Chapter 5: A Temporary Alliance

Breakfast, for Wyn, was a heaping pile of eggs and fatty meats, fried and stacked on toasted bread. A salad to the side, drizzled in a colorful fruit sauce, and a refreshing cup of juice. Everything an adventurer could ask for. Breakfast, for Magus, on the other hand, was a pint of craft beer.

“You’ve really taken a liking to booze, haven’t you?”

“I really have no idea what you mean.” Magus replied, downing the entire glass.

“You’re sure you’re not drunk? Not even a little?”

“My body is durable. Such weak poison can’t compromise my function. There is no cause for concern.”

“Right. Well, you don’t seem different, at the very least. It couldn’t hurt to get literally anything else though, could it?” Wyn muttered after swallowing a mouthful of food. Even after a year, she hadn’t forgotten the etiquette lessons that had been drilled into her brain. “So, the plans for today: I want to get you used to life as an adventurer, so we’re going to take on an easy commission —”

“Yo, Magus, that you? Are you still up?” Just as Wyn was explaining the plan for the day, two adventurers walked up to their table, sitting themselves down like they were old friends.

“Oh, it’s you two. Yes, it is me. And I am up.” Magus turned around to find the source of the voices. Seeing them, Magus returned back to the conversation with Wyn. But neither Shion nor Finn would have any of it.

“Come on, don’t be like that!” Finn flagged down a waiter, ordering a greasy fried plate of bacon and eggs.

Shion, on the other hand, had a bowl of boiled oats, topped with an assortment of fresh berries.

“After last night, aren’t we the best of friends? I mean, you’re even paying for our breakfast today!” Shion laughed, before subsequently choking on his water.

“Magus…” Wyn raised an eyebrow. “What are they talking about?”

“Last night, I played a game known as poker. They were my opponents.” He said. “They simply got lucky.” A very necessary piece of information he felt needed to be known.

“Nah, come on! Skill, pure skill!” Shion boasted. “But enough about that. You drank enough to drown a pub, yet here you are, a beer in the morning too. You’re crazy, man.”

“As I believe I told you last night, this alcohol has no effect on my systems or functions.”

“Right, right, of course! My man!” Shion clapped Magus on the back.

“Ahem. Anyway—” Wyn attempted to speak, but was quickly cut off.

“Right, Magus! Seeing as you're all fine and dandy, what’d you say to joining our party?” Finn jumped in. “Someone like you’d fit right in!”

“Hey—!” Wyn jumped up.

“Party? What does that mean?” Magus turned to Wyn.

“Um, a party—” Wyn started.

“A party’s a band of adventurers like us, going after comms together, battling dangerous monsters together, then splitting the rewards after! So, sounds good?” Finn interrupted again.

“I see.” Magus held his chin in his hand.

“Magus, you can’t—”

“Unfortunately, if that’s the case, I’m already in a party with Wyn.” Magus pointed at the princess sitting teary eyed before him. Seeing Magus’ answer, though, Wyn let out a sigh of relief and sat back in her chair.

“Yeah, beat it! He’s with me!” She stuck out her chest with pride, though from what, none of the three could tell.

“C’mon…” Shion didn’t relent. “Surely it’s better to travel with some guys who know how to have fun than the stick in the mud!”

“Fortunately for me, Wyn is not a stick. She is an adventurer, and we have had many fun moments ourselves.”

“Really, like what?” Finn pressed.

“Hmm…” Magus took a second to think. “Wyn, what would you count as a fun moment?”

“Huh?” Wyn grew flush, suddenly being put on the spot. “A-a fun moment? I-I don’t know… isn’t that up to you?”

Seeing Magus seemingly struggling to recall a fun moment, the two adventurers pressed their attack, and Wyn rose to attack back. They bickered around the table, fully ignoring the subject of all their questions. All of a sudden Magus had an idea.

“Why not the four of us form one party?”

The four of them stood before the commission's board, full as always. Recent sightings of certain monsters the guild would rather have removed, more accurate mappings of certain regions, missing person posters…

“Yo, missy, ain’t that...”

“Nope!” As soon as she saw it, Wyn tore down the missing person poster. And every subsequent poster that she could see. After she went through the trouble of tearing down every last poster, how dare the guild put it back up?

“Okay… How about—”

“Alright, since you’re new, we should probably pick out a simple one. It’s not all fighting monsters, after all… How about this?” Wyn ripped a poster from the board. A simple mapping expedition, detailing a small area of the forest that hadn’t been properly mapped.

“C’mon, missy, why bother with such a basic com? That’s for fresh blood, let’s go for something with bite!” Shion flexed a bicep, to which Wyn merely rolled her eyes.

“Technically,” Wyn emphasized. “Magus is fresh blood. That’s the whole reason why—”

“Yeah, but look at ‘em, he can handle himself. Everyone here can hold their own in a scuffle, so let’s go scuffle! The bigger, the better! Like this!” Shion also ripped a poster from the board. A picture detailing a massive serpentine dragon, the Vermyl Wyrm, and the last seen location. The reward for its extermination was 20 silver coins, alongside whatever they’d manage to recover and sell from the corpse. Indeed, it dwarfed the measly 1 silver coin per that Wyn’s chosen commission would make.

