Bamburgh’s Old Couple

As the higher level adventurer, Ivette was leading this duo towards Bamburgh.

"Why are there adventurers when there are sentients to protect us from the infested?" I asked.

Ivette looked at me as if I was stupid for asking that.

"If the sentients were capable enough to defend us, then we wouldn't be in such a dire situation, right?" She said rhetorically.

"Apart from that, this is a 'lucrative' way of earning money while helping to defeat the infested. The better we get, the harder the quests and the better the rewards will become. Though I guess some people do have personal reasons for doing this." She said, ending her answer feeling more down than how she started.

After some time we arrived at Bamburgh. It was a very small underground town with about 10-12 houses, which were all made of wood. There was an old lady screaming, jumping and waving, begging for help as she saw us nearing her home. We started running towards her as fast as we could.

"We're here! We've accepted your quest to defeat the infested, please lead us to your basement." Ivette said hurryingly.

"Look, I'm a ranged fighter and you have a mace, so you're going into the monsters faces and I will support you from behind." Said Ivette while we we're being led towards the basement.

Even though I've literally just met her, I trusted her completely and decided to do as she said. There's no room for doubt when wanting to become a hero.

When we reached the entrance of the basement I got surprised by the sheer amount of objects used to blockade the monsters from leaving it. There was a refrigerator, an anvil and a chair with her husband sitting on it.

"Wormins get very aggressive with their young around, it's just normal instinctual behaviour. They don't tend to be very aggressive under normal circumstances, as they're quite weak." Ivette said.

"Okay, shall we clear the way then?" I asked, hoping to get more fighting experience quickly.

Immediately the old couple started clearing up the way, I helped push the refrigerator though. Ivette and I made eye contact right before going downstairs, she smiled slightly, as if she felt no danger at all. I, on the other hand, was afraid, but as planned, I went downstairs first and she followed me closely. The staircase was circular and we couldn't see anything besides rocky walls, though the Wormins were clearly audible. After about 20 steps we reached the basement, the enemies were clearly visible and aggressive, yet scared. There were 3 Wormins and a bunch of smaller ones, around 10-15, which were probably the Worminions, their babies.

"Stand back!" Ivette screamed while unleashing her first attack right at the Wormin.

I stepped aside and watched Ivette get off the first blow in this fight. She had three red spiked straps which she could control from a distance, though the distance didn't seem to be too large as of yet. She used it as a whiplash to hit the top of one of the Wormins to hit it on its head with a powerful force, stunning it temporarily in the process. Seeing this as an opportunity to strike, I immediately charged forward, I held my bladed mace firmly as I smashed it as hard as I could.

"Watch out!" Ivette screamed.

"Huh…" I mumbled with my eyes wide open in surprise.

One of the Wormins came to their defence and blocked my attack with ease. I backed off slightly, but the basement wasn't very big, so there wasn't much room for movement, let alone the option to flank.

Immediately Ivette used all her straps to get a hold of all three Wormins. She could not smash it against the floor or walls, as it would destroy the basement, so she smashed all three Wormins against each other. It stunned them momentarily, but they're worm-like creatures, this wasn't an effective move on them. Still, I again tried taking this moment of slight confusion to get a hit off.

"Take this!" I shouted.

[You should be ashamed for not being able to come up with something more interesting to shout, sweety.] Nexus said, trying to tease me.

I would be lying if I said this comment didn't annoy me, but I kept my focus on the battle. I managed to hit the Wormin right on its head. It dropped dead immediately as it had no way to defend or brace itself from this attack. Its screech of pain would be the last sound it'd ever make.

"Noff! Wormin to your right!" Ivette screamed while struggling with the other Wormin herself. I jumped backwards, trying to dodge its attack as Ivette swiftly manoeuvred her whip and intercepted the Wormin's attack, diverting its attention away from me. Using this opening, I struck the Wormin's underbelly, causing it to writhe in pain.

"Let's go!" I said with a sense of pride, having defeated two Wormins.

"Good Job." Ivette said, while she was squeezing the life out of the last Wormin. Even more than that, she sliced it into pieces using the straps to create immense pressure, the pieces were sized perfectly to make sushi off.

"Go and finish the Worminions." Ivette said calmly whilst having a smile on her face, clearly happy from this, what seemed to be an easy, victory.

I honestly felt a little bad killing all off all the babies, their screeches hurt me mentally, which also had to do with the abomination of sounds they made. Just like last time, the Wormins dropped orbs.

"Ivette, do you know what these orb-like objects are used for?" I asked.

"Hmmm, not as of yet, I do collect them, but I do not see any item information in my inventory about them. You can take all three of them." She said.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah totally!"

Relationship Level Noff-Ivette Increased!

Current Level: 1

As I closed my eyes I tried to access my information again, hoping to find my inventory.

Information <Noff>

Name: Noff

Level: 2

Inventory Items:

Orange-Bladed Mace

4 Orbs

"Hey! I levelled up!" I exclaimed excitedly.

"You did? That's Awesome!" Ivette put on a wide smile.

"I didn't expect this fight to be this easy. You're really strong, you made it so easy for me to get hits off." I tried complimenting her.

She started blushing and scratching her head, feeling flattered by my remark.

"Aaahaaa, uh… No way! You did it yourself. B-but… Thank you"

Relationship Level Noff-Ivette Increased!

Current Level: 2

Her face was completely red, it was clear she wasn't used to receiving compliments, which made sense, as she was secluded, not having a party and such.

