The Plan (1)

Alex waited for the night to fall upon the capital of Tevia and waited a little more for everyone else to be inside their homes. He said goodbye to Tina and descended the stairs. Fortunately, Tina knew exactly where Grap lived.

Alex would need a little luck for the plan to work. If the city guard had arrived first, he would have to find another way to execute his idea. But if they hadn't discovered it yet… things had a chance to work out perfectly, at least for some time.

Grapr lived at the edge of the white elf district, entering the orc one. Tina oriented him to walk for about one hour in the south direction of the city, using the main commercial avenue. Eventually, he would find the beginning of the orc settlement. She said his building was one painted blue and red. When he asked,

"How will I know exactly I'm in the right place?"

"Trust me, you'll know. The orcs who live among the elves are… different from the ones in the orc district."

He raised his brows at that and descended the stairs. Tina was more willing to give him information he was feigning not to remember. Still, this time, it seemed that Valther didn't have much interest in the orc's lifestyle, and she didn't comment about his lack of memories. Alex stepped into the streets of Tevia's capital, thanking for this another small victory.

Everyone was already in their homes. The commercial district had only a few people walking. The ones going to late shifts in the dungeon mining business or returning late after a long day of work. Alex didn't look in the eyes of anyone. The fewer people knowing his whereabouts, the better.

The young man listed what he had to do in his mind: Find the orc district, find the blue and red building at the edge, and enter Grapr's apartment on the second floor. Easy.

As Alex started to get far away from his apartment, he noticed the difference in the city's air, the clean one being replaced by a pungent one filling the white elf district. Yellings, shouts, and laughs could be heard from the distance, and Alex soon realized they were all cheers of happiness. Strong lights illuminated the space.

The young man crossed to the other side of the street when he realized he would pass in front of a bar or tavern. This was the kind of attention he didn't need. He kept doing the same strategy: as soon as he saw the lights of a bar, Alex crossed the street. Doing this, he witnessed several strange scenes.

Orcs fighting white elves was expected, but he also saw orcs, humans, dwarfs, white elves, and even a single dark elf doing a drinking contest in one of the taverns. This whole street seemed like an entirely different city, where people went to forget the world… while getting madly drunk. Alex could understand the appeal of that. The human from the adventurer's guild would love that appeal.

He didn't fully understand the world yet, but it was pretty clear that being an orc or a white elf wasn't a good sign. Humans and Dwarfs were almost indifferent in society as if they were tourists in the capital. Black elves were the elite, pulling the shots and bossing people around.

Alex didn't need anyone to tell him the contrary; he already had a distaste for how the flirtatious elf acted with him in the dungeon, and Captain La'har had been even worse. The only black elf who didn't seem disgusted by his presence had been the strange man in the adventurer's guild. Still, honestly, he hadn't had the opportunity to be distasteful yet.

Thinking about this, Alex reminded him that he needed to research the history of these people and if the apocalypse countdown had something to do with it.

The stench of urine and alcohol started to change and be replaced by a smell of fish and the sea. The orc district seemed to be port, and when a waft of air hit Alex's nostrils, he almost vomited. The young man soon found the blue and red building.

 He waited two minutes on the other side of the street to see if movement was about to happen, but nothing did. As the elf district, most people around here were already at home. Alex opened the building's door with his head down and checked all the surroundings.

The front door of the building was open. Alex stepped slowly towards the stairs. All the apartments had their doors closed, and candle lights flickered in the cracks. He walked the stairs, taking care not to step on anything noisy. Soon, he was on the second floor. The orc apartment blocks were smaller than the elf ones, having only two doors on each side of the corridor.

Following Tina's instructions, he identified Grapr's apartment, and to his surprise, a padlock was inert on the door. At least I know the City Guard didn't come yet. I could only throw it behind the door crack and hope for the best… Even though the idea was tempting, Alex decided to try the safest option.

He grabbed the padlock and swung it, hoping for his strength to be enough to open it. Maybe if he had an F9 strength again, but his low attributes weren't enough to solve this problem. He tried to mutter words like Skills, Strength Skills, and worse, he attempted to exclaim names that could activate a power like the characters did in cartoons or comic books,

"Mighty Strike! Brute Force! Lion's Gripp!" He chuckled at the stupid idea and started thinking of another way to deal with the situation. Alex could try to climb the window behind the building. Before attempting that, he decided to check the apartment besides Grapr's. 

Alex crouched and looked at the crack on the door and saw no light inside the place. It hadn't a padlock either. Break in the apartment was out of the question. It would be too much on the nose. But check if the door was open? It wouldn't hurt.

With a gentle movement, Alex grappled the handle and slowly opened the door. A shiver ran through Alex's neck while he performed the simple action. When he peeked around the door and saw no one living in the apartment, he felt immense relief.

He entered the place, tiptoed, and looked around. He saw what seemed to be a big cardboard on the ground, some tattered clothes, and a glass bottle in the other corner. The bathroom stank. Probably a beggar found the place and sleeps here occasionally, he thought while walking towards the window. Alex put his head outside of it and looked at Grarp's apartment. The orc's window was closed, but he forced it with his hand, and it opened.

Deciding to act, he hung on the window's edge with both hands and moved to the other. With a swing, he grappled Grapr's window and lifted himself inside the apartment.

He sighed profoundly as he took a look around. The place was exactly the contrary of Alex's and Tina's apartment. Everything was dirty inside: several cups and plates were broken around the house, trash mixed with food that seemed to be rotting for a long time. Strange clothes were displayed throughout the whole apartment. There was not even a single chair to sit on, just a tiny table with many papers scrambled up and the bedroom… that was the worst part.

Clothes stained with blood, a collection of wine bottles, and rests of food all over. The place smelled like sex, sewer, fish, and death. The man was a living pig, and Alex was somewhat happy he was dead. The world would not suffer his existence anymore, and he was glad Tina had not accepted his invite to enter when she brought him one of his payments of the dungeon. God knows what that monster would do. 

Walking back to the living room, Alex picked the letter from his pocket and positioned it in the middle of other papers, mixing them up but making sure it would be visible if someone searched it. Alex wondered if he could do something more when he heard someone tear apart the padlock on the other side of the door.

"Someone inside??!!" A voice shouted, and Alex recognized it. Captain La'har! Shit, "We will enter the place in one…" A massive bang to the door and the padlock, "Two…"

He had only one option.

"Three!" The elf shouted as Alex jumped to the street below.