Dumrivil raced across the open plains. Ezra was almost having to break a sweat to keep up. He was kind of impressed.

Kind of.

Not really.

Ezra trailed Dumrivil from the back and at a far distance to make sure he wouldn’t be seen. Despite Dumrivil being nothing more than a dot on the horizon, Ezra was able to see him and make out the details on his clothing. Probably his Wisdom at work. They ran for ten minutes nonstop and Ezra’s Constitution was actually starting to get strained. His legs burned and his breath came in great huffs.

“You need to invest in your other stats,” Filamenta said.

Ezra growled but didn’t respond, too focused on breathing and not running out of air.

Soon, Dumrivil slowed down. Ezra narrowed his eyes and looked ahead.

There was a massive cave entrance, and Dumrivil was staring up at it. He stepped forward and made his way inside.

Ezra trailed behind him, then paused and looked at the cavern mouth. Great stalactites hung from the ceiling, stretching down for several feet. The ground on the bottom, on the other hand, was open and clear as if it’d been sanded down to remove all impurities. Water dripped from the ceiling and a gentle hum seemed to sound in the background.

Ezra walked forward, revealing glimmering crystals embedded into the walls. They were bright enough that he didn’t need to go back and get a torch, which he was thankful for. In the distance, Dumrivil’s footsteps echoed back to Ezra, and the air grew colder and colder.

“Filamenta, needle form,” Ezra said.

Filamenta sniffed. “Not even going to bother saying please? How typical of you.”

“Filamenta!”

Filamenta sighed and crawled down to his hand. With a flash, she transformed into her needle form. Ezra gripped his hand around her and looked from left to right

The sound of stone cracking entered Ezra’s ears. He sped up his walk and crouched down. The stone up ahead was made of a pure blue crystal. He touched his hands against it, then paused. There was a loud hiss, then a battle cry.

Ezra poked his head around a corner.

A long serpent easily twice the size of the Giant Lizard he’d fought a while ago stared down at Dumrivil. Its scales were glimmering blue while its eyes were a sickly orange. It coiled around a giant stack of crystal and hissed.

Mutated Snake - Lv. 45

Ezra’s face paled. That was higher than just about anything else he’d faced down thus far.

Dumrivil stared up at the monster, then pointed his sword at it. The serpent slithered toward Dumrivil, its jaw wide open. Dumrivil jumped into the air and swung his sword down at the creature, but the sword bounced off the scales with a dull clang. The serpent’s tail whipped into Dumrivil and he crashed into the wall, then flopped to the ground. He slowly pushed himself up.

His movements were quicker than they’d been back during his ‘duel’ with Ezra. He wasn’t bothering with the loud shouts or battle cries either. He gripped his oversized sword and charged forward. The monster dodged his first strike, but didn’t see his second one coming. The sword hit the creature like a baseball bat, sending the whole snake staggering for a moment.

Ezra’s eyes shot open. How high was this guy’s Strength?

The tail of the serpent snaked its way behind Dumrivil, slowly approaching him. It shot out and wrapped around Dumrivil, wrapping him up tightly and preventing any escape. Dumrivil’s sword dropped to the ground and he struggled from side to side in vain.

His health started depleting, inch by inch.

Ezra stepped forward. He wanted to get some answers from Dumrivil, and that would be pretty tough if he was dead.

Dumrivil looked left and his eyes widened. He growled. “You! You’re with them, aren’t you!?”

Them? Whatever, Ezra had a serpent to slay.

“This thing’s stronger than you, Ezra.” Filamenta’s voice echoed in his mind. “You’ll need some kind of strategy if you want a chance of victory.”

Well, Ezra knew that much. The question was what kind of strategy?

The snake hissed at him and Ezra crouched into his ready stance. Its long fangs darted out toward him. Ezra jumped out of the way and shot his needle out at its left eye. The thing blinked and the needle bounced off its eyelid. With a quick recall, Filamenta was back in his hand.

“It’s fast,” Ezra said. “Almost as fast as me.”

“I hope that isn’t the only thing you’ve learned,” Filamenta said. “Because if you have nothing else we’re about to get screwed.”

