The next morning Freinil and I set out for the F-class Boulder Dungeon.
“Ready?” I asked her at the entrance, and Freinil answered, with force in it, “I am ready.”
We went in on the strength of that.
Gyagya!
A goblin, straight away. Here was the fork in the road: the point that decides whether Freinil can be an adventurer at all.
It came at her with its club up, and Freinil locked for a moment. I put a hand on her shoulder and said, “You’re all right.”
At that she said “Going,” firmly, and drove the spear at the goblin coming straight in. The point went through its chest cleanly. She pulled the spear back and the goblin folded to the ground and went, leaving materials behind it.
“Haa… I killed it… did I not?”
Freinil looked up at me half out of herself. I nodded and told her, “Well done,” and her face turned over into relief.
“I am so glad… I did it. It is thanks to you, Soshi-sama.”
“It’s because you worked at it. And this isn’t the end of it. Today we go down to the fourth floor.”
“Yes!”
So the two of us went on down to the fourth. Freinil’s adventurer level went up somewhere along the way, and even from beside her you could see the difference it made to how she moved.
Rock Lizard scales gave her trouble at first, but after several of them the point began to bite properly, and by the end Freinil could finish one off on her own.
Boarwolves are beyond her head-on, so I took the charge and had her stab in from the flank, over and over. Her level went up again there, and Freinil was taken aback by the change in what she could do.
“That’s far enough for today. After this we train again, and then back to town. What you learned in the fighting goes into the training.”
“Yes!”
It was a good place to stop, so we pulled out for the day.
Though when I make Freinil keep to my routine, it does occur to me that what we’re doing is fairly hard going by adventurer standards.
Well, I do it because I enjoy it, and if it gets to be too much for Freinil she’ll do something about it. Until then I’ll take it as it comes and have her come along.
The next day we went down again.
Down to the fourth it went as it had the day before, Freinil at the front and me supporting. Three or more monsters at once is still beyond her; when that happens I thin them out, or take the shield role and pull them onto me. Roles like the party in a game I used to play form up naturally between us, which I find genuinely interesting.
The fifth floor gave us nothing either, and before long we were at the boss room door.
“So this is a dungeon’s boss room.”
“It is. What comes out is the higher form of a Boarwolf. Same as fighting one of those. I hold the head, you attack from the side. Can you do that?”
“Yes. I can.”
“Right. In we go.”
There was no shadow of unease in Freinil’s eyes. This would be fine.
We stepped in, the black mist rose as it always does, and the boss Bearwolf came out of it.
“So this is a boss… It looks strong.”
“It is, compared with an ordinary monster. Then again, I can kill one bare-handed.”
“What!? Bare-handed!?”
“I couldn’t support you otherwise, could I. Here it comes.”
The Bearwolf charged the way they do. I dashed forward at the same moment and hit it head-on before it had its top speed.
‘Strength,’ ‘Brute Strength’ and ‘Stability’ went to work and I got its head locked down hard. It bit at me, and ‘Steel Body’ refused the fangs.
“Now, Freinil!”
“Yes!”
Freinil came around the flank and put the spear into the Bearwolf’s side. One won’t do it, of course.
“Hah! Haa!”
She drove the spear in again and again, shouting, her long blond hair coming loose with it. The Bearwolf cried out and thrashed, and my grip never came off its neck.
She must have put it in a dozen times and more before the last one reached the heart. The Bearwolf let out a “Gofu!”, lost its strength, and went down on the floor.
The body faded and left the usual magic stone and meat behind it.
“Haa… haa… I did it. I killed it.”
“You did. Well done. That makes you a proper adventurer.”
“Thank you very much. But without your help, Soshi-sama, I could not have killed it.”
“Naturally not. Adventurers fight alongside their companions. That is the normal way of it. If I had not been there, somebody else would have done that job. It does not change the fact that you killed it as one of a party.”
“Soshi-sama… yes. I will try to think of it that way.”
Fighting alongside your companions is rich, coming from a man who has been working alone, but Freinil seemed to take it.
The question now was which skill she would get, and Freinil twitched, so something had arrived.
“So this is what it feels like to receive a special skill. The way to use it really does come into my head… This is… ‘Holy Attribute Magic’…?”
So my hunch had been right and it was a magic skill. Was ‘Holy Attribute’ in the guide? That wants checking when we get back.
“Congratulations. A magic skill after all, by the look of it.”
