Moving into the tree house, the snow slowly began to melt off of their backs and drip to the floor.
There was a sense of frustration inside of them, but on the outside they were quiet. Sara began preparing the food for the night, Lee collapsed into his hammock and swung. The only sound was the wind outside of the small tree hole.
A few minutes went by, the soft gentle hum of Sara began. They hummed frequently, as a way to relieve tension. It became common for Lee to relax to the sound as well, another way to keep his stress of the world low.
"We couldn't even kill squirrels." Lee finally spoke up, the sound of frustration and brokenness in his voice.
"We will get them next time, we gotta figure out how the system works first." Sara explained glancing over at him, the potatoes set to the side cooling.
"There has to be a better way to grow stronger, especially if the first task can be done yet."
"Probably because the first task was meant for the chosen one." Sara's words left them both silent, a painful reminder they had stolen an artifact of power from someone else.
"Chosen one or not, it's ours now," Lee finally said rolling over. With his back facing Sara, they slowly contemplated the day they had. The world slowly fading as they passed out.
—------------------------------------------
The morning came, and with it they both returned to the mundane life they had been living. Except, they avoided the squirrel domain and went a long way around to a different road into town.
Lee was raising the hammer and beating the old iron scythe that was glowing red repeatedly. His face twisted and tormented remembering the squirrels, the laughing bastard appearing in everything he worked on.
"Damnit!" He shouted, throwing his hammer behind him and holding his hips, looking up past the anvil towards the road he saw the white beauty of the snow. It should have been a reminder of something good, but all he could focus on was the UI interfering with his vision.
"What's wrong kid." Garrick asked with his gruff voice, his hands wiping coal on his apron.
"Nothing!" Lee snapped, "I'm frustrated!" He continued, turning away from Garrick. "I'm sick of the mundane! I can't defend myself! I need some sort of weapon!" Lee's voice was filled with anger, some would say rightfully so.
Garricks hand sat on Lee's shoulder, Lee immediately reacting to it and taking a soft breath. "How about I get you a short sword? It may not be much, but I've seen you swing things. Swing like a bard, and grip like a politician." Garrick said with a laugh, moving to an old barrel and pulling out old rusty swords.
Lee saw it held out to him, the interface immediately reacting to it.
*Short Sword- +10 to damage*
*Poor condition*
Lee stood silent for a moment, his fingers wrapping around it before glancing up at him. "Really?"
"Of course, if you manage to get the hang of that, maybe I'll upgrade you." Garrick said with a friendly pat on the back. Lee's face slowly smiled with relief.
Across the village, all the way at the tavern Sara was slumped over, head in bar island. Telle slowly maneuvered around some of the guests to the island and tapped Sara on the arm. "Saren, are you okay?" She asked with concern in her voice as she squatted down and tried to look at her.
"Im…not sure," Sara responded with a glance. "I can't protect anyone." Sara said with a soft, broken voice. Telle took note of it and frowned slowly pulling out a small bag of stones and sat them in front of her.
"It may not be much, but these stones were my good luck charms when I traveled. I collected them from rivers all over Virelia. Think of them as good luck charms."
Telle meant it in a sweet way, but Sara could see the description of the stones.
**Bag of Stones
**+5 to accuracy
**+3 to precision
**Rare Item
**+5 damage
The stats were insane, and based on what they were reading, it was meant to be thrown. Sara was quiet for a few minutes before looking up and looking Telle in the eyes. Their hand slowly wrapped around the bags and pulled it towards them into their pocket. "Thank you Telle, ill cherish them." Sara told her with a soft blush over the bridge of their nose.
With that note Sara took a moment to equip the bag to their inventory slot. The rocks were equipped, and suddenly attached to their hips like they did in video games. If they reached back towards it, the rock would appear in their hand, 'was it infinite?' Sara asked them selves curiously.
_______________________________________________
With the work day coming to an end, the duo met up in their normal spot. Sara sitting on top of the cart, Lee was sitting on a hay bale not too far from them. They were contemplating, trying to figure out their next move. Yet, words didn't leave their mouths. They had no next move, they had themselves and a stolen artifact that was now permanently attached to them.
Lee pushed himself up and began walking, Sara not too far behind as they made their way back to the tree taking the long route again. "600 rpg's between us, and we can't figure this shit out." Lee cursed shuffling through the snow.
"600 rpgs, and over 100 millions deaths between the two of us." Sara corrected him with a snarky smile. Lee rolled his eyes, popping open the interface and began browsing it. There wasn't a lot of information on how to level up outside of fighting monsters. Until he clicked on Sara's name, which had a drop down of activities he could do.
**Call
Message
Invite
Duel
"Duel." Lee said, his words quiet but loud enough for Sara to hear. Their eyes looked over at Lee, with a raised eyebrow. "I'm sorry, did you say Duel?"
Lee, who stopped and clicked on the duel icon, looked back at Sara. A grin forming on his mouth, Sara saw the interface pop up with a do you accept.
