Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Trenches

“Who are they?”

I didn’t recognize the name Trenches, though they seemed to be a mafia of the Founder’s market.

Plex smoothly answered my question.

“There are four dominating powers of the Founder’s Market: The Tavera Family, the Clockwork Association, a branch of the Polaris Family, and The Trenches. The Trenches though, unlike the others, hold a small amount of territory and basically no organized influence. They’re a gang, nothing more than a bunch of blood-lusting freaks who rule a portion of the market through fear and sheer power. Normally they stay in the dark, making their money mainly through the production of hard drugs. But occasionally they’ll step out into the light, as they are now.”

Plex waved the paper.

“This job from them is rather sudden, which means they’re doing something significant. We can expect to see some good stuff at the auction, but first, we need to move whatever cargo they have for us. Naturally, this involves plenty of danger, more so than usual. Simply stepping into their territory is sketchy, so four of us are going.”

“Who?”

“I’d like to go.”

“I’m curious too.”

A few spoke their opinions, yet Plex seemed to already know his decision.

“I’ll be taking John, Rayla, and Libitus. Tovex, you stay back on the outskirts of the territory. We may need your support when making our way out.”

“Alright.”

“When do we start?”

“Right now.”

Plex wasted no time, gathering whatever he needed.

“The auction is in two days, but I want to move whatever bomb the Trenches want us to handle as soon as possible. That means we leave in 10.”

With that, the four of us prepared to leave.

It wasn’t much later that we were on the street. For a while things were normal, nothing I hadn’t seen several times before.

But then, we stepped across what seemed to be the point of entry. Everything suddenly got dark as we left the rest of the market behind.

What lay in front of us were ragged stone roads and beat up buildings. They seemed to be more like shacks as the bristling stench of drugs and chemicals entered my nose.

These run down shacks were ever surrounded and inhabited by nothing but thugs. Not a single person I saw seemed to have any semblance of rationality hiding behind those eyes.

It got really bad when I saw an orgy in the streets. If the people were at least good looking I could bear it, but the sight of those humans who had their bodies degraded by drugs was unbearable.

I put my hand on Libitus’ shoulder and closed my eyes, bearing through the stench and letting him lead the way.

“Oh lord, cleanse my tainted eyeballs of the horrid sight.”

“Yea, that was pretty bad. Couldn’t even get to the whore house first.”

Rayla agreed with me as we continued deeper into the territory.

Thankfully it really was small as we quickly came upon the headquarters. It was there that we were greeted by guards, all of them carrying various creative weapons such as clubs with teeth sticking out of the wood or jagged cleavers. Still, I could tell that all of them were strong despite the rough appearances.

“Well if it isn’t Plex. I had a feeling you wouldn’t waste time.”

A voice sounded at our arrival, one that was masculine yet carried a hint of shrill madness.

A man who was leaning on a tilted and shattered pillar stood. My eyes were immediately pulled toward him, but not because of his appearance.

Instead, it was like I could see him in my mind. His body carried with it bristling power, radiating an aura of unhinged psychosis.

My hair stood on end as my chest constricted in fear. My breathing turned light as adrenaline ran through my system.

This guy was dangerous. It felt like he could jump on me and tear me apart whenever he wanted. It only got worse when he looked at me.

It was like his hands were reaching out with his gaze, his sharp fingers sinking between my ribs and tearing my chest open. The pain that came with it was enough to blur my vision.

I didn’t realize my body was frozen until Plex stepped in front of me. And with line of sight broken, I finally regained myself.

My hand waved, calling upon the flintlock and raising it toward that madman while my breath turned laborious.

I heard Plex’s voice.

“Don’t scare the kid, please. He’s new.”

“Hahaha! At least he didn’t piss himself! Usually when people have their chest ripped apart, they tend to forget to keep themselves together. Haha!”

A feeling of weakness came over me while he laughed. At the same time, I saw Rayla move in front of me, pulling my face with her hand.

“You’re bleeding. Just focus on me for a second.”

She raised a cloth to my face, wiping the blood that had started dripping from my nose.

Looking into her eyes was a good way to divert my mind from the vivid illusions of that pain. Dare I say it was rather intimate as I felt her hands ensure that I was okay. Still, I felt a bad migraine come on when all things subsided. Not even her pretty face could distract me from that.

“Heh, usually people wait until the final hour to come retrieve my packages. But you scurried right over here, didn’t you? Hell, sometimes they don’t even show up!”

“Business is business, Apocryon. I don’t discriminate between clients.”

“I guess that’s what makes you so amazing then! That and how prompt you are in responding to my requests. I only had to wait an hour. Here.”

Looking up, I saw the madman toss a box.

Plex caught it, but before he could stash it, Apocryon smiled.

“Open it.”

“...I don’t intrude on the privacy of my clients. What’s inside is of no business to me.”

“Well I’m making it your business. Open it.”

“...”

With the man insisting, Plex could only comply. Popping the lock, he gradually opened the container.

The four of us looked inside, and we saw a neat pile of black pills. If not for their uniform shape, I would have mistaken them for small pebbles.

