Chapter 14: Questing.

  My mind was a mess, every step I took was a stumble and my heart felt weak. It wasn’t a long walk back to Bigmin’s shop, but with my stamina bar as low as it was and the insidious thoughts brought on by that bastard bard still poisoning my mind, I felt like I would break before I made it. Eventually I got there, opening the door I yelled into the empty shop. I let out my tension and fury with a roar of refusal. I had buried so much emotion over the years that Largato’s intrusion into my mind was almost enough to ruin me. I took a seat at Bigmin’s writing desk by the window and closed my eyes.

  Meditation had always been my go-to when things got a little too much to process. In the system, meditation was a skill that allowed the alteration of one’s mind. I focused on my feelings, not processing them, that was never my way. I understood that these emotions, these traumatic experiences were my foundations and sure, I’d perhaps be a better man if I dealt with them and laid my guilt to rest but that wasn’t my way. I buried them, I went cold and centred myself. All of the guilt, all of the hopelessness, the fear, the regret, the shame, everything was buried beneath the responsibility I owed to the Panthera.

  When I opened my eyes, I was able to think, and damn was my mind racing. I had received a quest to kill five monsters, discovered the shockingly obvious secret to rune crafting and most importantly earned the right to adventure outside Firston’s walls. I was tired and hungry but eager to do something, anything really, so I withdrew some roasted boar meat and rifled through the writing desk while I indulged. Finding an orichalcum fountain pen and a pot of ink, I took a sheet of parchment and tried to remember just how Norse runes worked. I knew I could link the runes in a circular pattern but first I had to write each down with their meaning marked under them. I wasn’t sure how, it was probably something to do with my intelligence stat, but I managed to recall each one as I put pen to paper.

  I started with Ehwaz the rune for horse, which looked like an elongated capital M and was attributed to movement, change and transportation. After that the runes flowed out of me from the easy to shape, Uruz which looked like a capital N missing its third line, to the more obscure Jera, that resembled the greater and less than symbols combined. With each rune laid out before me I was excited to receive a notification.

  Congratulations, you have established a runic language and have gained the following: runes of the Aesir.

  “Yes.” I cheered pumping my fist.

  When I looked up from the desk, I saw Ambrose staring at me through the shop window. I was about to gesture for him to come in when the annoying beeping of a private message sounded in my ears. Hoping Ambrose wouldn’t mind waiting I held up a hand and listened to the PM.

  Berlioz Hollow. “Hey Oscar, we just finished a cabinet meeting and Lachi has decided that building the temple should be his responsibility, well he said honour but I’m just glad that I don’t have to deal with another day of building. Kali is asking for some settlement stones and Chef is excited about vegetables for some reason, not much to say other than that.” There was silence for a moment and then he spoke excitedly. “So, about this Bigmin guy, We’re keeping him right. Its just that the big guy is like really knowledgeable, He’s a genius at weapon design and might even be able to teach us how to master our skills.”

  I had to laugh as I replied. “He’s not a pet Berlioz but yeah, he can stick around as long as he likes. How are the Panthera I sent over this morning adjusting to their new environment?”

  “Oh, hey I didn’t expect you to reply so soon.” Said Berlioz happily. “They’re understandably shaken and I’m not sure if taking them out on a hunt just yet is a good idea so I’m letting them work with Lachi and George to pick up some building skills and hopefully when they are ready, they’ll join me and Bigmin on a local hunt. Oh, by the way, the locust deer we spawned are breeding like Jackalopes and they’re pretty easy to kill once you catch them. I’m just about to take Bigmin out again, he’s picking up skills faster than we did.” Berlioz chuckled. “The big guy just did something called a cartwheel and gained the acrobatics skill.”

  I decided not to reply, I was a little too jealous. It was nice to know Berlioz and Bigmin were getting on, but I remembered how hard I had worked to gain the acrobatics skill. If I wasn’t so fixated on swinging through the trees I probably would have come to the same conclusion as Bigmin, but now I just looked like a total ass hat and Berlioz knew it. huffing, I looked back up to see Ambrose impatiently tapping his feet. I quickly mouthed an apology and waved him in. Moving with haste, Ambrose came to my side and inspected the parchment laid before me.

  I quickly stowed it away, saying. “Those runes are a secret.”

