Extra - Tamlin

Extra - Tamlin

Why does the Adventurers Guild rank teams different from individuals? Because a proper team working together can handle way more than their Stats would indicate. Meanwhile an individual is utterly dependent on their own ability so they have to be much stronger in order to handle even half of what a team of the same rank could.

Sure, they get a lot more experience and money because they dont have to split either, but most people who go it alone die before they reach C-Rank.

-A [Guild Receptionist] speaking to a new D-Rank Adventurer six hours before he died alone in the wilderness.

*Kingdom of Gracel, Two Years Ago*

[Farmer] Tamlin Mares POV:

The sun was hot, but then the sun was always hot in Gracel. I was used to it and yet I was never unbothered by it. I would pray for rain, but the storms of Gracel were as unpleasant as they were short. The rain often seemed to come from nowhere at all with the sun still shining and not a cloud in the sky even as rain fell down like a waterfall. Fifteen minutes later, the squall would end just as abruptly. The combination of rain and sun made Gracel ideal for farming year round.

I was ploughing one of our fields, guiding the oxen and using my ability, [Breaking Dirt], to ease the difficulty. I was - like many a young man just reaching adulthood in the area - bored and unsatisfied with my work. I didnt want to be a [Farmer] my whole life like my dad was. No, I wanted to go to faraway places and see new things; I wanted to be an Adventurer!

Neither dad nor mom took my goal seriously, barely even acknowledging me when I brought it up! I had learned the Spear Skill practicing with a broken hoe behind the house, I am sure I could gain a real Class and slay monsters! Or I would have if my little sister hadnt tattled on me and I ended up getting a lecture from dad.

Son, he said to me with a stern look on his face. You dont know how good youve got it. Before your granddad moved the family down here to Gracel we lived in Balkus, and Balkus doesnt have the same kind of security against monsters as Gracel does.

He told me that I had no idea what monsters were like, but I wasnt like him - I didnt want to run, I wanted to fight!

The sun was hot that day, when the village bell rang. I stopped ploughing and started to take the ox back to the barn. I moved slowly; I wasnt worried about why the bell was ringing, it was probably just some proclamation or another from the lord, but I did want to milk as much time away from working out of this as possible. It struck me as odd that the bell was still ringing, but nothing more than that.

What was there to worry about in Gracel?

The first inkling I got that something was truly wrong was when I saw the small village - more a collection of farmhouses than a proper settlement - and the people fleeing it. People were shouting, running, taking whatever they could carry and loading it onto wagons or backs and leaving for the east.

The hell are you dawdling for Tam!? My dads shout startled me, get the wagon out, we are leaving now!

What is happening? I asked in utter confusion.

NOW TAMLIN! My dad bellowed and I jumped to do what he asked me even as he was running around grabbing supplies of various kinds. Mom and Tessa - my little sister - were doing likewise as I started hitching the oxen to the cart.

Mom, what is going on!? I was bewildered, and starting to feel the anxiety creeping up on me. The icy feeling of terror freezing even the heat of Gracels sun.

It's a Swarm, she answered while loading as fast as she could. Get the cart moving now, your dad and I will catch up.

The last thing I wanted to do was be separated from my parents, but I nodded and did what my mom asked. Tessa and I started the cart moving towards the main road - a part of me was worried that I would never see my parents again, but I didnt push the oxen and they did indeed catch up.

To my surprise, my dad was carrying a spear. A real spear with a long blade, and it seemed to belong in his hands.

Dad, where did you get that?

Balkus was a more dangerous country than Gracel, he gave me a nonanswer, and yet it did indeed answer the question as well as it needed too. Was, at any rate.

I hadnt had time to think yet. I had been too rushed and stunned to think much about what was going on, but now I did. A Swarm was coming; what would happen to our farm? I had wished to leave it all my life and now I was heading away from it realizing that I might never see it again.

Are- I swallowed, trying to wet my dry throat as I croaked out, Are we moving fast enough? Will we be safe?

My parents didnt answer me. Their grim silence terrified me, but I tried to get a grip on my fear. I had always wanted to be a hero, and now I had to be one. Not for me, but for my sister who was shivering on the seat beside me, her arms wrapped around her body as if she was cold.

The sun was hot that day, though it cooled down at night. We joined the camp of others who were running east and I was relieved to see soldiers and guards around the camp. They looked us over, noted my father, and let us in easily. Others who were running were rejected and I could see why.

We had brought our own food, our own water, and dad was armed and seemed ready to fight. Others had fled with nothing and no one was willing to share when they had to look after their own. I thought it was wrong, but what could I do? I wanted to be a hero, and already I was willing to throw people away who might have been my neighbors and friends just yesterday.

I couldnt be that kind of person - so I approached one of the soldiers. They watched me warily, although I had no idea why. I was less a hero right now than a fool trembling out of terror.

