Rin III
Not too long after the slaughter of the bandits upon the stone bridge, the party had gone about various tasks on the bridge, all to be done quickly. Jan had searched the belongings of all the corpses that used to be people, making sure to take anything that looked valuable, and he also put aside the weapons, armor and boots in a separate pile.
The bandits' bodies were also piled up into a stack, an act that disgusted everyone involved but was apparently necessary lest they all rise as undead. Even the dead reserved some modicum of respect, according to both Jan and Frenja. The part about them rising from the dead to haunt them as either spirits or zombies or skeletons didn't worry Riku and Rin though.
'Return. I'll just kill you again.' Were Rin's, and probably Riku's thoughts on the matter.
The bodies of the victims, and there were about five corpses just now, was a different matter altogether.
Riku thought the best course of action would be to leave them where they were and have their relatives or the authorities handle the final rites. Jan said that again this is impossible because of the possibility of the dead becoming undead. This was something that though rare was known to happen in places where there were a lot of dead. And something told Rin that there were plenty of dead near this bridge.
Miss Frenja said that if they have time, they should make graves next to the river using Rin's magic.
Rin called her an idiot, stating that there were probably no spells to dig graves, and if there were, she would not even deign to learn one.
This devolved into a somewhat mild argument about the 'worthiness' of the bandits to be among those buried, as according to Rin having the crows feast on them was a fate too kind, but they all eventually agreed on a course of action. The bandits' bodies would be burned using fire, and the bodies of their victims would be also burned, but they would be taken next to the river first, so that its current could carry their ashes far away.
Not a standard burial practice, but with night having fallen so quickly and only a few stray rays of sunshine left, it was the best they could get. Rin also learned something. Her spell [Mage Hand] could not manipulate corpses. Thus, they had to be carried manually to the riverbed.
By Riku and Jan, of course.
'Let the men do that sort of thing.' Were Rin's thoughts about this subject.
Of course, Riku did not originally approve of Rin not carrying the corpses alongside them. 'Gender equality' he claimed. Thus, he raised a voice in protest.
The mage merely told him that she was fine with cremating those bodies where they were as well, so they should not expect help from her on this matter, as she could find something more useful to do. Riku's protests went nowhere, but still he continued.
It was annoying.
"Why? Are you disgusted? Don't want to carry a body to a better place right after blowing a man's skull open?" Riku asked, outrage barely concealed in his voice.
"First off, calling those things men-awfully generous of you." Rin raised a finger. "Second off, these people are all dead so it doesn't matter what they would've wanted, they are not here and they can't complain." She raised another." And lastly, I am a woman, thus I am not as strong as you." And then she raised a third. Index, middle and ring finger all raised, were then held in the air for a few seconds as Rin locked eyes with Riku, before she slowly lowered her fingers while maintaining eye contact. It was a bit of a challenge.
Riku raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"What?" Rin raised her voice.
"We both know that you definitely don't believe yourself weaker than me just because you're a woman." Riku began to give voice to his thoughts.
"Hmph." She snorted.
"I mean, you are weaker, but it's not because you're a woman. Either way, you should help us." He commented near absentmindedly.
"What?"
"Don't pretend you're disgusted by a dead body. You've probably seen a fair few during your studies and what not. You did that, what was it called, amputation, during your studies?" Riku waved his hands about in the air, gesturing towards something, or maybe trying to explain himself better.
"Autopsy. You dumbass." Rin corrected him. But Riku didn't seem to care much about it. He just ignored the correction and continued mumbling.
"Yes, that. Anyways, you've probably seen one or two of those. Plus, you sort of have blood on your forehead. And your nose. And your hair. And everywhere." Riku gestured vaguely towards Rin. "So stop being a bitch and move your ass. The dead won't bite. Probably." Rin was momentarily stunned and didn't know what to say. But Riku ignored her. He turned towards Jan. "Jan! How long does it take for these undead of yours to become undead from regular dead?"
The boy was trying to scratch some itch on his back but stopped when he heard his name being called. He replied almost absent-mindedly.
