"Thhhhhhompssssonsss"
Cling, Clingle, Clang.
The middle man was interrupted by a slithering voice, the sounds of glass being hit together was much louder, evidence that the owner of the sound had gotten much closer.
"Oh Thhhhhompssssssons, get losssssst"
And just as swiftly he had been dispatched by these ruffians, the situation was diffused, the pressure on his head disrupted, as he heard the ground tremble a little while the buff man stumbled back.
They all did, taking a step back as their transgressions were interrupted by an emerging voice accompanied by the clinking of glass.
"I have bussinessss withhhh thhhat boy", someone hissed as they emerged from the shadows of an alleyway. The man was enshrouded by a hood and robe, only his yellowed reptilian eyes, and his oscillating tongue appearing from it.
"Fock it's dealer", the leader of the trio spat, "let's go", he took another step back, the female in toe. But the big guy didn't budge this time, standing his ground as he glared back at the intruder.
"Nah man, dun make a scene. None picks a fight with 'em, seen the next day…", the man nudged at the big guy's arm.
But again, the big guy acted with defiance in his eyes.
"Come now, 'ave it out with 'im, an big boss Tom gon' be angry at you"
Finally he snorted, and turned around with the others. They scattered from the scene as quickly as they had entered it.
Silas didn't hesitate to take the chance, collecting himself and stumbling from the ground, his head ringing a little as he swiftly stood at his maximum alleviation, looking down only slightly to peer at the man before him. He was wary of the stranger, one who could make the trio disassemble so easily. But even so, he turned his body to witness the escapees.
As it were, just the two of them stood beside the dirt trail. A silence enshrouded the both of them, as they both watched the trio disappear from sight.
Or it should have been so, but Silas's gaze lingered at the area they disappeared, glaring at them as he witnessed a head pop out to examine them before disappearing once more.
'It seems I may be ambushed again if my current predicament doesn't end me sooner'
He then turned his attention to his hand. He was expecting to witness his summoned weapon, yet there was nothing in his clenched grasp.
'I don't even know how it disappears. I didn't feel it as it went'
But Silas was interrupted from his thoughts as he coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood, turning his attention to his supposed savior. He was the first to speak.
"Who are you?"
"Yyyou… already know", the stranger spoke excruciatingly slowly.
'Those bastards called him Dealer…', "what do you want?"
"It'sss you, who wantsssss ssssomethhhing"
'Because the dealer, deals?', Silas questioned himself, glaring at him, 'drugs huh… wait…'. "Potions?"
"Yessss, it'sss been a while"
"Huh"
"Thhhought…. you'd left usssss", he reached into his pocket, taking out a vial with a yellow liquid inside it, a cork was ledged on top of it to stop it from spilling its contents. He held out his hand, which had brownish scales on the back of it, to Silas, offering the sample, "remember ussssss", he hissed once more.
"Yeah…", Silas was about to reject the offer, but thought better of it.
The figure before him reminded him of someone, but no one came to mind. Thus he concluded with his prior speech that he was a man Leoghan was meeting, the building from his memories of a supposed shop nearby may have just been one of many places he transacted at, which kind of made sense since he had no memories of its interior. And if that were so, his deals were apparently legit.
'Wait is this where all his money went, am I an addict?', the thought crossed his mind. He never did drugs as Silas, and he couldn't recall when Leoghan started, but he hadn't the intention to start… Nor continue now.
Even so, he took the vial to express goodwill, he could sell it or throw it, it didn't matter but for now, he was doing business, he came here with an intent after all. And it would be ill of him to refuse a kindness from one who could save him so easily…
"I wish to acquire something else from you, do you have…"
Before Silas could finish his sentence, the man opened his robes, many flasks were adorned with different labels, each also having different coloured liquids inside.
"Take…. Your picksss"
He noticed a flask at the bottom left, filled with red contents. The label read 'heal', so he pointed at it and asked how much for it, all while thinking, 'potions from a drug dealer… I should just buy this shit normally. At least I'm not using it'
"For you…. Thhhhreeee P…. A vial"
Silas sighed, deciding to take 4. While he was happy for getting them so cheap, there must be a reason for it. The best normal quality potion he saw sold for 15, but they were all out of stock. The standard averaged 20. He didn't know why he was trusting his drug dealer to supply him with potions, and a part of him regretted even coming here. But what else was he expecting? Even from a shop in these parts, they wouldn't be any better.
