Chapter 08

Jacque grinned malevolently as she stalked towards the cowering Goblin chieftain, “This really is just bad luck on your part,” she chuckled, “I mean, I’d offer you the chance to live in exchange for the spear, but we both know that would be a blatant lie.”

The Goblin chieftain, Gobgob, voided his bladder in fear, too scared to even move.

“Still, the complications from killing you myself would be a real hassle,” Jacque shook her head and gave an exasperated sigh, “So instead, here's what we are going to do...” She slowly stalked closer and bent down to the Goblin’s eye level, “I am going to give you one chance at taking down the Ogre, and if you try to run, I will cut off your legs and leave you to the mercy of the ‘biters’. Deal? Good? Fantastic! GO!”

Gobgob immediately began backing away, tripped, scrambled back to his feet and began running towards the horde of Goblins besieging the barricades around the inn down the street.

Jacque shadow-stepped onto the roof of the Guild office and watched the terrified chieftains progress. Originally, she had intended to hunt down the pieces of the key in a more relaxed fashion, giving Tim more time to acclimate to the brutal reality of the Labyrinth and for Jacque to make sure Tim was a suitable partner. As he was now, Tim was far too soft.

The rash actions of the Guild manager Gilbert had been a welcome addition to events, if only because it forced Tim to reevaluate his previously assumed safety and rights. While it was true that Jacque did not want Tim to become a mana addict like Kiki, she didn’t want him to be nearly so weak and trusting either. It would be only a matter of time before the other Awakened became aware of Tim’s presence and if he did not grow considerably stronger, they would kill or consume him.

The onset of the raid was a perfect opportunity to see how Tim would react under stress. While Jacque was fairly confident she had a solid read on his personality, there was always the distinct possibility that Tim was misleading her. It wouldn’t be the first time another Awakened had played the bumbling earthling and attempted to take Jacque by surprise.

As Jacque well knew, the Labyrinths were not benevolent entities. The Awakened were intended to be avatars of chaos and destruction, bloodthirsty, unrepentant and psychotic killers. It had been a hard-earned truth, but one that Jacque had learned early in the past decade or so of traversing the Labyrinths. Those reincarnated by the Labyrinths were not chosen entirely at random. Each and every one of the Awakened had a unifying trait that made them stand out for selection.

Every earthling chosen for reincarnation by the Labyrinths, was a killer.

*****

“I see the chieftain!” A young man holding a short crystal-topped stave called out, pointing frantically down the street and past the sea of Goblins.

Nearly as large as Toofy, the Goblin chieftain had a long-shafted spear gripped tight in its hands and a crazed look in its eyes as it charged towards the melee. The Goblin chieftain’s presence had an immediate bolstering effect on the nearby Goblins, driving them forward in a frantic apocalyptic wave of violence.

I had been overrun almost instantly, Goblins flooding past me on all sides and into the previously secure ground behind the barricades. It all happened so suddenly that I didn’t know what to do. Before I realised it, I was alone amidst a sea of shrieking green monsters.

*Thwack, Crunch*, *Crunch*, *Thwack*, *Thud*

I panicked, wildly lashing out with my morningstar and looking for a way to flee.

“Tim!” I heard Toofy shriek from somewhere nearby, but I couldn't see her. “Tim!” She shrieked again, this time more desperately.

Most of the adventurers were already driven back to the inn or missing, almost certainly trampled under the mob of Goblins feet.

“TOOFY?!” I bellowed, desperately searching for her amidst the chaos as I waded through the Goblin tide.

There! I spied Toofy a short distance away, desperately clinging to the top of a section of the barricade as she is beset on all sides. Somehow, Toofy is managing to hold her own, viciously stabbing, punching, kicking and biting anything that tries to draw near.

*Thwack*

A slingers stone cracks into the back of my head, but I ignore it and bodily plough through the Goblins standing in my way. I can feel their small bones breaking beneath my feet, but I don’t care.

For their part, the Goblins didn't seem to care either, they were ignoring me, rushing after the final cluster of adventurers holding the door to the inn.

Toofy was frantically clambering over the barricade in an attempt to reach me, her eyes wild with fear as she stabbed and slashed at the grasping hands of the wild Goblins. “TI-” Toofy’s cry was cut short as a stone caught her in the side of the head.

I watched in stunned horror as Toofy fell and was almost immediately swarmed by Goblins. “TOOFY!!!” I surged through the Goblins with reckless abandon.

Toofy was trying to fight them off as best she could, but was obviously dazed by the blow to the head and wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.

“GET OFF HER!!!” I roared, sweeping my morningstar through the Goblins and sending them crashing into the green tide.

Toofy woozily tried to stand but collapsed.

“Toofy!” I battered away another wave of Goblins and discarded my weapon. Snatching up Toofy, I could feel her body going limp and feared the worst. Looking over at the inn, I was frustrated to see that the adventurers had all retreated and closed the door behind them.

With no other targets to distract them, the slingers stones began pelting against my body with ever-increasing frequency. I did my best to shield Toofy with my body, but it would only be a matter of time before they hit her.

Turning away from the inn, my attention fixed upon the tailor shop. “Damnit!” I charged through the mass of Goblins and towards the open door.

Perhaps sensing what I intended, the Goblin horde began throwing themselves at me with suicidal abandon. Desperately clutching at any part of me they could get a hold of, they did little besides slow me down. But that was very nearly enough, giving the slingers more opportunities to wear me down.

Gasping in pain, I staggered across the threshold of the shop and slammed the door shut. Almost immediately, I sensed something was wrong.

“Hello again,” the dark thing croaked hungrily.

I flinched and slowly looked towards the shop counter. As I had feared, the shopkeeper was gone, replaced by the pale horror from my nightmares. Even though I had known confrontation with the monster was inevitable, I did not think I would have so little time to prepare. Gently laying Toofy down by the wall, I grit my teeth and did my best to push the pain from my mind.

Turning my attention back to the nightmare monster, I instinctively understood that I had no chance. Whatever this monster was, it was far stronger than I am and I didn’t even have a weapon to fight it with. Even so, I had to try, I wouldn’t let it take Toofy! If this was how I died, then so be it, I will not abandon her.

The monster and I both froze.

It took every shred of my flagging self-control not to scream through the connection at Jacque. This was perhaps my only chance to save Toofy and I would not let it slip through my fingers.

I hissed in fear and frustration as the monster began growing in size.

There was a sudden burst of shadows by the door and Jacque suddenly appeared, as if she had been there the whole time. Narrowing her eyes warily at the monster, Jacque waved me back.

I gulped hard and nodded.

Jacque frowned and pursed her lips.

I repeated, anxiously staring at the monster as it in turn carefully regarded Jacque.

Jacque continued coolly staring down the monster.

Seeing no other way through this, I locked eyes with the monster and nodded.

The monster smiled and tapped its elongated fingers excitedly on the counter, “We have a deal?” It rasped, “Good, gooood! Forgiving your earlier failure may yet prove worth my while!” It motioned one hand and the door to the shop slammed open, “GO! GO AND FETCH ME MY PRIZE!” It demanded, “DO NOT KEEP ME WAITING!”

As I prepared to leave, Jacque stopped me for a moment. “Take this,” she insisted, handing me her cleaver, “You will need it.”

Since I was without a weapon, I nodded and gratefully accepted the heavy poorly balanced blade. Taking one last look at Toofy, I stepped through the door and raised my shield.

*Thunk* *Thunk, Thunk* *Thunk* *Thunk, Thunk, Thunk* *Thunk*

A hail of stones immediately began battering against my shield and I wondered how long it would be able to last against a sustained barrage. Knowing that the moment I exposed myself that I would begin hemorrhaging HP, I tried my best to avoid flinching and peeked past my shield to try and find the Goblin chieftain.

Still holding the spear that was far too large for his diminutive stature, the Goblin chieftain Gobgob stood out like a sore thumb. Unfortunately, he was more than a dozen ranks deep behind a wall of his minions, showed no signs of wanting to approach and had a couple of hundred Goblins behind him to cover a retreat if necessary.

Damnit! What am I meant to do?! Without the chieftain's head, the monster inside the tailor’s shop would kill Toofy! And without any other targets to draw their attention, the Goblin slingers would very likely kill me within seconds of lowering my shield or straying too far from the rear cover of the shop. There has to be some way to do this! Maybe I could try thinning their numbers on the flanks? Or maybe lure them into an alley between two buildings? I disregarded both ideas pretty much immediately since they would expose me to the same level of damage as a reckless charge anyway.

I blinked in shock, very nearly taking a stone to the face as my shield dipped slightly.

Would they all really back down and allow the chieftain and I to fight one on one? That seemed crazy to me. After all, the Goblins had every possible advantage right now and it was only a matter of time until they would win. So why the hell would the chieftain accept my challenge?

Fine! Screw it! This will work or it won't! It’s not like I have any better ideas. “HEY!” I roared in challenge, eliciting gibbering shrieks from the Goblins, temporarily stalling the barrage of stones. “I CHALLENGE YOU!” I lowered my shield slightly and pointed the cleaver in the chieftains general direction, “FIGHT ME GOBGOB!. My challenge was painfully unoriginal, but given the limited language capabilities of the Orcs and Goblins I had encountered thus far, it was probably for the best.