The snake slithered in a circle around Ezra. It was closing the gap, planning to prevent escape.

Ezra clicked his tongue. He needed a strategy, like what Filamenta said. Some sort of weakness he could employ. The ground rumbled as the snake crawled on top of it. Ezra at this point was surrounded.

Only one way to go.

The snake reached out its jaw. Ezra jumped into the air. [Air Attack] threw him to the side and out of the creature’s range.

Ezra tossed out his needle as he flew in midair. The snake dodged out of the way, somehow seeing the tiny glint of steel. Ezra clicked his tongue and recalled Filamenta back to his hand. He landed on the ground and stared up at the snake.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Well, he could also make a weakness. He’d had this idea in mind for a while but had never gotten the chance to use it. He ran forward and threw out his needle again.

“[Telekinesis].”

The needle changed its trajectory and weaved through the scales on top of the thing’s head. The monster tried to dodge, but [Telekinesis] kept Filamenta on track. The needle passed through the scales and—

Unable to Bind! Creature’s Magical Resistence is too high!

The serpent snapped its jaws out toward Ezra. He cursed and jumped backward, barely staying outside of its range. The monster hissed and snaked its way after him.

Ezra ground his teeth. Well, if that wouldn’t work… he looked up.

The snake got an inch closer.

Ezra threw his hand up and redirected the needle toward the ceiling, where the stalactites loomed above the snake.

“[Bind].”

The snake, too entranced with running after him, didn’t even hear the whoosh of the falling stone.

It skewered the creature first in the body, then on the tail, then finally in the head. Filamenta reappeared in Ezra’s hand.

0/2500

The snake turned to ash. The dust particulates floated in the air, then flew into Ezra’s needle.

[You’ve leveled up!]

[You’ve leveled up!]

“Well, that went surprisingly well,” Filamenta said. “Although you were playing it by ear for most of the fight.”

“It worked out, didn’t it?”

The sound of cloth shuffling entered Ezra’s ear. He looked over and saw that Dumrivil had pushed himself up. He stared at Ezra with weariness.

“You’re more powerful than I thought,” Dumrivil said.

“You too,” Ezra said. “So why fake it?”

Dumrivil scoffed and picked his sword up from the ground, then swung it around over his head.

“Please,” he said. “You’re working with Villscha, aren’t you? You should be able to piece things together.”

“What?”

Dumrivil’s eyebrows furrowed together and his gaze turned shaky before he shook his head and narrowed his eyes.

“Whatever trick you’re trying to pull won’t work on me,” he said. “I know the truth. It all fits together. Your sudden arrival along with the rise in monster attacks—you’re his ace in the hole, aren’t you?”

“I actually have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Dumrivil laughed. “You were sent here to eliminate me, I suppose, in case the monster failed?” he paused. “But wait, that makes no sense…”

Ezra raised an eyebrow.

Dumrivil looked at the ground and pressed his hand to his head. “Could it… are you actually just here by pure coincidence?”

“I mean, I followed you,” Ezra said.

“No, I mean, in Toria. In town. Are you seriously here by accident?”

Ezra slouched and glared at Dumrivil.

“All of this is going over my head,” Ezra said. “If you wanted to sound cool and mysterious, you’ve succeeded.”

Dumrivil looked into Ezra’s eyes, then slammed his face into his palm.

“Holy shit, you’re serious,” he said. “You have no idea what’s going on, do you?”

Ezra’s voice turned high. “Yes! Now for goodness’s sake will you just tell me what the hell you’re talking about?”

Dumrivil was quiet. He licked his lips, then shook his head.

“If you’re uninvolved, it’s for the best that you don’t stay uninvolved,” he said.

“Don’t care. Give me information, now.”

Dumrivil took a step back and held his hands up in surrender.

“Fine, fine. If you really want to know…” He looked up at the glimmering crystals embedded into the stone ceiling. “In short, Villscha is a very, very bad guy who’s wronged a lot of people. I suspect that he’s doing far worse than embezzlement and abuse, though. The problem is that I don’t have the evidence. I’ve been searching for it for ages.”

“That’s why you came here? But it seemed so off the cuff.”

