《The Journal of Curtis Zine》 The Journal of Curtis Zine Day 0 Desnus 31, 4718, Tierce Dockway District, Magnimar, Varisia Guard Inspector Curtis Zine was walking his beat, in the Dockway, when he received a call on message on his radio, telling him to head back to the Dockway Guard Station, that the district Guard Sergeant was giving everyone a reassignment. Curtis silently thanked David Drake, the inventor of these things, as we no longer needed runners. Curtis then looked at Rex, who was happily perched on a barrel, munching on a salted herring that Curtis had just given to him, and looking very content. Curtis sighed, looked around on the ground until he found a small piece of brick, picked it up, and muttered a few arcane words to himself. Over the next thirty seconds, Curtis got a treasure trove of rumors and hints of illicit dealings that were going on in the area. Truly little of it would be especially useful right now, consisting of a bit of minor dealings in illicit substances, half heard rumors of the Derro kidnapping people again, and hints about what the Sczarni are up to now. About halfway through his compression of ten hours of observed time, he heard from some scamps that the Sandpoint Saviors had come into Magnimar last night and had told the Lord Mayor that they had arrived to deal with some monstrosity that was on its way here. That was particularly essential information. Maybe this is what we are getting reassigned about? Or it could be just another rumor in this town, and we are doing another shakedown in either the Bazaar of Sails or the Underbridge. Thinking of the Bazaar of Sails made me look back to Rex again, reflexively, remembering just where this scruffy little lizard-bird had found me and ¡°adopted me.¡± Thinking back on the Sandpoint Saviors, this could be really big information. David Drake rarely left his school anymore, even as his pupils had spread his teachings in different subjects far and wide. Lady, or was it Dame, Rebekah Destrier was still running her hostel in the former Foxglove Manor. Faunra Felldoom had finally gotten her tribe moved to the future from the long-ago times away from the time of the Runelords. That had actually been a recent development actually, so it must be important to get her away from her people. Jonathan, now oddly enough Jonathan was the most likely of the four to show up in Magnimar now that he had a Tavern in every District. Surprisingly, decent food too. All of them being in Magnimar was an important thing. The last time all of them showed up in Magnimar, the Dockway was flooded as the Former Emperor Xin was trying to come back from millennia past. That was the day that Curtis Zine, then just a street urchin, found the power in David Drake¡¯s guns. That led to his time learning at David¡¯s school in Sandpoint for a few months, and to the seven-shooter on his hip. Curtis whistled to Rex, who snapped out of his gustatory bliss, and started back towards the Guard Station. ***** Desnus 31, 4718, Tierce + 1 bell, Dockway District, Magnimar, Varisia Shortly thereafter, I made it back to the Guard District, Rex taking up a perch on my shoulder. He certainly seemed to like that, fat ass that he is. Eventually, I am going to have to look into regulating how much he eats. He is smarter than some dock thugs that I have met, but even he likes his treats. Word is, we are going to be doing a sweep of the Underbridge just to make sure that there is no S.C.R.U.M. activity going on, that¡¯s Slavers, Cults, Rituals, Undesirables, or Monsters. Do not know why we started using a lot of acronyms, but they sure seem to have caught on. I put away everything I will not need for this and get as equipped up with what I will need for this kind of assault. I used my Badge and got healed back up, every little bit of health helps after all. Almost everything not in my apartment is with me, including some stuff for Rex. I would not want him to get hurt, but a bit of extra eyes always helps. Got issued the standard masterwork manacles and fetters, just in case we can take someone in. Also got the blank journals and the portrait book, so that I can work with whomever we happen to run across to get a portrait done if needed. It was not an issue to create some decent images of ¡°wanted¡± posters, between the two books and my abilities to create relatively accurate images quickly. All of this to say, I did not have much on me that was not standard issue, except for some minor things that I kept either in pockets or in the magic bandoleer that I had gotten myself. We all got together in our auto-carriage (another item brought to us by David Drake), and headed to the Underbridge, by way of ¡°The Old Fang.¡± I did not spend much time on this side of the Dockway, as most of my beat was in the Bazaar of Sails, where I dealt with the more audacious of the smugglers and slavers that showed up. Sabriyya Kalmeralm, the individual colloquially known as ¡®The Princess of the Market,¡± usually kept a good wrap on things there, but whenever she had issues, she had let slip a certain rumor in the grounds, that she knew would make its way to either me or one of the other Guard. This obviously was not one of those times, but if she had not told me about it either, it meant that this was a grave issue. ***** Desnus 31, 4718, Tierce +2 bells, Underbridge District, Magnimar, Varisia Once all of the groups who were participating in this raid showed up, and we got some help from the Keystone, Lowcleft, and Beacon¡¯s Point Guard branches. Not so many from Beacon¡¯s Point, because there was an issue going on in Rag¡¯s End, but enough to show that they were assisting. The Senior Guard Captain (someone from the Lowcleft that I had never met before), told us that we would be splitting up, and the groups were going to the recently reinvested Shrine to Saranrae, the Shadow Clock, the Friendly Merchant, and the Gecko and Harpy pylons. My Dockway compatriots got sent to the Shadow Clock, while me and Rex got sent to the Friendly Merchant, since it was better to just have one guard heading there, rather than it being an ¡°official raid.¡± I personally wondered if I were being sent to my death, but I figured that I could just head over there and mosey around a bit. We all slowly split up, with notice to get back to this meeting location by Sext, so we can figure out what we found, or send a runner back here to get more assistance. Now, Underbridge is nothing like Under-Cleft, where the Lowcleft people of disrepute might be found, so this Captain seemed to be giving his inexperience full display. I hoped that this would not be a disastrous outing, but it certainly was not looking promising. I finished writing into my records journal, gathered Rex from where he had roosted on another barrel, and got ready to head to the disreputable establishment I had been assigned. Still, I will keep my hand on my revolver. ***** Desnus 31, 4718, Tierce +almost three bells, Underbridge District, Magnimar, Varisia Siov Cassimeel was not exactly forthcoming with a font of information, expecting me to be there to shake him down for some kind of pay-off. Once we got it straight that I was not trying to bust him, or the Night Scales, or get any gold from any of them, and that I was just (specifically) following up on Slavers, Cults, Rituals, Undesirables, and/or Monster sightings, he calmed down a bit, and then demanded money from me. I looked him over and told him that I was there to help him out, and if he did not have any information for me, that I would be off. I got Rex, who was cautiously eyeing everyone in the bar, having grown to his large size and belched a bit of flame at someone who had mistaken him for a chicken, to calm down and decided to head out of the bar. Wait, what is that racket outside? ***** Desnus 31, 4718, Unknown, Unknown. I do not know where I am, or how I survived. Rex and I rushed outside, before seeing a pitched battle between the Sandpoint Saviors and some angry evil red-headed evoker. She was wielding a black bladed ranseur and the spells that being flung were mind melting. Even though Rex and I were on the sidelines, we could see the terrible battle taking place. Something was terribly wrong here, I could tell. The evil looking woman snarled something in a language I did not know and launched a blue-white ray towards David. I immediately fired off a round, luckily intercepting the ray and stopping it as the bullet got frozen in a chunk of supercooled ice. That got me and Rex her ire, and before I knew it, I was elsewhere. Gone was the Underbridge, the Friendly Merchant behind me, the Shadow clock that can be seen from just about anywhere in the Underbridge. As I arrived in this place, with Rex besides me, we showed up in a sunny place, with lots of those moving auto-carriages, and tall buildings that put the Shadow Clock to shame. All around me, people were jumping out of their auto-carriages, and initially I thought that I was the reason. That was until some of the people started to dissolve into dust and completely disappear, even more than that damned disintegrate spell. With all of the confusion and the accidents piling up, as the newly unmanned auto-carriages careen into each other, Rex and I got out of the roadway and onto the raised area where people walk. At a snapshot, it looks a lot like what Sandpoint and Magnimar have been changing in to since David Drake showed up over a decade ago. Some kind soul helped me to a bench to sit down, expecting me to be in shock from someone I loved disappearing. Rex helpfully perched on the back of the bench to rub next to me, before the kind soul noticed and ran off, scared. I sat for a minute before deciding to use my spell again, with Rex helpfully dropping a bit of brick in my hand. ***** May 31, 2018, 10:30 AM, Norfolk, Virginia As the arcane words crossed my lips and the bit of brick dissolved into the ether, a flood of information, covering over eleven hours of effective questioning and rumor collection, entered my brain over the span of forty some seconds. I learned that this world was known as Earth (or Terra to some) rather than Golarion (the world I lived on), that there were seven (or was it eight?) continents, and on the one I was on, North America. I was residing in the United States of America, specifically, in the Commonwealth? Of Virginia, in the city of Norfolk. I learned the year, day, month, and time of the event, and that it seems like roughly half of the population was gone, if estimates were close at all. And that this world had what was known as ¡°Superheroes¡± and ¡°supervillains.¡± I learned that these superheroes had a split in opinions about them, that some were considered menaces and dangers to the community, but those who the heroes saved, loved them. I learned that one of the heroes, a man by the name of Tony Stark flew around in an armor somewhat similar to what David Drake had worn in his early days in Magnimar, as I remembered seeing. I learned that there were other known heroes, like Steve Rogers, or Captain America, and even a deity named Thor. Apparently, there was a big fight in Africa (another continent) where all of the local heroes went to fight, but it does not look like they did well. There are also magic users here, and even those with skills in weapons and David Drake¡¯s science. I also heard someone mention something about a villain group named Hydra, who seemed to have infected someone armor or shield somehow? Also, there was mention that some of the ships in the harbor (oh would you look at that, not far away from the docks again), actually flew? ***** May 31, 2018, 10:35 AM, Norfolk, Virginia To give me time to catch my bearings, I burned another arcane spell to make Rex disappear for a little bit, about thirty seconds worth of time, and ordered him to fly up high and hid among the buildings but keep me in sight. He did so, and I looked up and looked around, noticing some of the shock that must have come with watching people they loved disappear, some of them in their loved one¡¯s arms. Others were looking around, and some of those people were looking at me. I heard the term ¡°Asgardian¡± from some of them, referring to me in some way. One of them walked up to me and asked if I knew Thor. I shook my head, glad that the language that they were speaking was Taldane, and something that I spoke, even if the accent was a bit of ¡°dockworker Andoran.¡± I responded back to the person who walked up to me and asked me that, that I did not recall meeting anyone named Thor, and that I was not an Asgardian. I added that I was a Varisian, and that I did not rightly know how I had gotten here. That was a bit of a lie, as I knew that the angry evil sorceress had launched some high-level spell at me that had consisted of a spray of prismatic colors, with me and Rex¡¯s world enveloped in violet light. I did not know what their universal knowledge was about magic, especially with the fact that I could seem to cast spells here, but they apparently could not or did not. A couple of the kinder looking people asked if I was hurt, noting some blood on my arm. I noticed it and figured that I must have caught some magical effect from the sorceress and healed it reflexively using my badge. One of the people noticed the wound closing and asked if I could heal other people. When I heard that other people needed help, I jumped up and said that I could help with first aid, and that my familiar can help as well if they can be okay with him coming down. One of the people in a black, short sleeved button up shirt with, with some kind of reinforced vest over it, and a badge, noted that we needed all of the help we could get. With that, I called out to Rex, and he started flying down. While he was coming down, I reached into one of the larger pockets of my bandoleer and pulled out my healing kit. When that City Guard saw me reach into the pocket, he seemed to reach towards his firearm on his hip, but he did not go to draw on me at least. I put the rest of the materials back and held the Healer¡¯s kit out for Rex to grab. I asked the City Guard to have Rex go with him, as he understands the language and can at least provide some assistance in stabilizing people. ***** 31 May 2018, 11:45 AM, Norfolk, Virginia I had gone the other direction as people were trying to get people out of stuck vehicles and get the wounded to safety. I spent a large amount of time using either my Any-Tool as a variety of prybars, hammers, or such, to help people escape from their busted auto-carriages, or working to patch and bind wounds with whatever materials were available. I had to utilize all three of the charges of my healer¡¯s belt on separate occasions, when someone was extremely close to death, but I saved quite a few lives that day. Rex certainly did his fair share as well, using the healer¡¯s kit to stabilize ten people before the supplies ran out, and he was working with whatever supplies people could rustle up. After an hour or so, we had saved everyone we could, and I sat down to get a breather and log everything. It is a habit of mine from when I was working on a case, and journals had gotten cheaper since the innovations in papermaking coming out of Sandpoint. The City Guard eventually walked back up with Rex following and thanked us both greatly. I told him that it was nothing for another man of the law. The City Guard looked me over and asked me where I was from, and I told him Magnimar. He looked at me oddly and noted that I did not look like I was from Myanmar. It sounded close, but not exactly right, and I told him as such. The City Guard introduced himself as Officer Blalock, and that he was grateful for all of the help. I sensed a ¡°but¡± coming, and he proved it, by telling me that ¡°All that being said, I¡¯ll need you to come with me to the station, to try and get some things sorted out.¡± I sighed and asked him if Rex was fine to come with us. Officer Blalock looked to Rex, and nodded, cautiously. I looked at Rex, told him that it was okay, and that he can perch on my shoulder again. Rex flew over and landed gently on my shoulder, where I scratched him under the chin. We followed Officer Blalock to his police station where a lot of people were running around nervously, trying to answer any number of calls. Officer Blalock took me to a room with a large mirror in it and had me sit with Rex. I sat and he asked me if he could get me coffee or anything. I nodded and thanked him, pulled out my journal and started to get caught up on everything. ***** 31 May 2018, 12:30 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America It took a while for Officer Blalock to come back in with some coffee and offered me a doughnut. I remembered these things from my time back in Sandpoint, from the Sandpoint Savories Bake shop, and thanked him for such delicacies. Officer Blalock smirked when I said that and came back with a hardened paper box with the label of ¡°Krispy Kreme¡± on it. I took one out, a plain glazed doughnut, and thoughtfully ate it. Officer Blalock noted that he had to head out again, and that he would be back with me as soon as he could. As soon as he left, I fired up a Prestidigitation to clean my hands of the sticky residue, and then heated the coffee back up. I took a sip, shuddered, and pulled out my bottle of Oldlaw. I tipped a little bit in, took another sip, sighed contentedly, and put the Oldlaw back in my bandoleer, before continuing to drink the coffee. Not wanting to waste the casting of Prestidigitation, I started cleaning up all of my external gear bit by bit. I moved on to preening Rex with it, and then, since I was still unoccupied with talking with Officer Blalock or any other officer, I spent the time cleaning the room I was in, one cubic foot at a time. After I finished with my gear, and the room, I sighed, and started walking around the room more. Not hoping for any useful information from my rumor catching spell, I decided to utilize a different tact. I pulled out another journal, this one my usual blank one for portraits, and opened it up to the next blank page. I started up one spell, which would transfer words from one book to another, and then utilized my next spell, one that searches the world¡¯s libraries for knowledge about whatever is specified. I focused the first time on laws in this region of the world regarding what I might have done, and then I evoked it a second time to get general information about the city, and country that I arrived in. I then proceeded to read and study both bits of information, noting that I was going to have to get a lot more blank journals here to get a good handle on everything here. But apparently, the country I am in, is known as United States of America, in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Ralph Northam was the ¡°governor¡± of this commonwealth, whereas this area of Virginia has a mayor in Dr. Kenny Alexander. I also learned that this area of Virginia had a HEAVY number of military bases, and the military here was CONSTANTLY mustered, and broken up into four distinct parts, all of which had bases in the local area. I learned that these military members had a vast quantity of different jobs and came from many different areas of the country of ¡°The United States of America¡±. Even more, I learned of political parties, and elections, and read brief synopsis of groups like Freemasons, Templars, and even more. All this in five densely packed pages. I mentioned the bit about where I am because the bit about laws is absolutely convoluted. Somethings are counter indicated by other laws, whereas others are supported by others, but only in certain circumstances. If this was where David Drake was from, then I would imagine he would think our rules and such are ¡°quaint,¡± as he ranted about from time to time in the lectures he gave. I think I remember him talking about a Virginia vaguely too. Shame I do not have a way to contact him. ***** 31 May 2018, 1:30 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America Officer Blalock came back in after another hour and asked if I needed anything, apologizing for the delay. I noted that I could use a trip to the privy, both Rex and I were getting a bit hungry, and that I would like to talk to someone about finding some manner of accommodations for the night before all of the Inns were booked up. Officer Blalock stifled a laugh, and asked what we ate. I noted, that since we were in Virginia, that I would like to try a burger from this world, and that Rex was partial to fish, preferably fresh caught, but I understood that this was an impossibility since we are under detention of some sort. Officer Blalock noted that I was not under arrest, just that they were trying to identify me and not having any luck. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. I smirked and told him that they likely would not, as neither Rex nor I were from this world, and that all I originally knew about Virginia I had learned from someone who had gotten transported to my world from here. Officer Blalock perked up at my mention of that and asked me who it was that had shown up in my world from here. I told him David Drake, but that he had mentioned something about Roanoke and Blue Ridge Mountains. I added that he was alive and well, but that he had no current means to get back here. I did not know that for certain, but I just assumed that either he could not come back of his own power, or did not want to, and I was not about to put him in an unpleasant situation. Officer Blalock then escorted me and Rex to a restroom, something similar to what I had seen in the school in Sandpoint. Indoor Plumbing, but without the magic. David had once told me that it was much cheaper to make one thing enchanted and pipe the results out, rather than enchant many things, and that he had gotten this from the concept of Indoor Plumbing. Rex and I utilized the facilities, somewhat awkwardly for him, and washed up afterwards. Officer Blalock was there in the room, in case we needed anything, or maybe just to observe us. We all went back to the observation room, and there was a woman dressed much differently to Officer Blalock. She had a severe suit, of a similar style to what I once saw David Drake wear when he was getting ready for a school event. It was tailored for her, and she wore dark glasses. She introduced herself as Sharon Carter and that she would be interested in hearing what I had to say. She set something up on the table, a small cylinder, and it seemed to emit some kind of field. I could not quite understand it, but I sat down across from her as Officer Blalock looked to be questioning things. Sharon noted that she was an agent of the JITF, and that she would be investigating this from here on out. Officer Blalock left the room, and Sharon smiled to me, indicating that this was not going to be a dreadful thing. She pulled up what looked like an illusion projector and showed me appearing just as the people were dissolving to dust. She asked me if I had anything to do with the people dissolving. I replied honestly that I had no means to do such a thing, and that I would not be inclined to do so anyway. Sharon nodded and said that she did not think that I would, after skipping to a point where it was seen that I was helping save people who had been in accidents form the event. I watched as it showed me, in a much faster speed, working to extricate people and heal them as best I could. It even showed Rex going to his larger size to use his strength to pull people out of damaged cars and the like. Sharon noted that it seemed like I was superhuman. I chuckled and told her that there was nothing super-human about me, just the items and training available to one of those in my home world. Sharon nodded, and asked if I was and stronger than baseline humans here or had abilities beyond baseline humans here. I noted that it was very possible that I could do things that the people here could not, but that if they had been raised on my world, they would likely be even stronger than I. Sharon nodded sagely, and asked if I was here from Asgard or Vanaheim. I told her that I did not recognize either of those two places, that I was from Magnimar, in the land of Varisia. Sharon seemed to listen in to something and nodded along. I noticed a bit of metal in her ear but said nothing about it. Sharon asked what my intentions were here. I thought back to two of the major things that allowed for someone to get the most leniency if they were not a citizen of this country, and I told her that I was a refugee from a war-torn world seeking asylum from a cataclysmic event. I mean, an evil Runelord sorceress bent on destroying my town is pretty cataclysmic, if the fight with Emperor Xin was any judge. Sharon nodded at the words that I used, and smiled a bit as she looked at me, judging my response to her question about my intent. Sharon asked if I was on the run from where I was originally located. I laughed and indicated my badge, noting that I was a member of the city guard back where I was from, but I was transported here during the cataclysmic fight by the sorceress, a fight where many people were being killed every second by the spells cast by her. Sharon asked what kind of spells were cast by the villain and I thought back, going over what I recalled seeing from the battle. I noted to Sharon, that I saw meteorites crash into buildings and crowds, all directed by this mad sorceress, and lightning bolts directed from her weapon by itself. I noted that I had somehow disrupted an attack aimed at David Drake, and in response, got a prismatic spray launched in my direction, causing me to be sent here. Sharon was noting each thing I said, and asked if I thought that the city would survive this attack. I thought for a minute, and replied back to her, that to the best of my knowledge, there would not be a Magnimar left, if the attack continued as it was, as she seemed to be more about slaughtering those around her, rather than attacking those who were confronting her. She was filled with rage and wanted to take it out on all of those around her. Sharon listened further and quietly asked me if I had any inkling of leaving this country. I noted that I did not know if I would be able to find a way back home eventually, if it was possible, as all I had ever heard of being linked to my world, was this place of Virginia. Sharon nodded, and asked if there was anything she could do that would help me. I told her that I was just trying to find an Inn to stay in overnight to get my bearings, and if I could not get back immediately, then I would have to make my own way in this strange new land. Sharon snickered and said that she would help in what little way she could before leaving this country herself. ***** 31 May 2018, 5:00 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America After this meeting with Sharon Carter, I got released with thanks from the Officers of Norfolk, being escorted by Sharon to leave the station. Sharon asked me what I would feel like eating, and I told her that I wanted to get a burger, since that was a meal from here that had been brought over by the traveler. Sharon smiled and she got in her auto-carriage. It took me a minute to get Rex into the back of her car, but once he was settled, I got into the other front seat. We drove for a bit to get to a tavern that said Doumar¡¯s on the front. Sharon noted that this was the best burger in this town, and that they would whip us up the best burger we can get anywhere. When we drove around through the much-decreased population city, and made our way to Doumar¡¯s, we saw a lot of empty cars which had been moved off of the road. Doumar¡¯s was a lot less busy that I would guess it normally would have been. Sharon pulled up a copy of their menu on what I learned was her phone. I saw that they had cheeseburgers, so I asked her to get me one of those. I asked her to get a ham on toast with no seasonings or toppings for Rex. I had a thought and I asked her what the numbers were for each item, which were next to the items. Sharon indicated that those were the costs. I asked her if those prices were in silver or gold. Sharon laughed and said that it was in dollars. I asked her what the rate of dollars to gold or silver was. Sharon thought for a minute and asked me what I had. I pulled out a couple of gold and silver coins. She took one of the gold coins and looked it over, before doing the same thing with a silver coin. Sharon looked to be evaluating each of them for weight, and eventually she told me that she would expect it to not cost more than five of the silver coins in total. I looked them over and handed her a gold coin and asked her to get whatever she can for that, to keep us in food for a few days. Sharon looked at me oddly, and asked how many of the gold coins I might have. I told her that I had another forty of the gold, and twenty of the silver. Sharon asked me if the silver was move valuable on my world. I noted that it was not, but that I did not carry a lot of smaller coins around with me, and I did not like having as many platinum coins with me. Sharon looked at me a bit oddly, and asked if I would like to convert the gold and silver to the currency of the area, to make things easier. I thought about it, and agreed that it would be easier, and that if I needed to, I would just try and buy up some trade goods here if I had leftover currency and could take stuff back with me. Sharon offered up to pay for this meal and help me get the currency exchanged after lunch. I thanked her and she ran inside to pick up the meals. When she got back, she noted that I had not picked out a drink, so she just got me Coca-Cola to try. I sighed and half-heartedly mentioned that I would have preferred Dr. Pepper. Sharon looked at me oddly and asked when I had tried Dr. Pepper. I told her that back in the Tavern in Sandpoint, where the person from this world had settled down, he had worked with a magical artisan to create a machine that can flavor water like any flavor he could think of. He trained people what the flavors were, and I was partial to either Dr. Pepper or Faygo Rock and Rye. Sharon looked at me oddly, as we drove to a new place, a big stone building with large glass windows. Sharon noted that this was something known as bank, one that served her organization for more than just storing money. We went inside, with Rex, and made our way to a side office. One of the guards at the door looked at Rex to stop us, but Sharon flashed her badge, and they let us through. When we got into the side office and a thin, reedy man came in and gave me a look. Sharon spoke for us, and noted that I was a new associate, from off world, who was needing credentials and a background. The man asked me several pertinent details about my background, and Sharon recommended that I keep it as close as I can to my original background, to make things easier to keep in mind if asked later. I asked them both how detailed they wanted. Sharon recommended that I just tell us everything that I could think of, and they would choose what works best. I sighed and went through as much of my life story as seemed appropriate. I had to elaborate about the reason for getting reassigned from the Alabaster District to the Dockway, which caused the reedy man to snicker a bit. I stopped and asked him what the issue was, and he asked me if the Officer¡¯s name was actually Pan Am and he really did talk in a certain way, and proceeded to do a decent impression of Officer Pan Am. I told him that the voice was a bit off, but the vocal patterns and mannerisms were completely appropriate. The reedy man started laughing heavily, and asked Sharon if she was pulling his leg. Sharon looked at him oddly and asked what this was about. The reedy man said that this was ripped straight out of ¡°Monty Python¡¯s Flying Circus¡±, and he could not believe that I was not making this all up. I nodded sagely, and noted this was probably why David Drake was as humored by the situation and never failed to insult or rib Officer Pan Am, and when I laughed at some of the comeuppance, I got reassigned. Sharon asked if I was certain that this was the first time that someone had crossed over from this world to that. I replied that I had no idea, but that it was certainly possible, and added that with repeated strains, it was even more likely that the trips might go back and forth more in the future. The was a bit of apprehension when I mentioned the S.C.R.U.M. raids that we went on in the Underbridge and that were going on this morning. I broke it down, telling them that the Slavers, Cultists, Ritualists, Undesirables, and Monsters were never just getting along when we went on these raids. It was always done after being tipped off by the local thieves¡¯ guild. The reedy man, a guy by the name of Jonathan, as I learned (looked NOTHING like the Jonathan from the Sandpoint Saviors, so it must be a common name here), asked questions about both Cultists and Ritualists, I clarified that both of them were dedicated to literal cults of elder evils, devils, and demons, and were seeking to end the world or kill many for whatever reason, and that we did sweeps in the areas where they tended to congregate to keep any activities from being able to be accomplished. Jonathan asked about the concept of freedom of religion, and I replied back to him that there were dozens of gods, and that they were free to have their rituals, so long as they did not impact non-worshipers in any way. Jonathan nodded and let me continue. I finished off with a list of my core competencies, along with whatever skills I had that I could rely on, and what magical abilities I could do, and how frequently I could do them. Jonathan laughed again when I mentioned ¡°Prestidigitation¡±, and asked if I would be willing to provide a demonstration. I took a slight dislike to this reedy man, and told him sure, to bring over some water. He brought a bottle of water that was in a very thin filmy material. I did not know what this material was, but it did not let any water through it, even though it was very flexible. I concentrated for a minute and changed the color of the water inside to be the color of coffee, then the scent to be chocolate, then I changed the taste to be ogre piss. Jonathan opened the bottle of water up and went to take a big swig. He spit it out and looked furious for a minute before smiling big. He told both of us that he really believed it now. Sharon and I looked a bit quizzical at first, and then Jonathan went on, explaining that there was a theory that all fledged out fictional realms or worlds are really in existence somewhere, and the people who ¡°come up with them¡± are mostly just tapping into the world in question in some way. He asked me