The King gave us the loredump on this place, and it was…similar but not the same as Dimensional Sign. The similarities were a bit too hard to ignore, but given I had convinced myself this had to be real, or at least, I was going to treat it like reality, I decided to listen intently, finding that, oddly, I was not sore on my feet like I normally would be after an hour standing in one place as he explained.
The biggest takeaways were two fold. This Kingdom and World were under assault by the 'Waves', holes that periodically opened in the sky. Normally, there was one or two, those were common, a result of magical energy interacting with alternate worlds. But Waves were a whole different story. They were the sky filled with such holes, and while sometimes a monster or demon might come out of one of the normal ones, these things spilled forth armies.
That was bad, but he assured me when I asked that magic itself was a natural force in their world, and the monsters had always been part and parcel with life here. From goblins to dragons to sea monsters, they had all kinds. The people weren't doing anything untoward to summon the waves, so nothing could be changed to stop them. I…chose to believe him for the moment, especially since something about it rang true.
This was mostly because of what came next. The Four Cardinal Weapons, the greatest tools of heroes, had been forged in ancient times to deal with these plagues when they occurred. In Dimensional Sign, the wielders were chosen from the population, and you could pick some stuff that the game was really good about referencing later in terms of your personal history and even changing the starting area based on your homeland.
Here? They summoned heroes. The Weapons worked best when held by those who had come from other worlds, and they would grant us awesome powers while here, and supposedly if we went home, we'd keep some of that. Sounded like a bargain in the making. Unfortunately, as he noted, the Waves typically came with warning signs, sometimes years in advance, allowing them to summon heroes to train in that time.
This time, they had no warning. The Dragon Hourglasses, magical relics around which most nations were built, tended to give a good indication of the Waves coming. They gave them five hours, and the First Wave had devastated parts of the country, until they'd fought it off with armies and wandering adventurers that had happened to be nearby, a feat only possible because the Waves had two weaknesses that they had been able to exploit.
The first was that the Waves had an 'anchor', a sort of boss to the wave, and the first beast to come through. They, according to history, varied in size and power, but they were the single point of failure. Killing them would send all the monsters back to whatever realm it was they came from. It was not an easy thing to slay such a beast, and they had proven incapable of doing so.
Luckily, there was the second weakness…if one called it that. The Waves had a time limit. Run that out, and the holes would close. That said, unlike killing the boss, this would leave whatever monsters were around to cause havoc, and they had, though weakened without the flow of evil magic from the holes in the sky. It was possible, however, to defeat them now, even if it would cost them greatly.
The First Wave had been three months ago, and they'd spent much of that time gathering the necessary materials to summon the four of us, which gave us less than a month to prepare for the Second Wave, which, he admitted, would be even stronger than the first. Gods, I hated time limited quest design. Still, it wasn't all bad, as there were some advantages to what we had to work with.
For one thing, we had motivation. They promised rewards. I will admit some weakness at that, though I would never have come right out and demanded payment, unlike Ren and Motoyasu…Sword and Spear. They were kinda upfront about it. Especially the Blond Bimbo holding the pointy stick. Guy really rubbed me the wrong way, especially with the way he spoke of 'rewards'.
I did agree, however, pointing out that we weren't anyone's lapdogs. We'd been summoned, and given some special cool toys, in order to do the job. That was okay, but we'd need payment. No one worked for free, afterall. Still, Naofumi, the Shield guy, seemed put out with us being so forward. Gods I hated him almost as much as Spear. Did this guy never work a real job a day in his life?
Sword was overly proud of himself for being the first to find the Status Screen. Apparently, it was a bit of magic given to our weapons, developed to help us determine our readiness for combat, and looking at mine, I was okay with it. It gave my physical stats, like height, weight, and such, while also quantifying things like my less common stats, including stamina, HP, and even an MP stat that I was excited about.
"Only Level 1?" asked Shield suddenly, and I looked up to find I was, in fact, Level 3, apparently.
"I'm on the third level myself. What about you two?" I asked, and they confirmed, both Sword and Spear were with Shield, Level 1s.
