Paul was studying the STA when something unexpected happened.
Previously, throughout the rest of the day, the little black orb was solid and immovable. He could touch it with his instruments and it would simply feel like he was slapping a piece of stone (a stone that was completely black, perfectly spherical, and impossibly suspended in the air).
He had permission to use electronic equipment to take readings, however, he wasn’t allowed to bring the equipment within a certain amount of distance, for fear of triggering some unknown effect.
It was really starting to annoy him. This wasn’t a nuclear device. It was looking more and more like a spatial or a temporal anomaly. Hence why the acronym, STA, was starting to catch on. However, it could easily disappear just as easily as it appeared, and no one would have any clue as to what it was.
Was it a wormhole? Was it a stabilized black hole? No one would know unless he used better devices.
If he could just shoot an x-ray through it, he could at least see if it was hollow or solid. It was simply a frequency of light, and there was already plenty of that all around.
“Thompson,” the femenine yet authoritative voice said behind him, “if you’re thinking about radiating the anomaly, I’ll tell you again. Absolutely not.”
Paul sighed. “You’re right, doctor Carlure. I’m just tired of using physical measurements on something that is clearly more… well, more. This is the most exciting thing ever to happen to us. Yet here we are, caught in the wheels of politics and military secrecy. Surely you feel the same?”
“I do,” she replied reluctantly. “But there’s no helping it. We have to follow protocol. Let’s just stick to our jobs and not take any unnecessary risks. What have you found so far?”
Paul flipped through pages of notes on a clipboard.
“This morning I discovered that the distance between the bottom surface of the orb and the ground is 4.72 feet. I thought that was a little suspicious, so I converted it to metric and found it to be exactly 144 centimeters. Furthermore, it has a circumference of exactly 12 centimeters. Do you know what this means?”
“It smells like something artificial. Those proportions are just too specific.”
“Mhmm. That’s what I think.”
Carlure jotted something down on her own clipboard. “Great. I’ll take this up with General Park. What else?”
Paul scratched his head, a frown was on his face. “Nothing else, actually. It doesn’t emit frequencies, heat, nothing. It’s just hard and solid. And no matter how much force you apply to it, it won’t move. Watch.”
He held up a piece of measuring tape to the black orb and let it dangle. He was preparing to drape it over the orb.
“See-”
He touched the tape to the orb, expecting it to bend around just like every other time today. However, to both of their surprise, the orb melted around the tape and then rapidly started to consume the rest of it.
Startled, Thompson jumped back, letting go of the tape. The black orb sucked it inside and then became still once again. The pair backed away and stared at the anomaly for a while, their hearts racing.
“It’s gone!” Paul finally said. “What the f-”
Whirring and beeping from previously inert equipment caught their attention. They were picking up frequencies from the anomaly!
“Doctor Thompson,” said Carlure quickly. “Bring in the rest of the team and get started right away! We’ll stay up all night if we have to.”
Paul noticed her demeanor go from dreary to energetic in a heartbeat. She was a scientist after all.
He grinned widely as he looked back at the orb with fresh enthusiasm.
----------------------------------------
Zach woke up on the floor of his jail cell. It was a surreal feeling to find oneself behind bars after waking up, so it took him a minute to collect his wits.
‘Wasn’t I just at the computer?’
The last thing he remembered was sitting at the computer screen and suddenly getting very drowsy. He shook himself. He had to start his plan right away! But first he checked his leg.
The last he remembered, he had been injured in the nightmare dungeon. It had hurt so much that he had left without saying goodbye to Snowy. He felt kind of bad for that.
But looking at his leg now, there was no sign of damage. Not even a scar or bruise.
A theory popped into his head.
He punched the stone wall moderately hard. A jolt went up his arm, and his knuckles started bleeding, yet there was no pain.
‘It seems that I don’t feel pain while on Vera, but I do in the nightmare dungeon.’ he concluded.
Satisfied, he was ready to initiate his plan.