“He’s monitoring me,” Dumrivil said. “He knows I’m onto him. I figured that I could buy a little more time by acting like I was doing this for something stupid instead of investigating.”

Ezra waved his arm around. “Well? Did you find what you were looking for? Because all I see is an empty cavern.”

Dumrivil reached up and put his sword onto his back.

“The monster, One-Eye. The monster was the key. That creature isn’t in any monster compendium that I’ve read through, and I bet that it doesn’t exist in any. How did such a unique creature come about? I don’t know, but I’m willing to bet it has something to do with Villscha.”

Ezra weighed the information he’d just gotten in his mind. It seemed like Dumrivil was essentially the protagonist of his own little story. That was… neat. And his little explanation explained why he’d hidden his power.

“Okay,” Ezra said. “That’s all I wanted to know.”

He started to turn around and walk off when Dumrivil took a step forward.

“Wait,” Dumrivil said.

Ezra turned around slowly and leaned his head back. “Yes?”

“What do you plan to do with this information? Are you with me, or against me—“

“Absolutely nothing.” Ezra turned his head back forward. “I don’t care what you get up to as long as you don’t get in the way of my goal.”

Dumrivil was quiet for a few seconds. “What’s your goal?”

Ezra stopped.

“Simple,” he said. “You know that Demon Lord? I plan to knock him off his throne and take it for myself.”

----------------------------------------

Ezra shut the guild door behind him, Filamenta on his shoulder. A handful of guild members were seated in the cafeteria section, but none of them paid him much mind beyond a passing glance.

He walked over to the bounty board.

“You stole from my office!”

The shout echoed through the guild hall like a crack of thunder. The soft murmurs of conversation stopped and everyone looked back at Villscha’s office.

“I did no such thing!” a voice yelled back. “You know damn well that I’m practically your slave! Why in the hell would I screw myself over!?”

Ezra felt a chill go down his spine and shoved his hands into his pocket. He walked in the direction of the voices.

“Stop lying, you damned woman!” the first voice shouted back. “I know that you did it! Who else could it have been?!”

Ezra cracked open the door, revealing Prise and Villscha glaring at each other over Villscha’s desk. The man was red and sweaty. His fists were clenched tight and he seemed to be shaking. The spine of his back seemed to be protruding a little bit for some reason.

Prise didn’t look much better. She was breathing quickly and her curly hair was frayed in random directions.

“You’ve ruined my life, you’ve ruined the life of my mother, but you can’t stop there,” she said. “You need to find a way to make things even worse for me. Gods, it’s like you thrive off my misery.”

So, was this part of what Dumrivil was talking about when he said Villscha was a bad guy?

Villscha was about to respond when he caught sight of Ezra looking in through the open doorway. He paused and turned pale white.

“O-One-Eyed mercenary!” he said. “I didn’t see you there—“

Ezra stepped forward.

“I think it’s best if this conversation stopped,” he said. “It would be irritating if my landlady got into trouble.”

It would be. Imagine if she got arrested for throttling Villscha. Ezra would have to go find a new inn to stay at.

“How noble of you,” Filamenta muttered.

The guildmaster glared at Ezra, then sat back down. He looked up at Prise.

“Get out,” he said.

Prise turned around and marched out. She paused, gave Ezra a quick nod, then walked away toward the guild door.

Ezra stepped back to the bounty board.

“Even the guildmaster is intimidated by him,” someone whispered.

“Can you blame Villscha? He’s terrifying.”

Did these people have nothing better to do? God, it felt like his life was a reality TV show to them.

He reached up and looked for a D-rank quest. Nothing at all. He walked away and exited the building. The sun was setting, casting an orange glow across the stone walls of the surrounding houses.

“This town has far more going on than I’d first assumed,” Filamenta said. “Are you sure you don’t want to get involved?”

“Absolutely,” Ezra said. “Side quests are a waste of time. We have one goal, and any effort spent away from chasing that goal is a distraction.”

The sun started to dip, tearing away the orange and covering the street in shadow.

“Ezra, I think that sometimes we don’t have a choice. You might find yourself getting involved, whether you want it or not.”

Ezra didn’t have a response to that. So he walked back to the inn, silent.