There was a woman with a ponytail and a bow. She flexed the bow in front of her. Her face was focused, but not too intense. She was in a cell. As such, she wore a long-sleeved shirt, of black and white stripes.

An arrow was notched on the bow. It pointed to an object on the wall in front of her. That was a round target on the wall, which displayed an apple at the center. The target displayed jesters around the apple, and horses at the extremities. She released the bow and hit dead center. The woman gasped, for the apple was herself.

The woman flung another arrow, her eyes filled with fury. The arrow traveled in a straightforward manner, without hesitation. It hit the mark. She walked over to her desk, happy. She had convinced herself to cultivate her mind further. Her days were numbered here.

Outside her cell, it read ‘127,’. Behind the targeted wall, there was another cell. There, a man completed his jigsaw puzzle. It was that of a woman, with a blank stare that sent chills. Low-key music sounded in the background. Two rows of paintings were stacked on the walls, retracing a single image, per row.

"Have you been well, darling?" a woman asked. She approached the cell with hesitation.

The man looked at her. "Juliet," he said, "you looked drained. Anna hasn’t been pulling your legs these days?"

"I could say the same of you, Romeo," Juliet said. "She hasn’t."

"Ah, I’ll teach her a new trick next time she comes to visit," Romeo chuckled. "I need to give some guys a few punches and haul up for a drive."

"Me too," Juliet said. Romeo stared at her. She stayed silent.

"That’s kind of hot. What? You wanna punch some girlfriends?"

"No~" Juliet laughed. "I want to go for a camp. I could tick some areas of interest too."

"Well," Romeo sighed. "It would be fun if nothing stopped us. They’ve given me some damn laxatives and mood stabilisers like I’m some animal. I just made some noises."

"You are suing them when you get out," Juliet said.

"Damn right. You will be invited to the after-party."

"Careful, Romeo. You’ve got a tail out," Juliet said.

Romeo looked at a fiery rope popping out of his back. "Ah right, that nine-tails business. It might get a bit chaotic if I don’t control that. Okay, never mind. Let’s stick to copyrightable business. I’m hungry for some fire slimes."

"I got some cores for you," Juliet said, taking out some resources from her bag. These included a bottle made of metal, a rudimentary meal of chicken, bread loaves and some salad. There were two boxes to the side. Inside each, there were four glowing spheres. "It cost me 400 utils a box, so I got them for 900 utils."

"What’s 400 + 400 again, Juliet?"

"Oh, that’s 800 utils. I forgot," Juliet inhaled, hiding her embarrassment.

"You look quite happy seeing me. Anything happened?"

"Why would I not be happy?" Juliet said in a defensive tone. "I’m lonely."

"Okay." Romeo looked at Juliet quietly. "I’ll get to those cores then. Got my favorite Ander knife at the ready." He cut open the cores. They opened up like chicken eggs. He took a bite. "Mm, thank you Juliet. These taste delicious!"

"I see," Juliet said, looking eager and intent.

The cell number was ‘19’.

***

On a piece of paper, the number ‘19’ traced to a fire ghoul by the name of Romeo Adler.

Below it, number 20 was an electro ghoul. Number 21 was a treant. The paper blurred out and disappeared. The observer looked at some keychains. There were fire slimes, normal plant slimes, mandrake slimes, half-molten and half-fiery slimes, ditzy yellow slimes and muddy slimes

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

***

I looked at Nina, sleeping at the table next to me.

Her head was unprotected, and peaceful. I wondered how the heck you would end sleeping on the job. We were supposed to have a conversation here. I looked at the [Pending Tasks] bar. The quest was not over.

I should recap. Nina announced herself, delivered a message and suggested we sit at a table. We took orders. After the waiter left, Nina’s face dropped to the table.

I pondered if I should greet her with an agreeable smile when she would wake up or shake her out of it right away. I thought about it. We were supposed to ‘commune’. In other words, we would hunt our differences in objective, treasure rallying differences, and negotiate the rest. A simple enough task to start with a strong foundation.

I lifted my hand and shook her arm.

