VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 107: A Loyal Little Helper
It pained her to think about all the loot that she was leaving behind. But she was here for a specific reason and she needed to prioritise that.
If she spent all her time looting, especially like this, then she was definitely going to be caught and would absolutely die. Belladonna was perfectly okay with dying, but not for incredibly stupid reasons like that.
No matter how much it pained her little loot goblin heart.
However, as she filled up the sixth vial of fear filled blood, and moved onto the seventh, Belladonna remembered something her teacher had said to her once.
’I am a very important wizard, Blah blah blah, Don’t you know anything? Blah blah blah. A Brownie will latch onto you if it likes you enough, blah blah magic blah blah.’
Well... Okay, she didn’t remember much of it. But she remembered the important part at least. She had been interacting with the Brownies for a few days and, in her humble opinion, she had been feeding them pretty well.
So it didn’t hurt to try, right?
Digging out a gold coin, Belladonna balanced it on her thumb as she spoke to the air,
"If you can hear me, I want you to take all of the loot off of the bodies of these people I killed and place all of it into my bag right now. In exchange, you can have this coin and any food you find on them. But magic plants don’t count as food, okay?"
The coin sung slightly as she flicked it into the air, sending it spinning as it flew in a perfect arc. At the zenith of that arc, the flipping coin caught the sun, causing it to reflect and glint into her eye enough to blind her for just a second.
But that second was enough for everything to change.
The coin disappeared before it had hit the ground and, when she next glanced around, she was surrounded by savaged and completely naked bodies. She couldn’t help but let out a laugh of shocked amusement, looking over the bodies as they revealed their moons to the glorious sun.
Even the corpse she was actively draining blood from had been stripped of all its possessions, and she didn’t feel a thing.
"Well I’ll be... You really must have liked that offering, huh?"
Now, being that this was a rhetorical question Belladonna expected no response. That’s kind of what makes it rhetorical, yet the Brownies didn’t seem to care and her surprise only grew as she heard some gentle scratching noises beside her.
Her eyes darted towards the source, to find the final line being scratched into the dirt by an invisible hand, creating a cartoonish depiction of a Brownie. A goofy, mischievous smile on its face as it sat completely satisfied and as it rubbed its bulging belly.
"Haha, oh my god this is great! Do you have a name? What should I call you?"
She watched the ground in excitement, her worries about the approaching party vanishing for the moment, as she watched the next drawing being made. It was the cartoon of just a brownies head as it held its hands up in an X shape.
"No name huh..." Belladonna translated, tilting her head as she thought before sitting up with a beaming smile,
"Maybe I should give you a name!"
Another Brownie face was drawn into the dirt, giving a smiling expression. It seemed it liked that idea.
"Alright... How about... Lil Brown!" She suggested, however a circle was quickly drawn around the expression giving her an X. Clearly he did not like that suggestion, so she started to think again.
"Fae?" Another circle. "Bob?" Another rejection. "Seth is decent..." That one received a circle and three arrows pointing to it. He really did not like that suggestion for some reason. It took her a few seconds before the perfect name finally popped into her head.
"Oh! I know. Since you are my loyal little helper, how about I give you a traditional name from my home? It is a time honoured tradition and every helper who has held this name has been truly great.
I name you, Sebastian, or Sebby for short."
A new drawing was added of a little Brownie jumping for joy, which made Belladonna giggle softly. At the same moment, she felt a new bond forming. It wasn’t nearly as strong as the one that she had with Beans.
It was more akin to a simple thread that could be broken at any time, rather than something chaining them together like her familiar.
With the name sorted, Belladonna went back to her task of draining blood. Between the Hunter that peed himself and what was left in the two headed Cow, Belladonna had collected enough for over twenty meals for Beans. Which left her with just one last ingredient to complete the recipe.
So, with heavy and laboured steps, Belladonna started to slowly make her way back to the roads and continue on her journey to the ruined town that her quest led her to. In an attempt to get some energy, she rooted around in her bottomless bag for the Sources she had... negotiated with the Tower’s Receptionist to receive.
However she found more than just the three that she had been given.
8 glimmering sources of various colours, sizes and power levels rested in her palm when she retrieved her hand from her bag. A glimmer that was reflected in her eyes as she stared at them with hunger.
"Holy crap... It must have been that wizard. The guy was loaded!" She shouted with glee, immediately tossing one of the sources into her mouth. The crystal melted the moment it touched her tongue as her body greedily absorbed the energy within.
The exhaustion was rapidly purged from her body, although not completely. Her muscles still burned with each step and there was still some effort she had to put into keeping going. But it was like a second wind, just from a single crystal.
So naturally her next move was to stuff them all into her mouth like a hamster. Her cheeks bulged as the crystals filled them, only melting one by one as each one brought with it a flood off power.
With the second her body completely recovered to its peak condition, which meant with the third crystal onwards she was making pure profit in her power.
When the final source melted and flooded her with its power, she felt good for a moment before her stomach gurgled and churned as the power slammed against an internal blockade.
The nauseating feeling forced Belladonna to pause in her steps as she collapsed against a tree, her stomach churning as if she was about to vomit. It was like the time she had been invited to a buffet and just stuffed herself full until she was ready to burst.
But unlike the buffet, the energy inside of her now could be immediately put to use instead of bulging her belly.
Sliding down the tree, Belladonna rested with her back against it as she crossed her legs and rested her hands on her knees, with her palms facing upwards. She closed her eyes, took a long and deep breath to steady herself before focusing inwards.
Her mind drifted back to the time she spent with her teacher and for once, she found herself actually remembering something in detail. Not that she was bad at remembering things usually, that is.
