This wasn’t the outcome Hirrus expected. Based on numerous factors. Where was the fight? The passion? He’d known adventurers were blustering and quick to anger, but he had expected the fire in them to burn long.

Not for them to run at the first sign of being outmatched.

The sudden end to combat baffled Hirrus. He stood, unbalanced, in the center of the alley. Confused. Hirrus looked at the adventurer at his feet. He was almost back where he started. There was no new information to be found here.

But the fleeing man knew something. He’d said something about contacting recruiters from Last of the Strong.

It meant he couldn’t let Manav escape.

With a snarl, Hirrus gave chase. “Don’t start what you cannot finish!” His voice boomed against the close walls, the words almost unintelligible.

The adventurer was fleeing away from the market square, towards the brick-and-mortar shops Hirrus had walked by earlier. Hirrus followed close behind. They passed a handful of window-shopping adventurers as they ran, and Hirrus feared that things might escalate beyond his ability. But the shoppers barely looked up to acknowledge the chase. Many actively ignored them.

It was almost baffling.

Despite their shared profession as adventurers, they seemed relatively unconcerned about a seemingly deranged guard terrorizing someone. Apparently in a city this size, a guard chasing an adventurer through the streets was normal enough that nobody cared.

Either that, or there was a serious apathy within the confines of their comradery.

The greatsword-wielder stumbled. His cracked greaves started to slip down his leg, tripping him up.

Hirrus redoubled his pace, ready to pounce on the man. But the giant boulder attack wasn’t the only Arcana ability available to adventurers. Right before Hirrus' hand clamped down on his shoulder, the adventurer’s body shimmered and shifted.

Hirrus tumbled through the adventurer’s form as it dissolved into smoke.

Instead of dissipating, the smoke whirled away at incredible speed. It vanished around the corner of the nearest shop before Hirrus could take another step.

For a brief moment, Hirrus feared that the adventurer had escaped him for good. But he felt a gentle prod of direction from his decision tree. He almost expected the distraction to be yet another urging to get back to Yenon, but its directions had actually updated. And of course it had. He was in combat now and hadn’t been forcibly removed by taking a huge chunk of damage.

His decision tree wasn’t telling him to follow the exact path the adventurer’s smoke form had taken, but instead to run down the nearest side street in that same direction. Hirrus took off, hoping that he wasn’t being steered wrong.

Bursting out of the alley and onto the next major street, Hirrus was amused to see the adventurer - Manav - talking to an Inoha city guard. They were only a few feet away. Manav was rapidly explaining that he was assaulted by a madman.

“That’s him! Get him!” the adventurer yelled.

The guard took one look at the approaching Hirrus, and then turned back to the adventurer with a shrug. “Sorry. Looks like official business to me.”

“Are you kidding me? Why won’t anyone help me?” the adventurer cried as he turned and started running again.

Hirrus tipped a haphazard salute to the Inoha guard and continued to chase his quarry. But he had momentum on his side now. The greatsword-wielding adventurer was going from a full stop to a run, while Hirrus was still at a sprint.

An arcing path let him intercept the adventurer from the left side. He rammed a lowered shoulder into the adventurer’s center of gravity. The man slammed bodily into the brick wall beside him and spun away, barely on his feet. Hirrus caught a shoulder in his hand that didn’t turn to mist this time. With a vicious application of leverage, he smashed the man face-first into the street.

“Nice collar,” the guard observed. “Wish I could help, but it’s out of my jurisdiction. Inoha business only.” With a smile, they turned and resumed their patrol.

A satisfied grin ripped across Hirrus' face. The guard’s decision tree was operating in Hirrus' favor. The Inohan guards wouldn’t intervene in his attack because he was still a Yenon guard. It was perfect.

The adventurer tried to get back up and crawl away, but Hirrus kicked him in the ribs. With a grunt he flipped the adventurer over. His axe came down, stopping just short of the adventurer’s throat. For added measure he planted a knee on Manav’s chest, pinning him to the ground.

“I believe,” Hirrus said, trying to keep from being breathless, “that you were about to tell me something. About Last of the Strong.”

“What the fuck are you?” the man sputtered.

“I’m a problem,” Hirrus said. “A curse, after a fashion. Right now, I’m your problem. I don’t want to be, but you made me so by striking me.” He let the blade of his axe scrape up the man’s neck up under his chin, the well-kept blade shaving off a small strip of stubble. “But I have good news. You can make me someone else’s problem. You just have to tell me where to find them.”

“This quest is fucking bullshit,” Manav spat, though he turned his head away from the axe, as if trying to squirm away from the weapon. “This is fucking broken. I don’t want to do this.”

“Last of the Strong. You mentioned recruiters. Where can I find them?”

“Fuck off,” the adventurer snapped. “As soon as I’m out of this, I’m unsubbing. I’m fucking done with this shit. What the fuck even are you supposed to be? What kind of quest talks about a specific fucking guild?”

