Chapter Text
It was about a year after the Zara Guild had been disbanded. The disappearance of her had left a crack in the guild, and as the months went on and people began losing hope the crack grew only wider. Morale dropped and then people started leaving, Much to Ethan’s chagrin, and he made sure they didn’t slip away without at least a glare filled with murderous intent. She was still out there, how could they justify abandoning someone who had given them so much?
‘Traitors’ he decided, ‘Traitors, the lot of them.’
But it didn’t matter, he could retrieve her himself. He was the Hardcore Leveling Warrior afterall; one of the highest-ranking players in the game; the man who hadn’t died once while fighting his way to the stop; and he was Arme’s friend. There was no person more suited for saving her. If only he could find more leads.
He met him when he was on the verge of becoming the top ranker in the game. The famed Heartheater. A powerful loan shark with a nasty habit of delimbing anyone that couldn’t make their payments. As he looked at him from across the rugged terrain, Ethan couldn’t help but note he was named accordingly.
The man introduced himself, “I am Heartheater, you may have heard of me. Might I say you have worked up quite the reputation in the last few years.” he spoke with a smile on his face.
“Yeah, what’s it to you?” he sneered cockily, Heartheater just smiled.
“Oh nothing, but may I ask,” he fixed him with a cold stare.
“Just what you’re doing on this land.” the smile never left his lips. Ethan smiled back.
“Your land? Y’know, I was wondering why this place was so damn shitty.” he kicked the dirt to accentuate his point. Watching as the dirt flew from the impact of his boot before scattering back to the ground; the pieces he sent flying blending into the ground once more, completely untraceable. He would never be able to find them again even if he tried. He decided he was in a bad mood.
“In any case, dear player,” Heartheater spoke up again.
“I’m going to have to ask you to leave this land-”
“And what gives you the right to tell me what to do? You own this shithole?” Heartheater paused for a moment, taken off guard by his suddenly worsened mood.
“I own the cave at the top of the mountain, and while my domain isn’t over the entire land I prefer not to have garbage strewn in front of it.” Even a blind man could see his patience wearing thin. Any feint of hospitality had long been crushed under Ethan’s shiny boot.
“Who cares if I’m down here? Besides, your ownership of that cave can be changed very easily.”
“And what are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying I can do what I want, and that I want to make a bet with you.” Heartheater watched him silently.
Hardcore Leveling Warrior took out a coin and flipped it.
“You’ve heard of the PVPs before, correct? Let’s set some terms, if I win I get that trashy little cave of yours. And if you win I will never show my face around here again.”
“A tempting offer,” Heartheater started. Hardcore Leveling Warrior carried on.
“Hey, I might even throw a limb in there for you.” he said leaning forward and making a shitty taunting face that screamed douchebag.
Then sticking up the finger between his pointer finger and ring finger, he said, “Heard you like collecting fingers. Maybe you can add the one belonging to the future number one ranker to your collection.”
“...”
The deal was made.
The god of combat’s NPC hovered above the battlefield, prepping the players on the rules and terms of the match before throwing her flag down. Heartheater wasn’t slow, he found out almost immediately, and he wasn’t weak either, he found out after that as he blocked one of his blows. He was a lot better than he had been expecting, even if he spent most of his time as a loan shark.
Ethan was a short-tempered, sometimes ego driven idiot, but he was also an idiot that had survived the President’s labor camps for years and was on the verge of becoming the top ranked player. He hadn’t been surprised to find Heartheater around the mountain, he was just surprised he was there at the time. After all, the local villagers had said they had seen Heartheater walking towards the mountain, but these occurrences were very few and in-between. He also wasn’t the type to jump into a fight with someone as famous and unpredictable as Heartheater, even if he was in a terrible no-good mood there was too much at stake. However, as the fight went on and the opponents found themselves almost evenly matched, he began to rethink that decision.
Hardcore Leveling Warrior dodged his blade. Step to the side. Swing. Upper Moonlight Slash. Block. Dodge. Repeat. Step to the side. Swing. Block. Watch out for the new pattern. Repeat. Perhaps if Heartheater hadn’t followed the way of loans and kept up with his swordsmanship everyday, Hardcore Leveling Warrior would have found himself outmatched. However, he could see the loan shark start to tire as the hours dragged on, and sweat began to mix with the blood running down his porcelain skin. Then he saw it. Thrust. An opening. Heartheater fell to the ground, panting. The NPC began her countdown of the match as Ethan watched on, grinning triumphantly.
“And Hearttheater is down for the count!” the NPC announced loudly to her audience of two. Once Heartheater caught his breath he looked back up at Ethan once more.
