Cherreads

Chapter 4 - Damsel in Distress

"System, use analyze." 

This appears to be a trap door floor. The party opened a treasure chest only to find an angry horde of 20 B ranked golems. 18/20 remaining. Golems are immune to magic, use sword skills and hand to hand combat. Good luck!

PING. New goal: Clear the golems and save the person on this floor with you. Reward: ????

'Sweet! A new goal,' Sora thought to himself. His excitement dwindled as his eyes swept the room, frightened by the sight of three dismembered bodies, fresh blood, limbs torn from their bodies, lying awkwardly across the dungeons' opaque floor. 

He started cutting down some golems, only to get yelled at!

"What do you think you're doing asshole? My room. My golems. My treasure." an annoyed young woman's voice shouted at Sora. 

He turned his shoulder and the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on was staring at him with the most pissed off expression imaginable. Her petite frame, yet amazing body wasn't even the most beautiful part about her. Her natural blue hair with teal eyes would make any man on Earth drop dead. Solid 10/10. 

"I'm just trying to help!" Sora yelled back.

"Who said I needed your help?" She shouted back. She did a really cool spin move while using both of her katanas to decapitate another golem's head off. 

"I promise I'm not after your treasure, just let me help you out!" Sora cried out emphatically. 

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Go ahead then Mr. tough guy. Show me how much of a badass you are." she said, still clearly displeased. 

Sora fought my way easily through the golems.

8 golems remaining. You have leveled up to level 6, congratulations! You have gained 5 health points. Current health: 65 of 65 HP. 

As he continued fighting off the golems, he couldn't believe he hadn't asked his system this sooner. 

"Hey system, why haven't you ever told me about my mana points or magic points or whatever? I used a bunch earlier; shouldn't I be low?" 

As I stated originally, your SSS abilities include that of magic stamina. You have an infinite number of magic abilities. 4 golems remaining. 

Sora noticed the young woman, who couldn't be much older than 18, had swung into action, and as soon as he heard, one golem remaining, in his head, she came down and executed the last golem.

"I'm not some damsel in distress you fuckhead, I killed the last one, treasure's mine," she boasted. 

Error: Goal not achieved as another user defeated the last golem. No reward given.

Sora laughed, hard. So hard in fact, he actually keeled over. By the time he realized he probably sounded and looked like a huge creep, Sora stood up and apologized. "I'm so sorry, your damsel in distress line got me. I agree, you are definitely not a damsel in distress! You're actually a badass!" 

"Whatever," she said.

"System, please analyze our new friend." 

Error. Analyze skill is for dungeons. I believe you are trying to inspect this person. Inspect cast.

Name: Brianna Reinhardt. 

Nickname: Brie

Rank: S rank adventurer 

Age: 19

Magic: Water, ice, healing, inspect, analyze, unique vampire skill: control [???]

Strength: 54

Agility: 72

Evasion: 80

Stamina: 75

Charm: 80. 

"Ok I get the jist of it, thank you system!" he thought and then placed his weapons back into his dimensional void. 

He turned, only to see the young woman just staring at him blankly. "Uh, hello?" he asked, confused. 

"Well, thanks for not fighting me about the treasure. Nothing but some money, what a waste. Anyway, I'm Abbie, I'm an adventurer for hire. I'm currently rank A. These unfortunate souls you see are the ones who hired me. I warned them not to grab an unguarded treasure box, but you know people are…" she started explaining. 

"Ok, first of all, if we're going to start to get to know each other here, can we at least be honest with each other? I know your name isn't Abbie." Sora interjected.

"Shit, what the fuck? I wonder if that's why all his stats came up blurred out when I inspected him. I never thought someone out here in an A ranked dungeon would be higher ranked than me." Brie thought to herself. 

"Ah, apologies, I see you also have the inspect and analyze abilities. Well, my name's Brie. Everything else about what I told you is true, I think. I'm sorry I lied. You just don't know who you can and can't trust anymore, especially with the poor King's state," she said with an apathetic tone and regretful smile. 

"It's ok, I'm the one wearing a mask, after all. I'm sorry there wasn't more treasure for you and I'm sorry about your party members. Do you want to party up?" Sora asked her in a cheerful tone. "I mean I'm sure you could clear this on your own, but I'm not interested in the treasure, I'm just interested in clearing the dungeon to level up." 

"Rank up? Ah, I see. I'm willing to party with you for the rest of the dungeon, but anything more than that, well, I'd have to see how we worked together and I'd have to know who you really were," she said with a wink. 

'Shit. I kind of liked this girl. She was honest, straight to the point and very talented,' Sora thought cheerfully. 

"System, I know Chronos told me to find party members, and it was essential, but I'm also kind of weary of revealing myself. What do you think?" 

Clear the dungeon and I will keep a close eye on Brie. I suggest making a temporary party bond using your sealing magic. 

"Hey, Brie, do you mind if we create a temporary party seal?" Sora asked politely. 

"Woah, a sealing magic user? Those are, like, super rare. Yeah, I suppose. What do you need from me?" she asked, eyes widened with curiosity. 

"System, initial temporary seal." 

Temporary party member seal initiating. Your mark of yin and yang has temporarily been added to both of you. The conditions of the party seal are you are to not betray one another and help each other in time of need. I figured you could use some assistance with this first one, so I took the liberties of setting the conditions myself. In the future, you can set whatever conditions you'd like.

"System, please add all treasure will be awarded to Brie Reinhardt." 

Complete. That's quite generous, Sora.

"Well, I have to get a feel for our new friend, right?" Sora thought with a smile. 

A bright light illuminated and a faint yin and yang symbol, which matched Sora's mask and white cloak appeared on both of their hands. 

"Woah, that's so cool. It read the conditions in my head. Thank you so much! Why would you give me all the treasure, though?" Brie exclaimed.

"This is going to sound really arrogant, but I don't need it. Like I said, I'm just here to clear the dungeon to level up." Sora said politely.

"Rank up, you mean?" Brie asked me with a confused look on her face.

"Hey system, what's the difference between rank up and level up?" 

Brie is referring to your adventure rank, which is currently SSS. You are unique in your ability to level up. Her stats and abilities level up, but she is not aware of that, only you are. Most humans and other creatures of Exteria know their strength and their limits, but their adventure rank allows them to take certain missions, and you are one of the very few SSS ranked. SS rank is also very rare. The fact she is S rank shows she is very skilled and she very clearly is determined to reach this SS rank.

"Er, yeah, rank up, sorry. I don't know why I call it leveling up. I'm forgetful sometimes." Sora said, a bit embarrassed. 

"What is your rank anyway?" Brie asked, eyes full of curiosity. 

"That's a question for if and when we decide to party up. Let's go through the rest of these floors." he said sincerely. 

'I can't screw this up. I have to make sure she's my first party member. I just have a feeling in my gut that she's going to be important. Why else would I meet her on my first night?' 

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