Back to Basics - 1.3

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Erin and the prisoner were both asleep when I woke up. There wasn't much in the way of ingredients so it was eggs for breakfast again. While I was setting the table, Erin stumbled down the stairs blinking the sleep from her eyes.

"Good morning, Erin."

She sat down at the table and yawned loudly.

"Morning."

Suddenly, she perked up, drowsiness fading from her eyes.

"I leveled up again last night! [Innkeeper] level 11 and [Sidekick] level 10! Watch this!"

Erin grabbed the table with both hands and pulled in opposite directions. For a moment, it looked like nothing was happening but then— The table stretched like thick taffy as Erin tugged at it. The volume seemed to remain constant but the dimensions warped with her hands.

"Tada! It's called [Shape Furniture]. It's my new [Innkeeper] skill!"

"Hmmm… I see how that could come in handy. What about [Sidekick]?"

"Four new skills: [Improvised Weapon], [Dangersense], [Build Rapport] and [Loud Voice]."

"Those sound incredibly useful. We'll have to do some testing after we get back from the city."

"Sounds like a plan. Did you level too?"

"Yes, once in [Superhero]. No new skills though."

"Any idea why you're leveling so slowly?"

"I'm not sure. I can't even tell if I'm leveling slow or you are just leveling fast. We need to see other people's levels before we can tell. Just another reason to visit the city,"

"What are we going to do about Pisces while we're gone?"

I looked over to see him wiggling like a caterpillar in his pile of silk. As funny as it looked, it would be cruel to leave him like that while we were gone. I hadn't really thought about how we were going to keep him prisoner long-term. For now, I had my spiders cut him free from his cocoon and bind his arms to the wall with improvised silk manacles.

"We could turn him in for the bounty?"

Erin looked at him for a moment, considering her opinion.

"He did steal from a lot of people… I guess he deserves to end up in jail."

"Jail? From what I saw of Liscor's laws, he'd probably be executed."

"What?! For stealing a few coins?!"

"Erin, this isn't Earth. Hell, they'd probably do worse in some places on Earth. You have to remember that things here don't work by the rules we're used to."

Erin seemed horrified at the thought of someone dying for so little. I couldn't even bring myself to care. I'd seen better people killed for worse reasons. Erin was just going to have to get over her naiveté.

"We can't let him die! Aren't superheroes supposed to save people?"

I sighed. I knew it was only a matter of time before I punctured whatever image she'd cooked up of what being a superhero is really like.

"We already have enough to worry about without adding a magic thief to the mix. Even if we don't turn him in, it's only a matter of time until he gets caught. He was clearly getting desperate if he was willing to try stealing from us."

"You said we needed a guide, right? If we choose him, we can keep an eye on him."

"Do you really think we can trust him not to turn on us as soon as we turn our backs? It's not worth the risk."

"It's worth it to me! I'll take responsibility for him. He may be a little rude but I don't think he's that bad deep down. If we help him, he might be able to change."

There was a fire in Erin's eyes that seemed to burn right through my resistance to her arguments. Looking at her, I could tell there was no way she was letting this go. I wondered how long that attitude would last now that she was face-to-face with the real world.

"Fine. When he inevitably betrays us, I'll do my best to keep him from killing us in the process."

"Thank you."

I stalked back over to our prisoner and sat down in front of him.

"Here's what's gonna happen. We aren't from around here but we have business in the area and happen to be in need of a guide. You are going to be that guide. We can work out a reasonable form of payment, but for the duration of your time with us, you will not engage in criminal activity of any kind. Am I clear?"

"Crystal."

"Good. There are buckets of water in the kitchen, go wash yourself off. We leave for the city in thirty minutes."

He nodded and headed for the kitchen while I had my spiders gather the leftover silk and fashion it into a robe, or at least, the closest thing I could make to one with the time we had. Just in case, I had a few venomous spiders stick to him.

While we waited for him, I filled Erin in on where we were heading.

"What's an Adventurers Guild?"

