The bustle of the Adventure Society Hall was not like music to Aiden’s ears. There were times in his past life, back before the Order had realized his abysmal skill as a spy when he had played adventurer for their purposes. He still remembered the tags and the false names. Most people new to adventuring would wonder how a person was able to deceive the adventure society on matters of tags and identity, but anyone with enough experience knew that all it took was certain levels of high end illusory magic or enchantments. Alternatively, a person could always use items and artifacts.
The bottom line was that you could always display a different name along with a different class and level when you had to. You just needed the required tools. Also, if you were significantly stronger than everyone else, then reading your details would always pop up as unknown information unless you allowed the person access to it.
Aiden stepped into the massive hall with Valdan and Ted on both sides of him. Ted looked around, taking in all the activities. They’d been traveling for a while now, three weeks to be precise. And while they were making good enough time, Aiden was quickly coming to realize that he had overestimated the time it would take them to get to their destination.
Three weeks and we aren’t even halfway there, he thought with a frown.
Making good time was not necessarily what was worrying him, though. His main worry was in not knowing what exactly the master of the Order was doing with the information he had given him of the key with the giants in the frost mountains. For one, it had definitely looked like the master knew exactly what frost mountain he was supposed to go to.
As for the consideration that the frost mountain might not be on this side of Nastild, that sliver of peace of mind was dashed away by two reasons. The first reason was Telma. If she was being honest and it was in fact a god that had told her to guide him to the mountain, then there was a very high chance that the mountain was on this side of Nastild. The second reason was quite simpler. If the specific mountain was on the other side of Nastild, he doubted the master did not have some way of accessing it. After all, the reach of the Order comfortably extended to the other side of the world.
“Are we sure it was a good idea leaving the others behind?” Ted asked as they walked through the hall. For some reason, the adventurers around gave them a wide enough berth each time they drew close.
Aiden panned his attention, ignoring the receptionists in search of other things. “You were the one that insisted that Elami stay behind, brother.”
“That was Elami.” Ted scratched at his forearm absently. “He doesn’t really do well around people.”
“Why is that?” Valdan asked. He was the only one who had his eyes forward, well at homme in the current setting. “I would think that a [Healer] would be alright with people.”
“It’s more about his people skills,” Ted answered. “He has none. What of Melvet? You two are usually joined at the hip. Why did she stay behind?”
Valdan shrugged. “It’s a church thing.”
“They are not allowed to mingle with adventurers?”
“I guess you could say something like that,” Valdan answered. “Since finding out about her actual role in the church, we’ve been doing a lot of talking.”
Aiden’s ears sharpened on the conversation. At least now he had an explanation for why Valdan was always busy. The only time they hung around these days was during training. In truth, he’d just always assumed the knight and his lady were just frolicking in the metaphorical sheets any chance they got. They had been away from each other for a while, after all.
“The church stays away from anything concerning the Adventure Society due to levels of autonomy granted them,” Valdan was saying. “The only time the church interferes is when whatever is going on specifically intrudes on territories of the church as stated in the scriptures.”
Ted paused. “Sounds like the early century church.”
Valdan’s steps slowed a little. “I have been curious about one thing. How are you taking religion on Nastild. Does it not affect your faith in the religion of your world?”
Ted looked at Aiden. “Does it?”
“Nope.” Aiden’s gaze settled on what he was looking for. “Can’t say that I was much of a die hard fan of Christianity back on earth.”
“By God,” Ted shook his head and sighed. “Mom and dad would be appalled.”
Aiden took a moment to cock a brow at Ted. “Which of us hated going to 6:30am mass on Sunday mornings, because I remember that it wasn’t me.”
“Oh please.” Ted rolled his eyes. “It’s bad enough I have to wake up early on a school morning, why the hell do I have to wake up by five in the freaking morning on a Sunday too. It wasn’t the mass, it was the time.”
“You didn’t like the mass either, Ted.”
Ted shrugged. “I can learn all I need to know from just reading the bible.”
