“Why the hell were they there?” asked Kya, as both her and Rory ran headlong in the opposite direction of the guild “Have they stuck around this whole time?”
“No, they all left for the capitol after you registered at the guild.” Said Rory, “I have no idea why they’re back. We know those scouts were looking for you, I’d wager they’re looking for you as well.”
A theory that was cemented into fact a moment later when, bursting out the doors behind them, came Wade, the two scouts, and the man who had called out to her.
“Stop!” Called the same man “We need to talk to you!”
“Who’s the guy?”
“He’s Wade’s lieutenant, Earth user. Nice enough, if a little dense.”
“Was that... a joke?”
Rory flashed her a smile as they ran across a bridge heading deeper into the city. However, Kya could immediately tell something was wildly wrong.
All of the people on the normally crowded street were panicking and running to either side of the road like fleeing from an oncoming truck. Turning and looking back, Kya could immediately see both why the average citizens were in a state of bedlam, and why the two scouts were chosen for their roles.
The woman had decided to do a take on the human torch, and was currently sprinting at them with both arms and legs absolutely engulfed in flames that considerably boosted her speed because she was just booking it. Likewise, the man was flying towards them at an astonishing speed on a chunk of stone he’d seemingly ripped from the pavement and was now riding like a skateboard. Huge plumes of dust and torn up street followed as he went, which when combined with the flaming woman at his side, made for quite the intimidation factor.
“Uh, Rory?”
“Yes, I can sense them, but they’re not the ones I’m worried about.” He said with a foreboding tone.
Suddenly, Kya sensed a pulse of energy pass through the ground underneath her feet. She had felt something similar to this when facing Douglass, the earth user from the ritual site.
Getting a bad feeling in her stomach, she began to look about wildly for any signs of incoming stones, sudden pillars of earth rising up and blocking their path. But she was both surprised and a little disappointed when nothing quite so dramatic happened.
The ground underneath their feet suddenly became like quicksand, though its appearance was still that of a neatly fitted together black stone, both Kya and Rory suddenly cried out as they began to sink. Slowly at first, but as Kya struggled and fought more, she sank further and further down, only stopping when both of her knees disappeared beneath the cobbled road.
Looking over, she saw that only about an inch of Rory’s feet had sunk into the ground, and he stood there with an annoyed look on face like this wasn’t the first time he’d been in this situation. He had also, quite unceremoniously, dropped Taln to the now soft earth below where he lay, partially submerged.
Only a second or two longer, and the two scouts caught up to them, both doing a full circle before coming to a stop on either side. The flaming woman, Koen she remembered from her quick identity, crossed her arms and looked down at them. At this proximity, Kya could see that while the largest and brightest flames covered her extremities, there were smaller flames of darker red and orange on most of the rest of her body that were simply less distinctive. Even her eyes and ears had small dancing flames streaming into the air. While she simply looked at them contemplatively, the man was another story. He hopped off his thin stone mount, letting it skitter off and tumble loudly to a stop nearby.
“Ahaha, and yet another fall prey to the mighty duo of Felix and Koen, how does it feel plebes!?” He laughed raucously, while the Koen just sighed, pinching her nose.
“Felix, we didn’t do anything. We didn’t even find them.” She pointed backwards “He caught them.”
At this moment, Wade and the earth lieutenant came leisurely jogging up, Wade looking exasperated while the man was grinning from ear to ear.
“Yeah” continued Felix “But we were still here for the capture, so I’m calling it at least a partial victory in my book. Meaning they partially lost to us. So again, how does it feel!?!”
Laughing along like an excited puppy, the man, Wade’s lieutenant, said “Hello you two, good to see you again Rory.”
Grumbling like an upset schoolboy, Rory said “Hello Al, can you let us up now, this is… dumb…”
“Hehehe, of course buddy. Just one thing.”
Rory groaned “Oh come on, really? Now??”
Bouncing on his toes, the man walked over and poked Rory in the direct center of his forehead and said “Tag.”
Felix, Koen, and Kya all simply stared at the two in uncomprehending silence, while it was now Wade's turn to shake her head, looking like she wanted to be anywhere else, saying “You’re both idiots.”
