The Quantum Wanderer

We wake up with the sun rise.  Our room has a balcony that points almost directly to it.  I wake up, and look at it, rising over the ocean.  I am staring at it, and Shandon hugs me from behind.  I hold her arms in front of me.

We start to get dressed, and get down for breakfast.  As always, I pass at the kitchen to deliver the meat to be used.  After a little bit, we sit down for breakfast, and we start talking about the day.

“What are your plans for the day, my lord?”  Opal asks.

“I was thinking of visiting the guild.  Perhaps they have some information on what a kraken is, and some information on how to deal with it.”

Cecilia is the one to have a thought.

“Even though they are a  lot more focused on sea monsters, they are not going to have much on it.  If they have anything. There might be a report somewhere, saying that the monster got distracted with other people and then someone got a chance to escape, but not much more.”

“What do you girls know about the kraken?”

“I don’t know much, my lord.” Says Opal. “I know that it stays in abyssal deeps, and that it is supposed to have the most mana rich meat in the world.  I also know that it is bigger than an elder, but I don’t know by how much.  I have been told that it has tentacles, and that it is capable of dragging an elder to the depths of the sea before eating it.  And that’s what happened to the last elders that saw it swimming and tried to hunt it.  But this is a story that I heard from my grandmother, I don’t know how accurate it is.”

I am remembering that an elder is about 300 feet long.  This is going to be a huge squid, octopus or something else entirely.  I have to take a look at the bestiary, see if there is anything about any of them in there. Preparing to hunt a monster that the dragons are afraid to face is kind of exciting.  I can almost taste the experience. 

I go to the guild while the girls go back to the beaches.  I show my mithril tag to the attendant, asking to see the bestiary.  She tells me that I can’t leave with or damage the book and hands it to me.  I sit on a table, on the corner, reading through it.  There are some designs of octopuses and squids dissections, though they are not detailed with what does what.  The research doesn’t go that deep.

There are somethings that are easy to understand, though.  The beak, the tube from the beak going up.  There are some guts way up inside the head.  Connected to the eyes, there is a circle around this esophagus. I do remember from some place that the octopus is supposed to have one additional brain in each arm, and a central one.

The way these monsters are hunted is by hopes with hooks together with surface fights.  They bring the monster up, and then engage it on the surface.  The squids or octopuses that are fought are around 30 to 40 feet on the head, and their tentacles are about 3 to 4 times that.  Those are already big animals.  Some ships are sunk once in a while, it is not a riskless battle, even for several mithril adventurers together.  The suggestion from the guild is parties with over 10 mithril.  That is the highest requirement I have seen so far.

I have to come up with some strategy for this.  I did some diving in Rio when I was a kid, I have an idea on how much of a problem the water pressure can be.  Right now, I don’t really have numbers, and intuitive doesn’t cut it.

I have to consider different possibilities.  Moving under water. I could have a pair of fins done, I have an idea on how they should feel.  But then I am a water magic master.  I am supposed to be able to breath under water.  I did swim in the ocean once, but I did not try to breath. 

Another option would be using a neutron crystal sphere.  I have already seen that by itself it is able to cut through steel.  Not just resist it, but cut through it.  Therefore a single layer would be able to withstand any pressure.  There were diving spheres that reached the Marianna Trench on Earth, and that is almost as deep as the sea is here.  The planets are not that far apart. 

Out of curiosity, I create a small disk of neutron crystal on top of a page.  It is almost as if it wasn’t there, it is impossibly think.  It actually gets behind the paper’s electrons layer in some places.  Light goes through it, but air doesn’t.  Even in my katana, when I created the mana veins with the blade, I had to create some small holes underneath the handle to be able to inject the mana to make it vibrate.  But having holes these big under water would be concerning.  Specially at something like 15.000 psi or more.

I undo the neutron crystal, and I give the book back to the attendant.  I am thinking about the possibilities, looking away when I notice that I am surrounded by a group of five people.  One of them is pointing at me.

“I am telling you, it is him.”

I look around, all of them mithril.  One of them seems to be the same guy from yesterday, that had his hand crushed.  He probably got it healed with magic.  I already know that I am probably going to have problems.  I recline my seat back a little, and I wave at the attendant, and I can see that she saw me.  She comes out from the counter, and goes up the stairs, looking for the guild master, most probably.

I turn back to the guy in front of the other ones.

“Are you the red head’s boyfriend?”

“Nope.  I am her husband.  Why?”

“Your bitch hurt my cousin’s hand yesterday, and it cost 5 gold to have it healed.  Spit them out.”

I take a look at him and his goons.  He is a high forties, and his goons are low forties.  I could even stay still and just let them tire out.  Two guys in the back are starting to chant.  Not really saying anything, but I can sense the mana moving around them.  I cast a sanctuary spell, and from that point on I can see that they are having more trouble moving the mana around.

I stand up slowly.  I look at the top of the stairs, and the guild master is arriving.

“What is going on here?”

“They are trying to extort money from me, guild master.”

He looks at the scene.

“Come on, Leonard, not again!”

He turns around, looking at the guild master.

