“Look inside yourself.”
Fantastic Voyage* #quote
Today I got the new Super Smash Bros game. Also it looks like CJ
will not be coming over this weekend, but I got that awesome new game
and I may still go to that tournament and see him there. Anyway onto
the flash fiction!
The Adventurer's Competition
“Somebody already took the job!?” The adventurer yelled as he
pounded the tavern counter and sent all the drinks flying. His
massive strength and armor allowed this feat along with his rage.
Nobody could see the adventurer's face. Just his steel armor and
large stature along with all the weapons and supplies he hoisted on
his back. “I walked all the way out here into the boonies to slay
your dragon and someone took the job? How's that even possible? The
adventurer's guild makes sure that no one adventurer's accidentally
take another's claimed job to avoid these wasted trips!”
The bartender tried to keep the conversation calm. “Sorry, but
we've been having someone take care of our dragon problems.” The
bartender looked at the split drinks long time and made sure the
adventurer noticed his stare.
The adventurer took a deep breath. “Apologies for my misbehavior.
Allow me to introduce myself, I am Eron the Brave.” Eron placed
money to pay for all the drinks he spilled in his rage. He then
continued speaking in his adopted persona. “May you direct me to
city hall so I can talk to the mayor of your town and find out who is
working the job. I might as well join their band and make their lives
easier.” The adventurer's motives mostly lay in getting a cut than
making their lives easier. “Or I could get some other jobs while
I'm in the area.”
A high pitched, yet rugged voice spoke up. “We have no interest in
letting barbaric, disorganized, discriminatory, adventurers into our
group.”
Eron turned around to see a goblin. “W-what is one of you little
beasts doing here? Should I get some coin for slaying you?”
“Don't do anything stupid. Four hundred of my comrades are just
outside this town. I die, you die painfully,” The goblin spoke in a
mocking tone, savoring the moment.
Eron set down his supplies and drew his sword. “Four hundred?
You're bluffing, goblins don't travel in groups larger than twenty.
That's an army!”
The man running the tavern added, “It's true.”
“You're out of touch adventurer. Been crawling in too many
dungeons without checking the news.” The goblin smiled.
“I only care about my job, not the news.”
The goblin laughed in his high pitched, scratchy laugh. “The news
has everything to do with your job. We goblins have changed for the
better. We've decided that instead of fighting with you humans we
should merely work for you. Adventurer's killed us for raiding
cattle. Well now we protect the cattle. We decided that the
adventurer had a pretty sweet gig. We hunted and fought beasts
normally, why not do it for a profit? Now instead of stealing we
merely get paid.”
The adventurer who'd killed plenty of goblins in his time replied,
“You're still a nuisance to all humanity.”
“Not any longer. Why be a nuisance. Being an adventurer is so much
more profitable. And we replace you, our old hated enemies. You're no
longer needed. Every single town we go to employs our services to
kill monsters. Soon people will forget that we ever were called
monsters and that your kind ever existed.”
The adventurer didn't reply. He merely left and kept looking for
jobs while they kept slipping away from his fingers. Many years later
he retired not as an adventurer, but as a farmer who hired the Goblin
Guild to protect his farm on many occasions.
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