I stepped back onto the cobblestone streets, and continued down it to see what more the city had to offer. I saw a shop with a sign that simply read “Divers” on it that piques my interest. I knew nothing of what the shop may hold, but surely it’d be of some use to me, seeing as I was a magnificent Diver myself, so I made my way inside.
When I entered I saw various booths with attendants in white and red suits stationed at each of them. Each booth had a color, and some sort of pricing. The black booth seemed to be basically empty, but the green, yellow, and red booths were receiving decent traffic.
There are people everywhere, some donning greatswords like myself, small knives, bows, staffs, gauntlets, even a strange girl who slung an odd looking tube over her shoulder.
Intending to ask what the place was for, I made my way to the black booth, and as I did, everyone’s eyes almost immediately locked on me, and the place went silent.
I had a knack for drawing attention to myself apparently, but I ignored their gazes and asked the old looking lady at the black booth what this place was for. The dead silence let the whole building hear my question, some people broke out in short laughter, but most just returned to what they were doing before.
The old lady at the desk laughed at me as well, but composed herself quickly and gave me a warm smile. “This is a place for Divers to buy and sell information on the location, and the strength of corruption.”
Uncle Chris did talk about there being a pretty advanced information system. This would be useful to me even if I did have Steven’s compass, because his compass only told me where to look, and nothing of the strength of the Deep. If the corruption there was especially weak, it would give off a light glow, but once it got to a moderate strength, the brightness wouldn’t change much.
“How does it all work?” I ask her.
She motions out to the booths beside her, “You go to the green booth to sell information, which is then distributed to the yellow, red and black booths depending on strength, you can buy level 1, 2, or 3 corruption information, 3 being the stronger ones in the booth, and 1 being the weaker ones. So level 1 yellow would be the weakest corruption you could find, and level 3 black would be the strongest corruption, ‘course even a level 2 black is a cause for concern, and level 1 blacks are as rare as they are dangerous.”
The Old Lady got another attendant to tend her stall while she showed me around and showed me how it all worked, it really was a complex system behind the scenes, they kept records of everyone who gave tips, the tips accuracy, among other relevant stats about the person so you couldn’t just sell fake tips to squeeze cash out of the agency.
“Here is also where most beginners find their initial party, so you may want to take a look around the yellow booth to find some comrades.”
I did intend to find someone to do at least a few Dives with here, but I didn't want to look around the yellow booths, I thought I’d try looking for someone strong enough to complete a decent level dive at least.
As I looked around the red booth though, I learned quickly that no one wanted to party with someone who before a second ago didn’t even understand the basic corruption danger systems. As if that had anything at all to do with strength, I scoffed in my head.
I bought some information on a level 3 yellow corruption and headed out the door. I asked and they didn't have any black level corruptions at all.There were some level 3 red corruptions bordered on level 1 black but they supposedly didn’t quite fit the bill.
I figured a level 3 yellow should be fine on my own, the first dive I took was likely supposed to be a level one yellow, but grew to be level 3 yellow as we made our way from Halsry to our Dive. Corruptions would often fluctuate in levels, so it wasn’t safe to go purely off of the agency’s rankings, or so said the nice Old Lady.
As I make my way to the big oak door back to the street, it opens quickly and hits me in the face. When I checked to see who I needed to yell at, I saw an annoyingly familiar face. It was that crazy Diver I met in Halesbrook on my night walk.
“Ray!” He immediately recognized me, I’m a little impressed he remembered my name since we only briefly had an exchange. I sure as hell didn’t remember his name, Mark whos-ama-whatsit or something along those lines.
I try to ignore and move past him, but he moves again to block me and introduces himself again.
“It’s me! Mathew Stannal from Halesbrook.” I was close enough.
“Great to see you again.” I say emotionlessly, moving again to get past him, but he wouldn’t let me get out.
“What brings you here, Ray?”
“I’m Diving.”
“So am I! I told you before I could sense you are strong, come with me! We could become a party and take on a strong corruption!”
