“You have that kind of money?” Xavier asked. They were arrayed in their typical formation, fighting some of the lower tier monsters. They called them bloodhounds. Seemed appropriately edgy to Tyr, skinless creatures that prowled the jungle. He'd killed a few himself, though they were more aesthetically similar to wolves than the literal 'bloodhound' hunting dogs back home. Unlike them though, he did not fight. They had a team dynamic that they weren't willing to break, leaving Tyr in the rear to keep their flanks clear. Or so Jura had said. She had a way with rhyming odd things together. “I guess it makes sense.” He observed, not waiting for an answer. “You are, or were, a prince and all. What's it like?”
Tyr looked at him. Xavier was very handsome. Like another kijin he'd met some time ago. Nearly as tall as him, only about an inch shorter. With dark hair and bright yellow-green eyes. Like the turning of maple leaves stuck between summer and autumn hues, luminescent in a way that human eyes were not, a lot like Benny's eyes but far more pleasing a shade.
“What's what like?” He asked.
“Being a prince, silly.”
“How old are you, Xavier?”
“Eleven winters a few months ago, you?”
“Not sure. Twenty. Twenty one. Royals don't celebrate birthing days where I come from after the age of sixteen or so. Maybe even nineteen, I'm not really sure.” Tyr shrugged. Knowing that his parents might not be his actual parents, his birth date itself was unclear. In any case, twenty seemed more accurate than the twenty one listen on his adventuring file...
“We don't get birthdays either.” Xavier said softly. “They don't give us calendars in the cages, you know?”
“I don't know. And I wish you didn't either.”
Yana approached. They'd cleared the most recent pack. Despite being freed from their collars, they had still committed to clearing the contract, something about honor and duty. Seemed odd, in Tyr's mind, for a slave to use that as an excuse. All they'd need to have said was that they wanted to kill, relieve some stress, something he could empathize with. “Girshan is too proud to ask, but why are you doing this for us?”
“Giving me time to posture and explain my heroic Gary Sue personality, dashing good looks, and anti-heroic commitment to proper justice does nothing to make this novel any better. It's shit, we accept it, and so on.”
“...What?”
“He has been saying some odd things.” Xavier coughed. “I think it's still a valid question, though.”
Tyr pondered that question, though he didn't need to, arms crossed over his bare chest. The jungle was hot and the humidity cloying, such that even his advanced tolerance for temperatures saw him soaked when he stood around. Too much moisture, and he hated that. More accustomed to cold and drier climates, he couldn't get over it. His chest was bare, showcasing well honed and rigid muscles. His wide shoulders. A fit and athletic frame, but not a burly one. Girshan was larger than him, and far more muscled, but he still cut a figure. At least according to Jura, who had made a multitude of requests to 'mate with him' and 'breed a brood capable of smashing cities to dust'. Thus far, Tyr had rebuffed her offers. Not that he didn't want to...
She was beautiful. Exotic in a way, with naturally dark lips and a deep green, almost moss-colored complexion. Curvy, busty, with a fit rear end and a thin waste. Flexible too, if her feats in combat were any measure. And they were. Flipping over bloodhounds and velds and all the various creatures they fought. It was the hair, though. Tyr observed how thick and luscious her hair was, falling around her shoulders and shaved in a line just above the ears. Tied back in a warriors tail. Yana was beautiful as well, similarly proportioned but not quite so gifted in the chest. With fine facial features, he could understand why her master placed such value on her. She wasn't very interested in him though, which may or may not be a shame.
“I hope this doesn't awaken anything in me.” Tyr shook his head.
“What?” Xavier asked. “Awaken anything?”
“Yeah. Like... Cat girl, she's stacked. Orc girl, she's even more stacked. It's very common that when people go through the slow refining process of their cores that they become more attractive. I've seen a lot of adventurers like that. But you two in particular are blessed beyond belief.” Tyr observed. “Male adventurers don't always follow this trend, and I guess females don't either. Some get real burly and thick, some women I know are stronger than I am but much more slender. I'm not sure how it works... Hard to find an ugly adventurer, though. Kind of odd.”
