Crossing Serpent's Way, page 36
part #1 of Trials of the Endless Planes Series
Every couple of steps was a single repeating rune engraved directly into the street, which essentially laminated the roads so there wasn’t constant dust kicked up with the endless stream of people walking around. “Not normally, no,” Teras admitted as they deftly weaved through the crowds to follow Zenser. “But, if those human guilds have banded together for such a massive undertaking, then something big is definitely happening.”
The three of them had been traveling together for the last few months ever since leaving Nimbusgarde. It was a natural transition considering Teras and Zenser just lost their third team member and Mila was already used to fighting in a group. “What can be such a huge deal that they won’t even let anyone else use the dungeon?” Mila asked testily.
She’d been looking forward to getting into Shiverdawn Lighthouse to get some new light-based mana cores. She thought that they would mesh better with her lightning Class abilities than the shadow Boons she had equipped now.
Teras gave her a half-hearted shrug, “It’s not that big of a loss. The warrior spirits in the Lighthouse are more of a pain than anything, especially with all of your dark-based powers. You’re better off saving your GM to just buy the Boons that you really want. There will be more lightning-based abilities available once we get back to the cloudmasses. Although, you could probably get away with some wind-based powers, since they tend to synergize well with lightning.”
Mila nodded, filing the advice away in the back of her head. She still had so much more to learn about Serpent’s Way and the Endless Planes as a whole. Luckily, the two fowlings had taken her under their wings, teaching her the basics of this new reality as they traveled from one mountain to the next.
Along the way, they’d been picking up the odd bounty — though the locals called them commissions — from the Hunter’s Lair, which was the official bounty hunter organization that stretched across the entire plane. They had branches in every major city with a way to communicate between them. That way you could finish a commission posted in one city and collect the reward somewhere else just as long as you could prove you completed it. If she wasn’t able to hunt down her own mana cores, then at least she’d be able to buy them from transmuters using her share of the rewards.
As they continued to follow after Zenser, she noted that the streets were filled with a number of bare chested sulfurions with beards made of living wind and water, who wore togas made of reinforced leather with runes emblazoned on their belts. There was a smattering of other races — a few hoborcs here and a handful of fains there — but by and large, there were mostly humans of the ranger variety.
With their long, intricately braided hair and disproportionately lanky limbs, it was still odd for Mila to think of the humans of Serpent’s Way as separate subspecies. She’d seen drakkar and braves in other cities, but she still hadn’t seen any of the dreads. And if Teras was to be believed, once Mila evolved her Class, she’d be changed to one of those four subspecies depending on what she chose.
That thought bothered her deeply.
She liked herself the way she was — her curly brown hair and her tanned skin…she had her mother’s nose and her father’s cheeks. She didn’t want to change. But…if she was going to become stronger, then it was a necessary evil.
From what she gathered, each subspecies of human was associated with a certain Class ‘theme.’ The hulking drakkar were related to Classes suited for frontline fighting with both solid attack and defense, though they sometimes skewed more towards defense. Whereas, the darker-skinned, tattooed braves were linked to Classes that focused on high damage, either melee or ranged, with moderate defenses that specifically excelled in sneaking and hunting. As for the long-limbed rangers, they were associated with Classes that centered around high, ranged and usually magical damage with little regard for defense. And lastly, the dreads, who were supposed to be deathly pale, were related to Classes that dabbled in the ‘seedier’ magics — necromancy, blood magic, curses, and summoning demonic creatures.
Mila wasn’t quite sure if the ‘demons’ of Serpent’s Way were anything like the demons of Earth’s mythos and she wasn’t exactly eager to find out either.
Regardless, unless she wanted to stay relegated to her base Class, she would need to make a decision eventually. For now though, she shelved those thoughts for later.
After a few more minutes, the winding streets of Lightstall suddenly opened up to a wide square leading up to one of the taller spires in the city standing at about 11 stories. It wasn’t a skyscraper by any means, but it was still an impressive piece of architecture with its wide curving base that looked to be the size of half a football stadium. With each successive floor, the building tapered just a little until the topmost floor, which was just a circular catwalk like a crow’s nest on a ship’s mast.
Above the towering double doors leading into the spire was the symbol for the Hunter’s Lair — a stylized, mounted drake’s head. Not anyone could just walk in and take a bounty, but most people were registered with the organization in one way or another. She, herself, was already a provisional bounty hunter for the Lair.
She and Teras barely made it through the door before Zenser came running up to them in a hurry and immediately pulled them back outside. “We need to get out of here!” he hissed.
Mila looked just as confused as Teras when she asked, “What? Why? What’s happening?”
“The big three human guilds are looking for humans. Your kind of humans,” Zenser replied pointedly to Mila. “They’ve got small commissions placed for anyone from Earth…”
“Why would they want them so badly?” Teras asked bewildered.
Zenser shook his feathered head, “I don’t know, but they’re looking for any information that would lead their people to one of the new humans. Although, that’s not even the worse part…”
“There’s a worse part?” Mila demanded, worry creeping into her voice. Zenser didn’t answer right away as he pulled them along into an out of the way alley.
