[Day 8]

  I woke up with a groan the day after. I just wanted to sleep more, but there was too much to do. With a sigh, I pushed myself off the bed, falling to the ground. That woke me up somewhat.

  My vision was blurry, and I had to look around myself for several seconds to realize where I even was. Memories came back to me. The silent walk through the city, the inn we spotted, how I paid a hundred gold just for Bryga and Fink’s food and beds, though the innkeeper seemed horrified by the notion of Bryga actually using one.

  Yesterday came back to me as I blinked the drowsiness away - how utterly exhausted, I climbed the stairs and collapsed onto the bed, the world disappearing in a second.

  I looked at the beds in my room. Dusk and Crudia were supposed to be here, but judging by the fact that their beds were already empty, they must have already been up now. How dare they not call me for breakfast? Or was it lunch already? When did we even go to sleep?

  Opening the door, I headed straight toward the stairs to the first floor. The wooden fence creaked as I held onto it, letting some people on the lower floor know of my arrival. Scanning the area, I could see the exact same thing I’d seen yesterday when I woke up - the rocky floor riddled with all colors of carpets, wooden beams decorated by gauche trinkets, and the long wooden tables and black-wood benches that all the patrons sat on.

  All four of the players sat around one of the tables - Crudia and Dusk on one end, Fink and the Guides on another, and Bryga sat on the ground on the short side. Their table was completely cluttered by all kinds of meals - meat of every color, a huge bowl of mashed potatoes, and some veggies I could not name. And they were talking, laughing, all seemingly in a very good mood. My eyes lingered on them for a while, drinking in the sight. The whole picture just made me feel… happy. Fulfilled. Like this tournament brought more than just the fighting. It was an alien emotion, I knew, born of the human part of me, but it was so pleasant that I didn’t feel like fighting it.

  A few moments later, I finally stepped down the stairwell and went toward the innkeeper. He was a burly man - as weird as all the humans of the city, but missing one eye, a thick beard tied in a knot, completely covering his lips. He was also overly friendly to me, more than anyone else we’d met in the city so far. Crudia said she’d seen him selling some drugs to someone behind the inn, and that explained the weird friendliness, once one took the passive into consideration.

  “What’s it gonna be, lad? Like yesterday?” His mouth upturned to a toothy grin as he registered me.

  I nodded and took the drink he professed, a juice made from the local fruits I could not even begin to try to pronounce. I went to sit next to my teammates.

  “And that’s how I lost my driving license!” Said Talisha, smiling at the end of her own joke. The players seemed mostly confused, but Mark actually laughed at that; hell, even Timmy did. The other two guides didn’t, of course - they remained in another corner of the inn, staring at a wall. A regular passed through one of them even as I watched.

  “Hey there, everyone!” I put the juice on the table, sat down, and reached for some kind of black meat steak that was just in front of me. It looked as if someone dropped it in dirt, and that made me even more curious about its taste.

  “Hey, Shrimpie!” Boomed Bryga. “Sleeping in, huh?”

  “I don’t, usually. Yesterday was just more exhausting than expected.”

  Crudia’s arm suddenly appeared on my back, gently scratching my skin. That felt... nice. The little nails she had felt as if they were made for this. “You said that you were in an ant nest, but you didn’t say more yesterday. What happened?” I did manage to see that she had a new item equipped - an earring that pierced her left ear. It suited her nicely.

  I took a big gulp of the juice and began retelling my experience. How Mark clipped through the wall, making Talisha chuckle. How the ants talked - which actually seemed to interest Timmy more than anyone else, judging from the way he kept staring at me as I retold that part - and how I had to fight the Ant queen, and what followed after.

  “So, the ants promised to help?” Asked Dusk, breaking his silence. Even Mark looked surprised - I forgot that he wasn’t there when that happened.

  “I’d say promised is a strong word for that. But he said he’d try.”

  “Wait. Is that what you’re doing here, Shrimpie? Defending the city?” Fink’s voice cut in, agitated. “From who? When?”

  Bryga was watching me with her eyebrows raised, a spark of interest visible in her eyes. Why did I not tell them this already?

  “On the last day, there will be an attack on this town. A dragon is apparently creating a horde. We got a quest to defend it.”

  “From a dragon? And a horde? Yeah, no, this is dumb.” Fink said, suddenly standing up. “Bryga, they are obviously suicidal. Let’s leave while we can.”

  He started toward the door, but Bryga’s huge hand caught him by his shoulder. “Wait a moment. I quite like these guys. We wanted more party members, remember?” She looked at me and winked. “Well, we might have found some. Shrimpie, you mentioned a quest. What is that?”

  Mark proceeded to explain what exactly a quest is, how we’re not supposed to have them yet, and how we’d be rewarded if we succeeded. They didn’t even know what an evolution was.

  “An evolution, you say?” Bryga’s eyes opened with delight. “We’re in! We’ll help you defend! I’ve wanted to fill that evolution slot with something for so long! Having speaking guides is great!”

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  So she wasn’t one of the first ten. Good to know.

  “We shouldn’t, Bryga. It’s probably going to bite us in our asses.” Fink replied, though his voice wasn’t as argumentative as before. The call of getting an evolution was too tempting, it seemed.

