by Pegaz
Brad opened his mouth to speak, but the absolution of Tom’s calm gaze stopped him from speaking. Tom continued speaking as if he hadn’t almost been interrupted.
“Not just any blood oath,” he said in a low voice. “The blood oath that the immortals taught us. An oath to the death.”
The silence was heavy. Brad stilled his racing pulse and gritted his teeth. His curiosity got the better of him, and after a bit of a pause he furrowed his brow up at the guild master. As long as he didn’t reveal the information, then he reckoned he’d be okay.
“Fine.”
Tom nodded and picked up a dagger and a bloodied piece of cloth from of his desk drawer. He placed the cloth flat on his desk, the blood stains on full display. There were lines on the fabric forming a mark, and the stains were embedded deep in the centre. The two men used the dagger to unflinchingly slice open their fingers, letting the blood drop into the centre of the cloth.
They spoke an oath aloud. The mark lit up for a few seconds and then grew dark once again.
"The oath is complete. I can now tell you the truth about Siders," Tom took a deep and steady breath, turning back around to face the window. His calm eyes showed the slightest signs of distress, but it quickly faded into the reflection of the sky.
"In the history books, they mention Siders quite often. However, there are two Siders whom history has tried to erase. They're not mentioned in any books whatsoever. We only know they exist by word of mouth from those who have taken the immortal’s oath."
The anticipation in Brad’s eyes was evident as Tom paused to collect his thoughts.
"Both of these Siders were what we call Demons. And in the truest sense, they really were Demons. They killed in the billions. They did whatever they felt like without any regard for anyone or anything, killing anyone who even so much as looked at them wrong. All sense of their humanity had faded with the years. They had truly become Demons."
Tom’s voice remained perfectly even. Brad could feel the tension in the room rising; he stiffened his posture, eyes widening.
"Everyone who knows this also knows that, while the rest of the world thinks the name ‘Siders’ derives from their homeland, it has an even deeper truth. The name actually refers to the sides that these individuals are forced to pick from, either becoming Demons or Saints. It doesn't matter if they remain mortal or if they ascend to immortality. Their power knows no bounds. In the case of the two demons…”
Tom paused, voice trailing off as if he himself was lost deep in thought.
“From what we know,” he said in his quiet, perfectly even voice, “it was the strongest immortals at the time that stopped the Demons."
At that last sentence, Tom’s perfect composure was lost. His face paled, and his eyes wavered as he realised he was no longer staring at the sky, but at his own reflection in the glass.
"There have been Siders who have become what we call Saints, some of them have even gone on to achieve immortality. They're called Saints because they each offer something different to improve our society. You’re familiar with the first Sider who was famous for building roads and stopping the kingdoms from declaring war on each other. He was the very first Saint.
"Any of the Siders to arrive after him usually cleaned up some of our political corruption or even helped kill rank SSS monsters that we normally would have been helpless against. Now, whenever a Sider appears, all the royal families and those with knowledge of this truth are faced with two options. They can either clean up their acts to make sure their family doesn't do anything to upset the Sider in question, or they can continue as per usual and risk having their whole family wiped out. Even if we call them Saints, history has shown that Siders have little restraint in the face of any corruption."
The silence was deafening. The tension in the room had risen to the point where Brad felt like he could barely breathe. Even Tom looked a bit flustered behind his ever-collected mask of calmness. The dwarf’s head swam, drowning in all of the information he was trying to absorb. Finally, the full picture came to him.
If this brat became a demon who killed people for looking at him funny, Brad shuddered to think of what would happen to the dwarf who kept referring to him as ‘brat.’
Chapter 18
I Bought This for Show?
Coming to his senses, Brad broke the silence.
"Why not just kill all the Siders at once when they get here, then?"
"It's impossible,” Tom shook his head as if the idea was old news. “We don't know why, but Siders gain power at an amazing rate, and they have unbelievable luck. It’s almost as if the world itself can't bear to see them die. Call it fate, destiny, or whatever you want—the point is that the only thing we can do is try to make them see the best of humanity's good side and hope they chose the path of a Saint as opposed to the path of a Demon.”
"So you're saying that if I hire the best assassin in the world, even HE would be unable to kill some Rank H brat who's only been here for a short while? No real combat experience or allies?"
"That's almost right. The assassin might have bad luck while on the way to the target, if he even manages to reach his target in one piece. And even if he was able to attempt the assassination, he’d better pray he kills him in body and soul. Because if he doesn’t, by some stroke of fortune, the Sider will rebuild his body to be better than ever and come back for revenge. And the world will work in the Sider’s favour to make sure this happens.”
Brad’s stomach was tied into a knot. Tom carried on, calm expression hiding his inner turmoil.
"I only know half the story,” he said quietly. “But one of the demons was in a... similar situation. His story, however, involved a princess, and... ended with his heart being absolutely crushed.”
Brad’s face was as white as a sheet, at this point.
