The humanoid painted dane shrinks away in fear, their shark-like tail tucked between their legs as their Illumisia-like eyes trace along the ground. Illumisia’s growl seeps into my bones, and even though she isn’t speaking, I feel her disbelief and anger radiating off of her like a miniature sun.
“The system did this to my people. Those other painted danes… they were just… afterthoughts.” She says quietly–a stark comparison to the guttural hate she’s projecting outwards. “The other painted danes did not deserve this. They did not fight for this. Bleed for this. Put their very lives on the line for this.”
She takes a step forward, and I have to hurry to her head to stop her. “Hey, hey. I know you’re pissed, but killing someone in broad daylight doesn’t make up for anything. We’re in civilization now. This… what’s your name, shark-wolf-man?”
“Clutter.”
I almost do a double-take. That sounds like a lie, but from how Clutter appears to be pissing himself in fear, I don’t think his brain’s got the ability to lie right now. “Clutter isn’t worth messing everything up. You don’t know the story–hell, he probably doesn’t even know the story. They could’ve actually earned this somehow. So let’s get the real truth before we jump to deadly conclusions, yeah?”
Illumisia growls deep and long, but I can hear the grumbling acceptance underneath it. And in that acceptance, there’s a tinge of relief. I can’t explain that part at all, but I can extort it out of the giant shark-wolf.
I lean into her ear to make sure nobody overhears us. “You’re going to explain why you just felt relieved, and you’re also going to explain why I could feel that you were relieved. And you’re going to actually do it because I’m going to have to do a shitload of talking to get us out of this to keep your cover intact.”
She just nods in agreement. Which… really surprises me. I was expecting to have to fight her at least a little to get the truth. I let out a breath of relief and slide down the side of Illumisia’s neck, then land with a placid expression and offer a closed-mouth regretful smile to the still scared shitless Clutter.
“Sorry for that. She’s not used to seeing other painted danes, especially not ones that walk on two legs. Can I treat you to lunch as an apology?”
Clutter sucks in a breath, looks up at Illumisia, then starts to shake his head. A growl from my massive companion turns that shake into a nod real quick.
I open my mouth to show my sharp teeth a little and gesture with my head down the street. “Good. I’ve got just the place in mind.”
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I cross my legs and lean back in the wicker-laced stone chair that’s one of many in Whitestone Patio’s outdoor dining area. It’s a damn nice place, but it’s a little disingenuous to call it a restaurant. Since it’s just a cleared part of the walkway with a small building that’s ninety percent kitchen and ten percent ordering window. Like a food booth at a county fair, but upgraded to restaurant status.
“I can’t read this.” I chuckle and slide the menu onto the table, then turn to the Ytocwa who’s taking orders with a notepad. “Bring me something that’s safe for humans to eat and that costs less than ten Worth. And a glass of water. Oh, and get this guy whatever he wants. For less than twenty Worth.”
Clutter flinches a little when I gesture at him, lowering himself to try and hide behind his menu. The Ytocwa raises an eyebrow at him and looks at me a little suspiciously, but I guess that’s the response I should expect. I am pretty much taking him hostage so he can’t go and report us to the guards. Or the police. Or… whatever they call the people that uphold the law here.
After a long few seconds of silence, the Ytocwa sighs and taps her pen against her notepad. “Sir, I know you might not be used to dealing with humans, but this is rude no matter what species you’re sitting across from. Now, are you going to order, or am I putting this in as a meal for one?”
I offer him an apologetic shrug. “You’re stuck here with me anyway. Might as well get a good meal out of it.”
He looks down at the menu, then up at me, and finally down at Illumisia. Who huffs in annoyance and purposefully looks away from him. Somehow, that convinces him. “I-I’ll have the silverstream pike fried in fat–not oil–and a side of fries. Do you have undergrowth potatoes?”
The Ytocwa nods and jots down his order. “Good call. The pike’s just at the tail end of in season, and we just got a load of undergrowth in this morning. You want those fried in fat, too?”
Clutter nods shyly. “Yes, please.”
“Alright, that’ll be fifteen for the Paindne and ten for the human, for a total of twenty-five Worth. And two free glasses of water.” The Ytocwa reads off their pad, then gestures back to the kitchen. “As you can see we’re not all that busy right now, so if you decide you want more, just call for Ccwre. That’s me–and no, you don’t have to try to replicate the throaty repetition.”
“I definitely won’t.” I say with a smile of thanks, then open my palm to reveal thirteen doubled glass lones. Before Ccrwe can say anything, I flick one at them and gesture for them to take a look at it.
Ccrwe narrows their eyes at me–like I’m a tourist who’s trying to rip them off–but humors me by pulling out a Class Card of their own. A moment later their eyes light up, and they hold out a hand for me to pour the Worth into.