He watched as the snake man poured from the flask labeled 'heal', into 4 vials that he grabbed from one of his many pockets. Silas transferred his points, thinking at least it was a cheap thing to try out while trying out his powers.
"Nicccce… doing busssinessss, with you", were the last words he heard from the snake man as they bid their adieus. He strutted back into the shadows of the alleyway with those two slender, long legs of his. The sound of glass clinking as he did so.
Silas was dumbfounded how quickly the man left him upon the end of their deals. He had expected some ill intent when he came and saved him from his plight, yet he gave him drugs, sold his wares and left. Was he just sticking up for a paying customer?
Silas contemplated it as he walked back. He knew where the scoundrels were waiting for him, so he waited a while then followed the alleyway the Dealer left in, and took a few detours avoiding the main road until he was forced on it, well and truly past where the ambush lay. Upon leaving the dirt trail, he peered back at the path he had just traversed.
Perhaps one day he would go back and exchange his vendetta for an action of consequence. But he was not so willing to repeat the lesson he had learnt. No, rather, this lesson merely expressed the importance of understanding his ability.
He already knew how lethal it was to go into battle underprepared, yet this experience had solidified that ideal. His conviction to learn his gift reinforced as he clenched his fists in determination and swept his gaze back in front of him, preparing to trail the track back to achieve that goal.
On his way back to the adventurer guild, he stopped only to buy 3 additional medium potions, each one from different shops. He was to test the difference between them, contrasting their effects by their sold quality and price. And it would serve an important effect in aiding his efforts to learn of his power. By the time he was done, he had 390 points left.
Entering the adventurers guild once more, he looked around, noticing his slaves all gathered around a table in the corner. At the table they sat last night to be more specific. All four of them.
'Guess I don't have to round them up after all, good', his eyes narrowed.
He walked closer, noticing the bag of weapons that was with them, his student clothing probably hidden underneath. His fist clenched at the thought. His slaves didn't run away after all, but those fuckers nearly cost him his life.
As he took another step from the door, making way to his table at the other side of the room, he was interrupted once more, as the stone man from yesterday stood in his way. He was tall at 6 ft 7, standing there imposingly with his chiseled rock hard abs out on display. His stone skin seemed to encompass even the short spikey hair on the top of his head, grayed out like the rest of his skin.
"Hey new kid, heard you'd be getting your evaluation done today", he rubbed his head, turning around noticing a table glaring at him. A female sat there motioning with her hands for him to carry on.
"Ah, fuck!", he started scratching the static stone at the back of his head, "I mean. Sorry for yesterday. Thought ya'd registered as another merc. And you just started acting so arrogantly, and… Ah fuck, anyway sorry".
Without waiting for a response, he turned to leave, asking if he was good now as he neared the table that was watching him. The female from earlier yelling at him, and smacking him on the back of the head as he tried to sit down.
As he left, Silas's blue eyes gleamed, following his movement to the table the rock man sat at. None seated seemed to pay attention to him, with the exception of another female that caught on after a few seconds, her pink feline eyes inspecting his own as she decided to wave over at him and wink.
She was a fox type beast, with a cute face, and whiskers adorned beside her nose. Other than the fluffy blond ears sported on her long blond hair, 4 fluffy blond tails seemed to sprout out from her dress, curling outwards around her waist, each at a length that could reach up to her shoulders, her height appearing to be 5 ft 8.
Silas cocked his head to the side as he analyzed her, recalling his memory from the bestiary he had read while studying for his beast study classes. Apparently the amount of tails a fox kin had indicated them of their status, and their strength. From Silas's knowledge, that translated to their efficiency at controlling their mana, and having higher natural elemental affinities.
At 9 tails was the max, existing only amongst high royalty. Sometimes amongst them, tails dropped to 8 or 7, picking out the weakest from the right to rule. 6 to 5 were noble in blood, while 4 and 3 were on the level of a commoner. 2 was treated as less than, and 1 was condemned as slaves.
