Zuran winced as he scrolled and read through his screens. “Who gives these quests?”
“Something called the White Dragon.”
“And that is?”
“The fuck if I know.”
Zuran found a secluded section of the desert, free from the patrolling sentinels in the sky. Once the two were ready, Zuran started his second tutorial quest. As expected, the quest summoned a trio of wolves. It turned out to be easy enough with Guy’s help and the fact that Zuran already had some experience, thanks to the Sandworm fight.
Guy cut down the last wolf and put Asteria’s Sword to rest on his back. Zuran looked impressed at the tome he held and the magical powers he wielded. “Where are you heading after this?” Zuran asked.
“Holt,” Guy said. “You?”
“Was on my way to the port city down south,” Zuran said. “Heard a rumor there were survivors from an Autumnfall attack there. Wanted to see if there was anyone there who wished to strike back—”
A Quest screen opened for Zuran, and Zuran only. The fae Mage read the quest details, made a face at them, then tapped the accept button, making the screen vanish.
“What’s that?” Guy asked him.
“Nothing you need to concern yourself with,” Zuran said, and faced the north. “So, where are you heading again? Holt?”
Guy nodded. “Yeah.”
“Then I am too.”
“What happened to heading south?”
“Change of plans.” Zuran walked past Guy, keeping his gaze toward Holt's city walls on the horizon ahead. “Say, is 250 experience points good for a quest reward?”
The quest he got, Guy thought. It must have told Zuran to come with me. The White Dragon is guiding us both to Holt for a reason.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Various monsters of the Giant Moth and Warrior Lizard variety challenged Guy and Zuran. None of the beasts survived since Guy’s new traveling partner packed a punch with his magic. Zuran would be motionless one second with glowing light around him, then point his hand at whatever needed to die a second later. Magic Missile always hit their target with devastating results. Guy just had to keep the monsters in one place, making it easier for Zuran to focus and direct his wizardry.
When Zuran ran out of MP, he’d sit down to rest, allowing his MP to regenerate, thanks to the fae racial trait. That’s when Guy would let loose and plow down the next wave of monsters with Storm Slash, using AP he saved from the previous fights. Looting MP potions made things faster, as Zuran would only need to chug two or three to keep his mana high enough to blow shit up. Guy earned fewer experience points for being at a higher level. Zuran, being someone with a lower level, gained a lot and eventually a whole level.
If I want to level up quicker, I have to fight monsters that are a higher level and rank than me. Zuran’s getting a decent power level. Thanks to me, he can challenge stuff that would have killed him if he were alone.
Guy put his sword on his back, his eyes unable to spot any ambushes in the dunes ahead. He nodded to Zuran, and he nodded back. The two men strode across the desert again, leaving behind their footprints in the sand.
There was no further violence. Holt’s path was clear, and Guy and Zuran wandered into the city, admiring the cement constructed buildings in the oasis town.
Visit Holt – Quest Complete
Obtained: 250 Experience Points
He got free experience points just for stepping foot into Holt.
Guy walked through Holt’s main streets, hands in his trench coat pockets, trying to blend in, hoping people assumed he had fae wings under the coat. Zuran remained at his side; he hadn’t completed the quest the White Dragon asked of him.
The duo entered Holt’s marketplace, embracing the cool air from the shade that the overhanging tarps provided. Dozens of fae lingered about, checking out what was for sale, and as expected, the merchants changed by the affliction saw the most business. They never ran out of stock from their floating vendor screens.
Guy gestured at one merchant. “Let’s pay him a visit. I have to restock on the Survival Water.”
Zuran looked at the merchant. “Afflicted merchants,” he said. “I heard about them; magic has given them unlimited items to sell.”
The two approached, and the merchant pushed his screen to them. Guy and Zuran took turns buying what they needed with taps on the screen. It surprised Guy to see that the fae adapted to the new life so quickly. He wondered how long the affliction was changing the planet and its people, and why nobody else from the star-dweller fleet knew about it.
Purchase Survival Water x25 and Hypospray: HP x25?
Yes/No
He selected Yes.