The Goblins shifted their attention from me to their chieftain, waiting for his answer with nearly palpable expectation.

Maybe Jacque was right? There was no reason for the Goblins to take this challenge seriously, and yet they were anyway.

Even the Goblins surrounding chieftain Gobgob took a few steps back, the same expectant look on their faces.

Gobgob looked furious, gnashing his teeth and glaring balefully at his cowering minions, “Fight!” He commanded, thrusting his spear aggressively in my direction.

The surrounding Goblins made no moves to follow the command, instead, growing restless and eyeing one another warily.

Even more furious, but now also quite nervous, Gobgob thrust his spear in my direction again, “FIGHT! KILL OGRE!”

The Goblins began shifting about and muttering angrily to one another.

Gobgob gulped hard, hissing and waving his spear to drive the other Goblins back. “GOBGOB KILL OGRE!” He shrieked fearfully.

The surrounding Goblins calmed down almost immediately, scrambling over one another to clear the space between myself and their chieftain. Even the slingers on the opposing rooftops had lowered their slings and were now watching the proceedings intently.

Lowering my shield to a more relaxed guarding position, I took a deep breath and slowly began walking forwards. Objectively, I knew that the Goblin stood very little chance of even hurting me, practically none at all if I could wrest that spear from him, but I was still incredibly anxious. The crimson smoky tendrils coiling off my arms told me that I was already Bloodied. The Goblin’s Vicious racial ability would make even this elderly Goblin deal more damage than it otherwise should. It was taking every scrap of my flagging willpower not to look at how much HP I had left. I knew that if I were to look, my cowardice would cause me to falter and probably get me killed.

The Goblin chieftain Gobgob hissed at his minions disparagingly and then slowly began making his way towards me, spear at the ready. Contrary to his apparent age, the withered Goblin seemed just as hale and hearty as his minions, perhaps even more so. After reducing the distance between us to a couple of dozen feet, Gobgob suddenly launched himself into a charge, shrieking like a banshee and thrusting his spear towards my chest, “DIE!!!”

*Tak-shink*

To my immense surprise, the blade of the spear bore straight through my shield and narrowly missed my arm. I was only saved by the shaft of the spear catching on the outer surface of my shield due to the Goblin lacking the strength to drive it through.

More out of surprise than skill, I twisted and pushed my shield to drive the spear back and away from my chest.

“Gah!” Gobgob refused to let go of his spear and was pushed along the ground in mirror to the movement of my arm.

Thinking that maybe I could copy something I saw from a movie, I dragged the spear a little closer again and tried hacking at the shaft with the cleaver.

*Tak*

The jarring force against my wrist and my surprise at leaving not so much as a single mark on the wooden spear shaft, nearly caused me to drop the cleaver. What the hell was that spear made of?!

Gobgob recovered faster than I did, yanking his spear free and retreating a short distance as he began slowly circling to my right.

Please don't let that spear be magical...

The bluish sheen of the spearheads metal flashed in the light for a moment as if mocking me.

Damnit...Of course, it is magical, why wouldn’t it be? Gobgob was meant to be a boss monster or something, so why wouldn’t he have a powerful magic item?

No doubt sensing my sudden unease, Gobgob grinned wickedly and made a sweeping strike for my face.

I raised my shield to parry the blow but was shocked when it didn’t connect. Instead, pain erupted from my right shin and calf. Looking down, I could see the spear twisting and pulling back through my leg, spattering the street with blood. This was bad, really bad.

“BLEED! DIE!” Gobgob crowed triumphantly.

Staggering unsteadily from the pain in my leg, I grimaced as I realised just how monumentally screwed I now was. The instinctive flinch every time I tried to put my full weight on my right leg all but guaranteed the remainder of this fight would only continue to proceed in the Goblin chieftains favour. On the upside, I would die from blood loss sooner rather than later, so I would not regret my screw up for long.

Gobgob took a probing sweep at my chest, shearing off a corner of my shield and narrowly missing my face.

I can't continue playing defence! Staggering forward, I grit my teeth against the pain and battered the shaft of the spear aside as I tried to close with the Goblin to attack him.

Obviously understanding what I was up to, Gobgob gleefully scampered away grinning wickedly and laughing at my ultimately futile efforts.

Damnit! In an ill-advised fit of anger, I hurled my cleaver at Gobgob, and immediately regretted it.

Gobgob deftly stepped aside and avoided the flying cleaver entirely, although the minions farther behind him were not so lucky. “Stupid Ogre!” He cackled, redoubling his efforts and harrying me with his spear.

The Goblin was right, it was an incredibly stupid thing to do. The steel cleaver was probably the one thing I had that could parry the spearhead directly, and I literally threw it away! Cursing myself for being so incredibly stupid, I narrowly missed getting stabbed in the right shoulder. However, as the Goblin retracted his spear for another thrust, I got an idea.

*Tak-shink*

I caught the Goblin chieftains spear on my shield again, only this time, I was ready for it. Reaching around my shield, I grabbed hold of the spear and angled it upwards, forcing the Goblin up off the ground. Unfortunately, the Goblin’s meagre weight was enough to cause the spear to begin slipping free of my shield. Unwilling to waste the opportunity I had created for myself, I pulled the spear free and slammed it towards the ground.

*Crunch*

I stared at the Goblin chieftain in surprise, why didn’t he just let go? Gobgob had clung onto the spear right up until the end and was smashed into the ground.

“Gyah!” Gobgob shrieked and tried to pull the spear from my grasp, but he was far weaker than me and lacked sufficient size to leverage his meagre weight.

*Whack*

I swung the spear into the surrounding crowd of Goblins. Most of the small creatures evaded the blow but one unfortunate soul was struck by the Goblin chieftain’s body directly, causing them both to shriek in pain.

Gobgob stubbornly continued clinging to the spear, like a drowning man to a piece of driftwood..

“Let! GO!!” I roared, swinging the spear through the air with as much force as I could muster, cutting my forearm on the spearhead because of my recklessness.

Still, Gobgob continued to stubbornly hold on, “Gob-gob-kill!-OGRE!” He screeched hatefully.

*Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch*

“DIE!” I bellowed, slamming the spear against the tailor shop’s wall over and over again. Every second I wasted fighting this monster reduced the chances of Toofy’s survival and I couldn’t afford to be weak. Releasing the spear, I staggered over to the Goblin chieftain.

Gobgob’s body was in bloody ruin, broken bones contorting his limbs at unnatural angles and poking through his skin. Coughing up blood through his broken jaw and shattered teeth, Gobgob stared at me with intense hatred in his one remaining good eye, “Gwob-glob-ghil-ghog-GHURK!”

I cut his words short by stomping my foot down on his chest, causing a torrent of blood to erupt from his mouth. Pain shot up through my injured leg and I very nearly fell to my knees. Somehow, I pushed the pain to the back of my mind and kept the wherewithal to work through the pain and retrieve the spear.

[Goblin Chieftain Gobgob has been slain by Ogre Runt Slaver Tim!]

[All defensive wards and transportation portals will reactivate in one hour.]

[{Key of Awakening (???)} has been acquired and bound to your soul.]

[Conditions for identifying {Key of Awakening (???)} have not been met.]

Breathing hard, I blinked away the notifications and was shocked to find that the spear had disappeared. However, I didn’t have time to dwell on it because I was still surrounded by Goblins and could pass out from blood loss at any moment. Feeling more than a little lightheaded, I knew there was no way I would be able to fight the Goblins off for another three minutes, let alone an hour. But I didn’t see that I had much of a choice.

Grimacing from the pain, I snatched up Gobgob’s mangled corpse and held it up for all the Goblins to see, hoping that the Goblins would recognise their leader was dead and become at the least somewhat demoralised. Jacque had said challenging the chieftain would make the other Goblins stand down for the challenge, but she never mentioned what would come after. Perhaps for good reason as it turns out. Jacque may have believed that I didn’t already know my chances of surviving were close to zero.

*Chunk*

A Goblin tumbled off a nearby rooftop, clutching at something embedded in its chest before striking the ground.

*Chunk, Chunk, Thwip*

Three more Goblins shrieked in pain, two of them tumbling from the rooftops.

The horde of Goblins began crying out in fear, looking for the source of danger.

I saw the innkeeper’s wife Rose step in from beside one of the third story windows of the inn, take aim with her crossbow and fire.

Another Goblin screeched and fell from a nearby roof.

Two more adventurers I did not recognise had taken Rose’s lead and fired their own ranged weapons at the Goblins as well.

The Goblins panicked and began to scatter in every direction.

*****

Clarice was first through the door the second Kirk unbarred it. As one of the only close combat adventurers still in relatively prime condition, Clarice, Emelia’s pair of Bloodhunters, Tobi, his pet Shady and two other adventurers had decided to rush the Goblins and stop them from recouping their morale while the adventurers search for survivors.

Contrary to what she had expected, Clarice found that the Goblins were already scattering like rats. Even so, this was not the time to stand idle, at the very least they needed to re-secure the barricade and search for survivors. Rushing out the door with her sword at the ready, Clarice saw Tim staggering into the tailor’s shop, dragging a broken and bloodied Goblin corpse behind him. Fearing the worst, she quickly glanced at her group status and flinched.

