Two left and Heart rushed, knocking back one but the second darted around him to attack Ash and bite his forearm - though a second later Heart was there to smash the broken half of his first stick into its eye and slay it as well. The final wolf didn’t have time to flee, a fire attack from Ash sent it rolling and Heart just used his stick to beat it around the head until it finally disappeared and they were left with nothing but the glinting of the items dropped, and their bleeding wounds to show their victory.

Ash was stunned a little. Their first real battle really as he bit his lip, trying to calm his nerves really as he moved forward now. Using his magic and letting it build for a healing spell. “Oh god, I’m sorry Heart, I didn’t think they would be so strong-” he said, he could hear the quiver in his voice. The faint tears of worry in his eyes. In this moment, seeing the male so worried about him.. It was hard to believe or think that he was anything by real. It was as he was healing him that they both felt it, that familiar warmth of leveling up, it felt warmer than normal really as Ash was focused on healing him- but Heart could see not only his bleeding stop, but their levels and stats increasing twice over. “How are you feeling, does it still hurt?” he asked, there was 15 points left before his health bar was full. He was already building another spell for it as it washed over him a moment later.

“I’m alright..” Heart said, looking at his torn and bloody clothes but the wound was healed now like it had never been there. It was a good thing they had gathered up enough to buy some clothes to spare. “Use your magic on yourself now and eat something. I’ll go check out the inside of the cave for the chest.” He said as he stood up now, still holding his remaining stick though it was close to breaking now. Well, he should be strong enough to handle weak monsters with his fists if it came to that. “Keep a look out and gather up what was dropped.”

Ash sniffled and blinked away tears now, relieved. “Okay.” he nodded. “Come and eat when you’re done.. And call for me if there’s more.” he frowned. He didn’t think there would be anymore.. But he was exhausted. His mouth eagerly latching onto the waterskin now and drinking it down. He pulled out a shirt and pants for Heart, and moved to eat a stew slowly as well.

Heart changed his clothes while Ash had his back turned and passed them to him when he was done, there was a trailer in town that Ash could take them too in order to get them fixed. With that he headed down into the cave and moved through it carefully. He checked under skulls to find more copper coins but their prize was in the back of the cave, opening to his touch easily. Fifty silver coins and..

Coming up from the cave Ash turned around eager to see what they had gotten, Heart holding up.. A lamp? It was a weird looking lamp though, it looked more like a glass jar and yet fluttering within was a tiny little fairy who was smiling happily and seemed perfectly fine to be in this little jar full of tiny plants.

“Whoa.. what is that?” he said in awe. Looking at the little creature that seemed happy. “I wonder what it does..” he said thoughtfully. “Oh, maybe we could check the library, to see what it does.” he grinned. Offering out a stew to Heart now.

“I’m.. pretty sure he’s a lamp Ash..” He told him softly, not really wanting to piss on the others sunny day but even he couldn’t help but be a bit let down. “He lit up the cave for me.. Ah, but we did get fifty silver coins from it as well. I asked if he wanted to be let out but he said no, I think he’s pretty happy in there..”

“Oh..” he seemed to hum with a pout. Looking at the little fairy how seemed more than happy in there. “..Maybe he’s just a house decoration. I mean, he is supposed to be just treasure I suppose.” he said, tapping the lamp gently as the fairy cooed and flew around the lamp before sitting back down. “...Do you wanna keep it or try and sell it?” he asked now.

“I’ll keep it.” Heart said as he took it back quickly. “It is our first real mission reward after all. Besides, the house can be a little lonely at times. At least with him I’ll have someone to talk too.”

“...I don’t know if fairies talk Heart.” he pointed out before chuckling. “But alright. He is kinda cute.” he said now. “Come and eat. You need to get back stamina before we start walking back.” The last thing he needed was Heart passing out on him.

Heart tucked the fairy lamp away and took the meal, eating it eagerly as Ash split the silver between them. “You know what is weird?” He asked as he licked his fingers, finishing up now and nearly capping his health. “I can level up my house. It uses coins and wood to do so, depending on what I want to unlock. Do all houses do that?”