“Stacked?” Xavier repeated him again in wonderment. “What's stacked?”
“Big tits, tight ass.” Tyr replied. “Not that either are particularly massive in either regard, but there is a lot to be said about proportions.”
“You are very wise.” Xavier whispered. “Like kijin, I have learned that we are always looking for particular traits in a mate to breed more able offspring.”
“Cat girl!?” Yana questioned him angrily. Some beastkin didn't like being attributed to the animals their physical forms were aesthetically similar to. Tyr didn't really care. It was what it was, and he didn't find it offensive. That was his perception, and therefore all that mattered.
“Even Girshan, man.” Tyr snorted, ignoring her. “What an absolute unit that lad is.”
Yana looked ready to slap him about the face before the aforementioned beastkin made his voice known over the slaughter. “She asked you why you're willing to do this for us. As she said, I am too proud to question the good faith you've shown us, but I am very curious. What benefits you stand to gain, I will not allow you to take the girls until I understand your character.”
Silently thinking to himself, Tyr shrugged. First of all, neither woman was helpless. Yana was his equal in battle and Jura was his superior, it wasn't like he'd planned on kidnapping them... “Because I can. I made an oath to a man who was once a slave, to deal with matters in a certain way when I saw any instance of slavery. When I have the power and position to. I pulped that man half to free you, half because I could. Because I don't think people should be slaves, but most importantly because I honestly enjoyed it, he was irritating and I did not like the sound of his voice. Savvy?”
“Savvy...?” Xavier was completely and totally lost. The idiosyncrasies of a Harani were beyond him, he'd never met one before.
“Mmm.” Girshan replied. Still assessing the man that would claim to be their breaker of chains. Always a favor, then an obligation, he didn't trust it. “I understand well enough. I've wanted to do that for some time now. He was uniquely irritating, but he wasn't all bad. It's not his fault that we are owned, we earned that for ourselves through failure.”
“Failure?” Tyr asked inquisitively.
“Failure to pay debts, in Abe's case. Failure to win a war, in mine. Failure of the young ones' parents to defend them. On and on. It doesn't make it right, but it makes it true enough. Every grown individual on this world is responsible for looking out for clan first, family second. Anything less is a failure, attributed to all involved.”
“You're not wrong.” Tyr scowled. “But it doesn't make it right. No man or woman or otherwise should be forced to live as a slave.”
“Fair.” Girshan stated from the rear. “You know, since it seems relevant. You've got quite the sizable bounty on your head. A hundred and fifty marks. Kriegstad's currency, naturally. Er...?”
“About a hundred and twenty sovereigns.” Abe answered the question before it could be properly asked. A lot of money. Years worth of a well known adventurers salary, one with a rank between silver and gold.
“How do you know?” Tyr asked. “You haven't left this place in how long? I've only been in the republic a short time, and most of that was outside of the city where nobody could find me. You didn't even know who I was at first.”
“Naturally, we looked you up. It's right here...” Abe presented his adventurers badge. It was silver, like Tyr. He and Girshan were rated at a similar level, but the others were all 'steel' rank. One below. It went copper, bronze, iron, steel, silver, gold, platinum, mithril, adamantite, cronite, and... To be honest, Tyr had no idea. It followed the rough track of metallic values everywhere else. Some places differed. For example, in Haran, adamantite and cronite were equivalent. However, one was suited for mercenary work while the other was strictly a monster hunter. There were diamond badges, but those were the rough equivalent to mithril and only given to functionaries of the guild.
Added to the list were orichalcum and oghmium badges, but those had their own criteria. Orichalcum for contract apostate hunters, and oghmium for what basically equated to a scientist. Not likely to be found in the republic, where it has been dissolved in favor of the individual establishments and charters. “Haven't you ever used a bounty board before?”
“Bounty board?” Tyr asked. “We have nothing like that where I come from.” He could confidently say that, watching as Abe pulled a cylindrical wand from his dimension ring that lit up into a runic tablet. A page of various activities, alerts, and reports from all around the astral space – and those beyond the city. Plain and present on the page presented to him was a picture of his own face, with a bounty posted by the... “Indura's faithful... Man, those guys have got some problems. Let me tell you.”
