Felia was hidden behind the trees close to the church’s follower dormitory. Her dormitoritory. Her newly acquired skill Stealth allowed her to move in as close as possible without being seen by anyone. Her still naked body allowed her to be quieter and faster. Her foot still hurt like inferno and made her a little bit clumsier, but it was manageable. Nightfall would come soon and the darkness would help the rooky rogue get in there and grab some light armour and maybe a mace, to help her defend herself.

The forest was patrolled by few 3-6 level paladins, which kept any possible monsters out of, as the priests called it, the divine area. But, of course, there was nothing divine about it. Even the followers of Parva’s Church, the only goddess of truth in the world, as all knew, didn’t squeamish to lie. For the greater good. Their own good, that is.

The orange, fiery sunset was made even more beautiful as last rays of sunlight shined off the golden Parva’s eye on the church’s top. A couple of minutes later, with the last ornament glimmer, the elven head priest came out in his white robes and pulled a rope ringing the bell, signalizing the curfew. Elves in all kinds of clothing started pouring into the dormitories: clerics and paladins in chain armour, priests in white robes, young children, hoping one day to become a follower. Rookies and veterans alike, all were welcome here. Unless you planned to leave. Otherwise, you’d be a traitor of the prinzessin. Just like Felia was now.

She couldn’t enter the room right away, though. The variety of elves meant that no way all of them would fall asleep so quickly. She waited for what felt like 4 hours, but what in fact was only 2. Occasional low level paladins passed close to her, but Stealth left them unaware of her existence. This was convenient to the level 1 rogue, since such a low level meant that she could’ve been overwhelmed by any one of them. Yes, she was older than most of them, but their strength attribute gave them more than enough muscle to take her on, they might even accidentally kill her. Paradoxically, this was no sin in the church’s eyes. A prayer or two and they would be cleansed by Parva’s holy sight. At least, it was what the priests and Tohcraft family told everyone. Not that everybody believed that, but it has put many elven minds, torn between madness and suicide, to rest.

Felia glanced one way, then another, and when there was no imminent danger to be seen, she made her move. Elven girl went to the dormitory closest to her and carefully opened the door. It creaked, what made Felia cringe. It always creaked, but she never noticed it before. Before she had to stay quiet.

The high pitched, excruciating sound tore through the deathly silence in the dormitory. Felia could swear that it was the loudest noise she ever heard, and even a thousand whales wouldn’t be able to reach that level, even if they tried. However, in reality, the creaking blended in the hundreds of other night sounds: little crickets, sleepless birds’ songs, the wind. Not a single soul in there could tell if there was any difference.

Amazed Felia went in and straight to her empty bed and chest. She opened the latter and threw the chain armour and pants on herself. That done, she realized that these were the only clothes she had left, that she left her only weapon in the Master Chamber, so, no weapon, and that the only place she ate at was the church’s dining building, so, no food too.

“Ok, first things first,” she muttered to herself. “I need to find where to put everything I’ll take with me”. This was easy. She decided to use the bed sheets as a carrying bag for everything.

Next, since the food was in another building, she had to find some kind of weapon. Not too heavy, since she had to wield the thing, and not too light, since it had to be actually threatening. The same had to be said about another set of armour. Luckily, this dormitory was mostly populated by clerics, and even though Felia no longer was one, the light armour and weapons were perfect for the rogue class. She quickly looked over the sleeping elves to find a familiar face. And there was one. Nerra, the male cleric she spoke once or twice with. She had a thought or two that she might like him, but even if she did, Parva forbid any unfavourable behaviours, romantic relationships between followers included. Felia knew that Nerra and she shared a quite similar physique, so she went over to his bed.

She tried to open his chest, but it was locked. She cursed. Felia looked around in hope to find the key, but there was only one place the key could’ve been, and she wasn’t about to risk waking Nerra up. The rogue decided to lockpick the chest open. “Maybe I could use the nails?” she thought. Felia took out a couple of loose nails from the walls and the next half hour was spent swearing, clanking the nails over each other and eventually opening the lock.