"It's this world's equivalent to a hero organization, though it is much more mercenary. Adventurers fulfill various requests for money and can be called on to protect innocents in times of need. Due to the nature of their job, they're afforded certain rights. That's why we're going to be signing u—"

Suddenly, all the bugs within a meter of Pisces dropped dead. I rushed to where they last detected him, but by the time I got there, there was no sign of him. I even did an area sweep with my bugs to check for invisibility but I had no luck there either

"What happened?"

Erin came running after me and it didn't take her long to realize what happened. I wasn't upset that he was gone, but the dejected look on Erin's face made me want to chase him down and sting him with every bug in my arsenal.

"Don't worry about it, we gave him a chance. If something bad happens now, it's on him."

"I know… I just— I really thought he'd be better if we gave him the chance."

"Some people don't have what it takes to be better— to be a hero. I learned that lesson the hard way…"

I gave Erin the most reassuring shoulder pat I could muster.

"Just forget about him. Let's head to the city."

Erin nodded sadly and followed behind me as we trekked across the hilly lands.

***

Bzzz…

"Do you hear that?"

"Hear what, Klb?"

Bzzzzzzzz…

"I hear a high-pitched buzzing noise. It is very irritating."

Klbkch shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of the noise but it persisted, incessantly droning on and growing louder with each passing second.

BZZZZZZZ…

"I can't hear a thing. Sure you aren't imagining it?"

"I'm sure, and it's getting louder. It seems to be coming from beyond the gate."

"Alright then, let's go check it out. Whatever it is, it's probably more interesting than watch duty."

The two guards headed towards the gate to find the source of the mysterious noise. As they grew closer, the noise grew louder and it started to sound… familiar.

BZZZZZZZ…

Klbvch ordered the guards on duty to open the gate and he waited in anticipation for the reveal of the noise's source.

Two travelers in white silk clothing approached the gate of Liscor. One of them was the origin of the buzzing, he could feel it. It was almost like something was calling out to him. Suddenly, he realized, something was calling out to him. It felt… warped, but he recognized the call of a fellow True Antinium. He attempted to adjust to the frequency and respond to the call.

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Who are you?

As soon as he sent his message, one of the travelers stumbled and the noise cut off.

***

I struggled to stand up after what felt like my brain being hooked up to a car battery. It reminded me of the information overload I suffered from when I first got my power but turned up to a hundred. As soon as it started I tried to shut down my power but the damage was already done.

"Taylor?! What's wrong?!"

Erin hurriedly helped me to my feet and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. I tried to let her know I was okay but I couldn't even focus enough to get the words out. Every attempt came out as a pained gurgle.

"Just hold on, I'll get you some help. Hey, guards! My friend needs help!"

One of the guards, an Antinium, stepped forward to meet Erin.

"Hello, I am Senior Guardsman Klbkch. How may I assist you?"

"I don't know what happened! We were just walking and she fell over and now she's making gurgling sounds! Can you call a doctor or something?"

Klbkch grabbed a bottle filled with some strange liquid from his belt and handed it to Erin.

"Here, this should be of some help."

Erin uncorked the bottle and tipped it toward my mouth, splashing some of it on my face in the process. Almost immediately, the pain started to abate so I greedily drank down as much of it as I could.

"T-thank you! I feel much better now."

I stood shakily and wiped the rest of the liquid from my face. I wasn't feeling perfect, but the migraine from earlier had gone from debilitating, to merely irritating. I could still feel the effects of the liquid working and estimated that I'd be fine in an hour.

Klbkch stared at the empty bottle in Erin's hand.

"That was a high-grade healing potion. I only intended for you to give her a small portion of the bottle."

"I'm so sorry I didn't know! Here, I have some money!"

Erin pulled out the bag of coins we had gotten from Pisces and tried to hand it to the guard but he refused the offer.

"This wouldn't be nearly enough to cover the cost. The potion was quite expensive. There is no need to repay me however, I would be satisfied merely knowing what business the both of you have in Liscor."

