As expected, the adventurer’s guild was filled to the brim with adventurers who wanted to hunt monsters, gain EXP and make a bit of money alongside it. Many of them were career adventurers, making their rent money through the slaying of beasts. Aria and Troy made their way inside and before them stood the great cork board.
It was as wide as the front gate of a castle and pinned on were about a thousand different quests, with their difficulty and danger scaling from the lowest at the left-most side to the hardest on the right. Aria already had her quest sheet, and making her way to one of tens of receptionists, she got a stamp from the Vera City branch of the guild.
“You’re hunting the demon that’s haunting the local manor, oh?” the guild lady said. “Another adventurer just took this quest this morning. You ought to catch up to them if you still want to do this quest.”
“Another adventurer, huh? Maybe we ought to take a different quest,” Troy said, and he turned to Aria who put a hand to her chin.
She turned to the board, then back to the receptionist.
“They haven’t returned yet, right?”
“Not yet. There’s no saying if they’ve already completed the quest or not.”
“Then there’s a chance we can take this from them.” and with that, Aria pushed on ahead, marching down the street, following a map and towards the outskirts of the city.
She was worried another adventurer had already completed the quest, but seeing as it was a demon haunting an old manor, there’s a strong chance that the other person bailed out due to either difficulty or fear. Before she left, however, she took a step into the church of the Goddess, Ingrit.
The church was awfully large and packed with morning churchgoers. Standing at the front was a priest who seemed to be quite strong, sitting pretty at level 72. Armed to the teeth with light and holy magic, they were a force to be reckoned with. With the ceremony completed, the priest worked to clean up his tomes and books while the goers left.
Aria stepped inside, followed by Troy who seemed afraid of the Goddess statue in front and the army of priests and bishops inside. The old priest turned to see the two.
“Well, what do we have here?”
They seemed kind, almost too kind, and with a smile, the priest waved the two over.
“I am Father Claude, and welcome to the house of our Goddess, Ingrit. What brings a child like you here?”
Claude wore robes of pure white, armed with a deadly light tome that hung on his hip by a chain that connected to the book’s spine. Pen Pen, who flew around Aria’s head, hovered by said tome almost curiously. That tome, to her shock, came to life — snapping at Pen Pen like a snapping turtle.
“Ah, you’re a mage, aren’t you?” Claude asked, and she bowed.
“I am Aria, and this is my slave, Troy, the Stone Wall. I’m here to ask for something.”
“A lecture about our dear Goddess?”
Aria paused, then pulled out a line of vials, all connected by a belt. She then pointed to a fountain behind Father Claude.
“I need holy water — anything that’s effective against evil creatures.”
“Holy water, hmmm? I’ll gladly give it to you — but only after I baptize you first, of course. We can’t have the unbaptized touching the water.”
Baptism. It was a word that scared a dark mage and alchemist like Aria, and with that, she patted Troy on his armored back.
“You may baptize Troy and have him collect the water in my place.”
“B - Baptize me!?”
“I’ll take what I can get,” Father Claude said, and he waved Troy over. Troy shuddered at the thought, turning to Aria to whisper-shout.
“Lady Aria! If I get baptized, the holy water might burn me! I’m a slime monster, after all!”
“You’ll be fine. It’ll only sting for a second.”
“But Lady Aria! What if I scream!? Won’t that alert the priest!?”
“Be a man.” and with that, she gave him a push — sending him forwards into the priest’s arms. Father Claude looked a little too happy, and with a spoonful of that holy water, he waved Troy over.
Troy let out a sigh, then knelt before the priest, his helmet still on.
“The helmet — shall I remove it?”
“No! No! I need it to stay alive.”
“Stay alive? What’s wrong with you, young man? Is it a terminal illness? Shall I perform a cleansing ritual and clear away your blight for you?”
A cleansing ritual? That sounded more painful than the holy water itself against his poor slime body.
“No! No need!” Troy cried, sweat dripping down his armor in the form of dotty slime. “It’s just — it’s part of my identity! I can’t let anyone see under my helmet. Doing so would be a worse fate than death. You get it, don’t you?”
