I shook my head, my gaze flicking back and forth between the shopkeeper’s emotionless eyes and Aeshma’s worried, glittering globes. Clearly I should’ve tried to get more information out of Aeshma before taking part in this little scheme of hers. What was the ‘political climate’ the shopkeeper mentioned? And how did Aeshma fit into it? She was obviously a Monster, and even though she drew a lot of attention to herself, she seemed able to go where she pleased.
What was she, then? Some kind of shapeshifter? A fae? Was her current, hulking form even her true shape, or yet another Glamor?
“Let’s all calm down, alright?” Aeshma said. “I wasn’t… I’m not trying to pull a fast one on anyone! I saved this guy from getting robbed! Robbed by a couple of Humans, in case you were wondering. So now I’m trying to get him some gear, even though some jerks stole all his starter gold. Is that a crime? Huh?”
The shopkeeper spoke again in his cool, emotionless voice. “Normally I wouldn’t believe a single word from a Monster of your particular Ancestry. But you’re clearly going for some sort of off-meta build. I don’t think you could lie even if your life depended on it.”
He looked at me. “Lad, I’m sorry that you were robbed. You were robbed, correct?”
I nodded, and the the shopkeep continued, “It’s a rough way to start your life here. Without your starter gold… well, no money, no way to buy starter equipment. And thus no way to start adventuring. Alas.” With a mournful shake of his head, he began walking away from us.
A bead of sweat rolled down Aeshma’s face. The shopkeeper had us in a corner and he knew it.
“Wait,” Aeshma called out. The shopkeeper halted mid-step. “Okay, we don’t have money. You can see this guy needs equipment. So what do you want from us?”
Without turning around, the shopkeeper replied, “His jeans.”
Aeshma looked at me hopefully and raised her eyebrows. But I shook my head no. I wasn’t going to make a name for myself as an adventurer by running around in my underwear.
She threw her hands up in silent exasperation, before calling out to the shopkeeper, “Uh… is there anything else…?”
“I could offer you a Quest,” he said.
Aeshma and I glanced at one another. I shrugged – why not? It’d be good for me to get at least one measly Level before taking on the first Dungeon. “What’s the Quest?” I asked.
“Ever since I renovated the shop, I’ve had a rather serious infestation of Cellar Gremlins. Normally I’d put in for a proper exterminator, but things have been quite busy lately. I simply haven’t had the time. If you take care of it, I’d be happy to provide you with a starter kit appropriate to your Class.”
That sounded like a pretty good deal to me. Aeshma seemed to think so, too, by the way her eyes lit up.
“Tell me what your Class is and I’ll set aside your reward right now, as a show of good faith,” said the shopkeeper.
“Oh. I, uh… I don’t have one yet. A Class, I mean. Because I don’t have any Levels yet.”
The shopkeeper’s eyes darted to Aeshma before he replied, “Is that so. Well, be sure you hold onto them, lad. Level is a measure of your worth in this world.”
Hold on to them? What was he talking about?
“I won’t presume to meddle in your affairs,” the shopkeeper continued, “But you really ought to press your lovely companion, here, for some facts. These are uncertain times. And while her ilk are tolerated, they aren't gladly received. For reasons you may come to understand.”
He strode back behind his counter and turned to face us again. “So. Do you accept my Quest?”
I glanced at my ‘lovely companion’. Aeshma looked dejected, I guess because her seduction plan had failed so miserably. But she nodded to the shopkeeper nonetheless. “Yeah, we’ll kill your Gremlins for you. And for our reward, just make sure you give Roland here some armor. He’s too squishy.”
The shopkeeper took out a keyring from his pocket and unlocked the plain, wooden door behind the counter. “An excellent choice… ma’am. This way to the cellar, then, and come back up when the deed is done. Ah, by the way, watch out for Mimics down there. I think I’ve seen one or two kicking about.”
–
As we descended the cellar stairs, Aeshma muttered and cursed under her breath about her unfair treatment at the hands of the shopkeeper. “He threatened to call the guards on me? I’ll call the guards on him, see how he likes it. I’ll charm the guards, too. Then he’ll be sorry…”
I was feeling a bit miffed with Aeshma. Not only had she omitted the fact that her plan was to effectively rob the first store we walked into, but apparently there was a lot more important information she wasn't telling me.
After another minute listening to Aeshma’s grumbling, I couldn’t hold back anymore. The question exploded out of me. “Aeshma, why haven’t you told me… well, anything?”