We started walking upwards to the old couple to announce the completion of our quest.

"We've finished off the infested." I stated.

"Oh really?! Thank you! Thank you so much!" The old lady said. The old man was completely quiet, but he nodded to make his gratitude clear.

"If there's any trouble in the future, we'll be sure to have your backs again." Ivette said, trying to reassure their safety.

We started walking back towards the tavern. As we reached the tavern we immediately talked to Björn about the completion of our quest to receive our rewards.

"So you've finished it. The reward will be 50 Zuz and free drinks for each." Björn said.

"We want to exchange the drinks immediately." Ivette quickly said, before I could say anything.

"Very well then, may I take your order please."

"Strawberry Juice for me!"

"Uh… I'll take a cup of black tea." I said calmly, acting like I knew what I was doing, even though I've only had time to look at the first 3 items on the list. I just didn't want to hold anyone up.

"Very well, we'll bring your order at your table soon enough." Björn said as he passed the order to the kitchen.

The tavern was just as full as it was when we left, so there was still a table free for us. As we sat down Ivette immediately started talking.

"Woah.. That was great! You've completed your first quest, that's amazing."

"Thank you, but it's only because you helped me, I'm still somewhat clueless." I said, helping her remember that I'm completely new.

"Tell me Noff, why did you become an adventurer? You said you're clueless, so you didn't know anything about this before. You absolutely did 0 research or had 0 experience with other people who are adventurers. Tell me, how did you get to this point?" Ivette asked, still smiling like always.

I carefully explained my situation and my journey up until meeting her.

"That's really strange, nothing makes sense, even in the slightest. So Selene has sent you on a journey to find the lost sentient in earth's core, without giving you proper directions, but just with the feeling that she trusts that you are the one to fix the infested problem?" She thought out loud.

"Selene has always been a strange one according to myths, legends and the people themselves." She said.

"Myths and legends?" I asked

"Yes, there are always stories being written about fights and other events surrounding sentients. Selene has been alive for quite a while, so there's a lot of literature surrounding her, but not everything can be confirmed. Since she resides on Luna, which is home to the solar system's most dangerous prison, she doesn't let many people visit her." She explained.

"Yeah, I was at the prison, it looked extremely beautiful, but everything was closed off, so I didn't see any of the prisoners."

"In any case, I want to go with you and find the lost sentient." She said proudly.

[Ahaha, you know what this is right? Right?] Nexus said, popping out of nowhere like usual.

I have no idea what you mean.

[This is the start of a harem!] Nexus said laughingly.

[I know what guys like, I've learned this fact during your 100.000 year long siesta. Look, I'll give you some tips.]

I DON'T NEED NO TIPS ABOUT COLLECTING GIRLS.

[Mwahh.. You're no fun. Just imagine how easy it is to do so, you can build it so easily, just use your adventurers party as a pretext for building it up.]

I started thinking deeply, my face was starting to get stiff as I was holding my chin. Ivette looked confused, she obviously thought about whether I wanted to continue to party up with her.

In any case, I accepted her request and we decided to party up together for the unforeseeable future.

We continued talking for a bit while enjoying our drinks. Ivette explained to me what our next step should be in our journey to the core.

"Currently we're residing in the Upper Caverns, which goes from about 1-300km in deep. In order to reach the next layer we need permission to access it. The requirements are to be at least level 10 and defeat the Toothed Leech. Which is basically this layer's boss, as it is the strongest infested monster residing here. It'll be proof that we're strong enough to advance. This is a security measure setup to prevent premature deaths." Ivette explained.

"This doesn't have to be part of a quest, you can apply at the tavern at any time."

"I see, but we should level up more first before fighting that thing." I said.

"Yes, but I also haven't seen any of your abilities yet, you should have them, everyone has abilities. My ability is that I can manipulate the straps on my head." She said.

I was very confused, I didn't know about this, but it did make me feel a bit better, as it meant I could become stronger.

"If we do a few more quests and level up, maybe you'll be able to access your abilities." Ivette said, ending our conversation.

"Follow me." She commanded.

We walked for quite a bit through the tavern, at the end there was a door, this door led us to a hallway. A thin hallway with lots of doors with numbers attached to them. We continued walking and walking until we reached number 263. Yeah, it took quite a while.

"Taverns have rooms for parties to stay in, it's very convenient, so you can stay in my room, as we're a party now." She said.

As she opened the door I looked at the interior. It was a really small room, maybe 16 square metres. It had two bunk beds, so four places in total.

"I sleep top left, you can choose your bed freely. Also, please don't look when I'm changing." She said with a slight giggle.

I nodded as I started blushing.

[Choose the top right bed! Top right! That one has the best view!]

I didn't ask for your input, Nexus.

[If I would be waiting for your input, I wouldn't be saying a word for the rest of my existence.]

To be fair, Nexus had a point.

I decided to sleep top right, not because of Nexus' input, but because I have a slightly irrational fear of the bunk bed collapsing and me becoming a part of a sandwich.

After a while it was time to sleep, underground there was no concept of day and night, so the clocks became much more useful to stay within our circadian rhythm.

"Heeee, so you're also going on top." Ivette said.

"Yeah."

"Aha, very nice, Goodnight, Noff."

"Goodnight." I replied.

Looking at her, I couldn't help but think that her pyjamas were a bit…. On the tighter side, as the shape of her bust was clearly visible. The multicoloured flowers were nice though.

Ugh Nexus, I'm done for today…. Goodnight.

[Goodnight] Nexus replied softly.