"Besides, you'll need more than just magic to survive the outside world, you need at least some combat ability," Adam added as he let go of my collar.
I let out a sigh, "Yeah, I guess you're right… Still, I don't know what weapon to choose, I guess I have a dagger but that seems like more of a sneaky weapon rather than an oh-my-god-there's-a-bear-chasing-me type of weapon." I replied.
"Yeah, I guess you have a point, plus I'd have no way of teaching you anything about fighting with a dagger… what do you think about ranged weapons?" Adam asked.
"I guess that'd be best, I don't think I could take too many sword slashes as I am right now…" I commented looking at my petite form.
"Yeah, but a bow would be useless in close combat, a crossbow is a decent mix but the amount of fiddling with it to reload it could be too much…" Adam thought about the different types of ranged weapons.
"Blowpipe?" He suggested.
"No way man, that would look really stupid," I replied.
"It's not all about looks…- no you're right it would look stupid…" Adam ended up agreeing with me.
A few seconds of silent contemplation passed.
"..."
"..."
"Man, I wish we had guns here…" I commented.
"Yeah…" Adam replied
"..."
"..."
"Wait a minute!" I exclaimed, "I could make a gun with magic!" I explained.
"That's genius… but you'd have to carry a ton of ammunition on you at all times… ... ... I know!" Adam exclaimed.
"What is it?" I asked.
"There is this one blacksmith I know, we'll ask him to make the weapon from a blueprint, of your creation," Adam said, he sounded excited about the idea of a gun in this world.
"I don't see how this solves our ammo problem…" I replied.
"Don't worry about it, I have an idea for that. The real question is if you can make a blueprint of a gun." Adam replied.
"I saw a lot of TV shows talking about how stuff is made, but the only one I can really remember in any detail is a revolver," I explained.
"Yeah, that should work, I'll bring you some paper,"
Adam said as he left the living room, he headed to his bedroom where he returned from with a small stack of what looked like old, stained paper, he placed it in front of me and then handed me a piece of black chalk… or was is charcoal? I'm not sure, but I know it felt terrible in my hands, it's like how some people hate the sounds of a fork scratching a plate, I hate the feeling of chalk.
And so began my long task of trying to sketch out a blueprint of a gun, that I only saw a few times.
Later that night Adam entered the dimly lit living room, he saw me sitting on the couch and perfecting the sketch. "Still working on it?" Adam asked with a sympathetic voice.
"Yeah, I guess I don't want it exploding in my face," I replied with an exhausted yawn.
Adam laughed at that comment.
"Shut it, perv," I replied sarcastically.
Adam went over to the fridge, I wasn't quite sure how it worked, but he said he essentially cheated while making the fridge by using magic ice that never melts.
Adam opened the fridge revealing the variety of vegetables and fruits, along with some raw meat and a few small shelves, Adam opened on of the shelves and inside were several vials of a bright yellow liquid.
He took out two of them and placed one on the table before me, "Here, they're like homemade energy drinks." Adam explained.
Without questioning anything at this point, I grabbed the vial and downed it in an instant.
"I was going to say that for a person your current size you'd only need one-third of a vial, but okay." Adam was trying not to laugh as he downed his vial and sat down on the couch next to me.
"It's alright, I didn't need my liver anyway," I replied not taking my eyes off the page.
"So this is how you make a gun?" Adam asked looking at the scribbles before him.
"I think so, that said making ammo is a whole different problem, we'd need saltpetre, charcoal and sulphur," I explained.
"Were you a terrorist or something back on earth?!" Adam laughed.
"No, man. I told you I just watch a lot of TV." I explained waving my hand dismissively.
"Is that so…" Adam replied leaning back on the couch.
A few hours earlier - far from Adam's house...
The pitter-patter of rain masked Lily's wet footsteps.
She headed to one of the outer districts of the capital city of the human country - Excersia.
The large crossbow she wore on her back covered by the fur cloak she wore.
A man sitting under a roof of what looked like an inn sat down - he was rubbing his hands to warm up whilst smoking a pipe, Lily headed towards the shelter provided by the roof and stood with her back pressed against the wall of the inn.
"You waiting for someone?" the man asked in a raspy voice - "No - just waiting for the weather to clear up," she replied,
After a while of silence Lily let out a sneeze - and as if the man was waiting for his cue - he asked "Need a handkerchief?" he extended his hand holding out a piece of cloth folded into a neat square.
"Thanks," Lily replied opening up the handkerchief revealing a detailed portrait of a person, as well as time and location - the folded it up and pretended to wipe her hose before handing it back to the man.
"Thanks,".
"Anytime," he replied in a sudden, sombre tone before heading back into the building - minutes later Lily left, walking down towards the alley and using boost to jump up onto the roof of one of the buildings - she took out her corssbow - moved the quiver from her back to her side, counting about a dozen bolts, she loaded a bolt into the crossbow and waited for the person to appear.
Moments later a group of armoured soldiers walked out and lined up into a rectangular shape - she noticed they were standing next to the tunnels which she planned to use as an escape route - that shouldn't be a problem though - there are a few other ways out of the city.
In front of the group walked out another armoured guard - this one wore what looked like a cloak on top of their armour and had a different helmet shape.