He thought about what he should do once he got back to Vera, to that cell. He even scolded himself a few times, but luckily his delusional paranoia would pay off in the next few hours.
He found his flint dagger in his inventory and it appeared in a flash of light in his hand. He then charged the dagger with [Input Fire] and cut holes right through the stone wall. When he was done, he stashed his dagger again, but didn’t leave. Instead he turned around and examined the cell door.
As expected, the lock was easy to pick. It was one of the many things he had researched on the internet earlier that - erm - morning. The simple lock was no match for the vast expanse of modern day locks and lock picking knowledge. With just a pair of thin sticks he had in his inventory, he lifted the inner mechanism and unlocked the door to his cell.
When someone eventually found the empty cell, they would hopefully assume he had escaped through the hole in the wall and ignore the unlocked door.
Zach peeked around the corner for a guard. Not seeing anyone, he tip-toed into the small hallway space and pushed open a hidden door leading to the manor. He had researched some medieval manors. Hidden doors like these were usually reserved for the servants’ use. The nobles and household owners didn’t need them, so they were concealed to look more appealing to the eye.
Zach snuck around the corners and through the narrowest hallways. His heart was racing and his eyes shifted back and forth like a cornered rabbit, but the entire way he didn’t see a single servant or guard. He found it a bit curious, but he wasn’t complaining.
Eventually he made it to what he suspected was a storage closet reserved for the servants’ uniforms. He took one of each set of uniforms, making sure to get a wide variety, and sent it all to his inventory.
Finally his luck seemed to run out. Footsteps clacked down the hallway in his direction.
Zach scrambled to close the closet door and started to run back to the jail. But then a pair of voices came from the hallway in the direction of his escape. Startled, he looked for anything to hide behind, quickly deciding upon a window with thick curtains.
The first set of footsteps started to fade, the owner apparently walking down another hallway, but the voices of the other two got louder.
“Did you see the princess arrive yesterday?” one of the voices gossiped.
“Yes I did. Isn't she the loveliest thing you've ever beheld?” the other responded.
“I can attest,” the first agreed.
Zach realized the voices, servants probably, were now extremely close. His heart felt like it was going to explode from his chest. He pressed himself into the curtain, hoping they wouldn’t see him, and held still. They were only a few feet away!
“Hold on, let me dust this off, Emmy,” said the first voice.
Zach held his breath. If they were dusting curtains, he was as good as caught.
A little shuffling sounded off to his right. Then it stopped.
“Alright, I’m finished with this one.”
Then the gossiping servants walked away. When he felt that they were a fair distance away, Zach peaked out from behind the curtains. Apparently the servant had cleaned a fancy looking vase resting on a pedestal.
The servant stifled a laugh.
Unfortunately, with his anxiety sharpened senses, it startled him. He involuntarily backed into the pedestal. The vase hit the floor and shattered.
‘In a time like this!’ he scolded himself.
“What was that?”
“Hush, Emmy. We mustn’t wake the princess. We’re already being loud, as it is. Let’s go see what happened.”
‘Oh no.’
Zach abandoned the curtain and ran as quietly as he could to the hidden door to the jail. Then he backtracked to his prison cell, changed into a set of the stolen clothes, and escaped through the hole he had made earlier.
‘Hmm. Actually, I guess I could have made this hole later, when I came back,’ he thought. ‘If anyone had found this while I was still inside the manor, they would’ve sounded the alarm.’
Zach looked around for a way to dispose of his old clothes, which were torn, bloody, and dirt stained, but then he remembered his inventory, and sent it all there. It was the perfect way to hide his old belongings since no one would ever find them.
Zach had to force himself to walk at a normal speed. It would have been more suspicious if he was running, and drawn more attention.
A servant who was trimming bushes and doing other garden work gave him a curious glance, but finding nothing abnormal, soon resumed working. Zach relaxed a little more after that. No one stopped him as he walked through the side gates of the property.
“Ah. Freedom,” Zach said while patting himself on the back.