"That's why it became law for them to tell us they're Siders when they register. I knew he was a Sider before I ran into him in the hall that night,” Tom’s gaze hardened and became cold at the mention. “I was ordered to get close to him. Just don’t ask under whose orders.” A smile slipped across Tom’s face, a slight little thing that would have sent shivers down anyone’s spine. “I think I left a rather good impression on the boy. Wouldn’t you agree?"
Panic rose in the back of Brad’s throat.
"I'm going to have to act kind too then and stop calling him brat!"
As if struck by lightning, Tom turned around and slanted his eyes at Brad, his expression so stark compared to his usual coolness that Brad visibly flinched.
"No,” he hissed. “If you change your attitude to him for no reason, he could become suspicious."
Tom’s expression softened, as if to correct his moment of lost composure. His brows relaxed and his face returned to its usual collected and calm self.
"The best way to do it is, as soon as he does even the littlest thing for you, alter your attitude in return. Tell him he has helped more than he'll ever know, even if it really does nothing to help you all. You’ve just got to make it convincing."
"Okay.” Brad licked his lips nervously. “I'll do it that way then."
Far off, on his way to the forest with his new instructor, John had no idea what he was in for.
Sun having set, somewhere along the path to the forest Gavin had stopped and explained how to find drinking water in the dark, as well as how to find emergency things to eat like bugs and worms. If it came down to a life and death situation, they would be thankful for knowing this.
Wouldn't it be nice if I didn't have to drink water to live, John mused. I could survive without anything then, since I can already digest anything in this world if need be!
‘Ding!’
Congratulations for thinking up a valid add-on skill, we have included the add-on.
This random thought got answered! And he didn’t have to wait a ton of time, either!
Is the system checking up on me on some sort of basis? Maybe it was checking up on me and gave me the skill jus
t before ‘logging off’?
John checked the system looking for the new skill.
Absorption - Idlers 0/99, Water - 0/1
Absorption:
Water: Absorb water molecules in the air through the skin, and it will purify the water too.
Bonus for maxing all skill levels: Absorb enough water, and never to have to drink again, even in the desert there are enough water molecules.
Wow, so I'll never have to worry about water again! My body is becoming self-sufficient... Wait, I bought this water bottle when I was low on money... Does that mean I bought it just for show?!
With a sigh, John turned the Continue skill off and waited for a skill to level up before attempting to complete this new skill. He was a little moody because of the water bottle. If he’d thought of the skill earlier, he could have bought something else! Maybe something that could have helped him when he faced that bear!
At this point, Gavin told everyone to wait where they were. He then took off so fast that John could not even see his shadow move. One second the instructor was there, the next, he wasn't.
Gavin came back a few minutes later with a dead deer, "I'm going to show you, kids, how to skin the hide, where to get the meat of the carcass and how to dispose of the body. I'm sure no one here is squeamish?"
John got closer to make sure he didn't miss anything.
So it's a hide, I kept calling it fur. I thought the quest to get the bear hide was a different part of the body... I'm still an idiot.
"Right then, first you need to cut off its genitals or anything else like antlers depending on what you're skinning. Then lay it on its back and cut in a straight line from the neck to the cut you've already made."
Gavin picked up a knife from his side and showed it around. "This is a boning knife, and you use this to cut the meat off bones and cut the bones at the joints when needed."
He put it back in its sheath and grabbed another knife and showed it around. "This is a skinning knife, and it's used to separate the hide from the meat." He put it back and took out the boning knife again.
Starting at the legs, he cut around them in a downward spiral. The legs were already mostly bone, so after a minute, he switched to the skinning knife and separated one side of the leg's hide from the meat. He then put the knife away, grabbed the fur, and yanked it down.
"After you've separated a good bit of the fur from the legs you can just pull it apart up to the main body. We do this for the other side of the leg and then repeat for the other three legs."
After he did all four legs, he grabbed the skinning knife again. Pulling the fur back, he slashed in between the fur and the flesh, carving a path all the way to the deer's back. He repeated the process all around the deer.
"Now, there's only the backside to do,” he flipped the deer around as he spoke. “Normally, the guild's skinning warehouse crew yanks it up in the air so you can get to the back while the meat at the front doesn't touch the floor. But out in the wilderness, you've got to be quick or else any predators that smell the blood will come before you finish.
“What I do is just turn the deer over, finish the back, and then use the boning knife to clean up around the neck. The quickest way is to cut the head clean off but only if your boning knife is sharp enough. If it isn't then it could take an hour to cut it off, so just do your best to cut all the way around the neck.
"This way will cause the value of the hide to drop a little, but in an all or nothing situation, it’s the best method. With that, you've completed the skinning portion."
Gavin separated the hide and showed everyone that it was completely intact, no holes or damage whatsoever. He then explained where the meat is on the carcass, and he used the boning knife to separate the bone from the meat. Afterwards, he dug a small pit and buried the bones.
"Other wild animals will smell the blood unless it's over 6 foot deep, but now that we've finished we’ll just dig a small pit like this so you can set traps for anything that comes. This usually works on dumber monsters, and it's free game."
