I rolled my eyes, not caring in the least what it was called. At least not now. I needed Melina to finish this quest.
“Yeah, even better. What about you, Melina?”
She held out a long rodlike thing with short metal spikes arrayed in neat rows and lines along two-thirds of its body.
“Tetsubo,” she smirked. “I’ve always wanted to use this thing to bash someone’s head in!”
I nodded weakly and let out an inward sigh. Maybe I’d judged her wrong and she was a psycho hidden in the body of a Goddess.
“Isn’t it too heavy for you?”
She shook her head, the smile on her face never wavering. “It’s just right. After the messages passed about the quests and after you left, I grabbed it, then got another notification about proficiency, and after that, I felt much stronger. So why not?”
“Right. Which is strange. What about you, Sandro?” I asked.
He nodded. “I feel much stronger, boss. Strong enough to kick your ass if you hurt my sister. Boss.”
Melina first scowled and then burst out with laughter. “That’s so cute! My little brother wants to keep me safe!”
I shook my head and turned toward the shimmering wall.
“We can talk about that later. Get out there and kill some of the things if you want to be of use.”
I walked out first and brought up my weapon. Not a single one of those things was nearby, so I stuck my hand back into the dome and waved for them to follow me. Sandro walked out first with Melina right behind.
“Shit, they’re ugly as hell!” she hissed.
“Yeah, luckily I got a long stick to poke them with.” Sandro laughed.
No one joined in on his joke, which only served to make him scowl. A sudden commotion drew my attention. One of the young women held something in her hand. It almost looked like a gem—no, a core!
“Come on, follow me. I’ll help you take care of the first few.”
Melina fell in line, with Sandro bringing up the rear. He carried his naginata spear clumsily but managed not to stab us in the back. A large group of creatures appeared near the young men and women. They charged again and killed every single one of those things before we even caught up.
“Oh? Isn’t that Sandro?” one of the young men asked. “What’s up, man?” He shook Sandro’s hand and nodded at us.
“Sister and the brother-in-law,” Sandro whispered, but I could hear him as if he’d spoken loudly. And so could she. Melina slapped his free arm, and he pulled away from her.
“What are you yapping about?” she hissed and slapped his back again.
I pushed their voices to the back of my mind and searched for the girl who had been cheering earlier. She had long, wavy hair that fell down her back. The white tank top and purple tights stood out in contrast to her pale skin.
“Hey there, young miss. What was that thing you held earlier?” I asked. “If you feel like telling me.”
“Sure, old man,” she replied cheerfully. “I don’t know what it is, but it makes me feel so energetic!”
She pulled the stone from her pocket and showed it to me.
“Energy, huh?”
She nodded. “Want to try?”
“I wouldn’t mind even if it was in your panties, babe!” A young man to her left laughed.
He tried to grab the stone, but she punched him right on his ass.
“I said I’m not interested in being your girl, so stop bothering me!”
Oh God, men were the same everywhere. Once we laid our eyes on a girl or woman we liked, we’d go through all kinds of things to capture their hearts. In our own depraved ways.
I turned back to see how my two protégés were doing, and saw Melina just as she bashed the head in on of one of those things.
“Hey, that lady really knows how to pummel these kobolds!” One of the young men laughed as he pointed a long rod at Melina. “And she’s even using a similar weapon to what I’m using! I’m in love!”
“In love, huh?” I said as I pulled his shirt.
“Hey, what’s your problem?” he snapped. “I was looking at that fine woman!”
“That fine woman is my—wife,” I said, trying not to laugh. “So I’d recommend you watch one of these younger ladies instead.”
“Right, right! Come on, man, you can’t blame me. She’s really pretty and all.”
“Sure is.” I chuckled.
I waved him off and turned back to see how Melina and Sandro were doing. Both of them laughed as they pummeled and slashed through the kobolds with ease. Melina suddenly screamed. It wasn’t a scream of pain or fear; no, it was one of surprise and joy.
“A stone! Look, it’s so pretty!”
I rushed over to her and stared down at the sparkling gem. It was slightly elongated and had a triangular shape. The blueish glow radiating from it was—no, it couldn’t be! That crystal was a high concentration of raw Enma.
“Can I have that for a moment?”
Melina nodded and handed the crystal to me.
Notification:
NAME: Enma Crystal Rank 1
QUANTITY: 1
DESCRIPTION: Highly concentrated source of raw Enma.
A wave of energy washed through me, and I could feel the power radiating from inside. I reluctantly handed it back to her and motioned at her robe.
“What? You want me to put it in my panties as well?” she leaned in and whispered.
“Maybe you’d just like for me to put my hand inside rather than the crystal?”
Her eyes went wide and a smirk crept up her face. “Viktor! I didn’t think you’d be so direct!”
It was just then that I figured out what I said. Well, better live up to it.
“Umm—right. How many of those things you got left?” I asked as my cheeks turned slightly pink.
“Already killed more than enough, but look at Sandro. He’s really enjoying this,” she murmured. “I’m afraid whatever this is will turn a lot of people into killers or psychopaths.”