"Well then, looks like this old man is going to have to get you 'young whippersnappers' into shape…if three is a high level anyway. Seriously, that EXP bar is a percentile for me, you guys too?" I asked, and while Shield rolled his eyes, he did smile a little, before they confirmed the same, and the King cleared his throat, getting our attention back to him.
We then learned our weapons were in their 'base' state, and would power up with us as we gained levels. The Minister even said something about transforming, which made me wonder as I quickly looked over my status screen, flipping through pages of it, and finding what I wanted, only to have something drag me out of my search as we learned something really crumby about this world.
EXP was split between party members…well Weapon Party Members anyway. If we adventured together, our weapons and own abilities would increase slower. Not how he explained it, mind, but I quickly thumbed through the help menu I'd found, and the info there confirmed it, along with what looked like sarcastic notes from a previous Bow Wielder. Apparently we influenced them, and when we left, some of that would stay.
Shield complained, again, about his weapon not technically being a weapon, which made me want to shout 'Captain America!' at the top of my lungs at him…not that I expected him to throw it or anything. He was a Tank. He could take the damage, right? Sword would DPS, Spear would Crit, and I would support. We might not be able to power up with each other, but that doesn't mean we weren't all important to the effort when it came time to fight the actual battle.
We could, to compensate for not being able to work together, recruit allies in this world. They would be affected by 'Status Magic', and would increase in power alongside as at a rate they couldn't do on their own. Sounded handy, honestly, and hey, party mechanics were the best, especially since they only had to be 'Loyal to the Wielder' according to my help screen, and it didn't mention a limit on the number of followers.
The King promised us they'd be gathering their best and brightest to assist us in the morning, and I for one, welcomed a starting party, but I'd want to see the balance on my own. I didn't doubt, given this was their world, they'd want to assist us as best as they thought, but I was the Hero here, and I wasn't going to have my party line up decided by the 'Recommend Party function' unless it got too large to bother with.
That ended the meeting, and we were soon taken up to a small tower, with some nicely appointed rooms. Actually VERY nicely appointed, the beds were spring type, not down filled, so they were advanced for the setting. Made sense, I supposed, and pretty soon we gathered in Spear's room to talk to each other after a small meal, with me taking a seat on the couch(Three hundred pounds and seven feet was a bit much for the chairs here, apparently), while Spear sat on his bed, Sword looked broody in a corner, and Shield just sort of flopped down into the seat by the table.
We then compared notes on this world and discovered something…disconcerting. This world wasn't the only alternate world. We, as it turned out, all came from different worlds too. Hell, Broody McSword Boy, Ren, as it turned out, came from a world with full dive virtual reality tech, where this world was a game…well not this world specifically as I got him to realize.
To Sword, this place was the VRMMO game called Brave Star Online(I made a joke about the Planet of New Texas that no one got, which disappointed me). Meanwhile, to Spear it was a regular MMO called Emerald Online. To me this place was, as I'd thought, Dimensional Sign, a pseudo Single Player game where you could invade other players' worlds, or be summoned to help them. Finally Shield seemed to have found it as a Light Novel of all things, which made it the least interactive.
This was…disconcerting. World as Myth, a concept I explained to them as basically being the stories from one world influenced others, or perhaps other worlds influenced stories, was possibly in play here. But that meant we couldn't take anything for granted. After all, this world had some differences already. I'd never heard of a country called Melromarc for instance, and the region map we'd seen earlier looked nothing like anything from my game beyond similar biome types.
"So, while all of you got to see this world as a game, my version was a novel. I wonder why," said Shield aloud, as Spear got that smug look on his face that I wanted to knock off it…even though I was sure he had a second, smaller smug look underneath it. Worse, Sword chuckled a bit, the broody boy persona slipping away for a moment.
"What? You don't know?" asked Spear in a condescending tone of voice.
"Know what?" responded Shield, looking up, interest in his eyes…he'd obviously not been paying attention to the conversation until that point.
"Oh, well, Shield sucks man. It's the worst class in the whole game," said Spear with a chuckle, and Sword nodded.
"It is. Defense with no offense. Is it the same for you?" he asked, turning towards me, and I was almost ready to smack them both, before deciding that would be very un-heroic, and instead shaking my head.