She let out an exaggerated sigh. “I’ve told you loads, dude.”
I didn’t even grace that with a response. We descended another few steps in silence before she added, “I mean, I didn’t have time to tell you everything...”
“I barely know anything about you!” I snapped. “Just for example. The shopkeeper said that you were doing something ‘off-meta’. What did he mean by that?”
“I don’t know,” Aeshma lied.
“Oh, come on!” I shouted, stopping on the stairs. Aeshma took another few steps before she realized I wasn’t beside her anymore. “Do you think I’m just gonna follow you around blindly forever? You’re gonna have to clue me in at some point.”
Aeshma turned to face me. Her lower position on the steps put us at eye-level, and even in the dim light of the stairwell, I could see the worry and anger brewing behind her ruby-red eyes. She stared at me and fluttered her strange, fluffy eyelashes.
I had a flash of realization, then, that I really didn’t know what she was. Or what she was capable of. Everyone I’d met so far had cautioned me that she was inhuman, a Monster, not to be trusted or trifled with.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
And I had followed her into a dark cellar, with no one else around…
I shook the thought away. She was a Monster, but she saved my hide earlier. She was helping me. Right?
Her eyes were still boring holes into my soul. “I, just… well, I’m new here,” I said. “And people are staring, and laughing, and warning me not to travel with you! All that stuff the shopkeeper said about ‘uncertain times’... plus, you were reeeeally excited when I said I was still Level Zero. Remember that? It seemed pretty suspicious, even to me.”
Anger flared in Aeshma’s voice. “I remember saving your sorry ass a few hours ago, too,” she said. “I’d say that entitles me to a few secrets.”
“It kinda seems like I’m the only person who isn’t in on all of your secrets. I have to ask… you’re not just saving me as a snack for later, are you?” When she didn’t respond, I continued more quietly, “I don’t need your life story, only… obviously you’re a Monster, but what kind are–?”
“Succubus,” Aeshma said curtly, tightening her arms across her chest.
“I… wait, really?” She wasn’t how I would’ve imagined a Succubus to be, not by a longshot. But some other things were making more sense now: her soft skin and scars and calluses, the feeling I got on the tram when she was whispering into my ear…
Her eyes oozed a sadness that I couldn’t quite place or understand. “Yep. That’s what I am.”
“Why’d you try to charm me on the tram?” I asked. I had figured that was just what happened naturally when a lady got so up-close and personal… but it made a lot more sense, knowing that it was Succubus magic.
“What! I didn’t charm you!” Aeshma huffed.
“You absolutely did! When you were whispering in my ear, remember? Were you trying to, like, suck my soul out or something?”
“What, no! That wasn’t… ugh!” Aeshma stammered and sputtered, a faint blush painting her cheeks. “Look, I didn’t mean to. I promise. It’s hard not to sometimes, when I get up close to someone.”
She sighed again. “UGH! And we don’t steal souls! We steal, uh… we steal Levels.”
“Levels?” My mind was going a thousand miles an hour. “But… no, that doesn’t make any sense. What would you want with me, then, when I don’t have any?”
Aeshma blinked. “You’ll get ‘em fast, though,” she said.
It all clicked into place. “You picked me just so you could siphon off my Levels as soon as I got ‘em! So I’d never be strong enough to resist your, your… charms!”
“No! Well, kinda. Mostly the first part.”
I was in total disbelief. I got dropped into some kind of fantasy world, only to get mugged for my Levels! As if getting mugged for my starter gold hadn’t been humiliating enough!
“Look, dude. You don’t have to partner up with me if you don’t want to,” Aeshma said. “It’s not like I’m gonna stop you from leaving! But you’ve got a lot to gain from sticking with me. I’m… well, for one, I’m like, really strong!”
I raised an eyebrow. “I’ve got a lot to gain from giving you all my Levels? For the privilege of… what, being your squire? Your little butler, tagging along on adventures with you?”
“Yeah, like my squire, exactly! You can keep most of the loot, too. I don’t want my Level-farm getting squashed by some random baddie down the line. And without Levels of your own, you’ll need equipment to protect yourself in an emergency. Magic items are only useful to Humans anyway. Us Monsters can’t even activate them, so it’s all just junk to me.”
There was one plus for me, then; I’d get to take all the best gear.
