A Path of Bone and Poison 96 Tragic backstory

I did not wait as I rushed through the snowy terrain. I used my speed to the max as I bounded through the snow. Thanks to my light feet skill I was easily able to run on top of the soft snow, leaving no traces of my passing.

Behind me I could hear little princess yelling, as well as the sound of her trudging through the waist deep snow. It was obvious that she was not an assassin type. No assassin would be that foolish.

When I was out of her sight I entered stealth, and made my way behind her. The little princess was complaining to herself the entire time, using every foul word she could think of to curse me. Despite this she continued to walk forward. Her sense of direction seemed to be pretty good, as she walked in a perfectly straight line.

She stopped suddenly, and I could see her remove a bow from her inventory. She aimed the bow to the left, firing several times. Her archery was not nearly on par with Hylia's, but she seemed to not be lacking in skill.

Her arrows struck a foe I had not even been aware of. The attacks landed dead center in the middle of the creatures forehead. one arrow splitting another, splitting another. Her accuracy was far greater than anything I had ever seen. The power behind the blows seemed to be lacking in comparison. She also lacked the speed that Hylia was known for.

The Elf girl had amazing perception abilities, but as far as I could tell that was the limit of her talent. At this rate it would be a toss up of she could even clear a D ranked instance by herself.

I observed her as she battled, and I could not help but think that something was wrong. Her level would have needed to be around 100 to be a C class adventurer, but her ability only seemed to show half of that. Because of that the opponent she was fighting really gave her a hard time. A single class D monster, who specialized in sneak attacks but had failed, was giving this girl a hard time.

The process was painful. Eventually I decided to show mercy on her and shadow stepped behind the beast, ending its life in a single shot. As the creature turned into a pixilated mess I observed the exhausted look on the girls face. Though she was tired, a prideful look appeared on her face.

"I didn't need your help. I could have done it on my own."

I nodded. "Of course you could have, but I did not have time to wait. Your ability to spot them is useful, perhaps we should work together."

The girl gave me a searching look before she nodded. "It would truly go faster if we worked together. My name is Bailey by the way, not that you bothered to ask."

"Yuri. What class do you have if I might ask? Your accuracy with a bow is insane, even if the power behind it is lacking."

Bailey seemed a bit embarrassed as she spoke. "My class is actually Hunter. And I specialize I specialize in the bow. Unfortunately All of my stat points are currently locked down, and my level restricted to level one. They are supposed to be evenly distributed between my companion and me... But... I don't have a companion."

"How does that make sense? Shouldn't you at least recieve half of the points then?"

She shook her head. "Normally a hunter receives a beast when they are level one, and the bond is started then. But our village did not have any. As the beast and hunter level they will gain stat points together. Because I don't have a companion I cannot officially gain levels, but unofficially I am already level 200. Unfortunately those levels mean nothing until I can get a companion."

"So why don't you get a companion? Where do you even get one from?"

"Normally a hunter gets it from their class trainer in their city. It is always a newborn. But.. Our village is poor, and I only recieved my class due to dumb luck. I managed to learn about it from a book left in a forgotten corner of the shrine to Eliondra."

"Because the village did not have one, I have to search for my own. But it is not easy to find a newborn. There are eggs in the shop that I could hatch, but they are all incredibly expensive, and worse you have no idea what will hatch from them. "

"How expensive is incredibly expensive?

"All of them cost 100,000 coins. but like I said you have no idea what you will get. And whatever hatches I am bonded with forever."

"100,000 isn't that much. If you're level 200 you should have earned many times that by now."

"It is when your party demands a protection fee from you. When your own partner forces himself on you because you can't defend yoursel. When you are completely isolated from everyone and everything. Hell, I only have the clothes on my back, and this crappy bow. But I was relieved when I found out about you. Relieved that such a woman existed, the daughter of a legend, and a hero in her own right."

She whistled as she stared off into the distance. "When I found out that your party only had four people I went to the temple of Eliondra and prayed. I prayed for almost an entire month. Finally a priest approached me. He told me that the goddess had been impressed by diligence and would grant me my request. He showed me the same documents I had showed you. it... It was truly a relief. Even if I am now penniless and homeless. It is a relief to be away from that torment."

I nodded as I listened to her story. Unfortunately her story was not unique. A lot of girls suffered as much as she did. Boys did as well. Just because a person was an adventurer and they served the light did not mean they were just. After several moments I spoke.

"You can join me, I will help you reach 100k coins. But after that you need to show improvement or I will kick you out. And you have to get the approval of Hylia. How you do that is up to you."

Chapter end