I went down the stairs of the tavern. Looking around, I could see many patrons still hammered from yesterday night, some were nursing hot beverages, while others were simply collapsed on tables. If the waiters were bothered by it, they didn’t show it.
Maybe it was a common occurrence here, but it begged the question: what were they even doing here? Why would someone sign up to come into the tutorial to play bartender? Were they scouting for new talents? God knew how much people talked after a couple of drinks, so maybe that could be an explanation. Selling information had always been a good way of making money and connections.
Anyway, I found Tom and Quinn sitting in a corner. I nodded in their direction and Quinn perked up and signaled me to approach.
As I made my way there, I noticed that no one from Adrian’s main group was present with the exception of Boz, the large man was lying on a table, snoring loudly.
“Excuse me,” I asked a passing waitress. I still had trouble not looking at her bare lower half, or the ears, or the fucking goat eyes. The satyr girl just smiled politely. “Yes, sir?”
“I was wondering if you have coffee available.” I said with the straightest face I could muster. In the movies they made them more human-like than they were in reality. Actually looking at them, you could tell just how much they were not human, and not only for the physical aspect, but mainly for the mannerisms and behaviour. It was disconcerting in a way.
“Of course, sir, we have many different blends in stock, from the plains of Tadia to the city of Ni-”
I raised a hand. Was she for real? “You must excuse my ignorance, but if it’s not something coming from my planet, I’m afraid I can’t really know what those are, but anything strong would do, like an Italian espresso if you know what I’m talking about, and black.”
She nodded and smiled. “Of course, sir, I know exactly what you mean, it will arrive in a minute.”
And with that she turned and went through the kitchen while I sat down with my two… friends? No, that doesn’t really describe them. Party members? I had no idea honestly, but Tom was engrossed with his full English breakfast, while Quinn was having pancakes with a ton of melted chocolate and cream on the side.
“Hey man! You really have to try this, it is like… divine! I never ate anything better in my life!”
“I suppose if your whole class is meant to enhance the food you make, even a rock would taste like sugar. The stew from yesterday was incredible too, I saw a couple of people crying while eating it.”
A grunt came out of Tom, then he swallowed before replying, “It wasn’t the stew, but the fact we managed to reach this place alive… though the stew was delicious.”
Well, that made sense. If you were just a normal guy trying to survive, it made sense, but those people here were not really who I was interested in, they would be the first to flock to Adrian, I was sure, and they were mostly useless anyway. Now that access to safe zones was much easier, all the crafters in my group lost much of their importance to me, I can get whatever it is that I need from there without having to overpay for their stupid work.
I was still fuming about the money Gilbert got from our life potion deal. The man and his crew created a couple of carts, that’s it, while we went and cleared the shrine, nearly dying in the process. I still had the scars from when I got stabbed and sliced there, it was the closest I got to dying from a monster.
I took a breath, it was in the past, nothing I could do about it.
“How are the people holding up?” I asked the big army guy.
He swallowed a mouthful of beans. “They were surprisingly compliant during the march here, but after getting into the safety of the town, most broke down. We had a few arguments and a fight nearly broke out between the new group of fighters and the full blown non-combat classes… it’s normal, the stress of the past days and the safety they feel now make the mind think about the what ifs, I saw it many times.”
“Where?” asked Quinn with his mouth still full of food, a picture I could have gladly done without.
Tom looked at the teen, whatever was in his mind he didn’t voice, but answered anyway. “In Iraq, I saw many comrades fighting side by side, ready to take a bullet for their brothers in arms, becoming hostile to everyone and everything after returning from a tour. It’s the PTSD, and more that doesn’t have a name.”
“It must have sucked.”
“Indeed, it sucked.”
“Were you still active on the field at that time?” I asked. Rhea and Alya made me notice I wasn’t really much of a people person recently, so I was trying to do something about it while waiting for my coffee, and getting to know one of the most important people in my guild better wasn’t a bad idea.
“Yeah, I did two tours there before getting promoted. I avoided active conflicts after that, but the universe had other plans apparently.”
“Well, it’s not that you have to fight,” said Quinn. When the older man looked at him, he swallowed a pancake. “I mean, there’s plenty of people not doing jack shite around here, if you really want you can stay with the crafters.”
