Tower Story -- Chapter 20

Chapter 20

When Bax woke up early the next morning, it was still dark out.  Despite desperately needing sleep the night before, his body still didn’t need a long time to feel completely refreshed, which meant that he ended up getting up before the rest of those inside The Lazy Shipman Inn.  He actually considered it a blessing in disguise, as it gave him an opportunity to finally think about his situation and firm up a few plans for the immediate future – as well as some larger goals that he would look at for far into the future.  Most of those far-future goals were a bit unknown until he had more information, but his interactions from the day before had at least given him something to start with.

First, it was fairly clear that the Adventurer’s Guild had stepped up greatly to help with the defense of the towns and cities of the world, as what he’d read in the Archive somewhat downplayed their importance and priority – especially when there were Keepers there to help.  Now, though, it seemed that—out of necessity—the Guild was a lot more militant than a supplementary force used for combating local monsters. 

The introduction of Humans appeared to be a fairly important factor in this change, as his own people had taken on a lot of jobs that freed up the other races to concentrate on defense and proactively fighting monsters.  There were also quite a few Humans in town, outnumbering the other races by approximately a 2-to-1 ratio – at least as far as he’d seen.  While there hadn’t been any Humans in any real authority positions, as far as he could tell, they also didn’t seem to be treated poorly or forced into the positions they did have against their will. 

I wonder if there are so many Humans because we can reproduce faster than the others?  I still remember reading fantasy stories about Elves having low reproductive rates because they lived a lot longer than Humans – is that true for them here?  Is it similar for the other races?

Unfortunately, none of that information was in the Archive.  He was beginning to see how focused the information in the Co-op had been, as it focused on the Retrogression System, Keeper responsibilities, Classes, magical energy, and other physical training aspects – and not on what would necessarily be “common” information on normal society.  He supposed that made sense, as everyone being transported to the Co-op had likely lived within society for a while by that point, so it would be a waste to have that kinds of information when the training was specialized for Keepers.

Second, while it seemed as though the Adventurer’s Guild had a fairly good grasp on defending against the monsters out in the wild, he didn’t know if dungeons had appeared yet around the world.  The timing was pretty close to it, especially as it seemed as though the monster-Level progression was advanced for how many years it had been since the new cycle began.  This was something he would have to discover – and soon.  While Adventurers could likely handle them right now, especially as they would rather weak, eventually they might become a problem.

Adjacent to this was the fact that his Tasks weren’t populating.  Even though it seemed that other people were getting Tasks, such as when the Pantherin had attacked, his Task list had remained completely empty since he arrived.  If there were dungeons in need of eliminating by someone powerful enough, such as a Keeper like himself, he could only hope that he would be alerted by a Task.  Looking into this had to be a priority, as he didn’t think he’d be able to combat any large threats if he didn’t know they were there in the first place.

Lastly, Bax really needed to get a Class of his own to start working on his Unity stat.  The way he’d been immobilized by the town guards the day before had been a wake-up call on how lopsided his stats were, so he needed that to change.  In addition, he’d really like to acquire some more abilities and spells in addition to being able to punch stuff to death – though he wasn’t sure if he’d ever be able to Level his Class up, given that he needed to kill monsters at Level 1,302 or higher.

All of this would hopefully be started upon the coming day, as he was planning on visiting the Adventurer’s Guild.  He needed more information on just about everything about this world, as well as more knowledge about what happened while he was in Stasis, so that he could make future plans; if he was correct, then the Guild might have an Archive there or would know where it could be found to acquire that kind of information. 

In addition to granting access to some type of study material, in one way or another, the Guild was also where he hoped to find a Party so that he could finally get a Class.  He knew how it worked with Keepers, and even with future Guides, but none of the Keepers had ever directly joined a Party with non-Keepers or Adventurers, so he wasn’t sure if there was anything different he needed to be ready or watch out for. 

Again, that was another deficient area that the Co-op Archive didn’t cover.

Once he found a Party, unlocked his Class, and then likely left the Party to go out on his own again – as he didn’t want to put anyone else in deliberate danger – he would have to base his next objective on whatever he learned from the Guild.  He was hoping that, once he fulfilled the need to join a Party to unlock his first Class, his Task list might start working, allowing him to go from there and make some more concrete plans.

