アプリをダウンロード
4.65% Alice, Angel Of Mercy / Chapter 4: Like a Ninja

章 4: Like a Ninja

It has been a month since I volunteered, and I have given up waiting for them to log me out. Everything feels real. If I stub my toe, it hurts. I found that out the hard way. In this month I learn a few things. First was that magic is common; at least low-level magic was. As the levels advanced there were less and less people that had the aptitude for it. I found out that my father was an earth mage and my mother had a tiny bit of wind magic. My magical abilities were currently greyed out in the display. I could not use them until the awaking ceremony was held.

Second was that randomly bleeding from your crotch is super embarrassing. That is right, I got to experience my first period while out shopping with my mom for groceries. I stained my dress, which by the way she made me wear. "Boys wore pants girls wore dresses" my mom had informed me when I asked for pants. I pointed out a few women in pants but got a harrumph followed by a snide comment of "they aren't women they are adventurers" like that explained anything. Anyway, back to my point, I had figured that by playing sports and doing all the rough and tumble boy activities I had bled plenty of times from scrapes to nose bleeds, so periods were not going to be an issue! But how wrong I was. At least with my prior wounds they were "manly" in my eyes and I knew why they would happen. What was even more frustrating was that I cried all emotionally and I had no idea why I did. Afterwards, my mom got super excited and gave me a speech about how I was turning from a girl into a woman, I won't bore you with the full hour speech but needless to say one of us was happy and one of us wanted to crawl into a hole.

Third, getting points to level up skills is easy in the beginning. Once I accomplish a task, I get a notice saying that I got a point in that skill. The problem is that the skill is not usable until you get the completed amount. My cooking has gone from 1 of 500 to 25 of 500 for the beginner skill even though I have cooked over 36 times. My dishes may not be fantastic, but they are at least getting better. At this rate I will have to cook a thousand times just to get the beginner skill in cooking. And having the skill verse not having the skill makes a huge difference in everyday life. The skills, at least for me, give me simulations to follow or prompts on when to add what. It is like having an expert guiding you all the time. The higher the skill the better the teacher.

The fourth, was that everybody in this world acts just like a real person. I cannot tell them apart from real people at all. I learned that my mom wants me to be a girlie girl so I am made to learn skills like embroidery, sewing, cooking and every other girl skill she can think of. I think she just wants me safe at home instead of venturing out which is sweet but not what I wanted. When I told her I wanted to go adventuring she started crying which made me regret saying it. I have grown more attached you see so I will have to think of a way to not hurt her when the time comes to go to the dungeons. I am pretty sure since I picked dungeon crawler there will be reasons for going since this game is super detail oriented. From the child playdates the parents set up I have had I picked up a little news about what was going on outside our town and from what I gathered everything was peaceful. There were no talks of wars with other nations, no monster outbreaks in our area and no adventures have failed to come back from going into the small local dungeons around us. If things remained that way there would be no reason for me to leave. That is if I could trust in the knowledge and rumors of kids. It is a tough call. The other thing about these playdates is that my mom made no secret about wanting to find me a good husband and half the playdates were with girls who had their brothers tagging along.

Well enough of that, I have to focus on what is going on today. With summer coming to an end, I found myself with my parents in our town square. Well, I should say me and every other kid that hit the age to be tested. My parents ditched me! Ok they were right over there but far enough away I felt abandoned. I was sure that a pout could be seen upon my little face. There was a permanent wooden stand smack dab in the center of town. When my mom first brought me into town to shop, I noticed this lone stage because it was weird that a street that had shops running up and down it would leave such an area unused. Especially because at most times it was blocked off and nobody went near it. This was because there was a natural mana vein here. There was no fancy tester for us! No globes that glowed or aged wise person to tell us what to do; nope we just got onto the stage with the simple instruction of "let the mana enter your bodies until something happens". It was so vague in my opinion. I was expecting a globe that would shatter when I touched it. It was such a let down from what I was imagining.

So here I am standing on a stage with 8 other kids waiting for my powers to come forth. While I and the others were trying to do this, there was a town fair going on all around us. Mostly men drinking and women chatting in groups while occasionally pointing at us. I felt like a piece of meat being haggled over.