He was the first to break eye contact, moving on to his table, the people gathered there had too deep a conversation to notice, except the elf. Of whom stared while Silas leaned back a vacant chair, then let go of it, falling forward with a stomp going back in place; Alerting his presence to the others.
"Yeah, but I'll get 'em back for it… Oh, it's the master", Ferlein broke off from her conversation upon being interrupted, the human and dwarf both turning their heads to him even without her announcement. But then a certain realization dawned on her, and her eyes seemed to become more attentive as she stared at him. "You're bleeding".
But Silas wasn't in the mood.
"You've gathered, good", he expressed curtly, his eyes pinning down Thaite's. Of the missing elf and him, he was suspected more for the returned theft. "It's time to go get examined, follow me", he commanded, turning around without sparing a moment's glance.
Ferlein seemed to pout at this, her energetic expression from her earlier conversations dissipating. Perhaps she wanted to see more from him, or perhaps she was upset that he had left her to wake up all by herself this morning. Or perhaps there was something else on her mind, rendering these conjectures pointless. One could not simply peer into her mind, to understand her every whim.
But her expression did not go unnoticed as the human mumbled something under his breath, the dwarf just sighing as he got up from his chair, while the elf stared contemplatively into her eyes.
They arrived before the receptionist, the same one from this morning. She seemed to notice as they neared, not moving an ounce despite her inappropriate posture, her feet still applied to the desk like how he had left her last. This all changed as her gaze swept past Thaite however, her feet flying in the air as she slammed them on the ground, pistoning herself to her feet as she pointed.
"You!", she exclaimed, pointing her finger at Thaite. "I woke up this morning and you, you bastard, weren't there!", Ferlein seemed to make an O shape with her mouth, exhaling while aghast. She seemed to direct her gaze over at Silas, but while he noticed, he chose instead to ignore her.
"Or you!", the receptionist lady pointed at the elf.
Silas wondered if they had double teamed her, but his thoughts were silenced as she continued.
"But you were in the corner the whole time watching, while you caressed your bag of weapons all weird like, so whatever. But you! You left me and Hannah this morning, surprised as we were. But bloody furious when we realized our pouches were missing. So what gives? Where is it?"
"Have you tried looking under your beds? We kind of left it in a mess", he scratched his cheek, glancing over at Ferlein to see her reaction, but she seemed to still be pouting at Silas. Of whom had now directed his attention to Dromund, the elf.
"Oh? Ohoho, so that's how you want to play, huh? Mind. You. This. I'm in charge of your examination today. And I could choose to cast you off", she clicked her fingers pointing straight at the door, "just like that".
Thaite seemed to roll his eyes, but stopped abruptly as he noted Silas's sudden penetrating gaze. He didn't care about the job per se, but he figured Silas, who went to all this trouble to set it up, probably wouldn't be pleased had he fucked everything up.
"Tsk", he clicked his tongue, but put on an amicable smile, reaching into his pocket and taking out a pouch, placing it on the table.
"It seems it slipped in while we were making our rounds. Pants did seem a little heavier this morning"
"And Hanners", the receptionist was not amused, her eyes narrowing.
"Other pocket, I was getting to it, Jesse", and he did reach to another pocket, pulling out another pouch. Probably stored there because the pocket space was too small to fit both in one.
"Hmph", she swiped at the pouches, storing them in pockets of her own.
She then grabbed a notebook and proceeded to jump over the desk, Silas taking a step back as she rudely took up his space.
"The e is silent", she proclaimed. She then nudged her head along, as she moved in that same direction, Silas taking that as a cue to follow, the rest tailing behind him.
She led them down a dimly lit hallway on the ground floor, taking them into an isolated room. Therein laid a single desk in the middle of the room. Only a globe that radiated a miasma-like light inside it, sat atop a red cloth positioned in the middle of the table.
Jesse, the receptionist, stood to the side of the room waiting as everyone entered it. Silas, as the first to arrive after her, immediately moved to the center since the object that lay there had such a significance placed upon it.
As he stood there, captivated by the light radiating from it, Jesse seemed to usher him, "go on, touch it. It won't bite".
