Chapter 3 - An Unlucky Encounter

If there was one thing Locki learned from watching mages in the Scarlet Hand, that was that posturing was a very big deal when getting missions.

Most missions have to be run through by the different sections of the Magic Council. They make the mission sheet and send it out to nearby Magic Guilds who fit the bill. It sounds simple enough, but there's another layer to it.

Whenever someone submits a mission, they can expedite the process by suggesting a specific guild they want. Like all things bureaucratic, the people verifying the missions want the process to be fast even at the expense of quality, and if they just need to send the mission to one Magic Guild, then they'd do it.

Like that, recommendations became the lifeblood of certain Magic Guilds. Which was why posturing was a very big deal. People who see impressive mages doing impressive things will most likely want those mages again.

A more memorable image is a better selling point. Simple logic.

Of course, that meant Locki had to put effort into his look. Which, while a worthwhile investment, was annoying.

"Are you sure you want to be let off here?" The coach peddler, who Locki joined on the way to the mission town, asked. He was one of the better men in Locki's mind. Didn't ask too many questions, and enough money made him look the other way.

"I [can] walk the rest." Locki said, pulling out some more Jewels for the man.

The man, still with a look of concern, took the money and slipped it into his shirt. "I can see you're not going to budge on the issue. However, I am sure you have your reasons."

Locki openly scoffed, turning away from the man. The carriage trundled down the dirt-paved road without even waiting for the teen to get a little distance from them. He coughed as the dust clouds coated his throat and eyes in irritating particulates.

Spitting in their direction, Locki cursed. "Damn vultures."

The train that ran from Magnolia to Hargeon was a simple ride in and of itself. It had once been an outrageously priced transport, but with the advent of more and more Magic Guilds, the train was directly warned by the Magic Council to lower their prices.

Locki enjoyed it when the Magic Council did things like that. They obviously had the presence of mind to keep things nice for their chained dogs, or else countries like Bosco or Seven, the bordering kingdoms on their peninsula, got it in their heads to poach some mages. Who, Locki had heard, offered some ludicrous deals.

Of course, he knew it would be a miracle for them to pay any attention to him, so he never paid it any more attention. That was money he would never see anyways.

In any case, that just meant that he had a fairly easy journey from Evermont to Hargeon. The main problem came from how he was going to get to the town in question. A rentable Magic Vehicle, a useful Magic Item, was one option, but had the trade-off of draining the user's magic. For any halfway decent mage, it was the go-to item for short distance travel.

Now, Locki knew his limits. He knew them like the back of his hand since that was the only thing he paid attention to in his childhood. It was because of this that Locki knew he wouldn't make it to the town with his meager magic reserves.

Instead, he had hitched a ride with a traveling merchant, paying them for their troubles. And when they saw how much he forked over, they pestered him for more. A theme common enough that Locki was sick of it.

That brought him back to the age-old tradition of posturing. If you looked like you were going to give up money, then people would pester you for that money. Locki knew he would be extorted, but it was better than being outright robbed.

The only reason why they didn't decide to do so was when he "accidentally" let slip how he was on his way to complete a mission. Merchant carriages did have mages in their employ, but between a guild mage and a mage-for-hire, guild mages technically had a higher chance of being stronger.

Reasonably, Locki was not that. Though, he wasn't going to correct their assumptions when they worked in his favor.

As he was finally left alone, his thoughts were focused on how he was going to finish the mission while also putting an image in his employer's head that he was more competent than he actually was.

The answer came easy. His armor was imposing enough, and if he concentrated enough, he might be able to trigger his magic more. It was a small hope, but it would be better than nothing.

"This is going to be a long walk…" Locki said, activating his armor to cover him.

The metal unfolded around the bracer on his arm. Plates slid past and out from each other with ear-splitting screeches. The silvery material hardened on his limbs, encasing them in solid metal while interlocking plates made up his joints.

With an audible click, the helmet engulfed his head, closing around his face like the jaws of some beast. Locki could only see through a row of vertical slits that obscured most of his vision. Almost immediately, sweat began gathering around his brow, and he felt uncomfortable with how hot it suddenly was.

Even still, the teen walked with the armor around him in the direction of the town. The distance wasn't that far; only a mile or two that he needed to get through. He knew his actual appearance wasn't going to be winning him any words, so this was his best option.

