Back to Basics - 1.5

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After the receptionist recovered from her shock, the rest of the transaction went smoothly. As a bonus, Erin and I had both been promoted to Silver-rank. Unfortunately, the requirements for Gold-rank went beyond just slaying monsters, so we'd be stuck at Silver for the foreseeable future. We got back into the wagon and rode off into the streets of Liscor, 300 gold richer.

"Is it just me or was that receptionist a little off?"

"I think she was scared of us. Our reputation is growing much faster than I thought it would."

"Scared? What did we do that was so scary?"

"Imagine how hard it would've been to kill all those Shield Spiders without my powers. The way I did it was cheating. Even I'd be wary of someone who could pull that off legitimately, especially if they came out of nowhere like we did."

"I guess that makes sense… Speaking of Shield Spiders, what are we gonna do with all these corpses?"

"We could try to sell them directly but… I've never been one for the financial side of cape work. We'd be better off making a deal with a merchant to sell them for us. It could be a good opportunity to make a long-term ally."

"The shopkeepers didn't look like they liked us very much, though. Won't they just try to scam us again?"

"I saw a few that looked like they might be worth dealing with. Regardless, after what happened with Lism, I don't think anyone will mistake us for easy targets."

As we pulled into the market, I surveyed the stalls for the merchants I had noted earlier. There was something off about the looks we were getting this time around, but I ignored them and proceeded to my first target.

"Hello, we are looki—"

"Sorry, I'm not interested."

Without giving me a second to process my rejection, the Drake swiftly moved to talk with another customer. I shook my head and moved on to the next stall on my list

"Hi, my friend and I ar—"

"Can't help you. Look somewhere else."

Visiting stall after stall, every merchant refused to so much as consider doing business with us. I knew there was prejudice against humans, but they seemed willing to deal with us before. Could they be upset about what happened to Lism? It took several more rejections before I finally got an answer.

"No one here will deal with you, Humans. It would cost too much."

"What do you mean?"

"You have made an enemy of Lism. His hate for Humans is strong, but he would only have ignored you before. Now, you have hurt his pride and damaged his reputation— very important things in our business. He has promised to destroy any merchant that deals with the two of you, regardless of what it costs him. I have no hate for Humans and very little respect for Lism, but I cannot deal with you."

The gnoll woman gave us pitying looks and turned to help another customer. Erin and I moved back to the wagon to plan our next move.

"What do we do now? We're stuck with a wagonload of dead spiders."

"Hmmm… I see two possibilities. We need to either convince one of the merchants that we're worth the risk or convince Lism to back off."

"We should confront him! I want to give that racist jerk a piece of my mind!"

"Alright. He's already declared war on us. I doubt he could do much worse."

I was happy to let Erin take the lead during this confrontation. Negotiation had always been Lisa's thing, not mine. Back in the Bay, I did my best work after negotiations broke down, typically in a violent fashion. If Erin couldn't change his mind, I'd consider paying him a late-night visit to make him reconsider.

"If it isn't the filthy human thieves! Come to grovel and beg my forgiveness?"

Erin growled and stomped up to him, angrily slamming her finger into his chest.

"Listen here, you racist piece of crap! We are the Heroes of the Inn! If you don't leave us alone I'll— is that a chess set?"

Shoving Lism to the side, Erin moved to inspect the chessboard. The pieces were stylized, but recognizable. The layout was the same as a chess set from Earth. Another example of a crossover between our worlds. Could another person from Earth have appeared here long before us? Lism hissed, slapping her hand away from the board.

"Get your stinking hands away from that! It's more valuable than your worthless Human lives! Only the best [Tacticians] play on my boards! An idiotic human like you couldn't even understand the rules of such a fine game!"

"Oh yeah? I bet I could beat any of those '[Tacticians]' in my sleep!"

"Pah! Is that so? How about a wager over a chess match then? If you 'Heroes of the Inn' win, I'll let you do business with whomever you please. If you fail, you pay me the 30 gold you owe me and give me back my wagon— including all the Shield Spiders in it."

"Deal! But throw in the chess set too! You better not go back on your word when I kick your scaly ass!"

Lism's mouth curled into a toothy grin.

"I didn't say you'd be facing me… you'll be going against my nephew."

The Drakes and Gnolls that had been watching the confrontation like a soap opera frowned at that. The Gnoll [Shopkeeper] growled roughly from her stall.

"This is not a fair deal! Your nephew is the best in Liscor!"

Lism returned her glares with a smug smile.

"A deal is a deal! Unless you filthy Humans want to go back on your word?"

"Nope! Bring it on!"

"I'll have him here in 15 minutes, try not to stink up the front of my stall until then."

Erin huffed and Lism scurried off to summon his nephew. I pulled Erin to the side, out of earshot of the growing crowd.