Father Claude squinted into the slitted eye holes of his helm, meeting eyes with Troy’s black slime eyes. The priest, however, seemed to miss it — choosing to smile and nod.
“Then I suppose I have no choice but to pour it through the slits.”
He poured it in and instantly it burned. A bit of smoke rose out of the helmet, but Troy did his best to muscle through the fiery sensation on his face.
“Oh my — is something wrong, Troy?” Claude asked, and Troy bit his slime tongue.
“Yeah! I’m fine! It’s just — this baptism ritual — whoo boy! Loving the Goddess takes pain and sacrifice, doesn't it!? Doesn’t iiiiiiit!?”
“The Goddess, Ingrit, is quite benevolent. I’m sure she’d never curse or harm her followers.”
“Well, I guess the holy water is just burning away my sins! That’s it! Yeah! I’m a real baaad guy, I am!”
Tears ran down his cheeks, but after a brief moment, the holy water finished its work. With that, he was properly baptized. Claude took the vials Aria had and granted her three bottles of holy water.
“Take care, young Troy. Take care, little Aria. I hope you two return soon. I’ll be hosting sermons every morning so feel free to drop by.”
“Will do,” Troy said, tears stained down his slime face. He had a burn spot on his forehead where the holy water ate away at him like acid.
Aria waved goodbye, and with that, they had the holy water they needed to combat a demon. The next spot was the old manor down the street, by the edge of the city. It was a normal enough looking place and Troy, the titanic heavy-armored soldier didn’t look out of place in the least.
They passed by a neighborhood of apartments until they came across the steel fence of a massive estate. Sitting in the center was a manor that looked more like the palace of an Emperor than the home of a house invading demon.
Standing outside that manor was a single adventurer. Armed with a spear and one Hell of a blond ponytail, they stood outside, staring at a lock that kept the gate shut. They turned, revealing themself to be a halberdier woman with quite the harsh stare.
“I am Mary Deraine. Who are you?” she asked. “Are you the owner of this manor?”
“The owner?”
“The owner hasn’t yet arrived, it seems,” she said. “I’ve been waiting here since the morning — around four hours — for them to come and invite me in. So far, it’s been radio silence.”
Aria turned to Troy, then back at the halberdier.
“You waited here… for three hours?”
“I wanted to be polite,” they answered.
“What if the mansion’s owner is inside, being cursed by the demon?”
The girl froze. “I didn’t think about that.”
Troy burst into a panic, shouting, “The owner! He’s probably in trouble! We need to save him!” and with the rim of his shield, he bashed the lock apart before bursting through the front gates.
Aria did her best to keep up with her titanic soldier. Mary trailed behind, moving past the flowerbed gardens of roses and goldmaries and making her way through open doors. Inside, they found themselves in a strange place.
Thin, barely visible trails of fire crystal dust covered every surface of the manor and before them sat an old man who had been tied to a chair. He had been roped up and gagged, and when he saw the three come in, he let out a muffled shout.
“That must be the master!” Troy cried. “Don’t worry! We’re here to save you!”
Troy burst forwards, then stepped in that crystal dust. Like a tripwire, the crystal reacted to physical touch, creating an explosion beneath Troy, flinging him back. The floorboards smashed apart, and when Aria peeked in, she found that there were massive bombs hidden underneath.
“Looks like a minefield,” Aria said. Troy let out a groan, then pulled himself back onto his feet.
“We’ll save you, mister! Right after we make our way around this minefield!”
The old man shed a tear, presumably because his beautiful manor had a hole blown into the floor, but the longer Aria stared at him, the more confused she grew. They had received the quest the day prior, and now they find the quest giver tied to a chair.
Perhaps he had discovered a demon haunting his home, made a request, then found himself captured. Whatever happened — they had to help him.
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Mary glanced at the man, then the floor, and finally pulled out her spear.
“A minefield triggered by touching these ‘tripwires’, oh?” and with that, she gently poked the fire crystal dust with her spear. To her surprise, a red dot of light came out of the ground, then shot itself towards her — launching her back and out the front door with a magnificent explosion.
