XVII. First Blood

When the sun rose the next morning, everyone packed their things and we began marching to our destination.

It took two more days to reach the next large city. Two more days of putting up with Ren's apparent abuse of the little girl in the carriage.

The City of Tsuyamo. Just north of Koto City. The city where the Duke, who's in charge of Koto, is currently staying.

After making it through the southern gate without an inspection, probably due to Ren's connections, He turns to look at us.

He first gives the pervert duo 'proof of quest completion' tags semi-politely, then turns to me with a slight grimace on his face, and basically throws me the tag.

What a petty person.

The perverted duo leaves, possibly to celebrate at a bar, or to turn in their reward at the Adventurer's Guild.

I need to mark the carriage to find it by smell later, but I can't exactly pull my pants down and pee on it. I'll need to use a different body fluid to mark the carriage.

I walk closely past the carriage while putting my thumb to my teeth, drawing blood. I smear an unnoticeable amount of blood on the side of the carriage and leave.

I sniff the air to make sure I can detect my blood on the carriage.

The smell of a demi-god's blood is strong.

I continue down the road to get out of Ren's sight.

I look for a nice-looking stranger to ask for directions.

Valister: "Excuse me, Mister. Can you tell me where I can find the Adventurer's Guild?"

Stranger: "Oh, an elf. How rare. Yes, you can find the Adventurer's Guild further down this big road then left to the second major road. You'll spot it easily enough."

Valister: "Thank you, Mister. Have this for your troubles."

I hand the stranger 10 ryō for the information.

He looks back in surprise, but doesn't complain and just smiles.

I head down the direction the strangers pointed me to, and reach the Adventurer's Guild with no trouble.

I can still smell my blood from here. That's good.

The Adventurer's Guild here in Tsuyamo is slightly smaller than in Koto, but it's still pretty large.

I head to an empty counter being manned by a young male.

Young Male: "Hello, welcome to the Tsuyamo Adventurer's Guild. My name is Kato. What can I do for you?"

He's very polite. He looks like your average easterner. Black boyish hair, slanted black eyes, and average features.

Valister: "Hi there, I'm Valister. Here is my ID plate."

Handing him my ID, he then takes it and puts it over a magitech device and confirms my identity.

Kato: "Thank you very much. I have confirmed Valister-san's identity. What would Valister-san's business be today?"

Valister: "I'm here to turn in this quest. Here is the tag I received."

Kato takes the tag and puts it on a separate magitech device.

Kato: "Yes, I have confirmed the quest details. Three days have been detected to pass since the acceptance of this quest. You are to be rewarded 300 ryō. One moment, please."

Kato stands and bows slightly to me then heads to the room behind him.

After a few minutes, Kato appears again with a small bag with money in his hands.

Kato: "Here are Valister-san's quest rewards. If it hasn't been explained to you yet, the Guild takes a small portion of your reward for guild tax. Please confirm."

Intake the bag from Kato, and look inside. I see 50 copper coins and 2 silver coins.

250 ryō in total. Looks like the tax is about 16 percent. Not bad.

Valister: "Yep, thanks Kato-san. One more question though. What Inn can you recommend?"

Kato: "I recommend the Resting Horse Inn. It is just down this road and to your right. It has a horse logo on its sign out front. You will not miss it."

Valister: "Thank you, Kato. I see you some other time."

Kato stands up and bows slightly.

Kato: "You are very welcome, Valister-san. Please come again!"

I leave the Guild and head in the direction Kato pointed to and arrive in front of the Inn.

I enter inside and am greeted by the overwhelming stench of alcohol.

Resting Horse Inn? More like Drunken Horse Inn.

I quickly exit the Inn and turn around and head back to the guild.

I ask if they have any mint leaves. They bring me a few bundles and I buy them all.

I exit the guild, make my way to the Inn and prepare my nose.

This time the proprietor notices and greets me. It's a stern-looking old man.

Inn Guy: "Welcome, elf boy! You lookin' for a bed to lay in?"

Valister: "Yeah, how much for a day?"

Inn Guy: "That'll be 50 ryō for a day with no meals and 80 ryō with meals included."

I don't have much appetite for food now, but the girl I'm gonna save tonight might need a good meal.

Valister: "I'll take the meal option. Make it a meat dish with liver, and bring it in a closed container to my room, please."

Inn Guy: "Didn't think you elves ate much meat. Guess I was wrong. The liver will cost you 10 ryō extra, though."

Valister: "That's fine. Here."

I hand the old man 90 ryō and I'm handed a key to my room.

Inn Guy: "The room's the last one down the hall and to the left."

Valister: "Thanks. I'm gonna leave for a few hours, so you can just leave the food on the table if I'm not back."

Inn Guy: "Very well."

After getting the key, I make my way to my room and set my bag down. I take the money I had in my bag and put it in a fanny pack-like bag.

I didn't miss the looks I got from the adventurers in the Inn's dining area. I felt gazes on my armor and the smell of greed through the alcohol. Greed smells like metal.

Soft armor is an expensive armor to make and it's sought out by every adventurer.

I may end up in a very cliche situation soon.

