The Quantum Wanderer

We took all the heads inside, and placed them in a room, that was usually used for dismounting monsters. Now that the adrenalin is faded, I keep getting amazed with how little life is valued here. I am not here to change this in particular, but we carried the heads inside one of the merchant’s cart, and he didn’t even feel too uncomfortable.

She took a look at the heads, then took a look at us. She shrugged, and said

“I didn’t expect such a small party to bring them in. Not my business, though. I will have your rewards for this ready by tomorrow, I have to check a lot of heads.”

We went out and talked to the merchant.

“You guys saved us. I really thought I was a goner when I saw that amount of bandits.”

Lu just said “Sure”, and Aeson continued “I don’t mean to pry, but you probably should talk to the guards and the guild. They identified you way too quickly. They were waiting for you.”

“Do you think so? I will see to it as soon as possible. Oh, by the way, my store is in the noble district, so I don’t think that you would be able to visit it, but if you guys need any favor or want to buy something, you can send me a letter.”

And upon saying this, the merchant handed us our payment, and proof of job done to show the guild.

After this, the merchant when his way, to the merchant part of the city. It was a middle level in terms of wealth.

We went to an inn close to the guild. Because this was a bigger city, the guild would not provide room and board.

The cost for the room was a silver, and the food would be two large copper.

The sun was going to set soon. I got myself a room, the party ended up picking another. I thought that asking would be rude, but it looked like they were saving their money, and sharing the room would be both safer and cheaper.

I had some gold on me, I was on a new place, with a new and much, much bigger guild. I hadn’t looked at the jobs available yet, but I was sure there would some that would make a pretty gold.

The process was the same, she wrote down on a big book, and handed me the key. After being asked, she pointed me to where I could also find a place to wash. She told me it would be a large copper, though.

She did the registration with Tar, Aeson and Lu, though she handed two keys to the three of them.

I got to my room, left my stuff, and went back down. Supper was about to be served.

After a little time, I saw coming down for dinner as well. We all sat in a table.

Tar was the first one to greet, loud as ever, “Yo!” Lu waved, and Aeson just did this short movement with his head.

I waved at them, and they came over to my table. I looked at the bar keeper, pointed at my ale, and made a three with my hand. Somethings are just universal. And even if they are not, they can become. The bar keep came to our table with the additional 3 ales in a little bit. I pointed to myself, to let her know to put on my tab.

While they were seating down, Tar started talking, ina lower than usual voice:

“By the way, we forgot to mention to you, but we have to split the stuff.”

“What stuff?”

“The bandit’s stuff. Not like there is any heirloom there, but there is a lot of stuff. And you not only killed the most skilled ones, but also saved our skins.”

Lu was smiling, as if complimenting herself. Aeson just lifted his ale cup an inch from the table.

“Is there anything that would be worth keeping? I mean, I already have a bow, a sword, Axes are not my thing… Tar, do you want that guys’ axe? Lu, was the mage staff any good? Actually, could I have the robe from one of the guys in black?”

Lu was the first to respond, “Of course you can have it. You could have all of them, for that matter. As for the mage staff, it is a better than mine, it is made with better material. Apparently, stealing gives you access to better stuff…”

Tar was the second one, “I liked that axe, to tell you the truth, it is made with good material. But… Are you sure you don’t mind?”

He came closer, over the table, and did a whispered, though it clearly was not quiet enough, “Are you a noble or something? You keep giving us stuff…”

I laughed a little bit. Yes, people should always distrust free meals, specially in a world far crueler than Earth, but this was funny.

“Let’s just say I… I get lucky with my jobs.”

Tar looked at me as if something had clicked. I keep wondering what was going on, but I didn’t really want to pry. And the more you ask, the more you have to give away in information. Specially someone that is too much of an introvert like myself.

We agreed that they would take whatever they wanted, and that the rest would be sold. We all actually ate in silence. Apparently the hunger was larger than our willingness to talk.

“What are you guys going to do tomorrow?"

Lu and Aeson looked at themselves as if this was obvious, Tar answered, “We are going to search for a job in the guild, see what’s available. And we have to get that additional coin!” He smiled and amended, “If we go early, perhaps we don’t miss out a job that someone just picked up.”

