“Oh, are you asking me on a date? I would love to,” Eisa responded, grabbing him by the arm and practically dragging him towards where the map had said the Merchant Quarter was.
Fred wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but she at least seemed enthusiastic and happy about whatever this “date” thing was. The last month and a half had been filled with so much danger, death, and destruction that it was good to see her enjoying herself for a change. He felt a little guilty about doing the same when they were there to find his Guild and the townspeople they were looking for, but he reconciled that with the possibility that they might happen to learn something about them while they were out and about.
“Uh, sure – let’s go on this date.”
Eisa smiled at him and he smiled back – then she dragged him off even faster.
Chapter 36
“Sorry about that, Deecy – I was just trying to get into my role,” Regnark told the Dire Wolf as she caught up with him, noticing the stares as Adventurers saw her walking next to him. As they got closer to the massive Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate building – which was at least two or three times larger than the headquarters inside the Craytion Kingdom’s capital – he saw two other Syndicate members with “pets”; one was a tall, hooded woman wearing what looked like some Hunter-class clothes – soft dark-green leathers with even darker accents – walking by with what looked like a small bear cub following her; the other was an older-looking man that was covered in what appeared to be wolfskins that was accompanied by some sort of large, exotic, black and orange-striped cat he had never seen or heard of before.
Regnark briefly worried that Deecy would be offended by the wolfskins that the man was wearing and want some sort of revenge, but his worries were unfounded – and were inadvertently mentally transmitted to the Dire Wolf by his side.
“You know I’m not really a Dire Wolf, right? Fred created me from Dungeon Core shards, so I have no attachment to those that are similar in appearance to my form. I’ve killed wolves myself, so things like those wolfskins don’t bother me.”
He grunted back in acknowledgement. The whole “mental communication” thing had freaked him out at first, which was what caused him to briefly faint just shortly after Fred brought him back to life. While Regnark was able to handle the destruction of Northend village, the discovery that Fred was half-Dungeon Core, somehow surviving the night in the Plains of Grass, and even dying (which was still something that he was trying to wrap his head around), a Dire Wolf talking in his head was just too much. Even now, it was difficult to think that he could communicate with her just by thinking something at her, which was why most of their conversations so far had been generally one-sided on her part.
As they traveled towards Allroads, she had told him what she had explained to the others about the area, which was a whole lot more than he had known. While he had never been there, he had heard a little about it; he knew that there was a huge city surrounded by elemental representations – but nothing had prepared him for how…beautiful…it was. Especially what appeared to be a graveyard and, in the distance, a large dark cave leading into the mountain range to the south; he felt a particularly strong pull towards those places, almost as if he wanted to run to them and bathe in all their glory.
Deecy had also told him a little about what Fred had done to him, as well as what being a Shard was all about. At least, what little she knew; as Eisa and her had just recently found out about their unique status not long ago, there wasn’t much to tell. However, it definitely explained how drawn he was to the Dark elemental representations outside of the city; since it had apparently been the shard of the Dark Dungeon Core that had been destroyed that had brought him back, he had a natural affinity with the element. He wasn’t yet sure how he felt about that, because the Dark dungeons were always considered at least a little “evil”, but he didn’t feel like he had turned “evil” because of his new status.
They had all been curious what kind of abilities he had acquired from being a Shard, but he had to disappoint them – and was a little disappointed, himself. He had seen how Eisa could seemingly create monsters out of thin air to fight for them and turn into a sometimes-naked and sometimes-not dirt elemental; then there was Deecy, who could transform into a massive Dire Wolf and create ice and fire traps at will. With those as examples, he was hoping for something that would help him fight just as well as they could.
But whenever he tried to do something, there was always some sort of piece that was missing. Regnark didn’t know what it was, per se, but he had a suspicion it had something to do with Necromancy; the lack of a dead body nearby that he could reanimate might be the issue he was dealing with.
In addition, he couldn’t pull up this “Shard Status” window that was supposed to be similar to his Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate Interface. Deecy had told him that she hadn’t been able to access it until she had increased her maximum Mana to a certain point, so he was probably going to have to wait for that to happen before he could learn a little more about what he could do.
The crowd was so thick walking along the streets of what was purported to be the Syndicate Quarter that it took them a few minutes to travel the short distance to the massive DAS building. Looking around as they got close to it, Regnark could see other substantial-sized buildings – but not nearly as large – across the street; if he was correct in his identification of the crests that were nailed to the outside of the buildings, they were Syndicate Guild headquarters. He had never joined one himself – because of the restrictions and requirements they imposed on their Guild members – but he had seen plenty of them in the Craytion Kingdom.
Judging by how many he could see, he estimated that the majority of the Syndicate Quarter was made up of these Guild headquarters, where their members could stay while they were in the city. Based on their occupancy, the amount of people he had to wade through to get to the main DAS building, and the relative size of the Syndicate Quarter in comparison to the rest of the city, it wouldn’t have surprised him to learn that there were at least a million Adventurers inside of Allroads.
