Lothier burst into the Adventurer’s Guild like he owned the place. He was fresh and energized—unusual for the Guild so early in the morning. You couldn’t even tell that he’d spent most of the previous night at a brothel. He was a professional, after all—a Mithril professional.
That’s right, he’d hit Level 50 and had enough reputation with the Guild to advance! Mithrils are the elite of Striton. Sure, there are two ranks above it, but almost no one in this region advanced beyond Mithril. The two nearby dungeons were both too low to get one there before they died of old age, one being Level 10 and the other Level 25.
The experience “plateaus,” as they’re called colloquially, happen once in Steel Levels and again in Mithril Leves, meaning that once one was Level 25, the experience became much more difficult to earn. This happened again at Level 50. This fact plus the low Levels of the nearby dungeons ensured that anyone hoping to advance beyond Mithril would have to seek other cities or territory to adventure.
It was possible to advance with work out in the wilds. There was always the possibility of powerful monsters, but that was neither guaranteed, nor common in this part of the world. Seldom were there even monsters above Level 30 around, let alone any higher. This meant Mithril adventurers were effectively the best-of-the-best around Striton, and now he was among them.
Riding his high all the way into the main hall, Lothier smiled a little wilder when he spotted one of the major contributors to his recent windfall: Julia. She was staring at the commission board with obvious concentration. She was apprenticed to Braden, so he must have let her choose what job they’ll be going on.
The unexpected trouble in Rockyknoll had been fortunate for him in a few ways. The most obvious being that his small part in that affair had elevated his status in the eyes of Guild Master. True, essentially all he did was run, but saving Julia had been big. He had his suspicions about why the Guild Master valued her so much: possibly due to her potential as a future adventurer, or possibly because of her connection to Braden.
Lothier had no analysis Skills—they were incredibly rare—but it didn’t take a genius to notice there was something more to him than his appearance suggested. Lothier had seen how the people “in the know” reacted to Braden: the Guild Master, Ratia, or any receptionist he handed his Guild card to. He was significant in some way.
Regardless, Lothier’s elevated status with the Guild was just one benefit. Another was seeing Julia’s magic. He had been sworn to the bow since he was young. He was confident it was all he’d ever need, but seeing Julia—a small child—fry a group of seven adults with unnatural powers had been eye opening. He’d decided to try on-the-fly conduit enchantments for his arrows.
It wasn’t easy to learn magic when he hadn’t studied before, but it also wasn’t as hard as he’d expected. There were a couple books in the Guild library about magic, and he already had decent visualizations of what magic effects he wanted from his adventuring experience. He came up with a couple uses for common magic that he thought were clever.
The one he was particularly proud of was feeding Ice Magic into an already-poisoned arrow. If it hit the target, the ice would seal over the wound and make the arrow difficult to dislodge, giving the poison plenty of time to seep into the target’s bloodstream.
His experimenting with magic had even affected his next Class options! His Level 50 Class ended up being an Uncommon one called “Magic Archer,” which focused on those conduit enchantments. Having Skills for it made the whole process much easier. He could focus on his archery and actually hitting the target while the System largely automated the enchantment part.
Getting to Level 50 at all was another benefit of his encounter with Julia, he suspected. He got a decent amount of experience from it, but he could swear that his experience gains afterward were also boosted. Activities that didn’t provide much experience before were suddenly much more lucrative, which was the primary reason he was able to hit Level 50 so soon.
He had no actual proof for this, but he felt in his gut that helping Julia had somehow made him level faster, even after the encounter. Such a thing was unprecedented, as far as he was aware. Not that he was super well-informed on the ins and outs of the System, but he had been around a while. Something so significant as boosted experience should be something he’d at least heard about if it was well-known.
That was all years in the past, though. Now, he was a Mithril adventurer! He should at least say hi to his unknowing and unwitting sponsor, though.
“Well, if it ain’t the lightning master herself!” he greeted happily as he approached Julia.
“Oh, hello, Lothier. I didn’t see you come in. Calling me a master of lightning is a bit much, isn’t it? I’m not a master of anything. I’m not even an adult yet in the eyes of the Guild,” Julia said half-heartedly.
“”Well, you’ve managed to defeat enemies with lightning without killing yourself in the process, so that’s pretty much the same thing compared to what most accomplish,” he said good-naturedly. He wasn’t joking, either. He’d personally seen a handful of mages leave this world at the hands of their own lightning spells. That shit was dangerous.
“If you say so,” she said with a small smile. “Maybe I should be speaking more formally to you. I hear that you’re one of the big bosses now.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Lothier’s polite smile grew into an ear-to-ear grin. “Oh, I’m curious what you’ve heard. Maybe you could enlighten me? I don’t pay too much attention to the rumors that circulate about me. There are so many, you see.”
Julia rolled her eyes and humored him with a smile, “Well, they say that Lothier the Layabout, Lothier the Languishing, Lothier the Frivolous, has actually made it to Mithril rank, of all things! Surely, the rumors must be exaggerated, though. After all, that’s the rank of the elites in this city,” Julia said with her hand on her chest in faux drama.
