The Quantum Wanderer

Next morning, during breakfast, Cecilia turns to me.

“My villain, we are getting close to the wedding. When are we going to do our revelation to my parents?”

“Whenever you girls want, really. You have been busier than I have with the wedding stuff. How do you want to make it?”

“I was thinking that we could send them a message to go to Orora. Once they are alone in the road, then we can come out of the clouds, we all landing together in front of them, and then their daughter comes over to meet them. I can just imagine their faces.”

“So is getting ridden?”

Cecilia does this puppy face towards Shandon. Shandon raises her fork and opens her mouth, but then decides not to say whatever she is thinking.

“Fine… You earned it.”

I look at the other girls, they look a bit anxious.

“Who wants to give me a ride?”

All three of them raise up their hands. I can’t stop but giggle at how eager they are.

“Ok, we will see to that in a little bit.”

I wonder if Leopold is already at work. That way I could ask him to pass a message to Cecilia’s parents through the guild. I open a small enough portal that can go undetected, and Muninn interrupts me.

“Yes, father, Leopold is in his office, and from the window we can see that he is alone.”

“Thanks.” It turn to the small portal, and talk through it.

“Leopold? Good morning. Do you have a minute?”

I can hear him sighing on the other side of the small portal.

“Sure. How can I help you?”

“Can you please pass on a message to Charles and Lucille, Cecilia’s parents, in the village…” I look at Cecilia. All this time, I never really asked the name of the village her parents lived in. She fills in the blank.

“Eastbrook.”

I repeat.

“Eastbrook, please?”

“Sure, they have a guild small office there. It should be easy. What is the message?”

“How long do you think it would take them to get to Orora?”

“It depends on what they are going to use, but it should not be too different than 5 days.”

“Great. Please tell them that the wedding is going to be in 5 days in Orora, they are to meet us there as quickly as possible. By the way, I am happy to pay for the trip, if they need to rent a cart or means of transportation from the guild. Can I just pay you?”

“Huh? No, yes, the guild can have that covered, of course, but… I don’t really get it… Are you going to have something in Orora?”

“Not really, this is more of a reveal that Cecilia is planning. They are not going to have to travel a lot. Can you please let us know when they leave?”

“Huh… Sure?  Is that all?”

“Yes. I really appreciate the favor.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

I close the portal. I look at Cecilia.

“When do you think they are going to be far enough from the village?”

“Probably tomorrow evening. I am guessing that they are going to get ready today for the trip, then they are going to travel tomorrow the whole day, and that should put them far enough to reach a place with less people around.”

“And that’s when we land in front of them.”

“That’s when we land in front of them.” She says, smiling.

Aquamarine makes a weird face. I look at her.

“Yes?”

“My lord, are you sure this is wise…?”

Cecilia is the one to answer.

“It is going to be ok. I am going to love seeing their reaction to their daughter landing close to them, on top of a dragon!”

Aquamarine shrugs and keeps eating.

We finish breakfast. The girls go, through Huginn’s portal, over to Aisha, to hack some additional details. Huginn is getting really good on the spatial magic. She goes with the girls, leaving Muninn and I behind.

I go into the kitchen. Roberta is busy, but she stops for a minute when I get there.

“Hi Roberta. Good morning.”

“Good morning, sir. What can I do for you?”

“Nothing in particular. I was just wondering if you already have everything you need for the wedding. If there is any condiment you need, or money to get anything…”

“We are all good, sir. Don’t worry about it, everything is going to be smooth.”

“I am sure of it.” I giggle a little. “Sometimes I think that everything here is way too good…”

“That is funny, coming from you sir! After all you did… I think you don’t understand how happy we are that we get to work for you.”

“I appreciate the sentiment. But please let me know if there is anything you guys need. Even if it is not related to our household.”

“We will, sir.”

The other cooks were around Roberta, also nodding.

I go back to the living room. Muninn is on top of a cabinet. I look at him.

“What do you want to do? I don’t have anything planned.”

“Well, we could go mess up with Ambrose a little bit…”

“No, no messing up anyone, please.”

“You are not fun, father… Do you want to see a couple fucking?”

“No! Why would I want that?”

