The Quantum Wanderer

As I was having some dinner, I started thinking about the hole thing.  I am got the levels I wanted from the dragons, of course, and I was about the hit other two jackpots.  That was going well.  But, if those things were used to produce army material, the demons would be in a sea of trouble.

I don’t have any particular attachments to the demons, but I don’t have any additional attachments to the human side either.  Both are sentient creatures.  My contact with humans was basically Andrew, Cecilia, and Leopold.  Those were ok.  On the other hand, the king left me to die. 

And Andrew told me how human the demons are.

I decided to sell the big dragon to the demons, so that a balance could be kept.

I finish my dinner, and chit chat a little bit with Cecilia.

The next day, after breakfast, I start my travel.  I know that the demon realm is after the chain of mountains, but there is no map of that area.

I start my trip, and do the same thing I did before, I go up until I can see a big part of the world, and then I cross the mountains swiftly.

I do those portal jumps.  I am too high to have any monsters around, the air here is really thin.

The land is kind of dry here, I don’t see vegetation around.  I can see some oasis here and there, but other than that, it is a mixture of dry hard land and some spots with a desert.

I locate this big city in the distance, and with an enhanced view, I get on the roof of a castle. I hear some voices coming from a corridor that is open on one side, they are talking a language that I don’t really understand.

I get a white handkerchief, and sidestep to them.  I come up a dozen feet after their backs.

The guy in the front turns around the quickest.  I have my buffers on, so he still turning kind of slow.  He takes his sword out of his sheath, lifts it up and freezes.  He very slowly starts to drop.

One of the guards that is behind him turns around, sees me, and starts to take his sword out of the sheath.  And is going to step towards me, when the guy in the front kicks him on the ribs.  He hits the wall, and stays there, sitting on the floor.

“RUKANA!!!”

He then looks at me, sighs, and puts his blade in his sheath.

The standing guard looks at me, and then looks at him.

“na to tum aur na hee main usaka mukaabala kar sakate hain.” He says.

He turns to me, he can see from my face that I am not understanding anything.

“What can I do for you, hero?”

I point to the white handkerchief.

“What is that?”

“Oh, it’s a symbol that I wanted to talk.  Is it not this way here?  A white flag?”

“Actually, no.  It would either be an empty pole, indicating that you gave up your flag, or the hands like this.”

He placed his two hands up, palms towards him, elbows in a square angle.

“Oh.  Ok.”

“So, what do I owe this to?  Are you here to kill us?”

“You’re talking about that, but you’re really calm.”

“Not really calm, resigned might be a better word for it.  If you did want to kill us, we would probably be dead already.  Now, how can I help you?”

“Do you have a place we can talk?”

“Sure.”

I accompanied him to a luxury room.  A big desk, lots of paper on top of it.  A shelf with a lot of books.

He poured me a drink, and did the same towards himself, place both drinks on a coffee table.  He motioned me to sit on one of the sofas, he sat across the table.

I take a look at the drink, and put some on my tongue.  Other than the alcohol, there are no hurtful substances.  I take a sip.  I put the glass on the table.

“Well, I assume that you guys have a spy network among humans, right?”

“Yes.”

“And that spy network probably informed you that there was a dragon sold among the humans, right?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know how long it is going to take, but your spy network is going to tell you that the humans have actually 3 dead dragons in their hands.”

He looks at me.  First, with his brow up.  He takes the drink that is in front of him with a gulp.

“But the thing is, I am not a human hero.  I mean, one could say I am the hero, and I am human, but I am not their champion.”

“Yet the dead dragons you provided are going to get us massacred.”

“And that is why I am here.  I want to avoid that.”

“How?”

“I am going to sell you the last dragon I have, and it is a big one.”

I could see his eyes shining, and a lot of excitement, but that was really quick.  He reigned himself in.

“This is going to take some time.  We have to go to the capital, and that is at least a two weeks travel.  I am count Bedan, by the way.”

“I would prefer to keep my name under wraps, if possible.  But there is something I can do about the travel.  Can you show me a map of the region?”

He got up, and picked up a scroll from a drawer, and opened it up on the coffee table.

“Are you not worried about providing this information?”

“I don’t pretend not know that you just raze us to the ground.  If you walk around, you can find those cities anyway, it’s not like they are hidden in a cave.”

“Makes sense.”

“We can get to the capital pretty fast.  Today, actually, if you don’t mind.  If your bureaucracy is fast, we have this done in a pretty fast manner.”

“Let’s do this.”

He stands up, opens the door, and says something to the guard at the door.  I can hear him running.

“Let me get the proper view of the land.  Can you wait here for a couple of minutes?”

I buff my self, and then I open a portal, way up high in the sky, close to the city that he had pointed.

I take a look down, and see a good spot, behind a small hill, for us to go.  No one that can see us in that spot.  I go back on the portal, and close it.