"So that's him..." Lily mumbled remembering the description given on the handkerchief - "A well built, adult male with a pale complexion and considerable facial hair - a captain who was planning to act against orders for whatever reason."
"A-alright - I'm afraid the captain is a bit late today...so I'll be filling in for him until he shows up..." the timid voice of a younger man spoke, Lily lowered the crossbow when she heard that - she hoped the captain would show up soon - "Since the prince's faction has mysteriously vanished a few days ago - all the higher-ups are scrambling to keep things running..." the man explained.
The man started reading something off a piece of paper which he sheltered from the rain with one arm, Lily was busy thinking about why the captain of the guard would betray their orders - it's a good job - pays way more than working as a hitman and or hitwoman
.
"-Oh, and here he is..." the man announced stepping aside letting a larger looking armoured figure walk up - this one had larger shoulder pads, a flowing blue cape and a breastplate that must have left loads of room inside.
The figure spoke up "Good to see this many men signed up for the mission." the voice was deep and Lily instantly imagined the speaker to look like the portrait on the handkerchief.
She aimed the crossbow up at the man, waiting for the right moment to strike so that the bolt would fly through the eye hole in the helm - "Y-yes. that's our new recruit from Arneval - always glad to see more people from the north join the military!" the man explained before the man who spoke before left to line up with the rest of the soldiers - looking slightly out of place due to his sheer size.
Suddenly the sound of a carriage cut through the sound of rain - as it pulled up to the men - a person dressed in bright gold armour stepped out - red gems decorated their armour such that it sparkled even in the rain.
"Ok - he's clearly an important person - though he's a little too fancy for a captain..." Lily though as the person walked up to the front and cleared his throat revealing a soft angelic voice - "Uh - hey. I'm here on behalf of the church of the four gods - and I'd like to take a second of your time to talk about our holy order..." Lily felt a shiver up her spine as the man spoke.
"So - like, as you all know, it's commonplace for knights to become paladins, and to do that they have to join an order - and I'm here because our order is actually - like - really low on members..." the man spoke making exaggerated gestures.
"So - if any of you are interested in joining the celibate order - please raise your hand..." the man waited for any response - eventually the large man who recently joined the rows of soldiers raised his and - "Ah - glad to see someone interested!" the man exclaimed to which the figure replied "No - it's just... I wanted to ask a question." he replied.
"Oh - well, go ahead!" the man exclaimed giving the man a thumbs up.
"What does celibate mean, exactly?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Umm...it's like...just this thing...we are..." the man was uncertain how to reply and so just handed out some leaflets which the soldiers took out of pity before leaving.
"W-well...that was an interesting person..." the man in the front announced - "I think that's all the big stuff - now we're just waiting for the captain and - oh there he is!" the man stepped aside as the normal-looking man walked out in front of the men - his face looked exactly like the portrait - Lily aimed at the man who wasn't wearing a helmet - and pulled the trigger - the bolt shot towards the man and as Lily was ready to see the area coated in a crimson shower - nothing happened.
Uncertain of what happened Lily loaded another bolt and shot again - looking at it closely she noticed it was getting hit from somewhere else - she looked around seeing another cloaked figure standing at the opposite rooftop - it was a man holding a slingshot, he too was aiming for the captain.
Appalled by his rude behaviour Lily loaded the crossbow again and shot him a warning shot which he shot down in mid-air with one of the rocks he used as ammunition for the slingshot.
The man shot her an angry look before quickly pulling back the slingshot - Lily was an expert but there was no way she could load a crossbow as fast as he can with a slingshot - she saw the rock fly towards the oblivious captain before once again it disappeared - both Lily and the man were in shock - he looked up at her and Lily just shrugged they looked around seeing a girl with a longbow in her hand standing on the roof next Lily.
Lily started pointing at herself and making the sticking up her index finger as if to say "I was first." the girl nodded and placed an arrow into the bow and shot it at Lily - the arrow was quickly stopped by the man's slingshot - the bow-girl now looked over to him with a 'what gives' look to which the man gestured a knock one he head as if to say 'Are you crazy!?'.
The bow girl replied by pointing at Lily, gesturing the number one - then pointing at the captain and gesturing the number two.
Fed up with the confusion the man tried to shoot the captain once more - this time none of the string-based weapon users could reload in time - his projectile was stopped once again - confused he looked around - both of the girls sighed - that's when the man spotted another hooded figure with a blowpipe standing very close to the captain - Lily panicked realising she might lose her target - the man quickly reached for the next stone to load but the bow-girl was one step ahead of them and already fired her projectile - the arrow flew like the wind - cutting through the rain and penetrating her target's skull.
The bow girl looked at Lily and the man on the other side with a blank expression before giving them a thumbs up - Lily looked over realising she didn't shoot the captain - but rather the blowpipe guy who was now laying on the ground dead.
The two assassins shook their heads violently as if to silently scold the bow-girl for her actions to which she just sat down on the roof - seemingly upset.
Lily looked over to the slingshot guy - he gestured at himself, then the captain, then Lily than the captain - they both get a shot at killing him.
Lily thought about it and just as she was about to agree a massive rock flew in from somewhere - it was at least two meters in diameter.