“Wade, come on, this was not my fault.” Wined Rory.
“You agreed to this idiotic game, this is entirely your fault.” she sighed, then turned to Kya “Hello again Kya. How are you doing?”
It took her a moment to find her tongue, but when she finally did, she blurted out “Are you… What is happening!?”
Rory, looking chagrined, said “Well… Al and I are part of this game league in the guild. The finals are in a couple of weeks and I-”
“I don’t want the rules of the game, Rory, I want to know why the hell you were running if you knew we weren’t in danger! I thought we were about to be captured or something.”
Scratching the back of his head, Rory looked down and said “Well… I didn’t want to be tagged…”
“Oh, my god…” Kya breathed out, then finally looked back and answered Wade “Well, my heart rate is about double what it should be for a dumbass game, also I’m sticking out of the ground like root vegetable, but otherwise, yah know.”
Laughing, Wade said “Alder, get her out of the ground already, will you?”
“Right, right, sorry. Just reveling in the moment.” Then the man, Alder, jumped up into the air, and crashed down with his right foot in a mighty stomp. The ground shook at its impact, literally, trembling as Kya was suddenly pushed from below like an elevator was bringing her up. The sensation was absolutely bizarre as the stones around her resolved and she came free with an audible pop.
Rory brought up one foot and scratched at it idly, a strange look on his face. “It seems we do have a lot to talk about. Alder?”
Alder’s laughter tapered off, ending in a pronounced sigh, “Yeah, yeah we do. Come on, lets head back to the guild hall.” He paused to hoist Taln onto his shoulder with one hand before finishing “we can catch up more after we take care of business.”
Walking in pairs, the two scouts laughing and joking, Rory and Alder swapping stories in a more somber tone, and Wade walking with Kya at the rear of their little procession.
“So it’s like a spectator sport?” Kya was asking.
“Yeah,” said Wade “back in the capitol they have these massive arena’s for all sorts of games. One of them is ‘ultimate evasion’ where there’s a seeker and several runners. There’s a time limit each round and whoever is seeker when the time run’s out gets eliminated. Then, whoever was seeker before the now eliminated person is seeker once more at the start of the next round, and they keep playing until there is only one left. It’s good for training evasive maneuvers I guess, but it’s overall a pretty dumb game in my opinion.”
“We have a very similar game where I come from, kids love it” Kya said flatly.
“Oh yeah” laughed Wade “It’s largest fanbase is with children and teenagers. Most adults are drawn to the monster and gladiatorial fights more, but still” she gestured at Alder and Rory “there are several adults who enjoy the game.” Wade then gave Kya something of a sideways look, half assessing, half hesitant to say what was on her mind.
Finally broaching what was on her mind just as they passed back into the shadow of the looming guild hall, Wade said “So speaking of… where you come from… Look, I’m just going to be blunt, there’s going to be a lot of things happening in the very near future directly related to you and we need to have a conversation about it. You, me, Alder, the guild master, all of us.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Stopping in the small courtyard of sparkling fountains and towering trees, Kya said after taking a moment to consider “No.”
“No?” asked Wade.
“No.” Confirmed Kya.
“I don’t understand, no to what, to talking?”
“I’m not necessarily opposed to the talking, I’m opposed to you saying we need to talk to you all. We don’t. I don’t. You want to talk to me, and so does the guild master, and often the wants of those in charge seem like needs to those beneath, but they aren’t. Look, if you’ve talked to the clerk Maggie at all, which I’m guessing you have considering what you just brought up, then you have at least a vague idea what’s going on, and probably a better grasp on it than I do, with some potentially large gaps I admit, but still.”
“Kya, you don’t understand, we need to-”
“No, Wade, we really don’t. Look, I’m grateful to you for everything you did. Rory told me how you healed me after I fought that tiger, and got me back here to him for treatment. I will never forget what you’ve done, and I’ll be there fighting by your side if ever you’re in danger yourself. But right now? Now, I’m tired of talking, and I frankly don’t give a fuck what some random guy I’ve never met wants. I have a quest to turn in, Rory wants to talk to Maggie, then all of us are going to get breakfast or something before I pass out and sleep for a solid year straight.”
