Chương 27: Chapter 26. Free Day

When Oscar woke up and got up out of bed, he spotted a new pair of clothes lying on his desk. There was a plain cream colored tunic, black trousers, and a new pair of shoes. It had fallen off the desk, but there was also dark earthy colored coat. It had various pouches on the inside, no doubt perfect for an aspiring [Thief]. Everything fit perfectly, and if he was being honest… he felt pretty damn cool.

Worry about the black spot on his shoulder still lingered in the back of his mind, but he chose to not focus on it too much. He was also going to keep it a secret from everyone, but he did want to tell Gita about the whole Soul Fragment mechanic he'd learned about after the dungeon. There hadn't been a whole lot of time for him to think about it as well, and neither did he have much information about what it really even meant. But still, he wanted someone that wasn't Bruno to know.

And it might help him and Gita become a little bit closer as well. Once he had gotten dressed, he left his room and found Gita lounging in the nearby common room. She was reclined in a comfy looking chair with her feet kicked up onto a table. She looked to have been up already for awhile. Once she noticed him, she popped up out of her seat and groaned.

"Ugh, 'bout time someone woke up," Gita said.

"Well, Plank is up, but I don't count him. We just met the guy, and… I don't like old people too much. He did tell me to bring you to meet him once you were up, so let's go." Oscar didn't have much to say, so he just followed her to Plank's study. There was a bowl of fruit on the table that he took from for a breakfast meal. As he ate, he couldn't get over how much nicer this second floor looked compared to the first. It still had the claustrophobic atmosphere, but it was far less suffocating.

Having actual decorations on the walls, furniture, and rugs on the floor made the place feel more homely. Plank's study was open, allowing Oscar to see the elder sat at his desk. He was reading some report, and before they had even entered the room, he called out to them.

"Did you plan on sleeping all day, child? Bruno has tasked me with keeping you two occupied while he sends a message to his contact in the city," he looked up from his paper and raised an eyebrow at them.

"But… I'm not some fuckin' babysitter, so if I give you two some spending money, can you promise to not bother me? I'm looking into an important event right now, and I don't need the distractions from two brats."

"Uh… yeah, that sounds—""How much?" Gita asked, cutting Oscar off. Somehow, Plank's eyebrow raised even further." How much? How about… how ever fuckin' much I want you to have, how's that?"

"And how much is that?"

"Five gold pieces each."

"Ten."

"Six."

"Twelve."

"Girl, be careful when negotiating with a [Thief]. If I feel cheated, I will find a way to get repayment," Plank said seriously.

"Seven gold pieces for you, and three for the boy."

"Deal," Gita said with a smile.

"Hold on, now! You just deducted two gold from mine and gave it to her!" Oscar said in outrage. Plank gave him a blank look.

"You should have tried to negotiate instead of standing and watching like some inept dunce." Gita mockingly patted Oscar on the back.

"Cheer up, Oscar. Don't hate me for playing the game, hate yourself for being too much of a pussy to play it yourself."

"I didn't even know this was a game…" Plank chuckled at him and put their money onto the desk.

"Oh, Dynarus is going to bleed you dry, kid."

It was a nice and sunny day. As Oscar and Gita emerged out of the Burrow's exit, the pleasant weather hit them. Even though it had only been one night, instantly he was relieved to be out in nature again. Which was… unusual for him to admit.

"You know, I used to always spend my time inside, but here? I'm thankful to smell fresh air," Oscar said.

"You mean back… home, yeah?" Gita said.

"I was an outdoors girl, but more so because I didn't want to be home. I gamed a bit, but I think I spent too much time trying to be better than my brother to be stuck inside for too long."

"Gaming is like… all I did," Oscar admitted.

"Shit, we should probably be more careful." Gita waved a dismissive hand.

"Bruno's gone and no one is around, let's drop the act. Just for a few minutes, and then we go back to that market, okay?" Truthfully, he had been wanting to learn more about who Gita was prior to coming to this world. She was such a cold person, he wanted to know what environment had made her so uncaring. Did she even miss her family? Shit, did he? This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Do you ever think about… returning?" Oscar asked. Gita thought about the question for a moment before answering, her tone apathetic.