[Tim - HP: -7/45 - Bloodied, Bleeding ] [Toofy - HP: -3/23 - Bloodied, Stunned ]

Clarice had already known about Toofy’s critical condition and to a lesser extent, Tim’s. But a great deal had changed in the past couple of minutes and Tim had lost more than nine hp in a single hit and gained the Bleeding condition. Immediately shifting her priorities, Clarice dropped her sword and sprinted across the street. The Goblins had already fled the immediate vicinity so she was in very little danger, or so she thought.

Barrelling into the tailor's shop, Clarice froze in muted horror as a pale, sickly long-limbed horror stuffed something into its large razor fanged maw and messily began to chew. Blood and viscera spattered down its front and onto the floor as it groaned in ecstasy, “MMM! Delicious!”

“We need to leave!” A familiar voice stated firmly.

Clarice shook her head numbly and returned somewhat to her senses, shuddering as she pulled her eyes from the horrid thing at the far end of the store behind the counter. Clarice saw that Jacque was carrying Toofy over her shoulder and struggling to try and keep Tim standing with her one free arm.

“NOW!” Jacque insisted, ineffectually trying to drag Tim towards the door.

Clarice nodded, “R-right!” She stammered, doing her best to ignore the sounds of crunching bones and ripping meat. Quickly pulling Tim’s shield free from his arm, Clarice took the bulk of Tim’s weight and began dragging him out the door. Tim’s skin was clammy and he didn’t seem to know what was going on, dragging his right leg limply along and leaving a trail of blood.

[Bloodhunter has been killed by Goblin!]

Clarice flinched and redoubled her efforts in moving Tim across the street and back to the inn. Just as Kirk had warned them, the Goblin rout would not last long and the Goblins would quickly return in force.

Tobi and the other adventurers were already frantically dragging bloodied adventurers back to the inn while Shady savagely tore apart any Goblins who drew too close.

As they reached the inn, Jacque left Tim to Clarice as she hurriedly moved to lay Toofy down on the bar before returning to help maneuver Tim through the door. Tim’s bulk had made this entire endeavour much harder than Clarice would have initially expected and she was already breathing heavily from the strain. “Nadine! We got him!” Clarice called out as she tried to ease Tim down onto the floor as gently as she could, but had to settle for sitting him up against the bar.

Nadine made no visible sign to acknowledge what Clarice had said, but Emelia was already rushing over with a bucket and fistful of bandages.

“Wrap the bandages tightly around any open wounds!” Nadine called out loudly, “I am nearly finished!”

Emelia quickly moved to do as she was told.

Clarice hurried back out the door to try and find other survivors and grimaced as she quickly realised that there were precious few of them to find. The racial ability synergy from the one remaining Bloodhunter revealed only five more survivors amongst the thirty or so human bodies strewn about the barricades. “Damnit...” Clarice cursed, hardening her heart and pointing out the survivors to Tobi and the others. They would not have time to retrieve all the bodies and the living had to take precedence.

*****

Blearily opening my eyes, I groaned in pain as I became all too aware of my battered and bruised body. I felt like someone had taken a steak tenderiser to my back and chest with a vengeance. But even that was nothing compared to the soul-draining ache from my stomach. It felt like I hadn’t eaten in weeks if not longer. Shakily pushing myself up into a sitting position, I dragged my feet over the edge of the bed and weakly tried getting to my feet. It was only after putting my full weight on my leg that I realised how stupid I was being right now and hastily sat back down, bracing against the inevitable pain.

However, contrary to my expectations, the pain didn’t come. In fact, my legs were one of the only places that didn’t hurt. Worried that maybe I was in some form of shock and exacerbated the injury, I anxiously looked down at my leg. I blinked in surprise, my leg appeared completely fine, albeit hosting two large new scars.

It took my brain a couple of minutes to process this sudden revelation and realise that Nadine must have healed me using her special ability. Gingerly getting to my feet again, I staggered and very nearly fell over from a sudden onset of dizziness. I should have expected that, I am probably rather anemic right now after losing so much blood. Looking down at myself for a moment, I realised that I wasn’t seeing the crimson smoke as I had before. Glancing at my group status, I could see that I only had ten HP and still had the Bloodied condition, so why was the ability not working?

“Status,” I croaked while staggering over to the wall by the door. Skimming through the information, I saw that the Scent Blood ability was gone from my synergy list and after looking more carefully at the group status, I realized why. Both Bloodhunters were no longer part of the group. It shouldn’t have been all that surprising, but the assumed deaths of the hideous beasts were still somewhat of a shock.

Quickly looking at Toofy’s information, I was relieved to see that she appeared to be recovering. Even so, I felt a familiar pang of worry and looked over the room again, in case I had overlooked her. Seeing no sign of Toofy, I tried opening the door, but unsurprisingly it was locked. Looking back over at the bedside table, I saw the room key laid out beside the washbowl. Grumbling that I should have noticed it sooner, I staggered back across the room and decided that I might as well freshen myself up a bit while I was at it.

After splashing my pits and face, I thirstily gulped down the remaining water and then dried myself off with the bed blanket. It was no substitution for a real bath, but it had to do for now. Feeling somewhat cold, most likely from the anemia, I wrapped myself in the blanket like a cape, tying off two corners in front of my chest so I didn’t have to hold it in place.

The pain in my stomach was growing worse and causing my hands to shake, so I decided that I needed to unlock the door while I was still able to. Lethargically crossing the room, yet again, I shakily pushed the key into the lock, unlocked the door and walked out into the corridor. Knowing that Toofy was almost definitely in Clarice and Nadine’s room on the third floor, I groaned and made my way over to the stairs.

Clinging tightly to the banister, I dragged myself up the stairs. Resting against the wall for a moment while waiting for the dizziness to pass, I could almost hear muted conversations from the nearby rooms, almost. However, so close to my goal I pushed myself off the wall and continued staggering down the hall. Finally standing, leaning, in front of their door, I knocked and tried turning the handle. It was locked...

Groaning in frustration, I knocked again, but no one answered. Damnit...I slumped hard against the neighbouring wall and slid to the floor. I was just so tired...

Unable to keep my eyes open, It only took a moment before I lost consciousness.

“Tim? Wake up, Tim?” Someone said quietly while gingerly jostling my shoulder.

Tiredly opening my eyes, I saw Clarice kneeling over me with a candle in hand.

“What were you doing up here?” She asked worriedly, “You were meant to be resting in your room!”

I blinked blearily and tried to sit up, but lacked the strength and coordination. “Toofy...” I groaned.

Clarice sighed irritably, “You could have asked us to bring her to you, y’know!”

I stared uncomprehendingly at her in reply. I know what she is saying should make sense, but it is getting harder and harder to think.

“Fine! Might as well try dragging you into our room I guess, no way in hell am I getting you downstairs on my own after it took three of us to get you into your room in the first place!” Clarice growled but seemed more concerned than angry.

Clarice unlocked the door and began heaving me across the threshold like a heavy sack of potatoes, dragging me by my arms and leaving me by the bed. Grunting loudly, Clarice then hooked my arm over her shoulder and lifted me just high enough to drop me backwards onto the bed. ‘Bloody!-Hell!” she gasped, “Were-you-all-ways-this-heav-vy?!”

I closed my eyes and began to pass out again, much to Clarice’s annoyance.

“Tim! Breakfast!” Toofy yelled and something was jammed into my mouth.

Opening my eyes, I found Toofy sitting beside me on the bed and shoving a fistful of meat into my mouth. I tried to speak but nearly choked instead.

Seeing that I was awake, Toofy’s eyes sparkled, “Tim!” She suddenly jumped up onto the bed and gave me a hug, inadvertently clearing my airway and allowing me to breathe again.

“Toofy,” I croaked, too relieved at her recovery to be mad at her for nearly choking me to death. Besides, I assumed that Toofy had meant well.

After hugging me for a while, Toofy sat back up and pouted, glancing at me expectantly. “Toofy feed Tim all night,” she stated sternly, “Tim scare Toofy! Tim bad!” Toofy insisted crossly.

“I am sorry Toofy,” I apologised sincerely. While I did not regret doing what I did to save her life, I appreciate the distress my brush with death would have caused her. If things had turned out slightly differently maybe there would have been a better option, but I still felt like I made the best choice I could under the circumstances. Well...mostly.

My lack of fighting skill and experience was arguably my greatest weakness right now. Even though the Goblin chieftain had what I assumed was a magic spear, I had literally almost every other advantage and still nearly died. Remembering how I tried throwing my only weapon away made me feel ashamed of myself. Almost everything I knew about fighting came from watching movies and anime, so I should have known better than to just blindly copy them and hope for the best.

Going forward, I resolved that I would at the very least strive for basic competence in some form of martial arts. Perhaps Clarice could help with that? She is a Swordsmen after all and looked like she knew what she was doing from what I had seen so far.

Toofy nodded, seeming to accept my apology, but she insisted on feeding me the pieces of meat I had spat out earlier, “Eat!”

