Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

A flash of blue appeared around Jin as Alim's [Mana Barrier] surrounded her once more, and she immediately reconjured her spear to try and defend herself.

"Stop it, Carter!" Darya yelled, stepping between them to block any conflict between them.

Jin was surprised not just by the movement but by the fact that the older woman actually turned her back to her.

"I told you, we're not going to attack any Champions unless they attack first!"

"She just verbally assaulted my god!" Carter retorted, still moving closer to them. "She deserves punishment!"

That was when the loudest gong Jin had ever heard rang through the forest. Then a strange feminine voice loudly echoed around them, coming not only from all of their individual bracelets but the very sky itself, and further emphasized by the bracelets forcibly displaying a new red hologram with the text reading along. "The Herald Sect has initiated their Bounty for the first floor! The death of Servant Jin at the hands of a Champion will award a total of one hundred points if accomplished within the next week. Good luck, Champions!"

An extremely tense silence followed a heartbeat later and Jin's grip tightened on her spear as she prepared for the coming onslaught.

Darya actually turned to give her a strange conflicted look as Carter reached her and said with an almost maniacal grin, "See! We kill her now, and can buy that new box of ingots in the shop for you! She's worth as much as the floor boss now!"

Jin almost decided to take the initiative before the Worker could agree with him, but the odd blue girl they had called Liraz was suddenly standing in front of her, arms spread out with her back to her as if to shield Jin from the inevitable attack of the other Workers.

"Get out of the way, Slimebag!" the priest yelled, grabbing the smaller girl's shoulder but an unexpected grapple from behind him had Carter ripped from her to be roughly tossed back a dozen feet by an irate looking Darya.

"I told you if you laid another finger on her I would trade you to the Fighters and be done with your disobedience!" the older woman snarled at him. "We're not killing any other Champions without provocation, do you understand me?! I don't care if they have a bounty on their heads or not."

Carter looked shocked by the sudden violence from his own teammate at first but scowled a moment later before picking himself up from the dirt.

Darya turned back to Liraz and pointed an accusing finger at her. "And you are a complete idiot for making such a move when you know everyone is watching. You know Hank will punish you for acting like a traitor, and he may even banish you once this is all said and done if you keep it up. Won't matter how valuable your Talent is if you won't obey. Now go stand with Ramazan!"

Liraz seemed to shrink in on herself for a moment, before glancing back at Jin and doing the strangest thing Jin had ever seen in her life. The little girl lifted her silvery shirt slightly and reached into her stomach to pull out a folded piece of paper. She gestured for Jin to come closer so that she could whisper in her ear like she had with Darya earlier.

Jin hesitated but decided that if the girl was willing to get between her and that murderous priest then she probably wouldn't try attacking her like this. She bent closer and the soft voice nervously whispered, "Only read it under covers. They can't watch there. Stay silent. They can always hear."

Liraz shoved the paper into Jin's hands and scurried over to the other woman's side without another word.

The leader of the Worker's stared at the obvious secret note now clutched in Jin's hand for a long moment, obviously trying to decide if she should push for the information or not. When she finally met Jin's gaze, she seemed to make her decision. "We won't meet here tomorrow. Instead we'll be here in a week once your bounty falls off. If any of the Servants are still alive, we'll make good on that trade agreement then. Alright?"

Jin nodded, tucking the paper into her pack, and firmly replied with a confidence she wasn't sure she truly believed, "I'll see you in a week then."

Darya actually snorted a laugh at that, shaking her head, and picking up the pelt she had dropped when tossing Carter around like a sack of potatoes. She handed the pelt to Liraz and barked at the others, "We're leaving now. In peace."

As they began leaving, Jin slowly stepped backward until she reached the rest of her team, and Basima almost tackled her to the ground in a hug. "Oh my gods! I was so worried! I almost shot that guy in the face with an arrow, but Hadia told us to wait just in time! I can't believe you managed to make the audience so mad that they triggered the Bounty system this early! I don't think I've ever heard of that happening before the first week. Do you think we should just hide in our base or—"

"I'm gonna need you to slow down and explain things to me, Bas," Jin interrupted with a chuckle. "I got the gist from the announcement, but I have no idea what the other rules might be. What happens after the week is up, and how did they even trigger something like that in the first place?"

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"Oh, um, I'm not entirely positive about that actually," Basima replied, letting go as she glanced over at Hadia instead.

"It requires the Sect leaders to activate it," the other woman answered, gesturing for them to regrab the buckets they had dropped when the tree monster first revealed itself and actually finish their original goal.

"Each Sect can only do it once per Floor and the amount of points and time allotment is based on various factors like what level the target is and how much time has already been spent on the Floor. That's why it's so weird for them to trigger one so soon. They're not going to get as much out of it," Hadia continued explaining as the group made their way to the gentle stream.