“I’m a very patient man,” Hirrus said, pulling the axe off of his throat just long enough to smash his fist on the haft of the weapon across the man’s jaw. “I have the rest of my life to get an answer out of you.” He put the axe back to the man’s throat, pushing down until he saw a single drop of fresh blood leak from the edge. “And, coincidentally, so do you.”

“Just fucking kill me. You’re gonna do it anyway, just fucking get it out of the way. Saves me the trouble of getting to a bed in the nearest inn to log out.”

Despite the anger in his voice, Hirrus could see the fear in his eyes.

“Tell me what I want to know and you get to live.”

“Yeah, I believe you,” the man spat. “And you won’t-”

“I swear it. I don’t need a perfect answer. I just need a starting point. Give me a name. A location. Anything.”

“Alright, fine,” he said, slowly, as if testing the waters. “Just, you know, give me a show of good faith. Put the axe away.”

Hirrus didn’t hesitate. He withdrew the axe and put it on his belt.

Before the adventurer could sit up, though, he smashed his fist into the downed man’s face, hitting him squarely in the nose. He hadn’t meant to hit hard enough to do damage, but the man’s nose crunched under his chain gauntlet for fifteen hundred and ninety-nine damage.

“Fuck,” the man said in that foreign language. “Fuck you. Fuck off. Fuck this.” He lashed out with his hands, and Hirrus caught one hand by the wrist, and let the other flail ineffectually at his chest. The man just couldn’t get enough leverage to actually inflict damage with his non-dominant hand.

“The axe can come back out,” Hirrus said in a sing-song tone that was ruined by his gruff growl. “If you don’t want to hold up your end, then I don’t have to hold up mine.”

“Fuck.” Manav abandoned trying to punch Hirrus and instead grabbed his nose. “Fine.” The sound was muffled. “Fuck. You fucking asshole. That’s broken. You broke my fucking nose!”

Hirrus was having none of it. “I’ll break your entire face,” he growled, “unless you start talking.”

“Alright! Alright, I’m talking!” The man’s voice had taken on a slightly nasal, gurgling quality, presumably from the blood dribbling through his sinuses from the broken nose. “Last of the Strong is a fucking pyramid scheme. They have recruiters all over town. You pay dues to wear their guild tags, and if you sign up new people, you get a bump up the pyramid. As you go up, you get noticed, and maybe when they’re putting together raid group four - or replacing people in raid group three, or whatever - they tap you for a tryout. And maybe if you’re very lucky, someone likes the cut of your jib, and you have it made for life from there.”

“You’re talking,” Hirrus said, slowly and deliberately lowering a hand to the haft of his axe, “but you’re not saying anything. Give me what I need or we’re done here.”

“Cyrus and I were talking to a recruiter two days ago!” The man squirmed, holding up a hand protectively in front of his neck. “He was hanging out at a smithy in the Armorer’s Ward on the southwest corner of town. Just straight-up propositioning anyone who went into the shop, trying to get them to join.”

“What blacksmith?” Hirrus asked. “What was the name?”

“It was called Rings True. It’s up against the outer walls of the city on the south bank of the river. You can’t miss it.”

“Thank you,” Hirrus said. “Now, was that so hard?” He stood up, taking a moment to intentionally push off of the man’s chest with his knee as he stood, drawing a grunt from the prone man. It did no damage, but was just another shock of discomfort for the absolute whirlwind of an adventure he took Hirrus on.

“Wait, that’s it? You’re done?”

“You gave me a starting point,” Hirrus said, turning away. “I’m someone else’s problem now.”

The man scrambled to his feet. Hirrus sighed.

He heard the greatsword leaving its giant sheath before it came in at him.

The blade landed against Hirrus' shoulder for eight hundred and ninety-four damage, but his axe sliced out an instant later.

Twenty-six hundred and forty-two damage.

The adventurer’s face landed on the street as fast as gravity could carry it down. A moment later, his body hit the street as well.

At that point, Hirrus became aware that something was very unusual.

He was now level 2.

How, he wasn’t sure. But his level had increased.

And beyond that, he had a new ability. One that terrified him.

Arcana Absorption.

It was the ability that made adventurers adventurers. Supposedly it was the touch of a divine being upon them when they spawned. It marked them for greatness.

Having this ability meant that he could learn Arcana that he saw employed by enemies after defeating them.

Adventurers went to great lengths to aggravate monsters in the wild so that they could absorb their Arcana, adding it to their arsenal.

And now Hirrus knew it.

If Hirrus had this ability, it meant that he was now an adventurer - or at least, had the potential to be one. It implied that he had been touched by something divine.

Was this how he had been given this second chance?

Or, more alarmingly, why?

He had more questions than answers, but the answer he had was the one that he’d sought.

The Rings True smithy in the Armorer’s Ward awaited.

With luck, his way to the Last of the Strong awaited as well.