Silas sighed at her exaggeration, placing the palm of his hand against the globe. An electric tingle seemed to graze his flesh, and he moved his head back to examine the text as a red screen jutted out from the globe, displayed like a hologram above it.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Name: Leoghan
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 16
Attributes:
Strength: Light Steel
Dexterity: Dark Steel
Agility: Steel
Endurance: Light Steel
Affinity: Life, Metal
Gifts: 1
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Oh, gifted amongst the lower class, you're a keeper", she complimented, but as she started writing in her notebook, she mumbled onwards, "but you just barely qualify, we don't accept an average of Light Steel".
Suddenly her mood shifted once again, as if an instance of realization dawned upon her, and her eyes gleamed in a curious delight, "ah! Say was that you in that commotion last night? Did you use your gift against Dale?".
"This status screen seems to be missing some things", Silas mumbled, ignoring her question as he noticed how different it looked compared to the Goddess's status screen.
"Hm, I'll take that as a yes then. And to answer your question, It's a low tier globe of observation, so it won't show much other than basic information. You'd think our guild could afford a better one, but since all the 'important people', as my boss puts it, can just use the academy's 'best in all the lands', the higher ups think there's no need. Don't even think of the little people that can't use it…", she mumbled the last part.
"Wait, where did you go to get your status last revealed? If it's a higher tier than this, well… Only powerful organizations like the academy, or high nobility could even dream to hire craftsmen capable of producing it while affording the expenses. There's like… only 1 or 2 in the province last I heard that could even craft one better than this"
"I…", 'can't say I'm a noble, otherwise implications would hinder me, even if I claimed to be a fallen one that didn't attend the academy… No, they'd straight out know because of my clothing, it'd be all too obvious that I'm in disguise'
"I don't know, some noble got me tested… didn't show my gift, just attributes like fortitude and intelligence, so they didn't take me in", Silas did his best to make a convincing lie. But after saying it out loud he realized that a better quality observation globe than this would have probably shown the gift he had, making his claim redundant.
"Hmm… those pesky nobles. Throwing all their wealth at frauds. Yeah I've seen them, those that randomize attributes rather than reading yours, looks real but it ain't. They're all throwing their money at fakes when they could be distributing it to the people, those bastards"
Luckily she seemed to make her own assumptions, thinking there to be no reason for a peasant to lie. After all, little people such as themselves had to stick up for one another.
"Mhmm", Silas muttered idly, moving to the side and gesturing to the next in line to go. 'While my name and age changing is a given, and the change in attributes is probably because of Leoghan's body being different to Silas's, but how has my affinity changed? I didn't have life last time, and affinities are decided by birth along with gifts… And gifts are bound to the soul, unchangeable unless I as an other-worlder were given more by a God… Did Freija? No. Then another may be on my tail…', he speculated paranoidly.
He looked over at his slaves, remembering how he had made sure none of them were from the kingdom that Freija ruled, but instead from other kingdoms which had other Gods. Meaning one of them may have been spying on him all this time. 'That's no good… But it's not like I can do anything about it', he gritted his teeth. He didn't like the idea of having his privacy violated all the time. To be treated like a fool for their entertainment. To be looked down upon…
'Wait… didn't she say I had to go through a ritual or other, to receive it?', he contemplated some more, while Galgael put his hand on the orb.
'Maybe I'm overthinking things… It's not like I'm that entertaining to watch anyhow, I'm fairly unassuming. I can only hope the God's would get bored if they were…'.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Name: Galgael
Race: Dwarf
Gender: Male
Age: 123
Attributes:
Strength: Light Silver
Dexterity: Dark Bronze
Agility: Bronze
Endurance: Silver
Affinity: None
Gifts: 0
-----------------------------------------------------------
'120s huh. I remember in biology class it was explained that dwarves live a little over double the human lifespan, with elves quadruple. Humans average 100, therians being the same. Though some fluctuations apply upon each beast type. Probably something about cellular structure and sciency stuff to differentiate them, but technology to investigate that isn't as advanced as Earths'
The others awaited their turn to touch the globe.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Name: Ferlein
Race: Therian Wolf Variant
Gender: Female
Age: 23
Attributes:
Strength: Silver
Dexterity: Light Silver
Agility: Silver
Endurance: Light Silver
Affinity: None
Gifts: 0
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
Name: Thaite
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Attributes:
Strength: Dark Steel
Dexterity: Bronze
Agility: Light Bronze
Endurance: Dark Bronze
Affinity: Fire
Gifts: 0
-----------------------------------------------------------
Thaite looked down at his hands, "I… Have an affinity for fire?".
