Ank

 

The top of the mountain was quite flat, and covered in the thickest jungle; dense undergrowth, tall trees, shadows everywhere. Surely, it was just as dangerous as the one close to Taffy’s house, and not a bit easier to travel through – heck, even with all the monsters, we passed most of our time walking through that place… or better, trying to.

Thankfully, the road was well kept, and we could see the Cloud Fortress City just ahead, just after a bunch of piled-up rocks by the side of the road… A bunch of rocks that were weird, somehow, but I had no idea why.

First the merchant’s companions, then the rocks, damn, I’d make an awful detective.

“Halt! Identify yourselves!”, a guard screamed from one of the two towers which protected the single tight passage through the thirteen meters tall wall around the entire city fortress, and this one must have extended itself for an entire kilometer.

Hu? He could speak really loud. Must have been some kind of magical bulshit: they did were capable of making the craziest stuff.

“We’re adventurers”, I replied, taking the stamp from my pocket, and infusing it with magic, activating it to the guard. “We’re here to take the promotion quest”, I explained, and then I noticed his attitude changing completely:

“Oh, shi- Open the gates!” he ordered, and the tall double wooden doors before us started to open. “The guild building is close to the wall at the east! You can let your mounts-”

“Ah~ don’t worry about them”, I said, and unmade the [Cervalces Scottis] in a second.

“Fuck… 80^th rankers, hu?”, the guard muttered, but I heard his empowered voice nevertheless.

We thanked him, and entered the city: just after the gates, there was a steep staircase, with towers at its right and in left, with many guards in them. It wasn’t called “Cloud Fortress City” for no reason hu?

What was not expected was the fact that the local adventurer’s guild building wasn’t bigger than a side-of-the-road-inn, and hidden away in the poorest district of the city.

“It’s not just because the vast majority of the [Gods] tolerate the Adventurer’s Guild presence, that they like it”, Taffy explained, her usual smile than transpiring amusement. “I guess they’d never let it be right by the city square and facing the local temple”, she stopped; and I noticed the temple stood right at the edge of the city, facing the precipice, and above the [Zemi]’s mansion. “I’ll go look for a place for the night, please, go ahead and do your adventuring things”, we nodded, and the retired adventurer laughed and went off.

As my sister and I entered the old and decrepit building, I immediately noticed the equipment and feeling the few adventurers inside displayed: it wasn’t much different from those in the Beginners’ City?

Nevertheless, I walked to the balcony ahead and asked a bartender looking woman cleaning a tankard:

“Excuse us, but we’re looking for the Guild Master.”

“You’re talking to her, friend”, she smiled. “Want to put up a quest?”, her eyes went to my feet, and back up, slowly, to my face, when she corrected herself: “…or take one?”

“Ah, yes, we’re here to take the rank up quest”, at that, the adventurers drinking and talking at the few tables available finally seemed to notice us, and I could listen to their whispers while they tried to guess what my cloak was made of.

“I guess you’re not the [Love and Justice Sweet Warriors Party]…”, the guild master commented, letting the tankard down on the counter.

“Our [Party] doesn’t have a name just yet”, I explained, feeling a painful twinge in my heart, as I thought we could have been at that exact place as the [Sunnight Party] in a different world.

And getting out of her spot, directing us to a stair:

“Come, I’ll take you to the Guild Master.”

“Hu? I thought you were the guild master, though?”, Hunah said.

The bartender looking woman laughed before explaining:

“I’m just the 10^th Guild Master”, she took off her black apron and showed us the white cloak similar to the one from the tree-man from the Beginners’ City. Noticing our persistent confusion, she continued: “There are millions of adventurers all around, and most of them are weak: of course there are multiple guild masters in the same category. In the most isolated communities, you can even find ‘honorable 10^th Guild Masters’, that have the same position and responsibility, but lack the necessary [Level], just because no one around is strong enough to be promoted…”, as we reached a wooden door that looked just a little better than the others filling the corridor that divided the second floor in half, she knocked on I. “Well, that’s true only for the weakest guild masters, of course”, as another woman, who looked impeccable, if not for the hundreds of scars covering both of her exposed arms, opened the door, the local 10^th guild master concluded: “the real big boys here are rare, and quite busy, having to roam around all the time!”