“Yes. It was just as you said, Soshi-sama. How did you know?”
“Pure instinct. There is genuinely no reason behind it.”
I could hardly say it was because she looked the part. Still, ‘Holy Attribute Magic’ on a fragile blond, blue-eyed girl is so exactly to type that I nearly laughed.
We came out of the dungeon and trained before going back to town, as always.
I had Freinil try the ‘Holy Attribute Magic’ she had picked up, and for the moment the only thing she can use is a spell called ‘A Single Ray of Holy Light.’
The spell is what the name says: one beam of light, fired from her fingertips. Put into a rock it opened a small hole with the look of a burn about it. Frankly, it behaves like a laser from my previous life. Being ‘Holy Attribute,’ though, it may show particular power against the undead.
Either way I’m glad Freinil didn’t end up as the physical attacker. Not that there’s any guarantee she goes on drawing magic skills, which is the unpleasant part of this world’s skill system.
Back at the Guild I checked the guide, and ‘Holy Attribute’ does get a short entry. It appears to be a rare attribute, and if she grows into it she would be a valuable specialist against undead.
I told her so over dinner at the inn, and Freinil’s face did something complicated.
“Among the adventurers at the Ashuram church there was one who was said to be skilled at killing undead monsters. Would that be the same thing?”
“I couldn’t tell you that much. I have seen adventurers who serve noble houses as knights, though, so it may well be that an adventurer who can use ‘Holy Attribute Magic’ attaches to a church as their undead specialist.”
“That such a thing exists…”
“Belonging to an organization like a church might be a better way to live than drifting as an adventurer. It’s worth thinking about eventually.”
“Even so, I do not want to belong to a church. Nor to serve a noble house… What do you think, Soshi-sama?”
“I’m only E-rank, so it isn’t a thing I need to decide yet. As it stands I don’t intend to belong anywhere.”
I know something of what organizations cost and what they’re worth, and if the worth wins, joining one is fine. But as a man who spent his last life a salaryman, living freelance has its own appeal.
“I see. Then I shall do the same.”
“For now, raising your ability as an adventurer comes first. We can think about the hard questions later.”
“Yes. I will.”
Freinil looked a little easier at that and went back to her food.
Refusing both the church and the nobility—she does seem to have circumstances of her own.
Well, she’ll speak about it in her own time. Provided she doesn’t object to being in a party with a man my age.
Next morning brought a small problem.
Maneji has one F-class dungeon and one E-class, and naturally I want the E-class cleared as well.
I obviously cannot take an adventurer of one week into an E-class. Cannot—and yet.
“But… Soshi-sama, please do not leave me behind.”
That was Freinil, radiating the full tragic-heroine effect, hands clasped in front of her.
“I’ll come straight back, so wait at the inn. An E-class really is dangerous for you.”
“Even so, being apart from you makes me uneasy, Soshi-sama.”
Looking at that abandoned-puppy expression of hers, I began to suspect she has come to depend on me over these few days.
And if she has, I honestly have no idea what the correct handling is. I ended up without children in my last life.
“…All right. We’ll go in a little way together and see how it goes. If it looks bad, we think again.”
I made the stupidest available choice, which is to wait and see, though E-class trash is honestly no opposition, so it shouldn’t amount to much. And there may be monsters down there that physical attacks suit badly.
“Yes! I will follow you anywhere, Soshi-sama.”
The face going bright is one thing, but there’s a weight in the way she says it that I cannot quite put down. The plan had been to bring her along until she could function as an adventurer and then move her on to some party of people her own age… is that going to work out?
Maneji’s E-class dungeon lies on the lake shore. A hole opens in the ground, and a stepped passage runs on into the depths, as though descending beneath the lake itself.
We saw other parties here and there, and one or two frowned slightly at the pair of us. A man my age and a girl going into an E-class as a two-person party must look stranger than a man my age going in alone.
The first thing out on the first basement was two Fishmen. I’d kill them instantly, but Freinil needed to test her magic in a real fight.
“I hold them at the front. When your magic is ready, signal me. Then I shove the monsters back and you hit them there. Can you do that?”
“Yes. I will!”
Freinil started to gather herself, and the Fishmen came. I put myself in their way and took hold of both spears they thrust at me. They panicked and tried to pull them back, and against me—‘Brute Strength’ has my strength alone at C-rank now—they didn’t shift at all.
Ten seconds or so of two-against-one tug of war, and from behind me: “Magic ready!”