“Yup.” he smiled. “Though we’re a small town, we don’t really bother with that unless our families grow. My house is level 3 really, I have a ton of siblings.” he grinned, though for Heart this was the first time he had heard Ash talk about his family. Perhaps it had to do with the friendship point earlier? “The bigger villages, and towns have bigger and nicer buildings, you know, marble and bricks and whatnot.” he hummed. “To level up the house takes wood and coins, then coins, wood and bricks, and then .. I don’t know but probably another material too.” he smiled.

“A castle - you’re basically saying I can turn my little country home into a fort.” Heart told him and for some reason he worried what the hell that meant if he could turn his home into something like that. “Well, right now I don’t really have a need too so I’m not bothering with it. I just thought it was weird.” They walked together for a bit as Heart thought. “So.. How many brothers and sisters do you have?” He asked, looking at him again.

“Well not exactly a castle, more like.. A bigger home, adding more rooms and stuff. Though I guess you could too? I mean… my parents would know about that.” he shrugged before grinning at the question. Stretching now as they walked back through the forest. “I’m the baby out of seven children.” he said happily.

“Seven kids.. No wonder why you want to take off, it sounds like you can barely breathe there.” Heart said with his eyebrows furrowed slightly at the idea. “What do they do? Job wise I mean..”

“Well maybe. Don’t get me wrong, I love them to death, but god, they can be a bit much sometimes. Especially since I’m the baby.” he pouted before humming. “My mom makes potions, my dad farms. Usually just to feed the family, and the rest is sold off.” he explained. Really, his mother was the one that made more coin, but potions were always needed.

Heart rubbed the back of his head now, thinking. “Well, you could move in with me? I mean, I have enough to upgrade the house for an extra bedroom anyway. And I’ve been kind of wanting to see what it would do anyway. At least that way you don’t have to come all the way out to my house anymore and we can just go together.”

Ash blinked, looking thoughtful before smiling. There was another ‘+1’ in the ‘friendship’ bar. “That would be awesome. Want me to pay rent too or something?” He asked now.

“That’s alright, we pretty much make enough with these quests to get by as it is.” Heart told him. It wasn’t like there was bills to pay or rent, so far the cost of living was pretty much the price of food. “When we get to town you can go pack your stuff and I’ll head home.”

“Alright.” Ash grinned. “I’ll head over when I have everything packed into my inventory.” he said eagerly. The pair breaking through now the forest, and entering grassland. Heading towards town now. “Oh should we stop by the blacksmith before parting ways?”

“Ah, that’s right. We should have unlocked it at this stage. Yeah, let’s do that. I can finally switch to a real weapon - er, well see what they have right now anyway.” He said with a nod. “Do you think the blacksmith will know about the fairy lamp?”

Ash looked thoughtful and said “Maybe? He might ask to buy it from you, but don’t okay? Depending who you sell stuff to, they might give you a higher or a lower price than someone else.” though at his look he laughed softly. “I know, I know, not selling, but I just mean for future reference.”

Heart nodded his head as they came to the edge of town now. Though it was as they were walking that he felt.. Odd, like eyes on him. Turning his head, for just a moment, he saw a robbed figure standing between two buildings staring at them. But the moment someone passed by in front of him, he was gone. A chance encounter? Or maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him. At this point he couldn’t really be too sure. Looking around a bit more he didn’t see anyone like that again so he wrote it out of his mind.

On the other side of town, and this time with no wall to get in his way, he finally came to the blacksmith shop - hearing the sounds of a hammer striking something and the heat from within licked at them when they drew closer. He couldn’t really see the blacksmith himself in the back but they could head into the shop, a woman standing behind the counter with a big smile on her face. There were displays of armor and weapons around here, but also some cookware items too.

Ash smiled as he moved around now. Looking over the staffs they had with bright eyes. The woman smiled softly at the pair and said “Hello, welcome! What can I help you with today?” she asked warmly. Looking closer at the cooking items, he could see they had some benefits to them. Faster cooking times, increased favor, increased ability to add more stamina or heal to food cooked in them- and more. “All the weapons and armor you see will become tailored to your size if your class is able to wield them.” she smiled. So even the largest sword could become Heart’s size to carry easier if he was of a class that could hold it, and a high enough level. Though with the new levels they had gained that day, he found he could easily buy all the swords if he wanted.