to repeat some of the places that I had mentioned and tried to access the information but produced a website blocked message. Jonathan noted that he would like to talk to me about this later but noted that we can get a decent background going where I am a gunsmith from a small rural town. He told me that I would have to ditch the¡­ he thought for a moment before asking, Darkleaf Leather Lamellar Armor? I was surprised but told him that yes, he got it correct. Jonathan made a fist and pumped it once, before continuing that he could get me a falconry license for having a ¡°golden eagle¡± but that I would need to keep him safe, and I would be responsible for his health. I told him that it should not be an issue, and that Rex would be more than taken care of, and that as long as I ¡°painted¡± some of his ¡°plumage¡± to match, I might be able to disguise him for a long time. Jonathan noted in the system that I would be listed as a rehabber, but that I was not public. Sharon asked me if wanted to have a position in the local police department. I thought about it, and noted that I might have a demanding time blending in. Sharon nodded and recommended me as a hidden auxiliary, who might be contacted from time to time for aid in catching difficult or special villain. Jonathan set me up with an interview at a local gun smith shop, and a place in a slightly more rundown area of Norfolk, where my comings and goings would not be noticed. Sharon asked me to present the coins and I dug them out of my pockets, all sixty-one coins. Jonathan asked if he could take a couple of pictures of these for himself, and Sharon did not think it would be important, so I was okay with it. Then he took out a square item similar to what Sharon had, and the there was a flash of light. I asked what that was, and Sharon indicated that I would be getting one. I thanked her and handed her five of the gold coins I had. Sharon tried to deny me, but I noted that she had been exceptionally helpful, and had gotten me and Rex lunch, and that I would not forget her assistance. Jonathan¡¯s eyes bulged at this, and Sharon thanked me graciously and pocketed the coins. Jonathan took the remaining fifty-six coins and placed them into a velvet bag. I watched as he walked out with them, and Sharon whispered to me that she was very thankful for this gift, and that I would be seeing some benefit from all of this. I thanked her and said that she had gotten me out of a jam in the police department, and that they were getting me the ability to get around in this world. Sharon indicated that there was a fund associated with those from other worlds coming here to help with her organization, and that I was getting set up with it, since I have some capabilities and knowledge that might prove useful in the future, as long as I am around here. When Jonathan got back, I got handed a card with my information on it, and the number 1. Sharon indicated that she might not have a lot of pull left in the organization, but with Fury and Hill gone, they were going to need everyone on deck that they could, even if I might just be able to do minor intelligence gathering and the like. I nodded and asked if I was going to have to wear some other kind of uniform for the job that I had an interview for tomorrow. Sharon nodded and noted that we would need to get some new essentials for me. I lifted an eyebrow and asked for assistance in removing the armor. Sharon and Jonathan both helped, with Jonathan noting how light it was. I grabbed on to my wrist armor and studied Jonathan¡¯s outfit for a minute. My standard sneaking attire suddenly changed into a business suit very much similar to his, except tailored for me. Sharon blinked and Jonathan looked jealous for a minute. I swear I could hear him mutter something about magic being such crap. Sharon shrugged and noted that this works, but that I might want to get a couple of sets of clothing that were not illusions, especially since I was going to need to carry a phone and a wallet, and also a set of keys if I learned how to drive. I asked if there was a series of books that I could study to learn all of this. Jonathan noted that he could probably rustle up a printed-out power-point of everything he would give to new agents. I thanked him and said that I would be incredibly grateful for one of these, also a book that contains modern fashion. Jonathan called up someone to bring the requested items to us. Sharon noted that I would need a phone, and that S.H.I.E.L.D. would provide one for me, so that I can stay on retainer for the organization. We wrapped up everything else that needed to be done, and Sharon offered to give me a lift to my new temporary residence. It was apparently ¡°furnished¡± for those agents that would need to have a place in town to hide out on temporarily basis. I unloaded everything and got Rex situated on something that would pass for a perch, and thanked Sharon for her help. She looked at me with a smile and she told me that I likely would not see her again after this, but that the two identification cards that I had in the company provided wallet, and the license for the ¡°Golden Eagle¡± (looking over to Rex), ought to keep us out of a lot of trouble. I asked about getting my currency traded over and Sharon offered up that I had a small stipend of about one thousand dollars to get me by until I start bringing in money from the job, to get whatever I might need for the next month or so, without having to dip into the coinage that I dropped off at the ¡°bank¡±, and that if I needed to, I had access to about thirteen thousand dollars in the bank from the currency exchange, which would not be done unless I called on more resources than I had access to in regular cash. I asked Sharon if she knew where I could access a high-quality healer¡¯s kit, because I had expended all of the uses of mine in the response to the Snap. She smiled, went to the back of her car, opened the trunk, and pulled out a smallish duffle-bag. She handed it to me, shook my hand, and went to say goodbye. I thanked her for everything that she had done and asked her to give me a primer on how to use the phone. She handed me a book that I could study and put three locations into the maps section of the phone, this house location, the bank, and the job interview, noting that I had to be there by eleven AM tomorrow. I thanked her again and wished her well in her travels, as she had indicated to me earlier that she had to leave the country. She smiled and suggested that I tone down my look if I was going to walk around the neighborhood, indicating people wearing what looked to be examples of working clothes. I did so and she left, giving me a smile and a wave before leaving. ***** 31 May 2018, 9:00 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America I managed to make my way to the closest library, after a twenty-minute walk. Considering it would be a ten-minute walk to get back, I figure that I got turned around a few times on the walk. Once I got in, I was asked if I had a library card. I shrugged and showed my identification for S.H.I.E.L.D., and the librarian let me right in. I asked her if there was a binder or book of all of the books in the library. She shook her head, saying that the card catalogue had been gotten rid of decades ago. I looked around and was amazed by how many books they actually had here. I nodded absentmindedly, noting how long it would take me to read all of these books, even magically. I then asked if there was a series of books about their classification system. The librarian pointed me to a simple book called, ¡°Introduction to the Dewey Decimal System.¡± I asked her for a couple of other reference books and got them as well. I set up in a corner and used my fast-reading spell to absorb the information in five books, including the cell phone utilization book, the Dewey Decimal System Book, and the three remaining reference books that I had picked out, basically a dictionary, an atlas, and a cultural reference guide. I thought about finding some basic science books, and then came across the concept of textbooks for classes. I decided to start at the lowest levels and pick up the lowest grades, then I located some books labelled ¡°Complete Curriculum¡± for each grade, 1-5. I went through each one of those, getting flashes of each of those. These were the kinds of things that David must have learned when he was here, and it showed in how he thought and taught. No wonder the people in this world knew about things that the average person in Varisia does not, the ones back in Varisia do not have access to this level of information or schooling. This must be what David was working towards, with his attempts to get more and more schools to accept his training methods. Sure, it was working in Sandpoint, and to a lesser extent Magnimar, but he was going to have a long haul, being the only one to experience the benefits of additive knowledge and training like this. Maybe I will bring back a set of these books if I ever make my way back. I pondered using a high spell capability to reproduce another rapid learning spell, but ultimately decided against it. I knew that I was going to have to go over the manual that was provided to me as being a ¡°S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent¡± as well as the driving manual, and even go over the cell phone manual a time or two more. I wanted to be able to utilize these latest items readily before I really needed them for any reason. I thanked the Librarian, who seemed to be waiting for me to leave at six o¡¯clock on the dot. She nodded and looked at me oddly before locking up. I wandered my way back, getting functional testing out of the map and compass feature, before coming across a Tavern called ¡°Feather-N-Fin¡± offering chicken and seafood. I certainly was not the exact thing I had been looking for, but beggars cannot be choosers, right? I walked up and ordered an absolutely absurd amount of food, for both me and Rex, coming to a whopping fifty-two dollars. I passed my badge over their card reader, and the bill was paid. The person behind the counter said something about ¡°fancy tap card¡± but I pretended not to notice. With everything bundled up in heavy thick bags made of a similar material to the bottle earlier, with an addition of two bottles, I walked back to the place Rex and I were staying in, getting there by seven PM. Rex let me in, and I got the food parceled out for both of us, and for the next few days. Rex tore into the Gizzards and livers with gusto, while I had some of the fried chicken. I could taste how calorie dense this was in the first few bites. I had some of what they called collards, baked beans, and a bun. After a bit of this, I put everything extra in the cold box ¨C refrigerator, in the room with the oven. Rex patted his belly with a burp and contently curled up on the floor. I walked around this place a bit more and found that there were three distinct rooms set up as bedrooms, from what I can estimate. I found myself the most defensible room and set it up as my secret workstation. I did not a lot of room, but it was important to have space to set everything out. I got all of my Alchemy and Firearms crafting supplies out and decided to finish using my spell capability to study the three books, the S.H.I.E.L.D. manual, the cell phone manual, and the driver¡¯s manual. I ended up using the spell on each book a total of two times. Then I went through and cleaned everything Rex and I owned, then I cleaned everything that was in the house. Then I spent some time going over everything that I could that had some degree of studying capability. I did not want to start making anything using either Alchemy or Firearms, for the knowledge that it would take far longer than I was provided to get anything functional. I would have to wait until after the interview tomorrow. Finally, I decided to get my stuff ready for the next day, all prim and proper, and finish cataloging everything into this journal before heading to bed. Rex decided that he needed to get up onto the bed with me, which I did not stop him. He liked the warmth that I provided and being next to me. I could never begrudge him that, knowing how we ended up together. We fell asleep in relative ease and comfort. Day 1 June 01, 2018, 09:30 AM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America Rex and I woke up to the sunrise and set about getting things ready, spent part of the morning getting some familiarity with the alchemical items that can be made on this work, and noted that I would be needing to get a LOT of rare and unique materials. I had resolved to not have cast any expendable spells before the interview in case I needed to do something special for it, so I resolved to work on getting a list of everything I would need to create something simple, since I could do so rapidly. Looking over everything I can think of it would seem that I need to find a way to manufacture the raw materials to make the alchemical supplies, to get any usage out of this. If I stay here long enough, maybe I will take up growing some sort of mystical herbs to be able to process them into the materials. Rex and I got a good early breakfast with the rising sun, started on our daily work outs and exercises, and I got an early start on practicing the maps function on the cell phone. It looks like it will take me an hour to get to the place by walking, but only a quarter of an hour on something similar to what started to be the rage. I wondered if there are any places nearby that sell those things. I did a search on the map and could not find anything specific close by. Maybe I will check after the interview when I have more time. I grabbed what I could from the first aid kit that Sharon left me, and restocked my healer¡¯s kit as best I could. There are some things that do not seem to transition properly between the two, but it seems to be good enough for now. After everything was set up, I packed what I could without adding my armor to what I was wearing. I left it in the locked third room, with my crafting kits and other supplies. I decided that it would not help me to look like I was from this ¡°Asgard¡± place when I went in for this interview. Other than that, and my crafting/other supplies, I brought with me what I would normally bring on my walking about tasks. When we were getting ready to leave, I decided that I would let Rex out to fly around, cautioning him to be careful. Rex nodded and I locked up the doors for this ¡°safehouse.¡± ***** June 01, 2018, 10:45 AM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America I walked my way to Bob¡¯s Gun Shop, careful to look like I belonged, clothing wise, rather than the suit I would be wearing later. I ducked into a Tavern named ¡°Zeke¡¯s¡± and got something called a Chicken Teriyaki Bowl and a drink. It was mainly to have an excuse to use their restroom, as I needed someplace to clean up and ¡°change¡± from the walk. Prestidigitation goes a long way in that regard, as I can clean my clothes and myself fairly thoroughly with it. The Chicken Teriyaki Bowl didn¡¯t seem too bad either. After I had eaten and gotten changed, I checked back on the phone to see how much time I had left, finished up on my notes, and decided to ¡°change¡± before heading to the Interview. ***** June 01, 2018, 7:45 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America The gun-smithing position interview didn¡¯t go too well at first. The interviewer introduced himself as ¡°Doug¡± and greeted me with a handshake. The company had a copy of my resume(?) from where Jonathan had set it up and Doug started asking me questions about how many of different firearms that I had worked on. I was strictly honest and told him that I had never worked on any of the firearms that he had asked me about. Doug was about to end the interview and send me out when he asked, almost exasperated, if I had any evidence of ever working on any gun. I told him that I had the first gun that I had ever made with me, that I had to make it before I could be considered to have succeeding in passing the training. Doug asked if he could see it, and I produced my revolver. I emptied the cartridges from it, and Doug¡¯s eyes widened. He gently took the revolver and started asking me questions about my gun. I answered every one of the questions as I could, to his satisfaction, as he looked at the intricacies. He was especially happy with the engraving and etchings on it. I smiled and told him that I had done every single bit of the manufacture on this firearm, from a block of metal to this. Doug asked me about what it was chambered in, and I kind of shrugged, noting that I had to make everything from scratch, including the mold for rounds. He then asked if I¡¯d be willing to demonstrate the firearm at the indoor range. I told him that I would be glad to, and Doug handed me back the revolver. I took it back from him carefully and followed him to the range. When we got there, he handed me goggles and some muffs to go over my ears. I put both on and loaded the revolver. I slowly took aim and fired, putting some rounds downstream. The were really close to the bullseye, and really well grouped. I cleared the cartridges from the chamber and checked the barrel for obstructions. Doug then thoughtfully asked if I thought that I could learn to work on more modern firearms. I shrugged and said that I had not had any problems working on any yet, and that I¡¯d be more than willing to give it a shot if they were willing to give me a try. We settled on me being here at nine forty-five, Monday morning, just to see how I would pan out. Doug noted that I¡¯d start off at a certain amount an hour, but that if I can bring the skill in engraving and detail work that I show in my personal gun, and bring it to other, more modern firearms, then I could really make a lot. I thanked him and let him know that I¡¯d be here Monday morning, and asked where I can place a bicycle when I get in. Doug kind of looked at me oddly and asked me why I didn¡¯t have a car. I answered that I had not gotten around to getting one yet after yesterday. Doug sighed when I mentioned yesterday and noted that he can understand after that. He showed me where I could bring a bike in to keep it from being stolen or anything but added that he doubted anything like that would happen soon, as there was a LOT of free things just lying around, now that a lot of people were gone. I thanked him again for the opportunity, wished him to have a good day, and started heading back to the safehouse. I then pulled up the map program and looked up bicycles in the area. About the only place that came up was something called a ¡°CHKD Thrift Store¡± that wouldn¡¯t have me walking a long way out of my way. I headed there directly from Bob¡¯s, taking the map program to where I needed to go. When I got there, I found that it is a place with a lot of different items. They did have a bicycle, which looked like it could hold me up. I grabbed it and looked around more. I was fascinated by how many different varieties of articles of clothing they had, including shoes and jackets. There were books (listed as fifty cents each), miscellaneous items that run off of ¡°electricity¡±, like ¡°blenders¡± and ¡°toasters¡± and ¡°televisions¡±, and some other sports equipment. I found a sturdy backpack, since I had left mine at the safehouse, and started to grab a bunch of higher-level books. When I made my way to the register, it totaled up to one hundred and thirty dollars, which I paid by swiping my identification card badge thing over the card reader. The person behind the counter thanked me more than any other place I had been to. I asked her why, and she told me that with my purchase, they can really help some child in need. I was a bit confused by this interaction but felt that it wasn¡¯t the right time or place to discuss something like this, especially with a line growing behind me. I told her that I hoped that it did help, and that I thanked her for her work. I decided to myself that I would look into this for more clarity later. I got the bike prepared and loaded up everything that was acquired into the backpack I had gotten. I sent out an empathic message to Rex with a general feeling of homesickness, suggesting to him that I was heading back to the safehouse. Once I got back to the house, I loaded the bicycle into the garage and locked it up behind me. When I got to the back porch, Rex was sitting there smiling wide. I got the feeling from him that he had been fishing in the river, and that he had gotten quite a few fish, at least from size of his distended belly. I opened the door, and he waddled in. I sighed and asked him if he at least had been somewhat sneaky about it. I didn¡¯t get a response, which was enough of a response to say that he had not. I unloaded everything I had gotten, right about now realizing that I could REALLY use a bag of holding right now and knowing that I don¡¯t think I will ever be able to get one. I pulled out the various clothing items that I had gotten at that thrift store and set to work getting them closer to fitting me. I marveled at the precision of the stitches, until I realized that it must have been a machine that did it. I got everything stitched up right, to be serviceable, used the utilized some mending and prestidigitation on everything to make sure it is in pristine condition. I put away my clothes from my home world and got dressed in the clothing that I had gotten from the thrift store. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. They trousers had six pockets, two in the front, two in the back, and two on the sides of the legs. I loaded up everything that I normally take around in my various bags in all of my pockets and put the identification badge thing in my back pocket. I had seen people pulling similar things from their back pockets before and thought that it would be a good idea. The shirt had two pockets as well, and they were above the breast. I saw some people have pens in them, but I didn¡¯t have any at this moment, so I decided to leave them empty at the moment. Rex took a look at me, and I got the feeling of curiosity from him. I asked him what he was thinking, and he told me that it was just amusing that I was doing so much to fit in. I replied back to him that I didn¡¯t know how long I was going to be here, but since it might be a decent period of time, I needed to ¡°blend in¡± without a lot of magical effort. Rex shook his head and laid down to digest his large meal. I took inventory over everything that I still had remaining from getting sent here. I had my magical Healing Belt, Endless Bandoleer, Eyes of the Eagle, Badge of Life-keeping, Dastana of Many Garments, dark-leaf armor (with the crystal of energy protection), my special gloves, my revolver (with the crystal of return), my various kits, the masterwork manacles and fetters, my sneaking suit, the pair of Blessed Bandages I kept for emergencies, my bottle of Oldlaw (with the two Ice Crystals) ¨C which was now half empty, my bedroll, a couple of journals, getting fuller by the day, the Ioun Torch that I haven¡¯t pulled out yet, the sighting glass, the dark-wood expandable pole that I kept, and that special Lighter that I had traded for a while back. With everything packed up that I could consider taking on a regular excursion away from the safehouse, Rex eyed me suspiciously. I informed him that I would be heading to a store to get more journals, pens, ink, and other supplies to hold me over, and some food items to enable us to not have to get food from Taverns after today. Rex nodded and curled up on some kind of reflective pad that he had gotten from somewhere. It must be reflecting the heat nicely, to make him that content. I got out to the garage after locking the doors to the house and locked the garage after getting the bicycle out. I got my backpack on, the maps function capability on the phone directing me to a place called ¡°Wal-Mart¡±, and I was about to head out. I got an empathic feeling from Rex that he¡¯d like to come with me. I figured that I couldn¡¯t really travel faster than he could fly, so I went to the back door and opened it up. Rex waddled out, and came over to the bike, while I locked the door again. I got back on the bike, and Rex jumped up to be on the handlebars. I looked at him and asked him if he was happy, to which he smiled. I started my trek pedaling down the road as the people driving the fewer cars looked at him oddly. Since I had read the driving rules when I had a chance, I stopped at a stop sign, and a car pulled up next to me. A child in the back seat of the car rolled down their window and said that this was an awesome statue on the handlebars. I turned to face the kid, as did Rex, and I said thank you, cheerfully. The kid¡¯s eyes went wide before Rex, and I turned to face forward again. Rex and I rode off when it was appropriate, and the car moved as well, with the parents ignoring the kids. We got to the big store named Walmart. It was larger than any castle I had ever seen. I pulled the bike up to where they had a place for the bikes to be corralled and parked the bike. I didn¡¯t have any locks or anything, but Rex volunteered to stay on the bike, curled up in case someone tried to abscond with it. I noted that I would try to be as quick as possible and told Rex to give me an emotional signal as quickly as possible if anything happens. I took a look at the proffered map at the entrance to the store, noting where different things were located. It was like everything in the Bazaar of Sails was located in one building. I quickly rushed to the clothing section and found something similar in size to what I had acquired from the thrift store, as well as shoes, as I couldn¡¯t get a good set similar to Doug¡¯s at the thrift store. After the clothing section, I stopped by what they labeled home and office, to find large ¡°sketch books¡±. The were ten of these dollars apiece, and the paper was a higher quality than the ones I had at home. Thinking quickly, I grabbed a couple of frames that would fit the paper from the sketch books, and a couple of pens, for when I might have to make notes in public. Then I headed to the ¡°Sports¡± section, where they had bikes and bike locks. I grabbed a bike lock, and then found two handy things, a basket for the front of the bike and a rear bike rack that can carry up to twenty pounds. I opted for both and then finished up with heading to the grocery section. I was amazed at the varieties of everything. There were maybe two types of anything like any of the food items back in Sandpoint, maybe three to four in Magnimar, but there were DOZENS of different types of just about everything here. I picked out an assortment of staples: rice, beans, lentils, some chicken parts, and something called turkey. I¡¯d go back for the pork or beef on a further excursion later. Rounding it all off, I felt a bit of apprehension from Rex, so I resolved to head quickly to the register, just stopping to see some large bottles of that Dr. Pepper stuff I remembered having in Sandpoint. At the register, I saw that it was coming to four hundred dollars. Sweating a little internally, I swiped my badge and it paid easily. The cashier muttered something a fancy swipe credit cards and I got everything into the cart. I got out to the bike rack as a couple of people were getting close to Rex, holding what looked like clubs. I got a desire to feel big coming from him, and mentally sent back a positive affirming feeling. Rex leapt off of the handlebars where he was staying and expanded in size before roaring at the street toughs. Most of them stepped back, but one stayed close and looked to reach behind his back at his waist. Before he could pull out what he was reaching for, Rex burped up a flame at him, hitting his shirt and splashing the person with a bit of fire. The pack of four street toughs ran off with the one that had been hit with the fire ripping off his shirt as it started to melt onto him. Must have been made from some odd kind of fabric that melted rather than burned. It had the number twenty-four on the back, maybe it was a gang sign or something? Just as well, the four of them ran off, somewhat scared it seemed. As they left, I could sense that the world had become open to me again, that I had gained a bit more insight into how things worked, and more things that I could do for myself, and with Rex. I quickly added the basket between the handlebars, and the back carrier over the rear tire, and got set up with a large quantity of bags to fly quickly back to the safehouse. It was a risk, but I had purchased an awful lot of items, and even the basket, the two backpacks, and whatever I can manage to stuff into pockets, it was going to be a perilous trip. Once I made it home, Rex was waiting for me, back at normal size. I got everything unloaded from the bike and got it back into the garage. With Rex¡¯s assistance, we got everything purchased into the house, and as a reward for what he had done, Rex for a fresh ¨C frozen fish called a tilapia. With all of the food and items put away, I decided to use up every bit of expendable magic that I could to get some more information and readiness in this area. I got out two sheets of the sketchbook to expend a minor lasting image of both me and Rex, strolling down the streets of Magnimar. One would face the front door, and one would face the back door. I expended my scholar¡¯s touch ability twice on different sets of higher education books, specifically engineering and the history of this world, as well as a books on sewing. I needed to perform better on my tailoring so that the clothes didn¡¯t look bad. I also summoned up my ability to find out more about the young street toughs that went after Rex earlier. Apparently, they belonged to something called ¡°The Nine Trey Gangsters¡± gang. Apparently, they focus their activities on robbery, drug trafficking, burglaries, car thefts, and assaults. Some of their fellow gang members had been convicted earlier this year, from what the rumors I had gotten. Maybe they are looking to assert themselves in the power vacuum. Maybe I was going to have to be what is known as a vigilante here if the gangs can¡¯t be stopped long term. There was a bit more, about how the shirt was some kind of sports jersey, and how now there were rumors of a Dragon from Asgard now in Norfolk, but such details were either inconsequential or already known by me. With my remaining bits of expendable magic, I fired up another usage of the ability to summon information from the libraries of the world, after of course getting a sketchbook ready with my transferal spell and got a bit of information about how Alchemy and the Crafting of Firearms work in this world. Useful tidbits of information, enough to allow me to reference what possible alchemical materials they have here. Not a lot to work with, but I will use what I can. I decided to spend a bit of time using my animation of tools to get the alchemy lab operating and the firearms crafting starting as well. With everything set up, I got all of the kitchen utensils that were already here set up and started up having the potatoes, onions, and such set up to start making a large pot of stew. I got the beans set up to soak for a day to go into some Ham stew with chopped up potatoes. I heated up the leftovers from the first night, the chicken dinner, while everything else was getting ready. When I was finished with the meal, I got the stew and everything ready, setting up the stew with a pot on the lowest heat. I got all of my clothes cleaned, worked on getting Rex fixed up and cleaned, before getting a shower and setting myself up for the next day. Day 2 Saturday, June 02, 2018, 07:30 AM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America I woke up with the sunrise, as is usual, with Rex curled up on my chest. As I woke up, I felt the expansion of abilities that Rex and I had access to. I had reached a new plateau, gaining access to additional spells, and a stronger ability to strike those who I focus on. My brain expanded with knowledge that had finally been realized as I slept. I shuffled my way out from underneath Rex and got up to start getting ready for my first weekend. Getting access to two new spells, one of which converted water to a temporarily magical, but permanently transfigured wine or mead. The temporary magic effect is to increase my mental skill usage. The other spell, is one to vastly increase the quality of an item, including weapons, armor, and equipment. It requires a variable amount of non-specific magical reagents, for which I take some time to think. Going back to the book I had gotten together on this world¡¯s Alchemy; I found a common item, Salt. This book was oddly enough signed by one ¡°Sir Poley¡±. Salt here is exceedingly cheap, but it is considered a consistent value for magical purposes. I think I could start increasing the quality of a firearm for fifty pounds of salt, or at the cheapest I can find it right now, is about twenty-five dollars¡¯ worth of salt. At the current exchange rate, it would seem like it this would be effectively just shy of seven coppers. At this point, I might consider getting into magical item enchanting, if this Sir Poley is right about it working the same way for enchanting items. I decided that I would give this a try tonight and resolved to go to Walmart or somewhere similar to get the required salt later in the day. I figured that this would be an easy day, so I decided to spend a fair amount of time riding around to get my bearings for the area. I checked with Rex and asked him if he was planning on going out again. Rex indicated that he had eaten enough yesterday to just relax today. I told him that I would be taking a ride around and see what I could see, to get a better handle on the situation. I told him to just send me an empathic message of worry, if he needed me home quick, and he told me that he would. ***** Saturday, June 02, 2018, 11:30 AM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America I spent four hours riding around on the bike, just getting a good ¡°lay of the land¡± so to speak. There were more people and buildings in this portion of the city than in all of Magnimar. I looked for interesting things to keep track of for future navigation purposes. With the amount of time that I spent looking around this area, I figured that I might have been a bit suspicious, but most people still in a bit of a daze, from the events that happened just two days ago. I had not noticed anything super suspicious, but I realized that I was pretty much dead in the center or areas were there could be dangerous or illegal activity. I had decided to stop off at a place called