We walked into the building's foyer where a steady stream of Asphons was walking to and fro. It was a bit funny how these large monstrosities were walking around with comparably tiny suitcases and I even spotted one that had a tie on. Of course, they didn’t wear any other clothing, which made the tie look hilariously out of place. There was no reception area down here, just several large tablets full of writing, no doubt describing which floor contained which offices. It would appear that Asphon’s didn’t like elevators, as all of the traffic was heading towards one of the four staircases at the back of the hall.
Nimma confidently strode toward one of the staircases with me and her three squadmates in tow. We ascended the wide and winding staircase all the way to the top, passing busy offices on every floor. Compared to every other floor, the tenth was almost deserted. There were still quite a few Asphons around going about their work, coming in and out of offices, and discussing politics with each other, but the general mood was a lot less hectic than everything below.
We moved to the left once we arrived, following a nice rug that led to a nice wooden door. There was a large desk right next to it, a massive Asphon sitting behind it, filing files and sorting piles of documents at a leisurely but determined pace. Nimma confidently strode up to what I assumed to be the leader's secretary. Even while sitting down, the secretary still towered over Nimma, qualifying them as the biggest Asphon I’d seen yet.
“Hi there,” she opened, craning her neck to look the secretary in the face. “We’d like to meet with the leader as soon as possible. We managed to retrieve the newly arrived traveler.”
The secretary looked away from their documents and toward Nimma, quickly followed by the head moving to stare me down. I didn’t exactly fear for my life here as I was confident that I’d be able to win if it came to a fight, but something about having this giant Asphon scrutinize me like that rustled my jimmies. They stared at me for a while without saying anything and I was growing concerned that I had done something wrong… somehow.
“That’s great!” A high-pitched, extremely girly voice came from the receptionist, almost startling me a bit with how different it was from my expectations. “Mr. Lophan will be delighted! Please, just go in, he isn’t doing anything too important right now, and I’m sure he’ll want to meet our newest arrival as soon as possible!”
Nimma nodded at the bubbly receptionist and pushed past the desk, casually opening the heavy wooden door without even knocking. I was a bit confused at how brazen she was, but followed after her nonetheless. The rest of the team filed in after me, and one of them closed the door behind us. I think it might have been Redax. Not quite sure. I should ask how to tell them apart at some point.
I looked around the office, which was very spacious compared to the other offices we’d passed so far. Still, with all the cabinets lining the walls, the big desk in front of a glass wall overlooking the city, as well as the two couches and the table between them, there wasn’t too much free space left. Behind the desk sat the polar opposite of the giant guarding the door, the smallest Asphon I’d seen so far. I couldn’t quite see, but I was reasonably certain that he was sitting on a booster seat and as we entered he struggled to reach some documents on the far side of his desk.
“Ah, Nimma, I’ll be right with you,” he informed us with a friendly voice. “I just… gotta… AHA! Now, I just need to compare these numbers real quick…”
He’d finally managed to grab the elusive pile of documents after some struggling and was now sifting through them, comparing the numbers to a whole array of papers spread out in front of him, murmuring to himself the entire time. Nimma voicelessly gestured for us to take a seat and she and her team did so. As for me, I stared up at the expensive-looking couch unable to make up my mind if I should actually hop up.
“What’s wrong?” Nimma asked to my right, noticing my discomfort.
“I…” I looked down at myself, for the first time really noticing that I had some unfortunate biological issues going on. “I don’t want to ruin the couch with my mucus.”
I had been too busy taking in the entirety of this new experience that I hadn’t noticed, but the carpet outside the office, as well as the stairs leading up, must have quite a slimy trail indicating where I’d been. It had never been an issue so far since I’d always been outside fighting monsters, but now that I was in a building of a civilized race, I suddenly became aware that I was trailing mucus everywhere I went.
“AH!” I gasped at my sudden realization, looking at Nimma with panic in my stalked eyes. “We’ve gotta warn the people! If somebody is cleaning up my mess… my mucus is incredibly poisonous!”
“Don’t worry so much, poison is only dangerous if you ingest it, and I don’t see anybody licking up the trail you left behind,” Nimma waved me off. “And you don’t need to worry about the whole making things dirty business, things are quite easy to clean up with magic, and having to clean up a bit of slime is no matter, compared to the benefits you can bring us.”
