10 Number 24 of 873

The gate guards take in Cara's mishmash of patchwork blood-stained clothes and wave her inside. Even in a relatively large frontier town, the guards are pretty familiar with the local adventurers, especially when they are as attractive as Cara. Despite the unflattering clothes and mud-caked exterior, she is still a willowy beauty with piercing green eyes and high cheekbones.

A female guard with dark skin and darker hair comes up to us. "Cara, are you alright? Judging by your appearance, I'm guessing the others aren't coming back."

"I'm fine... now. We got bad information," Cara said. "You might want to send word to the farms to make their way into the town. A horde is forming. Judging by the number of hobs, they could surge any day now."

"Well, fuck. What should I tell Faraugh?"

"At least a dozen hobs. He should send a rider to Evreux to get an eradication force together as fast as possible; otherwise, the casualties will stunt this area for a decade or more."

"Alright. What about you? Are you heading to Jager House?"

"Yeah, I need to report back to the Guild Master and deliver Johan and the others' tags."

The guard nods and then directs a glance my way. "Who's your friend?"

Cara smiles. "This little black-winged angel is Morgan. I wouldn't be here now if not for her. She saved a whole lot more than my life. Morgan," she says to me. "This is Jori Hunter. As long as she's sober, she's right, pleasant company."

Jori made a sour face. "Cute. So, what is she, your familiar?"

"More like my friend, and she can talk for herself."

I shake my head at Cara and then nod to Jori. I still can't really control my volume yet, so I'd rather not start yelling in the middle of town. Fortunately, Cara gets the idea.

"Oh, yeah, she's still a bit loud. I guess I will have to talk for her, for now. She'd attract too much attention all yellin' about," she tells Jori.

Jori nods, obviously not quite convinced of my linguistic ability, but she plays along. "Alright. Nice to meet you, Morgan. Thanks for helping this pale ghosty make it back here."

I nod in acknowledgment. I really need to learn volume control, or maybe telepathy. Telepathy might be nice, but I'm not sure I want to hear other people's thoughts. If other people's thoughts are anywhere near as fucked up as mine sometimes are, I don't think I could look anyone in the face ever again.

Hang on, one minute. Didn't that quest I just completed have a reward that included an ability or something? I check my notifications and see that upon completion of my quest to bring Cara back to town, I gained a Carrion System Gacha Token and one hundred EXP.

While half-listening to Cara and Jori, I open my storage and low and behold, there it is, a golden token with a relief of a young girl holding up a peace sign on one side and a similar-looking girl with a shy smile on the other. I recognize the two as the goddess's daughters. I guess they are the ones responsible for the system I have. They seem so young to have such power, but I guess once you're in the god tier of power all sense of normalcy disintegrates.

I check the token's description.

[CARRION SYSTEM GACHA TOKEN connects to the lowest floor of the Raven Queen's treasure room where eight hundred seventy-three treasures reside gathering dust. Once activated from storage, the token will disappear, and trade places with a randomly selected numbered treasure from the collection. The transfer will take several moments to complete.

PS. Don't worry; mom is totally okay with this.]

I'm getting a treasure from the Raven Queen's collection? A literal goddess's vault is being raided to give me a prize for a quest I would have completed regardless of the reward. Isn't that a little crazy? I'm not complaining, just surprised.

There are a few examples listed under "additional information" which include:

[AMPULE OF ROYAL PHOENIX VITAL ESSENCE: This semi-divine nectar ignites the soul's luminance granting permanent elevation to a higher spiritual existence.]

[SCROLL OF THE ART OF THE NINE VENOM STRIKE: This profound scroll details the combat technique of an ancient poison sect that specialized in assassination.]

[SOUL SEED OF AN AIR ELEMENTAL KING: Once this seed is integrated into the user's soul, it will raise the user's affinity with air attributed mana and air elemental spirits.]

[LEGACY SOUL ORB OF MARIA ANURA, THE FROG PRINCESS: This orb is the legacy of the ascended mortal known as the Frog Princess, an actual princess who rebelled against the crown and helped to overthrow an empire. Her affinity with amphibians and her colossal rainbow frog companion earned her her moniker. It is believed that she is history's only Amphibimancer. Don't laugh, her companion, Henson, swallowed an elder dragon whole and trampled an army under his giant webbed flippers.]

[REFINED TELEPATHIC MIND MATRIX: A refined construct housing the acuity of a psychic entity possessing an affinity for telepathic communications. Once the construct is assimilated, it will improve the Mind and grant a telepathy related Talent.]

[TOME OF THE DRAGON AND PHOENIX DIVINE DUAL CULTIVATION METHOD: A Divine Ranked cultivation method that promises unsurpassed growth potential without compromising a stable foundation.]

That last one sounds a little weird. What am I supposed to do with gardening techniques, become a farmer? I mean, it sounds pretty awesome if you want to grow corn or something, but I'm a bird. Hopefully, I won't get something useless like that.

I take a deep breath and activate the token. Cha-ching. A sound like a coin falling into a slot machine echoes in my head, followed by a grinding sound, and then something that reminded me of music you might hear at a carnival. Those girls really went all out for this, didn't they? What next, flashing lights and a neon sign saying "WINNER' in giant letters? A slinking in the corner of my vision attracts my attention, and I see a countdown clock with approximately twenty minutes left on it. I guess that's how long I have to wait for the process to finish.

I refocus back on Cara and Jori just in time to hear Jori say, "It's too bad about the guys, but I'm glad you were able to escape before the worst happened. You'd better hurry and report back to the Guild Master. I have to convince Captain Faraugh to send a request for aid from the Count. You know what he's like."