I nodded. She was right. Sandro had been with the gang so he could protect his sister, I believed that part, but you couldn’t belong to such a group and not change. At least a little.
Chapter Seven
“Sandro, come here,” I yelled, waving him over to stand with Melina and me. He didn’t seem so happy, but then his expression changed from manic to obedient. This wasn’t good, and I could see Melina’s words in his behavior. There was a wicked glint in his eye the moment before his personality shifted.
“Boss, what is it?”
“How many of these things did you kill?”
“I don’t know. Ten? Twenty?”
“Which is fifteen more than you need. Come on, we need to sit down for a minute.”
He didn’t say anything, but I felt his disappointment and inner turmoil. Sandro wanted to kill more kobolds, but why?
“He’s right, Sandro,” Melina added. “How about we use our time more productively? For example, check out our stats? I’m busy studying mine.”
“Alright, keep doing that,” I said. “Let me go take a hit. I want to check something out.”
I got up, and Melina was about to follow, but I pushed her down gently.
“You sure?”
I nodded. “Just wait there.”
I walked over to where the group of youngsters was hungrily fighting and fooling around, wanting to get in on the fun for a moment or two.
“Hey, I need just one to test something out, alright?”
“Sure thing, old man!” One of the girls laughed.
More than one of them joined in. Again with the old man, huh? Well, in a way I was an old man. Especially in comparison to their fifteen-to-twenty years of life.
I waited for the group of kobolds to reappear and grabbed one by the throat, then threw it aside and walked over to it. It pushed itself up and rushed me, raising its small club. The piece of wood struck my leg, but it barely hurt. It looked down at my leg, up to my eyes, and then to its club. Its hand came crashing d
own again, and I put my arm in the way. Just like the first time, I was barely able to register the pain.
“You’re not as dangerous as I thought you’d be,” I whispered. “Come on, put your back into it.”
The kobold shook its head wildly and swung its arm back, then hurled the club at my face. I was about to dodge but decided against it. I needed to test everything out so I knew what to expect.
Boom!
A pain comparable with that of a punch to your face shot up my left cheekbone and up into my skull as the club bounced off my forehead and dropped to my feet.
Damage Notification:
You have received 14 damage from Common Kobold.
Critical Hit!
Now that wasn’t what I expected would happen. But then again, I hadn’t expected anything. I was testing. Weak spots were a critical hit, so for any living creature the head would be a critical target, but it wasn’t always as easy to get to the head.
“Hey, what’s that old man doing?” the same girl asked.
“Don’t worry, I’m just trying some things with this bugger,” I called back and put up my hand as if to say all was good.
The kobold was a feisty one, that much was sure. It scurried over to me and started gnawing on my leg. Every time its teeth ground against my skin, the pain became slightly stronger.
I pulled my stats up again and looked over the numbers. Enma Shield was down to 127 and kept dropping with every bite. I grabbed the kobold by the neck and held it there in the air as I stared at the value of my shield. Every second I recovered a point on my shield, so by the time twenty seconds passed, my shield was up to maximum.
“Here, you can have it,” I yelled and threw the kobold their way.
It pummeled one of the boys in the head with its fist but was quickly ripped apart by the angry mob. I walked back to Melina and Sandro, who were busily discussing—something. I didn’t hear anything from afar, as my ears still rang from the blow. I dropped next to her and put my hand up to silence them.
“There are a couple of things I figured out during this short experiment. Want to hear?”
Sandro nodded his head, but Melina looked at me strangely.
“You had me worried there for a moment when it hit your head.”
I shrugged. “That’s just it. I think their attacks work differently against different parts of the body. When I took blows to my arm and my leg, it barely registered, but my Enma Shield went down slightly, especially after it hit my head, but the pain was much more intense. And when it started biting me, the longer it went on, the faster my Enma Shield started depleting.”
“And why did you hold it by the neck for a while?” she asked as I stopped to take a breath.
“I was trying to see if my Enma Shield could regenerate, and it did. One point every second.”
Melina stared at me before her pupils strayed for a second. She was back with me several seconds later. “Mine is pretty low at eighty points. What happens if it fails?”
“I don’t know,” I replied with a shrug. I didn’t, and I didn’t want to try it out if I could help it. Not at all.
“What about the stones?” Sandro asked. “You seem to know what they are.”
I nodded. “They’re similar to something I know—from way back. But now that you said as much, I’ve got an idea. It’s worth checking out, I think.”
“Oh?” Melina asked as she perked up next to me. “Need mine?”
I shook my head. “No, but I need some info quickly. This place is very poor, right?”
“Yeah, one of the poorer districts of Sylmar.”
“So those youngsters out there are pretty poor as well, right?”
They nodded again.
“They are,” Melina replied. “I recognize some of them. They’re barely getting by. Why?”
“Let’s put it like this. Is a crystal more important or food? And if food is more important, how much food would one be worth? A sack of flour? A pound of meat?”
“Shit,” Sandro muttered. “You want to buy them out.”
I nodded. Sure, I wouldn’t overpay them, but I wouldn’t take them for dirt cheap. People needed to live, and if they were happy, I would be their first choice as a buyer.