“You never read the bible,” Aiden pointed out. “Everything you know about the bible is from what you heard in church and learned in catechism.”
“Well, I would’ve read it if…” Ted trailed off and looked at Valdan. “What?”
The knight was just looking at them with an intrigued expression. “Do you two even believe in any god?”
“We were taught of the one true religion,” Ted said. “The fonz.”
Valdan looked at Aiden. “The fonz?”
“Don’t mind him,” Aiden said dismissively. “It’s something he saw in a cartoon.”
“Blasphemy,” Ted hissed, then suddenly turned peaceful, hands clasped in supplication. “The fonz be praised.”
Valdan studied him for a moment. When Ted cracked a smile, Valdan looked at Aiden. “What’s a cartoon?”
Aiden turned, leading them in a direction that moved them away from the receptionists. He caught the receptionists’ eyes fasten on them, watching them as they headed for a wall of contracts. Aiden wasn’t surprised. They were probably being observant since they’d never seen them around before.
“A cartoon,” he answered, as the crowd slowly lessened, too few people interested in the posters, “is, in the simplest of descriptions, moving drawings.”
“Yeah, we used to have a lot of them back home,” Ted said with a sense of longing, “we’d watch it in this big rectangular box called a television. Aiden never outgrew it.” He sighed reminiscently. “Good times.”
Valdan frowned a little in contemplation. “You did not have magic in your world of any kind,” he stated.
“We did not,” Aiden confirmed. They were standing in front of the posters now with a few other adventurers interested in the contracts available.
“Yet, you all somehow found a way to make drawings move,” Valdan continued.
Ted nodded. “Uhuh.”
Aiden reached up for one of the posters and someone grabbed his hand by the wrist. Valdan and Ted fell silent now. Aiden looked at the hand, not bothering with the owner of the wrist.
“Come on, man,” a young voice said, a tone of imploration in his voice, “we’ve been searching for that very contract for days now.”
Aiden cocked a brow. Now he deemed it worth looking at the owner of the hand. It was a young boy, most likely around his current age. Blond hair and brown eyes looked at him sheepishly. Aiden’s eyes squinted for a moment.
“My hand,” he said. “Release it.”
The boy blinked, then released it. “Oh, sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Aiden released the contract and took another one from the wall. This one was not as difficult as he would’ve liked, but it would suffice.
That done, he turned to a very confused looking Valdan and Ted. His brows furrowed at them as they left the wall.
“What?” he asked now that they were away from the wall.
“Kinda thought you were going to bash his head in for holding your wrist like that,” Ted said.
Valdan nodded. “I was already preparing myself for the fight that it would cause.”
Aiden blinked. “He was just a kid.”
“Ha!” Ted barked a sarcastic laugh. “Like that would ever stop you.”
“You two are also around the same age,” Valdan pointed out.
It took Aiden only a moment to remember that Valdan was the only person in this group that didn’t know the truth about him. He found it odd since he remembered promising to tell Valdan the truth before he had been poisoned.
Did he forget? Aiden wondered. Since waking up, Valdan had said nothing about it. In fact, he didn’t even give him the looks that he once used to. It was almost as if he no longer cared for Aiden’s secret.
You promised to tell him the truth, he told himself. You don’t have to wait for him to ask again. Tell him when you can make the time.
“Dan,” he said as he led them in the direction of a flight of stairs where two men seemed to stand guard.
Valdan’s attention fastened on the men quickly, assessing them. “I’m listening.”
“About the secret that you—”
“No,” Valdan said, cutting him off.
Aiden paused. “I’m sorry, what?”
“We all have secrets for our own reasons,” Valdan said, looking him in the eye. “Some secrets are kept for the safety of others, some secrets are kept out of fear.” He placed a hand on Aiden’s shoulder. “Just make sure that your secret is not one that puts those you care about in danger.”