  “I swore an oath remember, there’s no need to worry.” Said Ambrose, laying a comforting hand on my shoulder.

  “So, what’s up?” I said standing and making my way to the kitchen. “Fancy some tea?”

  “Tea would be lovely.” Replied Ambrose following me. “And as for ‘what’s up’, I’m sure you just received your daily quest for the first time.”

  I poured water into an oddly shaped kettle but couldn’t figure out how to activate it. “how do I.”

  before I could finish the question Ambrose guided my hand to the top of the kettle and said. “Boil.”

  “Right, thank you.” I searched for some mugs and a tea pot. “I did receive a quest, but I’m not ready to get out there just yet.” I found some pretty tasty looking shortbread biscuits. “Ah, nice.”

  “Why not?” Said Ambrose snatching a biscuit from the tin.

  “Hey, they belong to Bigmin.” I removed three shortbreads and put the tin back. “I was just going to play around with rune crafting for a bit, maybe head out tonight.”

  “It’s a daily quest, with an emphasis on daily.” Ambrose shook his head. “We have until dusk to complete it.”

  “Oh shit, does that mean your…”

  “S-rank? Yes.”

  I poured the boiling water into the teapot. “In that case would you like to come with me?”

  “I’d ‘come’ with you anytime.” Ambrose bit his lip with the double entendre.

  “You really need to find a guy that’s interested.” I said handing him his mug. “Let’s have a cuppa and head out.” I sipped the tea and let out a satisfied breath. “I’m really excited to see what’s out there.”

  “The lord stupidly spawned as many rapid breeding monsters species as he could, and the surrounding forest is completely over run.” Ambrose looked peeved until he sipped at his tea. “Oh, that’s good. Anyway, it’s a good way to keep the orcs from invading and even better for core collection but the idiot isn’t letting the adventurers do their jobs. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a rebellion in a week or two. The guild is desperate for some quests.”

  I remembered the spider monkey eggs. “Something tells me that the merchants guild will be issuing a quest, soon enough.”

  We sipped our tea, and I explained exactly what was going to happen in the merchant’s guild basement in the next day or so, causing Ambrose to choke on his drink as he broke out in laughter. As it turned out the merchants were setting the price on monster corpses low to keep the S-rankers from picking up a reasonable profit, so when the eggs finally hatched, they would actually be hard pressed to find someone willing to help them for less than a true fortune. After we finished our tea, we took off, stopping first at the adventurer’s guild so Ambrose could fill the guild master in on the merchant’s inevitable spider monkey problem and then we headed straight for the town gates.

  It was the first time I had stood so close to the Firston walls, and they were massive. Each grey stone that made up the wall was as big as a dwarf, making the towering structure almost impenetrable. The gates themselves were a solid mass of enchanted steel that was as thick as the wall that it was seamlessly embedded into.

  “How do we open it?” I asked pressing my hand against the cold steel.

  Ambrose chuckled. “Definitely not by stroking it.” He pulled out his identity stone and held it up. “Although if you want to stoke something…”

  He let the insinuation hang in the air, I ignored it, I could tell he was leading me into a much cruder joke, and I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. With a sigh, Ambrose bid me to hold up my stone and when I did the steel gate became translucent. We had to keep our Identity stones out as we passed through the two-foot-thick ethereal gate, and I had to bat away the intrusive thought of depositing my stone to see what happened. Finally making it out to the level ten zone, I felt giddy and full of beans practically bouncing on the spot with the eagerness to explore a zone that didn’t threaten death by boar tusk, ant acid or root violation. Sure, the experience around the area was bound to be minimal but I wasn’t out there for gains, I was finally in a position to help those Panthera that laboured under the snot green thumbs of their Orcish masters.

  “Where do we start?” I asked looking to the tree line.

  Ambrose made a wide spanning gesture. “Lord shit for brains ruined the entire zone’s ecosystem, walk in any direction and you’re sure to find a pack of beasties.”

  “What kind of monsters should we expect?”

  “There’s Moss-Slimes, Fennecs, Jackalopes, wood sprites and huskers.”

  “That’s a fair amount of monsters.”

  “It is, and they’re all out there killing and mating in equal measure.”

  “How far to the level twenty zone?”

  “Open your map.”

  “Can’t you just tell me.”

  “It’s not that simple.”

