Chapter 40: The Guy With Red Hair (Patreon)

“Hey, isn’t that the guy with red hair?”

Zed’s steps faltered and he almost staggered. He caught his balance quickly before it became too obvious and kept walking. He didn’t know the voice and didn’t have red hair so he refused to be the one being spoken of.

“Hey!”

Okay, Zed, no need to slow down, he told himself, feet still moving. Anyone can answer to hey, doesn’t mean it has to be you.

“Hey!” someone called out again, this time the voice was feminine where the last two had been masculine.

Then Zed heard the sound of footsteps, easily picking out four pairs. Not in the mood to explain that his hair was in fact auburn, he kept his eyes forward and his steps casual. He tried to be just another guy on a simple stroll.

The footsteps increased to a jog and four people stepped passed him to stand in front of him. Zed stared at them, his expression skeptical.

“Is this a gang up?” he asked. “Because I’ve never been in a gang up. Or maybe I have but I don’t remember.” He looked to the biggest guy amongst them. “You look like a ganger-upper. What do you think; do I look like someone who’s been ganged up on before; a gang uponer? Is that a possible word?”

The big guy’s brows narrowed in thought like he was actually contemplating it before his lips turned into a confused frown.

“Sorry, what?” he asked.

Zed’s lips pressed into a sarcastic frown.

“Alright then,” he said. “I’m definitely not getting an answer out of you. So to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“You’re that guy, aren’t you?” one of them asked. He was about an inch shorter than Zed with a squared jaw and looked friendly enough.

“I am a guy,” Zed said. “But I don’t think I’m that guy. I don’t think anyone wants to be that guy. And I really hope I’m not that guy.”

“No,” the man shook his head. “I don’t mean it like that. I meant you’re that redhead that moves around with Jason’s team.”

“Jason?” Zed asked.

“Yea, Jason.”

Zed shook his head softly. “Never heard the name.”

“Impossible. Everyone in town knows Jason. Tall with black hair and blue eyes,” the man explained. “Has that all American look. Handsome. You can’t tell me you don’t—”

“Oh, if that’s who you’re looking for, you just missed him,” Zed said, then hooked a thumb behind him. “I just saw him on the other street just before that ugly looking house.”

The only girl in the group gave him a sarcastic look and gestured around them. All the houses had one problem or the other that left them qualified for the position of ugly looking.

“No, no,” Zed shook his head. “This one’s really ugly. You can’t miss it. It’s like the Picasso to their Mona Lisa. It’s just down the road on your left. But that’s odd.” He frowned. “Dude told me his name was Trebon.”

“Don’t know a Trebon,” the third guy said, he had a pinched face that reminded Zed of a mouse. “Maybe he’s talking about Trent.”

“Wait,” Zed said, wide eyed. “This place has more than one guy who looks like Trebon? Must be tough picking up girls.”

“Trent’s not that handsome,” the guy Zed had an inch on said.

“Anyway,” Zed continued. “If you hurry, you might be able to catch up with him. Remember, down the street, on your right, just after the real ugly house.”

The big guy held out his hand and Zed shook it.

“Thanks,” the man said, and was already walking when the girl pulled him back by his shirt.

“We’re not looking for Jason, Kev,” she told him. “We’re looking for the redhead on his team.

The look on Kev’s face implied severe confusion and Zed almost laughed.

“If you’re not the red head we’re looking for,” she told Zed, “then who are you?”

Zed held out his and she took it in hers.

“Zul,” he said, shaking her hand. “Zul Zorander.”

She stared at him. “Like the wizard?”

“What wizard?” Kev asked.

“The one from that old series about a guy with a sword and some wizard,” she explained.

“There’s a million movies about a guy with a sword and a wizard, Lovina,” the guy with the pinched face said. “Arthur had a sword and Merlin was a wizard.”

“No,” Lovina said, shaking her head. “There was a woman, too.”

Pinched face gave her a flat look. “Morgana or Gwen?”

“You know what?” she said, exasperated. “Fuck you, Tulip.”

Tulip smirked. “I know you want to, but not now.”

“That’s a good one,” Zed laughed. “I hope you don’t mind if I use that one.”

“Go ahead,” Tulip answered amiably. “Happy to help.”

“Thanks. I know a mean girl who’s just a glutton for swearing.”

“We’re getting off point,” the one remaining guy whose name Zed still didn’t know growled. “So you’re not Zed?”

