Thregar looked at Savia with a complex expression, he didn’t seem to know exactly what to feel in this context. Gilliam assumed it might be because of him giving autonomy to his familiar, a tiny creature of a child-like mind.
“Can you help me get some more men to work on this, and help us take them back to camp afterwards?” The tone of his question was careful and filled with uncertainty.
“Savia can teleport!” She shouted satisfied, seeming to just like being helpful.
“W... What can I do to repay you for that job?” Again it looked like Thregar didn’t even know what to expect.
“Savia want redfruit without hard things!” Flapping to stay hovering in the air she shouted out her demand.
Thregar looked at Gilliam with a helpless expression, he had no idea what that was.
“She wants a strawberry with the seeds removed.” Gilliam translated.
“That’s it?” He was now even more confused, seeming to have expected a king’s ransom or something... larger.
“It seems like it.” Gilliam confirmed.
“We don’t have any strawberries at the outpost, is it enough if I... just give you money for some and you can go get them?”
Savia pondered this for several seconds before she looked back at Gilliam who gave her a little nod as an agreement.
She turned back to Thregar with a wider smile than before. “Savia can help!”
“Then we have a deal!” Thregar commented with a powerful sense of relief in his voice.
The next rough hour was simple enough for Gilliam and the party, as they just had to wait. Savia did most of the work out of them and even then she seemed to not have a problem. She went back and forth between the camps on Thregar’s requests, getting people to help count and get some work done in the woods before she took the people and butchered Dreadfangs back to camp.
During all of this, Rhyan approached Gilliam. “I... Have some questions for you.” He seemed to have a lot on his chest so Gilliam let him ask away.
“Yeah, sure thing. Go ahead.”
“What the fuck was that?” Rhyan seemed a bit agitated. “You took out 20something Dreadfangs with one spell, and an Alpha without any problems...”
Gilliam looked back at Rhyan with a questioning look. “Yes? And? Isn’t that a good thing?” He felt that this should be a very positive thing, but it almost looked like he was being shamed for taking his job or something.
“No. Yes... I mean... Of course, it is. It’s always best to do things fast and avoid getting hurt. It’s just... I have partied up with many mages before, I haven’t seen anything like that before.”
“I’ll take the compliment.” Gilliam pondered for a moment if he should toot his own horn by explaining what he could possibly do, but decided against it. If he was reacting this much to a spell that Gilliam considered a low-power spell... He might explode if he explained the Star Lance, especially after having spent considerable time improving it.
“It’s also hard to say but... aren’t your spells too simple? All other spells I have seen have three, four or more runes but you have... one?” He didn’t seem entirely certain but wanted to confirm nonetheless.
“Oh, you have good eyes. And yes, you don’t need many runes for a spell if one is enough, there is much more to it but I know enough runes to cast a lot of one-rune spells, it’s fast and more effective.” Gilliam explained. Again choosing to withhold some information, explaining that he knows the magical language as if it were just some other language. Which was kind of insane for several reasons.
Rhyan pondered for a few solid seconds. “I joined the Guild to help people, specifically to help protect them. That’s why I specialize with a shield. But other groups didn’t want, as they called me; a meat shield without any other skills. I expand on my abilities with potions, grenades and whatnot, but it’s not the same for most people. On the other hand, if I am to stick with you, I don’t know if you need me...”
He seemed to have some internal conflict, his heart was in the correct place, wanting to protect people. Gilliam’s, on the other hand, was just to not be bored, so they couldn’t be more different.
“I’m fine having you with me if you want.” Gilliam smiled at his metal-clad companion. “I’m powerful but I can’t be everywhere at once, and I’ll admit that local knowledge about the world, laws, social etiquette and just behaviour, I’m surprisingly lacking. If you feel fine protecting those who might need it if I can’t-” Gilliam pointed at the young girl seeking refuge in his coat still, but doing it casually so she hopefully didn’t see it. “-or just helping me out when talking is needed, I’m fine with you in the group.”
Gilliam understood Rhyan’s feelings. He specialized in defence and... at the moment there was nothing to do. However, Gilliam also knew his weaknesses and there might be chances to round them out with a proper local. There might also be the whole thing that he was reacting on the spells he was casually throwing around, there was a lot of that back in his early academy days as well as the time when Angela was part of his group.
“I can add that I will most likely focus on combat jobs, or random jobs that seem to be interesting.” Gilliam felt the need to add this, he didn’t know for certain what he would do but he would go where things seemed interesting.
“I can at least try to keep your back safe until you don’t need me.” Rhyan commented. “Besides, there might be others than you who need protection when things happen.” He seemed more sure about the situation now and gave an honest smile.
The cleaning up and processing of the Dreadfangs ended up complete, and the group returned with the Alpha back to the outpost as the last trip. Thregar wrote a note of approval as he explained.
“As for the 26 Dreadfangs, that’s 260 gold. As most of them were in surprisingly good shape, as far as materials go, I’ll bump this to an even 500. Now... I don’t have 500 gold here, so I’m writing this for the Guild, they can compensate you there, in addition to whatever you get for the job itself.”
