The Forerunner: A GameLit Progression Fantasy, page 13
“Okay, we’ll get more information before we buy a place here," Dan conceded.
After more negotiations they decided on a 60-40 split of the gold in favor of Zed, since he did most of the work getting it. They then set out for the trade district.
“Does it smell like smoke to you, Zed?”
“Yeah. An improvement over the urine in the rat district, right?”
“You would think, except I got used to the urine and hardly smelled it.”
Zed rolled his eyes and ignored him. The fact was, though, it did smell like smoke. And baked bread, and cooked meats, and oiled leather at times. But always smoke. The city was known for two things: steel, and elderberry pies and jams. It was too late in the year for elderberry pie, but the city made steel all year round.
The weapon and armor shops were usually also smitheries. They made their products on site, and you could talk with the smith if you wanted something custom, as long as they were confident you could pay. That turned out to be an issue with their ragged clothes. The álfar dislike of humans probably didn’t help either.
‘Though to be fair, they probably wouldn’t be eager to talk to álfar dressed like us either,’ Zed thought, as he looked at his cheap shirt. He had bought it when they sold their pelts to the tanner. It had started out as the kind of shirt farm workers wore—rough wool and simple stitching. Since then it had accumulated sweat stains, cuts, and blood stains. ‘Maybe Dan was right about investing in clothes.’
Fortunately, showing some gold improved the merchants’ attitudes towards them quite a bit.
Once they could get the merchants’ attention, it quickly became clear that there were two classes of items. The first was items made out of steel or some alloy-—the kind of thing that you could get on Earth if you knew a good blacksmith.
The other was items made out of runed steel. Intricate designs wrapped around the pieces like vines growing in the metal. The “vines” were silver or gold inlay, which made an excellent mana conductor and was beautiful. Zed admired the craftsmanship of the pieces, but was taken aback when he saw their prices. Runic weapons and armor were 10x the price of an equivalent un-runed piece—sometimes more depending on how complex and powerful the runes were.
Zed bought a good quality spear with a wood shaft and a tip of some exotic metal that he wasn’t familiar with. He’d been looking for a spear with a wood shaft because, although the metal shaft of his old spear worked, he wanted something that had a little flexibility. The spear also had self-sharpening and durability runes.
He was tempted to buy one with more runes that could produce an electric shock, but the price difference was steep. Dan ended up thinking along similar lines, and bought a good quality long sword with sharpening and durability runes.
Zed decided to really invest in his armor. He didn’t want plate mail. He worried that it would hamper his movement, though if it was fitted to him he would probably move around pretty well with his increased strength. The bigger factor was electrical and heat conductivity. In a world of magic it seemed like it would be far too easy to shock or cook him in metal armor.
When an attentive elven armorsmith heard Zed’s opinion he shook his head and explained where he was wrong.
“You don’t wear the armor against your skin. Can you imagine what the pinching and chafing would be like? No, you have padding underneath, so in terms of conductivity the plate mail is just as good as leather. Honestly, probably a little better because the plate will spread out the damaging effects, making it less intense, while leather won’t do that for you.”
“Hmm. I see your point. If I were to get plate, what kind of runes could you put on it? And how would it affect my external stellar energy usage?”
“Do you mostly project the energy through your hands?”
“Yeah.”
“There’s a simple solution then. I make the gauntlets out of special materials that are conductive, both the plate and padding, so you could use your abilities through them," the smith said.
He continued, “As far as runes go, I would suggest ‘durability’ and ‘lightness’. That would allow me to make the armor thicker, making it more protective. The cost would also go up, of course. We could add other runes such as a self-repairing system, force fields, temperature regulation, and self-cleaning. People ignore the temperature regulation but I think it’s a good idea to have, particularly in hot environments. Self-cleaning is quite nice, but obviously not required. The other two are also very useful, but quite expensive.”
Before making such a large commitment, Zed wanted to see examples of the álfar’s work, so the smith gave him a tour of the shop and the pieces that they had on display. Zed was impressed. Everything he saw demonstrated attention to detail, from the immaculate armor and runes, to the light oil that prevented the pieces from rusting. The smith was obviously passionate about his work, describing the features of each piece in loving detail, as if they were his children. He had light coatings of soot here and there on his face and arms. His focus was clearly on his work, and not himself.
‘I think that this is the smith for me.’
Zed decided to go all in. He would be entrusting his life to this armor, after all.
“Okay, I want full-plate, but with good visibility and hearing in the helmet. Durability, lightness, extra thick plate as you described, temperature regulation, self-repairing, and self-cleaning.”
“Ah, the helmet—good point. I can do something special there, but…”
“It’s going to cost me," Zed said with a wry smile.
“Quite. But I can tell that you want the best, and this is it. I can make a helmet out of special materials and runes that, when you cycle your energy through it, becomes transparent to light in one direction and sound in both. Full protection, even of your eyes, without sacrificing anything.”
“How much money are we talking about?”
“All together the cost would be around 12,000 gold. I’ll give you a discount and make it 10,000.”