“No, no, you don’t understand,” I needed to let her know that my poison was a bit different from regular poison. “I’ve got a passive skill that makes it so that my poison can enter through skin! We’re talking tier nine poison here, somebody could get seriously hurt… or die!”
“That’s… indeed a bit concerning,” I was sure that if Nimma had a regular face, she’d have scrunched it. “I’ll go and let Linny know.”
She got up from the couch and stuck her head out of the door. After a short conversation with the receptionist (who was apparently called Linny), she came back inside and plopped onto the couch, patting the seat next to her to indicate that I shouldn’t worry too much. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, I hopped up and made myself comfortable. It felt weird to be on a couch after all this time roughing it in the layers of this planet.
Nimma and I sat next to each other on one couch, while Orbos, Andrius, and Redax sat across from us. Lophan was still going over his documents and seemingly hadn’t even noticed my small outburst. I looked around, once again feeling a bit alienated when I looked at my company. I was so used to being able to read facial expressions during a conversation that the blank faceplates of the Asphons somewhat freaked me out. I could vaguely remember the guy from the memory shortly after the change having the same issue, and now that I was in the same situation, I couldn’t agree with him more.
I idly noted that this couch had the same tail holes that I’d seen back on the fourth layer. My companions had slotted their tails in there so naturally that I hadn’t even noticed as they sat down with practiced ease. The ensuing silence was only disturbed by the occasional rustling of papers from Lophan and I began to feel awkward. I had never been more glad to not have arms and legs as I was now. There was no doubt in my mind that I’d be shuffling about uncomfortably right now, not knowing where to put my limbs. Thankfully I was able to simply retract my limbs this time around, and I could do little more than just plop myself on the couch.
“Alright, that’s that,” Lophan suddenly exclaimed, gathering up his papers and pushing them to the side, looking straight at me. “And you… are a lot more interesting than pushing numbers around all day. I’d like to be the first to welcome you to Lophan, but I’m sure that Nimma and her crew took care of all that. Instead, let me be the first to thank you. Thank you for choosing to associate with us. I’m sure that you’ve been told how beneficial a traveler can be for us, but it has most likely been understated.”
“I… Thank you for having me,” I replied, momentarily surprised that he knew to speak in the void language with me. He must have overheard us talking earlier.
“I assume you have lots and lots of questions for us, no?” Lophan continued. “I will try to answer some of them here, but for the rest of them, don’t hesitate to go to Nimma and her team. It is customary for the team that brings in the traveler to become their guide. As such, they will be responsible for helping you out as best as they can while you stay with us. If they don’t know the answer to a question, they know how to bring you to somebody that does, or find out for you.”
“That is very helpful, thank you,” I nodded at each member of Nimmas team in turn. It sounded like I’d be imposing on them while I was here, but from what I’d seen of their culture so far, they probably considered it to be an honor.
“Now, before we get to the questions you no doubt have, I would like to mention a few rules,” Lophan commanded the room with his voice that, despite his comically small body, sounded very dulcet. “First off, and I should hope this goes without saying, do not harm or kill any of my citizens. I won’t stop you from defending yourself, should the need arise, but if you hurt anybody for no good reason, we’re going to have a problem.
“Second, all trade within the city is to be conducted with our currency, frozen silver,” he produced a few silver coins from his inventory for me to see and I realized that Andrius and Orbos had been handing these coins to each other to settle their debts. “As your presence is substantially beneficial for us, you will be given one thousand silver to spend as you like.
“Third, concerning quests, you are free to choose which quests to accept and deny. There may be some out there who want to push their quests on you but be assured, no matter what they tell you, you are under no obligation to accept their quest. Should you be interested in completing any village or city-tier quests, you will have to come and visit me again as I am the only one that can issue them.
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“Fourth, and this is less of a rule and more of a request, since you are a voidling, I would love to send you to one of our researchers so that they may conduct a few non-intrusive experiments as well as document your evolution path. As a show of goodwill, as well as to show you how the quest system works, I will now propose this as an individual-tier quest. Again, do keep in mind that you do not need to accept this. The choice is yours.”
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New Quest!
Lophan, the leader of the city, has requested that you meet with one of his city’s researchers in order to analyze and document your existence.
