"If you want a shot at me you’ll have to play by the rules little girl" The man smiled and took a jab at Scarlett. Ron was not in the man’s sights; he didn't care about someone weak like Ron.
"Fine, I’ll play by the rules old man" Scarlett shot back smiling the whole time, Ron could almost see the sparks in the air as these two stared at each other. These two would get along great.
"Scarlett standing here staring won't get you close we should go inside" Ron wanted to go inside and just do the tasks.
"You're right, let's go inside" Scarlett broke out of her staring match and started walking inside.
"I'm surprised you're actually listening to this weakling" the town lord now took a jab at Ron.
"I owe him a debt, plus he's more interesting than you might think" Scarlett told the town lord.
"Oh, really?" The town lord now smiled at Ron who got goosebumps over his skin. He tried to ignore it when suddenly he felt a great amount of pressure suddenly descending upon his shoulders.
It was a suffocating feeling, like he was just a child who was looking at a giant bear ready to maul him at the slightest hint of movement. Ron tried to power through only to end up shivering. Having no other choice Ron used the kindling state to break free of the pressure.
"Hoh not bad, you indeed have some talent, maybe with more time you could get to our level" the town lord retracted his pressure and Ron disabled the kindling state. Ron realised his entire body was drenched in sweat and he felt exhausted.
Ron and Scarlett moved inside the town after their little meet and greet with the town lord. They walked for a little while taking in the view before Scarlett opened conversation.
"I'm sorry, I didn't think the old man would just do that from one little comment I made" Scarlett uncharacteristically apologised for her earlier actions.
"It's fine, can you tell me what that was?" Ron accepted her apology, he knew she was just standing up for him and didn't take offence. He was more interested in what the man did.
"Bloodlust. Plain and simple kill enough foes and your intent slowly changes to bloodlust. It's a lot more powerful but also easy to lose oneself in it" Scarlett explained.
"I see," Ron said upon hearing the explanation.
Ron and Scarlett looked around the town as they walked. There were children playing on the streets here and there and the locals they saw were all dressed in nice clothes and didn't look unhappy.
How could this town function without a currency? It seemed impossible. To normal people money was the root of happiness. Ron and Scarlett passed many shops that sold a variety of goods from food to clothes.
Soon they stopped at a large building with a sign next to it. Adventurers Guild. "This looks like a good place to start" Ron said to which Scarlett nodded. Upon entering the building it opened into a big hall with a lot of people sitting at the tables minding their own business. Ron looked around and saw what looked like a reception desk with a woman behind it and walked up to it.
"Excuse me, could you help us please?" Ron asked the receptionist.
"Of course!" The woman said energetically "You must be new here, I haven’t seen you two before."
"Do you remember everyone who comes in here?" Ron was a little surprised.
"Not everyone, people come here for the dungeon and leave once they complete it. Everyone sitting there is here for the dungeon so it's easy to recognise someone new" The receptionist explained.
"I see, well we are indeed here for the dungeon can you give us a run down on how to enter it?" Ron asked the receptionist.
"Of course, I assume both of you want to enter the dungeon?" The receptionist asked to which Ron and Scarlett nodded. "Excellent, we basically work with a merit system. You can do tasks for merit points, gather enough merit points and you can use them to enter the dungeon. There are also other venues you can use the merit points on; however the dungeon is obviously the most popular one."
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Ron knew how a merit system usually worked, you did a task and gained points depending on the difficulty of said task. The fact there were venues other than the dungeon was something to look into, maybe he could find something surprising. However, that meant having to spend more time on tasks.
"The merit points are only given to one person, as a result you cannot have someone do the tasks for you. On the board there are a variety of tasks you can accomplish" The receptionist explained that only one person can claim merit points, making Scarlett and Ron do tasks themselves instead of relying on each other.
"I understand, can anyone do these tasks or can we reserve tasks?" Ron asked.
"We sadly do not reserve tasks for someone, many of the tasks on the board are always in demand as a result multiple people can do the same task at once" The receptionist replied.
"Okay, how many points is it to enter the dungeon?" Ron wanted to know how many points they would need to get.
"You would need 100 merit points, although it doesn’t sound that much with the most rewarding tasks being 100 merit points, however those are obviously very dangerous" The receptionist explained.
"Where is the dungeon and how can you prevent others from sneaking in?" Scarlett this time asked, Ron didn’t pull out the compass in case the town lord would take it or someone else would take it.
"The dungeon is behind the town lords manor, I do not recommend trying to sneak in as the town lord will spot and kill you instantly without a permit" The receptionist warned them that the town lord was guarding it. Sneaking in was a death sentence.
"That would indeed be foolish, how can we sign up to gain points?" Ron understood the rules and wanted to move on and do the tasks.
