[Rama] Devil of Newtown

When Rama regains consciousness he found himself lying on the floor in a dimly lit area. The place smells musty and the air is stale. Looking around, Rama finds himself in a prison cell. Metal bars, this prison's not too different from the usual cells back on the world where he was from. Light enters from a small barred rectangular hole in the wall. It's still day, but Rama has no idea what time it is.

"Slept well?" A voice asks.

It was from a man in ragged clothes from the cell beside him. Rama can see that there are other prisoners too but they are either asleep or not in the mood to talk. Rama couldn't see them clearly.

"I don't really know how you got here, devil." The man yawns.

It didn't take long before someone from outside the prison cells came to check on you.

"I see, you're awake." Says a man in green uniform. "The world's full of monsters and we're just being cautious." He speaks in a kind tone.

"Tell us, what were you doing at Bezelbebe forest?" He asks.

"A different land and a giant you say. That's odd indeed." The man says. You hear the other prisoners try to hold their laugh.

"You were brought here by adventurers who dealt with the goblin captain. They thought you were related to the blue goblins." The man asks.

"We thought you know more about them than we do. The goblins have slain seven of Newtown's adventurers during the last expedition." The guard pauses, arms folded, fingers brushing his goatee. He looks at Shaitaan for a second then he looks away.

"I do not have reason to hold you in this cell so you may go, Mr.Shaitaan." The man says before unlocking Rama's cell.

"You're in the Guardian's building, we're in charge of law and order in this place, I don't know if we can help you about customs but we're short staffed. Go check with the people upstairs if you're interested. If not, you can also check out the Adventurer's guild, they've always got jobs for people like you." The guard replies before locking the prison cell you got out of.

Exit from the prison's ahead. There's stairs going up.

The guard ignores Rama.

Upstairs, the devil saw desks and other people.

You see a man in uniform interviewing a muscular anthropomorphic boar.
You see a man and a woman in uniform chatting and drinking what seems to be coffee.
You see a lady in uniform with pointed ears, an elf, working on something in her desk.

Exit from the Guardian's building is on the left.

The two were laughing when Rama butt in on their conversation. They raised an eyebrow.

"It's always sunny in Newtown." Says the red haired man with a goatee.

"What do you want, devil?" Asks the dark skinned lady with long straight black hair tied in a ponytail.

Outside, the scene is that of a renaissance village except this place doesn't only include humans, it has other races too such as elves and beast men. There are no other devils outside the guardian building though. The highest building's only around three stories tall. You can see stalls on the side of stone paved streets. There are no cars but you can see carts pulled by some beast of burden that looked like an ox only that it has red skin and has a third eye.

To the right there are more side street stalls.
To the left the path goes down and you can see a harbor for small fishing vessels.

Rama easily found the adventurer's building from investigating around town. It's a place where there's a lot of traffic since adventurers are abundant due to the goblin hunt. Rama saw the three story tall building in the market area and the adventurers going in and out of the building. He can be certain it was what he was looking for since the sign, spelled in [COMMON], says it.As for the other buildings he's looking for, there are no stages but he heard of the Sunrise Tavern where the bards go sometimes to perform. What he was looking for might be in another town.

The stalls sell all sorts of goods from food, to apparel, to weapons and armor. The fishermen's boats just got back from the sea. As for other things going on around town, he learns about what happened in Bezelbebe's forest from the gossip mongers. The expedition to exterminate the goblin menace did not go as perfect as planned. Four adventurers died, and many are wounded. Even with a certain high-ranking adventurer's participation, the adventurers still suffered a big casualty.

The devil enters the building and found people from different races in the large hall.

On the left side, there's a bar manned by a burly tiger like bartender, a catkin. Groups of people gather around round tables, chatting about their quests, drinking, or are waiting for someone or something.

On the right side, are people looking at a board with different sizes of parchments on it. The top of the board says 'Quests'.

The front area has three counters. There's a person behind each counter: an elf lady, a man wearing glasses, and a dog like person.

The crowd inside the adventurer's guild are lively but when Rama entered some of them stopped talking.

Some people whisper to one another when they heard you, some would take a step back after hearing your evil laugh, some just ignored it. You checked out the quest board, most of the 'posts' are about requests to hunt down a certain creature, others requests for collecting certain items from Bezelbebe. There are all sorts of other quests.

"There are no musicals but there's one here looking for performers for a nobleman's party if you're interested." A male human with dark green hair and grey eyes says as he point at a post on the Quest board. He seems unbothered about Rama's race.

The man shrugs when Rama asked him about his hair. He takes the post from the quest wall and gives it to Rama.

The post says that someone called Count Klaus Clauster is looking for performers to entertain his guests on a ball he will be hosting in 5 days. Not much detail is on the paper.

"If you're interested in that, you can hand that over there." Green haired man points at the three counters.

"I haven't seen you before." Says the man wearing glasses behind the center counter. He took the paper Rama placed in the counter and checked it. Rama can see the name plate on the man's uniform, it reads 'Morris'.

"It's a Rank E job, can I see your license." Morris says while looking at your face.

"... if you do not have a license you can register for a fee of two gold coins." Morris says, before handing out a pamphlet that explains what the guild does, what the membership is for, and what you can do with your license. To summarize: the guild's like a human resources agency that acts as intermediary between client and adventurer.

"If you do not have the money now, I'm afraid I can not process your application."

Morris and the others behind the counter seem indifferent about you.

