When I arrived back through the portal to the El ‘Dorado office, our little leprechaun friend almost fainted. He was shocked that I’d survived, and even more so to hear of the decimation of The Morningstar Collective… or at least the Havarian branch of it.
I didn’t stick around for long though.
Hurrying through the city streets to the orange glow of dawn, I made a beeline for the building that Adventure Society had been using as a makeshift hospital in the wake of the dragon attack.
There, I finally managed to offload Bell. She was ordered to take a week of bedrest to fully recover from the trauma of being tortured. On Earth, trauma wasn’t so quickly healed, but the Society healers assured me that with some good meditation and bedrest, her emotional scars would heal almost as well as her physical ones.
I wasn’t so sure it worked that way. Meditation was useful, but the kind of suffering she’d endured… that stuff leaves lasting damage.
I slept like a baby that night in the room adjoining hers. I checked on her periodically over the next couple of days but she spent most of her time meditating and I didn’t want to disturb her rest.
Supposedly the hospital didn’t count as a safe room so the next day I made a point of visiting The Winking Giant inn. Fortunately, it hadn’t taken too much damage in the attack and, as usual, the lycanid landlady flashed me a shiver inducing smile as I made my way to my room to open the loot box I’d received from entering The Morningstar Hotel and Spa.
Would you like to open all loot boxes?
Y/N
Yes, I mentally asserted.
As usual, a crack of bright light bounced around the room and this time a disco ball appeared on the ceiling. Funky, 70’s style music rang out as the ball descended and then the bottom fell off and a small parcel descended heavenly into my outstretched hands.
Ne’er-Do-Well’s Loot Box
Loot awarded only to the most despicable of people. The system knows what goes on in that hotel. The system sees all. The system wishes it could gouge out its eyes, but alas, the system does not have eyes… because it is a system.
“Well that was an unexpected notification,” I mused aloud, “since when do you refer to yourself in third person?” I asked the ceiling.
“Kaleb!” Panda snapped, “stop talking to the system, it’s weird.”
I shot him a dirty look as the descending parcel warped away into my inventory. I dived into my HUD half-heartedly expecting a joke item like hemorrhoid cream or something. However, what I got was even more unexpected.
You have received a new item:
Chaos Seed
Summon a chaos demon for 60 seconds.
Results may vary.
That was all it said.
No jokes, no weirdly elaborate backstory, no farcical whimsy of any kind, and that was a little bit… worrisome. Still, at least it wasn’t hemorrhoid cream.
I kept the seed in my inventory and left the inn.
It was nice to finally have some downtime and Panda and I used it to explore the city some more, stocking up on potions, books, and rations for future quests.
I stopped by the Adventure Society the day after returning and informed Director Lucas and Sally of what I’d found inside The Morningstar Hotel and Spa. Lucas ordered a cleanup crew to search the premises but by the time they got there the place had been cleared out. Apparently there was no subterranean level to speak of and they couldn’t find any connection to the regicide.
The government of Havar was in shambles after the untimely death of the king. The infighting and power grabs that began in the wake of the incident was threatening to destabilise the city, but that was nothing a soon-to-be iron rank adventurer should be worrying about so I tried to keep the local politics out of my mind.
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The Adventure Society building was well on its way to being completed and, though I finally managed to set up my system banking, I still couldn’t hand in my quest for slaying the dragon.
Lucy, the catonid receptionist, promised me that they would be ready to give out rewards in a few days and at that time I would be officially recongised as an iron rank adventurer… even though I was close to becoming a phase three and qualifying for bronze rank.
Not one to sit still, I took a mediocre quest in the nearby palm tree jungle and fought some mid-level monsters. The quest was nothing to write home about, but it kept me busy. Disappointingly though, I didn’t gain another level from the copious amounts of monsters I’d hunted.
After Bell’s week of rest was finally up, we both returned to Adventure Society to officially hand in our completed quests and become fully fledged adventurers.
“It feels like forever ago since we piled into Sally’s truck to go slay a dragon,” Bell mused as we entered the building.
“It’s hard to believe that was only a few weeks ago,” I replied, “ready to become an iron ranker?”
“Oh, you know it!” She said with a grin.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Lucy commented as we approached her desk.
We were finally able to claim the rewards for the dragon quest and it was oh, so satisfying.
Quest Complete!
