Chương 3

They weren't proper boots, but the sandals the second Ellen had made were much better than bare feet on the ground. They were clumsy, had poor traction, and after only half an hour or so the cords began to chafe, but Ellen was grateful nonetheless. The real trouble was that the trail wasn't really a trail. It was basically game trails that the two girls had to stumble through… and there was a lot of stumbling. Going up a mountain had been hard, but without proper footwear it was just as hard going down.

Autumn was starting, and dead plants combined with half-hidden roots made progress slippery and treacherous. It gave the two plenty of time to work out some details, at least.

"So I was thinking," Ellen began.

"I'm not saying I'm the real Ellen, but until we figure that out, I think I should be Ellen One and you should be Ellen Two." The other Ellen frowned, but didn't say anything until she'd successfully navigated the small crevasse that cut across the trail.

"I get what you're saying, but why do I have to be Ellen Two?" Ellen tapped her temple.

"Because… I woke up first. That's it. We have to have some way, so might as well do something simple and clear even if it's stupid, right?" She reached out and grabbed Ellen Two as the other girl started to stumble, helpfully steadying her with one arm while the other braced against a sapling. FIRST TIME AWARD: Prevented another person's fall. For performing this activity for the first time, you have gained 10 Experience. An additional bonus of 20 Experience has been applied from banked Experience.

Ellen sighed at the notification, mentally waving it away as she released Ellen Two's arm. The other girl frowned at the sigh, then bit her lip.

"Are you getting a lot of weird 'first time' notifications?"

"YES!" Ellen Two blurted out, exasperated.

"I was worried I was the only one! I know I've done most of these before, what's the deal with them?"

"I don't know, but I'm most of the way to Level Three already, so I won't complain too much." Ellen muttered a little more to herself while she tried to navigate to the road. She was pretty sure just going down in a roughly straight line would get her where she needed to go. Them. Get them where they needed to go. Ellen Two echoed the thought that was starting to form.

"It's fine if I'm Ellen Two to us, but what about when we get to the village? Are we just going to be twin sisters? This is going to be a problem."

"Yeah, that's a good point." Ellen huffed loudly and considered.

"We'll think of a good story on the way, but twin sisters is the only thing that would make sense." At least there were no plans to take over her life. Not that she had much of one right now.

"The real problem is equipment," Ellen continued.

"We have enough money to share a room and replace a few things, but probably not enough for even one pair of boots. Definitely not two. We're going to have to find work and save up." Ellen Two nodded and paused in a way that told Ellen she was also dismissing a notification.

"Yeah… with two of us working it shouldn't take that long, but that'd be just enough for one. I think we should draw straws or something on who gets to go out and get our equipment. The other stays in the village and works." That sounded like a good plan, but Ellen glanced back again, curiously.

"You aren't worried that if I win, I'll just run off after?"

"You think like me, too, and I'd never do that to someone I made a deal with." Ellen Two declared that confidently, which was reassuring.

"Also… we probably shouldn't run off from one another until we figure out what happened, right? Besides, wouldn't it be a lot easier if we took turns earning money the normal way while adventuring?" She had a point… more than one point, actually. Ellen made a face and nodded.

"I'm a little worried about our Class, too. With how fast the banked Experience is being used, we should get to five or even six pretty quickly so maybe it's less to worry about, but the first time bonuses are kind of freaking me out." Her twin bit her lip.

"Yeah that is pretty strange. But at least it means we don't have to grind up to five. I don't want to relive my early teen years and I bet you don't either." That much was right. Ellen didn't hate her teen years, but like most kids it took her most of those years to get from Level Zero up to Six. Even at triple rate it shouldn't be so quick, but the 'first time' bonuses were things she'd never gotten first times for. That's when she caught on to why. This story has been taken without authorization.

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"I get it now. We're getting first time bonuses even for things that we didn't before, because we did them before we were in the System." Ellen Two tilted her head, then her eyes widened.

"Oh… oh yeah. I'm not sure why but that would help us get through it. I've never heard of a Class change that worked that way though. We really need to find out what happened in the missing time. Do you think it's just an hour or two, or is it a whole new day?"

"You have the same information I do," Ellen replied.

"But when I was packing I saw the tracks were still there, so probably only a couple hours? At most? I'm not sure but I feel like one more day would have made them harder to find. I'm not all that good at tracking."

"Me neither," Ellen Two agreed, momentarily forgetting that they had the exact same skillset. They both quieted as the trees thinned, and with feet aching the two girls finally trudged onto the road proper. All things being equal, it wasn't much of a road. It consisted of packed earth that had been cleared away sometime within the last three months, with two furrows from wagon wheels marking the sides.

