The music got louder the closer Ted got to what he assumed must be magical amplifiers surrounding the raised platform with the Baraye standing on it. He bobbed to the beat as he moved, finding himself shoved from side to side as he slipped between different groups, and getting flashbacks to early days in the clubs on earth, where breaching the circle of friends in a club could get you aggressively shoved away, or some new mates for the night. Mostly the former.
He saw that a lot of the people in this club were young, even for this world, where everyone seemed to have been incarnated in their late twenties. It occurred to him that these people might not actually be on their second life; hadn’t Cam mentioned children? Could these be teenagers who grew up here?
It was rude to stare, and would definitely get you some aggro from people who almost certainly had powers that outshone his own, so he moved on quickly, making his way to where some of the magical abilities were on display. He found his way to another dance circle, this time two Arachnids, who were doing some form of aerial silk dance using their own silks that they were firing from their limbs, looping them into the rafters and performing intricate flips between them. This, too, seemed to be a form of battle, with the two spider-like people trying to trap each other in the strands of silk, sending the loops spiralling towards the other even as they used the lines themselves to spin and twist and fly. The rules seemed to be that no other powers could be used, but just the silks alone left the dance mesmerising. The movements were timed perfectly with the music, the changes in direction and firing of silk coinciding with the heavy beat of the drums the Baraye were playing. It was one of the most beautiful things Ted had ever seen.
Excepting the fact of the terrifying wolf sized spiders that were doing it.
Fighting past his instinctual terror, Ted tried to take a proper look at the twirling and spinning Arachnid in front of him. They really did look like huge tarantulas, with eight furry segmented legs, and two circular body elements, one behind the other. They had three pairs of eyes; one set forward, the other two spaced further back around their front body, allowing, Ted assumed, a view of what was above and behind them in a nearly fully hemispherical view. The silks that they were issuing were coming out of slits on their limbs, rather than out of their rear abdomen, like Ted was pretty sure normal spiders did, though he was far from certain on that. Their mouths were small, but filled with razorsharp fangs; both of them seemed to be covered in different markings, between what Ted assumed was the Arachnid version of clothes; light bits of material that seemed to flow and barely cover most of their bodies.
Probably don’t need to worry about modesty so much when you’re all legs and fur, Ted thought to himself.
As Ted watched, one of the Arachnids - a darker furred one, with white circular markings on its legs, shot a line of silk up into the air, catching a rafter, and then shimmied up it at height, seemingly running away; its golden furred opponent fired off several spiralling lines towards him whilst remaining close to the floor, suspended by two of his own silken strands. Then, suddenly, the darker Arachnid was flying back down, legs tight behind it for speed. Four silks were flying ahead of it, twisting and flexing in complex patterns that made Ted’s eyes go funny. Its opponent moved to dodge, but it was like the darker Arachnid had foreseen it, as its silks were expanding, widening, and manage to keep the golden one within its target area. The golden one managed to launch one of its own silks that took the first attacking silk off, and then another, but it was too late, as the third hit a leg and wrapped around it like a whip. The golden was then hit by another, and another, and another, until it couldn’t move or react. The darker Arachnid then barreled into it, sending them both tumbling to the floor.
Moments later, the darker Arachnid stood proudly by his defeated opponent, its two forelegs up in the air in celebration. There were cheers around the crowd, which Ted joined his voice to.
Amazing.
He backed away, and made his way to the bar, slipping through the large queue to find his way to the front. There were two bartenders, both humans of differing planets, enthusiastically mixing drinks from a range of colourful liquids behind them. When he caught their attention, he managed to shout out the word ‘beer’ over the noise of the heavy bass; the song had just changed, but the key characteristics of it hadn’t.
The bartender looked at him critically, and shouted ‘...ard stu-?’
‘Sure.’ Ted said, then nodded when his response went unheard. The bartender turned and poured out a glass of something that looked far too luminescent to be beer. He took it anyway, as the bartender held out a hand for payment. He hadn’t given Ted a price, but as Ted held his hand out he found that he’d paid more for the drink than he had for dinner and a night at the inn the previous night.
Some things never changed.
He turned back into the crowded room and sipped his drink, finding it sweeter than he expected, but definitely still having the clear taste of a light lager. Maybe it was a mead? He’d heard of mead’s being like sweet, honey beers, but had never actually tried it.
It actually went down rather well; the glass he had was just short of a pint, but he found himself draining it rather quickly.
Well, time for another one then. He found himself bobbing along with the beat, throwing some moves that he’d be embarrassed to be seen doing on earth, but here it felt right. He turned back to the bar, but found that he’d drifted a bit further from it than he’d realised, and he found himself merging into groups of night clubbers.
He checked his status to see how much money he had, disappointed to realise that he actually couldn’t afford another drink; Cam hadn’t given him his money from selling the Stag materials yet, and that last drink had brought him down to 10 Centrals.
Well, that was a shame, but it wouldn’t stop him from enjoying the night. He continued dancing around the club, bringing out some of the classic moves that he was sure they wouldn’t have seen here; they’d probably never even heard of night fever, nevermind the macarena. They’d learn.
That beer really had been good.
He found his way to another large group of dancers, and saw that there were some impressive breakdance moves going on in a cleared space; head spinning and legs flying all over the place. It was then that something struck him with a clarity that he rarely ever felt.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
He could dance. And he could Break-fall. And he could Drift.
If that wasn’t breakdancing, he didn’t know what was.
He waited for an appropriate time, when there was a space, then dived in, using his new Jump Technique to leap into the centre of the group, then landing with a Break-fall that let him land safely in a press-up down position.
It was time for the worm.
