I left the building with a sour taste in my mouth. Something about the gnomish leader didn’t sit right with me, but Fredrick Millicent was an out and out parasite.

People like him were the reason I’d chosen to become self employed back on Earth. Pompous, self-satisfied idiots who’d inherited their fortune and yet still deluded themselves into believing that they were somehow above everyone else.

I wouldn’t have minded so much if he was at least honest about the real reason he had so much money and power. You can’t choose the circumstances in which you’re born. But somehow, people like Fredrick Millicent could never seem to grasp that they were painfully average and it was their parent’s wealth that allowed them to delude themselves into thinking they were above the rest of humanity.

“Do you think his son’s good looking?” Bell asked wistfully, breaking me out of my spiralling thoughts as we slipped back into the crowd of protestors.

The ruckus Rex had caused seemed to have died down a bit whilst we were inside. The guard’s line was reenforced and the protesters were back to shouting recycled call and response lines.

“What?” I asked irritably.

“His son,” Bell repeated, “he offered to marry me to him. Do you think he’s attractive?”

“Judging by the look of his father, probably not,” I sighed, moving like a snake through the grass as I led my party out of the crowd.

“That’s a shame,” she said happily, “I might have considered it.”

“You’d give up this great adventuring lifestyle for a bit of money?” Panda scoffed, though it seemed a little sarcastic.

“Of course not!” She protested, “but having a wealthy husband at home couldn’t hurt could it? I could winter in his fancy home and adventure during the summer. It’d be great.”

I shook my head as I finally broke through the growing crowd and found myself face to muzzle with Rex. The huge lycanid towered over me, his eyes glimmering in the evening twinkle.

“How’d it go?” He asked in his gruff, dog-like voice.

“They’ve agreed to meet with you,” I replied, “or at least, Millicent said he’d convince the council to.”

“Perfect!” He yelled, almost loud enough to startle the rambunctious crowd behind us once more. “In that case, I’d better go and let the others know. I assume you’re coming to our negotiation.”

I nodded, feeling suddenly very tired.

“Good,” he said, slapping me on the shoulder, “in that case I’ll see that our leader sends word of the time and place. Where are you staying?”

“I don’t know yet,” I replied wearily, “we’d only just arrived in town when we got sent on this fool’s errand.”

“It’s not a fool errand human, this mission you’ve been given will help us to make great changes,” he said, “you’ll see. Anyway, in that case I’ll have him contact your director with the details.”

Without another word he turned and ran up the street. As Rex turned the corner and disappeared from view I could have sworn I heard him howl in delight. It was hard not to smile at that. Even if he was a massive killing machine I guess every dog is a puppy at heart.

That was when a system message lit up my HUD.

Quest Completed:

The Proletariat Will Rise Again

The gnomes need your help comrade!

Aid them!

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

Objectives:

Help the gnomes: 1/1

Reward: Unlock a powerful skill for Asmodeus.

Well at least Asmodeus will be happy, I thought tiredly, glancing over at my sleeping dragon as he breathed heavily in Bell’s arms.

I exchanged a look with Panda who seemed as surprised as I was that the notification hadn’t woken him up. I decided to let sleeping dragon’s lie for the time being, we’d find out what amazing power he’d unlocked once he woke up.

“We should find Sally,” I eventually said to the others wearily.

I wanted to update her on the day’s events. She had told us that she’d head towards the gate leading out of town. Supposedly that was where the largest and most unruly protest was taking place.

Hopefully she’d still be there.

“Then can we get a drink?” Bell asked, “I could use one after today. We’ve been trapsing round all day playing gofer for these idiots and that’s not what I signed up for when I decided to become an adventurer.”

“Agreed,” I replied as we began walking in, what I hoped was, the right direction. “The sooner we put this to bed, the sooner we can leave Cali Port in the dust and head towards our real objective.”

“And we can do it in style,” Panda said with a grin, “don’t forget the reward for this mission, Castalor is a long way from here and I for one don’t want to walk there.”