  I opened my map, and he was right. The last time I had opened my map the interface was completely blacked out but for Shumi village and the parts of the surrounding zones that we had explored. Now the map showed just how far the level ten zone spanned.

  “This zone is ridiculous.” I said, zooming in to see the large town in all it’s glory.

  Ambrose did something to effect my map. “This whole biome is ridiculous.” He zoomed back out and highlighted the level ten zone. “This is us here, with Firston about forty miles away from the biomes edge. Can you see how the biome is weirdly circular and has a sheer mountain around its circumference.”

  He couldn’t see it, but the level ten zone was a mirror image of Shumi combined with the levels ninety to seventy zones.

  “Is that the border of the level twenty zone?” I asked indicating a red semi-circle at the zones edge.

  “Umm, what else could it be.” Ambrose’s words dripped with sarcasm. “We predict that each zone gets smaller as you go up.”

  “It’s down actually, this zone is at the northern edge.”

  “In level, you silly wood worm. This is important, don’t interrupt.” He highlighted the level twenty zone. “As you go up ‘in level’ the zones decrease in size eventually breaking off from this semi-circular form and dividing into segments within a belt. We haven’t been able to venture any further than the level ten zone’s edge as the Lord forbids anyone without a quest to hunt orcs from crossing but from what we’ve seen of other biomes its pretty obvious.”

  “I can confirm your prediction, my zone is surrounded by three different ones. Would that mean that those three are surrounded in turn by even more zones?”

  “Correct and the level fifty zone should be a beautiful oasis in the centre of it all.”

  I closed my map. “It sounds like you fantasise about that zone.”

  “My native biome is a lot like this one and the level fifty zone there is the only place we allow settlement. I’d like to build a place just like it one day, free of strife and corruption, no guilds just pure hearted folk singing life into the system.” His eyes practically glowed with passionate hope.

  I walked ahead of him “So let’s take out the orcs and get to the level fifty zone.”

  “There’s over six hundred orcs out there you idiot.” Ambrose pulled me back. “There’s no one sneaky enough or strong enough in this biome to take on the warlord and his berserkers let alone the shaman he has, oh and don’t forget the hundreds of scouts, soldiers and hunters that make up his army.”

  “Fair point, can we at least have a look at their town?”

  “It’s a camp, the orcs don’t settle.” He pointed at a tree. “And these mighty Redwoods give the green demons perfect ambush points.”

  “They’re Dreadwoods.” I said scanning one.

  Redwood

  “I stand corrected.” I said with a sigh of shame.

  Ambrose patted my head. “Silly little human.” He grabbed my hand. “Come on, let’s go kill some beasties.”

  He led on, still holding my hand until we matched pace, and I felt a little awkward. It took less than five minutes for us to find monsters and the word chaos was not enough to describe what we walked into. Rabbits with horns battled dual tailed foxes in a micro war of attrition. There must have been hundreds of the furry little psychopaths tearing each other apart, staining the ground with their blood and guts. It was utter pandemonium, the screeching Fennec foxes were agile, but the Jackalope rabbits could burrow down and burst from the ground. I watched a poor fennec that had missed his mark get gored from beneath and eaten from the inside. When the triumphant Jackalope teared its way out of the fennec’s back another one of the foxes swept it up in its jaws and avenged it’s fallen brethren.

  “The whole zone is like this.” Said Ambrose summoning his armour. “We can pick off five of each from a distance and be out of here before they notice.”

  “Nah.” I said pulling out my machetes. “We might as well start culling them.”

  I ran in and Ambrose called out. “It won’t make a difference; they each lay up to thirty eggs a day.” Before joining my side.

  Every motion and movement I made led to the death of a critter. It was like swatting flies, my blades sliced through meat and bone without resistance, and I indulged in the simplicity of it. fennecs flew at me only to be bisected, Jackalopes burrowed under foot, and I stamped down crushing skulls. It felt great to let off steam with the guiltless violence and I saw that Ambrose was enjoying himself when I looked behind me. The wood elf paladin’s magic was as flashy as his armour. Brilliant beams of light shot from Ambrose’s hands, scorching fur and wrecking the bodies of every monster that felt his holy fury. I wanted magic so badly and watching him made me halt in my aggression. As I watched with envious delight I was jumped by a gang of opportunistic fennecs, and I fell from the impact. I didn’t have to worry; they were weak and only capable of piercing damage with their tiny teeth.