  “Aw, shush. We can’t win if we don’t take our chances. And look at them! They’re doing really good, but they seem to be lacking some serious muscles!”

  Mark sighed. I could swear he whispered something about us lacking brains instead.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Fink finally sighed, seemingly letting go of the notion of leaving.

  “Let me guide you through it.” Dusk offered and moved to sit next to them, explaining the way we were going to try to recruit the citizens and surround the city with traps. The amount of work to do made my head spin.

  Instead, I went to check my skills and equipment. It made me sad that my stats wouldn’t go higher before we reached the next floor, but I was really happy with how it was shaping up to look.

  Name: Shrimpie

  Species: Peacock Mantis Shrimp

  Class: NONE

  Level: 24

  Attribute points: 0

  HP: 110/110

  MP: 0/0

  Strength: 45 (+5)

  Dexterity: 42

  Constitution: 33 (+2)

  Intelligence: 10

  Charisma: 24

  Skills - View

  Equipment - View

  Evolutions - None

  Status effects: Null

  How wonderful. I haven’t had to have a good look since I hit 23. It only increased by two points, but one could still be giddy, right? I commanded the skill menu to open.

  Bullet strike - Level 2

  Dash - Level 1

  Block (tied to an item) - Level 1

  Heat vision - Passive - Max LVL

  Aquatic breathing - Passive - Max LVL

  Analyze - Passive - Level 1

  Bubble flash - Level 2

  Bad boy - Passive - Level 1

  Vibrant Rage - Passive - Level 1

  Battering Ram - Level 1

  Wall up - Level 1

  Oh, a new skill! And a skill level on [Bubble flash]! I definitely liked that! I opened up the skill, giddy with excitement. A song started playing in my ears once I started reading the description.

  Wall up

  Skill: Active

  Cooldown: 2 hours

  We’d sing a certain song about a builder here, but let’s remain civilized here and leave the copyright laws be. Instead, command your guide to sing you the song. Surely he’ll know it.

  …

  Done? Good.

  Or so goes the song. The, for now, unnamed builder means you, once you use the skill. It’s quite simple, really - you imagine any kind of mineral that you can see moving in a certain manner - and by this, we mean an inanimate mineral - and however you visualize it, it will listen to your command.

  Of course, this doesn’t mean that you can move whole mountains. Neither does it mean that whatever you imagine will not collapse halfway through. It’s quite simply just a matter of knowing what to do and if you can do it. Maybe you should have spent some of those points of yours in intelligence after all.

  I had no idea what I could use this skill for. Literally nada. Why build a wall in front of something that I wanted to punch? What a waste of skill. Sighing, I instead opened my inventory, hoping that at least the items would be worth it.

  The first item I saw almost took my breath away.

  [Golden sheen of Majorica]

  Grade: Epic

  Type: Applicable item

  Did you ever want to look like a snob that looks down on all the people around you? Stupid peasants, with their dull-colored weapons. Right?

  Look no further! This golden paint can be applied to two items, and makes your true colors shine!

  Also, although much less important, it also doubles the effects of the items you apply it onto, and gives a random ability 1 level. Once applied, it has a 50% chance of disappearing on the end of a floor.

  I clicked apply on the two items I already wore that I could think of - my weapons and my shoulder pauldrons. I didn’t want Mark to see, didn’t want him to groan about how I should save the item until I had items that actually had better effects. I needed this more than anything.

  The paint disappeared from my inventory, and my pauldrons immediately started reflecting the light, the glimmer almost blinding.

  OH. MY. GOD. They looked as if they were made to be worn by me!

  “What the fuck is that, Shrimpie? Why are you glowing?” Mark said, massaging his temples.

  “Got a new item from the boss!”

  “And you applied it without consulting me. Of course.” He exhaled, and turned back to Fink and Bryga, continuing his explanation. He seemed to be getting used to me in his own way, the same as I was. I couldn’t really look at him the same way now - after the ant cave, I just kinda liked him now. But other things first.

  As happy as a shrimp could get, I went on through my inventory, inspecting the other items. There were three that were notable.

  Firstly, a cowboy hat that for some reason increased charisma and had a weird communication skill called “Howdy Neighbour”. While not completely useless, its upside of mentally communicating with the NPCS from a small distance didn’t seem to be worth the downside of having to wear that monstrosity.

  The second was a ring - silver metal that was made of two intertwined snakes. It gave the ability called [Slip], which didn’t actually make someone slip. It just made the feet of the user slippery for three seconds. I didn’t even know where to begin using that, but I actually stored it away for Crudia. I could imagine her doing something crazy with it.

  The last item was a bit weirder than the rest, though. It was an eye contact lens called [The lens of Royalty], which would be a fitting name, but the description just weirded me out. Or better said, the lack of a description did. The whole description was just weird symbols, line after line, repeating. I shrugged, and equipped the item onto my left eye.

  …

  Nothing changed. I wanted to look into the common items that the boss dropped as well, but I was suddenly interrupted by Crudia. “Hey, Shrimpie! Let’s start building the traps!”

  Oh god no.

  Crafting menus.

  Where do you want the system text to be centered?