I'm going to be completely honest here. I have absolutely no idea what I should do in this situation. Judging by all the screaming and everyone running upstairs, and some going downstairs through a trapdoor that I hadn't noticed lay behind the bar, whatever this guy is, he is most certainly bad news.

"Sorry about that everyone. The monster is a bit stronger than I'd expected. Don't worry, since this was caused by me, my funds will be used to repair it. Now, if you would all excuse me." His voice was like gravel, which was appropriate given that his body was completely made of stone. And his body was almost...I don't really want to say his body was completely made out of rock because it moved much more smoothly than a stiff piece of earth, and there were actual joints for elbows and knees...Huh...For a second, I wanted to go up to him. Just for a second though. I...don't know where that came from. Weird. And, just like that, he leapt back up through the hole he made, only giving off a brief whump of displaced air, as he passed cleanly through the hole he made, making no more damage to the building. I stared up at the ceiling, trying to see where he went, but the sheer speed he went through the hole made it extremely difficult to do so. Bringing my head back down, I notice that the crying and screaming of the people in here has stopped. Almost unnaturally so. And then I noticed where all of their eyes were pointed towards. The sky. For a moment, I could almost see them frozen in indecision.

"Alright. It's fine. Stop panicking like your heads are cut off. And YOU! Get out of my damn basement! If I find out you drank anything while I wasn't looking, so help me!" I turn at the outburst from Berach. And everybody went back to what they were doing and stopped screaming...what the hell was that? Is that-

"Hey Berach, was that normal?" The bast looks a little surprised that I went back to talking to him after getting my drink. Maybe most people at the bar simply don't talk to him? Weird if that's the case.

"Around here, yes. People fall into buildings all the time, but most end up hospitalized. We're lucky that a monster hadn't crashed all the way out here." If most people get hospitalized, then maybe it's because they were worried about potential monster breaches. However...those eyes...they weren't staring out the hole. They were staring at the guy that fell through, Feldur. Well, I can't just go into it, I guess, but...I have to ease into the question I suppose. Lead the conversation.

"Why the hell was that guy ok then?" His face twitches a bit at my questioning before something causes it to relax. Interesting. Was he worried that I would ask about him then?

"Oh, him. That's the Lord. He's kind of...peculiar. Not too many people have an Earth affinity after all." At that, he turns away from me to polish some glasses and brush away some of the dust that ended up on his side of the bar. I mean, I guess peculiar's one way to describe him, if his info is true...his eyes are twitchy. He knows. But he doesn't know that I know. Should I just...put it out there? Yeah. Shouldn't say it loudly though. Wandering ears...eyes? However that saying goes. He can definitely hear whispers though if I'm right next to him.

"Peculiar? I mean, I get that thing about the affinity, but his status literally said that he's a cannibal." I whisper to myself. I do notice that his ears seem to prick up at my sentence, however my attention is grabbed away as, suddenly, I find a scaled hand on my mouth grasping it firmly shut. I turn my head towards the left and bring up my eyes to find one of those scaly people looming over me. In fact, it was the exact same one I saw in the corner, and somehow it had managed to sneak up on me without me realizing that they were there. It really says something that they had also not triggered my detection ability. So, either they have pretty good 'obscurity' related skills, or they're perhaps a class that specializes in that. Either way, they're dang good to have gone this far.

"That is just a rumor. Now, I'd prefer it if you didn't badmouth the only person that's keeping this place running." The, apparently feminine, lizard growls out as she releases my mouth. I rub it a little, sore from the manhandling (woman-handling?) before I bring myself out of the little daze that her shaking head had caused. I needed to definitively state that it wasn't a rumor. I can understand why it's just a rumor, if people aren't too sure about his habits, but these people need to know the truth. I wouldn't want to have a...mayor? Yeah, a mayor is a good equivalent. Hardly anybody can vote for them nowadays with all the political crap going on. I wouldn't want a mayor to be a secret cannibal feasting on the town they govern. I would've wanted to run him out, and if I want to make sure no one unduly dies because of my mishandling, then I need to tell them.

