《God Gave Me A Gun》
Prologue, Mindless Scrolling
A teenage boy and his little sister sat on a couch in the living room of their house. They both shared black hair and fair skin, and both were scrolling on their phones mindlessly.
"Hey Janica, I think Youtube thinks I''m gay or something, I keep getting those ads of comics with men kissing."
"James, what in the actual fuck are you talking abo-" Janica was cut off by the loud sound of wind coming from a portal that randomly appeared in front of them, sucking both siblings into the portal at once, along with their phones.
The siblings screamed loudly as their surroundings were light green and blue swirls that were quite headache inducing. Soon they landed on a hard black tiled floor. James got up unsteadily, taking in the situation. The room they had just land in was a large cubic room, with black tiles lining the walls and floor, with a suspicious altar in the center.
"What the fuck?" James thought out loud, with Janica still on the floor beside him. "WHAT THE FUCK, WHERE ARE WE, WHAT IS THAT, GET UP JANICA I THINK WE''RE IN DANGE-"
A bright light shone on top of the altar, and a white man with purple robes and a yellow top hat stepped out.
"Greetings Masarky siblings, I was bored and needed to do something other than look over your dumb universe, so to put it simply, I made an entirely new universe and have been secretly yoinking some people from your universe to populate the new one. Now, I did this a while ago, and I''m bored again, so I decided you two are going there as well. I will give you guys two spells each, a couple of abilities so you can have an easier time there, and be sent on your way. Any questions before you no longer see your family ever again?"If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
James looked at the god, "Yeah a little question, FUCK YOU, I''VE BEEN DRUGGED, AND I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE!"
"James, this is a literal god," Janica groaned from the floor. "I don''t think we''re drugged, since we''re seeing the same thing aren''t we? Let''s just get the things he''s giving us, and forget that this is a really weird situation we''re in until later, ok?"
"Yes, listen to your sister," The god said. "Now, for you James, you will be getting video game related abilities because of how much time you''ve spent of your life playing games, your abilities will allow you to have the typical video game things, like being able to see your level, a map, inventory, quests, etc. And for you Janica, you will be getting the same abilities as James. For spells, James will be able to summon guns, and has partial telekinesis. Janica will be able to have quite a strong healing spell, and she can also summon shields for allies and herself. Welp, since James had seemed like he didn''t want any other information, off you go, good luck!."
And with that, the god vanished, and the room around them started to distort. The room kept becoming less and less of a room, until their surroundings were of tall, grassy fields.
"Man what just happened?" Both siblings asked, and right as they said that, a man in a full suit of steel armor, with a helmet to cover his face stepped towards them, sword at the ready.
Chapter 1, Guns Shoot Things
The armored man swung his sword at James, and severed his right arm.
James screamed at the top of his lungs while also yelling "FUCK" over and over again. Meanwhile Janica felt an energy inside her that was itching to be used. Janica aimed her hands at James and pushed the energy outwards, healing James'' arm fully, while also erecting a blueish shield on that same arm.
Suddenly, James had the sudden feel of energy inside him too, and he pushed that energy into his left hand, where he looked down and saw a 1911. The 1911 looked like it was brand new, no rust, no scratches, just a clean looking gun. James quickly pointed it straight at the armored man and emptied the 7 round mag of the 1911. The armor on the man did not protect him at all, and he fell to the floor, grunting as his head hit the grass.
Random Bandit Defeated! Loot?
Janica and James both had the same pop up appear in front of them, startling them. The pair stared at the pop up in silence for a while, still processing the fact that not only did they get sucked out of their living room, they were greeted by a literal god, and then got nearly killed by some "Random Bandit" according to the pop up.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
Janica was the first to break the silence. "So, we killed a guy."
"THAT''S YOUR BIGGEST CONCERN RIGHT NOW?" James loudly shouted at her. "I just lost my arm, regained it, got a shield that disappeared shortly after, and then summoned a gun, WHY ARE YOU WORRYING ABOUT THE FACT THAT WE KILLED HIM, HE NEARLY KILLED ME!"
"Calm down, James, we have to stay level headed to figure out what''s still happening, at least we know this world is dangerous now, and that you can apparently summon guns for some reason. We can reasonably defend ourselves if we just stay calm and figure things out."
James breathed slowly, trying to calm down after the weird series of events. "Yes, loot."
The bandit started dissolving into blood, and the blood sank into the ground, leaving a red stain in the grass and dirt.
Looted: Steel Sword, Steel Armor (Examine for further info), 50 Iron Coins, 300 Copper Coins, 30 Gold Coins. Some items lost from looting.
"We really did kill a guy, didn''t we?"
Chapter 2, I CAN SUMMON GUNS!
James and Janica walked in silence through the grassy fields they landed in. They were walking in the direction of a forest, for no reason in particular other than to calm down.
When they reached the edge of the forest, they sat down on a fallen log to think for a bit. James thought of how he summoned a gun, and also thought of how the god said he had partial telekinesis. Janica thought of her healing and shield spells she used on James during the fight, and how it healed his arm fully while making a temporary shield on it. Both siblings were still shaken, but were trying to calm down for the moment, like Janica said.
James pulled out his phone, the screen slightly cracked but still functional somehow. The clock kept looping, going from 00:00 to 23:59 and back around. He checked his messages app and found out it doesn''t work. He tried opening Discord to find out that it does work, but can''t be texted in. He couldn''t see any recent text messages on any of his apps, and he couldn''t text on any of them.
"Bummer, we can''t contact anyone on Earth." James said.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
James then tried to summon a gun to see if he can do it on demand. He channeled energy into his hand again, but this time thought of a pistol that didn''t exist, from Doom 2016. He looked down and saw the plasma pistol in his hand, it''s futuristic look out of place in a place like this. The gun had a large hole for the barrel, where a quick weak ball of plasma would come out.
"WAIT I CAN SUMMON FICTIONAL GUNS, JANICA LOOK!" James excitedly yelled. Janica turned to look at his hand and saw the plasma pistol.
"To be honest, I ain''t gonna use it," James said. "The plasma pistol is weak in Doom, so I think I''ll try to summon other guns."
James thought of a pump action-shotgun, channeled energy into his hands, and a pump-action shotgun appeared.
"No way, NO WAY, JANICA I HAVE A SHOTGUN!" James yet again, excitedly yelled.
"I think this staying calm thing isn''t working out seeing that you''re constantly yelling at each new discovery," Janica said. "Let''s go and see if we can find any other people, now that you can defend us with your guns. I wonder why it had to be guns you can summon, wouldn''t a sword or some fantasy weapon be more appropriate for this world?"
The pair walked towards a dirt road they spotted, when a group of people spotted them.
Chapter 3, Do You Want To KIll Me?
James immediately summoned a pump-action shotgun into his hands as the people approached. "Stay back you bastards, I don''t know who you guys are, but our previous experience with people showed that we probably shouldn''t trust you!"
The people stared at him in confusion. "What the hell is in your hands?" One of the people in the group asked. He had dark brown skin and blond hair. "Is that some sort of wand I''ve never seen? Also, we ain''t tryna hurt you mate, calm down. It''s mighty dangerous to be wandering out here alone, especially since you''re just a kid."
"Yea," Another group member said. The group had 4 people in it, and the person that said "Yea" was a tall muscular man with silver eyes and brown hair. "This region is known to have robbers, monsters, and other dangers that a kid shouldn''t deal with. What are you guys doing out here anyways?"
James hesitated a bit, surprised they didn''t want to kill him, and even more surprised that they didn''t know what a gun is. "Can you show us the nearest town, we''re not from here you see."
The group let James and Janica tag along with them to the nearest town, where the group payed for a room in a tavern for the pair. The town was surrounded by tall grassy fields like the one they landed in, and had a large green forcefield around it. The group said that all towns had forcefields like that to keep bandits and monsters out. The group parted with the siblings after paying for their room. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
"How did they not know what a gun was?" James asked once they were inside their room. "Like surely grown ass adults would know of a gun right?"
"Did you forget that we''re in some sort of fantasy universe?" Janica sarcastically said. "Of course they don''t know what a gun is, I doubt guns exist in this universe, so how in the world do you expect them to know what a non existent weapon is."
James opened his inventory, something he found out he had when walking with the group. The inventory screen was a typical video game styled one, with rounded square slots, the color blue as the background, and armor slots next to it. He found out that the inventory had infinite pages, and that anything he looted went straight to the inventory. He pulled out a coin from one of the slots, and looked at it in his hand. The gold coin that he looted earlier was as simple as coins could get, a round circle make of gold.
"I wonder what we could buy with this, Janica." James said. "I mean like surely gold is valuable right?"
"I guess we''re checking how much money is worth tomorrow?"
"I guess we are."
Chapter 4, Screw It Were Adventuring
"So what you''re saying is that we''re rich?"
James and Janica were at the local bank in the town, learning about the money system in this universe.
"Yes sir, gold coins are worth one thousand copper coins, and one copper coin is worth one hundred iron coins." The bank attendant explained.
"Janica, you know what that means?" James asked.
"Please don''t say shopping spree, you had terrible financial decisions back then."
"SHOPPING SPREE." James said as he rushed out of the bank, leaving Janica in the dust as the bank attendant looked with a confused look.
"He forgot the bag of coins." Janica sighed.
The pair checked out different stores, seeing the cool armor sets and weapons they could purchase easily with their funds.
"Arnold''s Arms and Armor Store?" James said aloud, amused by the store''s name. "Ooh, we could get cool looking armor here can''t we?"
"Let''s check it out." Janica said as they walked into the store.
The inside of the shop looked like if you mixed a convenience store with an RPG equipment store. The shelfs were made of wood, but were lined up like the isles at a Walmart. The shopkeeper was behind a stone counter, inspecting a gold lined sword. He looked up at the teens and welcomed them.
"Welcome to Arnold''s Arms and Armor Store kiddos! Aren''t you two a bit young to go shopping for adventuring supplies?" Arnold was a muscular looking man, with an eyepatch over his left eye, and a tattoo on his right arm that said, "My eyepatch isn''t real."
The siblings put 2 gold coins on the counter. "What can we buy with this?" James asked excitedly.
James and Janica walked out of the store with new clothes and armor. James now donned a black hooded cloak, that was reinforced with steel bands.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Cool Looking Cloak
A cool looking black cloak with steel bands to protect the user. Enchanted with self repairing spells. Steel bands take longer to self repair than cloak itself.
Janica now wore white robes with yellow lining the sides, with leather pads for protection against weaker weapons and attacks.
Robes of Healing
A set of white robes with yellow lining, with leather pads that protect the user. Enchanted with healing boost spells. Healing boost spells lowers the cost of energy for healing and support spells, and improves support and healing spells.
Janica also now held a metal staff with a yellow orb at the end.
Staff of healing
Healing spells cast from staff are improved and cost less mana. Can be used to whack enemies.
"Man why do you get to have a new weapon." James complained.
"You can literally summon guns, plus my staff isn''t a weapon, it''s used for healing people, and by people I mean you."
"Fair enough."
"So we can become adventurers with cools powers and stuff?" James asked the Adventurers Guild staff member.
The pair had made their way to the town''s local Adventurers Guild building, where they were learning about what an adventurer was, and how they can abandon their old ideas of a dream job from Earth, and learn about a new dream job.
"That''s right," The staff member replied. "Adventurers go complete tasks assigned to them, or some just do whatever they want, it''s a very open job. Being an adventurer just means that you can go off on adventures legally. Aren''t you two a bit young for applying though? Most people usually wait until they''re at least 17, and even they get prior training by their guardians to become one."
"Screw it we''re becoming adventurers." James said, ignoring the previously said sentence.
"James we''ve only been here for two days," Janica said. "Maybe we should learn more about this world instead of rushing into one of the more dangerous jobs? Actually, why are we getting a job in the first place, we need to at least get settled in this world before we go rushing off further!"
"It''ll be fine, besides, if we become adventurers, we can learn way more about this world by exploring it, rather than listen to people explain it to us. It''s kinda like high school, I was getting bored listening to the teacher drone on about math, barely learning anything, until I actually did the math for myself, and learned it way faster!"
"Um, what are you kids talking about?" The staff member asked.
Chapter 5, Dont Underestimate A Gun
James and Janica were on a dirt road again, heading towards a location on their map that needs to be "cleared out" according to a mission they got from the adventurers guild.
"Hey is that the place?" James asked, pointing towards a little wooden cabin ahead.
"I think so, what do you think is in the place that needs clearing?"
"If they hired us to clean rats I''m gonna be pissed."
While they were talking, a group of armored men walked out of the grass. The men had bows, swords, and maces, and were well armed.
"Kids, give us all you got or you''re gonna get squashed." One of the men said.
"Dawg what kind of evil line is that?" James mocked. "Like if you''re gonna rob someone, at least make it sound cooler. Right now you sound like some high school bully from a movie for kids!"
"The hell is this kid talking about, let''s just beat his ass."
The man at the front swung his mace at James, but a blueish shield appeared above James'' head, blocking the blow. James then summoned a shotgun and fire a shot right through multiple men''s chest plates, killing a line of them.
"What kind of wand is that!?" One man asked as he saw a few of his allies dying.
James then summoned an assault rifle, and starting blasting through the rest of them, until James and Janica were surrounded by dead people in blasted armor. James collapsed to the floor, tired from using all of his energy to summon the guns and fire them.
"Oh shoot," Janica exclaimed as she used a healing spell on James to recover some of his energy.
"Thanks, let''s loot them all and head to the house."
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"And to think we were worried about killing that first bandit, now look at us, it''s only been three days!"
When they arrived at the cabin, they discovered that the building was filled with giant monsters. The monsters were a mix of giant spiders and crocodiles that shoot acid.
"James, can you summon a flamethrower by chance?"
A few minutes later, the house was in flames, and pop up messages were appearing rapidly in front of them.
"Man my head hurts." James complained. "When we get back to the tavern I''m going to sleep immediately."
"YOU KIDS DID WHAT?" The adventurers'' guild staff member asked in shock.
"I mean like the house was full of monsters you see." James replied.
"I can''t believe that didn''t kill you two."
"Wait was it supposed to?"
"I guess I have to finish the job myself." The staff member pulled out a dagger and lunged at James.
The dagger bounced off a newly formed shield as James hurriedly summoned a glock, and fired multiple shots into the staff''s head, killing him.
"WHY DID HE TRY TO KILL US?" James shouted. Right as he said that, al the staff members around him also pulled out daggers and charged at James.
James switched to an uzi and rapidly fired shots in all directions. Janica was on the floor, ducking to avoid James'' wild firing.
James ran out of energy during his rapid firing, and fell to the ground. Janica was then rushed by multiple staff members with daggers. The daggers bounced off her shields harmlessly, and Janica kept the shields up for James and herself. However, every hit on the shields lowered her energy, and soon she ditched the shield for herself and whacked the enemies back with her staff, knocking a few unconscious. James recovered soon before the shield went down for him, and he fired at the enemies that were attacking Janica.
Soon afterwards, the whole building was dead, and a quest popped up in front of them.
Evil Ass Guild
The guild just tried to assassinate you, find out why and put a stop to it.
Rewards: Level 2 Spell Unlock
After that pop up another one appeared for both of them.
Leveled up! Level 2!
Increased energy and reaction time.
"I''m gonna have nightmares tonight, if I can even go to sleep." Janica said, her hands quivering after the ordeal.
Chapter 6, He Screams Like A Girl!
The siblings looted the bodies hastily and ran out of the town into the nearby forest, both shaken up by how many people they have just killed, and the fact that they nearly died.
"What do we do now?" Janica nervously asked James, her eyes slowly filling up with tears. "I don''t want to die, and I don''t want to start killing people either. I know you''re okay with killing, but I really don''t want to do it myself. James, the guild randomly tried to kill us, what if they do it again!? The pop up literally labeled the guild as evil, we''ve only been here a few days, what do we d-" Janica was cut off by James hugging her.
"It''ll be fine Janica, we''re gonna find the bastards that tried to assassinate us and kick their ass. I mean like this is the first quest pop up we''ve gotten so far, so it should lead us to the main culprit right?"
Janica plopped down next to a tree, trying to calm her breathing. James sat next to her, sitting in silence as the two of them tried to figure out what to do next.
"Well we shouldn''t just sit here." James said, getting up. "We should start going to another town, this one isn''t safe for us. Let me check the map and start heading there now."
Janica and James headed down a dirt road, heading down to the next town. The road was no longer in tall grassy fields, and instead was surrounded by trees and rocks, the typical forest. The sky was turning dark, and the smell of blood still stained the siblings'' clothing.
Suddenly, the pair heard screaming nearby. The sounds of screaming were coming from a lit up cave, and the screaming was soon stopped.
