Mercy Phillips sat in the back of a car that had seen better days, looking out the window with a blank expression on her face. Her Grim Hound familiar, Pudding was all curled up and nestled on her lap, snoring away. Driving the jelopy was the intensely terrified and cowed Boyd. The three of them, four if you included the sapient symbiotic primordial ooze inhabiting Mercy, were on there way to a place called Cobb. According to Boyd, not only was it a major trading hub, but also something of a gate way to one of the bigger cities in the area called Solus. Mercy had never heard of either place before, but then she wasn't exactly a Geography expert. Still it didn't bode well, when Boyd claimed to have never heard of Arcvale. Mercy hoped that it was just a case of simple ignorance, and not a precursor to some awful revelation.
The time was passed in silence. Mercy had little to say, Pudding was asleep, and Boyd was simply terrified of the monster sitting behind him. Hours passed as they skipped past various settlements scattered about. The few they skirted close by to were up in arms, ready for an assault, leading Mercy to believe that the militia weren't exactly in anyone's good graces. Considering how most of her interactions with them went, Mercy wasn't exactly surprised. With that said, she also wasn't surprised by the reception she got when they reached their destination.
Cobb was about the size of a village, boarding on being able to call itself a town. There were walls around it, though not as high, or as secure as her home's own. Mercy could see some rudimentary wards on them. Nothing that would secure the place from any sizable force. Low level threats? Sure. Anything above level 20 determined to get through? No. Though, from what she saw, Mercy doubted that would be a serious issue. Everything was quite low leveled. That included the guards that were immediately on them.
One of them was human, as far as she could tell, while the other was a some sort of cat man. Not being a cat person, she couldn't tell what sort. They each held halberds, and wore tabards with the same crest over their clothes. Immediately hostile, they commanded that we come out with out hands up. For a brief second she thought of getting out and simply killing them, and then move on. She quickl dismissed that as it would cause nothing but problems both in the short term, and long term. This wasn't some tiny backwoods hamlet, where no one would, presumably give a shit if she slaughtered them all and ate their organs. With that in mind, Mercy recalled Pudding into her ring, and complied. Seeing that Mercy wasn't about to go on a murder spree, Boyd did the same.
"I'm surprised." the cat man guard said moving in to detain them. "I didn't think your lot had the balls to come here."
"Oh, and why's that?" Mercy asked. "I thought this was some sort of trading hub?"
"Heh, you can act ignorant if you wish, but you know damn well that your lot aren't welcomed here."
"Which lot would that be? Women? Is this some sort of all men's village? I've heard of an all women's village before, then again they were all Amazons. The race, not the class." Mercy said.
"Don't play dumb with me. You know damn well that your scum sucking human centric militia isn't welcome here!" he barked.
"Huh. Well, it isn't a problem, then, as we aren't apart of the militia." I responded with a smile. "Well, at least I'm not."
"Oh, then what about your friend then?" the cat man hissed and sneered.
"See, that's another thing you got wrong. We aren't friends. He's the help. I've found its best not to get overly chummy with the help. It never works out, usually for them." I said said as though speaking from experience.
"Listen here you -" cat man began.
"Hey, man easy there." his partner began.
"Easy nothing! I'm not gonna let some militia whore talk down to me!" he yelled taking an angry swing at Mercy.
"Quiet you." Mercy thought as caught the sloppy punch. Then out loud she said. "Is this how you people run things here? It's sloppy, and oh so unprefessional."
She dug into the cat man's flesh with sharpened nails causing him to scream out. With a twist of her wrist she twisted his, and heard something snap. The cat man collapsed to his knees and reached up attempting to pry Mercy's hand from his person. It failed as Mercy only squeezed harder, and wrenched her grip into a more awkward position, eliciting a less manly scream from the cat man that soon turned into a whimper. The other guard had his halerd up and pointed at her. His face was horror stricken. His body shaking.
"I do believe that is enough."
Mercy looked over to who spoke, and found herself looking at fairly attractive yet stern looking woman. She had that tight strict look of an admintrator. Sensible but flattering shoes, long pencil skirt, tight blouse that went all the way up the neck. She wore glasses, but Mercy suspected that she didn't need them. At least not to see. Outwardly boring, but insanely hot, bordering on supernatural, Mercy recognized her what she was, a Succubus. After giving her a quick once over, Mercy let the cat man go.
"Thank you, Ms. Phillips." she said. Mercy almost asked how the woman knew her, but she quickly realized how dumb that would sound. "Now then, if you wouldn't mind coming with me."
"Sure, sure." Mercy said as she followed the older woman.
"Um, ma'am? What should we do about him?" the human guard asked, referring to Boyd, whom had been successfully and easily detained.