Still quite hungry, I ate the food without complaint, even if I would have very much preferred to feed myself.

Toofy’s idea of portion size was literally how much of a thing you could fit in your mouth and still chew. It was perhaps a small miracle that I even woke up when I did. If Toofy had in fact been feeding me all night, how many times had I come that close to choking? There was no good answer to that question, So I promptly dropped it and focused my attention on chewing and swallowing as fast as I could. Thankfully, the food I had spat out earlier was apparently the last of the food Toofy had on hand.

*Gurgle*

Toofy pursed her lips and rubbed at her stomach.

“Toofy? Did you not eat breakfast yet?” I asked warily, already suspecting I knew the answer.

Toofy shifted guiltily and quickly hopped off the bed and onto the floor, snatching up a stray fragment of meat and stuffing it in her mouth, “Yeees?” Toofy replied cheekily.

I narrowed my eyes at Toofy and sat myself up, more than a little surprised to find that most of the pain I had felt earlier was now gone. “Maybe we should go get more breakfast?” I suggested.

Toofy stiffened and looked at me in surprise, “More breakfast?” She asked curiously, drooling a little and rubbing her stomach.

I nodded, now having made up my mind, “More breakfast,” I insisted, feeling the hunger in my stomach intensifying again. Finding the blanket from my bed had just been untied and left beneath me on the bed, I got up and tied it around my shoulders again. I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of walking around the inn in my underwear, so the extra layer helped put me at ease.

Toofy, who was only wearing the tunic and pants I had made for her, seemed somewhat jealous, so I made her a cape similar to my own from one of the girl’s towels.

“Ready for breakfast?” I asked, grinning a little as Toofy swept her ‘cape’ back and forth behind herself.

“Huh?” Toofy looked surprised for a moment before a petulant gurgle from her stomach reminded her what we were doing, “Breakfast!” She agreed emphatically.

Unlocking the door with the key, which had conveniently been left on the bedside table, we left the room, locked the door again behind us and headed downstairs.

Toofy was rushing ahead, whooshing back and forth while holding her ‘cape’ out to either side, giggling and shrieking for reasons I honestly didn’t quite understand.

By the time we reached the stairs to the common room, we had already gathered somewhat of a following from bemused adventurers investigating the noise outside their rooms. Not that Toofy seemed to mind, but I felt more than a little bit embarrassed about it. The stifled laughter really didn’t help.

“Woosh!” Toofy cried as she leapt down the final half dozen steps in one go, narrowly avoiding tripping on her ‘cape’ as she rolled and sprang up onto her feet again. Toofy looked at me expectantly, hopping around in her excitement.

Already about as embarrassed as I could get, I sighed and leapt down the final few steps of the stairs as she had done, flourishing and billowing my own ‘cape’ dramatically as I landed in an incredibly poor approximation of a Batman swoop landing.

*Whoosh*

Toofy just stared for a moment in wide-eyed surprise, then she began shrieking excitedly and scampering back up onto the stairs to try it herself. Jumping from much higher up the stairs, Toofy sailed with her towel cape fluttering around her, briefly landing on my shoulder before launching off and into a tumbling roll.

I assumed that this strange sense of pride and envy I was feeling right now must be what all parents feel when their child surpasses them.

Toofy hopped around excitedly before rushing up the stairs and doing it again, clearly demonstrating that it had not been a fluke. When she repeated the leap from the stairs for the third time, I shifted and caught her instead of allowing her to jump off my shoulder.

“Breakfast, remember?” I reminded Toofy with a playful hug.

“Oh! Breakfast!” Toofy agreed, much to the disappointment of our rather sizable audience.

Sitting Toofy down on my shoulder, I moved quickly over to the bar, causing her ‘cape’ to catch some air and flutter a little behind her.

Kirk and Rose were struggling to keep straight faces as they watched us take our seats, the former hiding his amusement behind his bristling moustache and the latter behind her hand.

“We would like breakfast please,” I requested with a poker face of my own.

“Breakfast!” Toofy insisted, thumping the bar like a thug to accentuate her point.

Rose and Kirk shared a quick glance with one another before Rose hurried off to the kitchen, breaking into raucous laughter the moment she left the room.

“Pfftft,” Kirk covered his mouth with one hand, “I can't, I just can't! Ahaha!”

Objectively, Mine and Toofy’s antics were not all that funny, or at least I didn’t think so. Maybe it had more to do with the amount of stress everyone had been under than the quality of the entertainment? Yup, that had to be it.

Still holding back laughter, Rose brought out two trays piled with roasted meat and placed them in front of myself and Toofy.

Toofy immediately set to hungrily stuffing her mouth.

Intending to set a better example, I honestly didn’t behave much better, quickly sinking to her level and shovelling food into my mouth as quickly as I could chew and swallow it down. I had seriously underestimated just how hungry I felt.

In the end, Rose brought out another three trays of food before I finally felt the hunger recede. With the hunger pains no longer distracting my thoughts, I supposed that considering how injured I must have been, eating at least this much was to be expected. Even so, it was a prodigious amount of food and I didn’t quite understand how I had managed to fit it all in my stomach. As if on cue, I felt a sudden shift in my guts that signalled an urgent need to go use the restroom.

Unsurprisingly, when I left the restroom, I found Toofy running around the common room, jumping off empty tables and unoccupied chairs. Since we had been through so much in just the past few days, I decided to let her have her fun and took a seat at the bar again.

“Want another?” Kirk asked with a sly smirk.

I smiled wryly and shook my head, “One kid is enough I think.”

Kirk balked, “Wait..what?”

I knew he had probably been referring to another meal, but I felt it was only fair to get at least one joke in at his expense in exchange for the earlier entertainment.

“Oh, hardy har har,” Kirk muttered derisively upon quickly recognising the joke.

I shrugged. I kind of meant it, Toofy was a bit of a handful and I really didn’t think I was doing that good a job taking care of just her, let alone another kid as well. But that did get me thinking about Clarice, Emelia and Nadine’s absence. When I found that Clarice and Nadine weren’t in their room, I thought that maybe they would be here in the common room instead, but I was apparently wrong.

“Do you know where the girls have gone?” I asked Kirk somewhat worriedly.

Kirk nodded in understanding, “Yeah, I think they were headed to the Guild office to confirm your party rewards for the raid. Since they have been gone for the better part of an hour, I expect that they are probably haggling over the precise amount of the compensation owed,” he explained thoughtfully, “I wouldn’t worry too much about it though. With the portal reactivated now, they can just take a complaint directly to the Guild branch office in Hurst just outside the Labyrinth.”

I nodded to show I understood what he meant, but still couldn’t help but worry anyway. What would happen if the Guild manager realised Nadine and Clarice were enslaved by me and not the other way around? Nothing good I expect.

“On a brighter note, Rose and I are expecting our staff to return from holiday at some point today,” Kirk added cheerily, “Not that we haven’t appreciated your help around the inn, but it will be nice to have things up and running smoothly again so we can begin taking things a little easier for a while.”

I nodded and remembered something else, “Didn’t you say that you were expecting more adventurers soon as well?” I asked, a little unsure about when exactly he had mentioned it, only remembering that he had done so at some point.

Kirk nodded, “Aye, but I think the Guild is holding off on letting them through until things are cleaned up a bit more. The Goblins really thrashed a lot of the furniture and other materials used to make those barricades,” he sighed and shook his head, “There is also the matter of the adventurers who didn’t make it. They have been busy filling out the paperwork and preparing letters to notify next of kin for the better part of the morning.”

“Oh...” I didn’t really know what to say to that. I guess I had been avoiding thinking about it. Recalling how quickly the barricades had been overrun, it was inevitable that people had died. I suppose I was still far too naive, “How many?...” I asked hesitantly, regretting my choice almost immediately, knowing that any number would seem like too many.

Kirk had noticed my hesitation and tightened his lips for a moment, his expression making it obvious that he was seriously considering whether to tell me the truth. “Thirty-seven,” Kirk replied quietly, “Nadine did her best to save as many as she could, but there was only so much that could be done..."

Thirty-seven...The number repeated over and over in my head, accompanied by faces of young men and women I had seen manning the barricades, but knew only in passing. Thirty-seven...I didn’t even know their names...Thirty-seven people died because I wasn’t strong enough because I didn’t do what needed to be done and kill that Goblin chieftain sooner...

“It’s not your fault Tim,” Kirk insisted firmly, “You did what you could. No one in their right mind would accuse you of anything less. Ninety-three people are alive because of you and what you did, don’t forget it,” he leaned over the bar and gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze, “I know Rose and me sure as hell won’t, nor our daughter Millie for that matter either.”

Still feeling rather upset, I nodded slightly and tried to feel less guilty about things that had been out of my control. But my subconscious was relentless, perfectly willing to prove how exactly Kirk was wrong and that I was in fact responsible for everything that had happened.

“Hey, Tim!” Clarice called out warmly as she walked in through the front door, “Huh, what's up? You still feelin weak?” She asked curiously.

“No, I...I’m fine, I just need some time to process a few things...” I replied quietly, “I...I think I need to go lie down for a bit...” I somewhat shakily got to my feet and began making my way towards the stairs.