"Should we check it out?" Janica said worriedly. "Sounds like the person screaming needed help!"
James grabbed Janica by the arm and rushed to the cave. When they reached the mouth of the cave, they saw shadows moving inside. James peaked a bit into the cave, and saw six men surrounding a chair with a guy strapped to it. The man was gagged and bloody, with cuts going down his arms and legs, but his clothes were surprisingly intact despite all of his injuries. The men surrounding him held bloody knives and also wore intact clothing.
"Haha, this guy screams like a girl, well boys, time to eat!"
Without thinking, James rushed inside, only to be tackled by someone standing guard on the inside of the cave. Janica, still outside, covered her mouth and watched in horror as James was tied up and dragged into a chair next to the other man.
"A kid? This guy won''t have much meat on him, but we can surely make this work."
James was gagged and helpless in the chair, eyes wide in shock as the men held their knives at the ready.
Janica rushed in with a shield around herself and whacked the guard unconscious, then swung her staff at one of the men holding a knife, knocking it out of his hands. Janica hurriedly picked up the knife and stabbed a second man in the unmentionables, leading him to grasp at his pants and cut himself on the blade of the knife. Janica picked up his knife and kicked the second man in the face, turned to the third one a whacked him with the staff in one hand, and threw the knife at a fourth man. The two men that weren''t injured lunged at Janica, only to bounce off of her shield. She quickly cut the bindings on James, who summoned a colt and shot the two remaining men. James pulled off his gag.
"Woo boy that was a bad idea of mine, now what to do with this guy?"
Janica cut the bindings off the captured guy, and he took off his gag.
"Thanks for saving me," The man said. "But you''ll deeply regret that!"
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The man''s clothes transformed into armor marked with a symbol the siblings didn''t recognize. The man was now covered head to toe in red colored leather armor, with a hood disguising his face. He unsheathed a dagger that wasn''t there before, and broke through Janica''s shield, stabbing her in the stomach. James reacted quickly, summoning a shotgun and firing accurately at the man''s chest, launching him backwards and killing him.
James rushed to his sister''s side, checking the stab wound.
"Oof, that looks bad." James said quietly, looking at how much blood was leaking out.
Janica tried casting a healing spell on herself, but found that she had no energy left after using her shields. James pulled out a first aid kit he bought the day prior and covered the wound in bandages and gauze to stop the bleeding for now.
"I swear it''s like everyone is trying to kill us for some reason. Janica, rest for now and when you get enough energy, heal yourself and let''s get going."
The next day, Janica and James were walking silently towards the next village, still shaken up from the multiple assassination attempts that happened in only two days. They were nearing the next town when they spotted a group of people ahead of them.
"Do you think they''re dangerous?" James asked, suspicious of the cloaked group ahead. "Surely cloaked figures are dangerous right?"
"They might be dangerous, so let''s avoid them for now."
The siblings took a route around the group, and nearly avoided them until James stepped on a stick that gave off a comically loud cracking sound.
"SHIT SHIT SHIT, RUN JANICA!"
The group chased after the siblings and quickly caught up to them, only for James to turn around quickly and point a gun in their face.
"I KNOW YOU GUYS DON''T KNOW WHAT THIS IS, IT''S A HIGHLY DANGEROUS WAND, NOW I NEED YOU TO TURN AROUND AND WALK, OR THINGS WILL GET MESSY!"
The group looked at them under their hooded faces. The siblings couldn''t tell what the group was gonna do, so they started slowly backing away. Suddenly the group pulled off their hoods and looked at the siblings with confused looks, throwing the pair off guard.
"Mate is this kid insane? You can''t just point a highly dangerous wand at strangers you know!"
The group looked like a bunch of men in their mid 20''s, all looking nearly identical to each other with similar clothing, beards, hairstyle, etc.
"Wait, so you''re not evil?" James asked, still suspicious of them.
"Why would we be evil? Also why does a kid have a highly dangerous wand I''ve never seen before?"
James quickly apologized to the group before asking how far is the nearest town they were heading to.
After the group parted with the siblings, they were in a slightly smaller but still large town. The town was surrounded by tall forests and nice meadows, and was protected with a giant green forcefield like the previous town. There was no adventurers guild here, instead there was a building that could teleport people to locations for a price.
The siblings paid for a room in a tavern and immediately went to sleep, exhausted by recent events.
The next morning, James checked his phone and saw that the clock still looped. The battery was still 100% somehow, and the date wasn''t showing. He checked out his message apps and saw none of them functioned correctly, he could only view previous messages. He checked Youtube to find out that it did indeed work, but there were no new videos he could access, only videos made before he arrived in this world. That was a relief for James though, since that would mean he has access to an app full of information that might be useful in a survival sense, tutorials, cooking videos, medical videos, etc.
Later in the day, the siblings were eating at a restaurant nearby. The food there was similar to diner food on Earth, but with meats they never heard of, so they stuck with eggs.
"Maybe I should learn my telekinesis spell." James told Janica. "I mean like maybe it''ll be helpful later."
Janica was spaced out, so she didn''t respond. "Oh, sorry James, I''m still thinking of something."
After breakfast the pair checked out the teleportation building. The building looked nothing like the wooden buildings nearby, and instead was a circular stone tower with pink lines running up and down it. At the bottom of the tower was a wooden door. The siblings stepped in and was greeted by the attendant behind the desk.
"Welcome to Tabatha''s Teleportation Tower, I''m Tabatha, how can I be of assistance."
Chapter 7, Now Were Getting Somewhere
"Got any recommendations for guilds we could join?" James asked Tabatha. "Me and my sister want to join a guild to learn more about this world."
"What do you mean ''learn more about this world''? Didn''t you grow up in it?"
"Uh, we grew up in an isolated area, so we don''t know much about outside things."
"Ah, makes sense. A good guild for people your age and experience would be the Sky Guild. Here''s a paper with some information about it before you decide to teleport there."
James and Janica read about the Sky Guild. The Sky Guild taught non-experienced people how to thrive in this world, and also gave information about other guilds in case members wanted to join something else once they''re ready. The Sky Guild, like the name suggested, was in the sky, but not the typical sky most would think. The siblings learned that the land they have been walking on is actually just one giant sky island in the, you guessed it, sky. There were an unknown amount of islands and the Sky Guild was on an island that was small when compared to other ones, but quite big nonetheless. The Sky Guild seemed good enough for the siblings.
"How much does it cost to go there?" Janica asked with a newly formed smile on her face.
"So I guess every teleport is ten copper?" James asked Janica as they stepped into the teleporting ritual. The ritual itself was a circle on a wooden floor, surrounded by tiny pink rocks.
"I wonder how teleporting feels." Janica thought aloud. "Maybe it''ll feel like a roller coaster, or maybe it''ll feel like nothing!"
"You''ll throw up." Tabatha said, moving her hands in weird motions to get ready to teleport them. "You''ll most likely throw up from the feeling of teleporting."
After she said that, she slammed her hands down onto the floor and the pair vanished. The pair felt like they were tossed around a crashing car, flung off a cliff, landed in a roller coaster seat that was currently falling, and then back to normal. Janica and James threw up the moment they arrived, with a convenient bucket in front of them.
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"You''ll get used to it." Said a man standing nearby. "Someday, you kids will no longer throw up when teleporting, but today is not someday. I assume you guys are here to join the Sky Guild?"
The siblings looked around after emptying their stomachs, and found that they were on a pier overlooking an empty sky, with circles in the ground nearby, buckets in front of each. The pier also had a few ships that looked straight out of a pirate movie. The pair quickly got up and the man handed them a bottle with a blue liquid inside.
"Drink that, it''ll get rid of the throw up and the taste of throw up in your mouth. Follow me when you''re ready to join."
The pair followed the man who led them past the wooden piers area of the island and onto a long flight of steps leading to a building with a steampunk vibe, with gears and pipes running along the sides of the building, and a waterwheel connected to a wall of it scooping water out of a river. The inside of the building didn''t reveal much since they only saw one room, with multiple doors labeled in a language they couldn''t quite read.
"Go through the door on the right, a woman will let you sign a few things before you''re an official member, and then a kid will brief you on what we do, where you''ll stay, and other important things."
And with that, the man headed back to the piers.
The pair stepped through the door like instructed, and a white woman that looked to be in her 50''s sat behind a desk.
"Hello there, would you kids like to join the Sky Guild?"
After a bit of signing, the siblings were introduced to a little boy that looked to be about twelve.
"Hi there, I''ll give you newcomers a tour of the guild, and what we do."
The boy led them through multiple doors, each door had something important behind it. Some doors had sleeping quarters for guild members, others had workshops. It seemed like there was a door for everything the guild needed, and the boy took his time to go slowly so the pair could get a proper look around. They then stopped in front of another sleeping quarters.
"This is where you two will be staying, and tomorrow you''ll be trained for guild work, for now, just introduce yourselves to fellow guild members, they''ll catch you up."
The siblings walked through the door, walked to one of the many bunk beds, and sat down.
"I''m still confused on how we went from our living room to becoming members of some sky club." James joked.
Chapter 8, Turns Out Thats Evil!
After the siblings picked out their bunks, they made their way to the cafeteria. It wasn''t lunch yet, but it seemed like a good place to start meeting people that hopefully don''t want to kill them. The only issue with meeting people is that you actually have to talk to people, something both siblings struggled with back on Earth. They were both socially awkward and introverted, and only talked to people they don''t know when necessary. So the pair just sat at one of the wooden tables, not really doing much, until someone approached where they were seated.
"Hello there, never seen you guys before!" The person greeting them was a light skinned girl with black hair, looking similar to the siblings if the siblings had light skin. She looked around the same age as James, maybe slightly older. "I''m Corin, what''s you''re names?"
"I''m Janica, this is my brother James." James said jokingly. Corin did not pick up on the joke.
"Wait, you''re name is Janica? Isn''t that a name given to females?"
"Shoot, you didn''t get it. It was a joke, my bad."
"James, don''t screw us up meeting people." Janica scolded. "I''m Janica, his name is James. Thanks for approaching us first, we''re bad at meeting people."
"No problem! Are you guys new here, or have I just never seen you before." Corin said.
"Me and James are new to the guild."
"Do you guys want me to introduce you to people since you said that you''re bad at meeting people?"
"Janica I swear if everyone thinks we''re bad at meeting people on the first day here, we''re gonna have a horrible time."
They were introduced to a few other people by Corin, and found out that there are human hybrids. Wade was a human-bird hybrid, with wings he could pop out of his arms at will, and his toes had claws. Jasper was a normal human that likes big swords. Jasper held giant swords with ease, and it was no surprise seeing how muscular he was. Rewei was a human-tiger hybrid, and had the ability to extend claws out of his hands, along with the ability to go as fast as a tiger.
"So with us being around, that makes eight people in this section?" Janica asked Corin.
"Yup, each area of the guild has it''s own areas and amount of people, and ours is the smallest."
"So uh, can you tell us on what the guild trains people with, we were told by the kid that brought us here that the people we meet would brief us."
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"Of course! The guild makes us do work and go on adventures, in exchange for them training us up to become explorers ourselves."
"Wait, did you say explorers? I thought people that go on adventures were, you know, adventurers?"
"Oh no, adventurers and explorers are two completely different things. The Adventurers Guild says they recruit adventurers, but in reality they recruit killers to rid the world of people from other universes. I heard that Adventurers Guild isn''t even an actual guild, instead it''s an illegal organization that finds out if someone is from another world by stalking them for a bit before deciding if they''re not from here. Crazy right! Explorers are people who go on adventures, not adventurers."
"WHAT!" James shouted, alerting everyone in the cafeteria. "So what you''re saying is that we''re being hunted down by an evil organization that wants to rid the world of people not from here?"
"You''re not from here?" Corin asked, taken aback by James'' sudden yelling.
"I spilled the fucking beans didn''t I."
"Can we trust you guys not to share this to anyone." Janica pleaded.
"You guys are universe hoppers?" Corin asked.
The siblings explained the situation they''re in, and how they got there.
"So the god of the realms pulled you from your own universe and put you here?"
"Yea," James said. "I would mind you guys not sharing since we''ve already been nearly killed like twice already."
"That''s one crazy story," Jasper said. "But I think you guys are lying. Why would the god of the realms pull two random ass kids, especially kids who have issues talking to people? Like out of anyone he could''ve picked, you guys are telling me that he picked random ass losers?"
"I agree with Jasper." Rewei said. "Not the whole insulting thing, but the fact that you guys have not shown any proof. You guys gotta have proof to back up your claims."
James then summoned a pump-action shotgun and fire and a nearby plate he propped up, startling everyone nearby.
"If that''s not enough proof then here''s some more."
James then opened his inventory in front of them, the screen confused them since they have never seen anything like it before.
"I''ve never seen that spell or ability before," Wade said. "So I think they really are universe hoppers, guys."
"JAMES YOU COULD''VE BLASTED SOMEONE''S HEAD OFF WITH THAT!" Janica screamed at James.
"Yea I could''ve," James said. "But I think blasting a plate like that proves our point. We''re, uh, whatever you call people from another universe/world."
"We''re not gonna tell anyone about this." Corin assured. "If word about this goes out, you guys will be hunted down yet again! We won''t let that happen, right guys?"
The group promised not to tell anyone about them, until a worried looking woman burst into the room. She realized that no one was in danger, and left immediately after.
"James."
"Yea Janica?"
"Next time you want to show that we''re not from here, maybe don''t use the loudest gun imaginable?"
Chapter 9, Hehe Floaty Boolet
"Demonstrate your spells for us sir." The staff member in charge of training said to James. James was the last one in his section to be tested of his spells. Janica showed off her healing and shield summoning spells, Corin controlled wind to push in the direction of the rest of the group, Jasper summoned a suit of green plated armor and ignited his sword with flames, Wade could improve his sight for a short time and become fast at will, and Zewei used a spell that lets him slash with extreme speed at a target.
"Is it ok for me to try out a spell I''ve never used before?" James asked, thinking of telekinesis.
"Of course, we need to see what you can do after all."
James looked at a nearby target and started a line of energy into it. The target started floating towards James, and James willed it to smash into a wall, destroying the target.
"So you have a form of telekinesis?" The staff member asked.
"I guess so. I''m gonna use my next spell now, and I want to try something new."
James summoned a 1911 and fired at a target, knocking it down. He fired again at another target, but this time he will a connection of energy into the bullet that came out. The bullet stopped it''s flight and hovered in place, before moving to another target and knocking that one down too.
"I CAN MOVE BULLETS?!" James yelled excitedly, jumping up and down.
"Is that what those things were called? What an odd wand."
The next part of training was combat ability. The rest of the section went to fight summoned creatures in a stone room, with small windows looking in to watch. Most of the section chose the easy difficulty for the combat training, except Jasper who chose hard difficulty and ended up getting mauled by a summoned creature. Luckily if you die in combat training, it wouldn''t be a real death since the creatures are summons.
"Is it possible for me to not take combat training?" Janica asked the staff member, scared that she would also get mauled to death.
"You could get paired with your brother if you''d like."
"Yea I''d like that."
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Janica joined her brother in stepping into the stone training room, where there were four colors on the wall, green, yellow, orange, and red.
"The green is easy," The staff member told them. "Yellow is somewhat difficult, orange is hard, and red is for the adults to train."
Without hesitation, James slammed his hand on the red circle, and the blue men started appearing in the stone room. The men were somewhat transparent, and they wielded swords with ice coming off of it. They each had blue plated armor, and were charging at James and Janica.
"JAMES WHY WOULD YOU PRESS THAT, THAT''S WORSE THAN HARD!" Janica screamed as the men swung at them, the summoned shields guarding them.
"Because of this." James said, summoning an assault rifle. He mowed down summons with ease, the shields from Janica guarding him from attacks, and his energy being replenished from Janica''s healing spell. Soon after though, Janica started running out of energy, and collapsed, along with the shields.
"Ah shit!" James yelled as the men started swinging at James. James blocked with his rifle, the sword freezing the gun as James stumbled backwards. James re-summoned the gun and fired as he backed away, hitting a wall behind him. James saw Janica recovering, hiding in a corner of the room. James thought of the telekinesis spell he could use, so he willed a connection to one of the men''s swords, and moved it to stab the user. The man fell to the ground, and got trampled by the rest of the men. James willed the sword to spin, and moved it towards the horde. The mens'' armor blocked most of the blows from the sword, but it knocked a few backwards, giving James enough time to fire his gun even further. Janica recovered and healed some of James'' energy back, summoned a shield for both of them, and ran back to his side.
"Why did you have to do this?!" Janica scolded James as he kept firing.
"Because gun." James said, nodding at his rifle.
