Ezra and Dumrivil sat across from each other in a half-abandoned tavern. Ezra glanced to his right, where a scantily-clad woman sat next to a much, much older man. The wood of the table was rotting. A dog wandered over to a pile of something on the floor that passed for food
Ezra glared at Dumrivil.
“Explain why you wanted to meet here?” Ezra said.
Dumrivil drummed the table with his palms.
“Oh, you know, this is where all the conspiracy people love to meet up,” he said. “Good atmosphere, you know?”
Ezra rolled his eyes. At that moment, one of the waitresses walked up to the two and slammed the drinks into the table.
“Drink up, gentleman,” she said, eyeing Ezra. She winked at him, then walked off.
Ezra looked forward and scooted closer to the wall. Dumrivil stared after the woman, his chin in his palm. Ezra eyed the beer. He’d had alcohol, of course, but it was odd for him to be getting it legally, no questions asked.
Dumrivil was still staring after the woman.
“She’s probably hoping to rob us blind,” Ezra said. “Also, you still haven’t explained what we’re doing here.”
Ezra had passed by Dumrivil back at the guild. All he heard from the man was a whisper on the wind telling him to come to the Naughty Seamen’s pub. A weird name, considering they weren’t even by the coast, but whatever.
“Oh, she definitely is,” Dumrivil said. “But I’ll save her, One-Eye. I shall be her knight, rescuing her from her life of poverty.”
Savior complex much? “That’s pretty incredible, considering you have no idea if she’s poor. Seems like a bit of a jump to me. And please answer my question.”
Dumrivil turned his head away from the woman.
“Nowhere else would’ve been safe,” he said. “Places like this are untracked by Villscha and his ilk. Even if we’d met up somewhere in the wilderness, they would’ve known that we did. This way, they have no idea we’re cooperating.”
“And the eye candy is just a bonus,” Ezra said.
Dumrivil stared past him. “Indeed.”
Ezra turned around to see that the bar maid was leaning over to clean something, outlining her assets. He immediately turned his head and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Next time, find somewhere else,” he said.
“What do you have against romance?” Dumrivil said.
Ezra leaned back in his seat. “I have nothing against romance, but all you’ll find here is a cheap lay. Not my cup of tea.”
Dumrivil sighed and shook his head. “One day, young One-Eye, you shall learn the ways of women…”
“Hard pass. Can we just get to what we came here for?”
Dumrivil drummed his palms against the table.
“One-Eye, old buddy old pal, how much do you know about the guild’s corruption?” he said.
“Not much. I suspect they run the place like some kind of fiefdom, based off Prise’s comments along with your own.”
Dumrivil leaned back and stared at the table.
“It’s so much worse than you think,” he said.
“How so?”
“Is there anything off about this region?” Dumrivil said. “Not about the government or the guild or the people, but the land itself? I don’t think you’re as experienced as everyone thinks, but I think you’ve killed enough monsters to have picked up on what’s wrong.”
Ezra furrowed his eyebrows. What was Dumrivil talking about? Something unusual when it comes to the land itself? Like, the flora or the fauna? He frowned. Also, his disguise seemed to be slipping, given that Dumrivil had picked up on his lack of experience.
“Fauna is close,” Filamenta whispered. “But you’re off the mark. I think I know what he’s talking about.”
Wait, he mentioned monsters, didn’t he?
“Come to think of it, the monsters are kind of strange, aren’t they?” Ezra said. “They’re unnatural. Some of them explicitly say they’ve been mutated. Prise doesn’t even recognize many of them.”
Dumrivil leaned in. “Why is that, One-Eye? Think about it.”
“It could be natural.” Ezra lowered his voice. “An unusual mineral or something that mutates creatures over long periods of time.”
“But it isn’t.”
“You aren’t saying…?”
Dumrivil took a sip of his drink, then set it back on the table.
“Ten years ago,” he said. “The guild was in hot water. They’d killed almost all the major threats in this region. Trade was booming and the town was well on its way to becoming an economic powerhouse.”
“Is that a bad thing? Why would that be an issue for the guild?”