Toofy saw me heading to the stairs and hurriedly caught up to me, scrambling up the blanket on my back and taking her seat on my shoulder. Still somewhat excited from playing, Toofy hadn’t seemed to notice my mood and was still grinning maniacally as she slowly began to calm down.

It wasn’t until we reached the room that Toofy’s expression turned serious, “Tim sad,” she observed somewhat worriedly.

I nodded and sat down on the bed.

Toofy looked around in nervous confusion, “Why Tim sad? Tim hurt?” She hopped off my shoulder and began checking me for injuries.

I didn’t know how to go about explaining this to Toofy and wasn’t sure I even wanted to try. “I...I am sad because people died. Because I think it was my fault and that maybe...Maybe I could have done something about it if I wasn’t so weak,” I explained quietly.

Toofy cocked her head to one side and was visibly struggling with what I had said. Sitting down beside me on the bed, Toofy held one hand over her chest, “Tim’s heart hurts?” She asked sympathetically.

A little surprised by her level of empathy, I nodded.

Toofy nodded looked very sad, “Toofy heart hurt too,” she sniffled, wiping her nose absently on her sleeve, “Toofy lost Leafy, Toofy heart hurt too,” tears began running down her eyes as Toofy stared at the wall.

“Leafy was your friend?” I guessed, surprised that she had not spoken about this person before.

Toofy screwed up her face a little and shook her head, “Leafy like Toofy, older, teach Toofy, protect Toofy...” Her voice trailed off quietly and she sniffled again.

“Leafy was your parent?” I corrected, “You were Leafy’s daughter?”

Toofy nodded, “Leafy give Toofy food, hide Toofy, protect Toofy, make Toofy safe,” she smiled faintly for a moment before her expression turned sad again, “Many Orcs find Toofy, find Leafy, want eat. Leafy make Toofy run, Toofy run, Toofy hide. Leafy...Leafy gone. Toofy alone, Toofy heart hurt,” Toofy looked up at me with sad eyes as fresh tears began running down her cheeks.

“Oh Toofy, I’m so sorry, come here!” I lifted Toofy up into a hug. I was beginning to understand why Toofy had grown so attached to me. I was treating her like a child after all, so of course, she would see me as a parent figure to fill the void left by Leafy.

After a while, Toofy stopped crying and I thought it would probably be best for both of us to take at least a short rest. This morning had been far more emotionally exhausting than I had expected when I woke up earlier. Snuggling Toofy in close and covering us both with the blanket, I decided that I would try and be nicer to Toofy from now on. While I hadn’t exactly been mean to her, there were times when I had kept my distance emotionally, and I now regretted it.

Waking up a while later, despite the emotional turbulence, I didn’t really dream of anything that I can remember now that I had woken up again. I guess that is good in its own way. Toofy looked like she was doing better now, which was a relief. I felt more than a little guilty over my narcissistic melodrama forcing her to dredge up such painful memories to put things in perspective.

“What do you think about getting some lunch?” I asked Toofy as cheerfully as I could manage, which admittedly wasn’t much but was still better than I could have managed before.

“Okay,” Toofy agreed, her usual energy still somewhat dampened compared to usual.

Knowing that I had to make this up to her, I decided to teach Toofy how to slide down the banisters. It took a few tries, but she quickly got the hang of it. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she could grind down the banisters on one of the larger food trays like a snowboard. Actually, that gave me an idea for a gift for Toofy. The carpenter seemed like a pretty capable guy, so I wonder if he could make a scooter for Toofy to play with? She would probably enjoy riding it around on the street of the town, with a real cape or cloak fluttering around in the wind behind her.

Heading downstairs to the common room, I waited at the bottom of the stairs and motioned to Kirk that he should pay attention. After waiting for Rose and incidentally a rather decent crowd of loitering adventurers, I gave Toofy the signal.

Toofy took a running leap, laughing hysterically as she landed both her feet agilely on the bannister and slid right down to the bottom with her ‘cape’ drawn out to either side and fluttering behind her. Leaping into my arms rather than risking a tumble, Toofy promptly hopped down and raced back to the top of the stairs again.

Toofy repeated her new game a half dozen more times before tiring somewhat and joining me at the bar.

“I am not sure you are a very good influence on her,“ Kirk commented with a wry smile.

I shrugged, better to let Toofy enjoy herself for a bit. “Could we have a large lunch, please? Toofy missed breakfast and I would like to make it up to her.”

“Sure thing,” Kirk agreed, disappearing into the kitchen for a few moments before returning with a large tray of roasted meat.

Letting Toofy pick what she liked first, I waited until she began slowing down before eating anything myself.

A short while later, I stretched and caught a whiff of my armpit. Even though the smell wasn’t that bad, it was clearly time for a bath. “I think it’s high time Toofy and I took another bath. Would it be alright if we bathed in the laundry area?” I asked Kirk, it had been more than a couple of days since the last time we bathed and I was feeling a little grody.

Kirk scratched his chin, “Erm, I guess it would be fine. But why not just take your bath upstairs?”

“I don’t really feel like making multiple trips,” I shrugged, there wasn’t much more to it than that. Besides, the cooking fire would be in use at the moment, so it would be a cold bath anyway. If anything, taking the bath outside might warm the water up a little. “Come on Toofy,” I waved at her to follow me as I walked around the bar and into the kitchen.

Rose was busy at work tending the fire and preparing what looked like stew in preparation for dinner, but she still raised an eyebrow inquisitively at me as Toofy and I walked through the kitchen.

“Taking a bath,” I explained sheepishly.

Rose nodded and turned back to what she was doing, apparently more than satisfied with the answer.

Walking out into the laundry area, I was a little surprised to find that most of the laundry tubs were missing. It took me a moment to realise that they had probably been used as part of the barricade and were very likely damaged. So I guess it made sense that they hadn’t dragged them back through the inn again, there wouldn't have been much of a point.

Taking one of the tubs, I placed it under the pump and filled it with water. As I had expected, the water was rather cold, so I decided that it would probably be best If I took my bath first, at least then the water would be somewhat warmed up for Toofy. Untying the blanket from around my shoulders, I slung it over a washing line and did the same for Toofy’s towel in an attempt to keep them from getting any dirtier and remain dry until we needed them.

Taking out a small bar of soap from the lidded clay pot by the door, I stepped into the tub and sat down.

Toofy began stripping down, but I managed to stop her before she got to her underwear, barely. Contrary to my expectations, Toofy didn’t seem to mind the cool water temperature and hopped in with a splash.

I grabbed one of the nearby buckets, filled it with the bathwater and upended it in the tub so Toofy had somewhere to sit that would keep her head above water. “Do you remember how to wash?” I asked Toofy while lathering up my chest and pits.

Toofy shrugged and then nodded somewhat uncertainly.

“Just copy me,” I instructed, making sure to rub down my arms, chest and as much of my back as I could reach.

“Toofy do,” Toofy agreed, watching me far more intently than I was comfortable with given our current situation.

Finished with the soap, I handed it over to Toofy, “After you wash, I will help you wash your hair, okay?”

“Kay,” Toofy nodded and began lathering up her arms just as I had done.

While Toofy was occupied, I discreetly washed down my groin and made a mental note to make sure one of the girls had a chat with Toofy about personal hygiene regarding her feminine areas. Although it was not an immediate issue, it was quite possible to become one in the future. In the best case scenario, I would prefer it if they helped socialize Toofy a little by bathing as a group. If there was one thing I had noticed over the past few days, it was that Toofy was much smarter than I had initially given her credit for, so proper socialization had to become a higher priority.

“Make sure to wash under your clothes too,” I reminded Toofy, as she lathered up her top.

Toofy looked at me a little weird, then shrugged, ”Kay.”

I took the opportunity to grab another bucket and began washing down my head and face with the soapy bathwater. To my immense relief, Toofy did not take long to wash and we could move on to washing her hair. Interestingly, Toofy remembered this part and leaned her head back towards me expectantly.

Wetting Toofy’s hair with the bathwater, I gingerly lathered up her hair and paid particular attention to behind her ears and the nape of her neck. Satisfied that it was about as good as I could manage, I shielded Toofy’s eyes with my hand and began rinsing her hair out with fresh water from the pump. “All done Toofy, time to hop out,”

Toofy eagerly got out of the tub and shook herself to dry off a little.

Getting out as well, I emptied the tub and pulled down Toofy’s towel and dried out her hair as best as I could before wrapping the towel around her just below the armpits. “Better?” I asked.

Toofy grinned and nodded.

Folding the blanket in half, I wrapped it around my gut and gave Toofy’s tunic and pants a good scrubbing in the bathwater before wringing them out and then emptying the bathwater into the corner drain. It fed into a small pipe that fed the water a short distance from the inn I think, or at least that’s what I vaguely remembered Rose telling me while we were doing laundry.

Heading back upstairs, I found my pack had been stored in the corner of the girl’s room and fished out Toofy’s spare change of underwear. Giving Toofy some privacy to change, I took off the blanket I had been using as a towel and properly dried myself off with it while staring at the far wall.