Now, according to Mr. Warren, he had less than half a day to get his business done and escape the city before the guards all had pictures of him and the “wanted” posters went up.
----------------------------------------
Princess Blanchefleur Karin Tulipalo stretched in her bed. She hadn’t felt this well rested in God knows how long. She looked up at the unfamiliar ceiling before remembering where she was. She was in Fernsdale currently staying in the Fernsdale Manor. She had arrived yesterday in the carriage along with Sir Deltris and the rest of the knights on her way back from the capital.
Already the dream was slipping from her mind. In an attempt to remember it better, she called her handmaiden. Bella appeared a moment later.
“My, my princess. You have slept in. I can’t remember the last time you’ve rested so peacefully.” She was genuinely surprised. “Perhaps I could have overslept too.”
A smile crept up on Blanchefleur’s face. She couldn’t help it. “Come now, Bella. Don’t be like that.” She gestured for the handmaiden to sit on the bed, a gesture that she would be confiding in her once again. Bella, already used to this, sat without hesitation. “I’ve just had a very strange dream, and I need to tell you before I forget.”
“Very well. What was it about, milady?”
Blanchefleur took a moment to collect her thoughts before they could escape. “The dream started with a spider, just like always. Only this time,” she thought curiously, “there was only one in the entire dream.”
Bella frowned. The princess was constantly plagued by nightmares about spiders. So was the rest of her family, actually, but she had it the worst out of all of them.
“So then the spider chased you like usual?” Bella asked.
“No. Somebody rescued me,” said the princess with a small smile.
Bella’s eyes went wide. This was the first time she had seen the princess so happy recalling a dream.
“Well... then I had to rescue him,” the princess declared.
Bella pleaded with the princess. “Wait, princess, please. Start from the beginning.”
“Alright.” Blanchefleur giggled uncharacteristically. “So there I was, bravely staring down the lone spider on the outskirts of some castle ruins.”
“Princess, you hate spiders.” Bella commented flatly.
“Hush, Bella. I’m just telling it as it happened.” Blanchelfeur held up her hands, pretending like she was striking down a massive opponent. “That was when someone grabbed my hand, and led me straight into the heart of the ruins. At first I was mad. How dare a commoner wearing dirty rags grab me so suddenly.” She reenacted the heinous act as best she could, much to Bella’s amusement. “But after being chased through the ruins, he told me to hide while he led the giant spider far away before ‘giving it the slip’.”
Bella tilted her head. “That’s a funny expression.”
“I agree. Much of what he said was strange to me. But after he outmaneuvered the spider, he came back and hid with me. After that, we must have talked about some things.” She must have remembered something because she immediately turned red. “Ah, y-yes, he wanted to know about magic, then we talked about how to ‘take down’ the spider.”
“My, my. It seems like quite the adventure.” Bella carefully noted how the princess fidgeted with her nightgown shyly. “Do tell, milady. What was his name?”
“Well, we exchanged nick-names.” She said quietly.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Nick-name? What is that?”
“It is a shortened version of your real name that your friends use to address you easier. That’s what he said at least.”
“Oh. I see. And what were your names?”
“I-I think he called me Snowy,” she frowned, her face straining with concentration. “Ugh. I can’t remember the name he had though.” She seemed distraught over this, she planted her face in one of the cushions. “I can’t remember his name. Why can’t I remember his name?”
The handmaiden placed her hand on the squirming Blanchefleur. “That is a very fitting ‘nick-name’ for you. Why don’t you just continue on with the story, to the end.”
“Ah.” She sat up in the bed. “Well, that is easy. We came up with a plan for beating the spider. Since there were so many tall walls in the ruins, we decided to lure the spider towards it and collapse it over its head. He was the bait. So I had to save him from the spider, by knocking over the wall and crushing it.” The princess suddenly looked depressed, alarming the handmaiden slightly. “I’m alright. Sorry. It’s just that after everything happened and the spider was crushed under the wall, he disappeared.”
