With what could only be described as an all nighter behind his back and a sack loaded with monster cores, Rex walked into the adventurers guild, the building buzzing with activity already, much to Rex's expectations. The city was large and populated enough to ensure that there were always adventurers looking for their next job, trading in their spoils from previous missions, or fresh and hope applicants with star lit eyes, queing to step on their own path of excitement and glory. With the questions of how many actually reach such a point and how much hard work must one put in to do so, not even popping up in their minds. Plenty of tales being told about getting rich and famous overnight, fanning the flames of impressionable youth.
"Greetings. How may I help you?" asked the attendant once Rex reached the counter, having stood in the line for exchange and trading services, a few adventurers already there before him.
"Exchange." Rex spoke a single word as he put down the satchel he was carrying and pulling out two seperate, smaller bags from it. "Monster cores." he added, opening both and placing one next to another.
"At once sir." the attendant replied, moving slightly to the side, standing in front of a machine of sorts. What Rex could see was a bowl, where the attendant poured the cores from both bags. Then, the bowl lit up slightly, causing the cores to roll off in different dirrections, falling into multiple different holes, a small display like screen changing the values shown on it, representing the number and class of the cores handed in.
"The total amount comes in at sixty E class cores and four hundred D class cores. What is the party name I should record this to?" the guild employee asked, having returned to her original position in front of Rex, withdrawing coins from the counter.
"Just me." Rex replied, placing his adventurer card on the table, waiting for the girl perform her duties.
"WHAT!" she exclaimed in suprise, quickly regathering her composure. She had heard of crazier stories of course, but this was a first to her, causing the reaction.
"M-my apologies sir." she quickly apologised, well aware of the attention she had unintentionally drawn towards them.
"Just get it done yea." Rex sighed, well aware of the countless stares on his back. He understood perfectly well how the suprise and outbursts of the attendants at the guild counter could mean only one thing- something extraordinary had happened, catching said attendant by suprise. And adventurers, the curious and daring creatures that they were, could not pass up on the chance to stick their noses in the matter.
Rex was big enough to not be pestered by most of the comon thugs, or newbie crushers among the adventurers, even though mere size mattered little. It was always sometning about the way one presented themselves that dictated the amount of hasle they have to deal with, and Rex, well, he presented as confident and powerfull enough. At least to most people. In case the other party had some preconcieved agenda, the lines began to blurr, resulting in situations like with that Grey character. A simple desire and asumption of ones own superiority led to belittling Rex and provoking him, resulting in the proper beating that Grey had recieved.
"The total for the cores will be five gold and twenty silver and here is your ID back. Thank you for the hard work." the attendant spoke, placing both the money and his ID back on the counter. Rex quickly collected and pocketed it all, neatly placing the items in his space storage.
"Hmm, good day." Rex nodded and left the counter, having a quick stop at the bounty board, checking if something interesting had appeared. Spending a few minutes doing so, yet finding nothing of interest, he left the building, heading straight towards the inn he stayed at. A nice and long bath, coupled with a hearty meal and rest afterwards was all he was looking for at the moment. Rex could not only apreciate such a life, but indeed sink into it, enjoying both the process in which he grew ever stronger, as well as the result that it provided him with. Who did not like becoming stronger after all.
The next few weeks went on in a similar fashion. Every other day Rex would head to delve deeper in the dungeon, now equiped with a wealth of knowledge, all thanks to the guide he had bought from the old guard. He would spend at least a day, sometimes more, diving deeper, choosing the same entry point he had the first time around, becoming more and more proficient in slaying both shelled spiders and ductrops, elevating the speed of his clear and the depths he could reach before deciding to return. Without a party and at the adventurer rank he was at, there was only so long he could spend inside the tunnels. He still needed to rest now and then, and, while he could do so for a short period of time, for example, a three day dive, at the end of the day it would be too dangerous without a proper lookout when he finally decided to do so in the dungeon. He could not indefinetly recover his condition like he could with an active Drain after all.
There were two big new rumors that quite a few people were talking about. The first one, less so a rumor and more so an excitement and gossip. The guild had made it public, for obvious reasons, that they had aquired an Empowerment crystal and it would be auctioned off soon in the coming monthly auction, resulting in scores of conversations about the eventual owner of said item. It was the general consensus that the crystal would be aquired by either the lord Firidan Ashrow, who was trying to make his eldest son stronger, the lord nearing the age where he would hand over the reins of his noble family to the man in question, or merchant lord Luke Fergus. The fat merchant trying to marry of his spoiled daughter to earn some new and profitable connections, thus the crystal would become quite dowry indeed. And from what Rex could pick up, there was no sug thing as a divorce in this world. Once married, always married. Of course, polygamy was a thing, the super rich and powerfull having multiple wives and mistreses.
