Chapter 22: Three Strikes and You’re Out

Chapter 22: Three Strikes and You’re Out

“We came here to help Oliver,” Beth replied, slapping Gordon on the shoulder.

Gorden gave Beth a murderous look but ended up nodding in silence. Since we couldn’t spend any of the money, I decided to take them to the quest board.

“This is where I pick up the delivery quests that Sam’s been doing,” I explained, taking down an F rank delivery quest to hand to Beth. “I pick up all of the F ranked delivery quests and take them to the window. Then I accept every parcel I can fit in my bag.”

That reminded me that I still had that medium-sized package left over from two days ago. Sam and Beth worked as a team to pluck all of the delivery quests from the board while Gordon grumbled about wishing he’d slept in.

“What about these?” Beth asked, holding up a D ranked delivery quest I’d skipped.

“I can’t do those yet,” I replied, wondering what made them different.

“We should be able to rank up in a few months,” Leslie chirped, already picking out another kill quest. “Look, there’s a quest to kill slimes today. You wanted to kill those, remember?”

While I was less than excited to help Miss Aires come up with another recipe, I was very interested in learning how to harvest a monster.

“Let’s do that first. Can we kill some of the ones just outside?” I asked, hoping to let Leslie do all the heavy lifting.

Leslie shook her head. “No, it’s too much of a pain trying to find a quiet place to kill them. I’m going to take you to the starter dungeon.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

She grinned. “There’s only one in downtown Manhattan. It’s called The Flatiron. It’s a building that’s been enhanced to house a dungeon. The above-ground floors are a training area for new adventurers. Cleaners round up and place every monster that gets into the city in the tower.”

“What about the ones I see walking around?” I asked, remembering the slimes I always saw with the buff.

“Monsters spawn all the time,” Leslie explained. “That is, when enough ambient mana accumulates in one place, a monster is born. They don’t grow like animals. Monsters come out fully formed. It takes time for the Cleaners to find them. That’s why you see them.”

“Why can’t I see them?” Beth asked, looking apprehensive.

“Because you aren’t magic,” Leslie replied coldly, her expression only softening when she saw the effect her words had on the girl. “I mean, we get a special trait called Monster Vision. It’s more of a pain than it’s worth really. It gives me nightmares. I don’t know how Oliver can stand to have it on at night.”

Once we’d taken all of the F ranked delivery quests, we made our way over to the delivery counter. I was relieved to see that it was a different person. That last boy seemed overworked. Not to mention he was kind of gross.

“Good morning, Sir. How may I help you today?” a teen girl greeted us as we approached. “Oh my!”

She gasped as we spread out the delivery quests in front of her. “Did you have to grab all of them?”

“Don’t worry,” I replied. “We are going to do most of them.”

“Why not all of them?” Sam asked, looking puzzled.

“We can’t do the ones that are too heavy,” I replied, pointing to one of the bigger boxes.

After disappearing into the back for a while, the girl returned dragging a massive box with seven smaller ones on top. Sam and I stepped around the counter to help but she waved us off.

“Sorry, only official personal are allowed back here,” she grunted, still struggling with the box. “We’ve had package thefts in the past.”

“Oh, sorry,” Sam replied. “I was just trying to help.”

“We don’t need the big one,” I said as I followed Sam back around the counter. “It’s too heavy for us.”

She groaned for good measure and said, “You could have told me before I dragged it out here. Now I have to put it back.”

“Sorry,” I said. “The offer to help you still stands.”

“It’s fine,” she sighed, scooping the lighter packages off of the box and bringing them.

When I showed her my guild card, her eyes got wide and she picked up a clipboard, scanning it anxiously. Without saying anything, she scooped up all the packages and placed them back on top of the box.

“Hey!” Leslie squealed. “We want those.”

“Package thief,” the girl announced, pointing a finger at me. “You need to report to redemption and account for the lost parcel before you can take any more quests.”

“Oh yeah!” I exclaimed, remembering the medium-sized package I’d stuffed into my bag and forgotten about. “I didn’t steal it. It’s right here in my bag.”

The girl’s eyes widened as she watched my bag expand so the package could fit. She didn’t take her eyes off it even when the package was sitting right in front of her.

“You have a magic bag!” She bellowed a little too loud for my taste.

Gordon picked up on her excitement and grabbed my bag. “Now I’ve got a magic bag! Don’t even think about asking for it back.”

My heart leaped in my chest as I lunged for the bag. Gordon held it just out of reach. The girl behind the counter just stood there with her mouth hanging open. As usual, when my bully had his way with me, the responsible people around me turned into spectators.

Beth tugged at his arm as he hefted the bag above his head. “Come on, Gordon. Give it back to him.”

This went on for a while until a powerful voice boomed through the room. “Enough! Now, does somebody want to tell me what this nonsense is?”

It was Mr. Chrysler. Leslie pointed at Gordon and said, “This guy stole Oliver’s magic bag!”

“Is that true, Oliver?” Mr. Crysler asked, looking at the bag above Gordon’s head.

I nodded.

Gordon clutched the bag to his chest and shook his head. “No! This bag is mine. I brought it with me.”

