Objective Complete: deliver the package

Penten’s body laid on the ground, trails of smoke rising from the gaping holes in his body. I was frozen for a moment, but my senses came back quickly. Penten was definitely dead. He twitched slightly, but a body couldn’t look like his and continue functioning. The smell of cooked flesh filled the air, mingling with the normal green smell of the forest.

I habitually checked him. The serpent didn’t seem to have anything worthwhile on him, so I picked up the decoy sling and started running back the way I came. With how loud his death was, there were bound to be other mannaro coming there soon. If the nearly-empty flashing red bar in the corner of my vision wasn’t enough to tell me I wasn’t ready for another fight, then the screaming full-body ache certainly was.

I made it back to the risers quickly and hopped on one that was heading downward. The heaviness of the jungle air subsided as the riser descended the levels.

Despite being barren of any plants, the first breath I took when back on the ground floor was the most refreshing breath I had taken in days. I immediately started back toward the Cliffs, the Raven Court’s headquarters.

Link, connect to the Operator

I could vaguely feel the illusiacom activate.

“Salway,” a chipper voice answered. I had expected the deep rumble of the Operator’s voice. Instead, it sounded like the woman at the front was speaking. The stark difference almost broke my stride.

“Hello. The delivery was completed.” I wasn’t sure who should be privy to the knowledge of Sir Penten’s demise, so I decided to keep that to myself for now.

“Great! Return here for your compensation.” The connection was gone before I could respond.

The walk back to the Cliffs felt significantly faster than the journey there. On the way, I was able to heal most of my minor wounds, but I was pretty sure I had several broken ribs that were way outside my ability to heal.

I entered the Cliffs and exchanged greetings with the front desk woman. She opened the same section of wall she had previously, and I was back in the Operator’s room.

The brightly lit pure-white aesthetic was giving me a headache. The sight of the brick wall that is the Operator and his ever-present lackey did little to alleviate it.

“Ah, you’re alive,” the Operator commented, already pouring me a glass of red spirits. “I trust the same cannot be said of our slithery friend?”

I accepted the glass and this time did take a healthy gulp of it. The crimson liquid was thick and equal parts sweet and burning. It eased the pain radiating throughout my body, for a time.

“Yes,” I answered, “he turned your little gift on me and it backshot. He’s a smoked sausage now.”

“Good,” he smiled. He waved a hand through the air and a small box appeared in front of me. “Your payment.” He leaned back and took a swig of whatever he had in his own glass.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Quest Complete: First Delivery

Level up!

Inside the box, I found a sizeable coin pouch. I slipped it into my bag to be counted later. I wanted to get out of there fast. There was one more thing, though.

“I do have one request,” I started. “My sword was lost in that jungle you sent me to. I was ambushed by multiple mannaro and I had to leave it behind. How about a new one for going in blind for you?”

The Operator swirled his glass a few times, considering me. “I tell you what, you did a good job. As a one-time courtesy, I'll let you take one thing from our basic armory. Fair?”

“More than fair,” I replied.

“Aurelio, show him to the armory. And you,” he gestured to me with his drink, “will be hearing from us again. You haven’t disappointed so far, and I expect you’ll work to keep it that way.”

Aurelio guided me again, this time through a different but equally featureless wall.

Two hallways and a couple rooms later, we entered down a staircase into a large open space sunken down below the floor we were on. It was lined with shelves of virtually every weapon I had ever seen, if not more.

The area was filled up in a way very different from the Arena’s training area. The Arena left plenty of space to test the weapons and prioritized organization and usability. The Cliffs’ armory was larger, but was almost too crowded to walk through.

There also only appeared to be bladed weapons in here; no bows or slings. The variety of blades was phenomenal, though. From one-inch daggers and throwing knives to five-foot claymores and spears that were as tall as two men.

I want something relatively short, but not fragile. The short sword I had before suited me well for when my bow wouldn’t do. But I should get something better so I can try using it as a primary weapon.

I saw several that might work well. There were the rectangular gladiuses if I wanted something basic but effective. Arming swords if I wanted a slightly longer variant of what I left behind in the jungle. Or I could try to blend in with the people of Mius and get a dhab.

Wandering up and down the haphazard isles, something in the distance caught my attention. It can’t be. I weaved my way over to it.

Sitting on a random shelf, the same as every other blade in the sea of metal, was a pure black blade mounted to a hilt of silver.

The base of the sword had a pointed pommel in the shape of a bird's head. The handle was a textured black material with silver bands winding up it. The remainder of the hilt was a twisted hand guard bent in gentle curves to protect the hand from incoming strikes.

The blade itself was a medium length of pure black. No light shone off of it; the darkness was complete. Touching it, I could feel it was sharpened on one side and there was a slight groove in the center of the lower half of the blade. It felt nicely balanced about six inches up the blade. The size fit what I was looking for perfectly.

I gently dragged the blade across a section of my leather armor. Even with no weight applied, it still cut easily through. That all but confirmed it: this was an obstinite blade. I didn’t see any more of these around the room, either. These were a rarity, even for a wealthy organization like the Raven Court.

I waved the sword to Aurelio on the other side of the room. “I’ll take this one.”

I handed him the sword and he looked it over. “Interesting,” he said more to himself than to me.

He held it tightly in both hands and magically pulled the security brand off of it so it wouldn’t return to the armory on its own. He handed it back to me and began walking away.

“I trust you can find your own way out,” he called over his shoulder.

With the sword in hand, a pulse of excitement flowed through me. I can’t wait to use this in the Arena.