Zed shook his head. “Never heard the name.”

“You sure?” the guy asked, skeptical, stepping closer to him. “Guy, about your height with red hair? Handsome?”

Zed shook his head.

“Sometimes he walks around with an axe?”

“Oh, that guy,” Zed said with faux realization. “In my opinion you should’ve started with the axe if you wanted to get your point across. Go with it next time, I bet you the next guy will know who you’re talking about. If it’s the guy with the axe, then yea, I know him. Nice fellow; got a charming personality, too. But his hair’s auburn not red, like mine.”

The man growled in exasperation. “No one cares about his personality or the color of his hair. Have you seen him or have you not?”

Lovina touched the man’s arm gently. “Calm down, Francis. It’s not his fault, and he’s not Zed.”

Francis took a deep breath, calming himself.

“I’m beginning to think I’ve got the wrong town,” Zed said casually. “Just the other day I met a mean girl who kept on calling some guy Bloodbath. I mean, you’d think with all these anger issues you’d have some kind of therapist in town. Wait, do you guys have some kind of therapist in town?”

Lovina shook her head. “No,” she answered. “The guy with the auburn hair—Zed—have you seen him today?”

“Nope, but I heard some kids talking about him a while ago. From what I heard he’s at some guy named Festus’ house.”

“Thanks,” Lovina said, pulling Francis and Kev by the arm. “C’mon guys, let’s go.”

“Oh, hi, Cindy,” Tulip said as they past Zed and went on their way.

Zed turned slowly to find Cindy giving him a strange look and shrugged. They stood together, watching the group make their way down the road.

“That guy had a lot to say,” they heard Kev say. “He was confusing me.”

“Everyone confuses you, big guy,” Tulip said, patting his back. “It’s not your fault.”

“Let’s just go find Zed,” Francis grumbled. “I need to go get my axe back. Who just takes another person’s axe? Charming personality, my ass. He’s a downright prick, that’s what he is.”

“Uncle Mel,” Cindy said from beside Zed, still staring at Francis and his group as they dwindled out of earshot.

“Yes, love,” Zed answered.

“Don’t people call you Zed?”

“Some do.”

She pointed at the retreating group. “Didn’t they just say they were looking for Zed.”

“Did they?” Zed asked. “They told me they were looking for a guy with red hair.”

Cindy looked up at him with a sarcastic face. “Dad says it’s not good to lie.”

“I wasn’t lying. They told me they were looking for a guy with red hair.”

“I meant to them,” she said.

“Oh, that. I wasn’t lying to them either.”

“Then what were you doing?”

“Testing their cognitive ability.”

“What’s that?”

“Checking how intelligent they are.”

Cindy paused.

“You’re not a very nice person, are you?” she asked, unbothered.

“I’m nice to you,” Zed said, placing a gentle hand on her head as they turned to continue on his way. “And that’s all that matters.”

“Okay,” Cindy replied easily, following him down the road with her small legs. “Can I braid your hair today, again?”

“Sure thing, love,” Zed answered as they a turned a corner onto another street. “Sure thing.”

……………………………………….

Zed stepped into the house, slipping out of the cool night. From how much Cindy had shivered until he sent her home, he assumed what he found cool was actually cold. Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t remember ever being cold since he woke up. Or hot.

I wonder if I’m immune to temperature now, he thought, closing the door shut behind him. Might be a mage thing.

He turned back to the house, took the short walk required to get from the door to the living room and froze.

“Uhh, good evening,” he said with an awkward wave.

Seated on the couch where he spent his nights was Oliver and a dark skinned girl with black hair weaved into corn rows. She had a wide, happy smile and dark eyes that looked like they could switch from happy to brooding with the snap of a finger. She was cute with the deepest dimples he had the ever patchy memory of remembering.

She returned a wave with one of her own.

Beside her, Oliver stared at Zed with a confused expression. “What the hell happened to your hair?”

Zed ran a hand through his patchily braided hair. He looked like a Barbie doll owned by a child still trying her hands at new things.

“I’m trying a new look,” he answered. “If you’re staying here can I use your room?”

“What for?”

“Nothing. Just thought I’d get a chance in your room.”

“You’ve been in my room before, Zed,” Oliver said, the girl beside him watching Zed with an amused look. “You use my bathroom more times than even I do.”

“That’s because you don’t know what an evening bath is,” Zed said.

