I awoke the next day to a dull humming sound. It sounded like a person was humming throughout the entire building. I grabbed my robes, threw them around myself, and made my way to the door. I found Zakia, as well as another desk attendant. She was a short and stout light-skinned woman. Half of her head was shaved, while the other half hung down to her shoulder. She held a blue sapphire in one hand. Once she saw me, she released the gem and then the humming stopped. “Excuse me, I have brought a guest who would like to speak with you.” She then gestured to Zakia, bowed at the waist, and left back down the path.

“Someone is letting the wealth get to them.” Zakia scoffed before stepping past me and into the building. I rolled my eyes and shut the door behind her. “Come on in. Did you get what you were looking for yesterday?”

Zakia made her way over to one of the stone chairs and took a seat. “I did and didn’t. The person I was hoping to see isn’t here. I did hear about an auction that was coming up. You haven’t spent my portion of the gold, right?” I shook my head. “Great, I have heard that this auction is going to be filled with goods from several adventuring groups. Even some from off the continent.”

“Are there other guilds?” I asked. She shook her head. “Not exactly. The term “adventurer” has many definitions. The most agreed upon one is people who wander about doing different things or going on “adventures” The Adventuring guild is the only one that exists. There are a few governments that hire people to do similar jobs. Some people just do things. Either way, it means there will be good things for us to buy."

I chuckled at that before taking a seat across from her. “Well, we can certainly do that, but I have a quest to take care of.” She raised an eyebrow in a silent question. “I was asked by some guards to look into some missing people. Several people have gone missing over the last several months. The guards have been trying to look into it but have been stopped by bureaucracy. The Adventuring Guild refuses to take the quest anymore since several of their people have gone missing.”

“Sounds like you have your work cut out for you. Do you have any leads?” I nodded. “I went to the House of Lyeidamo—” Before I could finish she interrupted. “How did you get into the House?!”

“Well, the most recent victim worked there, so I went to ask questions. I gave the guards out front some gold and then I went in. Based on your reaction, I assume that isn’t normal?” She stared at me, and I wasn’t sure if she was more shocked or irritated with me. Either way, I was thankful that she didn’t have a sword in her hand.

“Getting into the House typically takes effort. You have to preschedule and let them know in advance who you want to see.” I nodded along as she spoke. “Ah well, I guess my reputation helped a bit. The whole guy with dragons thing has drawn a lot of eyes.”

“Why are you drawing so much attention? Between your familiars, the amount of gold you are casually throwing about, and your appearance, it’s like you want someone to attack you.” I shook my head.

“Where I come from, I am an oddity. On account of my size and skin color, I don’t hide. More like I welcome the eyes. Here I have dragons and money, so it just makes the situation worse. Why hide?”

She looked like she wanted to argue, but shook her head. “Your funeral. I suggest you raise your level a bit though. Level 10 is high enough that some thieves might be willing to risk it. Especially since you seem to have placed a lot of points, Charisma.” I chuckled.

“I can’t do much about that. I plan on putting more points into it. Being beautiful is fun.” I laughed as she rolled her eyes. “Will you help me with the quest? I am going to be investigating the underground sections of the city today. Forewarning, if we get into trouble, the guards won’t help.”

She thought about it for a beat before shrugging. “Why not? Getting some goodwill with the guards could be useful. When are you leaving?”

“I am going to take a bath and then head out. So an hour or two. I got some food yesterday if you want some?” She shook her head. “I am going to go and stop by a shop I saw on my way here and get something. I will come back here in an hour and we can get started.”

“Sounds good to me.” I made my way over to the stairs. “If you want, I can have your gold waiting for you when you get back. It might be better for you to exchange it for coins. Unless you like coming to me for money.”

“Yeah, let’s take care of that before we head down. I know of a place that offers a pretty good exchange rate.” She stood and made her way out. Once she was gone, I got ready for my bath. I reached for the link with my familiars and found both of them sleeping. I left them alone and enjoyed the quiet.

The warm water felt wonderful against my skin. Since I had no idea what the different kinds of soaps were, I ended up throwing a bit of all of them into the water. Which created a rainbow of bubbles that smelled like everything from flowers to cotton candy. “I should buy smell-good things,” I spoke to no one in particular. My mind began to wander to how things were back home. After several minutes of regret, I pulled up my status screen. There weren’t any new points to spend, but it was nice to see where I was going. Intelligence and Wisdom were my big spenders. I needed to keep them both high to not suck as a mage, but they were both either at thirty or approaching thirty. My physical attributes were lagging. I would need to boost Perception soon as well. It would be stupid to get killed because I didn’t see a trap or something.

