Chapter 10: Chapter 9: A New Adventure

I surprisingly woke up with very little pain. The potions had done their work, and I managed to wake up early in the morning. I jumped out of bed and went out of my room to look for Fate. She was sitting at one of her workbenches, casually mixing colorful bottles of dangerous chemicals together. She looked back and smile once she saw me, giving me a quick little wave with her free hand.

"Naomi! Good morning! Sleep well?"

"Kinda, other than being woken up in the middle of the night by a very angry rabbit."

"Wait, what?" Her sheep ears perked up as she quickly looked around the room. "Bunny? In here?"

"I'm talking about Robin, Fate."

"Oh. What did she want?"

"She wanted to give me the proper royal training. I'll... Talk about it later. It got awkward."

"Royal training!? That's only given to royal knights! You've been here for just a couple of days and already you're rising through the ranks like that!"

"It's a bit more complicated than just me being a good fighter, unfortunately. But I'd be lying if I said the training wasn't thrilling. Truth be told... I'm kinda looking forward to the next session."

"You have a warrior's spirit, Nay." She chuckled.

"...Nay?"

"Short for Naomi! Now come on, get dressed! Your friend is probably waiting for us already!"

She poured the mystery liquid into a small vial as I picked out some clothes for the day. I picked a light, soft sundress and a sun hat to go along with it. Fate didn't change, instead deciding to go with her work outfit. Some simple, brown overalls with a white shirt underneath. She has a lot of pockets and side packs on her, filled with vials, papers and gizmos.

"You're not gonna change into something casual?"

"Huh?" She looked quite distracted. "Oh, I have somewhat of a tight schedule today. I'm gonna do some field work while we hang out, if that's ok. Don't worry, the potion I'm working on is perfectly safe!"

"If you say so..."

"Come on, let's go! I'm excited to properly meet that friend of yours!"

We walked through the halls, and they were a little more packed than usual. A lot of them had horns and pitch black eyes, and all were wearing pretty colorful clothes. As we went past them, Fate held my hand tight.

"There's a lot of people around... I don't like crowds too much."

We power walked the rest of the way and finally made it out. Carver was waiting for us at the entrance. He looked slightly different now, his dark brown hair was much longer and flowing, almost reaching his shoulders, but the most obvious change was a new pair of antlers on his head. Although I could tell something was different about his face, I couldn't quite put my finger on what exactly had changed. Once I got closer, I realised he had also gotten shorter.

"Hey! Naomi! Check it out!" He excitedly pointed to his antlers. "I got antlers now!"

"Yeah I see. You also lost a little bit of height there, not counting the antlers."

"Pfft. Who cares? Antlers, babyyy!"

"I'm glad to see the potion is working out well for you, mister." Fate happily chimed in, proud of her handiwork.

"And uh... You look pretty good in that dress, Naomi." He shyly added.

"Thank you! I want to try out new styles here and there. You know, find what works for me!"

"Now, I was promised a tour of the place and some answers, so... Shall we?"

We started to walk to the market to get something to eat as we spoke. Fate did most of the talking, of course, pretty much telling him what I learned in the first few days of being in Lumalight. He took it all pretty well, seemingly not too bothered by the whole ordeal. It was pretty surprising to see him be so nonchalant about it all, but also a big relief.

"Alright, I think I get it... Kinda. But one thing I don't get too well is the whole "stats" thing."

"Oh, it's just like games back in the other world." I opened my own stat screen. "For example... Hey! I leveled up!"

Naomi - Initiate Knight

STR - 11

WIS - 5

CHA - 6

DEX - 9

MAGIC PROWESS - 20

Current Perks - Intimidating, Silent, Feline Agility,

Level - 3

Feline Agility - Your feline characteristics and combat training make you exceptionally agile.

"This is a perfect example!" I closed the screen and turned back to Carver. "As you do things you'll slowly level up, increasing your stats, unlocking perks, that kind of stuff."

"For the most part, it'll be simply a description of you." Fate added. "It calculates your strength, abilities and magic prowess for you. Some perks, though, do give you brand-new skills and spells!"

