Lillene

Enjoy!

Becca looked up from her phone when the door chimed to let her know someone had arrived. She tucked the phone under the desk. Maybe she would take up Kerr’s offer of paying for training; it would give her something to do between customers other than scroll through Facebook. 

She’d only turned it down in the first place because she didn’t want something else handed to her just because of who she was married to, like the job itself, but the more she worked here the more she thought that was silly. They did need someone to handle the door, even if it wasn’t all the time, and she was definitely fully capable of it. So what if they only found her through Carl? A lot of people found out about jobs because someone told them to apply.

There was only one person at the door. That was pretty common when the waiting room was empty; a lot of people met at the Guild rather than the dungeon. It often meant they were headed for the nearby Kobold Den or the Attuned Plant Cultivation Area, since those were both accessed from the Guild Hall. 

A lot of people also took advantage of the Guild’s shuttle service to many of the nearby dungeons. It wasn’t cheap, but neither was a car and many of the dungeons were outside the area served by the subway. Most groups dropped an online reservation for those, however, unless they were regulars. Since the man at the door wasn’t anyone Becca recognized, he definitely wasn’t a regular.

He was dressed oddly, too. Most delvers either dressed casually and changed into their gear at the dungeon or wore the gear all the way there, even if weapons still had to be secured so that they weren’t easy to ready outside the dungeon. This man didn’t have any bags with him and he also wasn’t wearing any delving gear. Maybe he’d brought a car and left it outside?

He was a little shorter than average, stocky, and muscled. He held himself a lot like a delver, with an awareness of his surroundings that only the experienced ones had; he even seemed to have considered her as a possible threat, though she thought he’d almost immediately dismissed her. That was fair; Becca was barely Tier Two and doubted she’d be that high without all the help she’d gotten lately; even then, her Path wasn’t that of combat. She was definitely not a delver.

As he got closer, Becca saw a lump under the man’s jacket that looked entirely too much like a concealed gun for her comfort. It was certainly entirely possible that he was police of some sort, but most of the police that visited the Guild building were UERT members; Becca could recognize them by now even when they weren’t in uniform. They also usually came in pairs.

Becca quietly hit a button set into the underside of the desk, above where she’d set her phone down. It was mostly intended to be used if she needed someone to break up a fight, but she wasn’t about to skip the precaution. Legion had drilled it into her that he didn’t mind; it was one of the reasons he had a room right over the reception area. It didn’t come up often and he’d rather be woken up when it wasn’t needed than called too late.

He probably wasn’t asleep yet anyway. Legion had only gotten back from his own delve a couple hours ago, so he was probably relaxing or working out. It was only three in the afternoon, after all.

“You work for this place?” The unknown man leaned on the counter heavily. Becca thought he was trying to be intimidating, but it wasn’t succeeding. It was hard to intimidate someone when you had to look up to them, and the desk area was carefully built so that she was at the right height to talk to someone standing upright when she was seated. The fact that he was leaning forward actually brought his head down lower than hers.

Wait, maybe it wasn’t meant to be intimidating at all. Maybe it was just to look at her chest; his face was pointed straight at her breasts. That was annoying but unfortunately not unusual; a lot of men would rather look at boobs than actually act like adults and her breasts were not tiny. They’d expanded noticeably after Caleb was born and hadn’t shrunk back down even after she got rid of the rest of the weight she’d gained while pregnant.

“Yes, I do.” Becca reached out with the second Skill she’d gotten with her newest Path; it was a way to fuzzily check the strength of another person. Given the Path it came from, Becca was pretty sure it wasn’t intended to be used to fight them; instead, it was clearly meant to see if the task she gave them was reasonably within their capabilities.

The man in front of her was Tier Two, just like she was. He was a little farther along the Tier than she was, probably by one Path, but that wasn’t a significant difference. The real difference was that he knew how to fight and she didn’t. That just meant she had to keep it from becoming a fight. She had the advantage here, after all.

“I heard there was someone here who could hand out Quests, like in a game,” the man said. “Quests that let you get experience towards your Path even when killing monsters doesn’t.”

Becca sighed. She knew what was happening, now. Most of the people that came in to bother her like this were higher in Tier Two or even Tier Three, but she’d seen a few low Tier Twos who just didn’t know what they were doing. She usually managed to help them if they were willing to listen, but at least half didn’t listen. “That’s not how it works. I can give out Quests, but they don’t give experience. It’s not like the Tutorial. I can often help you figure out where the block is, but that takes time; you’ll need to schedule a consultation.”

The consultations were a useful side gig. Kerr was happy to rent her a room for it, even during work hours, as long as she didn’t neglect her receptionist duties. A lot of people had taken advantage of her help; a few Etherium for figuring out why they’d stopped moving forward on their Path or why they couldn’t open a new Path was cheap. 