I could hear the women that were closer chatting about the children. Quibbling about why their child was better. Whether it was potential, skills, money or good looks. From what I could overhear girls needed to be pretty or skillful while boys needed money or talents in magic. In the end, they were all waiting to see what magic each of us had. Magic it seemed was the biggest factor. Even if it was not as important in girls apparently, they still cared. I tried to ignore them and watched what the other kids were doing so I could follow along. Most stood there with their eyes too wide, like startled deer, unsure what they had to do but as time went by some of the kids began to sit down with their eyes closed. I imitated them after the third one sat down. Once I sat there with my eyes closed, I began to feel an energy all around me that was trying to enter into my body. This must be the energy that triggers us to be able to use our magic.

I focused on that energy and began to let it in. It was so relaxing that I lost count of time. I heard gasps from time to time and louder chatter but it felt far off and I easily ignored the noise. A Notification window opened up with a percentage indicator, as the energy entered into me, that was gradually increasing as I took in more and more of this energy. Once the percentage hit 100% it auto closed the window and a new window popped up with a message "Would you like to activate Angel of Mercy bloodline YES / NO"

I clicked yes and magic surged out of me. With the power gushing out of me I opened my eyes and quickly looked at the other kids. It would not be nice if my magic interfered with theirs. One of the children was holding a stone, another whose eyes glowed in a pulsating purple light, a few had water flowing around them in different degrees from a trickle to one who's whole body was covered the last one had one arm that was covered in fire. All of them were now covered in a golden dome with me at the center of it. The comfortable feeling increased briefly and then began to fade along With the glow around us. A peaceful look was on all of the children's faces. The anxiousness they had before was nowhere to be seen.

As the feeling faded, I began to refocus on the conversations that I had tuned out before. Unfortunately, with all of the people talking at once I could only make out bits and pieces of the conversations. Things like "oh ... at ... girl ... powerful water magic", "what ...purple ... Strange" "... golden?" "Pity she's ... Weak... Magic" "is she ...gaged?" and so on. It was all jumbled together, but I did see a couple of women with hungry looks pointing at me and the girl surrounded by water. Either way I didn't want to be stared at so I started to make my way off the stage. As I approached my mom, I saw that she was now standing with 2 other women. I began to make plans with the worst-case scenario, if they became too pushy or tried to force me into marriage I was going to make a break for it. I could even materialize wings if I needed to. Some of these women looked desperate for some reason.

"Hi mom," I say smiling at her and the two women she's with.

"Hi sweety, you haven't met Dominic's and Jim's moms. This is Suzy," she paused to point out the lady on the left of her. A stout woman that was very tanned. She probably was a farmer's wife I thought since they did more outdoor work. "Dominic is only a year older than you, does well in his studies and has moderate air magic." She paused and then pointed to the lady to her right, this is Fiona. She is Steven's mom. He is your age and is that one over there." She pointed to a bit that was on stage with me. If I remembered correctly, he was the one that had his arm on fire. I had briefly met both boys before during my playdates but since boys and girls were not allowed to be together without proper supervision it was brief and then they would go off to do other things.

"Nice to meet you", I said and did a poor curtsy since I was not used to doing it. I ignored the boy comments, just no, that was not going to happen. 100% positive, I'm pretty sure they were trying to matchmake me with one of those kids. Sure, I was a kid too at the moment but even if I wasn't, I'm so not going there.

"Did you see my magic?" I asked in general to get the conversation away from their kids. "I got holy magic. Isn't that great? I'll probably get to go to living saint academy" I finished beaming.

The school known as the Living Saint was a church funded academy that focused on healing and protection magic. It was mostly girls that went there so I would not have to worry about meeting too many boys hunting for brides. There was also the Royal Academy which trained every type of magic, but I didn't think I could get in. The cost was above our means. It was made up of almost all the children from the people running the country and just a few charity cases for children with strong magical abilities.