Way to go and ruin the mood, Quinn, and please don’t give strange ideas to my general.
“Those who decided not to fight had their reasons, Quinn, like you have yours for fighting.” That I said aloud, actually I wasn’t thinking it for real, but there were too many ears around here.
“I suppose… still, we would be much better off without having to constantly protect them, it’s exhausting, and they are slowing us down! We would be much further ahead right now if it was only us fighters, you can’t say no.”
Tom regarded the teen. He looked nonplussed as he answered him back.
“You are right in the short term, boy, but in the army a great deal of the personnel wasn’t directly involved in fighting, but in logistics. For a single mission you want a fighting squad maybe, but for a prolonged war effort, you literally can’t manage without a variety of experts in many fields.”
“Maybe that was before, but now we have magic, duh? We can do whatever these people do with the right magic item or skill, right Elias?”
I actually thought about it. Quinn was partly right, but as in reality, if you really built an army, you would still hyperspecialize the people you had in it: soldiers would have mostly fighting skills and logistical personnel would have organizing and communication skills, then there was the matter of transportation and a million other problems to deal with that you didn’t want an active fighting team handling, especially with magic in play. So in the end you would go back to having a diversified unit with not only combat potential.
But Quinn was right that enough magic items made these things easier, especially with spatially enhanced storage. And money, a lot of money, but that was something armies had always excelled at burning fast.
“Perhaps… but I believe we would need all capable hands for the challenges to come.”
“Even the ballerina?” he said mockingly.
“Who knows? I can think of some very interesting class advancements for her if she wasn’t so stuck in her role, but we’ll see. Anyway, Tom, I wanted to talk to you about the guild.”
“Sir, your coffee.” The satyr waitress from before placed a steaming cup in front of me, the aroma was rich and unmistakable. Coffee… finally.
I wasn’t an addict, but after these days of eating whatever game we found and tasteless rations, a simple coffee was heavenly.
“Thank you.”
She smiled and moved on, catering to another table that waved her over.
“What about the guild?”
I took a sip and enjoyed the taste, it was fantastic, probably one of the best coffees I ever had since I went to Italy.
“Ok, here’s the thing…” I started to explain my ability to remove the curses on items and even the stat-enhancing fruits and potions, explaining how I gained so many of my stats a few days ago, and how I managed to help Alya do the same yesterday.
Tom took his head in his hands, hiding his expression but clearly conveying his frustration.
“Dude! For real!? I spent… I don’t know, like, nearly two hundred k on stuff that could have cost a tenth of the price?? You should have told us something!”
“The boy is right, this was a massive waste, and not only that, it would have made our journey much safer, Elias. It’s a miracle people didn’t die until now, but we had a few close calls, especially when you went to hunt that Baron with one of our strongest fighters. This can’t happen again, I’m serious.”
I raised my hands. “I know, but now we are in a place much more suited to carrying on our enhancements, and now I have the stats to actually be able to perform the removal of curses in mass. Before my fight with the serpent, it would have been impossible to do it for everyone. About the points, we can totally recoup them, there are plenty of monsters around, and this city, as Adrian says, contains a myriad of instructors, we can easily empower ourselves here before continuing our journey, but only for those who decide to move on with us, the fighters. The rest would remain until we clear a proper path for them to follow, so I want to have a list of the people willing to pave the way forward. The rest would have to settle here for the foreseeable future, can I count on you?”
Tom was silent for a while while I sipped my still boiling hot coffee.
“Yes, you can count on me. I would start right away, I have much to plan for, especially regarding the cursed items… can I count on you to remove the curses? If you can work on that this evening, we can distribute and enhance anything that the people buy, that would go a long way toward empowering us.”
After he said his piece, he stood up. “I think I need to go around and explore the city, and gain some information about monsters and generally how to go about things. Let’s meet for lunch, I should have an idea on how to proceed by then.”
“Fine by me, the others should be awake too by then.” He nodded, then strode away, paying at the counter before exiting the tavern.
I finished my coffee and was about to rise too when I saw Quinn looking at me, a question on his lips.
“What is it? Spill it out.”
“It’s about Melissa.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake…