Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

Jin kept her spear raised as she observed the other team and bluntly asked, "Hoping to get easy points, too?"

Darya shook her head. The older woman seemed to be in her late thirties with short brown hair and a very muscular build. "No, we're not looking for a fight. We heard the monster howling and were hoping to either help or… well, to clean up whatever might be left behind."

"Like our dead bodies?" Jin concluded, taking another step back and hoping her teammates would do the same.

The stranger gave a crooked smile. "I didn't make the game, I'm just playing it the same as you. Our goal though is survival over winning. The Workers are well known for taking on the support role for the other teams, just like the Lovers and Servants."

Jin snorted a laugh. "That's not the impression I got earlier when a Whisper tried to slaughter us all in our sleep."

Darya gave a helpless shrug. "All I can say is that we're not the Whispers. I get you're new to the world and our ways, but I mainly approached you all to negotiate a truce and trade agreements. We all want to reach the top alive. We have no animosity towards the Servants in this regard."

A hand on her shoulder made her jump slightly with how tightly she was wound, but she managed not to reactively attack Karam. The healer spoke calmly but loud enough for everyone to hear. "They're not lying about that. In past Seasons, they'd usually go with this type of strategy. It keeps the Fighters and Whispers off their backs, and still gets them some decent rewards when it's all over and the Final Tally takes place. They've never actually won a Season as far as I remember."

"That doesn't mean they won't kill us for more points to get ahead and survive early on," Hadia spat, lifting her own mace and the hammer she was currently using to dual wield with. "They didn't really help protect past Servants from getting slaughtered by the others either."

"We're actually doing pretty good on getting ahead already," another of the Workers spoke up with a smirk. "We came prepared this time and might actually have a shot at winning this Season."

"Shut up, Carter," snapped their leader at the younger man. The blonde scoffed and rolled his eyes at Darya but remained silent as he crossed his arms.

The movement of the leader turning around to scold him, however, let Jin notice a small girl who was partially hidden behind the older woman. She had odd hair that was a vibrant blue but almost looked coated in slime. It covered most of her face in waves down to her shoulders like a shy introvert trying to hide from the world, but Jin still noticed a bright blue eye peeking at her. The other odd thing was that the girl's skin itself was also a pale blue and she had to wonder what kind of Ability or Talent might have caused the odd mutation.

Jin almost wanted to yell at them for bringing an actual child into the tower, but remembered that the rules meant the girl was at least sixteen in Earth years. It was difficult to picture such a small thing being the same age as the giant Karam beside her though.

"What happened to her?" Jin asked, pointing at the girl with the tip of her spear which caused the blue stranger to take a nervous step backward.

Darya looked hesitant for a moment before putting herself firmly between them and the smaller girl and explaining, "Just the Blessing she got from the Viper mixing with a Natural Talent she already had."

"The Viper?" Basima asked, scrunching her nose in mild disgust. "The god of terror?"

Jin raised a brow at the Workers, remembering that the gods who approached people would note how they were connected to their concepts, and asked with a heavy dose of accusation, "What exactly have you been doing to her to make her feel terrified enough that the god would bless her for it?"

"You wouldn't think that if you saw what she can do. I'm pretty sure it's the other way around," a different Worker said, this one a woman likely in her twenties with straight black hair to her lower back and a darker complexion.

"That's enough, Rama," Darya snapped again. "I told you all to leave her alone and keep quiet." After the others looked properly repentant, the leader turned back to them with a sigh. "Look, our base isn't far from here. If you want to form at least a non-hostility agreement, we would be more than willing at this time, and will even offer a few points if you have crafting materials to trade."

Darya gestured to the pile of gray ashes next to them where the tree monster had been. "You obviously have a looting power, which I'll admit we are insanely jealous of, but it means you can hopefully feed us with the materials we need."

Jin looked between the group of Workers and her own teammates. She was getting mixed looks from them and decided she wanted to talk over things with them in private before rushing into any kind of agreement. "I think we can agree to simply part ways peacefully for now," she hedged. "I need to talk with the others, but how about we meet up again tomorrow? Right here after the Midday Tally?"

The leader frowned at her. "So you can set a trap for us? I need an actual Oathbond if you want something like that. I'm good with not attacking unless attacked first, but telling you exactly when and where to find us doesn't seem like a good idea when you're such an unknown at the moment and not giving me much to go off of."

"What's an Oathbond?" Jin asked in confusion, turning to Hadia. "I thought you said the system doesn't guarantee alliances."

"The tower doesn't," Hadia tersely replied. "Nobody in their right mind would make an Oathbond in here either," she added with a glare at the Workers. "That's practically a death sentence when things shift so often."

"Hey, making sure she doesn't attack us when we're trying to take the peaceful route isn't an outrageous ask," Darya retorted, crossing her arms over her chest. "We can even make the punishment for breaking it just be incapacitation for a duration instead of death."

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"I still need someone to explain what the hell an Oathbond is," Jin interjected a bit harsher than she intended but she was getting annoyed at continually trying to piece bits of information together.

"They're universal magic that binds someone to their word," Karam explained softly to her. "They can be very strict sometimes, though, if you aren't explicit enough when making them. If you break it, the magic will punish you, and if you're not clear on the punishment upfront when making your vow it usually kills you."

"And that's exactly what always happens when someone makes one in the tower," Hadia said, giving Darya a pointed look. "If you weren't a Worker, I would actually think that was your real goal with even suggesting something like that."