"I don't know. A while?"
"So it doesn't happen instantly?" Riku pressed him.
The boy gave up on scratching his itch and sort of looked at Riku as if he were an idiot. Which would not be too far off the course. "No… of course not. Otherwise how would people get buried?" He raised a valid question.
"Good point." Riku nodded before turning towards Rin. "So see, there's no risk of any zombies biting off any of your fingers. So come help us, okay?"
Riku stared at Rin with those jade green colored puppy-dog eyes. Some girl would probably lose herself within and go 'Yes, anything for you!'. But not Rin. She did not care.
"Hmm… you make valid arguments, truly. But I think I'll pass on carrying the corpses and go count the coins with Frenja." She declared and walked away.
"So that's how it is…" Riku muttered under his breath, but Rin still heard him. "You do know I still have the key, right?" He asked a question, but left the second part unsaid. It went 'you won't open the chest without the key and I'm not giving you the key until you help.'
"Keep it." Rin shot him a smile. "I'll unlock the damn chest myself."
"Fine. Be a bitch about it. Come on Jan, we have work to do." Riku walked away with Jan following him. Together, they started dragging the bodies of the bandits victims towards the river, though they had to go around as throwing them off the side of the bridge was considered 'disrespectful'.
Rin shot a glance towards the pile of goods on one side, and the pile of bandits on the other.
A quick [Fireball] set what remained of their corpses aflame.
The smell bothered her. She looked at Frenja and nodded towards the chest.
"Let me see…" Rin muttered to herself as she stared at the heavy wooden chest with the giant iron padlock upon it. Absent-mindedly, she scratched her eyebrow with her finger. Both the eyebrow and her finger had blood on them so she didn't worry about 'dirtying' herself. She was already plenty dirty and needed at least three showers and an entire new set of clothes to be halfway clean.
"Don't you have any magic to open the chest?" The old woman commented from the side. She had left her donkey behind, but was still being an ass.
"I'm thinking." Rin replied instantly.
"If you don't, you can always apologize and get the key back." But the woman continued to comment. Unnecessary comments since they impeded Rin's thought processes. Namely those being 'which spell do I use to open this without damaging the coins within or making the chest explode everywhere, potentially injuring myself and others and then having to collect coins from across the floor.'
"Quiet, you're doing me no favors." Rin grumbled.
"Of course, you could just admit that it's beyond you. Both the magic and the capability to show some humility. I understand. You're still a child."
Rin looked at the woman and shot her a murderous glare.
"And you're still a withered old wench."
"Hmph." The old woman huffed. "Perhaps." She then leaned towards the chest. As much as a geriatric centenarian could. "How is it going with the lock? I can't see."
"Yes, that tends to happen when you're old." Rin continued to glare at the chest.
"It's too dark, you disrespectful little trollop."
"What, you can't see in the dark? I thought vampires could see in the dark just fine." She laughed a bit at her joke.
"I am no vampire."
"A vampire would get the joke…" Rin muttered.
"No, but truly. My eyes work just fine at short distances, it's just too dark."
"Is it? I am using [Dark Vision] so I can see just fine. But I shall be merciful. Let it not be said that I am disrespectful towards my elders, even when they are not deserving of respect."
"Please don't set anything on fire. That smoke trail in the sky is noticeable from five miles away. The damn bugs will find us."
"It's dark. The smoke is black and won't be seen."
"I am referring to the smell, dearie."
"It's not my fault those people haven't touched water in forever. Now then, you wanted light, right?"
Frenja nodded.
"I always wanted to do this." Rin grabbed a random piece of wood with her hand and held it aloft, before casting her magic. "Let there be [Light]." And the piece of wood began to shine bright.
Rin set it down on top of the broken carriage with exaggerated theatricality.
"Voila." The mage declared.
The old woman however did not seem impressed.
"Is that it?"
"What did you expect?" Rin replied haughtily, almost insulted by the woman's question.
"I expected something brighter." An asinine statement if there ever was one.
