Nightmares (Kat)

Time passed quickly after the enjoyable conversation and report I had with Otto in the administrative office. By dawn, when I stepped out from the tower after finishing my mission preparation, there are already several carriages prepared for me to choose to take me to Panskey. After choosing one that is sturdy and not too conspicuous looking carriage, I transport my belongings into the small carriage and we are ready to depart.

It takes about 2 days travel from Arcadia Tower to Panskey, or so I told, if everything goes smoothly. There are several villages we pass by so finding an inn to spend the night away was not too difficult. I am an adventurer in the first place, so staying in an inn is actually quite a luxury during mission. What is lacking for me though, is regrettably there is no bath house I could take during this travel so far. If I was alone, I might be able to sneak around and take a quick dip in a nearby lake or river, but with the coachman here it become almost impossible. Almost, I said, not entirely impossible but also not by any means easy.

"This is the last village we will pass for awhile, so we have to take a rest here wile we can. It is kind of a large village, so we would better rest early and prepare to head out early tomorrow as soon as the sun rises" The coachman said while checking the time with his tower system I assume.

The moment he said that, I have decided that I need to take a dip here no matter what. There might be a bath here, considering the coachman said it is a relatively large village by the forest border. It not, I could quickly sneak into the forest and find a river or lake to dip in.

Surprisingly, the inn we are staying also double as a tavern of sort hence it is quite lively when we stepped in. I thank the coachman and offer him some food in the tavern before we part ways to our own room, too bad he rejected it and head straight to his chamber. I decided to order some ale and bread while I linger around and soak the busy and lively atmosphere. The food is not bad, and this is actually quite a good place to get information if you listen closely enough to the conversation around you.

Some said something about the increasing kobold attack making it difficult to walk into or even pass by Panskey. Some talk about them being a merchant, while some talk about- or more accurately bragging about- being an adventurer from other tower that also received a request from Panskey for kobold extermination, and so on. As this is the last village before the bordering forest, it does make this inn very busy and filled with people from various places and backgrounds. They more they chatted the more quiet I am listening to their conversation.

From what I can gather, it looks like there are more than 20 adventurers here in this Inn. Nearly all of them are here because of the Kobold extermination requests. It's no surprise since both merchants and adventurers would swarm wherever there is an extermination. Not only it's a good place for trading goods since the monster parts usually sell for quite a lot, and adventurers who are looking for things like information, items, or even people will flock here.

'If an inn by the forest has this many adventures, I can imagine the crowds in the city of Panskey. Why would they need so many adventures? not many are the kobold exactly?' I think to myself not noticing the inn's landlady is looking at me

"You adventurer?" She asked with a rather thick south accent, but I could understand her just fine

"I am" I answer with a smile

"Not often I see solo female adventurers, at least not here" She said rather harshly, but I think it's just curiosity

"Well, I have always been more comfortable with being alone. Not to mention no one want to form a team with me. " I said. Maybe it was the ale influencing me, but I know that I should not have confirmed that I am alone. The last time I said I was alone brought me trouble, so from experience I know having said that usually brings trouble.

"Why not? I wouldn't mind teaming up with you pretty lady" said a burly man who suddenly sat beside me. Turned out he was secretly listening to my conversation with the landlady.

"Oh, see? now thanks to me you get to form your team" the landlady said cheerfully, expecting me to thank her for this uninvited man who is offering himself like it was an honor.

"Nah, I am more comfortable alone"

"Now young lady, it's dangerous out there. Why don't you.." The man keeps on pushing his offer, hoping I would relent.

Fed up with this, I show both the man and the landlady my Arcadia Tower badge, indicating I am either a member of the tower or I am somehow affiliated with Arcadia Tower.

'That'd shut them up' I think to myself, satisfied when I saw both of them widens their eyes and shut their lips, realizing they had just looked down on a member or an affiliate of Arcadia Tower. Everyone know that a member or the affiliates of Arcadia Tower is not an ordinary person, but they don't understand how come someone from Arcadia come to this tavern and take on easy request like Kobold extermination. It's kind of beneath Arcadia Tower, isn't it?

I noticed the whole tavern turned silent after knowing that I am from Arcadia Tower, thanks to the histerical sound the Landlady made. Just by then, I saw about 3 man walking towards my side of the bar. I expect they are this man's teammates seeing they have quite similar levels and equipment quality. They probably came after seeing my tower badge, or maybe not?

"Good evening Miss" One of the guy who I assumed is the leader starts talking politely.

I turned towards their direction and asked, "You are?"

"I'm Greg, and I am the leader of the Crows. We are his teammates, and we want to apologize if my teammate here displease you. Please don't misunderstand, We just wanted to ask you to join our team, what do you think? If you ask me, I would say it's win win for everyone, no?" said Greg rather politely, wheter or not he is polite because it's already known that I am from Arcadia, is a mystery.

"And I have already tell your teammate here that I am more comfortable alone so I afraid that I will have to refuse," I said shortly

"She is Arcadia member. Not affiliates, but real member" The man beside me tell their teammates out loud and once again the whole tavern fell silent

"Then the more reason for us to ask you to join our team! We could fight together and kill more of this annoying kobold. We can give all the townsfolks and merchants a bigger help if we are together don't you think?" The leader speaks again after knowing I am Arcadia member, probably thinking of taking advantage of me

"Are you sure?" I ask

"Of course, Miss.. er.. may I know your name, Miss?"

"It's Katarina. Oh right, you might know me more from my nickname, Kat the poisonous" I said with a smile

"Kat.. the poisonous?" The man beside me ask slowly so I turned to him with another smile

"Yeah. Heard of it? I use poison as my weapon" I throw a sweeping gaze across the tavern looking at each and every one of the adventures' faces and their darken expressions. Another silence engulfed this lively tavern.

"No wonder you no one want to be your teammates, you are a poisonous wench. Since you have paid, you can stay for tonight, but you must leave early morning tomorrow. And no breakfast for you, I afraid. I can't have you poison everyone here with your petty little trick of poison to get even" The landlady suddenly spoke with her thick southern accent, but there is no denying of her curt tone

"Will do" I stand and walk to the stair heading upstairs to find my chamber that I paid for. From the corner of my eyes, I can see everyone pushed aside their food and drink, afraid that it has been poisoned even though I have not done anything except just minding my own business while eating and listening to their conversation.

I have long used to this situation, no one liked poison master, after all potions especially healing potions and antidotes are extremely expensive. Not to mention you'd need to have the right antidotes to heal specific poison, so most of the time people will need to spend a lot of time and money to figure out the right antidotes to heal. Poisons are much cheaper than healing potion, and the more expensive the poisons are, the more expensive the healing potions or antidotes would be.

Isn't it ironic how they refused to leave me alone but then have the audacity to tell me to leave them alone instead?

'I'd be an idiot to poison their food and drinks here and now. But I'd be a bigger idiot if I passed this opportunity' I think with a smile.

So before I reach the top of the stairs, I released my mind poison towards the tavern and wish them good luck fighting the nightmares they will have tonight.

"Have a good night, everyone" I whispered.

-———— In the tavern below ————

Everyone in the tavern has a sudden goosebumps with the hair on their arms standing up. In their mind, they heard a small whisper saying "Have a good night, everyone" again and again. What they did not know, is that the words will repeat itself again and again in both their dreams and their reality to the point that they have no idea how to discern nightmare and real life. Later on, paranoia will kick in and for the rest of their life, they will hear the whisper on repeat and feel a chill down their spines just like the first time they heard it as the mind poison will never leave them alone.

"Have a good night, everyone"