Finding the inn was much easier than finding the Job Hall, mainly because I’d wandered the area enough that it felt almost as familiar to me as the village back home. Not that I’d spent that much time there.

I walked in to see that it was unchanged after the day that I’d been gone, which makes sense when you think about it but still felt odd to me for some reason. Either not noticing or not caring about my ponderings, Finch shouted at me to come over to the desk. Someone that looked to be asleep lifted their head off of the table it was resting on for a moment, before grumbling something unintelligible and laying back down.

“Where’ve ya been? Did ya git lost in tha city or somethin’?” He seemed strangely angry at me, though I couldn’t really figure out why.

“I took a job to kill some rats and it got a little out of hand. I ended up getting lost in the sewers and spent the entire day trying to get out, that’s all,” He rested his head in his hand and sighed, kind of like the Captain now that I think about it, but froze for a moment whilst raising his head back up to eye level.

“Did ya end up killin’ a lot o’ rats down there then?” Something had changed about his voice, he spoke with a forced calmness that made it a little difficult to figure out what he was feeling.

“Umm, well I had to fight a few small hordes. Maybe like 50 rats or something…” I hated lying, so by the end of the sentence my voice had begun to trail off more than I would have liked, but I don’t think that would give anything away so I tried not to think about it.

“I heard a pretty interestin’ rumor tha other day. Supposedly there’s a Rat King down there, one that could switch its affinity ‘round. You wouldn’ta happ’ned to see it while you were down there, would ya’?” How could he have known about that? Did he actually already know about it?

“Ah, well- umm- I wouldn’t know, I never saw anything like that…” That sounded like it should have worked, right?

“Don’t take me fer a fool, I can feel the Pure Mana wafting outta yer bag like its fulla holes. That’s the Rat King’s Crown aint it?” As he spoke his anticipation seemed to leak out and he started to sound less monotone and more… excited? I guess?

“That might be what it was called, if I had one, which I don’t. So I guess it doesn’t matter what it would be called really.” How did he know about that? Like seriously, I thought this was supposed to be some kind of well kept secret, how could some random innkeeper know?

“Listen, ya don’t need to worry about me ratting you out, I know how dangerous tha’ Feat can be. I jus’ wanna know what you plan ta do with tha’ Crown. Yer not gonna be able to sell it without people askin’ some questions that you clearly ain’t prepared to answer.”

That was a good point, and now I didn’t know what I could do with it. I guess it’s a pretty cool rock, but it looks kind of weird. I’d taken a closer look at it earlier and saw that it seemed to be literally made out of the tails of the rats. I could clearly see the ridges and lines that would’ve been visible on a regular rat’s tail. It was honestly a little disturbing, and I’d frankly had enough of rats for a lifetime.

“I don’t really know. I’m not even sure that I want to keep it to be honest, what use could it even have?” The Innkeeper grinned at my admission, like he’d either expected this outcome or hoped for it.

“Well, maybe I can cut ya a deal fer it. A full year’s stay free o’ charge, plus two meals a day. Sounds good, don’t it?”

It does sound like a pretty good deal. Plus, if I accept then I’ll be able to save all of my money for a house or whatever. But I don’t really want to be hungry so I’d have to pay for one meal, which probably wouldn’t put much of a dent in my current savings. Hmmm.

“Alright, sure. I guess I may as well accept,” I immediately take the Crown from the sack at my waist and place it on the counter. Finch panics for a moment before hurriedly taking it and placing it somewhere under the counter that I couldn’t see from this angle, “What do you need it for anyway?” Sue me, I was curious. I couldn’t imagine what something like this would be useful for apart from as some kind of weird light source.

“Don’t ya know it’s rude to pry into someone else’s business? I’ve been workin’ on a project fer a while now and that Crown might be what I need to finish it, that’s all yer getting. Now shoo, it’s late and you need to get some sleep.”

He was right, of course. I’d completely forgotten about how tired I was after the near disaster of someone already finding out what should have been a closely guarded secret. Speaking of…

“Before I go, how did you know about The Rat King?” He looked a little surprised for a moment before schooling his expression.

“Like I told ya, that Crown of yers was something that could help me out a lot, so I’ve been keeping an ear out fer news about one fer a while now. Unnaffinitied Rat Kings are rare enough that I’d obviously hear about one appearing in Ironhold. Is that all?”

“Yeah, thanks. I guess I’ll get out of your hair for a while,” I said goodnight and trudged upstairs, every step feeling harder than the last as I finally began to properly relax for the first time in at least 24 hours. I dropped my sack in the trunk and made sure to shut the window and put it on the latch, just to make sure no one got in and stole my now considerable wealth, and fell into bed without even changing my clothes.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

----------------------------------------

I woke up to a breeze on my face again and, for a moment, thought that I might have been moved whilst unconscious again. But no, opening my eyes revealed that I was still in the same room as last night.

