They entered Vincents’ room a few doors down from the top of the stairs, into a decently sized open room with a large bed in the corner, surrounded by a long, red, transparent drape.

“Your name young lady?” Vincent asked Matilda as he helped Adam get Brian up onto the bed.

“Matilda Jones, pleasure to meet you. Cynthia speaks highly of you.”

“Very nice, she always has, that one. Well as I’m certain you are aware of, people with your complexion are very rarely seen here. Well I suppose for now it doesn’t matter too much since none of you would survive even a moment of scrutiny anyway if it gets to that.”

With a flick of his wrist, the exact same menu that the team had come out of his wrist. Adam pondered for a moment.

“So, we all have the exact same setup do we?” Adam asked the hiker, he knew Brian was in need of help first and that they hopefully had time for questions later but he couldn’t help himself, knowledge of their system was the key to their success.

As he scrolled through a seemingly endless array of spells he had access to he suddenly stopped.

“Something like that, the same base and beginning anyway. Don’t worry, we can have a good chat after this.”

First a fine spray of purple dust landed over the top of Brians’ wounds. Followed by different waves of golden and green light. As he made pulling motions in the air the wound began to close up, it was healing rapidly.

“Cynthia you didn’t exaggerate I see.” Adam remarked watching his skill at work.

“Okay, all done there. He needs some rest still, he will wake up soon” Vincent shared with them standing up from the bed side.

“It’s really that easy?” Adam questioned with a hint of suspicion in his voice, while this guy would surely be a crucial asset for their mission, he also seemed dangerous.

“Not for most, I’ve done this a few times now with recent events… I’ve been around a while as well, that never seems to hurt.” He followed up his words with that same obnoxiously loud chuckle to himself.

“Take a seat, please, all of you” Vincent motioned around the walls of the room which had a handful of comfortable, rather luxurious looking chairs. He stroked his long beard while waiting, seeming deep in thought.

Sitting down and resting his back Adam let out a sigh of relief, usually it was difficult for his mind not to race but he was feeling the mental fatigue having an effect on him and was starting to zone out despite the fact that he was initially trying to push himself quite hard to approach the Vincent situation the right way.

“Vincent, thank you so much for saving our friend, I trust he will be okay from what I have seen so far.”

“Certainly, I would never fail my duty to save those in need like that. I made that oath long ago. Adam, have you even checked your status once, or your quests. You need to be far more alert of your friend there if you are going to make it in this world.” Adam sat up with a jolt of alertness hearing Vincent get right into the meat and bones of their new situation. He got so caught up with the hound and Brian that he had still barely scratched the surface of what he could find on his menu.

- Skills

- Essences

- Inventory

- Titles

- Quests

- Status

Focusing again on status, he received multiple bars and sets of numbers with various colours.

-Magic Pool- 1/100

-Conditions: Stress, Denial, Exhaustion

Adam continued to pour over the various user interface elements of the screen projecting out of his wrist. Moving on to his quests segment, it had a completed section.

Bonus Objective Complete

Kill Hound - 1/1

Save Cynthia- 1/1

1000 experience granted.

It also had an in progress section

The Oak Tree - Locate the source of Oak’s sickness

Very vague, but something to go on, it made sense with everything Adam had seen so far.

“What oath did you make Vincent?”

“Don’t mind all of that boy, that’s just life. I’m sure you have questions related to yourselves.”

Matilda chimed in after sitting there quietly most of the time occasionally checking on Brian as he slept.

“Where are you from? What was your life before you become a Hiker? We were just regular humans on Earth. You’re from Earth too right? You look like us, so does everyone here in fact.”

Vincent gave a slight smile.

“I’m from a planet named Hauratio, though I doubt it still even exists. You’ll find everyone looks the same, seems the same species. I suppose you call yourselves humans. None of the hikers I have met before have known why, some have theories that The Refined seeded the universes with a base life form that was the same but that also runs into complications. I lived a simple life, you guys know the rest, alien crafts come, send mental messages, send your people away in ships, you end up somewhere like here.”

Adam listened intently pondering on the possible history, motivations and identity of The Refined and this so called test.

“Well it’s a test right. I want to help my people and my planet perform well and pass, but they didn’t give us much information to go off of.” Adam spoke with a passion that made Vincents’ eyes widen slightly.

“Of course they didn’t and of course you do. We all do. Or did. Son, this isn’t the first planet, or first universe I’ve been to with the Refined ship. Many of us give up after a while. I try to live a good life, of helping people to enjoy the rest of my days here with my wife, Maurine. That’s all, I advise you find a place you like and settle down.”