“Come on, father. I have seen your knowledge of technology… How you used to use it…”

“Being as it may be, I don’t think I will be needing that. Not anymore.”

Muninn sighs. I think that there are things that I should have kept secret.

“Do you want to listen in on Arthuria’s throne room? There are some juicy news on that front...”

“Not particularly… I don’t really care for spying on other people.”

He shrugs.

“You are hard to please, father.”

I giggle a little bit. I think about what I would like to do. I would enjoy some quest in the guild, but then after the fight with the kraken, most things are a little… easy. I still wouldn’t give up my advantages in a fight, though.

I decide to go the guild, and take a look at the quests. I put on my adventurer apparel, and I place my katana inside my holding bag. Muninn and I go to the guild.

The place is, as always, busy with activity. Most adventurers are talking about the situation in the Holy Kingdom. The ban on dwarven weapons there are making things harder for them. The monster appearances were increasing. Violence was increasing as well.

The impacts on economy were starting to get felt throughout the Holy Kingdom. Merchants don’t travel without escorts. Most of those are done as guild quests. But now merchants would impose contracts on the adventurers that they could not bring their weapons bought with them inside the Holy Kingdom. Their fear of not being able to trade with the dwarves was impressive.

On the other hand, weapon maintenance is a lot tougher now. The dwarves had special techniques to maintain the mithril weapons. I didn’t pay attention to what was needed, but even these weapons need to be sharpened or fixed at times. This service could be provided locally, but now the dwarves were all but gone. It would be actually cheaper buying a new weapon than trying to fix an old one because of logistic costs.

Basically, the sales were limited, and the weapons were shorter lived. Humans and other races had no idea on how the dwarves produced them. Iron weapons were easy to come by, and steel could still be produced by humans, but anything above that involved the dwarves, that were more united than ever.

There was a group of adventurers that had just arrived the day before from a escort quest for a merchant. They were talking about the dwarves. They were talking about how their mission went. People were still gathering around. I decided to pull up a chair as well.

The leader looked around, and once he was satisfied that the group listening was large enough, he started the tale.

“So, the trip itself was uneventful. We didn’t meet any bandits on the road, just a monster encounter, nothing too hard. Things started to get weird when we got to the dwarven village.

“We had a paladin and a priest with us, from another party. They were not allowed to enter the village. This had never happened before. The paladin and the priest said that they were not representing the Holy Kingdom, the dwarves at the gate just said that they had the wrong god.

“They said it was a blasphemy, but the dwarves didn’t care much. The paladin said that he was going to enter, but when the loaded ballistas appeared on top of the wall, he just let it go. They camped outside the village while the merchants did their business. We were allowed to stay in the village like always.

“Inside the village, they had a new chapel. I entered the chapel to take a look. It had a big statue of Wrax, one crow on each shoulder. By his feet there were 4 dragons. A dwarf was sweeping the floor, an invited me in. They offered me the words of Wrax. They even gave me a pendant.”

The adventurer brings out an ankh cross, but it had one small ball on top of each arm.

The pendant circulates around. The piece itself is quite smooth, and it shines under the light. It is made of mithril.

“What did they tell you about Wrax?” another adventurer asks.

“They said that he is in favor of balance. That he doesn’t discriminate against any races, and that his greatest weapon is his knowledge, not his sword. They mentioned that he is a walking god, that he could be anywhere and everywhere. They said that he is all powerful, and that we can get salvation if we but turn to him.”

“Salvation? From what?” Asks another one.

“I don’t know, I didn’t want to ask too much, you know how those fanatics will not shut up if you ask something.

The adventurers are all thinking about what is being said.

“What did the priest and the paladin said when you mentioned that to them?”

“Are you crazy? I just kept this to myself. I am not even in their party. I am not going to jeopardize the quest because some fanatics decided to have issues with each other.”

We all laughed for some time. After this, the adventurer that was making the questions threw in another one.

“Is this related to the new Wrax church that appeared in the lower merchant district? I hear it started to get some believers after the dragons’ parade.”

“You are free to ask them. I have no idea, and I am not particularly to believe in any god in particular. It’s not like any of them did anything for me.”

The group around the adventurer group starts dissolving. I put my chair back close to the table I had picked it up from. I go to the quest board.