Zed thought about it and said, “Deal.”
“Excellent. I can have it ready for you in 4 weeks. I can do it in 3, but there would be a rush fee.”
“No, four weeks works." Zed, gave the smith half of the cost up-front and walked out of the shop before he became any poorer.
Dan thought about getting plate armor too, but with his fewer funds he decided to go with leather armor instead. The leather was from an exotic beast and had scales on it. Dan also paid for durability and self-repair runes, but left it at that.
Once Dan was done with his armor order he excitedly said, “Okay, Zed, time for the clothes!”
Zed rolled his eyes and said, “I can’t wait.”
**
When they got back to the inn a surprise was waiting for them. The álfar that Zed had defeated the day before was waiting by the entrance. She looked better than she had the day before, but that was a pretty low bar. Her arm was bandaged and in a sling, and she had a massive knot on her forehead.
‘Oh look, Zed, it’s your hotty!’ Iris said.
‘You’re not going to let me live that one down, are you?’
‘Not a chance. Think she’ll go on a date with you now that you’ve piledrived her? If not, maybe you can suplex her to soften her up,' Iris chuckled.
‘Har, har.’
Even in a sling, she looked even more beautiful than she had in the pit. Her auburn curls were swept back into a ponytail, the tresses cascading down her back. Now that he wasn’t looking to fight her, he noticed further details like the very light smattering of freckles on her nose and cheeks, and her green, mischievous eyes.
Zed approached her and said, “I have to admit, you’re pretty much the last person in the world I expected to see. What are you doing here?" He was a little cautious, not knowing if she wanted revenge or compensation or what.
“Yeah, well, I’m in a bit of a pickle. You see, I told my team that I would help them on a mission tomorrow, and someone decided to help me prepare for it by breaking my arm.”
Zed was still feeling a little bad and said with some embarrassment, “Yeah, sorry about that.”
She sighed and said, “No, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have been so stubborn. I just don’t like to lose, and that sometimes makes me do stupid things.”
“Yeah, I can relate," Zed said with a smile. “So I’m still not sure why you’re here, or, for that matter, how you found me.”
“I need someone to take my place, and I was hoping that you could do the job. As for how I found you, a girl has her ways. Nice place, by the way," she said sarcastically.
Zed ignored the gibe, “What’s the job?”
“There’s been a beast incursion in a nearby mine. We were hired to clear it out.”
“No offense, but how do I know this isn’t a setup so you can get revenge on me?”
“I’m not looking for revenge. You were nicer than you had to be when you gave me the chance to surrender twice. I accept that I was stupid and so I paid the price.”
Zed carefully watched her body language. Everything indicated she was telling the truth. Either she was a really good liar—definitely within the realm of possibility—or she was being sincere. Zed thought about it and decided to believe her, but still be cautious.
“What’s the pay?" Zed asked.
Dan piped in with, “And can I get in on it?”
The álfar looked at Dan thoughtfully, and then turned to Zed. “Is he as good as you?”
“No, but he’s not too far off.”
She shrugged and then said, “I’ll leave it up to the team lead then. The pay is 2,000 gold per person. It’ll be a little less if your friend joins the team. So, are you in?”
“What kind of beasts are they, and what’s your name?”
“Giant spiders. Laurel.”
Zed thought about it and said, “Alright, Laurel. We’re in on one condition—you tell me how you move so freaking fast. There’s no way that’s natural.”
Laurel smiled and said, “That’s too valuable to just give away. I’d think about it if you told me how you avoided the minotaur’s charge, and taught me your grappling style.”
“Okay. You first.”
“It’s called ‘mass shifting’. There are two kinds of mass: gravitational and inertial. Normally the two are the same, but I can double one by halving the other. When I increase my gravitational mass and reduce my inertial mass I can move really fast.”
“I get why reducing the inertial mass would help, but wouldn’t increasing the gravitational mass slow you down?”
“If I was weak, yeah, it would. If you’re strong then it actually lets you go faster. Think of it this way—every time you take a step you not only push horizontally you have to push down too or you wouldn’t have any friction.”
“Okay.”
“To go really fast horizontally you have to push down harder, or else you would slip. If gravity was weaker than the push down, you would be launched up into the air. If the gravity is insanely strong, though, as long as you are strong enough you can push down really hard and go insanely fast.”
Zed thought about it and after a little bit said, “Okay, I think I get it. Really strong and fast steps, keep from launching into the air. Show me later?”
“Sure. Now it’s your turn.”
Zed explained his physical and mental enhancements. Laurel was already very familiar with the physical enhancements, but was intrigued by what Zed did with his mind enhancements. He also promised to teach her some jiu jitsu when she was physically up to it.
Once they got the information on where and when to meet the mine job team, they parted ways.
**
Zed and Dan met with the team the next morning. The leader of the team was an álfar man with similar musculature to Zed, which made him huge for his people. The disgusted look he had when he saw Zed and Dan turned his otherwise handsome face a little ugly. The rest of the team—an ogrum, two álfar, and a dwarf—likewise showed either indifference or contempt.
