The corpse of rot lay still, showered by the glimmer of moonlight, bathed with mist, drizzled by rain.
Zayne couldn’t keep his legs still with his heart slamming against his chest. Only the wobbling sight of the marshes registered in his mind, “What… What’s going on?”
Danya smirked. “Mordred’s right… this is the new guy.” He studied Zayne’s body, “Well, I think this one looks capable enough. Right, boss?”
The boss traced his hand above the corpse of the dead goblin chief. “I don’t care what he does on his own. We’re just here to finish the wraiths off.” He rose, pinching a pebble-sized gem with the fabled queer glimmer.
“An essence gem…” Zayne muttered under his breath, “Wait-“
Danya’s cheeky grin confirmed his suspicions; these men were inflicted with the same implanted core the unknown man gave him. “Ah! He finally realized. Took you long enough.”
The boss tossed multiple pebbles to Zayne, each glimmering under the moonlit marshes. They thumped the wet soil and settled. “Take it.” His spoke, voice ladened with cold apathy. Turning his head aside, he glared upon the outstretched corpse of the rotting man with bent limbs on the hummus. Viscous blood pooled around his listless figure. “We found them all. This is the last one.”
“Then, that means…”
“Mission’s over.” The boss shrugged. “For now…”
Zayne found enough will to lurch himself up. He rubbed his eyes as he searched for his lost blade and his satchel. “My… my blade and my amulet… my coins…” I’ve worked so hard for those, and that sword belonged to Gilbert. I can’t lose them.
His trembling arms dredged the pile of splinters and broken planks, rummaging for his belongings with reckless abandon, only stopping once a tiny glimmer spilled from within, easing his heart and urging him to continue. There they were, trapped within the destroyed hut, his blade and his satchel rested beside each other as if they were couples. Zayne breathed relief, clasping the satchel back around his waist, equipping his sword on his side—gripping its handle tight, unwilling to lose it again.
The three adventurers were still in deep discussion when he returned.
“Thanks for saving me.” Zayne spoke while pointing to the dead man “He asked for my core—and I believe you know what it is.”
The boss froze mid-speech. He turned his blue eyes to Zayne, his expression unchanging, “I know. I take it you’ve reached level 5? Do you have the key?”
“Yeah…” Zayne spoke, wringing the key out of thin air, “This is it, right? And Mordred…”
“He’s the one who gave us these cores.” Danya interrupted, finishing Zayne’s line of thought, “Well, the three of us are the ones alive after all this time, to be precise. The others…” He gently rubbed his chin, looking up wistfully, “Let’s just say fate didn’t treat them as kindly.”
The boss studied Zayne’s key with his intense glare, then waved his hand, “That’s good. You’re progressing fast enough. Let’s head back. The license test begins tomorrow, I hated it as much as you do, but we have official responsibilities to fulfill.” He said, heading toward the darkness. “Get going, your friends are waiting for you.”
“Oh…” The siblings…
###
“How close are you to Mordred?” Zayne asked, his croaky voice dry from dehydration. The mists shrouding the marshes had lifted under the guise of night, its hazy gray replaced by quiet blackness. Occasional, sporadic movements near the treelines shook along their trek back into Basin, but none dared to approach Zayne, not when the boss walked with them. Sometimes Zayne mistook his presence for a formidable beast.
“Not really…” Danya sighed, “Guy basically told us nothing after granting us our cores. Unlike our boss here,” his eyes darted at the boss. Bernard kept his gaze on the night sky, refusing to part eyes with it.
It doesn’t answer much… “What should I do after this?”
“Get stronger. What else?” The boss spoke for the first time since their walk, “You still have a long ways to go before being of any use to him. So, just live your adventurer life until you’re strong enough to reach the central continent. Once there, He’ll tell you what to do.”
“What if I don’t want to follow him?” Zayne spoke curtly. “I have to be honest, he didn’t exactly give me the best first impression.”
“That’s not my problem.” The boss deflected his question, “We’re all working for a purpose beyond helping Mordred.”
Zayne shifted his gaze to Bernard. He kept his lips shut.
Danya sneered, “Well, as for me, I simply loved the weird shit he asked us to do sometimes. Life’s more interesting that way.”
“Really…” Zayne answered, half in disbelief.
“Find your own purpose first, kid.” Bernard’s thick voice grouched the marshes, his thick, brusque steps squelching the wet soil beneath from his weight, “Once you do, you’ll find what he has to say to be of value. Otherwise, that man will simply annoy you.”
