Making ENEMIES
A dozen coins, a rusted sword and a small shield... Two level 4 orbs and six level 3s, that's one hell of a loot on the first delve," Greg said with a grin as he typed into his phone. "Six points for each level 4 orb and three for each level 3, so basically you are gonna get 38 points if we value the coins and weapons too. Plus additional bonus two points on the house, making it 40 points,"
"You got yourself a deal," I squinted down at him. "You shouldn't be surprised though, or did you think we wouldn't make it back alive?"
"Why would I think that?" He said. "You were with Bridget. I still don't know why you chose her as your ward by the way, it's gonna complicate things," he grumbled and continued typing in his phone.
"I don't give a fuck about that," I snapped. "I was told you set me in a party of death. What's the deal with that? Some Rankers humor?"
Greg paused and look up at me with a frown. "Is this about Holden?" He glanced at the Tanker who shrugged, then sighed, "Listen, you had Bridget with you, I wanted you to gain monster orb easily because of that. Do you know how hard it is to kill level 4s for level 1s?"
"I think we do," Sid said at the side. "We killed both of those ourselves 'by the way'. Besides, you should have warned us,"
"Well, I'll confess to my lack of tact, but I was just trying to help you newbies."
"Sure," I spat. I waited till I received the points then stormed away from the counter.
We gathered just outside the guild where I started sharing the points. I gave each of us ten points using the transmitter screen to make the transaction. Holden gave us a toothy grin and went off after getting his share.
"Hey," I heard a voice just as we were about to leave and turned to see that Greg had came out of the guild. "I almost forgot, Jake told me to inform him when you return. If you don't mind?"
Everyone looked at me but I ignored them, not in the mood to speak to the 'bastard', so Sid nodded. "Sure, go ahead"
"Great," Greg typed in his phone then paused for a moment and said. "He said you should meet up at the Tinker tavern,"
"Oh, okay, thanks," Blondie said. The guy nodded and disappeared back into the guild. After he left I stared at the entrance in longing; I wish I have a phone too but I need around a thousand points to get one.
"What now?" Sky asked.
I looked at the busy street straight from the medieval eras with a frown. "We find directions,"
"We find an automaton?"
"Nah, it'll be too long, come." I crossed the street and intercepted two men walking on the sidewalk. "Hey, excuse me but I was wondering if you could give me directions to the Tinker's Tavern?"
Both men wore medieval tunics and coats. They are natives, I thought derisively, Rankers has a different feel to them. "The Tinker's Tavern huh?" One said. "Just over there miss,"- he pointed down the street. "Take the corner there, walk for a while then ask someone else for further directions."
"Sure, thanks,"
"Its nothing,"
We followed his instruction, taking the corner, walked for sometime before asking a woman for direction. Finally after asking one more person we found the tavern; a two story wooden building with the name of the establishment written on the poster atop the door.
The common room was a raucous place. The place wasn't quite full but the costumers were loud and aggressive. They were mostly Rankers too, judging by their cloths and quality of armor. I spotted Jake at a table with three others immediately I walked in. He was wearing a light blue shirt and jeans, his peroxide white hair gave him a distinct look.
Me and my sisters- yes I'm calling Sky my sister too, she might as well be being family- made our way to the table after he waved at us. "Welcome girls," He grinned motioning forward. "Take a sit please,"
I studied the other three. One was a blond man dressed casually in sweater and slacks, the other was an immaculate black woman wearing white tank top with her black hair held in a ponytail, and the last was another black guy in a green hoody. I sat on one of the free chairs and kept my backpack beside me. "This is them?" The black guy said.
"Yeah," Jake nodded. "Don't underestimate 'them' until you see their skills. They are top,"
"Well, maybe," the woman seemed reluctant too, openly inspecting us. "I hope it's worth kicking out Nick and Shane for,"
"It is baby, you'll see, this Camp crown is ours this year,"
I frowned. The way they were talking was off putting. As if we weren't even here. "Hello?" I waved, "We are still here you know?"