He grunted in annoyance as a familiar chuckle echoed out. Gastly hovered just inside his peripherals, and he saw the smoke of the Pokemon sneak into the gaps of the armor. Locki was confused until he realized that he felt an odd chill where that smog passed.

"...good work," he said slowly. Gastly bobbed its body up and down next to his head, letting out spine-tingling chuckles every now and then. Locki got the impression that the creature was more preoccupied with looking around than to acknowledge his thanks.

Still, even with Gastly's assistance, the walk to the town would take awhile. The heat still beat down on him, baking him inside the Rune Woven Armor.

"Okay, you remember what we need to do for the mission?" Locki asked Gastly. The creature floated around without an answer. "We need enough information about the mages the Vulcans took over, alright. This is where you come in."

Gastly spun to face him, tongue out. "That got your attention, huh. You just need to be creepy and foreboding nearby-" Gastly gave a high-pitched laugh. "Right… Well, anyways, just keep doing what you're doing. The important thing is that I need to be distracting enough that I can get enough information for my Curse to actually work well. If they were just normal Vulcans, I could probably figure something out, but we don't have the time nor strength to fight Vulcans with magic other than their Take-Over variant."

"Gas, gas!" Gastly said, and Locki nodded as if that was an answer. He knew it was the best he was going to get.

Locki sighed at his only other member. "...this is what I'm betting on as a distraction. I am regretting many things."

"Uhm, uhm," Locki spun instantly when he heard the soft coughs of someone behind him. His armor clinked as he turned to find a malnourished child.

Their long, black hair was stuck in clumps to their scalp as grime and dirt marred their skin. A ratty, torn brown tunic covered their upper body and extended all the way down to the dried patches of blood on their knees. Parts of their tunic were torn open, revealing pallid skin that clung to tiny ribs.

"P- please wa- water…" the child coughed desperately, shuffling closer to him slowly.

Locki backed up as he watched the child warily. He wasn't uninformed about some bandit groups who used escaped slaves or children to lure in unsuspecting travelers, so instead of immediately tending to the child, he looked around. His gaze fell over the horizon, finding nothing on the empty plain that he stood in. All around him was just dirt and the occasional bush that he squinted at.

Gastly hovered around the trembling child as they shook in the wind. Their teeth chattered as they tried to keep the floating ball of gas in their vision, and Locki sighed as he watched.

"Gastly, stop that. You're making me dizzy." Locki ordered, and his guild member happily did so. Only to continue to do it to him.

The teen let out another explosive sigh. He had found no traces of an ambush in motion, and none of the spots he felt were the prime location for an ambush had anyone he could see. If they were going to attack him, then he felt they should have done it by now.

"Alright kid, I'll get you some water." Locki said, slinging the backpack on his shoulder over to the ground. He noted how the child flinched at him, stepping back further. Gastly met his eyes and he grunted, "Watch them."

He shuffled around his pack for a moment to get a bottle of water he had hoped to save in case he had to hike around the town. When he looked up, he found Gastly making faces at the child and surprisingly, the creature got a couple of tentative laughs that the ghost ball echoed in its own way.

The child stopped immediately when he paid attention to them, and Locki wiped the ghost of a smile that had unknowingly made its way to his lips. Instead, he just tossed the bottle of water to the child, watching as they fumbled around with it awkwardly. They glanced between him and the bottle for a few moments before they tried to pry open the cap.

Locki sighed as he marched over to them and yanked the bottle from their grip. They yelped and froze in front of him, covering their head with their thin arms. Uncaring for their reactions, Locki unscrewed the bottle and set it down next to the frozen child.

"There, water. Don't drink it all in one go." He said, turning away as he returned to his self-imposed, armored march to the town of his mission.

He had seen enough orphans and abused children in his time in the south end of Evermont. Half of those had ended up in one gang or another, or they won the lottery and unlocked their magic to later join a Magic Guild. The unspoken few that didn't survive… Locki had seen enough of them to make himself sick.

The teen knew that some gangs who had ties to Bosco would abduct some orphans, hoping to pawn the little ones to slave traders. From there the young guild master had little to no clue on how they ended up.

Now, as he looked back at the child who followed several steps behind him, he felt he had an idea on what happened to some of them. The child –he didn't know if they were a boy or girl at this point– looked like they were a moment away from dying. However, that wasn't his problem to care about. He already had enough on his plate, and if he tried to steal an escaped slave from some trader, he might as well sign his death sentence.