“You've met the inquisitors?” Yana asked inquisitively. “How did you get away?”
“I killed them, naturally.” Tyr replied, ignoring the wide eyes and gasps of shock that game from everybody except for the two oldest members of their team. “I had no idea something like this existed. What other functions does it have?”
“...”
“...”
“What?” Tyr looked about, staring at them each in turn.
Xavier cleared his throat, speaking before the others could. “These are everywhere. As in... Most adventurers at the silver rank have their own individual tablets. Like, I don't mean 'everywhere' as in most places, I mean literally every single country has these.”
“Everywhere?” Tyr asked, still skeptical. He felt like either he was the butt of some joke or he'd been remiss in his observation of the world around him. Frankly, either or both would make sense to him.
“Everywhere.” Jura added, still suspicious of the man after all was said and done. He was competent enough in a fight to hold out like that against all but their mage. Still, he had a shockingly poor grasp on how the adventuring life worked, perhaps all nobles were so oblivious. “All of the guilds that I've seen have them. We've been to Baccia, Brotherhood territory, the Krieg... Amistad. All of the adventurers there have them. Didn't you learn this in your orientation training?”
“Training?” Tyr asked. “What training?”
Abe squinted at him, waving the others off. They were exasperated, unable to come to a conclusion as to whether he was pulling their leg or not. He was articulate, not exactly the picture of an idiot, but at times... “How did you become an adventurer, Prince Tyr?”
“Just Tyr.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Okay. Just Tyr. And...?”
“I just kind of...” Tyr thought back to the day he had walked into the inn. He'd spoke with Rose, filled out some paperwork, been assessed based on his 'power level'... Spoken with Goroshi. “I just walked in, and within the hour I was given a badge...”
“Must be nice.” Yana snorted. “Being a prince.”
“How did you become an adventurer?”
“We had to take a six month course, and then a year of apprenticeship. Except for Xavier, he's completing his beneath Abe since he was officially registered and all prior to his debt being bought out by our master.”
“Damn.” Tyr mused. “Glad I didn't have to go through all that.”
“If you had...” Girshan sighed. “You wouldn't have such a startling gap in your knowledge.”
“...Like what? Just because I don't know about some artifact, doesn't mean I'm ignorant. Why do I need that thing anyway? They post jobs on billboards, too.” Not to mention the fact that he'd never seen another adventurer carrying one. Some couldn't even afford dimensional rings, let alone complex artifacts.
As it would turn out, the tablet and the features it added to his badge were far more useful than he'd anticipated. He couldn't blame Daito. Or anyone in the republic, for that matter. Perhaps it had been Goroshi, or someone else. His father, even. Jartor seemed to have his hand in far more cookie jars that Tyr would've ever assumed. He'd come here a silver ranker, and assumed that they, in turn, had assumed him having gone through the requisite courses.
It was, he had to admit, an extremely handy tool. Series of tools, technically. There were more, but most he could truly do without. The badge was capable of tracking all kills made by him, and it had, listing them thus:
***
[Tyr Surname-Redacted]
Guild: The Hunter's
Race: ERROR
Age: 21
Nationality: Harani (Marked)
Education: Amistad – Red Dragon
Rank: Silver (t1 – registered) (Captain: Daito Takahashi)
Rating: B
Class: Mid-Range Battlemage / Healer / Enchanter / Runesmith / Pain In My Ass*
PE: Fire
CCR: 32/32 (100%)
***
Open bounties:
Patrol: Astral space designation “Jungle Fever”
Patrol the Astral Space. (1/1) (3:04:39:56)
*No limit. Minimum time: 2 days, and five or more confirmed eliminations (NOT OF OTHER ADVENTURERS, PLEASE*). Time spend in the astral space will accrue bonus rewards, capping at seven days. Please measure your capability and return for a rest when necessary. Remember! A good adventurer is one that is still breathing. Take frequent breaks and drink a lot of water, we care about you! Trust us!
