“Yo, badass waitress, what's your name?”

“W-wha..? M-my name?”

Her face and eyes were all red and flushed from crying. Where did her badass attitude go?

“Yeah, your name”

“M-my n-name, is Cleo”

“Ok, nice meeting you Cleo. I’m Serlim, and those two are Zivios and Nash. You shouldn't stay out here, it's probably not safe…”

“U-hmm… t-the last p-person I c… cared about… just died… c-can you h-help me bury him at least?”

“Oh, right, that bartender just lost tons of blood from that, huh… yeah we’ll help”

Heading back inside, we went behind the bar, intending to take Jeff out and bury him. Just, one, tiny, problem… where da fuck was Jeff???

The body was missing. From where it should have been lying, a trail of crimson liquid led to the back-room. Me and Cleo both wore a bewildered expression, and we followed the trail back to the locker’s area. Oh, and Cleo was crying… so much… when she saw that trail… my head hurt… can’t handle crying people well… such a nuisance...

A few moments later, we found Jeff. He was lying on the floor again, unconscious, I thought… The wound seemed like it was bleeding slightly less than before, but he was still bleeding his literal life out. Haha~… Those puns… I need to stop.

Nash was trying to avoid the blood at all costs. It was kinda funny looking at him dancing from side to side to avoid the crimson colored liquid, all while wearing a disgusted look on his face. Well, enough with the comic relief. “We should probably get this going or we’ll probably get attacked again. We don't know what's going on outside at the moment, so I think we need to hurry up…” I suggested.

*sniffling sounds* Zivios sniffed audibly “Smells…death…Jeff...dead… “

“Did you just sniff the air to determine if he's dead?” Nash looked at Zivios in disbelief, only to receive a mild snicker from Zivios, who had apparently proved himself superior to a High Elf.

‘Oh, did I forget to mention that High Elves -- well, pretty much all the “Pure Blood” races -- are extremely racist? So yea, they are. Nash isn't that bad, though. He's quite the open minded elf… in all sorts of ways… If memory serves me right, he is the son of a pretty famed elven family. I don't really know much beyond that though.’

I crouched near Jeff, so I could tell if he was, indeed, dead. I put my hand on the artery in his neck. He didn't seem to have a pulse, nor was he breathing.

“Yeah he's dead alright… Sorry for your loss, I guess…” Cleo just cried uncontrollably for a while. After stopping her tears and regaining her senses, she again asked us to help her bury the dead man in the yard out the back of the bar. We draped a tablecloth that was nearby on Jeff’s body before we carried it outside.

“Oy, Zivios, care lifting him up? We don’t want all of us busy carrying him…” I suggested.

“I am not! going near all that blood, so you’ll have to do it yourself…” Nash insisted with a disgusted look.

Zivios beared his teeth at us and snarled in a shallow tone. “Fine…”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

As he picked Jeff up, a small metallic lump fell into the crimson pool beneath him. The unexpected sound made us all stop in silence for a moment, and look dubiously at the item that was covered in blood.

It seemed like… a key? I picked up the item and inspected it. Apparently, it was indeed a key, like those old, ragged keys that open armored basement doors that have all kinds of old, creepy, and long-forgotten loot inside. It felt slightly ominous, for some reason…

“Hey Cleo, does this seem familiar to you?”

“N-no… I n-never saw that key before… b-but this building has a basement w-which I n-never saw open… It might open it…”

I thought to myself - Jackpot! Haha, I knew it! Never underestimate the instincts of a greedy Dark Elf! Well… I don’t really know if there’s actually any loot inside. After all, this is a bar… and I doubt this place has any dark secrets buried beneath the stones… I’m getting less and less excited about this whole possible loot thing…

“Ok… We’ll check it out after we bury this guy.”

Fast forward, we buried Jeff in the backyard of the bar. Everything feels eerily calm for some reason… I have a bad feeling about this… Nah… Let’s go search for loot!

“So, do we search for food first? ‘Cause I'm dying of hunger here… Oh, is our Fish ‘n Chips ready?” I said.

“Are you a moron? No way we can eat right now.” Nash retorted angrily.

“Ah!!! No~... I left it cooking…” Said Cleo.

Cleo darted off towards what was the kitchen area… I need something to eat, or I’ll die of hunger… Well, better search for things anyway, at least find something we can take with us for later.