The values for escort missions for merchants entering the Holy Kingdom are double the value of other escort missions. There are some other hunting quests, but nothing really captures my attention.

I come to the balcony and ask to speak with the guild master. I show the attendant my mithril tag. After some minutes, she accompanies me to the guild master’s office. She knocks, enters and announces me. She comes back out, and gestures me to enter the office.

“Good morning, sir Marcelo! How can I help you?”

“Well, I was looking for a quest, but perhaps something on the harder side…”

He looks at me. He scratches his chin.

“I was going to prepare an expedition for Maritma. There is a giant squid off the coast, it is impacting the commerce.”

“Does the carcass of the giant squid pays well?”

“About the same as Fenrir.”

“But isn’t it harder to kill?”

“It is, but it only has meat. Not many bones or claws to make into weapons, just a beak that is not that useful because of format. There is a lot of meat to make up for that, but it can be used as proof of kill.”

“Got it. And the pay for the quest?”

“3 platinum coins. That’s what we would pay to the group.”

“It is not a bad deal, actually. How big is the monster?”

“I think you are the only person that would say this is a good deal. It is a long quest, for a lot of mithril adventurers. This kind of monster is difficult to locate, given they stay under water and don’t surface every time. After that, it is difficult fight, the monster can always run towards the deep. Then you have the cost for the boat, the crew. As for the size, it is 60 feet.”

“Don’t worry about it. Do I bring the beak to you?”

“Yes, that works.”

“Can you show me on the map the area?”

He retrieves a parchment from the cabinet, and extends it on his table.  He points to an area, and it is around 100 miles south of Shoria, just outside the Holy Kingdom.

I get outside the city, Muninn is with me. I turn to him.

“Do you happen to have birds around there?”

“Just a minute, father.”

He opens his four eyes, and they shine red. After a minute, a portal opens in front of us. I smile.

“Proud of you, buddy.”

“You may want to cast fly before going through, father.”

I cast fly, and fly through the portal. We are above an area in open sea. There is a wreckage below us, upon which some fish are feasting from below, and some seagulls are feasting on the parts that are floating.

I release a ping of mana senses, and I can sense this bigger amount of mana at the seabed floor. The sea here is not too deep, it is around 300 feet. This reminds me of the kraken hunt, just children level. I turn to Muninn.

“Meet me in the beach in Drakonia, that’s where I am going to portal us both to.”

“Sure, father.”

Muninn opened up a portal, and just like that he is gone. I look down. I am at around a thousand feet in the air. I go a little to my left, to a place where I can sense that the area is free. I enhance myself, specially my lungs, and I dive.

I control my direction inside the water. When I reach the giant squid, I start extends a tentacle towards me, and I open a portal to the beach in Drakonia. We are both sucked by it. This time, though, the pressure is way lower, and the monster way more manageable. It is still a big one, but way more manageable.

We leave the water jet, I position myself sliding through the sand, while the giant squid is roling on the sand. When it stops, it tries to stand up, but then Muninn, in his big shape, hits it, tearing it right between the eyes, ripping the main brain to shreds. After the atack, Muninn flies up and lands by my side.

The tentacles continue moving for a little bit, but then it stops after a little bit. The sand it was standing on is black with the ink they use to try to flee. After another couple of minutes, it stops moving. Muninn is still looking at the monster.

“I have to say, I am not impressed, father.”

“Yes, the kraken was bigger, stronger and faster. Besides, the depth was so much that instead of us being just forced through it, it was more like an explosion.”

“That sound bad, father.”

“It was… Instructive. Did you get any experience?”

“Almost nothing, but then we get it in a different way.”

“Fair enough.”

I take my katana out, and I extract the beak. Then I put the beak and the beast inside my holding bag. I finally take a look around. There are a couple of dragons on the beach. I pay attention, and one of them is Troggar. They are doing something out of glass. He jumps in front of the construction, and opens his wings, hiding it behind. He keeps the wings open, but bows his head.

“Good afternoon, Troggar. What have you got there…?”

“I am sorry, my lord. Your mates told me to keep secrecy, that you might enjoy it more. Are you sure you want to see it?”

