We were slowly getting used to the chaotic buzz of the city. Part of it was due to sheer exposure, of course, but I suspected that a much greater factor that allowed us to tolerate this place was the telepathic bond we now shared. Before, any time we spent in the city was time we were forced to spend in silence, looking all brooding and stern. Pretending made us actually feel that way after a while.
Now, we could chat and laugh and share intense feelings and inappropriate comments about the strange people we saw around and about, all of it with the outside world being none the wiser. The difference was like night and day.
We navigated the dark alleyways, passed through security checkpoints between lithos blocks, and finally reached the guild. There was heavy construction going on all around it, with many houses covered in wooden scaffolding and thick blankets. I was about to ignore it all, but the sound of shouting drew my eye and I spotted Ted.
Of course the dwarf foreman was there, I thought with a mental chuckle. The girls shared my amusement, and we decided to take a little detour to say hello.
"Guild's expanding," the dwarf explained after we exchanged some pleasantries. "Twilight's Shadow fell during the last tide, and guess who survives when a city like that is destroyed? Pretty much only the stronger workers, and the rich fucks living underground. We had no idea it even happened until a stream of them began to filter in through the gates. Nobody even bothers to check anymore. You're not a wild monster? Come on in, we need you to defend civilization! Moronic…"
Despite the rant, his face was relaxed. Once again, I remembered his life philosophy and realized how much it suited him.
"Did their underground city fall too?" I asked for Vespera's sake. Out in public, we decided she would relay her questions to me and I would say them out loud.
"No," Ted replied. "But without the upsiders feeding it, its days were numbered. They sheltered some workers, just enough to escort them here. Of course, you don't see no noblemen because they are already all settled in Chasm City, no problem. And the workers? Well, time to expand the guild."
That made sense. We chatted some more, and I learned that Ted had not been assigned to handle the wall repairs near the main gate, much to his chagrin. On one hand, it was a huge headache he was glad had been given to someone else; on the other hand… the dwarf didn't trust other people with works of civil engineering, especially with stone and concrete.
"I'm sure it'll be fine, lad. I sleep like a rock. A rock with an eye open."
Ominous, but then again, perhaps his words should be taken with a grain of salt.
"By the way," I told him before I left, almost forgetting. "I met Lee, the apothecary. I told him I'm a member of the three-letter club as a joke, and then it turns out it's a whole secret society? I apologize if I overstepped."
Ted squared me up and down. From below. Because he was a short dwarf. I felt a faint sense of pressure building, the sensation welling up in the space between my eyes, just under the bones. I realized at once that I was being scanned by an ability, one I could not counter.
The sensation finally passed. It must have lasted less than a second, despite feeling much longer. Whatever Ted saw, he was satisfied with it, because his face returned to its normal state.
"Knew already. It's no worries, lad," he said. "But if you wanna keep enjoying the benefits of the club, you gotta join in. And if you do, it means contributing as well. If you are interested to know more… here."
He slipped me a small piece of quasi-paper, on which was written an address along with a date and time. I had no idea what day it was, of course, and it must have shown on my face.
"You can use the guild token to tell the time. It's not on by default, but if you think hard about it, it will activate the feature."
I tried and it worked. It made me wonder how many other features were hidden away behind commands, and I soon learned that there were a bunch of them. The best ones, like the map feature, were paywalled behind subscriptions. And you needed the subscription, by the way, because monster spawns changed all the time. Tides shuffled things around, but even between tides the magical currents were not always the same.
Subscriptions… Just like with the brain implants back in my old life. Some things never change.
I thanked the dwarf, and made my way to the guild. On the way there, I shared something I found with the girls.
"The days of the week and the months are the same as in my old world," I said.
"Could it be due to translation?" Elyra offered. "Whatever god gave you the language, surely also gave you some way to interpret dates and times."
"Could be. Just to be sure. I see here that there are twelve months, starting with January that has 31 days, then February…"
I went on, listing everything. It matched one-to-one.
"Therefore," the angel concluded, following my train of thought. "The translation only changes, at most, the names. It cannot change the structure. This is yet another strange coincidence."
We let go of it because we soon reached the guild. The plan for the day was to hunt for monsters, get a ton of money to buy me a weapon and more supplies, maybe level up once or twice, and then finally explore the Skitterpede hole.