“That’s ridiculous, what about your people? What about your test? Weren’t you sent to represent your planet?”

“Yes, like I said, I doubt the place still exists, it was close to turmoil when I left and that was thirty years ago, or something like that, I don’t have a great reference with calenders, I’m judging on my own aging. So between that and the fact that nothing bringing people closer to..” He drifted off from his sentence, suddenly looking nervous, a new look for Vincent as far as Adam had seen.

“So that’s it, you just give up on your people, your test, what about your family, you didn’t have one of those?”Adam fired up, Vincent was going against his whole motive of being here and trying his hardest, what kind of rubbish was he speaking of? Just give up?

“Of course I did! But nothing will bring you even one step closer to The Grail!” Vincent was shouting now, the mention of family seemed to have stirred something up in him. He placed his hands onto his head and rubbed his temples with his eyes closed.

Matilda placed a hand on his shoulder “I’m sure we all have our own reasons and our own past. Healing and helping people is admirable. What is The Grail?”

“No one even knows for sure, those who seem to have the most potential to find out disappear without a trace. It’s supposed to be part of the test. Most hikers don’t even like to talk about it, just reminds people of how hopeless our situation is, you lot are new and full of that hope and motivation, some give up entirely after just months, others keep it up for years but in the end, when people make no progress they stop with the adventures and try to enjoy the life they resign themselves to. I shouldn’t have even brought it up with newbies like you already.” Vincent sat down on his chair, hands on his knees, staring into space.

“Thank you Vincent, it’s amazing to know there’s a goal to strive towards, we find The Grail to pass the test, simple as that.” Adam said with his eyes lit up in excitement.

Vincent shook his head “That’s not what I meant at all. It’s a myth, a legend, us hikers strive towards it but people either get nowhere or end up dying in the process, we assume they die anyway, like I said, gone without a trace.”

“Vincent, we need your help. We figure out Oak and”

He was cut off quickly

“Absolutely not, you are better off not pursuing the quests altogether, even if you choose to do so for whatever reason, I will take no part in it. I don’t fight anyway.”

“But, even if you just healed.”

“It’s a firm no. You best be off on your way once Brian here is healthy.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Adam looked around the room, where had Cynthia gone? She could help them convince him maybe, he was also hoping she could help them out in terms of lodging.

“Where did Cynthia go?” He asked the tense room.

Matilda popped her head out of the room, looking left and right.

“Hey Cynthia, come here.”

Matilda let Cynthia into the room and closed the door.

“Sorry, I was just organising a room for all of you here with my father. You did save me after all, it’s the least I could do to repay you. What happened here, are you guys okay?”

It seemed Cynthia had picked up on the tension in the room.

Vincent kept the situation in control “It’s fine, just sharing stories, I’m sure they will do fine staying here. They were probably heading off soon anyway.”

The door suddenly slammed open. It was Tob.

“You lot are still here with Vincent eh? Well, Vincent, you are needed right this instant. We have wounded men at the western city walls.”

“I see. Let’s go.” Vincent began gathering his belongings, placing some books and herbs in his brown satchel bag.

“What happened?” Adam asked.

Tob looked at Adam with contempt in his eyes.

“None of your business really. These are official matters.”

Adam thought for a moment, glancing at Matilda.

“She can heal too, it sounds like you could use more hands.”

Matilda and Vincent both glared at him.

“This true girl? We do need anyone and everyone if you can help. It’s bad.” Tob said, seeming perplexed by the whole situation.

“I was trying to spare her the duty but you went ahead and blew it for her. What’s your deal, the end by any means?” Vincent did not seem happy with his decision to expose her.

“You knew I could heal? Matilda asked, puzzled.

“Before you even stepped in the door of this inn actually. Anyway, no time to waste, I suppose we all head out there now. It’s not much, but it is healing.”

Tob led the way out of the room and down the stairs of The Cats’ Cradle. Adam watched Matilda and Vincent speaking quietly with each other at the door from the top of the staircase. He assumed it was regarding Brian, or something to do with healing. He really should be trying to absorb as much information as he could but he figured he had to set limits somewhere and healing didn’t seem his path so far.

Coming back down to the ground floor of the inn, there were a few more guards waiting for them, their red and black coats were not as elegant and fine as the last time Adam had seen them outside the city walls. Now he saw large rips in the fabric of their coats, blood stains all over both clothing and skin, with a dark layer of soot and dirt over their faces. He spotted Cynthia moving into a back room of the inn, busy at work.

