I wanna thank yall for the 1.6k+ reads! That's insane! I appreciate all the support and I've been reading every comment, so thank you for the kind words! <3

I'm aiming to have CH 3.1 ready by next Sunday, the 11th. I've been struggling writing one part of it tho. Hope you enjoy this one, its kinda cute :)

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Quest

Chapter 2.3 [The ASE-Stone]

Despite taking Dream's hand...George and Dream traveled in complete silence. To George, it felt a little too awkward to say anything, and that was mainly because he wasn't sure what to say. By the time they were halfway back to the cat lady's house, the sun was nearly set, and the stars were beginning to twinkle in the dimming sky.

Before, George probably would have told Dream that Fulton was known to have some of the clearest skies for stargazing...but what use was that information to Dream? And Gods, just thinking about all the oblivious stuff he did before, George was more surprised Dream didn't get tired of him! Like, come on?! Sending Dream into the market by himself, no wonder he looked so awkward walking in. He only arrived in town this morning. And let's not mention how he took off running to head to the gate, and didn't slow down one bit, he had half a mind to slam his own head into a wall for that! One could argue that because he didn't know Dream was blind and wasn't told, then he couldn't help but assume Dream had sight...but that didn't make him feel any less stupid. Like even though he knows it was out of his control, he still felt like he should be held responsible or something. George quietly sighed..

George looked at the back of Dream's head, when they had reached the West Gate about 15 minutes ago, Dream had asked to take the lead. He said he wanted to try finding his way back, and only if after 30 minutes should George step in.

But Dream honestly didn't need it, George wasn't good with directions and could easily get lost if he wasn't paying attention, but he could tell that Dream was heading in the right direction. Not once did he hesitate, and every step was made with confidence. The memory this guy must have had to be insane. They were running all abouts searching for this cat earlier so they must have gotten turned around a bunch of times, yet Dream could still seemingly lead them back to the cat lady's house without getting them lost. And knowing what he knew now, he was more amazed by Dream's ability to maneuver away from the things he thought would have been impossible to do without sight. Anytime a person walked directly in Dream's way, he moved with ease to adjust and avoid them. He honestly wouldn't have believed Dream if he told George he was blind had he not seen his face earlier.

He had a million questions he wanted to ask, but it really didn't feel like the right time to do so.

They arrived at the cat lady's house without missing a step, George genuinely wanted to voice his amazement, but he held back.

Dream knocked on the door of the quaint, little red house. A moment later the small old lady answered.

"Oh, you found her! My precious little CAT," she reached out her arms and grabbed her cat from Dream's arm. Dream's broken mask was still tucked under his arm, but with it so dark outside and the fact the lady's glasses were outdated, she probably didn't notice Dreams eyes. Not that it would have mattered to her, George was probably just stuck on the matter out of sheer shock from earlier.

"Oh thank you! Thank you, my little rascal must have caused you trouble," she looked to the two of them and hugged her squirming cat close.

"No trouble at all, George here realized your cat heads to the river a lot and we found her up a tree. She most likely got stuck and nicked her paw, but it's a small wound." Dream said; it was probably a good idea to hide the fact there was a zombie in the area. They wouldn't want to worry her.

"The river! Of course, it all makes sense now, I appreciate all the help dears."

"We'll be off then, have a good evening," Dream said. As the old woman waved them off, George and Dream turned to leave and walked down the street. Dream cleared his throat, "So...I guess this is goodnight? Are we planning to meet up at the guild tomorrow?"

"Y-yeah!" George was momentarily distracted, "We still need to collect the reward for our completed quest, and complete the official party form."

"Wait, we weren't a party yet?" Dream asked; they stopped walking.

"We can be an unofficial party, but if we submit an official form with the guild then they'll automatically divide the rewards for the both of us. And sometimes official parties receive some travel perks, after ranking up to higher levels, of course," George explained. Dream wasn't acting as awkward as he was, so he was beginning to feel at ease and relaxed. Maybe George was just overthinking.

"Oh, ok, that sounds good then. I'll meet you in the morning then," Dream waved, and George waved back, before momentarily stuttering.