This whole operation took a fraction of a second, probably.

The wind inside the room doesn’t stop immediately.  All the papers drop on the floor.  Good thing that it was too fast for the papers to be sent through the portal.

I wait for the wind to stop.

“I am sorry for that, I had to look for a landing spot.”

“What do you mean, landing spot?”

“You will see, don’t worry about it.  Shall we go?”

“Can we wait until my lieutenant comes over?”

“Sure.”

I sit on the sofa.  The count starts picking up his papers around, and placing them on the desk.

I hear a knock, he says something, and another demon comes in.

“Ah, Sura, come in.  I am going to speak in [common] as a courtesy to our guest.”

He looks around and his face has all kinds of expressions.

“What can I do for you, count?”

“I am going on a trip with our guest.  Cancel my appointments for the next week.”

“Yes, count.”

“After I leave the room, see that it is reorganized.”

“Yes, count.”

“You can go.”

He does a salute, with his closed hand over his heart, and leaves the room.

“How are we going to travel?”

“Can we go to a place without ears or eyes?”

“Sure.”

I accompanied him to a basement of one of the towers, and we entered it.  He lit a torch on the wall with some fire magic, and that provided some light.

“Now what?”

I create the portal to the place behind the hill that I had seen.

He is looking at it.  Part frightened, part curious.

“Let’s go.” I say, and I go through the portal.  I take a couple of steps ahead, and he comes in behind me.

We start walking around the hill, and just before the city comes up, he recognizes the region.

We go to the road, and start walking.  Because I created the portal behind the hill, we were about a mile away from the city’s gate.

As we are walking towards the city, a group of soldiers approach.  There are 5 of them on horses, and another 100 on foot.

The count stands in front of them, and say something.  They go back and forth a little.  Two of the mounted demons unmount, and bring their horses to us.

The count mounts on one, I follow suit.

And we go our way, in the front of that unit.

When we get to the gate, the count identify himself.  The guard salutes him.  He points to me, and say something.  The guard salutes me as well, I nod back.  I don’t feel saluting back would be right.

We go around the city.  I see some wells, here and there.  The situation is not the best, but I can see that there is not that sense of slum.  The buildings are simple, but maintained.

We keep going, and we get to a second wall.  We go through the same procedure.

We get to this big building, it looks very solid.  We stop at the gate, and count shows something to the guard, and says something.

He salutes him, and we enter the building.  We leave the horses with those guards.

We enter the building, and a female guard comes over.  She says a couple of things, the count nods.  We follow her, to a room with this big table, and a lot of chairs.

“We have to wait a little, but the marshal is coming.”

“Sure.”

I sit down on a chair, with my back against the wall.

We wait for a little while.  I take a look around.  There is a big map on the table, and a couple more along the wall.

On the wall I was staring at there was this banner hanging.  It looked like it was their flag.

After some time, another demon enters the room.  He is bigger than the count, and he has this ferocious calm air to him.

He smiles at the count and salutes him.

He salutes me, and sits in a chair some 9 feet from me.

“Hello, hero.  I must say, I thought that half my crew had gone mad.  But here you are.”

“Can all you guys say I am the hero?”

“We can see your strength.  We can feel that you are above anything we have seen.  So you can only be the hero.”

“Makes sense.”

“Now, the count here told me that you bring a proposal?  What is it you’re selling?”

“You have heard that the humans acquired a dead dragon, right?”

“Yes.”

“They are going to acquire two more.”

He was shocked.  He regained his breath, and continued calmly.

“And you came here to sell this information?”

“No.  I thought that selling that kind of material to one side of the war would be unfair.  I don’t have many connections to humans, really.  Long sob story, yadda yadda.  So I want to keep the balance.  I am thinking of selling you the last one I have.  They get three, you get one.  But yours would be bigger then theirs.”

I turn to the count.

“What is the best meat in the dragon?”

“Nobody knows?  According to some legend, the tail.”

I turn back to the marshall.

“Oh yes, I will be getting a piece of the tail to myself.”

The marshall gives a little laugh, and says.

“Sure.  Can we look at it?”

“Of course.  Where do you want me to it down?”

“Did you bring it with you?”

“Yes.  I forgot to mention, a piece of the wing is also missing.”

“No problem.  Follow me, please.”

We walk for a while, until we end up in a fairly big room.  It is a sparring area, and I can see some stands around it.  The arena is big, but…  It is a house big.

“It’s not going to fit in there.”

“Ok, follow me, then.”

We go to an area in the back of the building.  He calls a group of guards, tells them something, and they start running.

“Just a minute, let them clear the area of prying eyes.”

After some time, a guard appears, and says something.  The marshal nods, and the guard goes away.

“Now if you please.”

I pull out the larger dragon from my magic bag.

Both of them are speechless.

