Beginning Chapter levels:

Heart:

Level 4 Atk: 8 Def:6. Physical Spd:4. Health:125

Inventory: One stick, four copper coins.

Ash:

Level 5 Atk: 8 Def: 4 Casting Spd: 6 MP: 6 Health 100

Spells: Low Healing. (15-25 Possible points per heal) Basic attack, and basic fire both deal 8 attack.

Inventory: 3 Water (Chance to regain 1-5 stamina points), 5 Fruits or vegetables (One serving gives 1-5 health points), and 3 stew.

Leveling up was coupled with grinding it seemed, and while he had found a couple of quests that gave him some amusing and interesting interactions with the otherwise sleepy town. Still, the barrier out of town and to the blacksmith himself was currently going strong. His stats were close to leveling up, to the point where he was sure that just smacking two or three more monsters would push him over to level five. He had a feeling that this would be the level that would finally allow him through, and though Ash came often to quest with him, he had gone on quests himself as well, in order to catch up to the single level the male had above him. It was how he found the male outside of his home, sitting on the branches and kicking his legs back and forth. Obviously waiting for him to emerge now.

Though at seeing him, Ash grinned and moved down the tree now carefully before landing down before him. “Good morning. How are you feeling today? I peeked at some of the quests today, and I saw a really cool one.” he said,a edge of glee in his voice. Eyes shining now in enthusiasm.

Heart raised an eyebrow now at the other, he hadn’t seen him this eager save for when he first talked about the dagger quest. That one they still hadn’t touched, it needed a higher level. “What is it?” But no sooner had he asked that a quest was being shoved in his face. This one meant going into the forest, into a cave where some Howler’s lived to take care of them. He hadn’t seen Howler’s before, he guessed they must be like wolves. But the reward is what made him raise an eyebrow - it seemed there was a chest in the cave and the reward was keeping what was in it. “This seems fishy..” He said softly. “We wouldn’t know what is in the chest would we? And it doesn’t even say who posted it..”

“It’s a magical quest Heart..” he pouted. “I wasn’t high enough level for these before, but look-” he pointed out to the required level now. “See? At least level 4, and there’s two of us. “ He flashed him puppy dog eyes now. “Please? This treasure might be amazing Heart, better than stick, seeds, and clothing drops..” he pointed out now. Not to mention he had already taken the quest, so he would have to do it, with or without him.

“Fine - fine!” He said with a sigh. So far Heart had been careful to leave his gold back home, but he had learned something pretty interesting. The empty library books suddenly weren’t as empty. Rather they displayed items, monsters and people he had met so far - though one book was still empty so he guessed he hadn’t crossed whatever was meant for that yet. But he had also learned with enough coin he could level up his home. The next level was adding a bedroom but for level three he could hire someone - a farmer, a pet keeper, a maid. He wondered if that meant someone from the village? He shook his head a little to gather his thoughts again. “Let’s buy some food to take with us, it seems pretty far out of town.”

“Thank you Heart!” he giggled, grinning eagerly before nodding. Showing him his inventory now to say “I packed some food for us already. Is there something else you want?” he asked, he had some water, fruits, and vegetables, along with three stews. Which were basically just three servings on the go.

“No, this should be fine.” Heart said as he closed up his door now firmly. Turning they started off together. “By the way, what are howlers?” He asked. “We haven’t faced any yet. At least I haven’t. Have you?”

“Well they’re like dogs, but.. You know, monster like.” he hummed softly. “I usually just avoided them, since I was a weaker level than them.” He rummaged through his bag now before he said “I hope we can find a assassin class, thief would be wonderful on hunts like this. They increase loot and their rarity.” he said thoughtfully.

“There’s no one like that in Littlebell though. We’d likely have to go to a bigger place for that. But’s weird, no such place is nearby. People can’t even seem to recall another town’s name. Well, you don’t either..” Heart said in thought. “I think we’re missing something.. But maybe we’re just too low for something like that.”

“...I don’t know.” he shrugged. “Older adventurers say that just how it is, so we’ll find out stuff as we get stronger.” he said, not in the least bit bothered by it all. “Though I hope we can find one soon, or in the next town. Getting loot is going to be important for weapons, and Inns and stuff. “ he hummed. They wouldn’t be able to return home to sleep in their beds after all, well as far as they knew.

