Madman’s Retirement

One last chapter before New Year's hmm? Happy new year everyone!

Chapter was a bit rushed, but I'm rushing to finish before the new year, so best I can do in the moment.

Sometimes Grant couldn't help himself.

In spite of his plans to tear down the efforts of Peter and his mini cult, but sometimes he just had to stop what he was doing and rearrange his efforts.

The dangers of being tied to creation is often that one is bound to your own whims.

So, he spent the rest of the day creating things involving crocodilians and rock bands.

Sarcosucauphaugus was another idea that he would be saving for later.

"Aliguitars... rockadiles... they should play bass fish and be considered the rockadilian line..."

The dangers of creation sometimes is that you get swept up in its urges.

---

Grant had been planning to uproot some more rats today with a band of alliguitars and rockadiles, before he was called over by the receptionist, being sent on up to the guildmaster.

The guildmaster, the guy who he peeped on once or twice depending on the mood.

Grant was curious to see how the guildmaster would approach him as Grant opened the door, curious to see the sort of welcome he would receive.

"Come in!" came the friendly call and seeing the laxed position the guildmaster had given to all the other adventurers he had crossed paths with, Grant came to the conclusion that at the very least, they were not enemies.

Good.

"Guildmaster" Grant said simply as he sat down and the guildmaster merely shrugged it off.

"Do you know why I want to talk to you?" he said, with a friendly tone, but with a clear probing undertone.

Grant shrugged as he chose to play dumb and relax.

"I have no idea guildmaster."

The guildmaster continued his questioning.

"I'm sure you've heard about the explosion that happened a few days ago, and I was wondering if you had seen something, seeing as you were nearby, perhaps anything that could help the investigation."

"No sir" said Grant as he shook his head earnestly. "I'm just an adventurer, I have no idea what was going on near the explosion."

The man's face twitched a bit as he recalled the report he had received from the overseer of the post they were in, and how Grant had very much been leaving in an opposite direction from the site.

The man in front of him was hardly trying either, clearly putting in little effort.

The huge guildmaster sighed, his shoulders sagging.

"Can we just drop it?"

"Drop what?" asked Grant as he cocked his head, a hint of amusement clear in his voice.

The man rolled his eyes. "I'm sure by now you know I've been investigating you, and you must know why."

Grant chuckled as he observed the guildmaster give up his game.

"No, what could you possibly ever be talking about?" Grant asked once more, but this time around, a clear amount of sarcasm and amusement was built into the statement.

Staring at him as if trying to see through him, the guildmaster questioned him. "A person with a power level like you, I wonder if this was less a coincidence and more... intentional?"

"Hm?"

"All of it. Pretending to be a low rank adventurer, saving an A rank adventurer who happens to be my son in law, methodically tearing down all of the temples efforts, etc etc, I could go on with this. Did the guild send you?" he prodded, seemingly trying to find a cause behind Grant's actions.

Grant cackled. "Send? No one sends me! I come for the fun!"

"You're one of those people, huh?"

Grant nodded, not even disagreeing. He was the type to do whatever he wants after all.

The guildmaster sighed as he clasped his hands together.

"Ok, fine. I can work with this." he said as he inhaled deeply, preparing to enter the fray once more.

"My name is Thaddeus, and I'm an S class adventurer, sent here to deal with the threat of Paladin Peters and investigate him. Who encouraged you to come here?" he asked, seeking to find out which faction had sent Grant.

Grant could only helplessly shrugged his shoulders once more. "I told you, no strings. I happened to come here and the paladin happened to make me his enemy."

Thaddeus' eyebrow shot up. "He made an enemy of you? How bold of a statement." he said. It wasn't wrong either, for a random adventurer to so cockily make this claim, and be so casual about it. It didn't seem like pure hatred but annoyance, as if a fly had come to bother him.

"Yup. Between you and me, professionals have standards. And he-" Grant's voice turned cold and harsh at this moment, as distaste filled the tone.

He had leaned forward, the glowing eyes peering through the mask and into his eyes.

"-Has failed to meet the standard. I don't tolerate people who fail to meet my standard."

Thaddeus stared him down, unflinching, showing himself unbothered by the killing intent leaking out.

The same could not be said for the poor people downstairs, who were sweating under the chilling presence upstairs.

"And what standards are these?" the giant man asked, even leaning forward to meet Grant's eyes.

Grant said it simply.

"Kids. We don't bring kids into our business."

Thaddeus nodded as he sat down again, satisfied with this. Nothing was truly known about the man as of now, and frankly Thaddeus could only assume the man's personality based off the various people he had worked with over his many years of life.

What he could tell however, was that Grant meant this.

That he truly had passion about the limits when it came to children.

He could trust a man with firm standards, even if the line seemed arbitrary in his eyes.

"I can respect why you're doing this, but I'd be careful if I were you." Thaddeus warned. "Peter is no mere paladin."

Grant responded haughtily. "And I am no mere adventurer. Your point?"

The guild master shook his head. "He isn't just your average A-rank paladin, or even an S rank. Peter is easily considered a SS rank adventurer going by guild standards, and were he to run rampant even I wouldn't be able to contain them."

"Then why did they send you?" Grant asked. He knew the paladin outranked the guildmaster before him, and hearing the reasoning would be fun to say the least.

"We don't have enough hands to deal with everything." Thaddeus said helplessly. "I was sent here to stall him since Peter respects people of good deed. The hope was to outmaneuver and stall him until reinforcements arrived."

He clenched his fist. "Had they actually managed to kill my son-in-law, I'm not sure what I would've done."

Grant nodded. "You're welcome."

