Jobless - Chapter 1

Just a note, this is basically just a concept chapter, and I have a lot of these I'll probably post over time. The title is also a placeholder, as I'm not very good at naming things. There will probably be something better in the future if I decide to continue this. It's an attempt at a slice of life story.

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The sound of its slobbering echoed down the alleyway.

Fangs, yellow and deadly, lay dormant in its maws. The beast’s eyes were sharp, and its claws yet sharper. Each prowling movement its body underwent sent its tightly wound muscles rippling and allowed its wiry fur to catch upon the midday sunlight. Urik spared a glance for the worn bricks that surrounded them on all sides but one; the one he was currently blocking.

Grinning in triumph, Urik prepared himself, keeping his stance low. A cool breeze sent goosebumps travelling up his arms, but he ignored it.

It had been early morning when he’d started hunting this creature, being forced to speed through the streets of Lateria and tail the trail of chaos the beast had left in its wake. He had to admit, this wasn’t at all how he expected his day to begin, though he supposed that it couldn’t have been any more eventful than the one where he’d woken up beside a corpse.

The memory of that was still fresh in his mind, even a month later.

Focus, Urik. You’ve got one chance, man. He shook his head, pushing out the sounds of the town’s bustle and idle chatter. It was just him and the beast now.

His eyes became as keen as the edge of two daggers; deadlier than anything the drooling beast could sic on him. Sensing his resolve, it growled. Ever so slightly, the bushy tail peeking out from its rear twitched. Clearly, it was enjoying this.

As if that was the signal, it sprung into motion and dashed to the side, hoping to slip past Urik’s defences with ease. Naïve! The man was moving to cut it off before its feet had even finished leaving the ground. His arms cleaved in from the side, and the creature leapt back, narrowly avoiding capture.

Urik narrowed his eyes, “You’re a smart one, huh?”

The canine beast opted to bark, its tail now a whirlwind. Even now, it wasn’t taking the threat of him seriously. A foolish act.

This time, Urik took the initiative and charged in. His target attempted to weave around him and pursue escape, yet an invisible force held it back. It snarled and whined against it but found itself entirely immobile.

Urik felt a pang of guilt at its sorrow as he dispelled his [Telekinesis]and scooped the dog from the filthy alley. Garbage littered many corners of the place, and he was sure the juices from them were responsible for the eternal moisture of the concrete here, “Sorry buddy. I can’t play all day.”

Which was true, if a bit misleading. It wasn’t like he had anywhere else to be or anything better to do. He was unemployed, alone and still doing his best to piece together the world he’d been abruptly transported to. Still, he’d dedicated a half-hour just to enjoy himself, and the small canine certainly supplied.

It whined again and attempted to crawl up and lick at his face. While he found the action rather adorable, Urik prevented disease before it could occur and tucked the creature under his arm. He had no idea what he’d been eating and would rather not find out from a doctor. Not that he was even sure if he could pay for a doctor.

“Come on, bud. Let’s get you home.” The mention of ‘home’ seemed to be enough for the dog to forget his transgression against it, and its tail was once more consumed in a whirlwind of wagging.

Walking through town with a dog underarm wasn’t exactly a unique sight – he’d seen people doing so with magical familiars or mythical creatures – but it still earned him quite a few looks. Mostly, he suspected people were just curious as to why he wasn’t walking the poor thing. If Urik had thought to ask its owner for a lead, he would have.

He’d never found the act of strolling as anything other than simply boring, so he did his best to occupy himself with the buildings around him. They weren’t anything he hadn’t seen before, with their fairly familiar European architectural style and the assortment of Rune Crystals embedded in the brickwork or woodwork of them. It depended on the make of the building, really.

Urik didn’t really know much about the crystals in question, only that people commonly placed them above the doorway and that they produced some sort of effect when a criterion was met in the range of their glow. A few of those that he’d observed created a ringing noise when the door was opened, which was interesting, and left him wondering just how they functioned.

There were also many more he’d never seen in action before, and considering the valuable nature of the contents of many stores, he’d felt his best bet was that Rune Crystals could also possess defensive effects as well.

Seeing as there seemed to be such a high demand for them among the populace, Urik had considered finding a way to learn a [Mastery] that would allow him to create them and attempt to sell them en masse. He was always in need of money, and a reliable job like that was just what he needed.

Unfortunately, he’d later learned that those who made Rune Crystal had trained for years upon years and achieved access to rare [Mastery]evolutions. Hell, Urik didn’t even have a single [Mastery] above the first Grade, let alone one that was ready to undergo evolution. In the end, he’d been forced to scrap the idea, much like most he’d had concerning a long term job.

He did, however, spare one more glance for the myriad of colours the crystals cast the pavement in. It was always interesting to see which combination of crystals made which colour, even if he knew what they should create already.

He had been to primary school.

Eventually, the novelty of the town and the mysticism of the various races roaming the streets – whether on the pavement or in the sky – stole his attention away long enough for him to arrive at his destination. It was an old house, with a splintering wooden exterior and a sun-bleached porch, and was in one of the poorer regions of the city, but he paid it no mind.

A few quick steps brought him up to the door, and he knocked. The sound echoed into the quiet surroundings. Not many people walked the poorer areas, whether out of fear of being mugged or disdain, he still didn’t know. From within the house, he heard the thudding of footsteps, and within seconds, the doorknob was rattling.