The succubus looked to Mercy, who gave a non challant shrug. Seeing that, the succubus looked to the guard. "The same thing we usually do with the vermin."
The guard saluted, but both the succubus and Mercy were already walking away. They moved through the streets of Cobb. It was a bustling place, with all manner of different races. They gravitated more toward humans, and beast kin, but there were all sorts. Mercy even spotted a few of the more demonic sorts. There were a fair deal of merchants, and adventurers as befitting a trading town. One thing that stood out to her was a certain statue. It was perhaps the biggest thing in the village, and depicted one of the seven luminaries. Gazing at it, Mercy had to dig through her memory to figure out which one. She knew all their names, and most of their faces, but statues made out them could be more artistic interpretation than fact. The face and figure could change from region to region. She'd once seen a statue of her grandfather depicting him as wizened old man. So, it took her a moment.
"Elenore the Storm Maiden." Mercy said aloud as she sussed out which of the Luminaries that the statue depicted. "Pretty sure she wasn't so well endowed."
"That's artistic license for you." the succubus said off handedly.
Mercy was led to a fairly unimpressive building. It had the look of a government office to her. She came to realise she hadn't been far off in her assessment as it turned out to be a guild building. In places like Cobb, where it was more about the flow of money and goods, the guilds, the three major ones anyhow, tended to act as the governing body in lieu of actual authority. If Mercy had to guest, then it was mostly the Adventurer's guild and Merchant's guild that operated out of the place.
Inside the guild building, Mercy saw the usual set up. To one side, encompassing an entire wall was the job board. On another side a series of booths with mostly female attendants. In between were a cacophony of adventures, merchants, and other miscellaneous individuals trying to get things done, or waiting for their people to finish up. Mercy and the succubus walked past them all heading toward a door in the back that lead to a series of offices. The two of them stopped in one of the offices where another woman sat behind a desk. This woman was significantly more pronounced than the succubus, being a burly but still rather feminine orc.
"This her?" the orc lady asked as Mercy sat in one of two leather chairs before the desk.
"Yes, ma'am." she said. "I found just about to tear Pedro's paw off."
"Oh, and why's that?" the orc lady asked, directing the question at Mercy.
"He called me a whore and took a swing at me." Mercy replied somewhat flippantly. "I'm Mercy by the way. Who are you? And, how did you know I was coming?"
"Mercy? Really?" the orc lady said.
"Yes, yes, I know."
The orc lady shook her head, and rolled her eyes. "Anyway. I am Vogana Bergna, guild master around these parts."
"Um, just to be clear, what parts would these be? I'm kind of lost. Portal mishap."
"You, Ms. Phillips are currently in the Southern part of Fargus Republic." the succubus said causing Mercy's mouth to drop.
"Ugh, I really am in the sticks." Mercy said sinking lower into her seat.
"I wouldn't exactly put it -" Vognana started.
"Yes, you are really are Ms. Phillips." the succubus said cutting her off.
"Hey, this place isn't so bad." Vogana said only to get a similar look from the two other women.
"No, ma'am, it really is." she turned to Mercy. "You may call me Rommie, Ms. Phillips. The Hegemon put the word out to be on the look out for you."
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"Oh, that was nice of grandpa. I don't suppose he set up some sort of portal or transport to get me back home?"
"No. He made mention that you might be out of sorts, and that portal travel would be dangerous for you, but beyond that he said nothing of transportation."
Mercy slumpped a little in her chair. She could see her grandfather doing that. Telling others to keep an eye on her while she was fucked up, but to otherwise let her fend for herself. That meant if she wanted to get back home, than she would have to do so herself. It also meant that it would likely take her awhile. As in months, if she had to go the normal route, which was overland and sea, especially with that not so subtle warning regarding portals.
"Fantastic." Mercy said sarcastically. "Well, that just leaves me with questions as to what to do, especially now that my minion is most likely dead."
"Minion?" Vogana asked.
"One of those militia vermin. She arrived here being driven by one." Romi said, causing Vogana to lift an eyebrow in surprise.
"What? I arrived in the middle of nowhere with no clue as to where I was, or where to go. What's his name was more than happy to accomadate me."
"Just out of the goodness of his heart? That's unlikely."
"More so that wouldn't eat his heart. In the literal sense." Mercy said. "The plan was for him to drive me through here, and to Solus, where I'd hoped I could catch a ride home."
"Hmm, apologies for that Ms. Philips."
Mercy waved away. "It's fine. Before I was working on desperation mode. Now, I can take my time. Build myself up, so on, and so forth."
"Then perhaps the best way to do would be to join the adventurer's guild." Vogana said with a merchant's smile to which Mercy simply shrugged.