I spent the next hour or so singing the sausage nursery rhyme with Toofy to try and help her remember the words for each number, and later giving her some very basic math problems to familiarise herself with the concept. Toofy was definitely making solid progress on both counts, it was just a matter of keeping at it so it sticks.

“Ugh! I need sleep!” Nadine groaned as she suddenly barged into the room, wandered over to the bed and collapsed face-first into the blanket, “I never want to drink another mana potion again!”

Clarice was not far behind her and closed the door, “Yeah, I hear that the accumulated side effects are nothing to joke about,” she agreed with an exaggerated shiver.

“Side effects?” I asked.

Clarice nodded, “You get dizzy when you drink one, but if you drink too many you get pretty bad nausea or fatigue. Or at least that’s what Nadine says anyway.”

Nadine groaned into her pillow but made no further attempts to confirm or deny what Clarice had said.

“Oh, right!” Clarice slapped her forehead, “A Guild investigator is putting together a report on the raid, so try to stay up in the room as much as possible, yeah?”

“Okay...” I agreed hesitantly, “What is a Guild investigator exactly?”

Clarice scratched the back of her head awkwardly, “Well, erm, they like, investigate stuff for the Guild, you know?” She replied, perfectly explaining nothing I hadn’t already assumed by virtue of the title.

Nadine groaned and rolled over on the bed, “The investigator interviews people, looks into anything strange, assesses damage to the foothold, stuff like that,” she sighed tiredly, “It’s mostly just administrative stuff, but there is a chance that the investigator might take an interest in you and ask some difficult questions...”

Ah, there it is. “If that is the case, then I don’t really mind,” I agreed, more than willing to hang out in the room for a couple of days until this investigator leaves.

“Figured you would say that,” Clarice grinned somewhat mockingly, “So I let Kirk know that you and Toofy would be needing meals delivered to the room.”

“Thanks,” I was genuinely appreciative that Clarice had made the consideration on our behalf.

“Could you keep it down for a while, at least until I fall asleep?” Nadine groaned.

Clarice rolled her eyes and headed for the door, “Fine.”

Pulling out my damaged tunic from my pack, I followed through on my plans to repair and alter it. It was a rather straightforward process so it didn’t really take that long. Slipping on my recently patched tunic, I set about doing my best to shorten the pants and reinforce the knees and cuffs. Pretty much all the fabric from my mid-shin and lower had been torn and frayed to oblivion. So by the time I was done, I finished with a somewhat longish pair of shorts that fell just past my knees. Given that this was the best I could do with what I have, I decided not to be too hard on myself.

While I was more than happy to pass the rest of the day in quiet self-reflection, Toofy became bored rather quickly. I tried teaching her some quiet games, but Toofy was either uninterested or would become too excited and we would have to stop so she wouldn’t wake up Nadine. In the end, I settled on quietly telling Toofy some of the fairy tales and children's stories I remembered from when I was growing up. Toofy would interrupt occasionally when she didn’t understand something, but surprisingly not very often.

By the late evening Clarice had returned to the room and Nadine, though still tired, was doing much better.

“The investigator has been asking a lot of questions about Tim,” Clarice sighed irritably.

“Questions?” I asked hesitantly, unsure I wanted to hear the answer.

Clarice nodded, “Where is it? What level is it? Who is the owner? Where did it come from?” She had adopted a nasal tone, presumably to imitate the investigator, “He has been badgering me all day! Because of course, the Guild manager ratted us out!” Clarice seethed.

Tiredly sitting up in bed, Nadine nodded and rubbed at her temples, “What about Emelia? Do you know if she has told the investigator anything?”

Clarice snorted and smiled a little, “Actually, yeah, she has.”

Nadine stiffened, “Is it anything we need to worry about?” She asked worriedly.

“Nope,” Clarice chuckled and shook her head, “He tried questioning her but got nowhere fast! I think maybe Emelia is smarter than we gave her credit. After just a couple of minutes, the investigator was practically pulling his hair out and screaming at her when she couldn’t answer one of his first questions he asked slightly differently for a second time to try and trip her up. It was hilarious!” She crowed happily.

Nadine sighed in relief, “I suppose that is perhaps the best we could have hoped for.”

Clarice shrugged and pulled off her boots.

“So will we be alright you think?” I asked.

“Dunno,” Clarice admitted a little sheepishly, “Kirk and Rose are looking out for us, so it will probably be fine though.”

Nadine gave it some thought and then nodded, “The investigator seems to be driven by curiosity more than a valid motive, so I doubt the Guild will allow him to linger for long. Also with the portal open again, Kirk and Rose can exercise a decent amount of influence to pressure the Guild into wrapping up the investigation sooner rather than later.”

“Why is that exactly?” I asked curiously, “Aren’t they just running an inn?”

Nadine smirked a little condescendingly and shook her head, “The innkeepers who work inside the Labyrinths are technically contracted by the Guild. They have a rank slightly lower than the manager but unlike Guild managers, the innkeepers aren’t nearly as divided in Guild politics. So the managers are reluctant to antagonise them lightly.”

“Oh, I didn’t know Kirk and Rose had that sort of clout,” I admitted sheepishly, “But if they are Guild employees, does that mean the inn belongs to the Guild? So can’t the investigator just get a key and barge in whenever he feels like it?”

Nadine shook her head, “The agreements are a bit complicated, but basically Kirk and Rose own the inn under an operational discretionary lease contract. So long as Kirk and Rose pay the lease fee, they can run the inn however they like.”

“They can tell the investigator to fuck off basically,” Clarice clarified with a grin.

Nadine sighed but nodded in agreement.

“Well that’s a relief,” I sighed, but all too quickly remembered something else that had been bothering me, “Have either of you seen Jacque?” I asked worriedly. There were some questions I wanted to ask her, specifically about the Goblin chieftains spear, but she hadn’t made an appearance all day.

Clarice shrugged, “Dunno.”

Nadine shook her head as well, “She didn’t say anything about leaving, but I haven’t seen her since this morning. I doubt she will have gone anywhere just yet though, the rewards for the raid contributions haven’t been handed out yet after all, and it’s not like Jacque has dissolved the party either.”

I nodded and tried my best to put the matter out of mind for the time being, but it was easier said than done.

*****

Sauntering down the city streets of Hurst, Jacque paid little mind to the small band of thugs trailing behind her. Worst case scenario, they did something stupid and she would need to put them down. Jacque’s information broker in the slums had been quite helpful, so she didn’t really mind the minor inconvenience all that much since she was in a good mood.

Although Jacque still needed to verify the information with a few targeted inquiries at the Guild, she was confident that the opportunity was real and intended to capitalise on it. Defensible unclaimed real estate in the Labyrinth was hard to come by after all, and Jacque needed a new base of operations after what happened to the last one.

Recalling the slaughter of her minions at Trevor’s hands still made Jacque angry. The meathead hadn’t even claimed the territory or looted the ruins after levelling her fortress to the ground and killing everyone he could catch. Jacque swore that she would make Trevor pay for that, many of those minions had been irreplaceable.

Letting out a deep sigh, Jacque had to content herself with the fact that her provisional alliance with Tim seemed to be off to a good start. Even though he was not nearly ruthless enough to contend with the other Awakened, he was getting there. Given the right guidance and a few nudges in the right direction, Jacque was confident that Tim would more than suit her purposes.

Discovering Tim on the first floor of Hurst’s Labyrinth was a happy little accident and more than made up for losing her chance at the key. There would always be other keys and there was no telling which key he received anyway. Besides, If Jacque had wanted to claim the key, she would have had to kill all the witnesses. At least this way, all the attention was on Tim and not her.

Noticing two more thugs moving out of the alleys ahead of her to block her path, Jacque sighed and shook her head. Drawing her sword, Jacque glanced lazily over her shoulder at the thugs now rapidly closing in from behind and sighed again. This really was a mild inconvenience, but at least there would be no witnesses.

“Hand over yer-URK!” The thug staggered backwards clutching at his neck as blood welled over his fingers and ran down his chest.

Before the others could react, Jacque had leapt in amongst them. Effortlessly disarming one of them by hacking through his right bicep and severing the muscles and bone while using the same blow to slash open the guts of another, spilling his intestines onto the ground.

Jacque didn’t let up, capitalising on their shock and driving the tip of her sword through another thug's chest before kicking him off the blade and swinging the sword overhead and into the collarbone of another standing behind her.

“M-monster!” The last thug cried, dropping his truncheon and turning to run.

“Close enough,” Jacque muttered with a smirk, effortlessly catching up to the fleeing man and slashing a long gash down his back, causing him to pitch forward onto the hard ground.

“Please don’t kill me! I didn’t wan-ghurk...” Jacque cut the thug's plea short by hacking her sword halfway into his neck.

Shaking her head, Jacque leaned in close to the dying man so they could look one another in the eye, “I don’t show mercy to trash like you,” she spat, “Preying on those you think are weaker and always running your mouths about how you had no choice the moment someone stronger reminds you how weak you truly are!”

The thug pawed helplessly at the sword lodged in his neck as his eyes began to dim.

