Feral Beast Master: A Gamelit Adventure, page 2
The priests had disappeared, and all the young orphans with them.
Now Kaden knew where they’d gone. Taking children into a Dungeon? That wasn’t just murder, it was a slaughter. He picked up his pace.
2
TWO - PARTY ANIMALS
By noon, Kaden and the Party had made it back to the City, and by one, delivered their report to the Adventurer’s Guild. To Kaden’s total shock, they took the report of a dungeon door seriously, and Trella’s found amulet and tracks even more seriously. “That’ll be for the Guildmaster to weigh in on,” their Quest Broker said. Then he handed each a single silver star, and a silver coin, their pay. “First mission bonus. Starting tomorrow you can pick from the board, ask at the desk, or if you’re unlucky, there will be something assigned for you. And for what it’s worth, your gear is shit.”
A silver coin wasn’t bad for a day’s work, but Kaden, expected more. From the other looks on the others faces, so did they. As the group left the reporting desk, Trella snagged a table. “That was underwhelming. I made more off my training missions for the Sisters.”
“It was a scouting mission,” Sara answered. “I expected more, but I’m guessing the real money comes with combat or clearing Quests.”
Evelyn headed to the bar, then came back shaking her head. “Don’t eat anything there. Anything.”
Kaden was ready to discuss how they could coordinate better, but a golden bird landed on the edge of his table. A messenger bird. He held it up and listed, and the bird sang in a voice he knew.
“I know you’re in town and I want you to stop by the Big House. All I need is your presence, so all I’m paying is dinner, but it’ll beat the swill they serve at the Guild.” James Dervish’s dry, gravelly voice trailed off, and the Messenger Bird flitted away. He looked to the others. “Anyone want better food?”
Dervish’s Summoning Services was lit up like the Sun God’s temple, and all the snow had been swept from the front. Sara steered Evelyn away from the front doors and down the alley, while Trella walked arm in arm with Kaden.
At the back door, Sara knocked, until Jaques, the Necromancer turned Tailor, burst out. “This way, this way,” he said. “The Big Man is busy with a customs Summons, but he wanted to know when you arrived. And he arranged dinner. We are busy, so very busy. I’ve never seen so many summoners at once.”
Kaden grasped the reasoning immediately, and the System logs confirmed it.
Your group has grown by [102]. Leader of the Pack is more efficient. Bonus: 6.97%
He’d expected better. Twenty Four people had given a four percent bonus. Four times that barely added two percent. The entire city, hell, the nation might not break fifteen percent. This was both encouraging and disappointing, as it meant he was getting most of the benefit even in small groups.
“Oh, my god.” Evelyn said as she found their table. “This cheese is from home. And the salad. And the small meat skewers!”
“Food is food.” Trella took a seat beside Kaden and began shoveling it in.
Kaden couldn’t agree more. It was hot, it was plentiful and it wasn’t a biscuit. “Hot food is better than cold food. Lots of food is even better.” But he recognized the look on Sara’s face. The ‘follow my lead’ look.
“I want to talk levels. We fought wolves today. We killed an alpha wolf. And I meant to make sure you’d get a hit on every single wolf, so you’d get experience. Did it help?” Sara looked to Evelyn.
And she almost exploded with excitement. “Yes! I gained a level.” And then the excitement faded. “But no skill. Level seven for healers. 1, 5, 7, our basic skills. I should have gotten a skill. I have no Talents. I should have at least gotten a Talent choice.”
Kaden frowned as he considered it. “You didn’t get one at five, either.” Then flinched as pain shot through his foot. Trella glared at him, shifting her boot again on top of his foot.
“Shit, that’s right,” Sara said. “What happened to you? Errr—I mean, maybe I can help figure out what’s happening—” She flinched, and a Horror hissed at Trella.
But Evelyn didn’t shy away. “I failed to learn Cleanse. Minor Mend, Cleanse, Resurrection. The first three skills every Healer gets. And I failed to learn it. Now I didn’t get a spell at the expected level.”
Sara thought in silence. “Many classes have different skill and talent levels. Maybe you’re not a [Healer.]”