Soon enough, all the summons were dead, and the room''s door opened. The staff member stepped through, his eyes wide in shock.
"How did you guys end up clearing the hardest difficulty for this room first try?"
"THAT WAS SICK DUDE!" Zewei cheered after the group returned to the cafeteria. "That spell of yours is crazy."
"I could take on that difficulty too, you know." Jasper said, crossing his arms with a grunt.
"You guys should get some rest," Corin said. "I saw Janica collapse in there, that must''ve meant you used a lot of energy to fight in there."
"Corin''s right," Wade said. "It looked like you guys consumed a lot of energy. When we did our training, we didn''t go all out like you guys. Not trying to undermine your accomplishment of clearing out that difficulty, but you guys really shouldn''t be pushing yourselves too hard, after all, it''s only your second day here."
"I get to hit the sack early?" James said. "Sweeet, see you guys later, I''ma drop dead real quick."
James left the room, heading towards his bunk.
"Did he said drop dead?" Corin asked Janica.
"It''s a saying that I don''t think he used correctly."
Chapter 10, SKY ARSON!
The next day, the group settles into their seats on one of the sky ships as it heads towards a dungeon the guild was hired to clear out. James was listening to his phone through his ear pods that he found in his pocket after a bit digging. He was listening to "I Wish" by Slee-Lo, which when asked what he was doing by Corin he explained what ear pods and music videos were, but all his explaining just left Corin confused.
"I wish I was a little bit taller? What''s a baller?" Corin asked after James explained what he was doing.
"James, you are actual ass at explaining things." Janica told James.
"Oh fuck off, I''m great at explaining things!" James said jokingly.
The ship neared the port of the next sky island. The island was huge, and if you didn''t know it was a sky island, you would''ve thought it was just an ordinary continent. The ship docked at the port, where the group got off with the other sections.
"Alright guys," Jasper announced to the group. "I have the dungeon we''re assigned to on my map, so follow me and we''ll clear it in no time."
"Who the hell made you the leader?!" Zewei mocked. "Shouldn''t someone smarter like Wade be leader?"
"ARE YOU SAYING I''M NOT SMART?!" Jasper yelled.
"Guys calm down," Corin said. "What if we just don''t assign a leader, that way we all have an equal place in this group, and we can make it to the dungeon without infighting."
The group agreed, and so they set off into a nearby forest where the dungeon was located. When they arrived at the dungeon, they saw a wooden door in the side of a hill, with a little sign next to it saying, "Sky Guild, this is the dungeon, please clear it out so I can do totally legal things inside of it when you''re done!"
"What a totally legal guy." James said as he shot down the door with a shotgun for dramatic effect.
"Did you really have to destroy the door?" Janica asked.
"Obviously, for dramatic and cinematic effect of course!"
The group made their way through the now busted door, where the were greeted by cold stone walls, a long dark flight of stairs, and a single torch on one of the walls.
"Anyone have a flashlight?" James asked. "Oh wait, shit, you guys don''t know what a flashlight is. Alright, anyone have a light that can flash people?"
After Wade picked up the torch, they descended the flight of stairs. The walls were covered in cobwebs, and there was a suspicious poster on the wall once they arrived at the bottom of the stairs. The poster was a painted man pointing a thumbs up, with no shirt or pants. There was text below that read, "Remy''s sex dungeon, up for business, don''t tell the authorities!" The group ripped the poster down in disgust.
"So what are we clearing out in the first place?" James asked.
"According to the assignment," Wade responded, pulling out a piece of paper. "It says the dungeon is infested with acid spitting spider-crocodiles, whatever those are."
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"James," Janica said. "Summon the flamethrower will ya?"
A few minutes later, the whole dungeon smelled of ash and blood as pop ups appeared rapidly in their vision. The flames and pop ups stopped a little while after, and James looted all the spiders, giving him more spools of spider string and vials of acid in his inventory.
"What are all those blue square things?" Wade said, looking at some of the remaining pop ups.
"Kill messages basically." James said as they left the dungeon. "Whenever we kill something, we get a pop up with the name of the thing we killed if we know what it is, or a vague name if we don''t know what it is. After that, we can loot them."
The group made their way back to the ship, and waited in their section of the ship for the ship to take off.
"So you can loot the things you kill?" Wade asked James as they were getting settled.
"Yea, after we killed something or someone, we can loot their bodies for items."
"That sounds really useful, it eliminates the need to manually loot bodies!"
"What, are you two too cowardly to loot a dead thing?" Jasper mocked.
"No, we are not," James said. "Would you rather stick your hand up some spider''s asshole, or would you rather get the same result but without the need to do that?"
Jasper fell silent afterwards, unable to come up with a response.
While the ship was sailing back to the Sky Guild, James looked out of the window, and saw a suspicious red painted ship flying towards them.
"Uh guys, is that a Sky Guild ship? It better be, because it''s heading straight towards us!"
The group looked out the window and saw that the ship was getting closer by the second.
"WE GOT TO ALERT SOMEBODY QUICK!" Wade yelled as he stormed out of the room, heading straight towards the captain''s area.
"CAPTAIN, AN ADVENTURERS GUILD SHIP IS HEADING STRAIGHT TOWARDS US!" Wade screamed at the captain. The captain looked over at the approaching ship, and pressed a convenient wooden button near the wheel, which summoned a bunch of magical speakers all over the ship.
"This is your captain speaking," The captain said, his voice coming from all the speakers. "There is an enemy ship approaching from the Adventurers Guild, protocol activate literally all ship boosting spells commence." The ship then started picking up speed fast, but not fast enough as the adventurers guild ship was dangerously close. James and the group were already on deck near Wade as it approached with alarmingly fast speed.
Without thinking much, James grabbed a nearby wooden board and made it float. He jumped on, summoned a flamethrower, and made his way to the other ship.
"JAMES ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Janica screamed, but James was already too far away to hear her. He boarded the other ship, and immediately got surrounded by it''s members.
"So this is the universe hopper isn''t it?" One of them said. He summoned a lightning bolt in his left hand, and pulled a sword in his right. The rest of the members did the same, until their captain yelled at them.
"You idiots! Use something that won''t burn this damn ship down!"
The members ditched the lightning bolt and pulled another sword out. James then started burning the ship with his flamethrower, people not daring to go near him as he skipped around, happily watching the ship burn. The members helplessly watched as James burned it down, with them not having anything to douse the flames with. Then James realized that the ship was losing altitude, and he was still on it. He couldn''t use his telekinesis because he used all his energy on the flamethrower. Suddenly all of the ships members were jumping to the endless sky below them, not wanting to die on a burning ship. James fell with the ship, the Sky Guild''s ship above them not being able to rescue him.
"Maybe this was a bad idea!" James yelled as he fell.
He and the ship fell further until a black circle appeared below him, sucking him in.
Chapter 11, Dank Ass Cave
The group watched as the other ship fell into the endless sky, still burning from James'' previous antics. Corin looked over to see Janica''s eyes swell up, and leaned as far as possible over the railing to try and spot James, but to no avail.
"Don''t tell me he''s still on there!" Janica said, tears filling up her eyes as she struggled to spot James anywhere from a distance.
Soon the other groups on the ship came out and looked at the burning ship falling below theirs, not knowing about James burning it down.
"WE HAVE TO GO AFTER IT!" Janica screamed at the captain.
"Sorry miss, we can''t go after your brother, the ship is falling faster than ours can reach it. Your brother is most likely dead alongside the ship."
Janica stared in silence at the captain, before rushing off into her group''s area and burst into tears in a corner, with Corin chasing after her.
As James fell into the black circle, he felt that weird teleporting sensation again before throwing up in a dank cave. The cave had a weird chicken flavor in the air, and there was a torch leaning from one of the walls.
"Where the fuck am I?" As James said that, a man walked through straight through one of the walls like the wall was never there.
"Mate," The man said. "You can''t just commit arson on another ship to take it down, you could''ve just killed the captain and then dispatch the members!"
The man was a muscular man with dark brown skin, and had a well trimmed beard and short haircut. The man wore a T-shirt labeled, "I got this T-shirt made in another world, how fun right?"
"Who are you?" James asked, holding back laughter after looking at his shirt.
"I''m Derek, I''m a universe-hopper too. I''m a part of the adventurers guild, but they don''t know I''m from Earth like you. I''m not sure how they don''t know since I wear this shirt a lot, which would probably be solid proof I''m from Earth, but oh well. I found out about you and your sister from an assignment from the guild, so I accepted it and boarded the ship, not realizing that you would attempt to burn the damn thing down. Welp, I finally got to meet the other universe-hopper, time to get you back to your sister safely. I''ll keep an eye out for you just to be safe, and I''ll try to make sure the adventurers guild doesn''t find you as easily."
"Wow that was a lot of yapping," James said. "Anyway now that I know you''re a good guy, WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE???"
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"Oh yea, we''re inside my house ability. When the god transported me into this world, he gave me the ability to transport me and five other people in a magical house that exists somewhere, and he also gave me the ability to transport people where they want to go after they''re inside my house. What an odd ability right? Think of the Sky Guild for a second, and I''ll transport you there. Any questions?"
"Yea, why is your house a dank ass ca-" James was cut off by his sudden teleport to the pier of the Sky Guild, where he threw up into a bucket in front of him.
"You''ll get used to teleporting someday." The man who greeted them from before said. "How the hell are you here though, I thought all sections were on adventures today?"
The ship sailed back to the Sky Guild pier, where all groups got off and rushed back to their sections. Janica was still teary eyed walking back, when she spotted James looking queasy nearby. She rushed towards him and gave him a tight hug, making his face paler as she embraced him.
"I THOUGHT YOU DIED!" Janica yelled, a smile forming on her face. She let go of him, making him have a sigh of relief. "How are you not dead? The ship you were on fell while being on fire!"
"Yea some guy named Derek saved me." James said. "I was in a dank ass cave, then the pier, and then bam you''re here, how neat."
"Don''t go jumping into danger like that, everyone thought you died!"
"Yea that''s what Derek said, man are you Derek in disguise?"
"Who''s Derek?"
When the group got back to their section, they looked over James, making sure he had no injuries, if he was a fake, if he was okay, etc.
"Everyone was worried about you, you know." Corin said to James after everyone had gone back to their bunks. "I was comforting Janica on the way back here, she really cares about you."
"Wait you mean everyone was worried?" James asked. "Even Jasper? He seems like a dick who wouldn''t care if his pug got kicked in the face."
"I don''t know what a pug is, but yes, he was worried too. He might not show it, but he cares about everyone here."
"Huh, I would''ve never had guessed. Anyway I looted so much shit from the members that were on that ship, like look at this!"
James opened his inventory and slammed a bag full of gold coins on the table.
"Tomorrow I''m showing Janica this, and then we''ll go on another shopping spree, good idea right?"
The next morning, the group was eating breakfast in the cafeteria.
"Man, today''s a day off?" James complained. "That stinks, I want to shoot things!"
"You nearly died yesterday and you want to go on another adventure?" Zewei asked.
"No duh, I got a huge load from yesterday!" James plopped the bag of coins on the middle of the table for the group to see.
"HOLY SHIT JAMES WHAT THE HELL?"
"James, you know you''re like really rich now right?" Wade said, looking up from his bread with seeds on it.
"Hell yea I do!" James said enthusiastically. "Any of you guys wanna go shopping later?"
Chapter 12, How Many Assassins Do You Have?
The group chatted with each other while making their way to the city''s shopping district. They have gone back to Tabatha''s Teleport Tower, arriving in the tower from using the pier''s teleport system. They had asked Tabatha were they should go for a shopping spree, where Tabatha recommended the city of Hunnry, a city known for it''s massive shopping district and wares.
"Man we can get so much stuff with your funds!" Zewei told James. "You''re in possession of wealth people can only dream of! The majority of this world''s population will never get anything close to the amount of gold that you have. What store are we going to first?"
"Dunno," James said. "Yall got any ideas? Maybe new gear, food, what are we getting today?"
"We could go for some new gear to be honest." Wade said. "New gear would help us stop you from almost dying like yesterday."
"Oh come on, I didn''t almost die!"
"YOU FELL WITH A BURNING SHIP!"
The group entered a store named "Arnold''s Cousin Amy''s Arms and Armor Store."
"Jeez, I thought the last gear store we went to had a mouthful of a name." James joked.
"Welcome to Arnold''s Cousin Amy''s Arms and Armor Store!" The woman behind the counter said. She had an eyepatch over her right eye and a tattoo on her arm that said, "My eyepatch is very much real."
The group ended up walking out decked in new clothing and armor, with a weapon strapped to their sides. Zewei now donned light steel armor, with clawed gauntlets on both hands. Wade now wore very light leather armor, with a small dagger on his side. Corin wore robes similar to Janica''s current robes, except with green lining instead of yellow. Jasper was stubborn at first, but in the end he accepted a new sword that looks extremely similar to a buster sword from a certain video game James played. James and Janica looked about the same as before, but now their armor was reinforced further with lighter and stronger steel bands.
"Man we are dripped out!" James said, looking over the group.
"Why would we be dripping?" Wade asked, giving James a confused look.
James ran off from the group for a short while to purchase large amounts of food from the nearby food vendors. Since his inventory was infinite, he stored all the food inside of it.
"Wouldn''t the food spoil?" Janica asked, seeing James'' inventory opened with large amounts of food inside.
"Nah, I found out that food doesn''t spoil after leaving some old food we got from the first town we went to inside of it, and it was still warm and ready to eat."
The group was heading towards the local teleport tower, sadly not owned by a woman named Tabatha, but as they headed there, they spotted a suspicious group of cloaked figures that bore the same exact symbol James saw on an assassin a few days earlier.
"Janica," James whispered, hiding behind an extremely thin tree. "I think those guys are a part of the group that tried to kill us before."
"Yea," Wade whispered back, somehow moving to another thin tree nearby James. "Those are definitely Adventurers Guild members, look at their symbols."
"Why are you guys whispering," Janica said out loud, not hiding behind comically thin trees like James and Wade. "They''re like how far away from us, surely they wouldn''t recognize us from that fa- OH FOR FUCK''S SAKE." The group of suspicious cloaked people vanished mysteriously.
Suddenly, the group was surrounded by the cloaked people. Each of the cloaked members held a red dagger in one hand, and a ball of ice presumably summoned from a spell. The first cloaked member to speak was the tallest one.
"You universe-hopper scum, you think you guys can just avoid the Adventurers Guild? You may have thought you escaped us, but no, we will keep sending more and more powerful people after you until we destroy all universe-hopper scum like you."
"Bitch what?" James mocked. "This guy sounds like an anime villain, ain''t no way. You guys are a bunch of edgelords and we will find out who the fuck is in charge and kick his ass, you hear me?"
"JAMES YOU''RE THREATENING AN ASSASSIN!" Janica yelled at James. "ARE YOU INS- you know what, why do I even ask this"
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The cloaked group members obviously got tired of James and Janica''s talking, because they shot an ice ball at all the group members. Janica quickly shielded everyone before the ice balls could hit, and the group was covered by a giant blue shield. Corin made a blast of wind with her wind control spell, but the cloaked people didn''t move an inch from the wind. The wind did however blow their cloaks off, but there was a second pair of cloaks underneath.
"How many cloaks you guys got under there?" James joked, before summoning an assault rifle. James shot at the people, but they dodged swiftly, avoiding the bullets. James then started a connection of energy with the bullets, and made them home at the cloaked people. They didn''t expect that of course, and the bullets pierced their cloaks with ease, killing more than half. James collapsed from summoning the gun, shooting it, and using telekinesis on the bullets.
Jasper''s sword lit on fire, and he swung at the remaining cloaked members, his sword burning through the cloaks. Zewei and Wade just watched because they thought this was one sick fight. After Jasper killed the members, the bodies dissolved into blood and sank through the floor because of James looting them.
"You guys are dangerous to us," Jasper told James and Janica shortly after the fight. "As long as we have you guys in our section, we''ll get assassins sent after us. This is your fault, we could''ve died!"
"Jasper calm down," Zewei said. "We didn''t almost die, we kicked their ass and got rewards for it! Plus it''s not like we''re incompetent or something, did you see the way you sword went through the cloaks, or James'' thing killing like half?"
"We may have been safe this time," Jasper said. "But what about next time? Didn''t you hear that tall cloaked guy? He said there would be more powerful people after them, so tell me one good reason why I should let them stay in our section with us."
"You don''t control the sections Jasper." Zewei said. "You''re not in charge of who stays and who doesn''t. Why are you always so stubborn and rude?"
"Guys calm down," Corin said, trying to mitigate the situation. "Jasper I have to agree with Zewei a little bit, you''ve been slightly hostile to James and Janica ever since they arrived in our section, and being hostile towards fellow members isn''t good for us. They haven''t done anything wrong."