Aiden fought with all the gods and all the fibers of his being to not narrow his gaze at Valdan. This was a complete turn around. While the words were as understanding as was to be expected of Valdan, they were somehow not his. Was he saying this because he’d finally developed an understanding of secrets because of what they’d recently learned of Melvet? Did he truly understand why Melvet had kept this secret from him for so long?
Somehow he found that difficult to believe.
Had Valdan recently developed a secret of his own that had led him to become understanding?
That was a possibility that Aiden found bothersome. What secret could Valdan have discovered most recently that he would keep from everyone? Would it get them in trouble? Could he handle the trouble?
And if you can’t? he asked himself. The answer was as simple as the question was unneeded. If he couldn’t, he’d die trying.
“I guess I can understand that,” he said as they came to a stop at the stairs.
Both men sized them up. There was no condescension or suspicion, merely a simple assessment of their abilities at a glance. One had his head shaved clean while the other was built like a tank with a buzz cut.
“Adventurer or mercenary?” the one with the buzz cut asked.
“Mercenary,” Aiden answered.
“Any interest in becoming an adventurer?”
Aiden shook his head. “Tried the adventurer thing in the kingdom of Bandiv. Didn’t take. Merc work is more my speed.”
The man sized him up once more. Took in his jacket and soldier’s belt along with the sword at his hip.
“A shame,” he said, “you look like you know how to handle yourself.” His eyes moved over to Ted. “And he looks like he can handle anyone that gets past you. You should consider adventuring. In our small town we don’t have strict rules like the big kingdoms; we’re more flexible. Gives those who know what they’re doing more freedom.”
Aiden nodded. This small town was on the outskirts of a small kingdom, a kingdom small enough to be almost insignificant. The kingdom also didn’t pay much attention to the town itself. It was definitely a place where adventurers and mercenaries were almost not different.
“I might give it a thought,” he answered, then nodded up the stairs. “I’d like to see what upstairs has to offer.”
One of their brows furrowed. “I just saw you guys take one of the posters down here. What do you need up there?”
“I heard there are posters up there, too,” Aiden answered.
“And there are requirements to get to those posters,” the man with the shaven head said, finally speaking. “This floor is for—”
“Those below level fifty,” Aiden interrupted him. “I know. The next floor is for those above level fifty and there’s a floor above that for those above level two hundred.”
The man paused, sized him up once more. This time there was a touch of worry in his eyes. Aiden could read the questions going through the man’s mind as his eyes shifted over to Valdan. Dressed in a casual pair of pants and a simple shirt with nothing but his sword at his hip, Valdan’s rough face still struck a visage. It said he had taken a bite out of hardship, chewed and spit it out with a hunger for more. The man with the shaved head was worried he had just offended someone potential over level two hundred.
“We’ll have to confirm it,” the man with the buzz cut said, voice a little shaky. “It’s Society rules. Adventurer or mercenary, we got to check it.”
Aiden took a moment to rummage around in his own head to see if he could remember the person in charge of this specific branch of the Adventure Society. Unsurprisingly, he could not.
“How many of us have to meet the requirements?” he asked.
“Just one,” the man with the buzz cut said quickly. “We just have to see your level and that is all.”
Aiden did his best not to let out a sigh. Levels were one of the most important secrets to be kept for someone in the combat field of Nastild. However, there were instances where it was necessary to share. For example, there were things like social security numbers that you didn’t just give out, but there were forms you filled where it was necessary. There was no coercion or anything of the likes, it was a simple case of having to provide the piece of information to do business or simply keep it to yourself and not do business.
Focusing on his status, he pulled up his level. The man with the buzz cut paused. His jaw dropped. The second man took a confused step back.
[Level 149]
Unlike his quick move to level 100 from just killing Clerent, level 150 was proving that it was not going to let him simply stroll by. It was holding him to the rules. He had to figure out something about his manifesting skill to breakthrough.
Ted cocked a brow at the notification, then gave Aiden a disappointed look. “Still?”
“Each fifty level threshold is not the easiest thing to break through, Lord Lacheart,” Valdan said with a tone of understanding. “Remember that not everyone is as gifted as you are, my lord.”