Lockpick is now level 2.

Stealth is now level 3.

Level up! You are now a level 2 Rogue. You may now redistribute 5 points between Dexterity[16], Endurance[16], Charisma[8].

“Finally,” Felia whispered and took the mace and chain armour from the open chest. She made her way back to her bed, when she heard two distant voices. She couldn’t tell, what they were saying, but they were getting closer with each step. Rogue switched to a panic mode. The only thing that came through her mind was: “Hide under the bed!” As Felia hit the floor, however, the mace produced a loud thump. This was bad.

“What was that?” said one voice.

“I’m not sure, but I think it came from here,” said the other one.

“Fuck!” Felia whispered. “Fuck, fuck, fuck...” she continued whispering, as she skittered on the floor and hiding under the bed. The metal scraping the wooden floor only made more noise, and the steps outside went from a worried walk to a worried run. This was even worse.

“Why is the door open?” said the second voice. Felia looked towards the door in question. Moonlight came into the dormitory through the crack she forgot to close. This was terrible.

Rogue could only see two pairs of legs. They carefully went through the dormitory looking for any intruders. She saw as they glanced under every bed and each of their steps echoed like thunder through her ears and heart. And then…

A loud crash of metal over metal went from somewhere outside. The two paladins jerked their heads towards the noise and ran in that direction, with no need for words, apparently. Felia recognized them, when she realised that. These were the twins she heard about and even saw them training. But there was no time to think about that, there was only time to run away from here.

She got out from under the bed, threw the mace and armour on it, tied the sheets over them, took them off and ran. She ran out of the dormitory and into the moonlit forest. She hit several branches, some of them even left small and unpleasant scratches on her face.

You have suffered a shallow cut. -1HP

You have suffered a shallow cut. -2HP

You have suffered a shallow cut. -1HP

Light armour mastery is now level 2.

Suffering a total of 7 damage, Felia ran out to a small meadow. She panted heavily. She caught her breath and laid down to get her mind off what happened, and soon her mind crept into deep sleep…

***********************************************************

You are well-rested. Your HP is now full (154HP).

Felia lazily opened her eyes. And then she panicked. She jerked upright looking around for the familiar dormitory. “Oh, right,” she thought as last day’s events rushed back into her mind. She thought of what have caused the last night’s distraction, and blamed it on some kind of midnight fresser. She have never done it herself, but knew that others did. Harmless and pointless act of rebellion, in her opinion. As she thought of it, she realized that she was starving. She hasn’t eaten since before she was sent to help Al.

First Felia thought to find some berries to satisfy her hunger, but she soon dropped the idea due to her inexperience in… well, anything. Yet she had to eat. And since the closest city was half a day away, there was only one option left: she had to hunt.

The rogue unfolded the makeshift rag and took out her mace. Like that, with a mace in one hand and the rag in the other, she went to the forest, to Vienum City, through the forest.

**********************************************************

Felia stood right in front of a dry tree, barely more than just a branch.

CRUNCH!

You have dealt 65 damage.

You have killed your target in a single blow. You’ve gained 5% more XP from this kill.

Light weapon mastery is now level 3.

Green sticker blood spurted all over the grass and her chain armour. Felia brushed the green mess, but only smeared it all over the chain. This was the fifth sticker she had killed for her breakfast.

Level up! You are now a level 3 Rogue. You may now redistribute 10 points between Dexterity[16], Endurance[16], Charisma[8].

“Oh, right”, she exclaimed. She forgot that her yesterday actions gained her a new level. Now was a good time as any, to use up the attribute points she gained. She argued in her head what attribute was most important, and even though both Dexterity and Endurance both had convincing arguments to them, Charisma always came out on top. In retrospect, it was obvious: she was going to run from her own country, and she wouldn’t be able to survive all alone, by herself. Felia was in desperate need for a group to travel with, and Charisma was a sure way to gain someone’s trust.

