First Quest

The guards dispersed the crowd, however talks of what happened continued among passersby. Aside from a few looks of awe and more than a few of respect, Daniels was able to continue with what he was doing.

He wandered through the adventurer district before he realized his dumbass should've asked for directions from the clerk. Most people on the streets gave off an heir of wishing to be left alone. At a street corner was a young woman peddling weapons.

He walked up to her, "Excuse me miss, could you please direct me to the Silver Torch inn? It seems I've become lost."

She looked up at the polite young man. He was rather handsome but wore very unusual clothing and had odd equipment. A fair enough evaluation, as the modern casual wear coupled with an odd belt and who knows what to their eyes is holstered.

She nodded and replied, "Yeah uh, just take a right there keep going past a couple of intersections take a left and it should be around there."

He gave her a slight nod, "Thank you much miss, have a good one."

He flicked a silver coin at her as he walked away. He was from America so it fit the joke that foreigners usually had. But on a more serious note, he likely would've kept wandering for a bit, and it was the smallest unit of currency he possessed. He'd have to fix that later.

He gradually made his way and eventually found the inn. It was a very neat and pretty building clearly hailing from a medieval type of architecture. Of which particular type, he couldn't tell you. A nicely painted sign swinging from above the door read Silver Torch.

He entered the shop to the sound of the door's bell ringing. At the front of the entrance was a cozy reception area with a couple of lounge chairs and the reception desk. The room itself was well lit by magic lights made to look like silver torches. No one was there but a little ornate bell sat on the counter. He rang it lightly and a female voice shouted out that she'd be there in a minute.

True to her word, a stunning young lady came around to the reception, her shoulder-length hair just about glistening under the magic lighting.

"Welcome to the Silver Torch inn would you be staying with us sir?" she politely asked.

"Yeah, that would be good. May I ask the prices?"

"It is 6 copper a day including breakfast and dinner at the tavern next door, but we round it down to 4 silver for a week's stay."

He pulled 4 silver from his pocket and handed it to the clerk.

"Could I get your name please sir?"

"Daniels."

She wrote his name and the date of his stay on a card and stamped it.

"Show this to the tavern and they'll get you your food. Here's your room key but be sure to have it back in time or we'll charge for each day past the deadline."

She handed him the key and he nodded. The card she'd given him had his room number, and he found it on the second floor. He turned the key and entered the room locking the door behind him.

It was as the adventurers guild clerk said, very nice, clean, and certainly tidy. he took the backpack out and set it at the foot of the bed. He took his belt and lay it on the nightstand, but the pistol went under the pillow.

Speaking of the pistol, he'd spent some of the ammo. 8 rounds from one mag, and 2 from another to be exact. He took the 3 remaining rounds out of the almost empty magazine and replaced them in the mostly full mag leaving one loose round.

"Modern Warfare," he muttered to himself.

unlike last time, however, he noticed his level read 2. In fact, most of his stats had changed.

Daniels:

LV:2 (60/250)

HP:125

MP:150

Skills:

Modern Weapon Mastery

Modern Warfare 1.1

Item Box

"Fuck yeah hope that means new goodies."

He opened the menu and indeed, new toys. The equipment tab had a [new] marker on it. He clicked his way there past the existing things and found the new content.

[NEW] Standard Issue BDU (your choice of camo) 15 MP

[NEW] Generic Modern Style Combat Boots 10 MP

[NEW] Water Purification Kit (pump, bottle straw)20 MP

[NEW] Softcover 5 MP

"Yes, yes, and yes," he said, "Hmm, now which camo ought I use? With the terrain, I'm thinking flecktarn, cadpat, or maybe even EMR?" he pondered to himself.

He then summoned two BDUs a pair of boots and a Boonie softcover. He had chosen CADPAT if nothing else for looks. The boots were a dark green color to complement the rest of it. That was 45 MP spent.

He proceeded to chuck 50 MP into 80 rounds of .45. Even after doing it a few times, he still found it slightly unsettling to see objects appearing from thin air. To add to the belt he went with the drop-leg mag holder for 20 and stocked it with two more 11 rounders. All said and done he had 19 MP left, so he finished it off with another 20 rounds of ammo. In the books, he'd read they generally recuperated their MP after sleeping, and even if he didn't, this would have him set for a bit.