“Aww. He just left you like that?”
“Yes.” The princess pouted. It was one of the rare faces she reserved for Bella. “He just disappeared and I could not find him for the rest of the dream.” The princesses' eyes started to tear up. “I-I must have… The wall... Do you think that I...”
Bella shook her head. The knights were willing to risk their lives to save her from any danger. But peasants were not obligated to do this. “Ordinary people usually have a sense of self preservation. But at least there were no more spiders,” she said, trying to lighten the mood.
“Of course. The truth is always revealed to you.”
There was a firm knock at the door. Blanchefleur quickly moved toward the dressing blinds while the handmaiden answered the door.
“Ah. Good morning, milady.” The gruff voice of a guard said.
“Good day to you, sir knight. What can the princess do for you.”
“Well. My humblest apologies. But it seems the prisoner we took yesterday has escaped his cell.”
‘Prisoner?’ Blanchefleur didn’t remember arresting anyone.
“What is this I hear about a prisoner?” Blanchefleur called.
“Y-yes. Well, his name is Zach. We found a large hole in the side of his cell. It looks as if he simply carved straight through the stone with some kind of tool. But we surely didn’t leave him with any tools when we left him in there so we don’t know how he possibly could have made it--”
“Sir knight.” Blanchefleur interrupted, her eyes were narrowed to a slit. “What was his name?”
“I beg your pardon, milady?”
“What was the boy’s name, you said?”
“Zach?”
That was him! That was the boy from Blanchefleur’s dream. The first dream that wasn’t a complete nightmare in a very, very long time. But what did this mean? She dreamt about a boy and someone happened to have that same name in real life?
So many questions spun through her head right now. But she knew now what she had to do.
A short while later, Blanchefleur was dressed, and after speaking more to the guard, she was furious. Apparently when she had told Sir Deltris to investigate the strange boy that could withstand the Rapier of Intimidation, he had taken that as permission to arrest the boy and interrogate him in the morning. Now that boy, with the same name as the one from her dream, was missing. A sizable hole was carved in the wall of his cell.
Blanchefleur mused at the discovery. Now she knew how he had managed to weaken the wall in her dream, which allowed her to knock it down. The second spell in his arsenal let him do damage to solid stone.
“Sir Deltris.” She said. A certain knight holding the cell door straightened a little. “You provoked a man of this caliber, right in front of the manor’s gate and proceeded to throw him in an ordinary cell?”
“I-I can explain, milady.”
Deltris mouthed wordlessly like a fish out of water. Why had he decided to lock him up in the jail? He had already determined the boy to be something abnormal and powerful. Resisting the Rapier of Intimidation proved that. Yet he had simply overlooked that detail and placed him in a low security cell. Strange.
“Sure you can.” She sighed, though not from exhaustion like she normally would have. This ‘sigh’ was rather out of force of habit. “Since I’m in a good mood, I’ll explain it to you. Last night, I slept peacefully. A mysterious visitor helped me conquer my nightmare. I believe it was this boy, who was nearby all this time.”
The knight looked positively shocked. “B-but how?”
The princess waved her hand casually, like she saw Zach do in her dream. “While I have not seen his face in real life, I am almost certain he is the same person. He bears the same name and, based on the state of this cell, the same skill-set as I had witnessed in my dream. We already knew he was special. We simply failed to see how special.”
“So what shall I do, milady?”
“Find him, of course. Then beg for his forgiveness and ask to have a calm, civilized discussion here at the manor. As I understand it, our journey back to Caeli resumes tomorrow. That should be plenty of time for you.” Then the princess’s voice turned icy. “Please be sure to do it properly this time, good Sir Deltris.”
The knight shivered a little.
----------------------------------------
Zach walked down the street.
It was still early in the morning and the working class was already up. He saw muscle bound workers leaving houses and hotels with crumbs in their beards. They were heading out of the city to work the fields. A different flow of traffic consisted of skinner looking people with nicer clothes and fairer skin. Zach assumed these were the upper working class. They were all heading to other parts of the city, rather than taking the main roads toward the city gates.
