The Crimson Warlock

by Paulo Meireles Junior

  “I don’t recognize this language, it looks like Ancient Nuhocc, but these symbols are all wrong” she started ruffling her hair.

  I mentioned everything that was on the report step by step with emphasis in the differences between that dungeon and the ones that were cataloged by the guild, I then suggested that if she could pass that document to anyone that could decipher it, we would be learning how that dungeon was potentially created. Well, I know more or less, but yeah, not gonna go down that road… How do I explain that a god gave me that information? Besides, the guild probably has historians or translators on payroll for this kind of work.

  “It seems that the dungeon level is higher than the ones we’ve cataloged before. No wonder that a bunch of adventurers died”.

  “Here’s the thing. I only saw a dead dwarf there. I couldn’t find any indication of struggle or interference by outsiders. No torches, no spell damage, nothing. If adventurers were there, they were likely eaten, I didn’t kill all of the monsters, only the ones in my way” I mentioned.

  “Interesting, that does changes things”.

  “I wouldn’t recommend a party of less than five silver ranked adventurers to venture the dungeon. The problem is, given the monsters that I found, I would recommend at least one dedicated healer and counter-spells against poison and paralysis are a must have. Either that or anti-poison and anti-paralysis amulets”.

  “I agree, the value of salvaged goods from these monsters are good but the preparation for an expedition would also be expensive, thank the gods we have you to help out” she laughed.

  “Well, the next time I see a god I’ll be sure to mention that” I teased. She blushed at that.

  “Aw stop. Anyways” she corrected her posture before continuing “I passed word about the dark aura and something interesting was reported three days ago near Oetto, a gold ranked adventurer reported seeing monsters fighting in a forest, the adventurer mentioned a dark aura could be felt near that location for a few moments”.

  “That worries me, the erratic movement of this dark aura either suggests that there are multiple sources or the source can travel faster than normal, which means that it will be harder for me to track it and even more difficult to discover how to counteract it” I shook my head.

  We talked for a bit, she was worried that bigger stuff like the wedding raid would happen in other places, I didn’t blame her, although it wasn’t the guild’s duty to protect the city they resided in, that usually happened because adventurers and the staff generally ended up helping the civilians and soldiers if a war broke or a city was attacked.

  My mission wasn’t to save the people of Sapphire from whatever the dark aura threw at them, it was to destroy the artifacts that by now Mega and I were sure that they were the catalyst of the bad things that were happening all around. Luring a Hydra, corrupting soldiers, corrupting monsters, gathering large amounts of mana in one place. Those artifacts were throwing the balance off the scale and bringing turmoil to Heryan and Largos.

  INTERLUDE I

  MEMORIES AND OBSERVATIONS

  James Hunter

  “That was one hell of a workout” Lorelai mentioned “I hadn’t done that since the days at the precinct”.

  “Yeah, we used to stay at least three days a week to workout after work, which reminds me that not you nor I had any social life whatsoever” I commented after packing our stuff.

  “When I started at assault I was naive and homicide really changed me, not because it was where I met you, but because I saw the damage that could be done if a killer is not caught. I think we worked too much to make sure that people would have the best life possible; every time we went after a serial killer a piece of my heart broke, after just a few months of experience I understood how emotionless you needed to be”.

  “And yet you taught me how to relate to people around me. I hate to admit it but I was kind of lost in that routine of work and home before you arrived and changed my perspective of the world around me”.

  “Well, you weren’t easy to work with at all in the first weeks. The chief told me that you were a royal pain in their asses but you closed cases like no one. I think that what worked for me was that I was always a good judge of character, I also helped you with relatives of victims which I could see you weren’t comfortable talking with”.

  “Yeah, I know I’ve thanked you before for helping me understand people better but I’m sorry for getting us killed” I smiled in her direction.

  “No worries, we are both to blame, besides, I like this world better than Earth, it’s more fun here and I can use magic” she used a spell and started to float to make her point.

  “I agree with you on that one, but perhaps my biggest lesson was that life is short, I’ll never be that way again” I stopped to look at her, she seemed to understand.

  “I know what you mean, my mother always used to tell me: ‘live your life to the fullest, you’ll never know when it will end’. We did good work and helped catch dangerous people, in the end, we died in the line of duty but our efforts remained. I know we have a cloud of uncertainty ahead of us with your mission and the fact that the kingdom might be in danger, but I’ll help you whenever I can. I’m sure that my family feels the same, mainly because of that failed wedding”.

  I then teleported us to the capital, more precisely to the outside of the gates of her estate, I could see the big mansion beyond the gates and we parted ways since we both needed a bath. I would be coming back later so we could talk more, but for now my path lead me back to the inn to take a nice and deserved bath.

  “Mega, how do you like it here?” I asked while looking out of the window of my bedroom.

  “I understand humans and their customs, this is a good world to live in. I’ll never be able to fully relate to people of all races because Omegas like me are different and not common, but if I were to choose between this world and your old world I would choose this one, even with the dangers that it comes with”.

