I won’t press you, thank you for sharing that with me.”

Liz nodded.

They continued walking in silence, there was some awkwardness in the air but nothing that neither of them couldn’t handle. However, Amber had already resolved herself to talk. Maybe not exactly about Ax’thra, but she decided she was going to do it anyway. Liz had been able to glean quite a lot from her class already, and so she decided to speak up.

“I did meet a Primordial Spirit, I even know his name.”

“What is it⁠—”

“It’s not something for me to share,” Amber interrupted. “And it is the reason I’m trying to learn more about them, because he was attacked by people from an organization called the Arcane Council.”

“I see…”

“And well, for what it’s worth I’m concerned about him even if he’s a god or whatever. Because in the end, he’s a friend.”

Liz just blinked. “Befriending a Primordial Spirit… are we living in the same world?”

Amber shrugged.

“How does that even happen? How did you even meet him? How did…” Liz trailed off before meeting her gaze with a gulp. “Are you real?”

“Yes, I’m real, and yes I’m helping you save your sister, and yes…” Amber sighed. “I’m human.”

“Right… it’s just… I cannot comprehend it, you know?”

Amber nodded thinking back at Ax’thra’s reaction to her world.

“I think I do.”

Liz apprehensively nodded back and after that they continued traveling.

* * *

The day quickly passed, and Liz seemed to have used the time to come to terms with everything she had heard. She even stopped herself from bombarding Amber with questions. Something that Amber appreciated.

“You know, I know I have been a bit annoying by asking about your class so many times, so I’m thankful you told me.”

“It’s fine, you earned it.” Amber waved it off. “In exchange just let me ask all the stupid questions I may have.”

Liz nodded. “Right, that’s no problem, if you told me you were born in the forest and were raised by monsters, I’d believe you at this point,” she said chuckling.

“Ha, you’d never guess where I actually was born.” Amber smirked.

Liz met her gaze. “Try me.”

There was a pause before Amber laughed and shook her head. In the end, she didn’t want to talk about that with anyone yet. Let alone getting questioned about whether she missed her home, or stuff like that. However, maybe in the future she’d tell Liz, or Thieney, or whoever else she meets, but for now she felt it was best to keep it for herself.

“You’re mean.”

“The meanest,” Amber corrected.

In response, Liz smiled. “You are quite fun.”

Amber just nodded with a smile. She didn’t feel like continuing the banter, but her mood had drastically improved from where it was earlier today. She had been briefly concerned about Liz acting weird around her, but it seemed that her worries were misplaced.

“So, Liz, I was wondering. If you had a good class, why didn’t you grow strong and go save your sister?”

“Aside from the fact that leveling up is hard, I was afraid of getting the attention of my family. Wouldn’t want them to keep tabs on me considering my plan. So, I figured the best way was to try to find someone to help me all things considered. I did, of course, gain over twenty levels during all this time, but yeah that’s how things were for me.” Liz shrugged. “Does that answer your question?”

“It does, thank you, Liz.”

“I have a question for you, is your impulsiveness due to your⁠—”

“No, since I can remember I’ve enjoyed testing my limits.” Amber shook her head. “Whether it is in running, sleeping, eating⁠— anything really.”

Liz blinked. “Huh… you really are strange…”

Amber didn’t disagree as they continued walking, however just an hour later the caravan stopped and they began to set up camp. For some reason, it was something that Amber didn’t expect, but then again what did she expect? She chuckled at her own thoughts and minutes later she thankfully received food from the encampment that had been formed. She also got a sleeping bag too.

“You know, I completely forgot one had to bring rations and all of that…” Amber said, eating the soup she had received.

“Well in your defense, we immediately departed on my terms, so it’s only normal you forgot,” Liz said simply.

“Yeah…” Amber half-agreed.

Even if we had departed with time, I would’ve certainly forgotten all of that…

They continued eating with silence as Amber took in the hearty atmosphere. She and Liz were seated quite far, but they could still see the groups of people chatting and getting along with each other.

“You don’t like crowds?” Liz asked.

“I don’t.”

“Yeah me neither,” the woman chuckled.

Finally, after a few more minutes the sun began to set and it was time to get some rest. However, Amber and Liz’s group were on lookout duty along with some others, which Amber found to be fine by her, Liz however…

“You know, I’ve never gotten used to doing this, it’s always so boring to me,” Liz said.

“Well, I suppose it’s boring…” she agreed.

Amber had a look around and saw everyone seemed to be doing their own thing, not particularly trying too hard to look for potential dangers. Monsters were rather easy to spot so the atmosphere remained as relaxed as ever. Finally, after a few more moments of looking around, Amber had an idea.

“How about you set me on fire?” she asked.

“What…?” Liz blinked. “Why the fuck would I do that?”

“Well, getting Magic Resistance would be nice, and it might level up my Elemental Resistance too,” she explained.

Liz blinked a couple more times. “But getting burned alive? Plus won’t your clothes melt and stuff…?”

“Well then I can just strip⁠—”

And a scream resounded across the camp. Liz and Amber immediately turned as they saw more arrows hit other people that were distracted. And a moment later, one of the rangers screamed for everyone to hear.

“Bandit attack!”

Amber paused.

War cries filled the air moments later, and her heart began to rush. However, it wasn’t fear, she didn’t feel any of that. Instead, her heart was rushing in excitement. Excitement for the fact that she was finally going to be able to test her advancement. Of course, she felt some level of apprehension towards fighting humans still, but seeing another adventurer die gave her all the resolve she needed.

And so, she unsheathed her sword and charged forward.

It was time to test the full might of her advancement.