“Never seen glass lones like these before. You must’ve run into something impressive on your starter quests.” They say as they count the coins, then stuff them into a bag on their hip with a nod. “Alright, that’s your bill settled. Oh, and since we’ve had humans try to do this before, we don’t accept ‘tips’. The system really doesn’t like that.”
A glass lone appears between their fingers, and they press it down on the table. “Even if it’s only one. So much so that I can’t even put your Worth into the register until I’ve served your food. Now I’ll leave you two alone for whatever pressing business you’ve got going on, and I’ll be back in a minute with your water. Then another five for your food.”
“Thank you very much.” I say as Ccrwe walks off, their strange high-heeled claw feet clicking against the stone as they walk. Something keeps me watching them until they knock open a waist-high door with their hip and disappear into the steam of the kitchen. Leaving me and Clutter to talk. “So, Clutter, I’ve got you trapped here with me for five minutes. Once you’ve got your food, you can take it to go or find another table if you want. But if you like what I propose, you can stay around and help me out a little here.”
He tenses up, but actually meets my eyes for the first time since we left the alley. “But I can leave once the food comes?”
“Yup. And you’re already all paid up, so there’s no strings attached.” I spread my arms and offer him a closed-mouth smile. “We got off on the wrong foot–obviously–and I thought taking you somewhere hidden would only freak you out a hell of a lot more. So I figured, why not go to the most open place that’s close by instead?”
It’s half a lie, but it seems to resonate with Clutter. He visibly relaxes, but it’s nowhere near enough to call him calm. That’ll never happen with Illumisia lying under my chair and muttering unkind words about the… Paindne. Which is a really weird bastardization of the words Painted Dane, if I had to guess.
Apparently it’s not enough to get him proactively talking. But it’s enough to get him actively listening.
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“I’m new here–which you may or may not have figured out–and I need a guide slash informant for this place. Now that doesn’t have to be you, since I don’t know anything about your credentials, but I figured I’d throw you the job offer as an apology for scaring the piss out of you.” I lean forward a little, making sure Clutter keeps his eyes on me the entire time. “You smell like magic. More than a little, too–but not enough to feel like you’re hiding anything. Is that natural for your people, or do you have a class?”
He hesitates for a split second with his face in turmoil, but seems to decide against staying silent. “I’m a scout. I specialized in Body and Fate, and I found you by following one of my skills. It must be why your painted dane reacted so strongly to me–they’re really good at sensing magic.”
“Yeah, definitely.” I agree with a straight face, even as Illumisia laughs her ass off in my head. “Well, Clutter, a scout sounds like just the thing I need. I got my hands on some old-ass texts about this place, and I want to see how much of them ring true. So I need as much info on the different levels of guards, who runs the city, where the best shops are, where to stay away from, and pretty much everything else you can think of. If you’re willing to go the extra mile, I also want to know what the known quest triggers are around here, and which ones are worth going for. Is that doable?”
“I… maybe.” He says slowly. “The city is weird–the higher up you go, the higher clearance you need to be in there. Now I’ve seen this in other cities, sure–but there it’s enforced by the people that live there. Here it’s enforced by the system itself. You’ve definitely seen how blurry it gets if you try to focus on it, right? That’s the system doing its thing. For some reason.”
Clutter leans forward as his eyes sparkle with curiosity. Looks like the floodgates are open.
“I’ve only been here six weeks, and I’ve seen so many weird things that never happened anywhere else. Humans like you get summoned here so much more often than the other tutorial cities, and I can’t find a single reason why. The quests are similar, the rewards are similar, and there isn’t more space for them–I mean you–to live.”
Interesting. “So, what, you think the system’s corralling us here for some other reason?”
“Yes!” He nods eagerly and vigorously as his tail starts to whap against the legs of his chair. “But I don’t have any proof. Not yet. What you’re asking me to do… maybe I’ll find some real proof while I’m looking for other things. Is there anything really specific you would want me to look for? Or do you want a general sweep of literally everything notable in the city–people, places, events–the whole feeding frenzy?”
I chuckle at his phrasing and nod. “Yup. Do literally everything you can, and report everything you think is even slightly notable. I’ll pay you for every report you make, but only after you’ve made the report. Since the system doesn’t seem to like paying before you get your service.”
“That works for me. It means the first report will be the hardest, since I’ll have to pick up a quest or two while I’m doing it, but it should be doable. Not very… quickly, though. How does three months sound to you?”
Honestly, I have no idea how that sounds. I could get booted back to Earth the second I finish with the thousand Worth, or I might need to get a quest reward that lets me visit home. And in that case, quicker would definitely be better.
I decide to hedge my bets.“Take as much time as you need. Give me some way to contact you, and we’ll figure out where to meet up when you think you’ve got enough information for a report.”
“Okay. I-I think I’ve got something left over from my last job…” He trails off and pulls out his Class Card, which expands into a simple slab of green light. “Yep, here they are! A system modification chip for long-distance text communication. It, uh, costs one Worth every hundred words–and at least one Worth per message, so don’t overuse it.”
