[Release was delayed. I was having a bit of a burn out, then wasn't sure how I wanted to take this chapter. As much as I want an angry John to head to HOTD, I have so many things lined up in The Great Cleric, that leaving now would be a sha. There will be a couple polls coming up for future worlds, to narrow down the choices from the prologue.]
"Hun? Brod!? When did you get back?" John said looking at the massive man sitting beside him.
"Just a few minutes ago actually. Do you have a mont to co to my office, I have sothing I want to discuss with you." Brod replied, an excited tone in his voice.
"Well...I can but-" he replied, trying to keep his voice from slurring.
"Great! Let's go!" Brod said, and stood up an walked away.
Confused at Brod's apparent excitent, John stood up and followed him, his curiosity piqued.
I wonder what this is about? I haven't known him long, but he seems the type that only get excited with cards, training, and fighting. Not sure what he wants from that couldn't wait until tomorrow.
John casted a quick cure spell to clear his mind a bit, thinking this discussion would require a clearer head. It had to be important.
When John left the room, the air beside the bench he was sitting on seed to shimr for a mont, and if anyone was nearby a quiet *tsk* would have been heard.
Alas, no one was in the room to hear it, other than the lone receptionist who was engrossed in their work. The shimr moved, and beca completely invisible again, leaving none the wiser at their passage.
Up in Brod's office, with yet another drink in his hand, John was seated across from the man. The pair had said nothing for a few minutes, and just stared at each other. It felt like Brod's eyes were boring into him, like he was trying to dissect him with just his gaze.
John didn't really care that much, so he just stared back.
Is he trying to make squirm? I thought he didn't play these dick asuring gas? Ha, I know, lets ss with him a little bit. (Yes, ss with one of the most physically powerful people in this country John. Brilliant Idea)
Between the Substance X and the alcohol that remained in his system both fueling his lack of caution, John licked his lips while staring at Brod dead in the eyes, then made a kissy face. The results were imdiate and quite amusing to him.
"Ugghh! What are you doing?" Brod said, breaking the silence first.
"Ha! I could ask the sa of you. You brought up here, fed a drink, then just stared at for the last five minutes. Are you waiting for a poison to kick in or sothing? Because if the invitation was just to sit here and have a staring contest, I have better things to do with my ti, like being in bed with my fiancée." John retorted.
"No, not...wait fiancée? Nanaella? Since when?" he asked, a confused look on his face.
"I guess you hadn't heard, it was a few days ago. I won't go into details, but I asked her, and she said yes."
"Hun, go explore a new dungeon for a week and suddenly things change. Well congratulations are in order. Now my offer for you is even more important." Brod said, leaning forward in his chair.
"What offer?"
"The offer to help you beco stronger so you could protect yourself and your family."
"Seriously? That wasn't an offer, that was dragging around by my collar and nearly boot fucking until I complied." John said with an even tone. While he agreed to wanting to beco stronger, Brod didn't really ask him if he wanted to be trained, he just started and John went along with it since it served his purpose in this world.
"Well, now I have the perfect spot for you to actually begin training for real." Brod said, leaning forward eagerly.
"I thought we were training?" he replied, a confused expression on his face now.
"That? That barely qualifies as light exercise. No, I will have you join so other adventures in dungeon diving. I've explored this new dungeon down to floor fifty, and I must say, it is nearly perfect for nearly any new adventurer to gain experience. The monsters on the first ten floors are fairly weak, but yield decent quality non-elental magic stones. Then from floor eleven to twenty, it shifts to the earth elent. Every ten floors it seems to change elents. Even Grandol, the City of Labyrinths, doesn't boast a dungeon like this." Brod said, growing more excited as he was talking.
"Magic stones?" John asked. When he returned to this world, Alec had indeed given him so general knowledge of this world that was forgotten about the first ti, so he knew that Grandol was a city to the West, and ho to the Adventures Guild Headquarters. But no where in that information dump was anything about magic stones.
"Hun? How do you not know about magic stones?" Brod asked, confused at John's ignorance. This pissed John off a bit for so reason.
"How would I? They didn't exist where I ca from. Just like this status screen thing. Hell, most things here are different than in my world. Like this entire adventure guild setup, doesn't even make sense to . Why doesn't the governnt just send out soldiers to deal with monsters? It would be good 'experience' for them, and makes the nation more powerful as a result.
Don't even get started on issues I've noticed with the governnt here. How could they let people be sold into slavery in the only nation where slavery is illegal? The lack of policing and enforcent of their policies is atrocious. I an, every governnt is bound to have so corruption, but this is straight up bullshit.
And this xenophobic attitude to beastfolk. For fucks sake, they are people too. They live here, pay their taxes, and it isn't like they are trying to force their culture on the place. Marginalizing people just because they look a little different will just force them into situations where they beco desperate and start doing the cris they were being accused of falsely before just to survive. It becos a self fulfilling prophecy...Shit."
John just realized he let the cat out of the bag. Brod was staring at him, mouth agape, and so was Galba...wait where did Galba co from?
"John...are you from another world?" The vice-guildmaster asked, composing himself faster than Brod.
John paused...really ready to hit that DEN Return skill now. What was he supposed to say? That he died, and was now a contestant travelling through worlds? Yeah that would go over well.
Sighing, he was about to say the two magic words when the world...paused. No movent, no sounds, like everything just stopped. A mont later he got a system notification
*Ding*
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