[Guild Quest]

Optional

Rank: F-rank

Recruit the mage [Kagura Mikazuchi] into your guild

Reward: Tier 2 Gold Prism

Penalties: Miss out on a potential mage, possible death and dismemberment

"What the fuck?" Locki cursed at the screen that popped up. He shot a glance at the now named Kagura, causing them to look to their own feet. Alternating between their figure and the screen in front of him, Locki frowned. "Is death and dismemberment going to be a recurring thing?"

Looking around again, Locki found nothing that might cause him bodily harm. He squinted his eyes at a nearby bush, wondering if there was going to be a random attack any moment.

"Gas!" Gastly offered, and Kagura gave a fragile smile in return for the ghost that hovered by them.

"Uhm, m-mister mage…" Kagura spoke up, but their voice was soft and jittery, almost as if they were going to bolt at any moment. "Thank uhm, thank you."

Locki looked at the child, pursing his lips. A ex-slave mage was a different beast entirely. They represented an entirely different concept on multiple levels.

For one, the traders were not going to rest while the child was still out there. Magic Guilds would also desire the child to train into their next S-rank superstar, and Dark Guilds would want the child because children who had just gone through such an experience normally had some darker aspects to their personality.

He wasn't going to pretend he was the most moral person, so Locki never really cared much about others' perceptions of him. Even now, he wasn't too disturbed by the child's situation. However, he would be a liar if he said he wasn't tempted by the child's potential.

It wasn't often that a slave escaped due to unlocking their magic, but when it did happen, those children often represented a very potent ability. The slavers in question were either killed in the child's outburst, or they were hunting down the child at the moment.

Now it wasn't a question whether Locki looked away or not. It was if he was willing to throw away his morals and safety on the off-chance that Kagura could be strong.

Was it a shitty thing to do? Locki wouldn't hesitate to say yes. He was debating on the prospects of taking advantage of an impressionable and vulnerable child. It was the very definition of a horrible action.

However, the more Locki thought of his future the more he realized just how screwed he was for it. He was weak, untrained, untalented and wholly unprepared for anything a Magic Guild entailed.

The teen bit his lip under the cover of his faceplate. He remembered how the members of the Scarlet Hand had left one after another after he was named the guild master. How even Dralt had left right before he could figure out what the Gold Prisms could do.

They hadn't even given him a chance. Honestly, he never was going to be a good master in the first place, but he hated the facts proving them right.

In essence, he was fueled with enough spite to seriously consider his next actions.

"You, child, you're a mage?" Locki said, holding back a curse at how harsh his voice sounded.

"Yes… sorry."

"Don't say sorry." Locki said reflexively, uncaring for Kagura's trembling figure. He wetted his lips as a plan came to his mind. The optional [Guild Quest] only asked him to recruit Kagura, so there was nothing that said he needed to keep the child in the guild forever. He could just as easily shunt Kagura off to some other Magic Guild after he got his rewards. "What do you want, kid?"

Kagura looked up at him in a panic, hazel eyes wide. "W- what do you mean?"

"I'm asking what you want. You're following me for a reason, are you not?"

"What I… I uhm, I didn't mean to-"

Locki shook his head. The child looked like the textbook escapee in his head. Jittery actions that flinched at every noise, and afraid of actually speaking out for fear of being punished. At this rate, the sun would go down before he got anywhere.

"Look, I am going to be completely real with you, kid." Locki started, interrupting their stuttering speech. "I am the guild master of a Magic Guild in Fiore. My magic reacted to you when you approached me, and wants me to recruit you into my guild. Of course, its your choice in the first place, but I don't really care if you leave for better ones later. I only need you to accept."

Kagura looked blankly at him for a second, and he saw how their small hands curled into impotent fists. Locki watched as their face twisted into various emotions as tears began building up in their eyes. "Can… Can you make me stronger?"

Locki didn't need their backstory, but he could tell a couple things from Kagura's expressions. He bit back a sigh as he rationalized the fact that the trader's who the child had escaped from were probably still alive. It was a bit annoying but he would hopefully have gotten rid of the hot potato by then.

"Yeah, I can at least give you tips." Locki said, which weren't complete lies. He had read enough books about growing magic containers to know how to raise a talented mage. Though, he knew he needed to trim it down for someone as malnourished as Kagura.