"By the Old Gods your designers must suck. You say your games are MMO types, that still means Massively Multiplayer, right?" I inquired, and they both seemed taken aback, but nodded.
"Then it should at least be as well designed as Dimensional Sign. In that game, the Weapons are only guides. Even with their built in abilities. Regardless we have," I stood up, and pointed towards Sword.
"The Damage Per Second. You do fast attacks, usually powerful ones too, and do the best in general fights of all kinds," I explained, and then shifted my finger towards Spear.
"You are Critical Hits galore. Your whole build, at least when optimized, is all about crits and generalization. You're the guy to bring in when there's a boss to slay, especially if there's a time limit," I got a nice smile from him for that one. He was a Himbo, the upgraded form of Bimbo, I suppose. Regardless, no reason to antagonize him.
"As for my Bow, it's the Support on the Battlefield class. It can provide cover fire, or do buffs and debuffs. The thing you want in any kind of big all out brawl," I say, tapping my weapon, before pointing towards the Shield that Naofumi was looking at like it was a leech or something on his arm.
"And the Shield is the Preparation Hero. They start the weakest, sure enough. Defense with no offense, but they get all the off the Battlefield supports, at least in Dimensional Sign. Given a good running start, they can forge items. Heck, one of their abilities includes castle defense and stuff, which, given we're going up against forces like a literal army, having someone who can turn into a castle on command would be a great thing," I explain, and that, at least, gets Shield to brighten up, while the other two look a bit down, but then shrug. Situation diffused.
Shield, while we discussed where to go for the best level ups for our weapons, got up, and we watched him walk out onto the balcony, before shouting about how he was coming, and the world better be ready…or something. I was embarrassed for the boy, and rose from my seat, telling the others they should probably get some shut eye, as we might begin early in the following day.
We left Spear's room, but rather than go back to my own, I tracked down the maid who'd escorted us here, her name was Ericka I found out after some coaxing…a lot of coaxing, after all, this wasn't how staff acted at this time and place. Still, I got her to show me where the library was for the castle, and I found a few old men scribbling down in books, making copies of them for posterity.
The room wasn't large, mind. Two stories, about the size of a medium house back home. Still, it worked, and I asked if they had coffee or soda in this world, and luckily, the translation of my words did provide something for coffee, though she said soda sounded like a snarl of some kind. That had my interest, but for now, I asked her to bring me five cups, warm as she could get them, if she would be so kind, and set to work.
The first thing I was fortunate to discover was a shock, and made me laugh loudly enough to get shushed, which I apologized for, even as I began to smile more and more broadly. I could read the books here. Not just the words and things, but like, the impression of each page came to my mind at a glance, no matter the script it was written in. I couldn't just, say, do the flip book thing with anything here, even if they could have taken it, but I could read almost a page a second.
That meant that, by the time lovely lady Ericka returned with my cups, I was seven tomes deep into the history of this world. Mostly old legends, compiled into texts with various scholars commenting on them, but it worked, and thanking the maid for her assistance, I offered to let her sit beside me if she wanted, but she bowed and said she needed to return to her duties.
Leaving me alone with half a dozen old guys, which I chatted with a few times finding out, surprisingly, they WERE old. This world, as it turned out, had an expected lifespan in the seventies, and it was only on looking them up and down that I realized, yeah, they were all well kept, with hair, teeth, and nails looking BETTER than if they'd gotten regular(and far too expensive) healthcare on my world.
From there I began to delve into history, politics, geography, the basics to know how this world worked, and who I might be aligned with. As would be expected, the library was mostly overflowing with praised for Melromac, and her Queens, as the seat of Royal Power passed from mother to daughter, a fact that had me curious as to why there was a King right now, even though the family tree listed him as the husband of the current Queen, Mirellia.
She wasn't dead, but she wasn't here either, making me wonder, but I pushed that aside when I found something interesting. This world had races other than human. I was expecting that, though instead of elf, dwarf, or whatnot, this one was a bit more…fuzzy in its divisions. Like, literally fuzzy, as the other two races were Demi-Humans and Beastmen, the latter also called therianthropes.