"I literally just made a piece of wood glow in the dark using my mind. According to all known laws of physics this should not be possible. Yet, the only thing you have to say to me are the words 'is that it?'. You have a talent for being annoying. No wonder you outlived everyone. If I had to spend any substantial time around you I'd rush into an early grave as well."
"I don't have any [Talents]. I am not so blessed by the Gods."
"Evidently."
"But at least I managed to get married and have children. You are childless at what, twenty-three? An old maid by the looks of it. And you certainly have the looks so it must be the personality that is to blame."
Rin took a second to process the backhanded compliment. And the un-veiled insult.
"My age is not your concern, beyond the knowledge that it is an age that you can but wish to be again in your dreams." Rin declared but the old woman's face betrayed no emotion. "And God forbid I have aspirations in life beyond being a broodmare like you."
"Your attitude is probably the main factor contributing to your perpetual loneliness." The woman shot back.
"I'm sorry, what exactly are you contributing here, besides getting on my nerves?"
"I am here to help you with counting the coins."
"I can count them faster than you can. I know how to count beyond my fingers, a rare skill here, to be sure."
"But can you tell me the worth of each coin? No. You cannot."
'It's a good point. This hag is smarter than she appears.'
"Fine. Just… be quiet for a while. I need time to think." Rin pleaded for the umpteenth time, and surprisingly enough…
"Very well." It worked.
And like that, the old woman shut up and watched. She sat on the broken carriage that could easily support her body weight of an entire 20 kilograms, or however much a small woman with more skin and bones would weigh. As she sat, Rin looked at the chest and went through various spells in her mind.
Every time she thought of a spell that could do the trick, there was a flaw in the plan.
Eventually she resorted to staring angrily at the chest until she had a thought 'Damn, I wish I could open chests with magic.'
And then a lightbulb lit up in her head.
'I felt something when me and Riku…defeated those bandits. That same feeling I've felt ...what is it…five times since coming here? That should make me level 19 if Riku's math is correct, and should give me three new spells, but I don't feel like I learned any new spells. Does that mean I have a choice when it comes to getting new spells if I don't need any new combat spells? I didn't need any new spells during that fight since it was pretty one-sided. Lemme try something new…'
Rin's thoughts then turned inwards. She focused within herself and could distinctly tell how many spells she knew and how much mana she had and how much each spell cost.
Her math turned out correct. She could tell she knew 21 spells of the 1st Tier, another 21 of the 2nd Tier, and 12 spells of the 3rd tier. But she could also tell there was a void within, three voids to be correct, that called out to be filled.
'I need something to help me open a lock. I WILL get something that will help me open a lock. Open. Open. Open. Open. Open.' Rin repeated this mantra within herself until she felt two clicks within, an almost indescribable feeling, like a locking pin on a door finally relenting and allowing access within.
Rin had succeeded and could barely conceal the smile on her face.
Frenja noticed this smile and merely raised an eyebrow, curiosity evident, but said nothing further.
The mage knew what to do. She pointed her hand at the chest. Blue magic circles manifested around her hand, glowing brightly with runic arcane symbols. Rin spoke.
"[Knock]."
And the chest's padlock fell away.
Rin's smile grew wider. It went from ear to ear, and she could not find it within herself to take neutrality. No, she was well and truly happy.
'This is… indescribable. This feeling… I need it.'
If this is what drugs felt like, then Rin gained a newfound sympathy for addicts. Learning spells and using them felt like drugs, now that she thought about it.
'The chest was locked. With my mind, I willed it to open. And so it did.'
Rin could not contain her pride at the accomplishment.
'All that money and time and research spent by all those government agencies and secret cults and religious movements across the centuries…no… the millennia across Earth's history… all of that. Just to mimic a fraction of a fraction of what I can do.'
Frenja said something, but Rin didn't hear it.
