A nerfed Dingir in Final Fantasy 9, seriously? Chapter 3: If you want to be a hero, better loose t, a final fantasy ix fanfic

Mark's character stats (Start of Chapter 2)

Character class: Wizard Knight

Level: 3, 123xp until next level up.

HP: 100 / 102

MP: 257 / 306

Strength: 20

Speed: 15

Spirit: 25

Magic: 40

Weapon: Bronze sabre

Armour: Traveller's cloak

Footwear: Leather shoes

Accessory: Isekai ring

Skills: None

Magic: Poison, Regen

Trance: Balmung strike

Items: 2 potion, 1 phoenix down, Isekai's travellers sack

Gil: 0

A nerfed Dingir in Final Fantasy 9, seriously?

CHAPTER TWO

If you want to be a hero, better loose that penis

Alexandria's gates loomed above him, two soldiers stood watch on either side, both women he noticed, quickly recalling that Queen Brahne had overhauled the army after her husband's death ten years ago, now the military was now almost exclusively populated with women, and while impressive, it seemed odd to Mark to discount the many men who would have joined the army, thereby limiting the size of her army, as she had empire building desires, even using artificially produced black mages to make up for the shortfall single gender army, well it just seemed silly.

Only Steiner's Pluto knights remained of the male soldiers for Alexandria, but given their incompetence in the game, that might be an insight into what the rest of the original mix gender army had been like ten years ago, not that the game went into it, but that didn't matter, he needed to find out when in the game he was, presumably at the start, but he would need to see the ticket master to confirm that.

Taking a deep breath, he walked through the gates, and was immediately stopped, their swords crossed in front of him, "Halt! state your business!" the one on the right said. He glanced to each of them, seeing their status bars. Emily: level 18, Kelly: level 16. Which meant they could deal enough damage to one hit kill him, so whatever smartass comment naturally desired to shoot from his lips, probably something to do with scaring off tourism, was swiftly shelved.

"Yes ma'am, my business is to stay at an inn for the night, beyond that I haven't considered it," Mark replied, keeping his tone polite.

Kelly regarded the tall bearded man, he looked about thirty years of age, worn travellers cloak, as he held up his hands, she noted a cheap sword belted to his waist, but he didn't look particularly dangerous, and he was polite. "See that you behave yourself while staying here, otherwise you'll have to deal with us."

"Yes ma'am, I'll be sure to behave myself."

They lowered their swords, allowing him to pass. Beyond the gates was the familiar fountain and statue from the game, the buildings of an centuries old style, rather than another world, it was more like going back in time. Save for one thing, that of the many non human residents of Alexandria, who were essentially anamorphic animals, it was one thing to see them in the game, another entirely to see them in real life, but he tried to keep from staring. For now he would head to the ticket master and see when the show was that Garnet would escape with the Tantalus thieves.

(Later)

'Two years...' thought Mark in despair as he sat on a crate within a quiet alley. The wolf-man ticket master, had informed that no such show had been booked for the Princess's birthday.

"But they were supposed to be here for the Princess's 16th birthday party!" Mark insisted with irritation.

The ticket master looked at him with confusion, "Sir, Princess Garnet is thirteen years old, though it's her birthday in a few days, and yes there is a special show booked for the occasion, but I've not heard of this Tantalus performance troop."

And so, he had come to a terrifying realisation, he would have to survive two years at least in this world before the events of the game would even begin, he needed to get stronger, but on his own, travelling beyond this city would be dangerous, a single defeat would mean his death. This wasn't a game, no matter how Hironobu had created this world.

Then there was the more pressing matter of making money, he didn't have anyone here to fall back on. The phoenix down was worth enough for nearly two days in a cheap hotel, if he remembered correctly. Without a job or place to stay, getting Gil from monsters as well as selling monster drops was most likely the way to go for the immediate future.

