Overchaos Chapter 4: Chivalry (Patreon)

~Ludo~

I smiled upon seeing the notification for the silver ability ticket. While Samson was great, some combat capability for me could go a long way.

So I pulled the ticket right now without hesitation.

Rolling Silver Ability Gacha...

A Rare Ability!

[Shape Altering]

|Rarity: Rare| |Class: Changer|

Allows you to alter your body to change its shape, but it cannot be used to create biological impossibilities on your body, such as turning your head into tentacle whips. The larger the alteration, the more energy it takes to do it.

Hmm, not directly a combat ability, but it is incredibly useful regardless. Especially for maintaining anonymity. After all, I will have to go anonymous sometimes. And with some creativity, I could probably utilise it in combat too.

Curious, I slotted in Shape Altering and immediately knew how to use it. I felt like my body was like clay I could mould with my mind, with a simple prompt, my hand grew larger, smaller, 3 fingers, claws, nothing. But when I tried to make it a mouth, the power refused, basically telling me that my hand did not have the resources to turn into a hand, interesting.

"Well, whaddaya know? Hey kid, check this out!"

I was snapped out of my testing by Samson, who... changed colours and turned the entire hair in front of me into several rows of razor-sharp teeth. I'm pretty sure his shapeshifting was not that free before. And I felt my mana drain when he used it too.

"Huh, so since you count as a part of me, I can affect you with Shape Altering too?"

"Seems so kid, I'll need some time to practice with this, but I could probably hide my face too. Ahh, reminds me of the old days of figuring out what I could do with my hosts. Good times."

"Nice, alright, gotta swap out of Shape Altering for now, so change back, I need to use the compass to find the herbs."

"Fine."

I swapped Compass back into the ability slot and used it on the quest paper for the herb collection quest, making another compass appear in my hands, guiding me to where the herbs were. But before I went, I needed to collect the right ears of all of the goblins here to turn them in.

"Samson, if you don't mind?"

"Sure, sure, you planning on eating 'em?"

Samson's words made me do a spit take as the tendrils of hair cleanly butchered the ears of the Goblins around me with quiet and fast efficiency.

"I- what?"

"If you won't, can I? I'm curious what Goblin tastes like. Don't worry, you won't feel a thing, I've got my own stomach."

"How does that that- wha- you know what? Go wild, but if this affects me, I'm dunking you in soap."

"Great!"

Without waiting, Samson shoved the goblin ears into my bag before growing in size and shovelling Goblin Corpses into his mouth and finishing his meal in less than a minute.

"Man, goblin meat really isn't all that it's hyped up to me. We should get some burgers when we get home."

"...Fine. Whatever. Let's just get those herbs."

And we did precisely that, it barely took half an hour to find all of the herbs I needed to find since I didn't need protection with Samson by my side and with the compass, I found the herbs incredibly easily despite them being hard to distinguish from regular grass.

In fact, I gathered over 5x the amount of the herbs needed with the intention of selling the rest. By the time I was done, my bag was filled to the brim with herbs and the ears I needed for the quest.

But there was just one problem.

"Fucking blood, I forgot a change of clothes."

I did not want to have an overnight journey in blood-soaked clothes. Which, I guess spoke volumes about how inexperienced I was in this whole business. The guild people might have been wrong calling me weak, but they were right in calling me a noob.

Hopefully, I can get a change of clothes in the village, and before I leave, I should take a piece of Enri's house or farm to be able to use Compass with for a future plan of mine.

As I approached the village again from the side of Enri's house, she saw me coming out just an hour later, soaked in blood, and probably assumed the worst as she ran towards me.

"Ludo-san, are you okay?"

I have to say, she must have been a very kind person to care that much about a person who was barely above a stranger in her eyes. I waved at her with a bright smile.

"Pretty fine I'd say Enri. Unfortunately, I'm rather new at this, so I got splashed with a lot of goblin blood. Thankfully, none of the stains are mine."

That made Enri stop in her tracks as she tilted her head with slight amazement.

"Wow, already? Plenty of adventurers pass by here but none of them return that fast unless they gave up or forgot something."

I flashed her my best attempt at a charming smile.

"Well, there is definitely a gap between me and the average adventurer despite what my rank looks like. But I reckon that will change sooner than later. Speaking of change, I hate to intrude but do you have a bucket of water I could use to get my clothes to at least a presentable state?"

"Oh, of course! Let me fetch you a bucket and soap as thanks for helping our village, Ludo-san."

"No problem Enri, just doing my job."

Enri walked over to the back of her house and fetched me a bucket of water as we made small talk, me asking how her village life was and her asking me about how it was being an adventurer and how clearing the forest was. She seemed to have experience dealing with adventurers passing by her village, so she wasn't exactly surprised.

