Before I’d finished admonishing the giggling fireball mage, Sally burst through the door, slamming it shut behind her.
She looked as perky as ever, that cat really knew how to bounce back from being batted across the city like a homerun ball. Her silver hair bounced on her shoulders as she looked around with shifty blue eyes and then focused on me.
“Good, you’re awake.” She said, summoning a bottle from her inventory into her hand and thrusting it at me. “Drink this.”
I began to focus on it but she cut me off rudely.
“You don’t have time to worry about notifications, just drink the damned thing!” She grabbed the bottle, ripping the cork out with her teeth and practically force feeding it to me like I was a newborn, or a CIA hostage.
I gasped in surprise and coughed half of the shimmering blue liquid back up, but Sally persisted and I gave in, swallowing the rest like a good little captive.
“Good. That’ll heal your soul.” She said, slumping onto the end of my bed. “The royal inquisitors are on their way and if we want to keep up the charade that Lucas killed that dragon, we need you to be as unassuming as possible.”
I opened my mouth, so very full of questions, but Sally continued before I could say anything.
“They’re going to examine you and question you about the attack. Tell them that you fought with me and the rest of your team but do not mention that freaky soul ripping crap you pulled. Hopefully this potion will fix you up enough to hide that gaping wound in your mana flow before they get here.”
She finally stopped, taking a deep breath, and leaning back on the bed. I had so many questions, but I asked the first thing that popped into my head.
“What’s mana flow?”
“It’s the aura people give off. Those of us with mana can see it in untrained whelps like yourself.” She turned to look at me, seeming slightly calmer now. “After you decimated that dragon your flow looked fucking huge, like, untethered Lucas huge. I think it’s because your soul got damaged… that was a soul attack right? I’ve only seen them used a few times.”
I nodded.
If the potion she force-fed me could really fix me up then there was no reason not to take it. Though I wondered if I would also be able to see mana flow now with my new shiny dragon eye.
“What’s a royal inquisitor?” I asked next, trying to remember the many questions I wanted to ask. This time Bell answered.
“They’re like the king’s detectives. Fucking feds.” She groaned. “Just remember not to speak to them without a lawyer.”
I nodded slightly at that, but despite Bell’s unique way of speaking, I got the general gist.
“Ok cool, thanks for covering this up for me.” I said a little sheepishly as the two women stared at me with wildly differing expressions that both somehow still seemed incredulous.
“Don’t be stupid Gonads it’s not a good colour on you.” Sally said, rolling her eyes. “Besides, I owed you a life debt… consider it repaid.”
She was, of course, referring to the time I saved her from a huge goblin motherfucker during our first quest together. I’d literally dragged her unconscious body away from a goblin horde and then held them off until help arrived.
“You never owed me anything. Friends don’t count stuff like that.” I replied with a smirk.
She looked at me for a moment and then her cheeks turned a faint shade of pink. It was an odd look for a woman of her… physique.
“Friend’s huh?” She asked slowly. “Thanks.”
There was a moment of awkward silence between us until Bell saved the day with her inability to read a room.
“Oh, by the way Kaleb. We may have stolen all of your dragon loot.” My head snapped towards her and my neck crinkled slightly. It was, however, noticeably less painful than it had been an hour ago, so perhaps that potion Sally gave me had begun to work.
“There were billions of gold coins!” She continued oblivious to my frown. “But Sally made me give them away.”
“You’re damn right I did!” Sally roared. “That amount of money singly handedly paid for the reconstruction of the part of town destroyed by that monster.”
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“Yeah…” Bell replied. “But it also could have bought me my own personal dragon to ride on, or a big boat, or even a palace made of the bones of my enemies. Just think of the amazing, wealthy future you just robbed me of.”
“You mean the wealth you robbed from me?” I asked, shooting her a deadpan look which finally got her to shut up.
We sat in silence for a little while after that and I spent some more time in my HUD figuring out how to spend my free points.
In the end I put 10 points into intelligence and 20 points into strength. I still wanted to increase my intelligence as it directly affected my stealth abilities which I’d gained from my armour.
However, strength gave me more stamina which I desperately needed. I still hadn’t even scratched the surface of my Perception of the Apex Predator skill yet and that would surely be OP as fuck once I had the stamina to make it work properly.
The ability to stop time was a life saver. It had already saved me back at the dragon’s lair and I’d barely gotten to use it for a single second then. The possibilities were simply staggering… as was the amount of stamina needed to fully utilise it.
Once I was done, I took a look at my stat sheet and smiled at the progress I’d made.