As the bartender woman went back to the first floor, the woman with scarred arms invited us inside her office, and once we were all sitting, she said:

“So, you’re the ‘exceptional twins’, hu?”, being some kind of animal people, the 9^th Guild Master had long brown hair reaching her ankles, and a pair of horns on top of her head. Somehow, she remembered me of the Incute’s 2^nd boss. “The old man Brak… The Beginners’ City guild master explained to me about your situation. But, you see? He’s a smart guy. And I?”, she showed her scarred arms. “Not so much! So, tell me: what’s your relation with ‘Taffy’?”, her tone was playful, and she kept smiling all the time, but the defying subtitle wasn’t easy to miss.

I shrugged, saying:

“She took care of us for the past year.”

The woman stared straight into my eyes for what seemed an eternity, when a slightly bothered Hunah asked:

“What about our promotion, lady?”

Finally, the 9^th guild master sighed, and started to search through a pile of papers inside her desk. She pulled one out, and explained:

“Good thing you’re both the same [Level]. Now, technically, I should give you individual quests, but I don’t care much about rules, so, here: it’s the nearest 90^th ranking quest, so if you’re as good as I was told you are, I should be still around here when you complete it. If I’m not, just ask the bartender on the first floor where I went: anyone with the rank can give you the promotion as long as you completed the quest, but I’m the only 9^th guild master in this area anyway.”

I took the paper and read it:

“Extermination Quest

Rank: 80^th

Number of Monsters: 1

Monster Species: Lilly-Monster

Monster level: 204”

 

“Then? You have something to ask me, right?”, the guild master went back to smiling, intertwining her fingers under her chin, and weirdly lively asked: “About [Dragons]? Rogue [Dungeons]? A large criminal organization? Everyone that gets this strong has some reason to do so, after all.”

“We want to know about the [Gods]”, my sister and I asked in unison. And the 9^th guild master’s gleeful eyes went wide, in surprise. She rummaged on her seat, visibly uncomfortable, but obliged:

“Well… Weirdly enough this isn’t against the rules either”, she coughed, put on a serious face, and started the explanation: “Right above the [Zemi], or ‘domestic [Gods]’, the next deities in their power rank, are the [Apachetas]”, confirming we already knew about the [Zemis], she continued: “They mostly do the same job as their inferiors, but they guard more important roads, and also serve as watchmen in the frontiers between countries. They can increase prayers luck, though they didn't actually create the "luck element" themselves, and are vastly more empowered by their masters because of their higher average [Level], which is 200. Now, there are two more types of ‘Lower [Gods]’, but, as I hope you have guessed before, if you haven’t heard about them in your rank up, you’re not prepared to hypothetically face them”

Yeah, I imagined that was how it worked when Taffy explained all the question-asking stuff before. After all, we’re not really interested in knowing about the past of the [Gods], just kill them. So:

“This empowering that you mention…”, I remembered the fight with the first [God] we killed, but couldn’t just point that supposed buff from the thing’s master.

“The process through which they receive it is still a secret for you, but their masters can transfer them extra [Levels] temporarily, and this allows them to use powers way beyond their capacities.”

She was probably talking about the “[Cosmic Children]” skill Taffy mentioned, but…

“Temporarily?”, Hunah repeated.

“Think about this power as a fuel.”

That wasn’t what I imagined when I heard about that for the first time.

And, wait:

“Shouldn’t you be giving us this kind of information just after we ranked up?”, I asked, and though, admittedly, I’d be an awful detective, I hadn’t lost the suspicion that everyone, and not just me, would always avoid doing extra work if possible.

“I told you, hadn’t I? I’m not as smart as old Brak. I wanted to know what was up with the so talked exceptional twins…”, damn, the fact that we were a [Party] of 2 may have been an even bigger deal than I thought. “If I’d have to meddle in even more ‘adventurer’s conspiracies’ bulshit.”

“These scars… monsters were not the ones who gave you them, right?”, Hunah pointed.

And only then I saw how the marks on the woman’s skin were too thin, or too precise, or of obvious magical nature.

As the 9^th Guild Master didn’t answer Hunah, I asked again:

“So? Did we pass your test?”

She laughed, letting her head hang low, and hair cover her expression, when she replied:

“Weirdly enough… You two are probably perfect fits for this fucking guild. Now, go kill the monsters: the poor people here started to walk 2 kilometers more to get their water since it appeared two years ago, it’d be really fucking nice if they could go back to the nearest pond.”