Chris the Slime-Slayer.
Chris woke up, his head was hurting. There was so much they had gone over yesterday that it was nearly annoying.
[I am going to need money. Probably should pick up a lot of rations..its going to be a long day.] Chris thought as he climbed out of bed and got himself dressed.
Sarah, Bethany, Shay, and Mathias had sat him down after his "outburst" of heart and went through the major ground rules. He was going to act as a Guild Page for Bethany and that would give him a lot of freedom moving between cities.
Guild Pages are not very rare, but they hold a significant amount of power in large cities. It is mostly a political position, but around here there were no people interested in leaving the safety of the walls before a war.
Chris rubbed his hand along the small emblem, [It is a cool badge though, I like the "Templar cross" look that it has.]
The Page's job is to do what the local Guildmaster says, it would be like a deputy with less power.
Chris grabbed his pack; it was a large leather and linen fiber bag that held most of his supplies. He had his walking stick from the large tree that had been hit by lightning, apparently it was just sitting in the room collecting dust.
Chris pulled out his map, [Lets see here, up north is the dangerous territory, west is a little difficult for me, but if I go a little bit east, I should run into a village. Hmm? Fuchsia is a strange name for a village. Welp, I better get a move on if I am going to have a sword.]
Chris placed his map in a hard-leather container and sat it in his bag. Paper was hard to come by, but Sarah had shown him how to trade his cores, since that was going to be his main source of income.
Loud stomping could be heard as Chris' new boots came down the hallway with all of his gear. Sarah and Shay were with the kids eating breakfast.
"Oh, look who is up!" Said Shay as she cracked a smile, "Are you going to be eating with us?" Asked Sarah, Chris only shook his head and looked towards the door.
"Are you ready? Do you have your books and materials?" Said Sarah.
Chris nodded, "Yeah, but I need to stop by the sewer for a little money, and I think I should go meet with that guard that was looking for the "missing dwarf" so I am not hunted down."
Sarah nodded, "Yeah, the captain can be a bit of a hard… I was going to remind you if you forgot, but good job. Keep a straight head and move forward. I will be here if you need me and you can use that long-distance Orb to call once you get the hang of it."
Chris kept her gaze, but he knew it would be a while.
Sarah was watching him, his movements were more deliberate, and he seemed to be less anxious. She was thinking, [Every Guide has had to reinforce a topic with their Hero, but Chris seems so capable. His brain is his best quality, whether he knows it or not, but it is also his greatest weakness. His intelligence seeks comfort, which indulges in lazy operation. Supremely efficient, yet fickle. He is unlike anyone I have ever met, but this will not be the last time we convene. Destiny awaits, that of which I am sure.]
Sarah hugged Chris, then the kids did. Alice gave him a smirk and said, "You better get strong, I might catch-up with you!" and Daniel facepalmed.
Chris laughed, "I plan on it." Then he ruffled their hair.
He looked back for leaving, "I will miss you guys, I should be back, but I want to be a decent man before then." He winked at Shay and then stepped out into the morning light.
[Leaves are falling all around, it's time I was on my way.] Chris walked off to the sewer, it would be his first stop of the day.
Walking in, he noticed that it seemed too quiet without Sarah. He could focus on the vibrations and the echoing boom from his new boots. [I love new shoes, lets hope water will knock the stench off of them.]
Chris climbed down the ladder and felt his forearm, the spell was gone but Bethany explained that it would be considered mastered and that he could increase its power with usage now. [Gotta' love skill levels, I need to figure out my build. I can't use intelligence very much, no mana cost on spells. My class limits offensive damage spells, but I have that already. The only thing I could use it for would utility.]
Chris found a Slime and prepare it as a friend, it instantly took. [They are weak, but so was I. Respect them for their sacrifice.] Chris thought as he fired off his double wave, which was one spell after another.
The spell looked different, it no longer crackled and shown light randomly. It was a controlled wave that bathed the surroundings in a nice and clean glow.
[That is one.] Thought Chris as he looked for a core.