In the end, all of his thinking during this time could be summed up with one statement: Bax was more than capable and eager to help, but he wasn’t sure exactly how. 

Fortunately, he ended up spending enough time lazing around in his surprisingly comfortable bed thinking that dawn broke over the horizon.  One the first significant rays of the sun shone through his window, as well as hearing movement coming from down below in the kitchens, he figured that it was now relatively acceptable for him to really start his day.  Getting up and using the bathroom, he was tempted to look for some sort of bathing or shower room, but one step out of his room to look for it had him inundated with the smell of breakfast – and he was still slightly hungry from the night before. 

Resolving to bathe or shower later, Bax made his way downstairs, only to discover that he wasn’t the first one to arrive, as a third of the tavern was full of only Humans eating hearty breakfasts.  It was only when he saw them dressed similarly to the field workers from yesterday that he deduced that these might be the workers for another shift; if that was the case, then they apparently enjoyed the breakfast enough to eat at the tavern before heading out for the day.

When it arrived at his table a little bit later, it didn’t look like any breakfast he’d ever had before, but he couldn’t complain that it wasn’t delicious.  The eggs he had were oddly blue, the sliced bread he ate were dipped in a strange, orange batter, and the slab of tenderized meat had been cooked with an assortment of spices that was unusual – but it was so delicious that he ended up ordering another full meal for only 2 extra Magems.

After leaving another 5-Magem tip for his server, who was different than Adrelle from the night before, he left The Lazy Shipman and made his way out into the town that was currently waking up for the day.  He took his time reaching the Guild building, watching shopkeepers opening up their stores and generally taking in the entire vibe that flowed through the population.  It also gave him a chance to really appreciate being somewhere there were actual people, as he was still accustoming himself to not being alone anymore; the experience of having to suffer so long on his own hadn’t always been horrible, but he had certainly grown lonely after a while.  Thankfully, the time he’d been there – as he didn’t count his Stasis period when he wasn’t aware of anything – had only been a little bit more than a year.  He was fairly sure that if he’d had to experience a decade or more on his own, the loneliness would’ve been unbearable.

By the time Bax arrived at the entrance of the Adventurer’s Guild, there were a few groups of people moving in and out, signaling that it was already pretty active for being so early in the morning.  He walked inside and looked around, finding that the bottom floor was actually huge, and it reminded him somewhat of the Meal Hall in the Co-op – just on a smaller scale.  Dozens of table-and-chair sets were arranged along the left half of the large hall-like space, which had multiple support columns spread throughout it for structural stability, and there was a bar and open kitchen attached to it along the backside.  Bax estimated that a few hundred people could eat there simultaneously, which was quite an impressive sight considering what he'd seen thus far in this world and in the town.  It was also quite clean, similar to the tavern he’d just left, and while it wasn’t fancy-looking, it had a general “up-scale” feel to it that was hard to define.

Only about a third of the tables were filled, which he was surprised to see given how early it still was; each table that was occupied held 4 people, which he immediately identified as being Parties based on the closeness they seemed to have.  What also hinted that they were Adventurer Parties were their general state of dress and battle readiness, along with the fact that when he quickly used Identification on some of the groups, he found that—almost invariably—each table had people that were exactly the same Level.  While he didn’t look at all of them, he could see that their Level range spread from Level 12 to 26, though there might have been some outliers that he didn’t specifically look at.   

But what really clenched the fact that they were Adventurer Parties was the fact that he didn’t see a single Human among them.  That didn’t mean there weren’t any Humans in the room, as there were at least a dozen servers he saw running around, taking orders or delivering food, as well as cooking in the kitchen.  But their exclusion from the Parties he saw was quite obvious to him, and it only seemed to confirm what he’d noticed earlier when looking around town. 

Humans didn’t necessarily have access to authority here.  For some reason, this bothered him greatly and it took him a few seconds to wonder why this was.  He finally concluded that he’d been brought up being taught that Humans—at least on Earth—were the top of the food chain and had the smarts and technology to keep us there; here, among these other races who were naturally faster and stronger, had better access to magical energy, and were perhaps even smarter, Humans had proven to be worse at all of those aspects.  He had no idea how they would be once they Leveled-up enough to be formidable individuals, but his research in his Archive showed that they would be still be inherently worse – at least as far as stats went.