The first step, then, was to find information on where the farmable monsters were. So far, apart from wild encounters, we had found only slimes and Skitterpedes. There had to be more, though, and the paywalled map feature of the guild token confirmed that.
I could choose to pay in installments, to pay for only certain parts of the map to be unlocked, for a one-time snapshot of the area… yeah. The guild knew how to bleed us for money. And how could it not? Broke adventurers—er, workers—would be forced to farm more cores and sell them rather than use them to grow in power. And all those cores, I was sure, ended up straight in Chasm City.
"I wanna see what that place looks like," Vespera said.
"Adding it to our bucket list."
She snorted. "Why would you write a list on a bucket?"
Good question.
When we entered the guild, it was with an amended plan. Before learning of the token, I had planned to ask Buck for directions. He was bound to know. Maybe he might even have had a map I could look at and try to memorize.
Luckily, Ted filled the gaps in my knowledge before that. Asking Buck for a map when the token's feature did the same thing, and better, although for a price, was bound to raise eyebrows. I already had the reputation of being the weird one around here, I was sure. No need to alienate my only contact.
That didn't mean I wasn't going to try an amended version of the plan. Ted was proving to be an invaluable asset, and I wanted more assets. I could pay for a map snapshot and see where the monsters were, but asking people to do you favors was a good way to win friends and influence people according to an old book.
"It's either going to be Buck or Vandril," I explained through the bond.
"The asshole and the guy with the hawk. Poor pickings, Sol."
I agreed with Vespera, however: "They are the only two people we have ever interacted with. Ah, there's Buck. Let's see what he has to say."
"Hey man!" I called as I approached him. "How did the job at the wall go?"
He glared at me. "It was shit. I knew it was gonna be shit, I picked it anyways, turned out to be shittier than I thought, and I was stuck with it till a little while ago. Pay was shit as well. I only have myself to blame."
"Interesting," Vespera sent me through the bond. "He's not blaming others for his failures. Bonus points to him, I guess."
I chuckled. "Say what," I told him. "I was half a mind to go out hunting. My map subscription ran out and I am outta cash to renew it. How about I leech off of you, we hunt together and we share the spoils?"
"A party?" the man grumbled.
"Temporary. No commitments. We see how we vibe and then we decide."
I could see him thinking, but he wasn't convinced yet.
"You don't have a slave anymore," I added. "How about if we see something suitable, I help you get a new one? I know you just got a new class, but any fighting you do without a slave is energy that goes to waste, right?"
I had an ulterior motive, of course. I wanted to see all about slaving monsters, beginning with what monsters were suited to become slaves, how to enslave them, and what happened afterwards.
"Do we really have to go with the asshole?" Vespera whined in my ear.
"Come on," I said, trying to convince her. "It's a good deal. Didn't you say he gets bonus points for not blaming others?"
"That, like, makes him barely even decent," the demon complained. "Not someone I would go hunting with!"
"I trust Sol," Elyra came to my rescue.
"I knowww," the demon whined some more. "I just don't wanna be with people, Sol. I wanna be with you and Elyra. Just us. So we can do naughty things while we rest."
"I'm sure you can resist for a day," I said with a chuckle.
"I'm in," Buck said, sealing the deal. "Just to be clear, we fight fifty-fifty. But the map is mine, so I call what we hunt and what we don't. We each fight however we want, but without getting in each other's way. I ain't telling you my skills, and I am not asking yours either. We don't be close enough for that yet, sorry."
"Of course," I said. "Makes perfect sense."
"Now, spoils are all split in half between us. But, say we find a slavable monster, that's mine as a payment for the map. That works? And if I see a core I might need, I get first dibs. There's a couple cores I need to influence the next skill selection window. I hope I get better rolls."
"Do you get different rolls all the time?" I asked him.
"Do you not?" he countered.
I said nothing.
"You must have a strong class, then," he said. "Lemme guess. You need to pay to re-roll? Not bad. Means that type of core don't matter. I suppose it makes you strong. It's not a bad deal you are offering me, to hunt together. My terms ain't changing though, that alright with you?"
I nodded.
"Then let's go. I know a good hunting spot."