"I-I mean, bye! Sorry I--nevermind," Dream chuckled and started to walk away. George let out a sigh he had built up and started walking back in the opposite direction, towards the inn he was staying in.

It was maybe after 10 minutes of walking that a sudden realization hit George...if Dream arrived just this morning...did he even have a place to stay? If not, did he even know where to find one?

Shoot--George was in a half panic, should he go back and find Dream to make sure he was fine or--George pinched himself. No, no, it was fine, Dream already mentioned he didn't appreciate being babied. He was fine, Dream seemed like a very confident guy, if he didn't know where to go he would have asked George for directions. Maybe...?

George just needed to go home and get some rest. He wouldn't worry about it anymore. He trusted Dream.

~~~~~

George definitely worried all night. By the time he returned to his inn last night it was already late at night. The sun was fully set, and the stars were shining bright--he had attempted to double back more than 3 times by then, but he had to force himself to calm down and continue back towards his inn.

George yawned, his mouth stretched wide as he covered it with his hand. Tears pricked his tired eyes as he sat hunched inside the guildhall. He was probably too early, Dream was probably still sleeping soundly, but George was too anxious to stay cooped up in his room.

"Good morning!" George jumped, he turned his head to see Dream approaching him with a pep in his step.

"Oh, good morning," George wanted to ask how he found him so easily, but he held back...he didn't want to be rude. Was it rude? "Did you sleep fine?"

"Sure did, I camped out--"

"You what?" George was awake now.

"I said I camped out, I didn't have any money for a room after paying the guild fee yesterday, and I figured I wouldn't be able to trade anything on me for a room since it didn't work at the market yesterday, I just camped out," Dream shrugged, but smiled calmly. He didn't seem bothered in the slightest.

But aw crap! George should've remembered that Dream had no money! He knew he should have gone to find him last night! He was stressing silently.

"Hey don't worry about it, I can tell you're panicking but it's fine. Unless it's home, I kind of prefer the outdoors, so it's really not that bad," Dream tried to reassure him and George found himself calming down a bit, "So what's this party form we have to fill?"

Dream reached for the chair in front of him, found it, and sat down. Another mystery on how he did that, but George would ask another time. George straightened up and cleared his throat, "It's just form of consent from both of us and our agreements on how we wish to split rewards and loot, but the guild opens at 7, so we still have like 15 minutes," George glanced up at the clock to be sure and nodded to himself when he confirmed he was right.

"Sounds good--Oh, I wanted to ask, yesterday your friend pricked my finger for this stone thing on my wrist, so how does it work?"

The ASE-Stone! George completely forgot to show Dream how to use it!

"Well, you press your thumb against the surface of the stone and it brings up a magic screen that tracks your levels, and stats and special moves. It also keeps tracks of your health and any status effects you might have."

"Oh...so what level am I?" Dream pressed his thumb to the stone, a little screen popped up and George moved his chair so that he could see.

"It says level 20! Not bad! That's pretty good--OH MY," George took a closer look at Dream's screen.

"What?" There was a hint of worry in his voice.

"You already have 3 special moves unlocked and you're only level 20???" George could hardly believe it, no wonder Dream was so strong, even though he didn't seem like it.

"Is that bad? What does that even mean? What's a special move?"

"It's not bad at all! In fact, that's really good! I'll try to describe it as best as I can, Special Moves are abilities that a person can 'unlock' if you will, after they meet certain conditions. Each person only has room for 6 moves, and they act like power-ups in certain situations. You can also think of them like learned skills, normally different from occupational skills. Even if we were both using the same weapons and taking the same path we might not develop the same or similar special moves just because of the way we respond to situations. The abilities can be offensive, defensive or passive abilities."

Dream was nodding through George's explanation, "And I have three, which means I've gone through situations where my experiences and skills were enough to unlock these moves? How do I use them and what are they?"

"Well, you probably already use them in your daily life, since they are abilities you developed well enough for it to be considered a special move in the first place," George reached out and paused, "Do you mind if I grab your hand? It's your magic screen so it won't respond to me. ASE-stones are specially enchanted by high-level mages to function this way, so that it's difficult to steal and use someone else's identity. The stone acts like your identification as a guild member and keeps all your info, rank, and so on."

