"So, as I've learned, you're the one who dropped all of those potions. May I ask for your name?" The boss asked me.
"Anima," I told him.
He sat in a red leather chair. He was an even more grizzly man, built like a strong guy from Earth with an insanely thick beard. He radiated energy that I was afraid to compete against.
"That little bastard kid runs through our territory all the time and destroys what we build. It's no surprise he did it again, but every time somebody chases him, they don't care about my men. However, you dropped high-quality potions that are one-of-a-kind items without a second thought. Let me ask you this. Who are you really, Anima?" The boss asked me again, leaning against his table.
"Just a guy passing through. Who are you?" I replied to him. He sat with a visible frown and leaned back in his chair.
"The name is Lum Santoria, I'm a construction worker who has been in the field for a long time, probably longer than you've been alive. I take great pride in my work and my men's lives and livelihood while on the job, so I don't take lightly to that Rat Kid." Lum said.
"I don't take him lightly either. I have friends outside of the city waiting to get in because we didn't have enough tickets, and he stole my second ticket. I want to get him to turn over everything he's stolen." I told Lum.
"Oh? So, you wouldn't have cared about him if he didn't steal from you?" Lum asked me. Was he trying to provoke me or something?
"Uh, yeah. Let's be honest, some of us don't have the time to care about other problems such as thieves, especially when law enforcement exists. I'm a busy man, so I only care when he takes me off my path." I told Lum.
The three workers behind us all seemed stunned at my reply... but they weren't annoyed.
"Look at that! Somebody finally admitted it! I just wanted to hear what you'd say to that! Ahahaha!" Lum laughed loudly and the other workers mimicked his tone, pitch, and volume. What a weird group of people...
"Alright, Anima Kid, tell you what, I'll off you some help in hunting down that Rat Kid if you can supply us with some of those potions. Construction is dangerous, and I'm looking for those health potions you gave us." Lum said.
"I can't have them devalued, so I'll have to ask for some money as well. What are you looking to spend?" I asked him again. The workers seemed stunned again, so maybe I said the right thing?
"Well, we get our funding from the Patriarch, so I'm not really worried about how much to spend, I'll just say it's for high-quality potions. What are you looking to sell them for?" Lum said, beginning our negotiation.
"I'll do you one better. You get my friends in here and I'll give you a hundred potions, free of charge. I'll need some time to craft them, but I have very specific rules for these potions. Number one, you cannot sell them, they'd destabilize whatever remnants of an economy you have here. Number two, you can't tell anybody you have them, and that goes for all of your workers as well. If you hold them close to your heart, you'd accept the deal and get my friends in. Number three, unrelated to the potions... who is the Patriarch?" I finished my long speech to Lum and he sat puzzled behind his desk.
"You don't know who the Patriarch is? Well, I guess I shouldn't call him that yet. He'll be turned into one. You haven't heard of Zeus?" Lum asked me.
I sat paused in fear. Zeus? Like, the God from my world? How in the hell did they know about Zeus? Was Zeus a real thing here? Holy shit I can predict my death already...
"Uh, Anima Kid, you all good?" Lum asked me.
"Y-Yeah, I was just thinking. I haven't heard of Zeus, I'm a traveler and I'm here to learn some sort of elemental magic. I want to get my friends in here so I don't leave them behind." I told Lum.
"Oh! That makes a lot more sense. Well, let me explain." Lum said, beginning his long rant.
"Zeus was a mythological figure from a Hero's land long ago and he brought the idea of him here. Zeus was an almighty being, as we're told, and he has a ton of wives and an astonishing amount of strength and power, but that description of Zeus also happens to line up with our description of King. That being said, anybody elected into our office for the position of being a King is turned into Zeus. He changes his name and resigns his past life to live on further as that mythological figure once derived from that Hero's world." Lum paused with a large sigh after catching his breath.
So, it happened that the idea of Zeus was brought here, which made me a lot happier that he wasn't a real person, technically speaking.
"How would I go about talking to this Zeus guy?" I asked again, but this time, everybody in the room laughed at me.
"Talk to Zeus?! You're incredibly optimistic! Nobody can talk to Zeus until he's been transformed into Zeus. Otherwise, you'd just be talking to a person like us!" Lum said.
"I see... well, no matter. Tell me, how are we going to find this Rat Kid?" I asked Lum.
"You see, I've been coming up with a plan for a long time! I've watched the kid run into the same alleyway every time he runs from somebody, so my thoughts are it's either a trap, or it's where his home is. We'll go together and figure it out. If you're a traveler, does that mean you're well versed in fighting?" Lum asked me.
"Uh... something like that," I mumbled.
"Alright, well I'll tell you my skills. I'm a melee user, my weapon is my fists, so I have skills like that. [Smash], [Thrust], [Point], and [Grab]." Lum said.
"I have [Bullet], [Blessing], [Slash], [Impale], [Absorption], and [Clairvoyance]." I told Lum.
"Woah... so you're like a mage. Great, then you can support me from the back and attack on your own. How's your health and mana looking?" Lum asked me. His friends walked out of the room as they had gotten bored of the back and forth between Lum and me.
As soon as the door closed, I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hm? What is it, Anima Kid?" Lum asked me.
"I'm a Hero. The Third Magic Hero, Anima." I admitted to him, but Lum laughed out loud. I could even hear his friends outside match their laughs to his.
"Oh come on! Now isn't the time for jokes!" Lum told me. His look shifted after I pulled a health potion out of my inventory and started throwing it up and down, catching it while staring him down.
"I agree, now isn't the time for jokes. How did you think I threw those potions at your friends? I have an inventory. I can tell you my whole story of why I'm here and not in Sieve where I'm supposed to be, but I want that Rat Kid taken down first before I tell you anything else." I told Lum.
"Seems like you're not kidding. I do have a lot of questions for you, and I know why you've kept your identity hidden because you're not too popular here either. I see the way you took care of my family, but if you plan on hurting them, you should get ready to hand your role as Hero down to somebody else, because I'd kill you myself." Lum told me.
"Glad we're on the same page because if I turned tables and started killing people that were important to my friends, I'd want somebody to kill me as well," I told him. Lum smiled and held out his hand. I shook it, thus closing the agreement we had to be good friends to each other.