  Rolling around on the ground, slashing foxes and stabbing rabbits was fun but all the blood and guts beneath me had softened the soil into a murky sludge which quickly became uncomfortable. Standing, and pressing a hand to my chest I willed the filth into my storage and redoubled my efforts towards the culling. All in, it had taken us nearly twenty minutes to kill every monster in the vicinity and if I was being honest with myself, I ran out of steam when I fell to the ground.

  Looking over the mess of body parts around us I laughed. “I guess we should collect the corpses.”

  “Wait for it.” Said Ambrose holding up a hand.

  Quest complete

  S-rank: Slay five monsters.

  Reward: Medium experience.

  With the notification came a blinding glow that encompassed us. When the headache educing light faded our culling field was clear of monster corpses. I was furious, I didn’t gain any notifications for the monsters I had killed, couldn’t harvest their corpses and was rewarded with less experience than I felt I was owed.

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  “What the fuck, Ambrose.” I wrongly aimed my anger towards my new friend.

  The wood elf laughed it off. “If you had listened to me, rather than acting like an impulsive youngling, you’d know that every monster corpse slain during a quest belongs to the guild.”

  “I wanted their cores.” I gripped my machete tightly. “Come on, let’s do it again.”

  We jogged to the next battlefield and this time we stumbled into a one-sided fight against fennecs and huskers. The huskers were winning, they were like giant blue dung beatless with scythes for legs and even though there was only ten of them they ploughed through the fennecs with ease.

  “The huskers are magic resistant and I’m not wasting any more mana than I already have.” Said Ambrose crossing his arms and leaning against a tree.

  “Can you use a bow?” I asked handing him my recurve bow and a pouch of arrows.

  Ambrose inspected the weapon with hungry eyes. “This will work.”

  The paladin ran at the tree opposite him, and I stood amazed at the sight of him running vertically up the trunk. He then fired upon one of the huskers, killing it instantly and shouting out, “I’m keeping this,” before leaping to another branch and firing more and more arrows into the mob of monsters below. Not wanting to miss out on the fun I ran in. Each kill netted me minute experience and with the amount of fennecs present the compounded experience was equal to one count of medium experience. Ten minutes later we were done, and I harvested all the corpses before joining Ambrose on his branch.

  “Can I ask you something?” Queried Ambrose, inspecting his nails.

  Shrugging I replied. “Sure.”

  “How did you do it?” The paladin couldn’t look at me as he spoke.

  “Do what?”

  His eyes became misty. “Survive against Largato.”

  “I cheated.” I said hoping I could trust him to understand. “My familiar has similar powers and he gave Largato a taste of his own medicine.”

  “No, not how you won.” He held his head to the sky. “That bard did the same thing to all of us during the ranking tournament.” His hands were shaking. “He twisted our minds, left everyone of us broken.” Tears began to trickle down his cheeks. “He fixed us a day later but it’s still there, you know, deep down those feelings he provoked were real.”

  “I don’t know. I was hurting but I meditated when I got home and well, I buried it.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. “Are you ok?”

  “I was excommunicated from my temple.” Ambrose turned his head to me and cleared his eyes. “My own mother had to turn her back on me. I understood why, it was my fault, but that damn bard brought it all back and made me the villain of my own tale.”

  “I’m so sorry.” I said taking his hand.

  He came closer and lifted off my mask. “You’re kind.”

  Ambrose then went in for a kiss and I pulled back. “Dude, not cool.”

  “I thought we were having a moment.” Laughed the sly wood elf before dropping down to the ground.

  I dropped down after him. “Give me my mask back.”

  “You’ll have to catch me first.” Screamed the prick as he ran.

  He was faster than me, but I had Anansi. One web shot tripped him and then I let my spider buddy secure him to a tree. I was tempted to leave him there a while but after I equipped my mask, I let him go.

  “Can we have a look at the zone border now?” I asked stroking Anansi.

  Ambrose shook his head. “The Lords men are out there and will be on us the moment we cross.”

  “There’s miles of terrain.” I said not believing him. “How is that even possible.”

  “They’re tracking out identity stones as we speak.” He turned towards Firston. “Let’s get back, you don’t want to mess with those guys.”

  “I could take them.” I ensured, reluctantly following him.

