The Smartphone Saga: A Distracted Journey of Spells and Signals

Chapter 10 - Part 2: Rest Up --- End of Goes Around Arc

Jasson stood outside of the Guild, leaning on a wall and watching the lights drift down into the city as he charged his phone. Holding the crystal to his charging port had been painful after all the tapping, but now that he was healed Jasson charged idly while watching the stars gliding down to earth. Jasson's first day paying his life debt.

Had it been a good day? He had almost two hundred dollars of gold from it, which would have been an amazing day in his last life. Surely that was good enough. But...it wasn't just him anymore. This would be split between the three of them, right? Would he get any part of it at all?

Sighing, Jasson pushed off of the Guild and started the long walk home. He needed to see if Petra and Clara were still at the meet-up, then it was several miles up the mountain to home. It still baffled him how the distance seemed to shrink as he walked, what should be miles taking him only thirty minutes. Maybe his sense of distance wasn't accurate anymore.

Jasson was already on the north side of the city and only had a handful of blocks before he got to the meeting point. But a protagonist traveling any distance through a city will pass at least one alley. For any protagonist, all alleys have a 2.3% chance of a '{vulnerable_attractive_female(s)} being accosted by the {minor_plotpoint} gang' encounter. The women's screams pass by the deaf ears of everyone on the road and pierce solely into the courageous heart of the protagonist. Then, with brave proclamations of truth and justice, the protagonist will step in to assist the {vulnerable_attractive_females}, winning adoration and affection from the imposed upon.

Fortunately for this protagonist, these {vulnerable_attractive_females} had decided that this time fighting back was worth it.

"Hey," Clara called, "Jasson! Over here!"

Jasson turned to see the comically collapsed bodies of the {minor_plotpoint} gang lying strewn across the alley. Petra was holding the leader up by one of his cat ears and turned at Clara's call. Once she saw Jasson, Petra dropped the leader into a heap on the ground and dusted off her hands.

"Glad to see that you're alright!" Clara bounced towards Jasson and said, "You were late for the meetup so we were worried. Then these hooligans tried to interrogate us on your location. We thought you were in some kind of trouble!"

"Really?" Jasson said, looking at the groaning men, "They were looking for me?"

"No idea why," Petra said, kicking the leader one last time, "But they won't be looking for you anytime soon. Healers don't prevent pain, and I've offered the leader an education on methods to emphasize that fact. Did you get any good quests today?"

I probably shouldn't flash my gold in front of so many criminals, Jasson thought.

"Nope," Jasson said, "I did find out that all the good ones get taken right off the bat, so I should be more ready tomorrow. But I did get a quest for one silver and a copper. It was to exter-"

"Ugh!" Petra had stepped closer to Jasson and was now backing off as she said, "You stink like crazy. What were you fighting?! You're worse than this morning!"

"I was killing spiders," Jasson said, "Which were #@%$ terrifying. But I got paid, so that's a silver lining. Heh."

"Great," Petra gave Jasson a wide berth, "Tell us the rest after you bathe back home. I'm staying upwind of you in the meantime."

"I don't think that'll work," Jasson said, "I've already washed off twice today. One shower, one really long soak in a tub."

"Well it's not working," Petra groaned, "The smell is probably from your clothes. Figures. Good thing- well just stay away from me."