Obtained: Survival Water x25
Obtained: Hypospray: HP x25
He spent 6,250 denars, leaving Guy with 1,250. Zuran bought HP and MP potions.
Zuran led the way out of the bustling marketplace. Guy followed behind and the fae Mage came to a stop at Holt Inn’s back entrance, waving his sizeable muscular hand at a faun sitting on the steps smoking a pipe.
“Yo, Kam!” Zuran yelled.
The faun named Kam, startled by Zuran’s voice, lowered his pipe and looked at the shirtless, dark-skinned fae waving to him. “Zuran!”
Kam stood and walked his hooved feet over to Zuran, shook hands in a greeting, and smiled.
“So, Kam, still working in that tavern, I see,” Zuran said to him.
“Slowly paying off those whoring debts.”
Guy chuckled. “Whoring debts?”
“Fucked one too many fae whores,” Kam explained. “And they failed to let me know that as a faun, it cost triple the denars. So here I am, working for free to pay the debt.”
“Triple?” Zuran asked.
“They were seventeen years old. The fae young ones always cost more.”
Guy snorted. “So you’re just a dirty old man, banging teenage fae girls.”
“Hey now, lad! I am not a dirty old man; I am a dirty young man!”
Zuran laughed. “And taking breaks on a job he owes money to.”
“Ha!” Kam puffed his pipe and blew the smoke into the sky. “I need a break after what transpired.”
Zuran folded his arms across his glistening chest. “What happened?”
“One of me customers got murdered last night.” Kam pointed up, guiding Guy’s and Zuran’s eyes to an open window with a blood-drenched dangling bedsheet working as a makeshift rope. “It is a big deal to one imperial commander, though they will not say why. They went on blabbing about their missing princess, star-dwellers, and shite like that.”
“I take it you two know each other?” Guy asked Zuran.
Zuran nodded. “Old friends.”
“But he’s a faun,” Guy said. “They aren’t native to this planet.”
“I’m no stranger to paying passage on star-dweller ships,” Kam said. “Been to the other realms. Got stuck here when some thieving arsehole stole me coin bag from the whorehouses.” The faun looked at Zuran. “So, friend, how did you know to find me here?”
Zuran made his Quest screen appear and pushed it over to Kam. “This quest told me. I was originally on my way south to speak with the survivors from Muruai.” He tapped the button and a prompt stating that Zuran finished the quest appeared, granting him 250 experience points.
Kam nodded slowly at the vanishing Quest screen, then puffed his pipe. “You’ve made friends with a star-dweller and are afflicted, I see.”
“Yeah, I am a weakling now. I cannot even swing my sword.”
Another pipe puff. Kam exhaled smoke that rose past his goat-like horns. “If you are too weak to fight . . . then . . .”
Zuran held up the tome for Kam to gaze at. “This is my new sword,” Zuran cracked it open and his fingers quickly flipped through the thousand-page book. “The magic spells I can cast now are, I dare say, stronger than my blade.”
“Never took you for one who reads, Zuran,” Kam said.
“That’s
the next thing,” Zuran said. “I could always read, but . . .” He flipped through the pages again, making the paper create soft fluttering sounds. “It seems I have gotten faster at it, and I remember the words better.”
“Mages seem to have high intelligence and low strength,” Guy said.
Zuran winced as his page-flipping stopped toward the end of the tome. “That . . .” He held the tome steady, looking at the archaic writing and diagrams on the page. “. . . that must be it.”
“Makes sense,” Kam said. “I know of a few people who have gotten afflicted and suddenly became wiser, more intelligent, or stronger overnight. Do not get me started on the dancers, lad.”
“But my arms, man!” Zuran put the tome away and flexed his muscles, shifting his gaze to the left and right as he examined his massive biceps.
“The affliction cares not for reality. It makes its own rules,” Kam said. “Your physical prowess is now nothing more than something to draw the eyes of young maidens. Just do not let them know that a man half your size could push you over with ease.”
Zuran lowered his head and arms, sighing. “Ah, man . . .”