Almost in slow motion Lily, bow-girl and slingshot-guy looked over to see a cloaked figure standing far beyond the walls of the district with a trebuchet - they quickly looked back to the rock seeing it crumble into pieces - they squinted to see what caused it shocked to see that not only was it the blowpipe person - arrow still in their head - but also the soldiers didn't seem to have noticed the boulder being hurled and then broken in their general area.
"Did he just break a boulder with a blowdart?" the bow-girl asked blankly causing Lily and the slingshot-guy to put their index fingers to their lips - but it was too late - the soldiers heard her (but not the boulder) - "Who's there?!" the captain demanded before him and several of the soldiers were crushed by the trebuchet's boulders.
The bow-girl and slingshot man ran away almost instantly - the blowpipe guy stumbled away - trying to remove the arrow from his head but it was stuck.
The surviving soldiers fled - seeing this Lily took her opportunity and jumped off the roof and ran into the tunnel.
A massive collection of tunnels under about half of the city - they are long since abandoned - and are used by various shady people thanks to that fact.
Heading down the wet, slimy stairs made of large stone bricks which became worn over the years of water dripping from the ceiling.
Lily took a deep breath now that she was in the clear - that said the tunnels were completely dark without a torch, Lily could have cast a light spell - but for all she knew she could have been followed down here, she decided that as long as she sticks to the walls she'll be fine.
Suddenly she felt a cold breeze - that wasn't all that abnormal in the big open tunnels - but it was accompanied by a tap - Lily realising it could be a tunnel-rat turned around - they won't stalk prey that seems lively.
After what felt like a few minutes of silence Lily turned around and started walking only to bump into something big and cold - it felt like dry sack filled with tightly packed flesh - after falling to the ground she stood back up - hearing more tapping behind her, although now it resembled scuttling - she rushed towards the exit - hearing the noise come closer and closer - the occasional breeze became a constant stream of cold air which surrounded her.
Seeing the light now within her grasp Lily felt her leg grabbed by what felt like a coiling ring of sharp teeth - she created a bright white circle in the palm of her hand - for a second the light illuminated the disgusting creature, it looked like massive maggot - with grey hide and several unevenly-sized legs - several of these legs were pressed down on her leg - the razorblade like teeth digging into her flesh.
The creature recoiled from the light - thrashing as it returned into the darkness still clutching her leg.
"Boost!" she exclaimed as a blue circle appeared on the sole of her boot launching her towards the exit seemingly safe now she stumbled out - the throbbing pain from the severely damaged leg was hard to ignore - it was bad with the adrenaline but by the time she made it into the forest outside Adam's house she passed out, hearing footsteps coming closer as she did.
Back at Adam's house he and I were done with the blueprints, Adam was trying a new batch of his pseudo-tea while I was making another attempt at the language, I made Adam only speak in the language to me so I'm forced to learn it.
"So, how are you?" Adam slowly pronounced the words so that I could understand.
"yes." I replied not understanding a single word other than 'you'.
"Oh, you're getting better!" Adam exclaimed.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yeah, last time I asked you how are you, you replied with 'no' so I'd say this is a step in a positive direction," Adam explained sarcastically.
"Very funny," I replied equally sarcastically.
A knock came on the door followed by the voice of the older dryad, Cloe.
"Come in!" Adam said as he made his way to the door, he only now realised it was getting bright outside.
Adam opened the door seeing the two dryads, Cloe and Al, holding what looked like an improvised stretcher made from sticks and large leaves, on the stretched lay the injured Lily seemingly unconscious.
"We found her bleeding outside of the forest and remembered she comes here sometimes so we decided we should bring her here."
"Is she alive?!" Adam inquired nervously.
"Yeah, we closed her wounds with some special roots but she'll need to remove them as soon a possible," Cloe replied.
Adam clicked his tongue as he heard the news and sighed, "Oh well, I guess it can't be helped."
Adam took the disturbingly pale Lily off the stretcher and carried her to his room over his shoulder. "Looks like I'm sleeping on the couch today." Adam sighed before turning back to the dryads standing in the door.
"Thanks for helping her out, I'll make sure she'll buy you some snacks once she's back to normal," Adam said with a smile.
The two dryads exchanged an excited look before turning back to Adam. "Great, then we'll get going now," Cloe said as they both waved bye to Adam, who once again did the same.
"Move over, I want to go to sleep," Adam said as he sat down on the couch.
"Just go to sleep in your room, man," I replied.
"There is no way in hell I'm sleeping in the same room as that psychopath," Adam replied with a yawn.
I got off the bed and decided to head to sleep too, as I fell onto my bed I awaited the moment when I'll pass out… but I didn't.
"Damn it, I can't sleep…" I groaned to myself, it must have been that energy drink I got from Adam.
What the hell am I supposed to do… I don't want to be asleep while Adam does all the cool things… I guess all in all I can't give out that much about this world, it's more violent, there is a crossbow-wielding murderer sleeping next door, I've lived with a tea obsessed adopted father of two grass people who are out in the day doing stuff with a literal camp of barbarians…it's a hell of a lot more interesting than life on Earth... most lives for that matter...
I never realised when I fell asleep, I woke up to strong rays of light outside my window, I looked outside expecting to see the usual scenery but instead I saw large patches of dead grass, the tree leaves were turning brown and falling off mid-summer, Adam was right about this not looking like a natural phenomenon.
I made my way to the living room where Adam was sitting, already awake.