On the other hand, I had gained quite a few resistances already. I needed to get my hands on some more spells. My offense was pretty good. I lacked any kind of defense. There had to be barrier spells in this world or magic armor. I closed my screen and put my focus into my storage ring. I had burned through a chunk of my gold, but now that the resources were paid for, I only needed to pay for people. Either wages or I guess a resettlement fee. Thankfully, I still had the basilisk egg to sell, as well as the golden claws and bones of the animals I fought. Even Manticore’s pelt, claws, and horns were probably worth something. With any luck, I would earn a small fortune from those things and I would be able to buy a spell or two. Assuming anyone was willing to teach me one.

I got out of the bath a short while later. Once I was dressed, I summoned Sanaa and Tenebris for breakfast. Both of them devoured another pack of the meatballs while I slowly ate a third. “Are you two ready?” I asked through the bond. Before either answered, there was a brief moment of ‘extra’ silence. It was like the moment when you first turned a speaker on but weren’t playing anything. Sure enough, a moment later, the humming began. I opened the door to the same scene from earlier. Only this time, I stepped out. Tenebris and Sanaa flew down. They settled into their usual perches as I shut the door.

“Ready to go?” Zakia asked as she stuck a skewer of what looked like a green tomato slice into her mouth. When she saw me looking, she licked her lips and laughed. “What was that?” I asked.

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“Grilled Scythe Dokani,” She answered before wiping the juices onto her armor. “It’s a fruit that doesn’t grow here. Where do we have to go?” I mentally traced the path Meron showed me.

“It's not far. We go a bit further than the closest bathhouse. There we will find a latch that will take us underground. We then will make our way back to the most recent victim’s house. Hopefully, we find something interesting while we are down there.”

She nodded, and we started walking. “So what is a ‘Grilled Scythe Dokani’? We don’t have those where I am from. Is it a type of citrus? Or more like a berry?” She shook her head. “I have no idea. It’s a tall fruit with spines that looks like a scythe when fully grown. If you eat it after it spoils, it makes you hallucinate. That’s all I can tell you.”

“So kind of like a cactus.” I started to ask until I saw the look on her face. “Right right. No more fruit questions.”

We reached the sewer entrance fifteen minutes later. It looked more like a well than anything back home. There was no door covering it. Instead, there was a ladder you had to climb down. When we reached the bottom, I was surprised to find it was very clean. There were two paths, one on either side of a still pool of water. Thankfully, the water was clean. There were floating white balls of light floating throughout. Altogether, it reminded me a bit of what sewer levels looked like in video games or art. I made a mental note to get people working on building something like this for Radiance as soon as we can.

“So, which direction should we be moving in?” Zakia asked, her hands dropping down to the hilt of her blades. I pointed to the Northwest, and we headed out. “So assuming we find this person, how do you want to handle it? Are you going to arrest them or are you going to kill them?”

“I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about it. It would be best to capture them alive. We will prioritize helping any of the victims, assuming we get the chance. Not only did Meron explicitly ask me to do that, but because it’s what I want to do.”

Zakia nodded her agreement. “Do we have any idea why these people were attacked in the first place?” I shook my head. “No, unfortunately, the woman I met at the House wasn’t willing to share too much information. I went through the information on the previous victims last night. They had little in common with each other. Some were poor, others were well off. Most were between levels 4 and 8, while others were around level 12.”

“That would make them a higher level than you and about equal to me. Were the missing guild members of the same level?” I nodded. “Well, it sounds like we might get a fun fight out of this. Do you think we are dealing with a caster?”

I shook my head. “I don’t. My instincts are telling me we are dealing with someone who makes potions or drugs. That and the conversation I had at the House. She wanted me to know they were having a hard time getting some materials.”

“What makes you think that had anything to do with the missing people? Maybe she wants you to solve that problem for her?” I shrugged. “We were talking about the missing people. I don’t think she was trying to—” A soft squelching sound hit my ear prompting me to stop and listen. I waved to Zakia, who stopped talking and drew her sword.

“Do you two hear anything?” Sanaa and Tenebris pushed themselves off of my shoulders and into the air. “Yes, Master,” Sanaa responded. “It sounds like a Lapis,” Tenebris responded a beat later and I ignored the urge to ask him what a “Lapis” was.