Lothier, wincing at his nicknames up to this point, placed his hands on his hips and puffed his chest out. “Well, I would say that most rumors you hear about me are definitely exaggerated and likely untrue. This one, however, is the honest-to-gods truth. You’re looking at Striton’s newest elite,” he declared proudly.
Julia nodded. “Congratulations, Lothier; truly. I’m happy to see the one that saved my life moving up in the world,” Julia said sincerely.
“Ah, well. You saved me as well. That lightning bolt saved my last few arrows. Wasn’t completely sure I’d be able to take the freaks if it came down to a melee,” he said while rubbing the back of his neck, embarrassed at her sudden sincerity. He looked up at the board, eager to get back to a lighthearted mood. “What job are you looking for? Anything specific?”
“I was hoping for something that Trixy could stretch her legs on. I just finished updating her registration after her evolution,” Julia explained while turning back to the board.
Only now did Lothier notice that there was…more of Trixy than he was used to. She was in her usual spot wrapped around Julia’s neck (sleeping like the dead), but he now realized she was also wrapped around Julia’s chest and waist like a strange, furry harness.
He also realized that she now had some vicious-looking claws extending from her paws. Actually, was “paws” really the word for them anymore? They looked closer to the feet of a bird of prey than anything else.
“Does she have to ‘stretch her legs?’ Those claws make me suspect I’d prefer she not do that,” he joked.
Julia smiled warmly. “She has changed, hasn’t she? Sometimes, I can’t believe it either, despite witnessing the evolution myself.”
Lothier was happy to see Julia smiling. She tended to be a solitary girl, so he didn’t get to see her with genuine happiness very often. His first impression of her was a frightened but brave child fleeing from abominations. Maybe she was generally a happy person, but he couldn’t shake that first impression from his mind. He felt it wrong that a child should be anything but happy and curious.
“Well, I don’t know what Trixy’s dietary predelections are, but this one has been on the board for a few days already. If there’s not one you already have in mind, why not give it a try? You can only accept Bronze jobs while apprenticed, and you could complete a request that was likely going to go unanswered otherwise,” he said while pulling a job off the board and handing it to her.
She studied it for a while. “Fire Ants? A nest of them popped up in someone’s garden outside of town, huh? I’m almost afraid to ask, but does the name ‘Fire Ant’ mean what I suspect it does?” she questioned with suspicion.
“If you’re thinking they breathe fire or something, no. If you’re thinking they shoot a caustic liquid from their abdomens that makes you feel like you’re on fire, then yes. They’re an absolute menace.
“Each worker ant is about the size of your hand, too, so the amount of painful liquid they can spray individually is not insignificant,” he said while cringing a little. He’d personally felt that sting and was not eager to again.
It’s no wonder that request was languishing. Nasty magic beasts that have large numbers and cause intense pain, low payout, and low stakes. Sure, someone’s garden has been taken over, but it’s not like the ants attack unprovoked. The victim could just keep the back door shut and not suffer from the ants’ presence.
“Thanks, Lothier. This sounds like exactly what I was looking for,” she said with a smile. He nodded and she took off for the reception desk to accept the job. Lothier watched her go for a second, but just as he was about to turn away and think about his own activities for the day, he noticed a pair of eyes linger on Julia just a little too long.
There was a man sitting at one of the tables in the bar area staring at her. He seemed to be attempting a casual demeanor, but he couldn’t fool a Ranger’s (or, former Ranger’s) experienced gaze. The man’s eyes flickered back and forth from his meal to Julia too quickly and frequently to be doing general people-watching. He was watching her, specifically.
Jerrick, that’s who this was. Lothier was aware of the man—he was almost as loud and boisterous as Lothier himself, so how could he not be aware of him? He hadn’t had much to do with Jerrick, though. He didn’t like him. He gave Lothier a bad feeling in his gut. He couldn’t quite place the feeling, but even without it, he wouldn’t have liked him.
Jerrick had a reputation around the Guild. His party had a tendency to snatch up new, promising adventurers and make them disappear. Word around the Guild was that they would use the new party member as an insurance policy. They would make use of their new member’s skills, but as soon as their party encountered a challenge, they would flee while leaving the new adventurer behind to draw whatever trouble they’d encountered.
Lothier was unsure how much truth there was to these rumors. If it was true, it meant that either the Guild wasn’t aware of it, or the party had some pretty stellar excuses for regularly returning without their newest members. If it wasn’t true, there was something going on with them that would plant those rumors in people’s minds, which Lothier wasn’t sure was better or worse.
The fact that many of these new adventurers his party picked up were young women gave Lothier an even nastier feeling in his gut. He had no tolerance for men that couldn’t just go to the brothels to sate their depravity. Sure, Lothier was one of the depraved himself, but he only ever did things consensually (with consent both from the brothels and the individual women) and with appropriate, brothel-approved compensation afterward.
When he saw Julia disappear out the Guild’s front door, Jerrick seemed to go back to eating his meal. He probably thought he was pretty slick, spying on Julia out in the open, but Lothier would keep an eye on him. After all, it was the elites’ responsibility to look after their juniors.
