rypU Town

Following the organ hunter incident, we hadn't run into any more people for days on end—on day three, on the other hand, we ran into a giant crab with human eyes by a massive river.

"Crab Stalker, Level 2.5"

On day four, we got ambushed by a bunch of goblins—it was a cake walk compared to other monsters we've previously fought.

"Goblin Soldier, Level 1" "Goblin Archer, Level 1.5" "Goblin Leader, Level 2"

On day five, during sleep the plants went and started eating us!! It was gross… they were drooling full of saliva… we had to change our clothes.

"Plant Bed, Level 2" "Flowery the Human Gulper, Level 2"

We handled all of these monsters with ease; practice really does justice—couldn't have even considered doing this stuff before setting out a few days ago.

And then finally on day six… "ooh?!! OOOOOH!! LOOK!!!" With excitement I shouted.

Everyone started looking in my direction. "A town!!" Said Ella. Meanwhile Arial quietly whispered to himself, "huh?" I consequently looked at him and asked, "anything wrong?" Mild surprise ran over his face over being heard, "oh, no, it's nothing." 

"rypU Town."

It appears rather open—no guards or anything along those lines. We casually walked in through the main entrance without anyone batting an eye.

I asked, "Arial, do we have any money? Can I buy something?" He shook his head, "sure, but it will depend on what it is—preferably stick to food for now."

Afterwards, Xter giggled, put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Dantes, look, maybe you should buy some of that"; he was pointing his finger to the side.

"You fuck!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs!!

He started laughing his ass off… Then I added, "that's a damn organ stand!!"

He instantly, while giggling to death, answered, "yeah, go buy yourself a brain or something, maybe—you don't have your Intelligence stat unlocked, after all."

Ella and Arial looked at us as if we're idiots; I get why Ella would do that, but our Leader has no business looking down on us! Really!

This place is strange, though—so many spots of random blood on the ground, walls, and even people—there's also this unpleasant smell. This town really is making me a bit uncomfortable.

"Anyhow, let's not waste time—the mines should be the property of this town, since it's in this location, so let's quickly find our employer," stated Arial while looking around and having some uncertainty still lingering on his face.

I yawned and replied, "yeah, I want to get this over with so I can take a nap—the past few days days have been such a nightmare, so I haven't been sleeping much." Ella, being in the same boat, also sailed with me, "I know, right… I feel awful... and I want to take a shower already..."

"Hmm… maybe we should split up," asked Xter with faint indecisiveness, "we could cover more ground in teams of two." I don't like the idea of splitting up in four, but it sounds fair in teams of two, "I second Xter." "Hmmmmm," Arial went into thought, "that's a fine idea—we can do that; you two go together and I'll go with Ella, in that case. Let's meet up exactly right here in an hour or so." I smiled, "roger!" Ella also seemed okay with it, as much as some fear did dance on her face.

Then right as we were about to split up, I decided to voice a question to Arial, "Hey Leader, first, I wanted to ask, how much do we know about this town?" He seemed to respect my question and picked up on my anxiety, "I haven't really heard about this town before, are you asking because of how *meaty* it is?"

I tilted my head, "why do you… say it like that…" Let out a sigh, "but you're right, I AM asking because of how meaty it is! The smell of flesh… all the blood."

He put his hand on his chin, "well, as I said, I haven't really heard about 'rypU Town,' so I don't really have a clue; I'm not sure about our Information Center, though; is this lack of info making you anxious, heh?" I shook my head rather strongly, "yeah, I feel a bit uneasy, I guess." From the side, I could see that my anxiety was infecting Ella; Xter decided to be the parent upon the sight, "don't worry, Ella, you'll be with Arial, so you got nothing to worry about," then gave her a smile; Xter sure is much softer than he appeared at first, not gonna lie.

We split up.

A little while after we started walking, I decided to terminate the silence and ask, "Yo Xter, so how do you feel about this place?"

"Hmm…" looked up to the sky, "I'm not sure… I'm pretty indifferent, I suppose."

Then I went from viewing him to glaring at the ground, "I see—you're kinda always like that with everything though, aren't you?"

Everything seemed a bit blurry—the people walking next to us, the smell of flesh and blood, and the town just not sitting straight with my gut.

"I… wouldn't say so, Dantes. I have goals that I ought to accomplish, and they're beyond a little shit-hole like this, so I don't plan to let anything of this level get to me."

I do wonder… what are his goals? Are they that grand and massive?

After he said that, I basked in silence and just proceeded to step along with him. Soon after, we found the place we were probably supposed to visit. "Master Guild."

I asked, "do you think this is it, Xter?"

He looked at me and answered, "hmm… I mean, probably? Want to go in to check it out? Arial didn't really give us many clues on what to look for..."

This time, I was the indifferent one, "sure." 

We got next to the crusty building—it was mediaeval and nothing like the modern Im City; the entrance door was run-down and cranky. Strangely, it didn't even feel like reality—this was straight up from some sort of fiction, trying to mirror the real world while in actuality bathing in failure.