"Yes, you did very well," my mother said with the other ladies nodding along but exasperation and helplessness flashed in her eyes; probably because I ignored the boys. Ever since I had said I wanted to be an adventurer my mother became determined to teach me all the skills a "girl should know" and while doing that she would bring up the local boys hoping that I would show an interest. She must be worried about how powerful my magic was. A good indication of how powerful you could become in magic was first how much of your body was covered and then how far it was extending away from your body when the ritual was first done. So the kids with just a little bit of magic, like the one that held a rock or had just little streams of water were viewed as weak where the girl that could cover her whole body and had it hovering about an inch away from her clothes was probably as strong as this little village has ever seen. Then there was me with an aura that covered everybody on stage. There has never been anybody with this level of magic in our village from what I was now hearing.

I mingled with the other girls that just got their magic and were happily playing with their new powers. I learned that the boy with the purple eyes got a type of identify magic that was used in buying and selling items. He was disappointed because he wanted to be a mighty warrior, but his father cheered him up somehow because we could see him smiling across the square. Most of the girls had water magic so they ended up splashing people as they lost control again and again. The villagers would smile and move away. It was hot so most people did not mind getting wet. One boy had wind magic, that I failed to notice earlier that kicked up a breeze that also helped to cool off people. Unfortunately, a few got hit by a rock from the earth magic a boy had. He was quickly moved away from others to practice. I kind of felt bad for the kid since he was doing what every other kid was doing so I walked over to those that were hit and pulled up my new spell list to see what I now had access to.

Spells:

Light heal – a minor healing spell that is good for scrapes and bruises

Aid – Temporarily increase another's health

Minor golden armor – a thin protective barrier

Blinding Flash – a quick bright flash of your aura (works better in darker environments)

I also noticed that I my level went from zero to one and my angel blood line was active so I had those skills associated with it active all the time.

Demonic Counter - Heal spells do damage to demons equal to healing value

Flight – Medium level flight

Holy Aura – A 3-foot aura that reduces pain and adds boost to all healing spells

Speak No Lie – People with angel blood are unable to tell lies

Pacifistic Blow – any attack against others will always fall short of killing them (monsters and demons excluded)

Vision of Diagnosis – Ability to detect ailments at a glance

It took me a second to notice but as I focused on a man with a small bump on his head an information panel about his health appeared to his left. The text in green read

John Longsted:

Headache

Minor - Laceration on head

Minor – Contusion on head

A luxating patella on left leg (Trick knee)

I walked within three feet of him trying to be subtle because while I was pretty sure I could cast without losing control others did not. It was risky to use any spell if you did not know what you were doing. Healing was worse because it entered the body of others and would be way worse than a small rock to the head. So channeling all my tv ninja skills I Thought "light heal". A bright golden aura quickly flared out around my body and a lesser glow on the man I was casting on could be seen by …. EVERYBODY! Crap crap crap I saw the look of shock on the guys face as he first looked at the bright light bulb that I now was and then at his hands then back at me. A look of anger crossed his face and he stomped over to me. I could see my father and mother coming from different directions as well with looks of displeasure on their faces. The man reached me first and grabbed my arm to keep me from running off. "Who's kid are you? Where are your parents? How did they raise you to not even know that you are never to cast on others unless permission is given or you were attacked?" I could see veins pulsing on his forehead and the window next to him now showed

John Longsted:

Elevated Blood Pressure

A luxating patella on left leg (Trick knee)

Well at least I knew my spell worked and its limitations worked although I am unsure how I was going to get out of this. Evidently, a ninja I am not. Television made it look so easy.

***

Across the street from the platform two men ate on the balcony of a restaurant watching the kids. "I want that child" an overweight man said without removing his eyes from Alice, "why was she not on the list?"

"Sorry sir, you had requested children under twelve and she is thirteen," a muscular teen said. "If you want her it will be extra since everybody has seen her magical power others will be vying for her."

"Get her."

"Of course, Baron" the youth smirked just thinking about the money he would soon get.


章 5: No Good Deed

I was trapped. Not only was I held by the man I wanted to help but my parents were quickly coming over. I knew I was doomed. "No good deed goes unpunished," I said in a soft voice while trying to think of a way out. My dad got to me first, gave me an angry glance while holding me tight, "sorry John, my daughter must have been caught up in the moment and forgot herself. She is usually much better behaved. Isn't that right, Alice?"

