Paradis de Fou

After another few minutes of discussion, Sean excused himself away. He told Jed that if he was interested on the quest, he should meet the expeditionary team at the North gate at midnight. He also added that there would be no Contract, which was actually very common in expeditionary parties, but if he wanted the money first, he could make arrangements. But Jed thought otherwise. Other than that, he only discussed about all the various other squads that will be joining them but frankly, Jed wasn't quite interested about his partners in this expeditionary team. Most of the time, he adventured alone with Peg, with no support partly because it helped him concentrate about his objective more and partly because last year, his own team abandoned him. To him, expeditionary teams were clumsy and as a matter of fact, most of the time, most of the adventurers of the expeditionary, no matter how high level they are, are actually just cannon fodder. It was especially true for expeditionary filled with low level adventurers like him.

Jed's action of sharing a bit of his knowledge to Sean was an act of proving his worthiness to him. He didn't want to join expeditionary parties because his chances of returning back alive didn't lie on him, instead it lied on the mood of his contractor, Sean, in this case. And since he was able to prove his worthiness to Sean, he was half-ready to go. The next step in his plan-making was to research on the thing which Sean wanted. After all, Jed had clearly seen the source of the anomaly. It was a pendant, of sort, and to research more about it, he needed to go to the City library to meet his ex-teammate, He Xiaolong.

…

Mie City library.

The City library was a 10 storied building painted in red and black and was quite fabulously decorated for a free-for-all library. Even the insides of library were decorated quite normally, almost like modern-day libraries with various types of weird furniture and paintings borrowed from local painting competitions. When Jed first saw it, he felt quite happy because it reminded him of his numerous amounts of hours, he spent in libraries to read his favorite novels.

…

When Jed was 10 years old, he was suggested by the GuildMaster Gilbert to form a small team of rookies, like him, to hone his adventuring and team-coordination. After much deliberations and persuasion, he created a team of about 5 people and they were. He, Kev, He Xiaolong, Frank and Joseph. This Kev is the same guy, the waiter at the Guild and the Guild's most get-along person. He was Jed's first friend around his age in the Guild and also helped him gather all the other members of the team, which was called Black Fog then. Kev was the middleman of the team and was responsible for all the negotiations and selling of stuffs.

Frank was the grandson of the owner of the Mie City library. Kev and Jed got to know him when they visited the library regularly to research about various new creatures. Frank wasn't a bookworm but being the grandson of the owner of the library, he was quite easy with the information. He was responsible for the details and the plans of the mission, along with He Xiaolong but more than that, he was an archer then and provided cover for Jed's team. Joseph was an orphan at the Church. He lived his entire life at the Church and was only allowed to join Jed's team in order to hone his Martial Arts. He was training as a paladin and therefore served as the vanguard of the team. And lastly was He Xiaolong, a girl whose role depended more on luck than hard work.

He Xiaolong was a diviner, or in layman's terms, a fortune-teller with a major in divination. Along with that, she was kinda weak compared to other guys but that didn't undermine her importance. She was treated as the leader of the team, after Jed. It was due to her intelligence, coupled with her clairvoyance ability which helped the team to accurately pinpoint their objective and reduced the time wasted on searching it.

But, as Fate has it, abilities like clairvoyance and divination didn't come without a cost. Since these abilities have the power of altering the rulers, it had some big restrictions on them and in case of clairvoyance, it was eyes.

He Xiaolong was blind.

…

At the end of the 7th floor, there was a room which only contained old and outdated books. She was a bookworm, very much like him but had spent so much more time in the library that she knew about each and every book, down to their places and that room was the only place where he could find her.

He entered the room silently with Peg clinging on his shoulders. Both of them looked sneakily around the room for any kind of ambushed that might've been set by the mischievous girl, but there was none. Instead, Jed found her sitting silently at the table, which was happened to be right in the middle of the room. She had a fat leathery book infront of her which she read intently.

He Xiaolong was approximately 5 feets tall with slender hands and a very rounded face with baby cheeks. She wore a traditional Chinese cultivation gown and had long blonde hair, which was very un-Chinese-like. She looked very plain from a distance and the only colorful objects on her were a pair of Phoenix earrings and a long needle-shaped hair clip. But it was indeed doubtless that none of these plain objects could hide the fact that she was too cute.

