Returning to the lords hall felt great, and while everyone looked at us in a somewhat negative light, we were still led to the lord, two guards walking behind us as we entered and held our best pose.

“You have returned, so tell me, what do you want for taking care of this group? Know that I am asking, so I can better judge whether to give this job to you.”

We stood there, before I drew forth a piece of parchment we had worked in the evening before, coughing to clear my throat before I began talking, knowing that my voice was somewhat childish.

“This group offers to take care of the bandits, if you share everything you can with us about them. We ask for looting rights when it comes to them and a way of posing as guards should that become necessary for our investigations. Upon conclusion, both sides of this contract will sit together and discuss how to best deal with this countries stone titan problem together.”

The lord asked his advisor something, and after a few seconds of seemingly endless whispering, he once again turned his gaze towards us.

“After careful deliberation, we consider this situation as reasonable and only ask that you bring evidence for their leaders death, or him still alive if that is possible.”

We agreed, and were asked to talk with a select few members of the guard to learn what was known about the group we were trying to get rid of.

“The redbloom group is a recent disturbance to our homes fragile peace, and while we know of their symbol of declaration, neither their language nor the way they move are familiar to us. Also of note is the speed at which guards are drawn from the areas they will act in, seemingly aware of most guard or mage movements.” He explained, my eyebrows raising beneath the mask as I made a few mental notes to this quest.

Quest

Description.

Reward

Visit University city.

Come to University city, I chose that name on accident, so don’t blame me, and I might have given a whole civilization of scholars a fourth grade symptom. Head inside and tell the leading librarian of the fantasy section about our home worlds dominant creatures.

There are many things I want to tell you, but we do not have any time to waste, I am working on immortality, so that might help this situation exist a little longer. I want to speak to one of us, these idiots fervently worship me as a hero for teaching basic chemistry, biology and physics.

Find a fellow otherworldly.

Forgotten history.

Find a temple of the fallen order and establish a connection to the realm of Necros.

Be initiated into the order.

Avenge your family.

Kill the titan that destroyed your home.

Get revenge.

???

Redbloom bandits.

The Redbloom gang are a menace to the city of Rockfell, and you are tasked with identifying and removing them.

-Investigate the gangs connection to the guards.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

- Find the gangs headquarters.

-Dispose of the gangs leader.

Help with the ‘Avenge your family’ quest, any Items you pick up while doing so.

I loved my analyze skill and the quest interface, the two working too well as one simply recalled everything I knew about this situation.

Then, we departed through the back entrance, deciding to make our way through dark alleys until a particularly stupid group of people decided to rob us.

It was a great ambush too, just not necessarily my stile. A potbellied man stood at the end of the way, while another stood behind us and a third, much more scrawny figure, aimed a crossbow at us from atop a building.

“Give us your money, and this can be over in no time.” The guy offered, a particularly large hunk of steel strapped across his back, which allowed me the time to monologue.

“You see, this is unacceptable, I know not everyone has the means to make a good living, but that really isn’t a reason to simply go around and hurt people.”

Shaking my head, I procured a small satchel I always had prepared for situations like these and threw it towards the bandit, who bowed over to inspect the contents, allowing for Hannibal to charge him right in the head, knocking him out immediately and sitting down on the man to make sure he won’t suddenly wake up and stomp our plans. Immediately, a crossbow bolt was released with a pretty good aim for my head, though a quick ‘Evade’ made it barely miss me and instead land in the ground to my right, giving me a reason to counter with an eldritch lance, which disturbed his movement a bit and gave us more time while he reloaded.

The third guy was currently in a battle with Nemo and Pale, the fight somewhat even until Nemo used her mysteriously distracting meow, drawing the fighters attention and allowing for Pale to land a decent hit, ensuring he would die within the day.

Suddenly, a bolt flashed and killed the potbellied one, the hit a full on headshot that even ignored my cast of evasion.

It would have been a smart move, too, if I wasn’t capable of learning everything I needed from their brains.

He disappeared immensely fast, allowing me to simply eat both their brains and further shamble along the back alleys of this city, now with a clear goal as we went to the save house we were given.

It felt great to know I could simply skip the whole torture phase in most situations, though eating them made my body a bit more adult and gave me the start of a potbelly, aging me by at least a month.

Firmly we knocked on the save houses door, the zombies following me having collapsed a few alleys back.

“Tramp stamp” I called out, the door opened by a twitching mess of a person, our path taking us right through the door and towards the person we knew to be their leader.

“Does the name ‘redbloom’ ring any bells?” I asked him, his rejection prompting ember to incinerate the guy at the door, while pale dashed to a sleeping figure.

“If you can bring us to them, we might spare you. Know that we can get any information we need from your corpse, it's just a bit messy.”

I explain further, his absolutely terrified face prompting me to consider him innocent, that is, until I heard the screams from the backroom, prompting me to grab his shoulder and drag him along, his body weakening and space bending so it was easier for me to accomplish, an elderly woman bound to a wall sobbing and cursing like a sailor.

“Hello there, mam. You do not happen to know anything about the redbloom gang, do you?”

It was then I suddenly felt absolutely disgusted in myself, realizing the way the bandits memories affected my way of thinking as I dragged their leader before the door and quickly decided upon eating him, before heading back in.

“Sorry, I had to take care of that guy for several reasons. I assume you do not want to be here?”

I ask, and she nodded, determined to agree with my speculation.

“Can you believe they thought I knew someone powerful enough to pay my ransom? I barely make enough with my herbs and spices, it's unbelievable.” She complained, and I nodded somewhat silently.

“Yeah, bandits these days are horrible. I take it you don’t know anything about the redblooms?”

I ask, her shaking head making me stop the sudden inquisition and freeing her, before searching the entire place for valuables and then casting ‘Consume area’, which made the ground open on a small area and dissolved the things that fell in to raw essence, which dissolved into the world around it.

“Not quite what I hoped for, but it's better than nothing.” I didn’t even name that spell, mostly out of spite for its uselessness. Instead, Ember decided to simply burn the remaining corpse, and we headed to move further, determined that our search would inevitably hit a group that was affiliated with the gang we were looking for. I just needed to make sure I wouldn’t eat more than absolutely necessary, after all, nobody wanted to be cartoonishly evil for all the reasons one could be.

Our plan failed spectacularly, three more gangs were busted by us before we headed towards the guards again, which prompted us to ask for their help.

“We have learned of a major heist by one of the groups that we have not yet busted, I think if you drew some people from a merchant rich area, the redblooms attack will be inevitable.”

I offered, the guards happy to comply and start everything, while we went to sleep, my body given a large makeover from the people I had eaten, which took quite some time to revert via black hole and physical exercise, though I looked more and more like a seven-year-old at this point.