Storm Clouds Gathering Over Baidu (1)

"I picked up a job. You're both in, right?"

"A job? What kind of job?"

"What manner of work is this, Lord Alan?"

Whether it was the spear and the helmet I'd given them, Kanisia and Abraham were looking at me with more warmth than usual. Master and fairy alike waited, curiosity flickering in their eyes.

"Something big went down last night. You hear about it?"

"Something big? What happened?"

"Did some incident occur in the night, Lord Alan?"

Kanisia and Abraham both tilted their heads, clearly in the dark. I smiled to myself.

Which made sense. The inn we'd taken was a long way from the request office where I'd kicked everything off. The moment I'd spotted Oralisa staying there, I'd abandoned every nearby option and deliberately booked us somewhere far away. The oasis where Aquaril had scrawled The snake shall swallow magic! across the clock tower was distant from here as well. There was no way Kanisia and Abraham, who'd spent the night at the inn, could have connected last night's chaos to us.

"This is just what I heard from people on the street, but last night..."

I laid it out for them — everything we had done. Or rather, everything those vile Snake Bandits had done.

"You're kidding. That actually happened?"

"I had not the faintest notion."

Once I'd finished, Kanisia seemed to have already pieced together what my so-called job actually was.

"So the Witch Queen's going after the Snake Bandits?"

"Yeah. She's recruiting people for it. Masters and Fairies, specifically."

That ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠part, at least, was true. On the way back from the general store, we'd run into Prince Pazniri himself, veins standing out on his neck as he bellowed about the Snake Bandits' atrocities and called for Masters and Fairies to join the punishment. We'd had to take a long, hurried detour just to get back to the inn without crossing his path.

"The pay doesn't look half bad either. What do you two think?"

"You've already decided you're going, haven't you?"

"Pretty much. And the Snake Bandits are already my enemy. Our enemy."

"Fair enough."

We'd already taken a bandit-suppression request from the office and clashed with the Snake Bandits at Jert. Technically we'd fought the villagers of Jert, a settlement under the bandits' thumb — but the point stood.

"We'll be waiting a while before we can use the dungeon again anyway. Doesn't seem like a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bad way to kill the time. Abraham?"

"I too find it acceptable. Moreover, the Witch Queen is a formidable power. The expedition shall not prove overly difficult."

The two of them traded a few more thoughts. Both were on board.

"Let's do it. Nngh— been a while since I got to stretch my legs."

Kanisia nodded, then suddenly threw her arms toward the ceiling in a long, luxurious stretch. The motion pulled her clothes taut, laying bare the clean line of her slender waist.

"Then let's grab what we need and head over. Oh — and just so we're clear, Litsha isn't coming."

"Well, obviously. Who takes a freshly summoned Fairy onto a battlefield?"

A summoned Fairy's rank could vary, but the level was always one. Level one meant miserable stats across the board. I'd mentioned leaving Oralisa behind just to be safe, but Kanisia answered like the question hadn't even needed asking.

"Your meal is served."

Our discussion had more or less wrapped when the clerk arrived with the food we'd ordered.

"We'll head up first. Let's meet back on the first floor in, say... an hour. Okay?"

"Sure. See you then."

"Come, Abraham."

"Yes, Master. Please enjoy your meal, Lord Alan, Lady Kanisia, Lady Litsha."

As if to give us a quiet meal with our Fairies, Kanisia took Abraham upstairs.

"Man... what was I thinking, dragging you two around without breakfast. Hungry? Come on, eat up."

"Yes, Master. Please enjoy your meal."

"Yeah! Oralit— I mean, Litsha was starving! I'm gonna eat a ton and get huge like Abrie!"

We had an hour before we were due to meet Kanisia again, so we took our time with the meal.

"You're out already? Have you been waiting long?"

"No, we just got down ourselves."

An hour ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠later, we gathered on the first floor again. Kanisia and Abraham had arrived ahead of the appointed time and were waiting for us. Both of them were in full gear, just in case — and so were we.

"Shall we?"

"Indeed. Lead the way, Lord Alan!"

Kanisia parroted Abraham's cadence and gave me a playful slap on the back. I smiled, then looked at Oralisa.

"Remember what I told you, and stay out of trouble. Got it?"

"Yeah, Master! Oralit...sha is smart! Just trust me!"

"Oralitsha?"

"I-I said it wrong, Kanii!"

"Kanii? What an amusing little Fairy."

Kanisia burst out laughing at the bizarre nickname and glanced my way. I didn't have much to say for myself, so I just shrugged.

And so the four of us — myself, Aquaril, Kanisia, and Abraham — set out for the palace where the Witch Queen resided. That was where the volunteers would be tested.

"It's plainer than I expected."

That was my first impression of the palace rising in the distance. The palaces of Hwaryongwang, who had ruled Indigo, and the Blood Axe King, who had ruled Chinnimoni, had hit you in the face with how much money had been poured into them. Even the walls of their inner citadels had been carved with their personal crests, and the palaces themselves had been far more lavish still.

