Chapter 30.
“Sure you are,” Galine snorted.
I just shrugged. If someone had told me they were from another world, I would have assumed they had a few screws loose. It wasn’t exactly the kind of thing I could push.
“Oh,” I snapped for emphasis, “do you have any idea where one can sell slime cores?”
Galine blinked, then blew out a breath. “Uh, yes. Wolfbit buys them for 15 pence a piece.
“Oh,” I smiled. “That’s…. great, thanks,” I chuckled.
“I mean, it’s my job,” she chuckled, finishing her soup.
“True, but… it still works out,” I replied. “I went to a shop down by the market, and he only offered 10, even after saying 15 when I first checked with him.”
Galine nodded, “he was probably just going to sell them to Wolfbit or another intermediary. Unless you’ve got a buyer lined up and a big enough quantity, then it’s pretty much impossible to sell directly. Wolfbit is happy to make some extra crows, and mercenaries are happy to not have to sell all of their loot themselves.”
“You know you’re stuff,” I smiled.
“Mostly I do a lot of paperwork,” she chuckled flatly.
“You never wanted to risk your life fighting monsters?” I asked through another mouthful of stew.
“Oh… I do actually,” she grimaced. “I really do. I hate the city.” She seemed almost surprised that the words came out of her.
I simply nodded. “What's stopping you?” I eventually asked, unsure if it was too nosy or not. Regardless, I was curious.
“I’m not exactly good with heights,” she shook her head. “Or small spaces, or… water.” Galine sighed. “Not many people want to party up a centaur either,” she added, watching me with sudden intensity.
I took that in. “I’m sorry to hear that,” I replied, not knowing what else to say. “I’m not much the adventuring type,” I continued with a need to fill the silence. “On my way here with the Tavern Crew, I got my arm eaten by raptors,” I huffed weakly, waggling my nub.
“Recently?” Galine blinked. “I’m so sorry. That's… terrible. I’m sorry.”
I waved her off. I didn’t want to talk about it, but it was nice for someone to simply state the obvious. “Yeah… It’s why they’re letting me stay. I got munched on their watch, so I think they feel a bit bad.”
Galine nodded. “Where are you from originally?”
I raised an eyebrow, biting back a chuckle. “Well, I ran into them on the road after stumbling around the forest for a while. I travelled up from Appleby with them. Before that, I was in a different world,” I added for dramatic effect.
She shook her head. “I can’t tell if you’re pulling my leg or not.”
I smiled. “Would it be wrong to make a hoof joke?”
Galine chuckled with a shake of her head. “Be serious. You’re really an outworlder?”
I nodded, some of my amusement fading as my thoughts drifted back to everything I had left behind. “Yeah,” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’m from Earth, that's the planet we were on, we named it after dirt for some reason,” I shrugged. “There were only humans, no halflings, or centaurs or anything, but we had tons of stories and fiction full of mythical creatures. No magic either, that's been a wild adjustment. No system. It’s been… weird… being here,” I nodded.
“Huh,” Galine muttered.
“I know I sound crazy,” I blew out a breath.
“You do,” she nodded, but she was smiling.
“Well, I wish you the best of luck with making it out into the big, scary world,” I smiled. Part of me wanted to ask more questions, get more answers about the barriers centaurs faced, and why they were there in the first place, but that felt like a heavy topic. And honestly, I shouldn’t make it Galine’s job to educate me on the struggles she faced. Hell, I wasn’t really in the mood to talk about my arm.
“Thanks,” she nodded. “Hopefully soon, still just trying to get a little stronger.”
“What's your uh… specialty?” I asked, finishing my stew.
You have levelled up and gained five stat points to allocate.
I brushed the message aside to deal with later.
“Oh,” Galine smiled, embarrassed. “Martial arts.”
“Cool,” I grinned. “Very cool. I always wanted to learn martial arts, but I never found the time on Earth.”
“I’m afraid I can’t teach you the style I know. You don’t have enough limbs,” she laughed.
I snorted. “That's okay, I’ve never been much of a fighter.”
“No?” she asked, intrigued. “I thought outworlders always became legendary warriors?”
I rolled my eyes. “If I could, I’d be a mage. We have swords where I’m from, I mean… we’ve moved past them technologically, but… We never had anyone who could throw fireballs and summon monsters. But alas, twas not fated to be,” I shrugged. “Though I hope to get into the Academy for the next semester.”
“Really?” she hummed. “What do you hope to study?”
“I… don’t know,” I chuckled. “I’m mostly focused on scrounging up the money right now.”
“What? Don’t have a noble family sponsoring you?” she smirked.
“No, Galine, I don’t. I’ve been here for like three weeks… Oh my god, I’ve been here for three weeks,” I muttered, all the mirth seeping out of me. Almost a month, I had been in this place for almost a month. I had accomplished fuck all. I had lost a fucking arm. I had lost everything from Earth, then everything I had asked for. What the fuck. “Sorry,” I muttered, trying to shake off the wave of ennui. “Being here’s been… weird.”
Galine nodded slowly. “I imagine it would be.”
I grimaced. “I mean… the arm thing is bad. I still wake up and for a moment… I don’t remember,” I shook my head. “You know, on Earth, we have a whole genre of books about people getting transported to a fantasy world and gaining crazy powers. It’s so fucking… absurd that it actually happened and… most of the time I just want to go home,” I said weakly, my voice cracking as I fought back tears. “Sorry, you came in for stew, not–”
Galine placed her hand on mine, a simple, quiet comfort. I couldn’t look at her, I just kept swallowing until I stopped feeling like I was going to shatter.
“Life sucks,” she said, “and then you die.”
I laughed, pained, but it was weirdly comforting.
“I left my clan to be a mercenary, to go on adventures and change the world. I’ve been in Agocester for… I can’t even remember how many years at this point,” she smiled unhappily. “Life rarely goes the way we want it to, and the gods are a right bunch of fucking twats.”
I stared at her in disbelief before being overtaken by giggles. “You’re so right,” I sighed. “Fucking twats.”
“Join me downstairs?” Galine asked suddenly. “We’ve got some ale somewhere, maybe some wine.”
I smiled. “I’d like that.”
“Good,” she smiled, blushing red again. “Bring your slime cores, we’ve got important business to conduct.”
I rolled my eyes but went to fetch the cores. Before I could offer a hand, Galine climbed to her feet. Not so unsteady after all. Not that she looked unsteady, she looked strong, she looked… not utterly petrified by a fear of heights. She looked nice.
I tore my eyes away to my stats before I forgot. I increased endurance to 15 and agility to 13. My max MP had gone up to 25 at some point, and my SP to 10. I really didn’t care right now. I had a date, or at least a nice evening with a new friend. There were things far more important in this world than numbers.
“I’ve just realized I need to go back down the stairs,” Galine muttered.
I walked back over and gave her a reassuring look. “How can I help?”
I ended up going down the steps backwards in front of her, idly chatting about one of the last books I had been in the process of reading when I died, which I would now never know the end of. Actually, that was rather infuriating now that I thought about it. But Galine seemed to appreciate my passion, and the distraction as she very carefully followed after me.
“All good?” I smiled, patting her on the arm when she reached the ground.
“Y-Yeah,” she nodded shakily. “Yes, thank you, Pamela.”
I gave her my most dazzling smile. “Of course, what else are new friends for?”
“You think you’re so funny,” she smirked.
“I know I am, thank you very much,” I huffed with faux indignance. Honestly, doing my best Candy impersonation. “Now, how about that drink?”