Dario sat on the ground a couple meters away from the blazing Fire Pit in silent meditation. He had been in the same position for several hours, repeatedly testing his Assimilating capabilities. Throughout the night, he had burned himself on various spots, but he persisted with his experiments. It wasn’t all for naught as his inner pool of Assimilator energy had filled up overnight and felt full to the brim, so to speak.
At one point, he could have sworn he saw a brief flicker of flame move in a way he directed, but he wasn’t sure. He had been awake for over twenty-four hours at that point, so hallucinations were a possibility, but unlikely with his new constitution.
He once more focused on the tall flame emanating from The Fire Pit and willed it to move in his direction. For the umpteenth time, his commands were ignored and Dario exhaled into the cool morning air in disappointment.
He really thought he was onto something, but he was stonewalled before he could even begin. What was it that he was doing wrong? Was he just not focusing hard enough? If so, then he had no hope of ever mastering it anytime soon if over four hours of concentrated effort couldn’t do it. Perhaps it was his low Assimilator level?
He looked down at his Status Band and pressed a finger to its centerpiece. Three of the familiar symbols lit up and Dario looked at each one in turn, looking for any changes. Earlier in his experiments, he had found out that pressing directly on the symbols would show slightly more specific numbers. He was unsurprised to find Physique still at 3.3, and Defender at 4.1, with the most important number being the 3.9 of his Assimilator class.
He didn’t know what it really meant, but he suspected that it was too low for him to have any noticeable abilities, and he needed to get it higher if he wanted any meaningful progress. It was the only thing he could conclude after all the hours spent staring at a fire. It wasn’t much, but it was still something he could work with.
“You’re still here?” a voice to his left asked.
Dario turned and spotted the approaching form of Vira with a plate of food in her hand.
“I’m just about done, I think,” he said as he stood up and stretched. “There isn’t much left for me to learn here, but I learned enough.”
“Here.” She handed him the plate of food. “You need to eat up, you’ve been sitting out here all morning burning through all our logs.”
Dario looked over at the dwindling pile of logs he’d been using to fuel The Fire Pit. “Yeah, sorry about that. I’ll pay you guys back for it.”
The older woman shook her head. “No need, you dunce. We’re family and if you really needed to use The Fire Pit for so long then so be it.” She crossed her arms and stared at him with an unreadable expression. “You’re more important to us than some pile of wood.”
“Aww, I’m touched, really,” Dario said while munching on a soft piece of bread. “But for real, I’ll pay you back.”
Vira rolled her eyes. “Fine, if you’re so insistent then you can go and do a favor for us. We were going to ask you to do it anyway.” She leaned forward with an intent look in her eyes. “Since you’re a Superior now, you can probably bring this up at whatever meetings you guys have when it comes to dealing with shady shit.”
“Huh? What shady shit?”
“Look, there’s been a bunch of abductions happening recently,” she said with a worried expression. “None of our members have been taken so far, but we heard through the grapevine that other gangs have lost some of their people to these kidnappers. Hardly anyone knows anything about who’s been taking kids from The Slums, but none of us like it. It’s reached the point where we’re willing to bring in the authorities, and we were hoping you could help us out with that. No Superior will listen to street rats like us, but if it’s coming from another Superior, well… that’s a different story.”
“Wait a minute.” Dario paused in chewing his food and narrowed his eyes. “Would these kidnappers happen to wear completely black hooded cloaks, and move in groups of five?”
“From what we’ve heard, that does somewhat match their description. Why? Have you seen them around?”
“Yeah, on my way here they tried to kidnap me, I think, but I beat them up and left them unconscious next to a street lamp.”
“Are they still there?” Vira asked, grabbing his shoulders.
“I don’t know, maybe?”
“Then we have no time to waste.” She grabbed his arm and started dragging him. “We gotta go get those sons of bitches and find out what their whole deal is. We could sell that information to other gangs for some nice profit too.”
“Can I finish my food first?” Dario asked, trying to stuff his mouth with as much food as possible.
Vira glared at him before briskly walking off towards the house. “Do it fast,” she yelled.
“She never changes, that woman,” he muttered while chewing.
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“Well, they’re not here,” Dario said, sheepishly rubbing his head.
They were standing by the street lamp he had left his assailants the night prior, but they were nowhere to be found.
