Chapter 6: The forgotten path
“Oh look, he’s waking up.” Augusta said. She sat her cup of tea down and leaned in close. Cam sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes, a yawn parted his lips. “Why hello there stranger, my name is Augusta, what’s yours.” Cam heard. He moved his hands to the side and looked up. Not high enough to see a face. He was eye level with a pair of freckled b cups not well hidden from the loose shirt of a girl.
“oh god.” Cam said, clenching his eyes close for a second.
“Your a god? Which one? Augusta asked. She bent her knees to get to eye level with him.
“I am not a god, you just surprised me is all. My name is Cam, sorry for sleeping, I was really tired, it seems.” Cam opened his eyes to get a good look at the girl in front of him. She was young, early twenty’s if he had to guess. ‘hmm, that’s odd, she doesn’t have freckles on her face…’ She looked pretty tough, the hard working type. Still she was quite pretty.
“Don’t worry about it, that’s why we put the couches there. Too often we get back from a mission and crash here. Did you just get in to town this morning?” Augusta asked, standing back up and walking over to the desk.
“Yeah, I came from a town to the north. I was told to come by here and get a parchment of script, whatever that is. Cam said. Rubbing away a mild headache.
“Sure, we have those. Finally decided on the adventurers life, ah? Do you want some tea?” Augusta asked. She didn’t bother to wait and began pouring a cup.
“Sure, that would be nice.” Cam shrugged.
Augusta stopped pouring and looked over at Cam with a questioning look. She decided on two cubes of sugar for Cam and dropped them in. “here you go, Cam.” She passed over the tea. He took a sip and smiled. She smiled in return. “That, there, on the other couch, is my brother Sam.” She thumbed over her shoulder. “He has been a hot mess for the better part of a day. By the way did you see any other adventurers on the road? We have a group that was due back yesterday.”
“I just met a guy called, Viral? I don’t know if you have met him. But? Cam started
“You met Viral on the road?! And your okay? Augusta interrupted. “Did he touch you?” She looked at him like he was a rat.
“No no, nothing like that. I was picking some herbs along the way, when I picked up a glowing cabbage? Anyway apparently he loves them. He asked if he could have it, so I gave it to him. So no, he didn’t touch me. Why the reaction, by the way?” Cam asked questioningly.
“Cam, it’s not everyday that a lone adventurer meets the god of pestilence on the road and gives him a snack.” Augusta runs behind the desk and fishes out a scroll of parchment. She takes out a single sheet about as big as an 11×17 inch sheet of paper. “Here touch this and put some mana into it.” She sits the paper on the other side of the desk facing Cam. She leans over to get a good look. Cam does a double take trying to avoid the view as he focuses on the paper.
“Like this?” Cam asked. He touched the paper with his index finger and a light pulse rippled out. The parchment glowed a bright orange for a second. As it faded away a dark brown script begin filling the page. Cam could hear the sound of someone writing as it went. “Wow, what am I looking at?” Cam marveled.
“This is your status. Since it is your first time using it, you have to use a parchment of script. After it is filed and logged, it updates on it’s own. You should get an internal display soon. But until then you can come in to check this one.” Wow, I didn’t know you were an alchemist?” She said.
“An alchemist, I wouldn’t go that far, I mean, I just read a book on the basics. Don’t you need like specialized equipment to be an alchemist anyway?” Cam looked down at the script.
Name: Cam the traveler
Level: 1*
Health: 100
Mana: 50
Energy level 100%
Power: 6
Defense: 8
Speed: 4
Perception: 10
Luck: 5
Craft: Alchemist
Identify level 3
Harvesting level 10
Alchemy level 15
Titles: The traveler, The reader, harvest support, the eye of three, welcome to the dreamscape, Newly minted.
The traveler: You have been to multiple worlds. Your understanding of languages, written and spoken, has expanded. You will always be understood, and can understand those around you. At higher levels a world map will be unlocked, details will fill in as you travel.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The Reader: You gain a 50% skill boost from books read, and concepts you grasp. At higher levels you will unlock the ability: skill book.
Harvest support: An innate ability to understand what should and should not be picked. At higher levels the skill mass harvest will unlock.
The eye of three: You have peaked the curiosity of at least three gods on your current world. Other Gods may find you easy to spot. At higher levels you may notice others watching.
Welcome to the dreamscape: You have rested in a world with a god of dreams. You have shared a memory and are granted a boon. You gain a heightened sense of awareness when it comes to dream demons and other emotional devours.
Newly minted: You have become an adventurer. You can now read the notice boards. At a higher rank you unlock special missions. Current adventure rank F.
Cam could hear Augusta humming to herself as she looked at his stat sheet. He got another peak at her freckled plums before standing up straight. “So, Augusta, what kind of missions are available? And do they need to be completed the same day?”
“Oh, that’s easy, just go check the missions board over there.” She casually waved over at the board on the far wall. She sat up long enough to grab her tea and then sat down at the desk.
Cam walked over to the missions board, seeing glowing blue words appear on the formerly empty pages tacked to the board. He looked back to Augusta with a confused look in his eyes.
“It’s called magi script. It imprints onto a guild crest. Only members of that guild can read the context. It keeps other guilds from poaching our clients. And it offers the clients a level of protection in case the ask is troublesome.” Augusta informed.
“What happens if the ask is foul, or nefarious in nature?” Cam asked.
“Then we just don’t take it. How it works is simple. Anyone can put in a request, along with the prize money. The quest sits on that board for 30 days. If by then no one has actively taken the quest, or completed the quest then it is taken down and the money is returned to the one who posted the quest. On the return of the funds or the completion of the quest the script goes blank and can be used for another quest in the line. Some customers pay extra to add or subtract days from the list, but 30 days is the standard. We get requests from all over, We normally send them in by carriage or boat depending on how far they are. It will be good having you around, we haven’t had an alchemist stationed here in some time. That’s made it harder to fill the requests for local ingredients and an assortment of potions.” Augusta twirled around in the chair.