"Look, you're asking me to trust—" Darya's words cut off as the little girl tugged on her sleeve and she turned slightly to look down. "What Liraz?"

The girl tugged a bit harder and the older woman gave a heavy sigh before bending down far enough for her to whisper into her ear. Darya's eyes went wide, and then her face twisted in disgust a moment later before finally shaking her head and saying, "Fine. We'll meet here tomorrow, but we'll only be sending out one person from each team, alright? That way the others can protect or retaliate if either of us prove untrustworthy. Does that work for you all?"

Jin glanced at the others. Hadia, Karam, and Basima all nodded, but Alim simply looked worried and slightly confused. She felt a pang of guilt for not signing for him, but wasn't about to put her spear down at the moment with potential enemies only a few meters away from them.

"Works for us," she finally answered, taking another step back to try and signal the others to start moving further away.

"Wait, do you already have materials you can trade? I've built up some points already and we could really use them this early on," Darya said, taking another step forward but gesturing for the others to stay back. "We can test ourselves right now. Just you and me, with the others back a bit farther."

"We can't use that pelt," Karam whispered in Jin's ear. "This should help both of us."

Jin grimaced slightly but answered, "Let us back up a bit more so I can discuss what we might have then I'll come back for the trade then, okay?"

The Worker nodded and Jin was relieved when there was more distance between the two groups and she turned to her team. Before anything else she signed for Alim, explaining what they talked about and the offer made. She agreed with Kam's assessment that the guy was smart and wanted his opinion on the whole situation.

"Kar was right that it's common to trade with them," Alim signed back. He glanced over at the Worker's group again before hesitantly adding, "There's something up with that blue girl. The rest of them don't seem to like her. I was watching them all the whole time, and they looked at her like she's a bug. Even that leader seemed weird with her."

Jin frowned, looking back at the group as well to see if she could see what he had. He wasn't wrong that the others seemed to keep their distance from the smaller girl and kept shooting furtive glances at her. "You think she's here against her will?" she asked him.

He gave her a flat look, and managed to sarcastically sign, "Because all of us are obviously volunteers here."

Yup, I'm definitely the dumb one in the group, she thought, and huffed in annoyance as she signed back, "Well, unless we're going to kill all of the others, I don't think there's much we can do for her. Should we not trade unless they let her go or something?"

Alim shook his head. "I don't want to kill anyone without a better reason than they might be weird around one of their own. Let's just trade, refill our water, then get back to the base."

Jin quietly translated for the others who all seemed to agree with that plan. Before she left them though, she added, "If they do attack me, I want you to all run—"

"We're not leaving you," Hadia cut her off, then repeated the words Daren had seared into their memories. "We don't leave anyone behind, remember? If they attack you, you're going to fight back, and we're going to kill them, alright Sky Girl?"

She was a bit taken aback by the fierceness in Hadia's eyes, but managed to smirk and nod. "Alright then. Wish me luck."

"Rabbit be with you," Basima immediately replied, and Jin rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, that doesn't make me actually feel lucky when I told that particular god to go fuck theirself. Pretty sure I'm cursed now," she pointed out then made her way back to the middle point between the groups where Darya was waiting alone.

She reached into her pack and showed the monster pelt they had acquired earlier. "This is all we've got so far. We'll have a couple more tomorrow that we left back at our base," she lied, knowing they would need to retrace their steps back to the wall in order to get the loot they had left behind but hopefully it would be there still. Either way she planned to do more monster hunting.

"What about what you got from the floraval?" the Worker asked with a raised brow. "I doubt that generated anything of use for you. We have an alchemist and a tailor that could likely make better use of any materials from that."

Jin shook her head. "I didn't get materials from it, otherwise I'd definitely offer them."

Darya frowned but seemed to contemplate for a moment, glancing back at the rest of her group, and then giving a sigh. "Fine, one point for one pelt but I can't always give that much for a single piece. That's half a Mundane monster kill and we won't be able to craft a whole item from it to make back the points yet. Consider this just my hope for continuing more trading tomorrow and beyond till we're out of this place."

Jin nodded and watched as Darya pressed the Money rune on her own bracelet before saying to it, "Transfer one point," and then held it out for Jin to accept. Jin offered the pelt out at the same time she tapped her bracelet to Darya's which caused both to vibrate and make a little ringing sound.

The Worker seemed to relax more once the pelt was in her hand and gave a respectful nod. "Thanks for the trade."

"Sure. Glad you didn't attack us," Jin replied, slowly backing a few steps.

"Hey, I have a question real quick."

"Yeah?"

Darya gave her an odd look before tilting her head toward the other Servants and asking loud enough for everyone to hear, "Why are you helping them? You've only been here a few days from the rumors I heard before entering. Why bother fighting or trying to climb the tower? You could stay mostly safe and protected in your base or try trading them for sanctuary with another team."

"Well, aside from not being a traitorous piece of shit," Jin angrily replied, disliking the implication that she would easily condemn the others to save her own life, "the gods are all trash that need to be disposed of. If I can win their stupid game, maybe I can wish for them to fuck off for good and leave everyone alone instead of playing with their lives as if we were all toys for their personal amusement."

Darya looked stunned by her harsh response but the blonde man from earlier cried out in outrage, "Heretic! How dare you speak of the gods that way!"

The leader winced slightly before trying to explain with raised hands, "Just ignore Carter, he's a priest of the Tiger and—"

"And will make her pay for her blaspheming!" the man yelled, taking a few steps forward and lifting a wand in her direction.