Jed had a soft spot for her, maybe because she treated herself as the little sister of the team or maybe because she always hanged around him whenever he was in the library but it was doubtless that she was as much of stranger to Jed as the next person in the road. She never disclosed any details to him or anyone else, which obviously raised Jed's suspicion.

Jed walked into the open and said smiling, "Hello there, Long'er. What are you doing here?"

"Ho there, big bro! How did your chat with those black men go?!!" she replied merrily. Even though, she was blind, she could easily sense her surrounding with the help of her cultivation technique.

"Sigh… Didn't I tell you not to spy on me, Long'er?"

"What can I do, brother. It was interesting. You're here to research on the pendant, don't you?" she giggled cutely.

"Yep!" nodded Jed. She smiled back and handed over the book she was reading. "Here. I've prepared everything for you."

"Thank you, Long'er." He took the book and sat down on the other chair. Peg jumped off his shoulders and sat on the table, beside the book.

"No problem, brother. By the way, do you really wanna go there? I mean, do you really wanna join the expeditionary party of those weirdos?"

Jed pursued his lips and replied, "Maybe... I don't know. They are paying me double and a Royale Suit, but I'm really skeptical about my chances of returning back. Guess, it depends on the information this book has to give."

"Hm… okay." Said He Xiaolong as she turned away bored by the response. Jed smiled and also turned to the book she handed to him. He looked through for a while and then found desired item. A weird stone pendant with a large mammoth-like monster with small insects, worms, flies and gory images of human engraved around it. The picture looked so detailed that Jed thought for a second that it wasn't actually a pendant. Infact, it really didn't look anything like a pendant and the only thing which proved otherwise was a small clasp at the top of it and the name.

Hell-Insect Pendant.

"A Grandmaster Level pendant made by a Grandmaster Hell Inscriptionist of the Behemoth Hell Alliance of Archdevil Beelzebub. Can summon 1 Grade 6 Hell insect, 3 Grade 5 Hell insects, 30 Grade 4 Hell insects, 150 Grade 3 Hell insects, nearly 1000 Grade 2 Hell insects and infinite number of Grade 1 Hell insects. Can create a Grade 5 disaster and if left unchecked can even cause Grade 6 disaster.

Signs of emergence.

High growth rate of insects around the area and is generally found near wet, swampy and dirty areas where it lies dormant for decades before erupting. Locations generally found Central Continent and Eastern Continent.

Number of occurrences Central Continent - 16

Eastern Continent – 11

Southern Continent – 3

Western Continent – 1

Northern Continent – 0

Ways of resolving  contact your nearest superior and runaway as fast as you can, even though the chances of you outrunning a drugged insect is nearly nil."

…

Both Jed and Peg read through the short excerpt on the pendant in silence. They were shocked at first on knowing what they were dealing with and then baffled. 'Report to your superior and runaway.' Wasn't that stupid?! After all, that superior would be a human and will use Jed or any other person as a bait to save his own d*ck, won't he. Informing him is as good as licking death's a*s.

Jed and Peg simply rolled their eyes on this comment. It was just another funny remark left by a depressed adventurer. What was indeed worrying was the information given. Grade 5-6 disaster. That was enough to affect half of the population of the entire Eastern Continent and wasn't definitely something he could take on. He was now starting to have real concern and second thought about the quest.

He looked worriedly at He Xiaolong and said, "What do you think, Long'er? Should we inform the authorities or simply …."

He Xiaolong smiled at him and replied, "Don't worry bro, it's gonna be alright. What do you think those black men are for? They said they are for the Emerald Empire, didn't they? I happen know about this empire and let me say it, they are one heck of a perfectionist. You're right to trust those men, but I'm not quite sure that you will be able to handle yourself. You get what I mean, don't you?!"

Jed frowned deeply. "Are you doubting my adventuring skills, Lady?!"

"Nope! I'm seriously doubting your fighting skills."

