Villscha reclined back in his wooden chair, a satisfied grin on his face. He took a sip of wine and set it back down on his desk. He knew that the One-Eyed merc would deal with his little gang with ease, but, as expected, he didn’t see the true trap being laid for him. What a fool.

He adjusted his place in his chair. His back had been hurting greatly due to his little… gift. But it would all be worth it in the end. Skittering echoed behind him and a chill went up his spine. He resisted the urge to jump.

It was a quiet night. Everyone else had already gone home for the day, leaving nothing but flickering candles to light Villscha’s office. Long shadows drew across the walls and doors. A cold draft brushed against Villscha’s head. He turned around just in time to see Dumrivil leaning against the doorway.

“So, why’d you call me in?” Dumrivil said. “I can’t imagine that you wanted to talk shop.”

“Oh, can we drop the pretenses?” Villscha picked up a glass of wine. “I’d much rather we cut to the chase.”

Dumrivil was silent for a moment before rolling his eyes. “You can’t make a move against me. You’ve already expended your political capital against the One-Eyed Merc.”

Villscha tapped his desk and looked up at the ceiling.

“Indeed, I have,” he said. “Making a move against the silly, absurd Dumrivil, a weak member of the guild who shouldn’t have even made it to B-rank. That would spell my doom, wouldn’t it? You’ve created a very clever cover for yourself.”

Dumrivil fiddled with a coin in his hand. “What can I say? It’s a gift.”

Villscha looked directly at Dumrivil.

“Now then, let me make my offer,” Villscha said. “I don’t need trouble. I’d much rather have you out of here. I’m willing to pay a price if that’s what it takes.”

“And if I don’t want your damn money?”

“Then you’ll experience the same thing that Ezra went through.”

Dumrivil’s hand wandered to his massive, oversized sword. “You know, I could just reveal what you did to One-Eye.”

Villscha laughed, nearly knocking over a stack of paper.

“Are you kidding?” he said. “Do you think that anyone would believe you? Even if they did, I’m untouchable. My grip is irontight on this city. Everything relies on me. Ripping me out would be like ripping out your own heart.”

Dumrivil paused and inspected Villscha.

“You know, even if I fail, do you think that One-Eye is going to take this lying down?” Dumrivil said.

“Maybe not,” Villscha’s muscles tensed. “But I’ve seen his level. And you threw the fight, didn’t you?”

“Doesn’t mean he’s not the real deal. That last trick he pulled at the end—that was all him. I don’t know how I’d fare in a real battle against the guy.”

Villsha waved him off.

“Nothing but a cheap parlor trick, I’m sure,” Villscha said.

“He killed your mutated serpent.”

Villscha slammed his hands into the table. “He didn’t!”

“I was there, Villscha.”

“You’re lying—“ Villscha paused. Wait, did Villscha just admit…

“Thanks for that little bit of information,” Dumrivil said. “I wanted to know for sure.”

Villscha ground his teeth together. “So you were bluffing about One-Eye, then.”

“Where did I say that?”

Dumrivil was far more wily than Villscha had expected. Snaking that information out of him was clever. But Villscha was starting to catch on. He could play the game as well.

“So then,” Villscha said. “Who else is involved in your little conspiracy to overthrow me?”

Dumrivil was quiet. Villscha grinned.

“Ah, so it’s no one then. You’re on your own. That’s useful.”

There was the slightest shift in Dumrivil’s foot. Honestly, he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was. It was just the cleverness of his initial disguise. Now that Villscha had figured that out, it was only a matter of time before he weaseled everything out of Dumrivil.

Dumrivil’s eyes narrowed.

Villscha stayed still. What was Dumrivil thinking?

Dumrivil’s body relaxed and he shut his eyes for a moment. “Whether I’m alone or not, your downfall is inevitable, Villscha. This town’s had enough of you.”

Before Villscha could stop him, Dumrivil had turned around and walked away. Villscha was about to call out when he stopped and leaned back in his chair.

Dumrivil was just making idle threats. There was no way that One-Eye was actually dangerous… right?

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

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Hours of questioning by Villscha passed by with the promise that Ezra would encounter retribution for what he’d done. Thankfully, Villscha was unable to detain him due to some technical things with the guild. Really, it seemed like the actual arrest wouldn't happen for a while. But still, things were on a downward trend.

When he got back to the inn, it wasn’t much better for Ezra. Even though he knew he was justified in what he’d done to those people who’d attacked him, the image of blood staining his hands wouldn’t go away. It got to the point where he’d flipped on [Calm] to clear away all the dark thoughts. Besides, it was about time he ran the timer out.

The minutes ticked away. His heart rate sped up. There was no way he’d fell asleep before [Calm] ran its 7 minutes out. He needed a way to get unconscious immediately.

He tore some of the fabric off the bed and wrapped it around his neck.

“Ezra, what the hell are you doing?” Filamenta said.

“I need [Calm] fully functional, but I don’t want to deal with the emotional backlash. This is my trick to get around that.”

Filamenta was quiet. “There must be a better way than this, Ezra.”

This was his only chance to avoid the pain.

He pulled on the fabric. His head pounded and his face got warmer and warmer. Blackness crawled at the edge of his vision—

And then everything stopped. His vision went dark and he fainted.

He woke up and vomited off the side of his bed and onto the ground.

Thankfully, Filamenta was quiet during this time. She didn’t say anything as he heaved. His body felt like it was about to fall apart and his mind could barely function. He was like for several minutes. He had to stop relying on [Calm]. This can’t have been worth it.