Only after he was sure that they were alone did he finally answer. “Yes, there actually is worse news…the guilds have placed a massive commission on a single human’s head. Whatever he did, it must have been something that really angered the leadership of all the guilds because there are three separate bounties for him.”
“Who could piss off so many people at once? And what the hell did they do?” Mila asked in a flustered tone.
“You know who…Mila. The only monster of a human that came from your race…”
“Kaito?” Mila smacked her forehead, “What did he do now?”
Zenser gave a helpless shrug, “I’ll tell you when we get out of here. You can’t be seen or else some of the other bounty hunters might get some ideas.”
And with that, the trio fled.
* * *
Chapter 32
A crack like a sledgehammer breaking rocks echoed on the flat roof of a red-clay building near the entrance of Lightstall as Kaito shattered the jaw of one of his attackers with his bare fist. Another one roared a battle cry running for his back, but he swiftly dipped his upper body and whipped a back kick at his opponent’s face without even turning around.
There was a strangled yelp followed by whistling air as the man spun like a top in midair. A second later there was a heavy thud as his attacker collapsed on the roof and Kaito lashed out to the side with a [Possessive Thorn Whip (Ra)], tangling up the last of his ambushers who was running away, huffing and puffing out of desperation.
“Please n-!” the female ranger yelled just before Kaito’s thorn whip tackled them to the roof. Her cries of panic died down instantly as her eyes rolled up to the back of her head once his whip’s possession took hold.
The first two were still writhing in pain, but Kaito didn’t need three people to tell him what the fuck was happening. So he quickly finished them off, ripping their mana cores out of their bodies with cold indifference before he turned his attention to the possessed woman.
Within minutes of entering the city he’d been ambushed. That wasn’t normal.
Maybe back on Earth when he had a reputation, however in this new world, who was he to anyone?
Kaito padded over to the woman, but stopped in his tracks when his senses picked up a handful of threats sneaking their way towards him on nearby rooftops.
Okay…this is definitely not normal…How am I going to get my hot bath now if I can’t even take two steps without having some fuckers coming after me?
And they were clearly heading in his direction. They were moving slowly and covertly, but before Kaito’s perilous gaze, they couldn’t hide their movements. However, if he had to guess, there were probably some others he was missing. He could feel it like an itch on the back of his neck even though nothing was touching him.
Kaito snarled under his breath. He was not prey. Maybe to Thaxus or Tyrox, but not to these…weaklings.
He took a small step forward, ready to tear into these fools who thought they could hunt him only to stop as the sounds of children playing nearby pierced through his bloodlust, suddenly making him falter. Shaking his head, he caught himself before doing something stupid.
He was in a city. Civilization. There were children here. Families.
The sounds of normalcy around him dug up buried memories that he hadn’t thought of since before Earth’s Crucible. With children and the infirm being the first to fall to the mana-touched monsters, he hadn’t heard innocent laughter since then.
Kaito quickly decided that he couldn’t slaughter these people on these alien rooftops. He didn’t know what the laws of Lightstall were and he wasn’t strong enough to just go against an entire city by himself.
Not yet anyway.
So instead, he triggered his [Spectral Razorshield (Ra)], doubly grateful that he’d transmuted such an ability. Immediately, the handful of people sneaking closer, paused midstep. In that momentary confusion, Kaito farstrided away.
As he passed by, he caught distant cursing and confused comments. He needed to quickly figure out what was happening because these people obviously knew who he was.
His [Diamond Soul (Ra)] proceeded to wrap his mind up in a protective cocoon to forestall the inevitable ability strain. If he was right, then he’d have to rely on his razorshield to veil him from others just to move around this city unhindered, which meant sooner or later, the strain would hit him even with the bonuses from his newest Title.
After a few tense minutes of farstriding across Lightstall’s rooftops, Kaito spied a busy outdoor market area with brightly colored canvas stalls crowding every main and side street for several city blocks. He changed his direction immediately, smiling as he had an idea.
He stopped at the edge of the market to observe it from the rooftops. It was alive with a hectic buzz as the different races of Serpent’s Way packed in shoulder to shoulder like canned sardines, though with the dwarf-like sulfurions rubbing elbows with the dark-elf-like fains, it was closer to shoulder to hip.
However, at a glance, the majority of the shoppers were humans — drakkar, braves and rangers. They outnumbered the other races almost two to one. That in and of itself wasn’t odd, but with what Kaito just dealt with, he was skeptical. Are these the same guildsmen I fought before I went into the dungeon…?
He hadn’t developed an eye for discerning the nuances between the human subraces. To him, he only saw the glaringly disparate physical features. So it was anyone’s guess as to who the various humans were. All Kaito knew was that there were a lot of them and that unsettled him.
Staying to the rooftops while wrapped in his abilities, he scanned the various street stalls for something specific. He passed over the heavenly aroma of foods that were, at once, both alien and familiar. He skipped the weapons stalls altogether, since he wasn’t planning on utilizing anything more than his own hands and feet at the moment.
