A Warlock's Ascent

Chapter 28 Grego, The Nutcracker

?The whole city of Ravenshade was in shambles. Most of the houses and buildings were destroyed. There were a few big bonfires throughout the city, burning the bodies of unidentified people. The beast tide hit Ravenshade two days ago. But still, the process of excavation of dead bodies was still underway. It was a pretty dire situation.

Seeing just such mass destruction, made Dave feel sad for the people of Ravenshade. Most of the people that had died were innocent people and they didn't deserve to die like this. Although, seeing the mass cremation also raised some questions about Accumulation.

'According to Grump, the bodies of the people should have been swallowed by the world by now, so how come there were so many bodies still being burned in parts of the city?' he thought…

As they got into the city, Grump told him that they first need to head towards Adventurer's Guild. This place was the place where adventurers go to get paid, and get jobs. The old man had a few errands to run in the guild and then after that, they will find a place where they could spend the night.

As they wandered into the city, they were greeted by sick and hungry people. Almost all the people in the streets were injured in one way or another. Most of them were begging on the streets for food. While he also spotted some women offering their bodies for food or medicine. It was truly a very horrible sight.

It is only after searching for half an hour did they realize that the Adventurer Guild of the Ravenshade city was destroyed in the attack. After asking around, they got to know that temporarily Adventurer Guild's proceeding takes place in the manor of the city lord. As it was nighttime then they could only visit the guild tomorrow. Thus they both started looking for a place to stay. Or so he thought…

Grump brought him to a strange establishment. It was located in the middle of a large field, based on destroyed plants, he figured that huge field must have been a very garden. That place was mostly destroyed. From the sheer size of the place, he could only imagine what this would have been like before it was destroyed. Now, it was just a big ground with a large amount of debris, in the middle.

He asked the old man about this place, and according to him, this establishment is supposed to be a very posh bar in Ravenshade city. That bar also serves as a brothel house for rich kids. As he is A-Rank Adventurer he has a special pass with him that could get him into the bar.

Dave looked at the destroyed building, he was having a hard time believing that this was still a working establishment. After all, there was nothing here but debris. But he was later proven wrong when Grump took him to the center of the destroyed building

The building itself was destroyed. But the entrance to the basement of the building was still there. And currently, there were around 20 men and women standing by the entrance and were guarding it. But these men and women apparently knew Grump. Some of them smiled at him while some nodded at him giving him their approval before giving him access to the basement.

The entrance to the basement was this old cellar door which didn't look like much. From the cellar door started a series of stairs that led to a dark corridor. As they reached the end, they were greeted with a black steel door. Grump knocked on the door and the peephole of the door opened. When the person inside saw his face, they opened the door and let them in.

As they got inside, they were greeted with the sight of a posh bar and lounge area. People in there were eating, drinking, and chatting amongst themselves. Most of the people in there looked rich. The most astonishing thing about the place was that it had things to eat and drink. Dave clearly remembers that people outside were begging for food or water while there were people here who were enjoying every luxury of life.

Seeing the disparity between two classes of the same species, he was reminded of Earth once again. 'Humans are humans. Everywhere we go, we are the same.' He thought.

As they went further in, Dave saw that random people walking around the bar started nodding toward Grump. Some people greeted him in person. Seeing this he figured that the old man must be a very popular guy if all these rich people know him.

The old man then took him to a booth at the other end of the bar. The thing about this booth was that only one guy was occupying the whole booth. While there were 5 warriors armed to the boot protecting the man. The man in question was an old man who was around Grump's age. He was wearing shiny and expensive-looking silks and jewelry. And he passed a big smile as Grump approached his booth.

"Alright listen up. I will do all the talking, you just shut your trap while I am talking. That man their is Grego, the nutcracker." The nickname of the guy raised some questions in Dave's mind, while the old man continued. "You just need to sit down and listen to our conversation. And I repeat do not speak in between. That guy is a very powerful man in whole Ravenshade, do not offend him." Then finally walked toward guards around the booth…

"He is with me, boys," Grump said while pointing towards Dave and then he went on to sit at the booth.

The old man in the both smiled as he saw Grump's face. "Gilbert! I thought you died in the beast tide." Hearing the old man refer to Grump as Gilbert made Dave realize that they must be good friends.

Last night when he heard that the old man's name was Gilbert, he tried to call him using his name. But the old man got angry at that. He said that only friends refer to him as Gilbert. While for the rest of the crowd, he was Grump. Old man Grump.

"Grego, you know me. I have prophecized it 1000 times. I will only die with my stomach full of mead and my cock around the mouth of a whore at the age of 100.." Grump said.

"Well, it is good to see you. Now tell me what brings you to my humble bar?" the old man asked.

"I am here on business and we might need some privacy," Grump said. Grego's smile widened as he heard his words. His hands then went to the bottom of the seat and he touched a button there. And was then a blue color force field covered their whole booth.

"So what up?" Grego said after setting up the force field.

"I want to introduce you to someone."

"This young man right here?"

"Yup, he is… Davey. He is an Earthian. And guess what? This man has a skill, which let helps him grant access to a pocket space, exclusive to him." This caught Dave off guard as Grump had made the deal with him previously that he would help him to try and hide his identity. But just a moment ago he threw him under the boss in front of some underground mafia boss.

"How much space are we talking about here?" Grego asked now interestingly looking at Dave.

"You can say that he could hold items 5 huge chests."

"Fuck! That is might impressive lad!" the old man said while looking at Dave who was pissed.

"Yeah. And now Ravenshade is in shambles, I was thinking of running some errands of yours, with the boy. And with his pocket space skill, we would be unstoppable."

"That's true. And you know what, I have recently received a job that guys would be perfect for both of you."

