Chapter 42: Have You Heard of ASPA

"Who the hell are you idiots?" Karl and Darren were currently surrounded by what they could only assume to be the "missing residents" of the village. Karl swallowed nervously before speaking. "H-hello, you must all be from the village. We are adventurers that have accepted the quest to help you deal with the monsters." The villagers looked at each other clearly unconvinced. "Then show us your guild badge and we'll confirm it."

"Our what?" Karl was completely thrown off. He had never received a guild badge. He wasn't even at the academy for the first few days and then when he got there he was immediately placed into the infirmary. Wait but Darren wasn't. He should have gotten a badge. He was their way out. Karl turned to Darren expectantly only for Darren to immediately look away. Karl looked to the sky that wasn't visible from this cave and silently said to himself. "We are so fucked."

"What did you just say?" Karl panicked when he heard the man's voice in front of him. "I-I said that you my friend are in luck because you have just successfully avoided a scam." The villagers turned to Karl confused and Darren looked concerned. "You were trying to scam us?" Karl looked to Darren in a way that said 'I guess we're doing this.'

"No, but we could have. You see my friend we are part of traveling Adventurer Scam Prevention Agency, ASPA for short, and we came here to warn you all about the rising dangers of adventurer scams." Darren was now understanding what was going on so he joined in next.

"Many people these days misinterpret adventurer scams to be adventurers scamming people but there is the chance that someone could pretend to be an adventurer just to trick you into a false sense of security. I'm Ryder McHall and this is my partner..." Darren gestured over to Karl for him to give a fake name and Karl didn't even miss a beat. "And I'm Cameron Whistly. Tell me have any of you ever needed an adventurer to help you but when one shows up he seems a bit too professional for your job?" It was a very random and specific question so Karl was surprised when several of the villagers nodded their heads. Darren stepped forward and continued.

"Well it was very likely that they were not real adventurers and were trying to get some sort of personal information about you be it your bank accounts, maybe your trading routes for your goods, or even the furniture from your own house, but we are not here to preach we are here to teach you ways to tell the difference between real adventurers and scammers." Somehow Karl and Darren had fully convinced the villagers that they were from a scam awareness and prevention agency.

Darren and Karl continued to scam the villagers about the danger of scams and how to safely prevent yourself from becoming a victim for at least an hour and a half. How this plan worked and how these two knew so much about adventurer scams not even the idiots themselves knew the answer but they had prevented their own demise. "So remember, if you ever want to learn more ways to prevent yourself from being a victim, call the ASPA, ASAP."

The villagers started to clap quietly as they found the presentation quite informational. "All right, ASPA you've proven that you're trustworthy and we sincerely apologize for our rude response to your arrival, but you really should not have come here." Now that they were really getting information Karl and Darren felt relieved. "We've visited some notoriously dangerous lands like the lake village, Gutte Filon and the Wyrm Valley nomads all in attempt to insure that they are not victims of scams due to blissful ignorance." The representative of the villagers, named Vic smiled warmly as he heard the endeavors of ASPA. "You two are a whole lot braver than any soldiers or adventurers that I've known. Still, this isn't the best time to have this conversation they'll be back any minute now. Take these."

Karl and Darren were confused when two villagers handed them pickaxes but they still grabbed them and followed Vic. "Alright you two, just follow our lead and be sure to not interact with them." After giving them instructions Vic and the other villagers started to mine once again. Darren and Karl did as they were asked and started to mine when a group of people came in with a strange aura about them. They didn't seem to be normal villagers but they didn't look expressly different from someone like Vic. The group approached Vic.

"Hello Victor, haveth you found the mining to be the enjoyable." Vic let out a deep sigh. "I keep telling you that my name is Vic not Victor. Anyway the mining is going fine, but we still haven't found anything, Rexar. Are you sure that you found some down here?" Rexar looked at Vic with contempt. "Are you calling me a speaker of the blasphemy Victor? How dare you! If I didn't needeth you and these miners then you wouldn't even haveth the brain to speak to me in such a wayeth." Karl could see that Vic was extremely uncomfortable but didn't act as they were asked not to.

"I'm sorry for calling you a liar all right. I'm just saying that we may need to change where we mine if you really want us to find this super ore." Karl and Darren looked at each other. Super ore? "As long as you understand Victor. Now, we must be off. We haveth many rounds to make today and it seems as though some intruders haveth arrived in the above ground once known as a village. So long Victor, I hope the next time that I ask for details that you giveth me some news that actually causes my heart rate to accelerate."

With that Rexar, walked away leaving Vic and the miners alone. Karl and Darren noticed that Vic's eyes seemed to linger on Rexar as he walked away but stopped once the man was out of sight. "Ahem. Now, we should have at least a few hours before they come check on us again so we'll keep working for now and take a break in around a hour." The miners nodded and continued working while Vic walked back toward Darren and Karl. "You didn't happen to have any friends with you did you?"

"We did. Why are you asking?" Vic's face looked deeply concerned. "It's seems like the Takers have discovered them so it's probably for the best that you stay down here for the time being." Karl and Darren knew that their friends and Myst would be fine without them so they simply agreed to stay for the time being and continue being Cameron and Ryder. Vic nodded to the boys then walked away leaving Karl and Darren to chat in privacy.

"We definitely have the best information. We're gonna make Mill and Lua so proud." Karl and Darren were very excited with all of the information that they had collected down here and they were likely going to get even more as they heard a loud crash coming from deeper within the cavern.