Dreamland

"We need to try a different approach," Noviel said.

It was early morning, and she and Awa were having breakfast in the inn.

The dining room was relatively small, dark, and smelly. It was a cheap inn, with only two small windows letting in little light. Normal glass wasn't expensive, but neither was it cheap, and the innkeeper cut costs where he could.

There were about ten other guests in the dining room, mostly men from a woodcutting team, and several of them glanced at the two girls from time to time, especially at Awa.

Two things bothered her about this. First, she was afraid they might recognize Ayra. And second... well, even though she and Ayra looked very much alike, Ayra had always been the one attracting attention before her transformation into Awa. Now, after the change, it seemed as if Awa was drawing even more stares. Certainly more than herself.

Noviel sighed. She wasn't really interested in those looks, but being compared to Awa and feeling like she was losing? That hurt.

Awa continued to eat happily, unaware of everything that was happening around her. She raised her head and looked at Noviel with a questioning expression.

"What do you mean?"

"You're leveling up too slowly."

"Leveling?"

Noviel grinned, realizing she was using phrases she had learned from Spartacius in the short time they had been together. She explained:

"You need to become a veteran by tomorrow."

"A veteran? But... even..."

Awa stopped herself. She had almost mentioned the camp. There, they had said she would need at least three years to become a veteran, a fox, as they called it.

Noviel understood what she wanted to say and shook her head.

"We need to train harder, and for that, we'll need to take some risks," she said, cleaning the last pieces on her plate. "As soon as you finish, go into the room and study. I'll go to the guild, check for quests, and come back. Try to get something done by then. Don't waste time."

"But..."

Awa looked at Noviel and sighed. Learn a spell in a day? That was an absurd request. It took months or even years just to unlock your spell power. She didn't even know what kind of mage she would become, as she didn't understand her affinities. But discussing this in the inn's dining room might not be a good idea. She lowered her head and nodded.

Soon, she was back in her room, staring at the book. She opened it again to the first page she hadn't been able to get past. The book started with about twenty pages of exercises designed to unlock your affinities, but each one needed careful analysis and understanding. It wasn't simple! If only she had someone to ask for help.

After another hour of staring at the first page and attempting the first exercise, she started to panic. Noviel would be back soon and would ask if she had made any progress. She flipped through the pages until something caught her eye: a section on fire magic.

Yes, she probably had a fire affinity. She had always enjoyed staring into the flames when she cooked those alchemical ingredients. Fire was like a living being; it needed to be nurtured, it could grow, and if you didn’t feed it, it would die. That was much more interesting than earth, which was just dirty, or air, which was nothing at all. Fire warmed you in those cold winters, but it was also fierce and could burn your enemies.

She read the spell description, then focused on the spell itself. The text was peculiar. You had to look at it from a certain angle to see the word "fire." But she observed that if you shifted your head even slightly, you saw the fire burning. She concentrated on the page, trying to understand. Now she could no longer discern the letters; there was only fire on that page. She tried again to see the letters, but all she saw was fire. Fascinating fire dancing freely, dancing as she willed it.

"AWA!"

Startled by the scream, she jumped and turned towards the door. The fire died, the room fell still, and a shocked Noviel stood there, staring at her. For a few moments, they just looked at each other. Then Awa shrugged and said, "Yes?"

Noviel entered the room, closed the door behind her, and wetted her lips before finally speaking.

"You were on fire. There was fire all over you, but now it's gone."

She examined Awa and her clothes carefully, then sighed in relief.

"Okay, it seems it was a harmless illusion. Well done, at least you managed to cast something!"

"It was..."

Awa wanted to protest that it wasn't an illusion... but what was it? She hadn't even realized the flames had been in the air around her.

"Sorry for yelling at you," Noviel said. "There's a new quest, better than the last one. A pack of wolves has moved into the area with the destroyed farms. We need to chase them away."

"A pack of wolves?" Awa's wide, round eyes turned to look at Noviel in shock. She couldn't be serious!

Noviel shrugged and grinned. "We need to try something harder than those slimes in the sewer. Besides, wolves don't smell as bad."

Noviel seemed confident, dismissing the wolves as a minor challenge. Awa sighed. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as she thought.

It turned into a disaster.

They found a lone wolf, and Noviel shot an arrow at it. The arrow struck; however, the wolf didn't flee but turned and decided to attack. It ignored Noviel and lunged directly at Awa, who tried to fend it off with her staff. It was a wooden staff about two meters long, a so-called acolyte's staff that Noviel had given her. It was too long and too heavy for Awa. The wolf dodged the staff and bit her hands repeatedly. Awa struggled to fight it off, but the wolf bit her ankle, bringing her down.

Noviel was too afraid to shoot and risk hurting Awa. She dropped her bow and lunged at the wolf with a dagger.

Awa screamed in horror as the wolf tore at her right foot. Desperately, she conjured a small fire in her hands, which deterred the wolf for a few seconds. Probably, that saved her life. Noviel attacked the wolf, screaming furiously. The wolf turned to bite her, but she offered it her left hand while she slashed its belly with the dagger.

