“You want to go to the continent?” Panda gasped, spluttering his ale all over the table, “you know I’ve only been there once right? My sagely knowledge won’t be much help to you over there.”

“Yes,” I replied, cupping my hands in front of my chin. “My goal is to get stronger and I think it’s time to leave Havar behind and go travelling. There’s an entire world out there after all.”

Bell’s eyes lit up as she listened to me, then she lifted her wooden tankard in my direction and said: “let’s do it!”

With a smile, I hit her tankard with my own and we both turned to stare at Panda who looked more uncertain than I’d ever seen him.

“Just think of all the new knowledge you’ll be able to pilfer,” I said slowly, like I was enticing a dog to come to me.

Panda stared back at me through the lids of his large eyes. He held up his tankard tentatively as if cogs were turning in his brain.

“I do like the sound of that,” he began, “but the continent is dangerous and… ah, why not.” He shook his head lightly as he hit his tankard into ours.

“That settles it then!” I announced gleefully, “tomorrow morning I’ll register our party with the guild and then team Dissident Flame will set out for new horizons.”

“Cheers!” We all shouted as we hit out tankards together once more and downed our drinks.

“There’s just one problem,” Panda said, “how are we going to get there?”

I lowered my tankard slowly as realisation struck. I hadn’t actually thought about that part. Perhaps we could hire a yacht? I had plenty of gold, though I didn’t know what the going rate for yacht hire was…

“You’re in luck,” Sally said quietly from behind her mountainous stack of papers. “It just so happens that I have some business on the continent myself. I’ll let you hitch a ride if you help me out with a little errand I have to take care of along the way.”

“That sounds great!” Bell chimed happily.

“It does… that’s not like you,” I said slowly, “what kind of errand is this exactly?”

Sally looked up at me, her dark blue eyes flashing dangerously as her fangs crested her lips in a familiar way.

“Oh nothing much…” she began, “just a little monster extermination quest.”

***

I awoke the next morning with a hangover to end all hangovers. How was it that in a world brimming with magic and potions that could literally heal you from the brink of death, there was no hangover cure.

It seemed like a bit of a lapse in judgement to me. Surely an alchemist somewhere must have discovered the cure.

As I placed a warm palm against my throbbing temple, I vowed to track down that alchemist and covet the cure for myself. It could quite possibly be the single most valuable treasure in this world…

After downing a few tankards of water, courtesy of my lecherous, lycanid landlady, I set off to the guild and registered our party. Team Dissident Flame was officially recognised as a guild sanctioned party and was added to my adventurer card.

Kaleb Akabane

Level: 45

Rank: Iron

Class: Archer / Light Skirmisher

Party: Dissident Flame

It felt kind of nice to be part of an official team. Sure, there were only three of us and Panda was my familiar, but there was something comforting about someone to back me up.

Turning to leave the society behind and set off on our voyage, I heard a shrill shout from Lucy the receptionist.

“Wait!”

I looked behind me, raising an amused eyebrow at her and she smiled at me. “The director needs to see you,” she said warmly, “assuming the hero of Havar has the time to spend with us lowly mortals.”

Oh yeah, I thought groggily, Lucas did say he needed a word.

“I’ll always have time for you Lucy,” I said, blushing slightly as she smiled at me once again.

Maybe I am a furry…

Lucas’ office was as drab as ever when I arrived in the lift, courtesy of Lucy’s mana activating it for me. He sat formally behind his desk, his face told the story of his fight with the dragon, though those bruises were gradually fading.

It reminded me just how powerful the beast was, to not only be able to best Lucas, but to leave marks that he couldn’t heal instantly. I shuddered at the thought of how disastrously my fight with the thing could have turned out.

“Kaleb,” he said warmly, indicating the seat opposite him, “thank you for coming. I hear you’re to head out for the continent today?”

“Yup,” I said, struggling to hide the excitement in my voice, “new horizons and all that.”

“Indeed, well in that case I won’t take up much of your time,” he said, offering me a glass of his favourite amber alcohol which I swiftly declined, the mere smell churning my stomach after the previous night. “To speak plainly, I have a quest I would like you and your team to take for me. It’s on the continent so it shouldn’t be out of your way.”

“I don’t see why not,” I said with a shrug, “as long as the society is offering a good reward.”

“Actually, this quest is a more personal one,” he replied, looking down at his drink, “off the books strictly speaking.”

Growing more intrigued by the minute I raised my eyebrows at him, indicating for him to continue.

“Do you remember when we spoke about my father?”

“You mean the super powerful bloke who shunned you and banished you to Havar?” I replied, “sounded like a bit of a prick if I recall.”