  “I was worried about people when I arrived, mostly because I didn’t know the extent of my powers or what I could accomplish but that soon passed, and when I started talking with Yuna and Lorelai I remembered I was lonely on Earth, married to my work, it wasn’t bad but I didn’t fully took advantage of what life offered me” I looked at him “it’s silly but I want to build a second life here, one where I can meet the people that I find interesting and help those in need”.

  “And that is exactly why you were chosen, you understand the importance of the task and will do your absolute best to complete the mission, this world needs a hero that cares” he commented.

  “Thank you Mega, I value our conversations more and more” I smiled.

  “We’ll see if you will be thanking me when we work on that spell again” I instantly groaned. How come I could use magic in an instant, but I couldn’t create a spell to track my objective? I guess that even I can’t have all the answers… I was actually learning spell crafting like a beginner while bouncing my work at the guild and taking the clues that I could piece together from Yuna and the royals.

  Thirty minutes later I was on my way to the noble district to visit Lorelai. Walking around the business district I thought about the difference between cities of Earth and Sapphire, while a business was a business and clients would be found anywhere, I liked the approach that merchants had to tempt potential clients to buy their merchandise. They really treated people well and knew how to read their potential client. A good example was me, if I saw a clothing store with an attendant at the door they wouldn’t call to me because they could deduce I was an adventurer and therefore I wouldn’t be tempted to buy their clothes unless I willingly asked about their wares.

  Another difference was the lack of electricity cables. The streets were clean and thanks to magic, small obs of light floated, lining down the streets of cities and towns, what I observed these past few weeks was that as the sun started setting the orbs would light, dimly at first and get brighter as the skies got d
arker, the reverse would happen at dawn, the orbs would get dim until they eventually turned off. According to Yuna the lights were low maintenance, only requiring a small amount of mana to function, which in a city like Sunnara was nothing since mana floated around freely in the skies above the city, even with the current fluctuations that wouldn’t affect any of the orbs.

  The city was frequently patrolled by knights and soldiers, giving citizens a higher sense of security, although I knew the attack on the wedding had a hand in the decision to increase the number of patrols around the city, it still was nice to see the presence of law enforcement around.

  The guild was the biggest difference. On Earth you would see certain states, cities or countries employing mercenaries or having bounties but this guild system of Sapphire was genius, with the problems travelers have, often attacked by beasts, you could find work easily in the guild, from gathering plants for a merchant that couldn’t get out of the city, to acting as a bodyguard to a traveler. Or some preferred the more direct approach, like me. If a monster is putting people’s lives at risk and someone wants them dead, the guild is the best place to put up a quest for monster slaying. Those monsters like the Hydra, or my first, the Firefox, were high risk and high reward quests so if an adventurer knew his or her limits, they certainly would be fine doing work for the guild, eventually some of them would swim in money after a few months or years if they played their cards to their knowledge and skills.

  And the last, perhaps the best difference is the sense of nature and calm outside the cities throughout all the kingdoms, I feel good out in the wilderness which is why I prefer to train outside the city whenever possible. The smell of nature, the sound of leaves blowing in the wind, the distant sound of animals or monsters and the sense of peace that it brings me is important, it helps me to remain calm while training, nothing ends up disturbing my concentration if I choose the correct training grounds, this way I’m also be able to make noise while testing magic spells without problems.

  Guards were waiting and greeted me when I arrived at Lorelai’s mansion, I was let in as soon as I was near them. I went in the direction of the front door and Vincent, the butler, let me in the home and guided me to a tea room where Lorelai was talking with her mother, Duchess Lucia, they both waived at me and while I sat, Vincent proceeded to ask if I wanted anything to drink, to which I replied that a cup of coffee would be greatly appreciated because I wouldn’t turn down coffee.

  “We were waiting for you J, I was just telling mom that you and I used to play at the end of the year party for the department” It took Lorelai all of two months to convince me to play with her back in the day.

  “Oh yeah, I remember Jude being obnoxious about it” Jude was the owner and one of the bartenders at the pub that we usually used, her place was big, near the precinct and mostly frequented by cops so she was part of the family.

  “She usually told us that if we weren’t cops we would make fine musicians” Lorelai laughed while mentioning it to her mother.

  “Because we either had the time to compose or the will to starve trying to find good managers” I rolled my eyes.

  “Lorelai has been telling me about your old world” Duchess Lucia commented while Vincent gave me my coffee “when we realized that she was different... I was worried, but it seems that everything happens for a reason, I’ve never seen her like this before, she has been more lively these past few weeks than ever before. Dedicated to her training and also helping His Majesty, the king with the investigation”.

  “She told me about her training growing up” I nodded at the Duchess.

  “Yes, I was firmly against it, mostly because I didn’t think a royal should be acting like that, but as she grew up she showed us that she could take care of herself and recently I’ve realized how conceited I was. We have the money and status to hire guards to protect us, but in the end knowing how to defend yourself is key in a situation like the one you saved us from”.

  “In our past lives we swore to protect the innocents and even though I’m not Samantha anymore, I still share her thirst for justice, James has been my most loyal friend and we used to train together” she commented.

