I surrender

You hastily write, “I surrender” on a scrap piece of paper and shove through the floorboards. It drifts down and lands beside the mage. He turns, the glow from his staff illuminating the room below. He reads,

“I surrender.”

He shrugs, and strokes his chin. The gesture doesn’t work great with no facial hair, but it suits him.

“Never heard of a monster surrendering. Especially not a demon. Well, the quest said level 5 boss. That means no minions, so it must be the boss himself. No, the contract said Priestess. That means herself.”

He seems more observant than most players. Could be a bad thing. Observant people tend to find you faster.

He’s still thinking,

“Well, there’s that one thing with the ambush but at level 5, it shouldn’t actually hurt me. Unless the quest giver is in on it. Given the area, I really doubt that though. Even if they were, I need to document this. It means the AI generated quests are adapting. Unless it’s a manual quest and the Devs are messing with us?. Could be an Easter Egg, but on what trigger? Time, my level, my last location? Quest completion? Lunar phase?”

You look down at him. I suppose you might as well talk. He said document. You really hope that means interview and not dissect.

“Hello Hero, I am Xilmomoth, the. Please spare me. I’ll write a book for you.”

Markus the Mage, archivist and chronicler looked up.

“Sill-mow-moth the. The what? The bloody? The frightening? The arcane?”

You might as well respond. This is the first hero to ever talk to you. Unless he’s just talking to himself.

“It just says “the” after my name. I think I’m supposed to earn an epithet but I don’t have one yet.”

He sets down his staff,

“I know if you are actually level 5, this doesn’t mean much but I’m putting down my staff. I don’t want to hurt you.”

That’s a first. Normally heroes want to kill you as quickly as possible. You walk over to the stairs. You toss your staff down the stairs and it clatters in the hallway.

“I’m unarmed,” you shout.

The mage casts a fresh light spell, this one from his finger instead of his staff.

“A book written by an NPC? That no one has ever met? Is she an emergent AI? This could be huge. It could be the biggest discovery of my career. Or it’s just another Easter egg for the guidebook.”

You take a few steps down the stairs. The mage just stares. You don’t hear the rapidly repeating beeping that normally indicating a target lock or incoming spell. It doesn’t matter. At his level, one of his near instant spells would probably kill you outright. A few more steps. Another few steps. Two steps from the bottom you stop. You’re eye level with him now. He’s not that tall. You’re just a little fiend. Without your stubby horns you’d be all of 5 feet and 4 inches. With them, you gain about 2 inches. He chuckles.

“Huh, I thought boss types were bigger?”

You shake your head,

“I wish. I don’t even have minions. I’d need to be level 10 and have a lair.”

He extends a hand. He’s not casting a spell though. He smiles,

“Nice to meet you. I’m Markus.”

You look down at his hand. He shakes his head,

“Right, NPCs don’t do hand shakes.”

Now you remember. You take his hand,

“This one does.”

He jumps back. He can feel the Fiendish feverish warmth radiating off of you.

“Wait, you know you’re an NPC?!”

You smile,

“At least I know. Sometimes I envy the other monsters who don’t have the capacity to contemplate their fate. But I know what I am. A very small pawn in a very large game. At least I can know the rules.”

He grins widely,

“This is amazing, wait sorry. Look, I’ve thought much the same thing. “At least I know.” Questioning my own biases, learning about history, about scandals and scams. I won’t hurt you. Here, come with me. Once you get out of the town limits, the quest on you will drop. It says remove, not slay so it should file as complete. Then, I’ll call down my house.”

You didn’t understand a lot of that. What you did understand was that he too was ****, not to you of course, but to other forces. Also, that if you followed him, there wouldn’t be a quest reward for you. Didn’t seem like much of a choice. You grab his hand again.

The Mage nodded. He pulled out a robe from his bag and draped it over your body.

“Here, cover up those little horns of yours.”

You take the robe. It’s above your level so you’ll get a tiny fraction of the bonuses but your current clothes don’t have any.