"Are you sure you can handle this? I don't doubt you're good but…"

"I'm sure. If there's one thing I'm confident about, it's chess."

She had that fire in her eyes again. That look that said 'If you're in my way, it's already too late for you.'" If she thought she could win, I believed her. Besides, there were always more Shield Spiders to kill.

Erin and I spent the time chatting while our observers took it upon themselves to set up a stage for the chess match as if they had nothing better to do. It looked like there wasn't much excitement to be found in Liscor.

Hopefully, that won't change during our stay.

"Alright, here he is, the greatest chess player in Liscor!"

A few cheers went up from the audience as a Drake with sky-blue scales walked up the stage, filled with nervous excitement. He took Erin's hand and shook it eagerly.

"Hello, my name is Olesm. You must be one of the humans that people have been talking about recently. It's so nice to meet a fellow chess enthusiast— it has been hard finding a good opponent recently. May I ask your name?"

Erin was momentarily caught off guard by his enthusiasm but seemed happy to return his handshake.

"I know what you mean— the last guy I played sucked. I'm Erin by the way. Erin Solstice."

The two of them sat down across from each other on opposite sides of the chess board, Erin at black and Olesm at white.

"Would you like to switch? I'm quite good and I was told that there are stakes to this game."

"It's fine. I'm pretty good too."

Olesm shrugged and acquiesced to her decision.

As they were clarifying the rules, I took the opportunity to survey the crowd. It consisted mostly of Drakes and Gnolls with only two Antinium in attendance. One was sweeping the streets, sneaking covert glances at the chessboard. The other was Klbkch, the Senior Guardsman.

I thought it was strange that he was just standing there watching when he presumably had more important things to do. I couldn't help but feel suspicious of his presence.

"Pawn to A4!"

"Pawn to E5!"

I snapped back to attention as a spectacled Drake announced the opening moves from the stage. After a few more moves, Erin started to speak.

"Did you know that there are over nine million possible board states after only the first three moves? Where I come from, the best players would memorize as many of the common ones as they could. They even gave them names. The one you just used is called the Ware Opening. It's a pretty uncommon one."

"Knight to C6!"

Most present seemed to miss the implication. Erin was among the best.

"Really? That's incredible! You'll have to show me more of them sometime."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Pawn to E4!"

The game continued apace, pieces being whittled down on both sides. After a short while, Olesm's relaxed smile creased into a frown of concentration.

"Hmmm… that's…"

"Maybe I can… no. But what if I…"

"Aha! No— wait!"

It soon became clear that Olesm was outmatched. I watched on with amusement as Lism realized that he had badly miscalculated. There were even a few curses in the audience as people realized they'd backed the wrong horse in this race.

"Queen to F2!"

"Checkmate."

"What? Oh… I see. Checkmate it is."

The crowd, which had been relatively silent up to this point, burst into cheers and cries of frustration. Lism let out a harsh hiss and kicked over his chair.

With a sigh, Olesm reached forward and tipped over his king. Then, he reached over the table and shook Erin's hand. He seemed more upset about the game being over than the fact that he lost.

"Well played, Erin— that was the best match I've ever had!"

"Thanks! You weren't bad yourself."

Erin stood up and walked slowly off the stage, letting the smugness she'd been suppressing creep onto her face. She came to a stop, right in front of a fuming Lism.

"Looks like I won! You better hold up your end of the deal. And an apology would be nice too."

Lism opened his mouth, ready with a retort, but then paused. His lips twisted in a sly smile.

"What do you mean? The match isn't over yet. I recall saying 'the Heroes of the Inn' had to win. Last I checked, your team had two members."

Members of the audience grumbled at his obvious attempt to wheel out of the deal. Erin was more vocal about her disagreement.

"That's ridiculous! Taylor doesn't even play chess! If you don't—"

"I'll do it."

I walked towards the stage, giving Erin a reassuring smile as I passed.

"But we already won! He's trying to cheat!"

Lism looked shocked at my agreement. He likely wanted me to refuse so he could call it a draw which would really be a win for him considering the terms of the deal. Now, he seemed nervous. He'd already made the mistake of underestimating one of us.

"Don't worry Erin, it'll be fine."

I sat down across from Olesm and started resetting my pieces.

"Taylor, was it? Are you sure you want to do this? I'm sure I could convince my Uncle to uphold his side of the deal."

"It's fine. I'm a little rusty though. Would you mind going over the rules?"

"If you're sure, then alright. I'll start with…"

Lism seemed to relax at that and his arrogant smile returned.

While Olesm launched into an explanation of the standard rules, I reached out with my powers. What Erin said about the millions of board states had given me an idea. The obvious part of my power— the part that makes people underestimate me— is the ability to control bugs. People never stop to think about how much information is involved in coordinating millions of bugs at once. I considered multitasking to be my real power.

