LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 12: Quest Accepted and the Greatest Ally in History
Chapter 12: Quest Accepted and the Greatest Ally in History
“Zach, calm down,” Mr. Oren said. “I’m on your side. You just don’t see it.”
How could Zach calm down after what he’d just been told? How could he even begin the process of calming himself down? After everything he’d been through today, including witnessing his dead father’s body multiple times, getting his nose and wrist broken, then having to confront the one who’d done it, then passing out, waking up, and so on and so on and so on…it was just too much. All of it. There was a silver lining, though. Oh, and it had been a big one. He had finally confessed to Kalana how he felt, even if it had started out as an accident, and it turned out she definitely liked him back, too.
And she basically became my girlfriend even without specifically saying those words.
Good stuff, right? A great ending to a tragic day, yeah? The epitome of the term silver lining, correct? Nope! Sorry, try again! There was no such silver lining. There was no positive ending to the day. It had been yanked away from him so unceremoniously that he felt cheated and betrayed. You see, all this time that he had been sitting here and chatting nicely with Mr. Oren and his “friends,” they had all been planning to take Kalana and her father away from him while abandoning him here all alone in the building he’d almost died in.
“I just won’t stand for this,” he said. “And I’m sorry if I’m coming across as disrespectful. I just don’t see how you can do this.”
“I’m not doing anything,” Mr. Oren said. “In fact, I’m practically throwing everything I have out there to help you. I like you a lot, Zach, but the way you’re behaving is actually going to make the situation worse.”
“By standing up for myself?”
“By refusing to be reasonable and understand why things are as they must be.”
Alixa yawned, then apologized. She sat on the green couch next to Mr. Vayra and Kalana. Her glasses had slumped down on her face, but with her eyes growing weary and beginning to close, she didn’t seem to notice. Maric was still on his feet, but his expression was blank and he’d said nothing during the entire argument as though he felt his words could only hinder not help. The same was likely true of Alixa. The sun had now fully risen in the sky, and he and Mr. Oren had been arguing for over an hour, which was when the bombshell news was just dropped on his feet like an anchor.
One hour ago, Mr. Oren had told him that Kalana and her father needed to be moved to a safe, secure location protected by his guild—which for the record, Zach had no problem with. He also had no problem with the fact that both Kalana and her father had expressed interest in joining his guild now that they better understood its nature and its purpose. Surely, the two of them were still skeptical and traumatized by the idea of guilds in the first place, but after Mr. Oren reminded them that he’d never have saved their lives if he intended them any harm, the two seemed convince and onboard. Honestly, it was a great idea. Who’d be against that? The only question Zach had at the time was how soon he should pack his bags.
“Zach, you’re not coming with us,” Mr. Oren had bluntly said, to which Zach had merely laughed, thinking at first that Mr. Oren was only joking. But then he remembered that Mr. Oren, for all his amazing qualities, basically never joked about serious topics.
“What the hell? Why?”
“Because you’re not ready to join a guild. Especially not ours.”
The sting of rejection had been so painful that it might as well have been a physical punch to the face. Thankfully, at the time, Kalana had leapt to his defense, and for the first half hour of the argument she had sided with him through and through.
“You’re not gonna convince me to leave without him,” she’d said. “If he doesn’t go, I don’t go. I…I finally…he finally told me how he feels, and…”
“It won’t be forever,” Mr. Oren had said. “I keep trying to tell you that. But let me make something perfectly clear. Varsh will come back with a much more dangerous group, and if Kalana is still here, I won’t be around to save you. She and her father need to come with us.”
“Obviously,” Zach had said in agreement, because it was the obvious choice. “But why can’t I go? Is it because Varsh was right? Because I’m trash?”
“If you were trash, I wouldn’t be throwing myself into the fire for you. I’m going to get you in the guild as long as you put in the work. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
“Work?”
“You have to complete a quest.”
“A quest?”
“Yes.”
“To do what?”
“To reach level 10, and on your own. Find me then, and I swear I’ll use every bit of influence I have to get you an official guild invite.”
When the so-called “quest” was first pitched, Zach hadn’t been happy, but he’d at least kept an open mind to it. He didn’t understand why he had to face a requirement Kalana didn’t have to worry about, nor did he understand what any of this was even for. Even still, leveling up was now one of his life’s goals anyway, so reluctantly, he had at first agreed.
“All right. So where are you sending me, then?”
“Sending you?”
“Yeah, to…to fight mobs and get level 10.”