Zach deliberated once again about if he should leave the city as soon as possible. He had just escaped a jail cell after all. However, he quickly shook off that line of thought.
No. He needed to get some business done inside the city. And fortunately, this was all aligned with his original plan.
The first step was to get out of the prison cell. That was easy. The second step, stealing some new clothes as a disguise, was also trivially easy. In fact, he hadn’t expected step two to go so well. He had stolen five sets of clothes from the staff closet. Then the disguise had worked so well that the only person to see him, the hedge trimmer, hadn’t spared him a second glance.
He laughed to himself. Then blushed when some workers shot him a look.
Step three was to find the Hunter’s Guild and complete his {Defender} quest. Hopefully there, he could knock out two birds with one stone and get information on the kingdom. He also needed to figure out how to sell his wolf teeth and buy some proper equipment. A map would help him navigate to another city better, and a weapon would be useful too.
A peddler’s cart on the side of the road caught his eye. A man was setting up his traveling shop for the day. He wasn’t open for business yet because his goods were suited to a different demographic of people. The name of the cart caught Zach’s attention. A string of text in English floated next to the alien language allowing him to read it, just like Ferney’s map.
“Bones and Stones?” Zach asked the peddler.
The man turned away from the thing he was working on, saw Zach, and immediately perked up.
“Ah, yes. S-sorry for the delay. I’m never early enough to greet my customers when they need me, it seems. My apologies.”
The man was clearly overweight. It was early in the morning and a bit chilly since it was fall, soon to be winter, yet the man brought out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead.
“Bones and Stones deals in jewelry made from ivory and precious stones, hence the name. And what can I do for you, young master?”
Young master? Zach looked over his shoulder for someone rich or important looking.
“Are you talking about me?” Zach said with a touch of incredulity. “What makes you think I’m a ‘young master’?”
“Ah. Are you not? I just assumed because of the freshly tailored clothes and your fair skin. And you also have smooth hands so I just assumed you were of noble birth.”
Zach sheepishly scratched his head. “I-I see.”
“So what can I do for you?” The man repeated. “If you’re interested in some of my goods, my apologies, you will have to wait until I unbox them.”
Zach waved his hands in front of him, stopping the peddler. “Oh. No. I’m just wondering if you could provide me with some information.”
Now was the best time to appraise his collection of [Zeran Wolf Fangs]. But then Zach realized something.
‘Oh shoot! My wolf teeth are in my inventory!’
There was no telling how someone would react to seeing an item appear out of thin air. Although, perhaps it was a common thing to have an inventory, it was safer to play things right and not stand out.
Zach nervously shoved his hand into his pocket and ‘desired’ for one tooth to appear in his hand. When something smooth and dense dropped into his pocket, he let out an involuntary sigh, and brought out a glistening white object for the merchant to see.
Zach saw the man’s eyes light up. The peddler fetched a tool similar to a magnifying glass and examined the large canine.
While admiring the tooth, he spoke to Zach. “Teeth are stronger and denser than every other bone in the body, aside from the horns of some beasts, and in terms of quality, this one is about average. But the size, and the fact that it is from a predator, makes it most desirable.”
“You can have it,” Zach offered unhesitantly. “In exchange, I would like information on the tooth as well as info on some unrelated things. What do you say?”
“Deal. My name is Lester. What about you?”
“Zach. Nice to meet you.”
“So what would you like to know first?”
Zach thought about it. “Why are the teeth of predators highly valued?”
“Ah. Trophy hunters and taxidermists prize the bodies of predators the most. Teeth and fur fetch the highest price in their most natural forms when they come from predators.
“Furthermore, the teeth at the front of the jaw, like most of the teeth on predators, are also less prone to cavities, so they are easier to craft into jewelry and tools. They are like a cheap substitute for ivory. The only limiting factor is size,” said the peddler. “In fact, this one is especially large. Where did you find it?”