"H- how do I join?" Kagura asked tentatively.

"Give me a second. Right, that's Gastly… its a mystery, but its your guild mate. Get along." Locki said, pointing at the laughing ball of gas. He then went pilfering through his bag again.

Kagura seemed to regard the Pokemon with more reverence than before, bowing to it and introducing themselves. Gastly seemed to find the whole interaction phenomenally hilarious much to the teen's annoyance. At the very least, Locki felt that they got along better than previous members of Scarlet Hand. He knew some of the spies just started shit just because they wanted to sabotage the guild itself.

"Here it is." Locki said as he pulled out a small, wooden stamp. Scarlet Hand's insignia was on one end; an intricate hand made out of different magic runes that was surrounded by a circle of smaller runes.

It was one of the more complex insignias around that his grandfather had sworn to never change. His late father had done the same no matter how many times Lon had threatened to sanction their guild due to how much magic ink the stamp used. Locki felt that their symbol was indeed quite extra, but he wasn't going to pay someone to make a less complex one.

"Just push your Magic to the place where I stamp this and it'll lock into your skin." Locki clarified. The child looked a little concerned by the magic item, and he didn't blame Kagura. The Scarlet Hand symbol was a little imposing by itself.

As he watched them silently watch the stamp, he added, "I promise it doesn't do anything other than give people assurance that you're affiliated with a Magic Guild."

Kagura silently shuffled forwards, taking small, measured steps. Locki kneeled on the ground and stayed as still as he could, scared that the child might bolt if he made any sudden moves. He felt a pinch of emotion in his gut at basically tricking a child, but crushed those thoughts to the back of his head. He couldn't think like that. He refused to give in when he could prove the previous members wrong.

If he was going to back out now, then all his efforts would go to waste. He wasn't about to make a mistake, he said to himself. Besides, he reasoned, it wasn't like he was going to abandon this child out here. He was doing this for both of them; a give and take.

"Will it hurt?" Kagura asked softly, looking up at him with innocent eyes.

For a moment, Locki didn't say anything. Gastly bumped into his chest, forcing him to look down at the large eyes of the Pokemon. He swallowed heavily as he looked back to Kagura. "No… its painless."

"W- where?"

"Sorry?"

"Where should I get it?" Kagura asked.

Locki held out his hand, feeling uncharacteristically lethargic. "Give me your hand. Whichever one you want– its a tradition of Scarlet Hand."

"O- oh…" Kagura held out their left hand. Locki silently pressed the guild stamp into their palm, watching as a brief red glow shone from the child's palm. When the light died down, Locki found the guild stamp's color dim, meaning he needed to refill the magic ink soon.

However, he didn't care about that. His eyes were locked on the child that suddenly joined his guild as his throat grew heavy with emotions. He just stared as Kagura focused on their magic tattoo. The child gaped at the complex red insignia while Gastly happily floated around them.

"T- thank you, guild master." Kagura hurriedly bowed.

[Optional Guild Quest complete]

Rewards: Tier 2 Gold Prism

[Guild Stats "Members" has been updated]

Locki turned away just as quickly. He tried not to think too hard about his actions. In his palm, a glowing gold prism fell out of thin air to settle in his grasp. He tried to ignore the child's gasps in awe. "Just call me Locki…"

"Y- yes, guild mas- uhm, L- Locki…"

He ignored the slip up and focused more on his [Dimensional Guild System] screens. "[Guild Stats – Members]."

[Gastly]

The gas Pokémon. A poison/ghost-type Pokémon that enjoys adventure, playing pranks, its guild master and misfortune.

Best Abilities: [Hypnosis], [Smog]

Mood: [Happy]

Bond: 20%

[Kagura Mikazuchi]

An escaped slave from the Tower of Heaven. She desperately wishes for her family back.

Best Abilities: [Earthland Magic — None], [Determination]

Mood: [Hopeful], [Exhausted]

Bond: 10%

The teen sighed, feeling that he was now realizing how heavy the position of guild master seemingly was. It was just another nail in the coffin that proved just how out of depth he was.

"Shit, I hate this feeling." Locki whispered. He dismissed the screens in front of his face, trying not to linger on the moods of his two members. He already had enough concerns in his head. If he added the emotions of his guild members to his plate, he knew he would make a mistake.