I was thinking of taking a stroll around the shops, but I think that I could go with them. Being an introvert doesn’t mean I don’t like people, just that I rest better if alone. And I could always look around after the guild, or at any point, really.

“That sounds good. I think I am going with, then. But later in the day I intend on walking around a little bit, I want to take a look at the shops.”

After supper we had another round of ale, and after that I went to bed. I was still kind of sore. I don’t even remember laying in my bed.

The next morning, I felt amazing. I had forgotten, but I had gained three levels because of Brandon The Nasty, and another one because of the stealth killer. I even got a stealth skill.

I got dressed and got down for breakfast. The Requiem Warriors were already eating, I joined them.

“Good morning guys.”

“Yo.”

“Good morning.”

Aeson, as always, just greeted with the chin.

They finished a little before I did, but waited for me while chit-chatting about the guild, and what they expected to find there.

We went to the guild, and Lu asked for Alice. It was apparently the woman that had received the heads yesterday.

It was a total of 26 heads. Brandon was worth 7 gold, the mage was worth another 2, and the stealth guys were worth 1 gold each. The rest of them were worth some silvers or a couple of large copper.

Lu, being the most apt with math among the three of them, checked the numbers. I didn’t want to stand out, it was better if I wasn’t in the talk. The total value obtained was 17 gold and 2 silver coins. We asked for a room in the guild so that we could split the gains, Alice guided us to the second floor, where we were given a private room, with two sofas and a low table in the middle.

I sat on one of the sofas, they sat on the other one. Tar placed the coin bag in the table.

Lu was the one that started, “We pride ourselves on being fair. You got Brandon, the mage, the assassins and the archers. That’s 14 gold. We are going to get the other 3 and the silver.”

“Huh… Can I ask something really personal? Please, don’t feel like you have to answer this… And I don’t have any bad intentions, believe me.”

“Sure. I mean, at this point, there is not much I wouldn’t answer… You know you saved our skins.”

“How much money do you guys carry? What is the normal amount for an adventurer to gather?”

They looked amongst themselves, and Tar answered, “This business is not as good as the tales make it be. You actually was there with the fight with Brandon. Of course, that was a cursed quest.”

“Cursed quest?”

“Yo, how long have you been an adventurer? Cursed quest, a quest that you’re not supposed to survive. We were talking about that incident amongst ourselves, but the bandits knew way too much. They identified the merchant in the cart, they were probably targeting him in particular. If we knew that the risk would be this high, we would never have accepted this job.”

Lu continued, “Anyway, I am carrying the one gold we got from yesterday, and 8 silver. We used two silver from each of us to pay for the stay in the inn.”

Aeson was the one to continue talking quiet as normal, “I know that you have more than that. It doesn’t take a genius; you were the one that got the plated rhino, that paid several gold coins, and you were the one that got over sixty horned rabbits. And this should not change the way the money is split.”

Tar heard that, looked at Aeson, slapped his shoulder, and asked “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Aeson just shrugged. Lu laughed just a little bit and shook her head. This was probably a common scene there.

I am kind of enjoying my time with these guys. I was passed out in front of them, with a rare sword. The way they talked about it, it could fetch a high price. I could have been killed, and thrown out somewhere. Of course, they would have to take care of the merchant and cook up some story, but I had seen Tar kill a dozen people that weren’t even fighting anymore. I really have to try to stop using Earth’s morals in here.

“I will tell you what, guys. Give me the 5 gold and the silver, you guys can split the 12 gold amongst yourselves. What do you think?”

“Why?”

“Well, I am not going to get rich with another 9 gold. As Aeson said, I already have some gold, and you guys kept me safe when I was under.”

After a lot of back and forth, They ended up with 9 gold, and I got the other 8 gold and 2 silver.

We left the room, and went downstairs to look for jobs.

We saw very little in terms of monster hunting. There were a lot of escort missions to nearby towns and cities. There was even one by Mr. Windfoot.

I saw a goblins hunting. It paid a silver for each goblin killed, a gold for a shaman and a 5 gold for a king. It had a picture of a goblin, another of a goblin with a bone mask of some animal, holding a staff, and a muscular globlin, with some leather armor, on a chair.

