Amos finally climbed down from the building. Somehow the whole area looked even worse from a ground view.
Amos walked to the crater. At that time many other people were coming back. Including the Luddites who walked away.
Amos as well as many other people stepped up to the crater. They all looked down into the carnage.
The once rage-filled and exuberant people were now still and cold. Their faces were stuck with a permanent expression of agony. Their hands wrapped around their throats.
Then there were the ones cut in half. Their guts were strewn about and found in every direction. Their faces were stuck with an expression of confusion. In their eyes, they went from running towards the 2 men to then flying through the air. They were dead before they even realized what happened.
Some of the people around Amos gasped. Some fell to their knees. Some of them even recognized those who died. Although none of them dared to enter the crater. For all they knew the acidic gas still remained.
'Was this all necessary?' Amos thought.
Amos couldn't seem to take his eyes off of the bodies. He began to think further.
'The guy with acid blood mentioned the king. How he was feeling merciful, and therefore allowed most of them to escape this fate. But even if most of them escaped the slaughter, is this how a king treats their subjects.'
New questions and thoughts swirled through Amos's head. But one thing was certain to him. This event spoke volumes about the kingdom.
Finally, with all his strength Amos pulled his eyes off the crater. He turned completely around and began to walk. He shook his head in order to clear it. All of the thoughts were making him question if what he was doing was right. It was starting to get to him.
"Pull yourself together." He mumbled to himself.
He finally managed to clear his head by thinking about the adventurers guild. He looked around and spotted a sign pointing in the direction of the adventurer's guild. The sign pointed towards the wall, but away from the gate into the Noble's district. He walked down the street it pointed him towards.
As he walked, he thought about his future. From the info he collected, the adventurers guild is a place for bounty hunters, dungeon delvers, and people who do odd jobs. Out of those 3 Amos planned to become a dungeon delver. It would be honest work. Just fighting monsters and dealing with traps and puzzles. He would no longer need to kill people. As he was thinking he noticed how eerily quiet the city was.
The normally loud and bustling city was still desolate and silent. Most people still remained indoors or off the streets. It was uncomfortable and stifling.
Amos didn't let it deter him as he continued walking. Finally, he reached his destination. The Adventurers guild building was magnificent as it was sickening.
It was a large stone building built within the wall itself. Amos found it comedic. Although he couldn't see it, he could almost guarantee that there were 2 entrances on both sides of the wall. One for commoners, and the other for nobles. All so that nobles don't need to convene with commoners. He found it really comedic in a dark sense. He stopped himself from chuckling.
Unfortunately, the rest of the building was less humorous. Just windows and large propped-open doors. Amos further analyzed the building. There were back doors and unsecured windows.
Now that Amos thought about it the adventurers guild probably has a lot of money in it. Between the potions being sold and the monster's parts, there must be a ton of money just sitting around. Now where would they keep that money? Amos rubbed his chin as he began to contemplate.
'Wait a minute, what am I doing?!'
Amos realized what he was doing. He was casing the place. Just like in his old days when he was a high-level thief and brigand. His old habits just couldn't leave him.
'Am I even cut out for this honest work stuff?'
Amos shook his head to clear it of his indecision. Even if he wasn't cut out for it, he would at least give it his best shot. That was the least Salis and Balgroff deserved.
With his mind finally clear Amos walked through the doors of where he would be working from now on. Inside there were only a few people. To his right was a large board separated into categories. A few people were just standing in front of it staring at it. Straight in front of him was a reception area. It had a long counter with receptionists behind it. To his left was another large counter with a sign over it. It read "monster parts counter."
Not sure what to do Amos just walked towards the reception area. He walked up to the counter where a receptionist was behind. She was short and had glasses.
"Hello, how can I help you today." She said.
"I would like to register as an adventurer. I do that here right?" He replied.
"Yes, at reception you can sign up and manage your rank and identification. As well as start tasks, or quests as most adventurers put it. To register you need to fill out this paper."
She then opened a file cabinet below the desk. She pulled out a piece of paper and reached into her pocket pulling out a pen. She handed the pen and paper to Amos.
