Along the way to the shop, Leo immediately used the D rank Mental Karma he’d just received to bring his Will up, finally increasing it to an even E rank. He didn’t feel any immediate difference, however. Maybe it’d prevent him from having his body possessed by that still unknown S rank.
There was a small crowd in Zumra’s shop when they arrived. Axilya was also there, who responded to Leo’s quick wave with a nod. Zumra seemed to have commandeered her service to calm down the rowdy Laborers and keep the long line that had wound itself around the store proper flowing. The elf himself served customers at the front desk with a calm expression, which lit up when he spotted Leo. He quickly finished the transaction for the person at the desk and asked the next one walking up to hold for a moment.
“Ah, Leo. Wonderful to see you here. Might I ask for your help in Combining a number of things for me? I’ll provide the materials and make sure you’re properly compensated.”
Leo blinked at the unexpected request, but nodded in response. “Sure, what do you need?” There were so many people in the store, it wasn’t hard to see why he’d need help restocking. Even though Zumra would probably have much more mana than Leo at C rank, Leo knew all too well the limited amount of Mana he had to make anything. He looked to Rize and Layne as even more people seemed to come into the store behind them. “Why don’t you two try to figure out what all the fuss is about while I’m helping?”
They both agreed, and then they split up. Zumra had Leo come behind the counter, where he pulled out a box from a shelf that had about half a dozen vials full of a dark blue liquid. “I generally only save these for special occasions, but the current rush would certainly count.” He explained, handing one of them to Leo. “These are mana potions. For the moment, just make as many E rank healing potions as you can, and drink one of these when you run out.”
With his instructions given, Leo got to Mixing, making four potions before downing one of the sweet-tasting mana potions that, at rank D, Leo discovered, refilled his entire mana supply. before making more and starting the process over again. He got a critical Combine a few times, which Zumra took only as a boon, as he seemed to have as much of a need for D rank potions as E rank ones. After the first, Leo started paying attention to the crits and found that he seemed to have a little higher than a ten percent chance. He’d have to imagine that would go up with his Luck stat, but he had no real intention to raise it any time soon.
Half an hour and three boxes of mana potions between the two of them later, they managed to clear out the shop without issue. Leo slumped against the corner as the last customer left and let out a sigh of relief. “Are you alright?” Zumra asked. “Using that much mana so quickly will cause a bit of a mental toll.”
“I’m fine, thanks.” Leo’s vision blurred a bit, and he felt a little dizzy after Mixing so much, but he’d work through it. He could already feel it fading. “Glad I could help.” His attention turned to Layne and Rize, walking up to the counter at the sight of the last customer leaving. “So what’d you guys find out?” He asked, then looked at Zumra. “Er, wait, before that, I think he came here for D rank healing potions.” Leo said, gesturing to Layne.
“Of course. I still have mana potions remaining, so I’ll get those going right away.” While Zumra stepped off to the side to make those potions, Axilya stepped up to the counter as well, just as Layne and Rize started to speak.
“People have spotted an Eldritch Titan heading for Ashar’s capital, Dumatha, north of here.” Rize started. He noticed her ears were flat and her tails erratically flicked back and forth behind her.
Layne chimed in, seeming to catch Leo’s lack of understanding from his raised eyebrow. “One of the Outsiders soldiers. Some of their strongest at that. From its size they’re guessing it’s at least A rank, but it has a small army forming around it, so they’re gonna need support from any guild on Heom that’s close enough to make it in time. It’ll supposedly reach the city in about four days.”
“Well that explains the rush.” People trying to get their hands on as many cheaper healing potions and other things as possible made sense. Something felt wrong about this, though. Even though the Eldritch Titan wasn’t even coming for Normouth. “There goes those reinforcements Sir Verakith was asking for. Is every Laborer guild in the city heading up for Dumatha?”
“Really every Laborer that has the means to get there on time.” Axilya answered. “Even I’m planning to make my way up there once I’m done helping Zumra. Events like that tend to give a lot of Karma for participating. Sometimes enough to go up an entire rank if you contribute enough.”
“If every Laborer goes up to Dumatha, what happens if we…” Leo trailed off, glancing back to Layne and Rize. Layne was looking down, his expression dark, and Leo thought back to his words while they were making their way toward Zumra’s shop. “Oh hell. They planned this. The darklings are gonna swarm Normouth while everyone’s busy with the Titan.” He said. The silence in the shop deafened him as what he spoke seemed to settle in everyone’s minds, broken when Zumra stepped back up their way and held several vials out and clinked them together to get Layne’s attention.
“Seems like how the outsiders operate.” Layne said, taking the potions and paying the credits. “I…I’m sorry, I know I should probably stay here with that information in mind, but I need to get to Dumatha. There’s something I need there that I won’t be able to get if the Titan ends up destroying the city.”
“Seriously?” Leo said, incredulous. “Even after hearing what I said just now?”
“There are plenty of people making hard choices right now.” Layne retorted. “All of the guilds here have to know about the darklings, but they’re sending as many people as they can over anyway. If Normouth falls, things will probably be fine for Heom, but if Dumatha goes down, the world will almost immediately go from ‘Disfavored’ to ‘On the Brink’, and then it’ll only be downhill from there.” He swiped the air with the familiar motions that Leo recognized as navigating his own menu, and then something black and rectangular materialized in his hands. He started typing on it, and the familiar ticking sound told Leo that Layne had just purchased a smartphone from the Labors’ shop.