“I believe it,” Guy said and yanked Asteria’s Sword out. He held it high for the two to look at. “I’m not a swordsman. Hell, I never used a sword in my life until now. Yet . . .” Guy stepped backward and demonstrated his ability to use a sword flawlessly, never hitting himself, his hands unaffected by the weapon’s weight.
Kam and Zuran stood and watched with impressed gazes. Once finished, Guy strapped the sword back. Kam puffed his pipe. “Most impressive, star-man.”
“It feels like I’ve been doing this all my life . . .” Guy said.
“Same,” Zuran said. “Never cast a spell in my life, but now I do it with confidence.”
A new Quest screen appeared, this time for Guy only. He viewed the details.
Recruit the Spell Lancer
Objective: Acquire a Bronze Lance and deliver it to a Spell Lancer candidate.
Issued by: White Dragon
Reward: 550 Experience Points
Accept quest? Yes/No
“What is that?” Kam asked.
“It wants me to recruit a Spell Lancer.” Guy tapped the Yes button, and the screen disappeared.
“I guess it is your turn, Kam,” Zuran said to him.
He laughed and puffed his pipe, blowing the smoke out. “I doubt a dirty faun like me would be worthy of that. They hate us just as much as shadow angels—”
Roaring laughter filled the air, cutting off Kam’s words.
It came from the Inn’s rear door, left ajar by Kam. “I suppose I should get back to it,” Kam said while putting out his pipe. “You lads swing on inside, and we can continue our chat in the tavern.”
Kam entered the back door. Zuran gestured his head to the Inn's main entrance. “This way, Guy. Perhaps you will find someone worthy to finish your new quest.”
At the Inn’s front door, armored fae left, their legs weakened by alcohol's effects. Their armor looked a hell of a lot like the imperials’. And didn’t Kam say something about imperials?
Guy held his hands out. “I’ll pass.”
“You have someplace else to stay?”
Zuran made a point. Guy traveled to Holt and had no idea where he’d be spending the night. After venturing through the desert for an entire day, he needed a place to rest before he searched for a means back to the stars.
Well, the imperials are drunk and leaving, and nobody seemed to recognize me. Is it a different squad? Hell, it’d have to be since I left Muruai before them. There’s no way they sailed ahead of me, then got here first. They’d have to move faster than a boat, like a starship traveling through the atmosphere. The fae don’t have that tech, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t see any imperials leave that sentinel ship.
It took a moment for Guy’s eyes to adjust to the tavern's low light levels; square-shaped rays of sunlight beamed through the windows. He missed being able to walk into a place that had lights on the ceiling. Guy was indeed in another world, far from the one he knew. He counted six armored imperial soldiers lingering, ale glass in one hand, tits of dancers who were sitting on their lap in the other. The dancers' slender fingers stroked the skin on the men’s necks, their lips whispering sweet nothings into them. Lucky assholes.
The young fae girls who weren’t stroking the soldiers were delivering drinks, or mesmerizing occupants with their spinning bodies on stage, moving to the music from a Bard plucking the strings of a lute. Not all the dancers were fae girls. There was a shadow angel among the entertainment, long black hair matching her shiny raven wings. Her black lace outfit made it easy to imagine what she looked like naked since she was practically wearing nothing. The shadow angel looked right at Guy. He knew this because he peered into her green eyes.
The shadow angel’s eyes never broke the gaze, and neither did his—hard to with the bedroom eyes she shot Guy with. He continued to the bar while watching her. The shadow angel moved to a table, offering refills for the empty glasses. As she poured the imperial soldiers drinks, she glanced up and across the tavern, green eyes magnetized to Guy, her head moving to follow him. Guy pulled up a stool and sat. Her gaze followed. It was creepy as fuck, so when he mustered the will to look away, he shifted to the exotic swirls of the young fae girls on stage. The shadow angel finished with their table duties and moved to the next, her face still watching Guy. She cracked a smile. His face turned red, forcing him to turn as Kam reached for a bottle of wine. The shadow angel wanted the badass trench coat swordsman—
And a new quest appeared.