They both looked at me when my father asked me that. I saw that my dad was giving me an out and I quickly said, "yes, I was just caught up in the moment and forgot my manners" or I would have said that if I could lie! Instead I said, "No, I thought I could sneak in a heal spell to help remove his pain because I was pretty sure I could cast my magic better than those children." I cannot believe I said that. I had an out damn it! Instead I came off as an arrogant child. I saw their faces darkening so I quickly said, "I will not do it again" and let out a sigh that it came out alright. There was no way I would make the same mistake again. There better be some upside to this angel selection because the no lying may be a bigger issue than I thought.

My mom who had gotten there just in time to hear me proclaim that I knew better than everybody else that my magic could not misfire and took me from my father. Judging from the looks on both their faces, I am so dead. "I am sorry." I sniffed. Oh, how I was sorry. I was not sorry for casting my magic. NO, I was sorry that I became a human light bulb and my great plan went astray. I will give credit to John because he let it go after talking with my parents for a while and me saying I was sorry multiple times. The walk home was filled with their voices scolding me. Once I got home, I got spanked and grounded.

During the next couple of weeks, I spent most of my time in my room. I only came out to help cook or to have lessons with my mother. I could hear my parents speaking about my schooling. My mom was trying to talk my dad out of sending me! I could hear her saying things like "girls do not need to go to school" or "what good will an education do for a housewife". I cannot say I was not hurt. Desperate I made sure to read in front of my father as often as I could. If he was at work, I would go into my room to work on my alchemy and enchanting skills. I just made some smoke bombs since the materials needed were common, just a bit of burnt wood combined with a few herbs but even, so I still ran out of supplies to make them. My greatest enchantment I could do with what I had was a robe with "deep pockets" that allowed me to place more items inside the pockets without weighing it down. I did manage to also make a "mace" I use that term loosely. It was just a heavy branch that I carved (poorly) into the shape of a mace and then enchanted the branch to be slightly harder so it would not snap easily. Working on a budget stinks.

I would then show all my creations to my father using quotes about "how I learned" how to make this. I had to always think about what I wanted to say because of the inability to fib. My mother did not like me experimenting in my room but gave in after a while. I think she knew I was going a bit stir crazy. I had even read the "how to enchant your way into a boys heart" and other than a really cheesy title it actually had so much useful information that my enchanting skill went up to 3 of 100,000. I know that 3 points does not sound like much but the fact that reading could help in progressing skills was super huge. I had to get into a school since that was the only way a poor person like me would be able to get ahold of written material. Most of the population is illiterate and the fact that I even had books was all due to my father doting on me.

I also cast all my spells on myself trying to get better control over the light up effect, if I could even misfire and to see if there were any limitations on the amount of times I could cast. The results… I am still bright as ever whenever I cast, I never miscast and I could cast about twenty times before I needed to rest. I did notice that my eyes went from blue to gold when I cast but returned to normal after the spell was complete. I could not get a decent look because our "mirror" was not really all that good. So other than color I am unsure if there is anything else that happens to them. My sight does not change or become blurred at least. I also tried flight and proceeded to bang into the ceiling before plopping onto the floor. It was not my finest moment. The room was just too small for it. The wings I manifest are beautiful though.

***

The end of my incarceration is coming to an end. Prison life is so hard! Ok, so I am being dramatic but being stuck indoors was so boring. I just found out today from my mom that we would be going out shopping so I am super excited. I went to get on better clothes than the worn frock I had been using but was stopped by my mom. "Here wear this today," she said and handed me a new dress. It was a very pretty white dress with flowers stitched onto the bottom of it and made of a finer material than any of my other clothes. I looked at it and then my mother unsure why I would need such a pretty dress. I gave a quick thank you and then went to put it on. It was shorter and had a much thinner material than my other dresses, so it did not fall past my knees. Other girls were wearing short dresses at the fair awaking ceremony, so I did not think much of it.