Bounties Awaiting Collection:
Bloodhound: (28/28) *Conditional – Freelance – Slayer quest
-Weekly Limit: (28/90)
Veld: (15/15) *Conditional – Freelance – Slayer quest
-Weekly Limit: (15/60)
Fornis Lion: (8/8) *Conditional – Freelance – Slayer quest
-Weekly Limit: (8/40)
Mountain Boar (1/1) *Conditional – Freelance – Slayer quest
-Weekly Limit: (NONE) Exchange meat or hide/tusks for contribution points. No bounty reward specifically for kills.
(+) (11) More available bounties.
-4 Pending Station Check-in Reports
-That's one thick ass boy!
-Ape fish – fishing contest
-Find the vampire that seduced my wife! He's in there! I know it, that piece of shit! You can't silence the truth! Get your hands off of me, I'm--
-Looking for bloodhound meat! Not for food. Trust me! It's for science!
-Monkey Madness!
-3 Pending Adventurer Corpse Recovery Requests
-WORLD QUEST: Survey the central jungle
-Many teams have gone missing looking for the source of the astral...
*Visit your nearest guild associated office to claim rewards. Bounty rewards for active slayer quests can change at any time based on demand. Please submit all complaints, requests, or feedback to your nearest adventurer's guild branch. Be safe, and please note that all guild insurance policies are void in your time inside!
“Wow. This is comprehensive... I think?” And it was just one of many tabs of available information presented to him by the device. Of which, there were a whopping nineteen, though most seemed to be fairly irrelevant or redundant information. Even his vital signs were being monitored constantly through his badge, which was kind of unnerving, like a pair of eyes was always watching him... “Why does my race say 'ERROR', now? Last time I looked it was just some question marks...”
“Do you have a bloodline, perchance?” Abe asked.
“Yeah. Not sure what it is, though.”
“Few truly do. In that case, it makes sense. Probably has something to do with you reconstituting your physical body. Or maybe you have the blood of a primus in you after all. I'm not sure – but I show up as an error as well. My great grandfather was Anu, or so they say. The guild does not catalog all of the various hybrid races. Though I may be identical to any old telurian, its the same for me.”
“So I can just go around killing whatever monsters I want? And they pay me for it?”
“Sorta.” Yana answered. “You get contribution points for slayer quests. Everything else might have a monetary reward based on who posted it. A lot of your options are not available to us, since we're slaves and all. Contribution points can be exchanged for supplies or artifacts in the adventurers guild store, different benefits, you can pay most bills with them too. Or so I've been told, Neal took all of our points for himself, not sure what will happen now. Every rank sees different quests. There aren't a lot these days, it's pretty early into the astral spaces manifestation, more come after intelligence is gathered.”
“That reminds me...” Tyr closed the tablet shut with a determined look on his face. “Isn't slavery supposed to be illegal in the republic?”
“It is.” Jura nodded. Slowly walking about their position of ambush on the twenty large pack of bloodhounds. They seemed to be one of the most common animals in the jungle. Tyr would have expected giant spiders or centipedes, maybe the gorillas. But he supposed he was lucky to have run into such weak monsters thus far. There were a lot of them but they weren't much of a threat. “But are we in the republic?”
“...I guess that's a fair point. Why are you here at all? Wasn't there a problem with crossing through the nation?”
“Nope. They let us through just fine.” Xavier was flicking blood off his steely limbs, still maintaining his metallic form. He could ingest metal to change his body and take on some traits associated with what material he used. Allomancy, the real kind, though he couldn't use it in projectile form or manipulate anything beyond his body. They called that 'magnomancy', but it was a dead school of study considering that runes made it impossible. “Abe knows. Right, Abe?”
“The initial exploration of the astral space didn't go very well. The various guilds lost dozens of adventurers each, over two hundred of them all told. Typically, there is fair warning when an astral space is about to break down, but there wasn't one a few months ago when the previous environment was exchanged for this one.”
“What happened to them?” Tyr asked.
