Chapter 32: A Bump in the Road
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Megumi and her pet made good progress over the first two days of travel and the main road was well maintained and patrolled by soldiers so there weren't really any monsters to worry about. In what felt like no time at all, the two of them arrived in the first little town, Lerwick. The place wasn't anything special to write home about, but there were two inns and the usual assortment of shops that a small town would have.

"We staying here tonight or continuing on?" Poro-kun asked.

Megu wouldn't mind having a real bed to sleep on for a night. "We'll stay. Let's check the inns and find out which is cheaper, we're kind of low on funds."

The streets of the town were awfully quiet considering it wasn't that late in the day. It was the first time that they had entered a town during the day and hadn't seen a single living soul out and about. Megumi dismissed the thought and hopped off her horse. Maybe it's a local holiday or something and everyone's at their homes. Poro-kun tied the horses out in front of the inn, which was called The Wild Stallion, that had a large wooden carving of a horse rearing up on its hind legs that stood by the entrance. 

"Something feels off about this place, Megumi." Poro-tan looked around anxiously. 

For whatever reason she felt the same way, but there were no signs of trouble that she could see. "Let's go inside. Keep an eye out. Megu has a bad feeling also."

The door creaked loudly as they entered and Megu let out a sigh of relief when she saw a young woman sitting behind the inn's counter looking at a ledger. There was a man in the common room by the fireplace playing a lute and a few people were sitting there watching him. Megu needs to stop being so paranoid. Thera's bounty has her all tied in knots. It's doubtful that anyone would have been in the area to move on us yet anyway. 

Megumi flipped off her hood which she had donned for most of this trip so far as it had been cold as hell in the mountains and stepped over to the counter. "Do you have any rooms?"

The innkeeper, a pretty woman, who had short-cut blonde hair, lazily looked up from what she was doing and nodded. "Room and board is 50GP per night. One room or two?" 

"One room is fine." Megumi dug into her bag and pulled out the required money and set it down on the counter. 

"Your room is the first one to the right at the top of the stairs." The woman opened a drawer on the desk and pulled out a key, sliding it across the top of the table towards her. 

The song that was playing was a sad tune, but it was relaxing. Megumi wanted to stay and listen for a while, it had been a long time since she had seen an entertainer. Inns rarely had anyone to play music for their patrons, it was a real stroke of luck that this one had someone. "Megu is going to stay down here for a bit and listen to the performance. Do you want to stay, Poro-tan?"

"Music isn't really my thing. I'm going to go check out the room and lay down for a bit if that's alright. I haven't slept in over a day and I just need a little while to recharge."

"It's fine, go ahead and rest for a bit, Megu will call if you're needed."

Poro-tan nodded and then turned to the innkeeper, "About how long until the evening meal is ready?"

The woman, who had gone back to ignoring them and fidgeting with her papers once again looked up. "Dinner is at sunset in a few hours. Roasted pork and vegetables."

"Sounds good to me!" he whistled happily and headed up the stairs.

Megumi felt drawn to the music and went over to the common room, sitting down with the other patrons who had been lost in the music. The musician was an older man, bony and frail looking with long mustaches hanging halfway down his chest. He saw her and gave her a wink. Bleh... these bard types are always huge pervs. 

Megumi forced herself to give him a polite smile as she rubbed her arm with her frozen hand trying to dispel the frigid cold that had sunk into her bones over the past couple days. The fireplace was a welcome sight indeed, even more-so than the entertainer, and she was grateful to not have to spend another night out in the cold.

The man reached to the side and grabbed one of a few mugs which were piled to the side of him and took a long drink of what was probably ale. "What's your name, little lady?" he asked.

"Megumi."

"Well, Megumi, I have a song, just for pretty girls like you." He sat down the mug and placed the lute into a bag that sat at his side, pulling out a small harp instead. He plucked at the strings here and there for a moment before starting his song. For an old man, he had a beautiful melodic singing voice. The song was one about love and loss. It was a tune she recognized, The Monarch's March

Megumi sat back in her chair and got lost in the melody. She closed her eyes and let her mind drift away to a place and time long past, which now felt as though it was a lifetime ago. She had regularly heard songs like this in her home with her family before things had gone to shit. She couldn't stop a teardrop from squeezing its way out from her closed eyelids and down her cheek. 

The melody was soothing like the embrace of a loving parent who you hadn't seen in ages. She felt herself getting tired for some reason. Megu should go up and get some rest after this song. She yawned.

She opened her eyes and watched the old man continue to pluck at the strings and sing. The song seemed to be having a similar effect on the other people who had gathered as she saw a couple others who had begun to doze off as well. 

Megu's eyes are so heavy... Need to go to sleep.