[Identify] disagreed, but Kaden’s impression was that the goal was comfort, not accuracy.
“You know what the Sisters do when someone doesn’t level the way they expect?” Trella asked. “They send them out to find their Destiny. I’m allowed to go back, once I understand. And if I want to.” She looked to Kaden. “I’d rather stay with family.”
“You two creep me out,” Evelyn said. “Is the Saint’s Hall that bad? We have it…where I grew up. Ours didn’t strike me as a cult. Yours…”
Kaden couldn’t help laughing. It was the experience you couldn’t see until you were out. When he’d lived there it was all he knew. “Trella and I spent ten years living together in a six by eight room. One bed. One blanket. You know what the priests told us?”
“If we worked hard and earned the Saint’s due, we would get better jobs. They’d turn on the heat-stones.” Trella leaned her head over on Kaden’s shoulder. “Yes, the place was a cult, and most of what the Sisters taught me was how to ignore what I learned. But we both survived it, and if it made us a little strange? Well, we survived.”
Evelyn lost the slightest edge of her attitude. “That explains—”
The door to the back room swung open, and James Dervish ducked in, then rose to his full height. And stared at the Party.
“Sir!” Evelyn stood and rushed over, offering her hand. “Evelyn Black, Priestess of Varun, may her healing flow freely. At your service.”
Mr. Dervish gazed down on her, perhaps shocked at her boldness. “Priestess?”
“In training. Even where I grew up, we’ve heard of James Dervish.” She retreated to the table.
Mr. Dervish nodded to Sara. “Heard your first Quest went well. Don’t be ashamed to run scouting. It’s easy coins for little risk, and it makes the Quest Brokers like you. Kaden, got time?”
Like anyone would refuse the Centurion Adventurer. Kaden rose followed Mr. Dervish to the elevator, then up to Mr. Dervish’s office. The moment the door shut, the giant began to laugh. “Oh, boy. I don’t know if it’s good luck or dumb luck, but when we normally get one token per summoner, ten failures over the group, and ninety percent of them are common. This time, we had two failures and eighty five of them are common. And one epic. That’s a once-a-year chance. From now on, we’re only going to craft tokens when you’re around.”
Kaden explained about the bonus, and how it didn’t scale as high as he’d expected with the group size.
“You’re thinking too small. Among the best craftsmen, a single percent separates the top and the hundred under them, and across a city, or a nation, five percent would be world changing. Tell me about your run.” Mr. Dervish leaned back in the chair.
So Kaden did—then stopped. “We got attacked by an Alpha Ice Wolf, and I put the whole thing in Inventory to deal with later. Who processes them?”
“I got a guy, and having that done is a decent trade. You cut out the mana core yet?”
Kaden shook his head.
“He’ll do it. You going to share with your party?”
Mana cores were valuable, but trust was more valuable. “Yes. We’ll find a buyer and pick up another mission tomorrow.”
“Hold on that,” Mr. Dervish said. He pointed to the door and invoked a silent skill, opening a portal like the one he’d used to take Kaden to Beast Control. But it opened to a fiery desert cave, where a lanky, thin man with yellow skin and long black hair stared a pot.
“Han, you got time to process a Beast?” Mr. Dervish asked.
The answer wasn’t in Common, but the tone was friendly. The man retrieved an apron from Inventory and a pair of butcher blades, then chatted with Mr. Dervish as he worked. Kaden had never seen a crafting skill like the butchering and skin processing Han used. It turned what Kaden knew as a messy, bloody act into pure magic that peeled off a perfectly processed hide—which seemed to surprise Han. He looked it over and over, talking excitedly, then focused on the meat.
Which he took, leaving only a floating orb the size of a man’s fist, that glowed with white light. The mana core.
Mr. Dervish spoke a few more words, then handed Han what looked like a bat the size of a man from his inventory. Once Han had returned, the portal closed. “He’s the best crafter I’ve found in a century. Trustworthy, content to be paid in what he needs. A pity he lives three continents away.”