I hauled on the spears and shoved the Fishmen away as they stumbled forward.
At the same moment Freinil, now at my side, loosed ‘A Single Ray of Holy Light.’ The beam swept across and both Fishmen came apart, top from bottom, and died.
“Soshi-sama, I did it. I beat monsters with magic.”
“You did. That’s a powerful spell. Killing an E-rank monster in one is no small thing.”
Which is a fine thing to hear from the man who bursts them, but it’s a fairly grim piece of magic. What surprised me slightly was that Freinil, having cut two monsters clean in half, wasn’t merely composed about it but somewhere close to pleased.
“This means I can follow you, Soshi-sama, does it not?”
“You… can. It should be fine.”
There was a pressure in Freinil’s eyes I couldn’t name, and I nodded.
The first two floors held nothing but Fishmen, so we went through without trouble. I had her use magic at every opportunity, and her magic skill went up a level before we reached the third.
“Freinil, you’ve used a good deal of magic. Can you still use it?”
“Yes? I can use it without difficulty. Is there something that concerns you?”
What I wanted to establish was whether she had anything left of what a game would call magic points, and Freinil tilted her head at me, puzzled.
“No—what I mean is, does using magic drain your stamina at all?”
“Ah, yes. There is that feeling. But it comes back quickly, so I am all right.”
“So you can keep firing as long as your stamina holds?”
“Yes. It takes time to focus, but as long as I am not tired I can use it.”
So there’s no magic-point or mana limit. What it costs instead is concentration. Since it draws on stamina, a powerful spell may not be available twice in a row once the stamina runs out.
“Understood. If you ever feel something like a limit while you’re using it, tell me.”
“Yes. Thank you for your concern.”
“Right. Down to the third.”
The third floor produced Stone Tortoises, as expected. I drew them and Freinil’s magic took their necks off, and this, apparently, is how they’re supposed to be killed.
We tried concentrating her magic on a shell to see, and it did open a hole, but not a fatal one. What it did instead was set the Stone Tortoise thrashing.
Nothing for it: I flattened that one shell and all, and Freinil’s eyes went wide.
“You have such power, Soshi-sama.”
“In strength alone I seem to be about C-rank.”
“With power like that, surely my magic is not needed…”
And there were the abandoned-puppy eyes again.
“No. There will certainly be monsters that strength alone won’t kill, and that is when your power is needed.”
“Yes! I will work at raising my magic skill so that I can be of use when it comes!”
I ended up smoothing it over, and looking at how pleased she was, I cannot help feeling this is heading somewhere unhelpful. Then again, whether she is needed is an important question for a girl her age, so I can hardly blame her.
We got down to the fourth floor that way, and found that piercing a Slime core with ‘A Single Ray of Holy Light’ kills it easily, which gave me a fresh sense of what her magic is worth. Thinking the Large Slime boss might go the same way, we pulled out for the day.
The next day we went in first thing. Boss subjugation was the main goal, so Freinil’s live practice was kept to a minimum and we drove straight to the fifth basement.
At the boss room I checked our equipment and handed Freinil, who has no ‘Poison Resistance,’ extra antidote potions.
We went in, the black mist rose, and the boss Large Slime came out of it. Looking closer, though, I could see it differed from the one I had fought before: it struck me as slightly larger, and the core at its center looked like three of them.
“This is a rare boss, by the look of it. Stronger than the normal one. Be careful.”
“Yes. Should I attack those cores, as before?”
“I’d say so. There are three, so probably all three have to go.”
“I will attack with magic.”
“Please. We take the cores one at a time. I hold the front as usual.”
“Yes. Preparing magic.”
I stood in front of Freinil as she began to focus and faced the rare boss. Three cores—I may as well call it a ‘Triple Core.’
The Triple Core edged toward us and put its body out in tentacles to wrap us up, as the other one had. Because of the three cores, perhaps, the number coming at once was high. But with ‘Brute Strength,’ ‘Body Twist’ and ‘Stability’ behind it, my mace—which I can swing in defiance of physics—knocked every one of them away. I could have burst them, and made a point of not doing so; if the spray reached Freinil there was the poison to think about.
“Magic, going!”
Freinil fired ‘A Single Ray of Holy Light’ from behind my shoulder. The beam, a little thicker since her level rose, punched clean through one core. The Triple Core shuddered through its whole body, which had to be the damage telling.
