It was late at night - most of the people had gone to sleep already, the streets were empty and Seira decided that she would be leaving too, very soon. She was inside a pub, having some drinks and exchanging a few words with some travellers about this and that and although she didn’t intend on making friends with them or anything like that, she was still interested in what they had to say. She had ordered a few drinks for all of them and they told her about the places they had been, which she considered interesting information and gladly listened to all of it. Today had been a rather uneventful day and the sorceress decided that it was probably time to leave the pub soon anyways. Even though it being this late didn’t really bother her, since she was a vampire and all that, Seira still wanted to get up early tomorrow to see if she could get one of the quests on the request board. It was a popular place in town and to get one of the better paying clients, she usually had to be up early in order to pick something up there and she didn’t want to miss that chance. Seira was most likely going to leave Oak town very soon and she wanted to do so after earning plenty of money. The only reason she had come here was to find work that was neutral, good and bad alike, but after doing bad work for quite some time, the woman had decided that she no longer wanted to work for the doctor for now. Doctor Mabuz was well known around town, a crazy scientist on the inside, but a decent and calm shop owner on the outside. He had a magic drug shop quietly nestled into the streets of Oak, where he sold all sorts of interesting things such as potions, books that included knowledge about herbs and whatnot and most of the stuff was very interesting. Seira usually only went there when she was looking for work, but she had picked up a few of his things before in hopes of being able to use them. Furthermore, she knew that he had illegal tradings going on and that he was connected to the black market, but unfortunately she hadn’t been able to find anything yet - or he was simply not willing to disclose the items he could be selling. Seira had done a lot of work for the doctor in the past few days and she thought back to all the missions that had earned her money - was it really worth her time? It had all started out with her first visit in Oak, where he had revealed his crazy scientist side by doing experiments - on her. Luckily she was stronger than that, but it was still a terrifying experience nonetheless. Seira left Oak after that, not wanting to have anything to do with him again. But things changed and when she returned he had more, calmer work for her.

[507/2000]

During her first job he tasked her to test out some hexes - luckily not on herself but on other people. They were nothing fatal so Seira could easily do that. She was surprised to find out that they actually worked rather well, not all of them of course but most of them. Somehow he had managed to perfect them and the ones that were flawed he would simply correct until they worked again. It was a scary thing to think of and even though the hexes were only things such as being overly sensitive to touch or losing the ability to use their legs for an hour or less, Seira still felt as though that was a powerful enough ability. On top of that, one of the hexes had also backfired on her in a positive way, by making her a tad bit more stronger. Even though she felt the difference, there wasn’t really a huge difference and Seira was aware of that. It was, however, better than being negatively affected by the hex in the end. The other jobs had not been as exciting. He had simply asked her to find a few herbs for his potions that he was working on, explaining that they were expensive and difficult to find. Some of them were even illegal to trade with, but they all could be found outside the forests of Oak, which made them easily available to her. Seira had taken some time off her day to search for those herbs and after finding them for doctor Mabuz, he rewarded her generously. At least that was what was good about him, he was never annoying or picky when it came to money. As long as the job was done, Seira would be paid and she really appreciated that about him. He was one of the more simple clients, but he was also cruel in a way which meant that his ideals were flawed. Seira finished her bottle of alcohol and paid for her bill. She bid farewell to the travelers and excused herself - she decided to go home. As mentioned before, it was late already and she wanted to find more work the following day simple so she could make a little more money before leaving Oak town after all. Seira left the pub and began walking through the dark streets of Oak town. There was truly not a single soul left on the streets and it seemed as though the situation had calmed down. Earlier yesterday was the last time she had accepted a job for the doctor, and although he paid her extremely well, it was still quite dangerous for her. Turns out that the herbs he had her collect the days earlier were for a potion that was used as an injection he wanted her to try on animals of the zoo. As a result, all the animals went ballistic and destroyed nearly half the zoo with their new found strength. It was beyond ridiculous and frightening.