'What happens if, no… when, what happens WHEN I reach level 100. Or maybe there is no cap in this world? But let's assume there is, and I DO reach it. Level 100. With powerful equipment in addition to that. I'll basically be a goddess. I can do whatever I want. I can have whatever I want, eat whatever I want. I can go wherever I want, whenever I want. And best of all… no one will ever be able to tell me a thing. And those I care about will want for nothing. And with magic… who knows? Maybe I can create a portal or something back to Earth? And if I do… I won't live there… no. I'll take my family over here where they can live without the smog clogging their lungs. Haruto… mother…father. I promise, I'll do anything I can do. I won't let you suffer in that hellworld.'
A voice from the side woke Rin from her daydreams.
"Helloooooooo! Magic giiiiiirlll! Hellooooooo!" It was Frenja. She was shouting and waving at Rin's direction.
Rin turned around and acknowledged the old woman.
"Yes?"
"What do you mean 'yes?' You were standing there with a giant smile followed by a frown for a long time. And you were silent all the while. What am I to make of that, hmm?"
"I unlocked the chest." The mage stated flatly.
The withered old wench seemed to not believe her words. "Is that all?"
"All that you need to know."
"Hmmm. Did you truly unlock the chest?"
Rin looked at the old woman. Then she looked at the padlock on the ground. Then she looked at the woman again. Then she breathed out in frustration.
'Idiot.'
Rin grabbed the chest and opened it.
It opened without issue.
She noticed piles upon piles of glittering silver coins within, with smaller copper coins scattered within.
A smile spread across her face
'I can definitely get some decent gear with this, maybe there'll be something left for Riku as well.'
"Whoa." Frenja declared from the side, holding the piece of wood over her head as a sort of torch. Her old gray eyes, the silver and the light all combined to create a unique reflection within her irises.
Then, Rin had another idea.
"Lemme try something real quick." She declared, leaving no room for debate, before slamming the chest shut. Promptly, she pointed her hand towards the chest again and cast another spell. "[Lock]."
Frenja asked what exactly Rin did, but the mage simply told her to try opening the chest.
When she found that the chest was locked, and that Rin herself could also not open it, she knew what the other spell was and what it did. That left a third spell slot, a third void to be filled.
Considering Rin was fond of using both fire and frost magic, and she knew the third tier spell [Fireball], and was rather fond of it, she decided to attempt at getting the [Frostball] spell, a spell Riku had mentioned to her earlier, as a nearly identical yet opposite version of the [Fireball] spell.
Unlike with [Knock] and [Lock], it took her nearly no amount of time to learn this spell, perhaps because Rin already had an exact spell in mind that she desired.
'Interesting.' She noted and put the information away in the back of her mind, to be accessed and used at a later date.
Rin then proceeded to cast the [Knock] spell on the chest again, and opened it.
"What was that?" Frenja questioned her, but Rin merely waved her question away and stated it was an experiment.
Her hand reached towards a silver coin, and she moved it closer towards her eyes to examine it in detail.
The coin was imperfect. It was rough on the edges, heavier on one side than the other, and it was clearly made by hand rather than in a factory. Rin had seen coins from the 20th and 21st century on the internet, and they were uniform. All coins of the same denomination were identical.
These were not. Each silver coin had something that distinguished it from another.
As for the sides of the coin, there were two, of course.
On the one side, Rin noticed something that looked like a rampant griffin with a crown atop its head, and on the other there was an image of some bearded man with a crown atop his head as well. Probably the ruler. Rin had read that monarchs used to mint coins with their image. It was also a convenient way for archaeologists to determine when the coins were made.
In addition to the crowned king and the crowned griffin on both sides, there was some sort of writing near the edges of the coin, but Rin could not for the life of her understand a single letter. There was something that looked like a latin R, but it probably wasn't, so she just gave up on reading it.
"Can you read what this says?" Rin asked as she handed the coin towards the old woman. Her bony fingers grasped it and for a second the young mage thought it might slip through her fingers, but no such thing happened.
Frenja looked at the coin for a good two or three seconds, before shaking her head and saying that she could not read it.
"Not bright enough?" Rin asked.
"I can't read." Frenja answered bluntly.
"Ah."
"That makes 202 silver coins and a further 56 copper coins." Rin declared, setting the coins aside into 20 towers with 10 silver coins each and a further 6 piles for the copper, with 10 and 6 coins per tower respectively.
