Chương 6

It was with a sinking feeling that Ellen caught the sound of voices on her way back to camp. Dusk was approaching by the time she trudged down the mountainside, after having buried her other self. She didn't have the tools for an actual grave, so she made a cairn instead by piling up the stones over her body. It had gotten easier after a few minutes, as she'd managed to detach herself from the identical appearance.

Her hands and arms ached from lifting rocks, and her feet ached from carrying the gear of three people down the slope. She really just wanted to wash up in the nearby stream and crawl into her tent before figuring out what to do the next morning. She heard snippets of the discussion as she approached, but the conversation quieted when her own dragging footsteps rustled the undergrowth. By now she'd worked a minor trail from the cave to her campsite…

which would have been pretty dangerous if the goblins were still alive. Brushing a branch aside, Ellen finally came to her campsite to see two more of herself—each dressed in her spare clothes, as expected—rearranging a few things. One of the two was tying up the edges of the tent to give more floor space, though Ellen worried about how drafty that would make it in the cold night air. The other was repacking the backpack.

That made sense, when they'd clearly had to dig into it to get the necessary items to dress themselves and adjust the tent. This one also had improvised bark sandals, just like they'd made before when awakening without shoes. This was also the one who first saw her coming, and flinched.

"I see you have our gear… I guess you saw us die. How did it happen?" And thus came the weirdest question of the day. Ellen dropped the supplies near the tent, nodding to the one who was working there.

"A second goblin got you. I guess you don't remember? What's the last thing you two remember?" The one by the tent answered this time.

"We already compared memories, and both of us remember killing the goblin and going further in to look for our body. Since you have the boots, I guess we found it?"

"I wonder what the trigger is? What stops us from remembering I mean? Is it an event or is it just a certain amount of time?" The Ellen by the fire scratched at her head and sighed, then eyed the boots.

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to hand over the sandals…" Ellen grumbled, "Is this going to happen every time we die?" She paused.

"That's a morbid thought. We shouldn't be dying at all!" She grimaced with a shiver down her spine.

"I've been thinking about this a lot," said the Ellen by the tent.

"First, we shouldn't test it… maybe it only happens a certain number of times, like they say cats have nine lives. We should assume every death might be our last so let's try to keep it at three."

"Obviously," Ellen replied, shuddering again. Burying herself had already made her ill, and the idea of doing it multiple times more? That was just disturbing. She frowned at her other self for even thinking of the idea. The Ellen by the fire cleared her throat.

"So um… Ellen. We've been talking and I think Hunter Ellen has some good ideas. Like naming ourselves." The Ellen by the tent—Hunter Ellen, apparently—nodded her head as she finished tying off the rope.

"We were pushing our luck pretending to be twins. If we show up in the village with three of us, they'll know something is up. So I volunteered to just… not go back." She gestured at the tent.

"I'll keep the tent and some of our supplies, and any weapons you want to give me. I'll take those and see if I can't find Onroc, the town the caravan guards mentioned. I can set up camp there and take the Hunter Class. The two of you can figure out who gets to be Village Ellen and Adventurer Ellen."

"We can figure that out tomorrow," the Ellen by the fire suggested, "while we're walking back to the village. Village Ellen will stay there and try to get more spare clothes and stuff for the two of us, while Adventurer Ellen heads to Merriweather to turn in the job and get the license. Then Adventurer Ellen will swing back through here and meet up with both, so we can figure out what to do next now that there's three of us." Ellen's head swam as she dumped the gear aside and staggered toward the stream.

"I'm sorry, this is… a lot to take in so suddenly. You've made all these plans and are already trying to work it out, and I'm still trying to grasp it." Hunter Ellen shrugged.

"That's true… take your time. I already… I mean, we already thought about it when we were going into the cave. We've been thinking about it since before we were two, figuring out how we'd handle it if it happened again. Then we spent a lot of the time talking to one another while you were busy up the mountain. Since we can't know who the original is, we might as well all work together, right?" It wasn't a strange idea. It was a variation of what she and Ellen Two had come up with to avoid a confrontation.

And these two were… Ellen Two. As much as she was the original Ellen. Except they were different, just based on Ellen Two, so… This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Ellen rubbed her forehead and shuffled toward the stream. This was getting a little hard to think about. Again. She couldn't argue that it made sense though. If there were multiple versions of her she could just explore other options. It was just a matter of who takes what option.

So one could try going the Hunter route instead of Fighter and she could either remain a Laborer or swap to something else before she hit Level 11. Ellen knelt down by the stream to wash her hands off, letting the icy cold tumble of water shock her sore and aching fingers. She'd have to warm them by the fire or they'd get numb, she was sure. Another first time notification popped up about rinsing abrasions, and she mentally waved it away.

She was out of banked experience, so things had slowed down now, but the first time popups were still coming on strong. It was tempting to just stay like this. Less danger, to let her duplicates try out different routes to adventuring and see which worked the best for her. Then she could join them with a quick class change and know which pitfalls to avoid. Her stomach did a slight flip as she considered that. It seemed too much like using them… and they were people too. She hoped.