Waffle House for lunch and got treated to a very economical meal. There seemed to be an electric undercurrent to the atmosphere, where a fight could break out at any moment, but nothing happened at this time. Since I was right next to a ¡°Walmart Neighborhood Market¡± I decided to go in and get the salt for later. The clerk looked at me oddly and told me that they just had to ask me why all the salt. I quickly decided to take the piss and told him it was for resistance training, riding on the bicycle, and it was cheaper than buying actual weights. The clerk looked at me oddly buy nodded, like he thought it could make sense. I thanked him, swiped my badge, and ended up purchasing fifty dollars¡¯ worth of salt. Loading up my basket, my backpack, and the crate I put on the back of the bike, I rode directly back to the safehouse. It was better to find out if this was going to work or not, early on. I pulled the bike back into the garage and went back into the house. Thinking bluntly, I looked around until I could find something that I could easily recognize as useful for the enhancement I would be working on. I decided on the sewing kit that I had wrangled up at the thrift store. ***** Saturday, June 02, 2018, 12:30 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America It worked! The experiment was a success! I am now in possession of a masterwork sewing kit. It evaporated ten pounds of the salt, but at that price, we are only looking at less than five dollars for making a masterwork tool. Now for the bigger challenge. ***** Saturday, June 02, 2018, 2:45 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America Wow, that took sixty pounds. Sixty pounds of salt just evaporated into nothingness. Well, sixty pounds to enhance the weaponry capabilities. I utilized the spell again and enhanced the climbing capabilities at the cost of another ten pounds, but my spider-skin cesti are now so much better crafted. Both for attacking and for climbing. This about wiped out how much salt I had purchased, but it was for an excellent cause. I now have variety in what I can do when I am not pursuing my job or any other vigilante related task. Now my equipment will be as high end as possible, at least over time. I¡¯m limited on three sets/items a day. I might end up using this on some of the firearms that I get hired to work on - if it is worth enough money for me. Be hard to justify lugging around sixty odd pounds of salt, but maybe I will get lucky and find a way to get one of the bags of holding here. With all that being said, I checked in on the animated tools. They had set up everything they could with the lack of materials that I have right now. I knew I couldn¡¯t get much done, without a true market to get what I need, but hopefully, everything is unpacked and ready to go at moment¡¯s notice. I decided that I was going to deep into studying for this area, with all of the preparation that I could accomplish to get this done. I decided that I would expend all of my expendable remaining magic, just to get enough clues to focus on for my investigations. ***** Saturday, June 02, 2018, 4:00 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America I had ended up getting ahold of just over twenty gallons of water, and turned it into mead, of an average quality. It wouldn¡¯t win any awards, but it would certainly keep it safe and clean. Drinking almost immediately, I then focused my arcane powers on heightening my awareness. With this being done, I focused and opened my mind to the city around me, all around me, taking in every bit of rumor or tidbit of information that was out there. Time collapsed into itself in my mind, as an effective twenty-two hours of searching and listening provided me with some interesting clues. The Snap: S.H.I.E.L.D. was in disarray, as it was determined that a man by the name of Nick Fury had gone missing in a city called New York, along with half of the population of the world. Several of the superheroes had gone missing from a country called ¡°Wakanda¡± in the continent called ¡°Africa¡±, where they had gone to confront some universal threat. Some of the villains had apparently disappeared as well, of the ones that were active during the event anyway. The ¡°credit system¡± has also been thrown into disarray, as there were people who disappeared who owed money or were owed money. Several owners of large groups of buildings disappeared into nothingness. The snap also took away half of the non-sapient life as well, but not half of the plants. Norfolk: The military bases in the area are all locked down to outside contractors and personnel, while they determine the extent of what actually happened. The same kind of situation is occurring in the FBI and CIA branch offices. The local government branches have lost half of their population too, completely stopping their litigation capabilities. The local police are in a panic, as they have tried to call in everyone who is on vacation or absent to help iron out who they all have left. Local Sanitation and other government functions hasn¡¯t been picked up either. Aside from moving the abandoned vehicles to the sides of the road, no one has taken any movement to get rid of them. Organized Crime: In a stroke of luck, many of the gangs had their top members removed by to snap, leading to a lot of disorganization in the crime family structures. Of those that remain with their leadership intact, a lot of them lost their enforcers or similar members, leading to an inability to capitalize on the sudden power vacuum. Of the areas where crime is the worst right now, the worst one is Huntersville, where most of the homicides and drug crimes are occurring, which just happens to be the closest to me. Park Place is close to my new workplace, has some gang activity, having had not as much of a loss from the snap, but they were one of the smaller gangs. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Broadcreek, where the safehouse where I stay is located, is not that bad for crime right now, but the industrial park to the east was a poorly policed area even before the snap and has a group of gangs looking to add it to their territory, once the consolidation is over. Smaller, independents are looking to strike out on their own and have a go at starting their own gangs. Back to normal: There is a lot of inferences and conclusions to gather from all of this. I knew that things were a bit odd, but a lot of people were talking something about a rapture and others were asking about the end of days, but this further information that I picked up indicates that I¡¯ll need to do even more investigation. That, and I will need to figure out how to get things going better, since I won¡¯t be able to get other resources from the local government. Maybe I will make a trip to visit Jonathan after I go to work on Monday. I don¡¯t know what their hours of operation are, but I hope that I can get there before they close. S.H.I.E.L.D. will probably have to help me get things together, especially since they can seem to get things going even without the normal commonwealth government being capable of responding. Before that, I realize that I will need to get things going quicker, but I will need to get the other details. I¡¯ll spend some time studying the drivers manual and spend some time on that internet thing to try to get myself ready for using a vehicle. It can¡¯t be so much different that the auto-carriages back in Magnimar, right? I spent the next few hours after that getting all kinds of automatic tasks set up. I started a stew on the stove, started getting a broom and dustpan set up cleaning the various rooms, mopping going on in the kitchen. I did the same situation out in the garage and found a bunch of hand tools and garden tools, setting them up to taking care of the garage, the bicycle, and the lawn. Heading back into the house I decided to personally spend some time getting Rex preened, check for any tears or injuries, and ensure he was in shape, which he enjoyed. I also took the time to clean up all of my gear and everything that had been used in the previous day. While I was doing all of this, I was mulling over all of the information that I had acquired and what I can do with it. I decided that I would have to defend this section of the city if the constabulary were unavailable to do so. I mean, we¡¯d hire adventurers to deal with things from time to time when we were swamped with tasks in Magnimar, or if it was too dangerous or required certain skills. Would it be that much different here? I mean I guess I¡¯m taking on the role of an adventurer here, rather than the guard, but I guess I¡¯m the one who has abilities outside the norm here. Coming to this decision, I realized that I was going to have to keep a setup that allowed for this kind of activity. With all of this information I decided to turn the other spare bedroom to tracking room for all of the information on the different subjects and set up the room to account for what would be needing for this. It was going to require a lot of tracking for various things, and a need to check in tomorrow to see what S.H.I.E.L.D. has as a view for vigilantes. I would probably need to find some way to hide the room better, or even find an extradimensional area, in the long run, provided I can ever eventually do that. That or at least get a place away from the safehouse that will permit sneaky access and removal of items. ***** Saturday, June 02, 2018, 9:00 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America I had decided to take another bicycle trip around the neighborhood, just to see what I could while everything was working on its own at the safehouse. As soon as I can figure out appliances, maybe I can get electronic tools to perform on their own as well. Rex decided that he wanted to take a fly around as well, so he went in the opposite direction, so that we can get a better view of the area. We both spent about three hours riding around, until about seven thirty, when I was riding around Huntersville, where I found a group of scoundrels attempting to ransack a possibly abandoned house. I sent the empathic message to Rex about the situation and started to sneak in to get within striking range. There was one acting as a lookout, that wasn¡¯t that proficient about it. I focused up on getting into my stance to be able to invoke the fiery winds of the plains but prepared initially to knock this individual out. I managed to sneak up behind this person who was attempting, poorly, to act as a lookout for the others¡¯ activity, waited for him to respond that the coast was clear, and then he managed to catch a cestus to the back of the head, knocking him down and out, drained in strength, perception, and consciousness. I pulled the robber back away from the line of sight to those in the building. I used his shirt to tie him up even though he was unconscious and then moved back to get an eye on the other robbers. There were two more, from what I could see, moving around the house with flashlights and bringing all of the useful items back to the garage area of the building. It was going to be difficult to get them both separately without notifying the other and getting into a bigger fight than I wanted, especially without any of my higher level magics available. I utilized my oath of anonymity effect to disguise myself as unrecognizable and came up with the idea of trying to get one of them to look upstairs for something. Using a bit of prestidigitation, I caused a noise like unrecognizable words from another room. It was only loud enough for one of them to hear, and thankfully, that one took the bait, unfortunately by pulling their firearm and walking that way. I quickly rushed in, attempting to get behind the other robber. I managed to sneak my way over, and lined myself up, studying this person to see where their drug addled blind spots were. I managed a solid hit, but without all of the preparation from the previous perp, I only managed to severely injure him, rather than knocking him out. He managed to yell our a somewhat hushed warning of someone attacking them. I managed to get a good hit in following this, knocking him out the rest of the way. This was just in time, as the last of the three burglars came from the room that they were looking in to and let out a shot at the two of us. I had already had my own revolver out, and managed to fire as he did and deflect the shot. The burglar who shot at us muttered, ¡°No fucking way¡± before having to deal with his unconscious friend being pushed towards him. He must not have realized that I was right behind the body, because he dropped his gun to grab the co-conspirator. As he was gently lowering his friend, my fist was following, striking him in the head and knocking him out as well. I drug both of the two out of the house, to follow up with the other one. With sound of firearms going off I expected some form of city constable or guard to show up. I quickly used magic to search the three of them for anything of value. I found their firearms (I left them because I did not know if they had been used in any crimes), the tools that they used to break in (again, left to tie them to their crimes), several doses of some white crystalline substance (again left to be caught), their knives, their saps, their bulletproof vests (which I did abscond), some random diamond jewelry in the form of rings and such, and some cash (as I had noticed it earlier). I pocketed the knives, their saps, their vests, the jewelry, and the cash, before tying them all up and leaving them in the middle of the street. I animated a pen to put to paper what they had been discovered doing, what street address for the house, and how they had been discovered in the commission of the crime. I did a final onceover to check to make sure that none of them would die from their wounds and fled the scene to a safe place to observe them until the guard arrived. I was waiting for a few minutes before I noticed a car show up with ¡°City of Norfolk Police Department¡± written on the side. I guess they call the guard members police here, because they looked at the criminals, at the note that I had had auto-written, and at each other. One of them leaned into what I recognized as a type of microphone for a type of those radios that David Drake had gotten us used to using in Magnimar, and they started putting a criminal in the back of their vehicle. Two more vehicles showed up while the police held their firearms trained over the two remaining criminals, but the criminals never moved. The police had replaced the clothing tying them up with a finer version of manacles than I had ever gotten ahold of and resolved to get a couple of sets of those, as they looked a LOT lighter than the ones that I carried. I overheard most of their conversation, some of it was in code, one pair of police went to investigate the house that the criminals had been burglarizing, while the other two were helping get the other criminals in the backs of the two remaining cars. The police who were investigating the house came back and noted that it had looked like they had been stopped in the middle of the robbery. They noted that it looked like the homeowners were snapped, so they didn¡¯t know about a burglary charge sticking. One of the first responding police provided the others with the sheet of paper that had been auto written, and the others went to go check the pockets again. The police all found the white crystals and the guns on the criminals¡¯ persons, and started talking about how this would at least be enough to get them booked for the night. The two newer arriving police cars, and their occupants all drove off, while the first responding police went back to their cars. The one that was in the driver side waited a bit before saying out loud, ¡°Thank you, whoever you are.¡±, and getting into the vehicle and driving off. With all that done, I sent another empathic feeling of success to Rex, and a feeling of homesickness, followed by a feeling of happiness upon returning home. I started back on my journey, being careful to avoid any major roads or thoroughfares. I made back without any significant issues, and parked my bike back in the garage, before heading to the back door of the safehouse. Rex was there, smiling while he waited for me. He asked me in our language if I was successful in our first night out. I told him that I had stopped a burglary and came out of it with a little extra coin and such. I unlocked and opened the door, allowing Rex to enter before me, and then securely locking the door behind us. I brought all of the items into the room that I had set up as my investigation lab. I did a quick appraisal of all of the items that I had taken from the burglars and figured that the knives and blackjacks were basically worthless. They had probably been used for crimes, so I would have to be careful with how and where I used any of these items. The other items, the vests, the jewelry, and the cash, would all be useful for me either as barter, direct purchasing power, or as useful items for me. I focused some of my innate magical ability to increase my ability to appraise the jewelry and came back with what would equivalate to maybe three thousand dollars, doubtful that I could really get anywhere close to that amount for them, but thankful for whatever I can get for them. Between the three of them, I got almost sixteen hundred dollars. That is a lot of cash from what I got from this first group. Maybe tomorrow I will check to see if I can get the jewelry sold off at some place. I¡¯m pretty certain that I can¡¯t just exchange them at a bank or store. I finished up the day with getting a bowl of stew from the pot, seasoned it a little, and starting eating at the table. I asked Rex if he was hungry, and he responded back to me that no, he was good, and curled up on his heat reflective mat and enjoyed the warmth. I ensured that all of my clothing was cleaned, as well as the new items I had acquired. No need for any kind of traces of chemicals or fingerprints or anything. I set the sharpener from the items in the house to slowly and quietly, regrind all three of the blades to give them different edge and thrust profiles. I decided to take a nice hot shower, enjoying in the luxury before getting ready to read for bed. It wasn¡¯t that far off from what was available in Sandpoint, or in the noble houses in Magnimar, but here it seemed like it was in every house. Hot and cold running water, cold boxes that don¡¯t need ice, ovens that don¡¯t require fires, a lack of obvious insect pests, and less actual chance of dragons or monsters attacking the town. All in all, I could only make the following conclusion: humanity needs conflict. There was still crime in this world, as there was back in Magnimar, with all these luxuries and safeties and without the threats or needs for getting stronger to defend yourself from those who were stronger than you. I sighed and decided to head to sleep. Day 3 Sunday, June 03, 2018, 07:30 AM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America Rex and I awoke with the sunrise again. This was a pattern that I was used to and didn¡¯t see a good reason to stop the practice while we were here. I didn¡¯t know when or even if we would make it back to Magnimar, but it wouldn¡¯t do to get back there and have to readjust. I got up, showered, got breakfast, and gave Rex a good scratch and pat while I pondered what to do today. Maybe today it will just be an easy day with more driving around and maybe I¡¯ll find out where I can offload this jewelry. I started with my morning activities after deciding that I would hold off on selling the items, just to make sure that I can find sufficient places for them. With this new-found wealth that I can confiscated from the burglars, I decided that I had a bit more spending power before I would be dipping in to my own resources. I started writing a list of all the items that I might need to acquire sooner rather than waiting for any paychecks to come through to acquire. I went forward with listing items until I realized that this first list had been based on the things that I could get in Magnimar. I still had little idea about what I could acquire here in Norfolk. The best thing would be to go do an in-depth walk around the various stores in the area and see what is even available to purchase. Also, maybe I can find something to increase the capability to move more materials from the store to the safehouse. I asked Rex if he wanted to go along, and he smiled his toothy smile before saying that, yes, he would like to go to Walmart again, but this time he would hang out on the top of the building, a good distance away from the bikes, but able to respond in time if needed. We got everything ready and ensured that the building was all locked up before heading out. We decided that Rex would be hanging out in the front basket for the ride there, until we got close, where he would fly up to the top of the building. ***** Sunday, June 03, 2018, 12:30 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America I managed to spend over three hours walking around through the store while observing what all was sold at this ¡°Walmart¡± store. There is a large amount of clothing options in this store, with a fair number of tools and other items. A large variety of diversions for children, many of them separated by ages, a lot more in the way of spices and different foods, and even a section for ¡°automobiles¡± which is the catch-all term for vehicles here. As I walked though everything, looking for things that would be useful for me in my endeavors. I ended up finding a trailer that hooked up to bikes that is usually used for children, by can easily hold one hundred pounds worth of items, a set of tools that I can use to work on the bike, a set of household tools for work there, a hammer, an axe, a hatchet, a set of bolt cutters, a lot more in the way of spices, and in food prep, specifically meat and fresh produce, also, a LOT of salt. Almost one hundred pounds of salt, just enough to max out the trailer. The cashier working behind the counter looked at me oddly, and I noted that I was going to try my hand at salt curing the meat that I was purchasing. The cashier looked like they were accepting that, as I moved the shopping cart out to my bicycle, to build up the bicycle trailer and then load up the salt into it. Rex came down after everything was loaded up, and flew back with a load of materials, after increasing his size to help carry more bags of items. I rode my bicycle back to the safehouse and brought it back into the garage. I loaded up everything into the house and locked the garage with the bicycle and trailer in it. After I let Rex into the safehouse, and giving him another whole Tilapia as a snack, before loading everything into the safehouse. I realized that I wasn¡¯t about to increase the quantity of electronic devices in this house until I could get a firmer handle on how they work. With everything back home, I got things sorted and put into their respective areas. All of the salt was put in the crafting room, along with the tools that I had just purchased. I decided to slowly work on getting everything that I owned up to masterwork level of craftsmanship, if I would never be able to get anything magical anymore. Every little bit of advantage I can wring out of an item or tool was required for me going forward. Maybe I will have to eventually look into technological items to fill the void that magic creates, but for now, all I can do is increase quality of stuff as Rex and I go, with the items that I have full access to. Since I had just gotten back and didn¡¯t want to expend all of my magical energy early in the day, in case a repeat of yesterday happens, I decided that I was going to do some rereading on the different things I needed to know about this time from the different manuals and books that I had been given and acquired since getting here. It was going to be a few hours, and I had enough to drink and eat for the next seven days anyway, so I didn¡¯t see an issue with spending some time reinforcing my panicked surge studying when I first got here. Rex was already set up and relaxing on his makeshift warming bed, the bicycle was already in good condition for tomorrow, and my work outfit was ready as well. Also, it just started to rain a little so all the more reason to relax and rest before getting hung up on anything too busy or complicated. I got my workshop operating with the tools starting up and got everything going before heading to the living room and starting reading. ***** Sunday, June 03, 2018, 5:30 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America I had spent a few hours reading while the rain came down. After it stopped, I figured that I would not need to stay up late tonight, so I decided that I would work on the studying aspect of what I could do. I decided to utilize my standard method of activating my copying cantrip and set up the four journals on the table in the workshop and thought for a few moments about what three subjects I would need to look in to, to prepare me for going forward in this world. Looking around, I figured that I would have to get a good amount of information on the different histories of Alchemy, Spell-craft, and Enchanted Items in this realm. I had decided that since this was a crucial topic, that I would have to use every possible chance of getting the information that I could. Alchemy: This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. This world has had a few different forms of Alchemy, including both internal and external, external being the one that I was used to the most. There are several treatises that are available throughout the world, which should be able to be accessed by further uses of the spell that I can use, if I can focus in on the specifics. There is a large emphasis on something called the ¡°Philosopher¡¯s Stone¡±, but then again, others apparently call it the ¡°Sorcerer¡¯s Stone¡±, at least in some countries. There were some substances that were available i.e. Stibnium, Wismuth, Cuprum, Aurum, Ferrum, Plumbum, Hydragyrum, Argentum, Stannum, Blue Vitriol, Tuttia, Calamine, Calomel, Calx, Cinnabar, and several others. Some are easier to access than others. At least I have a list of different alchemical items that this world has that I can use in my current studies. I will end up making some items, but it will take a good period of time before I can adjust enough to be able to access those items. Spell-Craft: Spell-Craft, or forms of Magic, in this world can actually vary greatly from the ones that I am used to back in Magnimar. These include Sorcery, a Light-based magic that can be shaped into constructs and forms, and apparently Yellow/Orange in color. Chaos Magic, or Hex-craft, is a mist like red energy mixed with red and black hues, is more of a reality transformation effect. Witchcraft itself is different than the witches I knew back in Magnimar, where it is a luminescent mist of singular color, like blue, yellow, purple, green, or others, and is usually hereditary. Dark magic is apparently very rare, and uses rituals to work, that transforms other magic to add a vapor that looks like black smoke. Dark Dimension Magic is something similar to a Witch¡¯s pact, but where the patron is much more insidious. It increases lifespan and provides some measure of supernatural resistance to the wielders but marks them similar to a summoner. Divine magic is not completely dissimilar to divine magic from back where I was from, but of course is focused on those entities associated with this world. Necromancy is a term I recognized, as it was almost always the same everywhere. Bringing back the dead, communicating with the dead, or animating the dead. Mirror Dimension magic is the ability to access another dimension, the Mirror Dimension, an alternative plane where the things that are done have no effect on the regular plane but starts off representing it before one exits it. Finally, there is Ta Lo magic, from the Ta Lo dimension, but not much is written about that, aside from it just working to increase one¡¯s abilities and possibly having an effect on air manipulation. I will have to do more research to see if I can tack own any specific abilities to know what I might be dealing with when I encounter any of these magic wielders as criminals, if any end up my way that is. There are a lot more fields of magic here, but they also seem to be a lot more focused on what they can each individually do. That is a positive and a negative, as in a person who focused almost entirely on Evocation is the reason why Rex and I are on this planet right now. A good thing to remember anyway. Enchanted Items: There are quite a few items of power here, on this world, but they seem to be much rarer, with many of them being world-shakingly powerful while others being within the realm of reasonability for upper-level magical items where I am from. The Bow and Arrows of Apollon ¨C a bow that enhances the arrows with magical energy, the Brazier of Bom Galiath ¨C a way to destroy spirits through the flame it creates, the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak which seem to be very similar to the Iron Bands item that I remembered hearing about, a cloak of levitation which seems to be an intelligent version of the boots of levitation from my home world, the Dark Scepter ¨C which seems to be a magical staff that creates areas of darkness over large buildings, Sling Rings ¨C which seem to be something that is in somewhat large supply to focus to create portals, and the Vaulting Boots of Valtorr ¨C which seem to be able to create temporary platforms and help with impacts form high landings. There were also a number of magical books, from the Book of Cagliostro to the Book of Vishanti, to the evil counter, the Darkhold. These had spells and secret information for those who had the ability to use the local magic types. Not a lot here to facilitate me getting better at things here, so I guess I will be going in to work on magic items as soon as I can figure it out. That¡¯s a lot of information to absorb, everything that was discovered about the various types of magic in this realm. Just to confirm, I decided to get a bit of information for the surrounding area, to see if there is anything in the city of Norfolk that pings as one of those categories right now. I prepared a batch of the special mead via spell and took a drink. I then started up my arcane spell to increase my awareness, to maximize what I was going to learn. The spells had gotten me so much useful information yesterday when I was looking for rumors on the other subjects. Alchemy: Not much in this area for rumors about Alchemy. There is some kind of game called Alchemy where you combine elements to make other elements, and there were rumors of something called a dance club in another city called Alchemy. There were some rumors of someone who had created something they called an ¡°Alchemy Gun¡± which changed the target¡¯s material composition. There is some shadowy company called ¡°Alchemax¡±, but nothing more than the name was brought up. There is a rumor that most practitioners of alchemy here are witches. All in all, a big bust for the lack of information in this city. Spell-Craft: Here¡¯s where some interesting information came forward from rumors. There were apparently five or six metaphysical supply stores, that seemed to focus on ¡°Witch¡± Supplies. There are some rumors of drumming circles that go on at one of them, that there used to be a twice yearly event where a bunch of those practitioners go into the woods somewhere to do something, and that there is a large undercurrent of people here who seem to have access to odd temperaments and maybe even abilities, if some sudden storms and weather phenomena show. There were not any current practitioners that were causing problems, at least as long as anyone knew, but there could be a problem at any time. Other than that, there were not a lot more rumors about local practitioners of any kind of magic. Enchanted Items: Unfortunately, there is nothing local. That isn¡¯t the extent of what I had gotten from the rumors I picked up, but there is nothing that I could even possibly purchase or acquire in this city, just confirming more of my suspicions for this realm not having a lot of magical support. Maybe there is a niche there for someone to fill if they can find the time and resources. There was one rumor that troubled me. That was that there was a book here that seemed to show up from one of the military personnel who had apparently stolen it from a printer at the base where it just so happened to be printing off, late at night. I didn¡¯t have any more information about that particular item, but it didn¡¯t seem like a magical item, but I had heard of stranger item histories. I will have to keep an ear out for it. Well, not a lot to go off of, but if the rumors have any basis in truth, then I should not have to worry about any other serious issues with more mystical opponents on the streets currently. With everything ready, I decided to just catch a final meal, get my clothes ready for tomorrow, and head to sleep. Tomorrow is another day, and I¡¯ll have to figure out what to worry about then. My phone buzzed at me that it was on low battery, and I checked back through the manual to remember how to plug it in to the receptacle on the wall. Another thing learned today. Day 4 Monday, June 04, 2018, 09:30 AM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America Well, as per usual, Rex and I woke up with the morning sun. We are getting consistent rest here at least, without nearly as much worry about monsters attacking in the middle of the night or anything similar. We might have to deal with thieves, but then again, it would probably just give me and Rex some more ability to get rid of the villains in this world. I got breakfast going for both of us and made sure that the stew is still going, before getting dressed and ready. I knew that today was going to be interesting, starting a new job is always interesting, and this was basically just going to be a mask to hide what I did off hours. I knew that my items wouldn¡¯t automatically be able to stay safe in this safehouse, so I resolved to utilize everything I could up before heading in to work, so I looked at the hundred or so pounds of salt that I had stored up for making items masterwork and weighed the cost of making an item masterwork compared to having full access to my magic. Ultimately, I decided that it would be better to have the spell capabilities than to have a singular item being slightly better. I went around, setting up whatever I could to make the safehouse less of