The First Legacies Of Zion: Omaye

Herbalist

FAITH

Eventually everybody dispersed, majority of the families chose to sit back and enjoy the one-week period of grace granted to them, Faith could not help but look down on them for being such lazy free loaders. Of course most of them will give the excuse of trying to adapt to a new environment, but Faith knew fear and indecisiveness when she saw it.

She shook her head at them and bid her family a rather bland goodbye as she marched towards the castle and town in the distance. It might be considered wise if she stuck with her family and not wander around too much, but she had grown up in a family the stressed and encouraged self discovery and self-reliance……. or it could just be that she had rather lazy parents who could hardly be bothered of the children’s whereabouts the moment they clocked twelve.

But all this aside Faith was rather strong willed, she really had a do it all myself syndrome that set her apart from her peers. But again this could also be attributed to her upbringing, if you have a family you can’t completely rely on, then it’s left for you to take your wellbeing into your own hands.

Faith marched on with a purpose occasionally stopping to ask for directions to the herbology class trainer. Unlike yesterday when they were practically rushed through Orun, without getting a proper glimpse of the town. This time Faith took her time to appraise the dump that was going to be her home for the foreseeable future.

Orun was a dirty place that really suffered from a distinct lack of poor management and stupid architecture. The houses were built haphazardly, with some of them looking like they would fall apart at the slightest gust of wind. The entire town was also a mishmash of different eras. On one side you would see a somewhat fantasy like Victorian era, on the other you would be seeing a steam punk wild wild west or a van helsing movie set. There were street lamps, mechanical dogs, people with metal prosthetics that moved just like normal limbs. Gun slingers, swordsman and a huge werewolf in chains.

Faith shuddered in revulsion, she so hated it when things were not organized or are so completely out of place she could not properly predict or anticipate the next moment. Looking at Orun showed Faith the most glaring example of one of the situations she hated being in. She hated not being in control.

She pushed the matter of poor real estate management as she made her way into the castle and headed for a tower on the eastern part of the castle. The gardens and alchemist tower were located there, apparently the Alchemist and herbalist worked closely together since their jobs sort of aligned. Faith approved of that course of action, at least one thing seems to have been done right here.

However, when she was within the vicinity of the alchemy tower, a rather pungent odor permeated the air, if Faith had to guess, she would say this place smelt a little bit like a hospital, a laboratory and a tanning factory. The whole thing made her extremely nauseous and she had to hold her nose as she walked past the tower. Thirty feet away from the tower was the entrance into the gardens, but the smell did not get any easier. This time it was mixed with the scent of flowers of various species and kinds.

But the garden was not just filled with flowers, Faith saw weeds, strange looking grasses, trees and even a plant that had the face of a human in pain etched on its stalk. Faith was unsettled to say the least, but she had a significant amount of self control tempered from a rather rigid character. A child she might be, but she had more will than most grown up men.

The atmosphere in the garden had a certain pinkish hue, it was as if she had stepped into a different colored reality. Just a few moments of experiencing this and she already hated it. No matter how bizarre the real world was, you would never see something so unreal. It also cemented the fact that no matter how realistic Zion seemed to be, it would never be anything more than a whole bunch of ones and zeroes.

The garden; thankfully was more organized than anything she had seen so far. There was an area for grasses, each with their unique color, flowers had their spot and so did the trees and many other strange looking plants. The only thing that was rather off about the whole place was the hunched over figure currently tending to a batch of yellow roses.

“Excuse me, I’m here for my class change.”

At first the person blatantly chose to ignore her, whether he heard her voice or not, he gave no indication that he heard her at all. Faith was miffed, but before she could raise any protest the person came up to a standing position and turned to Faith.

If you completely ignore the shawl and robe covering her body, then it would not take much for you to realize that the person standing in front of Faith was a woman. A beautiful woman non the less.

She looked like quite the nerd with wire rimmed glasses and rough looking brown hair. But that did not displace her emerald green eyes, full lips and a figure that was to die for. Faith was fourteen almost Fifteen, which meant she was right at the age where she would explore her sexuality. While she was still figuring s*x and feelings out as a whole, she could not help the fact that this woman in front of her was so damn attractive to the point where Faith’s own heart was beating way to fast to be contained in her chest.

“Oh! I’m sorry I didn’t see you there, once I get close to all this plants I get so lost in their beauty and the wonders of their effects. My name is Colea, what can I do for you.”

Faith felt weak in the knees, her voice was so soft and comparable to that of an angel, Faith felt the urge to just bow down and worship her. Somewhere at the back of her mind something was screaming at her that such a beauty should not be possible, that it was just the game making her feel strange and out of sorts. This woman probably had a charisma stat and it should be quite high.

It was easier this way for her, she could quite perfectly attribute the fact that she was attracted to Colea due to interference from the game’s mechanics, if not what would possess her to like a woman. Never in a million years.

“I……. I……. I am here for my class change. My name is Failea, I mean Faith. My name is Faith Omaye.”

Fourteen-year-old Faith wanted to curse at the world with the most colorful curse words known to man. It was not as if this drop dead gorgeous b***h in front of her and this fake ass world of a game did not deserve it. They were making her go completely out of character and acting like a fool. How can anyone live like this?

Colea did not seem to mind Faith’s rather abstruse bumbling and stumbling over her own words. She was not surprised by it either, it looked like she was rather used to this kind of reaction from people who saw her for the first time.

“Finally a girl with a good head on her shoulders. This Olagoke folks have been sending a lot of stupid men and boys to become herbalist when its quite obvious this was a job that required a woman’s touch.

Anyways, forget about my useless rant, I do that from time to time. If you go straight down all the way to the end of the garden you would come across an altar with plants carved on it’s wooden body. Touch it and you will gain the class herbalist. Now hurry along, I’m waiting for you.”

At the thought of such a beautiful woman waiting for her Faith could not help but blush in embarrassment. But her snow white hair turned completely pink with her change of mood further making Faith horrified. She picked up the pace and ran straight towards the end of the garden hoping the ground would just open up and swallow her whole.

When she got close to the altar she felt completely off. The altar looks like it was carved from a tree, it was circular in shape and had various plants and nature spirits carved on it. She could see fairies on it, and gnomes and a host of different insects too. She stepped up to it and placed her hands on it causing a system prompt to rise up.

[ CLASS CHANGE ALTAR: HERBALIST, FARMER×]

[CHOOSE CLASS: HERBALIST OR FARMER×]

[Herbalist Chosen: You Have Gained Passive Skills Gardening, Herbology, Steady Hands. You Have Gained Active Skill Harvest And General Skill Inspect.]

[Congratulations You Have Gained 10 Exp. You Are Now Level 1. You Have Five Stat Points For Allocation.]

“Status.”

NAME: Faith Omaye

AGE: 14

RACE: Human

CLASS: Herbalist

SUB-CLASS: N/a

STATUS: Contracted Servant

HEALTH: 12/12

STAMINA: 20/20

MANA: 30/30

STRENGTH: 4

VITALITY: 4

AGILITY: 2

DEXTERITY: 6

INTELLIGENCE: 10

STAT POINTS: 5

SKILL POINTS: 0

Faith felt weird, very weird. And it most probably had to do with the fact that, she now had this knowledge of skills that she had no memory of learning. Once again she chalked that up to the fact that this world…. Zion was not real. It was a creation of a man, of someone who was flesh and blood thereby calling into question everything it meant to be human. This was not entertainment; this was a sin.