Heart nodded as they walked together, cutting around the edge of the town in order to get to the forest path. He had given up by asking things like ‘what older adventurers’ or ‘how do you know that’, Ash never seemed to know nor really be bothered by it. In a way Heart questioned if Ash was real or not, a person who didn’t care about the past but forged his own future - or just a person supposed to be there.. The later made him feel alone though so he pushed it away. “We’re going pretty far in day.” He said as they moved under the shade of the trees, the forest became thicker the further in they went. “Hopefully we don’t run into a boss..”

Ash hummed softly and said “Well I hope not.. I didn’t stock up for a boss battle.” he frowned. This was more of adventuring inventory than fighting. “If we see it’s becoming too dangerous, we can always leave and come back to it, since I already took it.” he smiled, pulling out his wooden staff now into view as he said “We should check the blacksmith, after we level up from this one. Well, if we do.”

“I doubt we’re of the level to deal with them. But they might be deeper in the forest.” He said with a nod. They were going far but not that far. “I’m pretty sure with what we meet on the way will be enough.” Sure enough, just as he said that a couple of Lullabud popped out. They were pretty common around here but they were still level one, by now their attacks only did one point of damage now. “I’ll take care of the small ones, you save your magic for the howlers.”

“Sounds good.” he nodded, stepping back to let him take care of the small fries now, and considering they were higher level than them now, he hadn’t taken any damage this time around. He still picked up the drops to sell later or use them to fulfill quests as he said “I hope it’s something we can sell, or maybe a weapon or armor.” he smiled, though Heart could see him daydreaming about mountains of loot or something.

“Did anyone ever tell you that your head is in the clouds too much?” Heart asked but he couldn’t help but smile a little.

“Mean. I like to think of myself as optimistic, a go with the flow kinda guy you know?” he grinned. Nudging him back playfully as they walked along. “I mean like, what’s the point of stressing out about things I don’t know or can’t do if I can’t do them at the moment? I prefer to just keep moving forward, and see what comes next.”

“That’s one way to look at life.” He said with a smile. “Kind of.. Refreshing to me as well. So you can under think things and I’ll over think them.” Heart grinned a little at him. They walked and Heart took care of another batch of Lullabud before they found a large lake to rest at just before the cave of howlers. “You want to hear something interesting?” Heart asked as he was handed an apple to eat, holding it up to look at it now. Ash had already learned that when he asked something that he was going to say something weird.

Ash raised an eyebrow and moved to sit down by the lake, drinking from the water skin, and would refill it when he was done. “Sure, go for it.” he smiled with a shrug. He knew something weird was going to come, but he liked hearing his weird ideas. Sometimes it was like Heart was from a completely different town.

“In my dream,” Heart said softly. “Apple’s have seeds. You can remove them to plant apple trees and if you use a large amount of them then you can even poison someone. Too small a dose, they’ll never move again. Too large and you’ll kill them.” He had already learned he couldn’t talk about his world, so it was better to call it his dream.

Ash blinked at his words, looking thoughtful now. “Wow, you have weird dreams.” he chuckled. Patting the grass next to him, and watching him sitting down now to say “Well, apples having seeds would be nice at least. So we wouldn’t have to be whacking monsters for them. I kinda feel bad for them now.” he chuckled. “But wouldn’t apples having seeds make them monsters too? It sounds kinda scary you know.” he grinned. Looking at him now. Ash was honest, and happy to hear his babbling of course.

“Not really. They’d just look the same as this, but with seeds at their core.” Heart said as he leaned against the tree now eating it. “They wouldn’t attack you. Compared to this world though you might find that very boring.”

“Mm.. it sounds more peaceful. Less monsters?” he grinned, offering out the water skin now to him. “I like your dreams, they’re interesting.”

Heart sipped it softly, a small amount slipping down the corner of his lips to run down his chin. “No monsters at all, at least.. Not like these.” Heart told him as he gave it back. “The way I see it, monsters here are out in the open - doing what monsters do. But in my dream the monsters are humans, and they’re far worse than these monsters. At least so far.. Even so, depending on how you look at it, it can either be a dream or a nightmare.” He looked at Ash now. “Living in this dream, here with you, I feel calm. I haven’t felt fear once since coming here. I don’t know if that is healthy though, it’s nice..”