"But...I can literally see it." She doesn't move from her spot, and her scaled eyebrow ridges seem to narrow at me.

"Look, I don't care if you're a [Reader], it's best not to mention it." Wait...she knows?

"You know?"

"Of course I do. Not many people don't. He keeps to [Criminals] though, so we don't necessarily care." Wait...he feasts on prisoners? That's...Ok. Not going to touch that can of worms whatsoever. Don't know if it's a cultural thing or what, but this is wrong. All sorts of wrong.

"You don't care?!?! He literally," All too soon, I realize that I've managed to raise my voice above the whisper I was trying to keep it at, and the lizard is literally staring holes straight through my head, almost like she wants to murder me once I say the exact wrong thing. So I bring down my voice back down with some effort

"He literally eats people."

"Yes, he does. The more it occurs though, the less mad he gets. And no one 'round here wants to make him mad." Mad...Is he...allowed to be this way? No one's saying he can't, but it could just be something like tyranny. I need to know more. I need clarification on this before I do something wrong out in the open.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"So you all just let him? Aren't there any laws against it, or maybe just common decency to not do it?"

"Yes. People of course care about that particular aspect, but what are we going to do about it? The last time a [Reader] came around, his level was higher than anyone else around that time. We can't even leave without the lord knowing through his circle of informants. Since he keeps to criminals though, we just stay silent about it. By the way, what was his level now?" Uhhh...a lot to take in. Probably too much actually. Just answer the question doofus.

"Seemed to be 129." Her ridges seem to fall away, and her face morphs into something that I would call akin to sadness. Can't really tell if that's what it's supposed to be. Oh! It's definitely sadness. She just slumped against the stool next to me, and her shoulders are definitely slumped over, almost like they caved in slightly.

"Dear Selar. That's almost twice as fast as usual. He was only 124 last month." Wait...that...doesn't seem right to me. Didn't I get to something like level 50 within two weeks? Then again, I had that weird title affecting me and I was stuck in monster country, apparently. Also, it might just be because XP requirements increase by 100 for each level up. Once I get up there, I might plateau the exact same way, but...I won't know until I get that far along. She had slung a drink back, which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere while I was thinking about what to say next.

"Should we be concerned that he got thrown back here this far from the wall?" She almost chokes on her drink at my question, but manages to swallow it down. Interesting. She sets the glass back down on the table, the liquid glowing brightly from the motion before turning back into the light blue liquid it was before. She then turns her face towards me, and I realize that I may have perhaps overstepped some of my bounds here.

"I didn't ask to be your conversation partner, you know." Her glowering gaze made me as stiff as stone. And her voice...Somehow it had gotten even deeper, almost at the level of a normal man's voice. I need to get out of this. I should-

"I getcha, but if you're a local..." She seems to almost stare into my soul before she shook her head and began to sigh at my words.

"Alright...so, judging by how he wasn't cracked or nicked, it's probably nothing too bad. If it did magic damage though, I couldn't tell." Wait...

"Monsters can use magic?" Her eye ridges seem to shift towards an incredulous gaze. She didn't voice anything immediately, but the moment of silence spoke volumes.

"Some do. Not a lot, considering that most can't really develop their wisdom all that easily." Ahh, guess that makes sense. Except for the question of why do they work like that? I doubt someone like her would know that sort of thing though. My thoughts are disrupted though, when she just takes my drink from my hands and downs it.

"Hey! I was gonna drink that!" She looks back at me before scoffing and getting up out of her stool.

"Consider it payment for wasting my time, as well as, getting some advice." With that, she turns away from me, gets off her stool, and almost lazily heads back to the corner she was in, tail sliding along behind her. Dammit. Now I actually need to know what she's about. [Analyze].

Name: Carmia Katja Race: Kobolt (Pogona) Affini-

Notice: Due to interference, further analysis cannot be done at this time.

Wait...what? You can block that kind of thing?...Actually, kind of makes sense now. If there's a way to look at somebody's status, of course there'd be some kind of-Damn. I think she noticed. Wait. She winked. Ok. So it's not that-

Carmia: I wouldn't do that if I were you. Not too many people like prying eyes. Least of all me.

