NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9 - Alone
Chapter 9
Alone
I lay on my back on the soft bed in the Grand Temple's guest room. The blinds are closed, but it's dark outside, anyway. Unlike the previous night, sleep doesn't come easily, and I know the surrounding guest rooms are empty.
Instead of looking at the blank ceiling, I open my status window.
NAME: Remmi Lee
RACE: Human (Outsider)
AGE: 15 (24)
LEVEL: 1
CLASS: Gunslinger
HP: 60/60
MP: 120/120
ST: 120/120
STRENGTH: 10
TOUGHNESS: 20
INTELLECT: 120
AGILITY: 60
POINTS: 100
TRAITS:
Hero
Gun Nut
A hundred points for what even the system considered a humiliating failure. Well, at least I know that it considers even failure a learning experience.
My eyes go down to my Hero trait and the emperor's words come back to me. Can he really just declare me not to be a hero when the system says otherwise?
I'm surprised when I stare too hard at the trait and another window opens up.
HERO
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A trait only possessed by
extraordinary individuals
chosen by the Heavens to do
great things in defense of
the world.
- Enables Point Spending
- Increases Point Gain (100%)
- Increases Luck (Unlisted)
- One-Time Stat Increase (Er)
- Unique Class and Boon (Gun)
I spend a moment reading the description that I apparently opened by concentrating on it. Good to know that the System agrees with me.
... Wait, why is the one time stat increase crossed out? Does that mean I didn't get that? Tassim did say that the increase caused them to level up, and I only wouldn't because they were base stats. So did I not get the increase because mine are already too high? Or did it get traded in for the unique class?
I try concentrating on the last ability of the trait, but nothing new comes up. The way it's phrased sounds like I was supposed to get a gun as part of this whole thing, but apparently someone missed the memo.
I think about going back to the main status window and the description disappears. This time, I look at Gun Nut with intent.
GUN NUT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A lover of lead. An
aficionado of firearms. You
adore powder weapons in all
of their forms. If it goes
boom, you know it better than
any lesser fan.
The following applies when
dealing with any firearm:
- Increases Knowledge
- Increases Proficiency (25%)
- Increases Weapon
Performance (25%)
- Increases Point Gain (50%)
Okay, I really like those buffs, but they don't do me a bit of good if I don't actually have a gun.
Finally, I check out the Points entry. This opens a lengthy menu that includes something resembling a digital shop, as well as a skill tree. Whoa, okay, that's going to take some sorting through.
... I suppose I don't have anything better to do. It's not like I'm sleeping any time soon.
The skill tree has everything I'd expect. There's a primary tree for class related skills centered around firearms. That one increases my own performance like accuracy, target acquisition, trick shots and draw speed, but also has a section for increasing the performance of the weapon, itself. Those options are pretty standard, too. Attack power, capacity, fire rate, all the classics.
There's also a section for general skills and magic. After seeing magic, I go back to my class tree and am a little disappointed to see no corresponding category there. I recall the others talking about the Identify spell and look it up.
IDENTIFY
Cost: 100
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Identifies the traits of
objects and the status of
creatures. Does not provide
statistics of creatures.
Does not provide descriptions
for traits except on items
possessed by the caster.
Higher ranks increase
available information.
Huh, so if Benarou had cast it on me, they wouldn't have seen my Intellect?
It would be good to have, Tassim was right about that, but it would be all of my current points. If I need something else before I can get any more, I'd be S.O.L.
Before I can come to a decision, there's a knocking at my door.
I let the screens fade away and sit up. "Come in."
Sacred Yorin is on the other side, and she's giving a sympathetic smile I've become entirely too familiar with in the last few hours from everyone that lays eyes on me.
"Good evening, Hero Remmi Lee. Pardon my intrusion."
I arch my eyebrow at that. "Didn't you hear the emperor's big, fancy proclamation? I'm not allowed to go by that any longer."
Her smile becomes bolder in reply. "And what does your status say?"
My expression must be broadcasting that she now has my attention because she doesn't wait for an answer and helps herself on into the room.
"I didn't come for such topics, however. I merely thought to ask if you'd like to join me in the temple baths. Today seems like one that could stand to be washed off, and though it is a group bath, there are not so many female priests that I can claim to be spoiled for company."
It's such a topic shift that it takes me a moment to process it, but a good soak in what sounds like it's basically a hot tub sounds like a slice of Heaven right now.
"Sure," I answer her for the second time today as I push to my feet. "Sounds great."
* * *
It was the right decision to make. The baths are as luxurious and extravagant as the rest of the temple, with sealed wooden floors, stonework waterways and marble decor. Weirdly, we had to do all of our actual bathing before getting into the water, like showering before using the pool.
But it also meant once we were in, we could just soak.
I let myself sink down into the hot water, the bath big enough that I can stretch my feet all the way out and never worry about kicking anyone on the other side, even if they did the same. I sigh as the water comes up over my shoulders to wrap around my neck.
"I didn't realize how much I needed this ..."
Yorin's skin is so pale and flawless that only the heat blush tells me I'm not looking at another of the bath's statues. I don't know if it's because she's an elf or what, but she doesn't look a day over twenty, maybe less. It makes the motherly smile she gives me all the more contradictory than it was when she was in her robes.
"You have had a very stressful day. How are you holding up?"
"Honestly?" I ask myself as much as her. "Worse than I expected to. I keep telling myself it doesn't matter, but it's like a needle in my side. Every time I turn over, it reminds me it's there."