After mentally giving Dexterity and Endurance 2 attribute points each, and giving the rest to Charisma, Felia collected brushwood and made a small fire to cook the sticker corpses. This was risky and she really didn’t want to eat these disgusting monsters, but she just couldn’t get herself to kill a squirrel or a rabbit. Having grown under constant supervision made her feel like a small child at this point.

Ten minutes later, one of the stickers’ legs was cooked. Felia looked it over. “Well… here goes nothing”. She took a bite…

That was underwhelming. She expected to throw up, if she was honest. She even thought that the leg might taste good, if she wasn’t. But she didn’t expect nothing. There was no real taste to the thing. Yes, it was juicy, what put her off a little, but the hunger told her to eat her worries up. Literally.

In a few bites, the leg was gone. Felia then ate another one, and another… She was somehow getting used to the lack of taste. It certainly wouldn’t be her favourite taste, by a long shot, but it wasn’t going to make it on the worst list either. She made a mental note not to rule something out before trying it first. “Lesson learned”, she told herself and stashed the rest of the roasted sticker legs in her rags, trying her best to put them as far away from the chain armour as possible. It wasn’t.

Now, with a little tainted rag in one hand and a mace in the other she went to the nearest road to Vienum.

******************************************

You have entered ‘Vienum’ city.

Felia stopped. She looked back on the road she came from and forward on the road she had yet to cover. She could tell no difference from one and another. There weren’t even buildings around, just forest both on the left and on the right. She was about to give it a second thought, when she heard a cart coming from behind. Rogue turned around and saw a lone wooden mess with a horse in front of it. She took a step off the road and waited for the thing to ramble its way to her. Felia waved her hand with a weak smile and said: “Hello”.

The elven coach, whose attire gave away his farmer status, tipped his broad hat in greeting. “Hi!” he answered and pulled on the reins to stop. “What such a young dame is doing here so early in the morning?”

“I’m trying to get to Veinum”.

“Well, you are already here, didn’t you get the message?”

“No, I did, but I’m trying to get to the central square”.

“Are you looking for something particular? Or someone?” he added suggestively.

Felia was quick to say: “No!”

“No need to be so defensive. I’m just an old elf having fun, messing with kids”. He scooted a little bit to his left and padded the empty spot next to him. “C’mon, don’t be shy. Hop on!”

Felia looked a little bit confused and concerned at the offer. She didn’t really do anything to get this and still…

Persuasion is now level 2.

“Of course”, rogue said both at the realisation and the proposal, put the mace at the bottom board and made her way up to the seat. The cart squeaked, creaked and rattled under her weight, which made Felia uneasy.

The farmer saw it and assured his new companion: “Don’t worry about it. This old lady always does this”. In the back of the wagon laid cabbages, carrots, some apfels as well. “Are you hungry?” he asked as the horse started its dreary walk. Felia nodded. “Then take one of the apfels. I’d let you have more, but this elf here gotta eat too”. She looked back at the food and outstretched her arm to grab one of the apfels, when a thought rushed through her mind. She wanted to steal some of them.

“That’s just the class talking”, she told herself, but the thought didn’t go away. She shook her head in disgust. “Looking for for the best? They are at the bottom, you might need to shuffle around to get one”, the old elf suggested. Felia stared at the pile. Sweet, juicy apfels. It’s like they were asking to be stolen.

Female elf glanced at the farmer and slowly untied her rags with her left hand, when the right took one of the apfels to her mouth. She took a big juicy bite to distract her companion. He glanced at her and smiled: “They are really good, aren’t they?”

“Oh, yes”, muttered Felia with a mouthful. “Never tasted anything better”, she lied. Well, not lied, per say, but she had eaten better. She took another bite.

