“It smells like crap.”

“I think it smells a lot worse than that.”

“How much crap have you smelled before?”

“Actually I used to be a plumber before I became a thief.”

“That’s pretty cool. Hey, my bathroom has been clogged for a while. Do you think you can take a look?”

“Shut up you two!” Taffeen screamed at the thieves. “It’s already bad enough in here without you two talking about shit!”

“Sorry boss…”

As much as it pained Aurus, he had to agree with the thieves. The sewers definitely smelled a lot worse than usual. They hadn’t reached the main waterways yet and the smell was already unbearable. He would have a lot of trouble taking that piece of paper if he couldn’t even breathe properly. From the looks of it, the Thieves Guild were going to be relocating their entire operation to another place. This probably meant he was going to stay a hostage for a bit longer, so even if he couldn’t manage to take the information from Taffy here, he would still have plenty of opportunities. He lifted his hands to cover both his nose and mouth.

Where is this stench coming from? This smells worse than one of Marc’s dishes. Did the whole town just decide to go to the bathroom all at once? Why is it so… are you kidding me.

As they reached the main waterways, Aurus saw, lit up by the stone-light, dozens upon dozens of goblin corpses. Heaps and heaps of goblin carcasses, all laying in the sewer system and all of them decaying.

“Woah. You guys have a bit of a goblin problem here.” Taffy pointed out to Aurus who had a frozen expression.

“Yeah… we do…”

Those idiots. Those absolute idiots.

It was bad enough that the city dealt with an unnecessary goblin attack two weeks prior, now Aurus had just discovered that they had disposed of the goblin corpses the worst way imaginable, by dumping them all in the sewer. Judging from the sizes of the piles, he could tell that it was like this all across the city, all 2000 goblins that were killed that day, now rested underneath the streets of Anderess. This would have been excused had they been attacked by anything other than goblins, whose bodies produce immense amounts of gas once they start decaying. This was why the sewers smelled so bad, and why the tiniest spark would ignite all of the gas.

A spark here won’t just start a fire or cause an explosion where we are. It will ignite the entire sewer system underneath the town. Considering how these tunnels were built its unlikely that the explosion would destroy them, but there are many weak points scattered across town that could be severely damaged, and hurt a lot of people in the process. I have to fix this…

Aurus’ mind was now trying to figure out how to resolve the sewer problem, not only that, he was still thinking of a way of finding who could’ve leaked the entrance to the guild warehouse.

This would be a lot easier if I could breathe properly. Aurus winced as he caught a slightly larger scent of the decaying corpses. There’s no way to grab that paper here.

He would wait until they reached wherever it was they were heading towards. Looking at Taffy, he noticed for the first time that his outfit had a symbol on the shoulder, two daggers crossing with a snake curling around them.

“What’s with the symbol on the coat?” He asked curtly.

“Oh this old thing? It’s our very own symbol representing the Thieves Guild. I made it myself.”

“That snake looks it was run over.” A few people stifled their laughter behind Aurus.

“If my dagger wasn’t partially made of flint I would have stabbed you right now.”

At least he isn’t stupid enough to pull out a dagger made of flint in a tunnel filled with gas.

They continued making their way through the tunnels, turning a corner every few minutes. As they turned a corner, Aurus recognized a goblin corpse that looked a bit familiar. They were walking in circles, and he was tired of having to breathe in air that had come from inside of something’s intestines. He wasn’t going to complain though, at least he had more time to think of a plan.

After about an hour of rounding familiar corners and looking at the same piles of goblin guts and bodies he had enough. This was probably worse than anything that “pain” magic knife could ever do to him. That is, until they reached a smaller sized tunnel that seemed to lead upwards. As they made their way up a familiar setting stood before them. Another warehouse, this time filled with different kinds of boxes than the previous one. If Aurus had to guess, they weren’t very far from their old place, especially since the design was almost identical to the other one. He was taken quickly to a side room filled with boxes and was tied to a chair just like before. A desk was brought in to inaugurate the new office of the leader of the Thieves Guild.