I’m not sure what got him to be so attached to me, but I wanted him to leave me alone as soon as possible.
As I lament over having run into him again, I realise I may be able to make some use of him, if we go into the Deep together, and I make a big display of my strength and skill, I could have him spread the word and find a strong party to join with couldn’t I?
A wicked smile spread across my face as I concocted a plan to use this poor ignorant fellow.
I could put up with him for a few dives if I had to, it’d probably be fine.
“Alright,” I told him, “I don’t plan on making this a long term thing, but a few dives should be fine.”
“Fantastic!” He shouted.
God he was so loud, everyone in the agency looked over to us.
“Then, you have already bought information on a corrupted area have you not?”
“I have, a level 3 yellow.”
We left the store and walked down the street together while I told him about where the Deep took hold, before asking him when he wanted to go about it.
“Well it’d be nice to leave as soon as possible, if it’s that far away I doubt we can make it there and have time to do our Dive before nightfall, tomorrow morning would be best, but then I’d need to find a place to stay.”
A valid concern, at night, the gargs blended in with the darkness with their corruption-dyed pelts, but with the buggy, we could make it there a little after noon and have time to hunt if we left now. Either way though, I wanted some more time to plan, so I held off on telling him about the buggy.
“Did you get a room in the city yet?” I asked him.
“No, I just got here earlier today, you must have really rushed from Halesbrook to get here before me, I left there the night we first met, but now that I saved some money on buying a tip on the corruption, I should be able to afford a place to sleep.” He smiled an obnoxious smile.
He let his true intentions leak. Come to think of it, this guy was always worrying about money wasn’t he? Trying to save money off buying a corruption tip by partying with me, arguing with the store’s clerk over prices of some wares, and when he spoke about a place to stay, he sure made “place to sleep” seem like he didn’t intend to stay at an inn or something usual.
I didn’t let it bother me too much though, I wasn’t too concerned with money anyways. If he demanded an unreasonable cut of our earnings, I’d let him have it just to get him off my back. I was using him too of course, so it wouldn’t be fair for me to get upset over his ulterior motives either.
I walked with him while he looked for a place to sleep, talking about weapons, strategy, and experience in Diving along the way.
“Your first dive was just yesterday?!” He exclaimed in disbelief. He must’ve mistaken the hefty pouch at my side to be all from Diver earnings, but it was just a parting gift from my parents.
His worry over the decision to go with me to a corruption of such a high level for beginners was obvious.
“Don’t worry, I’m plenty strong,” I assured him, “I split a wolf and the earth under it in half with one swing of my greatsword!” I boasted. Of course that ended up being a fatal error in the battle, but as long as he didn’t know that, it sounded badass.
He looked at me doubtfully and said, “Well at the very least you look strong, do you mind going in first so if the gargs overwhelm us you give me time to escape?” He gave me a smile that was totally unaware of his completely unreasonable request.
We had no luck in finding a place suitable for Mathew yet so we kept talking. I asked him about his diving experience, and apparently, he was born to an extremely poor family, and his mother and father died of sickness. At that same time, a woman Diver who went by the name Night took him in and trained him to dive.
His earliest memory is of Night finding him in the abandoned carriage his parents died in and giving him a knife, and an order. She wanted him to kill the corrupted rat she held in her hands, if he did, she’d take him in and show him how to live on his own.
It was an awfully cruel thing to do to a child, even if it was a garg, it was still alive to some extent. He recalled that, with tears streaming down his face, he stabbed the rat, and immediately jumped crying into Night’s arms.
He started doing almost daily dives with Night, where he quickly got used to killing the gargs and selling their materials, while Night took most of the money, she took care of Mathew as well, so it was a worthwhile trade in his mind.
Just recently though, Night had determined Mathew to be ready to live without her, and sent him to fare for himself.
I tried to offer my condolences at his situation, but apparently, he knew it was coming, and was fully prepared to start all the way over once Night left him, and began doing small dives, never anything stronger than yellow level 2 though, as he’d been solo until now.