"Whatttt!! How dare—"

"Like hell you are gonna be able to kill insect with your 3 inches bolt."

"I'll get you for that, you little twerp. Just wait for me here, I'll come with the pendant!!!! Guh!!!!!" Jed gritted his teeth and dashed out of the room in anger. His meeting with He Xiaolong finished much before he expected to be. He hated it when people, especially people he cared about like his parents or He Xiaolong, whom he treats like his own sister, to underestimate him. But he didn't also know that this was her way of getting him into the job more.

Peg, who was left behind by Jed, looked astonished at He Xiaolong and the dashing Jed for a moment before crying out, "C'mon. Give me a break you two!"

She smiled innocently at Peg and replied, "Not my fault, sweetie."

"Don't call me that! Hey! Hey, wait up! Wait up, I said, A*SHOLE!!!!!!"

…

"Goddammit! She played me for a fool!!! Now I can't quit this quest!" grumbled Jed.

"Did she, you idiot? You had promised Sean that you would go and did you look at yourself when he talked about the suits. You were so dazzled by the offer that I could barely equate that Jed with the one I knew. I knew that you're going and she just buckled you up. So, I don't see quite a problem here, pinky."

"Don't call me something … so irritating." Jed continued to grumble on his way to his 'school.'

In the world of Audenia, most kids would usually start working from a real young age and if they were rich, they would either waste their days cultivating or messing around. Schools were actually quite a privilege and was only meant for the rich and to those who would pursue bureaucracy. The 'school' which has the closest resemblance to schools are sects and those are for the highest and the brightest young cultivators. For Jed, it was different.

His actual school was a shop called Lu Yan's All-Rounder.

Lu Yan's All-Rounder was situated in one corner of the Rosalina quarters and was quite infamous for the bad temper and the weird sense of humor of it's owner. The Rosalina quarters, being the homeground of shady people and Black-Market traders had a lot of alleyways and secret doors with puff of smoke and foul smell wafting all around. Jed and Peg headed into one of these secret alleys to a really old looking wooden shop. This shop was the alleged Lu Yan's All-Rounder.

The shop looked like an abandoned greenhouse with weirdly colored vines growing out from the broken windows. It also had rotten paper walls which had various black spots all over it. The walls of the shop were termite-infested and even had a large fist-shaped hole in it. But surprisingly, the area around the shop wasn't all cemented and stoned like all the streets of Mie City were. Instead, it had a small patch of foul-smelling grass, meant to ward off customers, and herbs and shrubs which from a single glance looked poisonous.

…

"So, here are you two slackers!!" cried a hoarse and old voice from inside the house just as Jed was going to enter. Jed froze in his track. He knew that THE Monster was coming.

The wooden door, which was had fungi growing all around it and had rusted hinges, creaked open to reveal an old and crooked eastern man with a long white beard. He had a bald head and a pretty bad hunch on his back, but it was his face which disgusted Jed more. His nose was crooked and had thin slanting eyes. His face had a mixture of pus-filled pimples, acne and mucus and from a distance, He looked like a inbreed of a western witch and an eastern phony.

"You guys came again. Oh! And Jed—was it? Anyway, stop letting that pig sh*t on your shoulders. You should really send him to the butcher house."

"I'M NOT A PIG AND I'M NOT SH*TTING. I AM SITTING, OLD MAN!!" yelled Peg angrily but it had hardly any effect on the deaf old man Lu Yan. The only ears which was affected was Jed's.

"Oh! Did you see that, young man? He can talk! Hurrah! God! Monster pig like you should really go to the butcher house and be served to those damned royalties!" the old man clicked his tongue in sarcasm.

"I'm not a pig and DEFINITELY NOT A MONSTER PIGG!! I'M A BULLDOG. I'M A CUTE LITTLE PUP OF A BULLDOG. THE SAME DOG WHICH ATE YOUR WHOLE FAMILY!!!!!" screamed Peg. Surprisingly the old man, turned back in astonished and stared dumbly at him for a sec. But then he turned to Jed and asked, "Did your monster pig say something?"

"SON OF A B*TCH!!!"