It seemed that, according to the records here, there were supposed to be people of all races in all kingdoms, a fact encouraged by the Waves. I even found some battle tactics that spoke of how best to make use of each race against the Waves specifically. This led me down a wiki-like binge that had my eyes watering after a while, and I dipped far into the cups of 'coffee' to keep myself straight.
Turns out, we Heroes weren't the only ones able to level up. The 'Dragon Hourglasses' that helped predict the Waves, and were part of the world's religion allowed anyone to do the same, becoming Adventurers in the process. It was there that the races found their largest differences, as each race had their own way of showing how the level ups were affecting them on a physical level.
For humans, it was mostly like going through training programs. Those with physical type classes would grow stronger, their dispositions changing how that worked, from getting taller(Though never more than six feet I noticed. World of short people apparently.), to growing muscles, to even changing eye, skin, and hair color to fit in better with their chosen 'hunting' grounds for monsters.
Demi-Humans treated level like age. Oh, they could age naturally, but their lifespan was only around three-quarters of a human, and they could 'skip' from baby to young adult if they gained power by killing monsters. There was an anecdote in one story about just that happening, a rabbit-eared child going from just born to a fighter to be reckoned with in a few months, which was the extreme, but by no means the expectation, though it made mention on how mental maturity was still something they needed to learn.
Beastmen on the other hand grew…special traits, or so it said. They lived about half as long as humans, and were more primitive(something the author noted was as it should be, racist). But when allowed to turn into an adventurer, they could spike higher than either of the other two, as they had 'evolutions' they could go through as they leveled up, allowing them to specialize their bodies to their tasks.
It referenced level limits, like a real RPG, and even called it 'Class Up' when you went and upped the limit, a feat only able to be done by the Dragon Hourglasses, and something more for Demi-Humans and Beastmen. The human level limit was…well, there wasn't one, but the other two needed to 'refine' themselves to go farther after a certain time. An interesting way for the world to work if it occurred naturally somehow.
I cross referenced most of what I learned with my own help menu, wondering idly if the others had noticed it yet, as it provided some good info, and even contradicted the books, usually with notes from heroes of the past on how things actually were. First thing I looked up was the Hourglasses themselves, making sure that they weren't the source of all this, which would have made the job permanently ending the Waves that much harder.
Unfortunately, in this situation, the Waves came before the Hourglasses, and it was in fact the former that had caused the latter, as they pounded down an ancient civilization that had designed these tools to help fight them. It was possible they'd 'designed' the other races too, according to a side note on one of my help topics, but the one making it just wasn't sure about that.
Luckily, I did get a kind of timeline of events, sort of like a journal feature of my weapon, and learned some things about how this worked. This was the Eighth set of Waves that had hit this world, and as side note it was the WHOLE world, not just Melromarc being attacked. So summoning all of us at once was a bad thing…sort of, as the Waves still popped up in singular regions at a time.
That last caught my eye most of all, as the estimate I was given was about two and a half kilometers square for the place they'd pop up. Oh, more holes would appear while the Wave was happening, but the main thrust of the attack was still isolated to a single area, and we were able to somehow 'teleport' between Dragon Hourglasses, if I was reading the tooltip right. That was a handy feature, and made them seem even more gamey, but I'd take it.
It was as I brought a cup to my lips that I realized it was empty, as were all its brothers and sisters, their whole group decimated to keep my tired body going. Rising from my seat, and walking to the last of the old men still working, I asked where the kitchens were to drop off my used dishes, and he assured me that I could leave it on the table in the middle, and he would have it taken care of.
He thanked me then, for being with them. They had lived through a set of Waves before, he and the other old men here, and the Heroes of that last age had not been interested at all in the world into which they'd been summoned. Seemed goofy to me, but I shrugged, and wished him a good night, as I went back towards the rooms, easily able to find them thanks to having been there before.
A yawn, and a look outside told me I'd probably get about two hours of sleep…more than I typically did all things considered, and the moment I was laying on my side, the world slid away into darkness, leaving me dreaming, mostly of monsters in the pictures I'd seen, mixed with game images and sounds. I was smiling in my sleep, imagining the grand adventure I was about to have.