"Once the time is up, that's the end of it. No more extra points for killing you, and the Sect can't trigger a Bounty again until the next floor opens," Hadia added. She then suddenly paused at a thought and turned back to say, "Maybe it's a good thing for us, actually, since people are still trying to map the area. They'll have to find us first before thinking about taking one of us out. If they triggered it in a couple weeks then the other groups will likely have already found our base and know where to find us."

Jin nodded in understanding. "I guess that's one silver lining to getting a giant target painted on my back."

They were cautious about more monsters but didn't see anything as they reached the water. All of them made sure to drink their fill before topping off their individual water flasks and filling the two buckets to the brim. They didn't want to need to make that trip more often than necessary and risk losing even more people.

"So should we do what Basima said and just try to stick to the base? That was kind of my plan to begin with, but is there anything else we can do to fortify the place and discourage the others from trying to hunt me down for the next week?" Jin asked, making sure to sign for Alim too before splashing some of the refreshing water on her sweaty face.

When she looked back, Alim signed, "I think I remember a few rituals that might help, but I'm not sure we have all the ingredients. We can't just hide without food and water."

She frowned, realizing he was right and she wasn't sure if she felt comfortable with the idea of them going hunting or even getting water without her to help fight anything that might show up. "Is there a way to grow food instead? Or maybe collect rain or dew water?"

Alim tilted his head as he seemed to think over the suggestion. "If we find seeds maybe. We'll need to find or make a big enough container for the water idea. Now that you mention it, I may have a way to make it rain, I'm just not sure it will work in the tower."

"Well, let's get back to the base then and start coming up with plans for self-sustaining within the enchantments."

On their way back, Jin was actually glad when they managed to find a lone Ironhorn before it noticed them. With all their shields on, buckets safely nestled against a tree, and weapons raised, Basima managed to land an opening [Arcane Arrow] directly in its neck.

"Keep going until you're oom!" Jin yelled as it bellowed angrily at them and turned to charge again. She tossed her [Silent Spear], knowing it would deal less damage that way but her goal was to get Basima some more points first.

Another two arrows and deftly timing a dodge out of its path and the monster was face down in the dirt and the group of Servants were all smiling victoriously at one another. It was almost a cathartic feeling to kill the monster that had claimed one of their own before. Basima actually attempted a jump in the air to cheer, and tripped on the landing to replicate the appearance of the downed Ironhorn eating the grass.

Jin couldn't stop her chuckle as she moved to help Basima regain her footing. The blonde groaned and muttered, "I don't know why my body keeps thinking jumping is a good idea with how often it makes me fall."

"Are you sure one of your Natural Talents isn't actually a klutzy curse?" Jin teased.

Lovely green eyes rolled at her as Basima replied, "Ha. Ha. Like I haven't heard that one before."

"Careful, Jin. It looks like your sarcasm is starting to rub off on her," Hadia joked as she moved to help take a turn carrying one of the water buckets that had thankfully remained safe.

"What does oom mean?" Karam softly asked as he caught up with them.

"Oh, sorry, it's just another gamer term from my world that just means 'out of mana,'" she explained, then scrunched her nose as she actually paid attention to the foreign words she was speaking. "I don't think it actually translates properly with your language, but if I accidentally use it again that's what I mean by it."

"It's so funny how you have all these terms already, but didn't actually have magic in your world," Basima said with an amused smile. "It's like your world was preparing you to be a Wayfarer."

Jin snorted a laugh. "In a way I guess it was. I think a lot of people in my old world would have loved the chance to get transported to a different reality with magic. Maybe not with the shitty dystopian faction system and terrible gods you all have here, but plenty of people didn't like their lot and wanted a completely fresh start like I got… well, maybe not exactly like I got considering the whole imprisonment, attempted assault, lashes for self defense, and getting tossed into a tower of death…"

Basima burst out laughing at that, and the others couldn't help smiling at her lack of control.

For the first time since entering the tower, Jin was actually glad Basima was here with them. Even when it seemed like one bad thing after another happening to them, she was still able to laugh and smile so brightly for them.

It made Jin's heart feel lighter and dare to hope that things might be okay for all of them after all. Jin shook her head at that thought. She knew better than to get her hopes up. If her years in the hospital followed by the crappy second life she had just been handed had taught her anything, it was that not getting your hopes up meant not getting so disappointed when life inevitably kicked you down.

It was foolish to hope.

As Basima grinned again and grabbed a stick off the forest floor to scratch something in the dirt before getting Alim's attention and pointing at it. He smiled and made the Whisper sign for "thank you." Basima happily copied the gesture as Jin caught up to read what she had written: "Teach me to say thanks to you."

Jin found herself thinking maybe she could be a fool for these people at least.