“If you’ll excuse me there is a lot that need to be done to make sure that we can start operating again to our fullest potential.”

“Do what you have to do.”

Once again Aurus was alone. This time without his head throbbing from an injury. Clearing his mind, he focused on how to get out of that chair. He knew that if he waited too long he would end up being tortured, and being tied down made sure that he wouldn’t be able to do anything but suffer through it. He wasn’t dexterous enough to grab the paper with his hands tied, so the first thing he needed to do was break free. As he was about to try the old fashioned technique of struggling against his bindings, he noticed a figure standing to his side. A familiar smile looked at him as Aurus looked back at the head sticking partially out from behind the crates in the room.

“Roren?”

“Hello Aurus!” The man said with an unfailing smile.

“Why are you standing behind a bunch of crates?”

“I was doing some lifting work.”

“This warehouse belongs to the Builder’s Guild?”

“Yeah! They asked me to come over and help.”

“Why not just hire someone else to do it?”

“I don’t remember very well, but it had something to do with food.”

“Food?” Probably cutting costs elsewhere to keep having feasts. They never learn. “Ok, and why are you behind a bunch of crates?”

“I was taking a nap. And then I woke up, and heard a bunch of strange people moving around and then I saw you! You know there are a lot of adventurers outside looking for you.”

“Outside?”

“Yeah! They said you were in a warehouse across the street, but they were wrong cause you’re right here!”

Across the street? My guess that we weren’t far from where we started was right, but this close? These guys really need better backup locations.

“Roren, can you untie me please?”

“Sure thing!”

Stepping out from behind the crates. The giant man untied Aurus with ease and now stood beside him.

“Thank you. Do you know of a way of getting out of here without being seen?” He said, rubbing his wrists.

“Yeah! There’s a backdoor behind one of these boxes. It’s how I got in but then I got sleepy and decided to take a nap.”

“Oh.” That makes things a lot easier. I still need to stay here and get that letter, or note, or whatever Taffy has in his pocket. “Can you so something else for me then?”

“I was going to get back to work, but with all these weird people here I don’t know if I’ll be able to. So yeah!”

“Go to the Adventurer’s Guild and tell them to stay away from the sewers.”

“Why don’t you go tell them? The backdoor is right here.”

“Yes it is, but I still need to do something here. If they ask you why tell them I sent you, and if they don’t believe you, hand this over to Nia.” Aurus took his glasses from his pocket and handed them to Roren. “That should be enough.”

“Ok. Got it!” Roren turned around to leave.

“Do you remember what you have to tell them?”

“Something to do with sewers!”

“To stay away from the sewers. Don’t forget it. Also tell them I’m fine and will be there soon so I won’t need rescue.”

“Alright. Bye Aurus!” Roren said, this time actually leaving through the hidden door.

He grabbed the rope that was previously keeping him secure to the chair and sat back down, arranging it as well as he could to make it seem like he was still tied. Hopefully, this would convince Taffy long enough for Aurus to surprise him and steal the paper before the torture could begin. It wasn’t a perfect plan, in fact, it was far from that, but he wanted to get this over with and start focusing on other problems, like the ticking time bomb underneath the city.

Now if everything goes right. I should be out of here in less than an hour… *BOOM*

An explosion rattled the room, for a split second Aurus thought the sewers had ignited but the ground barely shook. Soon he started hearing the sounds of people fighting just outside the room, before he heard the voice of a familiar adventurer from a distant kingdom shout.

“Where is Aurus!?”

Oh no…

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Why doesn’t he teach me? Ren thought as he struck an ogre with his sword.

I mean, yeah, there is a bit of stuff to memorize, like magic types, and activators and all that. He parried a blow from his enemy.

I really want to learn magic, but I also really don’t want to go to college, even if it is magic college. He jumped over another swing from the ogre.