“Hey guys, what about this one?”

They looked amongst themselves, like there was some bad smell on the air.

“Are these tough?”

Tar answered, “Not particularly. They are the size of a child, and just a little stronger than one. A farmer might be able to take one out, if both are unarmed. In a group, things can take a turn, because they are smarter than most monsters; they can use weapons, though they are limited by their strength. I heard that some of them can even become shamans, following the god of Chaos.

“They generally reside in caves.”

“So… What is the problem?”

“Parties with women cannot take this quest.”

This sounded so weird. I didn’t question much because I still wanted to pretend that I have been around a lot longer than I have, but there were strong women around. Specially because the whole mana and magic thing would allow for a woman to reinforce herself, as well as be a spell caster like Lu.

They had a really weird expression, and looked down. I am amazed that they can talk about life or death like it is nothing, and there is something bothering them enough that they are this weird.

“Do you think that it would be an issue if I got this?”

Lu held one hand to her arm, kind of hugging herself.

Tar was the one that answered, “No, I think you would be good with it. Just bear in mind that you might run into a lot of them, and they are way more organized than a wolf pack. Not only that, but they have a level of cruelty that you don’t normally see in other monsters.

“One disadvantage is that their bodies don’t provide much in terms of materials. They don’t have a specially strong skin, bone or teeth. Their advantage is that they have a five year old mind. They can coordinate. They can create traps, even if simple ones.

“Their shamans, if you bump into one, can do some magic, and their king, if you bump into one, is as strong as a level 20 adventurer, and can command troops. That kind of bump their difficulty.”

I picked up the quest, and went over to the balcony to talk to Alice.

“Hi Marcelo. Are you picking this up?”

She looked behind me, to Requiem Warriors, and added,

“You do know that I can’t allow parties with girls on that one, right?”

“Yes, I know. But I am taking it alone.”

She made a face like she was worried.

“You do realize that this is very dangerous, right? If you want to take this on, it is out of my hands, but this is kind of dangerous. Individually they are very weak, but if you get ambushed…”

“I am aware of the risks, yes. Do you have information on the area I can find it?”

“Follow the road northwest for around 40 miles. It is actually closer to the village you will find there. Half a mile before it, actually. I can give you a map for this, it will cost you 3 small coppers. I will charge for it when you bring back the proof of kill.” She handed me a map. I took it and gave a look. The map was cheap, both price and design.

“Doesn’t that village have a guild?”

“Yes. The quest was originally posted there, but there were no takers. Once it got posted here the value got boosted a little bit.”

“Why?”

“Well, if it is to prevent danger to the baronage, the baron will actually chip in for the quest’s prize. The same thing happens around the kingdom’s capital; the king will chip in on a lot of quests. Anything that is not happening just because a merchants wants a particular fare, or a pharmacy wants a particular ingredient, the king chips in.

“This job is unbalanced; that means that the hazard is higher than pay right now. But I would be happy if someone got it. The village I told you about is suffering with this. Monsters with a child’s intelligence and thumbs. That’s so messed up.”

That got me thinking… I can walk around town anytime I want. I got the quest, said my goodbyes to my friends went over to the in, prepared myself and left.

I took the map out, and took a look. The area with the goblins was by the road, close to a semicircle roundabout. Then there was a stretch, and then there was the village. I had no idea on scales and distances in the map.

All of that took longer than I imagined, I was leaving around noon already.

I started jogging towards the road. I felt so much lighter… It was probably all the strength gained. And I hadn’t even reinforced with mana yet. I could see that I was going fast, but I had no idea how fast. I casted a sanctuary to get mana, and reinforced my legs so that I would get faster.

While I ran, I thought about all the weird reactions that all that had. A lot of people had a lot of emotions about this job, and things seemed so weird. I didn’t feel that in the previous cases. Not even against the bandits, where the last ones were basically killed by Tar in cold blood. I don’t know if it is this world, but I thought that the ones to gamble the life for money were the bandits. The merchants definitely would not participate in the robbery if they had the choice. So I can understand all that. And never mention the way people acted towards the plated rhino. That was just facts of life around here.

