Ank

After talking with Taffy, and listening to the woman saying that, maybe, when we come back she wouldn’t be in the city anymore, we gave our goodbyes to one another, and came back to the 10th Guild Master’s office.

A blue-haired human guy on medium armor made of hardwood named “Jao”, a red mantle wearing fox girl whose entire body was covered in white hair named “Pata”, and a man who looked mostly human too, on his green cape and hat, if not for his eight eyes, “Nif”.

They were, respectively, an [Attention Seeker], a [Healer Wannabe] and [Point-and-Shoot-Thingy Guy]; but, noticing we were a little disconnected from all the adventuring culture stuff, the first thing they taught us, was that it was rude to use the actual names the [System] gave their [Classes] to make reference about then, and instead we should use the [Class] branch they decided to specialize on, in other words: [Damage Absorbent], [Internal Organs Treater], and [Critical Seeker].

They were the [Sunight Party]. Our adventuring [Party].

“So, do you have everything already?”, the blue-haired human asked, as he came off the 10th Guild Master’s office with a quest contract on his hand, his rank-up quest.

“I think so?”, I looked down and at my body, and… yep, it didn’t seem I was forgetting anything.

“Oh, can you summon your food and water and stuff?”, the fox girl asked, holding tighter onto her short staff, a little excited.

“Uh… No?”, I replied. I had to admit, however, the idea was interesting…

“We just gather whatever we need from the environment when the time comes”, Hunah added, as the other girl turned to her with equal expectancy. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have enough space to carry my items around.”

“If you’re not carrying any food or water, what do you have in your bag?”, the eight-eyed man asked, stretching his head to look to the improvised cloth bag we still used to carry our stuff around.

“Things like this”, Hunah said, and pulled out one of our first improvised and already almost breaking stone clubs.

Both, the archer and the fox girl, seemed to want to say something, but were holding back. Perhaps because our [Level] was so much higher, they thought there was something special to that piece of trash?

“Why are you carry this garbage?”, I asked in their place, for though I shared their disbelief once I saw the shitty weapon, I lacked the fear of questioning Hunah.

“What? It’s not trash, differently from your dozens of useless fish summons. It’s a weapon, and, technically, a unique one.”

“I don’t even know where to start… First: my fish just did not have a chance to shine yet. They will prove you wrong someday. Second: you’re the one who made this ‘weapon’, there’s nothing special to it”, I talked back, making even air quotes. Even if it was true I had a bunch of weak summons, I still would have unlocked them if I had the chance to re-distribute my points, because, the more summons, the better, of course.

“Yet? Yet? In this case, my unique mace already proved its usefulness, and in my hand, it can kill any of your weak-ass summons, Ank”, Hunah was starting to get angry. But I wasn’t staying behind.

Just as I frowned and was about to talk back, however, Jao, the blue-haired [Party] leader stepped forward and rested his hands on my shoulders, and on Hunah’s shoulders as well. I noticed his two friends seemed a little nervous, but Jao continued, confidently:

“Well, well, everyone’s [Class] is good at something different, and may require different stuff to work properly, let’s not discuss this”, I was about to point that my twin sister didn’t need all the trash she carried around, but the [Party] leader walked away, and concluded: “Now, in any case, it’s better to have food and water stocked for any quest, once that not every place will offer you all that you need.”

As the fox girl and eight-eyed guy walked to our side, and we all started to follow the [Party] leader from behind, they screamed to Jao:

“As expected from big bro~!”

“So cool, big bro~!”

“Big bro?”, I asked Nif.

“Leader have a little brother, you see?”, the [Critical Seeker] started, smiling.

“So he knows how to keep calm and not choke your family, kuhuhuhu!”, added the [Internal Organs Treater], laughing; and the two adventurers on Jao’s [Party] seemed to feel just a little more comfortable with us after their leader touched us and we didn’t chop them off.

“Hm~ Yeah, this is definitely impressive, for I’m always wanting to choke Hunah”, I said, scratching my chin while looking up, and imagining the smut. “Ouch!”, I cried, as 5 points of [HP] were punched away from me by my sister, who blushed slightly, and was visibly trying too hard not to smile.

We were definitely trying that later.

“You know that I can listen to everything you’re saying, right?”, the [Party] leader finally spoke again.

“It’s okay, we’re just saying how cool big bro is!”, the eight-eyed man explained, raising a hand.

“It’s okay, we’re just saying how heroic big bro is! Kuhuhu!”, the fox girl, laughing again, following her friend’s example.

“Please, don’t call me like that; and you have a little brother too, Tapa”, the [Party] leader kept his smile, but his tone was of a tired man, and his shoulders had fallen. “Anyway, here we are: ‘Not Dying and Stuff’. The best shop for buying the most necessary supplies in this city”, he finally turned to my sister and I again, as we all stopped before one of the smallest rooms we’ve seen inside the old palace so far. “Do you have any money to buy your own supplies?”

“Actually, we spent all of our money eating, buying clothes, and stuff like this”, I took the magical stone that displayed actors performing a full theater piece.

And the entire [Sunight Party] went quiet; even Jao’s ever tranquil smile faltered.

“Ah~ don’t worry, I know it looks fancy, but it wasn’t expansive at all”, Hunah quickly added, shaking her hands in negative.

“How much?”, the fox girl asked.

“600 axes”, my sister replied.

The [Sunight Part] was in shock, but the eight-eyed man was especially shocked: he stumbled backward, laying against the wall and, with a despaired expression, he started to mumble:

“3000 arrows, 600 venom glands… Sorry, Tapa, can you check if I’m not dying? It’s hurting really bad, haha!”

“Are… Are 600 axes too much?”, I asked, getting more concerned by the minute. I mean, we saw so much more expansive stuff while roaming around; a single spellbook was 1200 axes, after all.

Once the eight-eyed man was still unreachable, and the fox girl was using some [spell] on him, Jao replied:

“I think… I think it depends? On this side of the city, you probably can live a few months, no worries, with this money. On the west side? Where all the rich people live? Yeah, probably not much.”

“I see”, Hunah said, scratching the back of her head, and blushing a little.

And I totally got it, once again embarrassed for our lack of touch with the outside world.

As we entered the shop and bought the necessary supplies with the [Sunight Party]’s money for the adventurer about to begging, I asked myself: had… Had Taffy just set bad examples for us?

Maybe we needed teaming up more than I expected after all…