"Is that a lot?" Riku asked from the side. At some point he had finished his task with Jan and they were both of them standing off to the side and observing Rin count. Rin had heard them but did not greet them, as doing so would have broken her concentration.
"To my knowledge, 10 silver coins make 1 gold coin and 12 copper coins make 1 gold coin. But it's been a few years since I've been to the city." Frenja answered.
"Years?" Riku replied.
"We don't really use money in the village. We mostly barter. Or at least we used to."
"Huh. Moving on." Rin cut the chatter short, before she did some quick math in her head.
"This is in total 202 silver coins, another 4 potential silver coins, and another 8 copper coins change. Or, converted into gold coins, 2 gold coins and a further 6 silver coins."
Wide-eyed, Jan asked with awe and fear in his voice equally. "How do you do those numbers so quickly?" Truly, the power of third-grade math was considered a godlike skill amongst the peasantry. Perhaps even more so than the ability to shoot lightning from one's fingertips.
"I've had practice." Rin smiled at him before asking her own question. "Well, Jan, be honest. Does this mean we're rich now?"
"I don't know… To start with… I'm not comfortable taking all this money. It probably belonged to the dead." The boy shyly mumbled.
But the sheer stupidity of the statement caused Rin to raise her voice. "What!? Do you want us to leave it behind!? Bury it with them!?"
"I don't know."
"Of course you don't." Rin exhaled in frustration.
At this point, Riku walked up to the young boy and put a hand on his shoulder.
"As much as I hate to, I must agree with Rin. We're still alive and we will make better use of this money than those people can now. They'll have to be content with the knowledge that we at least avenged their deaths."
This explanation seemed to be enough for the boy, who nodded sheepishly.
In the meantime, Rin casually placed all the coins within her Inventory.
Riku noticed this and had an unquenchable urge to say something stupid.
"Is money all you care about?"
"Hey, the way I see it this money is going straight into investing for our equipment. I'm thinking about the future."
"I'm sure you are. But you don't have to be so damn…cool about it. We just murdered six people."
Rin stared at him flatly. Almost as if to say 'Are you stupid?', before blessing him with a response.
"It was self–defense."
"They were still people."
"That's being generous."
"I don't think this mentality you have is healthy. This place is beginning to do a number on you." Riku said something that clearly did not hit the right note.
"What? You want me to shed tears and weep over a bunch of human garbage? They were going to rape and kill me and then rape my corpse again just for kicks. And they'd probably do the same to the rest of us as well." She walked towards Riku until she was two feet away and stressed the next two syllables. " Fuck. Them." She spat with venom before leaning her back on the side of the carriage. "I have no sympathy for swine. Even the burial they got was an unearned mercy."
"It's just… it's difficult to reconcile with the idea of taking a life."
"We've been here for almost two weeks now and we've killed plenty of monsters. These are just the first ones that could talk. They probably won't be the last." Rin stated coldly
In her eyes, she had probably not even killed human beings.
"Let's just move on…" Riku offered an obvious olive branch that Rin accepted, and thus she changed the subject.
"Good idea. Did you… feel something during the fight?"
"You mean the level-up?" Riku asked.
From the side, Jan spoke up. "Lair bellup?" It was not necessary.
"Shut up Jan." And he did shut up. "Well Riku, did you?"
"Yeah… I felt something like that. Once. When I fragged the bald guy."
"Which one? The fat one?"
"Yeah, him."
"I felt something as well."
"I also felt the same thing when I was fighting in the village yesterday." Riku added.
It caught Rin off-guard, though it shouldn't have. She knew he fought in the village yesterday and was sporting some serious exhaustion and some minor wounds, yet he did not complain in the slightest."Does that mean you're ahead of me now?"
"I suppose so. That means I should be… level 20? If I'm not mistaken. And it should have brought you up to 19. Unless you can cast fourth tier spells. Can you?" He asked her.
"No." Swift was her reply. Riku continued to question her, and she found the questions tolerable at first, but soon they began to be annoying.
"Do you know if you have any new spells?"