From personal experience, his own Leveling had shown him that he received a single point in Strength, 2 in Endurance and Dexterity, and 3 in Intellect with each increase in Level; he had to assume that this was similar for every other Human out there.  This was a total of 8 stat points per Level, which he thought wasn’t too bad – at least until he learned that the other races received, at minimum, 11 stat points, with Elves and Anjelou receiving 13, with the extra stat points typically being in the Intellect stat.  While this wouldn’t make a huge difference at lower Levels, at Level 11, this difference in stats was at least 30 points and likely more, especially given that the other races’ starting stats were also higher than Humans’.

Extrapolating that difference out a bit, if he was ever to meet someone of another race that was equal to his own Level, the minimum of a 3,900 stat-point difference would certainly be noticeable.  Even with his Divine Strength Trait, doubling his Strength, that still left another—at minimum—2,600 points spread throughout their stats that he had naturally missed out of because he was a Human.

So, while it wasn’t necessarily a surprise to not see any Humans among the Adventurer Parties, it still hurt to be aware that his people were considered somewhat “weak” and not worth the space in a Party.  It was only practical not to include them, after all, even as much as he didn’t like it.  That still didn’t explain why there weren’t all-Human Adventurer Parties, however, as he would’ve expected that they’d be fairly common with all the Humans around.  That was something he was looking forward to finding out, as it was a strange absence that he was confused about. 

Apart from the dining area, which took up approximately half of the large bottom floor, there was a lot going on in the other half.  A large board took up a good portion of the righthand wall, and it was filled with little slips of paper that he could see—once he focused on them—were filled with different types of Tasks.  There were Patrol Tasks, Escort Tasks, Monster Hunt Tasks, and even Dungeon Exploration Tasks – which answered a question he’d had about whether or not dungeons were now present in the world. 

To the left and right of the board were long counters with Humans staffed behind them in what looked like little booths.  Bax was fairly certain that this was the administrative portion of the Guild, a supposition that was only strengthened when he saw desks and relatively open cubicles behind the counters, with dozens of other Humans working on paperwork and other things he couldn’t see from his position.  There appeared to be a tall, Level 22 Natruri in charge of them all, at least that was his assumption by the way he was walking slowly among them and checking up on what they were working on.

In front of the counters were designated lanes marked by lines painted on the stone smooth stone floor, and there were 6 Adventurer Parties waiting in these lines, while all of the current Guild employees were occupied with others.  An iron vault large enough to walk into that was located behind the cubicles gave the impression that this was simply a large bank with an attached restaurant, though with the armed array of “alien” races acting as the clientele, it was unlike any bank that he’d ever been in before.

Bax’s arrival didn’t garner much attention, thankfully, though a few glanced at him when he walked in before turning away in disinterest.  He supposed that a random Human wasn’t that big of a deal when all things were considered, even if he was unfamiliar and only Level 2.  Then again, I doubt any of them even used Identification on me to check my Level.

That disinterest faded some as he walked over to the lines waiting for the Guild workers, stopping behind a Party that was waiting for their turn. 

“What are you doing?  Are you trying to get a position here?” he was asked by a small female Gnome as soon as he planted himself behind her Party in line.  “If so, you need to speak to Frindrick at the bar,” she continued, pointing toward the guy behind the bar on the other side of the room.  She didn’t necessarily sound annoyed or dismissive when she spoke; it was more that he wasn’t the only Human that had come in lately looking for a job at the Guild.  He supposed it might be a cushy position – but it wasn’t what he was there for.

“Oh, thank you, but no – I’m not here for a position; I’m here to join the Guild.”

The disbelief in her face was evident, but at least she didn’t guffaw like the male Vaneshta in her Party who had overheard.  “You?!  Join the Guild?  What role are you going to play in a Party… bait?”  At this, the devil laughed even louder at his own joke, which began to kindle the fury Bax had felt the previous day when that Orc had spoken about him like he was a worthless waste of space. 

However, knowing that it would probably be a good idea to keep his head in the situation, he tamped down the anger and said as evenly as he could, “No, not bait.  I believe that I could be a beneficial addition to any Party—”

“Sure, maybe if your Class is Tasty Sacrifice!” the Vaneshta practically shouted before almost doubling over in laughter. 