"Eh, not really, I suppose. I don't think I had much of a future back home. It wasn't like I was able to attend a good college, and even if I could… I don't know what for. I feel like I have more possibilities here. Although it's seeming less and less likely that Bruno's line of work has a retirement plan…"

"Speaking of Bruno… why did you come along?"

"I didn't like that Amari guy. He was too controlling, and the other two were just… idiots. And Brock?" she stopped and rolled her eyes.

"Never knew a Brock before, but I figured he was annoying with a name like that. And Bruno seemed competent enough to protect us while we got our bearings. That's really it."

"Brock's a good guy," Oscar said.

"I was mad at him for not joining me, but now… I'm glad he isn't with us. I don't know if he could've handled all we went through." Gita said nothing in response. Silence stretched between them, no doubt she was in thought about their journey just like he was. A part of him wanted to ask her how she was coping with everything, but he couldn't bring himself to ask. Partly because he was afraid to be vulnerable, but also because he was afraid of what her answer was.

It scared him to think about how easily he was becoming at moving on past all of these tragic events. He'd killed people… and here he was having casual conversation. They'd fought monsters and seen horrific deaths… and here he was getting excited about receiving free money in this fantasy world.

"Returning back to the topic of gaming…" Oscar said, breaking the silence.

"I don't know what your experience with having a class has been like, but for me… it's been slowly becoming more and more gamified. The skill I got from ki—from beating Dorian has a gaming quality about it. In my head there's like an old-school drop-down menu that displayed all of the available skills I could take from him. And once Feras was defeated, I received something called a class milestone, which granted me one Soul Fragment. If I get another, I get a prize or some shit."

"Strange… for me it's just been what I assume to be standard leveling. I just saw this wall of text flood my subconscious, which is narrated by a voice of indeterminable gender," Gita said with a shrug.

"Although, I'm only level three now, so I suppose things could change."

"Level three?" Oscar repeated incredulously.

"You did like fuck all against Feras! What do you mean you got two levels off of that?"

"I guess this world just recognizes my potential," she said grinning.

"Anyway, can you only get those Soul Fragments from dungeons?"

"Calus said Feras was something called an Aegis. I think I can only get Soul Fragments from defeating more of those and to be honest with you… I don't want to step foot inside another dungeon anytime soon."

"Fair enough, can't say I'm all too eager myself," Gita said and then walked towards the orphanage's exit gate.

"Well, let's go and explore this lovely city, shall we?" The two left the orphanage behind and entered District Seven's narrow streets. Avoiding people was difficult and annoying, often requiring an awkward and cramp scuttle. Thankfully this wasn't the standard, and after a bit of walking, they found themselves in the wider streets.

"This is the path we took when we left the market, yeah?" Oscar asked as he scanned the area.

"Yeah, there's that building with the broken window," Gita said, pointing at said window.

"Should we go back to the market, or perhaps explore something new?"

"I think you should give me those two coins back so that we both have equal spending money," Oscar said.

"With the money Terry gave us, we'd both have seven coins." Gita grumbled and handed him two gold coins.

"Fine, but just because I don't wanna hear you bitch and moan anymore about it. So… I take it you want to head back to the market?"

"Yeah, I saw some armor and weapon vendors last night. I think we're going to need an upgrade to our arsenal if Ardeo and Feras are anything to go by," Oscar said.

"And you think seven gold coins each is going to be enough to buy something?"

"Probably not, but at least we'd have an idea on the economy here." From where they were, the marketplace was only another four minute walk. Before they even reached their destination, the commotion could be heard from afar. Tons of people talking, haggling, even arguing. The market was lively and packed… perfect for a [Thief]. Oscar reached inside his jacket and made sure his money was still there.

"Gita, keep your wits about you. We don't want another [Thief] coming along and stealing from us again." Gita laughed at him." Us? Yeah, that was all you. I could've sense her and prevented the theft had she targeted me. But that's probably why she ignored me, isn't it? Smart girl…" Oscar was about to argue but a nearby argument caught his eye. It was a group of teenagers, perhaps some just a little younger than him. There was five of them in total, but the argument was a two versus three.