The marshal goes down half a flight of stairs, and take a look at the back of the dragon’s skull.  Then he takes a look at me.  I am kind of embarrassed of all this attention, but not much to be done here.

He comes back, and says.

“That is an old one.  There are bigger ones, but that was probably already a parent.”

He scratches his chin.

“Ok, hero.  I can offer you 350 platinum for it.  Of course, you can have the tail.  How does that sound?”

I was actually expecting some 200 platinum, so this bump would feel good.  He stretches out his hand.

I shake it.

“That sounds ok.”

“Then it’s a deal.  Do you have something to cut the tail off?”

I keep imagining how messy this would be.  All the blood is still there.  And then I would have to cut it, cut the steaks out.

“Can you have them separated for me?  I don’t mind paying for that parts disassembly.  Preferably in smaller chunks.”

The marshal laughs.

“It’s as if we are talking about bear or something.  Sure.  Don’t worry about.  That job is on the house.  We are going to need some time to get the money.  Can you come back here in a month?”

“Sure.  If it helps, I could bring the count with me.”

“No need.  Here.”

He handed me a medallion, with an insignia on it.

“Show it to any soldier, in any situation, and he or she will not be hostile.”

“Thank you.  That is going to help a lot.”

I stop to think a little, and trying to hide portal from the marshal would be just stupid.  The count would tell about it.  Specially to his superior.  I open a portal to the basement where the count and I departed from.

I thanked the count, and got a gate to the forest, near Frolk.

Nothing around, as always.  Good.

I go to the guild, I am kind of tired.  I put on my normal clothes, and go down to get supper.

I sit down, and Cecilia brings me some ale.

“Cecilia, don’t eat too much on the supper today.”

“Why?  Are you going to take me to dinner?  Where?”

“I might just cook something later… “

Then I put my finger to my lips, telling her to be quiet.

After the usual, and last person leaves the guild, she locks the door.

She looks at me doing this body thing…  Walks seductively.  Puts her hands on the table.

“Let’s eat.”

I laugh a little.

“Ok, but for this one you have to promise me guild secret.”

“Sure.”

We go to the kitchen, and I take out the stake, and cut a big piece of it.

She puts wood in the oven.  Not really necessary, but she wanted to help.  She gets the salt out, and this time I put a little before the cooking.

I start cooking the steak.  The dragon steak.  The Fenrir one smelled good, but this one was almost hypnotical.  I could feel my mouth watering.  The mixture of mana and fat in the air made for this heavenly scent.

I could see some drool on the corner of Cecilia’s mounth…  I giggled, and she cleaned it with the shirt sleeve.

I did the hole burning the top with fire.

I cut it in half, and place each piece in a plate.  The table was already set with the ale.  I brought the plates with me, she followed.

She cuts out a piece of meat, and takes a look.

“This looks a little different.  What is it?”

“Taste it.”

I cut myself a piece, and placed on my mouth.  It was as if that was pure endorphins.  The mana, the fat, the softness.  It was the perfect steak. 

I looked at Cecilia.  She was almost melting.  Her eyes almost rolling up.

We ate our stakes, and then went up for the rooms.  Cecilia said that she would take care of the plates the following day.

The following day, when I wake up, I feel great.  I can see that my mana is actually buffed a little, I have more mana than the capacity in my body.  I do my grooming and go down for breakfast.  Everything is so silent.

The plates were still on the table.  I check it, and the guild’s door is still locked.

I go up and check Cecilia’s room.  I knock at it, I hear her voice, and it is sickly.

“Cecilia, are you ok?”

“Yeah, yeah…  I am going to be out in a second.”

I wait by the room.  She comes out, she is doing some ice magic on her head.

“By the gods…  My head hurts…  What did you give me yesterday?”

“Dragon steak…?”

“I am not even in a state to be surprised.  But I understand.  According to the bestiary, if someone low level eats some higher level stuff, like griffons, they can have a hang over the following day.  It says nothing about dragon steak, but I can guess that it would be the same, or worse.  How are you feeling?”

“I am actually good, thanks.”

“I hate you.”

“Ok, I learned my lesson, no more weird steaks…”

“No, no, I love you, I love you a lot, pls…”

Someone knocks on the door.

She goes downstairs, opens the door a little, and tell them that the guild is not going to open today.

She sits on a chair.

“Are you hungry?  Do you want breakfast?”

“No, I am actually good.”

“Good.”

“Are you going to be ok?”

“If were a man, I would probably be dying.  But I will be ok.  I just need a couple of hours to let this go away.  There is excess mana in my body.”

She goes to the sync, and start pouring water out of her hands.  And stays doing that for a time.

I am just watching, this is funny.

“Did you get that steak with Leopold?”

“You could say that.”

“He is investing on you, then.  Do you realize that the current king was the first one to taste dragon steak in…  I don’t know…  Forever?”