As soon as we started walking, I noticed an issue. It was a new experience so I could not be blamed for not thinking of it. You see unlike shorts I could feel a breeze occasionally blowing up my dress as I walked which made me feel uncomfortable. I was afraid I would be exposed for all to see even if there were very few people on the road we walked on. I kept pulling the dress down which did not help and while I did not have much of a chest but my nipples still stood out when I pulled the cloth tight. This made me quickly pull it back up. This cycle repeated a few times before I just hung my head in shame and gave up. You may ask why I am not wearing a bra. Fun fact, the poor do not have access to them and even the rich either use wraps or a thin fabric that goes under their tunic. All my clothes are coarse wool, which is thicker, so I never had this problem before. I honestly do not know what my mom was thinking. I felt eyes on me once we got to a busier section of town near the market. I slunk behind my mom to use as cover. I do not think it helped much.

***

We finally made it. My confusion increased as we went store to store. While we were "shopping" my mom did not buy anything, and we did not go to the regular stands or stores to get our food or household cleaners. Instead we went to a more upscale store to browse, then a bookstore, and then a weapon store. I was excited to see the bookstore at first but how excited can somebody be when they cannot touch anything. I was told to "be careful we cannot afford to buy any of these" before we entered. So, I read the spines of the books trying to gage what types of books that were sold here. It seemed to be mostly educational books for the wealthy students. I cannot say I wasn't jealous. Men would pass me every now and then, they generally bought the books they came for and left. Every once and a while one would look at me, when I say me I mean my body first and then maybe my face as if it was an afterthought. They would then go about their business as if it did not happen. I felt so uncomfortable that I had my arms crossed over my chest when I noticed in hopes that I could at least block some of their lecherous peeking. I was so embarrassed that my ears were flaming red. In the weapon shop I was told to not touch anything so I again stood there while men bought their selections. It was around this time I connected the common points of every store we went to. I felt like an idiot. I should say there were two common points of the stores. First they were all upscale and second they all mostly accommodated men. I also noticed at this time that my mom would walk away from me occasionally to talk with any guy that looked at me for a longer time than I was comfortable with. I wondered if she did that in the first two stores.

I was pissed. Was she really selling me off to the highest bidder? Even if I cared about that type of stuff, I was freaking 13 years old! Well I did what any self-respecting 13-year-old would do… I left. I was going home and staying there until I could ask my dad what was going on. My vision blurred as I walked and it was then that I noticed I was crying. In my head I knew that they were not my real parents but in my heart, I had grown fond of our time together. The stories my dad told me after dinner, the lessons with mom, the scolding they would give me if I was bad; all of it made me care for them. I walked while thinking heading in what I hoped was the right direction to my house. This day was a disaster.

"Help! … Help! … My brother is injured. Somebody help meeee" I heard a girl's voice screaming for help as I passed an alley. Her screaming snapped me out of my depressing thoughts. I looked into the it and saw a little girl covered in dirt. She could not be more than seven with twig-like limbs that screamed malnutrition. Tear tracks could be seen where it had washed away some of the dirt on her face. She looked truly pitiful. My heart went out to her. I knew what it was to be at your wits end so without much thought I turned and quickly moved down the narrow alley.

"Do not worry little one. I can help your brother." Saying that I looked around but did not see anybody. "Where is he?" I squatted down once I was near so I was eye level with her. She looked relieved and tugged on my arm as she tried to go further in. I noticed a man collapsed on the ground after we got further down the alley. I rushed over to him leaving the little girl and as I focused on the guy a window popped up

Name: Unknown

Addiction – Snapdragon potion

Addiction – alcohol

Malnutrition

I slowed down. There was nothing I could do for any of these issues. I turned back around to tell the little girl that I had left in my rush to help just in time to see her running off past a bunch of teens that were now coming from the direction we just came from. They all had weapons in hand with grim expressions on their faces. They obviously had come for me. The girl left so close to them they could have easily grabbed her if they wanted to. A trap! I am so stupid.