Zach bit back a curse. Apparently, he had lost a huge boon when Elmarud had chased him off the wolf carcasses. If he had just had time to butcher them, he could at least have sent them to his inventory for storage, if nothing else. There didn’t seem to be any limits to the amount he could carry. It was something he fully intended to exploit.
“I killed a few large wolves in the forest just South West of here,” he responded a little too casually.
The peddler wasn’t sure how to feel about that statement. He made an awkward face while measuring the fang in his hands a few times.
Zach remembered the wolf he had butchered and successfully stored in his inventory. He was almost tempted to bring out the head and see if the man’s face would turn to something more hilarious.
“I see. So you killed them in the Stutter Forest, eh. They must’ve been enormous.”
Zach just shrugged.
“Can you tell me how much I can sell it for?” Zach asked.
“For this one in my hand, I would pay five or six Roosters,” the man said.
Zach was about to laugh. He thought the man was joking, but was taken aback when he saw the peddler’s plain face. Then the thought occurred to him.
‘Is a Rooster the name of the currency? Seriously?’
“Out of curiosity, what is the average hotel price around here?” Zach asked instead.
“Five Roosters,” responded the peddler. “If you had the rest of the carcass, I’m sure you could easily have paid for food and lodging for a week based on the earnings.”
Now Zach seriously regretted not finishing off Elmarud when he had the chance.
“Well, I can sell you the other fang,” Zach said with a sigh. He materialised the fang in his other pocket and pulled it out for the man to see. “How about it? You said six Roosters, correct?”
“Ah-ah. I believe I said five. I’m afraid I’m rather strapped for cash so I shouldn’t spend more than five Roosters.”
Zach grinned.
“Make it five Roosters and one of each smaller denomination of coin and I’ll be satisfied. Final offer.”
“Done,” said the peddler. He hastily brought out five large coins with a familiar creature engraved on the face of it, which Zach guessed were the Roosters, and four smaller coins. “One tallon, one sickle, one spur, one comb, and five Roosters total.”
“Thanks.”
Zach handed over the wolf fang and made a small show of putting the money in his pocket before transferring it all to his inventory. Zach would study each of the coins later when he could.
“Two more things,” Zach continued. “Do you know where the nearest Hunter’s Guild building is?”
Zach’s goal from the beginning was to find out where the Hunter’s Guild was. Luckily he had learned more about the world in the process.
The peddler gladly gave him directions to the building.
“Since this is farewell, if you ever encounter an Ivory Elk on your monster-slaying quests, young Zach,” he said, “please feel free to drop by my stand. I’d hate for you to sell ivory antlers to some big corporation for a sub-par price.”
“I’ll try to remember that,” Zack nodded. “Last question. Where can I learn magic?”
----------------------------------------
Zach walked up to the building that Lester had directed him to. A string of people were leaving the building for the day. Each of them had bags and weapons and the general air of warriors. Now, only a small number of people were inside. They were all looking at a large board with papers pinned to it, except for one person.
“Excuse me. Is this the Hunter’s Guild building?” he asked the lady seated behind the counter.
The receptionist, a lady with bright red hair, gave him a bored look, as if contemplating whether or not to hear his request. She sighed and examined her nails. She was wearing something akin to a uniform, but it was modified to show off certain... assets.
“Welcome to the Hunter’s Guild hall. If you are seeking part time employment please look over the requests posted on the Guild’s board,” she said with a flat tone. “If you would like to accept a quest, bring it up to me and I’ll get it approved for you. Failing a request will result in double the payment offered coming out of your own pocket. If there are any questions, please feel free to ask.”
Clearly she had given that speech many times. Her voice hadn’t fluctuated at all, excluding her last sentence which oozed sarcasm.
“Um. No thanks.” Zach already had a quest system. “I need to report something I encountered in the woods South West of here, the Stutter Forest, I believe is what it’s called.”
She looked at him and sighed. “Fine. What is it?”