…

Jed sighed and didn't argue with Peg. He knew that Peg was right to be angry. After all, this shop wasn't the ideal shop which Jed had wanted and probably Peg's worst nightmare. Jed met Lu Yan when he was seven and was bored out of his wits. He found him funny as his scamming skills were even worse than a baby and only wanted to tease that old man. He broke the man's wall by one of his 'baby punches.' He thought that it was correct to teach this bad phony a lesson, but he never understood the gravity of the situation he was in or the danger the man posed to him.

The next thing he knew was that he had signed a contract with him which ordered him to pay in full for the damage he caused or work for him. Like a slave.

Obviously, Jed wasn't happy with it, but before he knew it, he started liking the stuffs Old Yan did. All of his weird adventurous stories he said about different legendary beings and monster, their weird weaknesses and habits and most of all, the best places to find women, enthralled Jed to stay. Not to mention all the weird plants he grew, which even though didn't quite match his description, were quite useful in various ways. And the best part of it all is that there was no customer whatsoever. Which meant that Jed could patiently carry on with his research without any distraction.

As for the shop, it was way crazier than Old Yan was. It was a shop which sold everything, starting from antiques, agricultural tools, fishing rods, infamous and scary weapons and even skulls of humans. The shop the best stuffs to scare people and all of its items could become best-sellers for Halloween in modern Earth, but unfortunately, there was no Halloween in the Eastern Continent. There was one in the Western Continent and the Central Continent but … whatever.

…

Jed and Peg entered the shop and headed straight to the storage room, where their equipments were kept. Their usual work/school uniform was a ragged apron and cape with nothing special about it other than the faded flower. It took them a minute before both of them walked out with two dirty aprons on them.

Jed seemed unconcerned about the condition of the apron, but Peg was highly disgusted.

"Why do I have to wear this crap?!" he snapped at Jed while following him.

"Because I said so!" snapped Old Yan who appeared out of nowhere.

Peg rolled his eyes because he was already fed up with this trick of Old Yan's and replied, "Can you please stop appearing like that, old goat!! And by the way, I wasn't asking for your opinion!!"

"Uhhh! Whaccha say?!" the old man replied, craning his neck toward Peg. "Grrr!!" growled Peg and turned to Jed. Jed smiled apologetically but didn't respond. Instead he turned to Old Yan and asked, "So, Teacher what are you going to teach me today?"

Old Yan made a disgusted face and replied, "Child, stop calling me teacher. I'm not a teacher. I'm a Master of Alchemy and you're obviously here to learn Alchemy, didn't you?"

Jed sighed and replied, "Yes, masterrr."

"Louder!"

"Master!"

"Louder!!!"

"Master!!!!!!"

"Louder!! I can't hear you!!"

"MASTER!!!"

"Oh! Shut up, kid! I can hear you already! You don't need to shout like a madman! And you pig! Why aren't you giggling?!!"

Peg rolled his eyes again and commented, "We both know how this end, so let's just skip it, old man."

"I'm not skipping!! Are you blind?? Can't you see that I'm standing and not jumping!! Idiot pig. I tell you kid, sell this to the butcher house. They will pay you good for his fat leather!!"

"You!! I—" Peg gritted his teeth in anger but couldn't reply because Jed had stomped hard on his head. Jed placed his hands together and said curtly, "Master, lets just start with the lessons. I think it's getting late and you shouldn't bother yourself with this little pig. I promise you to get you the best pork from Eastwood Restaurant."

"Oh! Now you are talking, kid. Good! I want it by the end of the day and don't forget about the wine."

"As you wish. Now, the lesson…"

"Yes, yes. Today I'm going to teach you—wait! I need red sauce—"

"Yes, I know it master. You need 30% red sauce, 40% soy sauce and 30% pickles with extra onion and cucumber. Served in three Silver plates and two spoons and the pork should be in a woven basket. I know it all, master."

"Good. Good…" muttered Old Yan disappointed. Jed smiled proudly and said, "So, master what were you going to teach me?"

"I'm …. Um…. Today I'm going to teach you how to concoct poiso—You forgot about the flowers."

"GODDAMMIT!!!!!"

…