I almost admired him for a second before he spotted a stable beside the inn I was staying at and excitedly shouted, “I can sleep there!”
Everyone turned to look at the source of the unnecessarily loud exclamation as he sprinted towards a pile of hay.
Before he can land in the disgusting mess, I sprint over and catch him by his collar.
“Hey what do you think you’re doing! I was about to splay out in my new bed!” He cries
“Stop yelling! Everyone is looking!” I shout-whispered at the belligerent fellow. Why was he actually angry? I just stopped him from jumping in a hay pile. All the respect I had for him after hearing of his tough beginnings had fled my mind by this point.
“Look, I don't want to party with someone who smells like the stables, why don’t you just stay in the inn with me?” I beg.
“You’re staying there? Are you sure you can afford that?”
This guy was always so caught up about money, just what did that Night person teach him?
“Mathew, If you aren’t able to get a good night's rest, tomorrow will be that much harder, invest in a room at the inn to better your performance on our dive.” I tried to rationalize with him, not that he seemed like a rational person in the first place, but I really didn't want to have to fight next to someone lathered in manure.
“I always camped outside with Night, there are plenty of places just as good for free.”
This guy really just wasn’t going to get it. This Night person seemed to be who he learned his crazy from. Fine, if he wanted to be that way, I’d give him free, better that than having to take the stable smell with me.
“Alright then, come stay in my room with me, I won’t charge you anything other than helping me tomorrow and spreading the word of a job well done afterwards, sound good?”
He didn’t seem too thrilled about going inside, but he agreed nonetheless. He wasn’t one to turn down anything so long as you labeled it as free it seemed.
We walked into our room, he set down the shabby sword he used, and removed his torn up jacket as well.
If he cleaned himself up a bit, and put on some decent clothes, he’d be a real hit with the ladies. His brown hair was just under shoulder length, and he had a princely charm to his face, his parents must’ve been quite the pretty pair.
I sat on one of the beds, and removed all my diving gear, cloak, boots, sword, bow, and knife. The room was quite spacious for the cheap price we paid for it, it was obvious this room was meant for Divers, the room’s wooden walls were empty, it was seemingly designed to be nothing more than a place to sleep and store what you didn't need on the dive. There were places to hang a sword on the coat rack, and a spacious closet that could fit most of my gear, or just my greatsword at an awkward angle.
I looked in the drawers and found maps of the area, a list of suggested shops, restaurants, tailors, and directions to the Diver Agency, and other useful Diver resources which I pocketed for later in case I needed any more help.
“So what do we do?” He asked me.
“What do we do?” I looked at him unsure.
“Well I mean, why do you pay for this sort of place to stay, isn’t it just as good to camp out somewhere?”
“The wind can bother you, it can rain, animals can steal your things, there are bugs everywhere. Why wouldn’t you stay at an inn?”
“I think you’re just a sissy.” He told me frankly.
This little…
Whatever, I’ll let him get away with it for now, it’s only for a few dives that he’ll be clinging to me anyways.
Mathew flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.
After a bit of silence he spoke up. “Well, the bed is kinda comfy I guess.”
“Told you.”
“Thanks, Ray.”
I basked in the satisfaction of being right, and layed down in the bed myself, it seems it might be able to convert him to a life of luxury yet.
I turned over in the bed without responding to him, he had nothing to thank me for, every room in the inn had 2 beds, and it wasn't even more expensive to have him stay, so no response was needed.
“This is the first bit of good will I’ve received since Night left me. Every job kept turning me away, every party kept dodging my attempts to join. If nothing else, I appreciate the opportunity.”
What was this about? He was totally misunderstanding the situation, it was just a temporary mutually beneficial relationship, but it was nice knowing I wouldn’t have to spend the night alone. I had thought it’d be immensely lonely if I had to sleep knowing nobody else I knew was around.
Even if he was loud and annoying, he’d make a good companion for now.
Finally, I decide to respond, “No problem, Mathew”
Comments (0)
See all