"They did do something wrong!" Jasper shouted. "They''re the reason there were fucking assassins sent after us! Their presence puts us in danger! Plus I should be in charge of the sections seeing that I''m the only one that sees that they''re an active threat!"
Wade finally stopped just watching, and slapped Jasper. The slap hurt much because Wade was fairly weak, but it did make Jasper stop shouting for a bit.
"Jasper," Wade said calmly. "You''re being really rude and hostile right now, and I think the group would agree if we all just go back to the section and calm down a bit. And just to clarify, James and Janica are not a threat, they are fellow group members who just happen to have an entire evil organization chasing them, that''s all."
Jasper stormed off in silence, leaving the group to figure out what just happened. By the time the group finally started heading towards the teleport tower, Jasper was already at their section, sitting on his bunk in anger.
Meanwhile, at the headquarters of the Adventurers Guild, sat a dark skinned man in his office, looking over the footage taken from the latest fight with the group.
"HOW THE FUCK DID THEY NOT DIE?!" He yelled angrily at the floating stone tablet in front of him displaying the footage. "Those men had powerful ice spells and daggers, and neither could pierce that damn girl''s shield. And that boy with the weird wand, how did he wipe out half of the assassination group? I didn''t think I would have to send powerful people after them, but so be it. I will wipe out these scum from the face of this world, I must avenge my daughter."
The man''s goal to kill all universe-hoppers was first started when his daughter got in a fight with a few universe-hoppers. She lived a life of crime, and eventually ran into universe-hoppers that were well versed in this world, and they killed her to collect a massive bounty on her head. The man, after finding out about his daughter''s death, started slaughtering every single universe-hopper he could find out about, and later on in his life, he started an organization that kills universe-hoppers. Disguised as an actual guild, the Adventurers Guild would lure, chase, kill, and do anything to kill universe-hoppers. The siblings would have to get much stronger to survive the more powerful people being sent their way.
Back at the section, the group didn''t discuss about Jasper, and instead talked about the group sent after them, and how to combat the next groups that might be sent at them.
"Can we tell the Sky Guild about it?" James asked.
"Probably not," Wade replied. "People in here might tell the Adventurers Guild that we''re on to them, you guys were lucky enough to find us who didn''t tell anyone about you''re status as universe-hoppers."
"How many dickheads actually want to kill universe-hoppers? That group was not a small one, probably like fifteen people in it!"
"Why would their head be a dick? Anyway, there are a lot of people who despise universe-hoppers for some reason, way more than you might think. If word spreads in the Sky Guild that you two are from another universe, you guys might face assassins inside here! Of course, we won''t let them get to you guys."
"I wonder how Derek was never caught, he''s a part of the Adventurers Guild, but he''s a universe-hopper too! I do hope he actually has our back though."
"Can you explain who Derek is?" Janica asked.
James recapped what happened back at the burning ship.
"That reminds me," Janica said. "Never do that again, or you''ll wish you had died back there."
Janica noticed the rest of the members looking at her weirdly.
"I forgot that jokes from Earth sound off here. Great."
Chapter 13, Jaspers A Dick
Everyone in the group except Jasper decided that group training would be a good idea during training day. Jasper was in a separate training room, dying to the red difficulty summons. Jasper had mixed feelings for James and Janica, those being jealousy, fear, and resentment. He was jealous of James being able to do better than him in a combat sense, he feared that James and Janica would bring danger to the group, and he resented them for turning the group against him. He continued to die over and over again in the training room, until the staff member told him to stop and switch to an easier difficulty.
Meanwhile, the group was in a bigger training room, meant for group training of course, and they fought waves of orange difficulty summons. After they cleared the waves of summons, James snuck off and pressed the red color, changing all the summons to become harder. The summons were now large hulking blue giants, with huge swords that radiated electricity. There were large quantities of the giants, and started were surprisingly fast for their size.
James felt a pat on his shoulder, and found Wade looking into his eyes.
"James, what in the actual fuck is wrong with you." Wade flew off after saying that, and used a burst of speed spell he had to quickly stab out the eyeballs of the giants with his dagger.
James shot at the knees of the giants, but his bullets were knocked back towards him by the swords the giants held. James used his telekinesis to swerve bullets past the swords and his shots landed on the knees of the giants anyway. The giants fell to the ground, but were swiftly picked up by Corin''s wind control. The now crippled and blind giants were helplessly swinging their swords while floating in the air, unable to hit anything as Corin slammed them into the ground. Zewei used his rapid slice spell to increase the speed at which he could slice things with his gauntlet covered claws. He sliced at giants'' faces one at a time, until all of them died from the wounds on their face and knees. Janica was casting healing spells on the group members to replenish any energy lost.
"Maybe we should make the red difficulty harder," The staff member said. "Or maybe we should add an even redder difficulty! I still can''t believe that you guys are clearing the difficulty that was meant for adults here to train."
"We''re just goated like that you know?" James joked.
"I''m not a goat, I''m a tiger-hybrid!" Zewei said.
When the group arrived back at their section, they found Jasper leaning grumpily against a wall, arms crossed.
"Mate," James said. "Why are you always so pissy, I swear, every time we see you you''re always a dick."
"James, they don''t know what being pissy or a dick means." Janica told James.
Jasper just walked off, heading for the bunks again, not even looking at them.
"What an odd guy." James said. "Was he always like this when new section members joined?"
"Nope, just you guys." Corin said. "I know I said he cared for you James, but to be honest, that was just a lie to make Jasper seem like he doesn''t hate you."
"Why does he hate us for getting assassins sent after us?" Janica said. "It''s not like it''s our fault people want to kill us!"
"Maybe we should give him time to get used to you two having assassins sent after you." Corin suggested. "Maybe he won''t be as hostile towards you guys once he gets used to it."
"Honestly I don''t want to get used to assassins on my ass every few minutes." James said. "Janica, when are we gonna complete that quest thing we got like how long ago?"
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James opened the quest in front of them.
Evil Ass Guild
The guild just tried to assassinate you, find out why and put a stop to it.
Rewards: Level 2 Spell Unlock
"Next free day we have," Janica said. "Let''s find info about it. Speaking of which, when is the next free day?"
"In two days there''s a day off." Wade said. "Also what does that thing mean by ''level 2 spell unlock''?"
"No clue, but I want it." James said.
The next day, they were assigned a mission to take one of the smaller ships and deal with clearing something out on one of the smaller floating islands. The group, including Jasper, was heading towards the floating island they were assigned to.
"While we''re waiting," James said. "Jasper, to be clear, you won''t be a dick to us today right?"
"He means if you''ll be rude to us today." Janica said.
"Oh fuck off," Jasper replied. "I can act anyway to you guys, I don''t care. You guys better not get more assassins sent after us."
"You know we don''t control that."
"Of course you do, you being around us controls whether we get people sent after us or not!"
"Man fuck this conversation," James piped in. "Jasper, fuck you. Janica, let''s just ignore his rude ass comments."
The group sat awkwardly for the remainder of the trip there, not wanting to upset Jasper further.
When the group arrived at the floating island, they realized that this island was a really small one, only fitting a small town on it. They followed the map to a specific house in the town, where they saw a note left on the door. "Sky Guild, please clear this house out for me please. Make sure to not destroy any property inside, thank you!"
They entered the house and found out that there were giant cats with glowing red eyes all over the house. The house was quite big, but the cats filled up the space inside. James couldn''t just burn it down since this was someone''s house, so he did the next best thing. He fired a few shots from his gun, startling the giant cats. He then used telekinesis to float the bullets to accurately target the cats. The bullets he shot were not ordinary bullets however, and instead were tranquilizer darts. All the giant cats were knocked out, and the group dragged them outside.
"James," Wade said. "Why exactly did you not kill these things?"
"They''re adorable that''s why." James responded.
"They''re flesh eating cats for gods sake!"
"Purrfect, instead of guard dogs, the guild could have guard cats!" James pulled out some mysterious food the group couldn''t identify, and while the cats were still sleeping, he shoved some in their mouths. Suddenly, the cats woke up, and they all looked at James wearily, before he pulled out more of the food. The cats all ate it, and allowed James to pet them.
"See?" James said. "Is it possible to fit all these guys on the ship?"
Back at the Sky Guild, every section now had a flesh eating cat thanks to James, who contacted the head of the guild to suggest flesh eating cats as pets. The head of the guild agreed since he too owned a lot of normal cats, and giant flesh eating cats sounded adorable. Now every section had its own cat that they fed and took care of.
"How did you convince the head of the guild?" Wade asked James as he was petting their giant cat.
"He''s a massive cat person too, so I just told him we got lots of giant cats that need a loving home, and he agreed!"
The giant cat, who they named Whiskers, jumped on James'' lap, making him grunt. Whiskers fell asleep on James. The group looked at James silently, not wanting to wake up Whiskers.
"Guys," James whispered. "Can you get him off of me please?"
Corin carefully picked Whiskers up and carried him off to his own bunk, because yes they did indeed give a giant cat its own bunk bed.
Meanwhile at the Adventurers Guild, the head of the guild was deciding who should be in the next assassination group. He eventually decided on sending a large group of battlemages to wherever his spies tell him where the siblings whereabouts were.
"Once the spies have eyes on them, we''ll send the group to the location their at, and the universe-hoppers will be no more!"
"I''ll brief the group, sir." Derek said.
Chapter 14, CLAMES no wait JAMAL!
The group woke up the next morning to find that Jasper was not in the guild at the moment. Jasper had woken up early and left to go do some unknown thing.
"Who the hell wakes up at, wait, shoot do clocks exist here?" James asked.
"What''s a clock?" Wade asked. "And why does it sound suspiciously close to cock?"
The group went to a restaurant Tabatha recommended, where they ate breakfast.
"Is Jasper single?" James asked Corin. "I have a strong feeling he''s a single pringle."
"What do you mean single?" Corin asked. "What''s a single pringle?"
"James, stop saying dumbass shit from Earth to them." Janica said.
As the group finished their breakfast and left the restaurant, only to be met with a giant group of, yet again, cloaked figures, this time with masks. The figures were all quite muscular looking, with scimitars in one hands and spikes made of ice in the other. The masks they wore covered their entire face, its silver color looking odd against their red cloaks. They surrounded the entrance the group emerged from. Every one of the figures had a symbol on their chest that looked like the previous symbols they saw.
"More assassins?" James joked. "God damn man, if this was an anime, the plot would be so dogshit I would stop watching. Actually, if this was an anime, it would be an isekai right?"
"JAMES THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR JOKES!" Janica said, quickly summoning shields as the figures blasted them with ice spikes.
Corin controlled the wind to push hard against the figures, but they stood unfazed, their cloaks remaining on them. Wade quickly flew out of there to avoid the danger, knowing he would be no match in an actual combat scenario. Zewei rapidly slashed at figures with his gauntlets, knocking multiple back as their attacks banged against a blue shield. While Zewei was pushing a few back, James summoned a rifle, but not just any rifle. He summoned an explosive combat shotgun from Fallout 4, and started blasting enemies back. The figures were stunned, but recovered quickly, seemingly immune to bullets. One of the figures blasted wind underneath him, and tried to jump around the shields, only to realize that the shields surrounded the group members fully. Zewei was still knocking figures backwards, but he was unable to go through any of the cloaks. James then remembered that armor piercing things existed, and so he summoned a .50 Cal machine gun from Fallout 76, with legendary modifiers like Anti Armor on it, piercing the cloaks with ease, but since he summoned a more powerful weapon, he was exhausted more easily.
James pushed through exhaustion, firing the .50 Cal rapidly at the cloaked figures, their numbers dropping one by one. The figures tried different attacks, but they all were useless against Janica''s shields. After all the assassins were dead and looted, James and Janica collapsed to the floor, unconscious after using so much energy to summon their spells. The attacks from the enemies rapidly drained Janica''s energy, and James'' use of more powerful weapons exhausted his further.
The streets were stained red, the smell of blood prominent even after the bodies disappeared. The group quickly picked up the siblings and rushed to the teleport tower, where they went back to the guild to make sure Janica and James regain their energy.
"That fight must''ve drained them a lot," Wade said as they were putting the pair into their bunks. "I''m surprised they didn''t collapse mid fight!"
Soon they saw a pop up appear near James and Janica''s heads.
Level up! Level 3!
Increased energy and reaction time.
Gained new spell!
Janica: Explosive Shield, summon a shield that when attacked it detonates.
James: Permanent Clone Summon, summon one clone permanently who can do nearly everything you can, clone can be controlled, clone looks slightly different.
"What does all of this mean?" Wade asked, looking at the pop ups.
"Let''s ask them once they recover." Corin said.
Meanwhile at the Adventurers Guild, the head of the guild was yelling at Derek.
"Why did the group not use their full spells? It''s like they underestimated them! I thought you briefed them, Derek!"
"I did sir," Derek said. "I told them that the boss wants a bunch of kids to die, don''t underestimate them."
"Well it''s obvious that they didn''t listen to you, because they all got wiped out, our spies recorded the whole fight on recording tablets! I can''t even send more powerful groups after them, since that would destroy the town they''re in! We need to attack them when they''re not in some place that can be easily damaged by powerful spells. Next assignment they get, I''m sending powerful troops to follow them. Derek, make sure they use their full potential when fighting that damned pair!"
"Understood sir."
Derek teleported to his house through his ability. He flopped down on a couch and sighed.
"That old man won''t get them, I''ll make sure of it."
While the group was looking over the siblings, making sure they recover, Jasper was researching in a library on how to contact the Adventurers Guild.
"If I can get the Adventurers Guild to get rid of those two, our group will be safe again once they''re no longer there."
After hours of searching, he found out how to contact the guild, and he made his way to do so. He found out where the nearest Adventurers Guild building was, and he told the staff there all he knew about the siblings. He told them about the siblings'' spells, abilities, location, connections, anything he could remember.
"And make sure to not hurt my group while getting them!" Jasper told them.
"Understood sir, you said that your group had a human-bird hybrid, human-tiger hybrid, and two humans, correct?"
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"Yes, avoid hurting those if possible. Just get rid of those siblings, their dangerous. Just being around them puts our lives in danger."
"We will make sure not to harm any of your group members." The staff member was obviously lying, but Jasper couldn''t pick up on the signs.
Back at the section, James and Janica woke up to find the level up pop ups.
"I CAN CLONE MYSELF???" James shouted. The group heard his excited yelling and rushed to the bunks to find James hopping up and down. "I don''t care if I just recovered from overusing a spell, I''m cloning myself right now."
James burst out of the room, leaving the group and Janica behind as he rushed to the cafeteria to summon his clone.
"Oh neat, a new shield summon." Janica said, getting up to close the pop up.
The group walked to the cafeteria to find James casting an overly goofy spell.
"Apparently this spell needs a chant, so lemme do that real quick. Bing bong ding, ding dong bong, make sure my clone, has a dong!"
The group watched in confusion as a circle appeared at the center of the cafeteria floor, before a clone of James stepped out of it, luckily wearing the exact same clothes as James.
"YO LET''S GO!" The cloned James shouted. "Oh my god, I have legit all of your memories, this is sick!"
"YO YOU ACT LIKE ME?" James asked, jumping up and down in excitement. "Let''s go, we are now best friends, no discussion."
"WHAT THE HELL?" Janica shouted. "Ah great, now we have to deal with two of you."
"Ay guess what I''m thinking right now!" Cloned James said.
"Let''s say it at the same time!" James said.
"Three, two, one-hundred-eighty-four, ZESTY BESTIES! OH MY GOD!" The Cloned James and James said in unison.
"What should we called you?" James asked. "Ooh, what about Clames? Like clone and James put together?"
"Perfect name, hey yall I''m Clames now!"
"You really couldn''t come up with a better name?" Zewei said.
"Clames sounds exactly like claims," Corin said. "What about an actual name that doesn''t sound exactly like an already existing word?"
After a lot of discussion, they came up with the name Jamal, because it started with a J like James.
The group was about to head back to the bunks from the cafeteria when the glass window inside the cafeteria broke open, with men in red cloaks storming through it.
A few minutes earlier, the head of the guild was notified by a staff member telling him that Jasper has just told them everything he knows about the siblings.
"How accurate is his information?"
"He was seen with the siblings and he was a part of the group the siblings travel with, sir."
"And the siblings are currently inside the Sky Guild building? If they are, send our more powerful groups after them. Fuck the Sky Guild, I couldn''t care less about a guild harboring universe-hopper scum."
"But the kid told us not to hurt his group in the guild, sir."
"It''s a shame that his group protected the siblings when we sent our previous groups, isn''t it?"
