“Yeah, this is too good to be true.”

Books shook his head.

“We shouldn’t go. I know these Councilmen. They’re snakes, and there’s no way they would pay that high of a salary and even give away their rights to the loot unless there was a very good reason.”

I had a similar train of thought, but hearing it from Books, who already suffered badly at the hands of the Imperial City Council’s slavery contract, only cemented the idea that this request was highly risky.

However, there was one thing that Books did not consider.

“We should still go.”

Books looked at me with a betrayed face and snapped.

“Are you out of your mind? Did you see what those guys did to me? If we go, we’re heading to our deaths with no way of escape—“

Meat Shield dipped into existence and landed on Books’ shoulder. In the chaos of the tavern, the anomaly went unnoticed.

He stopped mid sentence, as his expression changed from a frown to a look of understanding.

“Ah, I see. The dimension room.”

“Yeah. It gives us a lot of options, and we can use it as long as we’re out of combat.”

I lowered my voice to a slow whisper.

“If the quest really does go south and the army gets wiped out… it’s a payday for us. We can dip into the dimension room and collect all the loot later.”

“What if we get stuck in combat? Your escape ability doesn't work in combat.”

I extended my arm to Meat Shield, who jumped on.

“I’ll keep an eye out, so don’t worry too much~” Meat Shield purred.

I smiled confidently.

“It’ll be risky for sure, but think of the payout. Gold, experience, loot… It’s worth the risk. Pays way better than just grinding basic requests in town. And God knows we need to pick up our pace to match the rankers.”

Rankers were the colloquial name for players at the top of the leaderboards in levels, stats, and achievements. Stratification of players by caliber was already happening, and leaders were emerging. [Steel Slice] was one of the low end rankers, having benefited from astronomical growth through early PK. [Rick], the orb of light swordsman from the battle of Mountain, was now one of the top rankers on the server.

I wasn't anywhere close to the top, because of all the time I wasted doing shitty jobs like dish washing and mushroom picking, not to mention straight up being dead half the time. My competitive spirit was burning inside me. If I wanted to stay competitive and reach the leaderboards, risks needed to be taken.

“Think about it Books, we can't be dish washers forever. Let’s enlist.”

Books sighed, clearly torn. But he wasn't in a position to decline after I just saved his ass.

“Alright. I’ll trust your call Spoon.”

We headed to the enlistment office.

The line in front of the enlistment office was so long, that it went down the block and around the corner. I hadn't seen a line this long since the last iPhone release. Countless hopefuls were lured by the promises of a two hundred silver per day salary as well as the prospect of looting dwarven made weapons and armor, which could go for a handsome sum. There were so many volunteers that conscription was not necessary.

The people on the line ranged from poor to moderately well off. People from all professions were lined up. Farmers, adventurers, tailors, blacksmiths, even a few beggars… but I didn’t see a single noble on the line.

“Declined. Next!”

“Good enough. Next!”

“Declined. Next!”

I watched as the four conscription officers in the front of the line evaluated each new prospect. The frail, elderly, and otherwise unfit for combat were turned away at first glance, but the officers were actually being quite lenient, allowing a boy that looked no older than thirteen and an emaciated looking farmer to join the ranks.

The line moved quickly because of the lax interview process. Eventually, it was my turn. I walked up in full armor, like a baby waddling in the snow, struggling under the weight of two jackets and a scarf his mom made him wear.

“You're good to go. Next!”

Just like that, I was handed a paperwork scroll to sign, a cloth uniform of Empire design with an emblem of the Capital on it, and a scroll containing instructions regarding when and where to assemble.

[Quest Accepted: Enlistment]

The capital has issued a draft notice for able bodied soldiers, in a preventative campaign against the dwarves.

Meet at the western gate in three hours. You have been assigned to the Fourth Draft Regiment, commanded by Commander Isaac. Iron weapons will be distributed. Due to budgetary limitations, armor will not be provided.

Royal Army Quest

Difficulty: Hard

Reward: 200 silver a day, reputation, experience, loot

There wasn’t much time left until the regiment meeting. I looked over at Books, who was talking to the conscription officer. He spoke animatedly until the officer handed him a new scroll.

Books walked over to me.

“There we go. Just had to make sure we were in the same regiment.”

“Nice. Let’s get you geared up before we go.”

Books looked a bit sheepish remembering that he lost all his equipment and gold, and only had the small sum from our last few days of low level quest grinding.

“Thanks again, brother. I owe you.”

With that said, I headed back to the marketplace and started looking for some basic equipment for Books. I was being generous to him because he had my back in a life-or-death situation back during the original goblin raid.

“What kind of equipment do you need?”

Books put his hand on his chin in contemplation. He no longer had the [Helmet of the Warlord] that we looted from the armory a few weeks ago, so his strength was now subpar again compared to the average warrior.

“Hm… I’ve been relying a lot on my [Potioneering] ability to fight until now. The [Merchant of Avarice] class isn’t as strong as other combat classes, so I’ve been trying to develop my unique traits and abilities.”

“That’s why I tried to steal the [Black Witch’s Cauldron] so badly. I found out through a ton of trial and error that my [Potioneering] ability has a fixed drop table, and the best drop is the [Potion of Giant] that you saw me use last time.”

“But it has roughly a 2% drop rate, which isn’t reliable enough. I was thinking that the cauldron could improve the drop rate or make the drops better.”

“Makes sense.”

“It’s a real tragedy that I lost all the potions that I saved up after getting arrested…”

Books sighed and banged his head with his fist.

He ended up getting some leather armor, a bow, and a two handed sword. I asked if he wanted to get any health or mana potions, which instantly made his face pouty. It was clear that he wasn’t over the loss of all of his hard earned potions, which he farmed by running away from boars for hours upon hours because they only dropped during combat.

He eventually did buy a few potions, grumbling and cursing under his breath as he handed over the money.

With our preparations complete, we headed to the city gate to meet up with the Fourth Draft Regiment.

———

“Attention!”