After repacking the magazines, he had 90 rounds of spare ammunition boxed up. (It was worth mentioning that the fresh mags came filled.) He kept the box of 20 in the bag and put the two extra boxes into the item box. He put the spare BDU in the backpack and left the other one folded on the nightstand next to the belt.

As he lay in bed he pulled the gun out from under the pillow to kiss it. After all, if you're going to be sleeping with a pretty lady it'd be rude not to. He left said pretty lady under the pillow and drifted off to sleep.

~~~

In the morning he awoke refreshed. He got up and with meticulous care set the bed. He may never have made it into the services himself, but his father instilled that unto him. That and other aspects of proper hygiene.

"In fact, I don't think I ever saw so much as a hair on his face..."

He changed into the fresh and crisp BDU. Just as stated, it was nothing fancy at all, the canvas feeling martial did fit snuggly and it felt strangely right. He attached the drop-leg pouches to the belt and clipped on said belt. He debated leaving the backpack and coming back for it but figured he'd just take it.

He quickly checked his status and found he was correct in assuming his MP would regen. He figured if nothing went wrong then that night he would get the water kit and stock some MREs, but he had a full day ahead of him and if it can go wrong it will. It would really blow if he ended up needing MP in a SHTF situation.

He compulsively checked the slide even though he knew that it was chambered. It was an old habit, as familiar to him as say watering a plant before you leave the house. He returned it to the holster and left the room. As he made it to the entrance he saw the receptionist there and gave her a nod before leaving.

He headed over next door and sat at the bar to get some food. He presented the card to the cook, and he stamped it once. He took in the atmosphere while waiting for his food to arrive. It was rather quiet, just a few tables occupied and a couple of conversations going on. Really it was quite pleasant, the gentle glow of the magic lights supplementing the shadows left by the sun's early position. He found himself lost in it for a moment.

"Sir?" he snapped back to reality and thanked the chef. Before he was bread and soup. The bread was a tad stale but it was better when dipped in the soup. The soup itself was quite nice and he quietly enjoyed his first meal in this world. He'd been too tired the night before to get dinner.

He thanked the waiter and left the building. He managed to remember the way to the adventurer's guild. It was quite lively with a steady flow of people entering and exiting. It seemed the reason he hadn't seen many people there yesterday was that people liked to show up and head out early.

Already before he entered people looked at him strangely. It certainly didn't help that now his clothes went from looking odd to extremely foreign. Oh well. As he entered the building he received far more stares, though it seemed to be more than just his clothing and equipment that drew their stares.

One of the side clerks beckoned him over. It was the same receptionist he'd spoken to last time.

She lowered her head, "We are incredibly sorry for what happened yesterday. Those men should have been arrested a long time ago but the vice chief was in cohorts with them. He has been properly punished but due to his actions, you got into a nasty confrontation. If you were hurt at all we will be happy to pay for the best medical treatment."

Saying so she looked him over, it was odd that he seemed completely unscathed as they were decently strong "adventurers".

"Did you defeat them with your knife?" she asked curiously.

"Nope," he sat his pistol on the desk.

She looked at the alien object before he reholstered it.

"You defeated them with a magic tool? Or is it a relic?" she asked eyes aglow.

He scratched his head awkwardly, "Uh, something like that." he remembered the last time he'd tried to explain it and chuckled.

She blushed thinking he was chuckling nervously because of her, "Ah I'm sorry to press you it's just that I happen to have quite the interest in magic tools you see."

"Ah, no harm no foul. Say, Am I allowed to take quests higher than my rank?"

She blushed darkly, "Oh I apologize I was supposed to go over that with you. No after high instances of deaths from overzealous adventurers no matter how low the rank you are not allowed to challenge one higher. Feel free to take quests one below though."

"Ah. Thank you for the explanation then."

He left her and walked over to the quest wall. It was organized by rank and then further organized into subjugation requests, or in the case of the lower ranks, chores. It seemed he would be stuck going about bottom rank tasks. He certainly wasn't thrilled but managed to find a gathering request for a fancy-looking flower. The pay was shoddy (or maybe he had lost his sense of money) but he needed to take quests to go up the ranks.

