*
Sure enough, Mr. Jack closed the gap with his vastly larger stride and swung a hook. His build was leaning towards the leaner side but if you observe carefully there were undeniably bulging muscles underneath the armour and chain mail bodysuit. Standard kingdom equipment included a round helmet with a wide open face hole and a red and yellow feather on top. Despite the weight, he was moving without hindrance, it took everything just for Lastia to deflect the first blow with a dodge.
With a back step, the second swing barely missed with her touching the boundary of his range. She picked up speed, but both his sprinting and his strides closed the distance before she knew it, and he swung into her back. Her body was sent rolling into the cobblestone patchwork of a road, bouncing as she hit the ground before spinning. She pressed an arm into ground as one eye squeezed out a peek, Mr. Jack had already come to stand in front of her sprawled body.
He extends a hand with a difficult face, Lastia gazed at it with silence for a moment, before taking it. Helping her up, the guard eases his shoulders and continued to converse. His work ethic was impeccable.
"... You understand now right? Dangerous monsters like that will come out at night. It's too much for a level 1, you should go in the morning and fight slimes or plant type monsters.
You... Do you have a family? You shouldn't worry them like this. I'm sure you can find another career path, the adventurers guild has its jobs cut down more by than half... High rankers get enlisted into the national army, only low rankers and odd jobs remained. The pay also isn't as consistent as a soldier's. " (Mr. Jack)
"... I'm, not an adventurer. I'm... A hero. Can't you see my class? " (Lastia)
" I'm afraid not. Only your level and stats are visible. Even so, a hero should know when to rest and when to hunt. Go. Don't come back until the morning. " (Mr. Jack)
"... I see. " (Lastia)
She nodded weakly before turning around. If what he said about the monsters were true, then perhaps her life got saved. Even with her mystery attack skill, all it did was form a pair of gauntlets to shield her arms when she punched. It did nothing for her stats, anymore seconds in the first battle and the royal guards would have splattered her against the wall. That fight might have soured their relations, but it was them who attacked first.
She finds herself increasingly irritated, it only made sense that they treated her so badly because they didn't expect much from her. The previous hero was a man, and someone to catch up to. Was that why? Women didn't get into battle, because they weren't magical girls. Roles were segregated in a concrete manner such that almost nobody would cross the line.
They saw her as a woman, or maybe a child, but also as a burden and a waste of resources. Send her out to fight the demon king, if she wins that's good for humanity, if she doesn't at least it won't be a big drain on our resources. She could already see that king scoffing upon hearing the news of her arrival. Being level 1 did nothing to help, they probably saw it as a mercy that they didn't outright kill her then and there for sullying the carpets. Bastards.
Social norms were quite far back, even in the modern day it wasn't so surprising to see roles based on these sorts of castes. The dillema of the death penalty was resolved by subjecting eligible criminals to lifelong slavery, losing their rights to their own body meant that some of them were even salvaged into neurological data servers after death. Power generation was also highly advanced but it was never enough for the entire planet's computing needs, rotors were carefully designed to be indestructible and easily repairable, using said inmates to generate electricity until their death.
Here, not even the government can guarantee a person kept their rights, slave trade was casual and rampant. Just earlier she saw someone younger than her wear a leash with many others, the 'merchant' was proudly hawking his wares. Even if her class can't be seen, her abnormal amount of stats should have been indicative. Even a royal guard member only had 30 points per level, how much did a normal person have?
Probably 20 at most.
Name:???
Class:?
Level: 20
Hp: 400/400
Mp 400/400
Attack: 100
Defence: 40
Magic strength: 40
Magic defence: 40
Mana: 40
Constitution: 40
Agility: 100
Looking at it, perhaps she was foolish? She was truly a vagrant now, so she looked for a spot to sleep between the houses. Public security isn't good, not to mention the high possibility of other tenants being there.
"{???}." (Lastia)
She spoke it aloud, the activation is firm and there's no mistaking that it worked. She can feel her magic flowing out of her body, her mana capacity can roughly hold on for 5 minutes.
"...? You only have your own luck to blame. You'd make fine merchandise. " (?)
Covered in thick garb, someone who was used to sleeping through winter outside a building, a massive grey coat wrapped around their upper body, the pants also felt like layers of wool held up by multiple large straps. His face was covered in oils, he was in his 30s at the minimum and he held a large curved cutlass.
Lastia turned on her feet and pivot to the side. Seeing as she's about to run, the experienced thug rushed forward at full speed. His feet flashed and a second later a guttural scream cried out in the night. Before, there was only an empty expanse before the city gate where the moonlight outlined nook and cranny. Here in the darkness, {???} couldn't be seen. There was also plenty of footholds and other objects to coil itself around. The magic had formed black strings tied around trees and fixtures belonging to houses.
If there weren't anything to secure these black strings of magic, the enemy would have undoubtedly pulled it apart and threw it on the ground. Here, he ran full force into these unseen strings that blended into the night. Nevermind the duration, the strings aren't even particularly strong yet. This was the basic of the basic quality magic. Thankfully his defence was low enough, add his momentum to it and the first string was positioned low to trip him up, control his trajectory. The subsequent strings cut into various tendons and ligaments, tearing into flesh and stopping at bone, they eat deep into his nerves and even began to contaminate the insides of his body.
This time a wall of string rushed from behind for a second impact. The length was shortened rapidly and tension was injected immediately. They snap into his flesh with a dull thud in some places, others lodged deep into his skin, constricting him from both front and back. The pain caused him to writhe about, only exacerbating the pain from the threads digging past his nerves. Bringing him to complete immobility.