He pushed himself up and staggered to his feet.

Filamenta crawled up onto his shoulder. “When are you planning to get revenge on the Guildmaster?”

“S-soon. I think I’ll get in contact with Dumrivil,” Ezra said. “But right now, I want to do some leveling up and fight some monsters. I’ve had enough of the politics and intrigue and people. I’d much rather do something simpler.”

“You can’t delay your conflict with the guild. Every second counts, Ezra.”

Ezra slipped his boots on with shaking hands.

“I know. I’ll deal with it eventually.”

Filamenta shifted on his shoulder but stayed quiet. Ezra exited out of the inn and walked his usual route. He passed by the burger—Chulcalf—stall and ordered one for the road. Idly, he wondered if this stuff was terrible for him and if he was poisoning himself. He bit into the burger and the thought went away. If it was poisoning him, he actually didn’t care at the present moment.

He opened the guild hall. As usual, all eyes shot toward him. He adjusted his eyepatch, then approached Prise. In the background, flickers of conversation entered his hearing.

“Did you hear? He killed Minra,” someone said.

“I didn’t like the guy, but that didn’t mean he had to be offed,” the person next to him muttered.

Nobinar, the armored man who Ezra had assisted, stared at him pointedly. Ezra stared right back, unflinching.

After a moment, the man gave a slow nod and returned to conversation with his party.

Ezra rolled his eyes. He didn’t know what that was about, and he didn’t care. He walked up to the quest board and picked an E-rank one at random. He walked over to Prise and passed her the paper.

She started. “Oh my goodness, you look terrible!”

“Thanks.”

Prise looked down at the paper.

“You know,” she said. “I’ve been trying to help with the investigation. Clear your name, you know?”

Ezra was silent. How was he supposed to respond? The urge to thank her passed over him.

“Well, anyway,” she said. “Let’s look over this quest.”

She frowned. Ezra grimaced. What was the problem now?

“This has been mislabeled for sure,” she muttered. “The monsters are mutated—a new kind we’ve never seen before. This should be C-rank at minimum.”

“Look, just sign off on the quest,” Ezra said.

Prise looked up at him, her eyebrows folded together. “Are you sure? I know you’re strong, but this might be more dangerous than you’re expecting. I don’t have information on these things. None at all. You’d be going in blind.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “No different than how I normally do things.”

Filamenta shuffled on his shoulder.

“Perhaps you should listen to her, at least consider getting backup. I think Nobinar would be willing to help you. Or maybe Dumrivil.”

Ezra whispered under his breath, “Absolutely not. I’m not going to get help, and certainly not from those two.”

“Don’t you remember what happened last time you didn’t listen to Prise? She’s trying to look out for you.”

Ezra kept his head locked forward. He stared at Prise. “Can you sign off on the paper?”

Filamenta groaned. Prise nodded and brought out her quill. With a quick flourish of her hands, it was done.

“Right, that’ll be that,” she said. “Best of luck, Nameless.”

Ezra turned around and exited the building.

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

The quest location was out toward the south, near a barren area of land. The ground was cracked and dry. Rocks and gravel peppered the soil in loose chunks. Pawed tracks were embedded into the dirt.

Filamenta transformed into a needle and appeared in his hand. Ezra frowned and looked around.

“I don’t see them,” he said.

“Honestly, the name of the creatures was rather odd, wasn’t it?” Filamenta said. “I mean, really—mutant bunny—?”

At that moment, seven white flashes swooped around Ezra into a circle. He instinctively raised his hand up to block any attackers. The wind beat against him.

They stopped. Seven white bunnies with long legs like kangaroos watched him.

Mutant Unibbit - Lv 29

Ezra clenched his jaw. This might be trickier than he was expecting. His eyes scanned over the group slowly.

One jumped forward. Ezra ducked down, dodging the strike. He activated [Bind], and slipped his needle through his armor. A second one leaped toward Ezra, this time a bit closer to the ground. Ezra passed his needle through the air in front of him and mentally gave the air the property of hardness. There was a slight shimmer in front of him. The Unibbit slammed into the hard air and fell backward. Ezra dissipated the construct and stabbed into the creature’s throat.

299/400

Ezra pulled his needle back and swung forward for another strike, but a third one was about to attack. He growled and tossed his needle out at the attacking one. It dodged and kicked up a small cloud of dirt.

Ezra activated [Telekinesis] and swiveled the needle back around. Filamenta embedded herself directly into the neck of the one that had dodged.

340/450

[Recall] kicked in and Filamenta appeared back in his hand. He felt a cold chill from behind him and jumped to the left. To his right, another one of the creatures sailed past him at lightning speed.

Ezra dug his feet into the ground, coming to a stop.

“What the hell are these things made of?” Ezra said. “Shouldn’t they be taking more damage?

“Nothing’s doing significant injury to them. We’re going to get overwhelmed,” Filamenta said.

As if to prove her point three launched at him. Ezra reached out.

“[Restrain]! [Entangle]!”

Two were tossed to the ground, giving Ezra an opening to dodge the third. He jumped Into the air.

“[Air Attack]!”

A burst of speed slammed into him and he struck down at one of the ones that he’d targeted before—the one that only had 299 left.

289/400

Ezra rolled away from the group of enemies. He ground his teeth together.

“That should’ve done more damage!” he said.

“It did!” Filamenta said. “I think it healed itself in between strikes!”

Ezra growled. This was rapidly becoming untenable. He might have to retreat if he couldn’t deal the kind of explosive damage that he normally did.

Not. Good.