Ah, there we go…armor. He hopped over to a building overlooking a wider set of streets, breathing in a pungent musk of sweat and worn leather. When he peered down from his vantage, he saw larger than normal stalls with various armors on display with their part of the multi-block market divided into distinct areas.
There was the light armor section made up of durable clothes, robes and capes. Then, came the medium armor section consisting of leather and chainmail. And finally, the heavy armor vendors who had the largest storefronts for them to display their plate armors.
The adjacent streets to the obvious armorers’ section seemed to sell the materials that would go into making such skillfully crafted equipment. There were stalls with every color of cloth under the sun, furs of all shades and textures, tanned leathers stretched out on racks and piles of metallic bars ready to be smithed.
A multitude of mannequins adorned in the various armor styles stood outside each of the stalls acting as both advertisement and scarecrow. A number of them wore long flowing robes with voluminous hoods and sleeves with runes sewn right into their hems. Some were clad in thickly padded leathers that covered them from head to toe. Others wore full gowns of chainmail with their own hoods and mouth coverings. While some others were weighed down by various plate armor pieces from cuirasses to complete sets of armor, helm and all.
Kaito gave the stalls another swift once over before making his decision. He needed something to cover his face, that was a given, but maybe he could use some new armor to go along with it. The clothes he received back in Nimbusgarde were still intact, if not a bit ragged, however, he wanted something that could cover him up while being able to withstand a dip in some stomach acid if need be. That immediately crossed off the robes and the leathers. He didn’t need full plate armor either, since he had his wyrm fang ability, which left only chainmail.
He casually farstrided over to a side street filled with medium armor offerings, dismissing his abilities as he did. The ability strain hit him like a sudden headache between his eyes, though it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Kaito hurried down the stalls, acutely aware of being exposed. He chose a stretch of storefronts that didn’t have as many humans congregating around them, mostly sulfurions and a few hoborcs.
Beelining to a stand with full length chainmail hauberks, he wanted one that left his arms exposed while still providing a hood and face covering. He wasn’t looking for protection, he had his abilities for that. Instead, he was just hoping to stay clothed for longer while fighting. At some point, he got tired of battling monsters in the nude.
As he walked past storefronts, he was pleasantly surprised to see that much of the chainmail armor wasn’t just the same style that would have come from medieval times of ancient Earth. This was more advanced looking chainmail with links so fine it was nearly indistinguishable from fabric. There were chunky chainlink-knit sweaters, finely sewn chainmail corduroy pants and lightweight, chained hoods with shoulder cowls.
Instead of walking into the largest stall with the most people going in and out of it, he ducked into the smallest one with barely any foot traffic. Either this place offered crap products or…
“Huh?” grunted the oldest sulfury Kaito had seen thus far. Their partially closed eyes looked half blind, while their beard of living water looked more like a tepid pond rather than the swirling whirlpools he’d seen on younger sulfurions in the crowd outside. “What do you want…ranger?” the old man grumbled, their voice sounding like sloshing waters in a lazy river.
The ancient sulfury wore a glistening toga over his wrinkled but toned body. At first glance, the outfit appeared to be made of heavy layers of cloth, but upon closer inspection, Kaito realized it was actually formed from chainmail links so masterfully crafted that it hung and moved like real cloth.
Half-lidded eyes inspected Kaito before the ancient sulfury snorted, “So…your guild has finally sent one of their unbound killers to take what I would not give them, eh? Well, let me tell you, pup,” the sulfury’s chair creaked as he quickly stood from behind the counter, “I’ll die before you take what is mine!”
Their once languid water-beard suddenly erupted in a spray of liquid beads that spread throughout the old sulfury’s own store, surrounding Kaito in a barrier of water droplets that hung suspended in the air. “You’re in my domain now, ranger, and only one of us will leave here alive!”
Kaito spread his hands in a non-threatening way while shaking his head, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, old man. I’m here to buy something from you, unless you want to fight for it instead. Either way, I’m walking out of here with a chainmail hood, shirt and pants.”
The sulfury narrowed his already half-lidded eyes in a questioning scowl, “You’re…not one of Shiriki’s people?”
“I don’t know who that is and I don’t care,” Kaito replied, “I just want some equipment as soon as possible. Now, did I come to the right place? Or do I need to go to one of the other stalls?”
The water droplets in the air hummed briefly before vanishing without so much as a trace. “By the Lady, why would you come into my shop with so much mana that you look like a second sun?! Only people with something to prove are so brazen with their mana signatures!” the old man huffed, then sat back down in his chair and placed his gnarled hands back on the counter. “What did you say you wanted?”
Kaito blinked at the odd accusations, not quite sure what to make of them. “I need a full set of chainmail clothing, especially a hood and cowl with a mouth covering if you have one, but…what did you mean by my mana signature?”
The old man had already disappeared below the counter before hearing Kaito’s question. “Huh?” he called out from underneath the tabletop, then his bald head and tepid watery beard peeked back over, “Oh, right. You need to do something about the amount of energy you’re giving off. Makes you as easy to read as a book to the right people. Either stow your mana away in a storage trinket, spend it or get an ability to veil your aura, otherwise you’re just a walking target.”