The door opened and revealed an elderly woman, whose eyes swiftly widened as she recognised him and his shaven head and then darted down to the small animal squirming under his arm. She smiled widely, “Oh Urik, you foundhim!”

“What’d I say, Mrs Kalzila?” he gave his chest a pound of confidence as he delicately handed the dog over to her. Perhaps a side effect of its brown fur, the poor creature’s name was simply ‘Mud’, “I told you I’d get it done!”

She beamed and held Mud close to her chest. The sight warmed Urik’s heart, although it reminded him intimately of how lonely he was at home. Maybe he should get a pet? Nah. I can just barely afford to feed myself… maybe later…

As the thought passed through his head, he watched Mrs Kalzila’s wrinkled face scrunch up. She looked down at the dog within her arms, her expression portraying an immense amount of disappointment, “You’re naughty boy, Muddy. I was worried about you.”

Urik felt a tinge of amusement as the dog visibly deflated under the scolding tone of her voice, and a smile played on his lips. The elderly woman glanced back up to him, her joy evident on her face, “Thank you so much, Urik! Here’s what I promised.”

The lady reached into the pouch at her waist and yanked out a handful of bronze coins. Promptly, she deposited them in Urik’s waiting hand. Smiling toward his small haul, he counted each coin with relish. Then he froze, and his brows furrowed as he finished, “You gave me three too many, Mrs Kalzila.”

He tried to give it back, but her hands had long retreated to wrap around Mud.

“You’re a nice boy. You deserve it.” She gave him a tender look, “I know you’re struggling a bit.”

Urik’s lip quivered a little at the show of generosity, but he would be damned if he showed it. Perhaps it was the echoes of his father’s dehumanising ‘lessons’, but he would rather die than cry in front of another. He clutched the coins in his hand tightly, “How’d you kno- I… I mean who told you that?”

“Word gets around, Urik. Nobody really knows where you came from – you just appeared – but people do care about you. Even if you’ve only been here for a month, they notice things.” She said simply. He supposed he couldn’t put a fault to anything she said. He knew those he interacted with weren’t dumb, he’d just kind of… hoped they would be.

He cleared his throat, “Huh. The more you know, right?”

Seeing that he didn’t really want to continue speaking about the matter, the elderly woman ushered Mud inside and gave him a small smile as she followed her pet, “Indeed. I hope you have a good day, Urik. And remember, I’m always here if you need someone to talk to.”

“I… I will.” He gave her a smile back, albeit a forced one. The door closed behind her with a dull thud.

Sighing, Urik tucked his payment into a pouch of his own and began back along the road. It had been a month exactly since he’d arrived in this world. One moment he’d been tucked under his sheets sleeping, and the next, he’d felt blood staining his pyjamas from the corpse lying beside him in the ruins of a house.

Even now, he had no idea why or how he was sent here, though initially, his guess had been a fever dream after suffering a heart attack. Considering the amount of time that had passed, he was fairly certain that it wasn’t. All he knew was that it was a chance for a fresh start, a chance to live a life free from the clutches of his father. And for that, he had been quick to accept his situation.

As he passed by one of the Rune Crystal stores, he briefly considered entering and having a look, as he still feared that whatever had killed his house’s previous owner would come back for seconds, but he was quickly reminded that he didn’t possess the funds for such an endeavour. He’d already set up traps around his perimeter – mostly just pitfalls and tripwires that were connected to bells – but he wouldn’t say ‘no’ to some extra security.

Though he supposed that he had neither seen nor heard anything in the past month, so his paranoia might have just been a waste of energy. It won’t be a waste when I wake up like the chicken in a three-piece box…

Snorting toward his own thoughts, Urik felt at the pouch upon his waist for comfort and continued through the town. He did his daily run as he always did, stopping by all of the more amicable people in town and seeing if they had any odd jobs for him to do – that was his primary avenue of making money.

Unfortunately, life was going relatively well for all of them today, and there were no problems that needed his solving aside from the few easy ones that popped up on occasion. He welcomed them, though he knew it was far fewer than what he was used to.

A handful of the people he’d slowly grown somewhat close with over the past month had asked him how he was doing lately, though he hadn’t offered much more than ‘the usual’. He was sure they all knew his pitiful living conditions and day by day monetary situation by now, but he liked to pretend that they didn’t.

It helped with the feelings of self-pity, he found.

The Quest Board had been his final destination for the day after he’d retrieved groceries or removed cats from trees or whatever else one could think of among the mundane, and just like most things today, it left him disappointed and without work. Oftentimes, there was a [Gathering] quest or even one of the more exciting [Subjugation] quests nailed up there among others. Unlike the odd jobs he was practically living off of, they paid well.

Sometimes, he was even paid in [Masteries], instead of money. And that was fine by him.

From what he’d heard, Lateria was one of the larger towns in the kingdom and was home to quite a few distinguished wizards and warriors, or even noble folk that just wished for their surroundings to be as safe as possible. And he knew all too well that it worked greatly in his favour. Hell, it was half the reason he always awoke at the crack of dawn. Aside from others with his same mindset, he barely had any competition for the day’s freshly nailed listings.

In the end, as the sun began to dip beyond the rolling hills that guarded the town, Urik threw in the metaphorical towel and returned home, his eyelids already drooping from exhaustion. It took him all of ten minutes to return to his secluded abode – the dilapidated remains of a house overlooking the town – and despite owning only a bundle of straw and fabric as a mattress, sleep took him quickly.

Hopefully, tomorrow would be a better day.