He hands me a small piece of metal with a symbol on it I don’t recognize. It burns my hand like acid, and I feel something wafting off of it that smells like fire and shoves a metallic taste to the back of my mouth. I gag a little, and Clutter goes taut.
“O-oops. The system d-doesn’t like free things. My last job sold them to me for twenty Worth each.” He says, then flinches as I scatter ten doubled glass lones onto the table. “Y-yeah, there it all is. Transaction approved.”
The sensations simply stop. Leaving me with a metal chip that’s neither cold nor warm. I shudder and pull open my Class Card to slot in the chip, then close it instantly when I see it create a new tab.
“We’ll call that a rookie mistake.” I say as pleasantly as I can manage, then look off to the side at the sound of creaking wood and footsteps on stone. “There’s our food. Let’s hash out the details over lunch.”
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The food is… fine. A little bland, and the textures are pretty damn close to a war crime, but having anything to shovel into my mouth that isn’t a potion is a godsend. Next time, though, I’ll have to do my own research into what’s safe for humans to eat. Because unseasoned mystery meat cooked until it’s as dry as leather might fill my stomach, but it definitely hurts my soul.
Especially compared to the magnificence that is Clutter’s lunch. It smells like the greasiest fish and chips joint I’d ever been in back on Earth, except with the wonderful addition of spices and seasonings that I can’t place. They still smell wonderful, and the flaky silver-white flesh of the fish makes me want to chuck my plate of garbage where it belongs and order something much riskier.
Which I definitely would do if I hadn’t spent Worth on all this. I’m pretty damn confident I’ll still break the thousand threshold when I sell and double the profits from the robots, but every little expense makes that certainty a little shakier.
“So that’s that, then?” I ask after choking down the last bite of tough meat. “You’re happy with the terms, and you know what I want. Anything else we need to go over?”
Clutter wipes the grease off his mouth with one sleeve and shakes his head. He’s only halfway done his feast, but if I have to sit here a second longer, I’m going to bite someone. Or steal his lunch.
“Nope, nothing I can think of… actually, there might be one thing.” He places greasy fingers against the stone table, then pulls them away. Revealing a weirdly shaped mass of squirming… plastic? “I found that in a cave around here. There’s a bunch of them in there, all different colours and shapes, and the system told me there was a quest associated with them. I couldn’t find how to trigger it. Right now I can’t justify taking the time to really look into it, but if you’re willing to pay a little more, I’ll make sure you get the quest when I find out how to start it.”
“Huh. Sounds interesting.” I take the plastic thing and roll it around in my fingers. It shapes into a ball from just those few movements, but never once stops squirming. “How’s this; as long as the first report has enough good info in it, you can spend the rest of the time looking into it.”
“That works perfectly!” Clutter vigorously agrees. “I’ll make sure the report’s perfect.”
“…Yeah.” I say slowly as he wipes the grease on his shirt. “You do that. Now if you’ll excuse me, it looks like I’ve got something else to deal with. Enjoy your lunch.”
“Mmhm!” Clutter says as he takes a massive bite of fried fish, then waves with greasy fingers as I place the plastic on the table and walk away. His tune sure changed quickly, but that’s definitely for the better. If he’d stayed scared and closed off, I could’ve gotten in trouble with the guards. Hell, he’s a Fate class too, so maybe his stat triggered when I started to give him the offer.
I sigh and shake my head, then put on a pleasant smile as Diane and Razi approach from one of the connecting streets. Fate gets so much more complicated when I think about how many hundreds of thousands of people must be following it every single day.
“Hey, looks like I got here a lot sooner than expected. So, what do you recommend eating here?” I pat my stomach and chuckle resentfully. “Because I just had something that was an assault against flavour.”
Diana stops a little sooner than Razi, who takes two more steps before he does. They’re both in casual clothes this time, and Diane was looking at her system like she’d look at a map. Pretty much confirming what Illumisia told me about non-Worth classes being given way more to start off with.
“Were you worried about poisoning yourself?” Razi asks seriously.
“How’d you know?”
He chuckles and gestures towards a section of unoccupied tables. “Because we went through much the same when we first arrived. Luckily for us, we found someone who had done extensive research on allergies and human sensitivities to the native flora and fauna. Let us show you what real Palastian food tastes like.”
Diane nods and smiles politely, then hurries on ahead. Razi follows her, and I shoot Clutter a glance before I do the same. He smiles over at me and waves enthusiastically, then goes right back to devouring his meal. My mouth starts to water at the simple thought of eating something that smells that good.
I wipe the corners of my mouth and lazily follow the two other humans. Surrounded by the sounds of feet on stone and a shark-wolf-person noisily slurping down the peace offering slash bribe that got me a brand new informant.
Things seem to be moving a lot faster now that I’m not stuck in a series of glass tunnels. I really hope that’s for the best.