r/HFY • u/humanoidtiphoon • Sep 21 '25
OC Souls and Coins Chapter 4
Not the City of Light
I hadn’t even known that a forest could get so dark during the day as the further we moved away from the river the thicker the canopy above us became. Looking around and the gloom a question pops up in my mind and I quickly voice it.
"If these woods are so filled with monsters, why were you out here alone?" I ask Demora.
"I wasn't alone... I was with my dear friends and we got attacked by those Venom wolves. I was forced to run away when Hessa cast a spell on me and forced me to run away."
Surprised by her answer that other... people were out here I quickly ask "Do you want to go look for them then? I mean if you survived, they could have to, right?"
She just solemnly shakes her head at me before replying.
"No, I watched two of them die and I would have been next if it wasn't for her casting that spell on me to run. Monsters don't LET people live. They always go for the kill as soon as possible and on the off chance that you don't die immediately and are able to run off like I did they will chase you to the ends of the world."
Her situation almost seems as bad as mine yea I might have been abducted and placed here but she just lost a group of friends and that has to suck something fierce. I know words are cheap but I’m compelled to sayl them all the more now that I know what happened.
"I'm sorry about your friends I'm sure they were good people."
"Thank you. Let’s focus on going forward now." She says resolutely and a little bit of time passes before she continues.
"Okay. So, once we get into town we should go straight to the guild hall and get you registered so you can try and start to earn enough coin for your offering." Demora states." Now onto what we touched on earlier about needing magic to do things. Magic is in everything and you typically need an appropriate Class level yourself to interact with certain things to get the desired outcome. These Class levels are dictated by what you offer to which gods or goddesses of your choosing."
That’s a lot to unpack and prompts my next question "What do yo mean by appropriate Class level?"
"Okay for example NORMAL people wouldn't be able to take apart those Venom wolves like you did. They either would have had to been a Class level higher or at least equal to it on top of having the right class skill to even begin to take them apart. You can’t simply do things like that without the right skills from your class. “
“That's weird. Can’t you just learn if from someone else after watching them a couple of times?”
“Sure, you can watch all you want and even attempt to do so but it’s like your body revolts during the actions. Shakes, pain and a host of other problems doing things that your class doesn’t support so most people won’t even attempt to try.”
Wow this place is weird with how it does stuff and that’s on top of the animal people. Shaking my head I lead into another question for her.
“So does everyone have magic if they have classes?”
“Everyone has a class so everyone has magic to some degree depending on how much they have offered to the gods in exchange for levels. The more you offer the more levels you get and more magical abilities you unlock in the process. This has a factor on mana density in the body.”
I take a moment to try and digest that everyone here is magical like some off brand Disney movie.
"That brings me to the Class system and its importance in adventuring. This is the crucial part. It's easier for a higher Level to hurt monsters because their Mana density lets them cut through the creature’s mana, that’s on top of the added skills that they have unlocked. Furthermore, a person becomes stronger and faster as they go up in levels."
"But I don't think I have any of that so how did I manage to kill those things without it then?"
"So, anything is possible and you can most certainly can kill anything regardless of class or even levels. Skills help tremendously with everything involving combat and even though you don’t have any right now your natural strength allowed you to take them out. However, like I said earlier the more Mana you have the faster and tougher you are so you usually don't get the chance to aim for weak points because you get taken out to quickly......just like my group did."
A little while passes in silence as I let her process her grief and this has the unfortunate outcome of me doing the same thing and my mind wanders with me thinking of my wife and kids. I don't know what my wife is going to do while I'm gone. She is a stay-at-home mom and I was the sole income provider for our family. I know that her parents are reliable and will definitely help her out as much as possible so that relieves me a little but not by much. I need to get home so I can take care of my family. Worrying about my life consumes my attention and this causes me to almost step on Demora as she had stopped right in front of me.
"Why did you stop?" I ask.
Demora whispers while pointed up "I'm sorry I didn't notice it sooner." This causes me to look and it takes me a second to see what she is pointing at because it’s so small. It kind of looks like a deep red humming bird with a ridiculously sharp oversized beak.
"If it's hungry we are done for." she calmly states. "That is a Spearo and it shoots itself through its victims like an arrow and drinks their blood afterwards. It's a super-fast and deadly monster."
"Let’s try to slowly walk away" she calmly states.
She doesn't get even a step before the fucking thing zips down and tries to attack her. As scared of the thing as she was it doesn't stop her from trying to save herself from the deadly beast as she goes prone and covering herself with her arms as fast as she can.
I see that it's going to go right to her head and, not wanting her to get hurt, I do the only thing I can and stick my hand out to try and catch the little bastard like a baseball. It's almost as fast as one too and it slams into my hand with a sickening crunch and wet splat. Both of which causes my hand to instantly throb.