“I do. I have a feeling those things are pretty rare. Especially at this stage of—whatever this is. If we stock up on them, I’m sure they’ll come in handy during the next few days or weeks.”
“I’ve got about ten grand with me. What do you think about a hundred per crystal?”
“Hundred?”
“Yeah, a hundred slek. That’s the currency we use around here. What else?”
He gave me a strange look, almost as if I wasn’t all up there. The thing he didn’t know was that I wasn’t all up there.
“What can you get for a hundred slek? Melina?”
I asked her because he would probably know shit when it came to food, and her running the ryokan, well, she would have to know at least the basics.
“Two adults and two kids can eat for a week with a hundred slek, and I mean really good. Fifteen days if they’re humble. Three if it’s the most basic necessities.”
“And you, Melina? How much money do you have on hand?”
“A few thousand.”
“Alright. Sandro, give me one bill.”
He leaned the naginata against a tree and pulled out his wallet, fished through it, and then handed me a hundred-slek bill. I nodded my thanks and turned to the group of youngsters.
“Who wants to earn a hundred slek?”
All but the few who were busy with the last few kobolds froze and turned my way.
“You shitting us, oldie?” a bald young man yelled.
He held a crowbar in his right hand and was covered in dust and mud as if he’d been sleeping in it for the last several days.
“Come here.”
He frowned but walked over to me. The others tensed, but no one moved.
“Yeah?”
“Do you want to earn some money?”
“Of course I do! What kind of question is that?”
“Three crystals get you a hundred slek. Got any takers?”
His eyes went wide and his tongue slithered out to pass over his lips. “That’s quite the deal, old man.”
“Viktor. Call me Viktor.”
“Hey, I’ll call you my granddaddy as long as you keep your word.”
I remained quiet, as I had no real idea of how to reply to that. Granddaddy? Come on!
He turned his back to me and ran over to his friends. They crowded around him and spoke hurriedly. Five of them pulled out a crystal each, which he took and brought over to me.
“Five for two hundred. Take it or leave it.”
I glanced over my shoulder and nodded for Sandro to join me.
“I need another hundred.”
He turned his back to the kid, rummaged through the wallet, and then put it back inside his jacket.
“From now on it’s four for a hundred.”
The young man frowned. “That isn’t what you just said!”
“No, but I’m the one with the money. One of us will come out here every hour. If you have any crystals you want to get rid of, we’ll chat out here.”
“Yo, wait! Why can’t we come to your ryokan? It’s much safer to deal than out here, isn’t it?”
“It won’t do. If anyone comes inside, he’s dead. That place is mine now and is off-limits. Understood?” My voice was slightly stronger and colder than I intended, but it couldn’t be helped.
“Yeah, sure thing,” he said, putting up his hands defensively. “Thanks.”
He ran back to his group of friends, and cheers broke out when he showed them just one bill. Heh, what a little punk, but I didn’t care either way. They could beat him up later if they wished to for all I cared. I stopped for a second longer and found myself smiling when he surprised me by pulling the second bill from his pocket. The crowd of ten cheered again. Heh, so there was hope for some people after all.
I walked back to Melina and handed her another crystal, then two to Sandro. I kept the last two for myself. I had no idea how to use them or if there was going to be any sense in using them, but remembering my previous life, these things would surely come in handy.
“Now that this is over, why don’t we go back and eat something?” Melina proposed.
It sure sounded better than wasting time over here. I pulled the stats window up one more time and checked it. Nothing had changed. In that case, it was high time we took care of some other things.
“Yeah, we’ll have something to eat, hostess. After that, Sandro and I will go for a walk.”
“Sure, boss. Do you want me to call the men over?”
“Have them wait at the playground in two hours. Whoever doesn’t show up shouldn’t expect any protection. Those who do and survive today, we’ll figure something out for them.”
“Survives? So you’re going through with… what you guys said last night?” Melina asked.
Her voice was a whisper and filled with much more than just fear. Killing these things was one thing, but killing people was something else entirely. Even for me, and even after so many years of bloodshed.
“How many rooms do you have at the ryokan?”
“Umm, the two side buildings have ten rooms each. Each building is similarly built to the main one. Why?”
“Would you mind if their families moved in with us? That way you wouldn’t have to work anymore, as other people would take care of everything. You just run the place.”
“Yeah, but… wait, isn’t all this a bit too fast? We don’t even know if you… no, you shouldn’t even try! They’ll kill you if you go there!”
I glanced around, checking if anyone was in earshot. Luckily the kids were gone already, and no one else was around.
“Let’s go in first, alright?”
I pushed her back lightly, and she started moving, her hand still clenched around the tetsubo. Sandro was on the phone most of the time until lunch was ready. Melina sat next to me and shoved Sandro out of the way, then nodded for him to sit opposite her.
“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled and put his phone down on the table. “Electricity is still out, and I used most of the battery on my phone to get them. Once this is over, I’ll have no way to call them anymore. We’ll have to figure something out, boss.”
Beginner Quest: A LitRPG Cultivation Series (Towers & Rifts Book 1) Page 8