Chapter 6 The Roommate

"Hey, can you take me to my room?" Jack leaned in over the reception desk.

"Sure, just give me a sec," said Maura, who was sorting through a stack of thick, worn-out papers. Upon closer inspection, Jack noticed that they were bounties and mug shots. Maura saw his wandering eyes and said, "This is the newest batch of bounties. We're always updating them so there's no confusion."

"There must be a lot of money in bounties with such a fat stack. Why so many?" asked Jack.

"Since Reinolt City is in the center of the kingdom, we have bounties for the entire country. Plus, Papa likes to always have them on hand. You might've guessed it but he's the kingdom's leading bounty hunter."

"Seriously?" Jack peeked over at the bar to see Zariff getting even drunker. "He's big enough for it, but don't you need to be smart enough too?"

"Hey, Papa is way smarter than he looks; smarter than you at least," said Maura.

"Don't lump me in with that old fart." Jack looked back to Maura, turning away from Zariff like he was disgusted to be near him.

"Oh yeah? What was that about you quitting again?" teased Maura.

"No, don't—"

"You quittin' again you cheeky brat!?" In his drunken stupor, Zariff gave Jack a glare that was cold enough to freeze hell over.

"No, no, you misheard. I'm just taking my leave so Maura can show me my room. Come on Maura," said Jack while yanking the giggling Maura away from her desk. She led him to a hallway behind the reception area that took them towards the dorms. "That was close, you almost got me killed."

"Ha, ha! I'm just teasing, get used to it," said Maura. "Your room is right here, the third on the left. Here's your key. I would say you can unpack, but you didn't even bring a change of clothes."

"Just give me some time, I'll be fine after some missions and bounties," said Jack.

"Don't expect too much, you're only lv. 1. The lowest bounties begin at lv. 10, and those don't pay all that much," said Maura, bursting Jack's bubble. "My dad only goes for bounties over lv. 20, and that's cause he's lv. 36."

"Is that high?" asked Jack.

Stunned at Jack's ignorance, Maura looked at him like he was a dumb caveman in the middle of a modern city. "Not high? Why do you think he's the best bounty hunter? Papa is the third strongest in the whole kingdom!"

"What? At lv. 36? Who are the other two?"

"One's the captain of the Royal Court's magic guard, his name is Arnole. He's lv. 39," answered Maura, proud to show off her knowledge. "Those two have been rivals for longer than I've been alive. Just don't mention anything about Arnole around my dad; you haven't seen him angry until then."

Jack took a mental note and vowed to never make Zariff angry, at least not until he was strong enough to fight back. "Wait, if the Royal Court only has the second strongest, who's the first?"

"Not sure," said Maura.

"Huh?"

"I don't know his name. Only the king, Arnole, and Papa know his name and level. He's supposed to be independent of any power or faction, which might be a problem for others but he's over lv. 50."

As a former maxed-out lv. 85 in "A Hero's Tale," Jack's view on levels was very biased. "Only lv. 50? That's it?"

"That's plenty! He's like a national treasure! Having him is like having another army, he even stopped the last war by himself."

With that in mind, Jack began to better understand the world. If the coming chaos the king mentioned was anything like the chaos in "A Hero's Tale," then the world won't last for much longer. Jack steeled himself to level up as quickly as possible and form a strong party.

"Hey, what are you thinking about now? Are you stupid or something?" asked Maura.

"Of course, I'm not stupid, I'm just new here and don't know anything yet. But if the strongest is only lv. 50, we're going to be in trouble," said Jack, who ignored Maura's confusion. "What level are you Maura?"

"Lv. 14, why?"

"I have an idea. I need to level up as soon as possible, and I'm sure your old man wants the association to make more money, so why don't you help me out," said Jack.

"How can I do that?" asked Maura.

"Easy, you accept an easy bounty around lv. 10 and I join your party to farm exp."

"No way!" yelled Maura. "That's so dishonest! How can you be an adventurer and just weasel yourself into EXP? I worked hard to level up and you can too!"

"Come on Maura. You owe me one, remember?" pled Jack.

"Yeah, but that was for your own good. If you hadn't accepted, who knows what Papa would've done to you?" said Maura. "Besides, Papa would never let me go bounty hunting."

"Then how did you level up?"

"Through missions and dungeons, how else? Your lack of EXP is your problem, you fix it. I'll be heading back to my desk, so good luck." Oblivious to Jack's advances, Maura left without giving him a second glance.

Jack stewed over his problem, sure that he could find a way to breeze through the lower levels and save him some time. As the achievement junkie, he refused to do things like everyone else and waste his precious time.

"I'll carry you kid."

A voice emerged from behind the open door to Jack's room. Jack peeked inside to see a pair of bunk beds and a thin, lanky man laying across one of the tattered mattresses. The man said, "I like the way you think. Only a fool would waste his time with conventional methods when there's a more logical and possibly unorthodox solution available.

Saddened, Jack said, "You mean I don't get a room to myself? Curse that cheap, old fart."

"Yeah Zariff's cheap, but he's the best man for his job. You, on the other hand, you're too low level to be saying anything. As I said, I'll carry you kid, but on my terms."

"Fine, but at least tell me your name."

"Oh yeah, the name's Rydel. I'm a lv. 29 hunter, so I think we'll get along just fine," said Rydel, pointing at the bow on Jack's back. "Some would hate having two hunters in a party, but I think it's ideal. Don't you agree?"

"Well duh. With two hunters, you have the greatest chances at a successful sneak attack or an ambush of arrows. You can eliminate the threat of injury and death," answered Jack.

Rydel smiled, "Good. These are my terms: you must do anything I say, I choose the location, and we split all drops 90-10."

"Sounds good to me, but are you sure you only want 10%? I think I can manage 20% if you want," said Jack, leaning casually against the door frame.

Suddenly a knife flew out of the bed and lodged itself in the frame, close enough to Jack's face for him to see his breath fog up its shiny blade. Rydel mentioned, "I don't negotiate, take it or leave it, kid."

"You drive a hard bargain, but 90% it is." Jack stepped forward to shake his new partner's hand. "When do we get started?"

"Tomorrow, I'm taking today off," answered Rydel, rolling to his side away from the open door.

"What, but I needed to level up yesterday. I don't have much time."

"Typically, I get a drink to clear my mind before heading out, but for some reason, the bar is in pieces until tomorrow morning. If you want, I can take my stress out on the idiot who caused it instead," threatened Rydel while turning his head back to peer into Jack's conscience.

"Oh well, I guess grinding will have to wait. I'll be back tonight," said Jack as he turned tail and left.