"We're starting an adventuring team. We were planning to register at Liscor's Adventurers Guild."

"Oh? That happens to be on the path of my patrol. Would you mind if my partner and I accompanied you?"

"That'd be great! Who's your partner?"

"That would be me! The name's Relc. Nice to meet ya!"

A tall Drake walked out from the crowd of watching guards and gave Erin an enthusiastic handshake.

"I'm Erin and my friend's name is Taylor."

I gave him a polite nod.

"Shall we get going then? We wouldn't want to distract my fellow guards from their duty."

"Alright, let's go!"

The four of us headed down the streets of Liscor towards the Adventurer's Guild. I was starting to see what Pisces meant about Drakes and Humans. We were getting plenty of stares and most of them weren't friendly. If Klbkch and Relc noticed the hostility, they didn't give any indication of it.

I was slightly suspicious of Klbkch's motive for joining us. It was a little too coincidental that his patrol happened to line up with our destination. He did give me a healing potion for free though. Could it be that he's just a kind person and I'm letting my paranoia get the best of me? No, he's definitely up to something.

"Here it is! Liscor's one and only Adventurer's Guild!"

As soon as we stepped into the room every head turned to look at us. There was the usual barely hidden distaste but a surprising number of people were sizing us up and were looking at me with caution. There must be skills that let you know how dangerous someone is. I wonder what they see when they look at me.

Erin ignored all of the stairs and walked straight to the front desk.

"Hello, I'd like to register a new adventuring team. It's me and my friend over there. How do I do that?"

The female Drake sitting at the desk sighed and pulled a forum off a stack on her desk.

"Do you have any references?"

"Nope."

"The registration fee is five silver per person."

Erin fished ten silver coins from her pouch and slapped them on the desk.

"Names?"

"Erin Solstice and Taylor Hebert."

"Genders?"

"Both female."

"Species?"

"You can't tell?"

"How am I supposed to know if there's a Selphid in there? I'm required to ask, so just answer the question."

"Humans."

"Age?"

"Twenty. Taylor?"

"Eighteen."

Erin looked a little surprised that I was younger than her. I guess it was an easy mistake to make considering how much taller I was.

"Place of origin?"

"Ummm…"

"Celum."

I chimed in with the fake origin I had decided on earlier. It was one of the closest human cities to Liscor and it was easy to pronounce.

"Combat capabilities?"

"Can you leave that blank? Or maybe put a 'to be determined'."

"Alright, what about you?"

I considered for a moment, how much, if anything, I wanted to give away about my abilities. I concluded that it was better to poison the well with a misleading answer than to risk people doing their own research and finding out the truth.

"I'm a type of [Beast Tamer] that specializes in insects."

That finally got her to display an emotion other than boredom. I had to hold back a smirk at the disturbed look on her face.

"...I see. The next section is equipment. For [Tamer]s, that includes… tamed animals."

"We'll be leaving that blank for now."

I didn't have any equipment besides my jetpack and there was no way I was letting that information get out. Neither did I feel like letting anyone know I had an army of giant spiders outside the city. I supposed Erin could've registered her kitchen utensils but I doubted the receptionist would be impressed.

"Alright, the final section is next of kin. Family, friends, or anyone we can contact in case you meet an unfortunate end."

Erin and I looked at each other and I had no doubt this section was a painful reminder for the both of us. Anyone we would've picked was a world away. We only had each other now.

"Put us down as each other's next of kin."

"Are you sure? If both of you pass away, all—"

"Yes. We're sure."

We waited somberly for her to write both of our names and sign the form.

"Okay, the only thing left is your team name. Do you have one in mind?"

I shrugged. Naming things had never been my strong suit. The fact that my first cape name was Bug pretty much disqualified me from an opinion. I'd let Erin do the naming. It just had to be good enough to build a reputation off of.

"How about… The Heroes of the Inn!"

Heroes of the Inn, huh?

I could live with that.