"Sup…" I asked - my tone the usual morning end-me-now tone.
"Aside from crippling back pain, I'm good," Adam replied, I saw he was fiddling with a few vials of the energy drink in his hand.
"You shouldn't drink too many of them y'know." I told him with a sigh.
"Yeah, yeah, I know mom," Adam said with a defeated chuckle.
"Did you check on Lily?" I asked him.
"Nope, sleep is very important for the body to regenerate, besides it's not like she could be hurt that badly…" Adam said in a reassuring voice.
I rummaged through the shelves in the kitchen for the ingredients I'd assemble into some breakfast.
"Make me something too!" Adam said without even bothering to look towards the kitchen.
"Fine, what do you want?" I asked, I already had something in mind.
"I'm good with whatever, really." He called back.
"Alright."
I never really got the appeal of cooking back on Earth, I mean what's the point of putting effort into something that's going to get eaten? Like what's the point of ice sculptures…unless you live on the north pole or something - that said humanity was doing it's best to melt that place too last time I was on Earth so the metaphor might break down in twenty years or something, however recently I gave cooking a shot, I started off with some scrambled egg, than I slowly got onto more and more complicated things, I've yet to burn down the house so I'd say I'm doing fairly well.
In a bowl, I mixed together two cups of flour, some salt, some sugar… I think I was meant to add baking powder…or was it baking soda?... what's the difference anyway?! either way we don't have any.
Next, in a separate bowl I beat a few eggs, I added a splash of milk and mixed it into the flour mixture. Allegedly you're not supposed to over-mix it, but whoever came up with that rule has too much time on their hands and is trying to complicate cooking for us normal people…
(After all the pancakes came out pretty tough so maybe I should have mixed them less…)
I served the pancakes with some butter like they do on TV, there were exactly ten pancakes so I decided I'd serve three per person, that's including Lily, leaving us with one I was hoping to bring to the dryads to try, if they like it than I'd take them into account when making pancakes, for all I know they could be starving out there…
Or maybe I just like seeing people eating my food
"Here you go," I said placing the plated pancakes in front of Adam with a fork, I also put my ones down with a fork next to his, I then headed to Adam's room to bring some food to Lily.
I opened the door only to see Lily in a euphoric state of bliss laying on the bed rolling around in what I assumed were Adam's clothes.
We made quick eye contact before I placed the food down on the floor and slowly backed out of the room.
As I re-entered the living room I saw Adam finishing off his second pancake.
"Is she awake?" Adam asked.
"...y-yeah…don't go in there for a while…she's changing…or something…" I walked into the kitchen and grabbed the large pancaked with some melted butter and placed it in a wooden box resembling a primitive lunch-box.
"Are you going somewhere?" Adam asked seeing me walking towards the door, a look of disgust still on my face after the image of Lily which lingered in my head.
"Yeah… I'm going to bring a pancake for the dryads to try out… you can have my ones… I lost my apatite." I said as I closed the door and made my way down the path to the dryad's forest.
Adam shrugged and slid my plate over to his side.
On my way I made sure to inspect the plant life around the forest, it seemed to be doing alright when it came to plants but I heard significantly fewer insects than usual, than again I'd consider that a good thing, insects and owls are the spawn of evil…and jellyfish. I mean come on they literally don't have a heart.
"Hey, dryads!" I called out, out from a bush shot out the two heads of Cloe and Al.
"Yes?" Cloe asked in an excited voice.
"I've got some food I'd like you to try, if you'll like it I'll bring you it more often," I said, I'm not good with kids so I just tried to speak as nicely as possible, not to mention my grasp of the language is still imperfect, and I didn't want to be so dependent on English, since I could only communicate with a hand-full of people with it.
"Food?" Al the smallest dryad asked looking over to the box I was holding.
"Yep… so I guess I'll just…leave it down here." I said placing the wooden box down and pushing it in their general direction.
"Thanks…eh….sorry, what's your name?" Cloe asked she was squinting her eyes as if she was trying to recall my non-existent name.
"Yeah, I don't have a name… I couldn't pick one so I decided to stay nameless." I explained.
"Oh, I see… so what should we call you?" Cloe asked although Al's attention was clearly drawn to the box.
"Ehm… I don't mind what you go with." I replied.
"Anyway, just bring the box back whenever," I said with a shrug as I made my way back up to the house, thankfully the awkwardness of that encounter successfully wiped the image of Lily in a pile of Adam's clothes out of my mind.
"Did they like it?" Adam asked, returning from the kitchen, presumably after washing the dishes.
"I dunno', I'm not good with kids and the whole conversation was a bit awkward so I left ASAP."
With a loud crash, Lily left Adam's room and stumbled her way into the Living room.
"Feeling better? Perhaps feeling good enough to let me sleep in my room? Eh?" Adam spoke with a wry expression.
"Y-yes. I'm sorry about all this… I need to tell you something… in private…" She glanced at me for a second before continuing to stare at Adam.
"Alright, I got the message," I said, hands raised in the air lazily before leaving to the bathroom.
Little did Lily know I was still listening to everything through the closed door.
"What did you want to tell me?" Adam spoke in a tone suggesting he was annoyed and tired at the same time, most likely from sleeping on the couch.
"There is something wrong in Exversia," Lily explained.
