Monica stared at the new quest notification floating in her vision as everyone crowded around Madeline’s marble table. The timing was perfect - she had been wondering what to do with Tertius, Ivor, and his thugs, and now a quest had conveniently dropped into her lap about Crystal Wolves.
“Lucas,” Monica said between bites of the surprisingly tender pork, “enlighten me about Crystal Wolves.”
The Scholar practically bounced in his seat, nearly knocking over his cup. “Oh! They’re fascinating specimens of Corruption’s influence on—”
“The short version,” Monica cut in, raising an eyebrow.
Lucas deflated slightly.
“Right. They’re like normal wolves but bigger, meaner, and covered in crystals. They feed off Corruption and spread it.”
“Are all Dungeons the result of Corruption?” Monica asked with a frown.
“No,” Lucas promptly replied. “Most Dungeons are made by the System for people to conquer.”
“What’s the difference between them?” Monica frowned.
“For starters, you cannot take a Corruption-infested Dungeon if you are not under the protection of a God,” Heidi grumbled by the side.
The fact that Monica had so swiftly tackled a terminal case of Corruption had left her discouraged.
“She is right, milady,” Lucas said, clearing his voice. “In normal circumstances, whenever Corruption starts spreading, the New Gods—”
“The Gods,” Heidi snarled. “There’s only one set of Gods!”
Lucas rolled his eyes.
“The present Gods,” Lucas said, acquiescing, “take an active interest and start distributing Quests, which are otherwise very hard to pry from their hands. Every Quest costs a New—well, a present God a piece of their Divinity.”
“A piece of their Divinity?” Monica frowned.
“Milady, you wanted the short version,” Lucas said with a little mischief painted across his face.
Monica looked at the man and let a Steel Talon appear on her right hand.
“Please, Lucas, why don’t you continue with that attitude?” She said with a threatening tone. “I’m sure nothing bad will happen to you tonight if you do.”
Lucas almost choked on a fried artichoke and raised his hands.
“I beg your pardon, milady. I forget my manners.”
“Dude, come on, don’t be mean. You let them live, no?” Ted said, spearing a piece of meat with his fork.
“Under the condition that they prove themselves to be useful,” she said and turned to the Scholar. “Lucas?”
“Yes, as I was saying, there’s usually a set of minor Dungeons that start appearing as a result of Corruption spreading. Crystal Wolves are the most common, but also an undeniable sign we’re dealing with the Old Gods’ powers. It would be enough to report this for the New Gods to be alerted.”
He slipped but Heidi just bristled in silence, noting that Monica still had to put away the armed steel glove from her hand and that was now glancing in her direction.
“So we do know this is definitely the work of Old Gods, alright.”
Then, the redhead turned toward the Healer.
“Can you send a message to your God?” Monica asked.
Heidi was taken aback by the request.
“I—I didn’t know you liked the Gods,” Heidi frowned.
“Lady Monica is quite literally the Old Gods’ worst nemesis. Neutral, however, when it comes to your Gods.”
Neutral for now, Monica thought.
“Right,” Heidi nodded. “I… started building an Altar. It’s almost completed. I just need some coin to power it.”
Monica turned toward Lucas.
“The New Gods can be alerted from anywhere in the world,” he explained, “no matter where they currently are. However, they require a tribute to draw upon their energies to send a message.”
“Coin?” Monica snorted. “For some reason, that sounds really funny.” She turned toward Heidi. “Finish your Altar, Heidi. I want to talk to a God. After that, I’ll decide what’ll happen to you.”
“W—what?” The Healer stammered.
“Well, I didn’t give you my permission to alert your patron to my presence, did I?” Monica smiled like a cat and tossed some Silver Coins at her. “Now, though, go. You can skip this dinner since you were so eager to get in touch with your God.”
Everyone looked at Heidi getting up without basically having touched anything of the feast that Madeline had cooked and stomping away.
“Miss,” Madeline said shyly, “are you sure about this? I bet you’re all famished after coming back from the Cultists.”
Dotty had caught her up on what had happened.
“Heidi did nothing but whine since I rescued her,” Monica said, using the Steel Talons to shave the meat off a rib, dextrously dropping it in her mouth without having to splatter grease everywhere like the others. “I don’t know that what she did could have endangered not just me but all of you. She’s lucky I let her live.”
That shut Madeline up, with the woman protectively putting a hand on the shoulder of Ronnie, who was currently sitting in her lap.
“Mood-killer, dude,” Ted shrugged, biting into a pork chop.
Monica sighed.
“Tertius,” she said, “since we’re in a mood for bad news. You’ll go to the Blacksmith and make sure that Ivor and his goons are tied up. Sleep there, and put your spear through them if they try anything. We leave tomorrow at noon after buying some more food, packs, water, and whatever we might need.”
Ted was eating in tranquillity, his brain shut off, when he found Monica staring at him.
“What?” He asked in between spoonfuls of a bean soup.