This, of course, drew the attention of anyone in the room that hadn’t been paying attention to the confrontation.  Even as the rage bubbled up further, he was saved from reacting unpleasantly—as much as he really wanted to—when the rest of his Party turned to him and, in fairly stern words, told him to essentially shut up.

“Stop it right now, Killix,” the Gnome said additionally, “or you’re going to get all of us in trouble for your untrue and unfair words.”  She turned back to Bax, and with an apologetic expression on her face and her hands pleadingly pointed toward him, she told him, “I really do apologize for his words, as he just a big, dumb moron that frequently speaks before he thinks.”

Bax nodded, his anger only simmering now, having reduced in intensity at the apology.  “Thank you.  I know it might be unusual, but I’m still determined to pursue this course of action—”

“Unusual!  The only thing unusual is you thinking that you can match up to any Adventurer here!  Face it, you’re weak and pathetic, and the only thing you’re good for is to serve food to a real fighter.  In fact, let me help you over there so you can get started,” the devil said, just as he walked toward the wannabe Human Adventurer despite the protests of his Party members. 

As if in slow motion, Bax could see Killix reaching for him with one of his meaty-looking, clawed hands, the intent to bodily pick him up and throw him toward the tables in the distance clear in his movements.  While he could’ve easily dodged out of the way, being much faster than the prejudiced Adventurer, the fury he’d been holding in check came to a boil and he did something that he thought he might regret later.

Moving faster than anyone could easily follow, Bax reached forward with both hands and grabbed Killix’s wrist with his left, before snapping his right fist down on the devil’s arm, snapping it cleanly at the elbow, before letting go.  Even before the hollow snap that echoed through the room reached his ears, he was back in the same position he had started in.

The Vaneshta was still reaching toward Bax when his arm suddenly bent in a way that it shouldn’t, and it took a few seconds, as well as a stumbling step forward for the pain to finally reach him.  He bellowed out in shock, looking down at his broken arm and, unable to comprehend how it had happened, he collapsed to his knees as the agony of the injury slammed into him.

“Killix!  What happened?!” the Gnome asked, staring at her Party member in shock.  A moment later, she was casting a healing spell at the shouting—and attention-grabbing—devil, pulling his arm into position so that it could heal easier.  There was some disturbance from somewhere near the back of the room where there were stairs leading up to the upper floor, but Bax was barely aware of it; his attention was on something else.

A Keeper’s use of force against world residents detected…

Assessing situational details…

Threat to Keeper’s health and safety by a higher-Level citizen confirmed…

Use of non-lethal force has been approved…

The stress of “non-lethal” in the System’s notification told him that if he’d done something as drastic as killed the Vaneshta, he would probably have been either reprimanded or punished – because it might have constituted as being equitable to murder, which he already knew was extremely frowned upon or forbidden.  This was especially true of Keepers, as there were System rules against violence against the citizens of the world, mostly to avoid the more-powerful Keepers from trying to use their power for nefarious ends.  While he hadn’t necessarily forgotten these rules and regulations that he’d learned about at the Co-op, the anger he’d felt when being ridiculed by the devilish Adventurer had somewhat suppressed that knowledge; in short, he hadn’t really cared at the time.

As much as he thought that it would be better to let the comments he might receive go, ignoring or ducking under the superior attitudes of some Adventurers of this world when it came to Humans, it grated on him to do that.  He had no wish to try and change their minds, as he knew that it would be an uphill battle, but he also had no wish to act meek and take the abuse just to avoid a confrontation.  He was here to help, after all, but that didn’t mean he had to put up with all the crap that seemed to come with it.

Is it really worth it to keep my abilities hidden?  Could I avoid all of this nonsense if I simply revealed who I am? 

It would certainly be much easier without having to tiptoe around what he was capable of, that was for sure.  However, for all that it might be simpler in the long run, in the short-run he still didn’t think that it was something he wanted revealed quite yet – at least until he was able to get the information he needed about the current state of the world, the System, and the threats that endangered them all.  He’d reveal himself if it was necessary, but for now, he’d rather not risk complicating his purpose in coming to the world in the first place.

All of those thoughts took him a few seconds to contemplate, at which time he suddenly found himself and Killix’s Party surrounded by some important-looking individuals.  A swift assessment of their Levels showed that this new group were all Level 30, the highest Level that he’d seen thus far, and the deference that the others showed them was evident.  Even the slowly recovering Killix had stopped yelling in pain and got to his feet at their appearance.