She screamed again in pain as the wolf tried to break her hand, but she stabbed at its heart. The wolf fell to the ground.

Noviel remained with her head low, panting hard over the dead beast, while Awa sobbed behind her. She had to use the dagger to free her left hand from the dead wolf's jaws, still clamped around it.

She poured a few precious drops of healing potion over her hand, then over Awa's hands and foot. They had fought a level thirteen wolf. A lone wolf. A pack would have devoured them in two minutes.

Noviel sighed and stood up.

She helped the crying Awa to stand on her feet. As Awa sobbed and blabbered, Noviel decided they should head back to town.

“I don't want... I don't want...” Awa continued to blabber while Noviel tried to soothe her.

“Sssssh. It's alright. Let's go...” Before any other wolf comes, she thought, but she didn't say that aloud. “It was my mistake. I should have accepted the offer from that guy...”

Awa, who was before almost freaking out, raised her head to look at Noviel. “Offer?”

“There was a warrior in the adventurer's guild who wanted to partner with me. He would attract the wolves' ire, and I could kill them with arrows.”

“Doesn't that sound stupid? Could he stand in front of a wolf?”

“Yeah, he has steel armor. It was stupid of me to try it like this. I underestimated this wolf. Maybe I don't understand how levels work. Come, I have an idea.”

“An idea?” Awa wondered. She was starting to fear Noviel's ideas.

“There’s a place where you can buy scrolls to learn skills,” Noviel explained.

“Skills from scrolls? Just like that?”

“Aha,” Noviel nodded. “Let’s see if we can find something for you.”

She looked at Awa. After the fight with the wolf, Awa had been so shocked and afraid that Noviel feared she would refuse to fight further. Trying to kill another wolf now would certainly be too much for her. But if she had a spell that she could cast from a distance while someone else distracted the wolf, that could work.

As they entered the shop, the undead girl behind the counter smiled, greeting Noviel happily, but when she saw Awa, she froze.

She sighed and whispered, "You're crazy."

Though Anabella had spoken softly, Noviel still heard it. She raised a brow, looking at Anabella. "Why do you say that?"

Anabella shook her head and asked with a half-smile, "Are you here to cash the reward with those ears?"

A confused Awa looked at Anabella.

"Oh, the wolf!" she exclaimed "But we only killed one," she turned to Noviel, "Did you cut its ears for the reward?"

Noviel sighed. "No, I forgot."

Anabella rolled her eyes. "I was speaking of these ears." She placed her hand on Awa's shoulder.

Noviel watched her, alarmed, while Awa put her hand over Anabella's, wanting to protest but then exclaimed, surprised, "Hey... Your hand is so cold?"

A grimace crossed Noviel's face as she explained, watching Awa intently, "She's undead."

She expected a violent reaction from Awa, but nothing of the sort happened. The republic was much more tolerant toward other races, even the undead, and Awa was raised in a border town where many players of various races passed through.

Meanwhile, Anabella watched Noviel, unsure. "You don't know where you are, do you?"

Noviel hesitated. Maybe coming here was a mistake. She thought Awa's disguise was good enough, but Anabella had seen through it from the beginning. Well, she had bought the ears here, but she hoped the undead girl wouldn't prove to be that knowledgeable. How could she know about the reward? Was she reading the wanted posters? Was she not just a sales clerk? How could she make the connections so quickly? Besides, there was no such poster about Awa at the adventurers' guild!

Noviel used her new skill on Anabella: Undead priest, level eighteen.

“You’re a priest?” she asked.

Anabella gasped, surprised. “You learned that assassin's skill yourself?" she chuckled, "You're crazier than I thought!”

Meanwhile, Awa looked thrilled, utterly unaware of the danger she was in.

“I haven’t met an undead for years! We had undead customers before, but now they don’t come here anymore. Why? You are so cool!”

Noviel, tense about the situation and the many questions in her head, almost exploded seeing Awa so unconcerned and using stupid Spartacius' expressions.

“Stop using Spartacius' expressions! You met him only once!” she snapped.

“Why should I stop using them? You use them too!” Awa retorted.

Anabella looked at the two girls and wondered, “Who is Spartacius?”

Noviel couldn't hold back any longer. “Her crush!”

Awa turned suddenly completely red. “It’s not true! He is my savior! He saved me from slavers!” She turned towards Anabella. “He is Cala's son!”

Anabella raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “Cala's son? Well, that does explain a few things.”

After watching the children for another moment, she sighed. Cala's name was well known in the assassin's guild. If Cala and her son have saved this girl, then they had some protection, at least here in the assassin's guild. She was not the one to antagonize Cala.

She turned towards Awa.

“Look, your false ears are not good enough. One is already half damaged, and besides, they are too easily recognizable as false.”

Noviel turned to her with a red face. “Recognizable as false? You didn't say that yesterday! They still look perfect?”