And that didn’t even count the merchants and normal residents in the Residential Quarter.
They finally got to the DAS building and walked inside the large open door, following a stream of other Adventurers filing inside. There was another flow of them coming out as well, almost a constant influx and outflux into what was undoubtedly the most important building in the city.
The place was packed, but Regnark was fortunate to be tall enough to see over the tops of most of the people inside. He saw that it was set up similarly to every other DAS branch that he had visited – just on a much larger scale. The job posting board took up the entirety of two walls, and there was a constant mob around them; many of the Adventurers there were ripping jobs off the board soon after one of the Syndicate workers pinned them. It was a hectic mess that somehow still worked, as there were dozens of those pinning big stacks of jobs to keep up with the hundreds or thousands looking for one to complete.
Along the longest wall was the counter where the Syndicate representatives stood to accept job acceptances, job turn-ins, Syndicate applications, Guild establishments, Class changes, or any other type of DAS-based issues. There were at least a hundred representatives ready to help – and each of them was inundated with a long line of Adventurers needing help. Regnark looked around to see if there was any type of system set up to filter the Syndicate members into certain lines – which would be smart – but there didn’t seem to be anything he could see.
“Ugh, it’s even worse in here! So many unwashed bodies together don’t make my nose happy. I feel like I’m literally tasting them all on my tongue, the scent is so strong. I hope this doesn’t take long.”
He could smell what she was talking about and it didn’t smell that bad, but then again, he didn’t have as sensitive of a nose, either. “Sorry, Deecy – I’ll try to make this as quick as possible, but it looks like we’ll have to wait
in line for a while.”
She whined and rubbed at her nose with her paw, but she still followed him as he got in what looked like the shortest line. “Shortest” was relative, of course, because there was still at least 40 people ahead of them. He was a little worried that some of the nearby Syndicate members would be curious about him and the large Dire Wolf by his side, but luckily all of them seemed to be too self-centered with their own issues and problems to care too much about him.
An hour later, they finally got to the front of the line and approached the counter, where the young man quickly asked, “What can I help you with?”
“I need to obtain a permit for my…bonded pet.”
“Ooooh, sorry – wrong line. You need to go to the line down there for pet permits—” The man pointed down the long counter, before turning back to Regnark and laughing so hard he could barely catch his breath. “I’m sorry, it’s just a little rep humor,” he managed to gasp out in between breaths. “You should have seen your face, though. Anyway, yes, I can help you with the permit,” he continued when he had calmed down enough to keep a straight face.
Regnark was at first horrified that they had gotten in the wrong line and wasted over an hour, and then he was inordinately angry at the man behind the counter.
“Calm down, it appears as though it was just a joke. Don’t cause a scene or it’s going to take longer to get out of this horribly awful building.”
He calmed down enough to ask the rep what he needed to do.
“All I need you to do is to place your hand here—” the young man brought up an artifact that would connect to his SDIA and from there to the Syndicate’s codex array, which would bring up all his information— “and then I can link your pet to your profile. I’ll also create the physical permit for you so that you have proof of your status, which is what you’ll need to show if anyone questions the validity of your bonded pet.”
That could be a problem, he thought worriedly. When Fred had brought him back to life, he had ended up just the same as Eisa had been when he had first met her in Gatecross: G-1st-Rated without a single speck of Essence to his name. The only difference was that he still had access to the “Taught Abilities” that Fred had given him back in the Plains of Grass, though none of them were unlocked. Decades of work had been wiped out in an instant, but it hadn’t bothered him too much – because he was alive. Now, however, it might raise a few eyebrows if it showed him to be a G-1st-Rated with no Class – but also with a bunch of abilities that were taught to him that he shouldn’t have.
Bluffing time, I guess. He tried to act confidently as he placed his hand on the artifact and waited for it to initiate; by the look on the young man’s face a few moments later, he knew exactly what he was seeing.
Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate Interface
Name: Regnark McConald
Class: Unselected
Rating: G-1st
Essence Needed to Rate-up: 100
Total Essence: 0
Available Essence to Distribute: 0
Body: 3 (0/40)
Brawn: 3 (0/40)
Mind: 1 (0/10)
Vitality: 15/15
Stamina: 15/15
Power: 5/5
Base Physical Attack: 3
Base Physical Defense: 3
Power Regen Rate: .05/min
Taught Abilities
Magestrike 0 – 0/100
Barrier 0 – 0/100
Magelight 0 – 0/100
Flamestrike 0 – 0/100
Froststrike 0 – 0/100
Minor Shock 0 – 0/100
Focused Irritation 0 – 0/100
Heal Minor Wounds 0 – 0/100
Minor Protection 0 – 0/100
Remove Blindness 0 – 0/100
Lightscythe 0 – 0/100
Disarm Trap 0 – 0/100
Concealment 0 – 0/100
“Umm…there looks to be a problem. Can you lift your hand up and place it back on the linking artifact again?” the young man asked, the confusion evident in his voice.