Tame the Temptress
Objective: The shadow angel of Holt is the talk of its Inn. Earn her loyalty by fulfilling her needs.
Issued by: White Dragon
Reward: 1000 Experience Points
Accept quest? Yes/No
You can’t be fucking serious . . .
But Guy was a Paladin now, stuck on an underdeveloped planet. He had a role to play by accepting quest after quest, which led him this far. Without a second thought, he tapped Yes, making the screen vanish, hoping Rachael wouldn’t get the wrong idea. She’d accuse Guy of starting a harem or something. But taming a temptress shadow angel isn’t building a harem! It’s completing a quest, and the White Dragon wanted me here to do this. That shadow angel is important. Maybe she has a secret that’ll get me out of this. Maybe she’ll suck my dick too. This is a win-win! Well, assuming nobody figured out that I’m a star-dweller Paladin.
Guy waved to get Kam’s attention. He needed an Inn room to hide in, and he needed it fast.
Behind, the shadow angel continued to watch Guy from across the tavern with interest.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Star-human (Paladin) | LVL: 8 | Rank: D
The star-human with a long coat and strange sword on his back was quite interesting, rather handsome too. His sudden arrival in the tavern clouded Xanthe’s ability to keep focus, making her wonder if perhaps this human was the Paladin star-dweller who Leafblade, from the imperial army, was seeking—the one who possessed some special blade. The White Dragon pushed Xanthe to what she desired with its quests. Was the White Dragon forcing the wanted star-dweller into her hands to complete her current quest?
Perhaps, but Leafblade issued the quest regarding the star-dweller and Averyl. Not the White Dragon.
Those thoughts further distracted Xanthe from the imperial men waving their empty ale glasses in the air for her inattentive eyes, still locked onto the star-human sitting at the bar. He looked nervous, keeping his face forward and away from all fae, the imperials especially. This had to be him, and the soldiers were too drunk and too busy playing with young dancers’ nipples to take notice.
“Guy!” a man shouted to the seated human.
It was a fae, black skin, no top, and massive muscles. The fae walked to the human, apparently named Guy, with clenched fists, one of them holding a folded paper. The dark-skinned fae sat beside Guy and rolled
an article on the bar for the two to read. Kam wiped a glass clean, filled it with wine, pushed it off to a thirsty patron, and joined the two in reading the paper.
Guy, Kam, and the fae knew each other. Xanthe watched as they spoke, curiosity compelling her to move forward. After refilling empty glasses, she handed the pitcher off to a dancer with bare hands, struck a pose, and danced, moving her hips and arms as if she had been entertaining the guests the whole time. Slowly, Xanthe danced her way to the bar, inching herself toward Guy, hoping her allure and charisma would be more appealing than the two men, hoping to learn what they were talking about. She had to know if Guy was the Paladin who Leafblade was interested in.
If so, I shall take another life today—
She received a new quest, forcing her to stop quickly, read it, grin, and accept it.
Subdue the Stalwart
Objective: The Paladin from the stars is the talk of the surrounding lands. Earn his loyalty by fulfilling his needs.
Issued by: White Dragon
Reward: 1000 Experience Points
Or not . . .
“Guy!” Zuran had called out to him, stopping Guy from asking for a room.
Zuran strode over to Guy’s stool, holding a folded piece of paper, then sat and gestured to Kam to join them. He unfolded the paper across the bar, unveiling words printed in the fae language. The universal translator did fuck all to help Guy there. The written fae language looked like a bunch of squiggly lines strung together.
And that shadow angel? She was still staring, seen from the corner of Guy’s left eye. She started dancing and placed herself between the bar and the drunk imperials, almost using her frame to draw potential glares from them as she drew near. And it was working, because Guy turned away from Kam and Zuran, unable to stop watching her dance. It was magical. It was as if her dancing body could control his mind.
Zuran and Kam said something about the paper, but it went in one ear and out the other.
“Yo!” Zuran yelled. “Guy!”
“Yeah, I’m listening.”
“No, you are not!”
Star Paladin: A LitRPG Space Fantasy (Sword of Asteria Book 1) Page 19