“I don’t care about what you do with your time, but-“ The boss halted his steps, “Your friends… Right now, you’re too small for any outside force to care, but once you get a spotlight in the adventuring world, you’d be wise to operate on your own. Otherwise, you’ll put them in danger, like what happened today.”
His words resonated deep inside Zayne’s heart.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“-Or don’t.” He added with a shrug, “What you do with your time is none of my business.”
Zayne lowered his gaze, “What about Eternity? What exactly am I supposed to do in there?”
“Oh! Let me answer that one-“ Danya interjected, resulting in a relieved sigh from the boss—he loathed answering his incessant questions, Zayne realized. “-For the majority of the floors, you simply had to defeat the floor boss to proceed. But some are different, and that differences differ for each of us. However, the monsters and the rewards are… alluring, to say the least. You’ll experience most of your growth in there, trust me on that.”
It took a few seconds for a ravished, wounded, and thirsty Zayne to take in what he said. “What floor are you on, Danya?”
“Me? 32.” He spoke as-a-matter-of-factly. “Don’t ask the boss’s floor, you’ll be discouraged.”
Zayne darted his glare to the boss’s dark, flowing cape. He didn’t bother to shoot as much as a glance back. The marshes parted, revealing the plains and the meadow before reaching Basin. Swerving blades of tall grass parted as their figures dredged back into society, and the three adventurers parted with Zayne before the west gate. Zayne eyed their figures sinking into darkness, then turned his head away. One thing at a time, Zayne.
###
“Zayne!” Gilbert’s nasally voice rang when he entered the west gate, wrangling Zayne under his arms. It appeared they had waited here all this time for his return, judging from their unchanged state of attire. Oswul simply smiled bitterly, and Wyne… She came with a light swing on his chest.
“Don’t do that to us again.” Her smack was gentle, but her eyes spoke volumes of how much she’d feared Zayne’s absence. “I swear to god if you do-“
“Sorry.” Sorry was all he could say. “I just…” He sighed, “I just thought that was the best decision. And…” He eyed the sky with a wistful gaze, “I don’t want to lose my friends again.”
“Just so you know, we’re not replacements for them,” Wyne smiled, easing her intense frown, “But… thank you. We’ll remember this. You are a part of our family now, as far as I’m concerned, and I won’t hesitate to do the same to you.”
Zayne curled his lips up, but his eyes failed to smile along. The conversation with Danya and the boss on their return shed a few lights on the nature of his core; and how ultimately dangerous it would be for those involved with him.
Zayne looked up to see the absolute crowd walking about inside the guild’s district. “What’s all this? I don’t remember it ever being this crowded.”
Gilbert tapped his shoulder, then held him tight, “Well, tomorrow’s the license test, so most guilds are looking for potential recruits during this time. Some had already begun their negotiation process,” he pointed at a distant conversation between a guild representative and a brawny adventurer, “But that isn’t all, you’ll see those same representative scouting tomorrow during the test, make sure you give them a good showing. If you somehow reached the top spots, then your future is pretty much guaranteed.” He spoke as they waded their way through the crowd.
Oswul kept his glance on the rowdiness along their glacial walk through the dense fog of people. “On our way back, we passed the supervisor for tomorrow’s test and they appeared to have known where you are when we met them.” He had to shout to get his voice heard. “What happened?”
“It’s a long story…” Zayne replied, thinking, “In short, the goblins were controlled; charmed by a death wraith, that’s why they ventured so far outside of their usual spot.”
Death wraith. Yes, he wasn’t kidding. That half-dead, half-puss walking corpse belonged to a death wraith. Yet that wasn’t all, he was one of the six total Death wraiths roaming about Basin’s outskirts. The boss and his entourage had taken care of five of them before they came across Zayne, saving his lovely encounter for last.
The siblings’ gaze turned sour. Wyne spoke up after they passed the crowd and entered the less boisterous inn street, “Then… after that?”
“They took care of him. It was pretty easy for them, as far as I could tell.” Zayne shrugged, “Though… One of them is particularly strong. I’d say he’s head and shoulders above the rest. The goblins and the chief are like… nothing to them. It’s crazy.”
Oswul laughed, “Well, they are at least C-ranked or above. It makes sense.”
Zayne understood little of the disparity of strength between the ranks, but after witnessing the massacre, he caught a glimpse of the distance he had to claw over to reach the black-cloaked man they refused to call anything other than the boss. His utter dominance sobered Zayne; that man subdued a death wraith as if he was a Kobold. From the sibling’s stories and their general infamy; death wraiths were dangerous people most adventurers avoided like a plague. No wonder B-ranked adventurers were celebrities.