“That’s the one,” he smiled sadly, “I recently learned of a plot to assassinate him. I believe the hitman in question is the same person who killed our king. The thing is, I’m not on the best of terms with my father as you well know. So I was hoping you could look into the matter for me.

“He lives in Castalor and I’m quite friendly with the director there. If you agree to this, all I’d ask is that you go to the city, keep your ear to the ground and touch base with the director there.”

“Of course I’ll help you,” I said, looking him in the eyes, “you’ve helped me out plenty, I’d be happy to return the favour.”

He nodded solemnly and though his mouth was smiling, his eyes harboured a deep sadness. There was something he wasn’t telling me and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as if warning me to probe deeper.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Before I could, the quest notification popped up on my HUD and I read it.

New Quest:

Lucas, I Am Your Father

Lucas Regina has asked you to travel to the city of Castalor in order to root out an assassin who he believes is going to kill his father.

Objectives:

Go to Castalor: 0/1

Prevent the assassination: 0/1

Speak to the local Adventure Society Director (optional): 0/1

“There’s something you’re not telling me isn’t there?” I asked, dismissing my HUD.

“As astute as ever,” Lucas sighed, “yes there is. This quest will be putting you and your team, congratulations on that by the way, in great danger. Not only is Castalor home to some very high levelled individuals, I have reason to believe that the cult has its hand in this whole affair.”

“So you’re asking me, a newly minted iron ranker, to take on high level cultists who want to skin me alive, in a dangerous city. All to protect a father who was a dick to you and who is infinitely more powerful than anyone I’ve ever met?”

“Yes,” he said, looking into his glass once more. “I understand if you don’t want to do it. It’s a rather unreasonable request when pu-”

“We’ll take it!” I said, banging my fist on the table and standing up.

“You will?” He began, his voice cracking slightly as he began to raise his head. “But why?”

“A friend in need is a friend indeed,” I replied as I began to leave his office. “When a friend needs help you don’t ask questions and you don’t turn them down. You just do it.”

***

I left Adventure Society feeling pretty positive about the future for the first time in a while. That warm feeling disappeared as soon as I boarded Sally’s flying ship.

“How fast can this thing go?” Bell asked as Sally finished the preparations for take-off.

“Fast enough,” she responded, “this is one of the only flying vessels in the Havarian port you know.”

“I bet I can make it faster,” the fireball mage grinned as she held both of her hands out over the rear of the ship.

Sally flashed her a fangy smile and as we took to the skies, Bell fired endless streams of fireballs behind us.

I had to hold onto the mast for dear life as the two adrenaline junkies doubled over with laughter at my precarious predicament. They laughed even harder once we reached cloud level and poor Panda spent a sold hour with his head over the side railing, polluting the waters below.

Yup, having a team definitely wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

I spent the next week training with Sally. The demonic cat woman had me running around the ship until I felt seasick. We trained in melee combat, we worked on stretching the capacity of my Soul Shot ability, and we worked on my quick fire and accuracy.

By the end of it, almost all of Sally’s dinner plates had been destroyed and my Newly Qualified Bowman skill reached the 70% mark. I wondered what it would evolve into, just as I was also contemplating how my dagger skill would improve once it reached the percentage evolution stage.

I was nearing that milestone as the days passed and almost two weeks into our voyage, I got what I was after.

It seemed that specialised and well-thought-out melee training did wonders for my dagger skill. It gained a level at least once a day, though it was hard fought for. I puked, ran out of stamina constantly, and felt like every muscle fibre in my body was set alight.

However, with blood, sweat and tears, after the second week I finally hit the goal I was after.

Dagger has reached lvl 25

Would you like to evolve Dagger? Dagger will merge with Novice Apex Skirmisher in order to evolve.

Y/N

I’d been waiting for this for so long. I’d spent ages training specifically with my daggers in the jungle, I’d used them to kill plenty of monsters and people alike, but it was the specialised training with Sally that finally pushed it over the edge.

Without hesitation, I mentally asserted yes.

Newly Qualified Apex Skirmisher (Dual Wield) (0%)

The Newly Qualified Apex Skirmisher has started on his path to truly mastering small blades. What it lacks in reach, it makes up for in speed – a description that would also accurately describe your love life.

The Newly Qualified Apex Skirmisher will have to complete greater feats in order to evolve this skill. Upon reaching 100% proficiency, the skill will evolve.

Damage proficiency improved.

Dual wielding proficiency improved.

A minor bonus to the effect of agility will be added when a small blade is equipped.