I didn't want to use my powers with Klbkch watching. I suspected he had something to do with the meltdown I had at the city gates. It didn't really matter though, I wouldn't be able to tiptoe around him for very long anyway.

Reaching down below the stage I gathered as many insects of every kind as I could, building a swarm out of sight of the audience. I separated out the ones I needed and sent the rest away to make space. Roaches for rooks, beetles for bishops, gnats for knights— I felt a little silly alliterating the names but I hoped it would make what I was about to do easier on my mind. Ants were in the greatest number so they served as my pawns. My queens were, fittingly, spiders and my king was a worm.

I glanced over at Klbkch and saw that he was staring straight at me. When he noticed my look, he gave me a tight nod.

That could be a problem. A problem for later, though.

When my pieces were ready, I lined them up in eight-by-eight grids, mimicking the chessboard above. The multitude of bugs scurried across the ground. It didn't take long before I was tracking tens of thousands of boards.

"...called the Il Vaticano. Any questions? …hello? Taylor?"

"Sorry, I was distracted by something for a second. I think I'm good on the rules."

Olesm seemed skeptical but he readied himself to play anyway. He turned the board letting me take white. We shook hands and I made my first move.

"Pawn to E4!"

I'd played chess before, but not enough to be any good. I could remember the rules, but any strategy would be beyond me. I'd have to rely on brute force.

"Knight to C6!"

"Knight to F3!"

"Pawn to…"

My simulations didn't help much in the beginning. There were just too many possible states for me to mimic them all. I could try to filter out obviously incorrect moves but doing that for so many boards strained the limits of my multitasking.

"Bishop takes G5!"

"Rook takes F6!"

"Pawn takes…"

As the game progressed and the board cleared out, everything started to click into place. With less to simulate, my predictions became more accurate. I had even gotten better at seeing the patterns of the game and figuring out which moves were viable. I'd pushed my multitasking to the brink, trying to make up for my poor performance in the early game. I wondered if this was how Dinah felt— straining her mind to make sense of the infinite possible futures.

"Knight to C3! Check!"

It wasn't enough. I was still losing.

"King to C1!"

"Bishop to H6! Check!"

"King to D1!"

Olesm had gained too much of a lead from my earlier blunders. Seeing several moves ahead didn't help if all roads led to failure.

I could see Erin nervously watching from the audience. She could see that I was going to lose. I looked up at my opponent and knew he could see it too.

Damn it, Taylor. You could've argued for Erin's win but you just had to get involved yourself. You couldn't stand not being the one in control.

Cursing my overconfidence in my powers, I resigned myself to lose. When Olesm, moved his next piece, I noticed something strange.

"Knight takes A4!"'

The best move would've been Knight to A2, putting him three moves from a checkmate. Instead, he had made the worst possible move.

I looked at him from across the board and he looked back, our eyes meeting. He kept his face blank but gave me a small nod. I returned it.

With the opening he gave me the game swiftly turned around. After six more moves…

"Checkmate."

Lism roared furiously as the crowd erupted into cheers.

"She must have cheated! You all heard the other one say she didn't play chess! They must have been communicating—"

"That's enough, Uncle! I am a high-leveled [Tactician]. I would've known if they cheated. The win is theirs."

"Grrrr… fine! I won't give anyone trouble for dealing with these filthy humans. But this isn't over! I'll be waiting for you to slip up!"

With that, he stomped back to his stall angrily shoving Drakes and Gnolls out of his way.

"Thank you, Olesm."

"The win was yours when Erin defeated me. My uncle was just too stubborn to admit it. He's a good man, he just… doesn't do well with things that are different."

"You don't have to defend him."

He sighed deeply.

"Despite his faults, he is still family."

I could understand the sentiment. I considered the Undersiders family but they had more than a few faults. It didn't change the fact that Lism was an asshole.

"I have to return to my work for the Council. It was nice meeting you."

He walked down the stairs towards the street, pausing in front of Erin.

"If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to play you again sometime. I'm sure I leveled already from our one match!"

"You should come visit our inn! It's a short walk north from the city."

"I'll do that. Goodbye, Erin."

"Bye!"

Olesm scurried off down the street, and the crowd cleared leaving Erin and me alone. I glanced around for Klbkch but he was nowhere to be seen.

"So what now? We still have to get rid of these Shield Spiders."

"I think I can help with that."

Erin jumped as the gnoll woman from earlier spoke from behind her.

"I am Krshia Silverfang, head of the SIlverfang tribe. I believe we can help each other."

I eyed her appraisingly. She was the only one of the merchants who told us what was going on. She also seemed straightforward— a no-nonsense type. Someone I could work with.

"Alright then. Let's talk."