Dream nodded and George grabbed his hand. He used Dream's finger to tap one of the special moves and began to read it out loud.

"So will I only level up if I have this stone on me?" Dream asked.

George shook his head, "No, the stone only makes our stats visible, and the magic enchants tied to our blood is what helps the stone display our growth numerically. Leveling up, as it's referred to on the screen, is just our experiences numerically shown as progression. So the stone doesn't affect your growth in life or the skills you gain."

"Hmm," Dream stroked his chin, "So what does ASE even mean?"

George blanked, "Um...I actually don't know, It's just the name of the stone and the mechanism, so I never really thought about the meaning behind the name. Maybe it's like 'Awesome Stat...E...val...uator?"

Dream shrugged.

"You two look pretty chummy now," George looked behind him and smiled.

"Em!" Em, his friend, was leaning over the counter staring at the two of them.

"Alright, calm down there, good job on completing your first quest you two. I heard you two fought a zombie, glad y'all are alright."

"First?" Dream asked.

"Wait you know we fought a zombie?" George was trying hard not to go red in the face. He couldn't believe Em would say that out loud. He didn't really want to mention his embarrassing failures no matter how nice Dream was.

"Sure do, the guards at the West Gate found the ash and weapons of the zombie there. One of the trainees even witnessed a portion of the fight before running back to get help, but the two of you had already taken care of it and left by the time they came back. And while normally you aren't supposed to leave the town for quests, it was unprecedented that your lost cat was outside by the river, and you two did manage to fight off the zombie so the guild can't be too upset," Em stepped back from the counter and leaned down.

A few moments of rustling later and she heaved onto the counter an iron enchanted sword and a dented helmet, "Given our policies, this is part of your official loot, so you can choose to keep it or sell it. Also," she held up one finger when George opened his mouth to speak, she opened up a drawer and brought out a hefty, palm-sized pouch, "This is the reward money from the quest and then some," she tossed it in their direction, but George was too slow to react. Dream caught it without batting an eye, which was a figure of speech of course. He wasn't sure if Dream's eyes could bat. Do blind people blink? Was this a rude question to ask--now wasn't the time. George should also mention Dream had fitted his mask back on his head with a makeshift strap, so Em probably didn't know he was actually blind.

George leaned over as Dream opened up the pouch, George's eyes practically popped out. Not only was there the 100 bronze reward but there were so many silver pieces and even a gold coin!

"H-hah," George looked back at Em and then back at Dream who was grabbing a few of the coins and weighing them carefully in his hand, he brought a few up to his mask, George was assuming, to smell.

"Wasn't it just supposed to be bronze? Aren't these silver and gold too?" Dream asked.

"Yep," Em smiled, "Mrs. Tabsfield, your client from yesterday, came by this morning. When she heard you G-ranked adventurers fought a zombie to save her cat she was over the moon with appreciation and what not," Em lazily waved off the last bit, "You probably don't know this, but Mrs. Tabsfield is actually the great aunt of the guild master here in Fulton, so on her insistence, we threw in 50 silver and 1 gold coin--think of it as a tip on top of your reward."

"Oh my--this is amazing!" George couldn't believe the amount of money they were receiving!

"Here George, you can take the gold coin for your family, we can split the bronze and silver 50/50. And you can also keep the sword, it's enchanted, I think it might have knockback, but the smell of it might have something else too. I'm not too familiar with the smells of different enchantments," Dream placed the gold coin in George's hand.

"W-wait, I can't just take this much, you did the actual fighting and saved me and the cat!" George tried to give the coin back, didn't he know just how much was in one gold coin? It was enough to feed an entire commoner family of 3 for a year. It was way too much, since having to live rather frugally since leaving home and coming to Fulton, he had a much better appreciation for money and the costs of things. So he couldn't cheat Dream out of his proper reward.

"It's fine, you need a new sword and think of it as me repaying you for lunch yesterday."

