"I love coming here when I sleep." I said aloud as I sat up and stoked the fire back to life. "Real life sucks." I said thinking about how I fell asleep at work again. I was probably going to get a good two hours in before someone woke me up. So I cooked some kev over the fire then packed up my supplies and headed for the town I knew was an hour away. In my head my playlist of rock music began to play as I walked through the dark night. I heard some noise and a predatory smile came over my face. Bandits or beasts, it didn't matter. I'm the top ranked adventurer here, not some pencil pushing office worker with anxiety. I had to keep my excitement down as I saw rough looking men and women pop out onto the road. with daggers and swords in their hands, different leather armors covered them like patchwork. A woman stepped up in front of them, most likely the leader. Not entirely uncommon, but still rare enough. I dropped my traveling pack to the ground as my hands both rested on my twin short scythes. Her dark brown eyes looked sharp as she wore a smirk on her face.
"There is a tax on the road boy, ten sif" she said with a sultry and deadly tone. I looked behind her at her friends mostly humans, a few fuchsbau, some Quamara, and several other races. I looked at her with my poker face on as the sliver of the moon hung in the sky.
"I don't have ten sif" I said, putting a smile on my face as I pulled out my short scythes. The twin black blades sprung out and locked into place as I lunged at the woman. As my blade sunk into her my eyes widened with excitement. The tip of the left blade peeked out of the top of her skull before I pulled it out with a slight slosh of blood. I let her now dead body drop to the ground like a ragdoll. I walked forward and electricity crackled along my blade as I focused on how it forms naturally. The magic flowed from my hands as I pushed it out to create the electricity crackling from my scythes. The blood on the left one bubbled as it was cooked off. I threw the left scythe into a bandit's leg and dashed forward cleanly severing his head. Three arrows came at me from behind and I cut one down the middle. I yanked my scythe from the headless body and split the second arrow and dodged the third. My smile grew wider as the dance of death began.
By the time I got done with the bandits I was happy. Killing anyone is worth the delay in travel time. I made it to the town by mid morning. It was quiet and small, but a common stop for those going into the nearby cave network for fetch quests. I was called in to deal with a honen, they are like giant salamanders but breath fire and have a lizard's scales. The pay is good, but I don't care about that. I needed a way to get rid of that princess I killed. The beast's fire worked wonders, I chuckled at that thought. She really had it coming, considering her hands were in everything from slaves to smuggling. I had no pity for her, her death was slow and painful. Just as she deserved. As soon as I got into the town I headed to the adventurers guild first and dropped off the claws of the monster as evidence of my kill. By the time I got done and ate I needed to wake up. So I sighed as I headed to an inn and paid three Sef for a good room. I laid down comfortably as I wished I could stay in this dream world forever.
I groaned as I woke up and rubbed my eyes. Living in a dream is not healthy, but screw it. It's better than being an underpaid and under glorified assistant. I just check over, you know, all the documents my boss says need checking. 'Screw you Quincy Anders for promoting me to this hell. I looked over what I slept through today and marked most of them after skimming as good. I'm a glorified grammar checking program.' I got up after shutting the computer off and found the ever cheerfully mad Alice waiting around the corner of my cubicle. She is a nice girl, almost annoyingly so.
"Hey Alex, working late?" she asked with the sweet sounding voice. I internally ground my teeth and put on a smile.
"No thanks, I am fine" I said in a near deadpan voice. I walked by her, not looking back as I took the stairs. The bus ride home was uneventful as usual. The lights passed by as the bus drove. I wondered why my dreams always pick up where last fell asleep. I chuckled to myself thinking of how easy I can kill in dreams. Everything there is so real, even the pain. The bus neared my stop and I got up to leave. I entered the small apartment and opened the freezer. I took out a frozen dinner and cooked it in the microwave. As I ate I looked over the news. 'Same old crap as always.' It was old news with both sides of the political spectrum blaming each other. 'Idiots all of them, and it's everyday people who get caught in the middle.' I fall into a middle ground where I take aspects of both sides I think. I sighed and stopped looking at the instant depression and propaganda people call news and ate my dinner. I looked at the time. 'It's seven.' I groaned and laid down on my couch that doubled as my bed.
