“Time to wake-what the hell did I tell
you, kid?! What are you an id-hold on…”
Atlas takes off the armor on his
foot before stomping on Basil.
“What are you an idiot?! You’re
supposed to sleep with the pretty girl you’re attracted to when you have the
chance! I mean you aren’t supposed to do anything that you would do while you’re
married, but cuddling is allowed!”
“Ow! Stop it!”
Basil gets up and fights back
against Atlas.
“Do you think you can take me on or
are you just playing tough in front of your girl?”
“Shut it!”
The two struggle with one another
until Cynthia smacks Atlas across the head.
“Leave the boy alone,” she says as
she pulls Atlas away.
“Hey, I’m still not done teaching
him his lesson yet!”
Atlas and Cynthia argue with each
other as Basil and Julia calm down from the rude awakening.
“Are you okay, Basil?”
“I’m fine. Just a few bruises is
all. I don’t think he meant to actually hurt me.”
“Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Nah. Don’t worry about it.”
Julia sits up from her bed to give
Basil a hug, which he returns.
“Okay. Maybe that’s good.”
After getting their things together
and going downstairs, the two see soldiers in decorated armor and businessmen. Atlas
comes down with Cynthia with marks on his face.
He sighs goes over to Basil and
Julia to say, “I’m sorry for waking you up the way I did and for what I keep
suggesting for you to do. It’s inappropriate for me as your superior.”
Cynthia winks at Basil and Julia
before saying, “I think it’s time you told them why you woke them up the way
you did.”
“Right. As you can see, we have
some guests today and since it seems like you really need the money, I thought
that you would want to take this contract.”
“What’s the contract?” Julia asks.
“I’ll have them explain that to
you. Excuse me, sir. These are the newbies that I told you about.”
“Ah! I’ve heard so much about your
abilities in the dungeon. You two will be perfect for the job we have for you,”
the businessman says.
“Why do you think so? We’ve only
been here for two days,” Basil says.
“New adventurers typically die off
during the first days of being in the dungeon or are at least heavily injured.
Very few can fight on and even fewer go down to the second floor and
pass a controlled dungeon.”
“I didn’t know we were so blessed
to survive. What do you want us to do?”
“We want you to use our new armor
and weapons in the third level of the dungeon.”
“The third level? We’ve only managed
to survive the second. We’re still not used to the dungeon.”
“That’s where our products come in.
They’ll give you the protection that you need and since you know how to think
on your feet, you can find other uses for this equipment. We’ll have one of our
advertisers follow you so they can tell the public about what happened. He can
take care of himself so don’t worry about him. He can also give you advice on
your equipment if you need help with it. So, will you accept our contract?”
“We’ll do it. What’s the worst that
can happen?”
“Great! We’ll have you fitted and
ready to go.”
Basil receives a suit of shining steel
armor and an ebony sword while Julia gets her suit of white light armor with a
rapier and shield made of black steel.
“You two look wonderful. How do you
like it?” the businessman says.
“It’s great,” Basil says while admiring
his armor.
“I love it!” Julia says.
“That’s good. Now, go to third
floor and conquer!”
Basil and Julia go into the dungeon
with the advertiser behind them. The advertiser is a soldier in expensive-looking armor that covers every part of his body. He carries two spiked shields
with a third one on his back that makes him almost look like a turtle. Since
they can’t see his face, the man has an ominous presence that Basil and Julia
try to ignore.
Once they’re on the third floor,
the advertiser says, “We’re here. This is going to be easy for you too so don’t
hesitate or overthink this.”
“We won’t,” Basil says while being
relieved that the advertiser seems to be a nice man.
The dungeon has the layout of a
ruined civilization that once lived in a cave with houses and shops dug out
from the cave. Statues are embedded in the cave as well that almost appear to
be alive. Basil and Julia stab at the statues to make sure they aren’t alive. All
the statues they stab don’t react to anything until Basil and Julia stab one
that explodes poison gas on them. Both cough and fall to their knees as if they’re
sick but stand up and realize that they’re fine.
“The armor doesn’t just protect you
against physical damage. It also lets you resist poison, paralyzation, and other
debilitations that the demons use against you,” the advertiser says.
Both Basil and Julia smile and sigh
in relief as they continue on. They eventually come across a squad of demons
who have just taken out a group of beginner adventures. With their new equipment,
they avenge their fellow adventurers with ease.
Basil is about to close the eyes of
a deceased adventurer, but the advertiser stops him and says, “Let’s keep moving.
The cleanup crews will take care of them.”
“If you say so.”
Basil and Julia must walk over the
bodies of the adventurers to continue forward. Further into the
dungeon, they find a mass of teeth, bones, skin, and limbs that spawn demons. It
covers the way forward and there isn’t a way through it other than going
fighting through them so that’s what they do. Their normal weapons would’ve broken
throughout the fight because of the bone armor of the demons, but their new
weapons cut through the bone as if it were fabric. Even though they’re tossed
around and their teamwork isn’t the best, their armor doesn’t break, and they
don’t feel as if they’re injured. If they were wearing what they normally wear,
then they would’ve been the ones that were torn to shreds and killed in a
similar way to the adventurers behind them. After cutting through the demon
spawner, they find a wall of white and black fire blocking the treasure room.
The two look back at the advertiser
and he says, “You two should be able to walk through it and survive. It might
burn a little.”