“Well, where are you from?” asked the farmer.

Felia considered it. “I… well… nowhere, really”.

“Ooh! A young adventurer? In these parts?”

“Yes, in these parts”, she said wandering off, as her left hand grabbed an apfel and put it in the rags.

“You know, I used to be an adventurer too. Until I took an arrow to knee, that is”.

Felia glared at the old elf with a question written all over her face. “Your knee doesn’t look injured”. She took another apfel.

The farmer glanced at his knees. And laughed: “Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no! It’s just a saying. It means that I got married”.

“Happily?” She put the apfel in the rags.

“Hah! You are a witty one, aren’t you?” He turned to her, and Felia, in a spurt of panic, laid over the apfels and tried to look casual. ‘Tried’ being the key word. The farmer stared at the young woman close to his crotch and a little bit shocked spurted out: “Of course, I am! And you should keep yourself together! This is no way to behave for such a young dame, I tell you that”, and turned away his gaze to stare blankly at the dusty rocky road.

Intimidation is now level 2.

Persuasion is now level 3.

When Felia realized how that must’ve looked to the stranger, it was too late. She squealed and quickly sat upright. “I’m not like that, I swe!...”

“Actions speak louder than words, dearie”.

“Dearie?” she whispered under her breath. She wasn’t called that before and, frankly, she didn’t like it. And as her young woman side was debating whether or not to argue with the man in front of her, her rogue side took another two apfels to her makeshift bag. In the end, Felia decided not to argue with the man, who was giving her a ride to the city square, and kept quiet for the rest of the road.

Sleight of hand is now level 2.

Level up! You are now a level 4 Rogue. You may now redistribute 5 points between Dexterity[18], Endurance[18], Charisma[14].

This felt good…

************************************

Now this was a city! Tall 5-story buildings surrounded Felia from all sides. Merchants, guards and regular citizens ran from from one place to another, past the third and came back to the first. They rushed, they bargained, they screamed at each other. They were busy. And Felia was about to get busy as well.

The young elf stood next to the cart, the owner of which was kind enough to help her get here. On his hip she saw a small pouch, with money inside. Her rogue instincts came to her once more, and she didn’t try resisting the urge to steal. Besides, he was here to sell his vegetables and appfels. He didn’t Really need this money.

How’d she do it, she asked herself. Well, she already had her answer. She couldn’t fall any lower, so…

She almost lept at the old man on the wagon. “What are you doing?!”

Felia was a virgin. Everyone would be able to tell that, when they would see what she had done next. A little bit uncomfortable by her own actions, she ran her right skinny fingers over the elf’s crotch, while her other hand took the opportunity to untie the pouch from the man’s belt. “What do you think I’m doing?” she asked him with a trembling nervous voice.

“I told you I’m not that kind of person!”

“Well”, her voice cracked, “I just wanted to thank you the best way I can”. She felt his dick getting harder. “Oh, Parva!” she screamed in her head. “Oh, Parva”, she said as seductively as she could, which wasn’t very.

As she untied and grabbed the pouch of money with her left hand, the farmer pulled the reins and drove away as fast as possible, and, because Felia was holding onto the cart, she fell.

You have suffered a blunt trauma. You are dizzy for the next 1 minute. -5HP

Sleight of Hand is now level 3.

Intimidation is now level 3.

She was embarrassed and she was hurt. She felt her face turn beat red. If that’s what seduction was like, she hated it. But, her rogue side told her, she got food and money! How bad such an effective tactic could be? Very, the old cleric side said.

The ex-cleric stood up, but the rogue looked around. One was looking for the authority to hide from, the other to report to. Felia was confused, but she told herself: “I need to find a group of adventurers. They’ll know how to get out of the country”. Both cleric and rogue agreed for diametrically opposite reasons. And where did adventurers usually hang out? The pubs.