Goals: Meet with the researcher and undergo their experiments.
Rewards: 1 level up.
Accept?
Y/N
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True to his words, a system window opened shortly after he finished talking. I took a few seconds to look over the quest window, noting that it wasn’t too different from the emergency quests, aside from the fact that I could choose to not accept the quest.
“If I accept this quest, will I have to go there at a specific time, or can I go whenever I feel like it?” I asked, curious about the deadline since none was mentioned.
“You can go whenever you feel like,” Lophan confirmed. “You can even choose not to go once you have accepted the quest. You’ll notice that some of the quests have failure conditions, but I chose to forego this since it is more of an invitation.”
“I see,” I quickly accepted the quest, not seeing any issues with it. Besides, I’d love to meet one of the Asphons monster experts. I’m sure that they would be able to advise me on a great many things concerning abilities and mutations that I should try to get. Answering a few questions and getting prodded a bit seemed like a fair trade for that information. “I’ll try to visit once I’ve taken a few days of rest.”
“Thank you very much,” Lophan nodded. “Now then, if you have any questions for me, now is the time to ask them.”
“I do indeed! First and foremost, I’d like to ask for some more details on village and city quests if you don’t mind. I plan to do the amount necessary to complete my bonus objectives and would like some more information before I do any.”
“A valid question indeed” Lophan nodded sagely. “They aren’t too complicated, they’re usually just a bit harder to complete and have some special rules attached to them, sometimes. If you would like to complete a city quest, all you have to do is come to me, but if you’d like to do a village quest, I’m afraid you’ll have to travel to one of our villages and receive the quest from the village head. Nimma can show you the way once you feel ready. The city quests, though, we’ll need to have a bit of a discussion about once you want to accept one. The quests are very limited and are usually tied to inter-city competitions, so we’ll have to see which ones are available at the time and whether any of them suit you.”
“Thank you, Mr. Lophan,” I replied, thinking that I would probably not have any issues completing individual and village quests. Town quests on the other hand seemed like a bit of a wildcard for now. “Then, I’d like to ask if you have any experts on magic. I heavily rely on magic and have recently been trying to learn the more intricate workings of it so that I could maybe adjust my spells a bit. It’s a slow process and I’m somewhat fumbling around in the dark, so learning from somebody that has extensive knowledge on the topic would be very beneficial to me.”
“That can absolutely be arranged,” Lophan seemed oddly happy as he answered. “We have a magic college in our city, and I’m sure our professors would chomp at the bit to get to talk with a fellow magician, especially since you are a traveler. I do believe Andrius over here has graduated from that very college and can introduce you to some of his former teachers.”
“I can do that, absolutely,” Andrius confirmed. “In fact, it’ll probably be harder to keep those old fogeys away from you once word gets out that you’re a caster.”
“Good… good,” I nodded along, imagining what it would be like to get hunted through dark alleyways by an Asphon hellbent on discussing magical theory. “Then… uhhh… are there any others like me currently on this layer? I mean, travelers, of course, not voidlings…”
“I think there was another one that arrived about half a year ago…” Lophan scratched his chin in thought. “They descended on the other side of the layer, though, and we haven’t heard much from there ever since. I don’t think they descended yet, though.”
“Do you think there’s a chance that I could meet them?” I was genuinely curious to meet another traveler or, well, one that I could actually talk with. The Asphons would probably be able to translate between us… maybe.
“Well… It’s not impossible, but I wouldn’t recommend it.” Lophan said slowly as if he was picking his words carefully. “For starters getting to the other side of the layer would take a substantial amount of time, during which your personal progress would stagnate since you cannot do quests. They’ve been here for quite a long time now, worst case scenario, they descend right before you get there, making your journey for naught.”
“I see…” What Lophan was saying did make sense, but I wasn’t quite ready to give up on the idea yet. I was pretty fast, after all. And if I didn’t make it, I could simply teleport back, saving myself the return trip. “Is there no way to contact whatever city or village they are staying at?”
“I’m afraid that the communications between our settlements aren’t exactly… great,” I could tell that this was bothering Lophan. There had to be more to this, a rabbit hole to descend into, but I didn’t want to take more of Lophan's time than I needed to. I could just ask Nimma about it later. “We barely have working communication channels with our neighbors… trying to talk to somebody on the other side? Close to impossible.”