"Yeah, sorry," Jake said still smiling. The way he was watching us, as if he was looking at money making machines, was unnerving. "Creed, this is Samantha, Sidney and Sky, our new members, girls this is Zara Kirk and Dan," he pointed at the black woman, then the blond guy and black guy in that order.
I nodded in acquiescence.
"Nice to meet you eh," Sky said with a smile.
"You too," Dan said. "I guess we'll be working together from now on, forgive my earlier rudeness,"
"It's okay," she insisted.
I rolled my eyes. Sid finally spoke. "Nice to meet you too I guess, what now?"
Jake leaned forward over the table. "We start training tomorrow. Nothing big, just get to know each other. You'd probably have classes since you have had your choices but we can do something after," he slid a card towards us. "That's the key to our room in the Metro, it's in the Gyms, room 780... Just have an Automaton lead you there,"
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
I took the card and studied it. Creed was written on it. I pocketed it. "Okay thanks," I said.
"Sure, you'll meet us at 2PM, an hour after classes usually ends,"
"Listen, we are a party now," Zara added. "Our fates are tied together now; one for all, all for one- this is our Creed. If you need anything just tell us, we'll do all we can to help,"
"That sounds comforting," I said skeptically and Sid kicked me on the leg below the table.
The black woman scowled."I was being serious,"
"Of course..." I had to fight the urge to scoff. But my flippant response still rankled her. She pursed her lips.
"We understand," Sid said in my place, doing damage control like usual when I decide to foolishly rile up people "We'll take you up on that offer,"
The woman nodded. After that they asked us a few questions like what we could do with our skills and we told them. Story short, they were impressed.
"Fucking bitches!"
I turned to see Pancil closing down at us with a massive glare. Jake immediately rose to his feet and intercepted him. "Hey Pancil," he said, raising his hands placidly. "What are you doing here man?"
"Fucking you over is what!" Pancil took a step forward, but had to pause as the rest of the Creeds rose to their feet too, staring at him in warning. There was suddenly a stand still. Just then, Kyle, Sofia and a another guy rushed into the tavern.
"Boss," Kyle called glaring at us. Sofia and the other guy looked ready for a fight too.
For a moment the tension rose to a stifling degree. It looked like a fight would break out any moment the way everyone was glaring at one another. I know this was happening because of us so I decided to say something.
"Hey!" I said.
"Stay our of this," Jake growled. He took a moment to study the onlookers around that were looking at us with interest then turned to his opponent. "You know unsupervised fights are not allowed, so what's the meaning of this Pancil?"
"You stole them specifically to hurt me didn't you?" Pancil sniffed.
Jake looked amused. "Oh, I did now?"
"You only needed one, I only needed one too. But you kicked out your party members just to get all and fuck with me while you were at it, don't deny it!"
"And then my party members went to you," Jake smirked staring at the guy at the back of the group. "Where's Nate? Or is he too afraid to show himself?"
"I am not," a bald Asian man walked into the tavern. He was middle aged, wearing simple jeans and shirt. "I have nothing to be ashamed of Jake," he walked over nonchalantly. A sword hanging on his waist. "On the contrary you are the one that should be ashamed. You kicked us out, 'sworn brothers' you said? You are a fucking hypocrite!"
"I have never hidden the fact that I will use every means possible to win,"
"Win?" Nate scoffed. "With these freshmen? That'll take you how many years? Most they could do now is some impact as subs. They can't last a game genius, and you know it,"
Jake laughed. "I am the best in the game dummy. I know what I am doing. And if that's all you came here for, to show me your new alliance of morons I suggest you fuck off,"
"Or what?" Sofia lifted an eyebrow.
"Or he's gonna challenge each of you for compulsory duels," Zara said with a smirk. "Ones he can't take, I'll do,"
Sofia rolled her eyes. "I almost wish you do. I am not afraid of one of you,"
"But your friends are," Jake said. "So fuck off,"
Pancil gritted his teeth and stepped forward but Kyle caught his hand shaking his head. The dark haired guy closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I'll challenge you next week asshole," he said when he opened his eyes. Then he glared at me. "You just made the biggest mistake of your life girl. I'll be watching each one of you three bitches, you are gonna make a mistake, that's when I pounce."
