A choir of shouts followed Adrian’s toast, and everyone threw back their drinks, so I followed suit and drank the sparkling thing in front of me. Well, suffice to say that it burned like hell.
I coughed once. “Damn, that was strong!” I said while slamming the glass down.
For a moment everyone looked at me shocked, then a cheer erupted from the table. The woman beside me slapped my shoulder with considerable strength, and after noticing that I could take it, she slapped it a couple of times more, laughing all the while.
“Damn boy, how can you chug down that wyvern piss stuff and still talk!?” asked the big fella from before.
“It’s Wyvern’s Blood, Boz!”
“Eeh! Potato potahto tomato… and the other one. Who cares! Still impressive, what’s your secret?”
“Frat parties.” I replied to the man.
At that he laughed boisterously. “Never been, but I heard that some of those were legendary!”
“Oh Boz, you have no idea,” said the lanky guy beside me, “some of the cocktails people came out with were nastier than this stuff for sure! Anyway I’m Will, pleasure to meet ya.” He said while giving me his hand to shake.
I took it and gave him a look. He was clearly a mage of some kind, if not for the physique, for the robe he was wearing. They draped on him like a curtain too big for his frame. He was pale, with brown hair split in the middle and hazel eyes, not ugly, but not remarkable in appearance either. Still, he had a charming smile all things considered.
“Elias, pleasure’s mine, and don’t listen to Adrian, he exaggerates.”
“I don’t! You’re really a nasty bastard on the battlefield. One time we were facing a King, the guy shot a spell at one of his party members, nearly killing him, and this one here got mad. He started taking out the big guns and cursed the shit out of the King, then proceeded to bash his head in with a mace! It was spectacular!”
A chattering went up around the table. I didn’t know if it was true, but I was sure he had a fair share of stories for us, things that we never experienced, but he did. The others seemed used to this, because they started to talk animatedly about fighting, curses, Kings and spells. But for me it was strange to hear a story about something I did and had no idea happened.
“Who got hit by that spell?” I asked him. It felt strange to act in anger for someone who wasn’t Rhea. Maybe Quinn? No, I don’t think I would react that way.
“It was Matthew…” Matthew, the guy with the glasses that died on the first day, when we were attacked by the gorgs. I remember he was clear-headed and precise, efficient. He helped me organize people and the list of items to buy. I felt it was a shame he died like this.
“What happened to the guy? He was always with you in past iterations. Actually, he was your second, and the manager of the guild. This never happened before.”
Adrian was very curious about it, something that was clear because he forgot to slur his words, proving to me that he wasn’t really drunk.
“He died the first day, we got ambushed by gorgs soon after exiting the first safe zone, five died in the fight, him included.”
“Ah, pity, he was a good man, and a great strategist. To Matthew!” He raised his glass and the others followed.
“To Matthew!” I repeated with the others while chugging down a kind of ale they presented me.
This thing made me think about how to go about this, maybe I can use this angle. It was not a bad intro for getting some good information.
“Is there no way of saving everyone?” I asked him. “We lost some people, and many more died I’m sure, is there no magic or something we can use, you can use, to save everyone? Like the letter?”
At that the table got very silent, all looking expectantly at the hero, waiting to see what his answer would be.
“I would like to tell you that I know everything, Elias, I really do, but unfortunately I’m just a man. I’m trying to do all I can to prevent unnecessary deaths, but you have to understand, this instance,” he gestured around us, “is only one of many. You can’t possibly believe that seven billion people are here in this place with us. If you notice, we are all Americans, and most of us were from New York the moment we got transported here. There are thousands, if not more, places like these that are barred for us to visit, and I can’t do anything about those. All I can do is try my best here, but I have to say unfortunately, that this would be the last time. I finished my chances.”
He slammed a fist on the table, his expression hardening. His handsome face was a mask of fierce resolution.
“But I swear we will clear this tutorial, and we will all go out of here, together.”
