“So, let me get this straight,” Bell said, leaning back in an armchair and holding a glass of something lilac and fruity looking. “We’re supposed to pretend to be peasants so we can get abducted and put into an underground death game for rich people to bet on. Then we’re supposed to win the game, assassinate the organiser and get the hell out of Dodge. And this has been asked of us by the most powerful dude on the continent who could probably achieve all of that without even breaking a sweat? Fuck it, I’m in.”

“That’s pretty much the crux of it, yeah,” I replied, rubbing the back of my head. “Apparently this is an annual thing that these rich arseholes pull every year. Regina has banned it this time but some of them are still planning to do it anyway.”

Rex nodded thoughtfully, scratching his bright white chin fur. “Do we have any further details?”

“Not much,” I said. “We know that it’s underground and that there will be monsters in there. We also know that we’ll need to be invited to take part. Regina suggested that we make ourselves look like normal, mundane commoners and hang around the bazaar. Supposedly that’s where they recruit from.”

“If that’s the plan then you’re going to need to keep your aura in check. I can see it a mile away, you’re looking pretty fierce these days. Much more so than someone of your level should, if you don’t mind me saying.”

I squinted at Rex, furrowing my brow. Now that he’d mentioned it, he had said something similar to me in the past.

“My aura’s on show?” I asked, “how is that even possible when I don’t have any mana?”

“Beats me, but it’s like a beacon.”

“I can’t see it,” Bell shrugged.

“It must have something to do with your soul power, kid,” Panda added, a hint of concern in his voice. “Though I can’t see it either so Ol’ Yeller over there must have pretty good senses.”

“It’s true,” Rex began, “but if I can see it then it’s likely that others will be able to as well. If these guys are as rich as you say, they probably have some quite powerful people on staff.”

“Which brings us to our second issue,” Panda said, jumping in. “We know nothing about these people. We don’t know how strong they are, who they have on their side, how many monsters they have, how strong they are. We simply can’t make this kind of decision without having all the facts.”

“I know it’s not optimal,” I replied, leaning forward slightly. “But don’t adventurers have an obligation to protect the weak? Aren’t we here to help people? Not to mention the potential for levelling.”

Of course, one of my biggest concerns was making this a better place to bring my family to, if I ever got strong enough to do that. Even without that goal, to get stronger you had to fight hard. There was no way around that.

“I don’t know, kid,” he sighed. “I’m not disagreeing with that but something is off about this. Why ask us, why now? There’s a society building full of tough adventurers literally below our feet. Why does he need it to be us?”

“I’ve actually been working on a theory about this for a little while now,” Bell said, looking between us all a little sheepishly. “All this crazy stuff has been happening pretty much since we arrived in Celesta right? We’ve gone from shit show to shit show facing opponents we had no right to beat and winning against all the odds. Here me out on this… I think I might be an anime protagonist.”

Silence, followed by a deadpan glare. It was mine. I glared at her.

“You know for a second there I thought you might actually have something useful to offer the group,” I said, shaking my head slightly.

“Kaleb,” Rex said, placing a weighty, furry paw on my shoulder. “You know I would follow you anywhere, but I have to agree with Panda on this. We need more information before we commit.”

Looking up at his honest eyes, I found myself nodding. I knew they were right, but I still wanted to complete the quest. It was almost like a compulsion, a loop that wouldn’t be closed until I got that notification telling me I’d been successful.

I wasn’t sure what that said about me as a person. Was it possible to be addicted to questing? If so, maybe one day I really would complete my oldest quest. I’d already made strides towards it despite swiping it away when it first arrived in my HUD.

The door creaked open and we all turned towards the sound. Jack stood there, trench coat billowing slightly as if he’d just sprinted up the stairs – though no sign of exertion showed on his face.

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“Sorry for interrupting, but I think I can help you.”

***

“…All I’m saying is that it’s a little sus that just after you convinced Kaleb not to go on the quest and I was the only one left still up for it, a guy looking like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix if he’d had his nose broken multiple times, shows up and makes it all possible,” Bell argued as they headed towards the Bazaar.

“You are not an anime protagonist, Bell,” Panda huffed for the third time in as many minutes.

“What was that about my nose?” Jack asked.

We left our apartment and stood in the foyer of the Adventure Society building after Jack had filled us in on the rest of the information the previous night. He was pretty sketchy about how he’d gotten it, but it seemed legit and together we concocted a plan which reassured both Rex and Panda that this quest was something we could handle.

I had to admit, I was pretty happy about it.