The smaller of both men paled a little at the use of the title. Aiden knew that Valdan had used it intentionally. He had a habit of using the title so casually at certain settings when he did not like the way they were being treated like children.
Both men stood to the side.
“Our apologies,” the large one said. “You may proceed.”
Aiden nodded respectfully and all three went up the stairs. The guards mumbled and Aiden paid them no heed. It would take very little to eavesdrop on their conversation with the level his perception stat was at.
Ted failed to smother his laugh. “They think you might be using an illusion.”
“It’s a reasonable thought,” Valdan confirmed. “A boy at his age at his level is supposed to be an impossibility.”
Only on this side of Nastild, Aiden thought. Only on this side.
…
“You’ve been frowning since leaving the hall,” Ted said. “What happened? The quest not to your liking?”
Aiden shook his head, paused, then nodded. “It was not.”
“Wait, really?” Ted paused. “I was just bursting your bubble. What’s wrong with it?”
They were walking into a mountain range now. The grass beneath their feet was already being usurped by stones and rocks and hard ground. The small town was already far behind them now. Aiden kept his annoyance to himself for a moment, trying to pick his words carefully.
“The contract for Zen and Fjord is good,” he answered, finding the words. “It’s ours that I am not happy with.”
“And what’s wrong with it?” Valdan asked, walking like a man simply enjoying a gentle evening stroll.
“The monsters are not strong enough,” Aiden answered. “Not enough to really push us.”
Valdan paused, chuckled a little. “Are you trying to get us killed already? It hasn’t been long since you defied the odd of defeating the Immortal, and here you are trying to defy another.”
Aiden knew Valdan was talking about fighting difficult monsters, but he wondered what Valdan would think if he found out that he was about to submit himself to the complete control of a man so evil that he had the official title of [Enemy of the Order].
Maybe keep it to yourself a little longer, he thought.
“I’m just saying,” he answered, instead, “with how strong you and Ted have become, you will need more of a challenge than this.”
“What of Telma?” Ted asked. “What are we doing with her?”
“Nothing,” Aiden answered easily.
“You’re not going to try to make her strong and all that?”
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
Aiden gave Ted a look while Valdan listened quietly, watching them like an uncle watching his nephews bicker. “I thought you don’t like her,” Aiden said.
“I don’t,” Ted confirmed. “But you do. I figured you’d want her to be stronger for whatever it is that we are about to do.”
“I see.” Aiden rubbed his jaw, not in thought, though. It was just a simple action. In the distance, not very far off, they could already see the rest of the group. Zen and Fjord were sparring again. “Well, I don’t have anything against her, but I also don’t have anything in support of her. She’s not an ally or a friend. Whatever has sent her to guide me should deal with leveling her up.”
“Harsh,” Valdan said simply.
Aiden looked at him. “You do not approve?”
“Not that.” Valdan shook his head. “You demanding that the god who sent her deal with leveling her up is harsh. It is said that the trials of the gods are far beyond what a person should wish their enemies. For if the gods wish to try you, they forget that you are nothing but a mere mortal.”
Ted let out a low whistle. “Even our god back home remembered we were mortals when he was trying us. Then again, there was the flood and all that. Then the plague in Egypt.”
“They were not trials, Ted,” Aiden pointed out. “Those ones were punishments.”
Ted paused. “Oh.”
They fell into what seemed like thoughtful silence for a while. It lasted the remaining length of their walk to the others, ending with the stream of conversations that their arrival raised. Aiden did a quick check with the others. Zen, it seemed, was getting better as a [Time Walker] but not as a fighter. Rometo had nothing but bland praises for Fjord’s skill as a [Gambler], which was saying a lot. Perhaps Rometo was just impressed by a combat [Gambler].