Likely only one wagon came by regularly enough—and was heavy enough—to make those tracks, as there weren't any signs of smaller wagons along the road. Ellen winced as a jolt went up her leg, and she heard the bark her sandal used as its tread split. She bit back a curse, the presence of another person stifling the words through long and all-too-memorable sessions with her aunt beating politeness into her. Then she immediately felt stupid, because of course the other Ellen would know all the same curses.

FIRST TIME AWARD: Held your tongue for etiquette reasons. For performing this activity for the first time, you have gained 10 Experience. An additional bonus of 20 Experience has been applied from banked Experience.

"Thirty experience for that? Seriously?" Ellen blurted, then sighed.

"I guess I can't complain." LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 3! She brushed the level up notification away. That was nice and all, but not important yet. At this rate she should hit Level 6 soon, which was the first Level that did anything. The rest were just cosmetic to get kids used to the System after they got their stats.

"You're probably at Level 3 now, or close to it," the other Ellen noticed.

"I've been thinking about that. Do we both want to grab Tireless and go for Fighter, or should we diversify a little?"

"Uh…" Ellen stared at her other self as she hopped on one foot, then limped over to find a rock to sit down on to inspect the damage.

"I don't know. You can do what you want, but I guess… we could try different things now, couldn't we? I wish I'd been offered the Apprentice Class, but then again that wouldn't be good solo." Ellen Two chewed her bottom lip as she squat down to inspect the damage.

"I've just been thinking… whomever stays in the village to work can take a Laborer Class or something, and support the other one. Then if we get some actual money coming in before the one who stays gets to the Level 11 threshold, they can switch Class to something to support the other one and we can have a two-person party."

"That's… an interesting idea. We can try that at first but I think we should wait on committing to it until we know a little more about why we're like this." Ellen lifted her foot up to let her other self look, watching the girl assess the damage to the sandal. She'd been trying not to think about it too much, but now that they were forced to be close like this, she kept staring at the other girl. Was this really another her?

If Ellen had awakened with all her Levels and so on, another her would have immediately been assumed to be the imposter. Instead, she herself had been back to zero. She had no desire to hurt or replace the other girl, either. Ellen Two had been as friendly and helpful as she'd imagined she would be while trying to figure things out, too. If this were something malicious, she was really having a hard time figuring out what the reason was for it.

It didn't make sense to be so helpful if there was some dark magic at work. Dark magic…

"Maybe the reason there's two of us is that one of us is a copy meant to replace the other, but the spell messed up." Ellen mused that aloud while the other Ellen eased the sandal off and yanked the cords free. Ellen Two didn't look shocked at the idea.

"I hadn't thought of that. I thought maybe we were some kind of magical effect. Or that I'm dead and this is a strange death dream, but I'm not sure about that now." She waggled the broken sandal.

"I'll find a replacement, then show you how to do it. Might as well get the first time crafting bonus now, right?"

"I hope I'm not dead," Ellen mumbled.

"I really don't want to be dead! And yeah that is a good idea. Maybe once we start getting Perks and things we can even practice together. Even if one of us is a Laborer it would be a good idea to get some spear practice in or something." She wiggled her toes, eying the now-filthy outside of the woolen sock. At least they'd had spare socks in the pack, but without boots they were getting pretty nasty, and fast. They'd really lost a lot of their wealth with the memory gap.

Ellen blinked as she realized she was thinking of 'they' in the sense of the two of them as a team. But she did work well with the other Ellen.

"Yeah, anyway. Show me how to make the sandal, we should grab all the easy XP we can. Maybe we can make Level 5 or even 6 before we hit the village." Ellen Two nodded, wandering off to the side to try to pry off a slab of bark. She remained close enough to speak.

"Not sure if we could manage 6, but I worry about the village, too. I'm not sure they have a full-time cobbler to get us new boots. Even if they do, the place was tiny, and you know what that means…" A heavy sigh escaped Ellen.

"Yeah. They probably don't have boots ready to buy and fit. They'll have to make them from scratch." She frowned and spread her toes, rubbing at the sides through the sock. Walking in those sandals had not been comfortable, and the side of her foot ached.

"We can't afford them right away anyway, so maybe we can put the order in while we earn some money. The tavern seemed pretty lively, one of us could work there."

"And the other could work with a tailor or the cobbler to cut costs," Ellen Two agreed.

"Mm… maybe not the cobbler. We'd probably just slow them down." Ellen nodded again and leaned back, arms supporting herself on the rock. She squinted upward, imagining she could see the cave that she'd been headed to not long ago. The sun was already dipping low behind the mountains, giving the valley a dimming dusk illumination. What a mess that little cave had caused. And still no idea if the goblin was in there.

"We'll figure it out," she finally said.

"I guess so." Ellen Two turned a piece of bark over in her hands, then knelt down next to the rock.

"Let's get this replaced."