For the next little while, Mercy sat going over the registration paperwork for the guild. Initially she was gonna refuse, but remembered that she was broke, and she it was more likely for to suddenly become a man then it was for her family to wire her money. As such, she read through everything carefully, looking out for any traps or tricks. She wouldn't want to locked into something that would force her to give up her first born child. It wasn't likely, but not unheard of. Anyway, after reading through it, she filled out all of the appropriate paperwork. For some of the sections she had to do a bit of colourful editing. Such as with her race, and classes. In no way would it be sensible to include the words void or abyssal. Instead she went with what she use to be, a Teifling. When it came to her classes she kept it simple. Rather than the speficic names she went with the generic Witch, and left out her sub class altogether. She doubted anyone would bug her about it. She also, rather reluctantly included the fact that she had a familiar. Upon submitting it to one of the guild employees, she received a stink eye, but it was nothing compared to her mother's daunting glares, so she weathered through well enough.
"Alright. Here you go." the receptionist said handing over a white dog tag. "I suggest you don't lose it."
Mercy took the tag. It was the guild's form of id. It also denoted rank within the guild. There 6 of them. It started with Porcelain, then advanced to Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinum and finally ended at Diamond. Ranking up came with privileges and authority. Getting from porcelain to Silver was relatively easy. Going beyond was task in and of itself. Some people rocketed up quickly, while others could spend years at one rank, either unable or unwilling to rank up. It generally came down to ability and drive. Some had one over the other, while some lacked both.
With tag in hand, she thanked the receptionist and went toward the job board. She doubted she would, take anything, assuming there was something to take. She mostly wanted a feel for what was on hand. A quick glance told her that most of the jobs revolves around acting as an escort. It made sense being a hub. That said, there were a few things fit for her current rank. One of those being the classic goblin extermination quests. It was an open quest, meaning that anyone could come in with the required proof, and then get paid. That seemed like the thing to do, well in a bit. She had few thing that needed to be sorted out first.
Leaving the guild, Mercy wandered around the village for a while until she found an unbusy spot. That wound up being on the roof of a restaurant. With shifted fingers she scurried to the top, and set herself up.
"A bit of prep work." Mercy replied removing a series of appropriated guns from her [Inventory].
She had quite a number of them that she have taken from Hope Springs. Different models and different types. Revolvers, semi automatics, sub machine guns, full machine guns, hunting rifles and shotguns. Most of them were crap, kept in horrid condition. About what you'd expect from a bunch of backwood bigots. Along with the weapons were also the ammo. Mercy laid them all out into their various categories, and scanned them all wondering where to start. Her answer, the shotguns. Picking up the first one she held it up, and tapped into her [Guncraft] ability, which also tripped both the archive, and her [Devour] ability. The former she expected, the latter came as a surprise. One quick injection of mana later, and the gun was reduced to ash.
"Nothing worth bitching about." Mercy said looking toward the System message.
[12 gauge pump action shotgun recipe added]
Smiling, Mercy dusted off her hands and moved on to the next item in line. One by one she utilized her skills to gain recipes. Once she had one of each, she began with the next step.
The first time she had made a gun, she had done so haphazardly with nothing but some 'recycled' scrap, and a prayer. It came out well enough for a first attempt. That was especially true as she had been required to machine all the parts from scratch, where as now she had the means to cannibalize the excess guns. Starting with the revolver, which was her favourite so far, she began mechanically breaking down the ones she possessed. Using [Guncraft] she analyzed each piece, and rated them from great to garbage. Most of it fell somewhere in the middle. Taking all the good bits, and reworking the ones that weren't quite up to par, but being the only option, Mercy fashioned herself a new gun, which the System rated to be Common grade. Considering the thing started out as Poor, well that was a win in Mercy's book. As for the unusable pieces, those she broke down into component parts. As she finished with the revolver she moved to the others.
"Hey you! What are you doing up there?" Someone called out. "You on the roof."
Mercy didn't respond, concentrating as she was with carving the casing to one of her bullets, using one of her shifted fingers. After hours of completing her small arsenal she was working on the ammunition. The basic bullet was simple enough to fabricate. With the recipe, and the components sitting in her [Inventory] it just took a bit of will and some magic to conjure them up. She could have done the same with the guns themselves, but that would require too much mana, and would lack the je ne sais quoi of doing it herself.
"Hey! I'm talking to you!" The same loud individual shouted, this time right up in her face. A rough hand landed on Mercy's shoulder, causing her to shift, and make an errant mark.
Seeing it, Mercy went still. That stillness allowed for the unnatural heightened aggression to come to the surface. Eyes going black, she manoeuvred and shifted her tail to lash out at the one who interrupted her. Mercy felt it slice, first through some sort of armour and the flesh, followed quickly by bone. She heard a thud, and then a scream.