A question bubbled up from the bowels of my mind. I wasn’t sure how to ask it delicately. “How exactly do you take Levels? Are we gonna… I mean, if you’re a Succubus, then… you know…”
“Hah! You wish! All I need to do is this!” she said, spinning on her heel to cup my cheek in her warm, calloused hand. She leaned forward, bringing her face so close to mine that I could hear her shallow breaths and taste her honeyed breath.
“Um,” she said. Her entire face had gone maroon – and mine nearly matched. “We, um,” repeated Aeshma, “we just have to kiss.”
A tingling sensation was starting to spread from her hand through my face. “Oh. That’s… nice, I guess. I’ve never kissed anyone before,” I said.
“You don't have any Levels to lose right now, so we don’t have to do it yet. But that's the gist of it,” she stammered, before leaning back and releasing me from her grasp.
We continued walking down the cellar stairs in a surprisingly comfortable silence. I supposed I wouldn’t mind being Aeshma’s decked-out kissing consort. I didn’t see any harm in it, especially as it truly seemed that I could leave any time I wanted to.
“Have you actually never kissed anyone?” Aeshma finally asked. “We kissed all the time back in Succubus Camp.”
“Succubus Camp? That’s not a real thing… is it?”
“Yeah! It’s where they train Succubi to be all seductive and stuff. I wasn’t the best student…. but it’s hard not to pick up some tricks after 118 years in the place!”
118 years? And that’s just how long she was at Succubus Camp, nevermind how long she’d been hanging around this town for. I couldn’t believe it; her face didn’t have a single wrinkle.
“Hey! I see that look you’re giving me! Aging works differently for Monsters,” Aeshma said with a toss of her hair. “So are you in, or not?”
“Yeah, I’m in. But on top of loot, I want… hm… half the gold we collect.”
Aeshma nodded. “Deal!”
–
“So seeing as we’re officially a party, now… what’re all the political tensions the shopkeeper was warning me about?” I asked, as we approached the bottom of the staircase. I didn’t trust Aeshma to paint a totally accurate picture of what was going on, but hearing her take on things would be better than nothing.
“Hm. Well it’s basically all the Queen’s fault, honestly. You see–”
But as we reached the bottom landing, our conversation was cut short by a bizarre sight.
A scrungy, scruffy little creature, covered toe-to-tip in gray fluff, was jamming a dagger into… the tile floor?
“Die, you fell beast!” it screeched in a grating, high-pitched voice. “Pollute our sacred land no longer!”
CRUNCH, CRICK, CHHUK!
Stone splinters went flying with every dagger-strike, until…
SQUIRK!
A gout of purple ichor sprayed out of the tile, soaking the fur of what I had to assume was one of the Cellar Gremlins we’d been sent here to exterminate. “Hah! Have at you, varmint!” it said, jabbing its blade one last time into a wriggling piece of floor.
“They can talk?” I whispered out of the side of my mouth.
“Guess so,” she said matter of factly. She stepped solidly off the stairs and onto the ground, her hands balled into fists.
“Hark! Who goes there?” shrieked the Gremlin, holding its dagger in a defensive position. But when it saw us, its surprised expression shifted to one of… awe?
“Messengers from the God of Little Things!” the creature screeched. “Messengers from the Stocker, come to bless us! ”
Messengers? A God? What was the Gremlin talking about? I caught Aeshma’s gaze hoping for some explanation, only to be met with a look of confusion not unlike my own.
“Oh joyous day!” the strange little Monster continued. “But wait! Step not on the tile. It may be yet possessed of wicked nature!” The gremlin crouched on the floor and stabbed the tile viciously with its dagger until every last bit was shattered into tiny pieces.
“Huff-huff,” the Gremlin panted as it rose to its feet. “Now the way is clear. Come, messengers. Greebo will guide you! You must come and meet the High King of this cellar. Your divine presence means an end to this war is near!” Greebo turned tail and sprinted away through a cracked-open door, laughing gleefully all the while.
“Aeshma… what?”
She shrugged. “I dunno, man, I’ve never been good at politics. Let’s just follow the bugger to its ‘king’. We can cut the infestation off at the source,” she said, and trotted off in pursuit.
I followed behind her. This was going to be weird, wasn’t it?
PARTY (3/3)
-------------------
Roland LV0
Ancestry: Human
Class: Not yet chosen
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Aeshma LV8
Ancestry: Monster
Class: Succubus
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Greebo LV1
Ancestry: Monster
Class: Cellar Gremlin
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