Chương 33: Streak Ten

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Louis asked. They were standing at the end of a pier overlooking the bay of Esmera. Sandwiched between cliffs on both sides, the sea was deep, but calm enough to host the only harbor of the plains. Behind them, two massive vessels blocked the view of the city, the third having departed overnight. Alexandra nodded.

"It's how my class art works." She hadn't elaborated, and Louis didn't press.

"Stay close to the shore. There are beasts roaming the depth. You don't want them to detect you."

"Of course." A Face Among Many was working wonders already. Hood or not, people were not paying much attention to her now. Unfortunately, it only worked in crowds, so it wouldn't help her here. She checked her journal one last time. Quest Journal Daily Reset: 06: 00 | Streak: 9 Days | 0% All Stats Next Milestone: 10 Days Daily Quests: Swim ten kilometers without leaving the water (0/10) She could already see the Swimming skill quest added to her list.

Another not-so-useful skill, but that was the nature of her class. In any case, this would be good endurance training for when she would tackle the Running skill quest. But what she was really looking forward to was the mysterious milestone that had been teasing her since she arrived in Laika. She removed the outer layer of her clothes. The wind brushed against her. Cold. Then, she tied her hair in a bun, and dove into the sea. Feeling her blood rush as cold water and salt hit her skin, she got started.

Alexandra's arms pulled through the water in uneven strokes. Her breathing was already ragged, spray catching her open mouth, salt burning her throat. She adjusted her angle toward the shore and settled into a rhythm. Her shoulders ached early. She rolled onto her back and floated, staring at the sky, arms spread. The cliffs on either side framed a strip of grey-white cloud. Her chest heaved. Then she turned over and kept going. She hugged the shoreline when she needed the reassurance of rock nearby.

A shadow passed beneath her once, long and slow, and she kicked harder without thinking. It didn't return. The attribute points were doing something. She could feel it. Her body should have given out already. It hadn't. She stopped twice more, floating on her back, staring at the same grey sky, giving herself thirty seconds each time and taking forty-five. Her legs were doing less than they should. She compensated with her arms. The cramps came in bursts.

A hard clench in her right calf that made her gasp and swallow water. She surfaced coughing, treading until the muscle released. Then she kept going. The shivering started subtle, a faint tremor in her jaw she could clench against. Then it was in her shoulders, her hands, her core. The water hadn't seemed so cold at first. Louis was on his knees at the edge of the pier when she got close.

"Alexandra." His voice was flat and careful.

"Come out." She didn't answer. Her teeth were locked together.

"This is too much. You're not going to make it." She reached the pier pylon and held it. Her fingers barely gripped. She hesitated, wanting to read her journal, but she wasn't sure it was waterproof. She pushed off the pylon and stroked away from him.

"Fuck," she whispered. She summoned her journal. Just a bit more. The last stretch she was not swimming well by any definition. Her arms moved. Her body moved forward. She shivered. She touched the pylon again. She looked up at Louis, then at her journal. He was already reaching down.

"Done," she said. The word came out wrong, jaw too stiff, but it came out. He grabbed her wrist with both hands and pulled. She tried to help but mostly couldn't. Her knees hit the edge of the pier and she got one arm over and then Louis had her by the back of her shirt and she was out of the water, face down on the weathered wood, cold air hitting her wet skin. She rolled on her back, and looked at the clouds overhead. Louis crouched beside her and said nothing. He dropped a linen cloth over her shoulder.

The trembling continued for a long time after she dried her body, so much that she struggled to turn the pages of her journal. The water hadn't damaged it. Swim ten kilometers without leaving the water (10/10) -> Quest Completed: +10 exp, +1 CON, Skill Quest Unlocked: Swimming. Daily Quest Streak: 9 -> 10 Next milestone: 25 days. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. You've achieved a feat: Diligent Quester Diligent Quester: Reach a 10 days daily quest streak.

+1% All stats. She stared at the last line for a few seconds. That was new. She frowned. A one percent boost was nothing. In fact, it wasn't enough to increase any of her attributes. Yet, it changed the way she viewed her streak. She didn't have to feel guilty for doing all that was in her power to keep the streak alive. One percent was nothing. But it was only for ten days. In Lone World Online, she had a ten year streak. Her frown morphed into a smile.

"Was it worth it?" Louis asked. She grinned.

"You can't even imagine."

"Will it help us defeat the Yshant." Her shoulders dropped.

"Erm… Not really." As good as her prospects were, nothing would come soon enough to be useful against the verdant beast.

"But that's fine. I have other options. You wouldn't happen to have a curse skill?" Louis shook his head.

"Can't say I do."

"Expected as much. Let's go grab a bite. Your treat."

"What?" She shrugged.

"I don't have money."

"Hey! I'm not rich either. Money doesn't grow on trees." Alexandra stood up, and gave him a knowing look.