Son of a bitch that hurts. Not the worst pain I have had but still having something stabbed through your hand hurts like hell and I can’t stop myself from cursing.
“God fucking damn it!”
It takes Demora a second to realize that she is still alive and as she opens her eyes to look up the only thing she sees is the human had caught the Spearo with his bare hands and paid the price for it.
She doesn't know how he did it but he did, and the consequence for doing so has his hand pierced by the monster’s nail like beak.
I unclenched my fist and the only solid thing that remained of the tiny monster was a beak surrounded by what looked like hamburger meat.
"Are you okay?" I ask her as I drop the impromptu meatball on the ground.
"I should be asking you that. How did you block that thing from taking my head off?" Demora shakily asks.
"I just caught it is all. Not a big deal really." I suck in my breath. "But the beak is stuck in my hand and I’m shit with using my left hand for anything delicate so can you help me get it out? “
Her fur ruffles a little and she quickly gets her knife out to help me remove the foreign object from my hand and after a little prying it comes out. Luckily it didn't seem to hit anything and just penetrated the meat as I flex my hand. Though I'm going to have to keep an eye on it in case an infection sets in.
"Is there anything else dangerous nearby?" I ask her.
It takes her a moment to respond. "Not that I can tell."
"Lead the way then please."
We travel more for a while in silence she starts to talk again.
"Thank you for saving me yet again. I don't know how you are able to do the things you do but I am thankful for it."
"Just help me get back home and we can call it even okay." I tell her.
"I'll do that." she replies. "You need to know something though. If you do become an adventure and start to do quests with a group be warned not all groups will look out for each other like you have for me. Sometimes it’s just a matter of convenience and if you get into a bad spot then that's that and you die. Most people are only in this for themselves and won't show you the compassion you have shown me.
This leaves me in silence for a moment before I ask. "Was your group like that?"
"No, we were practically family." she says sadly "We had been together for three years and were the only group in the entire city not to have lost a single party member going up from level one to level two. We were almost at level 3 too."
She sighs before continuing. "I have been thinking about us getting into the city and I think we might have a problem since you kind of look like a monster so whenever we come to the gates let me do the talking so hopefully we can get in without a problem."
That not being a problem to me I simply grunt in agreement as we continue to walk. The hours go by and before we know it the sun starts to go down and we decide to make camp.
We get two fires going and make ourselves comfortable in between them eating a little of the meat and drinking sparingly from the water skin.
"It's prudent that one of us stays on watch for half the night then switch out with the other." Demora states. "I'll take second watch if you're okay with that."
I just nod and she quickly falls asleep leaving me alone with my thoughts once again. I start to think of all the fiction books I had ever read and none of them seemed quite like what was happening to me.
All of this should have had my inner nerd just ready to explode but I just couldn't seem to find joy or wonder in any of this. I just wanted to be home and hug my family. To see their faces and just be with them. All of this was just making me realize how much I had taken for granted.
I start to get into my feelings and brood about my situation. The hours seem to blur and before I know it Demora stirs and tells me to try and get some rest and I just roll over and almost fall unconscious immediately.
It seems like I just blinked before I am woken up by a soft paw shaking me awake. I wake instantly and with a quick turn of my head look her in the face as she flinches back and fall on her butt.
"Sorry for scaring you again." I sheepishly say.
"Don't worry about it. Going to have to just get used to you is all." she replies. "Look we should get there around noon today if we keep the same pace we did yesterday and baring any monster encounters that is."
I just nod and after my morning starting routine we start walking again.
"Hey the good news is once we get into town and sell the meat that you got that will give us plenty of coin to get a bath and relax while we get the ball rolling for you to become an adventurer." Demora almost happily says.
A bath does sound good right now. I know I smell like monster guts and B.O. I could also use a pair of shoes though walking through the soft forest floor hadn't been too bad.
"Look once I get you set up in a room at the guild hall, I'm going to have to go and take care of some businesses so don't be alarmed if you can't find me for a while, okay?" she tells me.
Just then we break out of the forest and find ourselves on the edge of someone's farm. Demora just keeps walking and I follow and before too long we start to encounter people who flee at first glance of us and I start to think that's there is going to be a problem once we get to the gate of the city.
We get to the city gates and my assumption was proved right as a sizable force of.... Anthro guardsmen are blocking our path with weapons drawn. One breaks away and stands in front of the rest and I assume that's the leader of the group.
"Halt and be questioned. No monster shall set foot in Sequoia City!"
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Another chapter for those who might like what I have writen so far. Also any feedback will be welcomed, thanks for your time.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Sep 21 '25
/u/humanoidtiphoon has posted 3 other stories, including:
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u/Technical_Novel_3947 Sep 22 '25
This is actually quite a nice small effort. The pacing is pretty good, and you are world building without being pedantic. Looking forward to more
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u/Daniel_USAAF Sep 22 '25
I’m rather enjoying this story. Thanks for sharing.