“I’m not sending you anywhere, Zach. How you get to level 10 is up to you.”
Zach had thrown his arms up in the air in outrage. “You expect me to camp level 1s all day in a cavern? At 2xp a piece, this gods-damned city will be swallowed by the Leviathan before I’ve had enough time to do that.”
“To the contrary, Zach, I think at level 3 you’re too high to be killing level 1s. You should go hunt higher-level monsters.”
“Oh, gee, you think?” Zach had snorted. “Why didn’t that cross my mind, Mr. Oren? Of course. Just go fight higher-level monsters. Oh, wait. That’s right. There aren’t any. Sucks to be me!”
“I don’t like your tone or your attitude. That’s half the reason you’re doing this in the first place.”
Zach had to restrain himself from doing what would’ve been unthinkable just a few days ago: attacking his high-school science teacher in his maybe-girlfriend’s blood-stained apartment over a disagreement about leveling. Even amid his rage, he realized it was a comical problem to have.
“So this is punishment?”
At this, the expression on Mr. Oren’s face had actually softened. “No. Never. I would never. Of course it’s not.”
“Then what is it?” he’d demanded.
“Why did I make you come with me here?” he asked. Zach wasn’t sure what he was even referring to. Not exactly, anyway.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“To this apartment. When you told me what’d happened to you. Why did I make you come with me here? I could’ve had you wait in my office. You would’ve done it. I could have handled this on my own easily.”
Zach had lifted his shoulders and turned over his palms. “I don’t know. You tell me.”
Mr. Oren had nodded. “Okay then, I will. It was for the same reason I stayed back and let you fight Varsh a second time when you thought you were going to die for it: it was so that you could overcome your fear. It was one of your problems.”
“But what does that have to do with any of this?”
“It has everything to do with it, my man. It’s not punishment. You’re…okay, do you remember the story I told you earlier about the boss that killed an entire town?”
“Well, yeah. It was horrible. But what does that have to do with anything?”
“It has everything to do with everything.” Mr. Oren had pointed to the window. Though he didn’t specifically mention the gigantic boss spawn that would one day soon descend upon the city, it was clear his intention in pointing had been to remind Zach of it.
“Before I explained to you the truth about the guilds, you thought the guilds were just a bunch of rich, elite, or privileged people trying to run the world. Remember?”
“What about it?”
“You now know it’s not true. None of those things are true for—well, at least for adventure guilds in general. For our guild, in particular, though, there is one part of that I have to admit is the truth.”
“And what’s that?” Zach had asked, folding his arms across his chest.
Mr. Oren chewed on his lip a moment as if thinking on how to word his reply. Then he said, rather bluntly, “We are elite. It’s not a boast. It’s not a…it’s not an arrogant thing meant to put us on a pedestal. But as far as adventuring guilds are concerned, the God Slayers are an elite-tier guild. We fight bosses. People die. Only the extremely gifted can join us. If you haven’t noticed, the people you met today were all very gifted.”
“So that’s what this is,” Zach had said with a forced laugh as hurt and rejection gained new company in the form of wounded pride and a feeling of unworthiness. “I’m not good enough. Is that why Kalana gets an instant pass?”
“It’s half the reason. The other half is your temperament. We’ve worked on your fear, but you have other things you need to iron out before any of our guild-mates, including even myself, would feel comfortable attacking a boss spawn with you.”
Every single one of his words had wounded Zach, but what made it all the worse was that he could tell that none of them were meant maliciously or even intended to cause harm. It would almost have been better if his teacher was trying to upset him. Somehow, that might actually be less humiliating and stinging than this.
“When I say this isn’t punishment,” Mr. Oren said, “that is what I mean. Kalana, she’s…well, look. Criticism sucks. It really sucks. Everyone hates it. Even the people who pretend they don’t mind it—they secretly hate it. So having said that, I’m just going to rip the bandage off here, because I feel you deserve to hear the truth.”
“What truth?”
“That Kalana is just better than you. She’s not as book smart, but she’s got better wits, she’s stronger, her stats are higher, her instincts are better, she follows instructions more easily, she’s more competent, and, I’m sorry to say this, she’s braver and far more reliable.”
Aghast, Zach had almost felt blown away by Mr. Oren’s words as thought they were a hurricane. The remarks had been so biting and so harsh that Zach was too devastated to even muster the outrage necessary to refute them.
“Don’t listen to him,” Kalana had said, her tone dark and angry. “He’s an idiot.”
