Tonirus led his guests across another portion of the castle. They crossed a small library, and this library didn't look too significant, so they didn't even stop to look at it, or ask questions about its contents either.
They were led to a dining hall. It was big, with a sizable table along the middle, and plenty of chairs too. This hall was meant to house the entire sect from the looks of it!
“Sit, please, I'll go and get our Sect Master.” Tonirus said, and then walked out of the room.
While he walked out, he snapped his fingers, and a bunch of silverware started floating in response. The silverware gently landed in front of Timothy, and Gustav, and the two of them were fairly amused by this light display of power.
“You'd never guess that someone would use telekinesis for house chores,” He said, as it was very fun for him to see something other than bones float around for once. “Seems like a waste, though, right? They could be lifting houses and shit, but they lift spoons.”
“I think they figured out their own equilibrium a long time ago. Let's not forget that they appear to be natives here, if not natives, they've been here for a long time. They have a castle to prove it.” Gustav added.
Anyway, a bundle of roasted crickets floated on their plates as well. It was refreshing to see crickets that weren't as tall as houses, these ones were barely bigger than Timothy's hands. The crickets looked edible too, so he took the risk, and took a bite out of one of them. He even set his bag of bolts aside, just to free his hands for the job.
A bit of goo splashed into his mouth afterwards, and at first he was disgusted, but this liquid goo tasted amazing! It was warm, comforting, and yet somehow, it tasted like chocolate ice cream too!
“Oh god, that's the best thing I've tasted in a long while!” He grunted, and then he chewed on the rest of the cricket.
Gustav wasn't a fan of insects in general, he was especially disgusted by them if he had to put them in his mouth. However, he already broke plenty of protocol rules today, so he figured that eating a cricket would be the least of his problems when he got back home. He was certain that no one would ask him if they ate crickets or not.
“It’s pretty good,” He huffed, in joy.
About five minutes later, they both wiped their plates clean, and that was when another human entered the room, it was an old man, and he had enough white hair on his face to be considered a super senior in human years. He was being followed by Tonirus, so he had to be the Sect Master.
The master sat at the edge of the table, and then greeted the guests. He sounded like quite a gentleman so far, as even his greetings were exaggerated. His name was Urayas, surely an exotic name.
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“So you little fellas managed to kill a Giant Mantis, huh?” Urayas asked, and judging from his enthusiasm that fought against his old age, his question wasn't meant to be offensive.
“Yes, we blew its arm sockets out. It appears to be its weak spot.” Gustav answered, he was formal.
“Amazing!” The old master exclaimed, “Well, we're telekinetic mages, you know, so we just crush their organs from afar, as this tends to work just as efficiently as any fireball. Tonirus here tells me that you took its brain out too, that's smart, it's a very good bug repellent on top of other things, it keeps the critters away, it warns them to be wiser.”
“So that's why we haven't seem a single bug for half a fucking hour!?” Tim exclaimed, the realization made him feel excited.
Despite his formality, the master burst out laughing in response! He was very amused, so Tim figured that they don't get many friendly visitors here.
Anyway, after a few back-and-forth conversations, such as where the goblins were from, the master went into more important matters at the end. He went down to business.
“We need skilled men, like you two, I'm not ashamed to admit it.” Master Urayas said, and then he specified. “Although I can't offer you a spot in our sect, on the count that neither of you practice telekinetic magic, I can offer you a cooperative deal that should benefit us both. See, these insects are becoming a menace, for both of our worlds, but we can do something about it.”
“I hardly doubt that you have trouble with them, on the count that you can crush their hearts from the comfort of your castle.” Gustav pointed out.
Gustav was here to kill beetles, that was the duty that he had taken over himself. He wasn't so keen on taking responsibility over any other random tasks, he didn’t want to fight anyone else's battles.
“Oh, not all of them are that easy to kill.” Master Urayas admitted, and then he explained. “In the past five years, a bunch of insects have grown unexplainably bigger. Don't get me wrong, our universe, Purpureus Mundi, used to have big insects ever since it was created, but some of them have tripled in size, they don't even fit in our universe any more! They must be dealt with.”
“So you want us to deal with them?” Timothy asked, as he was less formal, and could cut to the chase without fearing a soul. “Forgive me, master, but we just came here to kill a bunch of beetles, and we almost died dealing with a stupid mantis, so we're hardly the heroes you've been hoping to meet. What are we supposed to do? Go out there and kill a thirty-foot tall bumble bee?”
“Well, we want you to hunt a couple of centipedes. One-hundred foot long centipedes, to be exact. We’ve watered you, and fed you in our castle, so you must pay your respects to it. If you don't help us now, those centipedes could come crashing through our floor boards at any given second, so you must understand the severity of the situation!” The other demanded.
“I'm sorry, master, but there's no way in hell we're fighting a hundred-foot long centipede.” Tim said, as this was one of the things that he could decide on firmly, it was something that he didn't want to explore.
However, a second later, he felt his heart tightening all of a sudden. He felt as if he was going to have a heart attack after a few mere seconds!
Tim didn’t know what was going on, but then he noticed that the master was looking him in the eye, and had the most sinister grin on his face. He insisted, “You must help.”