Is the latch just broken? How did the window open?

The trunk was still shut, and nothing else was out of place, but I still checked inside just to be safe. Sure enough, my belongings were completely untouched, so the window wasn’t opened by some thief with telekinesis or something.

Well, I guess it doesn’t matter that much. The breeze makes for a good wake up call anyway, so it’s not all bad.

After I went downstairs and had my breakfast, I went back to the Job Hall. I wasn’t really sure that I was going to get another Job, I didn’t exactly need the money, but I was at a loss on what to do. Whilst walking I realised that I could sell those rat tails that I’d collected, but then realised that I only ended up getting one, and it must have been destroyed at the same time as my clothes.

Whilst I was walking, trying to find something to distract myself, I got an unexpected notification.

Free Point Automatically Assigned To WIllpower

That can actually happen? I wonder how it decides where it goes? Hopefully it puts it in the most useful one and it isn’t just completely random.

Realising that I hadn’t really looked at the changes recently, I decided that now was as good a time as any to check my full Status.

Robert Zeneki Lightning Adept 18 Level

13

Willpower 13

Wisdom 5

Strength

5

Agility 7 Path Skills

Lightning Generator 11 Lightning Bolt

9 Lightning Cloak

2 Charge

4 General Skills

[3/5] Walking

8 Condense Mana

9 Breathing

9

King Slayer

I was glad for the versatility of Walking, because I was somehow able to manoeuvre around people without paying one iota of attention to where I was going.

I’ve grown quite a lot, huh?

I understood that I’d made a lot of progress in not a lot of time, but one of the few things that everyone knew about the System was that levelling got slower over time. And I mean a lot slower.

Apparently it was normal to reach level 10 within weeks, but then not reach level 20 for years. And the less said about level 30 the better. There were people with levels above 50, but they were almost exclusively nobles that had been able to extend their lifespan beyond what was possible for any peasant like me.

It was rumoured that the Queen was over level 70 but I wasn’t sure how much I believed that. Even though she’s apparently lived for centuries, getting to that high of a level seemed impossible.

I wonder how high I’ll climb.

----------------------------------------

Walking into the Job Hall, I could immediately sense that something was different. Instead of clustering around the Job Boards, everyone was standing in groups talking between each other. Also, almost as soon as I walked into the room a few people noticed and whispered to someone next to them, then turned to look at me.

Soon the entire room was looking at me, and I wasn’t sure what to do.

“Hey, you’re that guy from yesterday! Good to see you made it back in one piece, let's go outside before people start trying to crowd you,” Someone put their arm around me and began dragging me outside like we were friends. I just went along with it, but in my head I was trying my hardest to figure out who the hell this guy was.

It was only when we’d gotten outside and I turned to look at him that I finally recognised the voice, “Oh, you’re the guy that told me to take the extermination job.”

He winced and a guilty look flashed across his face, “Yeah, sorry about that. I didn’t expect that you’d have to fight through 4 hordes.”

“Oh, they were only small ones. And they were hours apart anyway, so it wasn’t so bad.”

“Still I’d like to apologise. First though, introductions. My name is Kaelan Zephyr, but you can just call me Kaelan.” He held out a hand for me to shake.

I took it and said, “Mine’s Robert Zeneki, I prefer to go by Rob,” He grinned and retracted his hand.

“Now that we have that out of the way, I think it’s time we talk about reparations. I feel pretty bad about nearly getting you killed, so obviously the best way to solve this is to help you avoid dying in the future!”

“How would you go about doing that?” He’s not going to follow me around as some kind of bodyguard is he? I feel like that would be a little annoying.

“Well, since the main reason I’m in Dillak in the first place is to gain more experiences so that I can be an effective teacher, why don’t I teach you a thing or two about magic. You seem to be pretty new to this, right? Have you been taught any magic before?”

I wasn’t sure how I felt about him continuing to talk as though I’d already agreed, but learning more about magic seemed like the exact kind of thing I needed to fill the time whilst I figure out what to do with myself, so I just went with it, “I don’t actually know anything about magic, apart from how to unlock your Mana Pool when you Awaken.”

He seemed to be genuinely caught off guard by my answer, as though he didn’t expect that answer, “Really? How did you end up with a Rare variant of Lightning Mage without knowing anything about magic?”

“Ah, it’s kind of embarrassing really. I - “ I cleared my throat, “I got struck by lightning during my awakening.”

“Wait really? How lucky do you have to be? Or unlucky, since I guess you need to get struck by lightning. Anyway, that’s not important, I was mainly just curious. Let’s just set a time and place and we’ll meet there to get started, yeah? How does noon at the training fields on 1st street sound?” I know how the streets work now so I can probably find it no problem.

“Yeah, sounds good. I’ll be there.”

“Nice! I have to go do a Job now, so I’ll leave you to it. See ya tomorrow!”

Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with the rest of the day.