Since their armor hasn’t failed
them yet, Basil and Julia trust the advertiser and walk through the fire. Basil
doesn’t feel too bad walking through it while Julia feels a slight burn as she
does.
Her quiet gasps of pain in response
to it makes Basil ask, “Are you okay?”
She nods her head and tries to act
like it was nothing. The two then take all the treasure they can and go back
through the flames with Julia feeling the burn of the flames again, but this
time she doesn’t make any noise despite the pain that comes from the flames.
“I knew you two would do it. Let’s
get back to your guild,” the advertiser says.
The group gets back to the guild to
receive praise from the guild itself and the business the advertiser is from. While
Basil and Julia are giving back their equipment, the person who helps Julia out
of her armor finds burns all over her body. These burns are worse than Julia
thought with her being unable to move well without the
armor on her. When the guild hears of this, Basil, Cynthia, Atlas, and a few others check on her.
After a closer inspection, Cynthia
says, “The white and black flames really did a number on her. She may not be able
to do anything for a month.”
Julia begins to cry which makes
Basil immediately ask, “Can’t you heal her?”
“I can, but it’ll take a while…unless…”
“What is it?”
“I may be a good healer, but I’m
not the best in turns of stamina. I can heal this burns in one hour if someone
buys me one of those stamina drinks at the shops. The only thing is that the
one I need is quite expensive.”
Julia’s crying in addition to this
makes Basil’s choice obvious to him.
“I’ll pay for it,” he says as he
immediately takes out his payment.
“Okay. Here’s what you need to get.”
Cynthia writes down an order for
the stamina drink she needs with her signature on it and gives it Basil. He
rushes out of the guild and comes back with the drink in no time. Cynthia thanks
Basil, drinks the stamina drink, then begins to heal Julia’s burns at an immensely
faster rate. While waiting, Basil checks out how much he still has left as there
is still enough time in the day to buy new equipment for himself.
Atlas sits next to him and is about
to saying something, but Basil immediately interrupts him and says, “If this is
about getting Julia to owe me something, you can forget about it.”
“That was the last thing I was
going to say, but the first this is different. I know you want to buy new equipment.”
“I wish those people just paid me
with the equipment. I would’ve been fine with that.”
“That kind of armor is way more
expensive than you think. You can’t even get it in this part of town. I wouldn’t
be surprised if you could only buy it on the floating island or in the innermost
layer of the city.”
“Great. I’ll just forget about it
then.”
“It’s okay. You still have a chance
of getting an awesome set of armor like mine.”
“Do they have it in an ebony color?”
“Why would you want that? This
color is better. I thought you picked shining armor because you liked it.”
“No, that’s just what they had. I
picked the ebony sword over the glass steel one.”
“You pick ebony over glass steel…no.
I’m not going to complain about it now. You need to know that you need a
license to purchase better equipment.”
“I need a license?”
“You know how Cynthia gave you that
piece of paper with her signature? That’s what you need. The better the equipment,
the higher the license you need. It’s a system in place that’s supposed to be there
for business purposes and to make sure newbies don’t buy the best equipment day
one, but I think it’s just a rip-off.”
“How do I get a license?”
“Go to one of the weapon shops and
buy one. You’ll need the signatures of Cynthia and me to get a decent one. Let
me see how much money you have.”
Basil shows Atlas all of his money.
“You have enough for a good
license, but you won’t have enough for a weapon or a piece of armor.”
“What? Should I just get a lesser
license then?”
“No, it’s better to buy a good one
now then buy the better equipment so you’re not wasting money. Besides, what
you have now is good for now.”
“If you say so.”
Basil obtains Atlas’ and Cynthia’s signature
and buys a license to buy better equipment. As he leaves, he looks at the
various kinds of swords and armor that he wishes he had. He then sees people
putting posters advertising the equipment he just used for the job and how much
it costs then lets go of any hope of buying the equipment he just wore while thinking
to himself that it’ll be easier for him to buy three houses. When he arrives
back at the guild, he goes upstairs to his room after eating to see Julia lying
in his bed again. She gets up when he enters the room and sits on the bed.
“Are you doing alright, Julia?”
“Yeah. I’m all better now. Thank
you for helping me get better quicker. Where did you go?”
“I went out to buy a license for
better equipment. Apparently, you need it to buy things here. Why?”
“I was just wondering. I’m so used to
you being by my side that it feels like I’m missing something when you’re gone.”
“Really?” Julia gives Basil a light
kiss on the cheek. “Yes.”
Basil smiles then turns his head to
see Atlas peeking through a crack in the door.
“Ah!” he quietly says as he tries
to silently walk away as if he wasn’t there.
“That guy…”
“He seems to really care about you.”
“He did bring me here. Maybe he
feels some kind of responsibility for me?”
“I don’t know. We shouldn’t worry
about him too much. You can sleep on the bed with me if you want. You have to
keep your hands to yourself, of course.”
Basil thinks in his head for a
second how she can say this after she kissed him before saying, “Okay. I’ll sleep
sitting up. You can have the pillow and blanket.”
“Thank you again for everything.”
Julia kisses Basil’s cheek again
and hugs him before laying down. Basil relaxes with a smile on his face. He tries
not to mind the way Tyrannus conducts its business because it’s just the way
business works here and nothing more in his mind. If things are going to be
this way from now on, then he can live without any major concerns. This is what
he hopes is the case.
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