"Aside from a few bars, nothing is right in that city…" Adam replied half sarcastically and half realistically.
"That's not what I mean! There were dozens of these…humanoids in the tunnels beneath the city, they were pale and violent!" Lily rebuked,
"Yeah, I believe you… that said that is the description of a vast majority of the people who live in Exversia." Adam replied.
"I'm telling you, they felt wrong… what kind of people collect in the tunnels beneath a city, in such large groups before trying to stab them to death?!" Lily demanded.
"Drug addicts and drug dealers, that describes about fifty to seventy percent of that city's-" Adam was interrupted this time.
"FINE, I'll go back alone!" Lily stomped out of the building shutting the door behind her and walking off down to the path, past the dryads and past the monster hunter camp.
I left the bathroom, "Do you really hate her that much?" I asked sitting down on the couch.
"If I didn't, I would have told her to remove the stitched from the would or they'll decompose inside," Adam replied.
"Christ man that's dark… but admirable… in a twisted way." I replied.
"Don't worry about her, she's an idiot, but she's an idiot with a lot of survival experience, I'm not sure why she felt like she needed to tell me this but, hey…women," Adam said as he leaned back on the couch.
I didn't say anything and just leaned back too.
"So how did you meet Lily anyway?" I asked eventually.
"It's a bit of a boring story… I can tell by your behaviour that it's the same gown ass, albeit lazy and unmotivated man inside that body of yours, but for the rest of us, and by that I mean us that remember Earth, we usually only remember it later on in life, and sometimes we can dismiss it as a fantasy altogether."
"Thing is, my childhood was all sorts of messed up, it's not like I'm refusing to talk about it because I'm scared by it or something, I just don't want people to think I'm selling them a sob story for some sympathy," Adam explained.
"Don't worry about it man, I would never dream of giving you any sympathy," I said reassuringly, yet sarcastically.
"Basically, my parents were really big fans of magic, I mean like send your son abroad to study magic from the age of seven in a super fancy school and disown him when you find out he's only slightly above average," Adam emphasized the word slightly.
"In other words, I went from living like a snobby noble to living on the streets, granted a few years later I got picked up by the monster hunters and I guess you could say my life's been going pretty well from that point on…except you know…"
I nodded.
"I guess I had a bit of a hero complex, not that I walked around in a cape or anything like that, but I liked acting like the selfless hero… I guess nobody suffered from that act so it's not like I regret it."
"I wasn't exactly back to eating fancy cheeses and drinking vintage wine, but I made a decent living with the monster hunters, every week or at-least whenever I could I would walk down to Exversia, the big capital city round' here and if there were some homeless kids I'd buy them some bread and soup or just hand them some money. I stopped giving money to adults after I met this one homeless man who kept trying to beg me for money and immediately going off to get drunk, I felt betrayed, man."
"Keep in mind I was kind of sore after my parents backstabbed me, so it's fair to say I wasn't exactly all that rational."
Adam began telling his story…
It began when I was sixteen or seventeen, I did my usual tour of the streets when I saw a new face, or rather a new head since the face was planted obscured as the figure was sitting in a foetal position, with dirty white hair and bruised feet and hands.
"Hey, are you alright?" I asked, ready to hear out the tragic back story and comfort the poor soul oh-so-heroically.
The pale, dirty face of the perv we all know and sometimes tolerate looked up at me, she was a bit younger than me at the time…and most likely still is.
She didn't say anything and just went back to silently sobbing, my first reaction was oh well, guess the hero act would be wasted on her, there weren't any people around to praise my heroism so I just left her there.
Next week, unsurprisingly, she was still there.
"Hey, I remember you!" I said as I approached the girl, sitting in the same place as before, granted she looked even worse than before.
She looked up at me again and again didn't say anything.
"Y'know you'd get more money if you interacted with the people," I said not quite sounding upset, but more disappointed.
"I don't want your stupid money." The person we now call Lily said.
I was shocked by this, maybe she wanted to starve to death or something? I got pretty depressed when I was left alone.
That was the first time in a very long time that I was speaking genuinely to someone outside of the monster hunter camp.
"Damn, this place looks like shit…" I commented.
She didn't say anything…
"Are you really all that sad?" I asked.
"of course…my parent…and my brother…they're…" Lily's voice became shakier until it became impossible to understand and I just got confused and left.
Next week, I walked past the same stops, as usual, go to the east side and visit the orphanage ran by the old man, he'd always go on about how generous I am… I didn't get a chance to listen to his praise this time, I had somewhere to be… Lily was once again my last stop.
I saw her there, in her usual spot, this time no longer sitting in the foetal position, but rather just sitting pressed against the wall of the building, the same rags she wore up until now, getting dirtier every time.
"You know, starvation is a pretty crappy way to go…" I said handing Lily a piece of bread I pretended to have got for breakfast and instead selflessly gave it to her, in reality, I just got it specifically to look good, I'm not sure for who…before you ask I wasn't interested and am still not interested in her, but I guess I felt good just putting on this façade.
She meekly took the bread, at first it was a small bite and before I knew it I watched her eat the whole thing before standing up and leaving.
It was only on my way out of there that I realised "Holy crap I didn't wait for her to thank me…" now you may think this inspired me to be a better person or something, but in reality, it was like a genuine cherry atop my cake of lies.