"Yes, I already know who they are."
Riku nodded before continuing his questioning.
"Do you know how many you have?"
"Of course. I remember. It's 57."
"You should make a list."
Frustration spread across Rin's face. "You make the list damn you, you're the nerd here."
"I can help you with the details and what not, but you have to be the one to make it. It's kind of mandatory."
"Is it?" Rin questioned.
"What are you going to do later on when you know over 300 spells?" And he responded to her question with another question.
Rin took a moment to process what he said. "300? What would I do with 300?"
"Don't be surprised, 300 spells is less than you think. 300 is what you get if you hit level 100, which I don't know will be possible. On the plus side, when you get some rarer magic classes they offer you more spell slots than the regular 3 per level, so if everything goes well you should get like maybe 80 bonus spell slots."
"Damn."
"380 spells isn't even that much. Some items grant you spells and spell slots, plus there's ways to get permanent buffs that grant you spells and spell slots, and that's without getting into the 'alternative' ways of increasing how much you can learn. Hells, there were even rumors of some damn Undead player that killed people and used their corpses to learn spells. They say he got to over 700 spells. And apparently there was a Mind Flayer who got to over 1000 back in the beta, but that one is almost certainly fake."
"That's bullshit." Rin exclaimed.
"Probably. But it's possible. At least it was. No reason it shouldn't be here."
"Yep. So, we need to compile what you know to make sure you don't forget anything."
"Will I? Is it possible?" She questioned him. He scratched his beard in response and thought for a few seconds before replying.
"In Yggdrasil? The spells were always in your spellbook but it was easy to forget that you had a spell there. That's why the best magic caster Players knew every spell in their spellbook, but they bound the most useful and common ones to the console. For now, you probably don't have too many spells, so compiling them should not take too much time."
'How much does this guy know about Yggdrasil, really? Does he know what every single one of my spells do? Does he know what every spell does? What if he put in all that time and effort into something productive?' Rin thought to herself before mentally slapping herself for her stupidity. 'What am I saying? Riku's knowledge is worth more than a thousand tons of gold. It would have been useless back on Earth, but here, it's priceless.'
"Hmm… but I don't have a spellbook."
"It doesn't have to be a spellbook, it can be like a journal. Just write down the spell and some basic info about it. For example, it can go something like 'Tier 3, Fireball, throws a ball of fire' and so on." Riku elaborated. It made sense. A journal for her spells.
"One issue though." She held up a finger. "The Japanese characters for the spells. I don't know them all."
"You know English, right?" Riku asked and Rin nodded. "Just use English then."
She stared at him for a few seconds, but could not find fault with his logic. "...that works."
'Writing my spells in English like it's some sort of esoteric forgotten language. What happens if someone finds my spell journal a thousand years from now and thinks they're reading some sort of demonic language or something?'
The thought made her chuckle.
"Right. Well, it'd probably have to wait a bit, I doubt I can do it out here, without any pen or paper, especially with this swarm of bugs who knows how far behind us. I can't even hear them. Either way, I'm a long way off that legendary Undead of yours with over 700 spells." Rin chuckled.
Almost fearfully, Jan spoke up from the side. "What's this about an undead?"
"Nothing you need to worry your head about. That undead isn't here." Riku muffled the boy's hair playfully.
"Right…"
"Do you think we can make it to Re-Grawe tonight?" Rin asked.
"Probably not. I think we'll have to make camp." And Riku answered.
"Where though? It's all open fields. There's no cover. It'd have to be here, or under the bridge. And I'm uncomfortable with either option."
Riku looked towards the young boy that was all too quiet. 'Perhaps the battle did a number on his psyche.'
"Hmmm. Jan. Do you know of any place with shelter nearby?"
"Not really. Sorry."
'Unsurprising.'
"I'm cold. I need a fire." The old lady who had said few words until now commented from the side.
Noticing this, Riku exhaled.
"Damn it. Looks like we have no choice but to camp here. Now the choice is do we camp on the bridge or below it?"
"On the bridge. It might be colder but at least we know what's here. There's mold and who knows what below the bridge."
