Chương 9

Village Ellen On slow nights, Ellen's job wasn't to serve and entertain customers, but to help clean and do other household chores. She'd gotten a lot better at this of late, probably because she was on the verge of hitting Level 7 just from working around the inn. Lauren didn't push about the fact that the other Ellen had immediately left in the morning.

"Psst." Ellen looked up at the noise while she was fitting a stretcher into one of the legs of a chair where it had popped loose. She hadn't even known the crossbar supports were called stretchers until she'd worked here, but it was one more tiny little detail she'd picked up as basically hired help. What surprised her more is she didn't mind it, even if Adventurer Ellen was off having all the glory. Peeking in the window, Ellen saw Hunter Ellen motioning for her to come out.

Ellen sighed and set the chisel she'd been tapping into the wood down, then rose with a stretch. It was still early evening, so no need to worry about it getting late, but she needed this done tonight or early tomorrow. Talking to herself was more important, though. After a quick look about to make sure she wasn't being watched, Ellen slipped out the door to meet her other self. In a small place like this, at a late hour, even the front door was safe to leave by if she didn't tarry.

Even so, she wasted no time following Hunter Ellen around the side.

"What are you even wearing?" Hunter Ellen asked that with a lifted eyebrow, staring at Ellen's outfit. With her cheeks heating up, Ellen huffed and glanced downward. The dress wasn't her normal choice, that much was true. A simple lace-up bodice and long skirt, it was plain yet attractive… and very domestic. It wasn't at all like the normal practical outfits she wore.

"I'm stuck here doing the tavern work, anyway," she mumbled in her defense.

"And our old clothes were getting pretty filthy. Lauren loaned me this while our spare clothing is drying." Hunter Ellen bit her bottom lip, but said nothing further about it.

"What about Adventurer Ellen? Did she already leave? I was hoping to give her an update on what I found." Ellen crossed her arms and frowned back.

"She left this morning. A merchant was staying the night and she managed to catch a ride with him for pretty cheap. I can tell her what you want, it shouldn't be a problem. What's the news?" A heavy sigh escaped Hunter Ellen as she stepped further back into the shadows beside the inn. Ellen followed uncertainly, now rubbing her sides. The cold air was starting to get to her, even with the warmth of the dress.

"Have you thought about what happens when she gets a license? I'm sure she'll come back here for you eventually, but then what? We're three people." Hunter Ellen crossed her arms in a mirror of what Ellen had just done.

"We could form a party but we're all the same person. That's going to attract a lot of attention once we're out doing quests, even if we say we're triplets." Ellen scowled, then shook her head.

"We could make it our gimmick, but I'll push this right back at you. Should we even go back at all yet? I think we should stay on the frontier until we have a name for ourselves. Dad may find us if we adventure too far into Thallis. If we keep to the fringes like this it'll be a lot harder for him to find us." Hunter Ellen raised her hands.

"Hey we aren't actually arguing here! I agree. That's why I wanted to talk to you about Onroc. I found it, and I think we might want to make it kind of our base camp until we know where else we'll be working. It's not that far from Merriweather, and it's ruined but we could set up a little tent city to live there easily. I didn't see any signs of dangerous animals, just a lot of cats."

"I do like cats," Ellen muttered.

"Yes, I know," Hunter Ellen agreed.

"But a better reason is because we've already messed up adventuring once. We need a place we can train and swap stories and um… go to in case we uh…" She hadn't been thinking about it much, but Ellen wasn't that different from Hunter Ellen. She caught the meaning right away and flinched. Hunter Ellen saw the comprehension on her other self's face and nodded.

"Exactly. It's not the most comfortable place, but this way we'll know where to regroup if that happens. I'll show you where it is later, once Adventurer Ellen is back. Um… how long until she's back, anyway? Maybe we should have set up things a little closer to the guild…"

"Maybe," Ellen agreed with a shrug.

"I doubt anyone is going to just stumble on you there, though. She left with a merchant, so if she comes right back she'll be back uh… five days from now I think. Probably six. Can you last a week out there?" The flinch was already telling enough.

"A week? Maybe if I can figure out how to use a sling in time. Could I borrow a little food from you to um, get me through tomorrow and the day after? I'm already out." The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Ellen sighed, "I thought as much. I do have some jerky and stuff in the room, I'll drop it out the window after we're done here. I thought you were going to be a Hunter? Can't you hunt things?"

"I thought you were going to be a Laborer? Are you in labor yet?" Hunter Ellen mimicked the question and stuck out her tongue.

"I just hit Level 6, I'm still figuring a lot of things out and I don't have a good weapon for it. I've built a sling but I'm not very good with it yet. I did have a lot of options for picking a Class though. That was pretty weird. How are you doing with yours? Still going to change Class later?" Smoothing her dress out, Ellen glanced aside uncomfortably.