I kept up my ritual, I started realising Lily was looking worse and worse every day, not only was she horrifically thin, but she was looking bruised as well, this was something that the heroic I couldn't…care less about…
That said, I found myself looking for a justification to help, I was up all night in the camp, which was located near the city back then, and once I decided that if she'd see me heroically saving her from whoever was attacking her, surely she'd give in and praise me as the glorious saviour I obviously am, I was able to plan what I'd do the next day.
I went to the city one day earlier, and after I ran all my stops, I made my way to where Lily usually sat, there I saw the sight that haunted me for a long time, it was Lily, being held by the throat, a gentle stream of blood trickling from her mouth and nose.
"Why can't you manage to get money like the other kids, you brat!?" The man demanded landing a punch to her gut.
But this was not what scared me, it wasn't the blood or the sight of four grown men beating this defenceless girl, it was that split second when I looked at her and she looked back, that short exchange of eye contact… but what was I to do, this wasn't one man… this wasn't one teenager… these were four grown-ass men…they could have had weapons…and so I did nothing… I fled.
What was I supposed to do?….
Never once have I felt worse, not when my family disowned me, not when I ended up living on the streets for years, and not when I tried to drown myself in the canal to be done with this world…
This was a different brand of pain, this was the pain of helplessness.
Not even the next day, that night I went back to the city and headed to that alley.
I saw that same, white-haired girl rolled up in a ball of sadness, laying on the street and I couldn't explain the feeling I felt… It wasn't pity or regret…well maybe some regret…no I felt rage, a blood-lust, unlike anything I felt before.
I didn't know what to say, I sat down in that muck and dirt and mud beside her, took off my fur coat and threw it over to her.
At first, she didn't react.
"You'll get sick…" she said, sniffling as she said it.
"Nope, I can't," I replied plainly.
I sat there for the several hours, I saw the moon above me, the whole time I was looking for a way to apologise, screw the hero act I thought, if I needed to get on my knees in the mud to apologise I would.
"Why are you doing this?" She asked, sitting up slowly and placing her back against the wall.
She placed half of the coat she was using as a blanket to cover me up, but it ended up with it only being able to reach around to one of my legs.
"I'm sorry about before…" I said I felt a tightness in my throat as I said that.
"I-it's alright…you have nothing to be sorry for…in fact you're too nice to someone you don't even know…" for the first time since I saw her, she spoke with a smile albeit a sad one.
"You're wrong… it's not because I was nice…I just wanted to feel good about being nice…" I replied It took all the manliness I had left in me not to start crying there and then.
"Then why are you here?" Lily asked with a half-smile.
"..."
I wasn't sure how to respond, I knew why I was there… but the truth was I genuinely wanted to help this poor (literally and figuratively poor ) girl, but my mind at the time couldn't comprehend such pure thoughts on my behalf and so I replied, "I don't know…"
After some silence Lily spoke up, "Thank you." she said, leaning her head onto my shoulder, at the time, that that was pretty sweet, nowadays I gotta' lock my windows at night or she'll sneak into the house…
I waited until morning, "Thanks for staying with me for the night… and thanks for letting me use that coat… you should go back home now." Lily tried her best to make a full smile.
"I will, soon," I replied.
It must have become clear to her what I planned to do at this point because she grabbed a hold of my hand.
"Don't do anything stupid, those men…they said if I do something stupid they'll track me down and kill me and everyone around me…" Lily pleaded.
"Really?" I asked, "How would they find you?" I asked.
Lily lifted the dirty rage of a dress-up slightly revealing a seal, it's like a tattoo that does magic stuff.
I put a hand on Lily's forehead wiping away some of the dirt, "I promise if you're ever in trouble again, just let me know and I'll help you out." I said.
I grabbed Lily by the hand, "I have a plan." I said as I dragged Lily out the city and back to my home, that being the monster hunter camp, you may think that they may have had a problem with my plan but nope, if nothing else those monster hunters are fiercely loyal, when I told them my friend was in trouble they just asked how they could help and I mean every last one.
For the next few days Lily lived with us, there was a fair share of women in the group so it wasn't as awkward for her as it could have been.
They got her new clothes and whatnot.
Every day until the fourth night Lily was clearly nervous, she must have wanted to escape but I explained the situation about her being threatened to Darthold (yes he was still in charge back then too) and he agreed we need to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't run away until the plan is complete.
That night, we saw a few men with torches approach the camp, there must have been ten of them or so, they walked into the camp, their laughing and sniggering stopped very quickly as we lit the lights in the camp revealing the fact they were surrounded by a small army of armoured, muscular men with axes and swords, they tried to turn to run but the exit was also blocked off.
I won't lie, we were a bit sadistic at the time but we killed every last one of them.
The next morning Lily was told that they wouldn't bother her anymore, and long story short she thanked us - I asked Darthold if it'd be alright for her to stay with us, he was alright with it, she agreed and…yeah… that's about it.
Adam finished telling his story.
"...damn you were a dick as a kid." was my only comment on the story, that said that whole story explained why Lily was so into Adam, I won't stroke his ego but I think he acted pretty heroic towards the end.
"Anyway… I'm not sure what she's on about now, something about spooky monsters in the tunnels." Adam made a wriggly motion with his fingers like when people try to show something really isn't scary.