a target, and hide my things that I would not be taking with me to work. Rex assisted in helping find any possible ways that we could be targeted. I added in the usage of some of our simpler magic effects that were not exhaustible, and we tightened up security as best we could. None of the windows would be able to open, the doors would not be able to be opened from the outside. The only way in was a tiny dryer vent that Rex could JUST squeeze through, or by magic, which I had access to, if I did not expend it all today. With all that settled, Rex and I headed out, him for a day of flying and swooping on fish in the Chesapeake Bay, and me for my first day at the job and Bob¡¯s Guns. Rex flew up from behind the house and headed towards the Elizabeth River. He knew to fly over to the place where I was working at high-sun and to return home by the time the sun set, and if weather got bad, he was to return to house and take shelter in the back porch to dry off. I took off and made my way when it was about fifteen after nine, by my phone, and took the safe route, getting to Bob¡¯s by half past nine, and finished off all of my pre-work notes. ***** Monday, June 04, 2018, 9:30 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America I had just finished writing my notes when Doug opened up the door and escorted me in, looking disappointedly at the sky. I asked Doug what the issue was, and he told me that it looked like it was going to storm pretty bad today. I sighed and hoped that Rex was going to have some time to fish on his own. I didn¡¯t relish the thought of having to go out riding in the rain to go buy fish for him. Doug took me to the place where I could put my bike, and we headed back to the workstations where I would learn to work on these modern firearms. We started the remainder of the morning with detailed diagram of the firearm in question, and it included a breakdown of every individual part of the firearm itself. Doug noted that this particular firearm, a 1911, was one that frequently came through the shop. I absorbed everything that I could on the first time around and Doug asked me to take the firearm apart, clean it, and put it back together while he watched. I focused for a second, invoked a bit of the magic that would help me out with this kind of check, and managed to amaze Doug with a thirty second tear down and put together with a thirty second clean time in the middle. Doug took it, inspected every aspect of it, and nodded appreciably before asking me if I was sure that I had never dealt with one of these before. I shrugged and told him that this was the first time that I had ever taken apart and put together one of those, but that it followed an example of one that I had seen done before. Doug thought for a minute before taking me over to the list of current firearm cleanings scheduled. He went through the list with me and showed me where each firearm was stored and where each would go. He noted to me that I would mainly be responsible for taking apart, cleaning, and putting back together of each one, diligently cleaning, oiling, and returning for testing. He told me that he would check on me at around noon and confirm that I was doing a sufficient job, before setting me up with the next firearm to learn on. Doug then went to talk to someone in another room while I started working on each firearm individually. I activated my Prestidigitation arcane spell surreptitiously while Doug was walking out of the room, before moving on to the next firearm. After about twenty minutes, Doug came back with the General Manager, Steve and they stopped me from working what I was working on to talk. Steve asked me about the 1911 that I was working on. I told him that I had ensured that the firearm was safe, removed the magazine, disassembled the firearm, cleaned all of it, oiled the appropriate sections, and reassembled it. I handed, safely, the firearm to Steve, and he looked it over for a bit, inspecting it before setting it down. He went through every part of the gun and asked what I had done for each item. I told him which pieces were removed in which order, which were re-oiled after cleaning, and how they were put back together in order. Steve handed the firearm to Doug, who took a look over it and noted that I had done an outstanding job, not even having any fingerprints left on the firearm after I was done. Doug asked Steve if he thought that this was satisfactory, and Steve agreed. Doug looked to me and told me that I had the job. Steve and Doug turned and walked back into another room, both having left me to my tasks, and went to go talk about something else. Before I started working on the next firearm, I did a quick cleanup of the work area while I cast one of my limited arcane powers and clandestinely summoned up a book on information about fingerprints. I balked while I noted that they could be used to connect an individual to an item that was contacted by them, like say a murder weapon to an assailant. Apparently, it is a very common practice to use in this world to solve crimes and get convictions by linking the evidence. Learning this, I started going through every firearm that I was assigned in turn, focusing less on speed, and more on complete cleaning and thorough checking. I was taking roughly thirty-minutes a firearm, but I ensured that there was no trace of anything that was no trace of any fingerprints or anything else that could be trackable to me. Reading that book leads me to think that I will need to study on a LOT more things than what I initially thought about, especially about the legal system here. I didn¡¯t have the real opportunity to transfer this information, so I had to just let this one slip, and I would have to ask it again later. By the time that I was halfway through the workday, I had gotten through the entire backlog of these pistols that needed to be cleaned, and a few other similar models that were also in que to get done. At a little before two pm, Doug came back through and said that it was getting on break time, and that he was going to order something for lunch and wanted to know if I wanted anything. I shrugged and told him that I didn¡¯t have any strong feelings on anything, but that if he let me know what were the options that I could go for something. Doug shrugged and said that he was going to order a pizza. I asked him to just get a second one as well, and I¡¯d pay. Doug made the call, and ordered two ¡°meat lovers¡± pizzas, and told me that they were twenty bucks. I pulled a twenty out of my pocket and handed it to him, thanking him for making the call. While we waited for the pizza to be delivered, Doug and I went through all of the firearms that I had serviced, with him giving me positive feedback on what I had done, and what I could do better. I took the advice into consideration as we talked a bit more about my style for cleaning. He noted that he couldn¡¯t even detect the hint of gunpowder residue after I was done. I told him that I had always heard that it was best to get things back to as clean as when it was made. Doug nodded to that, as we were informed that our pizza had shown up. We both started eating in the break room, while Doug asked some slightly probing questions about my background. I did my best to keep up with what I had practiced with Jonathan, keeping it close to that I had originally gone through, so it was easier to remember and keep straight. A small city detective who worked to keep the city safe. I got caught in the crossfire of a ¡°super¡± attack, and ended up leaving the force, to come here. It wasn¡¯t that far from the truth, as compared to what I have seen, that ancient Azlanti wizard would be the best equivalent to a super on that world, and he was caught in the crossfire of the Azlanti wizard¡¯s spell, along with Rex, and it had sent him here. Doug seemed to acknowledge that, and asked if I knew which super it was. I told him I had never seen the super since leaving to which Doug nodded again. During lunch Rex had sent to me a series of feelings that indicated that he was nesting someplace safe, and I understood that he was above the building. This was as safe as he could be, in my mind, so I sent back feelings of reassurance without missing a beat with discussion with Doug about my background. I heard the peel of thunder suddenly, and I sent Rex the feelings of ¡°home¡± and ¡°warmth¡±. Rex sent back the feelings of soaring through the air and then the joy of seeing the safehouse, which I took to mean that he would head right back to our place. With that settled, I left the restroom and went back to the workshop floor. For after our ¡°lunch¡±, Doug got me started on a going through a rifle step by step before heading off to work on a set of specialized modifications for another order that had been placed. For the rest of the shift, I worked on those rifles, working on dismantling them, cleaning them thoroughly, and putting them back together. Of course, I was aided in the cleaning by activating my arcane energies towards the prestidigitation effect every hour or so, just to make the cleaning more thorough, and to do a once over cleaning of the outside to ensure that all fingerprints and possible ¡°DNA¡± evidence are scrubbed from it. The rest of the day went fairly well, and at the end of the day, Doug told me that he was certain that I had the job. He patted me on the back, and I took off on my bike, the road being a little dryer since the rains subsided about an hour and a half before I was going to be leaving to head home. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. On my way home, I started to regret the bicycle, as even though the road was supposedly dryer, my breeches legs were still soaked. It isn¡¯t anything that prestidigitation won¡¯t correct, but still, it is annoying to experience it. The material that these roads are made of seem oddly solid and yet not at the same time, but that¡¯s just something that I will have to learn to deal with as well. Getting home, I found that there was no apparent unauthorized break-ins or robberies, taking some time and using magic to enhance the ability to find any apparent issues, of which I found none. Rex was there waiting for me, just inside the back porch, and he told me that he didn¡¯t see or hear anything since he arrived back at the house. I thanked him for his vigilance while I set the bicycle back in the garage. Then we went to the back door, and I opened up the door using the key. There weren¡¯t any signs inside the house of any intrusions, and everything looked fine, so Rex and I moved inside. Rex immediately went over to his reflective heat mat and nested down on it, while I went to the kitchen to get some of my soup that was in this thing called a ¡°crock pot¡±. It kept my stew warm all day and doesn¡¯t even need magic or fire. It is a great piece of technology, and something I could easily see David Drake bringing this to Sandpoint and Magnimar eventually, if he doesn¡¯t decide that Magic shortcuts it, that is. The stew was flavorful and filling, so I spent the rest of the day resting and getting my clothes and equipment and items ready for tomorrow. It seems like this job is not as difficult as I had imagined, or maybe my combination of skill and magic works well for the low-level tasks that I am completing. Maybe later on it will get more difficult, but for now, it seems like I can get by with this position. The rest of the night went fairly well, until it got close to sunset. I weighed the possibilities of going out for searching for gangland trouble and figured that I could give it a go after dark, and so I got set up in my armor and everything. Once I was all set up, I managed to notice a noise coming from outside one of the backyard¡¯s facing windows of the safehouse. Stealthily, I managed to make my way to a window that would allow me to look out, and I managed to catch a look at a would-be infiltrator. They looked to be of the sort that would belong to some kind of gang, but they appeared to be from a different gang than the three individuals that I had dealt before this. I watched as the person seemed to look into the rooms, before leaving to go back to wherever he had been before arriving here. I quietly said to Rex that we appear to be being cased, to which he nodded thoughtfully. I offered up that we could set up the house to be more appealing, but that the criminals would probably draw too much attention to this house from the ¡°police¡±. Rex offered up that we should track the guy, and that we might be able to get him and his crew before they headed to our house. I thought that this was wise, and Rex and I decided to head out. We locked all of the doors securely, and I had Rex put chairs underneath the doors that were possible before we headed out. Immediately I started to look for any signs of the perp¡¯s tracks or trail. I focused back and activated my Running Hunter¡¯s Stance, to increase my speed and give me the gift of a heightened sense of smell. Being able to track by the scent of this suspected robber helped a lot in trying to find from where this individual travelled from to make their way to their hideout. It wasn¡¯t all that far away, an abandoned warehouse just over the railroad tracks, that was apparently up for sale, from what the posted sign said. I guess since the place is not currently in use is the reason why it is currently being used as a gang¡¯s hideout. Makes sense, at least from what I am familiar with back in the Dockway of Magnimar. I cautiously tailed my prey to the area where the individual was going to meet up with others. Making my way to the roof, to a roof vent that was open, and hiding (with help from Rex), in an area where I can keep an eye on the area while the perpetrator that I tracked waits, while he stands around waiting for others to show up. It took about half an hour for another three people to make their way to the building and start a meeting with the one that I had tailed. The meeting seemed to have been where the group were discussing other gangs in the area and how they had been lost in the decimation. I¡¯m guessing that they are calling the event the decimation where people disappeared/disintegrated into thin air. They mentioned some groups named ¡°Tiny Rascals¡±, ¡°Nine Trey Gangsters¡±, ¡°Lake Taylor Posse¡±, ¡°La Raza¡±, ¡°MS-13¡±, ¡°Grape Street Crips¡±, ¡°18th Street¡±, and ¡°Latin Kings¡±, bit by bit and noting what each one had heard about each individual group and how their members had survived the Decimation. They never referred to their own gang by name, but I guessed that they were the ¡°Painkillers¡± from what was written on the back of one of their jackets. After a bit of talking about the other gangs, they came up with the subject of talking about how some of the ¡°Pepsi Boys¡± were caught a few days ago by the cops, but that they had not been released yet and no one had heard about how they were stupid enough to get caught in Old Huntersville. After their discussion about the other gangs in the area, they got to the subject about different areas they had been casing, and what might be the best one to hit. The other three didn¡¯t have much to offer, mainly that they had each found a few houses that seem to have been abandoned. The one who had been looking at the safehouse that I was living in indicated that there was a LOT of high-end items in the building, but that it was locked up and seemed to have been hit by the decimation, if the food that was left cooking in the crock pot and the other things left on are any indication. The other three seemed to agree with the one who had been looking in the safehouse¡¯s windows, and that the four of them would hit the house after dark, after the scheduled drive through by the cops was done. Then they started to snort some kind of medication or some other powder, probably a drug of some kind. Seeing this as an opportunity, I decided to jump down and take the three of them out. I readied my revolver, got in my proper stance, and chose a single one of the four to target first. With four of them, and how hard the fight was against the other three, when they were distracted, I realized that I was going to need to actually utilize my firearm in this fight. I decided to try to ensure that I would not kill any of them, but I would definitely look to keep myself, and Rex, alive and well first and foremost. As I was falling, I aimed to land behind one of the four, activating my charm to minimize any possible injury from the fall, all while signaling to Rex to land on the other side of the group and attack them. I shot off an ultrasonic ray, one of my arcane effects that I can generate at will, to the one that I was landing behind. The ray of sound took on the aspect of fire common to the fighting stance that I had learned at David Drake¡¯s school. The Thug, being completely surprised, fell unconscious from the attack, dropping to the ground as I landed. I shifted my focus from him to another of the thug as he fell, one of the two who had not been targeted by Rex. Rex had landed on the other side of the group, behind the one who had spied on our safehouse, with a gust of wind, blowing all of the criminals powder off of the mirrors that had been on the crate that they were around, launching a belch of fire at the one that that spy, setting alit the man¡¯s shirt, causing it to burn in a way very dissimilar to any fabric I was familiar with, almost melting and adhering itself to the man¡¯s skin. While remaining drugged men were still recovering from the shock, including the one who was batting at the flames on his shirt who had been at the safehouse, I fired off another enhanced ultrasonic ray, this time further enhanced with a bit of shadow essence, at one of the other of these gang members. Rex followed it up with a bite on the collarbone of the man I had hit, causing him to scream out in pain before falling unconscious. The thug from the safehouse yelled something about there being a dragon, and the other one yelled something about me being a ¡°super¡±, before they both started to fire wildly at us respectively. This brought my focus to the last remaining new criminal, the one who had the audacity to aim his pistol in my general direction, let alone pull the trigger at me. I fired off my ultrasonic ray again, using my cesti covered hand for the targeting, and hit the target of my aggression, but not yet dropping this individual. Rex was thrown off by the rapport of the pistols that had been fired in the closed off space and missed when he tried to clamp down again on voyeur, flinching at the last second. I am lucky I had reflexively seen Rex miss his bite, because he put his body right in the way of the thug who he had hit with his fire breath¡¯s gun. The thug was about to pull the trigger when I reflexively fired my own firearm to block the shot. The bullets collided in midair, and the angle of fire veered off enough to miss Rex completely, flying out through the open roof vent, while I dodged the other thug¡¯s round fired at me. Noting that we needed to end this quick, I yelled to Rex that same concept in the tongue of Dragons while I unleashed another ultrasonic ray, this time at the thug targeting me, the one who I had hit with last attack. My ultrasonic ray didn¡¯t have nearly the impact of the previous one, and we barely managed to drop this foe with Rex¡¯s assistance of a timely bite. The thug slipped gracelessly into unconsciousness as Rex bit him and shook. This left only the thug who has cased our safehouse, who responded in a drug fueled haze with another round fired off at Rex, which happened to miss by a naval mile. I responded back to this attack by hitting him with a quick ultrasonic retort, dropping him into blessed unconsciousness. Quickly, Rex and I went between the people, checking to make sure none of them would die. With all of their wounds treated, I went about cleaning whatever traces I could of myself and Rex being here. With six rounds having been fired in quick succession here, I had no doubt that the ¡°police¡± would be here soon. I tied the criminal sup with whatever I could find, again removed any fingerprints from whatever I had touched, and then set about removing anything I thought of as valuable. I still left their firearms, bereft of ammunition to prevent them from firing on any responders to the calls, and made sure that they had their handprints on their guns. All that they had was more cash, jewelry, and similar previous things that the other thugs had, despite being from different gangs. I grabbed what I could of the loot and prepared to get away as soon as possible. Rex shrunk back down to his smaller size and flew up to the roof while I waited with the criminals, keeping watch over them until police arrived. Eventually, Rex informed me that there were a pair of police carriages showing up outside of the building. I waited, keeping an eye over the criminals, while I made renewed my oath of anonymity. The door busted open with the police yelling for everyone to not move and to keep my hands up. I did so, smiled, and disappeared, dimensionally hopping up to the roof, through the same roof vent that we had jumped through to start this, and then fled the scene, repeatedly using my ability to vanish for thirty seconds and dimensionally hopping again as I needed to get away from an area that the police were observing, and into a hidden area, before I made my way back to the safehouse. Rex was there, waiting for me to open up the back of the safehouse. We both carefully went inside, and I moved all of the new items to the safehouse¡¯s spare room, along with my adventuring gear. I gave Rex and myself a good once over, making sure that there wasn¡¯t anything that I might have missed, wounds or otherwise, and put Rex to bed after congratulating him. I took the time to clean up all of my gear again. I had burned through all of my expendable magic to make it back to the house, and not be seen, but I figured it was for the best. Settling myself in for the rest of my night, I resolved spend tomorrow night actually finding out more information about the possible evidence methods, and maybe learn more about those gangs that were referenced. Day 5 Tuesday, June 05, 2018, 09:30 AM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America After the late-night last night¡¯s excitement, I worried about using magic early in the day, but realized that I needed to get some answers before I did anything to incriminate myself at the job or in general. I resolved to get some information before even heading out from the house. I readied up my ability to search the worlds¡¯ libraries for the information that I needed, that being the different forms of evidence and their legality. What showed up was fairly interesting, in that it was a bit of a change from the extreme availability of magic in Magnimar. A lot of focus on physical evidence, like fingerprints, and ¡°DNA¡± a new concept that apparently people each have an individual genetic code, and situational information, like being in a certain place at a certain time. Then, I summoned up the effect of listening to the rumors of the city, extremely fast. I focused on the ¡°Painkillers¡± Gang. The rumors of the city were basically about the hit that happened last night, how there was apparently a new superhero who had taken them down. This was linked up with a rumor that the Pepsi Boys were hit by the same ¡°super¡±, a few nights ago. The Painkillers apparently had been hit fairly hard by the Decimation, and those four had been the largest cell in this area who remained, and all that was left aside from that was any support structure that might have still been in existence before everyone disappeared. A good thing and a bad thing, in that the gang was gone, but now another gang would try to horn in on their terrain, a fact that I would have to keep any gang from consolidating their power. Most of the other information that I gleaned from the listening was that the four of them were all hit with drug charges, the claim that there was a dragon there was only further added to the evidence that there was drug usage on the individuals. There wasn¡¯t much more of in the way of the Painkillers gang for the rumors that I could find through the usage of this individual arcane instance. I got all of my gear ready and ate a decent breakfast of stew, bread, and eggs. I isolated all of the cash that I had acquired, and then had a thought of depositing the jewelry that I had ¡°acquired¡± from those criminals and the ones I had stopped before. I spent some time talking with Rex, who told me that he thought that it would be good for him to stay at the house and keep watch to make sure that nothing happened to our safehouse today, for which I expressed my appreciation for his wisdom, and thanked him for his help with this. Before leaving, I set up the TV to operate on some random channel to give Rex something to watch. He already knew how to utilize the toilet, kind of fascinating thing to consider, honestly, and I set out food and water for him, and told him that I would be out of range for him to send empathic feelings to me, so that if he got in danger, it was more important to just get to me, rather than defend the house and the property, if it was in danger. Rex told me that he understood, so I took the jewelry that I had collected and all of the cash, and headed out of the house, locking up as I did. I had decided that I would go talk to Jonathan at the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters during ¡°lunch¡± today. His number was in my phone, so it wouldn¡¯t be that difficult of an issue to get sorted, and maybe I can get the jewelry set up as part of a similar plan to the gold and silver coins that I had in deposit. I rode to work on my bicycle, being careful that I did not get into any trouble of any kind. I had decided to take a different path to work, going along the main road. I found a caf¨¦ and deli not far from where the Safehouse was, so I stopped and went to get something for drinks for work, as I didn¡¯t especially appreciate all of the fizz from the sodas at the vending machines at the place where I started working. There was some form of newsprint named ¡°The Virginian Pilot¡±, that was available that had a very blurry picture of me in my full gear with the four hogtied criminals around me. My oath of anonymity seemed to do the job of blurring me slightly enough for the picture to not be good enough to be recorded at least. I was glad that I had done that and spent some time recoloring my gear before everyone arrived and that I had put my revolver away before the police had arrived. I smirked to myself and purchased a copy of the newspaper, a couple of large metal cans of something called ¡°Arizona Green Tea¡±, and a breakfast sandwich. The person behind the counter engaged me in a bit of conversation about the ¡°Blip¡± and how half of all people disappeared, and asked if anyone I knew ended up disappearing. I didn¡¯t have anything prepared for this line of questioning, so I went with the truth, telling the cashier that I had lost everyone that I knew in that event, and that I was starting new here in Norfolk. The cashier nodded, welcomed me to Norfolk, and wished me well before I paid in cash for the items and wished the cashier a good day before continuing on my bicycle drive to Bob¡¯s. I took the most direct route possible to get to the business, taking care to obey any traffic laws from the book that I had been given for commonwealth of Virginia. There were not a lot of police on the road in any event, but it never hurt to be careful, especially since there could be some way that I wasn¡¯t familiar with to link me to the ¡°super¡± that was new to the city of Norfolk. As I got to Bob¡¯s, Doug was just opening up the door and noticed me, letting me and my bicycle in. I thanked him and went in to put my bicycle up before heading to the workstation. I got my journal entries written out and decided that I¡¯d drink my ¡°tea¡± before starting work. ***** Tuesday, June 05, 2018, 2:00 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America Once I got in, Doug approached me with a new series of tasks today, telling me that since I had finished all of the scut work yesterday, that I¡¯d be learning to do a more difficult task today. Doug took me to a different work bench and showed me a rifle that had a bunch of parts that were in a series of bins. Doug explained that there was a custom order here for a very picky client, and that I would have to discuss everything with them. I sighed and asked where the individual was, and he told me that the person would be in the meeting room at ten o¡¯clock. I sighed and prepared as best I could, thinking through any preparations I could or should make, and not coming up with anything. When I went into the meeting room, a few minutes before ten, I checked to ensure that everything that I would need for it would be there. At ten, precisely, the customer came in and sat down in the chair, imperiously. I apologized that I needed to go over everything again, but that I wanted to make sure that we had everything according to his specifications. The man seemed to be somewhat appreciable of my approach and went over all of the changes that he desired, some of which seemed to be mutually exclusive. For the second half hour, we went over every individual item and change from the base model and how each one interacts with the other changes. The man seemed to be a bit iffy but was listening along and providing his desires and inputs for each item and change that he wanted, and specifying the order that he wanted them in. I took copious notes, writing down every significant bit of information that was passed from him to me. This work took a fair amount of time, and I made sure to add to the lists with input of changes for how each one changed the previous work and what they did. We made it through this part of the interview fairly well. Starting up the second hour, the meeting was getting a little tenser, with the customer seeming to get more ruffled as I tried to rationalize each of the incongruencies between what he desired and what could reasonably be accomplished. The customer was following along with everything that I was pointing out, and even going back on some of the changes and additions that he had claimed that he had wanted. We talked further about the different other options that were available, which might go with some of the other items that he had wanted. Even if the meeting had gotten a bit more strained, the customer seemed to be following along with everything and not immediately hostile to everything that I was offering up. We had gotten a good portion of the way through by the time that we were closing in on the end of second hour of discussion, but it was getting rather strained. It was the start of the third hour, at around one pm according to the clock, that started to show some recalcitrance with the direction of our meeting. I had thought that I had been doing so well, when apparently, the customer had fell back on their initial requirements, and did not want to budge. They exclaimed that they had seen this done on YouTube, and demanded to know why we could not do something so simple as this. I was only vaguely aware of this ¡°YouTube¡± site, but understood the basics of it, so I asked him if he could tell me which YouTuber was the one who did the modifications, and that we can reach out to them to find out what technical modification we might have missed and how much testing that they have been doing with those modification to ensure that they were safe in the long run. I eventually calmed down the customer and got a list of some supposed people on the website that might have made the changes, and titles of the videos that documented them. The customer seemed to become a lot more accepting of the process and where we were going with it after I had shown that little bit of acceptance. He backed off of his more outlandish claims, exclaiming that on recollection, he figured that some of the options might have been on different models, and not on this specific one. We worked through a few more permutations of the changes, until we came up with something that he agreed with, and that I felt that we could accomplish with the resources that we had here. There were a few things that we would definitely have to order, but the core of everything was that it was viable and that it was something that we could do. It was at the end of that third hour that Doug and Steve came in, clapping the customer on the back and congratulating me. I was, at minimum, very confused by what looked like a very congenial greeting, between what I had been led to believe was a very recalcitrant customer and a very annoyed technical staff. The three of them laughed a little and looked to me, before Steve congratulated me on being the best custom order technician he had seen, elbowing Doug in the ribs a little. Thinking I was the butt of a joke, the third man, whom I had never met, explained that he was Robert Marcus, the current owner of Bob¡¯s Gun Shop and that he was putting me through the paces to see if I could be good with what might be needed to take custom orders. Robert, or Bob, went on to tell me that he was most impressed with how I kept going back to the actual mechanics of the situation, how I never seemed to get flustered, and how I worked to get the meeting back on track after the fake blow up. Bob went to shake my hand, and I took up his hand and shook it. Bob exclaimed that I was definitely a good hire for the company, and that he could see good things from me in the future. Bob looked over at Steve and Doug, back to me, and then back to them before he said to them that he¡¯d like a few minutes to speak with me to make sure that employee startup processed was completed properly. Doug and Steve both acknowledged the explanation that we needed to talk and said that they¡¯d get going on the other work that needed to be done. Bob led me to his office and offered up a seat on the other side of his desk. As we both sat down, Bob told me that he was the one who had been approached by S.H.I.E.L.D., having worked with them long ago, on a job to protect the country back when he was just a simple grunt. As I listened, he went in to explaining how he had been a grunt in Vietnam and was part of a platoon that was sent out to recover an agent who had been caught up in the trail for Ho Chi Minh, trying to end the war early. Apparently, the agent was a senior member of S.H.I.E.L.D. who had actually been going after some alien wreckage that had been found to have crashed in the jungles there. As they worked together to help get an important member of S.H.I.E.L.D. and his retinue out of the area, the group came under fire and most of the retinue and his platoon were lost. Bob informed me that although that person and their group got out, the crew that they had was broken up after, and he wasn¡¯t considered for entry. Bob told me that the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent did single him out for later work, and that they had worked together in the past on other small things. Bob looked at me and smiled before asking me the truth about why I was here. I sighed and realized that it wouldn¡¯t behoove me to try to maintain the falsehood. I told him about how I was brought here from a different world, one where someone from this world had previously come from, like a decade ago, and that they had brought some of their technology to complement the world¡¯s already existing magic. I had been trained by him a little, especially in firearms repair and fabrication, and in the usage of some technology, but that I was mainly employed by my home city as a detective of sorts. I continued with telling him that I had joined forces with that person against a very dire threat to the city, when me and my familiar got transported here. It just so happened to coincide with the event that caused half of the people to disappear here.