“That’s true,” the girl agreed, getting up from the couch to meet Zed. “I’ve been telling him evening showers aren’t only for when he comes back after fighting monsters.” She held out her hand to him. “Hi, I’m Imani.”

Zed shook her hand. “I’m Zed, but my friends call me Zeddicus.”

“What friends?” Oliver scoffed from the couch.

“You don’t know them,” Zed said. He looked back at Imani with a warm smile and whispered conspiratorially. “He wouldn’t know them. He thinks he’s my only friend.”

“I am your only friend,” Oliver said.

Imani looked back at Oliver with a smile on her face, her hand still in Zed’s.

“You were right,” she said. “He sounds like someone who’ll have a lot to say.”

“Oh, darling,” Zed laughed, releasing her hand. “With you, there’s never enough to say.”

“A flirt, too,” she chuckled. “You didn’t tell me that part, Ollie.”

“That’s because I didn’t know that part,” Oliver said, staring daggers at Zed.

“Well,” Imani said, smoothening out her body fit pants before patting down her hair. “I’ll leave you two to it then. I’ve got to get home.”

“So soon?” Oliver groaned, getting up from the couch. “You were going to spend the night, remember?”

“Yes, but there was a monster sighting off route eight last night and Heimdall wants the team to go check it out.”

“Oh,” Oliver muttered, crestfallen. “Then I guess you’ll have to be ready for tomorrow. See you when you get back?”

Imani walked up to him, leaned in and gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

“Definitely,” she said.

She turned away and headed out. At the door, she paused to look at Zed. “It was nice meeting you, Zeddicus.”

“You, too, Imam,” he replied.

She paused at that, then laughed. “By the way, I like what you did with the hair.”

“Thanks. I’ll let my stylist know you’re a fan.”

Imani left the both of them alone, closing the door behind her when she left.

Now that she was gone, Zed turned to Oliver.

“I thought you were keeping her a secret from Ash,” he said.

“I am,” Oliver said.

“But she was going to spend the night?”

Oliver dismissed the question with a toss of his arm and plopped back down on the couch. “There was a monster sighting this morning, a pack of Beta ranks. Ash headed out with one of the teams to subdue them.”

“Why?” Zed asked, walking to take a sit on one of the single chairs. “I thought you all work as a team.”

“We do, but not all the time. There’d be no point in sending out three Rukh mages to subdue a bunch of Beta rank monsters, so Heimdall sent one of the teams of only Beta mages. Ash joined for the experience. She isn’t going to be back till tomorrow evening.”

“That’s odd,” Zed said. “Sounded like you guys already made plans for tonight long ago.”

“We did.” Oliver popped something Zed didn’t see in his mouth. “The plan was that the next time Ash was out all night and we were both free, she’d stay over.”

“Oh. And does that happen often? Ash being out all night not the night spending.”

“Once in a while,” Oliver said, pausing in thought. “Actually, it’s been happening a lot more lately.”

“Isn’t that a good thing for you and little miss Imam over there?”

“Her name’s Imani.”

“Imani, Imam. Zed, Zeddicus.” Zed shrugged. “Semantics. Back to my question.”

Oliver sighed. “It is. But it’s also a problem because the amount of monster sightings keeps rising. Just last week they had to send out a whole rukh team, twice, to stop a sighting.”

“And that’s unusual?”

“Very.”

“Odd. Anyway,” Zed stretched, hands held out to the side, “I like your girl.”

“Of course you do,” Oliver scoffed. “She laughed at everything you said. And please don’t flirt with my girl again. It’s…”

“Sexy?” Zed offered.

“Creepy is the word I’m looking for.”

“Noted.”

Oliver popped something in his mouth again and Zed frowned when he missed it.

“What the hell are you eating?” he asked.

“Fruity pops,” Oliver answered.

“What’s that?”

“Some kind of sweet. Got it from the minimart. Apparently, some guy pulled up recently selling them and they decided it’ll be nice to buy it for the kids.”

“You aren’t a kid,” Zed pointed out.

Oliver looked at him with a grin and popped another in his mouth. It was slow and deliberate enough that Zed saw the small ball of pink. Oliver grinned all the way until it was gone.

“And neither are you,” Oliver said. “So you don’t get any.”

Zed’s frown deepened and Oliver laughed then changed the subject.

“How’d it go with Festus today?” he asked.