I mean, there must be a reason I was sent here after all, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t to go back to school. Ren swung at the ogre’s head, killing it swiftly.

This enchanted sword is pretty good! I guess I don’t need to learn magic to use it, but then I won’t be able to shoot fireballs out of my hands.

“Ren!”

Oh right. Can’t shoot them out of my hands. Magic and living things don’t mix and blah blah blah. This is stupid! Why is there no mana in this world?

“Ren!”

This would have made things so much simpler! Why was I sent to this world? Shouldn’t there be a better one with better magic out there? Why won’t he teach me!?”

“REN! Stop daydreaming and help us!!!”

“Oh right, sorry.”

He moved on to help his team dispatch the rest of the ogres. The cave exploration proved a little more challenging than originally expected, but even with the surprise encounters, the monsters were no match to the adventurers. It had only taken them about an hour to map the whole area before returning to town, successful in their latest quest.

“You need to pay more attention to what’s going on, Ren. We really needed you back there.”

“Sorry Denna. Just was a little distracted.”

“Still thinking about the fact you will never learn magic?” Almer said.

“Actually, I was thinking about how I haven’t smacked you today.”

“You wouldn’t do that to your best pal though, would you?” He placed his arm around Ren’s shoulder.

“No I wouldn’t. Thankfully you are not my ‘best pal’.”

“Ouch. My heart. You need to learn to be nicer. Maybe then Gherson will actually bother to teach you something.”

“But I was nice! I pushed a bit, but only because I was eager.”

“If you were really eager you would have considered going to the Wizard’s College.” The priestess, Ilina, commented.

“I’ve never been a fan of the whole ‘school’ thing. Plus Almer keeps saying how it was boring and a waste of time.”

“Hey, I never said it was a waste of time. I just said it was like being drained of my will to live slowly as the days went on in a dull haze of stress and boredom.”

“See? That’s what college is. A place where people go to abandon their hopes and happiness.”

“Ok, but explain to me how Gherson teaching you would be any different than learning magic at the college.” Denna said.

“I don’t know. It’s just that I always thought the guild master was supposed to be a mentor figure of sorts, not some overworked jerk.”

“Maybe he doesn’t think you’ll make a good mage.” Yorven, the fighter of the group chimed.

“Or maybe he doesn’t think you’re good enough.” Almer added.

“Hmmm…” Not good enough… I am sort of new to all this other world stuff. How do I make myself good enough then? “I’ll figure something out. Also let’s stop by the market, there are a few things I want to buy.”

“Alright, we are running out of health potions and other supplies anyways.” Yorven checked his backpack.

“Didn’t you say your sword was beginning to dull, Denna?” Ren asked.

“Yeah, but I’ll just sharpen it until I have enough money for a new one.”

“Don’t worry about that, I can buy you a new one.”

“Are you sure? You already bought most of our equipment.”

“I have enough gold to spare.”

“Geez. Just how rich were you in your kingdom?” Almer asked.

“Not very. There are people who are a lot richer than me there.”

“If you aren’t rich by their standards I really want to visit your kingdom.”

“They’ll just think you’re a hobo, Almer.”

“Exactly! Just think of the spare change they give to their hobos. I would be the Andrew of Ren’s kingdom.”

“The who?”

“The… right you don’t know him. There’s this guy who is part of the guild and he…”

Their conversation carried on as they reached the town. Even without the sun, the city was still lit up partially by the street lamps. Ren wasn’t used to such a rustic atmosphere, but he grew used to it quickly, he was living the dream of being an adventurer after all. After a quick visit to the market, the party made their way to the guild inn to rest for the night. As they moved to the front desk of the inn, Ren spotted Nia talking to one of the attendants. After paying for each of their rooms, the tired crew made their way upstairs while Ren waited to speak to the assistant.

“Hey Nia. I’ve never seen you here at this time.”