Jacque waited until the last flicker of life left the man’s eyes and snorted in contempt at his final thoughts encompassed by a single word, ‘unfair’. The irony was not lost on Jacque. To gang up on a woman late at night, seven to one and still claim that life, the fight and the universe, in general, was unfair...it was actually rather typical of most bandits and thugs Jacque was forced to put down. Almost every single one of them had believed their actions to be justified by some perverse self-serving logic, and the moment things didn’t go their way, it was ‘unfair’.

Wiping her sword clean on the dead thug’s tunic, Jacque briefly considered looting their bodies and then decided against it. It was likely that they only had a few coppers, and it wouldn’t be worth dirtying her hands further for such a pittance. Better to leave it for the scavengers, it would encourage them to mess up the scene a bit anyway as they fought over the spoils.

Jacque sheathed her sword and casually began sauntering back towards the Guild branch office, absently wondering if any other trash would be stupid enough to cross her path.

*****

Stiffly stretching my back, I wondered if it was really such a smart idea to sleep on the floor. Unsurprisingly, I was the first one awake and couldn’t really do all that much without waking anyone else up. So instead, I decided to look at everyone’s status to see if fighting off the raid had gotten us any real benefits.

Looking at my own status information first, I saw that I had levelled up, despite the gigantic amount of EXP required. The level up had awarded another point of Willpower, bringing me up to seventeen. Increasing my Willpower stat was tantamount to increasing enslavement protection, so I was glad to have it.

Toofy had gained an extra point of Toughness and Agility, which was nice. Anything that increased her survivability was more than welcome in my book.

Nadine had gone up a level as well, gaining another point of intelligence. I wonder if it actually makes her smarter? Or maybe it just helps with comprehension? Hrm, I should probably ask her about it later.

Lastly, Clarice had gained two whole points of extra Toughness, which was kind of crazy given how close both she and Toofy were to gaining another level. Clarice was steadily getting closer to the same HP as me even and now had thirty-three. The benefits of having a combat class were pretty obvious at this point. If I didn’t need to keep Toofy safe from opportunists using enslavement abilities on her, I would probably seriously think about getting a combat class instead of Slaver.

I know there are probably some people who would be overjoyed at the opportunity to dominate others with the power of their mind and turn them into hapless slaves, but I am not one of them. If it weren’t for Toofy, I would rather have no class at all than Slaver. Who knows, maybe there is an Anti-Slaver class? Maybe something like Liberator! Or Emancipator! I really can’t wait for Nadine to wake up so I can ask her about this stuff!

Unfortunately, Nadine didn’t have much time to answer my questions before needing to head downstairs to use the restroom, but so far as she knew, there were no such classes.

Clarice shrugged, “Is it really so bad?” She asked sceptically, “I mean if you know that you won’t abuse the ability and take advantage, then what is the difference?”

I opened my mouth to reply but couldn’t think of a satisfactory answer. The best I could manage was that I disliked the name and was honestly a little worried by the temptation. “I guess you're right...” I admitted somewhat sullenly.

Clarice shrugged again, “Sometimes you just have to make the most of what you are given, y’know?” She added sympathetically.

I nodded, “I guess.”

“Although, speaking of classes...” Clarice rolled over on the bed so she was facing me and had a hopeful expression on her face, “I don’t suppose you know any advanced combat classes?” She asked hopefully.

I shook my head, “Isn’t it pretty obvious that I don't?” I asked somewhat exasperatedly, “I was actually going to ask you to show me how to fight, but then Toofy and I got stuck in this room.”

Clarice sighed and nodded, “Figures. It’s pretty amazing that you can teach the Surgeon and Field Surgeon classes though,” she admitted, “You sure you don’t know any fighting techniques?”

“Pretty sure,” I replied. The closest thing I knew to fighting was Olympic style wrestling and I wasn’t very good at it. I lacked a lot of the necessary flexibility and nimbleness to perform the moves correctly. My mum had gotten me into wrestling for exercise and to try and make some friends, but my height and weight meant that I had to train with much older kids, so I dropped the sport after a few years. In hindsight, I probably would have been better at American showmanship wrestling, but I had never really considered it.

“You hesitated,” Clarice observed pointedly, “Why did you hesitate?”

Had I? I am pretty sure I hadn’t. Letting out a deep sigh I rubbed at my temple, “I know a little about wrestling,” I admitted.

Clarice smiled intensely and sprang up into a sitting position, “Teach me!” She demanded.

I flinched, “Um, are you sure? We don’t really have the space-” I tried to discourage Clarice but she was already up and off the bed.

“Nah, we’re doing this!” Clarice insisted, pulling on her pants, “You can just push the bed up against the wall or something!”

I slumped dejectedly in defeat.

Toofy seemed excited at doing something more active though, so I suppose this wasn’t all bad.

I pushed the bed against the far wall and removed the mattress before lifting it up onto its side to free as much space as possible. Laying out the mattress on the floor, I hoped that it would be sufficient to dampen hard falls without being too difficult to move on. Without a real mat, the mattress would just have to do.

“We need to do stretches first,” I insisted, resolved to at least avoid pulling a muscle if I could help it.

“So we just copy you?” Clarice asked, already doing some basic warmup stretches of her own.

I nodded, “Yeah. Ideally, the warmup would include some light running, but we don’t really have space for that...”

After about fifteen minutes of Toofy and Clarice following my lead, I waved them back away from the mattress and began demonstrating the basic stance and how you were expected to move. Explaining why the stance was important basically boiled down to remaining mobile while maintaining your centre of gravity to prevent you from losing balance, so they both picked it up easily enough.

Toofy already had the break-fall figured out from what I had seen yesterday, so I had her demonstrate it for Clarice. Once Clarice was fairly confident in using it, there wasn’t much point in putting off the holds and throws anymore, but I still wanted to give Clarice one last chance to back out.

“Are you sure?” I asked warily, “I am not particularly good at this and if I do it wrong, I could break or dislocate your arm...”

“Woah! Really?!” Clarice asked not at all afraid as I had hoped, and was instead even more excited.

Letting out a deep sigh, I assumed the position and signalled for Clarice to come at me. Before either of us really knew what was happening, I had ducked down, pivoted my body, grabbed her arm and thrown her up and over onto the mattress.

*Whump*

I just stood there for a moment awkwardly holding Clarice’s arm before moving to try and help her up.

“How the hell did you do that?!” Clarice demanded, apparently somewhat intimidated.

My technique had been sloppy but passable, mostly succeeding due to brute strength. “It would be easier if I could show you,” I explained with a sigh, “But I guess I could show you how I moved and then you could maybe practice with Nadine when she comes back.”

“Why Nadine?” Clarice asked, somewhat confused.

“You think you could throw me?” I asked dubiously. If she had a real wrestling instructor to work with, I admit that she would probably manage it with good technique, but for her current skill level, I was way too heavy.

Clarice frowned determinedly, “Why not?!” She demanded, “Go on, show me what I need to do, then I’ll flip you so hard you see stars!”

Groaning inwardly, I demonstrated the move five more times, step by step. Giving Clarice a few mock tries to get the form right, we were ready for Clarice to make an actual attempt.

“GRRRGH!!!” Clarice grunted and strained hard to try and lift me off the ground but just couldn’t manage it. Trying, again and again, she just couldn’t build up the required momentum.

“It’s alright,” I consoled her, “As I said, I am just way too heavy for you at the moment. There is no need to feel bad about it, I honestly doubt that I could flip someone my size,” I admitted truthfully.

Breathing heavily Clarice nodded and released my arm, “Then-what-else?” She demanded.

I was about to answer when Nadine returned with breakfast. “Oh, What are you guys doing?” She asked curiously, looking at the mattress in the middle of the floor.

“Tim’s teaching me to grapple!” Clarice insisted enthusiastically.

“Wrestle,” I corrected lightly, gratefully accepting one of the bowls and handing the other to Toofy.

“Whatever,” Clarice said dismissively, “Tim says I need a partner though, so what do ya say?”

“Uh, what?” Nadine asked, a little confused by what was going on.

“I need a training partner!” Clarice repeated insistently, “You’ll help me right?!”

Nadine blanched, “Um, I really don’t think it sounds like-”

“Nonsense!” Clarice interrupted, “It’s important for self-defence! Besides we have this mattress for safety and everything!” She insisted intensely.

Nadine looked to me for help, but I just shrugged. Clarice did actually have a point. It wouldn’t be a bad thing for Nadine to know how to defend herself without a weapon. Although admittedly one of the more aggressive martial arts would be better for that sort of thing.

While Toofy and I ate our breakfast, Clarice bullied Nadine through the warmup stretches.

Now free of having to demonstrate every move on Clarice, I could demonstrate everything up to final execution with Nadine and then have Clarice repeat it for me until she got it right. It still didn’t unlock any classes though, no matter how many times Clarice threw Nadine or pinned her to the floor.

“Enough!” Nadine put her foot down, “I am heading off for lunch!” She stormed out of the room and stomped down the corridor in a huff.

Clarice winced, “I guess I did kinda take it too far...” She admitted sullenly, “What are we getting wrong?”

I shrugged, “Maybe you need to wrestle a wider range of opponents?” I suggested. “Or maybe you need to beat someone with wrestling? Nadine didn’t unlock the Surgeon classes until she finished her second set of sutures.”