"I am grateful, and that's why I'm warning you. Feel free to keep doing what you've been doing, but be careful, and at the very least wait 'till reinforcements arrive."

Grant did appreciate the earnestness with which the man pursued his mission, and the efforts he was going to.

So, he pulled out a weapon out of his spatial pocket.

The guildmaster's eyes looked unsure for a moment, before bulging out as he felt the powerful aura that surrounded the artifact.

And then another came out, and he practically had a heart attack.

The sword of Frey, and the reforged Gleipnir, the chains that once held an ancient god.

Even if he did not know what they are, Thaddeus knew the presence of a divine artifact, the aura they gave off.

Grant leaned in. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing. With this, do you think we could impede such a man?" he said, the words seeming more true than ever.

Thaddeus sighed. "You seem confident. I'll admit, your odds look far better with two divine artifacts in hand. Just... be careful alright? If not for yourself, then all the people in this outpost just trying to make a living."

Grant assured him. "Don't worry, I can handle the backlash on my own."

Just casually looking around the room, he noticed a certain file with a certain picture on top of it, one of a very familiar black crow-like creature.

"Oh, you're investigating the drows?"

"Drows?" the man asked as his eyes drifted over the room.

"The crow like creatures that have been blending in amongst the flocks of crows and ravens."

"You noticed them too?" the main said, with astonishment in his voice.

Grant snorted. "How could I not? They started appearing in droves, it'd be hard not to see them."

The man scratched his head awkwardly. " We didn't notice until recently, and frankly aren't even sure when they started popping up, with how seamlessly they slipped into flocks. There have been multiple reports of people attacking one of these-" pause "- "drows" and being absolutely devastated by the flocks of crows and drows in return." the man sighed and slumped, looking like he aged years.

Grant chuckled inwardly, caused by this report. He knew stuff like this would happen, and respectively,

"We can't just kill them all, since killing them angers crows too, and we can't just hunt all crows worldwide, not without angering any crows that be or even" shudder "the crow mother in Australia. "

that this would be the dilenma they arrive at.

"The government and the guild have been trying to find a solution to all of it, sending this problem to any person of importance, but so far nothing has been found."

Grant felt generous. He felt in a good mood, and out of the kindness of his heart, was willing to help them.

(Not like it was his fault or anything.)

"Just apologize."

Thaddeus looked up. "What?" he asked, disbelief on his face.

Grant shrugged as he leisurely rested on the couch. "Just apologize. Drows and dravens, given the appropriate reward, are willing to forgive wrongs against them."

"And how do you know that."

Walking over to the window, Grant pushed open the window, much to the guidmaster's confusion, only for two large dravens to fly through the window, landing on the masked man's shoulders, as 3 crows now stood before the guildmaster.

The 3 ravens turned to face him, as the middle one continued to leisurely lecture.

"Because I've tamed 2 dravens."

"Dravens?" Thaddeus asked as Grant labeled these two differently.

"The drows are the smaller ones, and the dravens are the evolved forms. If you look at the head" he said as he pushed the feathers back a little bit, revealing the horned crest in its entirety, "you'll see this little crown of sorts, which denotes a draven. Dravens will usually lead a small flock of drows with their partner, a draven. "

"Hmm, and you say you can apologize to them?" the guildmaster asked, easily able to shake off the surprise from earlier, professional since this verry important matter was at stake.

"You have to." Grant corrected. "Drows and dravens are smarter than crows and ravens, with drows the intelligence of a child, and dravens like young adults. A wrong against any of them is a wrong against the community. The whole community." Grant emphasized that part, as the older(?) man sighed softly.

"Ah" he said, realizing the full scope of the problem here.

"What would it cost?"

Grant shrugged. "Shiny things. Metals, rocks, windows. It may vary, but usually a mixture of fruits and shiny things would be suitable for apology, placed in a bowl. It happens to be how you can tame them too. And y'know, just as you can become the enemy of them all, you could be all of their friends."

"They might even be willing to share all that they see." Grant's eyebrows went up and down, though sadly, no one could see it.

A pregnant pause followed by the realization of what that meant.

"You sneaky bastard!" the guild master howled in laughter, realizing the implication of the statement.

Aliguitars are the low rank monster in this situation, serving as the musical instrument for the evolution, the rockadile. Seemingly similar in shape to a normal alligator, they have a unique feature in the guitar strings, pulled taut relying on the gator's clubbed tail and a upraised line of spikes that held the other end of the strings. They have a unique indent on the back of their body to serve as the whole that guitars have, though it does not pass into their organs. Music produced with their body has a weird rasping sound, but not all together unpleasant. They can be considered the infantile stage of the monster, as the rockadiles strum music into their body, slowly infusing them with mana until the day they evolve, becoming rockadiles and taking up an aliguitar of their own. These eccentric creatures live in the swamp, often joining tribes of axobodl's or even lizardmen, though they are also inclined to wander, much like bards.

Rockadiles are bipedal crock monsters, sharing a similar body shape to more densely built lizardmen or even dinomen, with a fine sense for music. Not all of them play aliguitars, with some playing bass, fish magically transformed into monster-tools for their use. They may evolve into doublemouth bass as a result. 

In combat, they continue to play, and fight at the same time. For their instruments are full on monsters that being bludgeoned with will very much hurt, all the while they continue to play. 

Using leaves they make shoulder pads for themselves, reminiscent of old rock pads. They are engraved with wind magic to amplify their playing's sound, since their songs may not only buff, but also hurt their foes with debuff magic, like all bards, though they manage to irritate ears better than sooth. This leaf craft is also used to make all sorts of gear as well, though they will not impede important pieces of gear needed for survival.

They may later evolve into decibiles or even punkgators

-Player 0