“It was alright,” Zed said, leaning back against the chair. “Stared at a rune throughout before getting a lecture and being kicked out. He said I shouldn’t come tomorrow, that I’ll be practicing with some other guy. Apparently, you guys know about it.”

“Yea,” Oliver said, hesitant. “You were supposed to be practicing with the both of them, but Festus had high expectations for you and didn’t want you to be distracted so we pushed the other practice till now.”

“And what will I be learning?”

“How to fight, of course.”

“You’ve seen me fight, Oliver.”

“Yea,” Oliver snorted. “And you fight like shit, dude. I’d say you fight like a girl but Ash fights better so I’d be insulting her. I’m talking about how to really fight not that deranged axe swinging murderhobo thing you do.”

“I thought I did pretty good each time.”

“Not even close. If not for your regenerating attribute, you’d’ve been dead on your first fight. No. You’re going to learn how to really fight. And we got you the best guy in town for the job.”

Zed stared at Oliver, confused.

“Why?”

Oliver turned to him. “Why what?”

“Why the best guy?” Zed clarified. “Let’s face it, you guys haven’t really been the nicest group of people to me. And if I’m being honest, I’d have left long ago if I had somewhere to go. So there’s that, and I’m sure there are adequate enough people around more than willing to teach me whatever it is I’m supposed to learn, but you guys are being nice enough to go out of your way to get me the best. Why?”

Oliver shrugged awkwardly. “Jason said you were a part of the team the other day and you are. So you’re rolling with the best now,” he said. “And in order to keep up with the things we do, you’ve got to be the best.”

It was a less than believable answer but Zed was willing to let it slide.

Later that night, he laid on the couch unable to sleep. Oliver had been right, it was way past midnight and Ash hadn’t come back yet. Even though Oliver had said it was normal, Zed couldn’t help but worry. He hoped she was alright. He didn’t have a lot of people he could call friends. Just Oliver, actually, and Cindy even if she was just a kid, she was a nice kid. Then sometimes he liked to think Ash didn’t hate him. Jason had done most of the shoving and Chris liked the mean words. Oliver and Ash treated him better so he liked to think they saw him as a friend.

In front of him, he studied his information, taking the littlest bit of pleasure he could from his growth. In the past few days, his runs with Ash and Oliver, his training with Festus and the one monster hunt he’d been on with Oliver had given some of his aptitudes extra points while significantly growing his Exp.

Melchizedek Nyborn

• Specie: Human (Mana blessed).
• Category: 1/3.
• Rank: Beta (category 1).
• Exp to category 2: 1255/2500.

Skills

• [Refine].

Titles

Attributes

• [Equilibrium] (Physical, mana).
• [Regeneration] (Physical, mana).
• [Hypersensitivity] (Physical, mana).
• [Bone density] (Physical)

Affiliations

Aptitude

• Strength: 36(+1).
• Agility: 27(+3).
• Speed: 24(+4).
• Mana: 51(+18).
• Will: 21(-5)(+4).
• You have 0 Unallocated [Aptitude points]
• [Aptitude points] will be gained at each category.
• You will gain 5 [Aptitude points] for each rise in      category.

The extra points he’d gained in some of his aptitudes showed and he was glad for it. He was also glad for the spellform he’d learned, though he wondered why only [Refine] showed. He wondered if [Conqueror’s Touch] would only become a skill when he learnt to cast it without chanting. Regardless, thanks to it his [Exp] had sky rocketed. Using it gave him more exp than actually fighting. Sadly, he had to fight a monster and actually kill it if he wanted to be able to use the spellform on it. Still, without it he doubted he’d be in the quadruple digits by now.

• Exp to category 2: 1255/2500.

He was so close to the next category he could almost taste it. He was already past the halfway mark even if by five points. And all in the space of a few weeks. If he kept the pace, he’d be a category two in another month, maybe two. He’d get five aptitude points from it and intended on allocating one to each aptitude.

Zed found himself smiling at the thought of how much exp [Conqueror’s touch] could get him from a Rukh rank monster. He wondered if simply getting the last hit on a kill was going to work.

Can’t hurt to try next time.

He closed his eyes, thinking about it as he fell asleep. But he did not dream of glories and success. He did not dream of what he could get from a monster a rank higher than him. Like he had done the past few nights, he dreamt of a man in a suit of armor with no face, and a hand running him through the chest.

“The redhead.” It always said, “is coming with me.”