[1008/2000]

All the animals went wild and broke out of their cages - Seira even had to kill one of the staff members to get inside as well! Turns out, and this was only her suspicion since of course he hadn’t told her what exactly he had been working on, that the doctor had created a mix of the hexes and the potions. He had created a strength potion earlier the day and he had somehow managed to mix it with one of the strength hexes, the one that had backfired on Seira - that was what she thought had happened. As a result, the animals went berserk and caused Chaos at the zoo, much to his pleasure of course. He was a terrible person, but the sheer amount of money he paid her always brought her back to him. That probably made Seira a terrible person too, but she couldn’t help but find that, in these times, money was more important. The vampire returned to her hotel room, where Espeon was already waiting. Taking a shower and going to sleep shortly after, she got the rest she deserved and woke up the next morning to the sounds of birds tweeting and humans mingling within the busy streets of the town. The sun was shining through her window and she yawned, rubbing her eyes in a tired manner - she didn’t really wanna get up yet but she knew she had to. It was still quite early after all and Seira climbed out of bed and got ready in the bathroom. She got dressed and decided to take Espeon along with her as well. The purple feline creature usually did her own thing in terms of activities, but it wasn’t bad for Seira to take her along every now and then since she was her companion after all. Seira was heading for the request board, which was about a fifteen minute walk from her hotel. When she arrived she noticed a bunch of people standing around it looking for jobs as well and she eventually made her way forward and started looking through the list of possible clients. There were a few names she recognized and a few that she knew a few things off, such as Rander Baston. Rander was a good-natured giant, and the local smith in Oak Town. He is a known alcoholic and frequents the enjoyments of drinking. He gave a little information away on the flyer and Seira picked it up to read it. Apparently Rander was heading out to the local drinking contest with a bunch of old buddies and needs someone to watch over his shop. Seira shrugged and went on her merry way to his shop. A job like that was simple enough, she could certainly do it. Even if there was trouble, the vampire would be able to take care of it without a doubt. When she arrived at the blacksmith, the vampire pushed the heavy doors open and together with Espeon, she entered the building.

[1509/2000]

Rander Baston was in the back and greeted her with a wave before approaching her. He was huge, but as expected kind looking and after she waved the flyer into his face, he seemed to know exactly what she was here for. “I’m glad someone showed up so soon,” he admitted and gave her a thumbs up, “you are really saving me here. There is going to be a lot of guests and visitors so I have to show myself from my best side!” He started talking right away but Seira was a little lost as to what the matter was. “Visitors?” He nodded. “Yes, at the drinking contest of course. Anyways, all I need you to do is watch the shop. I will close it for the day so you can do whatever you want, just make sure I’m not getting robbed!” He laughed and grabbed his bags, turned the sign on the door around so it said “closed” and then left. He mentioned he would be back in a few hours, by the end of the day, and Seira was free to do whatever, so she did exactly that and relaxed. She had brought a book as well so that wasn’t going to be a problem. Espeon was resting near a warm fireplace. As time passed nothing much happened. Espeon was napping in front of the fireplace and Seira had gotten comfortable in a large chair - she was reading a book and she was quite invested when she had some loud noise in front of the door. Assuming that this didn’t concern her, she ignored the noise in hopes of it stopping soon enough. When it didn’t, however, the vampire stood up to see what exactly was going on. In front of the door, outside the shop, she spotted eight men, dressed in rough closing, with mean faces and armed with knives, yelling something at each other, but they were focused on the shop. Clearly they intended to vandalize and Seira decided that she wasn’t even going to let them close to the shop. She opened the door and quickly rushed outside. As a vampire, she was quite fast, far too fast for any of those men that was for sure. She headed for the one closest by and bit him into the wrist using her fangs, causing him to drop his weapons and scream in surprise. She had caught him off guard and quickly snatched his knive off the ground only to stab him into the side with it. The others seemed stressed out immediately and scattered. They all looked like thugs but they were actually useless once one of them was injured and defeated, and Seira took the time to knock them all out and call upon some rune knights and police who would take care of this from now on. The shop was not harmed. Seira waited for Rander to return and when he did she explained everything that had happened today. He was understanding and paid her well for her efforts at defending the shop.

[2020/2000]