“What are you-?” Before Leo could finish asking, Layne tossed him the phone, watching Leo struggle for a moment as he nearly didn’t catch it.
“Keep it. I just put my number in so you can call me.” With that, he turned on a heel and started to head out of the shop. “There’s a chance the darklings won’t do anything while the Titan’s being dealt with, but if they do, just call me. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
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Leo didn’t even have time to protest further before he was out the door, gone, off to his own inscrutable agenda. “What the hell was that about?” Leo asked. “Did he really just leave?”
“Maybe he has family in Dumatha?” Axilya offered. Leo was going to shake his head and reveal that he was from Earth like he was, but that didn’t account for Layne potentially having a girlfriend or something who lived in Ashar’s capital. Not that he spoke about anything like that, but he didn’t talk much about his past at all. “Still, even I was planning on heading out for Dumatha, since I hadn’t heard anything about the darklings in a while.”
“Oh come on, we can’t lose you, too.” Leo said, close to begging at this point.
“Could you blame me?” Axilya asked. “You’re basically asking me to stay behind and avoid an attack that’s actively happening to defend against an attack that might happen. If I didn’t have friends living here-” She knocked with her knuckles against the counter. “-I’d hardly have any incentive to stick around. Which is probably why most of the Labor guildies left.”
“Okay, Axilya, I get it. If nothing happens here while the Titan’s attacking, I’ll Mix anything you want for you with no cost until you make up for what you could have made if you went to help with the Titan, it’s just too much of a coincidence that all that’s happening with the darklings at Normouth’s doorstep.”
“I appreciate the offer, and might just take you up on it later, but it isn’t necessary. I can’t leave Zumra to try to defend his shop by himself. Or you, for that matter.”
Letting out a sigh of relief, Leo slumped down against the counter. Rize looked between everyone, looking worried. “Well, what are we going to do? That doesn’t leave many of us to-”
A bell chimed as the door to Zumra’s shop opened, and a familiar face to Leo stepped through. The kitsune from the woods entered the shop, with Rize and Axilya shifting out of her way as she approached the counter. “Why hello. I know I’m coming in a bit late, but would you happen to have any C rank healing potions?”
“Indeed I do.” Zumra replied with his extremely well practiced customer service smile. “Most of the ones that the rush came through and bought were of E and D Rank. How many do you need?”
“Four will do for now.” The kitsune answered, and while Zumra nodded and stepped away to grab them, the kitsune turned to Leo. “Pardon me, but have we met?”
“Er, excuse me?” Leo replied, not expecting the question. “I don’t think so. Why do you ask?”
“You’ve just been staring like you’re trying to bore a hole through me since I walked in.” She answered with a sly grin. “Hard for a girl to not get curious.”
There was that insane Intuition at work again. Leo wished he could Appraise her to tell how high it actually was, but he had no reason to believe it wouldn’t go exactly like last time, except this time her eyes were directly on him.”No I uh, don’t think we’ve met. You’re just the only kitsune I’ve come across since I’ve been here.” Technically, he wasn’t lying, but he couldn’t even tell if she could work out that he wasn’t entirely truthful, so he tried to change the subject. “I do have a question for you though, if you don’t mind?” At the curious head tilt and a twitch of her foxlike ears in response, he kept going. “I’ll assume you’re a Laborer. Are you heading for Dumatha? Or are you staying here?”
He spotted her eyes widen slightly, but other than that her expression didn’t change much. As her grin also widened, he realized that he might have just told on himself by revealing that he knew, at least a little bit, about the darklings, but then again, most of the Laborers in Normouth should be aware of them after they got Sir Verakith to spread the word “Why yes. I’ll be sticking around.” She turned to Zumra as he made his way back to the counter, holding out a hand and dropping several spectral coins into the shopkeeper's waiting hand in what seemed like her version of a transfer of credits. “I won’t be one to miss a party, and this one’s looking like it’ll be a big one.” Stashing away the potions in a pocket, she gave a wave to the group and started to make her way out. Once the door closed, Leo let out a breath that he didn’t realize he’d been holding.”
“Leo, was that…?” Rize began to ask. Leo confirmed that she was the very same kitsune that they saw who’d also been looking into the darklings, and filled Axilya and Zumra in as well.
“If that is true, then you’ve just confirmed that you’ll have at least one A rank staying to fight the darklings if they invade.”
“Good news,” Axilya said, “but one A rank is hardly enough to keep a horde of monsters from laying waste to the city, even if she does end up killing most of them.” She stood up from her own position of leaning on the counter, beginning to make her way out. “I’ll go talk to the people of the guilds that are still here. They’ve probably kept people too green to handle fighting anything that would hang around an A rank, and I might be able to convince some people who haven’t left yet to stay put.”
“I’ll have your compensation ready by morning tomorrow.” Zumra said to her as she left, then turned to Leo and Rize. “And, in the effort of helping defend Normouth and my shop, I’ll spare no expense in terms of materials, but you must understand if, on the night of any prospective attack, I don’t stray too far from my store.”
Leo opened up the Labors shop again, quickly opening up the section he was in before and buying the book on bomb-making that only cost about a hundred credits. “I guess I’ve got some reading to do.”
Name:
Leonell Bolden
Stats
Title
-
Fortitude: E (0/10)
Class
Mixer
Reflex: E (0/10)
Element
-
Intellect: E (0/10)
Total Rank
E
Intuition: D- (0/10)
Status
Health 100% Mana 0%
Will: E (0/10)
Skills
Combine, Auto-Loot, Appraise, Storage
Luck: D (0/10)