Ludo and Jana crawled their way out of the dungeon, surviving the hordes of monsters by luck. As Ludo stepped away from the dungeon, he was hit in the face by the chill breeze of the night and the tears, bottled up from everything that had transpired hours before, began to roll through his eyes.

“Listen to me, Ludo. Don’t tell anyone of what happened here!” Jana said and they both promised each other to take this debacle to their graves.

Ludo returned to his room hours later, unable to find any form of peace or sleep, desperately calling out for Ben and expecting the voice that had kept him company for months to reappear at some point. Yet it never came, it was just him now.

Eventually the days went by and turned to weeks and finally months and before Ludo realized, it had been almost a year since he had woken up in the middle of nowhere. He had not heard from Jana since and he had put his adventuring days past him. His armor nor sword had seen combat and he had settled down in helping Auria in her shop, running errands and keeping up with house chores.

As his life changed and slowed down, Ludo had taken a liking to raise plants, from useful plants bearing fruits and flowers useful to Auria’s potion making to purely superficial reasoning, such as the beauty of their leaves. What started as an out of nowhere hobby had, only know to Ludo, a more intimate origin as Ben’s death settled on Ludo’s mind, he recalled that what his dream had been and now Ludo chose to live part of Ben’s stolen life through him.

“Ludo!” Auria called from outside his room one quiet and cold morning on early spring. “Remember to deliver the potions to Mr. Kaplan as soon as possible, he should be expecting them by noon!”

With a groan Ludo left his bed and got ready for the day, picking up the potions as well as a list of Auria’s much needed potions supplies which were scattered through the forest and through most shops of Balessia.

“You know, you should be able to grow half of it here.” Ludo said as he stepped out of the shop. “It can save you a ton of money.”

Auria grinned. “The plants and flowers grow better on the fertile and natural earth than in any plant pot.”

Ludo, not being one to argue about potion making with her made way through the town. The town itself had undergone a great metamorphosis. The puddle filled dirt streets had disappeared during the months following the discovery of the dungeon, in its stead, well built stone paths now flowed through the city, giving much life to the growing shops and markets, as now Balessia had grown from a small and irrelevant city to a dungeon city and reaped the benefits befitting of such title to the fullest.

Ludo walked by what remained of the wooden gates, which were being teared away for a proper stone foundation, an investment for a greater future. Mr. Kaplan’s house was located by one of the wooden walls for the city. A humble abode, it sported nothing more than a single floor and was made entirely of wood.

Ludo approached the entrance and knocked tree times before being greeted by a man twice his age sporting a particularly flamboyant mustache not fitting of his social rank.

“Ludo?” the man asked.

“Mr. Kaplan, I presume?”

Mr. Kaplan laughed and handed the bronze coins worth of payment to Ludo before he gave Mr. Kaplan the potions. After the swift exchange, Ludo was on his way back to the store to help Auria when a a woman carrying a large wooden crate appeared from an alleyway ahead of him. She was too small for the crate she was carrying and it obstructed her vision and as she ran on a hurry, she tripped and fell, spilling the contents within. She jumped to her fit, perplexingly ignoring her own obvious injuries over placing everything inside the crate again.

To Ludo’s surprise she was not a human but a Lobid, a wolf-man or in this case a woman. She, however, paid no attention to him as she hurriedly placed everything into the crate again.

“What is wrong with you!?” A man yelled as he walked out from the same alley as the woman had and making Ludo stop on his tracks. Armed with a large sword strapped to his side and many daggers hanging just below the sword’s scabbard.

“I told you not to drop that!” The man bellowed, hitting the woman in the back of her head. “If only your brother was a few years older, I wouldn’t have to deal with a useless wimp like you and curse your father for his destitution and not being able to pay his debt!”

Ludo, and and now a growing crowd, kept watching as the man kept berating the woman as she quietly put all the remaining items back in the crate. Most onlookers began to scatter as things quieted down and the man gave those brave enough to still hang around them the nastiest of stares.

Ludo worried about the well being of the woman and opted to follow the duo through the alleys and streets of Balessia before they arrived at a place too familiar with Ludo. The guild of adventurers. Ludo sighed as he observed them go inside and began to walk the opposite direction, after all, it had been him going into that building that had led to the death of Ben and because of that, he had vowed to never enter that place again.

Many days later and life continued as it was. Ludo was busy handling customers in Auria’s store as a clerk when the man and the woman from before entered the store. The two looked like they had just walked out of a storm, the woman more so. Ludo kept an eye on them as they explored the shop, noticing that the woman jolted at every movement the man made beside her, Ludo decided to use his magical eyes and inspect them, his eyes fixing on the man first.

