Marlow watched through the burning flames as the green cloak lady turned and walked away. He wanted to chase after her, to stop her, but the power gap between them was much farther than he ever expected. And now he had lost his first companion in this new world.
When he finally recovered his strength he slowly trekked his way back finding the room completely trashed. Hearing a faint squeak he lifted up a broken bed frame to find Gwaner cowering in the far corner. Seeing his Master Gwaner ran across the floor and up his Master’s outstretched arm. Pausing to take it all in, Marlow shuttered and let the water works come.
Marlow didn’t know how long he held Gwaner in his arms, but it must have been long enough for all of the remaining rats to congregate in the cramped room. It was then Marlow looked around taking in his small hoard then at the flashing notification icon in his vision.
Quest offerted: For a noble cause I (Chain Quest). You have been wronged and the world has noticed it. The guild ‘Hardcores’ have been poking at the system for quite some time now. Looting, killing, genuinely causing a ruckus. It now offers you a personal quest to tell them to knock it off. Build up a strong enough fighting force to make them pay. Reward: variable. Failure: none. Accept Quest? [Yes / No]
Thinking it over once he pressed the yes button. Life was rough, but when life told you to stand up, and go kick somebody’s teeth. You better that's how you get on life’s good side after all. Brushing his tears away, he got into bed, and slept his pain away.
“Oh Marlow, oh Marlow. WAKE UP!” Le0n gently woke his teammate from his feathered filled dream.
“Where is your chicken? I know that you don’t mind living with rats, but I do… what’s going on?”
“Opal. Was. Kidnapped.” Letting that sink in Marlow filled them in on what happend when they left him. Talking it over, they decided to stay and fight the hardcores with Marlow under one condition. If he shared the quest with them. That was a no brainer. He needed all the help he could get.
They agreed to meet back up later to go over a few possible plans. Jazz would go talk to her potion teacher and see if she could get any new potion recipes that would help. Le0n would go ask around and see if anyone knew their guild base was. While Marlow would go and get more beasts for the coming fight.
So Marlow took off a gang of rats behind him. It took him a few streets before he realized that he knew of no safe place to gather creatures in the city. He could go outside but he only had enough permits just for his hoard. Then again all of those permits were for rats, not whatever was out there.
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“Wait a minute, what about Benson! He had farm animals! He’d understand!”
“No, I am not giving you any of my chickens, cows, pigs, sheep, horses, or any of my other animals. So that you can wage war on a guild of cutthroats.” Benson roughly explained. Lifting a hay bale onto his cart.
“But Benson! I need your help!”
“If you want my help so badly! Then help me till the fields, milk my cows, nothing comes free in this world, you gotta earn it. What if you think that you can go fishing in the sewers and just find a mythical sword! HA! Take your rats and skedaddle I’ve got actual work to do. If you got the cast I’d recommend stopping by Caley. She is known for keeping unique pets.”
“Sewers… Benson you're a genius!” Marlow called back, already taking the road out back to the city.
“Hold it!” Marlow stopped in his tracks and looked back.
“I think this piece of paper would be quite useful, when this little battle is all over.” Benson held out a folded piece of paper. Coming back Marlow took it and opened it up. Reading over the first few lines, then tried to give Benson a hug. But took a punch to the jaw instead.
“Look boy, you're at that level where you think you can take on the world. But you can’t. You're gonna need strong beasts at your side, so don’t you dare lose that ritual diagram. Because I ain’t making you another, at least not for free. Now you have a war coming on, so get to it.”
Smiling Marlow took off, first heading to the bank. Making an account, dropping a few gold coins, his spare socks, and the ritual of soul binding paper. Before diving into the sewers below.
It was musty, moss, and dank as all get out. A perfect place to find rats. In Fact why did he just play a tune? An intermittent ‘wee’ echoed down the enclosed space. Checking to see that the sewer grate was still on Marlow ventured deeper into the dark depth.
That was until he heard a soft squeak turning his head. He could barely see something move in the darkness. Well it was a lot of little things. He should really bring a torch next time.
Reaching into his bag of treats he pulled out a few beans, beans that he was all too familiar with. Similar beans that he gave out to his rats. Tossing the treats in front of him he smiled. He’d just found the mother load of a rat's nest and they were hungry and he hasn't emptied his taming treat bag today.
One week later Marlow had rangled the majority of north eastern sewer rats into his care. Teaching them every tick he’d taught the Warwood rats. Le0n had made some shady connections with the underworld of Ardania. Turns out Hardcores were planning a heist of some sorts. The best Le0n could get out from the informant was that it was directed at the city guards. Jazz had learned a dozen new potion recipes but none of them were to help against a large scale event like this.