V.I.M

"So... You're the monster our resident mage told us about?" The old man gazed down at Mia. He figured it was a non question given that it was sitting docile in front of twenty or so armored combatants. But Mia nodded all the same.

"Hm, very well, Mira requested you be brought straight to her after the flux ended. You do understand that we can't just leave you to walk on your own?" 

Mia slumped and closed her eyes for a moment. Then looked back up and nodded. Why wasn't she communicating with magic you may ask?

Well, that'd be because I can't. WHY can't you, you ask? I'm getting a strange lack of feedback from this guy. I'm thinking either skills or armor, because when I tried to use a mind link with him, all that gave me was a headache. Which yes, I still have, thank you for asking. So actually, not quite lack of feedback. A bit too MUCH feedback. If that was a conscious action of his, how rude! If that's a passive, cool skill. I definitely get how having people just... Mind blast you mid fight could be a problem. 

"You'll be going with four of our militia, who will bring you to Mira's tower. After that, whatever you and her do is none of our business. Don't try anything, and we won't have any issues. Am I clear?"

Once again, Mia nodded. Then the crowd parted, and frankly, she couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of joy bubbling up to the surface. Finally, finally, finally I get to go in! It has been a very (not really) long time. But at last! My efforts are finally paying off! I just have to walk in, and practically everything will be handed to me! So, show me the way! Whoever is uh... Showing me the way.

Once the majority of the soldiers were gone, three men and one woman stood above Mia. 

"So, commander says you're able to understand our language. Then this should be clear, sit." 

Mia gave a look of discontent at the man who had told, yes, told, that was not an asking tone, her to sit. She thought about pulling some sort of prank, but was that really worth it? Instead of being snarky and possibly causing some sort of issue, Mia stared at them for a little longer, before rolling her eyes and sitting down. I'm not sure how high humans rank on a power scale, but they do understand I could probably eviscerate them in moments, right? 

"Huh, didn't expect that to work." The man stared down at Mia incredulously, even as her eye slightly twitched. This issue was immediately resolved, as one of the other soldiers smacked him in the back of the head.

"Knock it off Birv, I know you're not blind. You saw what that monsters capable of. No need to antagonize it." The female soldier chastised this "Birv" as he rubbed the back of his head.

Soooo... Are we going to get moving any time soon oooor...? Mia stared up at the two as the other two soldiers stood there uncomfortably. "Sorry love, It's just a little hard to believe."

"Don't call me that either." She gave Birv a side eye, then knelt down to come closer to Mia's eye level. "Just stay with us and we'll have you through the town in a moment, alright? Let's get moving."

Ah, finally, somebody deciding to be somewhat sensible. Mia nodded cheerfully and stood to her full height, stretching out and standing at attention.

Now, I've still got a headache but, would mind magic work for these guys? Or like? No other way to find out then to try I suppose. "Low, Link, Low, Translation." Right, three two one, and cast.

"Hello? Hell-" "WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE FOUR?!"

The female soldier, because that was the one who Mia casted the spell on, almost jumped right out of her skin. Immediately, every other soldier was on guard, hands on the hilts of their weapons. To which Mia blanched at. "Uh, calm down! Down here." 

They looked around every which way for a moment, before finally deciding to do what the new mysterious voice told them to do and looked down, down at Mia. "Hi, yeah, that's me." 

She stared dumbfounded at the wolf for a moment, before sighing and rubbing her temples. "Commander didn't tell us that you could use mind magic." Meanwhile, the others stared inquisitively at their fourth member.

"Well, I mean I tried to tell them. Something stopped me though." 

"Well, you won't try to blast our minds will you?" She asked while staring down at Mia with a raised eyebrow. "The rest of our militia would bare down on you in an instant but having my brain melted doesn't sound very fun." 

"Look, I don't even know how to do that." Or maybe I do...? Hmmm...

"Uh, Lisa, who the hell are you talking to?"

"It's rather obvious isn't it? I'm talking to the monster here." She turned to face one of the other soldiers. "Apparently, they have mind magic. Not like anything has really changed, we already knew if they decided to attack us we'd likely be dead before somebody could help. Mind magic is just another way of doing it. We're just trusting in a living beings common sense."

