The guild hall in the city of Nissa was bustling with adventures from all different races and from the lowest ranked and equipped adventure’s to high tier mages that could destroyed armies with a single spell went along and continued their daily practice of grabbing all the new contracts available. More experienced and higher level adventures had the unofficial privilege of first pick of quest and fought among themselves as to who should have the privilege of slaying the newest demon. There was the common room where the adventures would gather to relax and the place of many adventure parties being formed and also where an equal amount have been disbanded. With the last stragglers existing the guildhall, a hooded man made his way in with his face and all distinguishable features covered including his eyes which seem to have some sort of goggles over them along with a bandana covering his mouth. Armour wise the strange man possess very little, the only protection he has coming from a peasant like tunic; scratching looking trousers, worn out boots and finally a hooded cloak; weapon wise the man seemed to have no visible sort of one. He made his way up to the man manning the counter.

‘I want to register to become an adventure,’ said the mysterious man, his voice void of emotion as he lowered his bandana just before he talked.

The clerk couldn’t help but gulp at the intensity of this man but quickly and nervously replied, ‘That will be no problem sir, all I need is your name and I will be able to create a registry number which we use to keep track of your rank and overall quest statistics which you can view at a later date.’

There was a moment of hesitation until the man simply said with irritation etched in his voice, ‘You can choose my name, I don’t care.’ With them final words he marched over to the job board on the other side of the room and seemed to know which quest he wanted automatically. Just before he turned to walk back, the mysterious man heard the clerk from the other side of the room talking to his workplace partner.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

‘He’s kinda gloomy and ill-mannered don’t you think?’ Whispered the clerk.

‘Yeah there is something definitely wrong with him, but hey it’s not our job to judge all we need to do is sit there and smile and hope he leaves soon without causing any trouble,’ quickly replied his co-worker keeping the smile etched on his face.

Turning a blind eye to their comments he walked back and told them the quest he selected where he was met quickly in protest.

‘Sir, I know it’s of my business but the quest you’ve selected will be difficult for someone first time adventuring,’ protested the clerk. The man just stared back with an unwavering glare and the clerk relented in his argument as he submitted the quest.

‘Fine before you leave at least give me a name as it’s against protocol for me to decide for you.’ demanded the clerk.

‘You were right about what you said before,’ calmly replied the stranger,’ there is something seriously wrong with me.’ As he said those words to the clerk he reach up to his goggles and briefly removed them. The clerk looked in horror as the man bright red eyes seem to devour his soul.

‘Tttttttthats alright then, leave the name to me,’ with those words the newly anointed adventure lifted up the bandana to cover his mouth again and made his way towards the exit, leaving the clerk in shock and dreadfulness as he wonder how that man heard him.

His co-worker made his way to him and asked if he was alright as the man’s hand couldn’t stop shaking.

‘Yeah I’m fine but I think I just found the name for this adventure,’ said the clerk as he starts to scribble it down.

‘Hmmm Vlad is quite the strange name, why did you choose it?’ Asked the co-worker as he looked down at the name on the adventure registry sheet.

‘Let’s just say he reminded of a legend that I heard a while ago,’ replied the clerk.

The hooded man made his way out of city and with a quick glimpse back towards the city he takes a great sigh and starts to make his way to the predicted area of where the bandit lair is, stated in the quest notes, and whispered to himself,’ Now my work begins.’