"Jamal," James said as he summoned a .50 Cal machine gun with all the previous effects from earlier. "Let''s see if you really think exactly like me."
James and Jamal both had summoned .50 Cal machine guns from Fallout 76 in front of them, and where blasting at the window where the figures were pouring in. The figures dropped like flies, but a door burst open nearby, with men in red plated steel armor stepping through. While that door was being burst open, another door burst open, and luckily the people who stepped out of it were groups from other sections. The other groups had heard the chaos and were sent to deal with whatever danger was threatening the guild. There were lots of people storming into the cafeteria, groups from the other sections, Adventurers Guild members, and Sky Guild staff, all bursting in to destroy the threat.
The cafeteria was filling up fast, and the Adventurers Guild members clashed with surprisingly strong Sky Guild members. The battle led to spilled blood on both guilds'' ends, and some of the Sky Guild members were starting to drop dead. James and Jamal were the main damage dealers, with Janica supporting them with her shields and explosive shields. Zewei pushed back enemies to open them up to bullets, Corin pushed wind around to move furniture in ways so it blocked enemies, and Wade flew around distracting enemies.
"I''m, feeling, dizzy..." James and Jamal said, their vision turning blurry.
Janica quickly cast out healing spells, but she too was getting dizzy. She was about to collapse, but Wade swooped down and caught her before she fell fully.
"Ay I got you," Wade said as he carried her. He gave Janica some of his bread with seeds on it. "This stuff will replenish your energy, now you should probably go and defend our group again."
Obviously the bread didn''t replenish anything, but since Janica was carried from the battlefield long enough, she recovered enough energy to summon shields again. Wade carried her back to where James and Jamal were, and Janica recast her shields just in time as spells came firing their way.
"I think it took them a good second to realize our shields were down!" James shouted over the loud chaos. "Crazy ass plot armor if this was an anime!"
The Adventurers Guild members were slowing losing, and they started to retreat out the window, but some spell from another section''s group cast a barrier in the way of the window, trapping the members inside. Taking advantage of the guild members being stunned, James and Jamal fired rapidly at the stunned adventurers, wiping most out and crippling others. Another group finished the rest off, and the cafeteria was now silent as everyone took in how much of a mess there now was. James was the first to speak up after the fight.
"Does there happen to be a magical cleaning service, or will some poor staff member have to clean this up by hand?"
After James said that, he looted all the dead adventurers, blood staining the floor everywhere.
"I think it''ll need more than some magic spell to clean that up." James joked.
"So let me get this straight." The head of the Sky Guild took the group to his office shortly after everyone left the cafeteria. "You guys are from another universe, the Adventurers Guild wants to kill you, and after a bunch of failed assassination attempts, they finally sent a huge horde of their members to attack us after finding out you guys are currently living here?"
"Sound about right." James said.
"We are currently still doing a check on how many of our members died in that cafeteria fight at the moment, anyway what should we do now? It''s obviously not safe enough for you guys two stay here, seeing that the guild easily broke through the windows, and I honestly can''t think of somewhere else that would be safe. I''m sorry kids, but the safety of my guild comes first. I''m genuinely sorry for you guys, but I gotta banish you."
"HEY YOU CAN''T DO THAT!" Zewei shouted. "They did nothing wrong!"
"I know, but they pose to much of a risk to keep here, plus we can''t even protect them if something like this happens again."
"If they''re getting kicked out, I''m coming with them!" Zewei stood up. "Group members stick together, and I''m sticking with James and Janica. We still have no clue where Jasper is, but still."
"Wait Zewei," James said, eyes wide with fear. "I don''t think that''s a good idea, seeing that THEY SENT LIKE AN ENTIRE ARMY AGAINST US! I slightly agree with Jasper with this one, we are way to dangerous to be with, and I don''t want yall to get hurt!"
"I agree with Zewei," Corin said. "I would feel guilty about myself forever if we didn''t stick by our group member''s side, even if it meant putting ourselves in danger. Plus, we can handle what they throw our way... hopefully."
"Yea, fuck the Adventurers Guild!" Wade said.
"I''m surprised that you all want to join them, are you certain?" The head of the guild asked.
The group agreed, and was led to the exit with a box full of their stuff. They all walked to the pier, and went to Tabatha''s Tower. A few seconds later, the adrenaline wore off, and the group was hit with what just happened.
"Ah shit, we''re so fucked right now." James and Jamal said in unison.
Chapter 15, Jasper How Dare You!
Jasper was strapped to a chair in an underground stone room. He heard the sound of locks clicking, before a menacing dark skinned man entered the room.
"You lying piece of shit!" The man yelled at Jasper. "You led my men into a trap, didn''t you? My spies said that the amount of people that came to intercept our groups was enormous! Now we''re down multiple groups of powerful people, and we can''t send as many after the damn universe-hoppers! Now we''re going to torture every last bit of information out of you until we can find a way to get rid of the siblings."
Jasper was still gagged and tied up, so he couldn''t respond or do anything. He just watched in horror as more men arrived with tools that he assumed would torture him.
Meanwhile, the group had asked Tabatha on what they should do since they didn''t have anywhere else to go, but Tabatha said that most guilds wouldn''t take teenagers like them.
"However," Tabatha said with a curious expression on her face. "You''re group definitely has what it takes to defend yourselves, after all, I saw your fight with that group that one time. I suggest you go from town to town, and get stronger. I know those symbols on the men that attack you guys, the Adventurers Guild is quite the powerful enemy to have. Go get stronger, and you may stand a chance against them."
Tabatha teleported the group to a faraway town, where they paid for a room in the tavern.
"So Tabatha recommends we just go from town to town?" James asked Janica, the pair sitting at a table in their room. "How would that get us stronger? Also will the Adventurers Guild get stronger? Is there some sort of video game level scaling thing going on here?"
"Maybe it has to do with our leveling system." Janica said. "If we keep leveling up, we might get more advantages over the Adventurers Guild. We could also consider the fact that we can become more skillful with each encounter."
"That would be sick, like imagine a level one-hundred us while the Adventurers Guild is still level one!"
"Can other people level up like us?" Janica asked.
"Dunno, but if they can, that would stink."
"Can you guys explain what you talk about?" Wade asked them, sitting on a nearby chair listening to their conversation. "We''re kind of in this together now, so we got to understand each other better if we''re gonna stick like this."
"Yea," Corin said. "I never understood what you guys always talked about, especially James."
James and Janica explained to the group different things from Earth that James always references, what their abilities do, what a gun is, etc.
"Why would your world create something that''s sole use is to kill fellow people?" Corin asked.
"You guys can''t be talking," James replied. "Swords, axes, maces, all those are weapons designed to kill shit, right?"
"Still though, your world is so advanced in the killing aspect that you have things solely designed to harm. Ours could be used for other purposes, like cutting wood, breaking down a door, killing monsters, the main use isn''t just to kill others."
"Fair point, I mean like a gun could be used for other stuff, but its main use is killing shit so..."
After a bit of chatting, the group slept in the same room, with most of them sleeping in chairs.
The next morning, the group set off to walk towards the next town. James had heard from townsfolk at the previous one that the one their heading towards has non-guild related assignments that are very similar to the assignments they get from the Sky Guild. James had purchased a giant portable tent and was planning to use it on the way to the town.
While the group was walking, James got a few curious glances from group members as he laughed to himself while watching his phone.
"Does James have laughing disease?" Wade asked, sounding quite serious when he said it. "If he does we''ll have to quarantine him."
James took off his headphones and immediately assured Wade that he did not have a disease he has never heard of, before showing Wade multiple Youtube videos of cats being buttered. Soon the entire group was watching cats with butter on them, passing the time while walking much faster. The group stopped walking and set up the tent when it turned night.
"Maybe I should deal with that Adventurers Guild someday." The god said to himself. "Eh, I''m sure it''s no problem, it''s kind of funny that on Earth there was racism, and now in this universe there is something that''s comparable to racism."
"Sir," One of his sons said. "Mum is pissed at you again for ignoring her god messages. She wants to talk to you again about how morally incorrect it is to just take people from one universe and plop them onto another."
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"Tell her to piss off. I don''t want to hear another word from her godly mouth until she does something about people believing in fake gods on Earth. Make sure she deals with the different religions on Earth, then we''ll talk."
"Why do you want your brothers and sisters'' followers to stop believing in them?"
"Because I''m obviously the best god of course!"
Inside of Derek''s ability house, he was overlooking his plans on misleading the search groups and spies to lure them away from the siblings.
"The spies have already spotted them heading towards a town, so I''ll need to think fast if I want to pull this off. I''m going to have to travel and intercept their group, and use a disguise spell on them, to make it seem like they''re just a normal group. I''ll try to make it seem like they went a different direction somehow, so I''ll figure that out later."
Derek teleported to the town the group was heading towards, planning to run into the group and disguise them with one of his spells.
The next morning, the group packed up the tent and headed towards the town. They were closing in on it when a man everyone, but James, didn''t know. The man quickly cast a spell on them, making a transparent sphere appear around them. To outside eyes, the group now looked like a bunch of armed adults, but if you''re inside the sphere, everyone would look the same as before. The man vanished soon afterwards, and the group was left being confused, until they spotted a note on the ground.
"I used a disguise spell on you guys," The note read. "That''ll help you avoid Adventurers Guild spies. Good luck, don''t die."
"Who was he?" Janica asked.
"Derek, duh." James replied.
"So that''s what you meant by good looking guy with ridiculous t-shirt."
The groups made it to the town later in the day, where they headed towards the assignments building and accepted a few.
Jasper was on the verge of death, his torture continuing throughout the day. The head of the guild went back to his office while the torturers did as the pleased with him. After all the torture was over, and they realized they forgot to take off his gag all this time so they didn''t even get any useful information out of him, they threw him into a prison cell in the guild before leaving him.
"Ouch," Jasper said aloud, no one hearing him from how deep underground he was. "I''m gonna break out this cell sooner or later, once I regain my energy." Jasper collapsed to the floor.
Jasper woke up a few hours later, where he attempted to break the bars of the cell with his firesword spell, before realizing that he didn''t have a sword to use it on. He banged on the walls, but the walls were made of stone and on the other side was just stone and dirt. He tried everything he could, but it was no use. He was starving, still hurt, and dehydrated, with no one but him around. He laid down on the floor and slept, having exhausted all his options. He had nightmares when he slept, making him feel guilty about telling the Adventurers Guild about the siblings.
He had nightmares of Corin, who was usually caring and understanding of people, looking at him with with disdain in her eyes. Wade, who usually had his back, looking at him with hatred. Zewei, who''s fun and reckless nature gone in his nightmare as Zewei looked quite serious, scolding Jasper on his choices. The nightmare then flashed to the siblings, where they were being comforted by his previous group. He had that same nightmare on loop for as long as he slept in the prison.
The group was on a roll with the assignments, with them usually consisting of going to an area and clearing it. Some assignments required them to retrieve an item, which was a bit slower but it reaped more rewards. The rewards were usually money, but sometimes it would be a choice of a few items like food, water, or money. James always chose food since he wanted to try and cook something after purchasing cooking supplies earlier, while the group selected money, since James already had the food and water ready for them.
"I can''t wait to try out this bad boy," James said. "I used to cook with my dad back home all the time!"
"I miss dad''s cooking," Janica said. "But I''m excited to try out this world''s foods too."
They headed to one of the bigger cities after being satisfied with how many assignments they cleared out, and they decided they would aim for the harder contracts only found in big cities, like the one they were headed to.
"Are there horses or cars in this world by chance?" James asked Wade as they were walking. "Like surely they have some other transport option if they have flying ships right?"
"There are these things called caros, they''re similar to the cars you described to us before, but they''re very slow and not good for long distances. They''re mainly used by rich snobs who want to slowly go around places showing how much money they have."
"The mayor of my old town had one," Corin said. "He was assassinated by my neighbor for some reason, how odd."
"Since we''re on the topic of backstories," James said. "Why don''t we share things from ours?"
"James," Janica said. "Me and you might have the most boring backstories out of anyone here. Two Asian teens that barely went outside playing video games for the majority of our lives? Hell, we don''t even have people back home we could call friends."
"Really?" James said. "Jamal, I have bad memory, but if I recall correctly, Janica here was hanging out with this cute Asian boy outside of school."
"Hell yea she did!" Jamal replied. "I swear we thought you were dating because of how much you hung out with him. I wonder if he misses you."
Janica''s face turned bright red. "We weren''t dating, we were just friends."
"So we do have people we can call friends!" James said. "Man don''t go putting us down, especially me who was super popular totally back then!"
"James," Jamal said. "I might think like you, but I''m a bit of my own person now, and I know everything you do. You had zero friends and were a total introvert back then."
"Fucking snitch!" James said.
The group shared their old experiences. Zewei came from a tribe of human-tiger hybrids, Corin came from a small farming town, Wade came from a flock of human-bird hybrids on a tropical floating island, and the group told them that they didn''t know much about Jasper''s backstory.
"What happened to Jasper anyway?" James asked. "He straight up just vanished! I know he was a dick and all, but I''m slightly worried about him."
"We can only guess." Wade said.
Chapter 16, Big Ass City
The group arrived at the city at night, where the looked over at James'' map.
"That''s a pretty cheap tavern there, should we go there?" James asked the group.
"Aren''t we like really rich?" Janica asked.
"Yea but the rich taverns are probably a scam, like remember that trip to Vegas? Our grandma paid for one of those fancy rich hotels, and it didn''t even have a tv that I could connect my phone to!"
The group paid for a decently priced tavern and James flopped down on a chair. Jamal was in the bathroom, making his hair different then James so they weren''t the exact same. James got up and leaned over the balcony, looking over the huge city. The city was beautiful at night, with lights everywhere and stars showing better than they would on Earth. The cool breeze blew on James'' face, and he enjoyed every second of it.
"Finally a chance to slow down a bit." James said to himself. "Ever since we came here, we were always doing something. I think tomorrow I''m just gonna chill instead of doing the bigger assignments. I should probably tell the group that, eh never mind, I''ll tell them tomorrow."
Corin joined James at the balcony, looking over the city in silence. Janica and the rest of the group watched them weirdly since they were all cold and bundled up in blankets.
"They''re crazy I tell you," Janica said to Wade and Zewei. "It''s freezing cold and there they are, just leaning on the balcony acting like they don''t mind it."
"I know Corin is used to wind," Zewei said. "So she probably doesn''t mind it being cold, but how the hell is James not minding it? Was it always cold back at where you came from?"
"Nope, it was quite hot actually. California doesn''t even get snow anymore, and in the summer, heat blasts everywhere."
"Maybe he likes the cold better because he spent most of his life in a hot ass place?"
"Maybe, maybe not."
Corin and James eventually came back inside, and the group went to sleep.
"So we lost track of them." The head of the Adventurers Guild said to Derek. "How the hell did we lose them? That Jasper kid is no longer useful, so how the hell are we going to find them now?"
"We could wait for our spies to find them." Derek suggested. "Surely with enough time, the spies will find them, right?"
"IT''S ALREADY BEEN ENOUGH TIME! They should''ve died back at the first town they were in, and now we can''t even find them! Let''s go with your plan for now, wait until the spies find them, and then send our powerful groups after them."
"Uh sir, we lost the majority of our groups when we attacked the Sky Guild, and we only have a few in reserve."
"I don''t care, send them. Send them once they are found."
James was off exploring the city, while the group decided to follow James'' idea of just chilling today. The city was quite lively that day, with merchants out and about, and lots of people walking around. The group didn''t know where James went since he ran off without them, but they trusted he wouldn''t get himself into trouble. James got himself into trouble.
James was exploring the city, when a bunch of cloaked figures jumped him when he passed an alleyway. They gagged him and tied him up before putting him in a bag and dragging him off somewhere he didn''t know. It took a while, but eventually he was taken out of the bag, and he found himself inside some enclosed wooden room with no windows. Cloaked figures took off the gag and strapped him to a chair.
"You''re going to tell us where your sister is." One of them said.
"Why do I suspect you''re black for some reason." James said randomly. "I ain''t racist, just saying that I feel like you''re black."
The cloaked figure pulled out a knife and pointed it at James'' throat.
"Tell us where your sister is now, or we''ll spill your blood all over."
"Jesus, fine. They''re off exploring."
"Where?"
"Your mom''s house. HAHA, got em- SON OF A BITCH!" A knife was stabbed straight into James'' thigh.
"Tell us now, or it won''t just be your thigh that''s getting stabbed."
"Jokes on you, I''m into this shit. Stab me daddy!" James pretended to be horny and gay for some reason. He didn''t think of a better reaction at the time.
The cloaked figure grabbed a second knife and stabbed it into James'' other thigh. "TELL US NOW!"