"Damn, man… Nevertheless, I think you should go check it out, you did promise her you'd help her out." I replied.
"...I hate how right you are sometimes, you know that." Adam said that with a straight face, and a hint of disappointment and annoyance in his voice.
Adam got off the couch and headed to the fridge to get some drink, aside from his tea obsession he also tried to recreate some other drinks like orange juice and lemon juice, granted some of those fruits exist here but unlike earth a lot of them haven't been cross-bred to taste like they do, for example, the melons here are the size of a fist and actually taste like ass, and lemons don't even exist.
I've proven with my tea and cola experiment before that I can create things I remember the taste and texture of here, there are some limitations though, I was never a health freak back on earth so I never read the labels on the backs of stuff, in other words even if I remember the taste of some multi-vitamin, I can't create it here with the same properties as back on earth.
Adam stood in front of the open fridge as he looked around for anything he'd want.
"I guess I should go over and check…but nowadays Lily'd most likely be able to kick my ass if she wanted… in fair combat at least." Adam said he was trying to justify his inaction.
"I'd go… but I don't have my guns yet…" While this was my excuse for not going, it wasn't wrong, if there was actually something down there I'd be dead weight.
Meanwhile, far below the city of Exversia - through the maze of chambers and tunnels - some flooded or infested with sewer rats, stood the massive compound - in the massive room, almost as big as a lake - the building stood on massive metal stilts almost resembling an oil-platform.
The light from it illuminated the massive area, like a candle in a massive empty room - who knows what stirred below - in the cold, dark waters.
The silence of the darkness was contrasted by the loud footsteps of the people walking on the platform - the sound came from several armoured men and people from the mage-wing of the military.
The military defaults wore heavy iron armour - with short capes and shields, the mage variant wore black trousers, a dark greed greatcoat with thick sleeves, tall black leather boots with metal plates over the toes.
The robes also had a hood - most people chose to wear it, along with the rarely equipped gloves to stay warm in the cold conditions of what they called the under-lake.
In total five people were moving across the metal platform - two mages, two military defaults and a more heavily clothed figure, a woman - looking like she was in her mid to late twenties - aside from the greatcoat, puffier trousers and bigger boots and gloves, she also wore a beret - her hair tied into a ponytail.
While different ranks in the military did have different badges for their ranks - their hats were at all points of the rank-ladder, just decorational.
The group made their way through the platform towards a large wooden door, reinforced with metal plates, the woman in the lead opened the door revealing what looked like a laboratory.
Inside the laboratory sad a man with black hair, it was messy.
"Hey, boss…" the man's words sounded tried - as if he either just woke up or was ready to fall asleep at any moment.
"Charles…" the person he referred to as boss replied almost as a greeting.
"What brings you down here?" Charles was sitting on a black spiny chair - something not typically found in this world, on the right side of the room ran a long, unbroken line of desks with boxes of papers and pencils.
"Well - aside from looking for a certain escapee-" she raised her voice as she said escapee, "- I'm here to get the progress-report, I had to come get it earlier because the higher-ups want it spell-checked this time…"
Charles looked a little embarrassed - "Sorry about that, still going through a bit of a rough patch with the language…"
She let out a sight "Regardless - I'm also here because - as hard as it is to believe - the general of our military, a person currently holding one-third of the power over all of our military strength is skipping work." as she talked she walked over to another spinny chair - turning it to reveal a white-haired man, who looked like he was in his mid-forties - he looked thin and lanky, with small dots for eyes - dressed in the same uniform as the woman except he also more a scarf, he was holding a white mug filled with a light brown liquid, it was steaming - that's what gave away his position.
His expression was still slightly shocked - "Yo…"
"Hot chocolate?" he asked moving the mug over to the woman who looked like she was about ready to choke him.
"I can't believe you… DRINKING HOT CHOCOLATE WHILE WE'RE ON THE BRINK OF WAR?!"
Charles, looking guilty quickly moved the mug sitting on the side of his desk down under the desk.
"We have tea too…"
"GET YOUR ASS BACK UP TO THE OFFICE!"
He leaned back on his chair, taking a sip of the hot chocolate - "I'm entitled to thirty days off annually."
"THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO THINK ABOUT YOUR HOL - wait, how many days off do you get?!" the woman's tone shifted dramatically.
"Thirty days, the perks of being a general."
"..."
"N-Never-mind that! You can't be slacking off now!"
"I'm doing no such thing… " his tone switched to a more serious one.
"I've been working on something big down here for a few days now - it's all about to come together…" he explained.
"...what is it?" she was starting to get concerned - "What is this big secret - what if it's classified? …Do I want to know?" she thought,
Without saying anything, them man turned in his chair, pulled out a folder and opened it, as he placed it on the table a picture slid out from the inside."What is it?"
"It's an image of the central mountains - specifically the big one in the middle, " he explained.
"Is something wrong with it?"
"I'm afraid so… it's all been slowly coming together over the last few days - I had to get Charles over there to help me out with it…"
He pointed to the middle of the picture - "see this little house?"
"Yes…"
"I don't know which piece goes where…" he said pointing at the roof.
Confused she looked closer realising this was not, in fact, a picture, it was a jigsaw puzzle.
"...are you playing with jigsaw puzzles down here instead of doing your job? And you dare call it work?"