-
Six hours later, Ted woke up on the floor of his room. He had no memory of getting home. He had no memory of leaving the club. His head hurt, as did all of his limbs.
He checked his status, and saw that despite having just woken up, his health was at 90% and his MP was only at 40%. What the hell had happened last night? It was also only 6am, which would normally mean to Ted that he should go back to bed. But he knew his brain wouldn’t allow him to.
A flash of recollection hit him.
He’d tried to dance. He did not know how to dance.
He groaned again, this time cringing at himself.
He dragged himself to his feet. He was still dressed in the clothes from last night; these were the same army green clothes he’d been given when leaving Basic. He’d yet to buy more, and he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to. They felt dirty, and there were some stains on them.
He groaned for a third time, because it felt appropriate.
He looked around at his mess of a room. It looked like he’d decided to sleep on the bed at first, then changed his mind. The duvet was half on, half off the bed. The room itself, a small but nicely furnished bedroom, was mostly bed, with a rug over its wooden floor, a bedside table, and a door to an ensuite bathroom, was about as much in disarray as could be allowed considering how little Ted owned.
It was too much to think about. He undressed and walked into the shower, hoping the warm waters would heal him, and not bring back too many painful memories. He had low hopes.
He remembered trying to do the worm.
He did not know how to do the worm.
He dressed in new clothes, noting that he was down to his last fresh set. He’d have to ask Cam how he was supposed to clean them. And also for a healing and mana potion. And a hangover cure.
Feeling slightly, though far from completely better, he made his way downstairs, letting the wall of the stairwell support him as he dragged himself along and down it. There was no one in the corridors, but he knew his way to the breakfast room, which also happened to be the dining room. This inn was much more refined than their previous caravanserai, and therefore didn’t have a single room doubling up as a drinking and dining room; instead you could have a casual, sippable drink in the reposing room, and the go outside if you wanted to go out for more ruffian-like activities.
Cam was sat at a table sipping a cup of tea. Ted sat down heavily in a chair opposite him.
‘Morning, my friend! You look quite rough.’ he said, brightly, pouring Ted a cup of tea from a teapot.
‘I had one drink. Just one. Then I decided I could do the worm, jumped into a crowd of people, landed on my stomach, then Drift to slide into a wall. Hard.’ Ted said croakily, putting his elbows on the table and his head in his hands. ‘I don’t remember much else. But it seems that I have no money left, I feel like shit, and my clothes are covered in stains.’
Cam chuckled.
‘Sounds like a rough night, Ted. I’m glad I left when I did!’
‘I don’t think it would have been nearly as rough if you’d have stayed with me. Do you have any potions? Or anything? I feel bloody awful. My mana’s well down past halfway, and for some reason my health is down too.’ he said.
‘I can get you something from the wagon when we head off. But I think breakfast will do you a lot of good first. And a good cup of tea, of course.’ Cam said. ‘None of that milky stuff you westerners like to drink; they’ve got some great green tea in these parts.’
Ted took a sip, grimacing at the bitterness of the hot liquid. Still, it was better than nothing, and he kept on drinking it as a hostess came over and asked for his order. He asked for some sweet porridge, something that they’d served a lot at Basic and that Ted had found he’d started to quite like; at this place they served it with a range of berries and fruit, laced with honey. It was exactly what he needed. Cam had ordered something similar, though it looked closer to a rice pudding than a normal porridge; Cam informed him that this was similar to a meal from his home country.
‘I honestly don’t know what happened.’ Ted continued. ‘It was just one drink. I had far more than that the other night!’
‘Ah.’ said Cam, a little sheepishly. ‘It sounds like you may have been given some harder alcohol last night. The other day, with Benn, we were drinking light beers, relatively low alcohol; to Benn and I it was similar to drinking juice. When you level up your Class you level up your other stats, and that combines to a higher constitution, and a higher alcohol resilience.
‘I suspect that the bartenders last night gave you some of the harder stuff, designed for people at a higher level.’
‘Ugh.’ Ted said. ‘That makes sense. I guess. And also explains why you were so fresh after the other night too.’ he shook his head. ‘Did I get into a fight last night? I feel bruised.’
‘Could have been the impact with the wall.’ Cam said.
‘Yeah…’ Ted trailed off.
‘In any case, once you’ve eaten, if you’re ready to go, we should get on the move. I’ve got your money from yesterday’s sales, and there’s plenty of road to travel and training to be done. I think it’s time we escalate your coaching.’ Cam said.
Ted finished his meal and headed back upstairs, throwing all of his things into his rucksack without bothering with any organisation; there was a lot of space and he still didn’t own much. Knowing Cam would be packed and ready already, he headed back down the stairs and out the front door. As expected, Jenny was waiting out front, the wagon loaded onto her back, Cam stood in front of it. He was holding a purple potion that Ted recognised from when he’d passed out from mana exhaustion. He smiled and walked towards Cam, reaching for it.
‘Thanks Cam, you’re a lifesaver.’ he said, downing the liquid in the vial, feeling instantly refreshed, the bruises on his shoulders subsiding and the grogginess in his head fading.
‘Amazing.’ he said. He handed the vial back to Cam, who put it in the back of the wagon, and then hopped up onto the front seat. Ted walked around to the other side of the cart, and started to climb up beside Cam, when a voice came from behind him.
‘Is that you, Ted? You’re looking chipper!’
Ted turned to see a short, dark skinned middle aged man, pushing a cart in front of him; a cleaning cart, Ted realised, using some sort of magical motorised vacuum cleaning system.
‘Uh.. hi?’ Ted said, looking at the man.
‘Friend of yours?’ Cam asked, looking down from his seat on the wagon. Ted turned back to him.
‘No idea.’ he hissed.