07 – Bad news
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07 – Bad news

Martin returned to Topguard covered in blood, panting and with barely any stamina or mana left below a half-empty health bar. He aimed straight for the guild just as the first few lamps were bing lit across the fortified city, too tired to care about what condition he was in, and too hungry to waste any time sightseeing. He didn’t notice, for these very reasons, that the night sky was very strange that night. It was definitely not what he would have expected to see, given his general knowledge of the universe retained from his previous life. And, for that matter, it was not normal for this place either. Red and purple clouds were gathering, appearing and forming in random patches across the sky at alarming speed, threatening to completely cover the whole firmament with their ominous presence. Occasionally, a flash illuminated these clouds as energy discharged within.

Martin entered the guild, walked across the tavern area and went straight to the counter where he could turn in the completed quest and get his reward.

The tall, blonde girl with pointy ears spared him only a tired look and almost scoffed. Martin fully expected her to, and her not doing the action didn’t spare him from feeling the same feeling he would have felt if she had indeed scoffed. He pushed down the resentment, like every time, because what good fighting over it would even do when she was in a position of power and he simply was not? And she had plausible deniability, he would be accusing her of an action she didn’t do. He simply knew she would have, if she were not in that position.

“Token, please,” she said with practiced courtesy.

“Here.”

“One moment.” She took the token and ran it by a small device made of a similar crystal as the token itself.

Martin knew that this procedure was necessary to confirm that he had completed the quest. In fact, back when he was killing the herd he had gotten curious and had checked the token, where he found out that the guild-issued quest tracked its progress and its eventual completion automatically. He didn’t know how much of this was the system, and how much was the guild, but he didn’t care much. The money from the quest went straight into the token and…

>Level up!

>Choose one:

>Improve random skill (1 point)
>Improve chosen skill (2 points)
>Improve Blueflame (1 point)
>Generate new random skill (1 point)

Martin grinned, barely able to hide his face from the crowd as it twisted itself up in pleasure. Barely a moment, and he was back to normal, but his body still tingled. Savoring the sensation he went up the stair, a whistle echoing with his footsteps.

It took a while to decide what to do with the level up. The rush of dopamine was still coursing through Martin’s brain as he sat on the edge of his bed thinking, and he knew that he could not delay his decision until tomorrow if he wanted to get any sleep tonight.

The random skill option was like a black hole, drawing his mind to it every time he tried to reason against that choice. It was like the high of opening a loot box, of pulling the lever, of endless possibilities. Only, they would resolve themselves into something almost immediately, and while none of the skills so far had been total shit… the possibility was still there.

“Fuck it. Create random.”

>Generating new random skill…
>Skill: Attribute Theft 1 generated!

  • Attribute Theft 1
    • Activate to scan nearby parallel realities. Recast to isolate one small aspect of a parallel reality and temporarily bring it into the current reality.

***

The low rumble of far away thunder echoed, carried by the charged air through the open window. The fresh air smelled of rain, and dirt, and was a welcome change to the stale and hot air of the tavern. But it didn’t just rid the room of the smell of food and ale, no, with it it carried the imperceptible tingle of electricity. It was like smelling ozone, even this far from the storm. And everyone had their minds wandering, roaming through the forest, seeing in their own personal way queer things that were surely happening outside the city walls.

Taking a good breath, old Boris slammed his mug on the table. “It’s getting bad out there.”

“It is. Just as it should be, we’re reaching the peak of the cycle.” Knight Airin said.

“I dunno. If even Boris is concerned…” said a third.

Boris shook his head. “This time is different. This time is happening during a red moon.”

“Ha,” Airin laughed. “Don’t believe those things. Its superstition!”

The third man scoffed. “You weren’t out the last few nights, were you? You should see the mess with your own eyes.”

Boris nodded. “You should. Then you will also worry.”

“But none of them still don’t last until the day.”

“Say Airin… The moment the monsters come charging at us in the light of day, will you stay on the walls to protect Topguard?”

“Of course I will! Daytime monsters are the norm in so many places. If they can manage, so can we.”

Boris scoffed. “But not here they aren’t! And for a good reason. Fifty years I’ve gone deep in the woods to cut timber, never have I seen the things I have been seeing these days. How do you lads call them? Queer things. Yeah. Don’t you see the board? We’re drowning in requests already! Any more and we will be overrun. And then, it will be too late.”

***

Isabelle wondered just how much longer she could take it before she had to quit this job. It was going to come to a choice, in the end, either quit or face a nervous breakdown. She had seen many budding adventurers be weird and all sorts of crazy but, she thought with a sigh, this didn’t make it any easier. The guy who just stormed out with the money she handed him was one such example. He was wolfing down a plate of awful food sitting at a table alone at the pub, still smeared with animal blood and smelling of… who knows what.

Just how bad a time did he have hunting some harmless dezelles? She could take a herd of dezelles with her bare hands if she needed, and she wasn’t even an adventurer! Shaking her head, Isabelle watched the guy stumble his way up into the second floor, where the guild offered inn services to the adventurers. This was only the beginning of her night shift, and things were bound to get worse. At least, she thought, she was safe inside the walls of the city. The night outside was… she didn’t know if she should believe the rumors, but they didn’t sound good.

A short man, clad in armor from head to toe, approached the counter. She wore her usual smile.

“Token please?”

“Oh, no no no.” The feathers on the man’s helmet fluttered as he shook his head. “I’m not here to turn in quests. I just want information. Who is he?” the man pointed.

Her stare was arctic. “I cannot divulge—“

The man motioned with his fingers behind his back, and a tall figure approached the desk, slamming his hand on the wooden boards. Isabelle stared at the new arrival’s pendant, gulping. C-rank. He opened his hand, and a yellow glint greeted her eyes from between his fingers.

Fuck it, she thought. I don’t care anymore.

“Of course,” she smiled. “That man’s name is Martin. Martin C. Molotov. He is an F-rank adventurer who just came to Topguard, I think?” she looked at a document. “He actually registered yesterday for the first time as an adventurer.”

“For the first time?”

She nodded. “He didn’t have a token, and his biometrics were not in the guild system.”

“Nice,” the short man said. “Very nice. Thank you.” He turned to leave. “You can keep the change.”

After he left, Isabelle stared for a moment at the small mountain of coins on her desk, speechless. Then she hid them, scanning the room to make sure nobody had seen them before she could make them disappear into her token. The room was almost empty, barring a few drunks and the strange F-ranker. There was no trace of the two she just spoke to.

Slipping away from her station, she went towards one of the table. The three old men kept talking without acknowledging her presence, arguing about something with their voices raised. She had caught a word or two before, and now she sat at a table close to them and pretended to read the data in her guild token. What she heard was not reassuring. Fiddling with the crystal at her neck, she suddenly stood up, and left the building.

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