James forgot he could summoned a pistol with a bayonet, so he summoned one and quickly cut his bindings while the man''s hand was on the knife in his thigh, before summoning a flamethrower and shooting flames all over the man and the wooden room. The room quickly burnt down, revealing that the room was in some random tavern, and James pulled the knives out of his thighs with a grunt, and stabbed the man before looting his body and making a run for it. James shot a few bullets from his pistol at the men chasing him. The men dropped dead and they dissolved into blood. People on the streets watched in confusion as the blood stained the road. James kept running, checking his map to see where his group was, and headed straight there.
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"I still can''t believe he fell for the mom joke!" James told himself, still bleeding on the thighs.
Janica looked at her map and saw James approaching.
"Oh there he is, wonder why he''s running at us so fast." Janica said.
They looked up and saw James with blood stains on his pants.
"Oh hey guys," James greeted. "Janica, do you mind healing my legs real quick, I got stabbed a few times."
"WHAT."
"Yea those kidnappers weren''t that big of a threat to be honest, they even fell for a mom joke! Anyway, I should probably not run off alone again."
The group went back to their tavern room, where Janica cast a healing spell on his legs, making the stab wounds disappear entirely, but the blood stain remained.
"How did you get kidnapped?" Janica asked after healing him.
"I got jumped by people who I suspect are black for some reason, and then I got strapped to a chair, where I got knives stuck in me. They tried to use me to find you, but they fell for the most obvious mum joke ever! What idiots am I right?"
"You seem oddly calm for someone who just got kidnapped and stabbed."
"They failed to interrogate me remember? They failed, so uh yea, I win."
"You''re an idiot, you know that?"
"I forgot that disguise spells wear off." Derek said to himself in his ability house. "Now the spies know what city they''re in. I got to inform them somehow. Idea, I find where they''re staying at, break into their room, and inform them that way. No, that would be too invasive. What about..." Derek rambled on to himself, coming up with increasingly worse ideas to inform the siblings, until he settled on breaking into their room and transporting them to his house.
"Now how to find out where they live..."
The group watched videos on James'' phone to chill instead of exploring the city like they originally intended. They were interrupted by knocking on their door as the owner of the tavern talked on the other side.
"Someone wants to see you lot, and they''re paying quite the amount of money to do so."
"Ah shit, is it the guild you think? James asked Janica.
"If it is, you''re doing the talking. By talking I mean shooting by the way."
They heard another knock on the door, and they found a dark skinned man with a t-shirt that says, "My old t-shirt dirty af, so this is mine now" walked in.
"DEREK LET''S GOOO!" James and Jamal both shouted.
"Hello James," Derek greeted, receiving weird glances from the other group members. "I''m Derek, I hope James told you guys about me, anyway straight to the point, there are like a lot of assassins in this city, and they all know that you''re in the city now because of James. I''m gonna teleport you guys into my magic ability house(don''t question it) and teleport you guys even farther from this place."
"I''m down immediately, you saved my life." James said.
"James, you barely explained who Derek was." Janica said. "We can''t just trust him instantly, especially since we only met him once before. Can we ask a few questions to see if you''re tru-" She was cut off by them being teleported through a black circle in the ground, leading the whole group to throw up on Derek''s cave floor.
"My bad yall," Derek apologized. "I''ll answer any questions you guys have now that we''re somewhere safe."
The group looked around the room and saw they were in a cave with a torch hanging from a wall.
"Follow me and I''ll get you guys answers in the lounge area." Derek said as he walked through a wall.
The group hesitantly followed him through the wall, where the found a room that looked like a living room from Earth. There were two couches facing each other, with a chair next to the couches facing inwards. Derek sat on the chair while the group sat on the couches.
"Who are you?" Wade asked when he took his seat. "James is horrible at explaining who you were, so all we know about you is that you saved his life and blasted a spell on us previously."
"You already know my name, so I''ll just tell you other things about me. I secretly work for the Adventurers Guild but I''m a universe-hopper. That spell I cast on you was a temporary disguise spell to throw off spies who were tracking your location. Your mate Jasper snitched on James and Janica''s locations, asking that you guys wouldn''t get hurt. Obviously his request for you guys to not get hurt was not followed, and now the head of the guild thinks he''s a liar, and he is currently locked up in a prison cell deep down underneath the Adventurers Guild."
"So that''s where he went," James said. "Fucking prick, hope he rots down there."
"Why are you helping James and Janica?" Wade asked.
"Because the Adventurers Guild is fucked up!" Derek replied. "I secretly throw off some of their plans to kill universe-hoppers, which I do stop some of them. James and Janica are now being hunted down because it took the head of the guild longer than he liked to kill them initially. The guild is now mad that it''s taking so long to kill two universe-hoppers, and now they''re trying to kill you guys even harder."
"Any chance of fighting back?" James asked.
"The guild is extremely crippled at the moment after the Sky Guild attack, so if you guys really want to fight back instead of me just sending you far away, you''ll have to be more powerful than that. Not to undermine you''re previous feats of pushing back against the guild, but you will have to become stronger to fight back alone."
"I have a question," James said. "Will our leveling ability help with getting stronger? Like we can level up and stuff like a video game, and currently we have this quest system thing too." James pulled up the quest pop up to find out that there is a big yellow claim button underneath the quest.
Evil Ass Guild
You have found out why the guild wants to assassinate you, and now know how to stop them. Claim reward below.
There was another quest below the claim button.
Get stronger
Derek has told you how to stop the guild. Reach level 10 first before pushing back the guild.
Rewards: Powerful Spell Staff, Magic Controller
James clicked the claim button, which gave Janica and James pop ups.
New spell unlocked, power level 2.
James: Improved gun summoning, replaces old gun summoning spell with a better version. Improved Gun Summoning spell costs less energy and is more powerful.
Janica: Improved shield summoning, replaces old shield summoning spell with a better version. Improved Shield Summoning spell costs less energy and has spikes.
"Well would you look at that," James said. "Hey Derek, do you have any suggestions on where to kill a ton of things? Oh yea, what''s your phone number."
After their conversation with Derek ended, the group got teleported to an even farther city where the Adventurers Guild haven''t touched it yet. Derek said that the city had a reputation of having nearby bandit camps, and he recommended they cleared those out.
"If it took us like how long to reach level 3," James said to Janica. "How long will it take to get us level 10?"
"Let''s worry about that tomorrow, I need a day where we''re not getting chased left and right."
Chapter 17, Slapping And Stabbing?
Once the group settled down in a tavern, James tried to call Derek''s phone number, only to remember that literally all message apps on his phone don''t work.
"I forgot that was an issue." James sighed, putting away his phone.
"Surely there''s some magical telephone or something, right?" Janica said.
"Wade, how to people contact people in this universe?"
"They enchant flying letters to arrive at the person you want to contact." Wade replied.
"Well shit, we ain''t getting that any time soon."
"WHERE DID THEY GO?!" The head of the Adventurers Guild yelled at one of his staff members. "The spies saw them literally yesterday, how can they be gone already?!"
"Sir, have you considered someone helping them."
"Obviously, but who can just make people vanish like that?"
"No idea sir, but we should check every city we can go to in order to find the universe-hoppers."
"There are way too many cities and we''re running out of people. I guess we have to just use Derek''s plan of waiting until spies find them." The head of the guild slammed his fist into his desk for dramatic effect.
The next day, the group was clearing out nearby bandit camps in order to knock out a few assignments, and hopefully level up.
"How many people do we have to kill to level up?" James asked after finishing the last bandit in one of the camps. "Honestly, I want to be ambushed by the guild just to level up faster."
"Maybe we need to take those harder assignment we saw," Janica suggested. "Those seemed like they might be good for large amounts of enemies."
The group later claimed one of the assignment and headed towards the area it pointed to. The group saw some form of hydras wandering around. The hydras looked like their skin was that of a human''s, and their heads were of a bird. The group watched as the heads breathed fire on a passing animal to cook it, before eating it.
"Fleshy fire breathing hydras," James said. "Great."
James pulled out a sniper and aimed at the head of one of the hydras, but before he could fire, Janica stopped him.
"Don''t you remember the main thing about hydras in stories from Earth?" Janica asked. "Their heads regrow, no matter how many times they get removed."
"Then what should we do?"
"I don''t know, I don''t do the killing."
James led them down to a nearer location to the hydras, where he came up with a plan.
"Wade, you stab out their eyes. Corin, sweep the air under them if you can. Zewei and Jamal, help me aim for the main body. Janica, shield everyone."
"You thought of all that just now?" Janica said. "What did you do to my idiot brother?"
"Oh shut up, I''m older than you, of course I''m smart."
"Uh-huh."
The group carried out the plan. Wade swiftly went from hydra to hydra, stabbing out their eyeballs so they can''t see. The hydras started spewing fire everywhere in a panic. Corin tried to sweep them off their feet with her wind control spell, but all that did was make them wobble a bit. Janica summoned shields with spikes to surround Zewei, Jamal, and James as they rushed in. James and Jamal used explosive shotguns from Fallout 4, and Zewei was slashing the hydras with his now clawed gauntlets. They killed the blind hydras with ease, and James and Janica luckily got a level up pop up.
Level up! Level 4!
Increased energy and reaction time.
Get Stronger quest 4/10 completed.
"Nice," James said. "So we just gotta kill strong things, got it."
"I''m guessing that it''s a shared leveling system or something," Janica said. "I haven''t been doing any killing, but I still level up too. I wonder if the group can level up too?"
James suddenly felt a sudden urge to smack Zewei, so he lunged at him and slapped him right in the face.
"OW WHAT THE FUCK, JAMES?!" Zewei shouted, before looking up and seeing a pop up.
Level ability shared to person Zewei
Zewei now is level 4
Slap again to revoke levels and ability.
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"Well that''s convenient." James said, before being slapped in the face by Zewei''s tail.
"That''s payback for the slap." Zewei joked.
"So should we just start slapping people?" Janica said. "I never thought we could share the level ability, but now that we can, why does it have to be a slap?"
James ran up to Wade and slapped him in the face.
"Can''t you slap my arm or something that''s NOT THE FACE?!" Wade asked, before a pop up screen appeared in front of him too.
Level ability shared to person Wade
Wade is now level 4
Slap again to revoke levels and ability.
James was about to slap Corin, but Janica yanked him back.
"Let''s test if we can slap something that''s not the face." Janica said, before lightly slapping Corin on the arm, making a pop up appear in front of Corin.
Level ability shared to person Corin
Corin is now level 4
Slap again to revoke levels and ability.
Wade and Zewei slapped James hard on the face after they witnessed the ability being shared without the slap to the face.
"It was a sudden urge, ok?" James said, face red from slapping. "It was just a sudden urge that I fulfilled, and it happened to make me slap you guys'' faces!"
The god looked above at them, laughing to himself.
"I love giving people intrusive thoughts."
"Dad," Another one of his son said to him. "Mum wants you to stop giving people intrusive thoughts, she says it''s morally incorrect."
"Tell her to stop making people horny, damn goddess of love my ass."
Jasper woke up in his cell room with a paper plate in front of him, with rice and bread on it. Next to the plate was a plastic knife. Jasper quickly ate the food, before using his firesword spell on the knife, making it light on fire and reinforce itself. He picked it up and started carving away at the bars of the cell, until a big enough hole in the bars was formed. He stepped through and made his way down the hall, where he came face to face with a cloaked figure.
"You''re not leaving here, are you?" The cloaked figure said mysteriously. "You have no chance of getting past me. Even if you did, this prison is deep under the guild, you''re screwed. Go back to your cell like a good little inmate, and we might decide not to torture you la-" The man''s throat was impaled by a burning plastic knife, killing him instantly.
Jasper searched the man until he found a dagger and keys. He ditched the plastic knife and swapped it for the dagger, before going to the door down the hall. He unlocked it using the keys, and made his way upwards.
The group kept clearing out highly dangerous assignments, finally finding an effective way to level up. The group had reached level 6 by the time it hit nighttime.
"Some of these monsters remind me of Persona''s shadows." James said back at the room. "It''s almost like the god took direct inspiration from it, like did you see that table with the burning objects around it?"
"Maybe it''s just a coincidence." Janica replied. "There''s no way a god would play a game like Persona, wouldn''t that be kind of dumb?"
"We''re talking about a god that straight up transports people to different universes because he''s bored, so there''s a likely chance he does play Persona, or some sort of video game. There''s no way that some of these monsters aren''t straight up taken from video games. I swear, that square skeleton is from Minecraft."
"The hell are you two talking about?" Wade asked. "Fire tables and squarelletons are completely normal monsters."
The group chatted into the night before going to bed.
Jasper ascended the stairs upwards, his flaming dagger lighting the way up. He found that there were no floors between the surface and the prison, with just an extremely long staircase connecting the two. When he finally reached the surface, he found that he emerged from a secret door in the bathroom of the lounge area of the Adventurers Guild main building. He noticed a cloak draped over the stall door next to him, so he kicked the stall door down and pointed his knife at the pooping man.
"Tell me the way out of here or you''ll lose your throat." Jasper said.
The pooping man quickly summoned an ice spike in his left hand but Jasper stabbed his throat before he could launch it. Jasper burst out of the bathroom and found himself in the lounge area, where a bunch of cloaked figures sat reading magazines in different couches. They all looked up at him and immediately summoned ice spikes. They all shot at him, but the spikes evaporated when they neared him. His dagger was so hot that the ice spikes couldn''t near him at all. He dashed out of a giant window and ran as far as possible, ignoring the ice spikes being sent his way.
Jasper ran into the nearby woods, where he kept running until he was sure that they didn''t catch up. He stopped for a second on a log, unsure what to do next. He didn''t know where he was, where his group was, or what to do at the moment. He got up and decided he would head one direction for a while until he hit something.
After an hour of running, Jasper hit the edge of the floating island where the grass abruptly ended in front of him. He got the idea of making a floating boat and started carving one out of a fallen tree nearby. Once the shape of the boat was completed, he chanted a ritual he learned back at his old home, where his dad used to make flying boats. After the ritual was completed, he stepped into the boat and sailed slowly into the endless sky, hoping to hit something eventually.
Jasper sailed for hours on end, slowly becoming thirstier and hungrier but pushing through it. He was approaching an island ahead, and gave a sigh of relief. The boat hit the island and he left the boat to investigate. The area of the island he hit was a pier area, with a town attached to it. He went into town and entered the nearest gear store. He slammed the flaming dagger onto the stone counter.
"How much for this?" Jasper asked.
Jasper ended up leaving the store with 20 copper, just enough for two trips in the town''s teleport tower. He entered and requested a teleport to the Sky Guild. Jasper planned to ask the Sky Guild where his group was and what happened while he was kidnapped. He arrived at the pier of the Sky Guild''s island without throwing up and entered the guild. He stormed past staff and members as he made his way to the head of the guild''s office. He burst through the door, startling the head of the guild who was petting a cat in his lap.
"HOLY SHIT JASPER?!" The head said. "Where the hell have you been? You''ve been gone for a while!"
"What happened to my group?" Jasper asked.
"Your group left when I kicked these two siblings out. What a shame I had to kick them out, but it was too dangerous to keep them here if they''re the reason the Adventurers Guild attacked us, you know?"
"WHERE ARE THEY NOW?!" Jasper demanded. "TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!"
"Ok jeez Jasper," The head said, shocked by Jasper''s hostile attitude. "I don''t know where they are, all I know is that they went back to Tabatha''s Tower, ask her."
Jasper stormed out of the room and headed to the teleport circle on the pier. He was going to demand answer from Tabatha on where his group is.
Chapter 18, Arrested For Harrassment
"Tell me where you sent them you teleporting bastard!" Jasper yelled at Tabatha in her tower after appearing on a nearby teleport ritual.
The room full of people getting ready to teleport stared at him oddly, and one of them even left the tower.
"Who are you talking about?" Tabatha asked. "Jasper, you know I''ve sent thousands of people before. You need to be more specific on who you''re asking about."
"My god damn group, woman!" Jasper yelled. "The head of the Sky Guild said that they went here, meaning they most likely were teleported by you!"
"My job is to teleport people you know. Why are you acting like I sent them off against their will? Calm down mister, you''re getting stares."
Jasper lunged at the desk Tabatha was standing behind and grabbed her by her shirt.
"DON''T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" The people in the tower pulled out weapons and aimed it at Jasper.
"Put the woman down if you know what''s good for you." Said a man who walked through the door. The man wore a brown coat and had a badge on his shirt. The badge was the symbol of the Justice Guild, a guild known for not being good at actually distributing justice, but when they do they do so by locking away people who deserve it. "I was informed of a hostile person in this tower yelling at the owner, and it seems that person is you. Put her down, now."
