Aug and Vera both sat on the log for a while in silence, while Vera caught her breath and ate food. Aug had discovered her weaknesses: running, eating, and making decisions. These were the only times she was quiet, but that quiet didn't last long.
"Why do you want to be an adventurer?" asked Vera, turning to face him and putting down her sandwich.
"It was my dream when my parents were alive to follow in their footsteps and become a professional adventurer. Then they died, and now I do it in their memory, in hope of one day conquering the dungeon that took their lives."
"I wish my cause were that noble or motivating. It all comes down to my family's greed, which has never really motivated me. This has obviously made me the black sheep among my siblings. And here I am, one step away from being disowned. But today, even though it has been brief, I have enjoyed myself immensely, despite the danger. No one is looking over my shoulder or yelling at my failures," Vera said, sighing loudly at the end.
"Yeah, no judgement here. You're doing fine if you ask me."
"Thank you!" she replied cheerfully, jumping to her feet. "Shall we keep looking for monsters?"
Aug nodded, and they packed up and left. Soon enough they encountered a rabid rabbit. Rabid rabbits were fast, but didn't really attack unless they saw an opening.
So, as Vera and Aug stood back to back, ready for an attack, the rabbit kept circling them. Every time it would pass Vera's front, she would take a shot at it with her [Explosive Flick], trying to hit it with a bottle cap.
After about fifteen tries, she was getting closer, and a few shots later, she hit the rabbit in the head, killing it instantly. Vera cheered, jumping into the air with her hands up. "I am getting better at aiming and I levelled up!"
"Great work!" replied Aug as he approached the body and looked into the loot box, which contained a few steel coins that he distributed evenly. He then scanned the corpse, which caused him to level up his [Corpse Scan] ability.
Corpse scan (level 1) → (level 2).
[Scannable level difference increased from 10 to 20.]
Aug didn't know there was a cap on the level difference. But he now understood that he couldn't venture into high-level zones and collect corpses, already slain by other adventurers, if his own level was too low.
The levelled up scan completed and fed back its report.
[Corpse scan complete]
[Tier 0 - Rabid rabbit - N5F]
[4 normal items obtainable from processing. Would you like to proceed?]
Aug accepted the prompt and felt his mana drain to zero. Soon enough, four items appeared in front of him.
The new scan ability had also added what tier the scanned item was. This was a slight improvement, but that was the norm for all abilities and classes. Gradual upgrades.
[Rabid rabbit's ears - Cosmetic - One step closer to being a mangy bunny girl.]
[Rabid rabbit's foot (Tier 1) - Trinket (+1 PER) - This mangled rabbit's foot makes you more attentive. Somehow.]
[Rabid rabbit's pelt (Tier 1) - Reagent - If your thing is mangled and patchy fur, this is for you.]
[Pickled rabid rabbit's heart - Consumable (+1 SPD | 5 mins) - The sheer speed of a rabid rabbit on heat]
Aug kept the two, tier one items and equipped the rabbit's foot to go with his fox tail.
Vera, when receiving her items, had a very confused face. "What the hell are these? These are ridiculous."
"It's what the ability made, and I am just the messenger," laughed Aug.
Vera put on the bunny ears and pulled out her phone to inspect herself with the front camera. She laughed at the sheer stupidity of the item. But Aug couldn't help but think she looked cute.
"Have you eaten any of the items your ability has given you?" she asked.
"No. I have had to sell them all," he sighed. Being poor sucked.
"Ah, I am not sure if I want to try this," she laughed.
Aug smiled at Vera. It was great to see her having fun away from the oppression of her family. It was at this exact moment that he decided to let her stay, even though she wouldn't stop talking, she was fun to be around.
"I got a new ability with my level up," she continued, her face beaming with excitement. She had already forgotten that she was still wearing the bunny ears, but Aug wasn't going to tell her, because he found it funny.
"What did you get?"
"[Explosive Kick]. It allows me to fire explosions from my feet, enabling me to jump higher."
"I assume you're not immune to gravity. Don't overdo it," Aug replied, pointing out a weakness of the skill.
"Hmm, good point," said Vera, holding her chin in thought. "I'm going to try it anyway."
She walked a few paces out into a clearing and got herself a stable footing to be ready to jump. She then looked at Aug and smiled before activating the skill.
Vera exploded from her position, flying a metre up into the air. But there was one thing she had not accounted for: she was wearing boots. The force of the explosion ripped her boots apart and sent them flying. She soon landed, her feet now bare, and disappointment clouding her face as torn leather fragments lay scattered throughout the clearing.
"No! Those were my favourite boots," she said, falling to her knees in disappointment. Here she finally noticed she was wearing the bunny ears, so she took them off and put them into her inventory.
Aug had to try not to laugh as this woman had literally exploded out of her shoes wearing bunny ears.
"Do you have any spares?"
"No," she pouted.
The terrain in the wilds was rough, which made movement difficult, especially without boots. It was jagged, sharp, and spiky. Vera would have a hard time continuing to fight, so they turned back towards the car. A few minutes in and Vera was already struggling and had cut her foot. She sat down on a rock and pulled her first-aid kit from her inventory. She quickly patched her foot, but now she was finding it hard to walk on the bandaged spot.
Aug walked ahead of her to find safe footings, but this only lasted for so long before she hurt herself once again. They had about twenty minutes left to walk, and at this rate it'd take them over an hour. So after she patched herself again, but before she began walking, without warning, Aug scooped her up and began carrying her, Princess style. He placed his hands under her knees and on her back to make sure she wasn't uncomfortable.
Whilst being picked up, Vera made some very concerned and surprised noises, but once he had her in his grasp, she did not complain.
The walk back to the car was the longest he had heard her be quiet. As she clung to his neck, her face went red with embarrassment any time they walked past other people. She asked him a few times if he was okay, and if she was too heavy, but Aug was coping fine. He added being carried to the list of times she stopped talking.
When they got to the car, he put her down softly, and she straightened herself up.
"Warn a girl next time you're going to sweep her off her feet, okay?"
Aug nodded, and they never spoke of this incident again.