Riku countered. "I say below. It will provide shelter from the possible rain, allow us to light a fire without being seen, and the earth will provide a better bed than cold stone."
"Hmmm. Good points." Rin nodded before turning towards the young boy. "Jan, what do you say?" He seemed surprised to be spoken to.
"You're asking me?"
"Yes."
"...below." He spoke softly.
"Jan says below. Frenja?"
"I don't care. Just start a fire before I freeze to death."
"Below the bridge it is. Rin, go cremate the remains of those five people and throw their ashes into the river. Jan and I will help Miss Frenja and we will set up camp below the bridge. Once you're done there, come to us so we can light a fire and we will all get some sleep. I will take the first watch."
Rin was a bit surprised at how well Riku gave out those commands, but she followed them nonetheless.
'The battle at the village probably hardened Riku somewhat. He seems more…confident.'
It was a change that fit him, she found. He was already the floating mega-brain in the operation, someone with knowledge and a decent intellect that was sadly dulled by a life of drudgery, but now he'd been given an opportunity to shine.
Unlike with the scum that attempted to rob and rape her, Rin felt no distaste towards the act of cremating and then spreading the ashes of the dead. Perhaps it was because they had done her no harm?
At any rate, it was not a difficult task. A [Fireball] for each body was followed by Rin carefully picking up what remained of their ashes with her hands and then letting the wind blow it away into the water.
It was not much of a burial service, but even this managed to make Rin's mind quiet and instill a sense of calm within.
Strange, perhaps, but burial rituals were always for the living, not the dead, her father told her.
'Burial or cremation, do whatever makes you more comfortable.' He told her once when his illness flared up. He thought it was the end.
It was not so. Luckily he recovered and it had been a solid 8 years since then, and he was still kicking strong. But the memory remained. It was a core part of her. She felt powerless then.
Like she was powerless now. True, she had magic, but for all her strength, she could not heal wounds nor could she bring back the dead. And this was without saying that she was far away from the true heights of Arcane mastery.
Riku had mentioned a few things a truly high-level Arcane caster could do. Teleport entire armies, freeze time, level battlefields, summon dozens of powerful servants who were each as strong as an army, and so much more. And all Rin could do was fry people in half a dozen ways. It felt lackluster in comparison. She lacked strength and she lacked diversity. She promised herself to correct this. And to find a way to make sure a wound did not become a death. Though this was the domain of Divine Magic, not Arcane, there were ways around this, high tier spells that allowed one to bend the rules. She did not know them, but the walking encyclopedia would, and that was enough.
Rin remained silent and stared at the waters of the river. She listened to the noises the bugs made, who were soothing in a way, unlike the buzzing of wings. She didn't know what species these were, but she didn't mind these ones. She could not see where they were, so visual identification was impossible.
[Dark Vision] granted her better night-sight, but it also made colors more uniform and grayscale, at least in low light condition.
Yet, when Rin raised her head and looked towards the half-moon and the stars blanketing the sky. There were so many… like glittering jewels spread across a dark velvet blanket. The clouds here and there merely added to the mystique.
Rin turned off [Dark Vision], determined to make sure she took in the sight above her as uncorrupted as she could.
It was a sight she could not compare anything to, and her breath caught in her throat as she felt absolutely humbled before nature's majesty.
There, she stood, head aimed upwards, mind empty of all thoughts, for who knows how long, until at one point she remembered that she had a task to do.
She looked towards the underside of the bridge, and there, even in low light conditions, could make out three distinct shapes, and Riku sitting in front of a makeshift fireplace. The fire was as of yet, not lit.
Rin walked towards him, and took a seat on the log opposite him, on the other side of the fireplace.
She used [Fire Bolt] on the pile of logs. They instantly caught flame and started burning, and like that a small fire had started going.
"Rough day?" She asked Riku.
He merely nodded wordlessly, as he continued to stare into the flame with a focused expression.
'He probably doesn't have it easy as well. He's had to adapt, same as me. But perhaps he is of a more stoic nature. I shall have to let him know I appreciate him, somehow. Perhaps a gift?'