WALTER BUHL (AGE 49)

HUMAN - MALE

LEVEL 25

STRENGTH: 10

STAMINA: 6

MANA: 4

SPEED: 8

DEFENSE: 6

INTELLIGENCE: 6

SKILLS: TRADE LEVEL 9, ONE-HANDED LEVEL 5, SPEECH LEVEL 12, LEADERSHIP LEVEL 8…

TITLES: MERCHANT, ADVENTURER (RANK D)

Then Ludo looked at the woman behind him.

ALTHEA TEPHNA (AGE 18)

LOBID - FEMALE

LEVEL 5

STRENGTH: 6

STAMINA: 5

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

MANA: 0

SPEED: 6

DEFENSE: 2

INTELLIGENCE: 1

SKILLS: ONE-HANDED LEVEL 1, ATHLETICS LEVEL 2, SCOUTING LEVEL 2,

TITLES: ADVENTURER (RANK G)

Ludo was distracted from them by a customer buying a strength potion, yet he did his best to keep his eyes on them until they reached the line and as their turn to pay came. Ludo did his best to forced a smile as Walter placed a bag of coin on one side of Ludo’s desk and a large amount of potions on the other side.

Now that they were closer, Ludo could see that the woman had her eyes all red and puffy and her face was all red. At that moment Ludo couldn’t keep quiet anymore.

“Sir, we have a few new and improved samples of this one, I’m sure you’d like it” Ludo held up a small bottle on his hand and pointed to the furthest point away from the desk.

“Don’t care!” Walter barked.

“Are you sure? I think you will like what the improved versions can do, like fighting better, for a longer time…”

“Althea go find it”

Althea nodded and walked to the back of the store. The minutes went and Althea didn’t return. Walter was visibly becoming impatient, cursing her father for siring such a dumb thing. Not content on hearing Walter complain. Ludo excused himself and ran over where Althea should be.

He found her frantically looking for the potions. Grabbing and placing back potions frantically, so obsessed she was in finding the nonexistent potion that she hadn’t noticed that Ludo had walked up to her.

“You alright?” Ludo asked.

Althea ignored him and continued to search for the potion.

“I’ve seen him hit you.” Ludo lowered his voice. For a brief moment Althea stopped and looked at Ludo, then returned to her search.

“It’s nothing…” Althea sighed.

“No it isn't! Why do you keep hanging around him!”

“Why do you care?”

Why did he care? It was a question that Ludo had not really given much thought. It was true that he had never even talked with either Althea nor Walter but his mind for some reason went back to the cold and dark caves of the dungeon, to what Ben had said.

“Look, there are no potions like that.” Ludo said. “I’ll cover for you.”

Once they returned to the checkout, Ludo apologized to Walter for being out of stock and was berated in response by Walter, storming out of the store as and hurling a few profanities his way with Althea following close behind.

Ludo kept watching as the two stopped outside the store and all that time he was unable to shake off the growing feeling of worry. He knew just how reckless adventurers were and couldn’t see anything good going for Althea with how wrathful Walter was. As the two outside took one step to the left it signaled Ludo that he had to act now.

He left the counter, to the protests of the customers and darted to his room, grabbing a dusty Glass Guardian and his identification card and rushed back. Now Auria had taken note of his odd behaviour and had come out of her potion room to see what was macking the customers so rowdy.

“What are you doing, Ludo!?” Auria shouted but Ludo didn’t care as he left the store and looked around for Walter and Althea.

Ludo shut his eyes and opened them with his magical eyes and passing through the crowd walking around him he was, for just a second, able to see Althea’s name.

Pushing the crowd aside, Ludo caught up to them and yelled at Walter.

“What are you doing here!?” Walter roared and looked at Althea who shook her head in dismay.

“I followed you two. She had nothing to do with it.” Ludo said as loud and clear as possible to get Walter’s attention away from Althea. “I think you’re mistreating your party member.”

“Her!?” Walter’s cackle echoed through the buildings, leaving many passerbies curious about the scene unraveling before them. “She is just here to settle her stupid father’s debt.”

“My father isn’t—“ Althea roared but was quickly hushed down by Walter raising his hand. Ludo took a step forward but stopped as Walter did so as well.

“I see you’re armed. Good.” Walter said. “A fight it is.”

“I didn’t come here to fight!”

“Then why did you come here other than wasting my time?”

“Why do you keep mistreating her?” Ludo pointed at Althea.

“Blame her father, if Armand wasn’t poor in health as his pockets are, it would be him fixing his own mistakes and not her daughter.”

Ludo couldn’t believe what he was hearing. But Althea nodding along confirmed Walter’s statement.

“If its money you need then, I’ll pay!”