“Good. Again, please.”
“Yes!”
Freinil went back into her focus. The Triple Core must have read her as the danger, because it tried to put tentacles past me and behind.
Which I wasn’t about to allow. I swung the mace and drove the tentacles back into the body.
“Next, going!”
The second beam went through the second core. Remarkable accuracy, when you think about it. I ought to say something to her about that, I was thinking, and just then:
“Aah!”
I turned to the scream and there was a tentacle wound around one of Freinil’s legs. It had run one out and around through my blind spot.
Freinil’s body was dragged down. I heard her cry—“No! Soshi-sama!”—and everything in front of me went red.
“You bastard, let go of her!”
I went straight at the body, swinging the mace anyhow, shaving the Triple Core’s jelly away wherever it came.
The last core, in front of me. I put everything into the mace and burst it along with what was left of the body.
“Ah, thank you very much, Soshi-sama…”
Her voice brought me back to myself.
‘Excitement’ had fired again, evidently. I have the feeling I said something foul, and I can only hope it didn’t startle her.
I ran over to Freinil, and she had been caught by the spray after all. Whether she had taken any poison I couldn’t tell, so I had her drink an antidote potion to be safe.
“I’m sorry. I let my guard down. I think you’ll be all right for poison. Anything else hurt?”
“No, I am all right. I let my guard down as well. I am sorry…”
“There’s nothing to apologize for. We both put it to use next time.”
I helped her up. At a glance there was no damage to her armor or her clothes, so no injuries either.
Still, a rare boss again. My encounter rate really is abnormal. It may be that I have something like a ‘Bad Luck Lv. 10’ hanging off me.
I must have been pulling a difficult face, because Freinil asked me, carefully:
“Um… Soshi-sama, you are not angry, are you?”
“Not in the slightest. Do I look it?”
“The way you were during the fight just now, Soshi-sama, looked very angry to me…”
“Ah, that will be a skill. There seems to be one that puts me into an excited state and raises my ability, and when it fires, my language apparently turns rough.”
“I see. I was certain you were angry at how poorly I had done…”
“You’ve been an adventurer a week and a bit. If anything you’re doing well, and there’s no chance of my being angry over that. It was my job to cover you there in any case.”
At that Freinil seemed to settle, and she said “Yes” and laughed.
Her body twitched, which would be a skill going into her head. Mine had just arrived as well.
“‘Heavy Blast’? What is this?”
Going by the knowledge coming in, it’s a skill that adds further ‘weight’ to a blow at the instant of impact, which only raises my muscle-brain level and specializes me further into physical attack. Well. It’s probably a rare skill and looks quite strong, so I have no complaints.
“What about you, Freinil?”
“Yes. It seems I have received something called ‘Divine Attribute Magic.’”
“‘Divine Attribute’?”
That has the ring of something genuinely rare. When I looked ‘Holy Attribute’ up I went through the magic skills generally, and I don’t believe ‘Divine Attribute’ was among them.
“It is magic that creates a sacred space, strengthens allies and weakens monsters, I am told. Does it sound as though it will be of use?”
I see: an attribute that mixes several support effects together. From the name I had taken it for a higher form of ‘Holy Attribute,’ but the coverage is different.
“It sounds extremely useful. We’ll have to practice it properly until you have it in hand.”
“Yes. I will learn it so that I can certainly be of use to you, Soshi-sama!”
“Ah. Yes…”
There was another degree of weight in the way Freinil said it, and it left me slightly on the back foot.
To Freinil I’m something like a benefactor at present, so wanting to be useful to me isn’t hard to follow. If it works as her motivation as an adventurer, there’s nothing wrong with that in itself.
At any rate the goal was met, and back at the inn we were taking dinner in the dining hall.
Freinil’s face has lightened somewhat since learning she can keep up even in an E-class. That the money has started coming in may count for a good deal too. She appears to feel considerable obligation about the equipment I paid for.
“Freinil, I’m thinking of heading for Euron tomorrow. Any objection?”
“Euron, that would be Viscount Barius’s—no. I am quite all right. I will follow you wherever you go, Soshi-sama.”
There was a moment where Freinil appeared to think, and then she came straight back with another of those heavy lines.
“Once we’re in Euron, the first thing is to look at your equipment again. The weapon at least has to become a mage’s staff.”
“Yes. I have grown used to the spear, but in close quarters I would only be a hindrance to you, Soshi-sama…”
“That’s only to be expected. A party is people playing to what each of them is good at.”