“No way! Ugh, Magus, why did you invite these idiots?”

“I see no reason to refuse if they wish to join us. There is power in having greater numbers, after all.”

Does this guy really need power in numbers? No, that’s surely just an excuse he’s making. Wyn palmed her face. Great. A single day at the guild, and Magus already made more friends here than she had in a year. Whatever. He can do what he wants. But they would follow her.

“We’re taking the map! End of discussion!”

“We’re taking the beast! End of discussion!”

In the end, they ended up going mapping. A simple arena match decided that. Wyn marched in front, her face pouted in a wide, smug grin, while Magus followed close behind. The two adventurers, though, lagged behind them, groaning all the while. Beyond being humiliated in combat, the only thing keeping the two on board was the promise of being allowed to sell for themselves anything they could rip off the monsters they’d certainly find. And monsters they did find. An assortment of all kinds of giant bugs, mostly. Wyn didn’t lift a finger as the two adventurers cleaved through their carapaces, much to their chagrin. If they wanted to make money selling monster parts, they’d have to get those parts themselves. Mostly, though, she didn’t want to deal with more bugs.

Every once in a while, Wyn stuck a small device into the ground. It had been given to them when they accepted the commission, and was the whole reason they were out there. It appeared as though it were a small, hollow branch. It sucked up the fine dirt from the ground, forcing it through the tube before creating a small topological map of the area around them. The Pinpointer was a simple tool. It would read the memory of the local land, projecting the last known layout of the area of the ground it was stuck into. All they needed to do was procure a soil sample near the center of the target location, and the Pinpointer would be able to recreate the map of that area from it. It was a slow process, as the Pinpointer didn’t show a massive radius, but progress has been steady. Wyn compared the area with her map, and continued forward.

“You gonna help out, or what?” Finn asked, cleaving through another monster they had run into.

“C’mon, surely a big stwong adventurer like you has all these measly monsters handled!” Wyn sauntered forward, ignoring the annoyed pleas of the adventurers behind her. Magus, too, didn’t really offer much assistance. Mostly, he’d just point out when a monster would appear. While this did annoy the other two, his lack of retort to their jeers made him a boring target to tease.

“I can see why —” Shion’s sword cleaved a small, feisty rabbit in half. “No one ever wants to party with you!”

“Hah? I never wanted to party with anyone else either!”

The sun was high in the sky when the group decided to settle down for a rest. The two adventurers collapsed on their makeshift log chairs, while Wyn tended to a fire. A wide variety of meats hung over it, their juices dripping into the fire. There were the legs of rabbits, bugs and even some roasted birds.

“Here.”

“What’s this?” Finn accepted the roasted rabbit leg from Wyn.

“Lunch, idiot.” She handed a roasted siejerog leg to Shion, who happily began cracking apart the shell. “You’ll need energy to keep fighting.”

“Damn, this ain’t half bad. Yo, Magus, whatchu’ havin’?” Shion glanced at Magus, brooding at the edge of the encampment, juices dripping down his chin as he slurped down the chewy meat.

“Do any of you have any beer?”

“Man, you’ve got a problem!” Finn laughed.

“Gimme another one of them siejerogs, these are damn good!” Shion snatched another leg off the fire. “You’re probably better off cooking than adventurin’. I could eat this every day!” Shion exclaimed.

“And just what’s that supposed to mean?!”

These adventurers… after this com, they’re definitely cutting contact!

The rest of the journey was quiet. Surprisingly, the deeper into the forest, the less monsters they ran into. That wasn’t completely unusual. More dangerous monsters claimed these grounds as their territory, and their territory could be vast. If they ran into one that hadn’t been known beforehand, they could get 10 guls just for reporting it.

Wyn stuck the Pinpointer into the ground again, comparing the terrain to her map.

“Alright guys, we’ve arrived. Just a bit more till we’re at the center, then we can go.”

“Ugh, finally. Can’t believe we spent an entire day on this!” Shion grumbled.

“This is important work! Adventuring isn’t just about fighting, you know!”

“Ugh, Finn, you hear this? The miss is explaining to us what it means to be adventurers!” Shion slapped Finn on the shoulder, giving an exaggerated laugh.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up!” Wyn groaned as she knelt down. She stabbed the Pinpointer into the ground one last time. It was a bit tougher, as the dirt was packed down. Sucking up the dirt, the Pinpointer projected a map of the area. Vegetation was sparse, as though crushed through repeated walking. A path that was walked often enough to distinguish itself in the land, and long enough to where its end couldn’t be seen. All surrounding a clearing, where numerous toppled trees laid together. Wyn raised an eyebrow. This certainly wasn’t natural…

“Wyn!” She barely had time to glance up before she was shoved to the side. As she collapsed to the ground, her ears were filled with the sound of cracking bones.