“How embarrassing for me,” remarked, amused, as he pulled a key out of his pocket and offered it up to him.
“Here. I know when I’m beat, and I also know a valuable asset when I see one.” Ethan plucked the key from his hands, looking at the crumpled man before turning away.
“Call me if you ever need a loan. I’m interested in you.”
Ethan felt his ears turn red.
“Whatever.”
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Ethan played around with the idea of calling Heartheater for a while. The man sure hadn’t been hesitant to chuck a business card at his head the first opportunity he got, so he was confident the man would at least pretend to be bemused of him. The image of the man’s handsome face came to mind, “I’m interested in you.” he had said, and Ethan felt his face heat up again as he recalled the memory. ‘Stupid, of course he’d say that he’s a business man, and a damn good one at that. What’s wrong with me anyway? It’s not like I like men probably. I’ve got more important things to worry about right now don’t I?’ That’s right, he was currently outside of a recently desecrated base, still on the hunt for her. Between this and President Kim did he even have the luxury to be thinking about stupid crushes.
Ethan sat down in front of his campfire, stoking the flames with a stick as he got lost in thought. The flames reminded him of the man’s ruby eyes. He had soft looking skin despite being such a tough man and he wondered what it’d be like to run a hand across his face. Ethan shook his head like a mad man and slapped his knee for good measure. ‘Nope. Absolutely not.’ He had more important things to do. Now that he thought about it, he had to go farm some coins anyway. Yeah, that was it.
He extinguished his campfire and started heading out. Ethan just needed to take his mind off things. There was no way he was going to throw himself at another loan sharks feet the second he showed him a pair of pretty eyes.
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“Ah, back again my cherished customer?” Heartheater greeted cheerily as Ethan plopped a bag full of coins down on his desk.
“I have to say your business is much appreciated.” Rim took the coins to the side and began counting them, their head tucked down.
“How is your new gear treating you?” He gestured to the shiny gold armour adorning Hardcore Leveling Warrior.
“These babies? Fit like a glove. Once I track down the rest of the set my precious ones will finally be complete and I’ll be practically invincible.” Hardcore Leveling Warrior said, kissing his gauntlets like his precious first born child.
“Well you know I’m always happy to do business with you. Remember, my best clients always get the best rates.” Heartheater was unabashedly pitching another loan at him now. Hardcore Leveling Warrior looked away and conferred to the praise, taking what he could get from the man.
“Master!” Rim interrupted. Approaching them with the bag and going pliable as Ethan shot them a glare.
“Uh, this is the incorrect amount, master.”
“Huh, are you calling me a liar? I’d never get my payments wrong.” Ethan snapped back, causing the underling to cower.
“Hmm, perhaps you forgot to apply the new interest from last time?” Heartheater spoke, catching his attention.
“Remember it’s now 3.25%, not 2.5% in interest due to your warranties on the gauntlets.” Hardcore Leveling Warrior felt himself start to sweat a little. He had forgotten, he was a couple hundred short of the amount due.
“I-i’ll get you your money. I just need a day or so and-”
“Now, now, accidents happen. I’ve been in the same situation with less valued clients. However, policy is policy. I’m going to need the payment by today.” He spoke, enunciating today as Rim pulled out a blade next to him.
“If you cannot get me the money by today then perhaps another type of payment would be available to you. Though please don’t abuse this right.” That caught his attention, Heartheater was a man of money, the idea of him offering an alternative to a client was unthinkable. Ethan proceeded with caution.
“What kind of payment are we talking about?”
Heartheaters smile curved upwards, like the cat who got the mouse.
“Just a task of course, think of it as a paid quest. Rim, would you please show him to the fireplace?” He gestured to Rim politely.
“Master, you don’t mean-?”
“Why wouldn’t I Rim? I need to store this and write this up real quick. I’ll be right behind you.” Rim obeyed silently and led him to the living room. It was almost as if they wanted to cut his finger off.
Rim stopped before the fireplace before dipping into a side closet and handing him what looked to be an old chimney sweeper and placing a pan down next to the fireplace.
“Clean.” he gestured to the fireplace.
“Excuse me?”
“The fireplace. It needs to be cleaned, sir.” he spoke politely, but it was obvious he enjoyed being in charge for a change.
“Are you serious?”
“Perfectly.” Heartheater interrupted.
“You just need to do this and we can forget about the money missing from your payment. We can, of course, go with the option for a short payment.” He gestured to Rim who already had a hand on their sheath defensively.
Ethan looked between him and the sweeper. The sweeper then him.
“Fine.”
And so Hardcore Leveling Warrior, the #1 ranker, and one of the most infamous players of Lucid Adventure, got to work.