Clarice pursed her lips and nodded thoughtfully, “So what you’re saying is, I need to throw some people around and maybe choke them out?”

Oh no, what have I done?! “Ah, no Clarice I don’t think-”

Clarice wasn’t listening and hurried out of the room.

Damnit...

It’s not like I can even chase after her with that damn investigator around either. Ugh, this was just another stupid mistake, I should have just refused to teach Clarice anything in the first place.

“Hup,” Toofy rolled across the mattress again, clapping excitedly as she sprang up on the other side, “Hehehe! Tim see?” She asked excitedly.

Alright, maybe it wasn’t all bad, “Yes Toofy, I see. You are so good at this!” I replied encouragingly.

Toofy grinned and tucked into another roll across the mattress to land right in front of me. Grabbing my hand, she moves it onto her head and looks up at me expectantly.

“Cute little monster!” I growled affectionately, tousling her hair.

“Hehehe!” Toofy giggled through her teeth.

Seeing that Toofy really seemed to like acrobatics, I wondered if she would be interested in learning to handstand or cartwheel. They had little real practical value, but it was the sort of thing kids found entertaining. Besides, it would be easy enough to teach Toofy how to handstand while we are stuck in this room anyway.

“Do you wanna learn something fun?” I asked Toofy slyly.

“Hrm?” Toofy looked up at me curiously.

“Let’s go over by the wall and I will show you,” I explained, moving over to the wall and sitting down.

Toofy followed me, looking somewhat confused.

“Watch this,” I smiled, laying down on the floor before pushing my back up the wall and supporting my head with my arms.

Toofy clapped excitedly “Toofy do!” She insisted, copying what I had done, but having a much easier time of it given her lighter frame.

“Pretty fun huh?” I insisted.

Toofy grinned back at me but was too distracted by the new perspective to answer.

I winked at Toofy before slowly letting myself back down, “If you get good at it, you can even walk on your hands. Do you want to try?”

Toofy nodded vigorously, “Toofy do!”

“Hehe, okay Toofy,” I smiled and squatted down next to her, “Since you are still learning, I will hold your legs up so you can keep balance, okay?”

“Kay!” Toofy waggled her feet and toes excitedly.

Holding Toofy’s ankles I gently guided her away from the wall.

Toofy squawked in surprise at first, as she staggered and desperately tried to keep her balance. But very quickly, she found her centre of gravity and was able to keep pace with the slow movement across the room.

[Conditions have been met for {Clarice} to advance to the Advanced Class: {Grappling Pugilist}. Accept? (Y/N)]

“YESSS!” Clarice cried out loudly from outside the window.

I nearly dropped Toofy in surprise. After reading the notification, I just stared at it for a minute incredulously.

The door to the room slammed open and Clarice rushed inside. She had a split lip and her nose was bleeding, but Clarice didn’t seem to care, “You see that right?!” She demanded excitedly.

I nodded, “What did you even do?” I asked hesitantly, not sure I wanted to know the answer.

“Oh pretty much nothing,” Clarice scoffed offhandedly, “I just sparred a bit with Tobi since I figured he owes us one. I kept trying to throw him over my shoulder as you showed me, but he kept hitting me, so I got a bit mad and started hitting him back. Before I knew it, I got a good left hook in and dropped Tobi to the ground. Since he was already down there, I figured I would try the chokehold you know? One thing led to another and here we are!”

Wait a minute, “Did you choke Tobi unconscious and leave him outside alone?” I asked sharply.

Clarice opened her mouth to answer but promptly stopped herself, “Ah...maybe...” She admitted sheepishly.

“I told you choking people out was dangerous Clarice!” I hissed urgently, “You should have at least brought him to Kirk to make sure he was alright!”

“Ah, yeah...” Clarice admitted awkwardly, “I’ll go do that now,” she quickly slipped outside and hurried downstairs again.

I had half a mind to decline the class change on general principle, but after taking a deep breath I decided against it. There was little point in being petty, the damage was already done. Perusing Clarice’s status while waiting for her to return, I could see that she had unlocked two basic classes as well, the Grappler and Pugilist. So maybe I was right, practicing with Nadine hadn’t counted, or maybe Clarice just needed a second opponent.

“Nadine says Tobi will be fine,” Clarice announced dismissively as she returned to the room again. “So anyway, are you gonna accept the advanced class or not?!” Clarice demanded impatiently.

“You actually want it? Do you even know what the class does?” I asked just to make sure. Conceptually, the class didn’t seem like a very good idea. The whole point of using weapons was to put some added distance between yourself and your opponent. Theoretically, this class would specialize in close-quarters fighting, not exactly ideal when fighting monsters.

Clarice nodded, “It’s probably all about hitting people and throwing them around. Of course I want it!” She insisted.

I sighed and shrugged, ultimately, it was her decision, “Accept.”

“YES!” Clarice pumped her fists, “THIS IS SO AWESOME!”

“Status” I muttered quietly. I wanted to see what exactly made this class so special. Skimming through the majority of the information that I knew already, I saw that her starting stat bonus was a single point of strength and five bonus HP, not much of a surprise there. However, reading through the new class ability genuinely gave me pause.

[(Class Ability: Brutal Momentum {Rank 0}): Increases the momentum of your attacks. {Strength} increases momentum.]

“Hehe, you wanna try that move again?” Clarice asked with a determined grin.

I sighed and nodded. Might as well find out if the ability behaves like we think it does.

After making sure Toofy was a safe distance away, I gave Clarice the go-ahead and she smiled wickedly. Already regretting agreeing to this, It was obvious that Clarice had not forgiven her earlier failure.

Throwing her whole weight and strength into the throw in one motion, Clarice actually managed to almost lift me off the ground. Considering that she was a whole strength point weaker than the last time she tried, this was a damned impressive effort.

“Ugh, damn it!” Clarice cursed, staggering away and massaging her shoulder, “Still couldn’t throw you...”

“You came close though,” I pointed out encouragingly, “Much closer than before for sure.”

“Really?” Clarice asked, hissing a little as she rolled her shoulder, very likely having pulled a muscle.

“Yeah. You could probably manage it with another point of strength to replace the one you lost,” I agreed.

“Huh,” Clarice seemed mollified by that, “You’re right, I forgot about the strength loss,” she admitted and grinned again, “Just wait until I level up again, I’ll be throwing you around like a sack of flour in no time!”

“That’s not very encouraging...” I pointed out awkwardly.

Clarice shrugged, “Wasn’t meant to be!” She grinned ferally, “Anyway, thanks for the help, Tim!” Clarice called out over her shoulder on her way out of the room, “Now, who to try it on next-” I heard her muttering as she closed the door.

I really need to stop helping crazy people...

*****

Emelia sat awkwardly at the bar and picked at her lunch with little enthusiasm. But it wasn’t because she had problems with the food, Emelia actually really liked Rose’s cooking. She was just rather stressed out and didn’t feel like she had anyone to talk to about it.

Helping the group during the raid seemed to have helped repair the rift Emelia had created between them, but she didn't want to test the relationship just yet for fear it would fall apart again. So that left Emelia on her own, with no one to talk to. If she was being honest with herself, Emelia was afraid of what Tim, Nadine and Clarice would say when they discovered that both Bloodhunters were dead.

Emelia was not particularly good with numbers, but she knew that those two monsters had required a colossal amount of mana-stones to evolve and that she had no feasible way of paying them back.

When Emelia had enquired at the Guild office about her share of compensation from the raid, the receptionist had unhelpfully directed Emelia to the notice posted on the board. Even after lingering by the board for more than three hours, Emelia still did not have a clear idea of how much compensation she would receive. Asking some of the other adventurers investigating the notice hadn’t been particularly helpful either.

Emelia sighed dejectedly and took another bite of her meal. When Emelia had applied to become an adventurer, she hadn’t known it would involve so much reading. The main reason she chose to become an adventurer was that she thought all she needed to do was kill monsters and get paid. If Emelia had known things would turn out like this, she never would have run away from home in the first place. Although, it was fairly depressing that contrary to her initial expectations, neither her mother nor father had made any attempts at trying to track her down.

Then again, Emelia should have expected it. She had been a constant source of embarrassment for them and they were probably quite happy to be rid of her. After all, for a family of scribes to have a daughter unable to read or write was scandalous. It wasn’t for a lack of trying on Emelia’s part, she wasn't illiterate! It was the damned letters and numbers! Whenever Emelia became anxious, they would just begin moving around on the damned page!

Everything that had gone wrong in her life was the fault of those damned untrustworthy things messing about and tripping her up. Most recently when the Guild manager insisted that Emelia was legally required to hand Toofy and Tim over or be imprisoned. Unable to read the words on the paper, Emelia had no idea whether he was telling the truth and he wouldn’t let Emelia talk to Nadine about it. The decision had to be made right then and there. And in her fear, Emelia had chosen poorly, she knew that now.

Despite the pain and no small level of anguish Emelia had caused Tim, he had given her a second chance to make things right. Tim had even given her the two Bloodhunters to help protect her during the raid. But now the Bloodhunters were dead and everything was turning to shit again. How am I even meant to tell him? Emelia sighed dejectedly and wondered if anyone else would accept her into their party.