Heart walked around slowly as he looked at each item. For them to leave the town he figured they were going to need to beat the boss of this area first, and if these wolves - howlers told him anything, is that they needed some hard grinding and the best weapons and armor this place could give them. “What’s the best you have for a warrior and mage class?” He asked her now.

“I have two swords, that have recently been crafted.” she smiled, guiding him over to two swords now. Their steel was shining, the edge was sharp, the handle however was pretty simple, and save for the red circle jewel at the hilt, it was just like a basic sword image. The other sword was the same, and had a blue circle jewel. “This sword, has a higher attack skill, with a 45 second cool down. “ she pointed to the red one. “This sword, has a high defense skill, that forms a shield that takes half the damage of an attack with a 30 second cool down.” she smiled now.

Heart looked very thoughtful now. Both were the same price, but the difference between them could mean life or death. If he was being honest he wanted to buy both of them, he had become rather skilled at quick change of weapons from his inventory. In doing that however he wouldn’t have enough for anything else, let alone the upgrade to the house. Well, he didn’t think they would leave right away so maybe he could grind for the other in his spare time. “I’ll take the defense.” He said with a nod before looking at Ash. “What about mage weapons now?”

“Very well.” she smiled, putting the blue sword into her inventory now to move over to the staffs that Ash was drooling over. “Here I have two staffs that have great quality.” The staffs looked better than the stick staff Ash currently had. They were made of wood still, but the wood seemed to be of better quality. There was a staff that had a golden lace wrapped up it like a candy cane, the other staff was thin, the top shaped in a swirl with a small jewel in the middle of the swirl. “This one here has a bonus of higher mp for the user. Depending on his level, will be how many bonus points that will be added.” She pointed out now to the candy cane one. “This one has a higher casting rate, so all the casting time needed for spells will be cut in half.”

Heart looked at Ash now. “I think you should pick your weapon, but if it was me the higher casting rate is pretty good. Use what happened today with the howlers as what to go on the next time we face a higher level foe. But that being said, being able to do more spells is also pretty good. If we grind for some armor though we might be able to knock it up more, and buy an item that improves your MP without this staff.”

Ash looked thoughtful, and though the swirl one was very pretty, Heart did have a point. He didn’t ever want to not be able to heal Heart at least a bit in battle. That was really dangerous after all. “I think the Candy cane one.” he hummed softly. Nodding firmly at his choice as the woman smiled gently.

“Very well.” she took the staff into her inventory and said “Will this be a combined purchase or a separate purchase?” she asked now as she moved over to the coin register.

“Combined.” He said as they pooled their money together now in order to buy them, selling their sticks and the bones since they couldn’t use them just yet. It was as they were heading outside, admiring their new weapons, that Heart looked at Ash. “Hey, let me have your old staff.”

“Eh? Why would you want it?” Ash asked now, confused. He wasn’t even a mage class at the moment, and he seemed really happy with his Warrior class.

“I wanna put it above the mantle at home. To show how far we’ve come since first meeting.” Heart told him with a smile. “You’ve had that thing ever since I first met you, it seems a shame now to just sell it after all we went through with it.”

Ash smiled softly before nodding. “You’re really mushy sometimes Heart.” he chuckled before pulling out the older staff and handing it to him. “Okay. I’ll head home now, okay?” he said excitedly. “I’m going to go show off my new staff.”

Heart grinned at him as he took it. “See you later.” He said as they parted now, Heart putting the weapons away before he remembered the fairy lamp. Ah, well maybe tomorrow. Reaching the edge of town he set off in a jog to keep himself in shape and keep raising his speed. Reaching his home he unlocked it and then removed the fairy lamp and held him up. “This is my home, now your home - and soon Ash’s home too.” He said with a nod as he moved around a little. “Let’s see.. Where to put you? On the mantle maybe? Or would that be too hot?”

The fairy jingled a little as he moved. Shaking his head at the thought in a pout. Pointing out now, he liked windows.