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Bob nodded to me and noted that he had apparently lost some people and it is still a little bit chaotic out there, before noticing something about me and asked me if I was doing anything to help already. I looked a bit sheepish, before pulling out the newspaper that I had gotten today, before pointing at the blurred figure. Bob smiled and noted that he had figured that I was doing something like that, since I had just shown up and this figure didn¡¯t start until after I had done so. Bob added that he was glad that I was dealing with the gangs and that I wasn¡¯t killing them, even if I was inflicting some harm on them. I countered that I always made sure that I didn¡¯t kill anyone and if someone is in danger of dying, I can heal them a little bit to ensure that they won¡¯t. Bob perked up at that, and asked just what I could heal. I thought for a minute, and told him that right now, all I can heal are wounds, but eventually I might be able to remove poisons from someone. Unfortunately, I added, that I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d ever be able to do something drastic like regenerate limbs or remove diseases or bring back the dead ever. Bob perked up a little bit at the mention of some of the things, but then looked a bit disappointed when he realized I¡¯d never be able to do it, but he managed to recover his composure quite quickly. Bob asked what kinds of other things I could do, aside from attacking with sound and having a dragon with me. I chuckled a bit to myself and admitted that part of what I could do was thoroughly clean items without even touching them, and I tacked on a couple of other things that I could do. When I got to enhancing the quality of an item, he stopped me and asked if I could permanently make something higher quality. I told him that I could only do it permanently, but that it required sacrifice of some components. I offered up that I can get into specifics later, but that it required quite a large quantity of material to do so. Bob asked how much better the improvement was. I shrugged and offered up a generic figure of five percent increase in accuracy. Bob looked a little impressed at the five percent figure, and he asked if I could do this to any weapon. I offered up that I could check about anything, but that if the quality was already too high, I couldn¡¯t improve it further. Bob thought for a minute and asked if I¡¯d be willing to do some based on commission. I told him that I¡¯d definitely take it up on consideration, especially with his recommendation, and that I¡¯d come up with some blanket cost for an individual to expend for me to undertake the required rituals. Bob then asked if he¡¯d be okay with them booking the individuals, and I agreed that it would be for the best. Bob then got down to business, telling me that they were definitely hiring me, and giving me a base rate per hour for the work that I would do in the shop, and that if I needed to cut out for any reason, that I should inform him directly. He told me that he would eventually be passing this secret on to Doug, if the sale went through, which Doug was aiming towards even if he wouldn¡¯t admit it yet, but that until it became necessary, it would be between the two of them and S.H.I.E.L.D. I thanked him for his consideration and asked him if I could have a little time to go get my banking information set up during lunch. Bob told me that he¡¯d drive me there himself, as it was part of his traditions here that he takes new employees to lunch early on in their employment, and since he wasn¡¯t in the store yesterday, today would be the first day. I thanked him and offered to go work on whatever might be needed until around two pm. Bob put me on my way, and I went back out to work with Doug, cleaning more firearms and working one getting the replacement parts replaced, as needed. The rest of the time until Bob was going to take me to the ¡°secret¡± S.H.I.E.L.D. field office was spent going over some other repairs and cleaning checks. It was an interesting experience, doing everything by hand, with such little magic. It was certainly a bit of reflection based on when I started learning back in the Sandpoint Hinterlands Institute of Technology. I still don¡¯t know why David chose that name, but he was specific about it, that, and the Sandpoint Devil as a school mascot. ***** Tuesday, June 05, 2018, 8:00 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America We drove in Bob¡¯s vehicle, something he called an S.U.V., to the place that Sharon Carter had taken me when I first arrived. We parked and I walked into the building, where I provided my ID, and we were both invited in. Bob found someone who he knew from a long time ago and stopped to catch up with him, coincidentally. I went to go talk to Jonathan, to try and get some things ironed out. Jonathan was free, so I managed to snag an immediate meeting. We talked for a bit before getting down to business. Of course, S.H.I.E.L.D. knew what I had been doing, and didn¡¯t think it a sufficient use of resources to bother to stop me. Jonathan mentioned that he figured that it was either part of them allowing me to settle in, due to the differences between my world and this world, or that they didn¡¯t have the resources to bother dealing with me cleaning up the streets, especially so soon after ¡°The Blip¡±. I dropped off my ¡°Ill-gotten gains¡± of the various items of jewelry, which got the same treatment as the gold and silver coins that I had ¡°deposited¡± when I first joined. We discussed some other minor things for a while before Jonathan mentioned that the organization might have a use for one of my supposed powers. I was a bit curious about this and asked him what power that a large organization like this might need. Jonathan leaned in and whispered that there was a very senior agent who had been wounded in such a way that they cannot heal. I asked him to explain the nature of the wounds, if he could, and he explained how the wounds seemed to resist technological methods and had severed bones from a god¡¯s weapon. I sighed and mentioned that I would be more than happy to try it, but that I doubted that it would have any effect, as my healing capability is basically limited to lacerations, bruises, and abrasions basically. I apologized that if there was anything more serious, I doubted that I would be able to heal it. Jonathan offered up that the company would appreciate it if I gave it a try anyway, and I told him that I would of course do so. I asked him if I could ride the bicycle that I currently used to go back and forth to work. Jonathan laughed and said that he¡¯d get me scheduled to head down on Friday night. I told him that I would set everything up that I can and be as prepared as possible through the rest of the week, and be here after work, Friday night. Jonathan laughed and said that he would have whoever was picking him up at my work at six thirty pm Friday. I told him that Rex would be going with me, to assist wherever he can, and would be waiting above the shop at that time. While I was still discussing with Jonathan, I mentioned my difficult with getting communications with Rex while I was further distances away. Jonathan noted that he¡¯d put it further up the chain for any specialized equipment research, but that I could get a fairly simply Bluetooth microphone/speaker setup with another phone. I told him that I would do what I can, but that he can only speak a non-human language. Jonathan shrugged and offered up that we can try that at least and see where we go from there. I agreed and said that I was willing to try it, at the very least, maybe I can make something work a little to at least be able to contact me directly. After we got done with everything, I mentioned that I still needed to get the ¡®Bank Information¡± for my pay from the Bob¡¯s Gun Shop job. Jonathan laughed and told me that everything was all set up already and had been when I got the okay from Bob. With all of that dealt with, I asked Jonathan if there was anything that S.H.I.E.L.D could use my assistance in investigating. Jonathan thought about it for a minute, and shook his head, noting that I was currently just a baseline agent and thus not in line for any special projects, but that if I encountered anything more interesting than the street gangs that I was currently dealing with, that I should inform him,, as he was the only current agent in Hampton Roads (the conglomeration of cities that made up the surrounding area). I remembered that Agent Sharon Carter had said that she was leaving the country when he said that, and offered up that if he did encounter anything that needed my specific brand of expertise, to let me know. Jonathan meekly offered up that he would like to get together one day after work to compare some information that he might have from this world with what was the condition on my world. I offered up that he can call me to schedule up anything, and that I¡¯d take off from patrolling that night. I added, as an afterthought, that the main reason why I dealt with the group last night, was that one of them was scoping out the safehouse that I had been set up with. Jonathan listened and apologized to me that since this was a low priority safehouse, that it didn¡¯t have all the advanced bells and whistles of some of the other S.H.I.E.L.D. safehouses. I thought about it and noted that I was going to leave Rex at the safehouse until something more concrete was set up, and that he can just escape to get within range to contact me once he gets within range. Jonathan perked up, and asked me, one mile, correct? I looked at him a bit curiously and replied that he was correct, to which he pumped his fist in some kind of satisfaction. Jonathan stood up and shook my hand, telling me that he was glad that he had at least one more active ally in S.H.I.E.L.D. in the city. I stood up when he did and thanked him for all of his assistance. Bob was done with his conversation when I came out of the office, and together, we both went to get lunch at the Monastery Restaurant, which Bob had a bit of favor towards. While we ate, Bob told me about how he had tried to clean up the neighborhood when he got back in Vietnam, and had some success, at least until the gangs got too organized. He finished up by saying that this is probably the best time to start to get the area back from the gangs. I thanked him for his vote of confidence, and asked him how it had gotten so bad, if the police have such a presence here. Bob went on to tell me about how the local politicians ended up getting corrupted by easy money from the gangs and other groups, and they curtailed a lot of the good police, which left, and then there were only the corrupt cops. Listening to him intently, I took in as much as I could. I figured that I could get a good amount of historical information for the area from him and others like him, that I wouldn¡¯t have to use spells to duplicate. He went on about how he realized that the only choice for the area was for the people to be able to protect themselves. He added that he was going to be selling the business on to Steve here in the next year or so, and that he was looking at getting out of the area to go somewhere warmer soon. I offered up that I had heard something about a place called Tahiti being a magical place. We finished up our lunch and headed back to the store, where Bob went back to his office, ostensibly to handle more of his tasks as the owner while I continued learning from Doug about all of the different tasks that I would have on a daily basis. The tasks were fairly simply, comparatively, with a lot of janitorial style work, counting parts, performing inventory checks, and the like. While the day went on, I continued to think about what I would need to do going forward to get this area under some kind of safe and sound. I also went on to think about what I needed to do myself to get things done that would need to be done, considering that I was likely going to have to stay here for as long as I can see. By the end of the day, the business responsibilities that I was responsible for seemed to be in a good condition and ready to end for the day. As we locked up the workshop for the night Doug shook my hand and welcomed me officially as a fellow employee. Doug and Steve both went to their vehicles and left. Bob had left earlier in the day, around five pm, to go catch up with the person that he had apparently met up with before at secret S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. I started to get on my bike and head home before I got stopped by someone really demanding to sell me on going to the Norfolk Harbor-fest this weekend. I tried to apologize that I wouldn¡¯t be in Norfolk this weekend, and the vendor couldn¡¯t accept it. Even if the event was free. The vendor went on and on about how there would be music from such bands as the Atlanta Rhythm Section, Firefall, Pure Prairie League, The Family Stone, Thomas McClary of The Commodores, American Authors, and Norfolk¡¯s own Super Doppler. I listened intently while I kept my eyes out for any possible pickpockets that might try to use me being distracted. Luckily, there wasn¡¯t and eventually, I managed to get them to accept that I would go to the event, if I was available, and the vendor finally left me alone. I made my way home, and as soon as I felt the empathic link reconnecting, I reached out the Rex, and he sent back to me feelings of comfort and relaxation. I rode the rest of the way home, picking up some fresh fish at a market for Rex, and a burger for myself on my way home. Once I got home, I locked up the bike and brought everything in. I started looking over whatever recipes I had for any kind of curative agents. Unfortunately, nothing that I had references for was much stronger than my healing belt¡¯s effect. Without any kind of alchemical item that I had access to, I decided to try to use a spell to get access to a recipe that might assist me in getting this agent¡¯s wounds repaired. Summoning up the arcana and a blank section of a book, I also pulled out my ¡°Earth Alchemy book¡± and set it to a new page. I activated my transfer of written material effect, and then summoned up the various texts of the world to find Alchemical recipes for saving this individual. I came up with six possible recipes, Aqua Clarissima, Aqua Regia, Tisane of Amaranth, Unguent of Juniper, Vitus Flask, and Balm of Arnica. I pulled every component from the recipes and did a quick search for where I could get everything. It was fairly expensive, especially to get things delivered tomorrow, but everything was purchasable and should show up to Bob¡¯s Gun Shop tomorrow, assuming that the deliveries can be done. Without much left for the day, I decided to improve upon my knowledge of this world, assuming that I might end up getting a commission to make something enhanced sooner rather than later. I went on to start focusing much more heavily on the gang aspects of the area, with some more information about specifically the two that I had come across, the Pepsi Boys and The Painkillers. I quickly documented what I could transfer into books, and then set everything up for the next day. Day 6 Wednesday, June 06, 2018, 09:30 AM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America In the morning, I set up the magic effect to animate tools to start moving about doing their tasks. Since my clothes were already clean and ready, and my breakfast stew was already warmed up in that crock-pot, I went about ensuring that the place would be ready in case someone hired by S.H.I.E.L.D. dropped by while I was at work. I had removed all of the ¡°loot¡± that I had acquired from those encounters that I had had with those gang members. After a bit, Rex got up from his nest, and went into the bathroom, ostensibly to use the toilet. I¡¯m sure that it presents an interesting picture to someone who hasn¡¯t walked in on it before, but for me it was just something to work around. Everything that I could do to set up the place to be fairly robber proof was done. Everything of value that was light weight was going to be packed away into either of my backpacks, my bandolier, or the cart for behind the bicycle. About the only thing that would be left in the building was the foodstuffs that would be too heavy to move. It would make me look like a vagrant, but at least if something did happen to this building, it wouldn¡¯t destroy most of my limited resources. Besides, with the fact that Bob was looking to be supportive, maybe it wouldn¡¯t be an issue for the day. My reason for all of this preparation was because of the information that I had gotten from my surge of arcana-based information gathering wasn¡¯t all that comfortable. The basics of the rumors on the street were that these gangs were extremely violent, vengeful, and still had resources to expend, and members in other areas that were reaching out to those who were allies and resources in the gang with the loss of the ones that had been captured. Both the Pepsi Boys and the Painkillers had figured that their gangs were being hit by some other gang in the area and were going to reinforce with whatever forces that they still had. I had no knowledge about whatever forces might be available after ¡°The Blip¡±, and the general lack that I had for anything in the rest of the world for either gang, I decided that Rex and I should be prepared to dodge out of wherever we were known to have been, at least until I get more information. Rex was going to fly over to above my new workplace in secret, with his lightweight nest in a bag that he was carrying to find a corner to relax in for the day. I got the bicycle and the cart out of the garage before locking everything up. I didn¡¯t know if there was going to be anything left of the things I would leave, but just about everything I would leave was easily replaceable and cheap to boot, if the amounts of money that I was finding on the gang people was any indication. Also, getting everything that I would need to keep up the fight was the most crucial out of all of the tasks. About the only thing I would regret losing was access to all of the salt that I had acquired, and if I made it through the week without any commissions, I¡¯d use up all of the salt for making more of my equipment have enhanced quality. By the time that I was ready to head out, I felt that the at a worst-case scenario, I would be able to set back up elsewhere if the worst does happen. I don¡¯t know yet how much access the people here have to scrying type things yet, especially with the abilities of technology that I do not know about yet. I got my way to work without much in the way of issues, I figure that the chaos has started to calm down now that people have started to realize that they need to continue to exist and for that they need to get it together. I bicycled my way down to the road pulling the heavily laden cart behind me, noting the cars that were slowly starting to be removed throughout the days. I got to work without stopping anywhere for a breakfast and managed to finish making it to work on time. ***** Wednesday, June 06, 2018, 07:30 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America When I got in to work, it was actually Bob who was waiting for me, noting the cart behind me silently. I pulled everything in, and Bob informed me that Doug had to take the day off for something, so it would just be me back in the workshop. I nodded and asked if there was a list of work that needed to be done. Bob told me that there was and then we headed back to the workshop together. I parked my bike into the storage room that I had previously been informed that I could use, while Bob watched me with curiousness. We went to the workshop next, and it was just Bob and me in there. I asked Bob what was the next thing that he would have me work on is, and he asked me if I was comfortable demonstrating what the process was for enhancing the quality of an item. I sighed and noted that I needed a large quantity of salt to do the process. Bob looked at me and asked me about how much I needed for this process. I noted that it took a different amount based on the utilization of the item, but that if the item was intended to be utilized offensively, it would be about sixty pounds of salt to do the job. Bob looked at me curiously and asked me if it needed to be any specific kind of salt. I shrugged and noted that I have successfully done the ritual with table salt that I had purchased from Walmart. Bob thought for a minute and said that he¡¯d arrange for salt to get here, but that until then, I could deal with the batch of firearms that had come in, doing the cleaning services. I acknowledged the order and went to go start on the process of cleaning all of the items. I started up the process of getting the prestidigitation cantrip up and going, before even grabbing the list. I went to the first gun and started the complete teardown, cleaning, oiling, and rebuild of each firearm on the list in order. I was working away on the list for a while, until Steve checked in on me and let me know it was time to take a break. I put the gun that I had just finished back into the locked drawer and cleaned up my work area. Steve noted that he was going to head out to get Chinese and wanted to know if I wanted anything. I shrugged, and noted that I wouldn¡¯t mind, but that I didn¡¯t know what they might have for a menu. Steve told me the name of the place, after he realized that I wasn¡¯t from this place and thus I wouldn¡¯t know what was for sale at this particular place. I used my S.H.I.E.L.D. phone to look up the place and found that the menu was provided, along with the opportunity to pay for it through the phone¡¯s integrated functions, or apps. I looked through the series of options for a ¡°lunch menu¡± and came to the decision of trying ¡°Roasted Pork w/ String beans¡±. I offered up to Steve to buy for his lunch, since he was going to get it, and he wanted ¡°Sweet & Sour Chicken¡±. I ordered both and an ¡°appetizer¡± of ¡°BBQ Spare Ribs¡±. Steve thanked me and headed out to go pick it up. Once Steve left, Bob came back in, to talk to me about the enhancement arcana, so that he can at least personally attest to the effects. He provided me a pistol, which he told me he was very familiar with, a colt 1911. I looked it over, and it seemed serviceable, and of sufficient quality to hold the transformation, so I told him of such, and that I could perform the spell, but that I would still need the salt. Bob offered up that he had ordered the salt from a hardware store already, and that it would be delivered to the store in an hour or so. He then went on to ask me what using this on other items would effectively do. I went on to tell him the basics of the effects, for both armor and tools, in how it could make armor more well fitted and a little easier to maneuver around in, but not reducing any of the defensive features in doing so, and how tools would be better suited to their tasks than whatever regular quality tools would be able to be do in the operations. Bob offered up that he¡¯d gladly have part of my day be set aside to this task, once we discussed what my requested charge would be, but that he recommended that I be secretive about doing it to the general public. I agreed that this is something that I didn¡¯t intend on just doing all the time, especially since it takes an hour to perform the ritual every time, and that I can only do it a limited number of times per day. Bob said that he had acquired some six hundred pounds of salt for testing, since that was the minimum that they would cover the delivery for, but that once things were dialed in, he would gladly cover the salt out of his ¡°commission¡± for setting up the cuts. It was about that time that Steve was coming back. All three of us sat in the breakroom, Steve and I eating while Bob talked to the both of us about the future of the store, how he was looking to cash out of the company in a few years, and that he knew that Steve was interested. Steve admitted as much, but that he wouldn¡¯t think of changing the name or the practices of the business. Bob smiled and noted that he had hoped that he would feel that way and added that Steve should be a good person to run the business, if his decisions with me where any guide. I thanked them both for their consideration and said that I was just happy to find a way to get myself together after all of the chaos of the last week. We ate our lunch and afterwards, Steve told me that he had to go to an appointment for the rest of the day, so it would just be me and Bob. Steve added that he would be closing up the store portion of the shop, as we didn¡¯t have enough people to cover it and the back. Bob told him that we would keep down the fort for the day, and that he can feel safe about it. Steve thanked me for lunch, and Bob for the rest of the day off, and then headed out. We walked out to the front of the store, where I finally saw some of the products that the business sells. I was amazed at the difference in some of these weapons and the advancements that had been done based on what I knew was capable, even beyond what I had worked on in the back. Bob locked up the front, put a note about being closed for lack of staff, pulled down the gratings that covered the windows. We went to the back room that had an area set aside, and he informed me where in the storeroom the salt was no stored. I pulled out one bag of the salt, and took it to the area, before taking another bag from the storeroom to work area. I carefully measured out another ten pounds from the second one and started setting designs on the ground in the form of runes and patterns, the ones required for the spell¡¯s effect. Bob came in after I was done, it had been almost thirty minutes of the preparation before I carefully entered the center of the circle of salt and started to meditate and quietly chant, beseeching the weapon to aid the wielder to be more accurate and strike true. Bob silently watched for the half an hour of my chants and salt baptism of his firearm. After a total of one hour of time, from the start of the formation of the patterns, all of the salt on the floor and covering the weapon glowed brightly and then disappeared into the firearm. I took up the 1911 and checked for any excess salt on or in it. I handed it gently to Bob who looked it over. It had been well serviced and clean before he had handed it to me, and it was returned in that same general condition, except that it was looking like it was a lot higher quality materials and craftsmanship. Bob weighed the pistol, holding it like it was a treasured friend, and then asked me to follow him to the range. I followed him and he went to a specific lane in the range, seemingly out of habit, and got the magazine out that was in the pistol and loaded it with some ammunition. He then went on to put the pistol in some kind of mechanism and get set up to repeatedly pull the trigger. As he cycled through the ammunition in the magazine, he was careful to not pull the firearm in any way while he was firing the firearm. When the magazine was empty and the bolt was secure, Bob asked me to go with him to take a look at the target. When we both went to see, he held the target up to another target, which seemed to be very close to the first, if only for a slightly larger hole in the center, which I realized was a tiny bit ragged as it wasn¡¯t one larger hole, but several smaller holes, making it slightly bigger in diameter. The hole that had been made by the Colt after the enhancement was actually about five percent smaller in diameter than the original. Bob looked at me with a grin and noted that I had, in fact, given the firearm about a five percent increase in accuracy. I smiled and noted that it was at least the easiest way to reliably measure the accuracy change. Bob replied that he was convinced, and asked if I would be willing to perform this on a set of body armor and some other piece of equipment. I offered up that it would take the same amount of time for the magic to take hold into the items, but that I would be glad to do so for each of those items.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Bob went back to his office while I went back to the workshop, to get thirty of the forty remaining pounds of salt in the bag ready. Only ten pounds were remaining, but that would be sufficient for a tool of some sort. I started doing the generic patterns for flexibility improvements. Bob came back with an undercover vest, which I took, cleaned via prestidigitation, and then started up on the procedure. I started up the chants for increasing flexibility to the material, to decrease the difficulties in doing athletic activities and sneaking. Then, with a bit of a flash, it was done. The salt all disappeared and seemed to dissolve into the vest where it was on it. I lifted up the vest and handed it to Bob, without much flourish, but noting that it was definitely feeling higher quality. Bob smiled and then asked for some assistance in putting the vest on. I aided him in this endeavor and Bob immediately did some moves and stretches. Bob exclaimed that it did feel like it was a lot more suited to him and his body. I nodded and noted that it was something that I had used on my own individual armor pieces to make me more maneuverable and flexible for the athletic and stealthy tasks that I needed to do as an investigator. Bob added that he could definitely see this being something that a LOT of people would want to have performed, especially those of the Special Forces operators in the armed forces. I reminded Bob that I was only able to do this with three items a day right now, and never likely more than five or six in a single day. Bob thought on that and acknowledged, asking if there was a time limit on when the enhancement would end. I offered up that there was no time limit for this effect, that it would exist as long as the item exists in its current form. Bob thought about it and said that this was still something that he could gladly see that many top people would want, as every little bit helps in the life and death circumstances. I acknowledged this and offered up that as long as they are good people, I¡¯d gladly help out in this. Then Bob¡¯s face took on a serious look. He asked what I could do with what I had called ¡°tools¡±. I thought about it, and offered up that any changes that occur would be to increase in the functionality of the tool for the appropriate task, like making manacles harder to get out of, or a first aid bag have higher quality equipment, or make a scope that allows you to spot something, but not target, better. Bob went back to his office and brought out a good-sized metal case, with a red cross on the side, that I recognized as a simple first aid kit, not of sufficient quality to be a healer¡¯s kit. I took the metal case and gave it a look over inside, seeing a bunch of basic bandages and such. I put the case on the floor and put the remaining salt around it in the appropriate runes and patterns, and then began the chanting of beseeching the medical kit to be enhanced and provide better healing. Bob watched as the remaining time elapsed, until after a total of an hour, the salt again glowed, disappeared, and was absorbed into the first aid kit, which had some subtle changes on the case. It didn¡¯t have a brand name on it any longer, even though it looked to be of sufficient quality to have whatever company made it like to advertise the fact. As Bob opened it up, the basic bandages and minimal medications turned in to a very well arranged and designed setup that could probably work for an EMT. Bob looked at a lot of the writings for the items and materials, and noted that it looked remarkably military in design, but it wasn¡¯t any military nomenclature to which he was accustomed. Bob looked at each package, which was set up to be useful for someone reading quickly how to get to an individual item or injury case. Bob puzzled through everything for a few minutes, speaking aloud while he looked at the quality of each item. After he had gotten through the inventory, Bob asked me what I would charge for this kind of service. I puzzled it out, doing the math quick, and offered up that back home, the cost would have been somewhere north of eighteen ounces of gold for the spellcasting, but having an item of that quality would be six pounds of gold added to the weapon, or three pounds of gold added to the cost of armor, or a pound of gold added to a tool or item. Bob whistled, noting that this amount would be a bit out of reach for most people and even special operators. I nodded and noted that it wasn¡¯t something that was normally purchased by everyday people. I offered up that the price of that new medical kit would have been a pound of gold flat, so the pricing was a bit out of line with what was available here. Bob thought for a minute and asked me what the opportunity costs might be for me to use the spells. I thought for a minute and told him that each casting a day would prevent me from gathering information on others that wasn¡¯t readily available, or jumping away from an emergency attack, or being able to spy on someone through one of my pictures, possibly other things later. Bob was pondering the situation out loud, but quietly, stating that it was hard to balancing endangering one¡¯s life for getting a benefit to someone else¡¯s capabilities. Bob