Kya laughed then, a short, tired laugh “Actually, just come to get food with us. Now that I know there isn’t some manhunt for me that I need to actually worry about, this all seems a lot less important.”
Wade, who had been staring down at Kya with a stoney face, finally just nodded once and then cracking a smile, clapped Kya on the back with one enormous hand, making the smaller woman stumble forward “I knew I liked you, alright, I could eat.” Pointing at the scouts, she said “You two, change of plans. Brief the guild master on your own, let him know we’re talking with the spatial user, and everything is fine.”
Felix puffed up his chest and grinned “You got it boss, piece of cake.”
Scoffing, Koen said “Boss? Piece of cake? Are you not still nervous??”
“Pft, I never get nervous” He said with a wave of the hand “Besides, now we’re reporting good news with solid updates. Rather than we have no idea what’s happening news. Oh actually” he said, spinning to face Kya “What the hell was happening with that ritual chamber?”
A long pause followed the question, where all five pairs of eyes looked at Kya, and she looked back at them.
“I tell you what, I’m going to turn in my quest. Rory, tell them everything I told you, or don’t, I’m too tired of… well, I’m just too tired period actually.” Without another word, she strode past the group and through the opulent double doors of the guild hall, no one moving to stop her or go after her.
Before the doors closed behind her, Kya could just hear the sound of silence, only broken by Rory’s light laugh.
“She forgot to mention that at some point we’re going to have to stop in at the church of death for an important conversation.” Rory said mildly “But that isn’t as pressing at the moment I suppose.”
“I told you she had spirit.” Said Wade, punctuated by the booming sounds of the closing doors.
Kya felt mildly bad about leaving all of them like that, but she’d been up all night, and was just not really in the right mindset at the moment to deal with any more lengthy conversations… about…
Maggie was waving at her with both arms, trying to be seen over the sparse morning crowd of patrons, clearly hoping to get her to come over and speak.
Kya smiled widely, eyes lighting up, waved back matching the same energy, and then without breaking eye contact, made her way across the hall and through the doors separating the main petitioner's area from the guild interior.
Again, should Kya feel about this? Maybe. Did she? Not really, no. She’d come back and talk to her tomorrow. She needed to come back and talk to her. But for now, quest, sleep food. Or maybe food and then sleep? Kya was pretty hungry. She contemplated the ideal order of eating or sleeping as she made her way down the corridor, finally arriving back at the contract hall she had been in so recently, and yet that felt like so long ago.
She once again took in the room, with its dozens upon dozens of postings for contracts. She appreciated for the first time exactly how they were all set up, and the ranking system of each. Starting right where she had walked in the door, and covering the boards along the walls wrapping around the whole room, each contract had a single star at the top. The stars at the beginning of the room were almost all a dull metallic gray color, then began to transition into coppery stars towards the middle of the next wall, then there were several silvery ones, and finally just next to the clerks desk, there were a handful of golden starred contracts, and a single one with a clear lustrous contact, like one of those embossed rainbow stickers.
Finding her contract, the text describing it an indistinct gray compared to the rest of the contracts, and both her name and unique flowery star at the bottom of the page, she tore it off the wall and brought it over to the clerk, who seemed to be the same exact guy as before.
“You again?” He said, looking up from where he had been writing something behind the counter “I told you last time not to tear down the posters. Whatever, I don’t rightly care, so long as you put it back up. Are you here to ask how to remove a quest?” His tone was both unreasonably short tempered and, she thought, a little bit relatable. It was the tone of a man who was almost done with his shift, and was absolutely exhausted from pulling an all night, or at least early morning shift. Kya remembered her own experiences with such things profoundly well, and as these nostalgic memories played in her head, they allowed her to be more measured in her responses than her gut had told her to be.
“No, actually. I’m turning it in, I killed all the hellhounds, as well as an alpha.”