That was the problem: there were too many to choose from. From ‘In Gods’ Hands’ on one side, to the ‘Devils’ Advocates’ on the other and simply named ‘Pub’ in between. Felia went around the city looking for a pub to choose, when she literally stumbled upon one called ‘Around the World’.

Dark alleyway, wet from urine at best and puke at worst stone road and rotting giant rat corpse in the corner. She’d run away from there, if the rest of the pubs weren’t fully populated by her own kin. Felia wasn’t looking for a group of elves: they’d just give her out the instant they found out she was a felon, since not a single sane elf wanted to be on one of the families’ bad side. Not to say that there were no insane elves, but those did usually sticked around group, where other races were present. And the name ‘Around the World’ suggested as much.

She took a deep breath to get some courage in her lungs and instantly regretted it. The urine, puke, rot mixture of smells burned the unprepared nostrils and watered Felia’s eyes. She wanted to puke, but managed to keep it in herself. No point to show weakness to these tough people. She took a good look at herself. At least, no point to show more weakness than her tiny body already irradiated.

Feflia almost took another deep breath, when she stopped herself. She entered the pub. It looked exactly what a 17 year old elven church girl expected it to look. Dirty floor, round tables with dwarves, humans, elves and even halflings sitting around of all sizes and colours, even a couple of felines sat at the bar.

The cat-like humanoid creatures, the katzes, were the closest relatives to the elves, no matter how much the Prinzessin families tried to disprove it. These were vicious and deadly creatures that lived in small communities all throughout Moria and sustained themselves by hunting and trading with the cities closest to them. Yet some of them seeked a life of adventure. Perhaps these ones were adventurers, but Felia didn’t really want to risk them being lawful merchants, despite expression’s contradictory nature.

The girl limped her way to the bar to get something to drink. She might not be brave enough to approach any one of these people, but maybe the alcohol would do the job. She sat down on the only free spot, between an obese, dirty dwarf with a half empty bottle of what she assumed to be grog and a human so big with muscles that were easily two times bigger than her head, holding a mug of dark bubbling liquid, which the locals generously called beer.

An old elven bartender with cuts and bruises all over his face and arms and missing his left eye approached Felia and with a voice so gravy that it sounded like two piles of gravel rubbing against each other asked her: “What ya drinking, princess?”

The elf nervously swallowed down any courage she had before coming in here. What did she want to drink? “Th…t… the harder, the b… better”, she stuttered.

The bartender gestured over to the dwarf on her left. “This fucker got the last bottle. Ask him”.

Felia slowly turned to the dwarf in question and kept glancing at him and at his bottle. After a minute of awkward staring, the dwarf finally acknowledged her existence: “What?” She was barely able to open her mouth, when he interrupted her: “If you want the grog, then the answer is ‘No’”.

This was the opportunity to practice Persuasion, said the rogue inside her. “I have a better idea”, said the cleric. Felia was in no mood for… Persuasion and decided to listen to her old side still present in her mind. She reached under the bar, where she had put all her staff, took her mace and placed it right in front the dwarf, and the bottle with the shotglass made a little jump. The dwarf stared at the mace, then stared at Felia and did the same motions she had done. But instead of a mace, he put a giant in comparison battleaxe on the bar. Felia flinched, but kept her composure the best she could. Which meant, she let out a little yelp and jumped along with the bottle.

The dwarf and the elf stared each other down. Then, all of a sudden, the dwarf laughed. “I like your way! Here”, he poured a shot of grog. “Drink up”. Felia took the glass and stared at the swirling liquid inside. “C’mon! You were the one, who tried to take a drink from dwarf. Now, be a good girl, and do what you wanted to”.

“Ok. You can do this. You can do this”, the elf thought. She brought the shot up to her mouth and without hesitation threw the grog down her throat. It burned. A lot. Her eyes watered from the unfamiliar sensation, her breath became short and broken. She coughed and laid down on the bar, as her consciousness slowly left her. All the while the dwarf laughed at her.