He folded and sealed the letter with a wax mark, as he handed this to Rhyan he also handed over two gold pieces that went to Gilliam. “And this is for the strawberries. I have no idea what they cost but two gold should get her a bunch.” He looked happy for her help, which made a lot of sense to Gilliam.
Not only were they safe going there, and back, but they didn’t have to carry everything through the woods. In pure man-hours saved it was probably much more than the measly 2 gold. However she set the price herself, and Gilliam had no problems with it.
“Thank you. We’ll head back and get this job done. If we meet again.” Gilliam gave Thregar a nod who replied with a small wave as they left the office.
The corpse of the Alpha was left unceremoniously on the ground outside. They walked over to it, but before they got there Rhyan chimed in with a question.
“So... Where are we taking this? Have you agreed with them on how this should be delivered?”
Gilliam smiled wide, like a kid with severe gas and about to make it everyone’s problem.
“Oh... no... You’re not just going to land this in the lobby... right?”
“Savia.” Gilliam got her attention but kept his eyes locked with Rhyan. “Can you take us back to the large room in the Guild?”
He held his hand out for Rhyan to take it, hinting that he would be a part of the trip of walking back.
Rhyan reluctantly took Gilliam’s hand, followed by the familiar flash.
Once the light faded, Rhyan found himself relieved, Gilliam couldn’t help by laugh as they now found themselves in the large room where he was combat-tested. Not the lobby as he expected.
“I guess I wasn’t specific enough with my explanation to Savia.” He smiled at the relieved Rhyan. “I really did think we’d land in the lobby.”
Though Rhyan was relieved and Gilliam was having fun on his behalf, there were some very surprised men in the room. The guild master was one of them. They had stopped mid-spar and looked at the landed monster.
“Oh, mornin’.” Gilliam smiled at their stares, though their stares were aimed at the dead creature on the floor more than at them. “We took out the Dreadfang Alpha, I want the job completed.”
“I...” The Guildmaster looked uncertain about what to do with this info. “I don’t handle job completion, go get a clerk.”
Rhyan nodded and left the room, leaving Gilliam, Cera and Savia with the Guildmaster and his two other men. As they were back in the room it seemed that Cera felt safe enough to leave Gilliam’s cloak, seeming almost a bit embarrassed at herself as she took her position standing a bit behind him.
The sparring had stopped entirely and the Guildmaster was inspecting the dead Alpha.
“Interesting, I can’t see any wounds, how did you do it?” His surprise had entirely disappeared in favour of curiosity.
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“I removed the air from its lungs and stopped it from breathing.” Gilliam replied honestly, it was a simple concept but, luckily, hard to execute properly. Or everyone would do it as it’s devastating to breathing creatures.
“Oh... That’s a good way to do it. I’m sure the Burchers will have a good time with this.” Tanen commented, squatting down next to the Dreadfang and inspecting its head.
“I read the reports, but it’s much larger... and uglier than I expected...”
“Well, it was almost twice as tall as the others. And it looks to have seen its fair share of combat, based on the scars.” Gilliam commented as he gestured to the plethora of scars riddling its body.
Tanen started to reply but didn’t get a syllable properly out before the door opened with a surprised gasp as a familiar clerk stood almost scared before the door. Rhyan had managed to find Ettine in that short time and brought her in there, seeing the large creature had surprised her more than she expected. She held the note Rhyan got from Thregar in her hand, and Rhyan was behind her in the hallway.
“I.. Read the note but it didn’t seem entirely real... How... did you kill so many?” Ettine sounded almost more surprised at the amount of targets he took out than the hulking beast on the floor.
“Oh, you mean the other Dreadfangs? I believe I registered myself as an artillery mage... no?” Gilliam heard how arrogant he sounded after asking that, for a brief moment he didn’t consider that he was a bit more than the average mage. In his mind with his current level of knowledge, the multi-target Aether dart was a common-level spell.
And though he didn’t have the same level of mastery during the invasion that he had now, he did way larger and more horrible things back then than today.
“I just cast a multi-target spell.”
Wanting to downplay the arrogance he realised that it just sounded worse.
Ettine shook the note, almost as if using it as proof to condemn Gilliam’s words. “Thregar explains, and Rhyan confirmed, that you killed 26 Dreadfangs with a single spell?!” It was a heavy mix of surprise, disbelief and a weird blaming tone rather than a compliment.
“Well... yes?” Gilliam confirmed. He knew that it wasn’t normal to do that casually, but he didn’t intend to hide it or lie.
Tanen stepped into the conversation, looking a bit less surprised than Ettine, although there were still traces in his expression. Walking towards Ettine he held his hand out in a ‘give me that’ way as he commented. “I have to say that I’m surprised... But after the test-fight earlier I can’t say I’m too surprised... More amazed, really.”
As he got within arms reach of Ettine she gave him the paper, which he skimmed through before anyone said anything else.
“This is good enough as far as I care. We’ll get this ready for you tomorrow, we’ll give you a room for the night.” He didn’t look up from the paper as he commented, but once he was done he looked at Ettine.
