Icarus slung the axe once more, the log split in two. He wiped some sweat off his brow, looking at the pile of firewood he had already made.
If he managed to get just a bit more, he might manage to beg off some moldy bread and some of yesterday's stew from Ingrid, the Innkeeper's stingy maid.
Or maybe he could take a risk and buy some of the meat from the goblin from here near the wall? Oh, sure, he said it was elk meat, but… well, goblins lied.
Just as he was about to swing the axe once more, he saw a girl coming his way.
She looked like a nightmare.
Her hair was long and tied in a ponytail. Her clothes were meant for boys, he could see it in the cut.
Without a word, the girl took an axe and began to chop wood near him. He looked with wide eyes as she swung and swung, seemingly not getting tired at all.
"How?" He could not help but murmur. He was no stranger to hard work, but the girl should be getting tired by now! Her pile was slowly growing to be bigger than his!
How the hell was she swinging the axe so fast?
"How what?" The girl said, only for something to light up around her wrist. She groaned. "Oh, come on! I wanted at least a couple of seconds more with the axe!"
"A rune?" Icarus asked, as he looked at the girl's wrist.
"Yeah, what of it?" The challenge was clear. The girl did not look like she had a royal permit to have a rune, but Icarus would never send someone to the chopping block.
Even if the reward was a fat coin purse full to the brim with gold.
"Nothing! But… can you continue chopping?" Oh, he knew that with how thin her arms were, the answer was probably no. But, still, Icarus might have been dealt a poor arm in life, but that did not mean that he was not willing to take a risk!
"No… hey, you won't tell anyone, will you?" The girl asked, as she placed the log she was about to chop back down. "I can pay you."
Icarus smiled. Yes! He could finally form a party! With a mage, at that!
"Join my party and I will chop enough wood for the both of us!" Icarus offered. There was something about the roughness of the girl that called to him.
"I don't take free lunches," she told him, before taking out a water skin. "Here, have a drink."
Icarus drank from it without thinking too much about it. The next moment, he felt like he could fly! He had so much energy that he swore that he could jump in place for hours!
Before he knew it, the girl placed a log on his chopping block with a sly smirk on her lips.
"There, I said I'll pay, and I paid," she told him, going to sit in the shade of the tailor's shop.
"But… but…" Icarus did not know how to feel about being given a potion, but as the smell of the day's stew called to him from the inn, he decided that some things had to be forgiven.
The log was chopped, then the next, then the next.
"My name is Basila, by the way," the girl said, as she took out an old book and began to read from it. "What's yours?"
"Icarus!" Icarus said. He felt as his stamina bar filled up again and again. As he got EXP points for something he had never gotten them for before!
"Well, Icarus," Basila said, as she took out a pen. "The pile of wood I chopped costs about 30 copper coins."
Icarus blinked, but did not want to repeat Basila's mistake of losing the effect of the potion, so he kept on chopping.
Interested to hear what Basila was on about.
"And the potion is something that even the Emperor doesn't have enough money for," Basila continued, as she tapped her book.
"Greetings, Icarus Vokil! You have been chosen as the Champion of the Lady Basila Angelic! You have no other choice but to accept! Should you refuse, your mana pathways will burst from the potion you ingested!"
Icarus nodded, continuing to chop.
"You know, if you wanted to marry me, you should have bought me dinner first," Icarus said, as he chopped the last log. "Lady? You don't look like a lady."
"Well," Basila's nose scrunched up. Icarus found the girl funny. "My father committed tax fraud, and now I am in debt to my ears. But… I really want some of today's stew! They are not going to cook it with the meat of that goblin merchant today!"
Icarus's eyes went wide.
"Really? There is no chance of us finding finger bones?" He could not believe his ears. Could it be? Real meat in a stew with fresh produce?
"Well…" the deposed lady sighed. "We still might… but don't you want to eat something warm for once? Something that has no hair in it, no mold over it and no fingernails swimming on its surface?"
Icarus looked at the inn and then back at Basila.
"Basila, all of the food in this inn has all of those things, even when they spurge on good ingredients."
The two fifteen-year-olds sighed as one.
"True," Basila said, as her stomach growled. "But I still want to eat some of it!"
Icarus gave out a belly laugh. He clicked on the YES.
"Congratulations! You are now a Champion of the Lady Basila! As such, you get to level up all your attributes as long as you are in a party with her!
Now, here are your current stats:
Vitality: 5
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 6
Strength: 3
You have one Skill Point! Where would you like to invest it?"
Icarus hummed. Hm, that was a hard one.
"Well," he said, as he looked at his stats. He was a horselord, so he knew that the agility one was normal.
But his strength worried him.
And yet…
"Hey, Basila, help me decide, why don't you?"
The boy did not know it, but as Basila started to blink at him, he had shown a girl who had never been asked for her opinion that she was valued.
And that was the start of the partnership of the horselord and the elven lady.