Alarms sounded in her head that something was wrong, but she just couldn't get enough energy to move. She struggled to make her eyes stay open but it was so hard that it was unbelievable. The old bard continued plucking at the harp in front of her and she saw that he had a huge grin on his face. She had to call for help, Poro-tan could take care of this bard and then everything would be okay. Her thoughts came slowly, it was like she was wading through tar as she fumbled to make the call for aid. She couldn't make herself concentrate.   

Her magical resistance was high, and that's probably the only reason she remained barely conscious, but she was helpless. All of the other people in the room had passed out a while ago for certain. Poro-kun would notice she was gone, but would it be too late? Megumi felt as though she hadn't slept in over a week, resistance was completely futile. As a last ditch effort, she attempted to yell, but she couldn't even manage to make her body do even something as simple as that.

It took everything she had to hold her eyes open and she glared at the grinning bard. The figure of the woman who had been at the counter stepped in front of her and leaned down. "She's still awake. That's pretty impressive. This will be the easiest 20k GP we've ever made." 

"Her companion?"

"Leave him. We should get on the road, I want to cash her in as soon as possible and move on to the next job. By the time he notices she's not here, we'll be long gone and he won't be able to find us anyway. I don't enjoy killing people for free and he has no bounty. Let's go."

The last thing Megumi felt before passing out was a cold metal ring snapping around her neck. Her MP leaked out of her like a breached dam and blackness finally overtook her.

Spoiler
Name Hideki (Poro-kun)
Level 024 (32,999/39,903 EXP to next Level)
Class Warrior
HP 1475/1475 MP 50/50
TP 1 Adventurer Rank B
Attributes
Vitality 53 Magic 12
Endurance 40 Magic Resistance 18
Strength 37 Luck 16
Agility 29  
Dexterity 26
Passive Skills
• Warrior's Essence - Level 5 (+50 HP regeneration/min)
• Sword Mastery - Level 7 (+70% proficiency with swords)
    • Tiger Style - Level 2
    • Turtle Style - Level 2
• Stalwart - Level 1 (+10% natural defense)
• Fortify Health - Level 3 (+150 HP)
Active Skills
• Holy Blade - Level 1 (Envelope blade in holy aura for 15 seconds)
• Shockwave - Level 2 (Release shockwave from blade)

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Spoiler
Name Megumi
Level 026 (46,805/49,541 EXP to next Level)
Class Necromancer
HP 475/475 MP 0/1350
TP 0 Villain Rank C
    Adventurer Rank D
Attributes
Vitality 19 Magic 75
Endurance 10 Magic Resistance 50
Strength 6 Luck 18
Agility 9  
Dexterity 10
Passive Skills
• Mage's Essence - Level 6 (+180 MP regeneration/min)
• Fortify MP - Level 2 (+100 MP)
Active Skills
• None
Necromancer Magic

• Sanguine Infusion (50 MP) - Level 15 (Absorb life essence of recently deceased, 15% chance to gain +1 TP from human victims [Cap reached. Lvl Requirement for Lvl 16, (50)])
• Corpse Explosion (30 MP) - Level 7 - (+70% damage from explosion)
• Corpse Absorbtion (10 MP) - Level 1 (Absorb a corpse's essence. Recover 80 MP)
• Raise Undead (20 MP) - Level 10 (Raise weak undead to fight for you. Max: 50)
• Summon Blood Golem (500 MP) - Level 1 (Raise a Golem to fight by your side by using the blood of the fallen. Max: 1)
     • Blood Golem Mastery  - Level 2 (+8 Minutes to summon duration. +10% defense, +10% attack power)
• Soul Trap (350 MP) - Level 1 (Trap soul of a recently defeated foe. Max: 1 [Cap reached. Lvl Requirement for Lvl 2: (30)] )
     • Soul Trap Mastery  - Level 4 (+10 to all stats of Summoned Soul)
• Spirit Barrier (100 MP) - Level 2 (Erect a barrier using souls of the dead for fuel. Blocks spells and projectiles)
• Magic Skin - Level 3 (Actively consumes MP to negate physical and magical damage. Higher levels lower the MP cost)
• Decay (120 MP) - Level 5 - (25% chance of success. Causes body to rot from the inside out causing extreme pain and slowing movement at joints)
• Siphon (70 MP) - Level 1 - (Drain health of enemy at a rate of 10 HP/second for up to 5 seconds. 30% chance of success.)
• Eldritch Blast (75 MP) - Level 13 (Unleashes a roiling ball of Eldritch energy that burns its subject on contact for 5 seconds)

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Announcement
Hey, guys! Glad I was able to get out a chapter to you guys despite having company. ^_^; It's a short one, but hopefully it's enjoyable. I will try to get out a couple more short chapters like this here and there when I can. Thanks for reading!
Announcement
Note: Edited a small part of the chapter to clarify why she didn't call for Hideki yet.
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