"You were done an injustice, Hero Remmi Lee," she starts, but I raise my hand.
"Please, we're bathing together, just Remmi is fine. The whole thing is too stuffy in here."
Her smile widens a flicker at that. "You were done an injustice, Remmi," she repeats. "It would be stranger if it did not bother you, even if the subject in question mattered little to you."
"Was I really?" I ask back. "A twit was rude to me. He even tried to make me look bad. That sucks, but it falls a bit short of an injustice. He didn't even actually say anything that was wrong."
"Yet he convinced the emperor that you are not actually a Hero," Yorin counters. "Truth was presented in such a way as to create a lie, and you have suffered for the slander. By my understanding, that does not fail to reach the level of an injustice."
I sigh and sit up straighter in the water to better face her statements. "What does it matter? If they all want to think so little of me, I can't do anything about what goes on in their heads."
"You should not so hastily assume that everyone swayed today is necessarily arrayed against you. The Interior Secretary inherited his master's bias, and the Minister, himself, the bias of his associates. They put on a good display today and convinced many, but you are not so outnumbered as you believe."
At that, I can only shake my head. "Whoever it is that dislikes me, I still don't know what I did to piss them off."
"Perhaps they obsess over levels, and cannot imagine a Level 1 Hero," Yorin suggests in a way that makes me think she knows better and is just going through the motions. "Maybe they are superstitious of why there are suddenly five Heroes instead of four."
I go ahead and give the priestess a flat look. "You don't believe either of those things, do you, Yorin?"
Her smile flitted back up again. "I believe that mortal greed is a powerful temptation, and the greater the prize, the further Man is willing to go to get it. Anger is an emotion that requires personal attachment, greed is not."
I suppress a groan and cross my arms. "You're one of those riddling types, huh? Wonderful. You know nobody likes that trope, right?"
Sacred Yorin doesn't even have the common decency to look guilty at the accusation. Her smile just widens as she chuckles over it. "I do not believe it so difficult a riddle. Do your people dislike them?"
"Just the opposite. We love them too much!" I let myself slip back down into the steaming waters. "Our stories are overflowing with old masters incapable of giving straight answers."
Yorin does too good a showing of flinching away, placing a hand against her chest as she does so. She doesn't remotely look actually upset. "How old do you think I am?!"
I only spare one lazy eye to look her over with suspicion. The other can't be bothered and stays shut. "If you ask like that, a thousand twenty."
She actually cackles at that, the first real belly laugh I've seen from her. It rebounds off of the marble walls around us until it sounds like I'm surrounded by naked elf priestesses.
"Oho," Yorin finally manages as she settles down again, "I'm afraid even we elves don't live quite that long, dear. Certainly, increasing in level raises one's vitality, but to live a thousand years, oh my. And it gets harder to raise it the higher you go. You'd be pressed to find even one of my kind who lives for more than a few centuries."
She wipes a tear from her eye with a finger, gives another chuckle, and sets her eyes on me once again. "Though for a Hero, it might be possible. It is said that if you can reach Level 100, you unlock a skill to stop aging entirely. Something for you to look forward to, perhaps?"
"So I can become obsessed with talking in riddles, too? No thanks." Besides, I'd definitely want to put off a purchase like that until I wouldn't be stuck looking like a kid, but I'm not saying that part out loud.
Yorin chuckles again, but changes the topic. "Say, Remmi, would you mind explaining something about your class to me?"
"Oh? Is there something the Millennium Elf doesn't know?"
"It's the phrasing. It's confusing. We have slingers, as the Interior Secretary mentioned, but you told him it was a misunderstanding of your class."
"Ah." I rub an itch on my nose as I consider the question. "Well, slinging is to fling something, yeah? It's something you do to something else. Gunslinging, though, it's from something. The gun is the weapon, and the sling is like the sheath. It's the holster, not how you use the gun. In fact, a quick draw attack is usually a signature specialty of Gunslingers. There's whole contests of who can draw and shoot an opponent dead in a single motion faster and more accurately."
"Oh, I see," the priestess replies thoughtfully. "Gunning from the sling would be a more accurate translation, then, rather than slinging with the gun. We were viewing it backwards. Yes, that makes more sense. Indeed, quick draw attacks are something familiar to this land, though it is usually a sword skill. It is, as you said, a signature specialty of the Iaidoka class, but some Swordmasters will learn it, too."
Iaido's here, too, huh? Images of samurai drawing on each other under moonlight jump readily to mind, and I nod. "I'm pretty sure the two skills are related, actually. Or at least, if we're thinking of the same sorts of arts. Back home, the two disciplines weren't strangers, anyway, though you rarely saw both in the same place."
She nods, too, then stands, water rolling off her form. "Perhaps if nothing else, you could benefit from studying under an Iaidoka school for a time, if the specialties truly are compatible. I could put in a recommendation for you, and if the Review was any indication, your class seems to have some periphery proficiency with blades. A holdout weapon, perhaps?"
I try to put the recollection of me stabbing the scarecrow with the crossbow bolt out of my mind as I follow her example. "An offhand knife isn't unheard of, yeah. And bayonets, now that you mention it. That may not be a bad idea. Bath time's over, then?"
Sacred Yorin gives that motherly smile again. "I like to take a walk in the cool night air after a hot bath. After drying and redressing, of course. I find the contrast refreshing. Would you care to join me once more?"