  When we arrived back at the town gates, I was shocked to see five Panthera, tied by the paws and guided into town by a towering figure. The guy that had captured them wore stunning mithril armour that was riddled with runes, he was at least six foot five and if I didn’t know better, I’d have said he was of Caribbean decent. We followed behind the intimidating figure until he made a b-line for the lord’s manor. In my confused outrage of their treatment, I had forgotten the deal I had made with D’ryan and almost stormed the manor. Luckily, the afro bearing Dungeon master met the massive warrior at the manor gates, and it all came back to me.

  “Aren’t you going to do something about those Panthera?” questioned Ambrose his face matching my outrage. “I thought you’re whole thing was liberating the little monsters.”

  “It’ll work out.” I said my anger replaced with nonchalance. “I have an arrangement.”

  With nought to do, we made our way back to Bigmin’s shop. Walking past the adventurer’s guild my attention was pulled towards the adjacent pub. It was already known to me that the adventurers turned to day drinking due to their lack of adventuring but I had yet to see just how lively they got once the pub was open to them. We paused in the street for a while to watch through the pub window, their spirits were high and the vibe was alluring. Cheering, dancing and more than a few public displays of affection made me want to join in with my new guilds lively activities but when I turned to look down my street I could see a que of people outside Bigmin’s shop.

  “What the shit?” I said under my breath marching towards the shop.

  Ambrose noticed my motion a little too late and hurried after me, calling. “Hey wait up.”

  When I got closer to the shop, I saw that guild master Taro was at the head of the line with a couple of my opponents from the proving behind him and a few unfamiliar faces behind them.

  Halting I whispered to Ambrose. “What do they want?”

  “They’re queuing outside a closed shop.” He said slowly. “I wonder why anyone would possibly do that.”

  “There’s no need to be a dick.” I elbowed the sarcastic prick. “Why now?”

  “You impressed them with your artificing. I’ll tell you what, let me handle the counter and negotiations and you just work on their orders.”

  “What’s the catch?”

  “No catch, just fair and equal pay.”

  “You want fifty percent of the earnings for taking orders?”

  “You got it.”

  “I’ll give you ten percent or nothing.” I said with finality as I walked towards the queuing adventurers.

  Ambrose sprinted ahead of me calling back. “I’d have done it for five, wood worm.”

  While Ambrose had everyone seated outside around the forge, I opened up the shop and prepared a crafting area. A few minutes later the sly elf came to me with Master Taro by his side.

  “I need you to keep this one a secret.” Explained Taro slipping me a folded sheet of parchment.

  “Do I need to swear an oath?” I asked opening the sheet to see a strange trap.

  Taro did a weird wink with his sideways blinking lizard eyes. “Nothing of the sort, I’m acting on your subterfuge after all.”

  “Oh, I see what it is now.” I pulled out a pouch and filled it with Dreadwood adhesive. “Here just use this, it’ll dry in seconds and is as durable as mithril.”

  “You’re just giving me a rare quality bag of holding filled with a rare alchemical adhesive.” Said Taro bearing his teeth.

  Ambrose placed his hand on the guild master’s shoulder. “There’s nothing to be confused about. He may have just ruined an extremely profitable moment for himself, but I think he hates the merchant’s guild so much that your involvement in his revenge is payment enough.”

  “I just had a cheap and easy solution.” I said shrugging.

  “Mantis, I’m going to thank you and leave before you come to your senses.” Taro bowed and was escorted out by Ambrose.

  While the elf loudly worked through the orders outside, I looked over the designs Taro had handed me. The trap was a pretty elegant one with pressure plates and spiked wires that would shoot out if anyone tried to open the doors. I wandered if I had the skill to make something like it and almost started crafting the individual components when Ambrose returned.

  “Those lot are a bunch of sap sucking younglings.” Cursed the irate wood elf. “The people you fought want their gear repaired for nothing and everyone else is trying to claim a guild discount.”

  “I don’t see a problem with that.” I said pulling out a fennec corpse to skin.

  Ambrose feigned disgust. “That’s disgusting and you’re a terrible businessman.”

  “I’m not a businessman.” I sighed. “I don’t mind fixing what I broke, and they deserve some kindness.” I took out another pouch and filled it with freshly roasted boar meat.

  “How many of those do you have?”

  “The reeds grow in my village.” I threw the pouch to him. “Hand out some food, bring me the damaged gear and stop shouting at them.”

