The river continued past the lake, and they decided to follow it. It had brought them to interesting places so far, and they had no reason to think that would change.
Lucian was a bit grumpy that the battle against the knight hadn’t given them any cool items like the ones they had found in the dungeon, but he supposed the growth it had provided in terms of both real levels and skill levels more than made up for it. That thought didn’t mean he didn’t hope the next thing they fought gave them a cool trinket.
“Given the direction my skills seem to be taking me, some kind of armor would be nice.” Lucian thought to him, briefly imagining himself clad in the bark armor of the knight before shaking his head, “No not like that… I don’t think that would look good on me.” He still had a sense of aesthetics, after all.
As Lucian was thinking to himself, Annabelle moved to the side and crouched down. Lucian blinked and turned his head to follow her. There was a patch of brightly colored pink flowers - he had seen them but hadn’t paid them any mind. Annabelle picked one and stood up, sniffing it and smiling. She glanced at Lucian with a smirk, “Hey, lemme put this in your hair.”
Lucian blinked, “What?” He looked at her, then down at the flower, and back up at her, “Why?”
“Because it would look cute, obviously.” She rolled her eyes, “You’re all cool looking, it would be a cute contrast.”
Lucian groaned, and briefly considered arguing against it before deciding it would be pointless, “Alright…” He sighed and lowered his head slightly.
Annabelle stepped closer to him and moved her hands, fiddling with his hair and finding a spot for the flower. After a moment, the pink bloom was nestled in his hair to the side like the decoration on a hairpin, “There we go!” She grinned and took a step back, before pulling out her phone and taking a picture of him.
“Hey!” Lucian laughed as she snapped a photo, “I didn’t agree to that!”
Annabelle stuck her tongue out at him, “Good thing I didn’t ask!” She giggled.
Lucian laughed a little more and smiled down at her, reaching up and adjusting the flower slightly. She narrowed her eyes as he moved his hand, but her face returned to normal when he didn’t remove it and only moved it a little bit.
Annabelle had a subtly pleased expression, like she had just gotten an unruly cat to do what she wanted - though in her mind it might not have been far from the truth.
Lucian rolled his eyes a little, “At least show me the picture.”
She turned her phone around, “Here! See, it's cute!” She insisted.
He blinked a few times, “Oh… It is kind of cute…” He admitted.
She nodded proudly before asserting “It's the contrast.”
“I have to agree with you, definitely the contrast.” He agreed, resigning himself to the fact that he would probably be having more flowers in his hair from now on, “Not that I really mind it. I’m just being difficult.”
Annabelle seemed pleased that he agreed with her, and after a brief pause where she looked to be considering something she said, “Alright, come on then! What are we standing around for?”
Lucian rolled his eyes again, and the pair continued along their path.
They encountered a few monsters as they ventured deeper, and as a result Annabelle managed to level up [Tanglethorns] and [Poison Bolt], but there wasn’t enough for either of them to get real levels out of it.
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Eventually the pair found a nice pair of rocks they could sit on beside the river and decided to stop and have lunch. They set up the portable stove, and filtered some water from the river. They had a simple but filling meal, and sat on their rocks and listened to the sounds of the river rushing by and the forest as they ate.
Lucian took a moment to reflect on the past few days.
Everything in his life had turned upside down overnight. But despite what had happened, where someone else might be suffering or wishing things hadn’t changed, he was having the most fun he had had since he was a child. He was going on adventures into strange and magical places, wielding fascinating powers - the deeper facets of which he was keen to potentially explore, and he had made some nice new friends in both Annabelle and Bianca. He smiled and looked up at the clouds passing lazily overhead, utterly unbothered by the happenings of the world below before a sudden thought struck him - he frowned briefly, “I should probably formally withdraw from college at this point…” He groaned, “I’ll do it when I can…”
Annabelle was looking over at him, “Oh, what’s wrong?” She asked when he suddenly groaned a little.
“Just thinking about the fact that I should withdraw from college. Doesn’t seem worth continuing right now, I’d rather be doing this kind of thing full time.” He laughed, “Adventuring as a profession, sounds weird doesn’t it?”
Annabelle laughed as well, “When you say it out loud, yeah. Though, not stranger than the fact that I can use magic now.”
“That’s true, that’s true.” Lucian nodded, “The whole world seems so strange right now. It’s exciting.”
“It really is.” She smiled at him, “I can’t wait to see more of it.”
Lucian nodded, “Looks like we’re stuck together for a while then, huh?”
Annabelle leaned back and threw her arm up, bringing her hand to her forehead dramatically, “Oh no! The humanity…”
They both started laughing, and finished their meals with idle chatter and light humor. When they finished eating, they cleaned up and packed up, taking a small rest before continuing onward.
They took occasional breaks as they travelled to drink water or rest their legs, occasionally stopping to examine or smell the flowers as well.
“I was thinking…” Lucian said as he touched a pretty but mundane looking flower, “Do you think there are any plants around here with magical properties? Like, the kind you could make some kind of healing potion with.”
Annabelle nodded slowly, “Probably! The issue would be figuring out what does what. Who knows if ‘Random Blue Flower A’ is, like, highly poisonous to humans or something.” She looked up to Lucian, “Or cat people.” She blinked a few times then squinted at Lucian, “Does… Catnip work on you?”
“What?” Lucian laughed, “Catnip?”
“Well… You’re a catfolk right? So…” She made a circular gesture with her hand, “It would make some sense…”
“I can’t say I tried it, or that it's in my list of things to try, frankly.” He chuckled.
“I don’t plan on like, drugging you with catnip or anything. I was just curious!” She defended herself with a laugh.
“I’m sure.” Lucian smirked, then looked back to the plants, “Back on topic, there’s probably some kind of plant or potion related class that would be helpful for figuring that out. I also wouldn’t be surprised if we find some kind of magic plant almanac in a dungeon.”
“That would be convenient, wouldn’t it?” Annabelle laughed, “Well, we know that people can acquire classes without having gotten one right away thanks to Bianca. It isn’t a stretch to think we’ll be able to find someone with those skills at some point.”
Lucian nodded, “Yeah. Oh, do you reckon stuff like guilds are going to pop up?”
“Guilds, like, MMO guilds?” Annabelle raised an eyebrow.
“Well, yeah. There are literally dungeons with magic items. I suspect people are going to start finding uses for stuff like monster parts too at some point. The question isn’t if people are going to start trying to profit off of all this, it’s when.” Lucian pointed out.
“Oh yeah, that does make sense…” Annabelle agreed before remarking, “We could just start one of our own.”
“We definitely could… But I don’t know if that’s actually a good idea. I mean, I can definitely see some upsides to that - but I can also see downsides. There’s always two sides to being first.” He sighed, “We should definitely think about it though.”
Annabelle nodded, “Definitely.”
The conversation about plants and guilds lasted a little longer, as the pair started making guesses about how things would go in terms of legislation and oversight. They both readily admitted they had no real ideas, and were just guessing, but they felt it made for decent conversation regardless - something to keep them busy as they walked.