Becca wanted to move over to doing that as her full-time thing but wasn’t sure if there was enough demand. She’d have to increase her rates a lot if she wanted to make it and couldn’t get more people. If nothing else, they might help her find her next Path, the same way working as the Adventurer’s Guild receptionist helped her find the Questgiver Path.

“Look, lady, just give me the quest.” The man actually looked up at her eyes as he said the words. He looked tired, like he wasn’t getting enough sleep. “Do what you’re told and everything will be fine.”

The text sound from Becca’s phone made the man jump. She saw his hand slip under his jacket as she quickly read the message on the phone. It was from Legion and had to be in response to her hitting the button under the desk. 

When I get down there, hide. Stay away from Macho and let me deal with him.

Macho? Had Legion recognized the man in front of her? Was that really his name?

“Just a text,” Macho muttered and seemed to relax. He didn’t remove his hand from under his jacket.

She should keep him distracted, shouldn’t she? Legion wouldn’t take long, but if Macho’s attention was on Becca, he might not notice Legion. As long as she did what he said, he should be distracted and not a problem; she could hide as soon as he noticed Legion. That was still following instructions, wasn’t it?

Suddenly, Becca was very glad for the enchanted desk. It seemed like massive overkill to her when it was first explained, but right now Becca could only be grateful that it was designed to stop “all direct threats of up to Tier Five with a weaker secondary barrier for indirect threats.” 

Becca grabbed the safety bar on the desk then pulled up her list of available Quests. It was fairly long, but she didn’t bother to look for an appropriate Quest. The Quest to explore the Kobold Den was at the top; she gave it out a lot. If Macho were really here for a consultation, she might well have given him that Quest anyway, but he’d have gotten it with some information on what it meant and why it would help. There were several ways to work through the Quest, after all, and only one of them was fighting through the kobolds.

Macho wasn’t going to get that, not if Legion thought she needed to hide from him. As a distraction, however, it was perfect. 

Legion dropped down from the level above and landed in front of the door. Becca had seen him do it before, but it always caught her by surprise. This time, she managed to keep her eyes from widening; she’d expected it. Macho didn’t seem to notice; he was still reading through the Quest’s text.

“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” Legion’s deep voice made Macho turn away from Becca for just long enough that she was able to duck under the counter. As she went, she grabbed her phone off the shelf that was now higher than her head and pulled down the wooden flap that closed up the hole that led to the hidden area beneath her usual seat. It wasn’t comfortable but it was definitely better than being hurt if things went as badly as Legion seemed to think they might.

Becca couldn’t hear anything that happened outside her hiding spot, but the buzz of another text message was easily audible. It was from a number she didn’t know, but Legion did that sometimes. She knew that meant it was another part of Legion texting her, but it often didn’t quite seem real.

I saw you hide. Stay there until I say you can come out. Carl’s still in the dungeon; do you need him to turn around and come for you?

Becca snorted. She knew Carl cared for her, but she also knew that he wasn’t as separate from Legion as he usually tried to pretend. He’d told her the truth, after all. More than that, he occasionally spoke to her from one of the bodies she knew only as Legion; it was uncomfortable the first few times but over the past months she’d gotten used to it and treated them as Carl’s brothers and sisters. This was Legion offering to pull Carl out of the dungeon he was in for her comfort, not his.

No, finish up in the dungeon before you head back home. I’m fine. 

Becca squirmed and tried to find a more comfortable spot. The hiding place wasn’t really tall enough to sit up in but it also wasn’t quite long enough to lay down. The tile floor was cold and hard, probably easy to clean but not at all comfortable to lay on. 

I think we need to install some lights down here. Some cushions, too. 

Legion’s response was almost immediate. I’ll take care of that tomorrow. I might be able to manage the lights tonight; I think there are some simple ones I can just pick up and glue in place.

Becca chuckled at Legion’s response. The cushions might be as simple as a foam mattress pad. Actually, that and some throw pillows might be enough; it wasn’t like she was intending to sleep down here or something, she just needed something to soften the tiles!

She chatted back and forth with whichever Legion had texted her and ironed out a simple set of plans that could easily be handled before the stores closed for the night. It was a good distraction from whatever was happening outside her cubbyhole; she still couldn’t hear anything.

It was a solid fifteen minutes after Legion dropped down from the second floor before a text came from his number instead of the one she’d been talking to. You can come out now. 

She emerged to find Macho in handcuffs; Legion was talking to one of the UERT officers Becca recognized.

Kerr’s comment a few hours later covered Becca’s feelings well. “At this rate, we might as well invest in a liquor license. I only skipped it because I didn’t want drunk mercs causing fights, but it seems like that is going to happen anyway.”

Lillene

I was originally going to have Becca’s time at the Adventurer’s Guild be the epilogue for Arc 10 instead of the prologue for Arc 11. It wouldn’t have included this encounter with Macho, then; that’s really part of Arc 11. I think it works well here and kicks things off nicely.