DD 204 Ch 24

Chapter 24

Penny and I found the Orkai guild hall. Like every other building it was an opulent white, with embedded crystals into the structure. Even before we stepped inside, there the noise of a commotion spilling out the front door.

We opened it up to a familiar scene of benches filled with adventurers drinking. Though it was slightly different. White wood benches and chalices for their drinks rather than rough wood and tankards.

Several Orkai were arguing and the source of the commotion we’d heard on entering.

Suddenly, the argument escalated. One of the Orkai threw their drink, hands flailing in anger. Another Orkai poked a finger into his companion's chest. They were young, their heads rounder and smaller, their stance less towering and oppressive. There was a juvenile air about them. The arguing didn’t help.

"If you can't handle this, it's not my problem," another Orkai shrugged, leaning away, trying to rise above the argument.

Everyone had turned to watch the fight and I noticed the diversity in the room. The various races present were more than I had seen throughout most of Star City. There were Orkai, of course, but also angels serving drinks, several Nekorians, a small guard of male Nagas with a white matriarch, and even a Dwarven Queen. Most surprising, however, was the demon that the two Orkai were arguing over.

She sat between them, looking completely innocent and far too young. Her hair was tied in a pair of pigtails, making her look even more childlike. She wore a devilishly innocent expression, her spaded tail swishing back and forth. If living with Felin had taught me anything about what tail movements indicated, she was secretly enjoying the fight.

"Both of you should calm down," the demoness weakly tried to intervene, but none of them were listening to her. Instead, she shrugged, got up, and skipped over to me. She planted herself in front of me and leaned forward.

"Another demon! And here I thought I was trapped here amongst all of these oafish Orkai all by myself," she spoke dramatically, putting a hand to her forehead, spinning around, and swooning such that it was right into my arms.

Penny grabbed and pulled me to the side, causing the demoness to fall flat on her back. The demoness stared up at me, blinking in surprise.

"Where are your manners, Incubus?" she asked, rolling to her feet with more dexterity than I had seen, even from Felin.

I held up my hands, the universal sign of innocence. "I just got here. Besides, I wouldn't want those Orcs of yours to think I was making a move on you."

The two arguing Orkai turned to me, their expressions murderous. "Orcs?" they growled.

"By the way you're behaving, you certainly seem like a pair of them," I shrugged, having meant to insult them.

The demoness laughed so hard she held her stomach.

The two Orkai, who had looked like they wanted to rip me apart, suddenly smiled and laughed with her. "We were being a little boneheaded, weren't we?" they admitted, speaking the universal language.

They cared far more about what she thought than anything I said.

"You two were," the succubus turned back to me. "I'm Mel," she held out a hand.

"Ken. Pleasure," I said, shaking her hand. As I touched her, four large Orkai standing at least twice her height, folded in around her, their arms crossed over their chests in a way that made their muscles purposefully swell.

"Sorry, we don't have room in our party," another one of them said before pressing his lips together and jutting out his chin as if he was daring me to try and weasel my way in. "We were just about to head out."

The demoness, who I was realizing was probably a succubus just twirled one of her pigtails and blinked like she had no idea what was going on.

I deadpanned at the Orkai. "Great, I have my own full party. Please, feel absolutely free to do your thing," I smiled.

Immediately, I pegged this Orkai as possibly a year or two younger than me, just by the way he behaved and his level of maturity. If anything, I felt startlingly relieved that not all Orkai were terrifyingly intelligent juggernauts of muscle. It was more relatable that they had juvenile youth, just like humans. 

"Penny," the frost knight next to me, decided to introduce herself to the succubus. "I'm in Ken's party." 

The succubus licked her lips as she grabbed Penny's hands and kissed the back of it. "Well, aren't you a pretty one?" She squinted at Penny. "You're not illusioning away your horns. You're not a demon," she became far more fascinated.

The succubus squealed with glee before bouncing on the balls of her feet. "I've never seen one like you," she said before turning to face me. "You have to tell me where you bought her." 

I nearly choked at the word bought. "I didn't buy her anywhere. She is my partner in diving the dungeon. Part of my party." 

The succubus pursed her lips. "Fine, be that way. You don't have to tell me. I just thought two lonely demons trapped in this place together could at least be passably friendly." She twirled one of her pigtails and batted her lashes at me.

I did my best to keep a stone-cold expression on my face. For all I knew she was probably ancient and just looked young.

"Fine." The demoness threw her hand down, dropping the act. "Well, you don't have to be cold. When we get back to Hell, the gloves come off. But until then, we can work together," she said. 

I could feel the side of my face trying to twitch as I tightened it with a smile, trying to get it to stop. "Lovely," I said. "Well, it was wonderful to meet all of you."

Mixing Hell into this conversation was dangerous, I couldn’t speak to it at all.