I grinned the entire time I was reading the upgrade, even the system’s attempt to shame my manhood was like water off a duck’s back to me. It seemed that as I progressed, my skills began to merge together to create a more tailored skillset.

That certainly made it easier to navigate my stats sheet.

It made sense that my agility would increase marginally when I was using my daggers and that was a useful boon in melee combat.

Mostly though, I simply felt that my overall knowledge and ability with the daggers was solidified.

I wondered if any of my other skills would eventually turn into percentage-based levelling? So far it seemed that it mainly effected my passive fighting skills as my active skills all came with specific grades such as uncommon or rare.

I’d probably need to get my hands on more upgrade tokens or potions to further advance those skills, though I was feeling pretty good about my overall progress so far anyway.

As the second week of our voyage whittled away and I continued my training, I checked my map to see a little coloured line cutting through the shadowed sections.

My map acted much like the kind you would get in a game. It showed the places I’d visited in colour, whilst everywhere else was shadowed and dark.

I could see the outlines of the various continents, but nothing more than that. A small line of colour now showed, cutting through the shadows from Havar in the direction of the continent.

The map itself was a facsimile of Earth, so, with my mediocre geography skills, I knew that we were approaching the area where the Florida Keys were back in my world.

Previously our days had been extremely regimented: wake up, eat, train, eat, train, eat, drink, sleep, repeat.

It wasn’t the most exciting of journeys but it certainly helped me to progress. Bell was doing well too; she was training to failure every single day with her fireball magic.

She’d spend most of the day channelling as much mana as she could into a single blast which she’d fire from the rear of the ship.

The sudden jolts of random speed made my training harder, but I gradually became surer footed from it. She was trying to increase the potency of her spells. She’d gotten the idea from my Soul Shot and in lieu of having a specific skill herself, she decided to train her resilience to be able to pump more mana into each shot in the hopes of being able to create her own high-powered attack.

If she managed to pull it off she’d be a force to be reckoned with considering her fireballs were area of effect attacks. Between the two of us we’d be nearly unstoppable on quests. Theoretically, Bell could take out the small fries in a single move, leaving me to deal with the more potent enemies using my more specialised attacks.

Of course, we were quite a way off from realising that goal.

As our journey took us closer towards the Florida Keys facsimile on the map, Sally began acting strangely.

She had shortened our training sessions and began spending more and more time on the bow of the ship, staring off into the distance as if she was looking for something.

After a day of this I decided to approach her an ask about it.

“What are you doing?” I asked harmlessly as I leant over the side, trying to match her eyeline.

“Scouting,” she replied.

“Scouting for what?” I probed.

“Our target.”

Target? I thought.

She had mentioned that she needed our help with something and that it was a monster extermination quest, but what kind of monster would we be exterminating up in the sky above a vast ocean?

“If we’re about to get into a scrap, the least you could do is share the details,” I huffed, still struggling to see anything through the cloud canopy that obscured the ship in all directions.

With a flick of her wrist and a sigh, a notification popped up on my HUD.

Adventurer Sally would like to share a quest with you. Do you accept?

Y/N

Nervously I mentally asserted yes.

New Quest:

Kraken Skulls and Taking Names

The Adventure Society in Havar has received an urgent request from a smaller branch located in Asquith Town.

The local fishermen have been unable to ply their trade for weeks due to an unknown threat in the nearby waters. They’ve requested aid to deal with this.

Society intelligence suggests that the monster in question is both large and at least as powerful as a high-level silver ranked guild member.

Objectives:

Investigate the waters near Asquith Town 0/1

Kill the monster 0/1

Rewards: Adventurer Sally has set the terms of this quest as [subcontracted]. As such your reward will be the terms agreed upon by your party [Dissident Flame] and Adventurer Sally.

“I didn’t know you could subcontract quests?” I murmured as I read through the notification.

“Yup, and we already agreed that you’d help me with this in return for travel to the continent,” she replied, flashing a fangy smile my way.

I had the distinct feeling that we’d been played.

“What’s going on kid?” Panda asked in a huff as he waddled up the stairs behind me. “I just saw the quest notification, did something happen?”

“I got one too!” Bell shouted from halfway across the vessel as she too made her way towards us.

“Oh, something happened alright!” I exclaimed, “this damn cat played us like a fiddle!”

However, my last few words were drowned out by the sound of a crashing wave as water crested the side of our ship, soaking me thoroughly.

What the hell? We’re flying, how could a wave have reached us all the way up here?

That was when a slimy, black tentacle slapped onto the deck of the ship, cracking the wood with a terrifying creaking sound.