“Kalana, I’m going to forgive that because I know what you’re trying to do. It’s yet another reason why you’re perfect for the guild. Selflessness.”
“Zach is selfless!”
“No. But he will be. He’s not. He doesn’t understand enough yet to be.”
“The hell is that supposed to mean?” Zach shouted.
“Lower your voice, Zach,” Mr. Oren said, scolding him. “What I mean is that by your own admission you originally wanted to get into adventuring as a way of becoming rich.”
“That…” Zach averted his gaze. “That’s true, but…”
“You don’t have to justify it. What you don’t understand—and I’m hoping someday you’ll realize—is that I wouldn’t be standing here wasting my time if I didn’t see the potential for greatness in you. The problem is you need to work for it. I would willingly bet my life that if you put in the effort, you will succeed. I know that sounds very ‘teacherly’ of me, but I mean that.”
Up until this point in the conversation, Kalana had been on his side. It was only when he had nervously glanced in her direction, and she back in his, that his fears and worries had somehow been conveyed to her through some kind of wordless exchange of emotion. It was this point she’d said, “Zach, just so you know…I would wait for you. I’d never want to be with anyone else.”
“So you want to leave me here?”
“No, of course not. Never. But he’s saying if…if you get level 10, we can be together.”
“I shouldn’t have to level up for…for that. That’s my whole point.”
“I actually agree,” Mr. Oren had said. “You shouldn’t have to. I also agree that a seventeen-year-old girl shouldn’t have to live her life worried about being hunted in the middle of the night by modern-day slave traders. But she is, and she won’t be safe here. None of this should have to happen, but it does.”
“If you ask me to,” Kalana had whispered, “I’ll stay.”
Zach had refused her outright. “No. No matter what, you’re not staying. Mr. Oren might think I’m a greedy prick, but even he knows I’m not that selfish.”
“I don’t think that about you. You’re putting words in my mouth.”
“Either way, I’m not arguing over that. I’m only arguing about me. Kalana and her dad have to go no matter what.”
“Good. Then that makes this much simpler.”
With that, Kalana had bowed out of the argument, and so, for the next half-hour, Zach had engaged in a ferocious back and forth with Mr. Oren. Only, he no longer had anyone on his side. Everyone had turned against him. Well, almost everyone. Through it all, he had acquired a new ally. He didn’t know how he’d acquired this ally. He didn’t understand why he’d acquired this ally. Hell, he didn’t even really know when he’d acquired this ally. But make no mistake: he had, through some unknown means, picked up a staunch, unflinching, untiring, and relentless defender who had been in his corner through every second of this. Even as Alixa and now Kalana looked to be growing drowsy on the couch, his new ally stayed right by his side through each and every second of this.
“You will not abandon Zach!” Fluffles shouted. “Alex, I am mad. You are being bad to my new friend Zach.”
“We’ve been through this,” Mr. Oren said. “I’m not abandoning him.”
“Zach is invited to God Slayers. Fluffles says so. I say Zach invited. It my guild now. I take it from you, and it’s mine.”
It actually fascinated Zach the way Mr. Oren took the cat seriously. He argued with it the same as he would any other person. Which was good, because it meant Zach really did have someone on his side and in his corner. He never thought he’d be so grateful for a cat. In fact, Fluffles defended him so vigorously and with such spirit, that Zach had genuinely been converted from a dog person to a cat person. That was how grateful he was to his new furry friend, even if it made no logical sense why the cat was so on his side.
“I want him to join, Fluff. He needs to prove himself. I don’t have the power, at least not in his case, to grant him immediate admission.”
“But what you’re asking me to do is impossible,” Zach said. “You keep saying I’m not listening to you, but you’re not listening to me.”
With a sigh, Mr. Oren rubbed his eyes then fixed Zach with a stern look. “Zach, do you really believe there are no other spawn points?”
“Obviously.”
“Then how are you level 3?”
“Well, I found…I found the last one.”
“Really?”
Zach had to admit, he did find himself becoming more skeptical of things now that he’d had his eyes opened to the true nature of guilds. “Well…”
“Here is something I can promise you with all the certainty in the universe. If someone who is truly an adventurer at heart seeks out experience and growth, they will find it. And that’s not a spiritual or religious argument, either. There are actual mystical forces at play. I’ve seen the evidence myself, and as a man of science, those words mean something to me.”
“What are you trying to say?” Zach asked. “That if I want it badly enough, I’ll get it?”