“Yeah, I’m just waiting for Aurus to come back from a meeting with the captain of the guard.”

“It’s almost midnight. Do you usually wait this long?”

“No, I don’t. Have you seen him?”

“No sorry.”

“Hmmm.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Something feels off. He usually gives a warning, or sends someone with a message when he’s running late.”

“Maybe he just got distracted.”

“I don’t think so… I’ll go check with the captain, he’s probably still there.”

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to interrupt a meeting like that?”

“I do it all the time, and I really need him to sign these before I leave for the night.” She tapped a small stack of documents on the desk.

“Alright, good luck with that. Good night.”

“Good night.”

Ren headed upstairs and collapsed on the bed. Even in a world of magic and adventure, the best thing he had experienced so far were the beds. He had never slept so well in his life, though that was probably the exhaustion from questing all day. Either way, as soon as his head hit the pillow he fell asleep. Him and his party slept for a few hours uninterrupted before they were awoken by the sounds of commotion coming from the guild tavern. Quickly suiting up and heading downstairs they found all sorts of adventurers readying their gear and leaving quickly. Nia, sitting at the Info Desk, seemed to be organizing everything.

“What’s going on?” Ren asked her.

“I talked to the captain last night and Aurus wasn’t there, said he had left towards the guild a few hours before. We sent a small group to investigate a warehouse and they found him hostage to the Thieves Guild.”

“You found him what?!”

“Yeah, we’re sending everyone available there now. Are you coming or not?”

“Of course I am!”

The group set out towards the warehouse and reached it quickly, but not quickly enough, as it had already been empty by the time they arrived. The mood was sour amongst the rescue party, as the keener adventurers investigated the area, trying to find any evidence of where they might have escaped.

“Where do you think they could have gone?” Ren asked Nia.

“I don’t know. We should have mobilized the town guard before going back to the guild, even if they couldn’t stop the thieves from running it would at least tell us where they went.” She looked down.

“Yeah… Well if it makes you feel any better I…”

“Hey Nia!” The voice of a large man interrupted Ren.

“Hey Roren. What are you doing here?”

“I’m sending a message from Aurus to you and the guild.”

“Wait. You have a message from Aurus?”

“Yeah! Here are his glasses to prove that it’s true.”

She took the glasses and her eyes widened.

“Where is he? What’s the message?” She asked, almost tripping over her own words.

“He’s in that warehouse over there.” He pointed towards a building that looked incredibly similar to the one they were investigating. “He also said to stay away from the sewers and something about not rescuing him.”

“How long ago was this Roren?”

“About a minute or two.”

“Oh thank goodness.” Nia breathed a sigh of relief. “If he doesn’t need rescue then he must have everything under control. But why stay away from the sewers? What do you think Ren? Ren?”

She looked around for the young man and found that she was alone with Roren. Looking at the building the giant had pointed to, she saw the whole party running as fast as they could towards it. Ren turned to Almer.

“Destroy that wall!”

“On it!”

The mage quickly pulled out a pouch and grabbed a handful of what looked like ash mixed with sulfur. As they ran, he threw the mixture at the tip of his staff, igniting the upper half of the item as a huge fireball erupted from it. It flew straight towards the wall destroying most of it with a large blast. The whole group stepped inside the warehouse and saw the scared faces of several dozen thieves staring at them.

“Where is Aurus!?” Ren screamed.

“RUN!” A tall man with an odd looking coat shouted from the back.

“Don’t let any of them get away! I’ll go find him.”

“I’ll come with you.” Denna said.

They moved through the chaos as the rest of the party began fighting the thieves. The fighting quickly escalated as more and more people from both sides joined in, the adventurers, hearing the commotion from the outside, and the thieves, who decided not to go down without a fight. Ren saw a few thieves ducking into a side rooms, and followed suit, seeing as Aurus wasn’t anywhere in the main area. Walking into one of the rooms, he saw the guild master tied to a chair, looking at him angrily.