He took the paper. It had a poorly drawn map sketched onto it, but it was better than working off of nothing. It was a few miles out of town, and he'd be hoofing it for the time being. At least he was in shape, another trait from his father. That and the "hikes" that were essentially ruck marches his father would take him on.

He smiled as he walked his way to the Gate. The look on the guard's face was pretty damn funny. I suppose it is the look you'd give if you saw someone walking around dressed as a mage back on Earth. I got through with no problems and was soon out in the open air.

The map merely said it the flowers were found to the right of the forest.

"Some map huh? Last I checked the forest was pretty damn big. Oh well, not like I have UAVs or anything so I best not complain if it's the best I've got. Maybe I oughta look around a general store when I get back, buy a few maps."

Speaking of the forest, he was nearing it. The sun was 3/4ths of the way to its peak, so he had plenty of daylight left. He was trudging throw the forest on his way to the meadow when who did he happen to see, but the girl from the street corner gathering herbs and the like.

He was about to call out to her but heard several growls. She heard them two and looked around. He spotted it first, or rather, he spotted THEM first.

"Fuck RUN," he told her as he drew the sidearm.

For what he happened to see were 10-15 jet black wolf-like things that appeared to be built out of or covered in rock.

There was no time for fancy shooting. It was point, aim, and squeeze the trigger. The bullet flew straight and true but the thing moved enough to where it took the round to its hind leg. She managed to get the picture and turned and began to run, but one of them latched onto her leg. She screamed in pain as it burrowed its fangs deep into her leg with a sickening crunch. Its jaw relaxed once it received two .45 ACP projectiles to the chest. He sprinted forward and fired a few more rounds to distract them in time to try and get to her.

"Oy! Dig through that there are a few healing vials in there!" he yelled to her pointing at his dropped backpack. When he turned around he saw one of the things mid-leap. Time seemed to slow down, he knew he didn't have a snowball's chance in hell to aim and fire before it was upon him. He braced for the impact of the thing when suddenly a spear of light pierced through it.

He wasn't going to make that same mistake again, for he may not be so lucky this time. There were two down and one with a limp from a shot leg, but that left 8 or 9 of them. Doing the math, he did not have enough in the magazine to kill them all.

He swiveled and delivered two shots to another. They were getting a little close for comfort.

[That's 5 shots...] he turned and shot another

[6]

Another spear of light flew through one of them and it died instantly. The battle was becoming more desperate as they were grouping to attack. Two of them rushed at him at the same time. He delivered one of them to the abyss but the other one was strong enough to tank it and jump at Daniels. He bashed the thing's snout with the heavy pistol and tried to leverage his arm to grab the knife. It stomped his arm with a heavy rocky leg, no dice.

He was holding its jaw desperately from reaching his jugular as spears of light kept more off of him. He had no other options so he headbutted the thing. It yelped and looked back at him, only to stare down the barrel of the M45A1. It even registered the initial burning of the propellant, it recognized nothing past that however as the bullet bounced around inside its skull thanks to the rocky armor/skin.

When he pushed it off of him there was the only one left and it was trying to jump at her. The last two rounds negated its effort and it merely collided with her rather than ripping out her throat.

"Shit are you ok?" he asked as he threw it off of her.

She looked pale and didn't respond though her eyes followed him. He tore through the bag until he found one of the vials. He popped the cork and fed it to her. Magically the nasty bite on her leg healed itself to mere puncture wounds, he thought the bone might've even partially healed.

She was still pale but her eyes seemed clearer.

"Fuck... don't worry I'll get you through this," he promised her.

She looked into his worried yet firm gaze. She trusted him. She proceeded to pass out.

