RSK 8

Heyo!~ I hope the weekend is welcoming for everyone! Here you guys go!

Alessa POV~~~~~

That night was… difficult, to say the least. Oberon had no mercy when it came to magic. His philosophy was to literally pound it into me until I learned the essence of the spell. That meant I was dodging magic missiles all night. He did something to the spell so that the end was blunted but it still hurt like a fucker when it did hit. 

One of the benefits of the constant attack was that I gained the minor magic resistance ability. It allowed for my body to ignore some of the force that is generated by magical attacks. Of course, once Oberon realized I had the ability, he upped the power behind the attacks. I couldn’t think of a time I was ever this bruised. 

I laid in my bed in the room that I was starting to think of as mine. That thought sent a mixture of feelings through my chest. Yes, I was safe, but I wasn’t sure by how much. The anger that I thought would never have a place to go, staying with Oberon might give me the power to finally act of the feelings that I suppressed my whole life. At the same time, I wondered to myself if I should just let it all go and focus on my new life. 

I pulled up my status screen to see if I improved anything else during the session with Oberon. 

Name: Alessa Darkfeather

Age: 14

Race: Human

Level: 21

[Basic Sneak: Adept] [Basic Magic: Novice] [Magic Resistance: Minor]

Sin: [Pride: 6%]  [Greed: 17%] [Lust: 8%] [Envy:45%] [Gluttony:13%] [Wrath:32%] [Sloth: 6%]

Curses: Ancestral Curse

Boons:

Right away I noticed that my sins levels fluctuated by a few points. I heard this was common when dealing with an entirely new situation. It happened when my parents were taken, with my Wrath topping out at 65% back then. I heard a rumor that stated if your Sin gets to 100 percent you… change. I wasn’t sure how, and I wasn’t that interested in finding out. 

At least I learned the basics of the magic missile. Oberon wouldn’t have let me stop had I not been able to produce one. I channeled the little bit of mana left in my pool to form a dagger sized blob of mana. It wasn’t pretty but Oberon noted that it would be able to at least do some damage to monsters. That’s another thing I found odd. I have never really seen a mage use magic missile, mainly just fireball, at least the mages that I could potentially come in contact with. 

