Emotional Damage: Ardor - Chapter 4

The receptionist at the Adventurer’s Guild wasn’t one that Ardor recognized, but in truth he probably didn’t know most of the people that worked here.

“You must be new” said the receptionist. “What did you say your name was? I need to find your registration record.”

“Ardor” the blacksmith grumbled, he didn’t like repeating himself. The receptionist was being nice though, so Ardor tried to keep his emotions in check. The worker poked at a computer in front of him for a moment.

“Ah, here you are, it looks like you registered quite recently. I can give you a contract, but policy says you need a partner. Do you have one?” the man asked.

He needed a partner? What kind of dumb, patronizing rule was that! His first instinct was to yell at the man, and tell him to just give him a contract already. He was hammering steel before this welp was even in diapers, Ardor thought to himself. Loudly. The blacksmith said none of these things though. Melissa had loved this place, these people, and somehow it felt like disrespecting them was disrespecting her. So, the blacksmith-turned-adventurer held his tongue… for now. Besides, if he thought about it, it made sense. They needed members, and sending a bunch of untrained idiots off to their deaths probably wasn’t good for business.

Ardor coughed. “No, I don’t” he told the clerk.

“Not a problem” he replied with a smile. “We’re more than happy to pair you with someone. As it turns out, there’s an experienced adventurer here today waiting for just such an opportunity”.

Well, that was easy Ardor thought to himself. That was too easy. Why would an “experienced” adventurer be lazing about, waiting for some rookie to show up? He had a sinking feeling in his gut. Never the less, "never look a gift horse in the anus", or something like that. Is that how the saying went? Ardor knew swords, not horses. Truth be told, Ardor didn’t quite hate the idea of someone who knew what they were doing lending a hand. He may have came to the guild with all the conviction and confidence in the world… but he knew full well that he didn’t know what he was doing or getting into. Ardor nodded at the clerk, and asked him to fetch the other adventurer.

The receptionist left. A moment later he came back with a familiar face in-tow. Barstow. No… Bartletta? Bridgette? Ardor couldn’t remember the guy’s name, but he remembered it was definitely feminine, and definitely belonged to the face of an annoying scammer… who had, admittedly, saved his life. Once.

“This has got to be a joke. This is the ‘veteran’ you mentioned” Ardor asked incredulously.

The receptionist’s face squeezed together, a look of confusion. He asked if they knew each other, and Ardor explained his encounters with the man up until now. Ardor tried to convince the receptionist to give him someone else, anyone really, but evidently there were no other adventurer’s available. Everyone else was out on a contract already, and only Barida, as his name turned out to be, was available. Apparently, he was available for the same reason Ardor didn’t want to work with him: no one liked him. The receptionist wouldn’t budge on requiring a partner though, so if Ardor wanted to try a contract, he needed Barida… or to go find someone else himself.

“Alright, I get it. I find the idea of going around and talking to a bunch of people like some sort of social octopode even less desirable than working with this guy, so I guess I’ll accept” Ardor said.

That, as it turned out, was not the right thing to say. Barida scowled at him.

“You want me to work with this man? Listen to him, he is just oozing disrespect. After I saved his life no less!” Barida said, gesturing at Ardor and puffing his chest.

The receptionist, who had now clearly spent far more time than he wanted just trying to get these two people out the door, groaned.

“Barida, you haven’t had a contract in over a week, and we both know you need the coin. Do you want this contract, or not?” said the receptionist.

The man seemed to mull this over for a moment, but it was clear to everyone that the look in his eyes said the receptionist was right. With some resignation and some side-eye thrown at Ardor, Barida accepted as well.

“So, what is this contract any ways, monsters? Is another Minotaur attacking a town, has a dungeon been found outside the city?” Ardor asked.

The receptionist laughed. “A Minotaur? Dungeon?” he repeated, chuckling. “If I gave you a contract like that, you’d surely die. Minotaurs are strong, dungeons are for teams, and you guys are new.”

Ardor opened his mouth to refute the man and say that they’d just fought and killed a Minotaur themselves, so they were ready for something of that level, something exciting. Then, he remembered that he had died, sort of, and decided to shut his mouth before he said anything stupid.

“This request is simply recon to validate a sightings report. A nearby village has reported goblin sightings, and your job is to go investigate the scale of the threat. Types of goblins, number of goblins, quality of their armaments, that sort of thing. Normally we would just send a team capable of handling whatever may be there and save time, but as it happens monster sightings have been increasing lately and everyone is busy. So, we’ll send you two to go figure out the scale of the threat, that way when we send the followup team to handle the threat we don’t send more than we need to. Does that make sense?” said the receptionist.