Kaden couldn’t stop running his hands over the hide. “It’s clean. And tanned. And I saw Trella cut the wolf’s throat, but there’s no damage.”
“A perk of the Crafting skill at very high levels. That hide would make good armor for someone who doesn’t get hit much, and more importantly, it’ll keep them warm through the winter. You should visit the market and use it for materials. Mind if I see the core?” Mr. Dervish took the orb. “Solid weight, mostly full. You probably got told your equipment’s shit.”
“Were you spying on us?” Kaden asked.
And Mr. Dervish explained about the loop. How early adventurers had to run low level quests with a single goal—afford better equipment, until at last they had the group cohesion and decent equipment to start running dungeons.
“Of course, you could skip all that.” He nodded to the Mana Core. “In four days, there’ll be an auction. Run day quests, hell, Mistress Scylla would love to have you in Beast Control. Shop and plan what you need.”
Kaden considered it all. He’d thought becoming an adventurer would be the end of mundane and the start of fantastic. “If it’s that easy, why don’t all the groups farm cores and skip the equipment grind?”
“Trust.” Mr. Dervish pronounced it like a curse or a blessing. “The usual way it works is that whoever gets to the beast first takes the core, sells it, buys better equipment and finds a better team. But you trust yours?”
“Trella and Sara? Absolutely. The healer…I don’t like her. She doesn’t like me, and we’re pretty sure she’s lying to us about something. Her skills don’t line up, her talents don’t line up.” Kaden shook his head. “I’m not sure she’d betray us, but I’m certain she’s not being honest.”
“Color names. Look for ‘em. When a new adventurer is the daughter of someone famous—or more often, infamous—the guild names them after a color. Bob Blue, Yancy Yellow, and so on. Gives them a chance to stand in the sun. If she wanted her family’s help, she wouldn’t be wearing temple robes in winter, that’s for sure. Does it matter to you?”
Not to Kaden. “I’ll need to discuss it with Sara and Trella privately. Thanks for having the hide processed.”
“If we can prove it’s your title making a difference in our Summons, I’ll do better than buy you dinner. Mistress Scylla said you need gold to repair that Holding of yours. And that it’s got Dominion over it.” Mister Dervish’s tone changed slightly. An inflection of worry.
Kaden almost didn’t speak. But he trusted his gut, and that said it was safe. “Have you ever heard of weapons that require you to be level 100?”
“Heard of them, yes. Held them, on occasion. Owned one, never. You find some treasure you want help selling?”
In slow spurts and then faster, he explained about the Reign of Tears, a bow that ignored Authority and Dominion, and the Darkling’s Fangs, whose wounds could not be healed. “I can’t even put them in Inventory.”
Mr. Dervish’s skin was always an unnatural white, but now it had a green pallor, and he crossed his arms as he thought. “Do I need to tell you how dangerous it would be to talk about those outside of here?”
“No, sir.” Kaden had gotten that impression already. “Mistress Scylla said there would be records of how the Holding was established. What Quest it was.”
“People tend to talk ‘bout Kingdoms like they’re forever. But Centurion will live three hundred years or longer, if nothing kills them. Not a hundred years ago, there was man. A Baron, the bastard son of one. The son of a whore can kill you just as well as the firstborn prince of the kingdom, and this particular bastard, he did a lot of killing. So much and so many he started claiming chunks off other Kingdoms and daring them to take it back.” As Mr. Dervish spoke, his gaze lost its focus. “Eventually, the three Kingdoms surrounding him made an unusual Quest. Kill the Beastly Baron, and you could have the heart of his Kingdom as a Holding. Not like anyone sane would want to live in FangWood.”
Kaden could fill in the rest easily. “Mom and Dad killed him. Or were part of a group that did.”
“That would be close enough to my guess. That Beastmaster I said I met? She was on her way to join up with the Raid group that was forming. Looked like a goddamned zoo had broken loose, her and all her Beasts. She told me, it took a Beast Master to end a Beast Master, and she was going to tear the Baron’s throat out herself. I’m guessing it went down different.” Mr. Dervish stood and stretched. “You got business with your party. I’ll send for you next time I need that Title, if you don’t mind.”