The morning sun had come to banish the beautiful night, and I for one cursed the world…worlds…multiverse? That thought got me to sit almost straight up, and look around the room I was in. Another room, not my apartment, and then sigh. It wasn't a dream, which I'd already known, but still, a guy could hope that his whole view of reality had not been shattered, in a few minutes by magical world override.
Getting up, I found, to my pleasure, a set of clothing waiting for me. Not the robes I'd been wearing, or the underwear I was, but a nice leather jerkin. Probably not time to make anything metal, save some plated gloves and greaves. Good enough though, and they fit like a dream as I slipped them on, even doing a few punches in the air like a Power Ranger, smiling to myself, before looking into the corner.
My bow…my Bow sat there, glinting in the morning sun with silvery light. I moved my hand, just like my info box had told me, and suddenly, the thing vanished in a flash, and was in my hand, me pulling back the string, and the outline of an arrow appearing in the weapon's draw. This was cool, but I soon went back into my menus, finding something I'd held off on toying with the night before.
Weapon Alteration. The tooltip said this version of it wasn't like the transformations I could get by copying weapons, whatever that meant, or unlocking them via the Skills menu. This was just about changing the look and feel of it, and I cycled through the options already open, smiling as the weapon began to shine, and then morph in my grip, the shape altering until it was in another form.
The first was a short bow, which made the weapon look positively dinky in my hand. The second, a long bow, was okay, but not useful in all circumstances, too large and unwieldy. A crossbow was good, but I saw custom, with a tooltip from a previous Bow hero about all I had to do was picture what I wanted, and so long as it fit within the idea of 'Bow' the weapon would try to take that form.
I clicked the custom, and began to concentrate on a Rat-Plagued city, and a man with a mask going around killing those who had brought him low. The feeling of a dead queen in my arms, and the idea that only I could break the back of the conspiracy. It was a trip, as I felt the Bow start to shift, and then slowly its shine merged with my bracer, until it had changed into a wrist mounted Crossbow.
Laughing aloud, I did a few stances, and felt the string pull back, the weapon shimmering with magical energy. Oh yes, this felt like the weapon of a…well honestly an assassin, but you know what, I thought it was kickass, so I kept it in that form as I exited my room, finding the others were still asleep as I slipped downstairs, having a small breakfast with some of the rest of the staff, finishing up as the young men finally came stumbling in.
I tried not to make fun, given I know they had several more hours sleep than myself, but looked like they'd had barely any. Motoyasu, Spear, especially looked like he wasn't used to getting up before noon, which made me smile, as the three of them ate some of the stuff, and then we were escorted towards the door to the throne room, instructed to wait outside for a moment.
I took the chance to observe that no one else had been given new clothing. Were they saying my underwear wasn't good enough for this world? I mean, it wasn't really. There was a hole in one cheek, and it was most certainly not clean, but still, it was the principle of the thing. Regardless, after a few moments, the door opened, and the room was literally FILLED with people this time.
Knights in armor lined the approach to the throne, and the upper balconies were covered in people, all looking like nobility save some that just screamed merchant, everyone staring down at us. It was a bit disconcerting honestly, as we stepped forward, as if on some kind of cue, with me taking the early lead thanks to the longer legs, and having to reduce the size of my steps to fall back into line with the others.
In front of the King, as we approached, were twelve people, ranging in size and clothing, looking less like normal people, and more like DnD cosplayers to me, but I suppose that made sense. The tallest was still only about six feet, which did not bode well for doorways and myself in this world. I was already annoyed that a few of the castle's were a bit short for my liking, but if this were average, outside was going to force me to duck, a lot, to get into buildings.
Still the obvious range of their skill sets was not in question. A few mage looking types, holding sticks, a fencer, a few swordsmen, and even some females mixed in. All in all, a good pastiche of humanity. But that last was the problem. These were only humans. No Demi-Humans or Beastmen, which, as I'd also seen none in the castle staff said something very untowards about this particular kingdom.
