In the capital city of Carna, the epicenter of various types of trade in the kingdom of Yugotia and other neighboring states, there was a recently built tavern named “Out with the Rage”, where all manner of beverages were served including the house specialty ‘Spicy Rage’, two adventurers were sitting and chatting over a pair of drinks.
“That was horrible… I want nothing to do with the wilderness again...”
“I hear you Jonas, I hear you…”
Suddenly a large tankard was slammed onto their table, a large plate mail wearing bald man with a ginger moustache sitting next to the two. He laughed merrily and drank from his ale while the other two gathered their wits on what was going on.
“We… better stand up…”
Jonas whispered in Yan’s ear before being noticed by the large stash bearing man.
“Kids these days… Why so scared of Uncle Plato? I noticed the two of you were down in spirit so I just decided to jump in and say hi.”
The two of them sighed and brought their attention towards the towering man. Seeing as they wouldn’t want to offend anyone as they’d just come to the city they were all ears.
“Mmh, it isn’t you that should be listening to me… I want to know what happened to you folk.”
Yan and Jonas looked at each other and sighed once more, recounting what had happened in the tribal village out in the outskirts. The more the man heard, the more he frowned, and when they were finally done with their recounting Uncle Plato brought his hand to his moustache and twirled it.
“I… I’ve seen something similar here… A few days ago when I was out in the dungeon to raise my class level I found a number of corpses, sucked dry… When did you two come here?
Yan and Jonas rose an eyebrow each feeling cold sweat cover their bodies.
“It… couldn’t have followed us here… We came today.”
Drinking the rest of his ale in one fell swoop Plato stood up and motioned the two to follow him. After a short walk they came to a large ornamented white building with blue roofing, a large sign with the letters ‘ADVENTURER’s GUILD HALL’ plastered on its front. Plato turned around and nodded to the two before entering.
Once inside they were greeted by a hodgepodge of adventurers of all sorts of sizes, backgrounds, and ages. One of them in particular falling into focus, namely the young boy in red armed with a pair of daggers on his sides who Plato decided to talk to right off the bat.
“Friends! This is my party member, the close quarter assassin Athak!”
The two adventurers seemed to be experiencing déjà vu but quickly pushed the strange thoughts to the back of their minds, each of them reaching out a hand towards the boy. Athak on the other hand smiled merrily much like Plato would and asked for their names.
“Jonas”
“It’s Yan, what is a kid like you doing adventuring? Do you even have a class?”
Although he did so as politely as he could manage, Yan couldn’t help but bring an edge to his words. Although not unheard of, adventurers the size of Athak would mostly be dead by the time they became eligible to become a proper adventurer of bronze rank. Not to mention the skill necessary to be an assassin.
“Oh, I can assure you Yan, he’s already a bronzy!”
Raising his eyebrows in surprise Yan backed down and let his more spirited companion do the talking. They conversed until Plato told Athak of the strange occurrence of the dried up corpses Yan Jonas and himself had found on their adventures. Athak nodded in understanding and seemed to think deeply about the subject before speaking.
“From what I’ve read in the library this seems to be the doing of a demon…”
Hearing this the two men perked up in attention.
“Demons come in many forms, but can be categorized based off of the seven deadly sins… Succubi and incubi for lust being a typical example. This seems to be a blood demon, something akin to a vampire! But not quite… That is all I know, sorry, maybe we should report this to the guild?”
The men nodded as that was likely what Plato had been meaning for them to do, and so they went to the guild counter and Jonas was first to speak.
“Hello, my name is Jonas of the southern branch of the Adventurer’s Guild, silver rank. I come here to br-“
“Is there a problem?”
The woman in charge of receiving people had had her back turned whilst doing some paperwork before she turned around to see Jonas, her short silver hair had made him assume that this was an elder in question but once he saw her large round eyes, marble like skin, and button nose he seemed to be aghast. Seeming to understand the situation the receptionist placed a palm over her lips and giggled making the young hero blush.
“Uhm… I bring a… monster report m’lady!”
“Oh? What kind of monster?”
Looking down at his nether region the woman teased the man getting a couple more giggles of amusement before putting on a professional smile and motioning for the men to follow her. Entering the inside of the guild reception they found themselves in a guest room where a silver haired man with glasses was awaiting; a pile of papers stood in front of him.
“This better be important Lilith.”
The man said before he saw a small Athak, widening his eyes he coughed and stood up. Ignoring everyone except the boy and shaking his hand.
“Welcome, welcome Athak sir. How can I be of service today?”
Lilith giggled once more before she asked if the adventurers would be wanting drinks to which they all declined except for Athak.