I was stiff and held onto Penny's arm to pull her with me. Even as we walked away, the demoness and her four Orkai flanking her narrowed their eyes, watching me. I really hoped I hadn't messed up that interaction between demons. I wasn't exactly sure what norms they would have. Perhaps I was supposed to flex too? Use a family name and try to intimidate her? I don't know. Ultimately, I went with being dismissive because that probably transcended all races. 

Wanting to add some more space, I moved towards what looked like an information desk. Two angels were manning the desk.

One of them saw me approaching and leaned forward, putting her cheek in her hand. Her desk was slightly elevated, and the act put her down at eye level for me. It also had the effect of nearly making her cleavage spill out of her dress. 

"And what is a handsome incubus like you doing in my little bar," she said, flirting with me.

I could feel Penny's arm on me tensing, and I gave her a reassuring squeeze before slipping my hand into hers and intertwining our fingers. "Oh, I would just like to register a guild if that's all right." I answered.

She paused and lifted a golden eyebrow. "You don't have one already?" 

"No, is that a problem?" I said, once again, keeping my face neutral. 

"Not a problem. I just expected a handsome guy like you to already have a whole harem raid. In that case," she flashed me a charming smile. "My name's Agatha." She scribbled down what I assumed was the equivalent of a phone number on a card before circling a heart around it.

Penny slapped her hand over the card and dragged it off the counter, her gauntlet scraping as she went. "I'll hold on to this for him." Penny replied.

Agatha's flirty face fell slightly, only for it to rejuvenate as she turned back to me. "Well, you're an incubus. I'm sure you get plenty of attention. No surprise I have to work a little harder," she winked. 

"Registering my guild," I said, trying to move the conversation forward before Penny got murderous. It seemed her jealousy wasn’t going to wash away so easily.

"Right, right. Show me your system," she said, holding out her hand. 

"I use this," I hesitated, but I put my CID forward. She frowned at the device, bent over, squinting at it. It was probably the same expression someone from modern day would give if I had pulled out a rotary phone to make a call.

"Ah, I'm not sure I'm familiar," she said, poking at my CID before tapping at her bare wrist. If I looked closely enough, there was a faint circular outline on her skin, likely where her little bent disc was embedded. 

"Ah, it works," she said, flicking her hand up between us. A screen floated in the air, and she swiped at it, her fingers moving maddeningly fast across the surface before she spun it around to face me. 

"Verify the information, Ken Nagato," she said.

There on the screen was my full system information and even some details that weren't apparent on my own CID.

Ken Nagato

Race: Demon

Subrace: Incubus

Age: 19

Class: Emperor

Guild: |

Level: 44

Experience: 84% 

Strength: 154 

Agility: 535

Stamina: 313 

Magic: 283 

Mana: 149

Mana Type: Sharp

Trial of Speed: Complete

Skills: Shadow Claw, Earth Stomp, Charm, Metamorphosis, Sprint, Absorb, Discharge, Dark Blades, Shadow Arm, Camouflage, Shadow Ambush, Elemental Shield, Portal [Special], Mana Burn, Hydra [Elysara], Cleave [Fayeth], Spell Mirror, Dungeon’s Blessing, Blades of Shadow, Mana Implosion, Shadow Wave [Desmonda], Revive [Charlotte], Shadow Phase, Dodge, Liminal Speed, Eyes of Wisdom [Crimson], Delirious Pleasures, Triple Breach, Arcane Singularity, Static Swords, Frozen Barrier [Felin].

There was a blinking cursor after guild and I typed in ‘Silver Fangs’. "That would be it," I smiled and nodded as I checked the new information. "Perfect." 

She spun it back around, tapped a few more times before waving the screen away. "You are now in the system as a lovely guild leader of the Silver Fangs. That will be 25 mana crystals." 

I had learned that when they said mana crystals, the color implied was blue. They never really seemed to operate on anything less than blue. I tapped at my CID and swiped across to transfer her the funds.

"I assume you want this one next to you added into the guild," she said.

I nodded, and Penny held out her hand. The woman tapped her CID before flipping a screen around for Penny. Penny quickly verified her information before nodding. The woman collapsed it. 

"Wonderful. Now, if you need to add any additional members, you're welcome to use any of the CID terminals. You'll notice in your system, I've had to make a slight modification in order to add your guild to your character information. If others need such a modification, we're happy to make that as well. It's important that all systems can interface together. Otherwise, how are we supposed to be united in diving the dungeon?" 

I raised an eyebrow. "United in diving the dungeon? I must say I've lived a fairly sheltered life. Care to explain?" 

She laughed, glanced back at my wrist and the CID on it. "Oh, I'm sure you've lived a very sheltered life. to have such archaic technology. I'd wonder if you were from the past." She giggled, and I forced myself to laugh at her joke. 

"Well, it's quite simple. For the seven cities, we believe that the ultimate goal is to dive deeper into the dungeon. Petty disputes need to be pushed aside for cooperation. That includes things like fighting over quests. Oh that’s a perk of forming a guild.”

I raised an eyebrow for her to explain more.

