Chapter 27 – Everything, Already Catching Up
Chapter 27 - Everything, Already Catching Up
“Wow, it’s already been a month!” Velasteros exclaimed, quickly covering her mouth once she realised she’d yelled her thoughts. Embarrassment hid in another corner of her mind again; it was always finding new corners.
One month in Navivade. It brought a lot of change. Some of it happened before she even entered the city, but brought the biggest impact.
Her level-up and finally passing [Intelligence: 100]. A key event that, if it hadn’t happened, would have made her entire situation different.
Kekeke! The scorpion excitedly chuckled. So many books to read, levels to gain, everything was going so well. She hadn’t had any issues with being forced into her scorpion form yet, but she took preemptive measures. Without feeling the need, on a few nights during the month, she had travelled away and transformed into her full scorpion form for the night. That had risks, especially since she was near a city, but she didn’t want to deal with the larger risk of accidentally needing to transform during an inopportune time.
The scorpion was minding its own business. She completed a job yesterday, which left her with ample funds to purchase more books. She had started her own booking collection. Not aiming to build a library just yet in her ring, but there was nothing wrong with starting the acquisition of books.
Strolling down the street was supposed to be peaceful, but along the road, she saw a new party of adventures that made her heart jump. It was a group of four individuals. A young man with a lion's mane of yellow hair, two girls, one having horns and a ponytail, and the other had a large bush of green hair that looked like foliage. The trio were a little unusual but nothing that crazy.
However, it was the last person who caused her internal temperature to drop.
The tall man wearing what almost looked like a noble suit underneath various plates of metal, which protected his vitals. He had platinum white, carefully combed hair and two deep blue eyes. He almost appeared to be in his twenties, but parts of his appearance told her he was much older.
Even without the name, she knew he was one of the people she was set to kill. Her heart told her so, but it didn’t demand action. As if the contract knew she wasn’t suitable to achieve anything substantial. The scorpion collected her thoughts and compared him to the individuals Sarah wanted dead.
And as Sarah told her, he looked young for his age, but his eyes looked worn.
HapsNDance, Henry Morrow from Chaselvall.
Sarah’s words instantly replayed in her head. Velasteros made no effort to interact with them and instead directly went searching for Catcher. Despite the relatively short time they had known each other, Velasteros trusted him most in these kinds of matters. She just had to make sure she didn’t screw anything up with her choice of words.
“Hey Valmyst. What’s up?” He asked casually upon being found, and Valmyst swallowed her words.
Don’t fuck anything up. She had calmed herself before walking up so she didn’t look panicked.
“I saw a group of adventurers. I was wondering who they were…” Valmyst paused and realised she needed to not sound suspicious. “They seem strange, and I haven’t seen them around here before. I assume the one with platinum hair is the leader.”
“Oh, them, yeah, that’s a party called HapsNDanceNextGen. I know a weird name, but their leader is a pretty strong bloke.”
When I first heard that name, HapsNDance, I thought it sounded stupid, but I didn’t say anything because I thought it was a human thing. Turns out it was just stupid, and they somehow made it worse.
After reading many books. Such a strange name hadn’t appeared. Other types of strange names appeared, but none like HapsNDance.
“So it's a strong party? Then why are they here? I know from what you told me that this isn’t exactly the greatest area for super high-pay work. Even what we have is consistent.”
“That was something I actually wanted to speak to you about. Since it is something important for you to learn about. A Calamity Spawn was noted to be in the area.”
That word…
Velasteros’s heart already knew where this was leading.
The words were stuck in her throat, but she forced them out. Her voice rushed for a moment. “What is a Calamity Spawn?”
Cather mused. “Oh yeah, you would be a bit young to know about the Calamities.” He patted the bench next to him, indicating this was going to be a long one.
Velasteros was a little tense but sat down.
“So long ago that was an absolute right crazy bastard evil sorcerer.” That was not how Velasteros expected the conversation to start, but it was accurate. “If you want a name for him, then Clam. Is that his actual name? No, but he was once called the Calamity Mage, with his original name unknown. He never negotiated with anyone and never used a name that people could actually use, so people referred to him as the Calamity Mage. Eventually, the term was shortened to Clam after a while. Most after his death to insult the bastard from what I understood.”
“So he is dead?”
“Jumping a bit ahead, but yes.” Cather nodded. “To explain what he did would be a long story. But his most infamous act was the creation of the Calamities. Powerful monsters that obeyed him, which he used to cause large scale destruction. There are better people who could tell you about those times, but look, they were far worse than any monster you would normally see. Even some of the Disasters that exist in the wild that people avoid pale in comparison.”
Disasters were monsters that had avoided at all cost stamped across them. The beast that resided on Copper Mountain was one of them. Fighting them was considered a death sentence, and distributing them could cause wider damage as their enraged selves could seek revenge.
“So yeah, Calamities are really powerful and dangerous. They come in all shapes and sizes. We even have reason to believe we haven’t seen them all. Or the ones that had powerful stealth abilities have just remained completely unnoticed.”
He paused for a moment. “About thirty years ago, the first of the great calamities was slain, the Obsidian Calamity.”
Valmyst felt her heart shrink as her past title was mentioned. But she maintained her expression and nodded.
“Then after that more battles happened and apparently the big bastard mage died. Issue being all his creations now had free rein to do whatever they wanted. Some caused poison and disease to be spread, some had offspring which attacked all that lived, and others populated the minds of men to cause them to do horrible acts. All of these are considered Calamity Spawns. The effects may vary, but they are all considered dangerous.”
That answers the question of why they are here. So something dangerous my siblings created is around, and this party, which includes someone whom I’ve been tasked to kill, is involved. How… Did this become so complicated so fast…
Valmyst wished she had some kind of warning. “Why were there no books on this…?”
“A few laws were passed to not document, to prevent a legacy from forming. Which is certainly stupid. Especially for us, where that information is useful. Though you might have some luck asking people at your library.” Catcher had come to an understanding of Valmyst over the last month. One, she deeply liked to read, and two, there was a lot of knowledge she was still trying to accumulate. From the girl’s own words and hints, he knew she lived a rather sheltered life, but not a refined one, just kept away from an overly protective parent. He didn’t know what information she was missing, but he knew she was doing her best to patch any holes, and he never judged her for that.
I should look further on the fourth floor. Actually, asking Madam Heart would be best.
“Do we know the details on the Calamity Spawn?”
“I’m trying to find that out.” Catcher sighed. “They like to be secretive since it can cause panic, but I think it is worse when we know there is one but not what type. However, I will inform you the moment I find out, I don’t want you showing up as a corpse because you went on a mission with missing information.”
“Thanks, Catcher.”
“No problem, kid.”
The scorpion was deeply happy that she made friends with Catcher, well, she liked to assume they were friends. The stories always spoke about friendship as such a wonderful thing. Still, she was mostly trying to focus on the positive emotions, as the dread of everything else was setting up a full-stacked orchestra in her mind. Her positive emotions were able to stop it as they looked on in horror.
What… What am I supposed to do now?