“Ah, white powdered cocoa for me please!”
“If only you people served alcohol here…”
Plato mumbled without getting a response. And when everyone had been seated and Athak had gotten his hot drink, which he drank merrily, the discussion began. First Jonas and Yan explained their experiences in detail before Uncle Plato gave his and Athak gave his opinion. The silver haired man who’d yet to introduce himself nodded along before wiping his brow of sweat.
“Ah… The two instances must be unrelated seeing as the two of you have yet to be attacked… That is unless you are carrying a loose cursed spirit around with you.”
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The man spouted some clear bullshit before writing down the report and passing it to the pile of papers in front of him. Unsatisfied the two, Yan and Jonas, looked at each other with sighs and stood to leave, but just before they would go Lilith grabbed the hem of Jonas’ shirt and spoke something in the man’s ear, making him blush.
With that the four adventurers were out and in front of the bulletin board, looking for a suitable silver level quest for them to tackle. Finding one titled “Goblin Den” they went to Lilith who assigned them to the quest and waved them goodbye.
“So, what the hell did she say to you that’s got you so… red?”
Yan asked with the other two waiting for his answer attentively. The man hesitated but somehow brought himself to say it.
“Tonight at Gale inn, I’ll eat you up.”
Everyone shot Jonas a low whistle and Plato in particular got rather close to the man, putting his arm over his shoulder and congratulating him for the score to be. All the while Yan seemed to be zoned out, and no one save for Athak noticed this behavior of Yan’s making the boy smile strangely.
And so Yan and Jonas were off to the goblin den while Athak and Plato waved them off.
“I think that silver hair is hiding something… I think… he knows what’s up.”
Yan told his companion who turned to the older man and scratched his head. Thoughts passed through Jonas’ mind before he came to a simple conclusion.
“You’re overthinking it, I think they’re siblings, Lilith and that guy.”
“And now that you’re head over heels for a girl you decide to blind yourself huh?”
And as Jonas chuckled merrily with thoughts of tonight coming to his mind the two of them were out through the gate of the city and found themselves at the wide expanse of the savanna. It would be a day’s trip for any regular adventurer to the goblin den, but the two of them were presumably silver level adventurers so they rushed forward with great speed and stamina, making camp but an hour later.
Taking out some rations including beef jerky they ate and drank as much sustenance as they needed before continuing their conversation.
“We better finish this quest by noon so we can come back with the goblin lord’s head…”
“On her shift… Hah, you really want to impress this girl huh? Listen kid, if she’s the type to do something right off the bat she’s not a keeper, you know that right?”
Clenching a fist the young man sighed, the girl was cute, all too cute. If he’d known better he would have ignored her advances but he’d been charmed. It seemed that he’d ignored everything that had occurred while he was feeling the throb of his heart.
“Anyway, are we go-“
“Shush…”
With a speed that betrayed his level of power Yan placed his palm over Jonas’ mouth, coming close to his friend and whispering.
“I sensed a presence in the distance, you stay here while I investigate.”
Without waiting for Jonas to speak Yan dashed towards what he’d sensed leaving the young man worried.
Running with a speed even greater than before Yan found it, a creature wailing in pain as it was sucked of its life force. But he couldn’t see where from… Approaching what seemed to be a rhino he placed a palm on its upturned belly and could physically feel its blood being drained into nothingness, suddenly he sensed something behind him… then, the world turned black as brain tissue littered the ground, a large axe replacing Yan’s head.
“Good work kiddo.”
The rhino was moved over and from underground arose a dirt covered Athak. Placing a palm on the dead adventurer’s body Athak absorbed all the blood from his body and looked over to his ally, good old Uncle Plato.
“As per the deal, you can have all his bearings.”
Plato nodded and proceeded to loot Yan, taking a pouch of gold before throwing a few coins towards Athak who pocketed the coins with a snort. Taking a strand of blood from his robe Athak cleaned himself of the dirt he’d been covered in and brought the blood back in its place.
“So we leave the other guy to Lilith?”
“It will take a few days but his vitality will be sucked out eventually.”
Plato nodded before taking his axe and striking the ground in front of him with all his might, opening a large hole under and throwing Yan’s body inside. After they had buried the body they left for the goblin den themselves, not caring about the young man who’d already grown paranoid whilst waiting for his companion.