After Enri fetched me the bucket, I scrubbed my clothes of blood as clean as I could without hydrogen peroxide, but they did not stink and did not feel uncomfortable, which was what really mattered. Even if my white shirt turned pink.

...It's a fashion statement now.

Though as I was washing my clothes and only down to my shorts, I noticed Enri was still here looking at me with a slight blush, and I did not blame her. After all, the first thing I did with Shape Altering was alter the muscles and fat in my body to make myself more muscular, while I could not alter the composition of my body like how my muscles work, I could alter the shape of my body, and that includes making me more or less muscular and more or less fat to an extent.

I was still not done tuning my body, but I looked like the average fit guy right about now, since I did not want to go overboard with body modification just yet.

But watching the sheltered village girl by my side, I couldn't help but tease.

"Enjoying the sight Enri?"

That made her sputter and shake her head with a blush.

"I-I'm s-so sorry I didn't mean to stare I just don't-"

I cut her off with a laugh.

"Haha, don't worry Enri-san, I really don't mind. Frankly, a cute girl like you appreciating my physique is flattering. Feel free to comment about what parts you like most, I'll listen."

Hearing my words accompanied by a teasing smirk, Enri huffed but had a light smile on her face.

"Don't make fun of me! But yeah, it is rather impressive, you are rather different from most adventurers that pass through around here, Ludo-san. You're very easy to talk to."

I pulled out the soaked clothes and wrung them to the best of my abilities while replying to Enri.

"Didn't I already say I was not exactly your average adventurer? But I'll take the compliment, you are very hospitable too, Enri-san, so thanks for that. I'm not sure how I would have convinced the stagecoach to let me in while reeking of blood otherwise."

"Don't mention it, I'm sure anyone else in the village would have done the same."

Her humble attitude felt like a refreshing change of pace for me, and her being rather attractive helped that immensely. I put on my still-damp clothes; it was rather annoying, but it would quickly dry out in the heat and sun.

"That doesn't change that you helped me Enri, here, a gift of thanks from me for intruding."

I pulled out a silver coin and threw it in her direction. She caught it and got flustered.

"Wait, this is too much, I can't accept this!"

A silver coin was fairly valuable, probably equal to what she made over a week or two of labour due to living in a frontier village and doing farming, but while she did not make much, she did have self-sustenance so she probably did not spend much either.

I got up and patted her on the shoulder.

"Please do, if you can't take it as compensation for inconveniencing you, then simply take it as a gift from me trying to impress a cute girl. If not, I'll throw the coin away if you give it back to me."

Enri looked torn as she looked between me and the coin before sighing and putting the coin in her pocket. Afterwards, she put her hands on her hips and wore a scolding expression.

"Alright fine, but you shouldn't be so irresponsible with money! And don't think I'm such a loose girl to be bought over with money."

I laughed and waved her off.

"I won't, anyway, until later Enri. I may come back sooner than later if I have business in the great forest."

After exchanging a quick goodbye with Enri, going back to E-Rantel was not difficult at all. Sure, the stagecoach was a little disturbed by my half-pink, white clothes but I quickly caught a ride back to E-Rantel, arriving back at the adventurers guild in the evening when the street lamps were recently lit.

As I waltzed into the guild with my clothes worse for wear, I heard snickers come through from those who recognised me from the day before.

"Wow, back already, is that a record?" "Look at him, so scared he couldn't even change out of his clothes before turning his plate in."

I ignored the murmurrs and walked over to the counter with the same guildgirl I had met the day who gave me a disappointed gaze before I pulled the goblin ears, herbs and the two quest parchments from my bag and set them on the table.

"I'd like to turn my quests in, please."

She looked between me and the objects I put on the counter in shock.

"Are you sure you have completed the quest, sir? If the guild finds out fraudulence-"

"A-hem! That is a pretty insulting accusation, no? If you wanna blame me for fraudulence, go do a check first. I did my mission as specified, and I did it fast. 11 Goblins and 20 Herbs."

The guild girl sighed and counted the drops I put on the table before putting them in separate bags and handing over the money specified, 2 Silver.

"Alright, sir, just letting you know. Here is your promised payment. The guild will send a scouting team to confirm no foul play has occurred."

I could still tell she was suspicious of me but I couldn't be bothered, in all honesty. My actions would speak for themselves eventually.

"Yeah sure, why not. Now, can you tell me which quests are the fastest way to rank up?"

It was time to do some grinding.

A/N: "Yo, chat was that W rizz?" "Kid, I have no idea what you are talking about or what that chat is, but you could really work on your flirting skills." Ludo is kind of a fish out of water, but so is Enri as a girl living in a frontier village; she is not really experienced with men. What did you guys think about Yuta's flirting skills?

Sometimes, being too good at your job can get shade thrown your way. Still, Yuta is hardcore grinding right now, his newest ability, while not all too useful for combat, will be incredible for everything else. What did you guys think about his roll? I'd love to know.