How To Slay Your Dragon
There have been reports of a dragon nesting at the top of the big mountain in the middle of the island. The Havarian local government have tasked the Adventure Society to handle the issue.
Remember when you first got here? I told you there would be dragons.
Objectives:
Find the dragon’s lair 1/1
Kill the dragon 1/1
Reward: X1 item upgrade token, adventurer rank-up
*Speak to the Adventure Society to claim your reward. Reward payable upon the successful completion of the above objectives*
Lucy handed me an item upgrade token and explained that to apply it I needed to enter my inventory tab and mentally assert which item I wanted to add it to.
I asked what the difference between upgrade potions and upgrade tokens was. Apparently the potion variant was awarded directly by the system and its origins were unknown, whereas the tokens were man made.
Supposedly the effect was the same though.
Since it was an item token I couldn’t apply it to my armour or weapons, which sucked. However, I did have one idea of how to use it. Delving into my inventory I took the first piece of adventurer gear I’d ever bought and upgraded it.
Item Upgraded!
Quiver of The Infinite (uncommon)
This quiver contains an infinite number of iron arrows and you can withdraw its contents directly from your inventory. This means you can shoot arrows almost as quickly as you shoot… well, you get the idea.
It was a minor upgrade, but one that I was pretty satisfied with. Arrows formed the backbone of my attack power, so even a minor upgrade in arrow quality would boost my damage output.
Though not explicitly stated, iron arrows were sturdier than I was used to and I expected they could hold more Soul Shot power than the previous ones. I’d have to test that out when I got a moment. Previously the arrows had been described as inferior and their brittle tips hadn’t been great. Hopefully the upgraded iron variant would do more damage.
As I pondered my upgrade, a shining light glimmered in my peripheral vision and I turned around just in time to see Bell’s robes transform.
Before my eyes, her white robes were dyed a cascading scarlet, black trimming outlined the edges and a hood sprouted onto the back.
“I thought item tokens didn’t work on armour?” I asked as the glow began to fade.
“I got an armour upgrade token,” she replied with a cocky smile, “I negotiated my reward before taking the quest.”
“What!?” I practically yelled, looking between the self-satisfied fireball mage and the sheepish catonid.
Panda giggled mid drag and began choking on the smoke from his bamboo pipe. Shaking my head, I turned back to the receptionist.
“So, are we officially iron rank now?” I asked, trying to keep my dissatisfaction out of my voice.
“Not quite Mr Akabane,” she replied curtly, “you both need to be officially onboarded first. You can use the room where you chose your class if you like? It’s free now and by the time you’re done I’ll have gotten your paperwork in order.”
Bell and I sighed almost simultaneously.
“Hell is a corporate seminar,” I muttered.
“This feels more like a punishment than a reward,” Bell added, “I just got out of the hospital, why would you do this to me now?”
Lucy offered a sympathetic look before disappearing into the back office, turning to call us just before she left, she said, “oh, the Director wishes to see you once you’ve finished the seminar.”
“I guess we’re doing this then… again.” I moaned, turning with slumped shoulders towards the stairwell.
“This is why it took so long to be able to hand in the quest after the dragon attack,” Bell said as realisation dawned on her, “they needed to fix the corporate stuff didn’t they? I thought it was weird that they couldn’t just give us our tokens and change our ranks immediately.”
“It was all leading to this,” I replied, lowering my head.
“Will you two quit your whining,” Panda said as we began ascending the stairs. “It’s just a video, it’ll only take an hour and then you can start taking all these cool quests.” He pointed towards the iron rank board as we passed the second floor.
The quest room was a bustling hive of activity, starkly different to the relatively desolate newbie board downstairs.
The board was practically overflowing with requests too. These were the quests that would help me to break through to phase three. I had to admit, even amidst the bureaucratic drudgery, I was excited.
Holding myself a little bit higher, we climbed past the other floors and exited into the office floor. It still surprised me just how closely the bureaucracy of Havar mimicked Earth.
Office cubicles, tired workers with forced smiles, a soul sucking atmosphere. It was everything I hated about the modern world and seeing it in my new fantasyland was a little frustrating.
Still, I’d rather it was them than me.
The surly receptionist grunted at us and nodded towards the same room I’d used to choose my class. That seemed like so long ago and I almost looked fondly upon her attitude for the memories it conjured.
With a polite nod, I led Bell and Panda towards the room and opened the door. Our seminar was about to begin.