“Let’s search for things we can carry with us… Or we’ll die of hunger afterwards…”

“My…fish…hungrry…” Zivios had a frustrated expression on his bear face. It was kinda funny actually, ever seen a sad bear? It's downright hilarious! Of course… I didn’t laugh in his face, ‘cause he would smack me into the wall or something. I wanted to avoid getting bear-smacked…

When Cleo returned from the kitchen, she told us that she was going to get her change of clothes and went back to the locker area. Wait, what's up with my food? I guess it burned or something…  Damn I'm hungry… On a different note, I liked that maid outfit, would’ve been awesome if she kept it. I bet Nash had some ideas about it… Okay that’s a dangerous area I’m treading, I should get on with the looting!

Nash, Zivios and I searched the place clean. All we could find were a few canned vegetables, canned tuna and canned borscht… WHAT THE HELL IS CANNED BORSCHT???? Oh, but Zivios seemed happy about that one,so I guess that worked. The rest of the food was either almost stale veggies, or fish… No wonder Cleo was so embarrassed, they didn’t even had bread.

Finishing with the kitchen, we went searching in the locker area. There were 8 lockers in total, arranged in rows of 4. Cleo had already finished changing her clothes: she was wearing a white tank top, short jeans and black stockings decorated with a kitten sample on their top end… Ok, I ain't judging, but this is fake jailbait right here. She looks like a loli idol for fuck's sake, just missing the typical happy-go-lucky attitude.

Cleo then reached into her locker, taking out a double headed war axe… with a heart inscribed to the head’s eye… Its length was about 2 and a half feet, while Cleo was around 4.3~… Fuck it, I’ve seen weirder stuff! I don't even want to ask.

“OK! now that you're done, I’ll just break into a few lockers and check if there’s anything of value for us before we head towards the creepy basement.” Not waiting for anyone to retort to my decision, I went ahead and started breaking into the nearest locker. A few minutes later, all I could find in those lockers were a few random clothes, some tattered rags and basically just random miscellaneous stuff which were insignificant at most.

“Uhmm… There’s also Jeff’s locker at the side here… it's ‘hidden’ behind the door…” She seemed very embarrassed and slightly perturbed… He won't be needing his stuff anyways.

“Well, that’s convenient! Thanks, Cleo.” Apparently, when the door was opened you couldn't see that locker. I think it was on purpose, so that random people who entered the room wouldn't notice it too easily… Sneaky bastard.

Hacking my way around the lock mechanism of the locker, I opened it in a quite anticlimactic manner. It was almost too easy for a ‘hidden possible loot locker’! Inside, aside from a few casual clothing in the locker, it had a fancy looking lighter. The lighter had a rectangular shape, and it was inscribed with some random swirly patterns. Also, I found a weird looking tome inside. It had an old looking leather cover, and it had weird-looking symbols inscribed in a spiral at the center of that cover. It emitted a faint glow, almost unnoticeable. Moreover, the weird symbols started to move when I looked at them for too long… Ahghh… Magic stuff makes my head hurt…

“Hey, Nash. Come look at this.”

Nash inspected the book for a few moments, opened it and went through the pages, he seemed to be mumbling stuff to himself, maybe talking to his shamanic benefactor, a ‘Divine Guardian’. After a little while, Nash said he can’t really do much with the weird tome, and decided handing it over to Cleo. She was slightly startled, receiving something that belonged to Jeff. The book’s faint glow seemed to be more brilliant than before when she held it. Inspecting the book, she wore a puzzled look on her face.

“I-I think I can learn some fire magic from it… n-nothing very impressive though…” her high pitched tone was somewhat disappointed it seemed.

“Go for it, nothing to hold you back here”. Taking a moment to learn the new spell, Cleo read through the appropriate pages, like Nash, she seemed to be silently mumbling and talking to something that wasn’t really there… Man, Shamans are weird…

After a little while of that weird shaman stuff, Cleo held her hand out, and conjured a small, fiery orb, it was slightly brighter and bigger then a lighter’s flame, definitely nothing impressive.

“Good enough, I guess? We got a basement to look into, so let’s hurry now, shall we?”

Everyone nodded in agreement, following Cleo’s lead towards the basement’s door.