"When you finish filling out the paper just hand it to me and I can finalize it. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. It's policy that I inform you that lying on the paper is a crime. Depending on how much you lie, the punishment could be severe. With that out of the way, you can fill out the form over there."
Then she pointed towards a table and chair where he could write. Amos thanked her and went on his way. But before he got to the table, he first made a detour. He walked toward the large board on the right side of the room. Once there he stopped at a specific section. The bounty section.
The board was covered by wanted posters. The wanted posters themselves would have a name, a picture, and a money amount for each criminal. Amos finally stopped when he reached the poster he was looking for. His own.
His wanted poster was right in between Salis and Balgroff. It seemed that word of their deaths hadn't gotten out yet, or the winged man didn't care about the bounty money. As hard as it was for Amos to imagine, some people flat-out didn't care about money. Amos even remembered hearing rumors about how some of the Nordic tribes of the north still only bartered.
Either way, Amos read through it. The picture was mostly just showing his skull mask. The reward was 2 and a half platinums. But the most important part was the name. The name part stated "Part of the 3 magical brothers, Skull Illusionist." Amos breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn't got his name. Amos was worried this whole time if he would need to change his name, but it seemed like they never got it.
Now that Amos was finally relaxed he walked over to the table to fill out the paper. The paper itself first asked for his level. Then for basic info. Since his wanted poster didn't have his name he used his own name for the paper. He continued to fill it out until he got to the last section. The last section was actually a choice.
Amos read the section in his head 'To make it easier for upper management and organization, please select which type of adventurer you plan to become. Depending on which choice you make you will get a small tax reduction related to work in that choice. To choose please fill the square next to the choice.' To sum it up, this is where you choose what you will be generally doing.
There were 3 choices dungeon delver, bounty hunter, or miscellaneous for people who do odd jobs. Obviously, dungeon delvers are people who go into dungeons, kill monsters, then sell their body parts. Bounty hunters would hunt down those who are wanted and receive their bounties. Miscellaneous is a bit tricky though. It mostly covers everything Dungeon Delver and Bounty Hunter don't do. Such as guarding missions, exploring unknown lands, and collecting dangerous resources.
For most people, this decision was very hard. But Amos, he already decided on what he would do. He filled in the box by the dungeon delver choice.
Amos already decided he would be a dungeon delver. He came to the capital specifically because it had a large dungeon within the city. That was his plan from now on. He would become a dungeon delver from now on.
With the final choice filled out, he completed the paper. He then brought the paper back to the receptionist. She wrote a few things on the paper before pulling out a card. She handed the card to Amos and said "This is your adventurer card. As you just started you will be a copper rank. Since you are over level 25 you will be allowed entrance into the dungeon within the city. If you bring back high-level monster parts your rank will increase quickly. And that's about all. Have a good day, and try to avoid where the protest is happening. I have a bad feeling about this one."
Amos was confused by the last part. Then he realized she must have not heard how it turned out. Part of him thought about telling her how it turned into a massacre, but he didn't want to be the one to break the bad news to her. Thankfully the woman couldn't see his pitying face behind the bandages. So he simply waved and said goodbye.
He walked out of the adventurer's guild and into the street. Thankfully the city was becoming lively again. People were back on the streets and businesses went on. Although unfortunately, the talk of the city was about the terrible incident.
Amos looked into the sky. The sun was getting close to setting. Many adventurers were now walking back to the guild to turn in their quests and monster parts.
'Hmm guess it's too late in the day to go to the dungeon. Suppose I should just find where I'll be sleeping from now on. Then I'll head to the dungeon tomorrow.' Amos thought.
Amos began to walk down the street looking at different signs. He was looking for an inn. Hell, maybe even a tavern would do. As Amos walked through the city his sharp ears overheard conversations.
"I can't believe the king would just kill the protesters like that."
"Eh, they kinda had it coming. They ought to remember what happened during the commoner revolution. They knew what they were doing when they banged on those gates."