“Laurel, what is this?" he asked.
“I told you that I was out of commission for a while and would have to find a replacement, Hagen.”
“Yes, but you never mentioned that they were human.”
“Is there a problem with that?" Zed asked mildly, but with a hint of hostility.
Hagen looked at him directly and said, “Yes, there is. I don’t need a weak nobody on my team who I don’t know, don’t trust, and who is just as likely to run away when it gets tough or stab me in the back as actually help us to finish the mission.”
“Fine," Zed said, and the pair turned around to walk away.
Laurel stepped in and said, “Wait, Zed. Hagen, he’s not weak, and he’s not a nobody. He’s the winner of the gauntlet run from the other night, the one that beat me. He was good enough to defeat me, so who else would be a better replacement?”
“Okay, he may not be weak, but what about trust? You don’t know this guy.”
“Look, I don’t need this. I came to help—if you don’t want it, that’s fine. See you, Laurel.”
Laurel looked frustrated, but didn’t say anything.
As they walked back to the inn Dan said, “Well that was a waste of time.”
“Maybe not. We won’t be in on that mission, but we learned something important. There are jobs for fighters that would give us both money and mana, the two things we need most right now. We should find out how teams get these jobs. Once we do we can join up and get in on the action.”
“Makes sense. How do we find out where the jobs are?”
“Watch and learn, young padawan," Zed said with a grin. He stopped an álfar with a hooked nose and printer’s ink on his hands and asked him, “Excuse me. I live out a few miles from the city and some giant spiders have been attacking at night. Where can I go to get someone to get rid of them?”
The man looked at Zed’s new clothes and decided it wouldn’t hurt to talk with him for a moment. “The quickest way would be to go to the Adventurer’s Guild. You’ll have to post a suitable reward of course.”
“Thank you, sir," Zed said, while giving the man a few silver. “If I could trouble you a moment longer, where can I find the Guild?”
After they received directions Zed sauntered down the street and grinned cheerily at Dan. “And that is how it’s done, son.”
“You seem awfully proud of yourself for knowing how to ask directions.”
“You’re just jealous of my charm and genius.”
“Right, that’s exactly what I’m feeling right now.”
‘At least your charm didn’t involve piledriving them into the ground this time,' Iris said.
Zed rolled his eyes and thought, ‘It’s time to let it go, Iris.’
‘Maybe in a year or two. We’ll see.’
**
The Adventurer’s Guild was less “warriors and assassins and wizards yakking it up around a magic mission device” and more “bar full of tough and semi-sketchy characters with a posterboard”. The one thing that did carryover from games is that you did have to be a member of the guild to get access to the mission board. Zed and Dan paid their gold and got a bronze token that could be worn around the neck. Zed put it into his pocket.
Zed and Dan were initially excited to look through the missions but their excitement quickly waned. They weren’t quite at the “kill the rats in my basement” level, but they weren’t too far off. The most lucrative missions were for escorting trade caravans to other cities.
They didn’t have the time for stuff like that.
Zed went back to where they had received their tokens and asked the álfar behind the counter, a bored looking man who looked like he had once done his share of kicking butt and taking names. His beer gut said that those days had been a while ago, and the years hadn’t been kind since.
“Excuse me, are there any better missions available?”
“Yeah, there are, but not for noobs at the bronze level. If you want access to the more challenging missions you have to increase your Guild level.”
“How do we do that?" Dan asked.
“Complete missions or verify that your mana level qualifies you for a higher level.”
“Can we check our mana?”
“Sure, that’ll be a gold each.”
Grumbling a bit, they handed over the gold and the álfar pulled out what looked like a large bracelet. “Put it on your arm and cycle your energy.”
Dan took it and slid it up to his bicep where it fit snugly. “Looks like you are Iron level." Dan handed it over to Zed who, being bigger than Dan, slid it up to his forearm. “And you are Silver level. Not bad. Give me your tokens and I’ll get your new ones.”
Once they had the new tokens Zed asked, “So is there a different set of missions that we can look at now?”
“Of course. Are you going to be doing missions together or separately?”
“Together. Are there missions I could do by myself that we couldn’t do together?" asked Zed.
“I don’t think so, but I would have to check.”
“Never mind, just show us the jobs we can do together, please.”
Zed and Dan went through them, trying to find that magic combination of mana and money. After 15 minutes of fruitless searching Zed found something.
“I think I’ve got it, Dan. Bounty hunting. There’s a big reward for bringing in a gang of local bandits, dead or alive.”
“Why do I get the feeling that we’re going to bring them all in dead?”
“Because you’re smart, Dan. Because you’re smart," he said with a wicked grin.
Chapter 16
Rather than waste time looking for the bandits, Dan and Zed decided to lure them in. With what was left of their funds Dan bought a small wagon, some grains and cheeses, and a horse that looked like it had missed its appointment with the glue factory.
Zed went to find Brutus to help them with their mission. They had a happy reunion when they saw each other again, and took the time to play around.