"Come on, give me one more hour," she murmured. A bottle was beside her head. Nina had it on her when we met.

I tapped the table. "Hey, messenger. Are you here to do your job or not?" I asked.

Nina woke up with a smile. "Alright, I can fake it!" A smiley face, huh? Perhaps, it was glib charm. No, I was envious or attracted.

"What’s up with our communion? What’s the purpose of meeting you here?" I asked.

Nina noticed my stare and beamed. "I am to explain our Covenant’s hierarchy to you. You know anything much about the sects?"

"Not much. Explain it to me," I said.

"Okay, so there are two sects – the sect of dragon-hunters and the sect of dragons. These sects stand as separate entities. Most of the time, there is no difference between members of both sects – we either choose to act as dragon-hunters or as dragons. However, some people are better experts at seduction. Some people can keep their mouth shut after carrying out assassinations. The highest transfiguration for us is contractual obligations. Get too privy or too saintly, and your honesty shall be doubted."

"We have been separated into two sects to provide a mechanism to capitalize on the opportunistic streaks of our members. Every members reserve the right to secede to another sect, under the adequate clauses. But you should be careful if you abuse it. Of course, behavior is distinct from mission execution. So, we are safe from removal, in this respect."

"In my case, I simply draw enigmatic paintings, to sell them at the auction house and other spaces. When it comes to it, I’m a useful decoy, under various disguises. Other than that, I assist in collecting resources that I am most familiar with. The Sect of Dragon-Hunters takes care of safeguarding facilities containing extremely harmful pathogens. That kind of activity is limited for the Sect of Dragons, though we can tinker around with our own stuffs. The Sect of Dragons is proficient at sourcing materials and carrying out on-site investigations."

"This reminds me of the dog and his master," I mused.

"That’s wrong!" Nina exclaimed, indignant. "If you are projecting yourself into my explanation, please don’t do that."

"I’m not doing that," I said, resting my face on my left palm, away from her. "If I need counseling, I’m coming to you, like it or not."

"I would not like that. Dragon or hunter, we are equals, you know?" She came down with a pout.

I waited. "Okay," I said. That was interesting. "Sorry for getting off topic. So you are a painter. Your sect can carry out surveys and deal with experiments, is it?"

"That’s true. If you need help, specialized members of our sect are here. W-Well, that includes prostitutes, although it’s from both sects… or rather the public."

"That’s a conversation for another day," I said. "I’ve made up my mind. How do I join the Sect of Dragons?"

Nina looked at me, miffed. "You sure? There is still a lot of points I have to touch on, you know?"

"I don’t mind. What’s the range of quests in the Sect of Dragons like?"

Nina was spontaneous. "Well, you could help us hunt down a dragon. He’s been threatening our food supplies. Well, just joking!" Nina said, shielding herself with her palms forward. "If you have aptitude, you can help us find new customers. By that, I mean exploring new regions. Or you take it slow and stick around as a student at our school. If the guys from the Sect of Dragon-Hunters take a liking to you, you might earn some bucks from teaching whatever you would like to them. Not nonsense though, okay?" Nina said, with emphasis.

I lifted my elbow from the table. "I’ll start with orientation. If you are free, I can use you as a parrot to get an idea of the members."

"I’m not cheap. I’m busy with my job!" Nina leaned back and crossed her arms.

"Figured as much," I said. "I want to continue our conversation. However, I can’t think of anything right now. I’ll go get our drinks. Shall we go for a walk afterwards?"

Nina placed her right palm on her head and smiled. "Do we need to? Or rather, are you hitting on me"

I looked at a boy sulking from his mother’s approaches. "On the short-term, yeah. I wish to increase our mutual trust level."

"Are you dumb? Well, if the twinkling stars in your eyes fall off, that would be great," Nina said.

"There is no star in this scene," I returned. "So, we are good on me joining your Sect?"

"I just wanted to try out this rhetoric from a book," Nina said, looking sideways. She chugged her alcohol and dropped the bottle. "User Command: Sect Registration." Nina pressed her hand on empty air. A blue light shined. She pushed her hand in my direction. A window appeared to me. "Here you go."