...I have never felt more scared and impressed in my life. There's a bloody chat function!! Why isn't everyone using this? Wait...doesn't this count as mental manipulation or something? Why didn't my resistance kick in? Is the resistance based on the other person's impressions then? Questions for another time I suppose since I do not want to talk to her again, no matter how curious I am about her...Wait. I just realized something. We're in town now. And there's downtime! Couldn't I just head towards the church here? I mean, I know that it might not be open right now, considering the fact that there seems to be a big battle going on. Plus, I doubt it would be sane to run through the streets while it's going on. I mean, maybe I should help them with it?

I mean...it kind of makes sense. I get rid of the problem, I help in the eyes of the town. The mayor/lord, whoever or whatever the position is called, will not see me as someone bad. The church will have actual priests or something in there, so I can learn how to get in touch with their 'gods'. I mean, magic exists, and there are titles like, sinner, so I don't think it's too much of a stretch to assume that gods exist here, even if they might just be actual people with phenomenal power, instead of actual ones. They might have something that could help me either way though.

Alright, flip a coin? Yeah, that's how I do most binary decisions anyhow. Plus, if my luck stat works like I think, then maybe it actually would give me the best outcome for me? However, my thoughts are interrupted as a bowl is shoved in front of my eyes onto the table.

"Soup for ya. Now that'd be 12 copper." Berach's voice echoes through my mind as a silent anxiety begins to fill me up in my core. Copper? Shit, how the hell am I going to not avoid looking like a...wait. Something's off here.

"Didn't Marwall already pay for food?" He seems to consider the question a bit, with his paw scratching the side of his face, before he lets out any answer.

"That was only for breakfast, anything else, including alcohol, costs extra." Of fucking course it does. So, let's see what I've got in my little side pouch here. Got gold pieces from the earlier quest stuff. Don't really think pushing them over is a good idea, so I should probably find something else. Ahh, here we go. Some of the money I made vending for Marwall. Let's see a couple copper and two silver. Nice. Just enough. I fork over what's needed before digging into the...Huh. The soup tastes almost nostalgic. I look down closely at it, to find something I hadn't seen in a while. It's that one dish, minestrone. When was the last time I had italian anyway?

"Compliments to the chef." The bast kind of looks...off, after I say that, but nods.

"I'll tell her." And with that, he turns away from me and starts helping out some of the other patrons. Now, I guess since I'm alone with my thoughts, I'd best think about what I should do. Alright, so it's not exactly heads or tails, considering the coins I have are the same on both sides, just an engraved circle with some chicken scratch all along the sides. How am I going to decide which side is heads or tails? I could use one of the knives that's lying out on the bar...Yeah, it's as good as any. Just a quick X on one side and I am good to go. Whelp, hopefully it isn't strictly regulated about how the currency could be defaced. Anyways, got nothing better to do than eat, drink, and flip the coin.

I spoon myself some more soup as I rolled through the options I could take, trying to commit them to memory. To purpose. Ok, so Heads I stay, Tails I go. Heads is the mark. It's decided. Hopefully my intention is enough for my luck to kick in. Otherwise, this could simply just be random chance. So, with a flick of my thumb, and a quick flash of light filtered gold against the coin, because of course I'm going to use a gold coin for this. Better material might make this easier to do, who can say anything else in this world. I reach out and catch it while it's flying midair, and proceed to flip it onto my forearm, covering the result with my hand. I'm a bit amazed at how well I was able to do that, considering I was never really that good with my body. Must be the increased dexterity and either wisdom or intelligence. Only way I could think of that actually affects my perception time. Briefly, my mind heads to consider whether I'm doing the right thing by leaving this decision to random chance. However...even if I ask for Marwall's or Kojo's opinion, it wouldn't well be my choice to make, would it? I bring my spoon up to my lips once again and relish the taste of the soup before swishing it down with the cherry beer, ignoring the displaced coin as it bounces against the wooden countertop. Well...my hand's off of it. I bring my eyes away from my food towards it...and that's the result. Well, I guess I know what I'm doing with the rest of my day.