Numbers of their population put the Demis at about fourteen percent of the population, and Beastmen made up another eight. That was twenty-two percent all together, and looking around, I noticed none in the crowd either, despite this likely being most of the local nobility and higher ups, as well as the higher leveled Adventurers. I could guess only a few reasons why an entire fifth to a quarter of the population wasn't present.
Gods, this setting had fantastic racism, didn't it? I really hoped that wasn't something we were expected to solve, or that one of the other peoples hadn't summoned the Waves in retribution or something. I was so not a fan of the Weird West setting myself. Still, it might just be that the local area had fewer of them…but I was not hopeful there, and decided to speak up, no reason to hold my tongue.
"They are a fine group of Warriors and Magic Users, your Grace," I began, with a bow, which got more than a few eyes to turn to me, including the other three who weren't saying anything, but now seemed like they were wondering if they should. I didn't let them get a word in.
"However, if it pleases you all, I wish to know more of my own skills, and this world, before we…party up is the only term I can think of, if you'll excuse my common vernacular," I continued.
"I am to be their commander, correct?" I asked, and the adventurers looked back towards the King, who nodded. It made sense, I had the Legendary Weapon, and was going to grow stronger faster, even if being in my party was an EXP boost for them too.
"Then I wish them to be assured of my ability to do such, and to fight alongside them, if it pleases you," I said, bowing my head again, and keeping it lowered to await the answer.
"Hmm…an interesting proposition…very well, but you will need a guide, even so. One of these fine warriors will accompany you, to make sure you come to no harm while 'proving yourself'. Is that acceptable?" he said, and I looked up, and trying to keep a neutral expression, nodding my head.
"As your Highness wills it," I answered, and then looked to the group, wondering if I should maybe pick one for it, but before I could, one of them, the woman with a cloak and staff, stepped forward, and then came up to me. I bowed to her, to show my thanks, an act that apparently caught her off guard, and then, with a snap of my heels, I turned us around, figuring the others would pick from the remaining members.
We stalked out of the throne room, and the doors opened to us, a small incline of my head towards the guards in thanks, as we left and then were taken from the keep. It was…loud behind us for some reason. Sounded like Shield was objecting to something as the doors slammed shut, but I ignored it as we had adventuring to get on with, moving from the keep into the city around.
The gate rising up allowed us onto the bridge that connected the castle to the rest of the city, and soon we were in the streets. Like I'd feared, everyone was a tiny person. Seriously, land of smurfs. Still, at least it meant I could see over everyone's head, and…humans as far as the eye could see, lending at least some credence to the lack of Demis and Beastemen in the castle to be a result of local demographics. Still wanted to see for myself.
"Alright, I think the first place to go would be the local Adventurer's Guild, would it not, my lady…?" I asked, letting the title hang for a moment, and wondering if I should tip my hat…er hood to her. The woman behind me merely looked at me, with a set of deep silver eyes, shadowed by the brim of her large hat.
"Lucia, Lord Bowman, of the Blue Valley," she told me, and lifted her rod up, as if presenting her weapon. Mind, it took me a second to remember that was the fake name I'd given, and for a moment, I was tempted to tell her my real one…but decided against it. Magic tended to have 'True Names' as a thing you didn't give out without reason.
"Lucia then, and you may call me Bard. Now let us go before a snarky narrator catches up to us and never leaves us in peace for our whole adventure," I snarked, not that she understood of course, but it made me feel better as she led the way to the local guild branch, a rather large building of heavy stone with a weird banner hanging off the top that I assumed was the guild symbol of some kind.
Inside I finally found one of the people I was looking for…not Demi or Beast mind, but someone who was at least above the height of my shoulder, and a lot broader in those to boot. Guy probably had to turn sideways as well as duck to get in most places. I wanted to make friends with him, but he was in a corner, drinking something that I assumed was alcoholic in nature, and I decided to leave my fellow giant to his own musings. We could commensurate over these tiny people who built the world for their kind some other time.
For now I walked up to the line of people who were standing before a counter, where an obviously overworked woman was giving out either bags of coins of varying sizes, or slips of paper that had something written on them, likely missions or jobs. At least one of the people in line noticed us, and I felt glad I'd made my weapon less obvious, as none seemed to realize who we were, instead taking a moment to stare because of my size, before returning to their own tasks.