I looked around the room and found an old bust that was about to break from the passing of time. I aimed for the center of the forehead, then passed my intent to the blob of mana floating next to me. It flashed across the room and slammed into the bust ripping into the neck so I needed to work on my aim. The bust exploded into a cloud of dust as pieces of it rained to the floor. I collapsed back on my bed with a smile on my face as exhaustion overtook me.

~~~~~

A loud bang on the door caused me to go into a panic as it woke me up. I quickly looked around as I remembered where I was, calming down slightly. I got up and moved over to the door to see who it was. Outside was the fairy Zriq, who looked well groomed and ready to take on the day. 

“Lady Alessa, breakfast is ready. Please make your way to the dining hall as soon as possible,” Zriq said with a bow then turned on his heel and walked away. 

I looked down realising I was still wearing my dirt, blood, and sweat stained clothes from yesterday. I was about to yell for Zriq when I noticed a stack of clothes next to a basin of water. I had to wonder where they came from as they were nicer than the things I had with me when I came here. A lot of my clothes were left behind back in the last village I stopped to thanks to those two perverts, that saw my curse tattoo while peeping on me. 

I quickly ran into the bathroom to change and found that it was in working order now. I squealed in joy as I ran over to the tube to fill it enough to clean my body off. I ended up spending a whole hour in there as I enjoyed the first relaxing bath I had the opportunity to enjoy in a long time. Then the thought that Zriq told me as soon as possible crossed my mind and I started to panic as I worried that Oberon was waiting for me. 

I rushed out of the bathroom once I was dressed then over to the dining hall once Vaunn pointed me in the correct direction. Once I reached the entrance to the dining hall one of the other golems opened the door for me and I bolted in even before the door was all the way open. I quickly noticed that Oberon was sitting at the head of the table, followed by the goblins a bit further down. There was a spot most likely for me next to Oberon and across from the goblins. 

“Scaredy girl! You slow! We hungry!” Gobluke shouted at me when he saw me. 

“Sorry!” I apologized quickly. 

“Gobluke, for human females the bath is a sacred place much like your Geurins,” Oberon said.

“In that case, Gobluke forgive Scaredy girl,” Gobluke said with an understanding nod.

I looked at the food as I sat down. There was mainly meat that was cooked roughly with a few fruits and berries to complete the setup. Even though it didn’t look that appeasing it was still the most food I would have eaten in nearly two weeks. My stomach started to growl just looking at it. 

“We will need to hire, create, or coerce a cook soon. It appears no one here knows how to cook,” Oberon said with a grin, “Gobluke’s friend, who I found is named Gobrin, created this masterpiece this morning.”

“Thank you, Gobrin. It looks delicious,” I said with seriousness. 

“Now that everyone is here feel free to eat,” Oberon said with a gesture. 

I grabbed what looked like a leg of some kind and dug in. It was at least cooked all the way, and while it didn’t look pretty, it certainly tasted amazing. Juice dripped down my chin as I tore a chunk out of it. The fruits were a good accompaniment, though I wondered where in the desert Gobluke and his friend managed to find them. It was cold, but still very delicious. 

Finishing the meal in only a few minutes, I wasn’t sure I had ever been quite that satisfied before. I looked up from my plate to see Oberon staring me, it went over my head that he didn’t have anything in front of him. I blushed at the image of myself pigging out in front of him. 

“Oh, you’re done already? It sure looked like you were enjoying yourself,” Oberon said when he saw me look at him. 

“It was surprisingly good,” I replied.

“Good, we have several things to check out today and I want you to accompany me so that we can both gain some levels along the way,” Oberon said as he stood up.

“Same as yesterday?” I asked with a groan I couldn’t stop in time. 

“Yep,” Oberon said with a sinister smile. 

Oberon POV~~~~~~

As I watched them eat, memories of when I ate with my companions, faded though they were, flashed through my mind. I trusted them so fully, and yet it still led to my demise. I wouldn’t allow that to stand, Lucifer and everyone else would get what was coming to them. That was a thought for much further down the road. I needed to cement my new position in this world if I wanted to hold my own. The average strength may have gone down but I was a good example of hidden powers that were just waiting for the right moment to emerge. 

I made my way to the entryway where the skeleton squad was waiting for me. They had an extremely productive night. I even gained two levels from all the monsters they hunted. When I rounded the corner to the entryway, I did a double take. The skeletons had changed after all the hunting they did. 

The were closer to skeleton knights now if I had to put words to describe them. They took the bones from some of the monsters they had hunted and fused them to their bodies. One held a large bone that he used as a shield, while another carried what looked like the spine of some monster and was using it as a greatsword. The thought that I might be able to do the same crossed my mind, but I quickly cast it aside. 

“Did you find anything interesting?” I asked when I got near them. They all nodded in reply. 

I pointed to one in the middle of the group and said, “You answer for the group.” 

It nodded then stepped forward as if waiting. I reached up to touch its forehead to see its status. 

Name: N/A

Master: Oberon DarkPhoenix

Race: Skeleton

Level: 22

Choose path: Mage, Warrior, Knight, Dark Priest

[Bone Armor: Minor]

Well that was interesting. I wondered if that was due to the world being changed or if that was always how necromancy worked. I decided I would experiment a little to see how much intent and intelligence these guys actually possessed. 

“I want you to choose your own class,” I ordered him. Nothing happened at first, but soon there was a swirl of dark colored mana around him that formed into robes. Something formed in his hands next. It looked like a religious symbol that a Priest would carry around. It looked like a double bladed scythe with a crescent moon overlapping the handle. I recognized the symbol as belonging to the God Siateth, which made sense as he was the God of death and all things involved with it. I would have to be careful, Gods were fickle at the best of times. 

“Master,” the skeleton said in a voice that sounded like it was being ground through some gravel. 

“Oh, you can speak now?” I asked happily.

“Yes, Lord Siateth granted it to me to spread his word,” the skeleton said with a nod.

“Hmm, I’m going to call you Sam from now on,” I said looking him over, then looked at the rest of the skeletons, “all of you choose your own classes.”

After a few moments like last time, there was a display of lights as they each started to change. The shield carrying one grew larger, and gained plates of bone over his body becoming a Knight it looked like. Another one had robes form over him as well but while they were black as well, there was an interplay of colors in various places that showed he was most likely a mage. 

Two of the skeletons became warriors. The greatsword wielding one and one that used two jagged pieces of bones for swords. They grew larger like the knight but instead of height it was more bulk. The bones gaining thickness. 

“Well, it looks like we have a decent adventuring party now,” I said with a grin then turned back to Sam, “Now, tell me what you found.”

“Master, we are not the only undead in the desert. A cave to the south contains many skeletons and zombies that might be of interest,” Sam reported much clearer than I expected him to. 

“Nasty cave! Bad smelly things inside!” Gobluke said when he heard the location.

“That sounds promising, I wonder if I could take control of them.”

“One of our prey was stolen by a large wyvern that ignored us,” Sam added. 

“Anything else? You didn’t find any of the races?” I asked for confirmation. 

“No, Master.”

“Let’s go hunting,” I said. I heard a groan from the back of the group, but could only smile.