"Do you know how long I was working on that?" Mercy asked her voice harsh, and sounding pissed as she turned on the guy.
Mercy ignored Grace as she stood, while moving her tail so the large blade hovered over the guy. She lifted it, and was about to slam it down when something came out of nowhere and blocked it, via a well timed flying object. Glancing over she spotted the good Samaritan. It was a raggedy looking man. She blinked. In that instance he vanished. Mercy didn't wonder how, or where he vanished to, already guessing that he was up there with her. A flick of her gaze confirmed that.
"You don't startle easily." He said hefting the injured man up and onto his shoulders.
"You're too slow." Mercy replied.
"Is that right?" He said with a smirk. "Then let's see if you can catch me."
Mercy blinked again. Once more the man vanished. He didn't get far, as he was clearly waiting for Mercy to take the bait, which she didn't. Instead she sat back down, and took out another bullet.
"Why?" Mercy asked. "I know his type. Engage with them, indulge in their games and nothing but problems will arise."
"I'm aware." She said as she once again got to carving.
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"Well that's ashame." The raggedy man said as he watched the young demon woman sit back down. Shaking his head he turned away, carrying the man with one foot.
Moving at his usual speeds, he arrived at a small but rather recognizable building. Along side the adventurer's guiild and merchant's guild, this building was perhaps the most frequented. Pushing the door open he was met by the familiar scent of cleaning products just over the stink of sickness and blood that had long since permeated the wood, despite the numerous attempts to clenase the place. He was also met with an attractive, but tired looking cat woman, with a mix of snow white and coal black hair. She sat behind a desk reading some romance fluff novel. Upon noticing his presence, the two cat ears on top of her head twitched and she looked up, releasing a long sigh.
"John. What did you do this time?" she asked pinching the bridge of her nose. "Or rather, who did you do it too."
"Whoa there Candi, why all the blame. I was just passing by when I saw this guy in a bit of trouble and stepped in. No offence buddy." he said, the latter part directed to the man that had long since passed out from shock.
"So says you. Now bring him over here." Candi, or rather Candice said, leading the man named John over to an empty bed.
The small clinic had four of them in the room, and it was rare for them all to be empty. Walking over to the injured man she examined the wound. From the knee and change, the leg was gone. This wasn't her first missing appendage, and unless she died in the very near future, she douted it would be her last. That said seeing this scared the crap out of her. For one, the cut was so absurdly clean. For another was the sinister aura around the wound. Using her various skills as a healer she began to treat the wound as best she could, and had to hold back a grimace.
"What the hell did this?" she asked.
"A rather pissed off young woman." John replied. "She was about ready to kill him before I stepped in."
"What did this guy do, step out on her?"
"I'm pretty he interrupted her, and ruined her work." he said, causing Candice to just stare incredulously.
"You're not serious are you?"
"Rarely, but in this case, I am. Rather than try and hunt him down, she just got back to work, muttering to herself."
"What did she use to do this. Some sort of enchanted blade? Cursed?"
"Her own tail."
"Tail?"
"Tail."
"Was she a beast kiin?"
"No. I'm not quite sure, but if I had to guess than I would say she was some manner of demon. The sort that can pass as human. When she's not in murder mode anyhow." John said.
"Hmm, well that would explain what I'm seeing here."
"Oh, and just what are you seeing with those lovely green eyes of yours?"
Candice hissed a little bit, before controlling herself. She took a small breath, and released it slowly, calming her nerves.
"As scarily clean this wound is, there is an undercurrent of some bad mojo. The type of bad mojo preventing me from healing it properly."
"We aren't gonna a zombie situation are we? If so, I'll just snuff him out now."
"I doubt it, but you never know with these things. However, my point is, that I don't have the right sort of resources for this, meaning..."
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning, I'm gonna need one of them."
"Really? Them. Is there no other option than them?" John playing up the dramatics for a bit.
"WHo exactly is them again?"
"The only clerics we currently have in Cobb."
"Oh, them." John said with grimace. "I'm guessing, that you're expecting me to go and get them?"
"Well, you're the one that brought this guy here."
"Yeah, well, had I known it would involve them, I'd have just let that young woman finish him off."
Candice shook her head. "They do say, no good deed goes unpunished. Guess this is what they meant. Now, if you would, get!"
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"There we go." Mercy said as the sun began to rise.
Mercy smirked as a System message appeared.
[Congratulations! You have obtained recipe for "Life Siphon" ammo]
"Really? You think that bullets which drain the life from my enemies and pumps it into me, and by extension, you, is redundant?"
"Damn straight you do!" Mercy said wobbling a moment before passing out.