“Guilds can hold onto a quest for one week, I’ll be removed from the terminals and be unavailable for others. The registration for the guild can be applied to a building and protect it from individual infractions with the Arbiters. There are a number of minor things as well.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully.

"So, if we select a quest from the board, we'll have no competition for a week?" I asked.

She waffled her head side to side. "I wouldn't say no competition. That's a rather bold statement. Someone could have read the quest without accepting it and still compete with you for the fulfillment. At times, there are guilds that will poach quests like that. There is some fierce competition between the guilds, particularly at a higher level. However, it's not incredibly common in Star City. The Orkai's sense of honor tends to dictate a lot of how people operate. It's also why Angel preferred this city over many of the others. Our lives are relatively comfortable. So comfortable that we could use a charming incubus to spend our money on," she said, raising an eyebrow at me.

I pretended not to hear that last part. "Interesting. Any other benefits?" I asked.

"Well, now that the guild is part of your system interface, should anything happen to a member of your guild, you will be notified, of course," she said. "And there are certain discounts for guilds that have a reputation for completing quests. For example, if you've done enough quests, you can get 10, 15, or 30% off drinks here." She gestured around at the bar atmosphere. "As well as several adventuring shops willing to give you discounts. You just have to check with your system to see if they're one of those merchants." She twirled a lock of hair in her finger as she leaned over the counter.

"Thank you." Penny nodded and grabbed my arm, pulling me away. "I think without the discount, we will enjoy ourselves at the bar."

The angel waved her hand. "Enjoy yourself. And if you're ever feeling bored, come hit me up, Incubus." Agatha winked.

I got far enough away and kept my voice low. "Well, she was friendly."

"Mhm. Friendly is one word." Penny's voice was hard.

"That's what I'm going to call it," I said, flashing her a smile. "Besides, Penny, I'm here with you."

She blushed and ducked her head, hiding her red cheek behind her blue hair. "I know. It's just, we're making progress and I don't want anyone else to interrupt."

"Interrupt what?" Mel, the demoness, stepped in between the two of us. "Why don't you come and have a drink with me? You're new here and you could probably use someone to learn the ropes.”

“I'm pretty sure all we have to do is continue to grind the dungeon and do quests for additional resources." I replied.

Mel groaned and rolled her eyes. "Oh, please stop pretending to be so stiff. You're an incubus for crying out loud." Mel grabbed Penny's hand and dragged her over to a table.

For whatever reason, whenever Mel sat down, her entourage of Orkai fanned out behind her. It was an incredibly strange situation, her looking so small and meek with the Orkai towering behind her. It sort of felt like it was the setup for a video.

"So, you two are new," Mel started and waved for the waiter to bring over more drinks. They were delivered in silver and gold chalices. The liquid itself was a deep red with a little froth to it. I took a sip and it was a beer of sorts, or at least it tasted vaguely like alcohol and yeast.

"Fermented and frothed blood," Mel said, taking a large gulp of her own.

Penny choked, holding a hand over her mouth while she slammed the other to her chest. I put a hand on her back and rubbed it as she settled down the liquid that had gone down the wrong pipe.

"F&F as some call it," Mel continued, frowning as she watched us. "What, is it not to your taste? I'm sorry, but that's what Orkai like to drink. You're not going to find much of the good stuff here."

"Oh, we just hadn't had it before," I said, covering for Penny as she recovered.

"Yeah," Penny said, her voice strained. She cleared her throat and took another sip, though I could see she was purposefully not looking at the liquid.

"It can be a little stiff," Mel said, "but I've been here for almost two months. I think I've worked up a good tolerance." The petite demoness drained half of her chalice in a single slug before slapping it down to the table with an exaggerated sigh and wiping some of the pink foam off of her lips. "Orkai have a tendency to be a bit of a pain in the ass."

"They farm them by the thousands, collecting their blood, and then fermenting it within the dungeon," she said with a shrug. "It tastes passable."

"Yeah, the taste isn't bad," I said, taking a sip myself. Sometimes beer had a hint of metallic taste to it and I was just pretending it was the same. "Well, I think I prefer beer more."

The demoness tilted her head. "Beer?”

“Ah, it's a drink that humans like Penny make. Not dissimilar, but it's fermented grains." I offered.

Mel made a face at the sound of the drink. "Isn't that just drinking yeast water? This stuff gets your blood pumping." She stuck her tongue out and drained her chalice with a second gulp. "Either way, since you're new here, I'll do you the favor of introducing you around," she gestured at the guild hall. "And understanding who's in charge and whose missions you really shouldn't bother trying. You know, several of the guilds have their own areas staked out around the city."

"Like, competing for the areas deeper than the city? I heard there was some competition regarding the areas connected to the lower floors of the city." I prompted.

"Connected to the lower floors?" Mel waved a hand. "Oh, not that sort of stuff. You were like us, right? In the low 40s? We're still working on the things attached to the upper floors."

"44," I said, giving her clarity.

"Look at you, hotshot." She wove her head back and forth. "Either way, it might help you to understand the key players in the city."