The man froze, pen hovering over what she could now see was an almost cartoonishly bad drawing of a fish swimming in a bowl. He looked at her, then seeming to decide she must be lying, scoffed and said “Right. An Alpha? Okay then, miss…” He grabbed at the contract than curled his lip in apparent amusement “Kya? Not even a last name given. Standard procedure: Turn in the mana shards from the monster’s slain. I’ll collect them and give you the agreed upon amount. Come on, My replacement should be here soon, and I want to take care of this and get out of here. Unless, of course, you don’t actually have any…”
He stopped, as one by one, she pulled out and placed on the counter the fiery red crystals each hellhound had produced when it died, as well as the larger, heavier one she’d received from the alpha.
“There’s no way…” He whispered, picking each individual crystal off the ground and identifying them with a flash of his bronze eyes. Kya was curious what the man got as feedback from his skill. Did he have a textbox and narrator? Or just like… knowledge directly put into his brain? When she identified the crystal, all it told her was that it was a fire crystal. Could he actually tell the origin of the crystal as well? Did all skills have different variations like this?
Her derailing train of thought was brought short as he, with newfound and grudging respect in bag laden eyes, said “Well… everything seems to be in order.” With a sweep of his arm, he took all of the crystals she’d laid out and placed them into a metallic box the size of a Rubik's cube.
“I’ll be right back with your payments. You’ll receive the normal amount for each crystal returned, including the alpha. However, I’ll note it in my report and you may qualify for a bonus upon review of your work.” He nodded once, then box in hand, went through a narrow door into a back room, leaving her alone.
Looking up at the area just behind the desk, she saw a much smaller set of bulletin boards holding the twenty or so contracts, all of which had two conjoined stars boldly stamped across the top of the page. Almost all of them were the same metallic color as the easiest one star quests, but there were two with the more distinctive coppery sheen. Out of curiosity, she focused on one of the higher level 2-Star quests, and… wow, she was not disappointed with her narrator.
- - - - -
- NEW QUEST!
- Guild Contract - Fell Serpent in the Korilus River - 2-Star - Uncommon
- Do you even know what a Fell Serpent is? Do you even understand how fucked you would be if you fought one? Do you have any idea how painful it would be to have a cavitation bubble in your blood? The answer to all three is, drum roll please… No! So do us all a favor and stay away from this one. You’ll understand when you’re older.
- Objective - Slay the Fell Serpent roaming the waters of the Korilus River.
- Time Remaining - N/A
- Guild Rewards - Three Auren and selection of a 2-Star enchanted item from the Guild Armory
- Quest Rewards - Sigil of Serpents, Reptiles, and Amphibians - 2-Star - Rare
- Accept Guild Contract? (Yes)/(No)
- - - - -
When the guy came back with a small pouch full of clinking coins, he found Kya poorly suppressing a giggle. “What’s so funny?”
“Hm? Oh, oh nothing, just realizing how far I have to go before I try my hand on any of those.” She gestured back at the posters behind him.
Glancing back at the wall for a moment, he too cracked a smile. Less insidious than before, this one was more on the level of just slightly judgmental “A very long way to go.”
The moment he handed her the coin purse, Kya finally received the notification for which she’d been waiting, and for the narrator who sounded like he’d just won the lottery. She both read and listened to the voice as she turned and walked away with a huge grin on her face.
- - - - -
- QUEST COMPLETED!
- Guild Contract - Hellhounds on the Farm - 1-Star - Rare
- You have successfully eliminated every hellhound troubling the farmers of the area. Even if you then followed that up with causing more trouble than the hounds ever did, who cares! No one here needs to know about that.
- Quest Rewards - Hellish Leather Armor - 1-Star - Uncommon
- - - - -
On the one hand, would she probably have some nightmares about the horrific skeletal ghoul? Almost definitely. On the other hand, was she excited to see the new item she got and continue growing even stronger as she moved forward? Yes, yes she was.
Stopping just as she reached the door heading back out, she turned and called back to the man whom she identified as Mory, a 1-Star Knowledge class.
“Hey, one quick question before I go.”
Mory looked up, sighed and called back “What else do you want?”
“Is there a uh… an ultimate evasion league or something for 1-Stars? Just… curious…”