"Just sign your name on this plate here" The receptionist said, bringing up a simple iron plate.
"Isn’t that a little too easy to forge?" Ron said as he signed his name on the plate.
"Normally yes, however I remember everyone’s faces and also the plate’s are enchanted to only work when the person themselves uses it and not someone else, it also functions as a wallet" The receptionist told Ron. It was surprising to know that these were enchanted, someone can actually make enchantments as well? Ron asked and the receptionist confirmed.
"Do you have a guide or booklet that dictates on what the merit points can be used for?" Ron was now more interested in merit points, if he could get free enchantments for some merit points instead of wish points he would do it.
"Sure, here you go" The receptionist handed Ron a small booklet. Ron looked through it and saw there was more than he expected in there. Tailors, smiths, alchemists, they had a large number of people. Of course entry to the dungeon was also listed there.
Ron and Scarlett thanked the receptionist and looked at the board. There were a lot of mundane tasks there such as; Helpling with building infrastructure 1 merit point per day, guarding the town 2 merit points per day, sparring with the guards 1 merit point per spar. There were also some more interesting tasks; exterminate the scorpion nest north 100 merit points, exterminate the black ant nest west 100 merit points.
Ron eventually decided on another task he saw; bring black ant corpses merit points negotiable. He would bring the corpses with his bag of holding while Scarlett would claim the reward for clearing the nest.
It was a slight loophole however with Scarlett claiming the nest clear it shouldn’t raise too many question marks. After all, the town lord already vouched for her strength. After confirming their destination they left the adventurers guild, a man looked at them leaving before getting up himself.
Ron and Scarlett moved to the gate to the west of town, Scarlett seemed to look around for a bit which Ron found was a little strange for her. She usually didn’t care for scenery, was there something special here?
"Don’t look too much we’re being followed" Scarlett whispered as Ron had to hold himself back from looking even more. That would explain Scarlett’s actions.
"Dangerous?" Ron whispered back casually glancing at the scenery here and there.
"For you? Yes, for me? No" Scarlett explained. It was someone stronger or at his level but weaker than Scarlett.
"Do you think I can take him?" Ron whispered to Scarlett, she was better at judging someone's strength and if he could take him he would.
"You will have to kill, you know?" Scarlett told Ron, it would be his first kill if everything went his way. Ron was hesitant for a little bit however deep down he knew some people just couldn’t stand one another. It wasn’t his old world anymore, it was someplace where the strong survived and the weak perished.
"If I have to so be it" Ron made up his mind and would go in for the kill if he needed to. Scarlett almost seemed pleased with his answer and nodded.
"It will be tough however you do have a chance" Scarlett told Ron plainly. Ron felt a bit of deja-vu didn’t she tell him something like this when he fought against the hyena’s?
"Do we strike while in the desert?" Ron asked Scarlett for the plan, attacking in the town was never a good option and always led to problems with the guards. Scarlett just nodded and they just continued walking to the gate. The follower never confronted them or attacked them meaning their plan was most likely the same.
Ron and Scarlett went through the gate showing their identification at the gate and their reason for leaving. This way the guard could let them back in much quicker than the last time.
They continued walking for around 30 minutes west, the nest itself was over a day away so they would have to eventually camp out in the desert. Ron looked at Scarlett to know if this was far enough from town and if they were still following, the town itself was nowhere near in sight now. Scarlett nodded and Ron took out his whip getting ready for a fight.
"You can come out now you’ve been following us for a while now" Ron said as he turned around, he looked around but couldn’t find them. He didn’t doubt Scarlett for a second though.
Suddenly a man stood up from the sand he had dug himself in and followed them that way. That couldn’t have been pleased Ron thought. Nor was it quite possible, was he simply that fast crouching or crawling through sand?
"So I’ve been spotted oh well, I originally wanted to kill you after you finished your task" The man revealed his plans to kill them.
"Why do you want to kill us? We haven’t done anything to each other" Ron didn’t see the reason to kill them.
"You’re a wishmaster, correct? I’m assuming from the spatial pouch by your waist that thing alone is worth quite a lot to me and who knows what’s inside there" The man revealed his greed towards Ron’s spatial pouch.
"So you just want to rob us? I’m also assuming that you wanted to wait for us to finish the task to claim credit and kill two birds in one stone" Ron guessed his initial plans.
"Quite genius no? However you ruined it so I suppose I will just have to kill you now" The man said smiling sadistically pulling out a dagger from his waist side.
Looks like Ron had no other option but to fight for his life and kill the opponent, a human. Ron was nervous but not as nervous as he initially had assumed, ('I guess Scarlett was correct') Ron thought. He had already killed many beasts, what more were humans?