noted that this was something that couldn¡¯t be replicated in almost any way, except by remanufacturing an item or completely replacing it at a substantially higher cost. Bob said that he would float it by a few contractors and special forces operatives, to see what they would consider appropriate. Bob offered up that he personally would probably not put much more than a grand, then doing the math for me, or about a one ounce of gold, for the firearm modification, and even then, only because of the sentimentality of the weapon. I shrugged and offered up that I understood that the prices of different metals were vastly different here than in my old world, and but that back there, the equivalent would have been one-hundred and eighty ounces, sixty pounds, thirty pounds, and ten pounds of silver, respectively. Bob rubbed his chin as he thought, and offered up that silver might be a bit more reasonable, but only at one tenth rate of what I had brought up. Doing the math, roughly fifteen hundred bucks for a firearm, seven-hundred and fifty bucks for armor, and two-hundred and fifty for non-weapon and non-armor enhancements. I added quietly that I can do the same thing for vehicles of sufficient quality, improving their speed and resiliency, for a variable amount of gold per quantity of possible passengers, and improving their handling, for a lot less. Bob looked at me like I was crazy and asked how much salt that would take. I did some math and offered up that for his truck, it would likely be around one thousand pounds of salt for the speed and resiliency, and like one hundred and twenty pounds of salt for the handling improvements. Bob blinked and was silent for a minute, before asking if there was anything that prevented the spell from working. I noted that the spell didn¡¯t work if the item was either too low in quality, or already too high in quality. Bob thought about this for a fair amount of time while I ensured that I had everything cleaned up. Bob stopped me from doing more janitorial stuff, and offered up that we were done for the day. I put away everything while Bob was still thinking, and then asked if I needed to go anywhere else for the rest of the day. I told him that I needed to go to a place called the Velvet Witch to get stuff for what I needed for helping S.H.I.E.L.D. out this weekend. Bob told me to get in his S.U.V., and he would drive me there. We got in his vehicle and headed there. Bob waited outside while I headed in. I know what I was expecting when I thought of the name of the store, ¡°Velvet Witch¡±. The store was NOTHING like what I was thinking. There wasn¡¯t anything that was close to pact-based witchcraft here. It would have been better known as an apothecary or herbalist, but thankfully, that was exactly what I needed. When I went in, I was greeted by a woman in flowing skirts, with silver jewelry and tattoos. There was the smell of incense in the air and shelves of items and herbs. Thankfully, the woman was trying to be helpful, and the store had exactly what I needed. I listed off exactly what I needed, and the woman was curiously interested in the final list. She got me the quantities and such of what I needed to get for the various things I was going to make for the S.H.I.E.L.D. After we got everything packaged and set aside for what I needed, the price came to almost two thousand dollars. I also found that they had sufficient items that I could increase my alchemy kits into a second crafting kit. It wouldn¡¯t be a full alchemy crafting kit, but enough that I could have two operations going at the same time. This put the price up to an even twenty-five hundred bucks, with ¡°tax¡± included. I swiped my phone in front of the card reader and the cashier was extremely surprised that it instantly cleared. She helped carry all of the purchases back to the S.U.V., which consisted of a LOT of glassware and fragile items. The cashier smiled as she walked back to the store with a bounce in her step. Bob asked me just how much I had spent for this, and I told him. He balked, and asked why I had spent so much, and I told him that it was to ensure that I had EVERYTHING extra that I would need to complete the task for trying to heal the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent that I was going to be taken to this weekend. Bob nodded and noted that I had dropped a large amount of money on just a chance. I shrugged and noted that the Agency was housing me at least, so I should try at least. Bob took me back to the safehouse, and I unloaded everything into the house. When I was done, I looked around, and saw no activity at all, so I politely asked Bob to get me back to the shop so I could get my bike and everything and get it back here. Bob took me back to the shop and helped me move back everything I had moved in the morning when I was being paranoid. I thanked him again and he offered up that he would find a good reimbursement rate for weapon, armor, and medical kit. I shrugged and offered up that it was just a thank you for the job and understanding everything. When I was home, I got the text from Jonathan that I would be leaving Friday night, and that someone would be by tonight to get the safehouse set up and a delivery was going to be set for the equipment for Rex. I had the package that I had gotten from the delivery today, and my items that I had gotten from the Velvet Witch, and I set up my tool kits to set up alchemical items. I started animating them to make the Tisane and the Aqua Clarissima in separate tool set while I waited for the person to arrive. The process was going along well, and I figured that I would be done with both of these in eight hours. Rex was busy napping in the living room on his nest. After a few hours, there was a knock, and I went to go to the door. The person on the other side of the door was the person in charge of putting up the cameras and such. I let them in and sent them to work, while Rex went into the lab to watch over everything. The person was working away on stuff while I went back to work in the spare room for the alchemical items. For a few hours more, the person was working, and Rex and I were in the lab. When the service person was done, they let me know and I signed off on some phone-like tablet before they left. At the end of it, I could access it via my S.H.I.E.L.D. phone, and look at all of the cameras and alert settings. Rex liked his new equipment, finding himself able to contact me via my phone fairly easily. I texted Jonathan, thanking him for getting me this equipment as rapidly as he did. Jonathan responded back that he was glad to set it up, but that it was probably for the best as there wouldn¡¯t be any other S.H.I.E.L.D. assets in the area, since half of them were gone and he had had to put this requisition up to the new Triskelion in DC, and thankfully, there were not any current requests open. I thanked Jonathan again and asked if there was anything other than the attempt this weekend for me to help S.H.I.E.L.D. at this time. Jonathan said that there wasn¡¯t but that he was going to send me a document once he got around to it for me to read through. I told him that I would, once I could do so, after he got it to me. Jonathan reiterated that it wasn¡¯t a big deal and can wait at least until after the weekend. Speaking of which, Jonathan added, that Friday will be a trip on a Quinjet, and that it would be a two plus hour flight. I responded that I was good with it, and that I was fairly certain that I would get the Alchemical Items completed by then. Jonathan thanked me again and sent back to me that we¡¯d talk more about whatever I might need tomorrow and Friday during the day to make sure that everything was ready. I finished up what I could with the Alchemical preparations, leaving the animated tools to finish up everything. I prepared all of my equipment for tomorrow, while creating a couple of portraits of me and Rex to put up in hidden areas around the house, to give me better views that were not covered by the cameras. In addition, I summoned up the current rumors in the area t find that nothing had changed from what I had heard yesterday. Sighing, I decided to go to bed. Day 7 Thursday, June 07, 2018, 09:30 AM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America When I woke up, I found that the two Alchemical Processes that I had started were complete, so I prestidigitated them clean after transferring the materials to appropriately labelled bottles. I started up the Vitus Flask and Unguent, both of which should end before I get back from work. Rex volunteered to stay home, and that I can lock up all of the doors and that he can put chairs underneath the handles to block them from being opened easily. I got everything ready that I could for my regular workday and got my pottage breakfast. There wasn¡¯t a lot of things to get ready for regular workdays anymore, and just a bit of paranoia to activate my ¡°ears of the city¡± spell to see if there is any movement on me from the various gangs. What I got from my spell, is that they don¡¯t actually know where I might have been based out of yet, and that the Painkillers were going to be out looking around for me tonight, that they were asking around about me, but there were not a lot of people that had any information about me or where I was living. I realized that I would have to keep my attention split during the day, and keep my ears to the ground, especially if there is any chance that the ones who were captured might be able to be reached, then they could give the rest of the gang information. With the knowledge that we should be at least okay until this afternoon, I figured that the safehouse would be just that, safe. Rex reminded me as I was getting ready to leave that he would really like some fresh fish tonight, and I offered up that I would get one for him. I locked the doors from the outside and ensured that the security was set up until I would get back. I rode my bike to work, without my cart and everything I owned, and easily got to work. Doug was back today, and I got met by him at the door, where he let me in to the store. Doug asked me how yesterday went, and I shrugged, noting that it went fine, that Steve had left for the day, and it was pretty much just me and Bob. Doug nodded thoughtfully and asked if there were any surprises, to which I shrugged and said that it didn¡¯t seem so. Doug smiled and asked if Bob had shared his tall tales about working with S.H.I.E.L.D. in Vietnam. I smiled back and told him that he had shared a lot of his background. ***** Thursday, June 07, 2018, 07:30 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America It turns out, that Bob didn¡¯t have that difficult of a time getting a client, as he already had one client already here. It was for just a firearm, but he had wanted me to give it a one hundred percent workover and enhancement. He offered up that as long as the client was satisfied at the end of the day, he would easily pay the fees from both his shop and the improvements. Bob explained that he was going to have me sequestered for another test, that a longtime customer was looking to have his rifle gone over, and as long as this went okay, I would be offered the position officially. Doug shook his head, and said that he wished me luck, and Bob led me to the side room where a beautiful piece of metal was already set up on a bench. I started out with careful disassembly of the firearm cleaning each individual piece in turn and setting them aside. I inspected each individual piece for wear, tear, or signs of abuse. As they were carefully set on the cleaning cloth, I started making notes for what I found for each individual piece, the condition, wear points, and what I could see could cause issues going forward. Once I had disassembled the entire firearm and cleaned it, I cautiously applied oil to the appropriate parts, before reassembling it to be in factory condition, using mending on each piece that had any sign of wear. With the firearm together, I noticed that the condition of the firearm was such that I could enhance it, and that the salt bags had already been put into this room. I broke open one entire bag and started getting the patterns put out, before opening up the second bag and getting out ten pounds to add to the runes. I put the rifle in the center of the circle and started the focus. After an hour, the salt dissipated into light and the light absorbed into the firearm before the room dimmed down to normal levels. I gently picked up the firearm and set it back on the display. I opened the door, to where Bob and a large, well built, obviously military man, were both standing. I offered up that the job was completed, and ready for return to the customer. Bob looked to the customer and smiled noting that as he had promised, the improvement was done. The customer went in to pick up the firearm and gave it a thorough inspection. He looked to me and asked where all of the old parts were. I shrugged, and told him that everything has been taken apart, cleaned, serviced, and returned in specification. The man said that he had to see this, and he started disassembling the rifle slowly, methodically, inspecting every individual piece, muttering to himself. Suddenly he stopped, and looked at me, asking me how I had modified the firing pin to be exactly as it was when it was made. I told him that I did not swap out any pieces, and that I had never looked at or touched this firearm before this morning. The customer looked at Bob and declared that he needed to see this in operation, and that they should go to an outdoor long range to get good accuracy checks. I offered to put the firearm back together if he desires, while Bob and him go to discuss where they would be going. The customer smiled and said that I would going along with them, and that he would watch me reassemble the firearm. I shrugged, as I already had prestidigitation precast, so I started quickly putting the rifle back together while cautiously wiping away any fingerprints. The customer, who now introduced himself by the name of Matt, and that he was very intrigued by how well I seemed to be able to put this firearm back together. I thanked him for the complement as I finished up putting everything back together. With everything back in the proper place, I gently handed the rifle back to Matt. Matt looked it over again and remarked how there weren¡¯t even fingerprints from where I worked. I shrugged and noted that fingerprints leave oils that can facilitate rust. Bob came back and said that we can all get into his SUV now, and that we would head out to the outdoor range that both Bob and Matt knew about. I walked to the SUV and got into the back seat while Bob and Matt got into the front seats. While Bob drove us to the location, the two people in the front seats talked about different things related to military life. Eventually, Matt ended up directing a question to me, asking me if I had done time in the service. I perked up and noted that it wasn¡¯t an option when the time would have been right for me, but that I had worked with the police before the Blip. Bob spoke up and told Matt that I was being modest, that from what he had found on the background check, was that I was a detective that was helping defend people of my town from a rogue super who had been attacking the people, and that I managed to keep them from hurting more people. Bob added that I was also on the scene in Norfolk when the blip happened and that I was helping the police here render first aid for the car accidents that occurred when some of the people disappeared. Matt seemed to have some grudging level of respect for me after that, and then Matt asked me a question that I couldn¡¯t answer easily, which Super was it? I sighed, and offered up that I didn¡¯t know the name of the super, just that she could fly and launch fireballs at the people. Matt looked like he was thinking for a minute and noted that he had not heard about a woman who could do that, but that if I helped defend against that, I had his respect. I thanked him a lot but noted that I wasn¡¯t the only one who did it, that there was a man in technological armor, a woman on winged horseback, a martial artist, and an insanely accurate archer. Matt thought to himself, and said that it sounds like Ironman, Valkyrie, Ironfist, and Hawkeye, an unlikely team-up, but hey, at least it seems like I was fighting the good fight. I offered up that I really couldn¡¯t do much, but I helped where I could. Matt offered up that this was all that anyone else could do. I was quiet after that, as Matt started talking to Bob about different members of the ¡°Avengers¡±. Finally, we made it to the range, and got to the corral. Matt got the rifle into the cradle, and started to sight it in, using a laser bore sight. He looked at me oddly and noted that it was still on point, even after having been taken apart and put back together. He shook his head and loaded a round into the chamber. Bob, Matt, and I all put on hearing protection, and Matt got into position and got the round fired. Everything went as it should, and the firearm fired as it should, with the bullet hitting the bullseye.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Matt looked up at me, and then Bob, and then loaded the magazine before setting the firearm up to fire again. Five rounds later, each one into the hole that the previous round had made. Matt looked up at me again and asked me what I had done. I shrugged and said that I had cleaned it and addressed the rifling a little. Matt then loaded up a couple of magazines and cycled them through repeatedly, going to a series of different targets, emptying all of the magazines. Matt stepped to the side to talk to Bob for a little bit while I stood there with the firearm. I looked over the firearm, acknowledging the power in that firearm, compared to my revolver. I thought about it and figured that if I was going to use a more powerful firearm, I was going to have to enchant it to be able to do non-lethal damage. That is a LARGE expenditure of resources, first of all, finding a way to actually enchant weapons. That will take a while, as I need to find a way to enchant other things first. By the time I was done ruminating on what I needed to do, Matt and Bob stopped their discussions and shook each other¡¯s hand. I looked over at them and Matt looked fairly happy with the results of this event. An envelope of money passed hands that seemed rather thick. Bob smiled and noted that he was certain that I could do this for just about any firearm that Matt wanted to get ¡°improved¡±, for the same price. Matt confirmed that this accuracy benefit would last, and I spoke up, saying that as long as the rifle is regularly serviced, as normal, it should remain until the rifle breaks. Matt nodded and thanked me, before we all went back into the SUV and started heading back to the store. Matt asked me on the way back where I had learned to craft guns, and I told him that I had been apprenticed to a man who had access to a lot of advanced technology, who had trained me specifically. Bob offered up to Matt that he should see the revolver that I had made from scratch. I pulled it out of my holster and handed it to Matt. He looked at it and was very appreciative for the quality. He noted that fineness of the metal and how the grip melded to his hand, before handing it back to me. When we got back to the store, Matt took his rifle and got into his own, larger, SUV, before heading out. After we watched Matt leave, Bob thanked me for my quality work, handed me a wad of cash from the envelope before putting the rest of the envelope back into his inside jacket pocket before we both headed back into the back of the store. Doug looked up and asked us how well I did. Bob looked at me and said that I had done better than I he could have ever expected. Doug immediately came over to me and congratulated me, slapping me on the back with some vigor. Bob treated the whole shop to ¡°lunch¡± after we had got back, and I got to experience something decent called a ¡°Bourbon Street¡± from some place called ¡°The Grilled Cheese Bistro¡±. It was fairly nice, with the chicken and other flavors. Doug and Steve both seemed to already know what they had wanted, so they were quick with their orders, and I just picked what was recommended by Doug. I took some time, while the food was being delivered, to hit the privy and take care of business and also count the money that I had been handed. Counting the money from the different bills, it added up to fifteen hundred dollars. I pocketed the money and left the privy and waited with the others. Doug and Steve were both happy with how happy Bob seemed, with Steve noting that he hadn¡¯t seen Bob this happy in quite a bit. I shrugged and noted that I just did as was asked with detailing that firearm. Doug looked a little more skeptical than Steve was, but he didn¡¯t mention anything about it at the moment. The food got here fairly quickly, and then I got to that sandwich that I had ordered. For the rest of the workday, I managed to get some more work done on the backlog, and Bob spent some time talking to Doug about something that they didn¡¯t let me in on. The workday finished off pretty much as good as I assume it could, and at the end of the day, we all packed up and headed out. I had gotten directions from Steve to Ghent Seafood to pick up something fresh for Rex. I took my bicycle there and parked for the quick trip into the store to look to see what they have in stock for my loyal friend and saw that they had a few different options to pick from. Apparently, they had this large fish called a ¡°salmon¡± and it was something like twenty dollars a pound. I bought one of the smaller ones and paid close to three hundred dollars for it. I hope that Rex knows that he is getting prime quality here. Before leaving the shop, I decided that it would be a good move to do a rumor check to see if there are any updates. I got a hit when did the spell around the back of the store, that the Painkillers were going to be searching in Old Huntersville tonight, since that was the first place that someone interacted with me. At least now I know where I was going to hunt tonight. I carefully headed home, sticking to other neighborhoods, and got to the back of the house. Rex was ready, having gotten empathic impressions from me starting as soon as I was about a mile away. I gave Rex the fish right away, and he seemed really pleased. I went back to the labs immediately, and saw that while the Unguent was ready, the Vitus Flask was only about a third ready, so I cleaned the first set and set up the Aqua Regia in that set up, before refreshing the castings of Animate tools to get them operating. I put away the money I got and started getting my adventuring gear ready for the hunt tonight. ***** Thursday, June 07, 2018, 10:30 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America We snuck through the neighborhood carefully, keeping to the shadows as we went, dodging between some less well-kept houses. When we got to the area where we had caught the Pepsi Boys, and there was a car outside of the building with someone waiting in the car¡¯s driver seat. Rex and I came up a plan and he flew over to the top of the roof, in his smaller form. I snuck around to the side of the car, not being seen because I had cast ¡°Vanish¡± before getting close, and then, when I was lined up, I launched an ultrasonic ray at the driver, knocking him out in one hit. Unfortunately, the driver¡¯s head lurched forward when they went unconscious, and the hit the horn briefly. Knowing that this would have alerted the people inside around inside for clues. Rex got ready and I rushed over to the car to get the pistol from the unconscious thug and check to make sure he was alive. Thankfully he was, and by the time I had the pistol, the three remaining thugs had rushed out the door. Rex launched a burning belch at one of the thugs, and the other two opened fire at me. I got hit by the first one while I got the pistol¡¯s safety off, and I deflected the second bullet. Firing at the thug who had winged me, I summoned up much of my training in the martial paths, to bring them down to unconsciousness, like the first one. Rex flew down on the far side of the Thug he had burned, expanding into his battle form to bite the thug. The thug attempted to fire at Rex, but missed, likely panicking because he is facing a man-sized dinosaur from his nightmares. The last remaining thug fired at me and hit me this time. Focusing in on that remaining thug, since I had a second, I unloaded everything I could on them from my focus and ability. That left the remaining thug, who Rex bit again, and again, dodged another fired round from the thug¡¯s pistol. Quickly making my way up to the pair, on the other side of the thug from Rex, I clobbered the thug with a punch from my Cesti. Working quickly, I got Rex¡¯s fire burst touched up on the thug and made sure to have a good ¡°story¡± for the police to discover when they got here. Cleaning the gunpowder residue from my hand, I transferred it to the driver¡¯s hand. Rex and I gathered up what items that I thought would be useful and able to be transferred into monetary usage, namely cash and jewelry. I cleaned up any areas where I had could have bled on, and Rex and I left to a safe area. A few more Painkillers in jail, especially, with the one¡¯s bullets in the other¡¯s bodies. Rex and I made our way to an alley a good distance away, and we got to work pulling out the bullets from my wounds, before working to heal the wounds via my badge. After draining that, I took a charge from my belt to finish healing. We rushed back to the safehouse with our new booty, we went through a circuitous path, trying to make sure that no one could easily follow us. We crossed the last bit invisibly, and then unlocked the back door and got back in. I turned off the alarm condition for the security system and locked down the building again. Rex spoke up and told me how refreshing it was, I snickered and said that it was easy for him, as he wasn¡¯t the one getting shot. I patched up all of my gear and equipment, and further resolved to get myself some of these modern firearms that pack quite the superior punch to my own revolver. With everything set up and ready for the next workday, Rex and I sacked out to get some rest. I ensured that the items being made would still be going, while he finished up on his salmon. All in all, it was a most profitable day, more villains that will be put away and off the street, more income for me from two sources, and more fish for Rex. I¡¯ll ping the rumors tomorrow morning when I wake up and have the ability to do so, but for now, I can sleep the sleep of the just. All in good time, I guess. Day 8 Friday, June 08, 2018, 2:00 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America I started out the morning by immediately checking the Alchemical tool sets first and found that the Vitus flask was just about one third done, but the Aqua Regia was already completed. Thankfully, since the Aqua Regia is the universal cleanser, it made the prep work easy for the last item, the Balm of Arnica. I usually don¡¯t mess with Alchemical items this frequently, but since this is for the company that has been so helpful for me this is the least I can do. It also uses up all of the resources that I had acquired for this purpose, so it goes without saying that I would be needing to restock for whatever else I might need to make in the future. With all of the Alchemical items prepared, I finished up on my prep work for the workday and got in a good breakfast. My pottage was a about empty afterwards, so I set it aside and cleaned out the various items that I had been using for it. I¡¯d need to start another one when I got back, but today I was going to have to go to wherever S.H.I.E.L.D. needed me, so that means it is a good time to start another one when I get back. Rex was happily gnawing away on that large salmon that he had just pulled out of the chill box and noted that he¡¯d keep the place on lockdown until I got back. I thanked him verbally, taking a little pleasure in one of the few instances of being able to speak Draconic here on this planet, before I did a double check to make sure that everything that would need to be packed for the trip tonight was packed. Riding to work was an interesting experience, making it, at times, a struggle to survive. While I was riding on my bicycle, on the side of the road, there was a contingent of individuals on motorcycles with the moniker ¡°The Warlocks¡±. They crowded a bit about me for a while, laughing while they did. I could smell a chemical scent coming off of them, being in the mental stance of the Running Hunter while I was one my bike. I was very convinced that none of these were in any way ¡°warlocks¡± as I knew them, which answered my question from earlier this week regarding witches and warlocks. There was a lot of bullying and bumping, which really kept me from focusing on much else while the ride was going on. They bumped me at first, getting hurt a little but I managed to get my bicycle under control, before managing to the next two bumps. The next two were a LOT harder to come back from, where they teamed up and for the next twenty to thirty seconds, I couldn¡¯t do anything but get hit more for more damage and continue to try to get the bicycle under control. After that, I had pretty much figured out how to avoid the most of their attacks, so it got pretty boring for them. They eventually just sped off before throwing a beer bottle at me, which I managed to avoid getting hit. I managed to make my way the rest of the way to work, a little scuffed and wounded, but still okay to work. I skipped stopping anywhere and went straight there, so Doug was the first person to see me after the roughing up. Doug immediately asked me what happened, and I went on to tell him that I just happened to get into a group of motorcyclists, and they apparently didn¡¯t like me much. Doug helped me get my bicycle in and then took me to right away to Bob¡¯s office. Bob wasn¡¯t in yet, but he would be in shortly. Doug told me that he would inform me Steve, and that I can just sit and relax while I wait. While I was waiting, I got the feeling that I had noticed a few days ago, that more of the world was being revealed to me. More arcane knowledge was revealed to me, increasing the capabilities of what effects I can bring forth, and the varieties of what I can do. More knowledge was coming into my head, and now I think I have figured out how to make enchanted items. Maybe not weapons yet, but I¡¯m pretty sure that those will be on the way. While I was pondering on all of this, Bob made his way into the office, saw me, shut the door, and then asked me if the wounds were from last night. I shook my head, snapping out of my reverie, and replied back that no, this wasn¡¯t from last night, those wounds were already healed. I added that this was from this morning, where some individuals on motorcycles with ¡°Warlocks¡± leather jackets decided that they wanted to push me around and almost succeeded at knocking me off my bicycle. Bob looked at me and asked me if I had not interfered with anyone from their group last night. I shook my head, saying that I had only taken down four more of the Painkillers last night. Bob dropped a newspaper on his desk, which read, ¡°Bad Bloods? Inter-gang warfare strikes Norfolk.