  We made small conversation for a while before Duchess Lucia had to assist the Duke with business related to their family.

  “You know what I miss about our old life? Some of the fast food we used to eat and the Starbucks coffee on the way to work, isn’t it funny? I can miss the food and yet I’ve never ate or drank those with this body” she commented.

  “You’re not losing anything, those are not good for your health. And speaking of health, I noticed that people here are stronger than people on Earth, probably because they are more active and healthier since a lot of the work here involves manual labor and the majority of people eat healthy food”.

  “Yes, people here are more resilient, that’s for sure” she agreed “but as we were talking earlier, I miss our jam sessions, can we still do that?” she asked hopeful.

  “Wait, do we even have the same instruments here?” I asked surprised.

  “Well, they didn’t, not until I remembered my life on Earth, after that I tasked some people to make me a guitar and a piano, the guitar was easy since there is an instrument similar here but the piano took a lot of time and energy to make, mostly because it had to be done with magic since I didn’t know how to do maintenance on a piano so reconstructing it faithfully would be difficult, magic was the only way and don’t even get me started on how difficult it was to get the keys right”.

  So we moved to the music room, I was actually excited to see the piano, it had been a while since I’ve played but I enjoyed the melody and the peace. After a few minutes walking around the mansion we finally arrived at our destination, a spacious light room with a piano, three guitars a few exquisite looking instruments that I would eventually learn about. The room had a ‘music room’ feel, it reminded me of the one I usually used in college.

  “There it is” she showed me the black piano in all of its glory, it was a thing of beauty.

  I approached the piano and pressed some keys, they were definitely emitting the right sounds so I praised her for it, since a conventional piano has eighty-eight keys, she probably had to tune them all, one by one, although I think that this was a pet project of hers growing up, I couldn’t help but feel proud because she made this happen and now I had a piano to play, well, the piano wasn’t mine but I could still play it.

  “You know, I haven’t thought much about music since I arrived here, I didn’t even fathom the possibility of this place having instruments similar to the ones we have on Earth” I mentioned.

  “Today is your lucky day my friend, you can play to your heart’s content” she smiled.

  I pressed a few of the keys before thinking about what I would play, I opened with Moonlight Sonata because it was a classic masterpiece. Lorelai sat at my side and closed her eyes enjoying the melody, although it was a melancholic piece, it was still a song that could draw raw emotion and I understood that.

  Next I changed the pace because I wanted a more recent melody, I chose to play a version of Viva La Vida on the piano, I liked that song because it was a hit when it came out and the piano adaptation was easy for me to do, but I chose that song because of its meaning.

  When I started playing, Lorelai got one of the guitars and accompanied me playing the melody and we took turns singing the song. That went on until the song was over, it was then that I heard the clapping. Looking up I saw the duke, the duchess and the princess looking at us. Although they probably couldn’t understand the melody it must have sounded beautiful.

  “Your cousin has come to visit you” the duke stated the obvious before greeting me “hello James, how are you?”

  “I’m great sir, and you?” I returned the greeting and we talked for a few moments before he commented that he was busy with work, after that he and the duchess excused themselves and left the Princess there with us.

  “Come here Ale
xis, you know James” I nodded at the princess, I wasn’t about to kneel before her here.

  “Yes, thank you again sir Hunter” she surprised me by bowing her head in my direction, I frowned at that and Lorelai seemed to notice.

  “It’s James, and you’re welcome, now please don’t thank me again or act like that, it’s kind of strange” I mentioned, Lorelai laughed and the princess perhaps didn’t understand what I meant so her cousin explained.

  “James is not accustomed to so much formality, just relax Alexis”.

  “But he’s...” there we go again… I rolled my eyes “a hero, isn’t he, sent by a god?”

  “Yes, but he is also a normal human being, just a more powerful version of a human who can probably see and talk with gods” well, she was spot on, not that I showed any signs of acknowledgment to her last statement.

  “I’m right here” I threw a glance at Lorelai and she raised her hands “don’t mind her Princess Alexis, although I like informality, I also understand where you’re from” I nodded at her while Lorelai scowled at me.

  “Should I try to be more informal?” the princess asked. Well, she was wearing a royal dress fit of a Queen, no matter how hard she would try, she still wouldn’t be able to fully understand.

  “Yes, you should practice” said Lorelai.

  “And you are a bad influence” I accused her, she waived me off “Just be who you are, I’m not here to judge anyone” I responded.

  “In that case” she turned to Lorelai “I came here to talk, but I didn’t know you would have guests, now that I do, can you continue what you were doing? I liked that melody” she commented directing her last statement to both of us.

  Lorelai looked at me and I shrugged, truth be told, I wanted to play more. I would eventually have to leave so the two of them could socialize but I wanted to play at least one more song before I left, mostly for selfish reasons, I really enjoyed playing an instrument again, it was something that I would perpetually miss from Earth, the ability to hear my favorite songs anywhere with a smartphone, a music player or the places I could go to hear musicians.