“No. That’s too broad a generalization. I’m saying that if this.” He placed his hand over Zach’s heart. “Is in the right place, and you go looking, you’ll find a way forward.”
Fed up with the entire argument, Zach rubbed his eyes and then ran his hands through his head. He had worn himself out. He’d been fatigued even before seeing his father’s corpse, and then he’d gone through the nightmare that followed. He’d had enough arguing. Enough debating.
“So…if I get level 10?”
“I’ll get you in. These two are doubtful. But I give you my word. Or at least I’ll put you on a path that leads there. Just get to level 10 and then we’ll worry about the next step.”
He exhaled. “I know I have to grow stronger. It’s just I don’t want to be alone right now. My dad’s dead. Kalana’s going away. I don’t know how I can make it.”
He regretted saying the words, because the dampness in Kalana’s eyes and look of abject guilt in her expression meant that she’d now be burdened with something that Zach had never meant to burden her with. Maybe he really did need to do some growing up.
“Kalana, it’s not your fault. I just—”
“I know it’s not,” she said, wiping her eyes. “But I’m still gonna feel bad. I don’t wanna leave you here. You know that, right?”
“Of course.”
“And even if…I’d stay even if it’s dangerous.”
“I won’t let you.”
“So then what do we do?”
Zach again massaged his face, this time with both hands. Gods, he was so tired. “Just go. All of you. I’ll find my way forward. Even on my own.”
As if sensing things had finally concluded, Alixa got up off the couch, stretched her arms, legs, and back, and then turned to offer Kalana a hand, which she took, pulling the girl to her feet. Her father also stood up. There was a tiny, pimple-sized dot where his right thumb used to be, the first sign that the regrowth treatment was working. Zach wondered if Varsh would regrow the hand he’d lost.
I still can’t even believe these kinds of procedures exist. Hospitals can’t do this.
“All right,” Mr. Oren said. “I know it’s going to be hard to be all alone for a while, but I promise you, I—”
“Zach not alone,” Fluffles said, interrupting him. The cat jumped up onto the windowsill. “I stay with Zach. You all go. I stay. Zach will give me tuna and chin scratch.”
At this, Mr. Oren’s eyebrows lifted in something that was either surprise or dismay: Zach couldn’t tell which. Alixa also wore the same expression. Even Maric appeared somewhat taken aback. Yet, all three of them seemed to also be contemplating something, as evident by the way Maric rubbed his bearded chin with his thumb and forefinger.
“You know, that could work,” Mr. Oren said.
“I’ll miss him, though,” Maric replied sadly.
“Nothing to miss,” Fluffles said. “I am Zach’s cat now. Daddy did not give tuna, so now I am Zach’s cat.”
Alixa smiled. “It would be good not to have to deal with him for a bit, too. And I don’t want to leave Zach alone for safety reasons as well as emotional. Fluffles can protect him if he gets in over his head.”
Zach wanted to snort in derisive laughter. How would a cat protect him? Sure, he was adorable, and sure, Zach definitely wanted him to stay, because at least he wouldn’t be all alone, but at the same time, the idea that a cat would keep him safe as opposed to the other way around was ridiculous. It was also ridiculous the way Mr. Oren moved over to the windowsill, leaned against the wall on his elbow, and actually began to threaten the cat.
“Fluff, if you stay with him, you need to be good. And you know what I mean by that.”
“I be good. Won’t kill birds.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. Stop playing dumb.”
Fluffles meowed. “I don’t know.”
“Fluff, come on. You know what I’m saying.”
“Fine. No…no cheat.”
“That’s right. No cheating! I know you think you’d be helping your new friend, but your job is to protect him, not do the work for him. If you do, we’ll just find out, and then you’ll never see him again, and he’ll never see Kalana again.”
Fluffles hissed. Mr. Oren merely rolled his eyes. “You can take that attitude with me if you want, buddy, but I’m just an officer in the guild. I won’t be able to help him if you start pointing out spawns or guiding him to them. You can teach him how to fight with a basic starter sword and give him advice, but no path-finding, no mob-location, no high-level crafting, and no, and I mean absolutely no, power-leveling.”
Fluffles gave the angriest meow that Zach had ever heard a cat make. “I power-level Zach!”
“No. No power-leveling.”
Mr. Oren actually had to bend backwards to avoid the unsheathed claw that Fluffles sent at his face in a sudden swipe. Then he jumped off the windowsill, hopped onto the couch, and said, “Maybe…maybe a little power-leveling?”