When Mary got launched out, they heard a laugh come from inside the manor. With the snap of their fingers, a foe appeared before them. It was a demoness, one who floated behind the old owner of the manor. They had fiery red hair, crimson eyes and quite the evil smirk — an expression that fit the black cloak they wore.
“Foul demon! Just who do you think you are!?” Troy cried, acting heroically in an attempt to establish his new persona as the stone wall. “Let the old man go and leave this estate at once before I come and purge you from this world!”
The demoness looked him up and down, then smirked.
“A knight, hmmmmm? Oh, it seems like there were people brave enough to take on this old man’s quest.” and with that, she ruffled the old man’s hair like a bullying older sibling.
“Let him go!” Troy cried, and the demoness looked at him with an unimpressed gaze.
“Let him go? Or what? Are you going to kiiiiiill meeee?” she said, sarcastically. “How are you going to kill me if you can’t even reach me, hmmm? I’ve got precision mines scattered all over. Touch the dust tripwires and BOOM. They’ll come to chase you down through Hell and high waters.” and with that she let out a cackle, shouting, “There’s no way you’re getting past them! All you can do is cower or try tip-toeing past these tripwires.”
“Tip-toeing, oh?” and with that, Troy stepped forwards, putting the demoness’ technique into practice. He tip and he toed — only for the demoness to snap her fingers, activating the mines on their own. A pair of mines burst out from beneath the floorboards, revealing themselves to be red wisps.
Those wisps hovered for a moment, then locked onto Troy before barreling into him. He tried to block them with his shield, but the wisps circled around to his backside. They were like fireworks, bursting in a beautiful display that knocked him on his back.
Troy landed by Aria’s side, then turned to her with a hefty frown.
“Lady Aria, it’s impossible to get past these explosive wisps,” he said. “My shield is no good and they’re too small to hit with a sword. What should I do?”
Aria put a hand to her chin, looking the battlefield up and down for an answer — all while the demoness cackled. She seemed to be enjoying things a little too much.
“Ah ha ha! You may as well just give up and walk away! This old nobleman’s my hostage!”
“Hostage?” Mary asked, and the demoness nodded.
“If you were wondering, I was the one who sent out that quest. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, but I’ve captured this old geezer as my hostage. If you want him alive, bring me a billion gold!”
“A billion gold? I don’t even think there are a billion gold coins in circulation,” Mary argued.
Hearing that, the demoness scoffed before raising a finger — summoning an explosive wisp that circled around the old hostage’s head.
“Well, it doesn’t matter! I want my money and I want it quick!” she cried. “I am the Dread Demoness, Isabelle! When I have my money and my soldiers of fortune, the whole continent will fear me!”
Isabelle gloated and demanded her ransom money. Meanwhile, Aria paused, looked at the monster, then up towards the ceiling.
Above the demoness was a chandelier.
“Troy,” Aria said. “Negotiate.”
“N — Negotiate?”
“Cut the ransom down from a billion gold to something more manageable. I’ll bring the mayor to come sort things out.”
“But Lady Aria!”
Before he could stop her, she turned to leave — leaving Troy and Mary alone. Troy was left with nothing but Aria’s orders, and with that, he had no choice but to grin and bear it. He had to, against his own shattered pride, negotiate with their hostage-taking demoness.
“Dread demoness! I have a proposition for you!” Troy shouted. “You’re not getting a billion gold for your hostage! How about, instead, we give you a thousand mira!?”
Mira was the Empire’s currency, and hearing that, Isabelle’s smirk vanished. Left in its place was a cold, unfeeling gaze.
“A thousand?”
“How about two thousand?” he asked, and with that, Isabelle snapped her fingers — sending an explosive wisp flying past the hostage’s head, narrowly avoiding a fatal blow.
“I want a billion gold coins and I refuse to budge. End of story.”
Troy wanted to remind the demoness that a billion gold was an impossible amount to gather. Before he could repeat himself, however, Mary stepped forwards.
“Why do you need a billion gold? You know that a billion gold is an impossible amount to collect, and yet you’re adamant about it. It has to be something other than gold, is it not?” she asked. “What is it? Do you hold a grudge against that man?”