Valdan walked off to spend some time with Melvet as he liked to do. Elami approached Ted, engaging him in quiet conversations. Aiden could not say that he was comfortable with it. but since Ted still got no sense of Déjà vu from the man, he figured it was safe enough. As for Feira, she stood off to the side on her own, practicing slow and gentle moves that reminded Aiden of Tai chi.
It was interesting since he did not recognize any part of the movements. It made him want to ask her what exactly Melvet was teaching her. He made the conscious decision not to.
When everything was done, conversations were had and everyone was updated, Aiden presented the contracts to their owners.
Rometo stared down at the contract in his hand. He looked up at Aiden. “And you expect them to survive this endeavor?” he asked.
Aiden shrugged. “A time will come when they will have to fight against something that they shouldn’t be able to win. I feel it’s better if there is an assurance that they will not die.”
“An assurance?” Rometo asked.
“Yep.” Aiden grinned. “You. You’ll make sure they don’t die.”
Rometo’s gaze moved over to a quiet Zen and Fjord standing next to them. He sighed. “I would’ve preferred if they did not have that specific information. Now they will not be as tense as they should be.”
Aiden chuckled lightly. “I’m not trying to get them killed, Rometo. Still, you can allow them to suffer some very horrible injuries. The traumatic kind.”
Rometo paused, and Aiden watched ideas cross his mind. Rometo was thinking like an Order instructor, looking for the best ways to influence the contract to make it harder than it already was now that Zen and Fjord knew that they were not going to die.
“And what will you be doing while this is happening?” he asked.
Aiden raised his own contract for him to see. “Hunting down my own monsters with Valdan and Ted.”
Rometo opened his mouth, but Melvet spoke before him. “I would like Feira to go with them,” she said. “I would like her to handle the tracking and the guidance. It is the only way that she can grow as a [Guide].”
Aiden gave it a thought and couldn’t see why not. “Do you think she’s good enough to defend herself now?”
Melvet peeked at the contents of the contract. “Not against beasts like this, but she would serve as a reliable support.”
Aiden shrugged. “I guess that’s fine by me.”
“Am I to protect her, too?” Rometo asked with a frown.
Aiden watched Zen pale suddenly while Feira stood with what may or may not have been false confidence.
“I don’t see why not,” Aiden answered. “It’s just another child. It shouldn’t be too much for one of your experience.”
Rometo did not look like he liked it, but he did not argue it.
It was not long before they dispersed. Rometo took Zen, Fjord and Feira with him. Aiden and the others waited and watched until they turned a corner around a boulder, leaving them alone in the rocky valley.
Only when they were gone did Aiden turn to Valdan and Ted. “I guess it’s our turn. Kiss your lady love goodbye until we return.”
Valdan gave him a look. “And who said I haven’t done that already?”
Aiden rolled his eyes and turned his attention to where Ted stood at the corner scratching a feline summoned familiar under the jaw. “Alright then. Ted, time to head out. Let’s try and make it back before nightfall.”
Ted got up and the familiar disappeared into a cloud of black smoke.
“Aiden.” Valdan grabbed Aiden’s arm suddenly, forcing a moment of worry into Aiden.
Aiden met his gaze with furrowed brows, his attention heightened, focusing on every part of their surroundings. “What is it? What happened?”
Valdan paused, confused. Then he looked down at his hand on Aiden’s arm, his tight grip. “Oh,” he muttered than relaxed the grip. “It’s nothing too serious. I just wanted to say… I wanted to…”
Valdan frowned, as if he was disappointed by his inability to say what he wanted to say. His hand loosened some more. He was about to take it away when Aiden grabbed it by the wrist.
“What’s wrong, Valdan?” he asked, his voice firm where he had wanted it to be supporting. “You can tell me.”
Valdan’s eyes glanced at Ted as he approached, gauging, calculating. He sighed. “I have something that I feel you should know before the team learns of it by themselves.”
“Okay?” Aiden waited for what would come next.
Valdan hardened his jaw. “We will talk after the hunt. I cannot tell you.” he looked into Aiden’s eyes, showed him the seriousness in his. “I must show you.”