"Alright, let me check mine..." His eyes lit up as he did. "God damn, my magic prowess is 150?! That's good, right?"

"Wow, yeah it is. The queen told me the base for magic inclined people is around 100."

"Congrats! You're gonna be able to cast spells in no time!"

While we talked, we got ourselves some breakfast. Although I had quite the intense training the last night, I wasn't too hungry. I just got myself a light sandwich, while the others treated themselves to the sweetest looking pancakes I had ever seen.

"Hey, Naomi." For the first time that day, Carver sounded serious. "I'm glad I found you. Well, I guess you found me, kinda. But you know what I mean."

"It's good to see you too. I was worried after the whole mind control thing."

"You're telling me. When you disappeared I didn't know what to think. I'm glad you're safe."

I told him about the training I was going through, while he told me how boring his job had been and how worried he got for me. I told him about my painful transformation and the self discovery that came along with it. He seemed fascinated by just about everything I said. We continued talking as were leaving the market, but our conversation was interrupted by a man in leather armor running into Fate.

"H-hey! Careful!" Fate looked down at her belt and gasped. "Wait, that guy took my journal!"

"What are we waiting for then?" Carver did not waste time before sprinting after the thief.

I ran as fast as I could while avoiding any obstacles and other people in my way. I was closing in on the stranger and was almost close enough to tackle him. He looked back and threw something at my feet that exploded in smoke. I stopped in my tracks, and after a few seconds the smoke was gone as well as the mysterious man. I looked around, searching for him, but all I saw were my friends catching up to me.

"Did you get him!?" Fate desperately asked.

"Not yet. Hold on."

I climbed the roof of one of the market stands and scanned the crowd for the thief. I managed to find him at the edge of the market, running into an alleyway between two houses in the residential district. I quickly followed him, hoping to reach him time. I ran for the other side of the alley in an attempt to cut him off and managed to catch him by surprise.

"Hey! Give me back the journal and you won't get hurt."

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The man hesitated for a second before trying to run the other way. As if on cue, Carver blocks his only exit.

"Nowhere to run, pal." He had a smug smile on his face. "You should just do what the cat lady says."

Before the thief could do anything else I tackled him to the ground, pinning him down and grabbing the journal back. Because of the recent attack, I wanted to make sure he had nothing to do with the people that had infiltrated the castle and mind controlled my best friend. I looked through his stuff and found a small map that seemed to lead to somewhere right outside the kingdom. Right as I picked it up, Fate came running up behind Carver.

"You... You caught him! Yay!" She sat down against the wall, catching her breath. "Do you... Did you get..."

"We sure did, don't you worry. Here you go."

"As for you..." I leaned closer to the stranger. He was the most average looking human man I had seen since stepping foot in the kingdom. "Why did you want that journal?"

"I'm-" He struggled for a few seconds, before letting out a shout of frustration. "Hells take you! I'm not telling you anything!"

"I guess you don't really need to, I found your map anyways. Fate, you recognize where this leads to?" I threw the map to fate, trying my best to still keep the man pinned down.

"H-hey! Give that back!"

"Oh, don't be such a hypocrite." Fate stared at the map, trying to make sense of it. "It's nowhere in particular, really. Maybe it indicates a meet up point of some kind?"

"Alright! Treasure hunt!" Carver loudly proclaimed.

As we were talking, the thief managed to throw me off balance and get up, ready to run. But the antlered newcomer stopped him with one swift strike, knocking him out cold.

"Don't let your guard down, my lady." He added, with a serious look on his face.

"Why so formal all of a sudden?"

"I'm... Probably like, a potion side effect or something. That wasn't completely voluntary."

"Not how those potions work. But hey, we should tell the guards about what happened, right?"

"Probably." I got up and looked down at the unconscious thief. "We should tell someone to arrest this guy while we investigate the map."

"Wait, should we really go out and investigate on our own? That's dangerous, Nay! You don't even have your equipment!"

"Maybe he has one." I searched the man once again, this time looking for a weapon. "Here! He's got a long knife. That should be enough."

"Seriously?!"

"I... Look, if this guy has anything to do with everything else that has been going on with me and Carver, we have to investigate as soon as possible. We can't just let them run away!"

