So, second chapter is out now. xD Hope you guys like it.

~Ryuu

:D More stalking plz!

-Kai

Just to clear things up:

"Italicized Text" = Zorark's POV

"Non-Italicized" = Silva's POV

Chapter 2: Forest of Tides

King Crab. He was on a quest to kill the King Crab. See, these are what real quests are supposed to be like.

The King Crab... Well, that brought back bad memories. I used to live with my family in a small rural town near the ocean, so tales of the King Crab had always terrified us. I had encountered one once, half dead from an adventurer who had decided it was too hard to kill, but all the more furious because of it. I hadn't known that crabs could move so quickly before that day. Luckily, a party of adventurers had chanced upon me and defeated the King Crab, and their Cleric healed me with no questions asked. I refused to go near the beach alone from that day onwards.

But Zorark seemed strong and I was sure that he was more than capable enough to kill the King Crab on his own. So when he entered the portal to the Forest of Tides, I let him get a bit of a headstart before following him in. Luckily, I was at level 2, barely high enough to enter.

When I reappeared on the grass, Zorark was nowhere to be seen. I scanned the forest with a half smile on my face, simultaneously annoyed and pleased with how challenging it was to keep track of him. I knew he couldn't have gotten too far, and he had to return to the Roumen portal sooner or later, and honestly, I wasn't very eager to return to a beach, so I opted to stay near the gate and slay Imps.

I hadn't expected him to come through the gate after me, though. Apparently it took some people longer to get through the portal. Perhaps the teleporting system got overloaded sometimes, I wouldn't know. As soon as I saw him materialize from the gate, though, I dived behind the nearest hill, never mind that I ran into a Hero Slime and ended up rolling into an Imp.

Which was good, in a way, I suppose. It might've been my imagination or paranoia, but I thought that he was aware of me following him. I think that seeing me engaged in a tough battle with two monsters set his mind at ease, though. What kind of spy would fight monsters on the job, anyways? A spy that didn't worry about letting their target get away.

I admit, I was eager to see him in battle again, but I decided to sacrifice my curiosity to let Zorark pass by without suspicions. I still had to work out how I was planning to ask to join his party, after all.

She was stalking me, no doubts about it.

Seeing the exact same person everywhere around town, and then seeing that same person enter the same area as me only milliseconds after I had entered the exact same gate... The chances were minuscule. So she had to be following me. I couldn't fanthom why, but a few assumptions formed in my mind as I watched her kill an Imp and Hero Slime with little difficulty, less than you'd expect from a beginner.

The first reason was that she was a stalker, simple as that. It wasn't uncommon, per say, but there were definitely more plausible possibilities that I considered as I ran off towards the beach.

For one, she could have simply been an inexperienced adventurer looking to follow the footsteps of a stronger one. While not necessarily the best move, seeing as how she could've been killed several times had I chosen to gone to Sand Beach to complete this quest, it might seem logical for a novice.

Another reason, I realized, slaying a Fire Mushroom, could be that she had taken on a quest too difficult for her level and needed someone more powerful to assist her. This was possible. Many people followed others to see what the person was like before deciding to join their party. Hasty alliances could lead to disastrous battles, after all.

With these two possibilities in mind, I decided to let her follow me until I ran out of patience. I could ignore her long enough, so long as she was only following me and not interfering with my battles.

I kicked a Slime out of the way and my feet hit sand.

I think I ran out of monsters to kill that weren't of the Mushroom type.

By now I had just reached level 3. And I still hadn't completed my first quest. I continue to blame the Mushrooms.

And so here I was, sitting by the gate and waiting for more monsters to appear. I had taken care to stay well away from the Mushrooms, but Slimes, Imps, and Hero Slimes can only give you adequate experience for only so long.

I was very, very bored. Also, Zorark was late.

It was almost sunset already, and still no traces of him. As far as I knew, I was sitting in front of the only portal that led from the Forest of Tides to Roumen, but I might've been mistaken. I had just started wondering if it would be better for me to simply return to town when there was a flash, a crackle, and a thump behind me.

Surprised, I yelped and whirled around to fine Zorark coughing, in a kneeling position, and surrounded by black smoke. With a nervous smile on my face, I approached him warily, preparing to ask if he was alright when he looked up with a glare.

It was her, no doubt. Short, layered violet hair with bangs swept to the left, hidden by a black hood from a jacket with beige triangles bordering the edges and clasped together at the collarbone; red strap across her chest; beige shorts with black diamonds and a red edge, held up by a red belt; black boots with red straps. Yes, it was her alright.

What was she doing here? She wasn't supposed to be high leveled enough to be at the beach. Well, smart persons would have stayed away. She could've been killed by a King Crab... My head snapped up as I finally took in my surroundings. I wasn't at the beach anymore. I was at the forest, in front of the gate leading to Roumen. My mind registered that she was talking to me.

"... alright? Hello?" She held a hand out to me, claws pulled off so as not to injure me. I swatted it away and straightened up with a groan, trying to remember what had happened.

"Well, you're fucking nice," she grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. I ignored her, planning to confront her about her stalking issues later. First I had to...