“Aurus! I’m here to…”

“Didn’t you get my message from Roren?”

“Yeah, he told us where you were and then we rushed over here to save you.”

“No you didn’t. The full message was to stay away from the sewers and to NOT rescue me.” He lifted his arms and revealed he wasn’t tied at all.

“Oh! But if you were already free why didn’t you escape as soon as you could?”

“Because there is something about them I need to find out. Also who is shooting fireballs?”

“That would be Almer.” Denna replied.

“Then go tell him and the rest of the mages not to use any fire magic unless they want us all to die.”

“On it!” Denna left the room quickly to warn the rest of the rescuing force.

“Cmon Aurus! I’ll help you out of here.” He grabbed the guild master’s arm and began leading him to the main area.

“No.” He pulled away just as they stepped outside the room. “I still have to find out who they work for before I…”

“Before you what?” The tall man said, grabbing Aurus from behind and holding a glowing knife at his throat. “Before you escape? You’re my hostage, MY ticket to becoming the greatest thief!”

“Let him go!” Ren shouted.

Aurus also saw as he was being held, that one of the thieves had managed to open the doorway to the sewers, but from the looks of it no one dared go inside it because of the smell.

“And who are you to give orders like that? I am the great thief Taffeen! The leader of the Thieves Guild! And it seems I have the upper hand. Come any closer and I kill him.”

The threat seemed to scare Ren, as he lowered his sword and took a step back.

“He’s not going to kill me! I’m a hostage for a reason you idiot. The most he would actually do is poke me with it.”

“Hey! That’s not a bad idea.” Taffy said, poking Aurus in the stomach with the magic dagger.

“Arrrrghhh!!!” Aurus doubled over in pain as the knife poked him on the side of his chest, slightly releasing him from Taffy’s grip.

“Aurus!”

Ren charged Taffy and tackled him, sending both of them to the ground while Aurus just barely managed to stay standing.

“Me and my stupid mouth…” Aurus winced and saw how close they both were to the sewer entrance.

Taffy swiftly kicked Ren in the stomach, sending him a small distance away. This gave both of them enough time to stand as the adventurer readied his sword and the thief pulled another dagger from his belt. From what Ren could see that one wasn’t glowing, and therefore wasn’t magic. They began exchanging blows as the priestess, Ilina, cared for Aurus’ wound.

“Ren! Don’t let that knife near the sewers!” Aurus tried screaming, to no avail. The kid was too engrossed in the fight to hear him.

Ren had seen his fair share of fights ever since he arrived in this world, through a human enemy wielding a magic weapon was a first. He was unsure how to do this, but as the fight went on, he realized this was just like fighting a higher difficulty monster. His magic gauntlets of strength and his magic boots of jumping also helped immensely, making his parries and blows very quick while also making him a lot more mobile.

Maybe if I beat this guy one on one, then Aurus will think I’m good enough to be taught magic.

He dodged another one of Taffy’s swipes and countered with his own that the thief also dodged.

Hmmm maybe I don’t need to know magic. I’m doing pretty well against the leader of the thieves guild.

After another unsuccessful swipe, Ren managed to disarm Taffy of his regular dagger, leaving him with just the magic one. At this point most of the thieves had been dealt with, meaning they were one of the last ones still fighting. The adventurers began cheering for Ren, while the tied up and soon to be arrested thieves, cheered for their leader. Having that many people cheering for him wasn’t something Ren was used to, but the confidence boost was very much appreciated. They clashed blades and were now staring each other down.

“You don’t know when to give up do you?” Taffy asked.

“No. I really don’t.” Ren said before using his boots to jump over his opponent.

Taffy fell forward, thrown off balance by the sudden missing weight in front of him while Ren landed behind him and struck his head with the hilt of his sword. He fell to the ground, dropping the knife just out of reach. Taffy tried crawling for the dagger before a foot stepped in front of him and he saw the tip of a sword pointed towards his face.