Jasper hesitated for a moment, but put Tabatha down. The man walked over to Jasper and casted a binding spell on him.
"You''re coming with me, kid. The guild is going to put you in a room to reflect on what you did, and you''ll be released shortly af-"
"BUT I NEED TO FIND MY GROUP!" Jasper pleaded. "My group needs me, or they''ll get hurt by being with those universe-hoppers!"
"Universe-hoppers?" Tabatha asked from behind the counter. "You''re group travels with those siblings, where did you get the idea of them being universe-hoppers from?"
"They told us themselves, plus we almost died from the Adventurers Guild because they sent assassins after them! I need to protect them and separate them from the universe-hoppers!"
"Sorry kid," The man said. "But you assaulted an innocent. You''re coming to the guild for a bit, and maybe after we''ll help you find your group. I''m not sure I fully believe you, but we could get some lie detecting spells later. Let''s go to the reflection room quickly so we can find your group after."
Jasper reluctantly followed the man outside.
The group was asking the assigner for the assignments why there wasn''t any more of the harder assignments posted.
"You lot cleared them all," The assigner said. "We didn''t have many, and you guys were clearing them fast. It might take a while for another one to be po-" A piece of paper magically appeared on the assignments board. "Well there''s that one."
The group looked over the paper for a bit. The assignment was not just a hard one, but an extra hard one with better rewards. It would require the group to go to a bandit camp full of bandits with powerful spells and monsters. The camp was located in a well fortified cave, and the cave would take hours to reach from their location. The cave was also located nearby a town with an Adventurers Guild building, which would not be good for the group to have to deal with.
"Should we take it?" James asked Wade. "Sounds great for leveling up and stuff, and the rewards are pretty sweet. But there''s a guild building there that we wouldn''t want to go anywhere near. Plus, unlike the first Adventurers Guild building we cleared, this floating island is one of those that have the more powerful people and monsters. What do you think, Wade?"
"What do you think we can handle right now?" Wade asked. "That level up ability you gave us might increase our energy and reaction time, but unlike you guys, we haven''t gotten any new spells. The normal way for people to get spells is to do loads of research, and that usually takes months. We might not be able to handle it if the guild and the bandits both try to kill us at once, but we could always just be stealthy and avoid the guild''s attention entirely."
"I bet we can tear through them, right Jamal?" Zewei said. "I could rip the bandits apart before their spells hit me, and Jamal could pair up with me to go on a killing spree, leaving behind the corpses of the guild and the bandits!"
"I''ll let you guys decide," Corin said. "I want to remain neutral in this."
"I honestly think we should go do it." James said. "The worst that can happen is that we get chased out and Janica has to use her shields more. I could always summon a grenade launcher if the enemies are close enough to each other, and like Zewei mentioned, we could probably tear through them!"
The group chatted back and forth for a bit, before deciding that they''ll go and clear out the bandits and kill anything the guild sends their way. They accepted the assignment and made their way on the hike that would likely take them hours.
Jasper sat in an empty room in the Justice Guild, when the man that put him here walked through a door.
"Time to help you find your group, Jasper right? First we''ll have to check if you were lying about your situation."
The man led Jasper to a room nearby where they there was a table with a robed man on the other side.
"Hello there," The robed man said as the other man sat down on a chair next to him. "We''ll check if you were telling the truth about what happened to you. Please, sit down." He gestured to a chair across from him, where Jasper plopped himself down.
"Your name?" The robed man asked.
"Jasper." Jasper replied.
"Age?"
"Sixteen."
"Guild affiliations?"
"Sky Guild."
"You aren''t telling us the other guild you''re affiliated with." The robed man said.
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Jasper hesitated for a moment before talking. "The other guild was the Adventurers Guild, but I didn''t help them or anything, I swear!"
"THIS KID HELPED THE ADVENTURERS GUILD?!" The robed man asked the other man. "Oh jeez, we should kill him on the spot! Those evil pricks kill universe-hoppers for no apparent reason!"
"I DIDN''T MEAN TO HELP THEM! I thought if I told them where those siblings were located, they would get rid of them without hurting the Sky Guild or my group! I don''t know what happened to them, but I was kidnapped by the Adventurers Guild shortly after they sent people after them."
"Why would you try and get rid of the siblings that travel with your group?" The other man said.
"Because they compromise the safety of the group! They get assassins sent after them left and right, and eventually the group will get hurt alongside the universe-hoppers!"
"He''s telling the truth," The robed man said. "But that doesn''t justify his actions of HELPING THE FUCKING ADVENTURERS GUILD! Jasper, everyone in this world knows what those pricks do, and you decided to help them? I know you were concerned about the safety of your group, but that might''ve put them in even more danger than if you didn''t. I don''t think we should help you go after group, in fact your not leaving this place for a while. We''ll make sure you realize what you''ve done after you''ve spent a bit of time reflecting."
Jasper''s face twisted itself into an angry expression, and he tried to storm out of the room but he was locked to his chair by invisible bindings.
The group had stopped for the night, setting up a tent and they chatted inside.
"Man, I wish I could facetime a friend from Earth." James said. "Imagine how confused they would be if we showed them I could summon a gun."
"Do you think we should ever try to find a way back?" Janica asked James. "Like sure, this world is really cool and amazing with all this magic stuff, but I don''t really like the fact that we''re constantly chased by some guild who is this world''s equivalent to racists."
"Maybe one day," James replied. "But honestly, what reason would we have to return to Earth? If we grow powerful enough to get rid of the Adventurers Guild, then this world would be safe enough for us to stay. If we returned to Earth, we''d have to go back to our pointless lives, where I''d continue to sit in my room and play games all day."
"What if we grow more powerful and then return to Earth?" Janica asked. "I could heal so many injured people on Earth with a simple spell. Anyone that loses a limb could be easily healed by me, and you would be able to join the military or something."
"What if you guys return to Earth, but lose your spells and abilities?" Wade asked, listening in. "Also, what if we found a reliable way to go from Earth to here and back?"
The group theorized about going to Earth and other Earth related things before going to bed. What they didn''t notice is that there were spies watching their tent from afar that are currently informing the Adventurers Guild of their location.
The head of the guild was sending groups of people to ambush the group while they slept.
"Don''t you think it''s a bit cruel to attack them while they''re asleep?" Derek asked the head.
"Fuck that, they killed hundreds of my men and I won''t stand to see them survive."
After talking with the head of the guild for a bit, Derek teleported into his house, where he teleported again to the town with the Adventurers Guild building that the group was heading to. He rushed to the location the group''s tent was, but it would take him a while to travel all the way to the group. He hoped he would make it before the other groups ambushed them.
Derek ran as fast as his strong muscular legs could run, and he eventually made it to their tent before any of the other groups arrived. Derek wore a hood so no one recognized him. He entered their tent and all the teens woke up immediately, before they pulled out their weapons and aimed them at him.
"NO NO WAIT!" Derek suddenly yelled before taking off his hood. "It''s me, Derek! You guys are in a lot of danger right now, there are a lot of guild members coming your way! I''m going to teleport you guys to the nearest town where I hope they won''t find you if you guys do what you needed to do and book it out of there."
Derek didn''t wait for them to respond as he opened a black circle under them, teleporting them to his house and then to the town they were headed. The group landed on the floor of a tavern, still in their sleeping bags as they held in their vomit.
"Well that''s a way of arriving." The tavernkeeper joked. "I guess it doesn''t matter how people arrive, as long as they do business."
The group payed for a room and slept in there, except Zewei volunteered to take first watch just in case.
The next morning the group made sure that no one was watching them, and they made their way to the bandit cave. When they arrived, they saw the mouth of the cave covered by a sturdy looking wall of logs, with a metal gate in it. The gate was locked with some magic locking spell, and the group was about to discuss how to open it when Jamal pulled out a flamethrower and burnt the log wall.
"Hey, I was about to do that!" James joked.
They entered and saw that the cave was the size of the dining hall from Harry Potter, which was decently sized in length more than width. Bandits surrounded a long table in the center, with a throne made of skulls sat on the opposite end of the entrance. All the bandits were covered in suits of black armor, and the bandits sitting on the throne wore spiked black armor with red trimmings.
"Who the fuck are you lot?" The spiked one said.
"We''re here to have dinner with you guys!" James joked. "Kidding of course, we''re here to kill you guys, take your dinner, and then go run back."
"And you guys think you can kill us?" The spiked one said as he and all the bandits stood up and wielded their weapons.
"Hell yea we do." James confidently said as he summoned his legendary .50 Cal machine gun from Fallout 76, and his group brandished their weapons too. Janica summoned shields on the group as they rushed towards the bandits. James and Jamal mowed the bandits down, Corin moved the table as a cover, Zewei was picking off stragglers, and Wade pointed out where James and Jamal should shoot. The spiked bandit however did not go down as easily as the rest, and after all the bandits died, he was still standing. Even the anti-armor .50 Cal didn''t put a dent in him. The group backed away as he chased them with a black mace.
James and Jamal didn''t know what to do, so they just summoned the first gun they thought would do something. James summoned a maxed out legendary fatman, which is a mini-nuke launcher from Fallout 4. Jamal summoned the BFG 9000 from Doom Eternal, which was a giant futuristic hunk of a gun that fires a giant green ball of plasma. James and Jamal fired both weapons at the same time when they were a reasonable distance away from the spiked bandit, and it shredded both the bandit himself and their energy. James and Jamal collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily as Janica moved in to heal their energy supply. The cave was now a mess, with all the furniture gone and a giant hole leading fairly deep into the ground caused by the mini nuke and ball of plasma.
"Maybe you guys shouldn''t use such powerful weapons." Janica suggested. "I think the more power a weapon has, the more energy is takes from you guys."
The gate at the entrance burst open after Janica finished talking, and a bunch of adventurers stormed in. James and Jamal summoned their .50 Cals again and fire rapidly at the gate, mowing down even more people. Janica summoned her shields and covered her eyes as blood started to spray everywhere. The rest of the group just watched as the two annihilated anything that walked in. After a few more seconds, the place was silent as bodies were slowly sliding their way. The bodies disappeared shortly after as they dissolved into blood and that blood soaking the stone floor.
"Ooh, goodies!" James said as he looked over the pop up listing all the items they got from that, along with two more levels. They were now level 8, and were really close to being powerful enough to start working on the Adventurers Guild situation.
"Let''s head back to the previous city were we at." Wade said. "That might be a good idea now that we surely made our presence here known."
The group made their way back to the previous city, chatting about random Earth things on the way.
Meanwhile, back at the Justice Guild, Jasper sat alone in a nicely furnished room where they had told him to reflect on his actions. What they didn''t know is that they have made the grave mistake of handing him a knife to go along his lunch. Jasper was now carving his way into a wall, trying to escape while not killing anyone in the guild. He knew they were good people, but didn''t want them to keep him here. When Jasper carved a hole in the wall big enough for him to escape, he stepped through, only to immediately get paralyzed.
"FUCK!"
Chapter 19, Im Breaking Out Of Here
Jasper was sent to another reflection room, this time the room was smaller than the last, but still looked about the same. The room had spells in place all over in order to ensure that the occupant stays put. The Justice Guild didn''t make the mistake of giving him a knife again, and he was stuck with using a fork or spoon to eat his rations.
"I''LL GET OUT OF HERE EVENTUALLY, AND I WILL FIND MY GROUP!" Jasper yelled at the walls. The walls were soundproof though, and none of his yells reached outside.
Jasper was forming a plan to escape, and he was determined to find his group. The thing about his plans though, is that when he sleeps, guild members are sent to check up on him, and they made sure that any plan he comes up with doesn''t work.
The group arrived at the previous city faster than it took to arrive at the town because they wanted to be hasty. They didn''t want to risk spies catching them again, so they made it their goal to arrive way faster than they did previously. The group was exhausted, and went to a tavern almost immediately after turning in their assignment.
"Do you think any guild members spotted us?" James asked Wade. James has been asking mainly Wade questions because Wade was the smartest of the group.
"There is a likely chance of that," Wade said. "But we should be fine, our group can defend itself pretty well."
"I can''t believe we''re level 8 now." Janica said. "We''re so close to becoming powerful enough to defeat the Adventurers Guild. I find it kind of funny though, in most fantasy stories, the Adventurers Guild is supposed to be the main guild the protagonists join. But when we were transported to what is basically a fantasy world, the Adventurers Guild is plain evil!"
"And that''s why we''re gonna kick their ass!" James replied.
"Has anyone seen Zewei?" Corin asked as she walked over to the side of the room they were talking in. "He said he wanted to get some fresh air, but I haven''t seen him in a while, and I''m starting to get worried."
"Let''s go look for him." James stated.
The group went from their room to the lobby, where the tavern keep was tied to a chair with rope, and Zewei next to him also tied up. There were cloaked men all around them, and each one held a dagger and an ice spike. The cloaked men didn''t say a word as one of them wielding a flame spell lit Zewei and the tavern keep ablaze, their flesh melting as the fire consumed them and the surrounding floor, slowing spreading to the rest of the building. The group immediately pulled out their weapons and started blasting at the cloaked men, and they went down with ease.
"SHIT, SAVE ZEWEI AND THE TAVERN KEEP!" James shouted as Corin put out the flames with her wind control spell.
Zewei and the tavern keep''s bodies were extremely burnt, their flesh black and hot to the touch, but they still clung to life. Janica quickly healed them both with multiple healing spells, and their injuries healed quickly.
"I don''t think they know that Janica can heal literally any injury." James said while the group watched over Zewei and the tavern keep recovering. "Why do you think they attacked us here even though we absolutely destroyed them previously?"
"Maybe they wanted to send a message?" Wade suggested. "They might''ve tried to burn them in front of us to show that we should fear them, but they seemed to have not realized that Janica''s healing spells exist. We should probably not stay here anymore though, I don''t think it''s safe to stay in this city now that they know where we are."
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The group looted the men, left the tavern keep some money, and the group left the city holding Zewei. They made sure that there were no spies chasing them, and they walked a while, staying alert just in case.
The head of the Adventurers Guild looked through the spies reports with anger. The reports from the spies were sent one after another as spy after spy died following the group, and news of the tavern being attacked also was a part of the reports.
"They''re traveling like that group member of theirs didn''t nearly die from my men! How does that group member look like he was never affected by my people?! There''s no way they healed that quickly, not even the most powerful healing spells and potions can heal that fast! How the hell are they healing like that? I need to send more spies after them."
"Why don''t you just leave them be?" Derek asked. "They only harm the guild when they attack them, so why not just let them go, and they''ll probably just go off and be harmless to us? We''re expending too many men just for a pair of universe-hoppers, let alone teenagers. I know your daughter was killed by universe-hoppers, but they did nothing to you."
The head looked at Derek with a furious expression, summoning an ice spike in his hand and sending it through Derek''s stomach.
"DON''T YOU DARE SPEAK OF MY DAUGHTER! Don''t you dare talk to me about my daughter, and don''t even try to change my view of universe-hoppers. They''re the reason behind her death, and any one of them could lead to another one!"
Derek clutched the ice spike in his stomach, blood flowing rapidly from the wound as he pulled the spike out. He didn''t say a word as he teleported into his house and used a multitude of healing rituals and potions on himself.
"I really hope those kids get powerful enough to defeat that bastard." Derek said. "He legit used a stereotypical villain habit of harming their own henchmen! I honestly couldn''t care less about his degenerate daughter dying to the hands of universe-hoppers, we didn''t do shit to her! I really hope he gets what''s coming to him. What a shame I can''t kill him myself because I have no spells that do any damage."
Derek rested in his house for hours, waiting for the wound from the ice spike to heal up.
The group kept traveling, until they stopped their travels at the end of the floating island they''re on. It was nighttime, and the endless sky was black with night. They decided to stop here to plan out their next moves.
"I think we should follow the edge to a town." Wade said. "There is a likely chance that if we travel long enough along the edge of the island, we''ll find a port town that has floating ships we can use, or maybe a teleport tower."
"How long do you think that''ll take?" Zewei asked.
"Probably a few hours if we''re lucky, I don''t see a port town anywhere near us at the moment, so let''s get moving."
The group traveled along the edge of the floating island, and eventually hit a town when it turned day. The town they arrived at was a small town with many piers and ports attached to it. There was no teleport tower, but there was a building for trips on floating ships. The group purchased a ride on one of the ships where they could sleep in the cabins. They were all tired after the long trip, so they fell asleep fast. The ship headed for an extremely far away island, and other people on the ship were wealthy enough to afford such a far trip. While the wealthy people enjoyed the luxuries of the ship, the group was fast asleep in their cabin.