“Because,” Dumrivil said. “The guild suddenly became unnecessary. Nobody was hiring and profit margins were steadily going down. HQ saw the opportunity to cripple him—they were going to relocate Villscha to some frontier town.”
Ezra hummed.
“I imagine Villscha wasn’t too pleased with this,” he said.
“Exactly,” Dumrivil said. “But by some miracle, monsters started flooding the region all over again. HQ couldn’t ship him off: after all, he was still needed in Toria.”
Ezra folded his arms.
“Let’s just call it what it is,” he said. “He’s shipping monsters here, isn’t he?”
“Shipping? No. He’s breeding them.”
Ezra sucked in a breath, then leaned in. Breeding? Wow… that’s not only evil but just kind of stupid. What happens if they get too numerous or powerful? Playing with fire was fun, but it wasn’t great for your health.
“Is that why they’re mutated, why they have all those odd characteristics?”
“Exactly,” Dumrivil said. “He’s started taking it to the next level, from what I can tell. He’s trying to make more dangerous monsters to get the guild to send more B-ranked mercenaries over here. From there, he intends to put them under his thumb and continue building his power base.”
“What a dumbass.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Dumrivil started, then chuckled.
“You’re not wrong,” he said. “He’s pretty stupid—this is going to get out eventually, and when it does, the kingdom is going to come down like a hammer on this place. They can tolerate corruption, but monster breeding? Gods, they might even send in an Otherworlder just to make sure Toria is razed to the ground.”
An otherworlder? “Why don’t you make sure that happens, then? Contact the kingdom and give them evidence?”
Dumrivil narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip around his cup.
“Did you not hear me?” he said. “I’m not exaggerating when I say they’ll raze this place to the ground. Civilians included. It would all be done under the table to make sure it’s not linked back to the kingdom—they’d probably just blame it on the Demon Lord or something. But they would still turn this place to ashes.”
Wow. Looks like Lysandra was even worse than Ezra thought. And Ezra didn’t exactly have a high opinion of the woman anyway.
“So what, you’ve just been waging a one-man war against Villscha?” Ezra said.
Dumrivil sank into his seat.
“I’ve got a few allies,” he said. “And a few people who’ve promised to fight alongside me when I make a move. But it’s more or less just me. Everyone’s terrified of Villscha. I think they also don’t believe me about the monster breeding.” He stopped and stared at Ezra. “Except you. At least, I think so. You haven’t argued against my story at all.”
Ezra shrugged.
“Why should I? What you’re saying seems to line up pretty well with the facts, and your story seems internally consistent.”
Dumrivil clapped his hands together and grinned.
“Excellent! If we work together, we should be able to expose Villscha—“
Ezra raised an eyebrow. “When did I say I want to work together with you?”
Dumrivil paused, shot up, and glared at Ezra.
“You know just as well as I do that this guy is scum!” he said. “He needs to be taken down!”
“Quiet over there!” the older man on the other side of the bar said.
Dumrivil sat back down in his chair, still glaring at Ezra.
Ezra smirked. “Yeah, the guy’s scum, but it’s none of my business. I have no connection to this place. What should I care?”
“What about Prise?” Dumrivil’s pitch went up. “I know you have to care about her. You defended her!”
Ezra waved him off and looked idly at a random corner. “It was just for my convenience. I don’t care for her.”
Dumrivil’s hands twitched. He slowly brought them up, then stopped and pulled his hand back down. His expression slowly disappeared, replaced with a cool stare.
“Then what if I offer you another reason?” Dumrivil said. “Something that you’d be interested in?”
“Like?”
“Revenge.”
Ezra stood up straighter in his chair. Now that, he could get behind.
“He’s been harassing you,” Dumrivil said. “Trying to take away everything you’ve worked for. How about you repay the favor?”
Of course, Ezra had been planning to assist Dumrivil far earlier in the conversation, but it was best not to seem too eager. Dumrivil was still unknown in many respects, and Ezra didn’t want to be too closely tied to him. He tapped his fingers against the table, then looked at Dumrivil and nodded.
“I believe that this will be the beginning of a beautiful partnership,” Ezra said.
The two men reached out and shook hands. Ezra with a smirk, and Dumrivil with a grimace.