  “This is rare quality meat.” Said Ambrose checking his inventory. “You could sell this to the Lord for more than you’re about to make from that sorry lot outside.”

  “Ambrose, I’m here to make friends, not money.”

  “You’re a fool Oscar, a damned fool.” Said the irate elf taking in a deep breath before exiting the shop.

  As it turned out, no one wanted any new commissions, they had all shown up hoping to get their tired and over worked gear repaired. Repairs were cheap and based on the worth of the gear that was being repaired not the materials used for the job. I ended up giving Ambrose every credit we made as the profits were incredibly low. As for the work I did, I enjoyed it. I got to spend all day inspecting poor to rare armours and weapons, making improvements and empowering the members of our guild. Ambrose cheered up when he received the pay and kept me company while I worked, chatting about life in the system and reminding me to eat and drink as the hours passed by.

  The sky darkened while I worked on the final and most complicated repair of the day. The scale armour that belonged to Tani, the Tokage dragoon, was a masterwork of smithing made up of thousands of perfectly shaped metal links. I must have wasted close to half an ingot of orichalcum just trying to get the shape right but after hours of determined work I had finally finished it.

  “I’m beat.” I said depositing the armour into a pouch.

  Ambrose grabbed the pouch, saying. “Get some rest, I’ll drop this off at the guild.”

  I watched him go and downed a mana potion to refill my dwindling mana bar. It had been a long day; I was physically tired, but my mind was wide awake. As I looked up at the unfamiliar sky, I tried to see if I could make out any of the constellations, but it was clear that whatever galaxy we were in was far removed from the Milky way. When I lowered my head, I was surprised to see something fluffy and black just beneath my periphery. Lowering my sight even further I found D’ryan patiently waiting by the fence that bordered Bigmin’s forge.

  “Lord Lorean Thane humbly requests your presence at his manor, so he does.”

  “To be sure.” I sighed, yearning for a moment of rest.

  D’ryan gestured for me to follow, taking off and saying. “You’ll be glad to see what the lord has prepared for you.”

  The halfling may have been the size of a toddler but that didn’t stop the little guy from out pacing me. it wasn’t that he was running or anything, his tiny legs just moved at a speed that I was too tired to match. By the time I caught up with him we had already passed the pub and were a few feet away from the manor gates. When we approached the black iron gates, D’ryan held up his identity stone and they opened automatically. The lord’s estate held a few free-standing cottages that were luxury in comparison to the rest of the dwellings I had seen in Firston and at the centre of it all stood a mini mansion made of white stone that reminded me of the white house if not a much smaller version.

  Entering the palatial manor house, it became evident that the Lord lacked the required staff to maintain the place by the way most of the furnishings were covered with dust sheets. D’ryan led me to a reception room where waiting for us was the towering warrior I had seen earlier, another much smaller meagre looking man and five Panthera. I didn’t take in much of the room as my eyes were set on the grey furred ocelots that had been cleaned up and allowed to rest on the large rug set before the crackling fireplace. Somone had taken great care to brush their fur and when I looked up at the black skinned warrior, I noticed him glancing their way with an almost paternal eye. I gave the warrior a quick scan before addressing him.

  Ruben Wiltstone

  Race: Island elf.

  I showed the island elf the respect he deserved. “You’ve treated them well, Ruben. Thank you.”

  “They are a majestic species.” Replied Ruben, with finality.

  The smaller man interrupted, “Mantis I presume.” He spoke in a voice that dripped with privilege.

  I couldn’t say exactly why, but I didn’t like him. “That’s right.”

  “My name is Lord Lorean Terranial Thane, it is a pleasure to meet you.” He gave me the fakest smile I had seen as he spoke.

  Glad that my mask hid my scowl I replied, “Ditto.” Purposely making it awkward.

  “I am unaware of this phrase.” Lord Thane’s eye twitched slightly.

  I responded flippantly. “It’s from my homeland, It means I feel the same.”

  “I see.” Lord Thane placed his fingertips together and looked me up and down. “Shall we convene in the dining room?”