"Sure honey," Sky said with a grin.
I was more crude. "Fuck you," I said.
"Yeah," he nodded with a sneer. "This is not the end Jake!" Then he turned and stormed away. After glaring at us for a moment his friends followed.
After they all left Jake turned to us with a grin. "You alright girls?"
I shrugged lost in thought but Sky nodded. "It was exciting as fuck! I thought you were gonna fight there for a moment, it was kind of underwhelming in the end to be honest though,"
"Well, we get penalized for fighting like this. Still, Pancil challenged me, you can come watch our duel next week,"
"But nothing beats a bar fight,"
"Sure, have any of you eating?"
We hadn't, so we let him buy us some spiced rice and coke. After that we had a brief conversation before we had to leave as our curfew drew near.
In the barracks we gathered around my bed to check on things.
[Name: Samantha Ravens]
[Serial number: 477123]
[Level: 1. 87% progress]
[Class: Assassin grade B]
[Skills: Shadowalking(weak) lv1, Archery(legendary) lv3]
[Stats (baseline): Strength 6, Speed 7, Stamina 8; Mp 5\5, HP 9\10; intelligence 9]
[Universe Rules: All Power]
[Destiny: First Voice]
[Party: Raven Rise (Leader)]
# WARNING# {STATUS EFFECT}
[Time: 6/48 pm]
[Camp Freshman]
[Rank 8]
[Points; 10]
[Games Party: Creed Of the Strong]
[Barrack; East 48 wing]
[Bunk no; E167]
[Offense history; none]
[Achievements; none]
[Ward: Bridget]
[Guild: Languid guild]
So many things has changed in my status screen. Like the progress of my leveling and two more slots for [ward] and [guild] appearing. More surprising was the fact that the name of our party appeared in our status screen. Did the All Power do it? Or just Camp. One was terrifying, the other just impressive.
"Greg said we can send messages to each other through our transmitter since we are a party," Sid said. "Apparently, none party members can only be contacted when we hook the transmitter with a phone,"
The other girls were doing their things around us, some eying us curiously. We are rather famous as high Ranked freshmen after all, even in the whole of Camp. It is said the faster you level to 1 and reach the wall on the first test usually determines one's potential. But it's not absolute, so many of the freshmen dream of beating our rank on the next rating in two weeks.
High Rank has privileges. The fact that higher ranked freshmen has advantage of making choices first is a game changer. They take the best wards, the easier chores, the best subjects, at least what they think best before everyone. Once all the good stuff is taking, lower ranked people has to settle for scraps.
More choices will arise in Camp as we go through the year so ranks are still important, though the first one was the most important and basic.
I folded down my status screen and turned to Sid. Sky was staring at the air with a vacant look, no doubt interacting with her status screen so I didn't spare her more than a glance.
"What did you choose as your chores anyway?" I'd been waiting to ask that. Though we'd talked, she didn't come to a decision till the last minute.
"Gym duties," Sid said.
"Blockhead," I snorted, "I took kitchen duties by the way."
Sid frowned. "Why is kitchen duties better than gym duties?"
I glared at her, disgusted she'd even ask. "One deals with food while the other deals with sweaty bodies. You'd be sorting towels and jerseys stupid,"
"So basically you are saying you are a foody?"
My glare became frosty. She coughed and added. "But I'll admit I might not have thought deeply of it,"
"What did you think you were gonna be doing, playing spot?"
Sid hesitated. "Is it far fetched?"
I stared at her quietly the sighed despite myself. "No Blondie, I guess not. What did you choose Sky?"
Sky blinked then looked at me. "Lab work," she shrugged.
"What??"
Me and Sid screamed at the same time. After we made a fuss about how she wasn't fit for that job being an 'empty headed bimbo' and all... Ahem, my words exactly. We started discussing something productive.
Mainly about our first delve, how we did, and the way forward. As we talked I reasoned things couldn't have begun any better. But they were still things I have to worry about; I felt the pouch in my pocket and sighed recalling the giant spider's words.
What have I gotten myself into?
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