I take a moment to think. He is contributing to the wedding, apparently more than I am. It is supposed to be a surprise, I just hadn’t realized that there might be something in the making here.

“No, it is all good. Thank you for your help on this.”

“Of course, my lord.”

I turn around, and I open a portal to the forest outside Ironhold. With some wind and fire magic, I dry my self up. I still have a lot of salt on me, but I am not damp. I go straight to the guild. I get to the counter and ask to talk to the guild master again. The attendant, the same one as the previous time a couple of hours ago, sighs.

After some minutes, I am back at the guild master’s office.

“Sir Marcelo! Back already? How can I help you? Do you need a better map, or perhaps some other assistance?”

“No need.”

I put the beak on the coffee table. The guild master jumps on it, and starts examining the beak. It still has some pieces of meat attached.

“How? HOW?”

I shrug.

“You remember what I brought you once for dismantling, right?”

He remembers and calms down.

“But still, to find it… Then to bait it into surfacing… And I am not mentioning the travel times to start with.”

“Well, I had help.”

I smile, and I pet Muninn’s chest. The guild master looks at the crow.

“What are you going to do with the meat?”

“Since it is going to be sold this cheap, there are some people that might be needing it more. It is a big chunk of meat, it may help around.”

“As you wish. Given the amount size of reward, can I provide the payment tomorrow? That is going to allow us to recover the coin from the safe.”

“Sure. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to take go home, and remove the salt.”

“Salt?”

I smile at him, so that this next sentence doesn’t sound too aggressive.

“Yes. You do realize that the squid lives under salt water, right?”

“Oh, sorry.”

“No problem.”

I leave the guild, and I go back home. In my room, I remove the leather armor I am wearing. I take a shower, and I am refreshed after it.

I take a look out the window, and the sun is not so close to sunset. I use the Comm Gem to contact Rajesh. Since they are giving asylum to the centaurs, why not giving them something that they can share and feed some people for a time? Even if the centaurs are not going to eat this, it can be used for other demons, or it can be used to feed the wolves.

Rajesh answers the call.

“Hello, friend! How are you?”

“I am well.”

“What can I do for you?”

“Well, I have a gift, in particular for the people that were helping with the asylum for the centaurs. I was thinking of bringing it over, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure. Let’s meet in your room.”

I portal there, and a couple of minutes later, Rajesh arrives.

“Hi friend. What do you have in mind?”

“Well, I hunted a giant squid, I don’t know if you guys enjoy this. I thought of bringing it over.”

“A giant squid? Today?”

I shrugged.

“Yes, I was kind of bored…”

“Bored. You were bored. Of course, friend. We can place it in the back of the palace, and the guys can come collect their pieces. Are you going to give some to Sidhu as well? It is considered to be a delicacy for us.”

“Sure. It is around 2 thousand pounds, there should be enough meat for a lot of people. I didn’t know you guys enjoyed it so much.”

“Great, follow me, please.”

Rajesh goes out the room, and I am walking with him.

“You do know your girls are strategizing with Aisha, right?”

“Yes, they told me that before Huginn portaled them here.”

Rajesh nods. We keep walking. We arrive in the back of the palace. I open my holding bag and deposit the carcass there.

“How did you hunt this?”

“I located it with Muninn’s help, then I sent both it and me to a beach, and Muninn did the kill. It was pretty quick, actually. We picked up the quest today, did it, I went back home, washed up, and now I am here.”

I look at the position of the sun, it is around 4:00 already. But it has been a busy day. Rajesh looks at the carcass, and mutters.

“Bored…”

He then turns to me.

“On another subject, friend, we are planning the bachelor party for 3 days from now. Does that work for you?”

“It sounds good. Where is it going to take place?”

“We have a restaurant here, we are going to close it up. There are going to be you, me, Sidhu, and the dwarves. The women are going to be provided by the dwarves, they are insisting on it.”

“Sure.” I mention distracted. I am thinking whether I should visit the girls or not, but they are with Aisha. I can wait until dinner time.

I say my goodbyes to Rajesh, and Muninn and I go back home. After some time, the girls are back too, they are still excited with the things they have talked about with Aisha. We have some dinner, and we decide to check on Cecilia’s parents tomorrow. Muninn checks on their security. We all retire for the night.