“How do you know this?”

“Well, the news that there was a dead dragon circulating are a known secret among the guild.  Some of the top echelon, and top guild masters, like Leopold, actually received a cut of meat from it.  There are also some people working with its materials.”

“Huh.  You don’t say.”

“There are also some other rumors.  That the guy that killed this dragon is the first enchanted adamantite in history.”

Then she starts laughing.

“What?”

“There is even this joke, that a mithril, an adamantite and an enchanted adamantite adventurers die in the same battle.  The are in front of the god of order.  The god of order ask them, ‘What do you believe?’.

“The mithril one says, ‘I believe in saving the people.’

“The adamantite says, ‘I believe in saving the kingdom.’

“The enchanted adamantite says, ‘I believe you’re sitting on my chair.’”

We laugh, and keep chit chatting.

When it gets close to noon, I go out and get some fruits.

We eat them, and the rest of the day just goes by, both slow and fast.

I take a week off, then I decide to go to the capital.  I talk to Cecilia, she doesn’t know of anything special about the capital’s guild, other than the fact that is way bigger than this, obviously.  It way bigger than Orora’s, for that matter.

I decide to visit Leopold, to get some info on the capital before going there.

Once I go to the counter, Alice just tells me to go up on my own.  She said that, in the future, I did not have to ask.

I went up, and knocked.

“Leopold?”

“Oh, my.  Came in, came in.  All the way-ay.”

I enter the room, and he uses the sound proofing magic.

“How did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Sell the dragons.  Two different cities, months of travel apart.  It is just impossible.  How did you do it?”

“I have a friend of a friend.”

“Right.  The guild is loosing it’s head after you.  The upper echelon is afraid you might sneeze a city off the map or something.  Please, please don’t get any allergies.  Wait...  You look stronger…  Gods.  What level?”

“109.”

“A hundred nine.  AHUNDREDNINE?!?  The level caps at one hundred, that’s why all the heros come with the level of a hundred, and don’t get to grow more.”

“Actually, that’s wrong.  It just doesn’t exist another human, or humanoid, with level a hundred, and the hero that chooses power gets that level.  I chose potential.  No limit, remember?”

“And how did you get there?”

“Like I told you, there is a trick that helps absorb more experience from each kill.  On top of that, I told that I was going hunting, so I killed 3 dragons.”

“Wait… Three?  What did you do the third one?”

“I thought that selling three dragons to the humans would break the balance in the war.  I don’t want to be an influence on it, so I sold the third one to the demons.  You do know that they are not what the nobles sell, right?”

“Even the gods must be laughing right now.  A lot of people are going to loose their minds, and some might loose their heads…  Yes, I know about the demons.  Every story has…  Perspectives.  That being said, how can I help you?”

“I was thinking of going to the capital, just visit, stay a week or two.  Do you have any information on the guild master there?”

“He is an asshole.  A big one.  Take care with him.  There are some stories running around that he likes to buy very young slaves, and abuses them.  Even though you can do anything you want with your slaves, it still is messed up, and you are still an asshole.”

“Why do you guys keep him, them?”

“Firstly, he didn’t break the law.  Second, political reasons.  He is part of the king’s family.  The guild is very powerful, but even then we have to not create certain kinds of waves.  I mean, unless you want to take over the country…  HAHAHA.”

“And here I thought you were serious when we get sound proofed…”

He shrugged.

“Few people, very few people, in the guild knows who or what you are.  Just so you know, that asshole is not one of them.”

“If you need something from the guild, you can let me know, and it will be done.  And I mean it.  The guild officially told me to bend myself backwards to be of help for you.”

“I appreciate that, but why?  What would you gain?”

He taps the nose.

“To keep you from sneezing.  We are not stupid.”

“Sure, thanks.  If you hear my voice, it might actually be me talking to you.  The portal can probably be used to send sound as well.”

“Good to know.  How small can you those?”

 “I don’t know, small.”

“So…  You can basically spy on anyone anywhere on the planet…”

“I hadn’t thought about that.  Probably…?”

He sighs and kind of resigns to his luck.

“Ok.  Anything else?”

“Aren’t you going to ask me to not spy on you?”

“Why?  You’re smart, I am smart.  You know spying on your friends is wrong.  If you want to spy, you will, there’s not stopping.”

“Makes sense.  By the way, do you know where a party called Requiem Warriors is?  Those guys are nice, I enjoyed their company for a little bit.”

“’Requiem Warriors?  What a stupid name…  I would never have a party that would be called funeral fighters or something like that.  That is inviting bad luck.  Haha.  I can take a look, and let you know.  You can get in touch once in a while, and I will let you know about news.”

“All right, thanks.”

He undoes the sound proofing, and I go on my way.  He is left sitting on the couch, massaging his eyes.