¡± It had a picture of the house where I had stopped them with some red tracings on the ground that looked like bodies. I asked him why the cops painted around the criminals this time, as last time they had just picked them up. Bob looked at me and asked if I had checked to ensure that they were alive before I left. I told him that they were definitely alive when I had left, but that they had been at the house where I had brought down the Pepsi Boys the first time I had went out. Bob thought for a minute and then asked me if I had shot any of them in the back. I thought for a minute, going over the whole encounter, before saying no and then I explained to him exactly what I had done, and in what order. Bob listened, and then leafed through the newspaper until he came to the rest of the article and read after I had stopped. Bob looked up at me and asked if I waited until the cops arrived. I shook my head and said no, that I had been shot twice, and that while it wasn¡¯t life threatening, I didn¡¯t want to have to explain it at all, should they show up and I wasn¡¯t ready. Bob told me that someone must have showed up after me, because the four of them were all shot at point blank range in the back. I countered with the fact that I had used my ultrasonic ray on the one of them that was in the car. Bob nodded along and said that either the Pepsi Boys came around and took them out, or there was another gang that showed up to try and take over territory. I sighed and noted that I had even gotten the powder flash off of my hand and put it on the unconscious man¡¯s hands. Bob looked at me with a vicious grin and asked me if I had really set up the one that was unconscious for killing his friends. I shook my head in disagreement, telling him that it would have, at worst, been greater bodily harm, or maybe attempted manslaughter, but not murder. Bob smiled and shook his head with amusement, before saying that I should really be a bit more cautious next time and added that I might need to look into getting a better vehicle than a bicycle going forward. While we talked, I figured that I could spare the healing, and when the conversation came to an end, I told Bob that I was going to use my magic to recover from some of the wounds. Bob listened and watched as I used one of my newest spell capabilities, to cure wounds. With a single invocation, all of the bumps, bruises, and scrapes were gone from the effects of the vehicular assault. Bob looked amazed at the glowing golden light that emanated from my wounds as they sealed up. Bob asked me again what the limits were for something like this. I reiterated that the ceiling of what they can do would be basically small lacerations, not too deep punctures, and bruises, but that I definitely couldn¡¯t heal diseases, poisons, or broken bones of any sorts, and that I probably would never even be able to do so. Bob nodded, and smiled, noting that as long as I was an employee, we probably wouldn¡¯t need the fancy first aid kit. I sighed and said that I was certain that there were some things that the first aid kit could deal with that I was unable to do anything about. Bob laughed a little bit and said that he would keep that in mind, but that if someone was dying, he wouldn¡¯t think twice before asking me to help. I replied back, with a smile, that I¡¯d be glad to help in that case. With the damage to myself healed up, Bob asked me if I was still planning on going off this weekend. I told him that I definitely was, but that I hoped to be back as quickly as possible. Bob nodded and said that I just needed to call him if I wasn¡¯t going to be making it back in time. I promised that I would, as long as I could call, not making any assumptions of where I would be. Bob clapped me on the shoulder and said that I can spend the day working in my ¡°workshop¡±, getting it ready for another assignment next week. I raised an eyebrow and Bob told me that after Matt had seen the improvement, he had told a few people who had decently thick wallets, and there was a Seal team that wanted their main battle rifles to get ¡°the treatment¡±. I asked him how many rifles that was, and he told me it was sixteen. I whistled and said that this would take me at a bare minimum four days, but more likely six days. I added that it was going to take almost one thousand pounds of salt, about twenty-five bags worth. Bob snickered and said that he could get that for less than two hundred bucks. I balked, and asked if he could order an extra pallet worth for me myself, to for my own usage. Bob asked me why if I already had such a finely crafted weapon. I told him that I knew that the weapons that are from this world hit harder than my own revolver, but that I was going to try another experiment in advancing items, and that if it was successful, I would definitely let him know. Bob offered to take it out of my next retainer, and I approved his suggestion immediately, saying that it was definitely something that would work for me. Bob asked if I would be willing to offer a discount to military and veterans, and I shrugged, saying sure, and that he could notch off the same percentage that he would take off anything. No use in not supporting those who would or had fought for the defense of the country. With our discussion done, Bob led me to the room that I had used for the rifle upgrade, a glorified closet more than anything, where I spent the day getting everything ready for next week. I didn¡¯t waste time, but I certainly used as much ¡°free¡± magic as I could to set up everything, even if it took slightly longer than to stop and focus before every major event for six seconds or whatnot. I used mending on as much of my clothing and gear as I thought that I could get away with, without making it obvious that it was repaired. I put some notes in my follow-up journal for getting rumors for the Warlocks, and other motorcycle gangs in the area. My space was as set up as I could before Bob knocked and came in to let me know that he was getting pizza delivered for everyone. Friday, June 08, 2018, 7:30 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America ***** I had thanked him and cleared up what I was working on before heading to break room. Both Doug and Steve were already there, along with a young woman who was being considered for the front area cashier position. The young woman seemed to be fairly well put together and I didn¡¯t have much in the way of face-to-face conversation with her during the lunch. We were, of course, introduced, and her name was Jessica. I didn¡¯t think to ask much more about her, as Doug and Steve were both explaining more about the business than I ever could. While lunch was going on, I sent a text to Jonathan, informing him, and thus S.H.I.E.L.D. of what had happened last night, and thus this morning, and also that I was going to have to head to the safehouse after work to pick up the remaining Alchemical Items. The lunch went quick, and I went back to my space to get everything as set up as I could, even better than it was for when I dealt with Matt¡¯s rifle. The addition of various magnifying lenses and cleaners, some files and brushes, and some cleaning compounds to make everything look more ¡°logical¡± to anyone who happened to look in here after such work was done, to keep any inconvenient questions down. It wasn¡¯t like it was impossible for anyone else to do what I was doing, in fact, it would be something that could be done with regular work and time, but assembly line manufacture isn¡¯t designed for this. Any really competent gunsmith could make the items of higher quality, hell I did it with the revolver I made, but it would take more time than anything. At least the tools and the setups I have in here now, will make It look like it was set up to perform this level of aftermarket work. I finished off the rest of the day getting a ¡°observation table¡± in place, that was actually to be the ritual table for putting the salt and the item on, with a slight lip around the edge to ¡°ensure that no parts fall off¡±, but in reality, it was to keep the salt for the circle in place. With everything that I was working on ready for work next week, I left my new auxiliary workroom and headed to Bob¡¯s office to ask Bob if he had any ideas about what I could get for a vehicle or whatnot, that would allow faster movement, but still not need to be registered or licensed, or whatever. Bob offered up that he could look into it, but that S.H.I.E.L.D. would probably have something a lot better than was available on the open market. I felt exceedingly stupid for that and noted that I should probably check with Jonathan tonight, to see if he can get something in the works for when I return or Monday hopefully. Bob nodded and said that it was good to remember all of my resources for getting things, and that the salt will also be here onsite Monday morning, so as soon as I get in, I can start on the first one of the set of firearms scheduled for next week. At the end of work, I got my bike ready, and started my plan to head back to the safehouse. Before leaving, I sent the text to Jonathan asking if he had access to any resources for the kind of vehicle I was looking for. Jonathan responded back fairly quickly that he would look into it, but that there had to be something, especially if there was some degree of remuneration thought out for what was going on this weekend. I thanked him in a reply text, but noted again that I might not be able to do much. Jonathan replied back that he was certain that as long as I gave it my every effort, some kind of progress would be found, even if it what was discovered that the affliction couldn¡¯t be addressed at all with my assistance, that would be more information than they currently had. I didn¡¯t reply to that text, as if would have been redundant, and I got on my bike and headed back to the safehouse. As soon as I got within one mile, I sent Rex an empathic feeling of coming home, and Rex sent me back the feeling of success. As I rode my bike home, I kept watching out for any possible danger or issues from the Warlocks, or the Painkillers, or even the Pepsi Boys. Thankfully, I didn¡¯t see anything or anyone that was actively trying to attack or follow me, so I was glad to get back to the safehouse and ensure that everything was packed up. I was certain that I didn¡¯t need my bicycle or my cart, and that if I needed any of the supplies that I usually kept in the house would something that I was certain would be able to be gotten at a moment¡¯s notice by S.H.I.E.L.D. Of the things I did make sure to pack up, my Alchemy crafting kit, my Gunsmithing kit, my normal ¡°adventuring¡± loadout, and any of the other things that I usually carry. I left behind the manacles and fetters, as if I did, for some unknown reason, need to lock someone up, I am sure that S.H.I.E.L.D. would have something. The gallons of mead, the extra sets of clothes, the extra undercover vests that I had acquired from the criminals busted, and anything related to the bicycles or the sets of tools that I had acquired since getting here. That still gave me a LOT of different options to work with for what I was bringing, based on any of a number of possible occurrences. This was all with the knowledge that I would be getting picked up for transit at ¡°twenty-hundred hours¡±. Saturday, June 09, 2018, 1:00 AM Norfolk time, Friday June 08, 8:00 PM Local, Tahiti ***** At exactly eight pm, a vehicle pulled up in front of the safehouse. Rex and I quickly darted out into the vehicle, being as careful as we could to avoid causing a reason to be noticed. When we got in the vehicle, another SUV, in the back seats, I noticed Jonathan in the passenger seat, and an individual that I did not know, and was not introduced to, in the driver seat. Rex settled down in the rear seat behind the driver, and I sat in the seat behind Jonathan. Jonathan asked if I had everything that was needed, and I replied back that yes, I indeed had. Jonathan nodded and added that the item we had discussed was available and would be transferred to the branch office, and be there for Sunday, when I got back. I thanked him and settled into the seat and buckled up. As soon as Rex and I were settled, the other Agent took off, driving towards a part of the city that I had never been in before. We finally approached what I could recognize as a military base, where the driver flipped a switch on the dash and then slowly approached the gate. The military member at the gate asked the driver for identification, to which the driver provided, and then the gate guard waved our vehicle through. After we were out of sight of the gate, Jonathan relaxed a bit and then we continued on to where a very large airfield was. When we got to a hanger, Jonathan told me that it would just me and Rex heading out to Tahiti, and that he hoped that I came back with news, one way or another.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. As I left the S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle, I looked into the hanger, and smiled, saying something to the effect of, ¡°Oh cool, a quadjet.¡± Jonathan was immediately by my side, asking me what I meant by quadjet. I told him that the individual who had shown up on my world over a decade ago had made one of these with his combination of magic and technology. Jonathan looked at me and smiled, saying that he had even more questions for me now, but that this could wait until I was back. I nodded and then headed towards the back of the jet with Rex along side me. This wasn¡¯t the first time I had been on a quadjet, as it was something that David did for all of the students at his university. It was certainly big enough to hold everyone and then some. Getting on board the quinjet, at this was known as, the space was certainly different in the interior. Obviously, this realm didn¡¯t have the kind of magic that mine did, so the extra dimensionality wasn¡¯t present, but even the machinery, of which could be seen, wasn¡¯t the same. It was like someone had only heard of the idea, and seen it from the outside, and maybe a glance at the inside, before trying to reproduce it. The pilot spoke through a speaker and ordered me to buckle up both myself and the bird. I figured that he was inferring Rex, so I did just that, and then we were rolling out and taking off. The flight was fairly quick, from what my phone said about two hours had elapsed. That would have been the length of time it would take to get from Sandpoint to Magnimar via flight. Of course, I spent the time napping, with Rex staying awake, just for defensive purposes. It was like this whenever we were on a stake out or anything like that. He was my backup and I his, also, he had spent the day napping, so he could easily spend a couple of hours awake, looking at the various things. Suffice to say, he ended up taking a nap as well, oh well, I¡¯ve heard it said that good help is hard to find. I woke up when we were touching down and woke up Rex as well. There was a middle-aged woman who held herself with the bearing and stance of a seasoned warrior. She asked me if I was Agent Zine, and I thought for a minute before agreeing and saying that yes, I guess that I was Agent Zine after all, and that I normally went by Curtis. She looked a bit dismissive and asked if I had gone to the S.H.I.E.L.D. training facility. I straightened up and decided that veracity was the best approach, and told her that no, I had not gone to a S.H.I.E.L.D. training facility, that I wasn¡¯t even a resident of this world before the Blip happened, that I had appeared, for an unrelated reason, from some other world or dimension just after the Blip occurred. She introduced herself as Agent May and asked me why I was being delivered to this island, as it was supposed to be a retreat for a specific high-ranking Agent. I asked Agent May if I could stand up, and she backed up slightly and motioned for me to rise. Nonthreateningly, I pulled out my phone and told her that all of my credentials had been put in by an Agent Carter, and that I had apparently been flagged as someone who could assist someone on this island with some of my capabilities. Agent May took my phone, and held it up to hers, allowing some process to occur. She then handed me back my phone while she looked at her own, scrolling down occasionally. Then she got to the point where she stopped and was reading in depth. She looked up at me, and then back at the phone. She quirked an eyebrow up, and asked one word, ¡°Magic?¡±. I replied that yes, where I was from, magic was a thing, as well as the science of technology, and that while I had some minor training in the latter, that I also had a rough grounding in the former, and that I was more than willing to attempt my services both via magical and alchemical means. Agent May seemed to be a bit more relaxed after this and then looked over to Rex with a questioning eye. I spoke up for him, saying that he can only speak in the language of Dragons, and that he is my familiar and assistant, and finished with saying that he was of no danger to any Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. or any friend of mine, as long as they were no danger to him. Agent May looked over Rex, scrutinizing him for any lingering threats, I gave him an empathic nudge to suggest bowing, and he picked up on the clue and did so. May asked if I might have some time to help out with more things, while I was here, and I told her that I would, but that it would be better if they could get me a large amount of salt, and that would free up whatever I might be able to do if there were further requirements for what I can make. Agent May again silently raised an eyebrow, and I quietly whispered that there were more things that I could do that I had only just discovered during my time here. Agent May nodded and escorted me off the ship to where there was a pair of bungalows, indicating that I should set up in the one that looked unoccupied. Rex and I did so, and Rex quietly asked me if he could fly around and get a look at the island. I told him to do so, but be careful, and maybe just go hunting a fish or two in the waves. Rex shook out his wings happily, and we left the Bungalow together. Agent May was outside waiting for me, and I saw that the Quinjet was already leaving. Agent May informed me that the Quinjet would be going to get a ton of salt, and that we could right now go over what my treatment plan was for the Agent in question. I looked around briefly, found a table outside, and sat down, motion for Agent May to do the same. As she did, I pulled out the six alchemical items I had placed in my bandoleer¡¯s extradimensional spaces. I set the six of them in a group and started by telling her that I was from a world where there was a lot more magic and divine intervention, so I was somewhat familiar with how different unhealing wounds might be accomplished. I offered up that I might not be able to heal, even with this, but that I was most definitely wanting to try everything I could. I added that part of this would be using healing spells to try to effect positive change in the patient. I then indicated to the six different jars, picking up the first one, and identifying to her that this was Aqua Clarissima, an alchemical agent used to assist in magical healing, but that this was not the first item that I would be using. I picked up the second jar, clearly identifiable from the first, and identified it as Aqua Regia, an alchemical agent known to harmlessly clean all organic and inorganic items it is used to wash. I would be using it to wash both my tools and the wounds, if there were any. The third jar that I picked up, was actually a flask, which I informed Agent May was called Vitus, and that the purpose of this, is to restore lost health and vitality. I would be using this one after all of the work that I could do was done for the day, and simply requires the patient to attempt a one-hour nap after taking this alchemical concoction to get the results. Regarding the remaining three jars, I pointed to them and indicated that I had brewed up these final three, because I did not know if there was some alternative method by which the non-healing wound was caused, be it by poison ¨C pointing to the jar of Unguent of Juniper, disease ¨C pointing to the jar containing the Balm of Arnica, or if the wound itself was of a design to nor heal properly ¨C finally pointing to the Tisane of Amaranth. I added telling her that I was even prepared to fabricate an entirely different alchemical item, if I had knowledge of it, or if it was written on in any of this world¡¯s books, or if I needed to go the magical route, that I would enchant an item specifically to aid myself and the patient in this endeavor. Agent May looked a little taken aback at first, and then asked what I meant by ¡°written on in any of this world¡¯s books¡±. I told her that I had the ability to cast a spell seeking knowledge that referenced all of the written material in the world, to try to get an answer to some questions. Agent May balked at that, and asked if it crossed into the internet, to which I declared that it did not seem to, at least from the queries I had posted. Agent May thought for a bit and asked me if there was a way for someone else to try the Alchemical items before we tried them on the patient, and I told her that normally, I wouldn¡¯t mind, but that these items took several days to concoct and that I had only created enough for one usage each. I offered up to her that I would permit any tests that do not take any substantial amount of the alchemical items that are desired, but that I didn¡¯t know if there was enough there for another person to fully take try the alchemical remedy without diluting or eliminating the positive results. I added that I would be more than happy to wait on the application of any alchemical item at all until after I had a chance to properly diagnose what we were dealing with, and only use the magical healing that I had the capability of utilizing today, before I went to get a solid period of rest so that I could perform the same things again tomorrow. From behind me, a male voice that was stern yet at the same time reassuring, addressed us, saying ¡°Melinda, we can go ahead and give him a chance, it isn¡¯t like it makes sense for someone from HYDRA to send a person to assassinate me when I am already dying.¡± I turned to look, and there was what appeared to be a fairly normal looking man, in relaxing attire, with some kind of drink in his hand. He smiled at me and told me that Tahiti is a magical place. I replied back with a smile that I had indeed heard that somewhere before after I had gotten to this world. The man smiled back to me and introduced himself as Phillip Coulson, to which I stood and introduced myself as Curtis Zine, former Investigator on another world, now Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Phillip Coulson extended his hand out to mine, and I received it in a shake. I hadn¡¯t even had a chance to notice that Agent May was up in proper striking position and distance before I could have done anything. Phillip Coulson, or Coulson as he preferred to be called, asked if he was going to have to strip entirely, like a regular doctor visit, or if I could just investigate the wound. I asked him to please sit down at the table and tell me all about the wound, from when he got it, until now, as much as he can remember, and specify any major events that had an impact on the wound itself. Coulson smiled, sat down with his drink, and politely waited as I got out a journal and started taking notes down. What this wound was, was vastly troubling. It was caused by what might be considered a Deity¡¯s artifact, then healed through technological means, then the healing was found to only be temporary, and that the wound was coming back and ¡°unhealing¡± before a Spirit of Vengeance (sounds like a possessor demon of sorts) required him to give up that healing in exchange for taking on the Spirit to destroy a mutual enemy. I asked what clarifications that I could before I started any kind of treatment or inspections. The fact that it had been healed by an entirely technological process involving another (presumably non-magical) body¡¯s bodily fluids, to stimulate regeneration. I hoped that it was just a matter of the Spirit of Vengeance causing the wound to not receive healing from natural means, similar to what I had heard about those wounds caused by a Clay Golem, or even a Barbed Devil. I asked Coulson to remove his shirt so that I might inspect the wound, without physical contact, I specified over my shoulder to Agent May. Coulson unbuttoned his shirt and showed me the barely healed, non-necrotic wound. I evaluated the wound as best I could, and immediately discounted the Unguent of Juniper and the Balm of Arnica, as this was neither Poison nor Disease based. The Tisane might help in the gross healing of tissue after the cause is determined and dealt with, if at all possible. That left the three original alchemical preparations that I had created. The Aqua Regia and Aqua Clarissima would both be useful, at the very least, as their intended purpose, even if they did not have any substantial additional effect. I wasn¡¯t certain about the flask of Vitus, but it definitely should not hurt. I offered up to Agent May the two bottles of alchemical items that I would not be able to use, explained the usage of each of them, and said that they were free to keep, give away, or study these two alchemical items, as they would not be useful in this circumstance and that I would not be able to get much out of them, self-administering, as they needed someone to treat the person, and the person who was being treated couldn¡¯t be the person who was doing the treatment. Agent May took the two tiny bottles from me, and put them in her pocket, while looking at Coulson. Coulson looked at me, and asked what the next step was. I looked at Coulson, with a bit of a mischievous smile, and replied, brute force, before invoking a curative spell on him. The energy flowed from me in golden light as the words were spoken. It tried to apply itself via my touch, and dissipated, much similar to what happens when a Clay Golem prevents healing. I knew that I would possibly be able to penetrate this blockage, but that I would burn through a lot of magical energy to do so. Agent May was standing right next to me and asked what happened while Coulson just watched, amused. I told her that there was something of a curse interdicting me from healing him, but that it was not impossible for me to penetrate, that it would just take me repeated tries, and that I could work on something as soon as the salt gets here to try to help me get past the effect. I tried again with the healing magic, but again the interdiction blocked me. Thinking quickly, I tried an underhanded tactic, and tried casting the spell while part of a regular sentence of nonsense in another language. This third time, the healing worked! It wasn¡¯t substantial, and it did not heal the whole wound in any way, shape, or form, but there was definitive healing going on, that wasn¡¯t prevented by the divine interdiction. I instantly knew that I would not succeed at this kind of ruse again, that it had only been a one-time thing, approving my underhanded tactics. I think that was something left from Loki, maybe a bit of him appreciating a grift or a con. Agent May stepped back reflexively, and Coulson perked up, saying that he felt a little better and that he was amazed that it had worked as well as it did. I sighed and said to both that the Aqua Regia wasn¡¯t going to hurt or help the matter now, and handed that bottle to Agent May, as she reapproached. I retried a few different ways to get the spell to go through, but it definitely would not. Other scratches and wounds that were a part of daily life were healed up fully by the end of the time I spent burning through spells, even using higher level spells to try to get the effect to go through. It was still in my reach, no different than before, but this incessant wound just would not heal. I sighed and told both of them that I was completely tapped out of healing magic that had even the slimmest chance to be effective for the rest of the day, but that I could do some other small tricks if it would help or was needed at all. Coulson looked at me with a mirthful look and asked what I meant by small tricks, so I decided to use my prestidigitation powers to re-flavor his drink to be a Dr. Drake and told him to try the taste. Coulson did so, and smiled, saying to Agent May that it tasted just like flat Dr. Pepper. I sighed and noted that we had not quite worked out carbonation back on my home world yet when I had left. Agent May brought the topic back to the healing, having noticed the wound that she had been focusing on for days having healed, even slightly, by asking me if there were ways for me to be more likely be more successful with my brute force attempts. I sighed and told her that I could start listing off three things that would help me, but they would be a bit obscure and odd. Agent May gave me a blank stare, inviting me to continue. I listed off that a tenth of a pound of gold each time I cast the spell would likely increase my chances by five percent, likewise a dab of blessed anointing oil. Of permanent items, I had needed the salt for, and I could probably craft early tomorrow after getting up, and that would give me another ten percent. Agent May looked at me with her standard non-emotional gaze, and asked what my current chance was, and I told her about ten percent. Agent May did the simplistic mental math and asked if I would have a thirty percent chance to succeed on each one if we used all of the items. I shrugged, and noted that yes, we would, but that it wouldn¡¯t be cumulative. Each instance would be chance, so it would be nine instances of thirty percent chance. Agent May did the math again and noted that it would be slightly less than two pounds for both days. I nodded, noting that her math was correct, but that if either of the alchemical effects were to be successful, then it would be substantially more difficult. Agent May then asked me the smartest question left, what would it take to get more of the alchemical substance that worked the best. I shrugged and noted that it was really between the flask of Vitus, and the Aqua Clarissima, that the flask of Vitus was indeed the most expensive, and the longest to concoct of the items, but there is a chance that it would not even be effective, whereas the Aqua Clarissima would be effective with any spell that I cast those functions, definitely. Agent May nodded and asked if I could stay longer than the weekend. I shook my head and told her that I regretted that other services that I could provide were already scheduled for Monday through Friday, next week, but that if this does go well, I can try to make more items over the week and come back the next weekend. Agent May seemed to mull this over and thanked me for all the help I was trying to accomplish for Coulson. I told her that it was nothing, that S.H.I.E.L.D. had already helped me so much by finding me a place to live and a job in this new world, that using my abilities to help others wasn¡¯t a real stretch. I apologized to both of them, that I had now been awake since sunrise back where I was in Norfolk, and that I only got a short nap in on the flight. Coulson gladly told me to get some rest, but asked if I could change the taste of his drink back. I told him that the taste would change back in an hour, but if he didn¡¯t want to wait, he could tell me what it tasted like, and I could try to change it again to something else. Coulson thought for a minute and asked if I could make something from my home world. I shrugged and noted that since David had shown up a decade or so ago, that most people were still enamored with the taste of the different drinks he had made a part of the tavern chain that his adventuring buddy had started. Coulson thought about it and asked if we had any special varieties of coffee there. I thought about it and generated the memory of the taste of the best Dragon¡¯s Coffee that I had ever tasted. Coulson tried a drink and told me and Agent May that this was good and convinced her to try it. While she drank, Coulson asked if I could do this all the time. I told him that yes, I could make a list out of what the minor changes that I could accomplish would do, but it would take a fair while. I offered up that after eight or so hours, I¡¯d get up and work on what I needed to make, and then I¡¯d write up what I could do. I sent a thought to Rex at the same time, of a feeling of sleepiness. Rex flew over to us, and then spoke to the two of them in Draconic that he would be more than happy to catch some nice fish for them in the ocean. Coulson asked if Rex was speaking to them, and I told them that yes, Rex had addressed them, in Draconic, and that he had offered to catch them some fish from the ocean if it was desired. Coulson smiled and said sure, thank you to Rex. Rex bowed and I asked Rex to keep an eye out for both Coulson and Agent May while I slept. I told them of such as well, and wished them both a good night, while I went to the Bungalow to collect my notes and sleep. Day 9 Saturday, June 09, 2018, 11:30 AM Norfolk time, Saturday June 09, 6:30 AM Local, Tahiti When I woke up after eight hours, I found that the Quinjet had been back, dropped off the items I had requested, and gone again. Damn, they can be quiet when they want to, I guess. With me being up as early as I was, I took immediate stock of my surroundings, and figured out who much salt I was actually going to need for this. It was conveniently bagged in ten-pound bags, and seemed to be fairly high quality, so I didn¡¯t worry too much about any concerns about the material working. I figured that since no one was up, that I could get everything I could done, and be ready for when the other two were up. Boy was I wrong. Once I had gotten everything set up in the Bungalow, I heard a knock at the door. I didn¡¯t get any thing from Rex empathically, so I assumed that he was napping. I had not felt any snapping of the familiar bond, so I wasn¡¯t worried about that. I went to the door and opened it up without worry, and Coulson was there, in a different variant of the relaxation style outfit that he wore yesterday. I welcomed him into the Bungalow and asked if there was any issue with the healing from yesterday, and Coulson said that no, there wasn¡¯t it still felt better than he had the day before, he just was up and would like to learn more about where I was from. I apologized that I had not thought about that, and that I wasn¡¯t the most respectful of others when I was focused on a task. He looked at me and perked up, asking me what I was trying to get done. I told him that I had was about to try to get the gauntlet enchanted that I needed to get done to help in the attempts to heal him. Coulson apologized for intruding and said that he was sorry for interrupting the ritual. I realized that this could quite easily be one of the last new things that this man ever experienced, and since him being in the bungalow would not necessarily cause any problems, I stopped him and invited him to observe the enchantment process, as long as he could keep any questions until after the ritual. Coulson¡¯s eyes lit up, and with a thought, grabbed his phone out of his pocket, and sent out a text, before sitting down in a chair in the corner, eyes wide. I pulled twenty-five of the ten-pound bags specifically into the center of the circle I had created and started to trace out the patterns in the floor of the bungalow, until there was a large pattern of arcane runes with the gauntlets in the center. Before starting the ritual, I asked Coulson if he had any brief questions before I started. Coulson looked at all of the salt and asked if this was the only material here that would work. I shrugged and replied that it was the only one that I knew of at the moment that would work. Coulson nodded and asked what the length of time the ritual would be. I did the mental math, and offered up that it would take more than four hours, but that if he wanted to leave and come back in, as long as he wasn¡¯t very disruptive, he was free to do so. With no more questions, I started meditating and focusing on the preparing the gauntlets for the ritual. My gauntlets glowed and vibrated almost visibly with the readiness of arcane energy. With a look to Coulson, I started to the work of the meditation and empowerment of the gauntlets. They started to glow a brilliant and vibrant orange, the color of transformation magic, and levitated slightly off the ground. The salt from the patterns was glowing the same orange, just less brilliant and less vibrant. Just as the ritual started, and the gloves lifted, I started packing some of the ritual salt into them. With all of the material components surrounding and infusing the gloves, the ritual went SO much faster than I could have ever expected. The salt was reacting slightly different than the spell that I used to enhance the weapons, armor, and items into Masterwork items, in that the salt in that spell only absorbed at the very end, whereas this ritual had the salt going at a steady rate. After barely an hour and a half, the enhancement was nearly complete, only requiring me to seal the enhancement. I focused deeply, and neatly tied the threads of magic going into the gauntlets. Coulson has sat there, watching the whole time, enraptured by the display of magic. After I tied off the magic into the gloves, they slightly changed shape and consistency, still maintaining their spider-skin palms, with the knuckles being reinforced to still work as cesti but being much more flexible, and no longer restricting the usage of the gloves at all. There was a color change that had also occurred as well, changing into a deep midnight blue, with the backs of the hands showing