“Don’t stick your nose, Robert!”

The guild master takes one step down, and yells.

“If you don’t stop creating trouble right now, I am going to ban you for 4 week!”

He looks at the guild master, and it looks like he is balancing the wrongdoing against the punishment.  I think the punishment is too light.  This is an extorsion case, this guy should at least be placed in jail.  For way more than 4 weeks at that.  After some long consideration, he gives up.

“Let’s go boys, not worth it right now.” Then he gets within my ear range.  “You’re not off the hook.”

He turns and starts walking out the door.  I turn to the guild master.

“Guild master, he just threatened me.  Be witness that I will have the right to self defense.”

The guild master sighs, turns around and goes back to his office.  The attendant comes back down, and goes behind the counter.  I can’t contain my curiosity.

“Miss, what is the deal?  Why is that guy not banned already?”

“He and the guild master used to be very close.  The guild master ends up turning a blind eye to some of his misdeeds.”

I shrug.  “I hope it doesn’t come to it, but you might be needing a guild master soon.”  I turn around and leave.  I am walking on the street, thinking about my hunt, and some possibilities, while going towards the noble district.  Then my path gets cut by two adventurers, while one is to my side.

“Now we can continue our talk.”

I look at those guys.  I could avoid the fight, but all of this started because they disrespected one of my girls.  And I wonder how many times they did a shake down like this already. That gets me in a bad mood.  I let them stare me down to a dark alley nearby.

“Just let me go, you don’t want to do this.”

He turns around, saying to his friends.

“Apparently, I don’t want to do this!”

Then he turns around and tries to sucker punch me.  I get out of the way, and I punch him back, breaking some teeth.  He gives two steps back and falls on his butt on the floor.

“GET HIM!”

One hand comes my way, to grab me.  I hold the hand, and apply pressure on the elbow, breaking it.  I force it further, until the arm is bent in the wrong way, and the bone comes out a little.  Another one tries to punch my back, but side step and pull in the one that tried to grab me.  He ends up being punched in the middle of the back.  I kick the puncher on the knee, breaking it.

The last one tries to kick me, but I step on his support knee, also breaking it, and he falls to the ground.  Behind me, I see that Leonard pulled out a dagger, and he is running towards me.  I side step him calmly, grab his hand holding the dagger, and twist it.  He lets go of the dagger.  He looks up, and now I am holding my katana, above my head, and his neck is on the line.

“Wait!  I am sorry!  I didn’t mean!”

“Yes, you did.  If you’re willing to kill, you’re willing to die.” 

I cast the soul absorption, he might have some useful skill.  And his head rolls.  I pick it up, and I check his corpse out.  He has a holding bag.  I throw the bag and the corpse in.  Then I head back to the guild.  The attendant sees that I have some blood stains on my clothes, but tries to remain cool.  I can feel that she is kind of scared.  The other adventurers in the place give some long looks.  Some of them seem kind of happy because if I am not hurt, then this blood would be Leonard’s.

I go up the stairs, and I knock on the guild master’s door. 

“Come in!”

“Hi, guild master.  Robert, right?”

He looks at me, and sees the blood.  He sighs.  He didn’t even look to see if I was hurt or not.

“You do realize that this was because he should have been in jail already, right?”

“I am not going to intervene on issues between adventurers outside the guild.”

“Hum.  Still protecting him.  But sure.”

I pick the holding bag, and drop the body and the head on the floor.  And then I throw the holding bag on top of the body.

“WHAT?  WHAT DID YOU DO!”

“I told you, I defended myself.  He tried to stab me with a dagger.”

He takes out a dagger from the table, and jumps at me from where he is.  He has hatred in his eyes.  I step to the side, and I cut his belly open.  He falls to the floor, and is now lying on his side, trying to hold his guts in.  His breathing is shallow.  I walk to him slowly.

“Let me try to understand this.  This criminal with an adventurer card was being protected by you.  He tried to shake me down, I report, and you do nothing.  YOU FUCKING SAW IT!!!  And now, he attacks me in an alley, I defend myself, and you try to kill me for that.”

He is holding his stomach, still with anger in his eyes.  At this point, some people open the office door, and stay by the door.  I get close to the guild master on the floor.

“I wonder…  How many people did he shake down?  How many times did you knowingly let his crimes slide, because of friendship?  How many did he kill, with your consent?”

He tries to kick me, but this ends up hurting him more.  There are more people by the door.

“And now, you tried to kill me.  You just got unlucky.”

“You are going to pay for this!  I am going to have you executed!”

I grow tired of these kinds of things.  When you protect the wolf, you sacrifice the sheep. I behead him as well.  I clean my katana.  I look at the door.  The people there are just frozen.  Not exactly fear, just out of reaction, they probably didn’t expect that.  I clean the katana on the deceased clothes, and sheath it.  I go slowly towards the door.

“Excuse me.”

Some guys look at the two dead bodies on the floor, and get out of the way.  I go downstairs, and the girl behind the counter is crouching behind it.

“Hi, …  What’s your name?”

“Susana.”

