New Quest:

A Good Time, Not A Long Time

You’ve been marked as a guest of The Morningstar Hotel and Spa. I wonder what mayhem and fun awaits behind its doors.

Objectives:

Enter The Morningstar Hotel and Spa 0/1

Uncover the secrets of The Morningstar Hotel and Spa 0/1

Reward:

X1 Skill Upgrade Potion

X1 Weapon Upgrade Potion

“God damn it! Why did you have to go and open your big mouth?” I asked Panda as I read the quest notification.

“Have you not seen how awesome the rewards are? You should be thanking me!” Panda replied, folding his arms in a huff.

He was right. The rewards were a skill upgrade and a weapon upgrade. I didn’t need a notification to tell me what those were.

A skill upgrade alone had to be pretty rare as far as quest rewards went. That being said, with a reward that good I had to wonder what the catch was. The hotel must be full of danger, it was the only explanation.

Something else was bothering me too.

“Can you see what’s on my HUD?” I asked Panda.

“Not exactly. As your familiar my HUD is linked to yours. I can’t see your health all the time and the things that are always there, but when you check your stats or get a notification it appears on my HUD as well.”

That made sense. I had wondered how Panda knew the details of items and quests when I got them. I’d put it down to his role as a daemon granting him insight to the world, but apparently it wasn’t that simple.

As it stood, I filed the new quest away with the one that wanted me to kill all the players and steal their tattoos. This one wasn’t as gut wrenching as the last but I still had no intention of trying to tackle it just yet.

It could wait for another day.

I had a permanent adventurer exam to qualify for after all. I’d get to this weird hotel thing eventually, but I had some serious levelling to do first.

I explained my intentions to Panda who reluctantly agreed that we should hold off until I was stronger. Then we went downstairs for breakfast.

It was a breakfast fit for a medieval peasant. Hard bread, cheese, and broth. Despite the simplicity it was still the first real food I’d had since I arrived. I had eaten the stripper, but that was just a rare chunk of meat I seared on an open flame – and I’d rather forget about the trauma leading up to it.

After breakfast we headed back to the Adventure Society. It was only a short walk from the inn, though it had felt much longer yesterday in my sleepy haze.

The city itself was a vibrant hub of activity in the morning. There were so many people out and about. The city’s population seemed to consist mostly of the races I already knew about; humans, catonids and lycanids.

However there were a few weird looking people I didn’t recognise. I tried to identify them but the system wasn’t playing ball, possibly because they were moving in and out of other people’s way.

We reached the glass skyscraper that was home to the Adventure Society and entered through the front door. Unsure what to do exactly, I approached the front desk.

Lucy, the blonde catonid was working behind it. She smiled at me as I approached and leant leisurely on the reception desk.

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“Good morning Mr Akabane. It’s good to see you again. How did your class selection go yesterday?” She asked cheerfully.

“It went really well thanks. I was wondering what to do now. I know I’m supposed to complete some quests but Lucas said I needed a mentor or something.”

As I spoke Panda wriggled his way onto the desk, kicking his hind legs as he went. When he reached the top he sat down cross legged, or as close to that as a panda can, and lit up his bamboo pipe.

I expected Lucy to say something as I was pretty sure smoking wasn’t allowed in here. But when she looked at him she blushed slightly and began petting his head instead.

“That’s exactly right Mr Akabane. Your mentor is already waiting for you. She’s over in meeting room B, it’s just over there.”

She pointed towards a small corridor leading out of the foyer.

“Thanks Lucy, you can call me Kaleb by the way. Mr Akabane is my father’s name… though I’ve never actually met him…”

“Smooth.” Panda said as he jumped down from the counter and began waddling towards the meeting room.

I felt my face go red as I awkwardly said my goodbyes and left as well. “So it is true that all humans are furries.” Panda said as we walked.

“I was just being friendly. Besides, I think she’s more interested in you… for some reason.”

“What can I say, the ladies just can’t get enough of my charming personality and dashing good looks.” He replied smugly, taking another drag.

“Yeah, it’s definitely got nothing to do with the fact that you’re a walking, talking teddy bear.”

We made it to the corridor and I quickly spotted meeting room B. It looked just like a non-descript meeting room from any office on earth. It had floor to ceiling, interior glass windows, blinds, a door and inside was a large, oval table with chairs scattered around it.

I knocked and then entered the room, Panda at my side. Sitting in a chair at the head of the table and smoking a cigar was a WWE wrestler cosplaying as a catonid – or at least that’s what she looked like.