“I hold no grudges.”
“Is it a debt you have to pay off?”
Isabelle froze at the question. Her reaction was better than any answer they could wring out of her. Seeing that, Troy shuddered.
“Don’t tell me — you’re not a billion gold in debt, are you?”
“Absolutely not!”
Isabelle let out a tantrum, blasting off a trio of explosive wisps at the two. To Troy’s surprise, he managed to block them with his shield. It seemed like she needed total concentration to map out the wisps’ trajectory — a clue he honed in on.
He peeked up the top of his shield, and from behind Isabelle he saw Aria. Aria had circled around the building, making her way towards the back window.
Aria took a bomb potion, then tossed it through an open window and towards the roof. The chandelier came crashing down, and like clockwork, every wisp that nested in the floorboards lept out. It was a dramatic, and frankly terrifying display of magical power — all of it misdirected towards said chandelier.
When the smoke cleared, a crater formed. By the edge of that crater sat the hostage, bawling in tears at the sight of his ruined manor, and the demoness who stood — shocked by the backfiring of her trap.
“You —” she said, and when she turned, she saw a bottle of holy water tumbling towards her like a grenade.
Isabelle was quick to react, and with the swipe of her arm, she flung the bottle aside, leaving it to splash a glowing puddle of water.
“Holy water? It looks like you’ve come prepared,” she said, and with a breath in, she summoned an array of wisps, shouting, “If you want to kill me, you’ll have to try harder than that!”
She raised an arm and a formation of wisps tangled themselves around her extended limb, and like a machine gun, she blasted off a flurry of wisps that made small explosions on impact. Aria ducked down, vanishing behind the wall and around the outside perimeter.
Isabelle turned to find Troy tumbling towards her, shield first, and she flew up to avoid it with a cocky smirk.
“Nice miss, moron! Maybe if you didn’t wear that stupid looking armor you might hit me!”
Isabelle summoned a torrent of wisps, but before she could pepper him in the back with a thousand explosive bullets, she instinctively dodged back, narrowly avoiding a spear that flew by her cheek. Mary stood firm, and with the squeezing of her fist, the javelin she tossed vanished into dust before returning to her hands — a combat art that belonged to the spearmanship tree.
That’s when Isabelle looked down to find her hostage gone.
“I wasn’t aiming for you, moron,” Troy said, and in his arms was the hostage — chair and all. Troy took it upon himself to chuck the old fellow out the open window for his own safety before returning to the fight, sword and shield in hand.
Isabelle ducked back, retreating towards a backdoor, only to find herself chased down by a blue wisp accompanied by Aria who stood in the doorway.
In her hand was a bottle of holy water — the last two she had.
Isabelle froze, then raised her hands, forming a magical shield.
“Come on, then. You’re gonna finish me off with that holy water, aren’t you?” she asked, and she squeezed her fists tight, shouting, “Come on! Just try and throw it! But I’ll have you know, my reflective shield will have it barreling back towards you!”
“Reflective shield, hmm?” Aria asked, and she put a hand to her chin to ask, “Tell me — how many times can a projectile be reflected?”
“How many times? Why — once only.”
Aria smirked, then tossed the bottle of holy water. Isabelle froze. She watched as the vial flew over her head and towards someone else. It was towards Troy, and like a volleyball rebounding net, he raised his shield and let out a shout.
“Shield parry!”
The shield glowed blue and the bottle, upon impact, flew forwards like a missile. Isabelle could do nothing but raise her reflector shield, but the rule had already been set. Projectiles could only be reflected once.
The bottle struck her magic shield and burst. Holy water — with a two times damage multiplier — came barreling towards her, soaking her thoroughly in the Goddess’ tears.
Isabelle looked up towards the sky, then let out a sigh.
“I am… defeated.”
She fell backwards. The damage of a regular bottle of holy water was enough to incapacitate most low level monsters, but the strength of a reflective multiplier was too much for her to handle. Thankfully, the Goddess Ingrit was benevolent — reaching out a hand even to monsters. Ingrit was kind enough to leave monsters at a measly 1 HP when using holy magic and weapons related to her.