Then it all came back to me. A party of adventurers had begun attacking the King Crab I had patiently staked out, leading me into a blind fit of rage... The party had fled and I had been injured after my victory against the King Crab when a Blue Crab had creeped up and killed me.

So here I was, revived by the targeting stone... and missing half the experience points I had gained since reaching level 10. And I had been so close to level 11 too... With a snarl of rage, I pounded my fist into the ground and swore to destroy the next Blue Crab I saw.

"Hello, Mr. Magic-man-with-the-anger-issues, can you hear me now?" a lethargic voice drawled. "I'm asking you if you're okay."

"... Magic man?" I repeated warily, not trusting myself to keep calm. Anger was bubbling up inside of me, and how long I could keep it contained was a matter of self control.

"You appeared out of nowhere," she answered with a shrug, gesturing at the smoking grass I was standing on. "What do you expect me to think?"

"When an adventurer is killed by a monster, the targeting stone revives them," I explained slowly. This was basic knowledge... just how new was she at this?

"... Well, now I feel stupid," she said with a sheepish grin. "If I can just die then I guess this isn't that big of a problem."

"You'll lose half of your experience points you've gained for your current level, though," I added, before she got any reckless ideas. "Now I have something to ask you. Why are you follo-"

I broke off and caught a HP Potion (Tier 1) with surprise, my claws clacking together. She shrugged nonchalantly.

"You're at low health right now, right?"

"I could set up my house and heal that way," I pointed out, but I accepted the potion with thanks.

"... House?"

I lowered the empty potion bottle from my lips and stared at her incredulously, wondering just how uninformed a person could be and still survive.

"Er, never mind," she muttered hastily. "You wanted to ask me something before." I discarded the useless bottle and watched as it disappeared into the ground.

"Why are you following me?"

Well, shit. So apparently he did know that I had been observing him. And now I couldn't even come clean about my reason why, since my idea was rendered obsolete by the new knowledge that I could die an infinite amount of times. It wasn't like losing experience points were a problem for me either: I had just reached level 3 and had nothing to lose.

So now my new plan to kill Mushrooms was this: approach, attack, die, revive, approach, attack, die, revive, repeat as necessary until one finally dies. It would take a while, but this way I wouldn't have to bother anyone. Problem was, I had already bothered Zorark.

And now he was glowering at me (as if he had any other default expression) and waiting for my reply. I had no choice but to take a deep breath and explain my embarrassing condition with Mushrooms and apologize for the trouble.

His face remained blank as I considered my options. I could go with my new plan of recycle and revive, but that would take too long. Merchant Zach wasn't going to wait forever. But now that I had a chance to understand Zorark's personality a bit, I doubted that he would agree to allow me to create a party with him.

I also remembered the golden rule of trying to get different classes of adventurers in your party to keep balanced. There were, of course, some class-exclusive parties, but these weren't usually as successful or had no teamwork. So Zorark definitely would refuse to work with me, especially since I was at a much lower level.

But I didn't want to die over and over and over and Zorark was the only other person I knew, so Zorark it would have to be.

Unexpectedly, he asked me a question.

"What is your name?"

It took me a moment of blinking to comprehend what he had just said, and then I blurted out, "Silva Yin!" I covered my mouth with my hand, biting my tongue to prevent myself from doing something stupid again, and saw that my target stone had registered that I had gained more fame points.

He stared at the silver colored stone and I noticed his, strapped onto his belt rather than snapped into his weapon, a burnt black with a beautiful golden light glowing from within. I glanced up to see him scowling at me.

"Well then, Silva Yin-"

"What is it with everyone and fucking calling me with my last name!" I hissed before I could stop myself. He ignored my outburst and continued on.

"-I suggest you find someone else to follow or join a party with, because I have no time for you."

And with that kind parting statement, he stepped into the portal.

I blinked for a good five seconds after he had disappeared and then my shoulders began to shake. And then I couldn't contain it anymore.

I laughed and I laughed and I laughed and I laughed and I laughed. It wasn't even a beautiful, musical laugh. It was an insane, cackling, witch-like kind of laughter. It was the kind of laugh that made Slimes turn into puddles and humans inch away from you and other monsters simply look at you and then continue on their merry way, not even bothering to attack you for your lunacy.

And it did.

I could've sworn that the purple stain in the grass next to the Herbs was from a Slime, and the Imps passed right by me, and any adventurers in the vicinity turned right back around and headed for the Sand Beach portal, never mind that they'd probably die or get back to Roumen late because of the detour.

It took me a few minutes to calm down, and a few giggles still racked me as I wiped away my tears. I knew I wasn't good at controlling my emotions or facial features, so when I was laughing, I kept laughing, and if I was crying, even if someone made me laugh, I'd keep crying through my chuckles. I found that I had rolled onto the ground and thrashed around like I had been going through a seizure, and I picked myself up, feeling sore all over but giddy and content.

Zorark. What a riot. He was interesting, he was challenging. And he wasn't getting away from me, because I knew things that he didn't know that I knew. He wanted to get to level 11, and he had just died. He was level 10 and missing at least half his experience points before he could head off to Elderine. So where would someone around his level go to train?

Well that's the end for Forest of Tides. Stay tuned for the next chapter.

~Ryuu

... Lol I wonder how many people actually read this.. xD

-Kai