I got to a mound, and the road went around it. I stopped a little to see the sun set around that small hill. No matter the universe, it is still beautiful.

As I continue to follow the road, I see the village. So, the road going around the hill…

I turned on my stealth and entered that part of the forest. I was decided on getting the problem solved as soon as I could without endangering myself. I turned on my mana senses, and after just a quarter of a mile, I could feel/see a three of them. They were ugly little things. They had long ears that were kind of horizontal, and green skin. They had some sparse hair. Big eyes in their faces, and their teeth were pointy. It kind of made me happy that I did not have to kill something as fluffy as the horned rabbits again. They had knives, and were naked.

This was pretty close to the road, and this is weird. Not really common at all.

I positioned myself behind them and cut their heads off so that they could not sound any alarm. These would probably be scouts or something. I got their ears and buried them with a little earth magic. I don’t know how intelligent they can actually be, but I prefer to err on the side of caution.

I extended my senses again, and went east. There was a larger group of them around one area, and then it would spread out, until they were in groups of three.

I turned my stealth back on and went towards that group of goblins to take a look. They were moving in and out of a cave, like a group of ants. They would bring some smaller game, like horned rabbits, moles, small birds.

There were also some of them guarding the entrance to the cave, and those ones had some leather armor, in tatters, that were obviously too big for them. I could imagine that leather armor having belonged to another adventurer. But there were holes in the armors, pieces missing.

Even those were not really worried about clothes.

I was thinking just how ugly their females would look. Not a nice thought.

I went around the cave, and, using a kind of sonar on the floor, took notice on the format of the cave. It had a main tunnel that was larger than others. From that one there were a couple that sprouted to the sides, and all of them finished up in a round area of sorts. That front hole was the only in and out.

I went up a tree, with my stealth still on, and waited. I wanted to actually get most of them, there must be a lot of them inside that cave. Probably that’s where the females are, so I could think that there would more than two times the amount of goblins than I had seen. I just had to wait for them to leaving/entering the cave, and then do my thing.

The movement continued throughout the night. Nothing weird, really. As I saw the sun beginning to rise over the horizon, I notice that the movement around the cave gets slower. When the sun finishes rising, the movement ceases.

With my senses, I felt that there still 4 goblins, on the inside of the cave. I kept the CO on them, and waited a couple of minutes. They fell asleep. As I went inside, I expelled the CO out of the cave, and with some earth magic I closed the cave. I didn’t want any surprises coming at my back.

I entered the first cave, to the left. It was really dark, but nothing that some mana applied to the eyes didn’t solve. I saw some cages, made of wood, right at the beginning of the area, and then looked ahead.

I wasn’t prepared to this. Everything mentioned in the guild came together. All the expressions, all the hate.

On the first cages, there women, still dressed. Against the wall there were more women, tied with their arms open, naked. There were several of them, in all ages. All of them lying in their filth. In the corner of the cave, I could even see a couple of dead ones.

Those in wall were in several different states of pregnancy.

I didn’t want to accept, so I got close to one of them, with a bigger belly, and put her to sleep with a spell. I touched her belly and inspected it.

I stood up, took two steps back, and vomited. Something broke inside me.

I am going to kill them. I am going to kill all of them. If I ever have the ability, I will make sure their genes are destroyed, that they are extinct. AND. PAINFULLY.

I left that cave, and closed it with some earth magic, way back on the main tunnel.

I turned my stealth off. I started following the main tunnel. I put on the sanctuary spell, and started walking. As I was getting to the very large clearing ahead, I started hearing some voices. More like animal voices. No, I am not going to promote these things to animals.

Most of them were sleeping. There were a couple of them that seemed to be communicating.

I entered the room, and instead of my microwave maser, I just did a high intensity laser on the first ones. I burned them. The shrieks and smell of burnt flash started to take control of the senses in the room. I enhanced my brain, and everything slowed down.

It was chaos.

I did a war howl, and some of a lot of them pissed themselves. They were too afraid to move.

Several of them reached for knives. With time coming almost to a halt, I took my time burning the flesh out of their bones in their arms and legs. They are not going to pay if they die too quickly.