  I agreed and we made our way to a room dedicated to one massive table. I felt sick seeing the abundance of food laid to waste before me, there was possibly enough to feed half the adventures guild, and the pretentious prick had presented the feast for nine people. Thane stood at the head of the table, waiting for the rest of us to take our seats. Not wanting to waste my time I sat opposite Ruben, and I found it curious that the Panthera where happy to take their seats either side of the island elf. Once D’ryan had dragged a highchair next to me and taken his seat, Thane rang a small hand bell. As the lord sat down, an elderly elf came in pushing a cart. The elder first filled Thane’s plate and then came over to me, he reached for some meat, and I quickly scanned it before his trembling hands managed to squeeze the tongs he held. The leg he had chosen was from a fennec and was of poor quality, so I shook my head and gestured only to the common quality vegetables that were arranged around the poor fennec and jackalope roasts that decorated the rest of the table.

  D'ryan didn’t have any of my misgivings and had his plate filled while his hungry eyes beamed, and his belly rumbled in anticipation for the feast. Ruben was much the same although he didn’t show anywhere near as much emotion as the halfling. When the butler approached the first of the Panthera he reached under his cart and pulled out a covered plate. Placing the plate in front of the ocelot, the elderly elf whispered something and moved on to the next. I couldn’t help but wonder what the old elf had said and even tried my hardest to lip read as he spoke to the next one.

  Giving up I simply turned to Thane and questioned. “What’s with the covered plates?”

  “They’re monsters.” He replied, frowning. “They can eat at our table but shan’t eat ‘from’ our table.”

  “Is that right.” I said standing to walk around him. “Lets see what you’ve so kindly prepared for these monsters.”

  Lifting the covering I found an unprepared fennec corpse with its head missing. I pressed my hand on the culinary insult and swapped it for a slab of steaming fire tusk boar meat. Making my way around the table I did the same for the rest of the Panthera before taking my seat and adding some to my own plate.

  “That looks, good.” Said Ruben eyeing the plates either side of him, before patting the head of the ocelot to his left. “Don’t worry, I believe it’s safe to consume.”

  The Panthera took up their cutlery and began to cut into their meat when Thane spoke. “You see they show no signs of etiquette. Imagine sampling your food before the staff has even poured the drinks.”

  I wanted to fucking slap this guy, but I was there to broker the Panthera’s freedom and hopefully find support in my effort to dispose of the orcs. It was a shame to lord came across as such an entitled prick but maybe there would be reason within his privileged heart, if not I could always kill him and take the settlement for myself, would he respawn if I did that.

  Before I could work out if I was willing to actually kill the lord or not, he spoke again. “Now that our cups are full and Gihlayse has left to prepare pudding, I would like to thank you all for dining with me.”

  Almost autonomously D’ryan, Ruben and with a little nudge, the Panthera all responded with a practiced. “It is a pleasure to sit at your table, my lord.”

  “Ditto.” I said disgusted by the forced formality.

  Thane let out a nervous chuckle at my colloquialism. “Ah, you must forgive my ignorance. Yes, yes, we are not in the capital, dirth be darned, we aren’t even in an allied races biome yet.” He held up his hands. “I apologise for offending your sentiments towards the Panthera. I see that you hold them in high regard, enough to pay handsomely, or so I’m told.”

  I whispered to D’ryan. “Did you agree on a price.”

  “You’ll like it.” He whispered back.

  Thane tried to control the conversation. “Two common cores per Panthera is of course a steep price but as you can see, they are in quite a reasonable state and my man Wiltstone here has been kind enough to affect them with a calming rune.”

  “I only have a rare core on me.” I lied, producing an iron hide core. “You’re not gunna stiff me with the exchange rate the way the settlement stones do, are you? The dungeon alone cost almost everything I had at the time.”

  “You’re an authority holder.” Thane’s ears reddened as he spoke. “I didn’t know. Oh, that makes so much sense. Please do tell me about yourself.”

  “How about you go first.” I crossed my arms and stared him down. “Eating at the table of a stranger really does sour the meal.”

  Those ears burned even brighter as he fumbled his words. “I, suppose, well I. My family hail from the Ishtalia biome and actually founded the elven city of Ishtail in the level fifty zone. Our residence of course is situated in the level eighty zone where I received my mage training. The Thanes are mostly bureaucrats now days, which brings me to this lovely new biome.” He rambled on about his glorious upbringing and I zoned out until he said something that caught my interest. “Did you know, every lord is drafted into service when a new biome is forged by the system, I would have loved to remain in my family estate but no, it must be a fair and just system that we reside under.”