“Alright, then I won’t push the issue any further,” I relented but made a mental memo to ask some more questions later. “Then, I think the final question for now… One of my descent requirements is that I need to…” I quickly pulled up my menu to double-check. “Receive permission to take part in the final challenge. What’s that all about?”
“Ah, the final challenge,” a knowing mirth entered Lophan's voice. “The final challenge is what is awaiting you on the eighth layer. We are not allowed to tell you what it is, as we are forbidden by the system from doing so. Really, the whole permission bit is a mere formality. Once you have evolved, you’ll once again have to visit me, and I’ll grant you permission to challenge what is awaiting you down below. Should you succeed, you will become an official traveler, and since the system puts a lot of value on your people, receiving permission is little more than a way to stop travelers who are deemed unfit to become one. You should be fine, though, as long as you don’t go on a murderous rampage, that is.”
“I certainly wasn’t planning on doing anything like that,” I chuckled nervously. “At least not on the Asphons. Murderous rampage has kind of been the status quo ever since I became a traveler.”
“And I would tend to agree,” Lophan nodded. “From the accounts of the travelers that came before, we have learned of the harsh nature of the challenges you had to face. Certainly not the easiest way to be introduced to the duties of a traveler.”
“Speaking of, even though I am one, I know woefully little about the travelers. Any chance I could get some more information about what exactly it means to be a traveler?”
“I wish I could give you the answers to those questions, but information about the exact nature of the travelers is rather… tightly guarded by the system itself,” Lophan seemed uncomfortable answering the question. “The inner workings of the travelers are to be only known by the travelers and any dissemination of this knowledge can lead to some uncomfortable system penalties. What I can share with you is what is publicly known.
“The travelers are a group of people working all across the expanse as a physical extension of the system. The system itself is fairly neutral, giving its boons to everyone equally. But the system seems to be conscious in some way, shape, or form, and it is striving for something. What that is exactly, nobody knows. But if you run afoul of the system you can be sure that a group of travelers will come a-knocking. Whether it’s actually the system itself deciding what is proper or if it’s the mysterious administration that is only rarely mentioned is something that is often debated. On the flip side, people in need can hire the travelers to help them out. It is a well-known fact that the travelers are favored by the system, and that advantage makes them the best warriors, scholars, or craftsmen you could ever find.”
“So, to summarize, the travelers are some sort of… intergalactic mercenary group?”
“Yes, and no,” Lophan wagged a finger at me. “They answer first and foremost to the system. While you can buy their services for a fee, there is no amount of money or riches you could offer that would make them go against the system. After all, the system is what makes them powerful, and the system can take that power away just as easily.”
“I… see.”
I took a moment to digest this information. I had learned only tiny bits and pieces of what a traveler was actually supposed to be, leaving me with no idea of how my path would continue once I completed my first main quest. Now I at least had some idea. I suppose it did make some amount of sense. When the void invasion happened, the ones that came to save me were a group of travelers, summoned by the system. It would also explain the delay between the start of the invasion and the travelers showing up.
The system had probably generated a quest, which a group of travelers accepted. They most likely needed some time to prepare, before finally getting here. No clue if they could teleport straight to me or if they needed to travel for a while before being in teleport distance…
“Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, I really appreciate it,” I looked around at the five Asphons in the room, thankful for their help so far. “I think those were the important questions I wanted an answer to for now. I’ll inquire further if something else comes up. Is there anything else you need of me? Anything I can help you with?”
“Not for now,” Lophan shook his head. “As long as you don’t cause trouble and do as many quests as you can, we are more than happy. Now, usually travelers take a few days off once they get here to destress. I wouldn’t want to be the one to keep you from your well-earned break. Nimma, if you could be a dear and show our new friend Gary to his new accommodations?”
“Absolutely, and thank you for your time.”
We exchanged a few more pleasantries before leisurely leaving Lophan’s office. I felt like my social batteries were just about empty, so I was glad to be done with the discussion, however helpful and interesting they’d been. Just before the doors closed behind us, I heard a sigh. A glance back revealed Lophan looking at a pile of documents sitting on his desk, dejectedly taking one off the top. I was relieved to see that, however alien this entire thing was, some things stayed the same.