I picked up two of the knives on the ground. I heard that the sharper an object was used to cut, the less it would hurt. I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t taking chances. And knives would be enough.

I continued burning them. Fire would come out of the stomps. I left the bones to create terror. Smoking bones.

I let some of them get closer, so that I could be physical. They would try to stab, I would take the knife and cut their arms along the bone, from the hand to the elbow. At one point, I realized that I was laughing maniacally.

I saw a glass bottle starting to fly my way. I threw a knife, so that it broke, and it spilt over a group of them that were coming towards me. They died screaming as well.

I looked at the one that had thrown it, it was a shaman.

He was on top of a higher ground, and behind him was a larger one. This one had a leather armor. Since it was a larger one, the armor didn’t look that odd on it.

I saw it stand up from the throne, and prepare to jump. I used the laser to blow its knees out, it fell forward.

The shaman turned to look, as fast as everyone else was moving and turned to look at me. I couldn’t see his expression behind his mask, though.

Some of the goblins that were behind in the attack line, upon seeing the amount of death that was coming, gave some steps back, and kneeled down, with their arms extended in front of them, palms up.

Between two slashes, I threw another knife on the kings’ shoulder. It was still on all fours, but I didn’t want to take any chances. Current strength, plus reinforced, the knife went deep into it’s right shoulder, and it now rolled on the floor.

And I just kept on hacking, burning, killing.

I don’t know how long it took. I don’t even remember the whole thing, I just remember flashes. All the ones that had dared to fight were looking minced. I could hear their cries, but it sounded distant, as it was a bad music in the background.

The ones behind them stayed in their position of submission.

I went over the king that was rolling on the ground, in pain. Two knees with an exposed bone, a knife to the shoulder.

As I got close, it looked to me, and assumed a position in which I could take his head off. I used my soul capture, to prepare it for it’s death.

But it wasn’t going to be that easy.

I synched my magic with his, as I had done with Lu. And now the fun part. Let’s remove all the adrenaline, it gets in the way of feeling pain. Now let’s enhance the pain transmitters in the synapses… It started screaming. So loud that it actually muted the other screams in comparison.

I stabbed the other shoulder. More adrenaline. Let’s remove that.

At one point, it just had a ragged breathing. I stabbed it in the back, in the lung. And turned to the shaman.

One of the ones that had submitted tried to stand up and run. I burned everything from the waist down.

And turned back to the shaman. It was on its knees. I did the same thing with it that I had done with the king. After it died, I actually got a level up.

I collected both heads. The proof of kill for the shaman was the head with the mask, and for the king they needed the head. I could take the ear, but then I wasn’t sure that they would be able to know for sure.

I went through the ones that had gone into submission, and started collecting the ears.

Then it was time for the ones that had fought. These didn’t feel much, actually. But only because they were still in profound pain for the other injuries.

Those were a lot of ears. After several of them, I started to get fast on this, but things still took some long time.

I packaged all those ears and the two heads in my backpack, and got to the tunnel leading there. When I was in a good position, I turned around, and collected the oxygen near the floor. And lit them all on fire.

I followed back the main tunnel, and entered the second side tunnel. It was a smaller chamber. It had one goblin, holding a knife with both hands, and trembling. I looked behind it.

I again separated the oxygen, and lit them on fire as well. The goblin in the front, and the offspring behind it. Dozens of it.

I went back to the entrance of the cave that had the women, that was close to the main entrance to the caves.

Behind a rock, a small goblin offspring. It was shaking one of the dead guard. It saw me, and picked up the guard’s knife. I got my sword and just beheaded it. It would be the least painful I could provide.

I am tired. My mana is nearly recovered thanks to the sanctuary spell, my body is reinforce, but I am tired. But there is still so much to do.

I run to the village, it is noon now. I demand to talk to the elder, and they take me to him. He looks like a really old person, which is odd considering the life span of people in these villages.

“Hello adventurer. Perhaps you… Did you come here to help us with the goblins?”

The shame, the anger, the sadness because of the women, the hatred, the killing. Everything came out at once. I had never been in a war on earth, so I wasn’t really prepared for this.

I cried.