Anabella sighed. “Every trick can be recognized as a trick; the question is how hard it is and for whom. Who is checking it?” She shrugged. “What did you expect for two silver? A perfect disguise? As a priest, I can see that there is no life in them; it is as simple as that; they are only two leather bits glued to her ears.”

The two girls watched her, surprised.

“Look, I can propose something. I can provide you two ears that will be alive, nobody will be able to tell they don't belong to you, but for this, you'll have to take me out and spend every evening with me in a tavern for as long as you stay here. Do we have a deal?” Anabella suggested quickly.

Noviel asked without hesitation, “Who pays for what you eat?”

Anabella rolled her eyes. “Actually, I wanted to pay for my bill, but now I think you will pay!”

“Not more than one silver per evening!” Noviel countered.

“Two, and we have a deal!”

“Deal, if the ears are as good as you say!”

“They are.”

Awa put her hands to her ears.

“Do you have something to remove these? They are pretty well glued to my ears?”

Anabella answered with a naughty smile,

“Doesn't matter, honey, I will need to cut your ears anyway.”

Awa stepped back, outraged.

“Cut my ears?”

Anabella shrugged.

“It's the only way it works. You get real ears from an elf. I'll heal them.”

“Is this possible?” Awa asked, bewildered.

Anabella grinned. “Yes, if you are an undead priest.”

As Awa sat on a chair while Anabella performed her bloody operation, she asked,

“Why are you so keen to get out with us?”

Anabella shrugged, explaining her situation,

“I don't get many chances to get into town. I invite an assa... a guy from here from time to time, but most don't know about me, and the ones who do wouldn't like to be seen in my company. They fear that if I'm caught someday, it would have bad repercussions on them. You know the guards don't like undead people here, so I spend most of my days in this building.”

Awa was shocked, responding, “Oh no! That's horrible!”

“It's not that horrible!” Anabella tried to downplay it.

“Yes, it is horrible!” Awa insisted.

Noviel attempted to reason with her, “But she's an undead!?”

“Imagine being confined all the time to one building. It's as bad as... as being a slave! Almost as bad! Let's get out!”

“Wait, we wanted to find a scroll for you!”

“Oh, true!”

As the 'operation' was finished, Anabella healed her once again, and Awa's ears twitched. Awa put her hands on her ears, surprised. Noviel exclaimed,

“Your ears twitched!”

“Really? I thought I felt something,” Awa responded, turning to Anabella, “How come? I could never twitch my ears?”

Anabella laughed softly.

“I told you, you get real ears. Probably the healing and the new ears helped your muscles.”

Anabella removed the rag Noviel used to catch Awa's blood, and the two started to talk about scrolls. Awa listened to them for a while, then, getting bored, started to look at the scrolls. The problem was that Noviel and Anabella were talking about levels and money. It seemed that almost all scrolls that Anabella had here required higher levels.

Awa took a scroll in her hand.

Spelling with your eyes.

That was an interesting scroll. There was some text below, but most of it was hidden. She unfolded it to read it.

All these scrolls had one short straight part. The straight part was the short description. The folded part was the scroll itself, and unfolding it executed the scroll.

A light enveloped Awa.

Both Noviel and Anabella screamed at the same time:

“Nooo!”

They jumped at her, but it was too late.

“What did she do? What spell was this?”

“Another assassin's scroll. Shit, this is for those who cannot spell at all.”

“What do you mean?”

“Assassin is a special class; they do not have their own mana; they use the ambient mana. At higher levels, they can accumulate it. This scroll was a helper scroll for those who need it, to enable them to spell.”

Noviel bit her lip. “Expensive?” she asked.

With a sigh, Anabella shook her head.

“Not very, only four gold.”

Noviel's eyes bulged.

“Fuck! Only? That's what you call not expensive?”

Anabella shrugged.

“What did you expect? Scrolls are expensive, most scrolls here are over twenty, and these are the cheap ones. Do you have the money?”

“Yes, but I am running low,” Noviel sighed. “Why is she not moving?”

“It is so after reading a scroll. She needs some time, depending on her level. She is low level. What level is she exactly?”

“Two.”

“Oh...”

Noviel identified Awa and exclaimed, surprised: “Not true. She is level three now. Maybe that wolf that we killed? Mage level three says my skill. She is a mage!?”

“That's an assassin skill that you use.”

“Why do you keep saying that?”

“Because skills are per class. You should not mix them; it is very dangerous!”

Noviel shrugged. “You keep saying that. We live in dangerous times.”

Anabella sighed. Awa's eyes turned red. She started to move. A worried Noviel asked her:

“How do you feel?”

Awa shrugged. “I feel OK. Did anything happen?”

Anabella spoke plainly:

“Your eyes are red. I've never seen this happening before.”

“Oh no! Oh no! Spartacius liked my blue eyes!”

There was an explosion of laughter in the small shop.

“Why do you laugh?”

Noviel sighed.

“That's all that bothers you? You don't have any other problem? I guess he will like your red eyes even more.”

“Do you think so?”

“I'm sure.”

Awa searched for a mirror to look at her red eyes while the two looked at each other.