Truth to tell, it only took about fifteen minutes for us to make it to the front of the line, with me watching the goings on in the place, and finally seeing someone who wasn't human in the area. A child demi-human…one with what I recognized from one of the pictures I'd seen as a slave seal on his bare chest. That was…disconcerting, but I tried to put it out of my mind as I stepped up to the counter.
"Hello and welcome to the…Lucia, weren't you supposed to go to that thing at the Castle?" asked the woman, and Lucia nodded, before gesturing to me.
"I was, and the Hero of the Bow had a strange request. He wishes to 'test' himself in combat, before he allows others into his party. The King was insistent one of us accompany him, and I chose to do so," she explained, and the woman looked up and down at my frame, obviously not sure what to say, as she then pulled herself back into the chair she was sitting in and sighed.
"Okay, so…what sort of job do you want? Heroes probably get to skip the basic stuff, but you have a job to do, and I won't have you playing escort or something," she told me, and I understood. I did have a job to do, but I wanted to be prepared for it.
"Understandable. Perhaps there are some missions involving hunting low class monsters or animals near the city? Rat extermination perhaps. The Bhaalspawn started with those, and seems as good a first prey as any," I said, trying to sound 'heroic' but the word 'rat extermination' wasn't exactly the sort to roll off the tongue. She smiled at me though, and quickly drew out a poster.
"You know, we have just that. The Wave from a few months ago poured some kind of magic into this whole country, and the sewer rats are breeding like mad from it. Normally, that's a ten copper a tail job, but the city bumped it up to a silver because they're apparently getting smarter. More dangerous and harder to find," she explained, handing me the poster, which included a small note, along with a description of the quest. It was, as she said, mostly just hunting rats in the sewer. Not exactly the same as a barn, but I could see myself doing it. Still, I had a few tricks the locals might not, and I smiled as I handed the paper back to her.
"One moment," I asked, and then opened my status menu, and scrolled to the skill web thing. I'd already investigated that a bit, observing that the left side was mostly transformations and attacks for my bow, while the right was more about useful skills. Two in particular would really help with this, and thanks to starting at level three, I had a few skill points to use, and invested them with a thought.
"May I ask for a tray, or box or some kind?" I asked when I returned to the regular world, and she, raising an eyebrow, got up and got something, a small wooden tray into which sheets of paper were obviously normally loaded. I was not thrilled about doing this to something used, but remembering this world probably didn't have much in the way of manufacturing, boxes were probably not used in offices like the Guild the way they were in my world.
"Okay, let's see if this works," I said, and then tapped my finger on the tray, instantly, a sort of 'light pulse' passed between my finger and the wood, and I had a thing pop up in my vision that said 'loot destination enabled'. A handy little skill would now deposit anything I considered 'loot' into this container, from any distance away. Better, I had to take an (Auto-Loot) skill as well to get it, which wasted most of my skill points along with two others I'd wanted, but it would make this easier.
"I thank you ma'am. Please, keep people away from that tray. My bounties will appear on it once I begin collecting them," I told her, and then, with that, turned around, and Lucia, taking a moment to look between me and the guild woman, chased after, having to take at least two steps to every one I did as I made for the door.
"So…how do we get into the sewer anyway?" I asked, and she looked a bit unhappy about that pronouncement.
"There's a river that runs through the city, we passed it on the way here. The sewer has various tunnels that flow into it, and their exits are accessible from the riverside," she told me, and I nodded, the pair of us soon coming up to the place. It smelled…well sewer-like. Terrible in other words, but I soon pulled a small bit of fabric from one of my pockets, and wrapped it around my face, offering another to Lucia.
"I'm fine," she said, and then wove her staff before her. In a moment, she was shimmering in a way that probably meant she wasn't smelling anything. Useful spell that, and after descending some stairs, I was staring into a large tunnel. Like, very large, with paths to either side of a river of water that was obviously more than just water. It also echoed with the squeaks and screeches of our prey.
"Ah, a proper level one adventure. Starting at the worst, and hopefully ending up somewhere better," I mumbled to myself, as we proceeded into the dark and dank, to begin my first quest.