He immediately looked around and found two sturdy branches. using his knife he carved the sleeve off of his BDU and carefully but firmly tied the splint around the leg. He knew he heard her bone crack when she was bit, and he was unsure just how effective the vial really was internally. She was unconscious and certainly wouldn't be able to help with her movement, not that he'd really want her to have to move that way anyways. He hoisted her carefully into a princess carry after reloading the dry magazine. the pistol was in an awkward position but he needed to carry her with it available easily, and you can't draw a pistol while carrying her this way and he didn't feel comfortable fireman carrying her. He was no paramedic so he was doing the best he could think to do.

Thank whatever passed as god in this universe that they were not too far from the central road that went through the forest. Ironically, when he came to the road he discovered it was the same place he'd saved Arthur.

It was then he got an idea. He opened the pistol menu and scrolled through. unfortunately, when he came to the flaregun it was locked.

"Fuck I forgot the damned caliber limit!" the smallest flaregun available was 12gauge which was larger in mm than .44.

He would have to hope that his luck prevailed. Well, it just so happened God was on his side. A wagon was passing and the driver saw them on the side of the road.

"Aw shit, that's the girl I brought here this morning is she alright?" asked the concerned driver.

"No, she was injured by some weird wolf-like things."

"Slate Volves??!" the driver asked horrified.

"What exactly is a slate wolf? Also, she needs help. Can we do Q and A on the way please?"

"My apologies, here let me help you."

The driver got down from the box and helped Daniels carefully place her in the back. Luckily there was enough space to lay her down without hurting her.

"What was it you said? Slate Volves?"

"Ah yes, you must not be from around here. Recently there have been a lot of attacks by jet-back wolf-like things that seem to be covered in thick stone. A few were examined by alchemists at the capital and discovered it was slate specifically." he replied.

"You must've been lucky enough to only encounter 1 or two in order for you to escape so unharmed," the driver said.

"No, I counted 10 we killed."

"10!!?? That's enough to destroy a village generally!?"

"Well as you see we're still here."

"Yes, it would appear so. To have such a number appear, that is very dangerous. Make sure you let the guild know once you get her to be treated."

"Will do."

They didn't have to wait at the gate since they had injured occupants. They were let through after quick checks and directed to the church. When they got there Daniels tried to pay the man for saving them but the man refused.

"Thank you, son, but I can't take that. She paid for a two-way trip and I delivered. I'd say that's a fair trade no? Now hurry and get her in there."

He was especially worried since she had passed out and stayed out after a wound she should have been awake through. That and the paleness, even without major loss of blood. A couple matrons met him and took over carrying her.

They took her into an infirmary where a woman in white was waiting. The woman touched her head and light appeared.

"It seems to be mostly healed remarkably, bone damage remains and it seems gross mana overusage is what really did her in. Don't worry she will be just fine here after a few minutes.

She applied magic to the affected area and the expression on the girl's face lightened in her slumber. The two matrons came forth and applied magic to her as well.

"What are they doing? He asked the woman in white curiously.

"They are transferring their magical power to her. Overusing magic can kill you if you don't have it replaced by outside means. The body simply can't generate magic once you break your limit. Not many people even know of the technique to do so. Well, she will be fine and I don't think she will face any permanent effects. Do you know where she lives?"

He shook his head.

The woman in white sighed sadly, "I'm very sorry but the church is full at the moment due to a disaster that befell a village nearby. Would it be possible for you to provide her lodgings? All she needs is proper rest right now."

He nodded.

"We can offer to bring you to your lodgings in a cart to make it easier. The residential district is a way to walk while carrying someone, same with the adventurers' district where the taverns are."

"Yeah that would be great, thank you"

A couple of matrons carried her to where a cart was waiting outside. The woman in white spoke to him as the matrons loaded her.

"I'm Layla. You seem to be an adventurer so I wished to tell you that if you ever get hurt we are here if you need us." She offered her hand.

He shook her hand, "Thank you very much." it was a good strong handshake.

When they made it to the inn he princess carried her to his room. The reception lady looked at him disapprovingly. He'd have to clear that up. He made it to his room and laid her in bed carefully tucking her in. He laid on the floor using his extra BDU as a pillow. Sleep quickly took him.