Walter gasped laughed louder than before. “You wouldn’t have the money for that.” Walter said as he cleared a tear from his eye.

“Prove it!” Ludo replied.

“Very well.” Walter took out a piece of paper. “For the damages Armand Tephna has done, he owes Walter Buhl the following items; a large wagon, multiple horses, an oxen, multiple wares, ranging from weapons to clothing and finally all the hypothetical business that Walter Buhl loses as he regain the aforementioned materials. Armand Tephna owes Walter Buhl a total of one golden coin and fifty silver coins.”

Walter pushed the paper back into his clothes and stared at Ludo with a large grin.

“Thats what court said.”

“I’ll help her.” Ludo immediately said.

Walter scoffed and looked at Althea and then at Ludo. “I’ll give you two a month to get me my money. And it will cost you two gold coins.”

Althea tried to talk Walter out of it but the man walked away and left Althea kneeling on the floor. Ludo walked up to her and tried to comfort her but as he came closer to her, she jumped to her feet and began yelling at Ludo.

“Why did you do that!?” Althea cried out. “Now I’ll never help my father repay his debt!” She took a few steps back, scratching her head and talking to herself. Now that she was closer, Ludo noticed she was bruised and cut in a few places, most likely from one or more failed quests.

“Here.” Ludo gave Althea a healing potion. “Something tells me he hasn’t been giving you any.”

Althea drank from it as soon as she took it from Ludo’s hands, he observed as her pale skin regained its color and her sunken face became healthier. At that moment Ludo noticed she had bright turquoise eyes.

“Sorry for overreacting before. Its that, my father is aging and my brother is too young and I my mother is worried sick!.” Althea said as she finished drinking the potion.

“No I understand.” Ludo lied. Being the only one he knew who couldn’t even recall how his mother or father looked like.

“Thanks for this…” Althea said, wiping her mouth. Before Ludo could react, she suddenly sprung up. “But how are you going to get the money!?”

Before Ludo could answer, Auria came out looking like a mess out from her shop, customers were walking out and throwing insults at each other and at Auria and she was more than happy to insult them back. Ludo grabbed Althea and took her far away from Auria’s sight and once they were in the clear they went to the one place that Ludo knew how to make money quick. The adventurer’s guild.

The two pushed their way through the usual hectic scene inside the guild’s tavern, where weapons and bottles flew high above their heads, the music and howling laughs all blended together into a booming roar and the stench of alcohol was forever present whenever they walked. Ludo walked to the quest wall with Althea closed behind and he let out a wide smile as he saw that still, after a year and many travelers from far away coming and going from Balessia that the quest he was expecting to see was there to greet him.

Quest available

Rank: a

LOCATION: FOREST

Kill the marauding giant; bring proof of kill.

Reward: 5 gold coins

“Wait!” Althea repeated multiple times after reading the quest. “You aren’t planning to do that!?”

“Why not.” Ludo pulled the quest from the wall and headed to the bar while Althea tried her best to talk him out of it. She stopped as someone called out his name and Ludo saw Claus waving at him.

“The prodigal son has returned!” Claus exclaimed.

Ludo shook Claus’ hand and it didn’t take long for Claus to start telling Ludo about everything he had missed in his one year of absence.

“— and apparently the boss of the tenth level is a massive head with many eyes and multiple rows of teeth.”

“Thanks, but I’m not interested on any of that anymore.” Ludo replied.

“But if its not gold and adventure that bring you here now, then what is?”

Ludo stepped aside and let Claus see Althea who had been hiding behind Ludo the entire time. She shyly waved at Claus.

“Never took you as a cosmopolitan.” Claus said.

“I promised to help her repay her father’s debt and wanted to ask what you know about this.” Ludo showed Claus the quest paper, now sure what Claus had meant with his previous comment.

“Your insane. The two of you aren’t enough for that.”

At that moment, Althea stepped forward and pleaded with Claus.

“Please! My father needs that money!” She cried out.

Claus looked back at Ludo and he held out his hand expectantly, Ludo sighed and threw a single bronze coin at him.

“Things like this usually costs more, you know? But I’ll let it slide for now.” He leaned closer to Ludo. “The giant was seen very deep in the forest a few days ago, beyond the empty river.”

Ludo thanked him for the information.

“I do have to warn you, two large parties set out to hunt for the giant and didn’t come back. Be careful.”

“We will.” Ludo said and with that he and Althea left the guild, once outside, Althea began to panic once more.

“How do you plan to slay a giant!?” She yelled.

“We’ll figure it out.”

Althea groaned and took this time to leave.

“Meet me at the entrance of the market district tomorrow!” Ludo yelled at Althea who replied with a thumbs up.