“Those are neat little things called Overkill Pills. Eat one and your body will become a torrent of power that amplifies your output by several fold. Warlocks are uninhibited from casting all the spells they can, Knights are spurred by seemingly infinite strength, and even Summoners are able to call upon countless spirits. Of course, the aftermath is just as violent as the bestowal. The survival rate is currently zero.”

Apocryon chuckled lowly in excitement.

It was Libitus who commented first.

“The Army is going to buy the shit out of these…”

“Right?! I’m going to be rich! It will multiply the combat ability of our frontlines! Just imagine thousands of soldiers taking these pills and massacring the enemy!”

He laughed maniacally with ambitious words. Plex closed the box at the same time.

Then, Rayla lifted my slouching body, whispering to me softly.

“Get ready to go, kid. You know it's going to be rough on the way out.”

“...Shit.”

I cursed while spurring my body. My head throbbed, but right now, that was probably the least of my worries.

As if reading my mind, Apocryon retrieved a bag from his waist. He smiled at us while throwing it.

When Plex caught it, we could all hear the familiar clangs of metal coin.

“Your pay, sir delivery man. 120 thousand coin, plus 30 thousand for hazard pay.”

“...Holy hell…”

I couldn’t help but blurt out.

150 thousand coin!

That was a massive amount of money! How long would it take me to save that kind of coin?!

Even then, Plex merely gave a courteous smile.

“We appreciate the generosity. We will deliver this to the auction house as soon as possible.”

“I admire the confidence in your ability to make it out of here at all. Well, that is why I called you.”

Apocryon left with those words. And when he disappeared, I raised my gun.

My communion with this spirit gave me the skills of that soldier from the revolutionary war.

So when I saw a man jump at us from atop a building, my arm reflexively moved.

*Bang!*

It fired, leaving behind a plume of smoke.

And the body fell limply to the floor, a hole through its throat.

For a few moments, everything was silent, until Rayla spoke.

“That was kind of hot. What was that?”

“That was how we negotiate with criminals in my homeland. Fuck! My head hurts! Let’s get the hell out of here!”

“Amen, brother.”

Libitus laughed while reaching under his coat, retrieving a metal whip with segmented blades on it.

Rayla also took out what looked like a small staff. On its end was an arch that cradled a floating heart that pulsed as if alive. Around it, fancy lines appeared.

Plex disappeared while smiling.

“I got the money. See you all at the warehouse.”

“Asshole!”

I yelled while reloading. It only took several seconds as I easily retrieved a bullet and powder from the dimension, slamming everything down in the barrel.

At that moment, several other of those psychos came running at us from all directions.

Libitus lashed out with the metal whip, Rayla cast some spells that spit out sharp blades of air, and I took aim.

“Looks like we’re earning our money today!”

……

…

“Ugh. Oh yea, that’s tasty.”

“Having fun yet?”

Libitus snickered while hoisting my arm over his shoulders.

He bore the weight of my body as we walked through the founder’s market.

One of my eyes was closed, a thick liquid streaming over it. I smelled smoke and my tongue tasted iron.

“Heh, I don’t think I’ve ever been drenched in my own blood like this before. Am I really not gonna die?”

“Don’t worry. Rayla’s healing is good enough to keep you alive. Trust in my experience.”

“I see. You have my sympathies.”

I laughed as we arrived at a building.

Kicking open the door, Libitus dragged me into a bright area. It looked like a hospital with sterile white tiles and beds. I looked through my one eye as a nurse came striding over. Before she could even speak, Libitus flicked a gold bullion at her.

“We both need treatment. A few stab wounds and some blunt trauma. We also have another coming, a woman with red hair.”

“Understood sir. Right this way.”

She quickly led us to a couple nearby beds. Libitus lifted me into it before he set himself down on another.

“Help him first.”

“Don’t worry sir, we can help you both.”

The nurse reassured Libitus, though she did hurry over to my side and pull open my clothes.

My body was riddled with lacerations and a few stab wounds, along with huge nasty bruises on my limbs.

The fight out of the Trenches was not an easy one. Without Rayla and her healing, I would’ve died.

I killed no small amount of people, but not every shot was precise. Despite the large caliber, those freaks didn’t immediately go down unless you hit a vital spot. And smooth bore flintlocks didn’t make marksmanship easy. If I didn’t have the inherited skills from that man, there was no way I would be here now.

After seeing my wounds, the woman reached into one of her pockets and retrieved a red pill. She plopped it into my mouth, the pill instantly dissolving. There wasn’t even anything to swallow.

Instead, a hot energy spread through my blood vessels. It gave me energy and dampened the pain, even stopping the bleeding of my wounds.

At that time, another doctor came over and took a look at me. The man in a white coat laid out a case of tools on a nearby tray. Before he got to work though, he asked.

“Is it safe to put you to sleep, or shall I operate while you are lucid?”

“...”

I didn’t respond, looking over to Libitus.

He nodded.

“Go ahead and sleep. We’re fine.”

“Alright.”

“Then I’ll get to work.”

With that confirmation, the doctor fed me another pill. This one dissolved like the last one, and just like that, I turned drowsy before passing out.