Sir? I asked one of them, could I ask a question?

I would not throw away my parents sacrifice, I would take care of my sister and live.

*Three Weeks into the Goblin Swarm*

[Congratulations! You have reached Commoner Level 5!]

[You have gained +1 to all Stats other than Mgc!]

[You have gained the Class ability: [Hunger Resistance: Minor]!]

I started giggling hysterically at that notification. Of course! Of course I got that now! Requiring less food would have been so useful two weeks ago when there was food to ration, but now? Now it would only prolong my suffering.

Both Tessa and I were thinner, sickly even. Tessa rarely talked, barely making a sound except when she started screaming at night. She couldnt concentrate and nearly stabbed me when I startled her on accident. She turned eleven years old on the streets of Plyae, hungry and wary that someone might try to take the little nook of an alley we called home now.

I never wanted to give her a knife. My happy, joyful, playful but ultimately peaceful, sister? I could never have imagined her picking up a weapon, but things happened to the vulnerable on the street. Even a girl as young as my sister wasnt safe from cruelty of all kinds. Without food or shelter, mankind devolved into monsters themselves.

Three weeks ago, that man mugging another homeless and impoverished person was probably a good person. Three weeks ago, he would have had a family to talk him out of something so cruel - or perhaps he still had his family and he was doing whatever he had to do to take care of them.

I never told my sister, but I had unlocked several Classes over the past two weeks. [Thug], [Cutthroat], [Burglar], [Prostitute]... Unlocking a Class was supposed to be a reason to celebrate, but there was nothing good or heroic in how I unlocked those. I wouldnt take them, but they would always be in my Status as a reminder of what I had done. My only comfort was that Tessa did not have to unlock them herself.

*Five Weeks into the Goblin Swarm*

Monsters are hated because they prey on man. They kill, rip apart, and consume humans. It turns out that there really isnt much of a difference between a man and a monster.

*Seven Weeks into the Goblin Swarm*

The sun was hot that day, I can never forget how the heat baked the putrid stench of the city into my nose. It was the smell of death; death and sickness and rot and heat.

For the last seven weeks, Pylae had been surrounded by a sea of Goblins. They couldnt get through the wall - although there were areas they had tunneled under - but neither could the human forces in the city do anything to face the solid mass of Goblins outside the gates. There were so many Goblins that you couldnt see the ground, the land had been a writing mass of screeching monsters for as far as the eye could see.

But in the seventh week, that changed. Explosions rocked the city even though the blasts did not land inside it or even near it. Fire fell from the sky like rain drops on the Goblins on one side of the city, on the other the writhing mass was stilled as ice crept through their ranks. The [Archmages] had come and delivered the opening strikes that would break the siege of the city.

I didnt see it personally, but the tales spread like plague. S-Rank Adventurers sweeping Goblins aside by the tens of thousands, mages directing walls of fire to consume the beasts, the armies of man driving the Goblins away. No, I didnt even try to watch what was likely a legendary display of power. I was aiming for some of the food that this army must be carrying with them. I prayed to all the Gods of the world that they could help feed the city.

Tessa was sick, and I had seen others die of the same wasting illness. If she didnt eat, she would waste away into nothing but dry and pallid skin stretched over her bones. I was desperate, willing to do whatever it took for even the smallest bit of food. The vanguard entered the city first, and I approached to beg or barter whatever I could. I held onto my fathers spear, which I had managed to keep this long, willing to barter away his memory if that was what it took.

Hey, that spear A familiar voice called out, By the Gods! Tamlin, is that you?

But I was too late, because the city was already full of Goblins. Everywhere. I saw Hobs killing my father, Goblins ripping my mother apart and eating her, torturing my sister and laughing with their awful lau-

*Present Day*

Hey, wake up, A soft hand on my shoulder and soft voice woke me with a start. You were having a nightmare.

Yes, I had been. I took a moment to catch my breath, before looking into Rays concerned eyes. I raised my hand, brushing a fallen stand of her hair back behind her ear. How I had ended up here, with her next to me, I could hardly fathom. A farmboy pining after an immortal, he might as well wish to become a hero, yeah?

Im fine now, I say as my heartbeat calms. Thank you.

She doesnt say anything more, there is nothing to say. The weight of her head against my chest is reminder enough that I am free of that part of my life. Things have changed so much and even after a nightmare like that I was able to chuckle at a thought it brought up.

Something funny Tam? Ray murmured sleepily.

Just wondering how my sister will react when I introduce you to her, I say with a smile. It is a good thing she is already in a temple, because she will probably need a [Healer] for the shock.

I watched the stars for a while as Ray fell asleep again, thinking about how life changes. From a farmboy who knew nothing of the world to an Adventurer with an Elf lover who was taking a Wyvern to a lake so that it could be half-drowned to unlock an Evolution.

Maybe hero wasnt impossible after all.