I set the mint down around my room in order to get rid of the alcohol smell.

Strapping the fanny pack loosely on my hips, I exit my room and make my way outside.

A few thuggish adventurers get up and follow me.

I can smell their greed mixed with the stench of alcohol.

Sigh, looks like it's happening.

I'm gonna have to kill eventually. Maybe even when I break out the girl. Better to get used to it when my rescue target isn't in immediate danger.

I sniff the air to try to find a secluded place to carry out the deed.

I find a place just a few meters away from here. An alley.

I purposefully make my way down the deserted alley.

I can smell their excitement. It smells like oranges.

I turn around suddenly and surprise the thuggish adventurers. There are three of them.

They immediately begin threatening me.

Thug A: "Hey there, elf. Ya got some purty armor on ya. Why don't ya take it off an' show us?"

Thug B: "Ye, ye, show us, pretty boy! Take yer shirt off!"

Thug C: "Shut it with your boy fetish, ya birdbrain! Your last attempt with that baker's little boy almost got us in trouble! At least do it when we ain't around!"

Gross, one of them is a pedo. I'm gonna kill him for sure. There is a special hell for those types.

Valister: "What if I refuse? What'll you do then?"

Thug A: "Then we'll just take it off yer corpse!"

Thug B: "Oh, oh! Not before I get a taste of his arse!"

Thug A: "Yea, yea, ya creep. I'll let ya have yer fun, let's just deal with him, yea?"

The thugs draw their weapons and step closer.

I sigh and turn to my left. I begin taking off my shirt and pants, leaving only my soft armor on, which covers everything except my head, fingers, and toes.

Thug C: "Eh? Gonna give us the armor now, elf?"

I glare at them in disgust.

Valister: "No. I'm gonna show you something instead."

Thug B: "Oh! What's that?! Is it your-"

Not waiting for the pedo to finish, I transform into my werewolf form.

Thug A: "Wha-?!"

Thug B: "Huh?!

Thug C: " Eh?!"

They all look at me in silent surprise. I look back at them and bare my teeth, attempting to smile.

Valister: "Like what you see? It'll be the last thing you'll get a glimpse of."

After saying those (self-proclaimed) cool lines, I pounce on Thug A and bite his throat off. He never got a chance to scream.

Not giving the other two the chance to make a commotion or escape, I swipe my claws deeply across Thug C's chest, spraying blood everywhere.

Looking down at his open chest, Thug C crumples to the ground.

Thug B: "Ah--!!"

Just before the pedo let out his scream, I block his mouth with my hand.

I look him in the eyes and bring my index finger to my lips, motioning him to stay silent.

I then stick two claws into his throat while watching the light fade from his terror-filled eyes.

I drop the dead pedo to the ground and look around.

It's still silent, and I can't hear or smell anyone around.

I lick the blood around my mouth. It tastes... good.

This isn't cannibalism, is it? No, it can't be. I'm not human and I'm half wolf. This doesn't count as cannibalism.

To hide the bodies thoroughly, I need to eat Thugs A and C. I don't touch Thug B, though. I don't want to eat a pedo.

I remove the clothes and armor the thugs were wearing and put them to the side. I begin to dig into them.

I avoid eating penis, though. I simply cut them off and burn them to a crisp with my basic fire magic.

After finishing up Thug A, I find that in my werewolf form I can eat a lot more than my elf form. I ate a fully grown man, and I still want more.

I eat Thug C quickly and turn to look at Thug B.

I remove his valuables and look around for a place to hide the body.

I see a dilapidated medium-sized box further down the alleyway.

I stuff the corpse inside and close the lid.

I gather the little positions they had and destroy their ID tags.

The clothes are useless to me, so I leave them there for some homeless person to take.

They had some money on them which totaled to 374 ryō.

About 100 ryō per thug? They sure were poor.

Stuffing the money in my fanny pack, I use basic water magic to wash off the blood on me.

I then transform back into my elf form and dry myself with fire magic, being extra careful not to burn my hair.

I dress myself and exit the alley while thinking out loud.

Valister: "... I took a person's life easier than I thought. And I ate them... Maybe because I'm not human anymore...? I'm a demigod now... a wolf. A predator who hunts and eats his prey."

Whatever. I can't let the lives of some criminals weigh my mind down.

Getting my mind off of the deed I committed, I sniff the air again to find the scent of my blood.

I smell it not too far off. A few blocks away.

The sun is gonna set very soon. I'll do my mission at night, but I'll scout out the place now.

I make my to the place holding the girl and find that the building they are in is a big warehouse-type with a few big open windows.

I sniff the air to get a scope of the surroundings.

A few dozen guards, Ren included, inside the building, and a couple of patrolling guards outside.

I can slip past the guards outside if I turn into a wolf, but I won't be able to stay in that form very long.

Then I can just hip in through an open window and go from there.

Alright, I got my plan. Time to head back to the inn and wait for midnight.

===============

'First Strike!', 'Double Kill!', 'Triple Kill!'

Sorry, been playing some Halo recently. I can't wait for Infinite.

(This chapter was edited for spelling mistakes, not grammatical mistakes.)