It was beginning to grow dark before he finally calmed himself enough to act, if he could avoid sleeping on the streets, he would. Standing up, he headed down the various interconnected alleyways to a small item store he recalled seeing while exploring, there was much more to the city than what was portrayed in the game, he wouldn't be able to rely on his memories of the game to explore, except in the most general of ways.

He was close to the store, when he heard shattering bottles, and falling objects, grunts, and yells of rowdy sounding men. 'A fight?' he wondered, it wasn't his business, he turned to take a different route. Then he heard a young girl scream, and he ran in the direction, he really hoped it wasn't what he thought it was. Around the next corner, his dread was confirmed, four men were wrestling to hold a young girl down, she couldn't have been more than fifteen, her clothes were torn, and she had a large red mark on her face, one already has his penis out, the kid was clearly terrified.

"Come on sweetie, stop struggling so much, you'll enjoy it."

"Leave me alone!"

"Keep yelling, nobody's gonna hear you."

"Want me to hit you again? Now open those legs already."

Normally Mark would have gone in guns blazing, and plenty of yelling, but this wasn't his old world where he was confident in his strength, he was only level 3 here. above the heads of the men, he read their stats. Jerry, level 6. Dave, level 5. Vick, level 9. and Kenneth, level 8. All of them were stronger than him in terms of level, but none of them were armed, at least that he could see, but he had a sword, and they were focused on trying to rape this girl.

He slowly approached them from behind on silent feet, unsheathing his sword gently as to avoid making the steely hiss of a drawn sword. He held his breath, and without warning swung his sword as hard as he could, slicing off Dave's head with one attack, the recoil was awful. Blood spurted, soaking them all.

"Game alert, 100 EXP gained."

Before they could even react, he lunged at Jerry, stabbing him through a gap in the ribs, his sabre was a wide blade, he'd likely gotten the lungs and the heart. He yanked his sword out, another dead. Two down. His heart was pounding, adrenaline sharpening his senses and movements, he remembered this feeling. A real fight. A savage grin stretched over his features.

"Game alert, 125 EXP gained. Level up to level 4, all stats receive 3% increase."

'So that wasn't my imagination, even humans can level me up,' Mark realised.

"Holy shit!" yelled Vick, leaping back, he pulled out a long knife from under his clothing, ignoring the blood and gore.

But Kenneth dropped to the floor, his features terrified. "Oh god, they're dead!" He saw the look on Mark's face, he tried to scramble back, but Mark stabbed downwards, opening up his stomach and piercing several organs. He screamed and grasped in agony at the sword. Mark tried to pull it out, but failed.

Vick was quick to take advantage of that opening, slicing at Mark's throat, who just barely avoided being killed, Mark had swayed back with swift timing, but a thin cut still appeared on his throat, blood dribbling out. Another attack sliced his arm, but Mark booted Vick hard in the stomach, making him stumble back.

Mark ran to the end of the alleyway, grabbing a broken bottle as a weapon. Vick regarded him warily, slowly approaching, Kenneth's screams died down.

"Game alert, 216 EXP gained. Level up to level 5, all stats receive 4% increase."

'So that other guy died,' Mark realised. He felt his body noticeably strengthened again. He would need it to disarm the last would-be rapist, and while Vick didn't carry himself like a warrior, he used the knife too well to not have at least some experience with such back alley brawls and knife fights. But what could he do? Could he risk using the bottle to deflect the knife and aim for a tackle? 'Wait, level 5...' it occurred to him, the voice he heard had once said that his poison spell required him to be higher level to use the spell like in the game. But first... "Cast: Regen." A green glow surrounded him. His throat wound closed up and vanished, his arm still hurt, but it had stopped bleeding.

"A magic user," growled Vick, pausing, slight hesitation showing, he glanced to his dead friend, yanking the bronze sabre from his stomach, spewing more blood and guts across the cobblestones. He charged!