Regnark did as he asked and tried to look like he was a combination of bored and impatient; he wasn’t sure if he succeeded or not, but it didn’t really matter because the rep wasn’t even looking at him.
“Huh. Well, this is telling me you are only G-1st-Rated with no Class selected, as well as having not a single Essence. And it also says you have some Taught abilities, which are completely at odds with a C-Rated Beastmaster Class. That can’t be correct, right?” the young man asked, still looking at the codex array and fiddling with something on it.
Regnark snorted with indignation. “Absolutely not! I’m a C-Rated Beastmaster! There must be something wrong with your equipment there. I’m looking at my Interface right now and everything looks normal to me,” he responded as haughtily as he could.
The rep fiddled with the array some more, before turning back to Regnark. “I think I need to call someone higher up to see if we can fix this—” he started, which caused the Adventurers in line behind to groan in impatience.
“Can you still link my bonded pet to my profile? I’m sure these fine people behind me don’t want to wait even longer to get helped.” He made sure to speak up so that those waiting for their turn could hear him.
“Um…yes, I believe I can still do that. However, I can’t guarantee that it will stay that way if you’re to check it in the future due to this error—”
“As long as I have the physical permit, I should be fine, though?” Regnark interrupted him.
“Well…sure. But don’t you want—”
“No, I think I’ll be fine with the permit. We can try to figure out what is wrong later, but I need to get going after this. My group is waiting on me so we can go delve some more; I just came to get my permit and then leave. How much?” he said, trying to hurry the rep along.
The young man still looked really confused, but he responded to Regnark’s question almost automatically. “The permit is a single gold piece. But I really think I should call…”
Two gold pieces were slapped down on the counter, stopping the rep in the process of turning away. “Here, this extra piece is for you if you hurry with the permit. I really don’t have time to wait for whatever the issue is with your array; my own Interface is fine, so I’m sure it’s just a temporary glitch – it’ll probably be fixed by the time the next person uses it.”
The extra gold piece was probably what the rep made in a month – if not two or three months – so the extra little bribe was enough to still his protests as he gathered up both gold pieces. “O…kay. You’re right, I’m sure it’s just temporary and I don’t want to hold up everyone else. Here, let me just get your physical permit and we should be good to go. Have you decided on a name for your pet yet?”
The rest of the details were actually completed quite quickly, and they were done and gone within a couple of minutes. Tucking the permit away in his furs, he swore he saw the Dire Wolf breathe a sigh of relief as they left the DAS building – only to cough when the stink of the rest of the city made itself known.
“Where to now?” he asked as he looked at Deecy.
“Just follow me. I can sense where Fred is, though I’m not sure how far away he is. We’ll find him eventually.”
And with that, Regnark followed his “bonded pet” Dire Wolf farther into the massive city of Allroads.
Chapter 37
It didn’t take as long as he had feared to find Fred and Eisa, especially when people tended to move out of the way of a large Dire Wolf padding through the streets. Regnark fortunately only had to show his permit once to a squad of guards passing by, which took all of 30 seconds for them to look at it and send him on his way. Thirty minutes later, Deecy had tracked them down near a clothing merchant fairly close to the Residential Quarter.
“Hey there, how is the lovely couple doing?” Regnark asked as soon as they had gotten close enough to speak. Eisa was holding Fred by the hand and appeared to be dragging the poor man from merchant
stall to merchant stall. They were both smiling, so it obviously wasn’t that bad for the guy.
“Oh, good! You’re done; did everything go alright with the permit?” Fred asked, relief written on his face.
Regnark explained the slight difficulty that he had come up against, but he also told them that everything was taken care of. “However, I doubt I could get away with the ‘glitch’ excuse again, so it’s best that I stay away from there as much as you two.”
“Agreed. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to find my Guild and the townspeople quickly tomorrow. We’ll go someplace safe where we won’t have to worry about being destroyed by either the Syndicate or the Core factions chasing us,” Fred said with confidence.
Yeah, but where in the world would that be? Regnark tried to think of somewhere that would provide that sort of security but couldn’t think of a single place. Rather than bring up his doubts, he instead asked if they had found out any information.
Fred seemed a little uncomfortable. “Uh…no. We were moving so quickly through these different merchants that I never got a chance to ask. I’m sure we’ll be better tomorrow when we’re not so rushed and we aren’t…distracted,” he said, looking sideways at Eisa – who had the presence of mind to blush.
“Yes, I think we’ve done a good job shopping – let’s go find a place to spend the night and we can start fresh in the morning. I don’t know about you, but I’m almost dead on my feet,” Eisa quickly interjected before anything else could be said about distractions.
“What a coincidence; I feel so tired, it’s almost like I was dead this morning,” he said, smiling at them.
Dungeon World 3: A Dungeon Core Experience Page 30