The catonid had long silver hair that reached her lower back, silver cat eats and a braided silver tail. Her eyes were dark blue and her thighs looked like they could crush me like an egg.

She leaned all the way back in the chair with her monstrous legs up on the table. She looked like a bodybuilder. If we weren’t in a magical world I’d be thinking she was on steroids. Not that I’d say that to her face even if we were back on earth, I’m not that stupid.

“I’ve been waiting for you.” She said menacingly in a medium pitched voice. She flashed me an evil grin showing off her sharp fangs. “Take a seat.”

“Don’t mind if I do.” Panda said, jumping onto an office chair and trying, and failing, to put his stumpy little legs on the table like the catonid was.

“I think you’re a bit too short buddy.” I said, taking the seat next to him and patting him on the head. “Maybe stick to the cute and cuddly thing.”

He gave me a deadpan stare before sitting back in his seat.

“So, you’re the fresh meat I’m supposed to beef up?” She asked, taking a drag of her cigar.

The smoke she blew out was thick and it filled the room in mesmerising grey spirals. As I breathed in the second-hand lung cancer I detected a creamy after taste.

I used to smoke too, years ago, but I stopped after my grandma died of cancer. It felt like it’d tarnish her memory and somehow be disrespectful to continue smoking after that.

Though maybe I’d just been a pushover because my wife hated it and I’d grown sick of going out in the rain all the time for my daily nicotine hits. Either way, I’d have had to stop when she got pregnant.

I felt a pang in my chest as the smoke brought back memories of her. I hoped she was ok. More than anything I hoped she wasn’t here, in this world.

“That’s me, Fresh Meat reporting for duty.” I replied.

“Cute. I don’t like cute.” She replied giving me an assessing look before looking Panda up and down and curling her lip.

We’re in for a treat. I thought, internally sighing.

“Right, here’s how it’s gonna go.” She said, removing her feet from the table and leaning in towards us. “You’ve got me for one quest and one quest only, then you’re on your own. So, I’ve taken the liberty of excepting a silver ranked quest which you’re going to help me with.

“I don’t expect you to do much considering how far above your level it is, but this quest is about teaching you how to be an adventurer and I can’t do that if we take one of those pussy quests from the temp floor.

“Rescuing a cat from a tree might have its use in society, but it’s no adventure now is it? You’re going to do what I say, when I say it, without complaint and if you do, you might just learn something that’ll keep you alive in the future.

“I’m only doing this as a favour to Lucas so don’t expect me to baby you. Also, just so you know, I’ll add your name to quest completion form if you make it back. But I’ll be taking the reward since it’ll be me doing all of the work.” She leant back in her chair as she finished and took a long drag of her cigar.

Ash dropped from it onto the floor, leaving a smouldering hole in the carpet. Not that she seemed to care.

“I appreciate you taking the time to help us and all, but I’m more of a learn by doing kind of guy. A silver rank quest is fine by me, but I’m not just going to stand back and let you do all the work. Naturally, if I’m pulling my weight I want in on the reward too.” I replied, leaning forward and placing my elbows on the table.

Panda shot me a nervous glance from his seat. It struck me as a little odd that he hadn’t said anything himself. He was usually such a loudmouth.

“You’ve got balls kid,” she began, “speaking to a silver ranker like that. But your noob is showing. If you knew what it was really like to be an adventurer you’d put your dick away. This is a silver ranked quest and you’re not even an iron.

“You can try to pull your own weight if you want to, but you won’t be able to come crying to me when it gets you killed… you know cause you’ll be dead.”

“I guess we’ll see.” I replied, letting my bravado get the better of me.

Why was this woman treating me like a child. I was 28 years old; I had a kid on the way and a mortgage and all that adult crap.

She smiled evilly as she got up from her chair. It was then that I realised just how ripped she truly was. She had a ten pack; I didn’t even know that was a real thing!

The way she dressed was a bit counter intuitive to me with her crop top and booty shorts, but far be it for me to question a mighty silver ranker.

She moved to the side of the room and opened a floor to ceiling locker. Reaching in she pulled out the biggest sword I had ever seen. The thing was almost as tall as she was, and she was a big lady. It was wider than me and it glinted in a malicious black steel which caught the light and blinded me.

“I guess it’s time to go then Gonads.” She smirked, hefting the sword onto her back like she was lifting paper.

“My name is Kaleb; I probably should have introduced myself earlier.”

“Mine’s Sally. Nice to be working with ya, Gonads.”