Heart could see Ash blush a dusty pink on smooth cheeks before he smiled and looked away. It was as he did that Heart could see something, a ‘+1’ appearing over Ash’s head now, and a new bar appearing. This one merely said ‘Friendship’ though. “Well.. for what it’s worth, I don’t think this is a dream.” he reached over and pinched him playfully as he grinned, blush gone. “See? You felt that didn’t you.”

It was a good thing he didn’t have the wineskin anymore, otherwise he might have spat it out in shock. Did this game have fucking romance in it to?! So far it had seemed pretty childish. Heart looked away, taking a few breathes. Well, just because it had said that didn’t mean it could turn into romance. So far it just seemed that he was becoming better friends with Ash. Though he wondered if this would update him in his Character Book back in the library? “Yeah, I did. But you know, after being in one dream or another so long - how can you really tell which one is real?” He looked at Ash again with a smile. “I don’t think even if this one turned out not real that I’d forget about you. I’ve never had an elf for a friend.. It feels like I didn’t have a lot of friends in the other dream either.”

Ash grinned and said “Well, who’s the dreamer now?” he chuckled. Moving over to the lake edge to refill the water skin. “Frankly, I think you’re stuck with me you know. Until we become great adventurers, and have lots of loot, and get your dream back.” he said as he stood up now. “Ready to go?” he smiled, offering out a hand for him to stand up.

“Yep.” Heart stood up and dusted himself off now. “Alright. You build up your magic while I keep them focused on me. If we can avoid fighting in the cave itself we should, otherwise we might end up getting trapped.” He said, switching to full warrior mode now. “Let me have that stick you found on the way. I have an idea I want to try with it.”

“Alright.” he reached behind his back and pulled out the stick now to give it to him. Pulling out his wand as well to say “Should I attack the entrance? Draw them out?” He asked now, Heart could feel his magic building up now, like a gentle wind around them forming.

“I’ll try something.” He said as he tucked the second stick away and they moved closer to the den now. Cupping his hands together Heart suddenly let out a very deep wolf like howl into the cave, the sound becoming stronger as it bounced around the stone. Almost at once it was answered from within as now Heart jumped back just one the first one appeared. It did look like a normal wolf, only it was more green and had leaf like petals coming from its back in bring purple. He’d call them more flower wolves than howlers honestly. But the thing that troubled him was the fact that this one alone was level seven. “Shit!” Heart said as he rushed forward, taking the first attack.

Only three points of damage but by having caught it off guard he had stunned it. But in that time more howlers had appeared. Four in trouble, they were outnumbered, but Heart had already learned that they wouldn’t simply gang up and had a span in which they would attack again. Least.. That was how it had gone with the plants. Two lunged at him and he avoided the attack from one, but the other caught his side only to let go when Heart jammed his stick into its eye. A blast of fire went past him to hit the fourth and a glance at Ash told him the other was panicking a bit now at the sight of his bleeding side. This was his first time getting hit and it hurt, like really fucking hurt. The wolf he had stunned jumped at him now and Heart smashed the stick down it’s throat, but it bit and broke it in half - yet that was why Heart had the second and quickly made it appear to knock the wolf back again.

“Ash, focus on damage! When my health gets below half then heal!” He called as the four wolves regrouped now, but Heart charged forward. If he let them rest they would work them down little by little, and if he let up then they would turn to Ash as he built up another attack. Heart scattered them but caught one by the tail, bringing the stick now harshly on its head for five points of damage now, a blast of fire from Ash threw the wolf away for seven points but now another had turned to him. “Ash-”

Ash swung his staff when the wolf drew near, hitting it in the nose for only two points of damage but now another had rushed his exposed back to jump on it - for a moment Ash felt hot air on the back of his pointed ear and the smell of beast breath before Heart was there to knock it off. He turned to find Heart standing in front of him now, protecting him as he hit another wolf back. His side was still bleeding but a cure spell took time, his fire attack was faster so that was what he focused on. Heart howled and charged forward, not letting up and not letting them get near Ash again. When he finally slayed one the battle began to shift more in their favor and Ash fell another with another fire blast.