The other rumor however, was something that actually had somewhat of an impact on Rex himself. Yes, he was the second rumor, in fact. A new, solo adventurer, delving the path of skitterers, all alone, for days at times, coming back and forth and earning quite the pretty peny as a result. And, more interesting of all, he was doing such a fine job, injuries seemed to be foreign to him. OR at the very least he was an expert on spiders and other arachnids.
And yes, deeper still, past the shelled spiders, other arachnid like creatures dwelled. During his firts time, Rex had avoided going deeper, practicing his craft in the shelled spiders, having passed at least three other possible biomes. Over the past few wekks howver, he had explored most of them. Spiders of all sorts and types, some scorpion like monsters as well, adorned with crystal like protrusions on their carapaces or small, whip like tentacles on their backs. Though what took the cake were taratnulas, the size of a bus, Rex had just finished farming and was returning to the city, his satchel quite loaded, though the most valuable stuff, like rare drops from variants and the like, he kept in his space storage, hoarding the stuff like a mad collector.
"Ahh, morning Rex. How's the hunt?" the old guard at the gate asked, noticing Rex and waiting for him to be in the range of his voice.
"Hey Ivan. All good, though I think I found a new monster type, will know at the guild though." Rex replied, stopping in front of the old man. "Gotta say, you must have been quite the hothead back in your days. The things you know about this path is quite impressive." he added, causing Ivan to chuckle, clearly reminiscing on the good old days.
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"You better believe it kid. Ahh, the fun we had. Though I will never admit it in fron of my wife. She will eat me alive." he grumbled "Be carefull with them women. One moment, they are all sweet and nice, blinking their eyes cutely at you, a coqetish smile on their faces, the next they are demons, their claws sunk in your soul for eternity."
"So, you would chose something else, if given a do over?"
"Nope, would step on the same rake all over again. Had you seen her back in the day, you would too. And the kids are a blessing, even if at times I might have wanted to choke them myself." Ivan smiled as he spoke. "I am an old man, my time draws near, but whenever I see them, and their kids, I feel warmth in my chest, and I know, I made the right decision back then. One day you will understand. If you live that long that is. Ha ha ha ha ha."
"Be carefull old man. I hear your grandaughter is coming of age." Rex smiled maliciously at the older man, the implication clear. Though unlike what he had expected, them having joked around quite a few time already during the past few weeks, Ivan being on duty whenever Rex sets out to delve, the reply was a ganger still.
"Fheeffff. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. As if Lita would ever look your way. Mua ha ha ha ha ha." the old man laughed, his hand banging against his thigh. "Good one kid. Oooff. Ha ha ha ha ha" he huffed, trying to stifle his laugher. Rex smile in return, the old man having quite the wits and tongue, making for an awesome conversation partner. "Take care Ivan. See you around." Rex added as he waked away. "Jake." he nodded to the son of law of Ivan as he passed the other guard, who nodded in return, showing more respect and possibly even sligh amount of fear towards him. Rex's joke about bedding his daughter not lessening said worry any less.
Rex had also made great progress in the development of his second blood weapon. He had decided to go with a shield. The result was a braclet on his left hand in dark, dark red in colour. When needed, he would nudge it with his mind, forming a kite shield, similar to the crussader kite shield, with the more triangular shape. It was already quite strong, capable of tanking hits from his blood sword, not leaving even a scrath on it. The two items were in a similar class right now, prompting Rex to consider his further plans. On the one hand, he could start working on his auxilary weapons, possibly adding a few extra swords he could controll as if he could use telekinesis, something that would be near impossible in the world he was in right now. Only due to the fact he had dominion over blood, something that was considered a part on ones body, thus not affected by the supression of the world itself, could he exert the controll he had in mind. And sure, some of the more powerfull vampires in this world might have stumbled upon the same idea, however, yet again, due to the nature of the world, and its's ledling status, access to concepts and comprehending them was far too difficult. Only as a creature with a connection to a higher world, as miniscule as it was, could Rex coninue his own path forward, growing beyond what was possible in this plane with enough time. He already had the baseline for such growth, only time was needed to achieve it.