“You don’t know when to give up do you?” Ren said.

The room went silent for a few seconds as everything that had happened started to sink in. Ren had defeated the leader of the Thieves Guild. The adventurers all began shouting and cheering even louder than before, as Ren stood over his opponent, victorious. He breathed in for a few moments as his mind caught up to everything he had said and done.

HOLY CRAP THAT WAS SO COOL! Yeah, I don’t think this world is so bad after all, just look at all these people cheering for me. I guess after that one there is no way I’m not considered ‘good enough’.

He glanced at Aurus, who breathed a sigh in relief. The fight was over, and now he could get to fix the problems currently rotting away beneath the town. He was still unable to stand very well, and even after the healing done by Ren’s party member, he still held one arm to his stomach, where he had been stabbed. Whatever that ‘pain magic’ was, it was strong, and he wanted to know how someone managed to create it. The dagger was secure on the floor away from Taffy, so he shifted his priority to taking the paper from the fallen guild master’s pocket.

Ren walked over keeping his eyes on Taffy and picked up the glowing dagger, examining it closely. It glowed eerily dark, and the engravings on the hilt looked odd to him as well. Whatever it was, it was not a good thing. His first encounter with an evil/cursed item. He knew very well how dangerous they could be, or at least how dangerous they seemed in all the movies and games he played. Thinking deeply about what to do with such loot, he heard Taffy mumble from among the cheering adventurers.

“My dagger…”

“It’s not yours anymore, thief.”

He heard another voice from among the cheering, Aurus was looking at him and seemed to be walking towards the both of them.

“Ren… the dagger… don’t let it… near the…” He said, between breaths.

“Oh don’t worry Aurus. I won’t let it near anyone ever again.” He reared up and threw the knife towards the entrance of the sewers.

Aurus did not even have time to scream no before the blade left Ren’s hand. He stared in horror as the flint-based weapon flew across the opened doorways and into the dark hall leading to the waste disposal of the city.

All he could do was scream, “TAKE COVER!” Before a bright flash of light and a huge blast sent him towards the ground, knocking him out.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

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_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Aurus awoke underneath a bit of rubble, feeling like he had just been hit with a large carriage. Getting up slowly, he brushed off the dust from his clothes, not feeling the pain from the poke anymore but now feeling pain everywhere else. As his vision cleared, he saw that everyone around him seemed to be in a similar state of distress. The warehouse was mostly destroyed but the roof had somehow not collapsed; they probably would have died if it did. He headed towards Taffy and Ren, both laying on the floor. They were the nearest to the entrance but after a quick look Aurus was surprised to see they were still alive, if not a little bloodied and battered. Even then, he was amazed to see that the most they had received in terms of burns affected only their clothing and armor.

The explosion must have had more impact than it did fire. Makes sense considering how long this hallway is. Now to make sure that this was actually worth something.

He knelt beside Taffy and searched through his partially burnt coat. Pulling out a slightly crumpled, folded piece of paper. Taking a deep breath, he opened it, gazing upon the true nature of the only clue he had, regarding who hired these idiots to steal from his guild.

Blank… It’s blank…

He reached for his pocket trying to grab his glasses to see if this wasn’t some illusion, but he found nothing.

Right… I gave my glasses to Roren… to prove I was ok and didn’t need to be rescued.

He looked around once more and saw that other people were regaining consciousness.

What good did that do?

Walking outside he saw that things were in a state of disarray. He could hear people shouting in the distance as smoke columns were rising in different points of the city. Breathing in slowly and letting out a large sigh, he walked back into the warehouse, trying to get people out from underneath rubble and helping them out into the street. This would take quite some time to fix, and now that the Thieves Guild had been disbanded, in the most violent possible way, he had time to fix it.

I really need a vacation. He thought, helping an adventurer to his feet. I really REALLY need a vacation.