"Ah shit!" Mark raised his arm, "Cast: Poison!" A purple blob hit Vick, he winced but didn't slow down. He stabbed at him, Mark dived to the side, the knife followed, drawing blood on his shoulder. "Fuck!" he cursed, leaning against the wall.

The next attack came, that should have been the end, but the young girl shoulder charged him from behind with remarkable force, Vick hit the ground hard, before he could do anything, the girl kicked the sword from his grip. Mark grabbed the knife hand, disarming Vick. In his mounted position, Mark had a clear opening at the man's face, he raised the jagged bottle in his other hand and jammed the sharp edge into his throat, blood gushed into his face. Mark stabbed several times more. His near death making him especially savage and cautious. Breathing heavily, he climbed off his last opponent.

"Is he dead?" the girl asked.

"Y-Yeah..." he said between breaths.

"Thank you so much!" she thanked him.

"I-If you hadn't have helped at the end, he would have killed me anyway," Mark replied with a wry grin. "Thanks." He struggled to his feet, another green glow and his wounds stopped bleeding. A few more minutes and the Regen spell would heal the rest of his wounds. "Would you like me to heal that?" he gestured to her face, and ugly mark from where she had been hit earlier, given her ripped up clothing, she likely had other injuries too.

"Please!" she replied.

Pointing his palm at her, he focused his magic on making her the target. "Cast: Regen." A green glow surrounded her. She let out a relieved sigh.

Mark picked up his bronze sabre and re-sheathed it, after a quick wipe to remove the blood. When his adrenaline wore off, he'd likely freak out over just killing four people. But under the circumstances, he wouldn't regret it. Sexual assault was one of the few things that genuinely pissed the world traveller off.

As he turned back to her, his eyes flickered above her head, reading her stats by habit now. Her name was Claire...and she was level 12! She was stronger than him, this petite girl? Now it made more sense why four men were pinning her down, they wouldn't have been able to manage otherwise with the level difference.

Before any other words could pass between them, something grabbed the back of his head and smashed him heavily into the ground, something cracked. He yelled out in pain. His HP dropped to 10. Who the hell had attacked him?

"Claire, are you okay?" a woman's voice demanded. "I was told some men were following you, I came as soon as I could," he grip on his head tightened. He gasped.

"W-Wait Beatrix, he helped me!" Claire said, her tone panicking. Mark's eyes widened, Alexandria's finest warrior? She knew that General, but he had no time to consider it, as he blacked out at that moment. "Look further in the alley, those four attacked me," she worriedly gestured, wishing her older sister wasn't so heavy handed, especially against the man who had saved her. Beatrix would have easily killed them, but she would have been too late to protect her virginity.

"I-I see..." Beatrix replied, loosening her grip, she regarded the man, about thirty, bearded, rough looking, another low life no doubt, he'd probably planned to have his way with her, exploiting the hero moment to manipulate her, a night in a cell would do until she could find out the truth.

(CHAPTER END)

Well there you have it, chapter two. I hope you enjoyed it. As this is the 'reality' of Gaia, turn based combat doesn't exist, but fatal injuries unrelated to HP do, such as heart stabbing or beheading, as such it's possible to kill higher level enemies under the right circumstances. Still Mark got lucky there, being alive that is, not a level 99 warrior one hitting him for stopping a rape with good old violence, not that she knew at the time, but lucky as the near-rape victim was there to help. Great job Claire, and Mark got two level ups out of it, still below the average level of a full grown adult in this world, but then it doesn't make them fighters. A hard day's work can gather meagre EXP, most civilians level up in this fashion.

Not sure when the next chapter will be out as I have my own novels to write outside of fanfiction, but I'll try to be as quick as I can.

Next Chapter: Scarcity of monster drops

Mark's character stats (End of Chapter 2)

Character class: Wizard Knight

Level: 5, 186xp until next level up.

HP: 10 / 108

MP: 229 / 315

Strength: 25

Speed: 18

Spirit: 27

Magic: 44