NOVEL NEXT Level 7 Blues
Chapter 23 : Level 7 Blues
All in all, Agni reached level seven due to the morning's sexual escapades. Unfortunately what she ended up losing as a result didn’t seem comparable. It was now mid morning and it seemed they both overslept. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing given all the energy they spent just hours ago-- they were bound to have peaceful sleep. The problem was that, upon awakening, the remainder of the ‘party’ was nowhere to be found.
Katrin woke Agni up with such fervor that her shoulder was now tingling from the severe shaking. Her first thought was *Wow* as she gazed upon Katrin’s flush face on the brink of tears -- and the accompanying full body nudity. She then realized she was in the same state -- still naked , everything gone. After spending some time to calm Katrin down, Agni realized that sometime during the morning all of their gear and a great deal of the items in their inventory had been stolen. This was of course what Katrin meant when she tearfully screamed “They took our stuff!”
According to Katrin there was no possible way to steal or use someone else's inventory without their permission. It was possible, however, for a party leader to take or activate the items of another party member when they are incapacitated -- in this case, asleep. Once this realization dawned on Agni, she realized why Abeni had been so nice the day before. She probably planned this the moment she saw the pair stumbling through the darkness of the woods.
“I provided a service by helping you level, I’ll take your stuff as payment.” This was the short message etched into the dirt of the path just near the doused campfire. Agni grumbled as a morning chill came upon her, being nude caused for several degrees of temperature difference after all. Katrin on the other hand couldn’t stop sobbing silently.
In her case it was slightly more understandable, after all, her scrolls were gone. It was the only means she had to defend herself. Thus, at a loss for words Agni decided to give Katrin a few moments for her emotions to run their course. This,in turn, reminded Agni of something :
“Weapon Call.” She said as she held her hand out. As she suspected the Beginner’s Halberd was still equipped. A stroke of luck, they would at least be able to make it to town if they ran into trouble. The worst case scenario would be respawn. Given the situation Agni was surprised that she wasn’t more angry. She definitely felt slighted, but two distressed women in the forest wouldn’t do much good.
[Agni Heartfyre]
[Age : 18]
[Class : Succubus Lvl : 7]
[Adv. Tier : 0 ]
[Health : 112/112]
[Mana : 104/104]
[Strength : 12 (18)]
[Agility : 23 (35)]
[Speed : 12]
[Soul : 25]
[Charm : 53]
Agni’s stats improved considerably, all things considered. One thing she noticed, something that had been bothering her for a while was the fact that she couldn’t find an XP progress meter anywhere. She could easily view her current XP, but as for the limit needed to level -- it seemed nowhere to be found. Which in her mind meant it was intentionally designed this way. When she looked at it from this angle Wayla’s talk of adventure requirements made a bit more sense.
Regardless, due to Abeni’s “help” Agni now had 10 level points and she decided to use them now. After having realized the importance of health during combat she decided to use her growth points to raise her HP.
Next to each listing on the growth chart was a small + icon. By tapping this she was able to increase whichever aspect of her growth that she pleased.
[Raise your Health Growth Rate? Y/N]
The value rose by three points from 5 to 8.
[You will now gain a minimum of 8 health points per level.]
*Excellent.* Agni thought to herself as she got to her feet and stretched her body a bit. Despite the lack of sleep and soreness she’d suffered prior to falling asleep, she felt great. So good in fact that Abeni’s betrayal barely weighed on her mind. Instead, Agni’s primary concern was reaching Grenvale.
Rather than focus on all the items she lost, she decided to take stock of what still remained. Despite the fact that all of their gear was gone (even their complimentary gear from Wayla) it seems they were each left with one potion and one food item, ‘Hard Loaf’.
[Hard Loaf x 1
It’s food. Barely. Only the brave bite into it without warming first.]
It was now mid morning judging by the light outside and Agni felt it would be a good idea to get moving asap.
“Get on.” Agni said as she knelt down in front of Katrin.
“Huh?” Katrin said as she wiped away the tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Let’s get moving. We can’t stay out here for too long. Soon the sun will be directly overhead and we don’t have any water. We’d better get a move on.” Agni explained.
“I can walk…”
“I know.” Agni interjected. “I just wanted to carry you. ..Is that okay?”
Katrin nodded as she took Agni up on her offer. The familiar sensation of Katrin’s busty breasts against her back soon filled Agni with a purpose as she lifted up and began to walk. There was silence, simply because Agni’s intuition suggested to her that there should be -- for the moment. She carried Katrin for quite some time before any words were spoken, instead Katrin rested her cheek against Agni’s shoulder and hugged her snugly.
“I’m sorry.” Katrin said suddenly after a time.
“For what?” Agni asked, after all, in her mind Katrin had nothing to apologize for.
“This. All of this. It was my idea to party up. It was my idea to stay at the campsite. This is all my fault. If I had never suggested any of this we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“You mean butt-naked and barefooted in the forest when you say ‘this situation’ right?” Agni tried to lighten the mood with a little joke and felt as if she’d failed miserably.
“All jokes aside. You have nothing to apologize for. I.. I honestly felt something was off the moment we arrived at the campfire last night. I couldn’t place it, but something told me that Abeni wouldn’t simply let things go. I didn’t feel it was in her nature to do so. It’s my fault, I should have listened to my intuition.” Agni replied.
“Besides, you’re my party leader. Not Abeni.” Agni then added. She felt Katrin’s grip tremble slightly.
“Did you know? I remember everything from my past life.” Katrin began as she spoke about how she really felt.
“Really? I can’t remember much. I remember that I--” Agni paused as she thought about whether she wanted to reveal the fact that she used to be a man.
“I know. You were a man in your past life. Most everyone could tell.” Katrin revealed.
“Is that so? H-how?” Agni said nervously as she thought back on how she could have possibly acted to let such private information slip.
“The way you reacted to everything. Particularly your body. It’s hard to describe but, as a woman… there’s a certain way men and women carry themselves. It was obvious to most of us that you were having a hard time.”
“Oh…” Agni said. Her mind immediately wandered to the most perverted thought she could imagine, which was that perhaps she’d left a snail trail of love juice someplace due to how wet she constantly was.
Agni blushed at having even thought of something so ludicrous.
“In my past life I always felt that I messed everything up at critical times. In a word, I was just inept. A failure at making connections, a failure at succeeding in my job-- in the end I worked too much and enjoyed my life too little.” Katrin continued.
“That’s why, when I arrived here and was presented with the chance to be an adventurer I wanted to grab the opportunity with both hands, firmly. But, I’m already messing up again. It’s like I can’t help it.” Katrin said as her voice began to break again. Agni could feel the warmth of Katrin’s tears streaming down against her skin as a solemn mood set in.
Having lived a life previously Agni could definitely relate to Katrins’ sentiment. Regrets were like the echo of moments that refused to be forgotten. Like an endless well that, if allowed, would easily drown the most determined of hearts.
“Katrin. Send me that party request again.” Agni said suddenly.
“You’re my party leader after all. I could never have gotten this far without you.” She added with a smile as the two continued towards their destination of Grenvale, the city of beginnings.