While the group was traveling, Jasper had been slowly breaking the spoon he had to shape it into a knife so he could use his spell on it and escape. He hadn''t written down that plan, so the Justice Guild didn''t know of his actions. When he finally made it, he carved a hole in the wall and this time he checked for paralysis spells, where he found out that the spell was being cast from an object nearby. He threw the flaming makeshift knife at a box outside and the paralysis spell went down. Jasper rushed out of the room and guild, and he ran away from the town.
Later on when a guild member came to check on Jasper, he saw the hole carved in the wall, along with the ashes of the box that caused the paralysis spell on Jasper''s room. The member rushed to inform the head of the guild.
"Why was a kid like him locked up?" The head asked.
"He threatened Tabatha, and also worked with the Adventurers Guild previously, sir."
"Very well, send a search group after him and make sure he gets captured again. We don''t need more of that guild''s scum running around freely, do we?"
Chapter 20, Where Am I Going?
"Bing bong, wake up guys we''re here!" James said as he shook the group up from their beds. "I have no idea where we just arrived since Wade''s the one who bought this trip, but wherever it is, it looks amazing!"
The ship arrived at the port of a floating island, where there were large gray mountains and fog awaiting them. The port was connected to a town at the foot of one of the mountains.
"How the hell do you find plain ass mountains amazing?" Janica asked as she got up from her bed. "The view from this window looks depressing, those mountains have no color at all!"
"Our reason for coming here was to increase our levels to 10," Wade said, wiping the crust off his eyes with his feathers. "And this place is known for decently dangerous enemies, not looks. James, how do you find these views pleasing to look at?"
"It looks cool, ok?" James replied. "Those mountains look sick, that''s how it''s amazing."
"James, those are plain mountains."
"No, they''re huge cool gray mountains."
The group left the ship and bought a room in the town''s tavern. The town''s building were all made of stone, and the tavern was no exception. The inside of the tavern was made of wood however, and the inside looked like any other tavern you would see in other towns, if you ignored the outside of course.
"Let''s check out the assignments building here." Wade said. "There should be more dangerous assignments here than other areas, since we''re so far from the inner ring of islands."
"WAIT THERE ARE RINGS OF ISLANDS?" James asked, taken aback by the new information. "Me and Janica have been here for like a month now, and this is the first time I''ve ever heard of that!"
"Can we explain this on the way to the assignments buildings?" Wade asked, and the group made their way there.
"So the floating islands are in sections," Wade explained. "And those sections are in a giant ring around the center of the world. Most guilds have their main building on or near the inner ring of islands close to the center. The section we met you guys was in the ring a bit farther out from the inner set, and currently we''re in one of the farther sets of rings."
"Why didn''t we hear of this earlier?" James asked.
"Because it''s not that important." Wade replied. "You guys didn''t need to learn of that information back then, so we didn''t explain it until now."
"Does that mean we''re like really far from the Adventurers Guild?" James asked.
"Guilds still have buildings in other rings you know," Wade replied. "It''s just their main building that''s in the inner ring, they still have multiple buildings out here. Luckily, other guilds are more prominent in the outer rings, so we should be safe out here. We might even run into more universe-hoppers since the Adventurers Guild isn''t as active in the outer rings."
"Oh yea, I have a question about the layout of the rings. You said we''re in one of the farther rings, but are there even farther rings than here? Do the rings just end eventually, or do they go on forever? Also, how far do guilds have buildings? If there are further rings, do they have building in place there? Also what''s the point of ships and ports if you can teleport?"
"The rings go on for a while, but they do eventually end. The place they end in is known as the edge, and it''s endless sky from there. Guilds start thinning out the farther out you go, and near the edge is where the most powerful monsters and people are. Also, teleport rituals can only teleport to areas inside a certain region of their ring. It''s kind of neat if you think about it, where the inner set of rings has extremely powerful things in them, you go out a few rings and all the beings there become significantly weaker, and then you go out farther and they''re really strong again."
"Perfect for leveling!" James said as they arrived at the assignments building. The building was not made of stone like the others, and instead was made of a weird pink colored wood. "What an odd looking building."
While the group looked at their assignments, Jasper was running to the nearest town that had an Adventurers Guild building. He wanted to get information from them knowing that they most likely had spies tracking his group''s location. Jasper traveled far until he hit one of the towns with the guild building. He rushed inside the building and slammed his hand on a desk at the front.
"TELL ME WHERE MY GROUP IS YOU BASTARDS!" He demanded the staff member. The members of the guild in the lobby all conjured up cloaks and worked together to kidnap him. He went down easily, not expecting them to do that. He was stripped of belongings and teleported to the main guild building''s dungeon.
"So that was the kid the head was talking about." One of the members said. "Didn''t he set up the guild for an ambush at that Sky Guild thing?"
"That''s what the head said," Another member said. "And then this guy escaped on his own and we lost track of him. The head will probably try and get new information out of him."
"What new information could he possibly have?"
The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
"Dunno, we already know that the group boarded a ship to one of the farther rings, and that''s all we know from the surviving spies."
Jasper was watching out of his cell at the talking guild members with disdain. He had come here to demand information and didn''t think they would try to kidnap him. He was going to demand the head of the guild answers when they try to get information out of Jasper. All he had to do was wait for them to interrogate him.
"Sir, one of the group''s previous members was captured by us." A staff member said to the head of the guild. "We think he might have important info about the group''s whereabouts after they boarded the ship."
"And why the hell would he know where they are?!" The head yelled. "None of our spies spotted him anywhere close to the group when they left, so what do you idiots think he can do now? I guess I could torture him a bit more for that Sky Guild ambush, so his capture wasn''t a complete waste of time. Lead me to his cell, we''ll do the torture there."
The head of the guild and the staff member traveled to the dungeon where Jasper''s cell was located, and they proceeded to do unimaginable things to make Jasper feel as much pain as possible. This didn''t benefit them in any way, but they did slip a bit of important information to Jasper by accident during the torture.
"So they said that he wanted to know where his group was?" The head laughed as he watched Jasper suffer. "That kid will never reach them now, even if he were to escape us again. The fact that they boarded a ship to the farther rings means that he''s as clueless as us to where they are! What an idiot."
Jasper made sure to remember that bit of info before going unconscious from the great amount of pain he was in. The guild made sure to make his body sore for when he wakes up later.
The group was grinding powerful monsters with a bit of difficulty. James and Jamal''s normal bullets bounced off some of the monsters'' hard shells, making them use stronger guns that took more of their energy. That made it take a bit longer than expected to reach level 10, but they reached it eventually after killing a giant beetle.
"LET''S GOOO!" James and Jamal yelled in unison, both sitting down on the the edge of a cliff after the battle.
Get Stronger
You have reached level 10 and should now be powerful enough, according to Derek, to push back against the guild. Claim reward below.
There were two new quests below the claim button.
Optional Get Even Stronger
While you''re still in the farther rings, you might as get stronger. Reach level 15 for better chances against Adventurers Guild.
The other new quest didn''t have the word optional before it.
Hidden Threats
There is a threat even larger than the Adventurers Guild that you will discover once you''re ready to push back against the guild. The threat will appear soon after the guild is defeated. Defeat the guild for the first reward, and find out about the threat for the second reward.
First rewards: Console Summoning Spell. Second rewards: Powerful Spell Staff Enhancer
James clicked the claim button and he and Janica both got pop ups appear in front of them.
New items!
James: Magic Controller, a controller for a non existent console. Use controller to find out it''s potential uses.
Janica: Powerful Spell Staff, a staff that greatly increases any spells cast by user. Comes with available summon that can be chosen.
"Nothing for me?" Jamal asked. "Man, fuck being a summon, this shit stinks! No extra loot I guess."
"What does it mean by ''hidden threat''?" Wade asked, looking at the new quest pop up. "Defeating the Adventurers Guild will already be a huge task to do, and now there''s an even huger task?"
"I guess that means we have no choice but to get stronger I suppose." James said after pulling out the new controller out of his inventory. The controller looked like a cool mix between multiple different consoles'' controllers, with the main color of the controller being green. James found out that the controller could extend into a bigger controller, and he pushed energy into it. The controller vibrated in his hands and a pop up appeared in front of him.
Unable to use Magic Controller. Requires Summoned Console to function properly.
"Damn," James sighed as he put away the controller. "Does your new items work correctly, Janica?"
Janica swapped her old staff for the new one. The new staff was a long light staff made of sturdy wood, with a yellow orb at the end held in by the wood. She pushed energy into it and a she summoned a shield she normally summoned. The shield was even larger than her previously summoned ones, and it was yellow instead of blue. She sensed energy inside the staff, so she willed it to come out. A pop up appeared after she did that.
Choose new summon from these options.
Lampo: A floating lamp summon that greatly lights up areas and burns enemies caught in it''s light. It can be returned back into the staff at will.
Cubic: A floating cube summon that enters enemies and eats them from the inside. Can be returned into the staff at will.
James: A floating voodoo doll summon that looks like James and uses copies of his abilities and spells. Can be returned into the staff at will.
"Why am I one of them?" James asked curiously as he looked over the summons Janica could choose from.
"I want the Lampo summon," Janica said. "All the other ones sound creepy in a way."
"The Lampo one literally burns enemies with it''s light."
"That''s not as bad as EATING THE ENEMY FROM THE INSIDE!"
"Good point." James acknowledged.
Janica chose the Lampo summon and a floating white lamp with yellow flame emerged from the staff. The area around them was rid of any shadows, but their eyes weren''t hurt in any way, even when looking directly into it''s light. The lamp floated back into the staff shortly after.
"Well that''s neat." Janica said as the group walked back to the assignments building. "That should help us with that optional quest. Oh yea, we should probably do that one if we want to stand a chance against the hidden threat."
The group walked back to town and into the assignments building. They wanted to reach level 15 after hearing about the new hidden threat, and if they want to come close to surviving it, they''ll definitely need to be level 15.
Chapter 21, More Grinding?
When the group woke up in the tavern, the immediately started knocking out assignments. They specifically picked out the assignments that require them to kill multiple enemies for more experience.
"Gargoyles exist in this world?" Janica asked Wade. "Sounds scary to me."
"Usually gargoyles are used for defensive purposes." Wade replied. "The gargoyles in this assignment are used to defend an old fortress a guild here wants to clear out, so it''s our job to open it up."
"Wouldn''t the shit inside of the fortress be more dangerous?" James asked. "Like surely a few gargoyles wouldn''t be as bad as the things inside, right?"
"The guild probably doesn''t want to waste any materials on clearing out weaker enemies."
"I wonder what guild it is."
The head of the Justice Guild was looking over the plans for clearing out a fortress and establishing a new guild building there. The fortress would most likely have great loot and materials to establish a new building as well as arm the members they station there. If the Justice Guild does that, they could potentially gain new members alongside more loot.
"So some explorers will take up the assignment of killing the gargoyle guards?" The head asked one of the staff members. "That means we can save our more powerful resources on clearing the inside."
"Should we allow explorers to help us clear the inside?" The staff member asked.
"I guess we can, there''s no harm done in letting them help as long as they don''t take anything for themselves."
After blasting the gargoyles with his shotgun, James looted them all and the gargoyles dissolved into dust, the dust flying through the air.
"Alrighty, that''s the guards dealt with, let''s head back to the assignments building now."
A person they didn''t recognize came running up to the group with a sack in his hand. The man had the symbol of the Justice Guild on his badge, and he wore a leather coat around himself.
"Hello explorers," The man greeted. "The guild formally asks of your assistance on clearing the inside of the fort in exchange for more rewards. In this sack is the initial reward for the assignment." The man gave the sack to James. "You guys could get more rewards if you help us clear the fort. If you''d like to do so, take this assignment paper. I will wait for guild members to arrive, accept the assignment before they arrive to help us."
"This guy sounds like an NPC," James joked. "Accept the assignment, clear this fort, blah blah. I ain''t complaining though, should we accept it guys?"
"I don''t know what an NPC is," Zewei replied. "But I do know that there probably will be more enemies for us to kill, let''s do it!"
James snatched the assignment paper from the guild member and was about to rush inside when the guild member stopped him.
"You sure you don''t want to wait for the other guild members to clear the fort out? It''s probably dangerous!"
"It''ll be fine," James assured him. "What are the puny fort foes gonna do when they''re up against the power of pew pews?"
"Please don''t call a gun a pew pew." Janica told James. "That sounds childish."
"And we''re basically children, so it''s fine."
"What''s a gun?" The guild member asked, confused by their banter.
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The group entered the fort and were greeted by complete darkness when they shut the huge wooden doors behind them. James pulled out his phone''s flashlight and pointed it around. The room they had just enter was a cold stone room with stacks of wooden crates piled up everywhere. The room smelled of old cobwebs and dust.
"Blegh," James coughed. "I thought a fort would be a bit cleaner than this!"
"I wonder what lies inside of it," Wade thought aloud. "Surely there''s a good reason why no one cleared out this fort yet. The guild is willing to send lots of guild members here just to clear it, so there must be some reason why. I know the assignment paper said no taking anything and no doing damage to the property, so it''s safe to assume they want to use this fort for later, but what is lurking inside that took the guild this long to finally come and try to clear it?"
"You''re overthinking this," Zewei said as he stood next to James and Jamal. "If there''s some big bad thing in here, we can easily blast it to bits, and I can slash it to little tiny pieces of- whatever it''s made of!"
Zewei, James, and Jamal rushed towards the door at the end of the room. They tried opening it, but it wouldn''t budge. James shot the hinges over and over again until the door fell off. They walked into a spiral stairwell leading downwards, blood stains on the walls and stairs.
"I think Wade was right," James said. "There is definitely something lying in this fort. Oh well, time to kill it!"
The group followed the three as they rushed down the stairs. The group was trying to keep up with their pace since James was the one with the flashlight, until Janica remembered she also had a phone and pulled it out. The group followed a bit behind the three, until they heard gunshots from below. They stormed down the stairs and found them fighting black silhouettes. The silhouettes had a humanlike and were pitch black, even with the light pointed at them, and they held pitch black swords as well. The only thing that had color on them was their eyes, which were a weird yellow color.
Janica cast shields on the entire group as James and Jamal shot at the silhouettes to no avail, the bullets disappearing into the blackness. Zewei has already back away from them seeing that if bullets didn''t do anything, so would his gauntlets. James and Jamal eventually backed away and the group ran up the stairs as they ditched Janica''s summoned shields.
"What the hell were those things?!" James yelled as they reached the top of the stairs. "Those were basically shadows, our bullets passed right through!"
"I think I have an idea." Janica confidently said as she descended the stairs oncemore.
"ARE YOU CRAZY? YOU''RE GONNA DIE DOWN THERE! And I thought I was the irrational one!"
When Janica reached the bottom, she summoned Lampo from her staff and its light blasted away all darkness in the room below, revealing that the silhouettes were using a spell to mask themselves in consuming darkness, destroying anything that touched it, including James and Jamal''s bullets. The silhouettes were now revealed to look like a human, but something about them felt off. The rest of the group came down and when James saw that the silhouettes were now human looking, he and Jamal immediately fired upon them, bullets piercing their skin, swords dropping like their users. When all were killed, they dissolved into bloody mist and sank into the walls of the room, before passing through them entirely and out of the fort. James didn''t even loot them, they dissolved without his intervention.
While that was happening, the guild members finally arrived to see lots of bloody mist mix with the fog of the mountains, and soon the fog around the fort was blood red, adding the taste of iron to the air. The guild members were shocked and disgusted at this, and rushed to the fort to investigate. They entered the first room of the fort and found the group emerging from the stairwell, their faces filled with horror at the sight of it.
"Wait guys!" James said. "Why are we disgusted by this? We have used me and Janica''s looting thing for how long, so why are we grossed out by it changing a bit?"
"We never looted them, James." Janica replied. "They dissolved into blood on their own, and turned into mist. Look through the door, the fog wasn''t red like that previously!"
The group looked out at the red fog in horror, it looked straight out of a horror movie.
"Well we cleared the fort in the end," James said as everyone was looking at the fog. "We didn''t level up sadly, but at least we can get whatever reward you guys have!"
"Why didn''t we get experience?" Wade asked James. "Surely that many enemies would give us loads to level up past 10. It seems suspicious."
"No clue, let''s figure that out when we''re back at the tavern, this place gives me the creeps now." James looked at the sack held by the guild members and he snatched it before leading his group back to town.
"Did they cause this?" One of the members asked. "They were the only ones to enter the fort, right? What was that bloodlike mist coming out of it?"
"Probably some old magic defense," Another said. "Shouldn''t be harmful to us, the fog might''ve just been to scare off intruders. Let''s make sure they cleared it fully before getting their names for recording purposes and turn this fort into a new guild building!"