Touch of Fate

Mike collapsed onto his bed, too tired to even get undressed. He had been healing for nearly four hours by this point, and had utterly expended his mana reservoir, leaving himself only enough energy to get back to the inn.

Morris looked over at his young friend with a bemused smile. "Busy first day?"

"You have no idea. They just swarmed me non-stop." Mike buried his face in his blankets. "Heal my leg, help me with my back, cure my granny! They just wouldn't leave me alone. I finally had to create a diversion with fire magic, and escape in the resulting confusion."

"Did you at least make some decent money?"

To answer his question, Mike dropped a small sack nearly overflowing with coins onto his bed. "Didn't count it yet, but should be a couple hundred."

Morris was stunned, he had severely underestimated Mike's growth. Originally, he had intended his suggestion to provide Mike some perspective on how much effort was required to earn the kind of money he had previously been throwing around like it was nothing. However, it seems to have backfired.

"Wha....What were you charging for your services?" He asked hesitantly.

"One gold for healing, two for curing diseases or poisons." Mike answered absently, clearly in the process of falling asleep. "Tal recommended it."

Morris jumped out of his seat and started pacing, clearly agitated. "Oh, this is bad. Who's Tal? Nevermind, it doesn't matter. This is bad. Alright, we need to work on damage control."

"What's wrong?" Mike asked, a little concerned at his friend's response.

"By only charging one gold to heal people, you are undercutting the temples. If it was done on a small scale, it shouldn't have been a problem. Heal two or three people a day, and no one would care. But, a few hundred? You're intruding into the business of some of the most powerful organizations in country."

"Is there some kind of law against being an independent healer?"

"Actually there are a few laws in place to encourage such behavior. The previous two monarchs of Almir have tried to introduce policies to stimulate trade by lowering the cost of magical services, but the temples and the Mage's Guild have always prevented effective enforcement of the laws."

Mike suddenly stood up excitedly. "There's a Mage's Guild? Where is it? How do you join?"

"This is not the time for that!......But the Wyrport branch is located in the northwestern section of the city near the noble district. As for joining, its rather difficult. You have to have a recommendation from an existing member in good standing, and pass a rigorous ability and knowledge test." Morris couldn't help his proclivity for sharing information.

"Cool! I'll have to check it out tomorrow!"

"That would be a mistake, right now. The first thing we need to do is mitigate the damage you've done. If we can get you out of sight for a few days, then hopefully the temples will treat it as an isolated incident. You didn't give them your name or anything did you?"

"No...At least I don't remember doing so."

"Good." Morris finally stopped pacing. "Then this is what you do. Go to the guild early tomorrow and pick up a request that takes you outside of the city, it doesn't matter what. Stay out for a few days, and by the time you get back, the event should have blown over."

"Well that's not an issue, but I have to ask, is it really that big of a problem?"

Morris focused his gaze on Mike, "Don't underestimate the reach of the temples. They have more power than you'd think, and they don't take kindly to people threatening their income sources. Most even have small private armies, and that's not counting the Order of the Scepter, who were specifically created to 'protect' them."

He sat down wearily. "Look, in general, the only accessible healing magic belongs to the followers and clergy of the gods. Elemental healers are fantastically rare, and Pact Mages tend to be discriminated against. As such, the various churches and religious groups that operate openly in Wyrport have a virtual monopoly on healing. Even the attention of the most inexperienced member of the clergy usually costs 10 gold or more, depending on the nature of the task. Curing diseases could cost as much as 50 or 100."

[So Pact Mages are persecuted. I wonder why. Tal seems like a perfectly nice girl, even though she did give me some bad advice today.] He was a bit upset about that, especially after thinking of all the money he could have made.

He sat back down and looked over at Morris. "Oh well, I'm sure if I lay low for awhile, it won't be a problem."

"I hope your right. Just try to find something to do away from Wyrport for a few days."

"Sure, sounds like a plan. Now if you will excuse me, I'm late for an appointment with my bed."

Morris sighed. It was clear that his friend was not taking the situation seriously, but at least he agreed to leave the city for awhile. So long as he avoided doing anything too crazy while he was out, the situation should blow over in a few days.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Mike woke up early the next day, and left as quietly as he could. He knew that Morris was worried about his situation, and he didn't want to hear another lecture on reckless behavior.

He quietly dressed in his new leather armor, belted on one of his swords, threw the Salamander's Cloak over his shoulders, and grabbed his backpack. If he was going to be traveling for the next few days, he wanted to be prepared.

After almost forgetting it again, he grabbed the Salvation Stone he had reclaimed from the twins after his first dungeon adventure. Thankfully there hadn't been any need for them to use it.

He was apparently too early for breakfast, but managed to coax some bread and cheese out of a sleepy cook.

The sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon as he left the front door of the inn. Rarely had he been up this early, and he was surprised to still see a fair number of people moving about.

[I was hoping for the streets to be a bit more deserted. Going to have to be careful not to get spotted. I really don't want to deal with any more desperate customers.]

He threw the hood of his cloak up and tried to stick to the emptier streets on his way to the guild. Luckily he was able to avoid being recognized.

The guild was still fairly busy, even this early, and Mike had to weave through a fairly extensive crowd in order to get to the notice boards. Unfortunately, most of the notices had already been taken by the time he had arrived, and there was nothing that quite fit the bill.

"Hm, I guess I need to get up even earlier in order to get decent requests. Man, adventurer's sure are workaholics." He quietly muttered to himself why looking over the remainders.

While he was contemplating what course of action to take, he couldn't help but overhear a rather loud conversation going on nearby.

"And I'm telling you, that this request is too much for us. We just got promoted to Rank 3, Philip, and now you want to drag us into this?!" A youthful female voice was yelling.

"Relax Kate. I know it sounds dangerous, but Shy has been there before. He knows his way around, and has dealt with the bees in the past." An confident male voice answered back. "Besides, I just ranked up my Axe Fighting skill, so you can just sit back and watch me work."

Mike glanced over at the arguing pair.

"Oh, I'm not worried about Shy, he's not stupid, unlike a certain 'party leader' who always runs directly into the most dangerous situation he can find, and leaves the two of us to patch him up after the fact." The speaker was a young woman dressed in chain mail. Her short green hair was held back by a crimson headband. She was carrying a shield and short sword.

[Still can't believe the number of unusual hair colors in this world. From what I remember about human biology, green hair shouldn't be possible. I have to ask Morris sometime if there is a reason for it.]

"Come on, that happened one time! I've gotten much stronger since then. Back me up, Shy!" The speaker was a young man with brown hair tied back in a short ponytail. A breastplate covered the majority of his torso, and his legs and arms were clad in leather. A large, two-handed axe was hanging from his back.

A third individual was standing nearby. This black haired fox beastman simply shrugged his shoulders with a rueful smile. He was dressed in purely leather armor, and carried a longbow on his back. His entire outfit was made of mottled browns and greens. Mike was sure that he would blend in quite well in a forested environment.

"Argh, you never help me out when I need you. Listen, I know you think we aren't ready, but if we don't occasionally take some risks, we'll never become big time adventurers." The brown haired man continued.

"Can we at least see about recruiting another member? I would feel a lot better if we had one more person watching our backs. We're stretched a little thin with three." The woman asked, obviously still a little peeved.

"Fine...but you know its going to be hard to find a Rank 3 adventurer that would be willing to take on a multi-day request with a group of strangers?"

[Well, it looks like my plot-based luck is still holding true. These three seem decent enough. At least, they have fairly good equipment.]

Mike stepped over to the group. "Sorry, but I couldn't help overhearing that you are looking for another member to take part in a request? I just so happen to be looking for a request myself."

The trio looked him over suspiciously. The young man named Philip was particularly leery, especially when he noticed Kate blushing slightly when she saw Mike's face. Mike could already see where this was going.

[Curse you, Casanova Aura! You have to make my life difficult.]

"I don't know. I'm not sure about letting in some stranger." He said, distrust evident in his features.

"Oh come on! You were literally just talking about how hard it would be to find someone. Now that one shows up, you get all moody about it." Kate smiled apologetically to Mike. "Sorry about that, he's a bit of an idiot. We'd love to have you join our group."

"Kate! We don't even know what he's capable of! How can you just let him in that easily?"

"Oh alright. Would you mind introducing yourself first?"

Mike smiled ruefully at the pair's antics. He could clearly see the romantic tension between the two, but they apparently hadn't realized it yet.

"Fair enough. I'm Michael, but you can call me Mike. I'm also a Rank 3." He flashed his guild credentials so they could see he was telling the truth. "I'm skilled with the Almiran school of swordsmanship, and I can use a little fire magic."

He had decided to keep the majority of his magical abilities to himself. His experiences yesterday taught him the dangers of being too open about them. Besides, he had been looking for an opportunity to practice his sword skills a bit.

"Wow, a mage! And a fire one at that! This is going to make our mission so much easier." Kate replied excitedly.

"Are you really going to trust some random guy that walked up to us?" Philip asked, a little desperately.

"No, I'm going to trust a fellow Rank 3 adventurer to assist us in this request. What's the matter with you? You're being rude!"

Philip looked at Shy, evidently hoping for some support, but the Fox beastman just gave a helpless shrug.

He threw his hands up in disgust. "Fine, fine. We'll take the complete stranger on our perilous mission." And with that he turned his back and started sulking.

[Maybe my luck is that great after all.] Mike couldn't help thinking.