……

…

When I woke up, my body was wracked with a dull pain.

When my eyes focused, I turned my head. I could see Libitus on the bed beside me, his back propped up and reading a book.

Turning the other way, I saw a red haired girl asleep on another bed.

It was Rayla. I had only known her for a few hours, but my impression of her was good. She was pretty, and unlike the orange hair that was usually associated with redheads on Earth, her hair was actually a blood red. In this world, some people had deep colored hair like that.

While she wasn’t jaw droppingly gorgeous, she was still pretty. She was also mature, perhaps a bit older than me.

And as I had discovered, she could be a bit flirty. It was fun.

“Her wounds were a bit lighter than yours. But with her healing powers, she’ll recover just fine. Yours were still the worst of us. It's good that your body is resilient.”

Libitus commented. Taking my gaze off the sleeping Rayla, I closed my eyes.

“Yea, not like it hurt any less. Still, I don’t think I’ve ever pushed myself like that before. I didn’t even know I could go that far.”

“You learn things about your limits during battles like those. They’re valuable experiences, so long as you survive them. Oh, also…”

I looked at Libitus while he smiled.

“Your cut. 25.”

“...Like…”

“Yea. None of us expected him to pay that much, but hey, we earned it. Just don’t spend it all in one place.”

“Right…’

I was a bit dazed.

I just earned 25 thousand coin. That was more than everything I had earned up until this point.

“Oh, we also have more deliveries to do over the next couple days. The auctions are always the time for big business. You can expect this kind of stuff every month, especially when the major auctions come around. Of course, this was a special case. Singular payouts aren’t quite as big and not nearly as dangerous. But you can expect to make tens of thousands over a mere three day period during normal auctions.”

“...I like this job.”

“Yea, it’s pretty good.”

Libitus chuckled and agreed.

And not long after, Rayla roused from her sleep. I could see a few lines of stitches on her lithe body, but they had already healed much better than mine.

She turned, her eyes focusing on me.

“Hey sweet cheeks. How’s your ass?”

“Oh god, this is not becoming a thing is it?”

“You bet your tight ass it is.”

She giggled as I rolled my eyes.

One of the several slices on my body happened to be on my butt cheek, which she had to heal so I could keep running.

It was embarrassing. Even Libitus laughed.

She snickered a bit as I diverted my gaze.

“Don’t worry hun. I’ve healed worse. Besides, you’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about. You’re quite well endowed.”

“Thanks. So are you.”

“Hoho, cheeky boy.”

Her eyes curved as we smiled at each other.

A few minutes later, a doctor came over and checked us all out. Once he gave us a painkiller pill and cleared us, we all grabbed our stuff and left.

Our first stop was the warehouse. It was there that we saw Plex.

But he wasn’t in perfect shape. His clothes were bloodied as he slumped in a chair. The only reason we knew he was alive was because he was drinking a bottle of wine.

“Oh, you all finally made it.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’ve been worse. Most of my wounds are internal, so I can only rest to heal. Oh, here are your cuts.”

Saying that, he took out three bags and threw them to us.

I caught mine and opened it, seeing 25 gold bullion coins. They were worth 25 thousand coin.

A stupid grin surfaced on my face. It felt nice, being somewhat rich. And the jingle of gold made my wounds hurt less.

“Rayla.”

Plex called while taking a swig of wine.

“Take John to the Polaris Bank tomorrow and have him open an account. Do it under the company name. He can’t be walking around with that coin all the time.”

“Alright. For now, I just need to head home. Walk with me?”

She waved me over while walking out. I glanced at Plex who seemed to be getting drunk before striding out with her.

We stepped onto the cold streets. Since we always worked at night, seeing nobody out was normal. Though, the sun was beginning to creep up, signaling dawn.

“Where are you staying?”

She asked, prompting me to point to the center of the city.

“The Black Spider Hotel.”

“You have a room there?”

“Yea, the Key Master is letting me stay there until I get into the magisterium in a few months.”

“I see… I have an apartment that’s in that general direction, though I can’t say its as luxurious.”

“I only had a hotel before, so I understand. I’ll walk you home.”

“Why thank you. Don’t you go getting any funny ideas though.”

She pat my cheek with a coy smile, making me chuckle as we walked.

“You can kick my ass, so I don’t have any plans to.”

“And if I couldn’t? What would you do to me? How might you ravage me with those funny little thoughts?”

“Hey now, I’m an upright gentleman. No matter how fantastically impure my thoughts are, I wouldn’t go ravaging a woman unless she wanted it.”

“Hah! Well, at least you’re honest about how horny you are.”

She smacked my butt as we arrived at the apartment.

“Alright, I’ll meet you tomorrow at around 6. Since you’re already there, just find me at the entrance to the Polaris Bank. Afterward, you’ll probably be working with me when we get these jobs for auction deliveries. Plex requires us to work them in pairs for safety.”

“Okay.”

“Goodnight then, John. You did well today.”

She ruffled my hair with a surprisingly caring and soft voice.

I waved as she disappeared into the apartment. Then, I made my way to my room at the hotel.