When they had entered the inn, everyone was cheerful and social, simply having a good time. The change in mood could be tasted in the air now. All eyes from the patrons and drinkers were now on the team coming down from the stairs following Patrol Captain Tob.

Exiting the building, now led by Tob and the other guards they headed down a new road and a new direction, Adam figured they must not have entered through the western gate. The city still looked full of people but it was no longer full of life the way it was before. What the hell happened exactly? He saw faces looking through store windows at him.

“We have actually called a city-wide lock down as a precaution. It probably won’t be active for long but there was a threat at the gates, while our most likely theory is that it left entirely, we haven’t confirmed that one hundred percent yet either.” Tob explained with a determined look on his face as he marched them at a fairly quick pace down what seemed to be the main road of the city. Adam looked back to see Matilda, who was huffing and puffing while struggling to keep up. Vincent strolled next to her, both had their menus open, projecting out of their wrists while they chatted away.

Adam looked up at the sky, the daylight was just beginning to fade away at this point. Hues of orange and red sat behind the clouds. It still felt like home in a lot of ways, it wasn’t quite as foreign as he imagined it might be. As they passed more buildings, he saw the large, fortified gate coming up.

As they reached the gate Tob broke out into a full effort sprint towards the gates, Adam had spotted a large group of guards there at the gate, but they were all sitting down or laying down. They chased after Tob and once they arrived to the scene, they saw what caused him to sprint so quickly.

The first sense to hit them was the rancid smell. It was like rotten flesh and sulphur. The men there seemed if not dead, very close to it. Large gash wounds lay across their bodies, at least a full hand length in thickness, filled with some of that same green hue from the hound, but it was mostly made up of a thick black liquid.

“Tahkor! Iriff!” Tob was shaking his men, who were clearly lifeless.

“Tob..” Came a weak whisper to their right. A man sat up leaning against the gate wall, a huge blood splatter was right behind him, mixed in with that same thick black ooze that seeped out of the other men. Tob knelt down in front of him.

“Joluf, you’re alive. Vincent please.”

Joluf shook his head, his bright orange beard dripped with the black ooze of their attackers. He looked up with eyes of blue steel. “Too much.. For even Vincent.”

“Nonsense, when has he ever failed to heal the living. Vincent quick! I’m not giving up on my friend of twenty years for no reason.” Joluf smiled as his breathing seemed to grow even heavier than it already was.

Vincent dropped his brown satchel onto the ground as he pulled out one of the books he brought in it and started flipping through the skills menu on his wrist menu. Adam tried to read over his shoulder. He picked out just a few from pages and pages of abilities.

Purge - Rank 4

Shock Heal - Rank 7

Instant Regrowith - Rank 1

Shield of Fire - Rank 2

Shield Bash - Rank 4

Black Hole Pulse - Mega

Mega? Black hole? Adam put that away in his mental vault to ask about at a better time than present.

Vincent held his hands over one of the multiple thick gash wounds on Joluf. He strained and focused as black oozing liquid began to rise up into the air out of his wound. With his other hand he started closing some of the wounds, at a much faster rate than he had seen Matilda do before, however, these wounds were so ridiculously wide and thick that it still seemed to barely make a dent in the damage done. With the ball of ooze that he had gathered out of the wound he flicked it away into the grass a few body lengths away, Adam wondered if he could tell he was using psychokinesis back in the inn because he also had psychokinesis or if Vincent could somehow just detect all abilities. The ball splashed into the grass, sizzling and quickly killing the grass.

Vincent cast another ability, becoming glowing white with light, his eyes shining with light. He seemed to cast it multiple times on himself, layers of glowing light growing larger and brighter around him. Adam turned to the sound of weapons. Tob was swinging a sword into the body of another one of the men, the one he called Iriff. All of the other wounds and ooze seemed to be reacting to Vincents’ presence or to the healing occurring. The corpses of the men were shaking and shifting, almost vibrating as balls of ooze merged and combined, coalescing into a form in front of them, it was happening all around them, with multiple forms of this ooze forming, encircling the team.

Adam watched in a panic as one of them started moving around as it formed limbs and a dark aura started forming around the blob. In size it came up to their thighs. Suddenly, flying through the air at the back of Tob’s head was one of the dark aura oozes. Adam shoved with all of his mental force as the trajectory of the flight changed enough to miss Tob’s head. His psychokinesis had definitely grown in power based on that.

His wrist menu popped up

BONUS OBJECTIVE

Fend off the sentient ooze monsters 0/1