"Look... You know I'm still here, right? Like, listening to all of this?"

"Right, sorry about that, I'm not sure how proficient you are with mind magic but would you mind patching in the other three so I don't look like a raving lunatic?"

"That's reasonable." Mia nodded, then stopped her current spell to start up a new one. This'll be a bit more of a mana sink but... Ah well, not like I'll have to have it on for long. Probably. 

"Uhh, hello?"

"Huh."

"See?"

"Oh I have a name by the way, call me Mia. Anyways, can we get going already?! I'm getting anxious just sitting out here!" 

"Sure, sooner we can get this over with the sooner I can go take a shower." One of the men shrugged. Mia was suddenly reminded of how dirty she was as well. Absolutely caked in mud and blood. "...Agreed." That got her an odd look, but nobody said anything about it.

"Stay close to the four of us and we'll have you over in a few minutes." 

...

True to their word, the soldiers were quick about it. They escorted Mia through the town with minimal chitchat, generally keeping her away from other people in the vicinity. There wasn't all that much to look at while she was being kept under wraps like this, so Mia's mind started to wander a bit with the lack of stimulation.

Oh, also! I didn't really notice it before but this is like... I wanna say medieval times in terms of architecture? I'm not really an expert on stuff like that, but that's what I'd say. So what's odd about that to me, is that there's a female soldier? I thought they were banned from that occupation for whatever reason in the past?

Something about gender roles because women are physically weaker and some prejudice-oooooh! Duh! Physically weaker, of course that wouldn't be an issue in a world governed by a video game system where anybody can get stronger with levels. And prejudice is born from inequality I suppose, so if everyone is equal under one immutable law of the world... That does make sense I guess. Unless I'm just entirely missing the mark here, which is also possible. Anyways, on a darker note, I wonder if slavery exists? 

Hell, if it does, it'd probably be even more efficient then it was because of some skill or something... Or maybe it's not necessary in the first place because of skills and the like? It wouldn't be that helpful if some... I dunno, fighter specialist was enslaved and forced to plow fields when somebody with skills and stats specifically tailored for the job could do it instead... It might actually wind up giving you less overall reward for trying to use slaves not fit for the job... So, going off this worlds game logic, no slavery actually probably isn't that common. There's also probably exceptions though. Like, if you captured farmers from an enemy nation, obviously you'd put them to w-"Oh hey is this the place?"

In front of Mia stood a tower, not a towering tower, only being about twice as large as the nearby houses, but a tower all the same. Is it like, just a fantasy world convention for magic users to live in towers? Or is there some sort of practical purpose to it? 

"Yes, we're here. Mira will take you off of our hands and from then on it's your problem." One of them said while knocking on the door. 

"You almost say that like it's a bad thing..." 

They didn't respond.

Then the door opened. Out stepped a familiar face, Mira.

"Ah is the monster here? Where are they?" 

"Look down." 

"Ah! I see, alright soldiers, you're dismissed." 

Mira didn't actually have any authorative power in a millataristic sense, but the soldiers seemed to have the good sense not to question it. They left Mia to her own trials. Not even caring to say a goodbye. 

"Yeah, bye guys, thanks." Mia deadpanned at the group, before looking up at Mira. Then she turned off her mind spell.

"Great to see you're still alive! There's much we have to do. Come along now!" She declared with great enthusiasm as she spun back around. Uh, wait, mind link... 

"Hold on, there's one thing I DEMAND before you start doing anything to me, two actually!" 

"Oh? How curious, very well Mia, what are your demands?" 

"First off, before anything else, where's Willa and how is he doing?" 

"Oh, yes yes, of course." Mira chuckled before continuing. "That monster is fine. They're still unconscious but they're perfectly uninjured. If that's all come along-"

"I said, two. Thank you for taking care of Willa, however, I want a bath, or a shower, something! Do you see how dirty I am right now?!"

Mira paused for a moment, then she laughed. "Oh my. I just thought you didn't care! I've seen monsters looking worse then that before."

"News flash! I care, I care a lot! I feel real gross right now, thank you very much!"

"Very well, I'll have you cleaned up in a moment." She paused and beckoned for Mia to follow her inside, then she turned. "After that, you're mine." 

Ominous...