The doors to the sparrow inn opened, and the usual crabby grandma eyed them with a disapproving look. “Get yourselves clean,” she said with a petulant huff, tossing the same four coins to them.
Tonight, Basin brimmed with life, its crowdedness being at its peak. The bathhouses neared suffocated them upon entering, and all they managed was a simple wash; by the time they left, they were sweating again. Sparrow’s inn spared them from the ardent noises outside, allowing them to speak freely without the need to yell or scream.
“They say the test this year will be different,” Oswul spoke up once they finished their dinner, his eyes stark open as if he was mentioning demise, “Like… really, really different. The invasion caused the test to be shortened, but the details were kept a secret.”
“What?” Zayne’s ears perked at his sudden remark, this was the first time he’d heard about it, “What kind of different?”
“Difficult.” Gilbert spoke, tapping his fingers, “We heard about it from the most recent wave of nobles and adventurers that had made their way here while waiting for you.”
Wyne sipped her warm cup, “Some said we’d be split into individual groups based on our preferred roles, a few others said otherwise. In truth, what they spoke is just rumors. Don’t lose sleep over it. It doesn’t change that we have to do our best.”
“What is the last year’s test like?” Zayne asked, his curious feet tapping the timbered floor. “I heard of about a combat and written test, then you have to spend a week with a designated adventurer in the wild, then he or she will grade you based on your performance outside. Is it true?”
The siblings nodded, adding nothing to Zayne’s statement.
Wyne yawned once the streets quieted down a little. “I think it’s time to sleep, you all. Let’s begin the test with a mind that’s not yearning to rest.”
Sleep. Oh, that’s right. The hall wouldn’t let him sleep in there today, so Zayne had to find somewhere else. “Alright. See you all tomorrow.” He had half a mind to ask the siblings for a favor; the notion of sleeping in comfortable bedding allured him, but he had more errands to attend to. First, his gems needed appraising and consuming, then he had to deal with his relative lack of armor and other weapons. After that… He wished to tackle Eternity, if possible. “Where should we meet tomorrow?”
“The hall entrance.” The three siblings spoke in unison.
###
Zayne dared the noisy crowd on his way to the hall, wading through warm, slick bodies with his other arm clasping his satchel. The merchant district was packed with adventurers looking for weapons and armor for the test tomorrow, and the siblings were spot-on; the rumors of the queer test had spread like wildfire. Nearly everyone raved about it. The hall matched Basin in its density of crowds, Zayne had to wait for his turn in Pherey’s line. Her usual cheerful facade had worn from her languor, replaced with a constant yawn and tired sighs, yet, she kept herself going. Her eyes lit when she saw him approaching her counter, and he proceeded with his usual appraisal business.
Zayne walked out of the hall 5 silver richer. Yes. Just five silver from 6 goblin gems. Pherey had rounded the numbers up for him; “A generous tip from the hall” she said, while he appreciated her favor, he had nowhere enough to reach the required 30 silvers Kallen had specified. He saw his store from a distance, surrounded by the booming voice of the sea of people, and yet… Kallen’s store was arid of any customers, as opposed to the others.
Kallen waved at him when he walked into his store. “Hello there… so, can you fork up those silvers?” He smiled, almost too wide for Zayne’s tastes.
“No.” Zayne lowered his gaze, almost disappointed, but what else could he do? “Sorry, but… without proper missions, I can only muster up 10.”
Kallen’s eyes maintained their sinister grin, “No worries.” He said, “I can part with it for that much… but…”
“But what?”
“You have to do me a favor.” He kept his smile. Creepy, Zayne thought, but he listened.
Kallen drew a large slab of varnished plank from the back of his dark store, then heaved as he rested it on his counter. It appeared to be a sign, but.- “This! Stand with it and yell for the others to visit, will you? I’ll even throw in a weapon for you as a bonus. It’s just so lonely to have this many people outside and no one is coming to your store…” He mocked a pained sigh, “You understand how us merchant feels, right?”
“Yeah… I wonder why…” Zayne turned his head down, studying the sign. It read “Kallen’s shop”, scribbled haphazardly as if he’d carved it in a hurry, “Are you sure? This looks…” He winced, attempting to find good words to say, but all he had to say was awful. “Uh… Well…”
Kallen guffawed, drumming his counter with both hands, “I know, it’s bad. But it’s the best that I got.”
“Do you have a chisel?” Zayne asked, extending an open hand. He had done a few sign works for Kate before, and compared to this downright childish work… I can do much better, He turned up to see Kallen’s somewhat shocked eyes—the first genuine expression he’d seen from this shrewd man. “Well? Do you have one?”
He smiled.