“What even is that?” Zach asked.
Mr. Oren turned to him. “It’s when you slap a mob way higher level than you in the face, and then you run for your life while the cat kills it.”
Zach blinked in astonishment. “Wait, what?”
“It gives you some xp. Not as much, but it’s basically doing the work for you. It results in stunted growth. Your stamina will be so far behind your level that you could end up screwing yourself. Power-leveling is something the guilds use during times of war to raise soldiers faster. The only time it’s ever good to assist a low-level adventurer is when they’re facing certain death.”
Zach nodded, then held up his finger. “I got all that. What I’m confused about is that other part. The part about the cat killing the mobs.”
Fluffles jumped off the couch then rubbed against Zach. “Fluffles is level 47,” he said.
“W-w-w-what?” Zach shrieked.
“I am level 47.”
“That…that can’t be.”
“It is,” Mr. Oren said. “It’s also naughty of him to say that, but I guess because it’s you, it’s okay. Just so you both understand, never tell anyone your level and never check your stats where non-allies can see it. Level ambiguity is the difference between being murdered and being avoided if a hostile guild ever stumbles upon you.”
Fluffles meowed. “Alex is level—”
“Don’t do it,” he threatened. “You know how angry I can get. I’m not like your daddy. I’ll throw all your toys away, Fluffles.”
“If Alex touches my toys, I will set his house on fire. I want chicken and tuna!”
Zach looked at the talking cat and then back at Mr. Oren. This was one of the craziest, most unbelievable things he’d ever…like, how was he even supposed to feel about this? The damn cat was level 47? How could that even possibly be? He was a cat. People went their entire lives dreaming about reaching level 2, let alone 47, and yet this little furry creature had grinded that far in two years?
“Can…can I see your stats?” Zach asked him.
“Not now,” Mr. Oren answered in his stead. “We need to wrap things up, and I don’t want to listen to him brag for three hours. He’ll tell you every bird he’s killed with every ability.”
Fluffles walked arrogantly to the kitchen and then back into the living room, wiggling his butt with happiness and confident pride. “I tell Zach everything later.”
“I’m sure you will.” To Zach, Mr. Oren said, “I’m giving you five-thousand gold as starter cash. Use it to get out of the city tomorrow. It’s actually safer for you if you leave here. If you’re going to be an adventurer, then adventure. That’s what the guild needs to see. You can’t do that from the comfort of your apartment or familiar places you’ve been to already. Get on a bike and peddle until you’re out of this horrible city and then find it—whatever it is you’re looking for. It’s there.”
Taking his attention off Mr. Oren and the—his?—cat, he craned his head to regard Kalana. She came over to him, and then she took both of his hands in her own. He felt his chest begin to swell with sadness. She was holding his hands not like a friend, but like someone who was more than a friend, and…and he could’ve had this with her for so long if he hadn’t been so dumb. The regret he felt was immense and immeasurable.
“I hate that I waited until now,” he told her, trying to keep his voice from breaking. “We could’ve…there was so much we could’ve…”
“It’s gonna be okay,” she said. “You’ll get level 10, and I promise I’ll wait.”
He wanted to kiss her so badly. He would have done it, too, if only her father hadn’t been in the room. If everyone else had still been there except for him, he still would’ve done it. But it would be wrong. Not in front of him.
He let go of her. “Okay. I’m going back to my apartment. I don’t know how I’m supposed to find more mobs, but…but I’ll find a way. I promise.” He turned around and began to leave. “As far as today goes, I’ve had enough of this bullshit.”
“Yeah!” Fluffles shouted, following after him. “We’ve had enough of this bullshit! Right, Zach?”
“That’s right.”
Zach smiled at the cat as he made his way into his apartment. At least there was someone by his side. Being in this apartment without his dad and without Kalana was going to be an unbearable loneliness he couldn’t begin to imagine. That was why he would rest today, sleep tonight, and then tomorrow morning, he was leaving Whispery Woods for good and never coming back. He was going to buy a bicycle with a basket for Fluffles to sit in, a new phone in case he needed to call Mr. Oren, and then he was peddling the hell out of this city and to whatever came next. Actually, he sort of had an idea of how to find a spawn. It was a crazy idea, but it might actually work, and it’d be the first thing he’d try tomorrow morning when he got out of bed.
But either way, he was leaving for good—and he was taking his cat with him.