Troy let out a relieved sigh, then turned to Aria.
“So, what should we do with the demon?” he asked, standing over Isabelle who was too weak to fight. “Do you want me to kill her and get the EXP, or should I leave it to you?”
“When I came here, I had no intentions of slaying a demon,” Aria replied, and with that, she snapped her fingers — summoning forth Pen Pen along with a piece of parchment paper.
Pen Pen scribbled up the terms, and with that, Aria stood over Isabelle.
“Isabelle, demoness, I give you two options,” she said. “Either you sign the dotted line and become my servant, or you die and become EXP for me.”
Isabelle looked up at Aria like she was crazy, and with her long, sharp fingernails, she attempted to swipe at her. She was far too weak to reach far enough, and with a breath out, she gave up.
“What kind of stupid question is that?” she asked. “What are you, some kind of beast tamer? Do you think I’m some animal for you to tame?”
“I’m not taming anyone,” Aria answered. “I’m just looking for the right people.”
“Right people?”
Aria pushed the contract up to Isabelle’s face.
“Sign it and become my servant.”
“And why do you want a demoness like me?”
“Because I need you.”
Hearing that, Isabelle let out a sigh before giving in — signing away her freedom. Under the God of fairness’ decree, no being — monster or human — shall break a contract they sign.
Aria pulled out a healing potion and had Troy lift Isabelle back onto her feet, and just like that, she gained a new servant.
Mary witnessed all that, and with her head tilted to the side, she couldn’t help but be curious. She seemed suspicious of Aria who went out of her way to both spare and recruit an evil demoness of all people.
“Recruiting a demon? Isn’t that dangerous?” Mary asked, and Aria simply smiled.
“I took this quest because it meant fighting a demon. I came here, not for the reward, but for her.” and with that, Aria patted Isabelle — who was quite a few feet taller than her — on the head. Isabelle looked annoyed, but under contractual obligations, could not refuse.
Isabelle frowned, Aria smiled gently and Troy stood, stoically. Seeing all that, Mary couldn’t help but shrug and brush the suspicions she had of them aside.
The two groups split ways, splitting their rewards in half, and with a cloak Aria had packed beforehand, she disguised Isabelle as a simple mage. The old man was too busy lamenting his destroyed first floor to notice the demoness responsible for it all had walked out unscathed.
Taking a caravan back home to East Tide, Aria strolled inside of the dungeon — which had been renovated and expanded once more — and slapped down her rewards on Gray’s table.
Gray sat, smoking a cigarette next to Sulphur who was lazing on his bed. The old cat was sprawled out on his back, and as lazy as he was, Sulphur made sure to come and brush up against Aria’s legs as a ‘welcome home’ gesture. Gray sat and stared at the reward Aria brought in.
“Well, you two did well,” he said, pointing to Aria and Troy with his cigarette in hand. “You brought back a hefty amount of mira and a few flame crystals. That ought to do nicely for future expansion.”
“That’s not all,” Aria said, and she stepped aside, waving in their new guest.
Gray stared at the demoness who, with a hefty frown, made her way inside.
“I am Isabelle, the demoness. Aria and her knight-slave blackmailed me into becoming her servant, and seeing as you are the master of this dungeon, it appears I am under your servitude as well.” and with that, Isabelle bowed before the old man.
Gray saw that display and simply sighed. He turned to Aria — dismissing Isabelle almost immediately, as if she didn’t exist.
“It looks like you brought home another stray cat,” he said, and Aria grew sheepish.
“Can I keep her?” she asked. “I promise she’ll work hard and pull her weight, so please don’t kick Isabelle out.”
“Well, we do need an archdemon for our anti-alchemy field, so I suppose we can keep her,” Gray said, and he turned back to Isabelle and extended a hand.
“Isabelle, I’m Gray Arkos, master of the East Tide Dungeon. As your employer, I’m happy to have you on board.”
Isabelle, with a wry smile, took his hand and shook it. With that, she had officially become a member of the East Tide Dungeon.