  “Does that mean the warlord was drafted as well?” I asked confused as to how the orcs treatment of the Panthera was supposed to be fair and just.

  Thane shook his finger at me. “Please my dear friend, don’t change the subject so quickly.” He pressed a hand to his heart. “We would all love to know you just a little more than not at all.”

  Assuming D’ryan had told him I was human, and he was just waiting for conformation I let me badly kept secret slip once again. “Well, my family come from a planet called earth.” When I said it, I saw D’ryan’s brow furrow, maybe he hadn’t told the lord everything.

  “Earth, where have I heard that?” Thane stroked the lobe of his ear as he contemplated. “Earth, isn’t that the planet this biome is from.” Realisation dawned. “Bielish’s breats, you’re a human.”

  “Looks like the cat’s out of the bag.” I laughed as I felt D’ryan kick my side.

  Something I said triggered Ruben’s curiosity. “Are humans a feline race like the Panthera?”

  “That’s it isn’t it?” Cheered Thane as if the question had been answered. “You appeared in the system alone and frightened, survived for a time and then stumbled across some runaway Panthera. Being that they were similar to you, you took them under your wing and decided to treat them like people.”

  One of the ocelots looked up at me hopefully and I shook my head while Thane was distracted by his own imagination. Not wanting to ruin the lord’s excitement I allowed him to theorise while I enjoyed my meal. By the time we had all finished eating, the strange elf had told me everything he wanted to know about me.

  “You should probably clear a few things up.” Said D’ryan.

  I shrugged. “I am native to this biome that’s true, but my zone is the level one hundred zone. I did stumble upon a Panthera and well you’re spot on he actually reminded me of my little brother, he’s my inheritor now.”

  “He is what?” venomous outrage spewed from Thanes lips. “A monster as an inheritor. That’s ludicrous, what kind of mad man are you. They are monsters, I don’t care how much they remind you of your kin, or how self-aware they are. A monster is a monster.”

  “Fuck me, that’s racist.” I said clenching my fists. “I suppose a halfling is a halfling and a dwarf is a dwarf.” I gestured towards Ruben. “I guess black people are beneath you too.”

  “He is beneath me, he’s under an oath of servitude.” Spat back Thane.

  I threw the core at Thane, and he caught it. “You’ve been paid, now if you don’t mind, I’ll take the Panthera home to be with their people.”

  “They’re not people.” Stressed Thane.

  Ruben hurried to his lord’s side, placing a hand on his shoulder he spoke softly. “You should leave it, my lord.”

  I made my way for the door. “I’m happy to cough up more cores for any Panthera you save, but don’t expect me to cooperate with anything you have planned.” As I rounded the table the Panthera followed me. “They are people just like you, they are kind and considerate and even after ten years of enslavement they still have bigger hearts than any I have seen in this town. Call me when you’re ready to accept the Panthera as the people they are.”

  I rushed out of the manor and headed directly for the dungeon. Behind me and the ocelots ran D’ryan. The halfling stopped me at the dungeon entrance, confused, I prepared for a fight, but he produced the monster core I had thrown at the lord before escorting me down. D’ryan could tell by my silence that I was still furious with the lord of Firston and patiently waited for me to add the five ocelots to Shumi’s residency and send them through the portal.

  “You know, Mantis. I’d have loved to put Thane in his place as you did, but his pride is as fragile as his ego and you pretty much shattered them both.” D’ryan’s eyes fell to the floor. “I want to tell you something that’s been killing me since I arrived here.” The halfling produced a stone from his pocket and with a spark of mana, the stone displayed a picture of a white female halfling and two tan skinned halfling children. “This is my family; they’re waiting for me in the labyrinth. Each day that goes by I miss them more and more, but until the orc threat is eradicated, they’ll have to stay where they are.”

  “I’m sorry, but why are you telling me this?”

  “Firston is supposed to be a safe place, surrounded by low level monsters. It’s supposed to be a place where we can raise our children. The Lord is slow to action, but he will support you when he’s ready.” D’ryan ran his hand through his afro. “That might be months away, but if you can bring some of your Panthera over and convince the lord that they aren’t the monsters he thinks they are…”

  “look.” I interrupted him. “I’m tired, I’m going home to get some sleep. I’ll see what’s possible in the morning.”