Sara stared at him for a moment, their eyes locked in on each other.
**Duel in 3
2
1
Duel Commence
The world around them lit up, like a barrier formed in the small circle. 'Time to test out my new weapon.' They both thought at the same time, Lee was the first one to unsheathe his small sword. Sara reached back and a stone formed in their hand.
Swoosh!
Without warning a stone spiraled for Lee's face, Lee lifted the sword barely in time to deflect it. A small ping was heard, but not from the sword. Lee followed up, shoving the sword forward towards Sara. Another ping being heard, left and right they went back and forth.
Sara dodging, sliding left and right throwing stones after stone. Every few times slash marks hitting them, notifications popping up each time.
*Bleed effect
*Bleed effect
*Bleed effect
Lee was getting pelted by stones, he would dodge a few or deflect some. Both of their interfaces were lighting up with notifications and pinging noises like it was some weak fourth of july celebration with sparkles and band snaps/pop pop's. It wasn't until Sara caught Lee straight in the middle of the head did his health hit 5.
*Duel Over
Sara 'Saren' is the winner!
Sara jumped up and down pumping their arms. "Suck it you nerd!" Sara said, giving him the finger. Lee rolled his eyes, the health bar immediately increasing. That's when they both checked all the notifications they were getting.
**System notification
Duel: 10 xp each
Achievements: Why are you hitting yourself? Duel for the first time 50xp
Skill unlocked
Skill unlocked
Skill unlocked
Skill unlocked
The skills they unlocked were a lot, trying new moves and techniques gave different skills and abilities that they could then equip and try in battle. For Lee, he gained. Fast dash, deflect, slash, and for Sara they gained Precision throw, rapid throw, swift dodge.
"I'm naming you butterknife, cause you barely work." Lee said to his short sword.
For a moment they were kind of quiet, before they could actually say anything the system chimed in again.
*Shared Xp initiated
*Level Up!
*Level Up!
Level 3, congratulations!
"Wait, how did we level up? 100 xp for level 2, but we would only have 85 after that?" Lee said, trying to figure up the math in his head, fingers rubbing his temple.
"It said shared xp initiated? Do you think it combines both xp gains into one?"
"Why didn't it do that earlier? We had 25xp yesterday!"
"Maybe because it wasn't enough for a full level?"
"That's the dumbest shit ive ever heard, what game does that!"
"None that I know of, but, maybe that should be exciting and nerve wrecking. What else is this thing capable of?"
Lee and Sara went quiet thinking about it. They sat on the fence post on the road and began browsing the skills and the level ups.
** Lee Dawson
Stats:
Strength: 5 +2 (7 total)
Dexterity: 2
Intelligence: 3
Charisma: 1
Wisdom: 1
Constitution: 4
Stamina: 2
Luck: 1
"Have you seen my stats! What is my Wisdom 1 Charisma too!? Im charismatic you fucker!" Lee shouted at the interface, face turning red, not noticing the luck stat.
** Sara Lin
Stats:
Strength: 2
Dexterity: 5
Intelligence: 5
Charisma: 3
Wisdom: 3
Constitution: 1
Stamina: 3
Luck: 2
"Ha, suck it loser. Only thing I'm weak at is the constitution!" Sara shouted, flipping him off for what felt like the tenth time that evening. Lee rolled his eyes and began playing around with the stats as Sara did too.
"What are you playing?" Lee asked, glancing over at them.
"I'm thinking of doing a long range fighter, you?"
"Thinking tank, already got strength up two from the reward. May pop the 4 we got from leveling up into Strength and constitution."
They were quietly contemplating their build. Each level gave two skill points, seemed a little broken but they wondered if that meant 100 was the max for each stat. While there was no way to really test it or look it up, it didn't seem to be too much of a worry.
"Before you do that, what if we learn that we can dual class? You are full strength and Constitution, but maybe a secondary class option would need dex or intelligence?"
Lee tapped his chin, "Alright you are right. Let's do strength, Con, and Charisma. This way I have access to Paladin secondary classes possibly."
"There you go, thinking ahead, I'm sticking to dex, stamina, but imma also throw a few into intelligence. If there's a wizard or maybe a cool class like that i can merge with. Going for the rogue style."
"Hell yeah!"
The two smiled at each other, Lee placing 2 in Constitution, and 2 in charisma. While Sara placed two in intelligence, one in Dex, and one in stamina. The two of them made their way home, they could feel the skills forming and building inside of them.
Lee, verbally, felt the same but the physical effects it was beginning to take place was astonishing. It was like his stomach was beginning to harden from just the stats he placed already. Sara on the other hand, felt like their brain was running at tremendous speeds, already faster than what they were used to.
The two couldn't help but to look at each other with a smile, "I'm tired of being nobodies." Lee said, Sara began grinning. "Then let's go into the grind." They said cracking their knuckles.