“Are you coming, Ted?” She asked.
“Coming where?” He frowned.
“The Crystal Wolves Lair.”
Ted’s spoon stopped mid-air, with the beans still fuming on top.
“Huh,” he replied.
“Huh, what?” Monica said, pressing him.
“Dude, I can’t fight,” he said. “What do you want me for?”
“Miss,” Dotty interjected from the side. “Can I come?”
Monica turned with a raised eyebrow toward the teen.
“Dorothy!” Madeline said, visibly paling.
“I need Levels!” Dotty immediately said.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
[Hunter - Lv. 4]
That was the tag above Dotty’s head.
“I’m tired of us getting bullied since Dad left! I want to level up!”
“Dotty, you’re just a child!”
[Herbalist - Lv. 19]
Monica read Madeline’s tag and looked at the pork chop in front of her, sighing and putting the Steel Talon away, just biting deep into it like a savage. She was too hungry to worry about manners.
She tuned out the argument between mother and daughter, knowing that if Dotty wanted to come, she’d come regardless of what her mother said. Instead, she focused on Ted, knowing he would be distraught.
In fact, Ted was gloomily looking at a corner of the room.
Monica followed his eyes and found the mandolin he had gotten from the Loot Chest.
Ted had said that Loot Chests gave something useful to whoever opened them. That meant that he was somehow connected to the musical instrument.
A Class to do with music? Monica wondered, resisting the urge to ask Lucas out loud.
“That’s it! I’m going!” Dotty said. “If you don’t want me in the house anymore, I’ll just live in the woods after leveling up! I don’t want to grow up as a coward like you!”
Madeline scrunched her face angrily but pursed her lips, deposited Ronnie on the stone stool, and rose.
“Excuse me,” she said, with tears in her eyes.
“Mommy!” Ronnie said, immediately following his mother in her room.
“You can come,” Monica said. “But next time, I want you to have a decent conversation with your mother and me. You might bully her into coming, but you still need my permission.”
“I’m sorry,” Dotty said through her teeth.
“Take your food, your mother and Ronnie. Go eat in her room and talk this out with her. You don’t need explicit permission, but you owe her to tell her how you feel without calling her a coward. Since neither of you has had an easy life, how about you show each other compassion?”
Monica’s words cut deep and Dotty started crying midway through taking her and her mother’s plate.
Once she left the room, Monica had been left with the three young man, one of which was staring at the mandolin in the corner and the other two who hurried to finish as much food as possible before Monica commanded them to leave.
And they had been very smart about that.
“Lucas, I want Mana Potions.”
The man had told her about Mana Potions. Lucas had said that Ivor might have stored quite a few since Mages had the tendency to run through their Mana in less than a minute at lower levels.
“For the trip, milady?” The Scholar asked.
“No. I need Mana Potions to heal everyone tomorrow before leaving. Tell them we’re starting at dawn. I want all the Mana Potions in this village—as much as I can ingest. I don’t want to stop here too long.”
“Alright,” Lucas said, taking a few more fried artichokes with him as he left the table.
“Tertius.”
“I’m going, I’m going,” Tertius said, literally taking pork chops with him as he got up. “Can I have that ale?”
Monica looked at a small pitcher of ale and sighed, passing it to the noble.
As soon as they were left alone, she switched stools to sit beside Ted and physically turned him to look at her.
“Ted.”
“Yes?” He said, embarrassed.
“I need you to come.”
“That’s what she said,” Ted replied automatically.
“Who said?” Monica suddenly frowned.
“Huh, oh, nothing. It’s a tavern thing. Why do you need me? You’re immortal, an Avatar, or whatever. You’re basically a Goddess. I’m literally talking to a Goddess.”
“Not a Goddess—just immortal.”
“Whatever, dude. Why do you need me?”
Monica grabbed Ted’s cheek with her left hand and brought her Steel Talon close to his face.
He tried pulling away, but Monica’s strong grip held him in place.
“W—”
Monica took a splattered bean from the side of his nose and threw it back on the table. She didn’t let go, though.
“Don’t lie to me, Ted. I really don’t like lies,” she said coldly. “Did you get it?”
“Get what?” Ted frowned.
Monica pointed with the Steel Talons at the musical instrument.
“I don’t understand,” he spoke through his squeezed cheeks.
“I saw you act weird after you played. You were drifting all of today, staring into the air. When I asked you to come, you didn’t say you would be useless. You said I’m the Avatar, and you kept staring at the instrument.”
Monica got dangerously close to him until their eyes were no more than a few inches apart and she was staring into the light green irises of his.
“Did you get the Class?”
Ted felt his heart pick up as Monica’s breath grazed his skin.
“I—”
“Yes or no, Ted.”
Ted swallowed and nodded through Monica’s grip.
“Good. If you’re coming, be out in the plaza at noon. Otherwise, this is where we part.”
“I have summoned the Healer,” Heidi’s voice suddenly came from the side.