“Hi, Susana.  Are you the second one in charge here?  Can you please use the guild Comm Gem to report what happened here to the Upper Echelon?  I would like to do my report on what happened.”

“Sure…”

She is looking at me, with some big eyes.  I follow her to another room, and she activates the Comm Gem.  After some a minute, a female voice comes up from it.

“Yes?  What is it, Robert?”

“I am sorry, madam, but this is not Robert, this is Susana, the first attendant.  There has been a…  Situation.”

“What happened?”

“Guild master Robert is…” She looks at me, I close my eyes and nod. “ dead.  There was an altercation with him, and the other person in the altercation is here to…  Testify…?”  I nod again.

“Who is there?”

“It’s me.  I am Marcelo.”

…

…

“Hi, Marcelo.  Just a second.  Susana, this subject is going to be dealt with.  You are dismissed.” 

I turn to the Comm Gem.

“My I suggest that Susana stays?  She can attest to a lot of the facts that I am going to report.”

“Sure.  Susana, stay and pay attention.  Now, what happened?”

“One of my girls was harassed by an adventurer.  He tried to grope her.  She crushed his hand.  I came to the guild today, to research on the local monsters.  This guy and several goons with him tried to get five gold coins out of me.  I denounced that to the attendant and the guild master, that was present.  The guild master told this Leonard that he would get a 4 week ban if he created problems again.

“I tried to press charges, but the guild master did not allow.  I get threatened with a dagger in an alley, the guy looses his head.  I bring the body and head to the guild master, to report the incident, and he tried to stab me with a dagger.  Again, he looses his head.”

“Susana, is this true?”

“I only know of parts of it, madam.  The parts I know are that sir Marcelo here was harassed, and the guild master did nothing.  Leonard was known for causing trouble like that around, and his friendship with the guild master was no secret.”

After some time of consideration, we again hear the lady on the other side of the Comm Gem.

“Very well.  Susana, for having the most seniority, you are now temporary guild master, while we search for someone to occupy that chair permanently.  As for you, sir Marcelo, I don’t see a wrong doing.  Susana’s words sound true.  You are free to go.”

“Thank you”, I say.

“Thank you, madam.” Susana responds.

We leave the room, and I get back to the inn, calmly.  People are looking at me and Susana, with a questioning expression, but they relax when they realize that she is actually pretty calm.

I go to a restroom and change my shirt.  I go back to the inn, and it is already later in the afternoon.  I deliver our meat to the kitchen and then spend some time at the bar, waiting for the girls.  After some time our Comm Gem vibrates, and I tell them where I am.  I get a table for us, and some time after they come down for dinner.

“How was your day, my lord?”

“I spent some time in the guild, trying to figure out how to fight sea monsters.  And I had another encounter with the gang boss of the guy that tried to grope you, Ruby.”

“Did you teach them a lesson?”  Ruby asked anxiously.

“Yes, but nothing went the way I expected.  I learned that the band of goons only existed because the guild master was a friend with their boss.  I was told that they used to be in a party together, and now the guild master would look the other way when they did their shake downs on lower leveled adventurers.

“I tried denouncing them to the guild master, but he refused booking the charges.  In front of witnesses, no less.  Later the goons tried to give me a beating in an alley, I broke a couple of bones.  Their boss came at me with a dagger – that did not go well for him.

“When I brought the boss’ body to the guild master to report, the guild master tried to kill me.  I cut his head off.”

Cecilia stared a little at her plate.

“Couldn’t you have stopped them without killing?”

“Who are you talking about?”

“The guild master?  Both?  Perhaps the guild master wasn’t ill intentioned.”

I sigh.  “I probably could.  But I am tired of people that use their power over other people. No one is innocent here. I only killed the goon because he would have taken my life. The same with the guild master.”

“But the guild master only did that because you provoked him.”

“Perhaps.  But would it matter if I were weaker?  I would be dead nonetheless. The crimes are on them.  I see them as the murderers. I come from a land where the blame for the crime is on the victim.  I am not going to tolerate this kind of thing.  Specially not tolerate a corrupt police.”

“What do you mean?”

“In the land I come from, if you leave your bag of coins on a table in a bar, it will get stollen. The culture is that ‘you made it easy’. There are other places where you could leave expensive attire, and nobody would touch it.

“The blame on the crime is on the criminal. If someone tries to kill me because I killed their pet criminal, what does it say about them? A pet criminal that pulled a blade.  He was not joking.”

“Still…”

“I understand.  But remember, I never said I would be your hero…”

She giggled a little.  My Cecilia was back.

We have an uneventful dinner, and go to bed.

Next morning, I am full of energy.  There are a lot of things that I want to try today.  The girls and I decide to the city Akiko is in to get a more secluded beach.  I want to do some experiments on neutron cristals, specially now with this project.  After breakfast, we decide to walk there.  It is not really far, and the traveling is actually going to be fun.  We can put on our adventurer clothes and just jog.  Right now, with Cecilia’s new levels we can cover the 50 miles in just around 1 hour and change without getting our breath heavy, and also without looking too different from the rest of the mithril adventurers.  Muninn and Huginn are flying close to us.