I woke up at the tavern inn and rubbed my eyes yawning. I got out of the bed and put on a simple shirt and pants. And walked down to the tavern's bar. I got looks from several patrons who clearly know who I am. I kept my face expressionless. I sat down to eat my breakfast listening to those around me. Nothing of interest as I headed back to my room. I came back down all geared up and noticed a rare sight. 'Urkun all the way out here?' The woman is an Urkun, warm blooded race of reptilians that live in the far north. My mind began churning with why she would be here. I shook the thoughts away and headed for the door. Not my problem, I felt a sudden pain in my side and woke up on my couch with a robed man holding a dagger in chest. Without thinking I punched him as hard as I could and pulled the knife out of my chest. He missed my heart or I would be dead. My vision was crystal clear as I slashed the mans arm drawing blood, then stabbed the back of his neck. I froze for what felt like hours as I watched him fall face forward. The knife was in the base of his skull where the brain stem meats the spinal cord. The kill was quick as then I threw up my body trembling. 'I just killed a man! What the hell!' After loosing all contents of my stomach I called the police and explained everything while crying and heaving.
"And you don't know why this man would try to kill you?" Officer Nelson asked me.
"N-no I was sleeping and I felt pain and woke up" I said with a shaky voice. The officer took notes. 'It was self defense I wouldn't be in trouble right?' On the up side I get time off work till I'm healed. As much as those dumbos hate to admit it, they would need to hire three of me if they want the job done right. As the medics came and took me away after the questioning I was giving something to help me sleep.
I woke in one of the tavern's inn rooms and saw the female Urkun sitting in a chair in the corner. I got up feeling that my armor was taken off and looked at the reptilian woman. "Thank you" I said as I nodded to her. I put on my custom leather armor and felt the metal between the leather armor. I flinched as I ran my hand over where I was stabbed. I looked over at the woman. "What do you want?" I've never had long conversations with my dreams, but I never had one look at me like she does.
"You where stabbed" she said and I sigh.
"Great self therapy in awesome dream world" I complained and grabbed my pack heading for the door. She got up and stood in front of me blocking me from the door.
"Remember the dagger that stabbed you Alexander" she said as her hand moved to my forehead. I felt a spell rush over me and I relived the events in slow motion. As I looked at the knife I realized it was a dagger. A dagger with the symbol of an assassin guild from my dreams. This is my memory I know it is and I know that symbol of the half black sun with a skull over it.
"Therne" is all I said as I took a step back. "No my mind is playing tricks" then I remembered the pictures the police showed me. The symbol was on the dagger. I backed away from her. "No... this is a dream" I looked at the woman with fear, shock, and rage. 'This is some anime style bullshit!' I calculated how I could dispatch of the woman while thinking of why she helped me. 'Perhaps she is like me, maybe she wants my help in the real world. Is she a dream demon?' I looked at her with a calm face now. "Why help me, and who are you?" I asked.
"You will find out on Earth" she said as she opened the door and left. As she left Alexander didn't notice the fear deep inside her as she used an analysis spell along with memory recall. What she learned she must hide even from herself. As she walked out of the tavern she used a targeted memory wipe spell via a one use spell token. As she left she wondered why she used it.
I left the tavern shortly after her, making sure the woman didn't take anything. I wanted to get my mind off things so I headed to the Adventures Guild. It's honestly more like a bounty hunters guild. I walked up to the bounty board and looked for anything at my level. As a rank nine adventurer I quickly drew attention. Murmurs of my name ran around the room. I am one of the three rank nine adventures in the nation and two hundred and fifty three in the world. Rank I should be rank ten but I simply don't want that kind of attention. The only time the thirty rank tens get involved is for a global catastrophe. Hence the massive number of rank nines. I took the only rank nine quest on the board after looking it over. 'Investigate rumors of undead in a cavern.' I took it over to the desk as the local woman tried to flirt with me while handing me the steel chip. Chips are a way of tracking who took the quest. Most are wooden, but for this quest it was steel. I like to think of them as dog tags as well. If you die and someone finds the chip the guild can identify who took it and catalog the death. So I left the town behind. "If this is real I cannot die here, I've worked too frelling hard for this power!" If everything is real then he has a new goal. Abandon earth for this world, no matter the cost.