Eventually, the awkwardness ended, finding it too awkward to stay any longer.
That lasted way too long… Come on, you stupid scorpion, humans don’t pause for that long in conversations! Wait! Looks like Catcher wasn’t too weirded out. Phew… that could’ve been close… Curiosity, anger, or I don’t know! One of you keeps awkwardness from coming back up!
“So… you said you are travelling?” Catcher asked. Trying to bring life back into the conversation from whatever had stolen it.
“Yes!” Velasteros nodded. “Heading for Navivade.”
‘Yay, something easy to answer!’
“Looking for employment?”
“Kind of, aiming to be an adventurer. I want to become stronger, and I have okay magic, but it is a little… not great for solo use…” Velasteros looked away. Trying everything she could replicate from ‘Young Love on the Road’, the love parts were irrelevant, but it did talk about looking weak to guilt-trip people along. The method wasn’t completely vibing with the scorpion, as she would rather move forward with her own skill. The problem was that her own strongest abilities couldn’t be used in her human form.
“Oh. You are a mage?” Catcher said with some surprise. “Well, even if you are defensive, I’m sure people will be willing to work with you, best case you awaken some offensive magic, worst case you can still use magic that will protect your teammates.”
Catcher then began a long ramble which felt like a pitch on why mages, even defensive ones, were useful. Mages had the ability to stand away from danger, while that sounded just useful for their own safety, it was also great for the up close combatants. There was only so much room around an opponent monster after all to take up. So having someone who can assist while being a distance away was a great boon. Catcher began to disparage archers for a moment, calling them bastards who shoot people in the back.
I don’t have much experience… but it does feel like his personal biases and experiences have leaked into his description.
“A mage who can assist at a distance is a valuable assist. Especially magic that doesn’t have travel projectiles like many defensive magics—” Catcher paused, realising he had possibly gone a little too far with his eloquent description. “Still, it is surprising to hear about defensive mages. Your kind are deeply uncommon.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, because for most, why choose something defensive when something that kills the opponent results in the danger going away. Not to mention more colour. Then there are the people who don’t really gel with offensive magic; some will go with healing before defence.”
“That… makes sense…” Currently, she had two skills that were directly defensive [Barrier] and [Reinforce], and one that, if she managed to make a breakthrough with [Force Pull], could be a great utility tool.
“I’m heading towards Navivade now. I’m currently working out of that city.” Catcher followed up by saying. “I won’t ask you about your skills, that’s private after all, but if you can give me a description of what you can do.” Catcher paused. “Not necessarily now, but maybe later, I can see if I can help you find a team that would need your help.”
Velasteros looked deeply moved. “You would do that?”
“Of course, anything to help a junior.”
It worked!
Velasteros praised the book’s advice.
“Thank you!” The scorpion made a polite small bow as the book instructed her to do.
Catcher pointed in the opposite direction they were currently facing. “Navivade is that direction, so we can walk and talk. If you have any questions about the city or the guild, let me know. This might sound offensive, but you do look pretty green.”
Velasteros knew a little bit about how the guilds and quests usually worked. Monsters were everywhere, and people needed to clean them up, and adventurers were easy to do that.
“No offence. I lived with one person for most of my life, then they died, and ended up in a small settlement for a while before wanting to leave…” Velasteros kept her facts true and efficient. If anyone went back to the settlement where the children were, to ask questions, they would get a matching story.
Catcher made his assumptions about the mess that would’ve created that backstory and decided not to dwell on it.
The two began their walk. Velasteros was happy she had already completed her transformation rampage for the day. The meal was good.
The two made small conversation along the road, Catcher feeling it would be rude to ask about the lady’s past and avoiding that topic.
“Are you planning on joining one of the guilds?”
Velasteros paused, trying to verify the information in her head. “Probably freelance. I don’t like being around people constantly, but with my abilities, I will have to party up.”
“You will have to get used to people.” Catcher informed her that there was no escape from the dread of social interaction. Most of the scorpion's worry came from the fact that every interaction she had so far had gone terribly. That was what she remembered anyway. “Well, if you choose to stick with the freelance path, I’ll show you the ropes and what to look out for. I freelance myself. Mostly because I like to move around and see the sights.”