Pfft. Cara snorts in annoyance. "If that bastard risks the town over his pride, he'd better hope he dies in the assault. Evreux does not suffer fools gladly."

"Well, hopefully, it won't come to that. I'd better go," she starts to walk away and waves. "Nice to meet you, Morgan."

"SAME," I shout. It would be rude not to say anything.

"See you around, Butterfly," Jori says before accelerating into a jog. I cock my head and look at Cara.

She rolls her eyes and says, "We went out on a couple of dates. No big deal."

Now that I think of it, Cara does have a butterfly tattoo, but the only time I saw it was before she scavenged the clothes from her former party. It is in a rather intimate location, and when I saw it, it was still partially covered with blood. No big deal? I'd snort, but it doesn't really work with a beak. Instead, I nod and look away, thinking, 'You sit on a throne of lies.'

"Really, we're just friends."

I rock my head back to her in my best, "oh, really?" pose. I think it loses something without lips and eyebrows, but her blush tells me she got the gist.

cough. "We should get going," she says and starts walking deeper into town.

The town, Faurport, is built in a series of concentric half-circles with the outermost section comprised mostly of wooden single or two-story buildings. The closer we move to the port, the larger and more elaborate the buildings become. Buildings are more often made with stone and a greater degree of craftsmanship. Still, only two buildings exceed three stories in the entire town. The first is the local Lord's manor, which is located close to the center of town. The second, and our current destination, is the most prominent adventurers' guild in Faurport, and apparently this country, Jager House.

There are a number of adventurers' guilds across the Western Continent, but almost all of them hold some connection to one of the big three, Jager House, Chausser House, or Vanator House. Jager is the most traditional of the group. Their recruitment boils down to a person walks in and expresses interest in becoming an adventurer, Jager tests and records their abilities, Jager helps them get training, groups, and missions. Jager House takes a cut of the reward and an annual membership fee.

The others aren't too different, but Chausser caters to the nobility and is typically called the nobles playground, and Vanator is most known for training mercenaries and guards. Vanator specializes in troop deployments and large scale conflicts. They are often called in to act as eradication forces. Vanator also has a very rigid educational structure and seems more like a military operation than an adventurers' guild.

As we approach Jager House, a lot of the remaining tension drains out of Cara. A little is still there, but not as bad as when we first left the treehouse. I suppose it makes sense. There is still a horde of goblins that could descend on to the town at any time, but at least there is a better chance of surviving it if the Count sends an eradication force. I don't feel very personally threatened; I could always just fly away, and there isn't much a goblin can do to me, but I do still feel acidic nausea bubbling in my belly at the thought of what they'd do to my friend.

Jager House is huge, taking up a full block and standing four stories high. It has a library, a training facility, classrooms, and administrative offices, but the most important room resembles nothing so much as a tavern. Heavy wooden tables and chairs are spread out through the room filled with a menagerie of adventurer stereotypes from bold and noble swordsmen to sly and sneaky rogues, from hairy leather and fur-clad barbarians to posh velveteen swashbucklers, from pointy-hat witches and wizards to a bunch of pint-sized patrons that look like they should be escorting a ring to a place you don't just walk into; in a variety of human and pointy-eared, animal attributed, and other odd assortments of not quite humans. On the left is a long bar with two buxom blond twins tending to the libations, in the center is a giant board with what look like wanted posters but which are really job posting, to the right is the reception center where jobs are accepted, arranged, or turned in, and new adventurers are tested and welcomed.

At the center of it all is Guild Master Natalie. Cara hasn't said too much about her other than she's a force to be reckoned with, but as she is the youngest branch guild master in the history of Jager House, I was already able to divine that. It would take someone special to corral a wild bunch like adventurers who are used to putting their lives on the line for a paycheck.

As we crossed the threshold of the guild's common room, a chorus of whistles and catcalls cut through the loud conversations and drew every eye to us.

"Oi oi! Cara, my girl, I knew you couldn't stay away from me," a rather rotund man with beer stains on his shirt shouts while grabbing his crotch.

"Oh, fuck off, Wally," Cara yells back, a smile straining the corners of her mouth. "Or I'll be telling Tessa about a certain Bantam wench at The Cup and Copper and her wee babe."

A chorus of "OHHHH!!" echoes from the other patrons. Wally is a rather large man, a little over six feet and well over three hundred pounds. If I remember right, the Bantam are a little race, less than four feet in height, rather similar to that ring bearing race that likes food and illicit pipe weeds. The major difference is that Bantam are wild and aggressive, known for their overwhelming speed and swarming tactics in battle. The thought alone of Wally and a Bantam girl requires a gallon of mind bleach.

Wally, red-faced, sits back down and focuses heavily on his drink. The raucous laughter and jeers redouble until a loud piercing whistle cuts through the noise like a chainsaw. Silence descends, and everyone's eyes are drawn up to the second-floor railing where a lithe woman with coal-black hair, cat ears, and a tail is standing.

"Well," she says, staring at Cara and I. "It took you long enough."

She smiles and leaps from the rail. At the same time, the countdown for the gacha game ends, and in a strange scene obviously designed by the goddess' daughters, what looks like a plastic egg drops into view. It spins and bob in the middle of my vision as it comes to a stop and slowly rotates to reveal a number on the side of the egg. At that moment, the cat-girl hits the floor in a classic superhero landing.

She looks up directly at me and smiles. "Twenty-four," she says, which happens to be the number on the side of the egg.