“Are you sure this is where you left them?” Vaughn asked, having followed them when told by his sister what they were doing.
“Yes, I’m completely positive this is where I left them,” Dario confirmed. “I knocked them out cold, so they should have still been here!”
“A person doesn’t stay knocked out from a punch for over four hours straight, idiot.” Vira pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. “You should’ve tied them up with a makeshift rope or something! I thought I taught you better than that!”
“Okay, my bad, I wasn’t really thinking,” Dario apologized. “I just really wanted to see you guys and I didn’t think those guys were a big deal or anything.”
Vaughn sighed before patting him on the shoulder. “It’s alright Dario, you still stopped them from taking anyone else last night, and that’s good enough for me. For now, we can rest easy knowing they’ll think twice about coming out again. I don’t think they’ll look for another victim anytime soon.”
“We don’t know that for sure though,” his younger sister interjected. “We still have to be on the lookout for them, just in case.” She turned to Dario and poked his chest. “Don’t forget, make sure to tell your Superior buddies about this whole kidnapping thing going on here. I know they don’t care much about The Slums, but I’m sure you can put in a good word for us.”
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“Uhh, I’m not exactly an official member of the Superiors Guild yet. I don’t think they’ll listen to me, but we’ll see in about three, or rather two days from now,” Dario corrected. “Don’t worry, when I become official in about two days, I’ll bring it up with them.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” the older Dundev sibling said, turning away. “In the meantime, I have to head back and handle some paperwork.” He paused and looked back at him. “Are you sticking around here? Do you need to chill at our place still?”
“Nah, I have to get going and do stuff,” Dario answered with a shrug. “I think I’ll be pretty busy in the days to come.”
“Alright, I’ll see you around. It was good seeing you though.” Vaughn held out a hand towards him.
“You too,” Dario agreed, clasping hands with the taller man. “I’ll see you later.”
Vaughn waved as he walked away, leaving Dario alone with Vira.
“Well, this was a waste of time.” Vira sighed in disappointment. “It could have been worse, I guess.”
“True. For example, I could have decided to never come visit since I’m an almighty Superior now, and you would have never seen me again.” Dario smirked. “You’d be bawling at the thought, I’m sure.”
“Do you want me to beat you up?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“To be honest, I don’t think you’d be able to handle me anymore.” Dario said. He didn’t know what came over him, but for some reason he felt like testing the waters with the dangerous woman.
Vira hummed as she stepped closer and began playfully tracing her hand down his chest. “Mmm, you’re lucky I’m too tired to take you up on that offer.”
“I don’t see why not.” Dario grinned. “Some of the best times we had together involved us being… tired.”
“Hmm, tempting,” she murmured, lifting her hand to his face and tracing her fingers along the edge of his lips.
Dario tilted his head, and despite his better judgement, decided that getting back into bed with her might be worth it. “I may not be your martial student anymore, but I’m sure you can still teach me a thing or two.”
Vira placed a finger on her chin and narrowed her eyes in contemplation. Eventually, she smiled and patted his cheek. “Perhaps another time.” She quickly turned and sauntered away, hips swaying. “Don’t be a stranger!” she called out with a hint of mirth in her voice. “And don’t forget to tell your Superior buddies!”
“Damn.” Dario cursed, staring at her retreating backside. “Ah well, you win some, you lose some.” He chuckled and began walking in the opposite direction. “Okay, back to thinking with the right head,” he muttered. He slapped his cheeks to clear his mind of any errant thoughts and began focusing on more important matters.
Having finished his tests by The Fire Pit, he now knew what to do. It was quite simple and straightforward in theory, but the execution might get complicated. If his Assimilator level was too low to be able to do anything significant with it, then he just had to level it up. Easy, right?
Getting stronger and mastering his powers was still his number one priority it seemed. All he had to do was kill some monsters and gain some World Energy to increase his class levels. In order to do that, he could perhaps wait a few days for his official membership from the Superiors Guild and go out on assigned exterminating missions, but he didn’t want to waste a single day. He wanted to start making progress as soon as possible.
With the Status Band on his arm, he was technically able to leave the city and explore the Wildlands to his heart's content. It would be dangerous, but Miss Aimee had said that there weren’t any real threats in the nearby areas, so it shouldn’t be too bad. As a precaution, he’d probably only spend an hour or two at most outside the walls.