The students’ gazes were captivated completely for the duration of Gavin’s instruction. Thinking the lesson over, they started to shuffle around a bit. Gavin took note of this and raised his voice once more.
"I'm not going to go catch 20 different animals so you can all practice, I'm on minimum wage. Just remember what I said and most monsters will be roughly the same. All that's left is for you to practice. The rest of the course we’ll be going over things like setting up the tents, night watch, and cooking over a campfire. In the morning I'll show you everything again, and then we're done.”
John wasn't interested in setting up the tents or learning about night watch, but cooking over a campfire could come in handy. He buckled down and prepared himself for the rest of the course.
About an hour later, after learning tent building and night watch, John was bored out of his mind. During the duration of this portion of the course, he tried distracting himself by watching the rest of his class. When it was finally time for the cooking section, he almost started to say a prayer in absolute relief.
Finally, something to kill the boredom.
The cooking portion only lasted about thirty minutes. John decided to skip the rest of the class, instead walking back to town on his own in the dark.
Can't see where the fuck I'm going, but at least I know the direction.
In the distance, he finally saw the city's lights from torches powered by monster cores in the distance. He instantly perked up at the sight. As if trying to egg on his good mood, the system chimed with a small ‘ding!’ sound.
Congratulations for thinking up a valid add-on skill, we have included the add-on.
John opened the system to check the new skill.
Vision - Idlers 0/99, Night - 0/1, Life - 0/1
Vision:
Night: See in the dark, sudden bright lights will not blind you, automatically activate and revert to normal.
Life: See the Life of anything in view, can see through anything.
Just two more skills until it's maxed out and, as per usual, it gives me the skill AFTER I need it most. Thanks, system. You’re always there for me. John rolled his eyes and redirected his attention to the new skill’s description.
‘Life’... That sounds familiar too... Where did I see it? Oh, yeah! Sk***m's Life Aura! In the game, you can even see through mountains to the outline of a glowing fox on the other side... Could this be the same thing?
With that thought in mind, John closed the system and carried on walking to town. What he wanted right now was a good night’s rest at his inn.
Tomorrow, he needed to sort out how he was going to store the meat, hide, claws and, gallbladders of the bears he was going to take on. Once this problem was solved, he was going hunting and not coming back until those bears were in the history book with the word ‘extinct’ written next to it!
Chapter 19
Preparation
After waking up the next morning, John took a walk around town. He decided to look around in an attempt to find something to help him with his problem. John checked the blacksmith, the tailor, the apothecary—and practically almost every other small shop he had encountered. Nothing. John had just about lost hope until he reached a shop with a sign that read "Specialist Shop" across it in bolded letters. Crossing his fingers, he went in.
Inside of the shop was a stark contrast to the lively exterior of the city. The building only had a counter with a middle-aged woman sitting behind it. Said woman had black locks of hair spilling across her shoulders with a few white hairs mixed in, but that’s not what drew John’s attention. She was wearing a plain, porcelain mask that completely obscured her whole face from view. John could see from the wrinkles on her hands and the bit of exposed skin on her neck that she must have been a little older. Remembering that the average lifespan among people here was about fifty-years, he tried to make sense of the scene.
"Welcome, what is it you're looking for?" The woman
spoke flatly, reaching out her hand towards the seat across from her.
John accepted the invitation and walked up to the seat, resting on top of it. "I'm looking for a container that can keep meat fresh for a long time. It’s also got to carry a lot of weight, so something durable, too."
"We do have something that may interest you,” the woman drew her words out, sending a shiver down John’s spine. “There are two versions of this device, actually. It all depends on how much you want to spend. It's a bag made from the stomach of the Guzzler monster.”
“A what monster?”
“A Guzzler monster,” the woman continued, “can eat non-stop for the duration of in its entire life, hence the name. The only difference in these two bags is the age of the creature each was made from.”
The woman went on to explain that the younger monsters’ stomachs expanded as they aged. The creature would have to take breaks between its meals, which is when its stomach muscles worked to adjust to the right size. However, the adults of the species would never have that problem.
"We take these bags and add runes to them. The younger bag can only fit one rune, but the adult bag can fit two. That's where the price difference is. The smaller bag can still carry just as much weight as the bigger bag, but it will keep expanding to fit its contents inside of it. Meanwhile, the bigger bag will fit the same amount and not grow any bigger. The weight of your items, however, will remain unchanged with both of them."
"And how much are the bags?" John wanted to ask about the runes, but decided he didn’t quite trust the woman’s information just yet. After all, what kind of salesperson wore a mask? It was shady as hell.
"The smaller bag is £50,000. The larger bag is £150,000."
John felt his jaw drop wide enough to stuff his whole fist inside. Without saying another word, he directly stood up and walked out the shop. Absolutely dumbfounded by the prices, he found himself walking to the Adventurer Guild where he proceeded to sit down and think. As he mulled over the numbers in his head, his ears buzzed with the sounds of the Hall.