[Oh nice, I found one.]
After placing it in his pocket, he kept moving down the tunnel. The walls were getting more caked in crap.
[I feel bad for killing these little buggers, they are only level 1.] Chris thought about the level system that Sarah had gone over, and how the level differences worked at different "ranks" but it wouldn't matter for him until 25, and then 50.
[Which build am I going to go? I should probably go with a harder to kill build with minimal mana. No healing means big issues for me if I am caught with my pants down. Why is this so hard?] Chris took a moment before casting at this new Slime.
[Just make a decision. Do I want to be a cool wizard slinging spells? Yes. But do I want to live more? Yes. Can I do both with a tank build? Yes. There we go. Vitality forward it is, was that so hard?] Chris shook his head and smiled. Commitment was so difficult for him on Earth, but this will get him where he needs to be so it is the path he will walk, closed argument.
One Slime after another died, and he finally got around 15 mana cores on top of his 8, leaving him with a total of 23.
[23x5 would be nearly a Silver…] Chris thought as he let out a howl, [IT WAS SO EXPENSIVE TO GET IN! How much will it cost to leave?]
Chris opened his hand and felt the cold of the sewer, the wet and poopy water actually felt pretty good on it.
[Pacing…I need to pace myself when I hunt for monsters.] Chris thought as he realized that Goblins would be next on the food chain and that he wouldn't be able to plough through them at great speed.
[How high can I level my healing spell? And how many things will I have to kill for another spell? Oh, good lord, well, better get to work.] Chris grinned and kept going. After another 24 Slimes were killed, Chris had to stop. His hand was throbbing, and he could barely feel anything past his shoulder. Might be a bad sign.
[What is my Status page?] He thought.
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[Name: Christian Boyd
Race: Dwarf
Level: 5 (0/1000 Experience)
Class: Lightbringer-[Healer]
HP: 21/25
MP: 40/40
Vitality: 5+
Strength: 5+
Intelligence: 4+
Spirit: 3+
Agility: 2+
Dexterity: 5+
Attribute Points: 15, Racial Points :5 [Please allocate your attribute points.]
Skills: [Blacksmithing Lvl: 10 0/4000], [Light Magic Lvl: 5 410/1000], [Enlightening Word Lvl: 3 500/600].
Racial: Dwarven: Bonus; (+1) Vitality, Strength, or Dexterity per level.
Blessings: Blessing of the Goddess of Life, Zosoi: All Healing spells cost 0 mana and experience will be earned from amount healed instead of mana used.
Curse: Curse of the God of Death, Razotz: All healing spells will now damage allies instead of healing. Only healing classes may be equipped by the barer. The mana cost for healing spells is increased by 500% of the base-mana cost.
Trait: Wildcard: You belong nowhere. Control your fate by choosing your friends and enemies.]
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Chris looked at it and saw that he WAS taking damage from overusing his body.
[Well, I am going to go ahead and throw my dwarven bonuses in there. It is pretty standard to have 10 Vitality at level 5, and they are my least useful points.]
As Chris confirmed his choice, he felt he arm's feeling gradually come back.
[Damn. Maybe there is an overdrawing issue with mana. People probably would never notice because they can take longer rests between hunts.]
He looked at his Word spell, it was leveling as well, but it seemed like it had stopped. There were no major changes during his hunt, maybe it was tied to the difficulty in some way?
[Slimes don't even give experience points, that is awful…I need to get a good challenge.] He was clenching his fist and felt the feeling radiate down his arm.
He kept killing and ended with a total of 39 Slime cores that he was planning to sell, it took him only an hour.
[AN: I think I may have fooked up the story by going into his emotions too many times. People seem to dislike the story from my analytic view. I thought about taking some time and rewriting like the first 25 chapters and condense it into about 8 chapters. This IS supposed to be an adventure novel with new people and problems that we solve while becoming a different person, but I let my feels control the narrative.
Should I do a rewrite?
Vote, now! [Yes/No] (pretty please, with cherries and thiccc thighs on top.)