[Are you ready?]
The dragonborn cladded in armor took the smaller boy's seat at the table. The table itself was cleared, save for the lantern. Sylas sat next to him in his own seat. The wife and the miner were seated at their seats as well. The boys were laying on the bed, getting ready for sleep. At least that's what the parents and Sylas hoped.
"Ready for what?" Sylas whispered.
"HM?" The dragonborn leaned toward Sylas. He had his spear against the front door and his feet on the table. His breath reeked of a mix of alcohol and a dog's breath. Sylas looked away as he shoved his face into hers. He spoke, his voice grating against Sylas's ears. The miner spoke, his voice was almost as soft as his wife. The dragonborn snorted, some of his mucus landed on Sylas. He backed away and looked at the miner. He crossed his arms and spoke. All of the adults began having a conversation. Meanwhile, Sylas wiped the mucus off of her face. She wanted to scream.
[For your second quest.]
"Sure." Sylas whispered at an even lower volume than before.
[Starting your second quest.]
[Would you like for me to read the description?]
"Yes."
[A dragonborn of knighthood sits before you. He carries with him his matriarch's prized possession. It beckons you to steal. The Second Quest: Heist of the Draconic Knight's Spear]
[Steal the spear. 0/1]
Sylas sat in silence. The adults continued to converse, the dragonborn seemed to be leading the conversation. His voice was the most boisterous.
"Wait. What do you want me to do?"
[You know.]
"No no no. This guy is-"
The dragonborn roared, some fire came out of his mouth. He slapped the table and it shook Sylas's chair. He had a grin that touched his ears. His bulging biceps rattled his armor. He looked at Sylas, catching her eye. Her heart dropped. His thigh was the size of her head.
"I can't steal from this guy. That's like asking for a death sentence. At least tell me the rewards for going through with it."
[Useful rewards.]
Sylas believed that in some way, the entity behind the System had a huge smirk on their face. "If I die, I'm killing you in my next life."
[Bold of you to assume there will be a next life.]
"Wait. System. Tell me if I'm wrong, but when the night transitioned to day there was a moment where everything went dark. That lasts for a few minutes, maybe moments. When the sun and moon are both gone and the wolf is trying to catch the scent of the sun. I can steal the spear. I'm fast, but the only problem is weight. I hate to admit this, but I struggled with a bucket of water in this body. Now that I think about it… It's truly impossible. Power scaling wise, a spear is like a level 5 item, that bucket was a level 1 and I'm level 0. What do you think System can I do it?"
[Try it.]
Sylas looked out of the window. As the adults continued to talk, Sylas waited for the moment the sun rays pouring into the house moved slightly. She ran through the scenarios in her mind. Scenario 1: The darkness arrives, she gets up on her seat, then dashes over the dragonborn's legs. She grabs the spear and runs out of the house, then the dragonborn who can still hear will catch her. "Holy shit. This really is impossible."
When the darkness arrived, images of Sylas losing invaded her mind. She was stabbed by the spear, blood dripped past the eyes she had yet to see, so she saw herself dead with a censor bar over her eyes. She saw the dragonborn tripping her as she tried to jump over the table. The dragonborn would also topple her, strangle her, and throw a simple kick. By the time the moonlight graced the house, Sylas had run through almost a thousand ways for her to die at the hands of the dragonborn.
"He's no hero though. Unless maybe he is."
The wife had gotten up at some point during Sylas's internal rant. She returned to the table with a sack and dumped the contents on the table. The smaller boy was next to Sylas. It made her jump. The clinking of gold echoed throughout the house. The dragonborn moved his feet off the table, sat up straight and began counting the gold pieces. The smaller boy watched the gold, his mouth drooling.
[Are you giving up on the quest?]
"Yeah."
[Your punishment shall be delivered soon.]
"Punishment? What's my punishment?"
The dragonborn finished counting, then slammed his hand on the table. He collected the gold in his own sack that he prepared. It had gold embroidery decorating it. Once it was collected, he got up, grabbed his spear, bowed before the miner and the wife, said something, waited for a response from them, got it, then left.
The smaller boy walked away and went to bed. Sylas got up from her seat. The wife yelled at her the moment her feet touched the ground. The wife got up and pointed at Sylas, she gritted her teeth and her arm was trembling. The miner grabbed his wife's shoulder and shook his head. He said something that made her turn away from the table and leave the house. Before the miner followed after her, he said something to Sylas with a smile.
Sylas stood by the table. She grabbed her dress, her nails digging into the fine linen. Her face twitched. "System. Cut the bullshit. There must be some kind of training, some kind of quest that you can give me that allows me to get EXP. I want to understand these people. I want to talk to them and ask them about the world."
[There are none.]
Sylas's calves throbbed, "You're lying! Aren't you supposed to help? What's the point of you being here?"
[You are too low of a level to know.]
Sylas screamed, shocking the larger boy awake. Sylas placed her hands on her ears, covering them, and sunk to the ground. The larger boy watched, he tried to catch his heart that was racing off. The miner ran back to the house and looked at Sylas who had begun hitting his head while whispering something that the miner could not understand.
"Help me. Help me. Help me. Fuck! I have no one here. I look nothing like anyone. Please, System, give me something, at least. Anything but that punishment"
The miner hugged Sylas. Sylas thought it was a bit too tight, but she appreciated it much later. For now, she resisted and tried to push the miner off of her. She held back tears. "Let go of me!" He wouldn't budge. He lifted her up, still hugging her tightly. She kicked her legs at his stomach, but they were as hard as rock. He laid his hand on her head, dodging the horns. She pushed against his chest, that too was as hard as stone. He patted her on her head. She gave up and hugged him back.
He whispered a word in her ears. "Chk'ulehy" He said something else, but the message was lost. The word stuck with Sylas. After that day everyone in the house started calling her that. In the following morning, the larger boy would say it with a huge smile on his face. The air felt heavier than usual that morning. Sylas had grown another inch. The smaller boy was still asleep, he was tugging at her horns. The wife and miner were gone. The moon's light invaded the house. However, almost on cue, a wolf's howl shook the earth.
A jolt of energy ran through Sylas as she brushed the smaller boy off of her horn. She hopped out of bed and stretched. "System, you might as well just give me EXP." She had a smirk on her face.
[For what?]
"I ate well last night, I'm well rested and I refuse to stay weak."
After she finished stretching, she let herself fall to the ground. THUD! She had hoped to catch herself into a pushup position, but instead landed on the hard wooden floor face first. "Chk'ulehy!" The larger boy yelled, the rest of his message was lost. He was playing with a ball at the table. She sat up, then rubbed her nose. She took a deep breath.
She attempted a pushup. However halfway through her first one she felt her elbows cave in and she fell on her face again. She settled for knee pushups and managed to pull off 15 before taking a break. She was sweating profusely. She looked at the larger boy who watched her with curiosity. She pointed at her throat, she was panting, and pretended to be taking a drink of water. The boy nodded his head and ran out of the house with a cup.
Sylas began his morning ritual. He would do pushups, sit-ups, squats, planks, and run around the farm until he felt as though he had run a mile or more. After finishing his ritual, the wife would give her and the boys the leftovers from the previous night. All three of them would have to do farm work. Collecting eggs, feeding the animals, cleaning the animals, picking bugs off of any of the crops, collecting poop with the miner, and milking the cows.
It was a screech on the second month of being at the miner's farm that disrupted the ritual.