Morris says that Rank E Adventurers do not get much but as they complete more missions and increase their rank and renown, the pay increases a lot.

During Rama's roaming around town, he found that Newtown has a park that's wide enough, it's not private though. He can try the forest or the beach as well, it's already dusk though and Rama can only assume that these places are not as safe in the night as it is during the day.

The fire orb you were trying to create started to grow but eventually it fizzled out. Summoning the magic spheres was not as easy as you thought it would be. A couple of times it would fizzle and die but eventually you were able to create some fire spheres. It's warm and radiant, the light brightens up the otherwise dark and dull park.

"What you got there mister?" A scruffy looking middle aged bald man in light dirty clothing asks. His right hand seem to be hiding something behind him. The man approaches Rama.

"Goblin or not, this park's my territory." The bald man reveals what he was hiding. A knife!

"Now hand me yer money if you want to live." Turns out that his first audience is a mugger. Will Rama run or fight?

Rama couldn't make the entire park appear as if it was burning but he was able to make himself look like a greater demon in the eyes of the mugger.

"W-Waaa! What are you." His whole body seem to tremble in fear from the demon before him. Yet he wouldn't run away.

"D-Die you demon!" Instead it tried to stab Rama with his knife. The thief falters and misses, he almost tripped towards the ball of fire. Rama has an opportunity to make a counter attack before the thief could move back.

Rama counters the muggers attack. He slams the flame sphere on the man...

The fire singes up the man's clothes but the attack did not hurt him much. The flame sphere fizzles and disappears.

The man moves backwards.

Rama scratched the thief with his claws. He was able to tear off the man's shirt but the wounds he inflicted were light and negligible.

"I'm not afraid of you, you Devil!" He shouts as he attempt to stab Rama again.

The mugger was able to inflict a light cut on Rama's side as well. It doesn't hurt much.

The mugger tries to move away from Rama again giving the devil opportunity to react.

The enemy evades Rama's attack easily as it move back.

"Tsk." He clicks his tongue, disappointed that his prey is not an easy target.

"Wrap it up Mar, can't you handle a single devil." Someone from the park shouts.

Rama tried to attack but missed.

Mar, the thief, raises his dagger and chants words. His dagger glows with electric sparks.

"You should not have come here!" Mar yells as he charge at Rama with his electric dagger.

The attack wounded Rama's shoulder, it did not cut deep but Rama got electrocuted by it.

Rama's dazed by getting electrocuted."Need help Mar?" Another voice from the park asks.

"Tsk. I can handle this devil on my own." Mar says.

It seems you are surrounded by thieves.

Seeing that there really was no point in fighting with a devil with nothing, the thief stopped attacking."Tsk. Get out of our sight!"

"Why ya letting him go Mar?"

"That blue skin got no money you idiots!"

You took the opportunity to leave. Where would Rama practice now?

The safest place in town may be the place where he came from, the guardians building. There ain't much passersby in the evening but there are still people who'd pass by whom Rama could perform for.There are not many who'd watch a dance number without music but there are those who took pity for the devil and offered some coin and bread."You should look for a bard to provide music to your performance, I heard there's one at Sunrise tavern right now. You should talk to him." A passerby says before leaving.

The tavern's lively at this time of the night, you hear a familiar tune performed with a lute and drum. The language used is [ COMMON ] but you can say for sure this music is popular back on earth. You enter the almost crowded building and saw the performer, it was one of the unconscious people you saw back at the goblin settlement (Dylan). He was singing and playing the lute while black tentacle like limbs emerging from the bard's shadow is playing the drums.

Strangely, his song is soothing, magical even. While listening to him you can sense your tiredness getting alleviated and you can feel that your wounds are healing.

The audience gave their round of applaues as the bard ends his set. Rama has opportunity to approach him.

The duo made an impactful performance with Dylan's fascinating music (advantage) and Rama's mesmerizing steps. The audience were captivated, they stopped what they were doing to see the fantastic show. The end of the performance brought some audience in awe, tears start forming in their eyes. The crowd's ready to sign up on a fan club, if that was a thing in this world.

The audience expressed their appreciation with applause, cheers, and coins. The two of you garnered quite a sum of money.The tavern going folks are in a merry mood but then Rama saw a familiar face smirk at him before exiting the tavern. It was the thief he met at the park earlier, Mar.

The two of you can stay in the tavern to chat with the other patrons. It's getting late and though the people are enjoying the night, most of them need to go home.

You may want to go out to follow the thief or do something else.

The staff approaches, a minotaur(?) but leaner. He seem to be in a good mood.

"Sunrise tavern is connected to Sunrise inn which is just beside this place. Adventurers from distant places usually stay there." The minotaur answers.

Inspecting the earnings, Rama can conclude that there are no paper bills in this world.

The inn's rooms are cozy, there's a single bed and beside it is a night stand with a lamp that's powered by magic. There's no AC but there's no need for it anyway. Before Rama could fall asleep he hears the sound of a bell inside his head. Notifications?

Acquired: 10 power points and 1 card.
Learned Intimidation Rank 0
Learned Close Combat: Unarmed Rank 0

---

In his sleep, Rama dreams of something about his life back on earth.

You received another notification that night before you fell asleep and dreamt of cousin Habib...

MELEK BOYS SUCCESSFULLY SUBDUED!
You receive 10 power points

You have no clue who 'Melek' is or how you successfully 'subdued' them.

continue (HERE)