I smiled at him and nodded. He was right of course, as bothersome as it was, completing this quest should help to cut our travel time down significantly. Besides, who wants to walk thousands of miles when you can ride?

As we reached the high street I noticed a large number of people hurrying in the opposite direction to us. It must have been a sign that we were going the right way, though why they were fleeing was anyone’s guess.

I hoped Sally was alright.

“What’s going on?” Bell said, grabbing a running man by his sleeve and nearly toppling him to the ground.

“There’s monsters fighting,” he said breathlessly, “barely got out with my life.”

Then he shrugged her off and continued to run away.

“Well, there’s that excitement you were looking for,” I sighed, glancing at Bell. “We should hurry.”

Breaking into a run, I deftly avoided the oncoming crowd as I made my way towards the epicentre. The closer we got, the louder it was.

“Seize the means of production!”

“Down with the bourgeoisie!”

“The proletariat will rise again!”

The air was thick with the sounds of protestors chanting their communist catch phrases. I didn’t see any sign of a monster though. Surely they wouldn’t continue to protest if some beast had appeared to cause havoc would they?

I pushed my legs harder and arrived at the scene.

Located in a large square that was bordered by town houses and stone buildings, was a huge crowd. There must have been thousands of them. Gnomes seemed to make up the bulk but there were other minor races there as well, and an entire garrison of guards surrounding them.

The protestors were blocking the gate out of town just as Freja had warned us. To their backs was a lowered portcullis, they even had people on the walls themselves. It was a straight up hostile takeover.

The guards were penning them in and though there was no fighting, they had their weapons drawn and huge shields covering their fronts.

That’s when I saw it, a huge, fireball of aura permeated the sky above. It seemed to be coming from somewhere within the guard’s ranks.

“That looks… tasty,” a sleepy Asmodeus said as he roused from his slumber.

Before she could stop him, he launched himself from Bell’s arms and buzzed towards the powerful aura at full speed.

Shit! He’s going to get himself killed.

“Since when could he fly?” Panda asked, “he was barely gliding last time I checked.”

With an aggravated grunt I dashed after him, Bell and Panda following panickily in my wake.

“Oi, who are you?” A burly guard asked, but I’d flipped over his shield landed and behind him before I could reply.

Hell yeah, I can do flips now! Must be the stat increases.

Dodging confused guards like a cat, I swerved through their ranks as my dragon’s eye showed me the way towards the power source.

As I got closer I saw a few guards squirming and looking uncomfortable. I slipped passed them and found myself in the middle of a ring of guards. Two people were going at it in the middle.

One of them was Sally, but surprisingly, her aura wasn’t the strong one I’d sensed.

She was bleeding heavily and her oversized sword laid abandoned on the ground as she panted on her knees. Her chest was soaked with blood and sweat covered her body.

When did she get that fixed? I wondered. It had been snapped clean in two during our fight with Clive the elder lich. Did the craftsmen in Cali Port work that fast?

Standing over Sally was an athletic-looking man with tied back, black hair and a rapier in his hand. He looked like some kind of Middle Ages duellist with one hand behind his straight back.

“Do you surrender Adventurer?” He said in a strange, almost French, accent.

The tip of his sword was pressed firmly against Sally’s neck. It looked like a needle next to her thick muscularity, but the red and black aura that enveloped it made it glow even larger than Sally’s oversized broad sword.

As I stood, staring at the scene, Bell crashed into me from behind and I stumbled forwards.

“Why’d you stop?” She asked.

The man turned towards me with a surprised expression on his face, though his sword remained firmly at Sally’s throat.

“And who might you be?” He asked, ignoring Bell, raising his eyebrows and tilting his nose up at me.

What a bellend, I thought, but before I had time to answer I heard a familiar buzzing from above.

“Your soul shall be mine!” Asmodeus yelled as he dive-bombed the man and sank his fangs into his neck.