“Why do I get the feeling that I’ve made a terrible mistake?” Dumrivil said.
“Pay no heed to these thoughts. I’m sure everything will work out perfectly.”
Dumrivil pulled his hand away and wiped it off on his jacket.
“Well, whatever,” he said. “Right now, I don’t need your help. Just continue doing what you’re doing. I’ll contact you soon—I think I’m closing in on an important location. Once I’ve got it, we’ll storm it together and get some evidence, and maybe throw a monkey into Villscha’s plans.”
Throw a monkey? Like… throw a wrench, but instead it’s just a monkey? Gods, Ezra hated this world sometimes.
----------------------------------------
When Ezra got back home, he opened up his menu.
Name: Ezra Hawthorne
Age: 16
Race: Human
C̴l̷a̸s̵s̵: S̸t̵u̸d̵e̸n̵t̸
Sub-class: N/A
Bonded Spirit: Filamenta, Spirit of Binding
Health Points: 300/300
Mana Points: 595/595
Level: 36
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 40
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 56
Personal Skills:
[Calm] - Lv. 14
[Inspect] - Lv. MAX
[Canefighting] - Lv. 3
[Needle Mastery] - Lv. 35
[Stealth] - Lv. 15
[Ranged Needle Mastery] - Lv. 20
[Precision Prick] - Lv. 15
[Air Attack] - Lv. MAX
[Spirtual Seal] - Lv. MAX
[Mana Perception] - Lv. 7
[Telekinesis] - Lv. 11
Abilities:
[Bind] - Lv. 8
[Spirit Weapon Storage] - Lv. MAX
[Spirit Weapon Recall] - Lv. MAX
[Restrain] - Lv. 10
[Web Trap] - Lv. 7
[Entangle] - Lv. 9
[Polymorphism] - Lv. 15
[Lockpicking] - Lv. 25
[Poisonous Prick] - Lv. 1
Skill points: 43
Stat points: 30
Ability points: 22
Titles:
[Otherworlder]
[Perfect Resonance]
[Monster Slayer I] - Equipped
[Spirit Weapon Wielder]
[Bane of the Mind]
Ezra had been terrible with exploring his abilities and actually, you know… getting stronger? There were a couple of things he wanted to check out. Firstly, he thought back to his battle against the telekinetic. He should’ve been able to grab his special Wisom lootbox skill, but the System prevented it, stating that he needed to change his settings. For a long time, there’d been a gear icon at the top of the menu, but he was never able to open it. What if he tried now?
He clicked it, and a box popped up.
Due to passing Lv. 25, you now have access to the settings of the System! Note that the System reserves the right to change various settings, hide them from you, and make alterations whenever it feels like it. :)
What was with this damn System? It was as good as telling him that it would make changes and he would have no idea unless he checked regularly. Ugh. He swiped away the box, revealing another box.
- Video
- Audio
- Gameplay
Okay, that was already really strange. This wasn’t a video game world, right? It was a real world with its own real rules. So then why were the settings video game settings? He shook his head. There wasn’t any good explanation he could think of.
Video, bizarrely, had various options for controlling his resolution and framerate. He clicked resolution out of curiosity, and his vision shrunk to a square box. It was one of the most headache-inducing experiences he’d had in a hot minute.
After that, he moved to audio. There were several volume sliders… including one for music? He turned it up and was immediately hit with a cozy tune on guitar. Ezra pinched the bridge of his nose. Seriously, what was up with this System?
He went back to gameplay. There were a couple of things related to the boxes, such as their appearance, what noise they made, the level-up ding—stuff like that. Most important, however, was the setting he was looking for. The one that allowed him to accept rewards in combat. He marked the checkbox and left.
That was one thing taken care of. He went back to his stats.
Level: 36
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 40
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 56
Stat points: 30
He was deeply tempted to put 10 points into Dexterity, just to get another skill… but there was no telling what would be most useful for him later on. What if, during combat, what would’ve been most useful was something that let him jump higher, but he chose the one that made him run faster?
He resisted the urge for a little bit before finally reaching out and putting the points in.
The little lootbox appeared, then shook from side to side before spewing out its 4 skills…