Where is that geezer…? Damn it, if he’s been killed or something I can’t deal with whatever got him… I’ve got to run…
And so he packed whatever he could and began rushing back to Carna, an hour later he was sweaty and tired, but alive. Not daring to show up at the guild empty handed Jonas rented a room in Gale Inn and laid his tired body on the soft bedding. Thinking about the adorable woman he’d be laying with soon the man couldn’t help but grab his pecker and do one off. After he’d done what he’d done he wiped his palms with a towel provided by the inn and took out his sword along with a whetstone, sharpening the blade to perfection.
Like that hours passed before he left his room and stood in front of the inn, finally, the short haired woman he’d been awaiting came in baggy clothing and some light but sharp makeup contrasting her delicate round features. Taking hold of one of his arms and looking at him straight in the eyes with a blush she stood up on her toes and went in for a kiss, one the man accepted with vigor.
The two walked up into Jonas’ room and immediately went to it. Jonas pushed the woman on the wall and kissed her passionately before grabbing ahold of her behind, a strange sexual energy enveloping him. The two’s tongues danced in each other’s mouths before Jonas decided to pull down on Lilith’s pants revealing a pair of chubby pale thighs. He lifted the woman up and went right in while she was still pushed up on the wall. And so, light moans filled the night…
The next morning Jonas woke up naked with an equally bare woman lying in his embrace, but instead of feeling satisfied he was assaulted by a heavy headache along with muscle spasms on his legs and stomach. After they’d subsided the man sighed in relief and gently pulled the woman in waking her. An hour later the two left Jonas’ inn room and bid each other farewell, a satisfied smile on both of their faces.
But as always… life wasn’t perfect, Jonas still didn’t know what had happened to Yan and he was worried sick. Moving out of the inn he paid for another few nights like he’d promised Lilith and was on his way to at least find another party of adventurers for him to challenge the goblin den. That’s when he saw Athak.
“Oh, hi there kiddo? Hey I was wondering something, have you seen Yan around?”
Athak acted surprised to see Jonas and came up to him, telling him that he hadn’t and that he was heading to the local tavern for a drink, seeing as he had nothing to do just yet Jonas decided on joining the boy.
“Maybe you and Plato can join me on the goblin den quest, it would be great to find someone reliable to work with… Especially since I don’t know whether Yan is alive or not…”
“I’m sure he’s fine, he seemed strong enough, you two are silver adventurers right? I mean, you’re basically celebrities! Oh, oh! How did the night go?”
“Ha, you flatter me kid. And great hehe… You got any experience, I mean women don’t mind the age if you’re strong.”
“No, no… I, like this one girl but… I can’t be with her anyway… I’m an aboriginal after all.”
Giving Athak a risen eyebrow Jonas seemed to realize something. Zoning out a bit he frowned then looked back at the boy, sizing him up from head to toe.
“But your English is aristocratic! Ah… I’m sorry for asking this but… Were you… a slave?”
Athak gave Jonas a hardened look before turning away in grief, while Jonas himself face-palmed himself for being so insensitive.
“Ah, ah… I’ll make it up to you! Sorry friend! Drink’s on me!”
Like that the two arrived in the tavern, seating themselves Athak ordered hot cocoa while Jonas had a pint. And so the two conversed on their life’s paths, the first one to begin was Jonas talking about how he grew up as an orphan and was taken up by a wandering swordsman as to be a disciple. The talk became emotional when it was revealed that Jonas’ master died to protect him and to this day the young adventurer is on a mission to become the greatest swordsman on the continent, a wish passed down from his master who’d grown too old to complete it. Then Athak started with his own story, a lowly slave who was elevated to an assassin once his great dexterity stat was revealed by the awakening ceremony each slave would go through at the age of five. The reason he was not put to be some sort of guard or personal bodyguard was because the only class available to him in the awakening ceremony was assassin, and from there everything went downhill…
Apparently the on a mission two years ago when Athak was only ten he was captured and tortured for a whole month… Only to awaken a special movement skill which allowed him not only to escape his captors but to be free of the slave brand on his soul. His real name was not Athak… but what it truly was? That was something that under no circumstance would he disclose.
“Damn… You really went through a lot huh… so, I bet you’re more skilled than your rank would suggest, why don’t we come together in arms and become a party?”
“Ah, right, I forgot to tell you. The goblin den quest has been finished by some other party in passing. Taking on quests that have been reserved for a designated party cannot be done unless you don’t know that that quest has been taken. So someone did it, I cannot help with that, but, I can join you on different quests in a few days after I’m done with some errands.”
Jonas nodded in understanding, stood up, and outstretched his palm towards Athak.
“I trust you kiddo, let’s become the greatest!”
Athak stood in turn and shook the man’s hand, only returning a silly smile and a rub on the back of his head.
Indeed.
He would become the greatest.