“TOGETHER!” shouted Boz.
Then another round of “together” came from the mouths of everyone and another toast was made. I nodded and laughed with them, listening in on these people, getting to know them better, gathering information.
Tomorrow, we would have a meeting with everyone when we were more sober, and a plan of action would be presented to us, so I excused myself after I understood that the party would not end anytime soon and went up to mine and Rhea’s room.
I knocked on the door and Alya opened up.
“Rhea, can you use a ritual to make sure we are not being listened in on?”
She looked at me, then at Alya. “Yea, I have something, just give me a minute.”
As she went on placing candles and little bowls of burning herbs around the room, I stopped Alya from talking. I could feel that presence again, it was in the room beside us, and I was sure that wasn’t a coincidence.
“Done.”
“What the fuck is all this secrecy about now?”
I sat on the bed. “Since we exited the shop, we were being followed by someone. Now that person, whoever he or she is, is in the room beside us, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t believe in such coincidences.”
The girls exchanged a look, then Alya turned to me. “That’s why you were talking about boring bullshit on the way back? To not give them information?”
“Yea, in the shop we were protected, but outside… no, better not to risk it. Adrian is totally out to get us, he already started with you, Rhea. The way he put you on the spot at the city boundary… he is already trying to split us up and would probably manage to get some of ours to follow him. What we need now is to consolidate our position, and our strength.”
“So can I finally eat these things?” asked Alya, a glint of anticipation in her eyes.
“Yes, prepare for a stomachache, but the power you’d gain would be worth it. Rhea, you still have some points right?”
“Yea, around a hundred k left, why?”
“You would have to do the same she’s doing, the others in the vanguard too.”
I started taking out fruits, vials and weapons, putting them on the table, then systematically removing the curses and placing them into the weapons I purchased.
The process was quite long. While I worked we talked about how to proceed forward, how to deal with Adrian and the implications of his words.
In the end I was left with a pile of cursed weapons and Alya was sprawled on the bed with a clear bump in her belly, it looked like she was pregnant.
“How would you call it?” asked Rhea, her mood improved after we talked a bit between us.
“What?” Alya’s voice was a tad strained.
“The baby.”
She looked down at her stomach. “Ha-ha, very funny, you’re going to be the same in a bit don’t worry, you’d finally get a belly fit for your tits!”
“Nope, all that I eat goes to the right places.” She pulled her tongue at Alya, who rolled her eyes and cursed under her breath before turning to me.
“I feel so powerful, what is the next step?”
“Did you open the notifications?”
“Yea, I got a lot of stats, and I got Enhanced Strength, then Refined Strength. I feel so damn strong, but I didn’t manage to get anything else of that series.”
Damn, she should need another round of fruits at least.
“You need to do this again next time though, don’t focus on strength that much, crossing the five hundred and the thousand mark would give you a great boost, trust me.”
She sighed. “I need more points, I’m in the red, and I still owe you twenty k, and more, given that I wouldn’t have been able to get that Baron without you… but I’d repay you, I swear.”
I swiped my hand through the air, as if to swat her concerns aside. “I know, and honestly as of now, those points are not that big of a deal for me, I can get some pretty easily. Actually, we still have the blood honey and the crystal to get to, probably eating it would give us another boost, but looking at you now I don’t think you can really go for it.” I chuckled at her expense, she looked at me funny.
“Blood honey?” asked Rhea.
“Something precious that would probably give us a boost in the lair of the Baron.”
“Actually, where did you store that? I hope you didn’t just pour it into the satchel…”
I looked at her as if she was for real.
“No, I have a much better place for that, come.”
I turned around and took out the stylo, it started drawing on the wall and soon after a door manifested where there was nothing before.
I opened it, to the great surprise of the two girls.
“Welcome to my humble abode.”
“No fucking way…”
“Are you holding out on me?”
“Stop gawking and come inside, I have a couple of things to show you.”