"Maybe I'll just be honest about it," she mumbled to herself as she stood up. The other two Ellens had finished their preparations, both gathered around the fire for warmth as the temperature dropped. It was far too late to start the trek toward the village nearby, of course. Even with a proper pair of boots—of which they only had two—the chances of stumbling in the forested mountain were much too high. Someone could trip and hurt themselves. And then there would be four of us, Ellen thought with dark humor.

She shook her head clear of the macabre thought. They now had enough sandals and boots for everyone, so bark slippers weren't needed, but clothing was another matter. Just like the first time, the two had been forced to improvise, since stripping her own corpse was not something Ellen had even considered. The blood would have made those clothes unusable here anyway. Ellen settled on the log across from the other two, making a nice little triangle of redheads.

She took a deep breath as the two looked at her expectantly.

"I was thinking I might be Village Ellen," she began.

"I know it's a little selfish, but I've already chosen the Laborer Class, so the other Ellen would be better for choosing Fighter again, instead of me resetting. Once you two have gotten some experience with the two different paths to adventuring, maybe you can guide me up to avoid your mistakes in return for me sitting things out and earning us money?" The other two Ellens glanced at one another, and both shrugged.

"I don't have a problem with that," Hunter Ellen said, rubbing her arms to help warm herself up.

"We could even be a team. We'll have to go by Class if we do that, though. I wonder what aiming for a Hunter Class will do? I don't think I'll pick Tireless this time. Something better for hunting." Adventurer Ellen held her hands out toward the fire as she joined in.

"I mean, we could do that, but I think you should pick something different than either of us. If we have a Hunter Tier 1 Class and a Fighter Tier 1 Class, there are options. I guess you could try to go for a different Fighter -based Tier 2 Class than me, but we should diversify. Maybe on class change you'll be able to get Scholar or Acolyte instead, work toward giving us some magic."

"I'm pretty sure I'd need to do something more than wait tables before that opened up," Ellen grumbled.

"Two front-line types would be good though. Maybe sword and spear or something? I don't know, we'll have to figure it out." Hunter Ellen looked up at the night sky thoughtfully.

"Yeah… maybe you two can figure out something when you're headed back tomorrow. We probably shouldn't stay up too much later though. Adventurer and I are pretty worn out from fixing up the camp, and I know Village Ellen is probably exhausted. I doubt any of us are going to open up a magic Class though. You need to put a lot of work into it before you even hit Level 6."

"That's just it," Adventurer Ellen frowned at her two copies.

"Every time we wake up, we're reset to Level 0 again. Sure, we blast through those early levels because of all the first time bonuses and banked experience, but we're Level 0. Maybe if we spent our first day or three reading or… or whatever mages do we'd get offered that."

"We've already hit Level 4 though. We couldn't do that. It's a nice idea, but I'm not volunteering to test it out, if you know what I mean." Hunter Ellen shuddered and hugged herself again.

"I know we don't remember what killed us, but I doubt it was pleasant." Ellen—or Village Ellen, in this case—swallowed her mouthful of dried fruit that had kept her from commenting before. Being famished from the day sure made it hard to keep up with the conversation. She coughed, dislodging a bit of food caught in her throat, then cleared her throat.

"Hold on," she interrupted.

"Are you getting first time bonuses again, now?" Both of the other Ellens stopped chattering and looked over at her, but Adventurer Ellen was the one who answered, with Hunter Ellen just nodding.

"Yeah… it's weird, isn't it?" She shrugged.

"We started off at Level 0 again, and with 4000 banked experience just like before… and then we started getting first time awards for the same stuff. We even each made a sandal while we were waiting, so we both got the bonus for that." Seeing Village Ellen had finished her evening meal, Hunter Ellen pushed herself up and started kicking some dirt into the fire pit to put it out.

"There's a lot of weird stuff going on. I'm curious what will happen when we hit Level 5. I'll probably do it on the way to Onroc tomorrow. Once I'm set up there I'll come visit you in the village the day after tomorrow, and tell you what I've found out."

"I'll probably still be there," Adventurer Ellen noted as she moved toward the tent.

"I'll try waiting for a merchant or something to hitch a ride with to Merriweather, instead of walking. Since Hunter Ellen has the tent. I'll help Village Ellen while I'm there, and if we don't get any merchants for a while I can use the spare coin to get a simple tent for the road." She started arranging the blankets, as the open tent meant that it would get colder in the night for them. With all three of them bundled up, it shouldn't be a problem keeping warm though.

Village Ellen rubbed the back of her neck with a sigh.

"Right. I guess we have a plan then. I'll rinse off again, get a drink, and join you two in a minute." Flashing a grin back, Hunter Ellen chuckled.

"Hey, look on the bright side…

"We won't have any trouble finding a party, now."