PAL.ADIN

7

We headed back, as I felt immensely happy with my life. It was nothing much- just a simple embrace between two friends. Well- she doesn't consider us friends anymore, to be honest. A bit odd, but my mind felt much more clear after that. She was clinging to me- but as we reached the guild, I got several stares and nods- from NPCs mostly. Players just ignored me or glanced- which was odd. There was a severe lack of players, I should have noticed that sooner. Maybe Caldria isn't a good spot for quests.. but NPC-wise, it is quite large.

I move the thoughts aside as I enter the guild- Urik was waiting for me. Coralline by now had detached from me, and moved past nervously. We stare at each other, looking at each other in the eye- or whatever I could see through his helmet. He seems to be in bad shape. His armor is worn and beaten, and his hammer seems to be in horrible condition.

"Da guildmasta. Second floor."

He brushes past me, without even a greeting. I look at him as he exits- but he's heading off to somewhere. It's no use going after him. I wish I could, though. I'll look where he's going, just in case.

My left eye throbs, not fully recovered yet. I can feel it start to bleed already, but I must keep looking.

I see him walking down to.. a forest. The trees are strange but beautiful- black bark with contrasting gold marks, spiraling in a sort of pattern. The leaves are just as golden as the marks, but why is he there?

I try to look deeper, but my eye bursts. I feel a sharp tingle of pain and my hand trembles.

I detach myself from the.. pain. No, just.. pleasure, at this point. It's clouding my judgment far too much.

Just a little once in a while wouldn't hurt- I'll be getting hit as an adventurer, anyway.

My thoughts are interrupted, thankfully. Coralline's tugging my cloak, motioning for me to go up the stairs. It seems I was staring at the back of Urik for a while..

I walk up the stairs to the Guildmaster's office. His door was.. quite huge, and extravagant. Decorated with ornate carvings and minerals, it was.. quite eye-catching. I open it- rather, it opened itself.

"Guildmaster."

He motions me to sit down. I looked at the table between us as I sat down- all prepared, but I wasn't interested. Delicacies from other nations would have tempted others but.. it's not of concern.

"I'll make it quick. You're 'A' ranked now, and you've received a personalized reward due to your.. abilities."

He knows. He definitely knows. There's no other way- but why is he being so obscure about it? Not allowed to reveal?

I take a good long at him. He looks pretty old- around sixty, wearing a suit. A suit? Must be something from the player tailors.. odd, but I wouldn't say it's out of place. A melting pot of our cultures..

I fear they bring true weapons into this world.

He pulls out a box, ridding me of the chance to dwell into my thoughts again. He opens it- a plain box, but it was lined with some unknown fabric inside. I look at what's inside- a book. It was plain looking, but I picked it up and turned to a page.

I heard that laughter. The Storyteller, once more. I hear many things.. is this the 'story' she's made so far? There are normal but distinctive stories of people just doing mundane things- growing crops, splitting wood. I look at the Guildmaster. He looks away from me.

"Where did you get this?"

His tone shifts- darker and defensive, even.

"I can't tell you that."

I nodded- I'm sure she had something to do with this.

"Examine." Under whispered breath, I used examine on the item- maybe it is just a plain old book, but I doubt it.

Stories of the Mundane

A book featuring normal stories of unordinary people.

Why does it say unordinary? Come to think of it..

I look at one of the names of the characters. His name was Urik- and he was just splitting logs, as an average person in this world would.

I absorb the book into my ring. I'm not ready to read this yet.

I walk out- only to feel the gaze of the Guildmaster on my back. Nothing for me to fear- he probably is just scared of the book. But damn that goddess- this is probably something that's going to lead me to my doom.

I sigh and head down to pick a quest. The chatter goes by, different from the silent room when I came back from that quest. There are various requests on the board.. but, I'll go with gathering for now. I was looking at them before someone pops up to me- a familiar face, Coralline.

She's wearing tight robes that are drawing attention, yet I see embroidery that doesn't seem normal. Magic, I suppose. They stand out quite a lot, and I can see all the stares at her.

"What are you wearing?"

"I wanted to join you as an adventurer! I quit my job and wanted to help you out!"

When did she have the time to do this? Maybe.. when I was meeting the guildmaster she got registered. She's smiling.. filled with joy- but does she understand what being an adventurer means? I grab her by the arm, pulling her outside.

I sigh and look at her. She doesn't seem to be unhappy- but can tell that I'm worried, even behind this cloak. Damn it, if only my shit was useful for once!

"Why are you doing this? You.. you'll only be.. dead weight."

I struggle to get the words out of my mouth. It's painful.. and I feel no pleasure. No, I shouldn't be concerned about pleasure at a time like this. I continue to stare at her, directly in the eyes. I can see her eyes shifting from place to place. She looks scared.