Cam could see two quests on the board he could take. One was for ten wither weeds. The other was for 30 samples of creeping vine. Cam had both with him. He took the pages off the board and walked back to the table. “Can I turn these in now?”
“You already have them with you?” She asked
“I sure do, I just so happened to pick them up on my way here.” Cam shrugged.
“That works for me. Just let me get behind the counter.” Augusta jumped up and headed to the back. She put an apron on and snugged it on tight, to Cam’s dismay. She placed her hands on the counter. One lit up a rune which opened a section of counter revealing a scale. To the other side was a section to place the paper from the quest board. “Okay, Cam. Hand me one of those pages.” Augusta said while her hand did a ‘give me’ motion.
Cam read the first one again to verify, then handed it over. Augusta took it eagerly and read it. Then placed it in it’s slot. Then she took out a small box from under the counter and set it on the scale. She adjusted a glyph or two and smiled.
“Okay, Cam. Hand me the Withering weeds, one at a time if you don’t mind.” Cam did as she requested and pull one at a time out of his ring and handed them over. As he did she placed them into the box and wrote a tally. Once finished she closed the lip and sealed the box. She pointed to the quest paper.
“Okay, Cam. Touch the paper and add a touch of mana.”
Cam did as instructed. The writing on the page lit up and vanished. Cam heard a click at his waist and looked down. A small cubby opened up and inside was a pouch. He grabbed it and looked inside. Ten silver coins shined back at him. He put them in his storage ring. The cubby door closed tight, not so much as a seem was noticeable. Augusta walked into the back room with the box and the emptied paper for a few minutes. When she came back they repeated the exchange with the creeping vine; for that he got one gold coin.
“This is great Cam, thanks. I can send these out on today’s pickup. They were both getting close to the deadline too. Penelope and her crew are good at monster hunting, but they are horrible at grabbing up plants… Hey Cam, since you are new in town do you already have a place to stay?” Augusta asked, eyeing Cam suspiciously.
“No I don’t, now that you mention it. Do you have a place in mind?” Cam said.
“I sure do, we have a guild barracks, so to speak, here in town. The rooms are mostly taken up, but the basement on the other hand. It has a stand alone studio with an alchemy lab. And seeing as you are now the only Alchemist in the local guild it is kind of perfect for you, what do you say?” She asked animatedly.
Cam sighed, “How much?”
“the normal rooms run 5 copper a week, but this one goes for 1 silver.”
“…”
“I know it’s asking a bit much but it really does have it’s own lab, what do you say? If you start making your own potions there, it will be well worth the investment. You will probably be selling potions by tomorrow.”
Cam took a few minutes to think about it. “Okay, fine.”
“Great just give me a few minutes to straighten up here and I will take you over. Okay?” Cam nodded and Augusta dipped into the back room again with the last box and paper. The door shut on it’s own and cam could hear the shuffling of boxes. He walked around back to the front to sit on the couch when he finally notice Sam.
Sam was slung over the arm of the couch fully unconscious. He reeked of booze and his face was red unnaturally. As Cam got closer he noticed something strange. He could sense a pulsating aura coming from Sam’s back. He got closer and closer until what once was unseen became blurry, then fuzzy until it focused into a small imp. It was about a foot tall, it had a pair of wings tucked in close behind its back and a spaded tail moving in a serpentine motion behind him. It didn’t seem to notice Cam at first, thinking itself invisible it drank in the fear it was producing in Sam.
Cam reached up and grabbed a hold of it in his left hand. It was small enough that Cam’s fingers were able to wrap completely around it, preventing it’s escape. Cam walked away from Sam and back to the Quest board. It squirmed in his hand but couldn’t get away. Cam focused his eyes on the creature and he felt something flick on. Over the creatures head he saw a bubble with writing that said, “Level: 6. Fear imp.”
“Well well well.” Cam said, while pulling down a request from the local town.
“Stop the nightmares” it said, with a description by multiple towns folk about restless nights and unnerving panic striking people all over the city. It was a standing ongoing quest with a tally of prize money that kept raising over the past few weeks, it started at 20 copper, but the more it became an issue the more funds were added to the quest. It now stood at 35 silver. He walked back to the counter where Augusta was stepping out from the back.
“Hey, Augusta. Can I turn in another quest real quick?”
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The walk to the barracks didn’t take long. It did head more into town than Cam would have liked, but it was pretty much a straight shot over from the guild hall. It went down the side street from the hall past clothing shops and an ice cream parlor. The next corner over had a leather workings on one side and a blacksmith on the other. ‘That’s probably good for business being so close together.’ Cam thought. The other side of the street had bank that seem to take up the better part of the street side. Across from it was a bar called the spinning barrel. After that the area turned more residential with homes lining the streets.
They got down a ways until they came to a tee in the road. The road split left and right but straight ahead was a big house, if you could call it that. It looked like an old school western hotel with a southern flare. It went up four floors; on each floor there was a balcony that wrapped around. Some had chairs lining the space, others empty with the exception of a few training dummies.
“This is the place, inside you will find Greg, he is the super. He will set you up. I can’t stay and play, unfortunately, the delivery coach is due any minute. But I will catch you around, okay Cam.” August waved as she ran off. Cam just stood there for a second watching her run. She was fast, faster than humanly possible. But she made it look like a slow jog.
“This is all a bit much, but oh well.” Cam sighed and walked inside.