“Yes. I would like to train my magic. Receiving two magic skills means the god Ashuram is guiding me that way, I think.”
“Agreed. ‘Divine Attribute’ does appear to be a very unusual skill. Making the most of it is the right road.”
I stopped at the Guild on the way back and looked through the guide again, and there was no description of ‘Divine Attribute’ in it whatsoever. Which makes it a matter to report to the Guild, and I’m holding off on that for now.
It’s nothing I can put my finger on, but I have the feeling that when a girl with circumstances like Freinil’s picks up a skill that rare, it brings strange trouble down on her.
“May I ask—since you are taking me to Euron, am I right to understand that I will be with Soshi-sama from now on?”
“Hm? What do you mean by that?”
“When you took me into your party, you said you would teach me until I could fight as well as anyone…”
She turned imploring eyes on me as she said it. I see. She had been expecting to be put out once she could fight.
“What that meant is that if you decide you want to move to another party, I won’t stand in your way. If you’re content as you are, we can stay together indefinitely.”
“Yes! I will be with you always!”
Faced with a girl whose spirits had gone straight up, I had the distinct illusion of having made some decisive mistake. Surely a girl doesn’t come to depend on a strange man of my age to that extent within a few days of meeting him. Though it’s also true that a man who never had children can’t follow how girls of that age think.
Euron is two days on foot, so we left Maneji meaning to spend a night in the same village we had used coming out.
The sun had tilted and the village was about due to come into sight when Freinil suddenly began looking about her.
“What is it?”
“I thought I felt something strange, for a moment… over that way.”
Off where she was pointing, a black mist hung faintly over the ground. Well off the highway, but the country is open plain, so getting there was no trouble.
“There’s certainly something odd about the feel of that place. Shall we go and look?”
“Yes. I think it would be better to.”
There was something like conviction in the way Freinil said it. Something must have caught on that intuition of hers.
Walking in, we found a plot about the size of a baseball field inside a rotted fence, with objects of stone and wood—grave markers—standing about in no order at all.
A forgotten graveyard, by the feel of it.
But something strange at a graveyard means undead monsters, in this world. I’d normally want to walk away from that; as an adventurer, I can’t ignore it.
“Let’s go in. Monsters may come out. Be ready to use ‘Holy Light.’”
“Yes. You mean they may be undead monsters?”
“I’d be glad to be wrong.”
In game terms, undead have never once suggested anything but a nuisance.
At any rate we went in slowly with ‘Presence Sense’ running, and nothing moved. Going by the characters cut into the rotted markers, it appears to be a graveyard for the war dead of a long time ago.
“Hm?”
‘Presence Sense’ caught something. Ground some way off swelled and heaved, and something came up out of it.
What stood up were three ‘Skeleton’ monsters, carrying ruined swords and shields.
“Freinil, ready your magic.”
“Yes, Soshi-sama.”
I could have charged them, but after yesterday I was unwilling to put distance between us. I waited, and the Skeletons came on clattering.
“Magic ready!”
“Go ahead.”
Freinil came up beside me and fired ‘A Single Ray of Holy Light.’ The beam, swept sideways, cut all three Skeletons through and vaporized them on the spot. I don’t know how strong a Skeleton is, but ‘Holy Light’ does seem to have a strong effect on the undead.
The Skeletons themselves went, but the magic stones and the weapons stayed where they were. I was picking up the magic stones and nothing else when the ground around us heaved again. What came up was eight Skeletons.
“Being surrounded is bad. Stay behind me.”
“Yes!”
I charged the nearest two and smashed them flat, shields and all, then carried straight out through the far side of the ring and turned, putting Freinil behind me.
The remaining six came clattering in, and nothing that came under the mace withstood it. Their sword points grazed me here and there, but my armor and ‘Steel Body’ allowed nothing worse than shallow cuts.
“Is that the end of it?”
I watched the ground, and nothing further changed in it. The black mist was still hanging there thinly, though. I didn’t like the feel of it. Something else was coming.
“Freinil, ready ‘Holy Light.’”
“Y-yes!”
I gave the order, and as I gave it the black mist began drawing together at one point in the air. It gathered and took on a definite shape.
What came out of it was a Skeleton in a black hooded cloak, a long staff in both hands, with every appearance of a monster that uses magic. Floating there off the ground, it may well be a high-order undead.