“So, you want us to go look at what’s there, do nothing, and then come back to report what we saw?” asked Ardor.

“Yes”, said the receptionist simply. Barida nodded along, smiling.

“That sounds incredibly boring.” Ardor said simply.

Barida, Ardor guessed, did not agree with his assessment. Something about the gaping jaw and dumbfounded look suggested that this was not what he was thinking.

“If you want to put it that way, sure. Someone’s gotta do it though, and here you are!” said the receptionist with a practiced smile.

Ardor had to admit, he had a point. Who better to give the most boring tasks to than the guy who literally signed up yesterday and the reject no one wanted to work with. He was going to have to work his way up the ladder just like everyone else… assuming he stuck with this whole adventuring thing. He still wasn’t sure if this was right for him or not, but this was admittedly a relatively safe and easy way to try it out.

Ardor sighed, resigned to postpone the glory of slaying a three headed demon dragon, or something like it, until another day. That was what the real adventurers did right? Slay dragons, find hordes of treasure, save villages, and such? He didn’t actually know, but even those guys had to start somewhere.

“Alright, we’ll take it.” Ardor said.

Barida, Ardor noticed, looked both relieved and excited once Ardor agreed. The blacksmith wondered what he had signed up for. He hadn’t spent much time with the other adventurer, but even so the number of positive interactions he’s had with the man so far were slim. What did the other adventurers know that kept them from working with him? They probably got sick of him trying to pilfer their gear, or something stupid like that. Ardor made a mental note to keep an eye on his pockets, and not leave anything too valuable laying about around him.

—

The two began the walk to the goblin camp. As it turns out, their destination was only about an hour outside of the city. Ardor and Barida had began their journey the moment they left the guild. The weather was quite nice today in the plains outside the city. Not a bad day for a walk actually, if it weren’t for…

“So” Barida began. Ardor frowned. “How many goblins do you think we’re gonna see. Lots?”

“Probably not, we’re barely leaving the city. If there was an army of goblins an hours walk from the city, they’d be sending more than two scouts” Ardor replied.

“Yeah, that makes sense. Good. That’s good.” Barida said, mulling the words over.

A moment of silence passed between them.

“Is that… new information to you?” Ardor asked.

Barida nodded. “Mhmm! Of course, you haven’t told me that yet… I don’t think”

“You don’t th…. no, I suppose you don’t.” Ardor replied sarcastically. “Aren’t you supposed to be the veteran here. Show me the ropes and all that?”

Barida’s face paled. “Did someone tell you that? Was it the receptionist, did he tell you that? I told him not to blab too much, he always likes to blab too much. Some people, they just don’t know when to…”

Ardor cut him off with a gesture. “How many contracts have you been on?” he asked.

Barida’s face visibly squirmed as they walked through the field of tall grass. Then his face brightened a bit.

“As it turns out, I’ve been on several!” Barida said, puffing his chest out once again.

Ardor stared at him. He continued staring at him. Five full seconds of staring later, and Barida cracked.

“Ok but I haven’t finished any contracts.” Barida added.

Ardor stopped walking.

“What do you mean you haven’t finished any contracts. He said you were a veteran!”

“Well, I’ve been on lot’s of contracts, and I’ve been adventuring for a couple years now! In that sense, I am a veteran, of sorts. Just except for one teensy, little, weensy detail.”

“And what’s that?”

“I…” Barida turned his head. “I tend to run away. Screaming.”

The the slight flames that begun to flicker atop Ardor’s head froze. For a moment, the flames just sat there, completely still and unmoving. Then they resumed, and faded.

“I see.” Ardor said. He was going to have some words with that receptionist when he got back. Oh, yes. He was going to have some words with him. They resumed walking.

Barida had been about to say something more, when Ardor held up his hand and began to crouch down.

“There they are” Ardor whispered, pointing ahead. It did not take long at all to find them.

The goblin camp was setup a couple hundred feet ahead of them. Ardor and Barida both dropped into the grass. The blacksmith made a gesture, indicating they should crawl up closer. Barida, pale as paper, shook his head.

“We need to get an assessment of their armaments and numbers.” Ardor whispered.

Barida didn’t say anything, but it looked like he would follow… for now. So, the blacksmith turned adventurer began to crawl towards the camp. As it turned out, that was an incredibly slow means of travel. As the minutes dragged by, Barida went from pale, to silent, to grumbling.

“Isn’t this taking too long” Barida whispered, a little loudly.

“It takes as long as it takes” Ardor said, “but yes, this is slow. We just need to keep crawling. Get a closer look, and then get back to the guild for the report.”