"Oh. You haven't told me about your job." Louis rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. Let's go." Alexandra's hair was still damp when they reached the end of the pier. She'd wrung it out as best she could and left it down, and the wind off the bay was doing the rest. The harbor district began where the pier met the quay. It was looser than the market, but there were a few stalls. Fish smell and woodsmoke permeated the air. Alexandra pulled her hood up out of habit, then remembered it didn't help here. Louis moved through the crowd with ease. She followed.

The vendor was three stalls in from the waterfront, working from an iron pan set over a brazier, the oil spitting as he turned the fish with a wooden skewer. Small things, the length of a finger, dusted in coarse flour and salt. A short queue of dockworkers stood ahead of them, eating straight from the paper. Louis paid without comment. Alexandra took hers in a fold of paper and burned her fingers on the first one.

They wound through the harbor district until the crowd thinned, then climbed a short scramble of rocks above the waterline. The bay spread below them, grey-green in the midday light, the two remaining vessels sitting low and heavy at the pier. Alexandra ate quickly. Louis picked at his.

"So," she said, licking salt from her thumb.

"What did you do before all this?" Louis looked at the water.

"Nothing in particular."

"Yeah?"

"That was a long time ago," He turned a piece of fish over in his fingers without eating it. Alexandra waited.

"How did you end up here?"

"What about you?" She deadpanned.

"Let's not dwell on it."

"Indeed." Silence settled as they ate. The fish were good. A nice change from the daily soup of Lanterne. Below them a gull landed on a rock and fixed Alexandra with a flat stare. She tossed it a piece of fish. It took it and left.

"You move through crowds well," she said. Louis said nothing.

"And you know your way around the city." She looked at him.

"Not the usual parts, too." He finished the last of his fish and folded the paper into a neat square.

"Old habit."

"Mm." He stood, brushing flour from his hands.

"You mentioned other options. Against the Yshant."

"There's a skill quest I've been trying to complete. I need a curse."

"How about getting some Ghostbell sap?" She sighed.

"I did. I'm gonna need something else. Not too potent if possible." Louis paused for a moment, as if to think it through.

"I'm afraid I don't know how to help you. But if you can get more Ghostbell sap, I can ask an alchemist acquaintance to brew some herbicide for us."

"You know an alchemist?" He shrugged.

"Is that so unexpected?"

"How will you pay for his services?"

"That can be arranged." He smiled.

"Don't worry about that."

"Okay, I'll get you the sap. What else?" Louis started pacing. He snapped his fingers.

"I'm close to level 17. If I can upgrade the right class perk to gold, it could massively increase our chances." Alexandra registered the information, but didn't press.

"If you feel confident, you should start hunting verdant beasts. Every monster part of the Yshant' cohort makes it stronger. A culling will be necessary before we attack it," Louis continued.

"Any other ideas?" Alexandra frowned.

"I need to borrow your book on verdant beasts. I know close to nothing about most species. It'd be nice if I knew what to look for, and which I should avoid." He nodded.

"You can read it tonight, I guess. You're going to keep squatting at my place, anyway. Aren't you?" She smiled.

"Of course I am. Where do you expect me to go?"

"Where you came from, maybe?" Alexandra's chest tightened. For Lanterne, there would be a time. For Earth… She hid it under her smile.

"Not happening for now. You'll have the pleasure of hosting me for a while." Louis rolled his eyes.

"I'm honored." They walked back through the harbor without talking. The crowd had thinned since midday, the dockworkers back at their posts, the vendors quieter. Their footsteps were loud on the quay stones. At the junction where the harbor road split, one way toward the main road, the other toward the rest of the city, Louis stopped.

"I have some things to see to."

"I figured." He gave her a look that didn't quite become a smile.

"Don't drown yourself." She chuckled.

"No promises." He turned and walked into the city, hands in his pockets, unhurried. She watched him for a moment. He didn't look back. Alexandra took the main road, and left Esmera. She ran until her legs threatened to give, then walked until they recovered, then ran again. Outside the walls of Esmera were cultivated fields and dirt paths. Good enough. Her breathing evened out by the third circuit. She kept going. The sickle work came after, in a field behind an abandoned shack. Draw, step, redirect.

She repeated the motions over and over again, trying to understand how her blade cut through the air, and where she was making mistakes. She stayed until the light went low and her forearms burned. Louis's room was small and smelled like oil. She'd commandeered the desk without asking. The book on verdant beasts was dense, the illustrations precise and helpful. The entry on the Yshant was light, as Louis had explained. It wasn't an easy beast to kill. The rest was simpler.

She read until the lamp was half gone, committing to memory the signs of each verdant beast, and the best method to kill them. There were many. So many that she feared that she would now suspect every flower to hide a monster beneath it. But that was even more reason to be studious. Outside, the harbor was quiet. Somewhere below, the sea moved against the rocks in the dark. Louis hadn't returned yet. She snuffed out the lamp.