She looked at Riku's frowned face. A face that was oh so different compared to the one he had two weeks ago. That one had been skinny with not a hair upon his chin.
This one… well, some things were better left unsaid.
'I shall decide upon a gift for him tomorrow, or when we enter the city. For now, it is time for bed, I think.'
"Riku."
"Hmm?" He responded noncommittally, not lifting his head up.
"I am going to bed."
"Good night." Riku said while continuing to stare at the flames. He poked one of them with his mace, the instrument of death serving as a makeshift fire poker.
"Good night." Rin replied, then used the fire to orient herself.
She noticed that Jan had tied the donkey to some tree-stump, and he was lying on the grass, covered in blankets, a dozen feet away. A further half a dozen feet away was Frenja, sleeping. She had not started snoring yet.
Then, Rin found the two other make-shift beds. The one with the creamy colored blanket was Riku's, and the one with the brown one was Rin's. Rin spared a final glance towards Riku and the two others before climbing beneath the covers, eager to claw together what little ounces of sleep she could.
Before she did, she thought about all the things that happened that day, and the days before.
It was all a lot to take in. She would need to decompress. But after informing the city of the incoming threat.
Who knows? Perhaps the natives would prove competent and this was something that would blow over and not a world-ending threat.
With those thoughts, Rin went to sleep.
When she slept, she dreamt a dreamless sleep. She was, like the two other men in her party, utterly unaware that Frenja, but a dozen feet away, had breathed her last, and entered her own deep and dreamless sleep. It was one from which she would not wake.
AN: I am trying out something new with the AN.
First off, thanks for the glowing reviews, all of you. I'm sure you have thoughts and theories and questions regarding when the chapters will come out, what they will contain, how often I'll be posting, how big the chapters will be, etc. Let me shed some light on this topic.
I try to write a full chapter every week. This sometimes works, sometimes it does not. Lately I have picked up speed, but were I to face some writer's block or real life obstacles that may slow down. Regardless, the chapters will keep coming until the fic is done. Chapters may be anything between 3k and 10k words in length, it truly depends on the chapter and what I seek to tell. The next chapter(I have already begun writing it) will be a fat one, and so will the subsequent one after that, as I will begin introducing more characters and heavier elements of the plot.
Now, on to the fic.
Riku is now level 20, Rin is level 19. They are very low level, but they will level up in time. Riku, were he to get some good gear, will be able to spike in strength very early, and Rin due to levels in Sorcerer does not need anything beyond levels to learn spells. Once her Sorcerer class is capped out, she will have to look at alternative ways of learning spells.
As for the world-building and lore, I am doing research and trying to make it interesting and canon-friendly, though in a few ways canon will be discarded where I find it to be utterly stupid, unnecessary or harmful to the story. This has, for example, been done with the 'Thirteen Heroes' whose outlines and personalities I have already created.
The POV of one character per chapter will be the way I write things, though do not be surprised if at a certain point you do not see a character's POV for a while.
And lastly, you may have noticed, but this isn't a power-wank fic, and there's actually deeper topics explored in a slower burn, with a more comprehensive story told over multiple chapters. People will die, bad shit will happen, but so will good things and life will go on despite all the tragedy, much like it does in real life.
There's probably more to say, and for that I will direct you to head over to the Discord Server 'Grand Library of Ashurbanipal'. You can use the search function on Discord or simply type in discord .gg (slash) worldmaker, naturally with the actual symbols instead of dot and slash, because FFN does not approve of direct links. Anyways, you can find me over there sometimes, and I am working with Konahriik, the author of 'A Theory on Godhood' as he is currently helping me out with my fic, with HackSlashBash (the author of Fallen Down) who is acting as a beta-reader, and with another guy who will be making some artwork for my fic soonish.
So, if you wanna talk to me, and perhaps read the chapter a few days sooner than here, head on over to the Discord.
Make sure to keep leaving reviews and follows/favourites over here though, and recommend this fic to your friends if you liked it.
Thanks, and until next time.