Status Sheet:
Name: Kaleb Akabane
Race: Outworlder
Class: Apex Predator (unique)
Adventurer Rank: Temp
Level: 42
Map Pieces 2/10,000
HP: 434/376 (434)
Stamina: 449/409 (449)
Strength: 365 (382)
Agility: 148 (169)
Perception: 144
Vitality: 296 (354)
Intelligence: 68
Personal Skills: Speak English Damnit!, Eat Anything, Minor Poison Resistance, Usurper (unique), Health Sense (common), Eye of the Dragon (rare)
Class Skills (Passive): Newly Qualified Bowman (59.1%), Dagger (lvl 11), Novice Apex Skirmisher, Acid Dhampir Dagger, Acid Arrows, Environmental Hazzard
Active Skills: Perception of the Apex Predator (rare), Soul Shot (ancient), Scales of the Apex Predator (Ancient)
Blessing: Blessing of Wealth
Familiars: Panda (Daemon)
Titles: Audacious Soul Expander, Dragonslayer
Admission: Pentagram [Right hand (Morningstar Hotel and Spa)]
All in all I was pretty chuffed with my upgraded stats. The sheet was starting to get pretty long now. I smiled at my Newly Qualified Bowman skill which had finally passed the halfway point on its percentage.
I did feel like I’d improved with the weapon with all the grinding and practice I’d been doing. I wondered what it would evolve into at 100%.
Oddly though, my adventurer rank still said temp even though I’d passed the quest. I had passed the quest right? I looked towards Sally.
“Hey Sally.” I said and she looked up at me. “Did I pass the exam? Because it’s not updated on my stat sheet yet.”
“You did.” She blinked a few times, seeming to be slightly caught off guard. “It hasn’t updated because you haven’t handed the quest in yet, and you need to do the induction seminar first anyway.”
“Induction seminar?” Bell and I both asked in complaining and groaning voices.
From my previous experiences with the Adventure Society I could only guess at what kind of torturous corporate bullshit we would be subjected to this time.
“Yes.” She replied. “Though that’ll have to wait for now. The tower hasn’t been rebuilt yet and we have an audience with the king tomorrow.”
I looked at her, blinking slowly.
An audience with the king? I thought. Am I about to be knighted? Sir Kaleb did have a nice ring to it, but somehow I doubted that was what was going to happen.
Sally must have read my look because she continued unprompted by either myself or Bell.
“He wants to reward us for our part in slaying the dragon.” She explained. “Lucas will get most of the prestige of course, but I’m sure you’ll get a nice little trinket or something.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “Reggie will receive his recognition posthumously.”
I opened my mouth to speak but the words wouldn’t come. We’d been forced to leave his ashes inside the dragon’s lair which had caved in.
I hoped his family wouldn’t be there. It sounded self-centred but I just didn’t know if I could face them. I knew I made the right choice in prioritising the living, but still, how do you tell a parent that you made the decision to leave their son’s ashes somewhere that they can’t be recovered from?
“What about Jamie?” I asked solemnly, the image of his limp body slapping into the wooden arch, blood leaking down, burning the backs of my eyelids.
“He’s alive for now.” Sally said hopefully.
“Where is he?” I asked suddenly, siting up slightly. I barely knew the guy but if he was still breathing I wanted to see him, to thank him. If he hadn’t attacked the dragon when he did I’d have been squished.
Sally lifted a muscled arm and pointed to the bed next to me. I turned towards it with my mouth hanging open. I’d noticed the patient when I’d first woken up, wearing full-body bandages like a mummy cosplayer.
“He’s in a coma.” Bell said quietly. “Honestly, it’s a miracle he’s not dead after what happened to him.”
I looked at him gravely. Even if he did wake up he’d likely never be the same. As far as I knew, physical disabilities didn’t exist in this world. Magic healing kinda did away with all that stuff.
The mental strain though? I don’t think even mana or HP recovery can cure that. Nobody would be able to go through the trauma he did and come out the same way. Hell, I’d noticed myself change bit by bit since this all started and I hadn’t even been made into a human pancake.
As the three of us looked sadly towards our comrade there was a sudden knock at the door which jolted me awake from my depressing thoughts.
It opened, and two men walked in wearing black, embroidered suits and sunglasses. Once of them flipped a badge open at me.
“Inquisitor Miles, I’m here to speak with a Mr Akabane.”
Holy shit. They really are magic feds. I thought, struggling to stop my mouth from lolling open at the strange intrusion.