“Absolutely.” Kaden left by the now-normal door and found his own way back, lost in thought.
When he opened the door, it was to a three way stand off.
Evelyn had backed into a corner, holding a steak knife like it would have a prayer of fending off Sara’s Horror. Sara stood over her, held at bay by Trella, who had one dagger pointed at each of them.
“Kaden, put a leash on Sara here. And you,” she said to Evelyn, “Have ten seconds to explain. Or you won’t have to worry about her. You won’t live long enough to worry about her.”
3
THREE - A BLOODY MESS
Kaden would never have claimed to have negotiation skills, but he did understand a disaster when he saw one. “Sara, Trella, back away from her. Someone want to clue me in on what’s going on?”
Evelyn shouted, “I didn’t mean—”
“Not one word from you,” Sara said, her Horror straining forward. “You lied to us. We put our trust in you as a Healer, and now we find out you’re—that. Does the Adventurer’s Guild know?”
Kaden focused on Evelyn, using [Identify.]
[Evelyn Black - Priestess of Nurav]
Class: Transfusionist
Profession: Priestess of Nurav
Level: 7
HP: 30
Mana:190
Skills: Life Harvest (2).
Talents: None
Titles: None
[Life Harvest]
Draw on the power of freshly spilled blood to heal your wounds, or the wounds of others. The amount of blood spilled directly impacts the amount of health returned, as does the freshness. At higher levels, you may cause psychic wounds and drain blood directly from a target.
“What the hell is a Transfusionist?” The description, in Kaden’s mind, didn’t exactly scream Vip Hugs and warm fires. “And how did you show up as a Healer before?”
Trella kept her dagger out, an inch from Evelyn’s throat. “There are classes that can alter the information [Identify] presents. Hell, high level Shadow Blades can do it, but she’s not a Sister. Are you, ‘Evelyn’?”
To her credit, Evelyn didn’t shrink away. “I’m not. Put away the knife. Keep Sara back. I’ll explain. Yes, the Guildmaster knew. He said by the time the Skill wore off, I’d have proven myself to a party at least to where I didn’t need to hide. It was supposed to last a year and a day, but something went wrong. Thanks to you.” She glared at Kaden. “The moment he used [Identify], it started glitching. There’s something wrong with his skill.”
“It tingles,’ Sara said.
“Minty fresh,” Trella agreed. “What was your actual reason for joining? You want to gather our blood for some spell you couldn’t pull off on your own?”
“That’s Blood Mage, idiot.” Evelyn looked away from Trella. “My plan was to go somewhere I could be myself. Somewhere my family wouldn’t be embarrassed. Varun is the Goddess of Healing. Nurav is her darker half. Do you have any idea what it looks like when a young girl pledges to Varun and comes out…like this?”
[Beast Empathy] was not a requirement for Kaden to sense what he thought was sincere emotion. But his history in the Saint’s Hall had taught him that his kindness was often repaid with pain. “Were you lying about your skills, too?”
“I don’t know when I’ll get a new one. I don’t know when anything happens, because there aren’t any records left of the [Transfusionist] class. What I do know is that I can heal injuries as long as someone—anyone—is bleeding.”
“Her Mana is too high,” Sara said. “No one has mana like that. Not even a Mage with all his points in Soul would have that.”
Evelyn @___ERR_ ‘Black’ __ERR_ is attempting to share information with you. Accept? [Y/N]
Kaden saw no point in refusing. These were system messages. Old system messages.
You are [1] of [0] Transfusionists. Seek out older Transfusionists to learn Tier 2 Skills.
Your mana is naturally increased due to [Transfusionist].
Your health is naturally locked due to [Transfusionist].
Don’t get hit.
“Holy shit.” Sara said. “I know every class has a weakness and a strength, but that’s one hell of a weakness. And you haven’t gotten a skill since.”
Evelyn shook her head. “Mother said if people knew what I was, they’d probably kill me. There’s several classes that died out because they were killed off. There’s no record at the Adventurer’s Guild. Father told me once he’d never met one in all his travels. Or heard of anyone who had.”