“Ok”

And so, they did. Together, they continued to crawl through the tall grass of the plains. It was actually so difficult to see ahead of them, that Barida didn’t even see the log in front of him until he bumped his head into it. When he looked up, he saw the log was an odd, green color. There were two of them, side by side, wearing shoes.

There was no helping it, Barida locked eyes with the two red orbs staring down at him, and screamed. Not the invigorating war cry of a warrior charging into battle, but a terrified shriek of panic.

Before Ardor could tell him to quiet down and ask what he was screaming about, he saw Barida jump up next to him... and run. There was a sound of two people colliding, and chattering. Close. Very close. Reluctantly, Ardor got up into a crouch. Just a couple arms lengths away, stood a goblin. A startled goblin, but a green skin none the less. They were close to the goblin camp now, but where was Barida? He was laying in the grass on top of a second goblin! Suddenly everything clicked into place. These two goblins must’ve been patrolling around the camp and Barida happened to run, or rather crawl, right into them. He then jumped up, and smacked right into the second one. The goblins had not noticed Ardor yet, but they most definitely had noticed Barida. Slowly, Ardor unsheathed his sword.

This wasn’t good, they weren’t supposed to engage the goblins. Now that he was closer to the camp, he could see that there were many of them, about 30. A blue bolt of light shot up out of the grass from where Barida lay. The goblin nearest Ardor wasn’t looking at him, he was facing Barida and the other goblin. Quickly, and quietly, Ardor snuck up behind him and slit the goblin’s throat. It had been so easy too. The creature had been so startled that he hadn’t realized the danger before it was too late. They just had to take care of the second goblin before the others in the camp took notice… if they hadn’t already.

Barida got up, and stood to his full height, grass coming up to his waist. He then blasted the flowers with blue bolts of light. No, not the flowers, the other goblin. Ardor couldn't see the greenling, but there was 0 chances he was alive after that barrage. Barida mumbled something to himself, and turned around. Ardor was trying to get his attention.

“Get down you idiot” Ardor whispered.

“What?” Barida asked, at full volume.

But, it was too late. Horns blared from the goblin camp. Without looking, Ardor could tell the rest of the goblins were coming this way. Not good.

“Oh shit.” Barida said, and dropped down back into the grass next to Ardor.

“Too late for that now, get up, we need to run!” Ardor said, nearly shouting.

So they did. As one, they got up and ran back for the city. The goblins saw them clearly now, and gave chase. They were fast, very fast actually. Ardor was no runner. He’s built for standing in the heat of things then smashing and slashing. Barida on the other hand, by his own admission, was a runner. It was barely a moment before he was pulling far ahead of Ardor in the run back towards the city. The chattering was growing loud behind him, he could hear the goblins speaking in their own language to one another. For a moment, just a moment, Barida turned around to look at Ardor. In that same moment, Ardor heard a crack from behind him, and saw two balls on a rope fly past him. As they flew, the two balls spread apart and then wrapped themselves around Barida’s legs, wrapping him in rope. Immediately, he fell to the ground.

Ardor tried to catch up to Barida, but the goblins ran past him, making short urgent calls that he couldn't translate. A goblin swung a club at Ardor’s legs and hit with a heavy clunk. Pain shot through his right shin, but he didn’t trip. The club had bounced off. More goblins with clubs began to swing at Ardor, and he returned with wild slashes of his sword, missing. He needed to catch up with Barida, and he was half way there, when he heard another crack. A second later, Ardor was face down in the dirt. Clubs began beating on him, they hit his arms, legs, back, head. He had to get up. He had to grab Barida. He had to get back to the city. He had to… stay awake. His vision was fading. It went black for a moment.

His eyes shot open. This was not good! He had moved. He was still moving. A goblin must be dragging him through the grass, he tried to get up but his arms and legs were tied. Thunk. Another blow to the head, and his vision went dark.

Time passed, but whether it was minutes or hours, Ardor had no idea. He opened his eyes and saw Barida next to him. He was knocked out, tied up, and bruised... but breathing. Slowly, he regained his hearing and he could hear the chattering of goblins, and something else. A fizzling? No, a crackling. It was loud. Ardor tried to look for the source of the sound without giving himself away as awake. He was on a cart, both him and Barida. The crackling became a roar like a rush of wind, until it suddenly equalized and went from a loud roar to a low hum. He knew that sound. Everyone knew that sound. That was the sound of fear, of disaster, of greed. That was the sound, of a dungeon portal opening. The cart began moving, and the hum grew louder and louder, until Ardor felt all the hair on his body stand up and his skin crawl. Then, the humming stopped, and his hair fell down. The sky was gone, replaced with the dark inside of a cave.

A message popped up on his emotive interface:

Instance dungeon, Level 5.