There wasn’t an overarching organisation that controlled quests in every city and town. Requests did get transferred between smaller towns and larger cities, but they had to be mailed directly to a guild or the city for them to process.
The main difference between the two. Guilds made a profit through their quests, while the city was usually paid by taxpayer money. This led to requests that weren’t guaranteed to make a profit being usually sent to the city itself rather than to any one specific guild. The city could post the request itself, or directly give the request to a guild with an amount of reward money.
A person didn’t need to belong to a guild to accept quests from them, but there were usually downsides, and a guild would usually keep the most profitable quests to itself.
“Once again, thank…” Velasteros paused. “I am saying thank you too much?”
“How often do you normally say thank you?”
“Um… I didn’t really talk to people enough to really have an estimate?” Velasteros decided that playing into the weird girl who was raised alone was the best character to play. It wasn’t incorrect, but the timeline was very questionable, so she wouldn’t answer any questions on the subject.
“I see… Well, saying thank you is nice and all, but try not to do it with every reply. Or even every second reply. If the situation calls for a lot of thanks in rapid succession and you can’t just use them all at once, try to just go for synonyms. Helps conversation flow.” Catcher clicked his tongue, proud of the advice he gave. It saved his own butt when he needed to speak with a noble once. The man thought Catcher was much more well-read and educated than he actually was.
“I see… Than—Much appreciated.”
“That’s the spirit.”
The two continued to walk
However, their peaceful travels full of fun chatter about Navivade and Valmyst explaining the plot of various books was interrupted when a large metre-long lizard with yellow spots all over its body rolled onto the road.
Why did it appear…? Wait, is it staring at me? The monster’s eyes seemed to be lingering on her, but she couldn’t tell why. No monster previously instinctively tracked her, so she felt it was strange that it started happening now.
Likely just a coincidence… She chose to stop worrying about that.
“Lemon Lizard, bloody bastard with paralysing fangs. You need to be careful when facing them, but they have little when it comes to protection. Their natural armour is ineffective against a good sword.” Catcher drew his sword, ready to show off and slay the monster.
I can’t let him hold all the spotlight. This is the perfect moment to show off my skills!
“I’ll assist.” At Velasteros’s words, Catcher decided to hold back to see what the girl was capable of.
Velasteros moved forward, which caused the monster to lock onto her and charge. Its mouth opened wide, ready to inject its paralysing venom.
[Barrier] [Reinforce].
The rampaging lizard crashed headfirst into Velasteros’s barrier, which perfectly appeared and caused it to go tumbling back.
Velasteros used all the human form strength she could muster to kick the monster right into Catcher’s path. “Now!”
Catcher smiled and decapitated the lizard.
A warm feeling suddenly entered Velasteros.
Wait… did I level up from that?
Before she could focus on that. “Are you able to use that barrier on others?” The voice that easily slayed the monster was speaking to her.
“Not yet…” Velasteros hoped that she could cast it on others.
Status – All points to intelligence!
With a panic levelled up, she placed every point into intelligence. That, with the natural growth from the level up, finally pushed her over a hundred.
[Intelligence] - 95→101
There was a sense of relief. The kind you get when you take headache meds that just work instantly, and that throbbing heaviness in the skull and the pain behind the eyes slowly fade.
My head… The sudden shift made Velasteros dizzy as she couldn’t explain the constant load that she had always dealt with at a minimum was gone. There was still a bit of fog and ooze, but her mind was multiple times clearer than it was before.
“Are you okay…?” Catcher asked.
“Sorry… just dealt with a level up… not used to that feeling.”
“Oh yeah, it can be very weird.” Catcher noted the fact that Velasteros seemed to be lower levelled, which he considered a good thing. The barrier displayed before was quite strong; even though the monster was weak, he saw enough shields to get a feel for the strength. As long as Valmyst could train, she would be a useful ally to have on a future job.
Building connections was the most important rule for a freelancer. One, he was for sure going to teach Valmyst when they entered Navivade.
Still, the rest of the discussion with the city would be a little disorganised as Velasteros dealt with the absolute bliss that her head currently felt.