I placed my back against the wall and slowly poked my head around the corner. What I saw completely confused me. It was nothing. The hallway was empty. I was just about to step out when I caught sight of something weird. From the angle I was standing at, the water was distorted. It was slanted to the side, kind of like looking through glass. I was about to ask Zakia about it when it hit me. I was staring at a slime! I held my hands around the corner and began casting a spell. After the short casting time, a prompt came into view.

Acid Ooze: Level 9

Oozes are creatures known for their voracious appetites and their ability to consume almost everything. Oozes are considered pests by some due to their lack of sentience.

“It's an Acid Ooze, level 9” I spoke out loud to Zakia. From what I could tell the battle wouldn’t be difficult. “We should be able to take it.”

“We should pull back for now.” I blinked in utter confusion when I realized what she said. “Why would we do that? It’s one monster and there are four of us.”

Zakia shook her head. “I don’t have a weapon that can deal with ooze monsters. The acid will ruin my blades, not to mention burn my skin. I looked her up and down. She had a point, but coming down here, leaving, and then coming back would only draw more attention to us. “What if we take it out? Sanaa and Tenebris should be able to attack without being noticed, and my magic works fine.”

She hesitated before nodding. “If it goes poorly, we pull back and get out of here.” I nodded before bringing both hands together. I poked my head around the corner, making sure that the Acid Ooze hadn’t moved.

I sent instructions through the bond. “I want you both to fly up and out of its way. I don’t know if it can see, so aim to deal as much damage as possible.” Once they took up their positions, I unleashed a dual-cast Lesser Ray of Light. Five rays of light the size of my arm shot out and carved into the ooze. As soon as my spell finished, twin-breath weapons slammed into the creature. One of blinding light and the other of black and purple. The ooze reacted a second later, visibly shrinking before launching balls of acid goo in all directions. Searing pain erupted from my legs as two of them slammed into me.

I started a second casting while they moved to reposition themselves. A bolt of radiant light formed in between my hands. I wasn’t sure how, but the ooze figured out where I was and was making its way toward me. I bit down on my tongue as my spell fired forward. The bolt of golden energy was stopped about halfway through the ooze before popping like a firework. It forced me to take cover against the wall as the slime spat out another glob of grey goo. As soon as the attack, I began casting. Five more rays of light shot through the slime. Five thick holes were carved into the creature. I put my back against the wall again and waited. A glance told me I had a new notification. I pulled it up and let out a sigh of relief.

You have been awarded 450 experience from defeating Acid Ooze-level 9

I pulled up the battle log and skimmed it. The damn thing dealt 50 points of acid damage with those two attacks. Thankfully, I had enough health to handle the damage. “Shit!” I ran from around the corner, heart pounding as I searched for my familiars. Neither of them had anywhere near the health levels I had. “Sanaa? Tenebris?” A streak of gold and white revealed Sanaa's location a moment later.

“Master,” I heard Tenebris’ voice through our bond before I found him. He sounded pained. When I found him, I figured out why. He had taken a blast of acid against the underside of his wing. The thin flesh and scales were burned and cracking, but the dragonling was okay. I pulled out my potion-filled water skin and began pouring the liquid down his mouth. I stopped once it restored his health. He was still in pain, so I gently placed him back on my shoulder.

“Alright, I hadn’t considered that you both used your claws for the majority of your attacks. That was a mistake.”

“You think so?” Zakia added, and I resisted the urge to snap at her. I was warned that the battle would be risky and that she wouldn’t be able to help. “Let’s keep looking. The sooner we find something we can use, the sooner we can get out of here.”

Zakia nodded and took the lead. We gave the slowly growing pool of acid a wide berth. The rest of the journey was uneventful. Either there was only one ooze or the rest were avoiding us. We were just about to head back up when I caught sight of something glinting in the water. I kneeled at the surface but could barely see it. “Hey Zakia, can you swim?”

She folded both of her arms and shook her head. “I am Ifrit. Jumping into the water would not be the best idea. Unless we wanted to risk boiling it. What have you found?”

I sighed before taking a look at the water. I wasn’t sure how deep it was, but I might be able to stand in it. “I don’t know. It kind of looks like a dagger.” I gestured to it before placing Tenebris on the ground. “If I start to drown, please help me. I don’t want to die in sewer water.” Before I could convince myself not to do it I jumped down into the water. Once I got over the initial shock, I realized the water was oddly warm. Like room temperature, which I did my best not to think too deeply about. I took a deep breath, dipped into the water, and grabbed the blade. It took me another few moments to pull myself out of the water.