They were off in a secluded spot in a corner, with no one paying them any mind. The argument was getting heated.

The tallest boy that was in the group of two shoved at another boy. The boy that had gotten shoved was about to retaliate when the shortest and likely youngest of the group pointed Oscar's way. All five turned to look at him, and to his surprise… they motioned for him to come over.

"Uh, Gita… I think I just drew the attention of some local ruffians," Oscar said nervously.

"Ruffians? Jesus, how old are you?" Gita replied.

"Maybe it's a local gang. Let's go see what they want. Maybe they know of some fun stuff to do."

"Yeah, good idea. Let's have the local teenage gangs be our trip adviser," Oscar said sarcastically. Gita gave him a blank look.

"Bruno is literally a murderer." Oscar opened his mouth and paused for a moment before speaking.

"…Alright, let's go see what they want." As Oscar and Gita approached, one of the boys gave him a toothy smile. Well, maybe it was best to call it a tooth less smile considering he was missing two teeth. He had short brown hair, and was shirtless. He had a tattoo of some girls face on his right bicep.

"You two new?" the boy asked.

"You two definitely look…" he trailed off, struggling to find whatever word he was looking for"Clean?" A bald boy supplied.

"No, doofus, they look too pampered to be locals," a girl said. The same boy addressed her and shoved her.

"Same shit, bitch! Just because you used a fancy word doesn't mean that I'm wrong."

"Sorry about them, they're both idiots," the boy with brown hair said.

"I'm Cry, the girl's Sob, the bald bitch is Bawl, and those other two are Wail and Weep." Wail was a lanky boy with red hair and a nose piercing. Weep was short and had his hair in a mullet. They both waved at Oscar and Gita.

"Who're you? Weep saw ya creepin' on us during our… discussions."

"Sorry about that, I didn't mean to stare," Oscar said.

"But you're right, we're new to town, and were just checking out the marketplace."

"Oscar's a bit of a creep, sorry again about him," Gita said with a snicker. Oscar elbowed her in the ribs.

"And I'm sorry about Gita, she's a bit of a bitch. But we're working on it." The group chuckled at them briefly before Cry spoke again.

"Nice to meet you both. Maybe you two could help us settle our issue?" Oscar and Gita shared a look and shrugged, then motioned for Cry to continue.

"Okay, so Bawl wants to rob the church. Sob thinks there could be decent money, but really she's just a pussy that thinks it'll be easy. Wail and Weep wanna do nothing but get drunk, whereas I wanna hit a big score. I don't know what, but I want it to be something exciting."

"And you think we should be the arbiters of this quarrel?" Oscar asked incredulously. Cry laughed and thumped Bawl in the center of his forehead.

"See? This guy just said arbiter. The fuck is that? He's perfect to decide for us."

"Nah, Oscar's not the man to ask about this," Gita said, stepping in.

"You want to hit a big score, right? Well, it looks like you're ready to go now, yeah?" Cry nodded his head.

"Big takes time, as well as cohesion. Two of yours want to fuck off and get drunk, so you can't count on them. But you all look to be a close group of friends, so an easier job should be fine for them. Especially when you spin it as a low-risk, high-reward job. The high-reward for those two being money for booze, of course."

"Right, right… So you're saying tell the two idiots that if they help with the easy church job, then they can get drunk after," Cry said.

"But what about the bigger job?"

"Do it later. Research something big and juicy. Calculate the potential rewards versus the risk, then present it to them once you know how to sell it," Gita said.

"Um, we can hear you, you know?" Wail said. The others chimed in as well, but Cry just waved them away.

"Yeah, I guess that makes more sense," Cry reluctantly said.

"I suppose our boss would wanna be apart of a larger job himself as well…" Oscar raised his eyes at the mention of a boss.

"You all apart of a gang? I thought you were just a bunch of bored teens."

"Buddy, a gang? No, we're something far more than that. No doubt you've heard of us already, even if you're both new," Sob said with a snicker.

"You're looking at…"" The Lamenters!" all five said in unison. Oscar squinted his eyes at them in confusion, started to open his mouth to say something… but turned around and walked away instead.