I try to say more- anything about her, just being useless. Only an obstacle in my path other than the enemy..

But I cannot. I can't muster up any reason to say that. I know she'll be useful- solo only covers so many areas. I have no ranged attack- I barely have any useful skills, and the only ones useful do self-damage or drive me insane. Fuck, where did I go wrong with my class?

I look at her- she seems to be disappointed in herself. She isn't even shifting her gaze around. She's only looking down at the cold stone road.

"I.. fine, just come with me. Don't blame me- or yourself- if either of us gets injured."

I wanted to say something else there. I couldn't. But it's good seeing her expression change. She's a lot happier now, but I see the regret behind her eyes. She's not good at hiding things.. but I don't think I would have stopped her anyway. I'll have to leave this place eventually, and she'll manage a way to pester me enough into bringing her.

"Go buy yourself a cloak- your robes are too flashy."

I hand her some coin, enough to get a decent cloak. She nods, walking off. I look at her another time before I go inside again.. the streets are quite empty at night. I see her back fade off into the streets as I head inside. I walk up to the desk, looking at the guild girl. She seems fairly normal- must be a local.

"Is there a system for registering parties?"

Surely, there must be. If not, then I'll resort to the other.. system, to try to. I'd rather not, it could blow my cover. I'll probably have to reveal myself to her later, but I don't want her to know now.

The guild girl nods to me. She writes some things down with a magical pen- ah, they made pens here already. How quickly this adapts to our modern society..

"You and Coralline, right?"

I nod- it's no surprise she probably knows my intentions. I've been hanging around Coralline a lot anyway, everyone probably assumes we're in a relationship. I wouldn't be opposed- but it's not something I wish for now. I'll only drive myself deeper into a hole..

"Do you have a specific name you want to put on your party?"

It's probably going to be something stupid, but I'll devote some processing power to that anyway. Let's see.. I don't want it to be something like THE CRIMSON SHADOWS, or THE LOVELY BUNNIES. Specifically in all capitals too, because I bet that's an option.

Being overly brutal gives me an even worse reputation, but something too positive would give me an even worse reputation due to.. my nature. I'll figure something out later.

"Nothing for now- just leave it empty."

She nods and hands me a slip.

"Examine." Another whisper, so that nobody would hear..

Party Permit

Ranked A-. Required for a party.

A-? Coralline must be ranked high enough then, for it to not drop much from my rank. Not that I care- this is just a formality. I take it, storing it into my ring, and I swivel around to grab a quest.

Chase off an Auric Wyvern

An auric wyvern cuts off mana gathering chambers in a Glided Forest- a forest that has a special type of mana used to make certain materials for alchemy.

Recommended B+ party.

Rewards: Wyvern corpse if slain, and ten bottles of liquid mana from the forest.

Guild Approved

Glided forest.. did Urik go there? Is that where I saw him go off to? But I wasn't able to tell when it would happen.. only that it would.

I hand the quest paper to the guild girl, getting it approved. I shove it in my ring, heading out to look for coralline.

She was waiting outside for me, in a blue cloak. Not.. very good at hiding things, but neither is my cloak which is probably stained red from blood. I show her the quest, and she nods. We walk out, and I use the quest to pinpoint the location. It'll take a while though, maybe a day or two of traveling.

"Say, what are your actual abilities?" I ask her as we walk out the gates, considering the fact that I hardly knew the extent of her abilities. Her voice was obvious, but I had no idea what else.

"Well- it mostly just comes from my voice. I can manipulate people's movements and emotions in positive and negative ways. I'm also somewhat skilled in water magic because I'm a siren."

Makes sense. I think we'll get a good grasp of her abilites on this quest. I hope Urik isn't there though- his armor was still battred and beat up, so it must be recent, right?

I decided to focus my thoughts on traveling.

"Coralline.. how long can you stay awake?"

She thinks for a second..

"I can go a few days without. Sirens stay awake for much longer on the rocks.. but, we're not gonna talk about them."

Sensitive topic, probably. She seemed a bit too hesistant to talk about it. It's not my problem, but it just doesn't make sense why a siren is on land.

I hear a familiar sound as I thought of more questions for Coralline.

Human-ish footsteps, and murmuring among broken branches. They are green.. and short.. and disgusting. They're also staring at Coralline- with their disgusting little beady eyes. They laugh in hoarse voices, brandishing clubs and rusted daggers. There's even a big one at back, having some excuse of armor.

I can control myself. It's just a little raid.. nothing compared to the warband- only twenty, roughly.

Maybe I can just.. have a little taste. Just a few goblins, and I'll test out what Coralline can do.

"Battle shall be my guide to forgiveness, for I have sinned.."

"May her holy land be fertilized with the blood of scum."

Just a little taste.

"A path of zealous slaughter will be made, for War pays his tribute."

Just a small, little taste.