The receptionist sneered replying, "probably a negligible tier, if no mage ever took notice of you".
"Yeah, sure. Whatever", Thaite rolled his eyes as he walked away, his hopes like a flame in the wind, snuffed in an instant.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Name: Dromund
Race: Half Elf
Gender: Male
Age: 69
Attributes:
Strength: Bronze
Dexterity: Light Silver
Agility: Dark Bronze
Endurance: Bronze
Affinity: Light
Gifts: 1
-----------------------------------------------------------
Dromund was the last, waiting, almost hiding behind everyone else as if not wanting to touch the orb. And it showed, because when he did, everyone looked at him weirdly. It was a given that Silas had a gift, he was a noble, everyone here but the receptionist knew that. But none of the others, not excluding Silas, knew that Dromund was gifted.
The receptionist was the first to speak, exclaiming, "wow, this will make the second team of adventurers at our branch to have two gifteds".
"Didn't think ya had it in ye", Galgael patted him on the back.
"Gifts make you strong right? Show it to me, fight me with it", Ferlein started getting excited, but her face was nudged away by Silas as he walked by her. She had only licked the palm of his hand in retaliation, causing him to push her backwards and flick his wrist as he walked forward, and applied that same hand on Dromund's shoulder.
With the slightest smile etched eerily on his face, of which made the elf freak out, Silas voiced out his concerns, "hey, have you been hiding secrets from me? Do tell, what's your gift?", he enquired, squeezing his shoulder a little as he did so. Perhaps his reaction was a little forced, but his eyes held a lingering resentment.
"I… don't know? I've never been tested before…", the elf complained, looking away but that was his usual reaction.
"Yeah… I'm not sure I believe you. You know what'll happen if you lie? Tell me the truth", he commanded, activating his seal, hidden by his rags.
"T-That is the truth"
"Hmm", Silas let go of his shoulder. He was conflicted, and had an odd way of showing it. 'I've scored big', he couldn't help but think to himself, 'but he also fucked me over…'.
'Dromund was probably just a commoner that never had the chance to get himself tested. The fact he was captured proves he probably didn't know he had an ability otherwise he'd use it and the slavers would have known it… though from memory light attributes deal more so in information. Beastie's going to give him a hard time unless I tell her about that…', but he didn't bother to do so, thinking it was a just punishment for the crap he had to endure.
He just continued with his thoughts, 'I'm lucky that Fattie didn't have an identifying orb of his own, otherwise I'd never have received this diamond in the rough, least not at his price range'.
The receptionist seemed to finish writing everything down in her notebook, and escorted everyone out of the room. They were told to wait for a bit as she left for the backroom, so Silas decided to order breakfast, just a small one this time. He wasn't going to repeat last night, much to the disappointment of Ferlein.
It took some time before the receptionist came back out. She walked over to the group at their table and presented them their ID cards. The cards themselves had information on the front and back, colour coded by the thin piece of material they were made from, ranging from Iron, Steel, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Orchalcum, Mithril, and Adamantium, from lowest to highest tiers respectively. Each tier also seemed to have a light, medium and dark material variant, tinting them to further detail the subrank from low, medium and high, further dividing each respective ranks.
There seemed to be a white space on each card, where black text was inscribed on it, illustrating all the necessary information. The front seemed to have the adventurers circular logo planted in the middle of it, underneath detailing the branch of adventurer guild, which held the name of this one, Easthrer city. The back had private information such as their name, race, gender, and most importantly, the names of their rank as well as subrank, even though that was evident by the tint and material used.
"Congratulations, for officially becoming adventurers", she exclaimed, but proceeded to glare at Thaite with a stank eye, while he peered over at Ferleins card and whistled.
Checking between all of them, Silas was a rank of Steel, Galgael one of Light Silver, Ferlein of Silver, Thaite of Bronze, and Dromund of Dark Bronze.
'Finally', Silas thought, content with the cards. 'Finally I can go outside'.