Monica gave Ted’s eyes one last glance and then released her grip, getting up.
“Make your choice, Ted.”
* * *
When Monica entered the room where Heidi had set up her bed, she almost did a double-take.
Heidi constructed a small altar with a piece of wood and a rune drawn with her blood.
Not that different from Cultists, Monica thought with irony.
However, the translucent image of a blonde man in white robes sitting in the air with his legs crossed was impressive.
Monica could feel a strong pressure in the room and on her very soul.
So this is a God.
She looked at the being with a straight face as she went to stand in front of him.
The Healer God frowned as he got up and looked at Monica. He examined her from head to toe with a growing furrow in his brow, so deep his entire forehead had become wrinkled. Then he settled his deep blue eyes onto her purple ones. Finally, he looked at Heidi.
“Heidi, you have rendered a great service. Now please step out of the room,” the God commanded.
“Yes, Your Holiness,” Heidi said, bowing her head.
“I would like to keep the girl in the room, actually,” Monica said with a smile.
The God frowned at Monica’s request. “Why is that?” he asked.
“She is a brat,” Monica said with a smile. “She needs to be taught manners. I would like her to listen to this and—actually, scratch that. I would like for her to be more responsible, and responsibility starts by not being treated like a child. So, Heidi, why don’t you stay?”
The Healer God gestured for Heidi to do whatever she wanted and settled his attention on Monica.
“You are indeed a creature of old. I can feel it. We have never seen Avatars in this universe.”
Monica wasn’t out to antagonize a God directly, but she also didn’t want to appear excessively weak. For now, she settled on using some manners.
“I woke up without memories. And I don’t know if you have thought about it, but I have no interest in meddling with whatever business you have.”
“You say that,” the Healer God mused. “But you offer to go to a Dungeon full of Corruption after you’ve taken on the responsibility of completely healing this village. Now, as you pointed out, you challenge my command for the sake of educating a low-level Healer. I could send Level 400 Paladins. And you take an interest in a girl barely off her mother’s teat. You are, if anything, a meddler.”
Monica understood that the mention of Level 400 Paladins was a show of strength from the God, but she kept quiet. If he was a God, he should rightfully have a little arrogance, and she didn’t want to step on his toes.
“Okay. I meddled,” Monica admitted. “So far, I killed Cultists and healed villagers. I also stopped a village chief from abusing a woman and throwing her out of her house with her two children. A sick woman. Well, she was sick, at least.”
The Healer narrowed his eyes. “Gods do not meddle in all conflicts. Otherwise, wars would erupt left and right. Avatar of the Twin Phoenix.”
“I just said to my friend,” Monica smiled, “I am not a God. I might be immortal, perhaps, but I am human. Well, Earther, whatever that means.”
“I’ve never heard that word,” the Healer said.
“Me neither. Before reading it in my Akashic Record.”
“Peculiar,” the Healer God crossed his arms over his chest. “I will alert the other Gods to your presence, and we will send a contingent of adventurers here. All ordained and all with divine protection. The Crystal Wolf Lair is nothing but the beginning. There must be a much deeper source of Corruption. The Old Gods usually take residence in remote places where danger abounds for mortals.”
“Sure,” Monica nodded. “I don’t like people getting sick because of some gods. Neither do you. I will go and clear out the Crystal Wolf Lair.”
The Healer God wasn’t a man of many words, but he looked at Monica and said, “You have no memory, Avatar of the Twin Phoenix, and I have never met an Avatar, nor do I have knowledge of Avatars ever walking this universe. Tell me now. What moves you?”
“Pardon me?” Monica asked.
“You killed Cultists because you awoke in their midst. You healed the woman because she was sick and found you. You punched a man because he was unjust. Gods pursue the ultimate meaning of their Class. My followers heal injuries and protect. The War God’s followers fight monsters to honor their patron. The Thief God, albeit a less palatable profession, still has a very clear mansion for his followers. You are not bound to a goal, though, are you?”
Monica had secretly been thinking about the same thing.
“No,” she nodded. “You’re right. I don’t have a purpose in this world. I don’t have an identity. I don’t have nor need followers. And even though my Class is called Phoenix Healer, you and I couldn’t be more different.”
The Healer God nodded, not offended by the comparison.
“What do you seek from this life? As long as you’re fighting Corruption and the Old Gods, I doubt any of us would make trouble for you, but your existence will have to be an important point of discussion. I bet you understand how upsetting your presence will be for some of us.”
“Sure,” Monica said. “I don’t have a tagline to sell you on, Healer God. I plan on doing whatever I deem just. I will fight, level up, and seek challenges. I guess justice will be leading me wherever it is needed. For now, it appears to be a Corrupted Dungeon. Next? Who knows.”
“Those are dangerous words,” the Healer God said.
“They are,” Monica acknowledged with a neutral expression. “Because even a God could one day find himself on the wrong side of justice.”