Additionally, Miss Aimee had said that he was above average for a newbie, so he could most likely take care of any of the weaker monsters in the nearby vicinity. Growing up, he had been involved in numerous fights, so he had some experience in handling himself during tough situations.
After mulling it over for a few minutes longer, he made up his mind and decided that going past the walls of the city to kill monsters was his best course of action, or at least the most efficient one. He had already successfully saved a civilian for the first time, so aiming for his first monster kill seemed like the logical progression as a Superior. The very thought of it had his heart pumping with excitement, and his six year old self would be jumping in joy seeing him now.
However, he realized that there was something he needed to do before taking such a monumental step in his life.
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Dario strolled deeper into the familiar western block known as Gates Boulevard. It was a large, bustling district where the wealthier merchants and clientele congregated to exchange wares. It was the choice of residence for the more affluent people of the city. Most of the architecture was different from the rest of Voirsten, with many of the buildings having been constructed with sleeker designs and more robust materials. The roofs were all painted in warm colors, with red being the most common.
In passing further through the district, Dario began hearing the music of various street buskers and performers. It was still early in the morning, so most of them were still setting up their own instruments. Nonetheless, there were enough of them playing to fill the air with a jovial atmosphere.
There were other forms of entertainment off to the sides where Dario could see a group of four performers doing juggling acts under a veranda. Next to them, a dancing troupe of five individuals were performing an intricate, fast paced dance. Most of the people on the street paid them no mind, occasionally tossing a silver coin their way.
On both sides of Dario, various stands lined the long stretch of road. Many sold a wide variety of trinkets and tools that one would use in daily life, while others offered warm meals to satiate hungry stomachs. Behind these stalls stood their owners with predatory gazes as they watched everyone who passed by.
It was all a familiar sight to Dario, and one that brought a sense of nostalgia. There was a simple idyllic nature to the neighbourhood that made him feel a sense of peace whenever he strolled through its busy streets. There were many times in his childhood where he would simply take a walk and go people watching. The various interactions people shared throughout the day had been quite fascinating to him.
“Come right up and have a taste of my famous Komodo chicken! Seasoned and roasted to perfection, it’s a taste you’ll never forget! Order two plates now and get a third for half the price!” Dario heard from a nearby stall.
“Don’t listen to that man,” a man from a stall on the other side exclaimed. “Komodo chicken is a thing of the past! Komodo rhino is the new flavour everyone loves! Come over here instead and have a bite of this delicious meat! I’ll even throw in a limited edition rhino figurine for the kiddies!”
Dario looked at the offered plates from both stands and was tempted to stop by and order some of the delicious smelling food. During times like these, he was reminded of how amazing the city’s cuisine was.
“They’re both wrong! Everyone knows that to taste true heaven, you must indulge yourself in truly exotic dishes!” a crazed, bandana-wearing young man shouted. “Come over here and try out this delicious Smoked Sea Slug covered in squid ink and rice! It’ll keep you healthy and virile!”
On second thought, the cuisine here could be quite baffling. Nonetheless, he decided to buy himself a plate of food from another nearby stall. Luckily, he received a discount due to the open display of his Status Band signifying him as a Superior. Normally, most Superiors didn’t publicly wear their Bands when they weren’t patrolling, but Dario was just too proud to hide it. Even the occasional civilian that would walk up to fawn over him couldn’t deter him from proudly wearing his Status Band.
Regardless, Dario ate his food and continued onward, heading to a more remote area of the district. He passed by the Parks and Gardens, through the residential neighbourhood, and ended up on a street with only a few buildings occupying its lavish surroundings. He had arrived at his destination.
He walked over and stood in front of a magnificently decorated, three-story, creamy-white building. It was fairly wide and boasted expensive stained glass windows with gold leafed wooden frames. The exterior of the building was draped with a mix of silk and velvet curtains that hung in tantalizing arcs across several of its windows. Its entrance was marked with smooth marble steps that led to large double doors.
The building before him was widely known as the Hidden Haven, and held the reputation of being the only establishment to house Superior courtesans. It was considered to be the finest, most unique, high-priced brothel in the entire kingdom.
Dario, on the other hand, simply called it home.