The injured hydra was confused long enough for Humphrey to come up behind it and bury his sword in a rear leg. Jason followed, digging into the other rear leg with his dagger. The wound wasn’t deep compared to the size of the creature, and his special attack, punish, only dealt a small amount of necrotic damage. However, every instance of the sin curse amplified that damage and the hydra had been accumulating them for a while. The flesh blackened and withered, shrinking away from Jason’s slicing blade. Side-by-side, Jason and Humphrey laid into the crippled monster until it fell still.

Quest: [Contract: Fallen Comrade]

Objective complete: Eliminate the monster that killed your fellow adventurer 1/1.

Reward: [Awakening Stone of Absolution] (Jason Asano).

Reward: [Awakening Stone of the Champion] (Humphrey Geller).

Reward: [Ring of the Hydra] (Clive Standish).

Quest complete. All party members receive:

100 [Bronze Spirit Coins]

1000 [Iron Spirit Coins]

Humphrey went over to Stash the parrot, who was hopping up and down excitedly on Onslow’s shell.

“Stash chase worm! Stash chase worm!”

The parrot flew towards Humphrey, transforming into a puppy mid-air and landing in Humphrey’s arms. Humphrey was covered in hydra blood, but Stash didn’t seem to mind the mess as much as Humphrey’s armour. Humphrey dismissed the hard scale armour and Stash snuggled into his chest as Humphrey scratched him behind the ears.

The three adventurers stood exhausted, looking at each other and the dead hydra.

“Clear eyes, full hearts,” Jason said.

“What?” Clive asked.

Jason waved a dismissive hand.

“Ah, we’ll deal with that later,” Jason said.

88. The Nature of Absolution

88

The Nature of Absolution

Rufus was at the Geller Estate, discussing property development for the Geller family/Remore Academy joint training facility. In a conference room, he sat alone across a table from three members of the Geller family.

“There is plenty of unclaimed, undeveloped territory adjacent to the Geller Estate,” Rufus said. “Just give us a location that works best for the changes you want to incorporate, and we can go from there.”

“I know you have a good relationship with Danielle,” the man across the table said. “That doesn’t mean we’ll just acquiesce to your every need.”

Rufus ran a hand over his face.

“What exactly is it you think I want you to acquiesce to?” Rufus asked. “This joint venture has already been agreed to, and as for the details, I literally just said that we will adapt to your needs.”

Rufus got to his feet, placed both hands on the table and leaned towards the man on the opposite side.

“Clearly you are part of whatever internal faction within the Geller family was against this agreement from the outset, and you ended up negotiating the details as part of accepting the proposal at all. I don’t care about that; I have no interest in playing these games and I’m not going to be a pawn in your family’s internal politics.”