George was about to respond to how the two were nowhere near equal in value but he shut up as Dream tilted his head. It almost felt like he was giving George a pointed look telling him he wouldn't budge on the matter. George combed a hand through his hair and sighed. "Thanks," his voice was small and he tried really hard not to cry--he was extremely grateful. They've only known each other for a day but George trusted this man with his life, he was sure Dream was the kind of guy who was invaluable as a friend, he was glad to have met him. He would definitely find a way to repay him for his kindness and then some!

When George looked back up, Dream had a patient smile on his face, like he knew George had cried a little but didn't find anything wrong with it. He was just waiting for George to let it all out.

"Alright, just one last bit you two and then I'll leave you two to go back to being buddy buddy," Em brought out a sheet of paper and pen, "Are the two of you planning on officially partying up?"

"Yep!" Dream said and George nodded. He wiped away the last bit of tears. The two of them grabbed their belongings and stood up from the table.

"Sounds good, I'll leave you two to fill this out, and you can leave it here when you're done." She stepped back, "Good luck George," she smiled and George smiled back. Em too, was a good friend, and he wouldn't be where he was today without her pushiness. And the times she lent him money for food, he would definitely have to repay her for that!

The two of them were left with just the form and George picked up the pen, "I'll write our names down."

Dream started to speak as George wrote down their names, "So in terms of splitting the reward, I don't mind 80/20, 80 for you and 20 for me, money is not that important to me and I can make use of the land pretty well for any of my basic needs so--"

"Whoa whoa, hold up, I can't just take 80." George stopped writing and looked up at Dream, "I'm very grateful that you let me have the gold coin, but I think we should at least do 50/50, even though you are way more skilled than me, 50/50 would still be a fair, equal split."

"But, I really don't mind. I can hunt, sleep outside, getting clean water is no problem either since there are rivers. Why not 70/30?"

When George didn't respond, he was half hoping his frown and pointed stare would bare down on Dream and the message would be received even if he couldn't see him looking, Dream scratched the back of his head, "6o/40?"

"50/50, an even split. I'll only be satisfied with this."

"Fine...but why not I at least let you get first pick from any loot we find."

George was struggling to get past this stubbornness of Dream, he ultimately sighed, "Ok fine. We'll do a 50/50 split and I can pick through the loot first." Dream smiled.

George begrudgingly wrote it down. As he neared the bottom of the sheet he noticed there was a line for naming their party, "Hey, what should we call ourselves? It says here we can name our party."

Dream shrugged, "Maybe just George and Dream?"

That didn't sound too exciting..., "Hmmm, what about the Dream Duo, or the Dream Team?" Can you be a team with only two people? George wasn't sure about that.

Dream gave George a funny face, only apparent by his lopsided frown, the only visible part of his face due to his mask, "Why are you using my name, why not the George Team??"

George waved him off, "Not nearly as catchy, I'll just write down the Dream Team, we can probably change it should we come up with a better name."

Dream opened his mouth to say something but quickly shut it.

"Alright!" George signed and then pushed the paper towards Dream, "Now you just need to sign, but maybe this time a little smaller and closer to the line."

"Sure, just tap where the line is for me," Dream felt for the pen and picked it up as George tapped the paper. Dream was quick to find the area where George tapped and signed with a smiley face, certainly smaller than before, but still a little off in size.

George still found it surprising how Dream was able to do that. It was so simple, but he still found it hard to wrap his head around. Was he using sound? There would probably be a lot of things he would find surprising because he didn't realize it was possible for someone blind to do it. So he figured eventually he would get used to the number of surprises if he stuck by Dream long enough.

"So now what?"

"Hmmm, I guess we can go shopping. I don't need this dented iron helmet and my old sword is cracked so I can sell both. You need to repair your mask's strap so maybe we can find something in the market, have a proper meal, and maybe anything else we might need."

"After, we can just come back to find another quest to do, right?" Dream asked.

"Yep!"

"Let's get going then!" Dream pumped his fist into the air and they took off to the exit.

~~~~~

Words: 3586

The next few chapters may not have any art because I want to get to a certain part and have a drawing ready for those chapters. So please bare with me.

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~CATtheDrawer