"I told you, I'm on holiday - I'm just saying that I am in fact doing something," he explained.
"The roof takes up two pieces - but the two roof bits are interchangeable - so I don't know where to put which one… this is driving me mad…"
With the speed of a titan, he dodged a series of blows from the now irritated woman.
"Stop it! You're making a mess!" a different person ran over - it was a woman - seemingly an intern or some sort of apprentice - she rushed over, picking up sheets of paper which were blown off the tables thanks to the fighting.
"A new part-timer?" the woman asked with a raised eyebrow,
"Something like that - she just walked in here one day demanding a job - this is a secret military base so it's either giving her a job or execution so…" Charles' reply left the woman confused - she looked Issac, the general to ask if that's really a good idea but he was already busy getting input from the part-timer on how to determine which jigsaw bit goes where…
"ISSAC!"
Issac sighed - "Fine, I'll go back to the office…" he let out a sigh before walking out "Which teleporter takes you to the castle?"
"We had to close that one - take the green one - it's the closest," Charles explained.
Issac nodded and walked away only to poke his head in through the door and say "I'll be back once she leaves…" to Charles who just gave him a silent thumbs-up.
"ANYWAY… I'm going to need that report now," she explained.
"Charles, who is this woman?" the part-timer asked discretely,
"Ehh… that's eh…"
Charles looked towards her - "What's your rank again? I'm bad with that stuff."
"It's Lieutenant-General…" she replied seemingly upset with Charles for forgetting.
"Yeah - so she's like… four ranks below Issac?" Charles said uncertainly.
"Three actually, also - you shouldn't refer to your superiors by their first name…"
"We have to - it's an order." Charles shrugged.
"...let me guess… the general's orders?"
"Right."
"Now - the reports…" Charles stood up patting his pockets and checking the shelves before turning to the intern - "Be a dear and bring me the top-secret reports for me from the office, alright?" Charles tossed her the keyring with a small skull key-chain.
She caught the key and replied with an "O-kay!" then she headed out the door and rushed to the office.
"..."
"..."
"Seriously if you want some hot chocolate, I can get you some." Charles offered, thinking that was the reason for the awkward silence.
"...you just handed the office keys… to a stranger… and tasked a part-timer and a stranger with bringing top secret info!"
"How much damage can a kid cause?" Charles shrugged.
"You mean aside from accidentally releasing the you-know-what or leaking secret information."
"It was Issac's suggestion, you know…"
"The fact our general would do something like this is even more concerning than if you did…" she said in defeat before hearing the door open loudly as the part-timer returned with a notepad filled with various papers.
The mood in the room changed slightly as the part-timer handed the Lieutenant General the notepad - "As you can see, we continued expanding the serum - from the looks of it every vial we get can be expanded to about fifteen-hundred percent of its original size without changing its effect on living things…" Charles started explaining the results of the recent experiments.
"As usual, none survived the process - however unlike the first few batches - we've managed to keep these in human-form consistently."
"There is no greater difference between the elven, dwarven or human subjects - the animal-people seem to struggle longer before turning, but the end result is the same."
"Let's see… attempting to place them in a tool has shown some promise at first - before it was discovered that the souls were being attached to the bacteria covering the blade and not the blade itself."
"So the souls can only inhabit living things?" the Lieutenant General asked,
"Technically all it needs is a soul - so, for example, a human, bacteria or plant, even viruses."
"Could you place a soul in a sword for example?"
"No - a soul placed in a tool is the same as a soul in mid-air or in some rocks, it'll either move on or…"
"About that - the wall should be covering most of the planet already."
"I've noticed…" Charles sighed pointing to small glass plates - "I've been trying to grow a special colony of fungi for a while no - now they barely even survive much less grow…"
"It's alright - Issac said it's just temporary…"
"...right…"
"Anyway - I'll get going now… I have to read over this to make sure you don't talk about -" the Lieutenant General cleared her throat "Implanting lemon fouls into best subjects…"
Charles turned red at the reminder of his spelling before turning away on his spiny chair.
"Well, are you ready to get to work?" the intern sounded excited to get to work,
He took a deep breath, "M-hmm…" he pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it with a flame that appeared at the tip of his index finger.
He walked over to the big metal door on the other side of the room and opened it revealing something akin to a torture room - blood and chunks of flesh covering the floor and table - cages filled with animals and people littering the sides, tables of black swirling liquid all over the shelves - hanging blades and tweezers drip blood down onto the floor.
"Don't smoke in here!" the intern demanded - seemingly upset.
"It's disturbing how that's the biggest concern for you in this situation…"
On the table lay an elf - arms, legs and neck clamped to the table, a rag in their mouth to muffle their speech - Charles cleared his throat and began going over the routine he had with the test subjects - "Hello - my name's Charles, you have been selected to take part in the Exversian top-secret experiment - we would appreciate your full cooperation, else we will be forced to target your family and friends."
"And I'm Pam - I will be recording the experiments!" the part-timer said excitedly.
"Right… let's get to work…"
"O-kay!"
"Today we'll be covering… 'the effects of taking the solution orally and taking it internally.' "
"Eh?"
"Just hand me the scalpel…"
"Gotcha!"
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Check out a tts reading of chapter 1 and potentially more in the future! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xorRJDGAQk&feature=youtu.be