"Then I'm going with you." Carver said without skipping a beat.

"I... Ah, fine!" Fate placed her journal back in its place. "But I'm going too! You'll need some healing potions if we run into trouble!"

She ran out to get a guard's attention as I did one last search. After not finding anything of value, I took a deep breath and prepared myself for possible danger. Once Fate returned we all started following the marking on the map. 

"First time I actually get out of the kingdom like this." I was nervously looking around, not quite sure what I was looking out for.

"Well, the area surrounding the kingdom is mostly very safe... Though with the recent attacks, it is kinda... Scary." The alchemist got closer to me as she said that, holding my hand tight. "Good thing you've had all that training recently, right?"

"Also, I'm here!" Carver excitedly said. "I don't have a weapon, or training, but I'll still do whatever I can to help out!"

We stopped walking once we had arrived at the area marked in the map. It wasn't too far from the kingdom's residential area and market. Although separated by a stone wall and a gate, the outside area still saw some movement. There weren't many trees around and the terrain was mostly plain. In the distance you could see wagons carrying wheat, travelers arriving to the kingdom and some small farmlands. There wasn't anything standing out nearby, and it didn't seem inconspicuous enough for a thief's hideout.

"Nothing." I thought out loud, trying to listen for anything out of the ordinary.

"Well, maybe this was the place where they met previously? Like where they met their employer or something like that?" Fate added.

"What are you gals talking about?" Carver pointed to the floor. "Someone clearly buried something right there."

The patch of ground he was pointing to was exactly the same as the surrounding area.

"How do you know, Carv?" I asked, confused.

"Come on, you can't be serious! Look at it!"

As he reached for the spot he was talking about my vision started to get blurry. I rubbed my eyes, and as if it had appeared from thin air I could suddenly see a small mount of dirt where Carver had been pointing to. My mind felt clearer, like whatever was clouding it previously was gone.

"Wait, what? When did that-"

"Illusory spell!" Fate shouted. "So close to the kingdom too... This is concerning."

"Let me see if I can get whatever is inside." The antlered newcomer happily started to dig with his own hands, unearthing a small wooden box from underneath the mound of dirt. "Sweet! Buried treasure!"

The box had a very simple design. It was built out of wood, with rusting iron hinges on the sides. Although it was locked, it didn't take too much force to break it open. Inside it was a small scroll with a message written in a language I had never seen before, a few gold coins and a large, clear gemstone.

"What's this?" Carver picked up the scroll. "Looks like directions."

"You can read that?!" I blinked a few times in disbelief. "Is this because of your high magic prowess score?"

"Where does it lead to?" Fate looked at the scroll from over his shoulders.

"A kilometer to the east of here. Then it says to 'follow the crimson road' until we find... something. The last word just seems like gibberish."

"We should probably go back to the castle, get the others to look at this stuff." Fate grabbed the box and held it closed. "Maybe Heather will know something about this place!"

"Then again..." I glanced at the walls of the kingdom. "What if we take too long and end up losing them? I feel like we should investigate."

"I'll be right behind you, my lady!" Carver knelt in front of me, getting back up with a determined look in his face.

"And what was that all about?" I chuckled, still not getting used to my new laugh.

"What? You're gonna be a knight eventually, right? I gotta show reverence!"

"If we're going to investigate on our own, we should probably go before they have time to run away." Fate said in an unusually serious tone.

"Wait, really? No push back on the idea at all?"

"You're really stubborn, Nay." She smirked. "And I told you, I'd rather be there to keep you safe at least."

"Here goes nothing, I guess." I adjusted my hat and started to walk towards the indicated direction.

We walked closely together. Carver made sure to be aware of our surroundings, while Fate prepared some potions on the way. I made sure to lead the group, ready to defend them if we ran into trouble. Although there weren't many places to hide, the illusion spell had made me somewhat paranoid of the surrounding area. We couldn't see a single person around us, but for some reason I knew we were being watched. Despite that, I felt like we had to keep going. Whatever was marked by those directions had to be important.

It felt strangely nostalgic.

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