Ok! Now is not the time to freak out. I need options. There were six of them, they know how to fight judging from the number of scars they have and because of my mother I did not have my normal cloak which held my mace and potions. I had my magic and my wings but as they walked closer, I could see them starting to use magic as well. Apart from the tallest boy they looked weak and untrained. I could see small sections of magic glowing weakly on parts of their bodies. The tallest one did not have any magic on him that I could see, but his posture screamed leader. My flight is not going to work since the alley was too narrow for my wings to spread out. I had one option left. I could try to blind them with a flash spell and then make a break for it. As options go it stunk but it is all I had. I kept my eyes on them as they got closer and closer. I had to time this just right…

A blinding flash... of pain coursed through me. What the… They were not near me. I did not see any magic. I tried to focus and dizzily turned to see the man that was on the ground sneer as he lowered the small club onto my head one more time. Darkness engulfed me and I heard "what a tough girl… Billy don't hit her again or he may deduct our pay" and then nothing.

***

"Samuel, I left the town reports on your desk. There are a few good candidates for enrollment this year. Check out the top letter first."

Samuel heard a "Thank you" come from the office followed by papers moving about. He was counting in his head to see how long his friend would take to rush out. Twenty seconds later a tall lanky man with a receding hairline and bags under his eyes from staying up late grading papers came rushing out. "Is this report confirmed?"

"Peter calm down and umm can you ease up on your hold a bit?" Samuel glanced at his arms which his friend Peter had grabbed in his excitement. "Yes, it has been confirmed. A three-foot radius or 6-foot diameter at first release of power according to our scout."

"We need to get her first!" Peter whirled around to head out, stopped, turned back around, send a letter… no wait, send the courier right away. Time is of the essence." He then rushed back into his office and the sound of papers could be heard again but it was now accompanied by his voice going "6 feet!" or "how much bigger will that become once she is trained?" over and over again. Samuel smiled and left his friend never telling him he had already sent a courier.

Just a snapshot of the character sheet so you know were she's at... Skip if you want

Name: Alice

Race: half-Angel

Level 1

Profession – Angel of Mercy

Experience - 5 of 100

Stats: Points unspent = 0

Strength 9

Stamina 9

Intelligence 10

Wisdom 17

Charisma 14

Dexterity 11

Perception 11

Luck none earned

Skills:

Mace: Beginner 10 / 200

Enchanting – Talented 3 / 100,000

Herbalism – Journeyman 12 / 700

First aid – Beginner 0 / 200

Alchemy – beginner 30 / 200

Cleaning – 21 / 100

Tailoring – 4 / 200

Embroidery – 18 / 200

Cooking – 25 / 500

Poetry – 3 / 200

Painting – 3 / 200

Talents:

Holy Casting

Bloodline:

Angels gain following skills

Demonic Counter - Heal spells do damage to demons equal to healing value

Flight – Medium level flight

Holy Aura – A 3-foot aura that reduces pain and adds boost to all healing spells

Speak No Lie – People with angel blood are unable to tell lies

Pacifistic Blow – any attack against others will always fall short of killing them (monsters and demons excluded)

Vision of Diagnosis – Ability to detect ailments at a glance

Spells:

Light heal – a minor healing spell that is good for scrapes and bruises

Aid – Temporarily increase another's health

Minor golden armor – a thin protective barrier

Blinding Flash – a quick bright flash of your aura (works better in darker environments)


Load failed, please RETRY

バッチアンロック

目次

表示オプション

バックグラウンド

フォント

大きさ

章のコメント

レビューを書く 読み取りステータス: C4
投稿に失敗します。もう一度やり直してください
  • テキストの品質
  • アップデートの安定性
  • ストーリー展開
  • キャラクターデザイン
  • 世界の背景

合計スコア 0.0

レビューが正常に投稿されました! レビューをもっと読む
パワーストーンで投票する
Rank 200+ パワーランキング
Stone 3 推薦チケット
不適切なコンテンツを報告する
error ヒント

不正使用を報告

段落のコメント

ログイン

tip 段落コメント

段落コメント機能がWebに登場!任意の段落の上にマウスを移動し、アイコンをクリックしてコメントを追加します。

また、[設定]でいつでもオフ/オンにすることができます。

手に入れました