The Witch Queen's palace was nothing like that. No crests on the outer walls. No grandeur. Just... ordinary.

A sizable crowd had gathered at the inner-castle gate. One by one they said something to the soldiers and were waved through.

Status Window.

I checked. Every last one of them was either a Master or a Fairy. We weren't the only ones who'd taken an interest in hunting the Snake Bandits.

I led the party up to the soldier posted at the gate.

"We heard you're mounting a large-scale expedition against the Snake Bandits."

"Ah, of course. Would you write your name, age, rank, and class here?"

"Here."

"Thank you. You may go inside."

I filled in what he'd asked for on the paper he handed me and gave it back. He ushered us through without further fuss.

Inside, the Masters and Fairies who'd gone in ahead of us were already assembled. We read the room and took our place at the back of the crowd.

"Thank you all for volunteering to suppress the Snake Bandits. I am Owen Pazniri, commander of this expedition."

About three minutes later, Prince Pazniri — Oralisa's former Master — appeared with his Fairies in tow.

So that's the bastard who put our Oralisa through hell. Not that I'm complaining. I got to claim her because of it.

I pulled up his status.

What? His skill levels are lower than I expected. Class level's still incomplete, too.

I couldn't hide my surprise. High Wisdom, high Magic — the textbook Mage spread. But even as a four-star, he hadn't finished filling out his class level, which capped at thirty, and his skill levels were painfully low. His strongest skill was sitting at level ten. That wasn't just low. That was pathetic.

This asshole... he's a total chump.

Skill levels only rose when you used those skills to kill something or put a real hurt on it. To pull your own weight, your skills had to keep pace with your rank and level. Prince Pazniri's were nowhere close.

Which meant his actual combat power was garbage.

Granted, with Wisdom and Magic that high, even underleveled skills would still hit reasonably hard. But not hard enough to make me nervous.

While I was busy taking his measure, Prince Pazniri swept his gaze across the assembled Masters and Fairies and went on.

"For the duration of this campaign, you will follow my orders. Should you refuse or disobey — as will be stipulated in the contract we are about to draw up — the reward you receive upon the expedition's completion will be reduced. I expect my orders to be obeyed. I have no intention of issuing unreasonable ones."

"If you are not prepared to follow my command, leave now. Once the contracts are signed, there will be no turning back."

"Is there anyone who wishes to withdraw?"

"....."

"....."

Prince Pazniri looked around. Nobody moved. Neither did we.

"Excellent. Then follow me. We will conduct a brief test, after which the contracts will be signed."

Satisfied that no one was leaving, he nodded and led the crowd deeper into the palace.

Nothing special.

The interior matched the exterior — spare, almost severe. No paintings. No ornaments. For someone who owned the wealthiest city in the south, the Witch Queen was a far more frugal creature than I had imagined.

"Whew. Now that is something else."

Hm?

Up ahead, a man surveyed the corridor, then let out a low whistle of genuine awe. What was he so impressed by?

"What's with you?"

"Huh? Ah, right. A dirt-crawling grunt with magic stats as low as yours wouldn't have a prayer of sensing this magnificent spellwork."

"The fuck did you just say? You looking to die, you crazy bastard?"

The man beside the whistler — a friend, apparently — had only asked a question and gotten a mouthful of abuse for it. They were close enough that the language stayed ugly without the air turning ugly with it.

I checked their status windows. The one who'd whistled was a four-star Mage. His friend-looking companion was a three-star Warrior.

"Heh. Relax, I'll spell it out. This whole place is layered in magic."

"Layered in magic? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means what it means. Magic. Everywhere. The inner-castle walls we passed earlier are warded, and so is this corridor. The level's so high I can't pin down the exact spells, but... they're attack-type, almost certainly. If whatever's woven through this place goes off, we'll be dead in a second. Whew. I'd heard the Witch Queen was one of the finest mages on the continent, but I didn't know she was this good."

I listened in, then looked around again.

Magic installed throughout?

Not that I could have sensed it. My Magic stat was low, and I wasn't a Mage to begin with.

Did she turn her palace into a dungeon?

The word installed dragged a memory up from my previous life.

Every game was the same. Sink enough hours into one and you went stale. The veterans — the lifers — were always on the developers' case, whining that there was nothing left to do and demanding new content. Different studios handled it differently, but the company behind Fairy Masters rolled out periodic event-style dungeon raids.

What set those apart from ordinary dungeons was the master. Not a monster — a person. A character, if you wanted to put it that way. You couldn't farm Growth Stones, but the Skill Stones and items that dropped were excellent. And the difficulty made regular dungeons look like a tutorial.

It got especially ugly when the dungeon master was a Thief or a Mage. Thieves carpeted the floors with traps that could put even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a high-spec Fairy at death's door the instant they triggered. Mages did the same thing with spell-traps woven through the entire dungeon, which made their floors far nastier than anyone else's. You could reach the end without fighting a single proper battle and still have most of your Fairies on the verge of collapse.

The Witch Queen had built her palace in exactly that image.