Fiction

“You are going all the way to the ruined city aren’t you?” She asked.

“Yes, that was the plan,” I said hesitantly.

“I have a friend that I would like you to take with you.”

“A friend? Your team makes expeditions to the jungle city don’t you? Why can’t you bring them?”

She bit her lip, “There was a bit of an argument between my second in command and them so I can’t officially help them out as the leader of Raven. However I want to do what I can to help them.”

It all sounded pretty suspicious. “Who is this person?”

We were dipping into our accumulated money stockpile to purchase some magical items. I had acquired an Arcanologist job which gave me access to the Magical Appraisal skill. While it was no good for mundane items but I could accurately identify most enchantments on items. Some particularly unusual enchantments were difficult to discern but most things that were commonly sold didn’t qualify.

Pretty soon the Innkeeper was walking, very carefully, over to our table with a couple of plates. Just as it was about to reach it the front door of the inn slammed open. The innkeeper spooked and would have dropped the plates had I not caught them out of the air.

Several heavily armored soldiers stepped through the front doors. They then quickly moved aside for the man behind them. An extremely well dressed man stepped forward. From his clothes to his sword everything seemed perfect and expensive.

Bordo, Level ??? Duke

“Are those your final words?” Asked the Demon King.

“Not particularly. I like talking. Although mainly I like complaining. Before this ends let me ask you a question. Your seem too specialize in the unarmed skill like Alice here since you have those claws. From my estimation you seem to have around 30 ranks in that skill. How many ranks do you think Alice has in her skill?”

Sterling nodded to the man and said, “Greetings. Sorry to inconvenience you but I needed to sign up to become an adventurer.”

“Sure, let me just deal with Lanette and Veronica and then I’ll get you all signed up.”

I pulled out from my satchel the pouch where I kept monster parts and handed it over before saying, “We were in the canyons when we ran into some ogres. There is still a bounty on those isn’t there.”

With those collected we began to head back to Dungeoncity. We were in the canyons, one of the terrain features surrounding Dungeoncity. I felt that the name it was given was highly appropriate. The route from Tortburg to Dungeoncity was through a very narrow pass. On the other side was wild untamed wilderness which had all kinds of strange fantasy terrain dotting it.

With my better weapon disposed of me she began to move closer. She was keeping her distance, trying to size me up while I was doing the same to her.

She was the one to finally break the silence pushing in. She used one of her hands to attack while keeping the other one to defend with. My hands were no where near the lethal weapons that hers were but I was about to parry and make attacks because of my slightly superior speed.

“You could also have done that if you had some kind of status hiding skill.” I said still trying to deny it. That had been pretty hard evidence. But a hero? Impossible..

“Oh, you will see. After all Improved Level Up applies to party members as well. Once you get to your next level you will know for certain that I am telling the truth.”

A hero from another world. That was impossible… wasn’t it? A hero, how could this be the person that I had been waiting for.

Chapter Break — Level 5 Demon

Jack, Level 5 Demon.

I felt like I should question her actions but it was keeping in line with how she had continued to act. She continued to train while I returned to the room and tried to figure out what to spend the money on that would be useful.

While later Veronica returned to the room. She raised her hand in greeting before collapsing on her bed. It looks like she had trained more than just her magic, probably excises of some kind. She had fallen sleep almost immediately after that.

“I have many questions but first let us get out of here. Also” I looked her up and down. “We need to get you cleaned up. The inn had a bath option for a little extra so we will need to use that. Also clothes. Wearing rags is totally unacceptable.”

I turned and began leaving the dark moldy dungeon and Lanette followed me, “Wasting such money on me is pointless.”