Isran the Great

A week after their date Isran and Elysi were planning their next dungeon trip. Isran had never thought of herself as particularly being the adventuring type but the longer they stayed in Kestin the more restless she became. She missed the uncertainty of the dungeon, the notifications after a successful kill, level up notifications. She couldn’t wait to test out the skills she had learned from Morgana.

Elysi had noticed Isran’s longing for the dungeon before Isran had. Her cute girlfriend was always paying attention to little things about her. The thought of the sheep girl thinking about her made her turn beet red every time.

Elysi wrapped up some business she had in Kestin, paying for a month's advance and getting new gear since she was robbed on her last trip. Isran wouldn’t get her amour till the day before they planned to leave which was not the best but at least she wasn’t rushing the smith.

Morgana was even more pleased that she was going back to the dungeons than she was. Her teacher had recommended she put as many attribute points into strength as possible and that if she got a skill that gave her strength points to put the attribute points into speed.

She only needed ten strength points to wield her sword averagely well, supplementing with speed would help her wield the otherwise unwieldy weapon.

Instead of going alone, Elysi suggested they join an expedition. They would get the opportunity to mine, there would be fewer chances they could get robbed, and if Isran wanted they could scout potential group members.

Isran had no issue with the idea. Joining an already established group would’ve been nice but the longer Isran thought about that situation the more she realized it wouldn’t be the best. If the people in the group were not good people or they just didn’t work well together it would make an awkward dungeon trip at best.

An expedition also had a lower barrier of entry. Isran was only level five and she hadn’t asked Elysi but she guessed the sheep girl was either sixth or fifth level. That was generally a low level to be, most established groups looking for members were looking for replacements of dead or departed members and not trainees. An expedition however needed as many adventurers as possible. They were protecting cargo from thieves as well as monsters and protecting the MUNDANES doing the mining and map sketching.

There was the added danger that expeditions that would take level five adventurers were going to be visiting newer dungeons. Common dungeons had fewer monsters spawn on the higher floors but they also had maps accessible to the general adventuring population. Going in blind had a myriad of risks.

Isran left the signing up to Elysi. The sheep girl had told her the process over dinner one night.

“I’ll find a mixed expedition, one planning on mining and marking out the dungeon. Also, an expedition that plans to stay on the first two floors. Mixed expeditions will have larger numbers which means less money but it also ensures safety.”

“We get paid for the expeditions?”

Elysi nodded, chewing on some lettuce before answering. “We are technically acting as hired muscle. We get paid an average depending on a number of factors relating to the expedition. The purpose, how many we are. Of course, loot found is kept by whoever finds it but the expedition is still a job.”

Isran hummed. It was an interesting system. “What happens if an adventurer betrays the expedition? Plans an ambush and robs the expedition, or even kills members of it.”

Elysi frowned. “That’s just stupid but it does happen. Miners and cartographers are either employees of the council of Evelncarth or large merchant families. Killing government officials is a death sentence and stealing from the government could be worse depending on what you steal. For merchants, it's much the same. They hold a lot of power in different parts of Neos and if they catch wind of whoever wronged them they have a tendency to take matters into their own hands.”

Isran frowned slightly at that revelation. She didn’t know much about the government of the world and she was starting to realize she may have to come in contact with more things she didn’t understand soon.

“What’s Neos?”

“The name of the world.” Elysi frowned. She had gotten mostly used to Isran asking questions she felt the taller woman should know but she sometimes still paused when Isran asked some questions.

“What does it mean?”

Elysi tilted her head. “New, I think”

“That’s it?”

Elysi shrugged. “It has something to do with the creation story of the world but I don’t know much about it. Maybe you can ask a priest when we get to the religious district. The most I know are the names of the gods but I’m not even sure if some of the names I know are recognized by the temples.”

“Huh.” Isran mumbled. “I never asked if you speak other languages.” She wondered if the other languages of Neos were similar to that of her home world. Earth, she had remembered the name a few days prior. Her memories were still a little jumbled, memories of burning smells flittered through, but they felt so disconnected that she didn’t even put in the effort to piece them together.

Elysi smiled. “Well everyone usually just speaks the tongue of old but yes I speak other languages.”

“The tongue of old?”

Isran appreciated that Elysi never seemed inconvenienced to explain things to her. She had the best fucking girlfriend.

“The belief is that the gods gifted Neos with the tongue of old taken from the remains of Palos the world of old.”

"The world of old...” The thought made her head hurt.

“Are you okay?”

Elysi’s worried voice and soft hand on Isran’s arm broke her out of her trance. The headache faded.

“Yeah.” She smiled. “Just tired.”

...

They hadn’t had enough time to enchant her amour but it looked amazing all the same. Elysi wasn’t the happiest about the price. Complaining about being cheated and mumbling swears at Morgana when they paid the rest of the money for the full plate.

Looking at her gold-colored amour Isran recalled reading somewhere once that gold was a brittle metal when it came to amour. She had no idea why she hadn't thought about it when she saw Morgana in the armor, but looking at her full piece she was getting a bit apprehensive. "Isn't this metal a bit... brittle?" She mumbled

“Brittle?” Jayn laughed at Isran. “Even copper is better than fucking brittle.” Her thick accent made it a little hard for Isran to decipher what exactly it was that she was saying but she heard enough to guess she was wrong.

“Trust me pale ass, if it was so bad it wouldn’t cost so much.”

Since Morgana had also seemed confused that Isran would think her amour would be brittle Isran dropped the concern. She had no idea about anything to do with metal anyway, if the blacksmith said it was good metal she was taking her word for it. Though calling golden metal steel was a bit weird.

Equipping the armor was a bit of an annoying task. There were many straps and parts that Isran didn’t know what the use was for. After she thought she was done, she got laughed at by all three women, Elysi helped her wear the amour properly, explaining to her the parts and why they were where they were.

She was surprised at how much the sheep girl knew about armor.

It was a simple set, at least according to Jayn and Morgana., it didn’t look simple to Isran. The armor was more form-fitting than she thought possible for armor, it somehow didn’t restrict her movement, the clanking was much less than she anticipated and it seemed like the parts almost avoided bumping into each other when she moved.

“There is an enchantment in the steel. None combat related just easier for movement.” Jayn smiled proudly.

Elysi hummed as she watched Isran move around. “I guess the price makes more sense now.” She mumbled.

There was a rounded metal neck that Isran put on as the three women watched her, after that was a helmet with a long red floating cloth attached to the back. There was a thin hole in the helmet Isran assumed was for her eyes but fiddling with the metal revealed that she could lift a visor to reveal probably her nose and mouth, and a little of her eyes.

“You can get a cape when you return.” Jayn smiled satisfied.

“A cape?”

Morgana sighed. “As nice as capes look I advise against them, they can be stubborn.”

Jayn scowled. “Just because capes don’t like you doesn’t mean you should go bad-mouthing them.”

Morgana rolled her eyes.

Isran decided she would discuss capes with Elysi, they were being spoken off as living beings and she was getting confused trying to follow the conversation.

As she lifted the helmet to put it on the red cloth moved against the wind, wrapping around her armored forearm.