Freinil was still focusing. With it in the air, nothing of mine was going to reach it.
I held my stance and watched it, and it raised the long staff to the sky. Three spears of stone formed around the head of the staff.
The three went off one after another. Freinil was behind me. Dodging wasn’t an option, which left exactly one response.
I swung the mace and met the stone spears in the air. ‘Kinetic Vision,’ ‘Reflexes’ and ‘Agility,’ and ‘Calm’ and ‘Thought Acceleration’ with them, all of it mobilized at once, and I beat the things down as they came.
Magic or not, once it has become matter in the shape of a stone spear, overwhelming physical force cancels it.
“Magic, going!”
Freinil fired ‘Holy Light.’ The high-order Skeleton took the beam at an angle, and although it wasn’t cut through, it had taken enough to drop it to the ground.
“Freinil, the ‘Divine Attribute Magic’!”
“Y-yes!”
From the way it reacted, ‘Holy Light’ wasn’t going to finish it. If ‘Holy Attribute’ isn’t enough, the other one—‘Divine Attribute’—has to be tried.
Having said it, I ran for the high-order Skeleton where it had fallen. It had to be hit while hitting it was possible.
I brought it inside my reach at the same instant it got its posture back.
I swung the mace flat through it. The spiked ball caught it around the ribs, and the Skeleton came apart and flew.
“Damn, no good!”
The feel on the hit was weak. It appears to be able to shed the shock by letting itself come apart. The bones it landed on shattered, at least. And then the bones that had flown drew themselves back into a Skeleton some distance away.
I ran for it again. The Skeleton lifted its staff, and what came off it was a ball of fire about a meter across.
A fireball is beyond cancelling with a mace. I checked that dodging wouldn’t put it into Freinil, and used ‘Body Twist’ at the last instant to take myself out of its line.
Watching me move, the Skeleton showed something like agitation. So it has intelligence—or it could hardly use magic, when you think about it.
“Magic, going!”
Freinil’s voice, and then everything around me and the Skeleton was swallowed in a blinding light.
‘Divine Attribute Magic’: ‘Divine Halo.’ A spell that weakens the monsters inside its area. I had thought from the feel of it that it might do something particular to undead, and the Skeleton in front of me duly folded to the ground as though every bit of strength had gone out of it.
“Hyah!”
I gathered myself, dashed in, and brought the mace down on the Skeleton’s skull from high overhead.
Gusha!
The skull went with that feel to it, and the spine and the rest went to powder along with it. Weakened as it was, it couldn’t come apart to shed the force.
With the high-order Skeleton in pieces, the black mist around us thinned away to nothing. That appeared to be the end of the undead.
What was left on the ground was shattered bone, a misshapen magic stone about the size of a palm, and the staff the high-order Skeleton had been using.
I collected the stone and the staff and went to Freinil.
“Without your magic that would have been dangerous. Good work.”
“Haa… haa… yes. I am glad to have been of use to you, Soshi-sama.”
Freinil was breathing hard through her shoulders as she said it. ‘Divine Attribute Magic’ seems to cost a great deal of stamina, and to have a correspondingly large effect on undead.
“Undead turning up out of nowhere, though. Have you always had a strong sense for that kind of thing?”
“No, I do not believe I have… But I felt something clearly wrong, just now.”
“In that case, it may be that ‘Awakening’ gave you a particular sense for it.”
“Do you think so? I should be glad if that were true.”
It may be that she is becoming a body that reads undead unusually well. In the same way that I’m going straight down the muscle-brain road.
“By the way, this staff looks a decent piece. Would you like to try using it?”
“Ah… the one the undead was using, you mean?”
I held the staff out, and Freinil drew her fine eyebrows together. Which is fair enough: you wouldn’t ordinarily want to touch it. And there’s something slightly foul about how it looks.
“Sorry, forget it. It only occurred to me as I said it. Come to think of it, the thing may have some odd curse on it. Better to sell it to the Guild.”
“I suppose so… Though if it truly is a good one, I would like to try it.”
“Fair enough. Either way, we ask the Guild what it is first.”
“Yes.”
Undead appearing out of nowhere needs reporting as well. I can’t think this is a thing that happens as a matter of course.
But running into what looks like another rare case. The existence of a ‘Bad Luck’ skill seems by now all but settled.
And if that turns out to be a very rare skill, would it be reading too much into it to wonder whether it has something to do with my coming to this world?