“What is going on here?” said a male Anjelou, who appeared to be the leader based on how he seemed to take charge.

“I don’t honestly know, Guildmaster,” the female Elf from Killix’s Party quickly responded.  “We were just having a conversation and then Killix suddenly shouted out in pain; it was only then that we noticed that his arm had been broken.”

“Just having a conversation?”  Is that really what she thought it was, or are they trying to cover for their Party member?

“And what are you doing here?” the apparent Guildmaster for the town turned to Bax to ask.

Thankfully, his anger had faded as soon as he’d broken Killix’s arm.  “Me?  I’m simply standing here, waiting my turn to talk to someone about joining the Guild.”

If the Guildmaster was shocked or in any way disapproving, he didn’t show it – though he was just about the only one nearby who was stone-faced.  “Very well.  Did you see what happened to Killix?”

“Sure did,” he said with conviction.  “He was saying how weak and pathetic I was, fit only to serve food to a real fighter, before he reached toward me with an intent to grab and throw me toward the bar over there,” he said matter-of-factly, pointing his thumb toward the other side of the room.  “I’m sure anyone here could corroborate what I just said, considering that he was practically shouting it loud enough that everyone could hear it.”

“Is this true?” the Guildmaster asked, his intent and piercing stare tracking back to the Vaneshta. 

As Bax had expected, however, the devil denied it all.  “Absolutely not!  Lies!  I didn’t say anything of the sort to this Human here!”  Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t hide the guilty looks of his Party members, who weren’t fast enough to school their expressions after they heard Bax outing Killix.

“I see,” the Guildmaster said, crossing his arms over his chest.  “And what happened to his arm?” he asked of Bax, turning away from the Adventurer Party.

For his part, Bax shrugged, not wanting to get into exactly what he’d done.  “I can only suspect that someone took offense at his words and stopped him before such vitriol could become physical abuse.”

While the suspicious looks the Guildmaster gave him made him slightly uncomfortable, to the point where he wanted to come out and admit what he’d done, he managed to keep himself composed and not blurt anything out.  Finally, the Anjelou in charge turned away from Bax and he felt a modicum of relief.

“This isn’t the first issue I’ve had with you, Killix.  You got off with a warning last time, as I thought it had been impressed upon you that such actions would have consequences—”

“But I didn’t do anything!  This Human is lying—” Killix cut off the Guildmaster, which even Bax could tell was a mistake, as the chilling aura of restrained violence he felt from the Anjelou could be felt pressed against him.  It didn’t do anything to him, of course, but he could see the others visibly shrink back at its touch.

“Despite your protestations, I can sense the truth in the Human’s words – most of them, at least,” the Guildmaster went on once Killix had shut his mouth.  I guess it’s probably obvious that I know more about what happened to the devil’s arm than I’m letting on.  “And as such, I think it is necessary to—” he continued, beginning to tell the Vaneshta about what Bax thought was likely to be some sort of punishment, but he abruptly stopped a moment before the loud pealing of a bells suddenly reverberated through the entire Guild building.

“Dungeon break!  Everyone get to your designated positions!” the Guildmaster yelled, his voice loud enough to project even over the bells that continued ringing.  He then turned and sprinted out of the entrance, the other high-Level people he’d arrived with following him.  Chaos unfolded among everyone else in the first floor as they scrambled around, with most of them following the Guildmaster out the entrance, even as additional Adventurers spilled down the stair from the floors above.  Even Killix and his Party took off, the devil’s arm only partially healed as they took off, not even looking back at him.

And in all of this, Bax just looked around, forgotten in the maelstrom of activity around him. In fact, he thought that this might be a good idea to talk to the Guild workers now that there wasn’t anyone in his way—

Unfortunately, it seemed as though the remaining Humans had also left their places along the counters, though they didn’t follow the others outside; instead, they seemed to retreat down into a basement of sorts he saw near the vault door, which appeared to be like some sort of fallout shelter where noncombatants could flee for safety.

Apparently getting any business done right now is out of the question.  I guess I better go see for myself if I can hurry this up, he thought, quickly joining everyone else leaving out through the entrance.