We’d stayed up all night working out the kinks, learning everything we could about this quest and I was pretty confident in our ability to complete it. I’d also spent quite a few hours working on something Rex called ‘aura shielding’. I still had a way to go if I was going to fool someone like Regina, but by the end of our session Rex had assured me that he could no longer sense my soul power.

“Seriously, what was that about my nose? Does it look weird or something?”

“Quit being so needy, Jack,” Bell said.

“Alright guys, are we all clear on the plan?” I asked as we neared the centre of town. They all nodded. “Good, then let’s do this.”

The first step was to unequip all of our gear and re-equip normal clothing. Unfortunately the only “normal” clothing I had on me was my golden shell suit…

“Kaleb what is that?” Jack said, stifling a laugh.

“He looks like Ali G,” Bell added, struggling to remain upright as her stomach convulsed with laughter.

“What?” I protested, “we’re in a culture clash of a city. There’re guys over there in suits, it’s not like we need to be wearing tunics and sandals like its biblical times,” I protested.

Even as I spoke a group of girls in hot pants jogged past the window. Castalor was like Miami meets Dubai. It was this strange clash of cultures where ancient met modern. I saw no issue with the shell suit, well apart from the obvious crime against fashion, but what did I care about that?

“He’s not wrong,” Panda agreed slowly, “but maybe not for this operation, kid.”

“Here, take this,” Jack said, still laughing, as he threw me a pair of beige pants and, you guessed it, a tunic.

“Fine,” I said switching clothes, “but I don’t see how me wearing a shell suit is any more conspicuous than the world’s biggest albino lycanid walking around here, acting like a weak peasant.”

“Hey, don’t bring me into this,” Red said, “there are plenty of my kind in these parts and many of them are poor.”

“Do many of them have bright white fur and red paws? You’re pretty famous now you know.” I replied, raising my eyebrows.

“That’s actually a good point,” Jack said, “and one I’ve already prepared for.” Digging around in his inventory, he produced a scroll and tossed it to Rex. “Use that, it should last long enough.”

Rex blinked very slowly before activating the scroll. His fur turned a dark chestnut colour and within moments he looked just like any other lycanid.

“What was that?” I asked.

“A scroll of blend in,” Jack replied. “It does what it says on the tin really. It’s a pretty common item around here, there are lots of magic shops.”

It made sense, Bell had stolen half a store’s worth of fire magic scrolls back on an island we’d visited. So it stood to reason that there would be plenty of places like that in a city as big as this.

“Got anything for Panda?” I asked.

Though Asmodeus was going to have to sit this one out so he could be studied by Chonkers, I really wanted our strategist with us on this quest. The problem was, of course, that a poor peasant was unlikely to have a sage familiar with him – they were pretty rare.

“If we give him some clothes and pickaxe we could just pass him off as a weird looking dwarf,” Bell suggested unhelpfully. “Or, and hear me out of this, we shave him down and pass him off as a gnome!”

Panda kicked Bell in the shin, looking up at her with a stern expression.

“Or not…”

“It’s fine,” he said. “All I need is one of those scrolls you gave Rex. I’ll put on some pants and say I’m just a really young lycanid.”

“Will that work?” I asked.

“It might,” Rex said, “but only if he’s with me and he stays really quiet. He’ll need something to obscure his face too, like a shawl. I doubt these “recruiters” are too fussy about who they pick as long as they look poor and unthreatening.”

“No offence dude,” Bell said, “but you look threatening even when you look poor. You’re like seven feet tall and built like a brick shit house.”

“All lycanids look like this,” Rex protested.

That wasn’t exactly true, but lycanids were significantly larger than humans. They were also known to be good fighters.

“Don’t worry about it,” Jack reassured us. “These guys actually prefer picking other races. It’s messed up I know, but as long as they don’t know you have weapons and combat abilities, they probably won’t care that you look like a bodybuilder cosplaying Chewbacca.”

He tossed Panda a second scroll of blend in and some clothing which covered most of his features and we were off. Splitting up and heading towards the bazaar.

It didn’t take long for me to get recruited, and that was no understatement. In my unassuming clothes I walked around the bazaar a little and then decided to sit down on a street corner, holding my hands out at passersby like a beggar. Which was exactly the plan. Adventurers didn’t beg. Skilled craftsmen didn’t beg. Only the down and outs with bad skills begged in this world and that was exactly the vibe I was going for.

The fourth person to approach me was a recruiter.

Are they even trying to hide that they’re doing this? I wondered. No wonder Regina is so pissed about it. They’re operating in broad daylight. They might as well be spitting in his face.

“Hey you,” a man in an unassuming suit said, stepping towards me as his sword gleamed in the harsh, desert sunlight. “You look pretty down on your luck, wanna make some quick gold?”