Zach waited for her to get out some kind of official looking documents and begin writing, but the red-haired receptionist didn’t even reach for a sheet of paper.
“Don’t you think you should write this down?”
She rolled her eyes at him. “How about you tell me what it is first, and then I’ll decide.”
Zach narrowed his eyes. A new quest notification had popped up in his vision.
[Quests]
[Main Quests:]
- {Defender: Make an official report to the Hunter’s guild. Bonus reward for providing proof or indisputable evidence. *Incomplete*}
Zach read the quest very carefully, pondering over each word. He decided to be truthful, and show her at least one of the wolf teeth as evidence.
He retold everything that had happened to him inside the dungeon, about Elmarud, the glowing stone pillar, and how he had closed the dungeon. Then he brought out one of the teeth he had harvested to show the receptionist as proof.
The receptionist's eyebrows rose, but she was clearly unimpressed. She had yet to grab a pen and paper and start drafting the official report.
“Astounding,” she said flatly. “And where did you say you encountered the “dungeon” again? And where did you get the tooth?”
“In the woods South West of here! And I got it from killing one of the wolves and extracting it from their cold dead body! I told you this already.” Zach said, outraged.
“Yeah, sure kid. Where did you really get your little white rock? Your rich daddy?”
This was absolutely absurd! Zach started coughing involuntarily.
“I have one of those too, you know,” the receptionist continued. “My father wanted me to get some thicker skin. So he offered me a job in the family garden with his servants, or a position here, entertaining muscle bound adventurers... and the occasional prankster like you.” She looked at him like she would a dirty towel. “As a noble, I chose to work here so I can stay out of the sun and remain beautiful. So stop wasting my time with your concocted stories. You, probably the son of some small-time noble, are not on the same level as me.”
Zach frowned. This lady sure was stuck up! And why did everyone think he was the son of a noble?
“Look, lady!” Zach yelled. “I’m not rich. And I don’t even have a dad. He died when I was little. It’s just me and my mom. Second, I really did kill the wolf that dropped this fang. How could you possibly not believe me! Is it so hard for you to write up some silly report?!”
The receptionist was unapologetic. Not the slightest indication of guilt showed on her face. In fact, she had the audacity to yawn instead!
Zach was getting more and more impatient. His quest window had promised bonus rewards, but the woman in front of him was wasting his time and not letting him through. He wouldn’t even get the regular reward for completing the quest at this point.
Eventually though, the other people in the guild hall trickled out, leaving just him and the receptionist as the only ones in the building. Zach suddenly had a mischievous glint in his eyes, and opened his inventory. If a tooth wasn’t enough as indisputable proof, perhaps something larger would suffice...
“Have you ever seen a dead animal, noble receptionist?” he said slowly.
“What are you babbling about?” she said lazily, looking at her nails again.
“Well. Have you?”
“Hmpf. No. I’ve only ever seen them prepared by a master chef and served on platters.”
“Then what if I showed you a wolf carcass,” Zach said in a low voice. “Right now. What if I pulled it out, right now?”
The receptionist raised an eyebrow mockingly.
Suddenly, in a flash of light, the massive head of a Zerean Wolf appeared in the air and landed on the receptionist’s counter with a heavy thud. Blood started to drip down over her tools and papers. The receptionist let out a shriek and stumbled backward, falling out of her seat.
“I killed at least fifteen of these beasts in the woods. They all came out of a black floating orb which tore a hole in the sky.” Zach didn’t bother to pick up his mess. He wasn’t going to soil his new set of clothes because of one stuck-up noble. “Now,” he continued. “You’re going to write up that report exactly as I say.”
The receptionist’s eyes darted in between the wolf and Zach, trying to decide which deadpan glare was less terrifying.
“W-where… H-how did you…” she pointed at the air where the wolf head materialized from, then the head, and then back at the air.
‘Great,’ Zach thought bitterly. ‘It seems that an inventory is not a normal thing in this world.’
[End Chapter 11]