Rex did consider the idea of visiting the adventurers guild's branch first thing, though decided against it. He had spent a few days inside, murdering countless arachnids, a few buss sized tarantulas included, resulting in him actualy being quite dirty and smelly, so much so that he himself felt slightly uncomfortable. 'A bath first it is then.' he concluded, moving back to Beth's Hearth. As ussual, there were no issues along the way, the slums having been relegated to a couple of the geberal districts. No such sight was allowed on the main island, resulting in a much cleaner surroundings and lack of shady characters and crime as a result of that. To cleanse the district islandsthough, well, even the royal family did not have the manpower to do such, especially so with how fast new such places would pop up. Where there were people, there was always some sort of powerty and crime.
"Greetings Beth. Bath first!" Rex spoke hurriedly as he flew past the dwarwen inkeeper, his goal set. Beth, in turn just nodded and yelled behind him "And you darn need it too!" smiling once he was gone. "Good kid." she murmured to herself, having grown a liking for him, no doubt his enourmous appetite playing a big part. As the saying went, there is no better way to reach a mans heart than through his stomack, and there is no better way to tell a dwarfs worth than by seeing his apetite. And sure, the kid was no dwarf, but that did not mean Beth could not judge other races by the same standart. They were all people after all. And Rex, well, that was a damn fine man if the saying was to be believed. 'If only he was a decade or two older.' Thought the inkeeper.
Some thirty minutes later, Rex was back on the first floor, clothed in light and unasuming clothes, his hair still wet from the bath he enjoyed. "Come here Rex!" Beth called out to him, standing in front of an empty table, covered with quite a few steaming meat dishes. "Thought you would order once done with the bath, hope you dont mind me setting it up beforehand."
"I love you Beth. Thanks." Rex replied with a smile, the dwarven woman slowly earning his recognition, respect and apreciation. It had been barely a few weeks, and she had already picked up his tendencies regarding meals and other stuff related to her services. Rex could not help but compare Beth to the dryad inkeeper Luna, apreciating both styles provided.
"Carefull boy. We dwarves are too much to handle for youngsters like you. Eat up while its still warm." she responded, walking back to the kitchen, returning to other duties. The young human girl assisting her with the inn, soon coming out of the back, replacing Beth in serving the other customers. Ever since the rumors about him started, either curtesy of Ivan or the two parties he encountered on that first delving day, the adventurer girls staying in Beth's inn were glancing at him more often, gosiping among themselves, guessing what parts of the rumor going around were true, and if Rex was the person in question. Not like anyone had ever asked him dirrectly. Not that Rex would bother either confirming or denything them either. Truth be told, besides the eoccasional laugh he got out of the rumors, he could not care less.
Yet another hour later, having finished his meal after asking for a few extra plates, he thanked Beth, as ussual and paid for the meal.
"Ow, right. There were some people looking for you yesterday Rex. Did not say what they wanted, nor left any way to contact them either. Thought you should know." Beth spoke up as he was about to leave.
"Did you notice something particular about them?"
"The ussual rain coated adventurers, as if planning something less than legal. Then again, it was rainng that day. Still, felt a bit off." she replied, Rex considering her words for a moment.
"Thanks for the heads up. Dont sweat it, it they wanted to meet me, they will come again. Perhaps I will be around then. See you later Beth." Rex said, waving to the lady and going back to his room, where he 'collected' his last sessions loot and then left the inn, heading straight towards the adventurers guild and, just like any other time he had done so, arrived without any issues. he did think over some of the possible reasons someone might come, looking for him, but since none of the soul tokens he had left with either Luna or Light's Oak were broken, it could not be anyone he knew. Neither was the Empowerment crystal sold, so that was not it either. At the end of the day, he would find out eventually, the encounter almost guaranteed to happen, should the other party remain interested.
Entering the guild building, he first noted the people around, his mind always in need to register any possible threats to calculate any necessary respone and other such things. And once done with that, an action that took him just a few seconds, he advanced towards one of the general questions and transactions attendant. A short while later, he was in front of a rather young looking, perhaps in hear very early twenties, short statured brunette, with hazel coloured eyes, decent sized bust and rather well cmaintained physique. Something Rex had noticed in comon to all the guilds attendants. He had to be honest. He was quite pleased with how the adventurers guild showed its desire to maintain well fit and organizedworkers, making every interraction other adventuresr had with them a pleasant one. Even the more annoying and iritating adventurers could do nothing much but grumble and get on with their days.
"Hello sir, how may I help you today?" the attendant, by the name of Nessa asked, light, but proffesional smile adorning her face.