“Is that so?” Mr. Chrysler asked. “Tell me, Son. What’s in the bag?”

He hemmed and hawed, opening the bag to look inside before triumphantly announcing. “Nothing!”

I grinned, imagining the darkness he must see. I kind of wished I hadn’t taken the package out yet. Was there anything left inside?

“What about you, Oliver?” Mr. Chrysler asked. “Can you tell me what’s in the bag?”

I sagged. “I don’t remember. I’d have to check.”

“Very well,” Mr. Chrysler replied. “Hand him the bag, Son.”

Gordon clutched the bag tightly for a moment before begrudgingly holding it out to me. I sucked in a deep breath and opened it up.

“Oh,” I gasped, taking out the plates from several days ago that Beth and the girls had carefully packed up. “There are dirty plates in here.”

“Nothing, huh?” Beth asked, giving Gordon a smug look.

“I believe that’s strike three,” Mr. Chrysler said in a low voice.

“No!” Gordon yelped before his eyes clouded over when Mr. Crysler snapped his fingers.

Beth walked over to him with a look of alarm on her face when he didn’t recover right away. “What did you do to him? Is he going to be okay?”

Mr. Chrysler nodded. “He broke the contract.”

“I thought that was only for telling people about you guys,” Sam said, the color draining from his face. “Is this what you do when people annoy you?”

“No,” Beth whispered. “The contract also said we can’t cause trouble while we’re here.”

“That’s correct,” Mr. Chrysler said. “Be sure he’s fully aware of that if you ever bring him back.”

“Can he come back?” Beth asked with a look of surprise.

“I assume he will have to be if he’s a part of Oliver’s retinue,” Mr. Chrysler replied. “We are currently looking into ways of incorporating your orphanage into our lesser questing strategies. Oliver pointed out that we can use you to deliver packages around the area. In fact, I don’t see any reason why you can’t deliver the D ranked packages as well. Those pay double but must be delivered right away.”

“Um, Sir,” the girl behind the counter said in a hesitant voice. “What do we do about this package? It’s over a day late?”

Mr. Chrysler turned his attention to me with a crooked smile under his mustache. “I suggest you apologize to the customer when you deliver it. Today!”

“Yes, Sir,” I replied, already starting to tuck it back into my bag.

It turned out that there were a lot of D ranked delivery quests. Much more than my friends could hope to deliver in a day.

“I don’t know if this money we’re earning is good for anything,” Beth said when I showed her my copper coins again. “If you can’t enter the auction, what good is it?”

“You can always go to the shopping arcade,” the girl behind the counter chirped, suddenly interested in our conversation for some reason. “There are plenty of things you can buy there. Things you’ll never see in your world.”

“Where is that?” I asked, wondering why nobody told me about it before.

“I’ll show you,” Leslie whispered in my ear so only I could hear.

Beth frowned and Sam said, “You’d better not go without me!”

Before we left, we made a plan. Sam and Beth would pick up as many D rank deliveries as they could handle. Gordon was practically useless since we didn’t know when he would come out of the magic fog he seemed to be in. I planned to spend an hour with Miss Aires before heading to Miss Spencer’s Tailor shop to explain to her what happened to me. Then, if there was still time left, I would accompany Leslie to the dungeon called The Flatiron to kill some slimes.

“You know you don’t have to come with me, right?” I asked as Leslie followed me back to the restaurant.

“I know,” she replied. “It’s not like I have anything else to do. Your friends can handle the delivery quests and the only one I took was to kill slimes for you.”

“Don’t you need money?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Not as much as I need friends.”

The thought made me smile. Leslie was my first magic friend. She was a bit older than me but there weren’t exactly any kids my age running around. That made me wonder.

“Where exactly do the other kids hang out?” I asked as we entered the restaurant.

Leslie sighed. “Most kids our age attend school.”

“Why don’t you?” I asked.

She frowned. “I did but I got kicked out.

I wanted to ask more about it but Miss Aires chose that moment to drag me to the kitchen.

“Are you ready to get started?” She asked, wrapping an apron around her waist.

“Yes,” I replied. “However, I don’t just want to help you improve your dishes. I want you to teach me how to be a better cook as well.”

“I can do that,” she said, fishing out another apron and tossing it to me. “Be warned though, I’m not going to go easy on you.”

I grinned. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

***

Leslie watched from the corner as the two of us worked side by side. Since it was still early, we focused on improving the breakfast menu. While Analyze made suggestions for every dish, I only told Miss Aires about half of them. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to help but I decided to keep the fancier suggestions to myself and just give her ways to improve each dish by adding or changing only the ingredients. In return, she gave me step-by-step instructions on how to best prepare each ingredient.

“You need to make sure every cut is made precise and even,” she explained. “Vegetables that are too thick or too thin won’t cook evenly and that will affect the overall flavor of the dish.”

“Why did you turn down my suggestion for this one?” I asked, curious why she hadn’t even tried to make it the way Analyze suggested.

Miss Aires sighed. “While your skill is potent, I don’t always agree with it. In this case, I like my recipe for hash browns better.”

I nodded, wondering if I should tell her how to make an Arcane Circle that would improve the crunchiness without burning them. Cooking was a complicated business.