“Set them up with a private room until tomorrow, it’s getting late, we’ll fix the completion of the job tomorrow.”
Ettine nodded and took the paper when he handed it to her. “Right, I’ll handle that right away. Please give me a few minutes.”
She didn’t wait for a response and speed-walked out of the room, passing Rhyan who stepped into the room properly, letting her pass.
“I would love to upgrade your rank for this.” Tanen commented to Gilliam as he turned to face him. “But you need to complete at least three jobs before it can be considered. Unless the job is something amazing. Though this is kind of amazing it’s your first job and... well... There are some dumb limitations set up by the Order. So you’ll have to do a bit more for now.” He seemed to force a smile, but his eyes weren’t in it so it didn’t feel genuine.
“That’s fine.” Gilliam commented with a single chuckle. He intended for this to be some entertainment for a while anyway, not like he expected to rise in the ranks immediately or anything like that. “I have plenty of time.”
“Well. We’ll let you know what the butchers find out with this guy-” He had walked over to the Alpha again, and tapped its arm with his foot. “-We want to learn from it so it might take a few days.”
“That’s fine, don’t worry a-” Gilliam interrupted himself as the door opened again, Ettine looking a bit flustered almost as if she was exerting herself more than needed to get her job done faster.
“I have prepared two rooms.” She sported her practised smile, not seeming to know that she interrupted anything.
Tanen motioned for them to follow her. “We can continue this tomorrow, go and rest, I’m sure you need it.” He looked genuine as he smiled at them this time.
Gilliam nodded, he didn’t feel particularly tired, but he couldn’t say for the others. The amount of mana he had used today wasn’t anything special in his mind. The only one who did any proper work today was Savia, and she slept in his hair most of the time anyway. Though he expected that Cera might collapse once she calmed down after all this.
They followed Ettine through the hallway, out into the lobby and through another door. This led to another hallway that ended up in a spiral staircase room, going up several turns to reach the first exit into the second floor. This led straight into a long hallway of many doors, passing three on each side she stopped and pointed out two doors, marked 7 and 9. The even numbers were on the right side.
“These are your rooms, just bring the keys to the reception tomorrow when you get up. One night is free on the Guildmaster’s order, but normally this is a paid service.” She smiled as she handed them their keys before leaving after a simple bow.
Gilliam looked at her leaving, then turned to Rhyan. “I guess we turn in for today, then.”
He felt a bit confused about what to do about this, though getting rest was not something he had problems with, it all just happened so fast and without any input. It was strangely refreshing compared to his time in the Fractured Lands, where he was deciding everything.
Rhyan smiled satisfied. “A good room after a long day is good, I’ll take you drinking the next time.” He looked tired but seemed fine handling himself as it was now.
Gilliam handed him one key, giving himself, Savia and Cera room number 7. They unlocked and entered their rooms to find that it was surprisingly nice.
Though only one bed, it was decently large, there were some comfier chairs around a nice-looking table. Though the room was simple in design everything looked to at least be of a decent quality and comfort. The most interesting thing was what looked like a running tap of water over a bronze-looking bowl with a hole in the bottom connected to some pipes, acting as the sink. It looked surprisingly simple, just some pipes with a twist-valve, probably some water creation spell somewhere connected to it. The crafters of this world were quite skilled in making magical items, and the more mundane things like a valve, weren’t something they had problems with.
Cera looked a bit uncomfortable as they entered and as the door closed behind them. He didn’t know what to say to her to ease her mind, or even what she was specifically reacting to. He had stated on several occasions that he wasn’t going to do anything to her, so hopefully that wouldn’t be part of it.
“Are you ok?” Without preparing himself for it he had already asked her.
She turned to him and opened her mouth to reply, but stopped herself, almost as if she remembered she wasn’t allowed to talk, turning away. But after a few seconds of thinking she managed to reply without looking at him.
“I... This is too high quality... for me...”
“Nonsense.” Gilliam blurted out. Making her look at him with a confused expression. “You’re not a slave anymore, at least not in more than name.”
Crouching down next to her, getting more on her eye level he continued. “You’re your own person. I know that it might be a problem for a while, but you should let me know if there is anything you want, feel like doing, feel like not doing... and so on. I... I have no actual idea of what you have gone through, how this might have made you think. But you can always be honest with me, even if it’s about me, even if it’s rude.”
He lifted his hand towards her. She winced as if she was preparing to get hit, but instead, he placed his hand gently on her head giving her a gentle pat. “Take your time, ok?”
He only patted her head for a few seconds, he had no idea if this was positive or negative to her, but he felt that some positive contact was a good idea.
Getting up, letting her process this as she felt like, he headed for the sink to clean up. “I can take out the travel bed if you don’t want to share a bed with me. I’m not going to do anything, but I understand if you don’t want to.”
He still felt weird having to clarify things, but certain sentences could mean various things in different contexts... So he would rather be looked at as weird and clarify than be misunderstood.
She shook her head. “No... It... it’s fine...” She managed to comment in her tiny withdrawn voice with the tiniest of smiles.
Gilliam was very happy to see that, though barely present there was a smile on her lips.