"Still though, seemed a little barbaric. Maybe the king has finally turned mad. I mean isn't he like 160 years old? When's the last time he even stepped out of the palace?"
Most of the talk was centered around the massacre and the king. It was hard for Amos to focus on finding an inn with the streets being abuzz. Amos finally had enough of searching and just asked a random person on the street. The random person pointed him in the direction of a good inn nearby.
Amos then made his way to the inn. When he finally got there he sized up the place. It was about medium size. The sign out front said "The Bears Den" and it had a little picture of a bear hibernating.
Amos made his way inside. Within, there were people eating dinner and a little bar with a bartender behind it.
Amos made his way over to the bar and asked the bartender "How much for a night."
The bartender answered "1 silver."
Amos put a handful of silvers onto the table. For the time being he planned to stay here. The bartender passed him a key with a number on it.
With the Key in hand, Amos made his way upstairs. Once he found the room with the corresponding number as the key he flopped himself onto the bed inside. He didn't even take any of his armor or bags off. He was completely exhausted. First, a group of rat-men tries to rob him, then he gets a front-row seat to an atrocity, and all the while he is navigating his way through a city he had never been in before.
'What a wonderful day.' He thought.
Soon though his troubles disappeared as his eyes slowly closed. When they opened again he found himself in the same old nightmare.
'Damn,' Amos thought.
He hoped that when he officially became an adventurer something would change. But nope. The same desolate land, the same old dirt road, and the same mob of the dead slowly approaching him.
'How much longer until this damn dream finally changes?!'
Amos sighed and lay down on the road. He gazed at the pure black sky above. Then he remembered. He turned his head to the right and saw Caro. He simply stared right back at Amos with a blank face. Or maybe it was him thinking? Amos couldn't tell.
"I don't even understand why you're here. Are you meant to mock me?" Amos said to Caro.
Caro continued to stare at Amos with a blank face. He completely ignored his question.
"Great, the silent treatment now."
Amos closed his eyes and just waited. He was pissed off. First, nothing changed in the dream even after he became an adventurer. And second, Caro was seemingly ignoring him now.
About a minute though, Caro finally responded. Although he ended up completely ignoring Amos's earlier question.
"You made the right decision. Although it was hard, you held yourself back from giving into your wanting for revenge." Caro said.
Amos opened his eyes and looked back at Caro. His face was still blank.
"Really now. I made the right choice? Do I get a medal or a cookie? And anyways weren't you the one that told me to fight back against the mob of the dead? You threw me a sword and all. So what made this time so different?" Amos replied.
Caro's expression remained the same. He was silent again. He merely watched Amos.
Amos paused. He thought about it for a minute and then said "Maybe I should have just gone for revenge. It would make things so much simpler."
Caro's expression finally turned to one of pity with a dash of envy. He then said "You shouldn't take revenge so lightly. Revenge is like ... a fire. It burns and burns. But nothing can stop it. It only stops when it runs out of fuel. And by then, there's nothing left."
Amos looked to Caro with a face of uncertainty, but this time it was Amos who decided not to say anything. They merely both went back to looking at the approaching dead.
By then the mob of dead were nearly upon Amos again. Amos sat up into a lotus position. He spotted the sword still lodged into the ground. He stared at the sword as he thought.
'This whole straight-laced thing. Am I really capable of it? Could I go the rest of my life just 'doing the right thing'? I thought maybe if the whole honest work thing didn't work out, then I at least still had revenge on the table. but even if I succeeded with revenge, would that make me happy? Would that make Salis or Balgroff finally rest in peace?'
Amos's mind was racing. Somehow thinking about the future only made him feel worse and more unsure.
By now the wails from the dead were maddeningly loud. It broke Amos out of his thoughts.
Amos looked at the approaching doom. A mob of zombies wailing and clawing to get to him. It was in the final moments before he was torn apart that he decided.
'Before I can even think of all of that. I need to at least try my best at the honest work thing. It's what Salis and Balgroff would have wanted.'
Then he was ripped apart. Limb from limb. Muscle from muscle. Bone from bone. The old familiar pain.