“Nobody knows.” Girshan said. “They just up and disappeared. Never to be seen again, considered killed in action by the association. Something about how astral spaces work, but none of us is an expert on that. They are different than dungeons, but similar in phenomena, and a lot larger – as you can see. Since then, the other guilds and charters won't sent people in. Thus, slaves like us had our contracts purchased on per-diem and sent here. People who can't complain and leave whenever they'd like, and since we aren't technically in the republic – we're permitted to. Since this is another world, the law does not technically apply here. Only wider adventurer law. Unlike the rest of the country, you'd have noticed how the adventurers guild proper actually has an office here. It's something like that, the politics are beyond me and I don't need to know more.”
“That sucks.” Tyr spat.
“Life sucks.” Xavier gave the older man a grim smile. “But not anymore, right? Since you're going to free us?”
“Xavier...” Girshan tutted.
“I'll free you.” Tyr promised, yet again. “By any means necessary.”
“I don't really understand you. Given that we've only been together for two days...” Yana said. “That would make sense that I don't. But... You have no problem killing paladins, or anyone else. I've seen you butcher monsters without an ounce of fear. You seem to feel no pain.”
“He also doesn't use the bathroom with us.” Xavier added. “Why don't you use the bathroom, are you shy?”
“I don't poo.” Tyr replied. “Sometimes I'll take a sneaky piss over yonder, but only when I've drank too much ale. I just don't have the urge.”
“You lack the need to defecate?” Abe asked, taking his grimoire out. “I see, I see. So it would appear that your metabolism has become such that you absorb and reprocess waste rather than--”
“Here we go again.” Jura sighed. “But honestly, I would like to know. You've said as much, that you don't care if we live or die. Why would the fact that we are slaves concern you in the least, given that?”
“I guess a man has to have a code.” Tyr shrugged. They'd cleared the area out some time ago, and it was time to move on. “Whatever that is, I'm still trying to define mine. Maybe I've awoken to a new lust for the flesh of half orcs and nubile cat girl slaves. Perhaps I'll bully your master into selling you two to me, and I'll ditch the rest, taking you for myself.”
Jura shrugged, either way was good enough for her. She'd lived this life for most of her time on this world and he wasn't too bad.
Xavier laughed, slapping Tyr on the shoulder before becoming stony in the face. “You wouldn't really do that. Ha... Would you? Please don't.”
“If you don't stop calling me 'cat girl', so help me gods!” Yana angrily shook the bladed pendulum in his face. Then, she blushed, rubbing her toe into the ground. “And what do you mean, nubile? Doesn't that mean you're sexually attracted to me? Should you be saying such things? We've only known each other for a few days. That is hardly time enough for us to determine if we're a good match.”
Tyr shut her up by spitting on the ground. Anything to snap her out of her wild daydreams or bizarre fetishes and back to her normal self. Even if a little offended, questioning the meaning of his gesture. Questions he ignored.
“Fine by me.” Jura shrugged. “Everyone is a slave to something, whether that be their vocation or the need to make money to live. Our master is not so bad, but you are far more breedable in comparison. All the better to mount you if you've a proper taste for my flesh, you like to talk tough, but I can smell the submissiveness in you. We would make powerful children, little prince.” She chuckled then, clutching at his hand and spinning into his arms to put a certain part of her body against a certain part of his own. Unsurprisingly, Tyr felt nothing. No even lust, despite how pleasing she was to the eye. “Hard man. Can't say I've met many that would turn all of this down.”
“All of this? What man have you been with?” Yana looked ready to slap them both now. “You're still a virgin! And so am I!”
“So?” Jura responded rudely. “The birds and the bees, little Yana. I've seen stags mount one another – wolves too, it couldn't be harder for the likes of us. And don't look so offended. I said I wanted to breed with him, not marry him. You can have him after I'm done.”
“I never said I wanted to marry him!”
“Are they always like this?” He turned to Xavier. It felt more natural talking to a younger man, even though it was hard to consider how he was only eleven years of age. Tyr felt a sense of deja vu washing over him throughout the conversation. Wondering what the other women he knew were up to in that moment, although their behavior was certainly less wild and random.
Xavier shrugged noncommittally. “You think they're bad? You should meet a kijin woman. They are far worse. Like Jura, only ten times as intense. That's what I heard.”
“...Really?”
“Don't awaken anything.” Girshan chuckled. “You might get yourself into more trouble than you can handle.”