"I… well I don't want to be an innkeeper's helper for the rest of my life, I've been wondering if I've been going at this all wrong. Maybe I should try for a much different Class than you, or… I don't know. I might just see what my options are at Level 11. If there's nothing good I'll change Class then, instead of finishing my Level up." Hunter Ellen bit her lip.

"You're a lot more timid than me and Adventurer Ellen. That's weird, I thought we'd be more the same. Are we actually different people after all? What happened to proving dad wrong?" Ellen slumped back against the wall of the inn, feeling the prickly wooden outer wall digging into her skin through the dress. It was a roughness that helped her focus as she slapped her cheeks and rubbed lightly with both hands. It was taking all her focus to even start the explanation.

"We're different people because we've already seen different things," she explained after a moment to clear her head.

"For you and Adventurer Ellen… you got to fight the goblin and win. I never saw that. All I got to see was my other self—me—stumble out of the cave and die in my arms. Then you two appeared." She took a breath, hugging her arms around her body.

"We've died in that cave, the cave that was supposed to be simple… twice. I don't want to run back to that. If I'm going to do this I want to know what I'm doing. Every time I think about joining you two my stomach does a flip and I feel faint. Maybe it's because I don't even have a good Class for it, but I think I just need some time to figure things out." Hunter Ellen scratched the back of her head.

"Okay, I didn't look at it that way. I'm still not sure why we can't remember anything past a certain point. Did something happen in the cave to cause it? That's sort of why I want to stick around the area. I don't know what is causing this, but what if the only thing that's making us wake up and get copied is what's in the cave? Maybe that's what's causing it?" Ellen nodded, staying right where she was while thinking of that.

"Ellen," she whispered after a moment.

"I just had a thought. About what you just said." The other Ellen shivered at the increasing cold, then blinked.

"Oh? And remind me to find a trapper or something. If I'm going to be a hunter, I should learn how to prepare pelts, and I have no idea where to start there."

"Sure, sure," Ellen agreed, waving off the request.

"But if you think about it, this happened because we went into the cave and were killed by goblins. We figured we hadn't killed the first goblin, then a second one showed up when we went there a second time. What if we actually did manage to kill the first goblin the first time?" Hunter Ellen scratched her head.

"So there were three goblins—wait." What Ellen was saying sunk into her distracted mind.

"You're saying the goblin is duplicating too? So that means… there's four goblins in there, now?" A quick shrug, and Ellen spread her hands.

"I don't know. Maybe? But if there are, they might to cause a lot more trouble before Adventurer Ellen gets back. You should probably check out the cave entrance and see if there are any fresh tracks there. Isn't that what you're good at?"

"Um… I didn't actually take Tracking," Hunter Ellen mumbled with a sheepish smile.

"I went with Awareness instead. I thought that would be more useful." Ellen rubbed her face with a frustrated sigh.

"Ugh… well we can't wait that long. Do you think you should try going into the cave to see if there's any signs of it? Or is that too dangerous without better equipment?"

"Hold on, let's not get in a rush!" Hunter Ellen held up her hands this time.

"We died in there twice, so I'd say we should be careful! Definitely shouldn't go in alone. Last time it was quiet for about a week anyway, so we can… probably wait for Adventurer Ellen to get back? Or we can have you change Class and try to come with. Or you can just come as a Laborer and rely on skill. You still have the smaller knife, right?"

"Yes, I do," Ellen confirmed with a touch to her side. The knife was in her room, not at her hip, but the motion was enough.

"I'm not sure it will be much use if we're both in there. And I don't want to Class change until I'm Level 7, I'm out of banked experience so getting from 5 to 6 will take forever. Maybe we can take a hike to Onroc and that will push me the rest of the way up, first?" The idea drew a slow nod from Hunter Ellen.

"That would make sense. It shouldn't be hard… all these first time bonuses are making leveling way easier than the first time. We really need to get some money saved up. A sage or something might help with this."

"Those are expensive!" Hunter Ellen shrugged.

"Yes, but what else can we do? We have no idea why we got copied or what the side effects are." She tapped her lip with a finger.

"But we can probably wait to actually explore. I'll show you Onroc anyway, instead of waiting for Adventurer Ellen, and then you can keep working here while I monitor the cave entrance. If it looks like there's trouble, then I can come get you here and we can do the Class change. Does that sound good?"

"That's probably a safer idea, yes…" Ellen trailed off as she agreed.

"I'm still not used to this, but I really hope it isn't the cave. It was probably just a couple misfit goblins away from their clan. I hope." The Hunter gave a light, playful nudge against Ellen's shoulder.

"Hey, whatever the deal with all this is, we'll figure it out, right? If it's the cave, we'll just draw the goblins out and ambush them this time! We should have done that to start with. No way will this get any worse!" Meanwhile, deep inside Mount Onroc… MANA INSTABILITY DETECTED High-expenditure rewards have drained local mana. Redirecting. Inrush above safe levels. Management required. Crystallizing Dungeon Core.