"Perfect!"

"But first let me clarify something, Grump. After the beat tide, I lost most of my good men. And worst of all, I lost some of my trusted and reliable men. And the job that I have for you will pay big. But because of the lack of people I could trust, you have to bend a knee a little bit."

"What do you mean?"

"I have an escort mission for you."

"An escort? Forget it, I won't do it. You know I cannot handle escort missions…"

"The pay will be 5000 gold coins." Hearing the number of gold coins he would be able to earn Grump's eyes started mysteriously glow.

"Who is the client?"

"That is confidential. You know how it goes, you would not get the details of the client until the day of the assignment."

"Speaking of identity, the kid requested that his identity should stay hidden. He is an Earthian and all… So take care of it as well."

"Hm… That might be difficult. You know how the business is… Wait. He is an Earthian right? Does he have a way with weapons?"

"Nah… he is amateur at best. Why?"

"Well, we can make him wear the executioner's mask."

"You still have that thing?"

"Of course, I am not going to throw away a magical artifact."

"It is the most useless piece of metal on Midgard."

"But it could work for the kid now wouldn't it?"

"Hm…. It could work. I tell you what, he would take it. He was telling me that he wanted a mask. So that mask would do."

"Alright, but the mask will cost him money."

"How much?"

"1000 gold coin."

"Fuck no! It is too costly."

"It is the mask of a legend. It would cost you that much."

"He would be willing to let it go for 500 gold coins at most."

"You know what, you got yourself a deal…" Grego said with a big smile on his face. Then they started conversing about the beast tide and the state of other cities…

***

Dave could only sit there, and pretend he was mute, as Grump had ordered him, he kept it quiet. As he listened to their conversation quietly he got a lot of titbits of information from the old man Grego.

Apparently the devastating beat tide all the cities on Midgard. Considering that there were Earthians in all the cities, this didn't come as a shock to him. The beast tide has caused a lot of damage to all the cities. The old man also told them that Barcelma and Cloudhold are on the verge of destruction. Also, the city lord of Vecrus is in a comatose state currently. And an Earthian had become the city lord of Vecrus. And this Earthian is apparently the strongest Earthian out there…

After chatting for a little while, the old man then deactivated the force field. Then Grump greeted the old man goodbye and he went to the bar to get a drink. And it was then Dave started bombarding Grump with questions about what transpired there….

"Wasnt my identity supposed to be a secret?" he asked while sipping a weird-looking green color alcohol.

"Yeah, I kept my end of the bargain. I told the old man about it, didn't I? And because of that, he would be providing you with an executioner's mask. That is great isn't it?"

"But you told the old man my identity."

"He is the boss of the establishment, also he is the big boss who provides people like us commissions. Of course, I have to tell him. Do you think he would just give his goods to a random guy? Before doing business, he needs to know who you are and what you are."

"But is he reliable?"

"He is reliable. He is one of my oldest friends. And listen kiddo, you are new to the business, so you don't know anything. The thing is that our whole business is run by something called trust. And he is the most trustable man in the business."

"If you say so… So what is our first assignment."

"I am glad you asked…" Grump said and then he started explaining to him about escort missions and how they worked.

"Sometimes when a big merchant or family of powerful people travels to another city, they hire adventurers to protect them on the way. Adventurers have knowledge of most of the routes of the different cities because they travel to different cities frequently. That is why they are considered the best people for this kind of work."

"Okay, I get it. So why didn't you want to go on an escort mission, this seems like an easy job"

"The escort missions pay well. But the thing is that most of the people that could afford to give this kind of quest are rich people. And these people are very obnoxious and quite hard to deal with. And I have a very temper, in the past, I may have beaten up his clients. That is why I usually don't accept these kinds of quests."

"I get it." After having a rather long conversation with the old man, he understood that the old man agreed to work on this quest, only because the client was forking up 5000 gold coins which is almost 3 times the normal escorting fee. And this was an offer that he couldn't just refuse.

***

In the control center of R3T, three Gods were sitting on a table. All of them were discussing the state of the game, because of Mimir's mistake the game cannot be continued with the pre-written script. They have to alter a lot of things, which would be a very tedious job…

"Do you have a plan now?" Brahma asked Thoth, while still in his united form.

"No…" Thoth had his eyes closed, he was tired. It took him forever to change the setting of the first floor. And finally, after 24 hours of work, he was able to change major parts of the first floor, but still, there were a lot of things to be done.

"Well… I just wanna say, I am sorry. It is all my fault." Mimir said.

"No, it is not. It is all your nephew's fault." Brahma barked viciously.

"Yeah. You could have never made the mistake on your own. It was his doing." Thoth also added.

"Well, he is a good lad. It is just that he can be a little bit… mischievous sometimes." Mimir defended.

"Mischievous or not, I hate that guy." Thoth barked, then he continued. "He ruined my plans. I wanted the first-floor theme to be an all-out war between three kingdoms. But now because of him, the first floor has become an Apocalyptic world… That is not what I have planned."

Mimir sighed and tried to apologize."Sorry about that... But still, gods are still liking the settings of the first floor. And after the Familia setting has been launched the traffic on the networks has gone off the roof. This is a good thing right?"

Brahma chimed in, with a very grim voice. "It is a good thing. But the main thing to remember is that Loki somehow managed to manipulate you and almost sabotage the game. This time we were able to save the situation somehow. But what about the future? We can't afford things to run this way. We cannot let him sabotage the game further.".

"What do you reckon we should do?" Thoth asked.

"We should probably stay the fuck away from him forever. And that means no visitation to him in prison" Brahma added.

"Alright. I will not visit him." Mimir said.

"Good," both Brahma and Thoth said. Then they started discussing things that they could to make the games more interesting.