constellations. I immediately recognized the constellations on the back of my left-hand gauntlet were the constellations that could be seen from Magnimar, while the ones on the back of the right-hand were not exactly familiar with me currently. I also felt that there was a bit of extra magic tied into the gloves, making them extra durable, which is probably why the backs of the knuckles were smaller and less impinging on dexterous operations. Coulson looked at them, especially the right one, and asked if I had known that the constellations above earth were going to show up on the back of them. I shrugged and said that I did not know anything about the process before hand, as there were the first items I had ever enchanted. Coulson smiled and said that it looked like I had done a very good job on this set. I was still a little gob smacked by the whole process and absentmindedly mentioned that maybe we were close to a ley line or something. Coulson perked up and said that there was a military base near here where there were supposed to be a confluence of Ley Lines, and at least a supposedly decent strength Ley Line was nearby. I perked up and noted that I could possibly use the Ley line to enhance my capability of getting even further through the curse. Coulson mentioned that we could take Lola to the base after sunrise when it would be less suspicious, take everything that would fit, with us, and drive over. I agreed, and then asked Coulson, that since we had a fair amount of time, that he could ask whatever he wanted about my home world, and that I could show him examples of all the different magic that I could perform without utilizing any of the limited magic that I could perform. I started by using my prestidigitation capability to collect up the non-used salt that was remaining from the ritual, some one hundred pounds of salt, and re-bagged it all, carefully resealing them. Coulson watched as I had done son, and then I started showing him all kinds of different things that could be done with all of my different freely available magic, including copying texts, animating the broom to clean the room, firing off an ultrasonic ray at the wall, then mending it via spell, and then going through all of the different usages of prestidigitation, while explaining which items only remained for a one hour duration, and which could remain permanently. It was certainly fun to see the sparkle in his eyes, and I could reflect back on my own wide-eyed wonder the first time that I had seen magic. I offered up that as long as we can get him doing better, then it would free up more availability for me to show other magics that I can perform. Coulson smiled and said that he would like to see it, if he got the chance, that is. Coulson got up after our discussion and noted that he was going to go make sure he was back in bed for Agent May to find in the morning. I wished him well and told him that I would see him later. Saturday, June 09, 2018, 5:30 PM Norfolk time, Saturday June 09, 12:30 PM Local, Tahiti ***** Not long after I had finished updating my journal, including all of the notes for what I had seen and experienced through my initial treatment plans for former Agent Phillip Coulson, I felt an empathic transmission from Rex of restfulness and warmth as the sun was beating down on him. I sent back the feelings of enjoyment of hunting and the feelings of success. Rex sent back to me the feelings of appreciation. I finally gave the gloves a further look over and it seemed like the gloves might have a degree of a subtle enchantment where they show the stars above where you are for the right one, while the left one seems more stuck in place. I guessed that the left one was showing the last place that I was on my home world of Golarion, and that¡¯s why it was now stuck showing just that specific set of stars. Knowing that we still have more resources here, I can try to figure out more things that could be helpful for Coulson¡¯s health and progress and maybe be able to even put stronger magic items together. I doubted that I would be able to enchant something that could directly heal Agent Coulson, but the things that will assist me are definitely on the table. I jotted down some extra paths to research when I was not directly focused on directing my magic towards healing. I thought about it, and realized that there wasn¡¯t much to do today, and that I would need to research into it when I had the availability to use magic freely. I had decided to get a bit to eat and then head out to the table. As I went out to the table, Agent May and Phillip Coulson were both already out there, discussing something before they noticed I was leaving the bungalow. I walked over directly, to not make things weird, and sat down at the table with them. Agent May ever so briefly glanced down at my new gloves before resuming her practiced gaze at me directly and then said that Coulson had told her that the two of us had talked and that we would be heading to the military facility nearby. I offered up that I hadn¡¯t known that there was a large source of Ley Lines here, and that they can be used to further increase the chances to get through the curse. Agent May seemed a bit taken aback before I clarified my position, saying that from my every estimation, the effect that prevented Agent Coulson from healing naturally or via less extreme technological methods. Agent May nodded while I spoke, and said that I would need to be dressed differently to fit in. I looked down at my clothes and asked what the appropriate attire for this mission would be. Agent May started to look at Coulson, before looking back at me. I had activated my kote of Many garments to change my clothing to look like Coulson¡¯s, of my particular colors and styles. When she looked back, she was a bit surprised, but then went back to her normal look. I noted that Rex should probably stay here, and that we can head out as soon as they are ready. Coulson looked to Agent May and said that it was probably the best time to do so right now and then he got up from the table. Agent May got up as well and then I followed them both to a red convertible that I had never seen before but looked very impressive. Coulson got into the driver seat, while Agent May got into the passenger seat, leaving me to go to the back seats. I did so, and buckled up, before we started driving on the sand, until Coulson smiled and hit a button, changing the tires to a flying vehicle. We flew at a low elevation, not too far above the ocean¡¯s waves, as we went towards that military base island. Coulson asked if I had any idea about how much the Ley Lines might aid in the chances. I kind of shrugged, saying that it might increase the chances by anywhere from five percent to twenty-five percent. Agent May asked if it was only the strongest Ley Lines that would generate the twenty-five percent increase. I nodded and said that it was much more likely that the Ley Line here could most likely an increase of ten to fifteen percent.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. We finally got to the base, and Coulson quickly talked to the guard at the dock that we landed Lola on, indicating that we were being sent by S.H.I.E.L.D. to check in to something. I didn¡¯t listen too intently, as it seemed above my level in S.H.I.E.L.D. As we got closer to an area where there were old ruins, I was amazed by how strong this Ley Line actually was. I immediately started to attune myself to the massive current running through the area. I felt extremely energized by the effect and told Coulson that we needed to head to the top of the ruins. The temple ruins were stable enough for Lola to land, so we did so and got out. Agent May went to the trunk and pulled out what was basically a small brick of gold and some oil for me to use. I offered up the Aqua Clarissima for Coulson to drink, and he immediately did. Channeling the spell, I decided to attempt to overcharge it when I cast it. The first time I tried, I went far beyond what I should, and the spell didn¡¯t even succeed. The second time I cast it, the spell succeeded by far. The golden aura from the spell settled into Coulson¡¯s chest, slowly healing a little bit more. I could also tell that each time I succeeded in healing Coulson, that the spell would be harder to succeed at. It was a race between casting the spells and making them do sufficient effect. A race against minimal success until I could not succeed at all. The third spell I cast worked as well, still working to generate more incremental healing. The fourth spell was another failure, proving my hypothesis even more. I went through the next five attempts at casting the spell, all successes, all seeming to get closer and closer to what might be the end result of what was needed to end the curse. I also noted that Coulson had not been one hundred percent truthful, as I could tell even now that there was a continual drain that was affecting him. Unfortunately, all I could do was give him more time. From my estimation, I had given him another almost three months than what he already had left at this point. Being tapped out of expendable magic, I noted to Coulson and Agent May that I was going to have to head back to put my notes together and then I can talk more with them about my new discoveries. We got back in Lola, and headed back to the beach where the bungalows and Rex were waiting for us. I start furiously scribbling away notes and calculations in my journal, trying to figure out everything that I could, as quickly as I could. As we got back, I politely excused myself to my bungalow and declared that I would need at least an hour before I could give them a report. Coulson seemed a bit confused, with Agent May looking more concerned. I rushed into where my books where and tried to finish up my back up calculations. Saturday, June 09, 2018, 8:30 PM Norfolk time, Saturday June 09, 3:30 PM Local, Tahiti ***** The news wasn¡¯t good, it wasn¡¯t good at all. Granted, we were certainly in a MUCH better circumstance than we would have been, in that he would have likely passed in less than three weeks, and now has a full three months, including what Coulson already had left, but it was still an eventual death sentence, as I would never be able to cure this wound fully. I had just five more successful times that I could provide without any more modifying circumstances, before this went beyond my current ability to do more. Figuring from some rough estimates, assuming whatever I could in addition, such as Alchemical items, I might be able to get him another five weeks at minimum. After going over my calculations for the fourth time, because I wanted to be iron firm on my estimates, I stepped out of my bungalow, to see that Agent May and Coulson were waiting for me at the table again. Knowing that the information that I had wasn¡¯t the best, I laid it all out as plainly as I could. I pointed out that I should have succeeded in getting past the amount of damage from the attack by now, if it was going to allow that to happen, and that if it wasn¡¯t having any effect, the wound would have stopped having any result. Agent May looked worried, but Coulson looked resigned. I offered up that what had happened, was that I had given him more time, what I estimated was an extra ninety some days, before he would be back at the point where he was before I arrived. I offered up that I could currently, using everything the same, have five more successes at casting the spell before it got past my ability to create any further extensions. Coulson looked extremely upbeat by that, and asked how much that might add. I shrugged and said that it might be any where from another five weeks to another ten, tacked on to what I¡¯ve already extended his lifespan by, before I couldn¡¯t go any further without significant research into other options. Agent May looked a little crestfallen, but Coulson was no where near as sad. Coulson looked to her and said that he now had so much more life to live, especially with his extension on life that he has, and that he would still love to spend it here, with her. I cleared my throat, and pointed out that I wasn¡¯t fully done yet, that there were other spellcasters that were FAR more powerful than I, on my home-world, and that if he could find a way there or to another world that has a similar structure, he could find someone to help him with much greater success than I, maybe even end the curse. Coulson asked if I knew of any way to get him to this other world and back. I shook my head, indicating that as far as I knew, the deities of this world did not want the deities of that world to transfer over, and back. It was a limiting force, from what David Drake had claimed, that prevented the mass inrush of worshipers from one faith to be moved to another world to attempt to take over. Coulson looked to me and asked if that meant that he couldn¡¯t come back if he made it over there, and I nodded in agreement. Coulson looked to Agent May, with a smile, and said that if he can find a way, it would be another adventure waiting him. Agent May looked to me and asked if this was why I had not been striving to find a way home. I nodded, remembering it only today, my training in this field having been five years ago. Agent May then asked if multiple people could follow along, and I shook my head, saying that there was a minimum of six months between when people were allowed to transition between worlds. Agent May looked at me oddly for a minute, and I noted that I remembered that it seemed like every six months or so between when a person from this world made it over there, and almost always they would appear in a different area of the world. I added that it always seemed like someone either had a known or unknown reason to not be here anymore. Coulson perked up and asked how long I had been in this world. I looked a bit abashed and reminded him that I had only arrived during the ¡°Blip¡±, to which Coulson was confused. I then went on to tell him everything I had learned from all of the sources I had, via S.H.I.E.L.D., the police and first responder call ins, the various news reports that I had heard, and what I had been even overhearing from the gang members. Then I reminded him that it was wasn¡¯t the time period when someone from my world got here, that there had only been one instance of that before, and it turned out that that was in a time displaced manner in some place called the Russian Empire, dealing with someone by the name of Grigori Rasputin. I didn¡¯t have any more information about people going to my home-world from here, but that from what I had heard, the United States was apparently much more likely to have someone show up than another country, at least partially because of the fact that the common Trade tongue was at least comparable to a dialect of the language of ¡°English¡±. I added that this was all just information that David Drake had passed along in his school, to prepare people of the possibility since it had happened more than once. Coulson was listening intently but didn¡¯t say anything else while Agent May was cautiously trying to take every tiny bit of information that she could. I apologized sincerely that I didn¡¯t have more information, that I could try to do more searching through whatever resources that I can find when I got back to the mainland. Agent May asked if I would be willing to repeat what we did tomorrow. I told her that I had already scheduled my weekend to do so, and that I had no inclination on backing down or not doing everything I could to help. Coulson tried to wave me off, but I told him that I was here with the resources that I had, and that it didn¡¯t help anyone for me to not do every little bit that I could. I also brought up that I had gotten attuned to the strongest ley line in the area, so I would just have to look for more things that can help the spells penetrate the curse. I then noted that I was going to get a little bit of rest, and that I would likely be up early again, trying my hand at maybe enchanting another magical item to try to assist in breaking through the curse. I wished Agent May and Coulson well, and then retired back to my room to try to reflect throughout everything I had heard that might help. I scoured my brain for a good long time, until I realized that there was nothing that I could do. I had a hairbrained scheme that could eventually work, but if was a long way from what I could reasonably do at this moment, and someone in my home-world could do it better. Still, there was a LOT of salt left over, so I had an idea. I sent a text to the contact that was in my phone as Agent May, asking her to come to my bungalow to help me with a question, when she had a minute. Almost immediately, there was a knock at the door. I opened it up and told Agent May to come in. Agent May came in and said that she would answer any question that I had. I told her to please sit down, as this might take a minute. Agent May cautiously did and asked what I needed. I sighed and told Agent May that I could only think of something that would take me possibly weeks to accomplish, but it was a definite possibility, but again, it wasn¡¯t anything that I could do right now. Agent May thanked me and asked me what I needed from her. I looked up with a smile and told her that I couldn¡¯t do anything to help right now, but that I could do something. The corner of Agent May¡¯s lip slowly curls up ever so slightly into a smile, as I told her that Coulson was absolutely fascinated by Magic, and that I¡¯d be more than happy to make him something to keep him entertained, but also, if he was intending on going to my home-world, by hook or by crook, he needed to head to Magnimar or Sandpoint and find David Drake. May asked me what I intended on making for him, and I said that I was going to use some necklace or article of clothing to make him an item that he can use to cast a few certain spells, either all day, or once a day depending on the spells. Agent May¡¯s smile increased and said that she could get just the thing and headed out of the bungalow. I used my flash of inspiration and figured on making something that would give him the ability to use Prestidigitation and Animate Tools as often as he wanted a day, and then he could pick between Unseen Servant and Cure Light Wounds once per day. The Cure Light Wounds wouldn¡¯t work on his chest wound, but it would work on other minor wounds. Agent May came back with a necklace that was extremely well made, and I asked her, is it important to her or him that this stay in the same form. Agent May shook her head, saying that it was a gift that she had gotten for him, and that she was going to give it to him tomorrow after I left. I thanked her and told her that I had one more task for her that might be going too far, but that it would be required for this to be a surprise. Agent May quirked an eyebrow up again as she indicated that I should continue. I told her that I needed her to find a way to keep Coulson busy for the time period between midnight here and eight am. Agent May sighed and said that she would find a way to keep him from intruding on my bungalow for that time period. I thanked her and told her that I needed the last few hours to finish up on the preparations for this and head to sleep to be ready for tomorrow. Agent May nodded and left while I started inscribing runes into the back of the pendant, using my traveller¡¯s anytool to make the etchings. I briefly drew out my plans for the salt designs and noted the extra salt that I needed, another twenty-three bags or so. I got everything ready and sent a message to Rex to keep an eye out for everyone tonight, and that we would be leaving late in the night tomorrow night. With a heavy sigh, I decided to set down my journal and go to bed. Day 10 Sunday, June 10, 2018, 8:30 AM Norfolk time, Sunday June 10, 3:30 AM Local, Tahiti I woke up as the clock finished striking midnight, after having rested for a full eight hours, my magical energies restored and ready to work on this enchantment. I quickly got to work setting out even more salt, into the various patterns, designs, and runic patterns needed for the various spells that were going to be worked in to the item. As everything was set into place, I found that the placement of the pendant was ready. Putting the pendant in the proper position, I started the focusing and meditation on the enchantments. The ritual started out fine, with the pendant taking in the mystical purity of the salt and the essence of the spells going into it. At about two and a half hours into the ritual, a problem developed where the salt was going much faster than it should have. I disassembled the pendant as best as I could without damaging it, and the salt started flowing into the pendant even faster than before. The ritual finished up with the pendant sealing up all of the magic into it, and I mended it back together again. Picking up the finished item, I found that there was a special effect on this item as well. I¡¯m beginning to think that this island truly is a magical place. With three hours left until sunrise, I decided that I might be best served resting again, so I got everything sorted out about the process, set the pendant back into the box that Agent May had provided with it, and sent her a text. I don¡¯t know enough about electronics or anything similar to that to say that the electronic aspects of the item are still intact and operational, so I added that to the text to Agent May, as well as the fact that she specifically needed to utter the phrase, ¡°I am now transferring my ownership to you.¡±, to Coulson when she gives it to him, that a special property had been developed in this item. The item had developed the property to be able to be activated mentally by its owner, so this was an important part of the transfer. I set the box on the table by the door, used prestidigitation to sweep up all of the unused salt and put it into bags to be reused. I hoped that we could get this day dealt with quickly so that I can get back to Norfolk quickly. Sunday, June 10, 2018, 12:00 PM Norfolk time, Sunday June 10, 7:00 AM Local, Tahiti ***** I woke up at sunrise when I got the empathic sending from Rex about a brand-new day dawning. I got up from my nap, and packed up all of my belongings, and got ready for the trips today, both to the military base and also the trip back to Norfolk. I got a decent breakfast from what was available in the Bungalow and brought my gear out to the picnic table outside. The other cabin¡¯s occupants weren¡¯t awake right now, so I just sat around, conversing back and forth with Rex, who had flown down to the table and was getting scritches and preening. He was beaming with pride for how many fish he had caught, including how he had caught a very decent sized blue marlin, granted, he did that while transformed into his larger battle form. While we waited, I went back over to try to scratch out every ounce of improvement I could for this one individual spell. Knowing that I didn¡¯t have a lot of possibility to do better, I figured that I needed to get Coulson as much of a timeframe to wait as possible. It wasn¡¯t like I was going to get into epic levels of capability any time soon, but maybe with extra effort, I could find a way to band things together to get to that point. Not finding much more in the way of solutions without the availability of additional research material, I just figured that I was going to have to give up at this point. Writing everything down for later, I decided to just wait for the two to get up and be ready to head back over to the military base. Sunday, June 10, 2018, 4:00 PM Norfolk time, Sunday June 10, 11:00 AM Local, Tahiti time ***** Not too long after I had put down my journal and pen (I LOVE THE PENS OF THIS WORLD), and put them away, the two other inhabitants of this isolated beach were coming out of their shared Bungalow. Coulson had the pendant on around his neck and was smiling broadly, like someone who had been handed the keys to the world and couldn¡¯t figure out what to do with them. I bade both of them good morning and they replied in kind. Coulson asked if this was my idea, and I shrugged, noting that I knew that there was a lot that I couldn¡¯t do right now, that I might be able to do better. I added that I had hopes that if he did end up being chosen to transport from this world to my home world, that this magic might be the thing that helps direct it to him. He thanked me again and said that it was a great gift anyway. I was more than happy to tell him that it wasn¡¯t anything major, and that I was glad to be of assistance in any event. I added that while I was glad to help otherwise, that it might be a good long time before I could possibly add more capability to have an effective chance of succeeding. Coulson and Agent May both nodded in understanding, and I continued with a different matter. I told the both of them that under no circumstances outside of risk of life, should they transfer the ownership. I gave the four command words, one for each ability, which turns on and turns off the power for the item. They both took in the information and warnings and thanked me for warnings and information. I figured that Coulson would use the item responsibly, at the very least, and Agent May as well. The main thing is, I didn¡¯t want just anyone to be able to take the pendant and then have the functionality of the item. Coulson told Agent May and I that we¡¯d be taking the trip to the Base first thing this morning and say our goodbyes there. I nodded, changed my attire via my kote, and was then in the same style attire as yesterday, save for differing in decoration. Coulson, Agent May, Rex, and I all piled in to Lola, with Agent May Driving today. I raised and eyebrow to this, as I felt that Coulson had a large amount of attachment to this vehicle. Along the way, Coulson asked me some important questions about what to expect about transitioning over to the other world, and what he might find there. I told him how David had at one time said that everything that he had in his vehicle had made the transfer. Coulson nodded and looked to Agent May for just a brief minute before asking me other questions. With not much more that I could tell him other than what I had already told him, I kind of tracked off with just telling him that I was in his school for a few months, but after that, it wasn¡¯t much time with him. I added that I did remember that one of his associates had mentioned working on a time portal once, but that was all I knew. Coulson then asked me about any thing I might know about any other associates. I told him everything I knew about Lady Rebekah Destrier, Faunra Felldoom, and Jonathan the Haunted. I added everything that I knew about each of them, especially the bit about Jonathan¡¯s restaurant business, and where he can go to the best burger in Sandpoint or Magnimar. By the time I was done talking, we were in the Base, Agent May having gotten us inside easily. We quickly went to the same area of the base, as the area with the temple ruins. Both Coulson and I got into position, where the optimal spellcasting could occur. Through focus and effort, as well as expending every component that I could, I got three of the nine possible castings to succeed to a large effect. I think I managed to actually a little more than five weeks more of a lifespan for Coulson. I let Coulson know about the extension that he was provided, how it was slightly more than five weeks more now, and that I had a possible two successes left at this point. Coulson nodded, noting that this put him at maybe five months and change, and I offered up that I would keep in touch with Agent Jonathan to let him know if I had any breakthroughs in my capabilities. I also handed Coulson a slip of paper, written in Varisian, Elven, and Draconic, with what all I had discovered, what all I had done so far, and what could be expected for future attempts. Coulson asked me what this was, and I told him that it was what I had figured out from each of the tests and operatives that I had done, how far we had gone, and what would be the projected date of the end of the ¡°bonus¡± lifespan. I told Coulson that he should have this paper on him everywhere he goes, in case there is some other instance where he gets transported. Coulson looked it over and asked why I didn¡¯t have it written in the Trade Tongue, and I replied honestly that Draconic was the most common language of magic, while Elven was the language of the Elves, a long-lived and very magical race of beings where I was from. Varisian was there in case he found someone who knew it, then they could lead him to Magnimar, and from there he could head to Sandpoint to reach David Drake and his associates. Agent May spoke up and said that the Quinjet was at the runway, waiting for me for the trip back to Norfolk. I thanked her for keeping me apprised of the status, and asked if we could head there promptly. Agent May and Coulson both agreed that we needed to head over there promptly, and we drove to the runway immediately. On the trip over to the runway, Coulson continued his well-intentioned questioning over different aspects of life on my home-world. A lot of different questions about countries of the world, different dangerous creatures, factions that I might know about, just a whole lot of various information. I answered as politely and completely as I could, knowing my general lack of knowledge outside of Varisia in general, and Magnimar/Sandpoint more specifically. I didn¡¯t really have a large opportunity to go too far away from the city and the town respectively. All of my knowledge of factions was generally whatever the basic training for the Sandpoint Guard had provided to me, which, for the most part, amounts to different possible nefarious actors and agents from those factions, and who might be able to help in other circumstances.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Coulson was very congenial and respectful in his questions, not asking further when we reached the end of my knowledge on a subject and branching off into other topics when we reached those dead ends. I fully expected him to have been a capable former Agent for this organization, one who could get answers out of others and get results. Agent May had the air of physicality about her that was obvious from someone who had been exceedingly well trained and had even trained others to those levels. As we neared the runway, Coulson started asking me more about my experiences here on this world, and how things differed. I gave him as much information as possible about what I had encountered and experienced throughout my time here, and all of the many differences that I had grown to experience. Coulson did caution me to not discount what can be learned or done through technology, to which I agreed that it was wise to not throw away any possible source of power or capability. As we pulled up, I saw the Quinjet with the rear ramp down as it had been when I entered into it, and I turned to both of them. I shook both of their hands, thanked them to the opportunity to help Coulson in any way that I could, and that if they needed my assistance, they need only reach out to me, and I would try to find my way to them. Coulson smiled and told me that he hated to say goodbye for the last time, but he had a feeling that he would never see me again. I echoed the same sentiments and wished him good luck in his future travels and that if he does end up meeting up with David Drake, to thank him for me for all of the training in technology and science that he had provided to me. Agent May shook my hand and told me that if I ever had need of assistance, that I could reach out to her, and she would work to clear the path for me through any S.H.I.E.L.D. obstacles. I thanked her again, and wished them both well, and told Coulson to go ahead and experiment with the limits of his pendant, that he might learn new things that I did not even know about. Coulson smiled his genuine smile again and said that he would definitely do so. Agent May escorted Rex and I back onto the Quinjet, back to the seats that we had been at before, and ensured we were secured in with the gear that I had come with. I thanked her for the last bit of assistance, before telling her the last little bit of advice that I had, that you rarely know when you might end up having a difficult journey that could take you away from everything you know, so it is best that whatever you might need be close at hand. Agent May seemed to pick up on what I was inferring, without adding anything to it, and then left the Quinjet. She stopped with Coulson just inside of my line of sight and I saw that the two of them were talking in a very relaxed manner to some one or a group of people that were just outside of my line of sight. After a few minutes of conversation back and forth, I saw a pair of feminine arms that were wearing some kind of bracers hug Coulson and Agent May, before the hatch started closing. Keeping to myself, I started writing down all of my notes, filling out my journal to keep everything up to date. After I finished off, I decided a nap would be in order, after Rex started getting comfy and sending those feelings subconsciously. Sunday, June 10, 2018, 10:00 PM Norfolk time ***** I didn¡¯t know what to expect when we landed back at military base in Norfolk, but I certainly didn¡¯t expect to come back to the situation that I was in. The SUV was back at the hangar when we landed and taxied into the it. The rear drop gate lowered, and I released Rex¡¯s safety belts and my own, before collecting all of our gear and started to walk down the hatch. Not long after I reached the floor of the hanger, the rear gate started going back up and as soon as it was all the way up, the Quinjet started to self-taxi out of the hangar and back up into the air. I looked to the SUV and the rear seat¡¯s door popped open, showing the rear seat that was empty and available for Rex and I to move in to, which we both did. Once we got in the back of the SUV, I saw Jonathan in the front passenger seat again, and saw that his demeanor was very much more downtrodden than I had expected it to be. I offered up that I could provide all of my findings for the time that I was down there if that would help. Jonathan nodded, and said that there was an issue here, while I was away for the weekend. I asked him what had happened, and Jonathan told me that apparently the Painkillers figured out where I had been leaving from, and they decided to torch the safehouse looking for me. With a lack of local agents, there wasn¡¯t anything that could be done, so any of the items that were left are now gone, as the house was razed to the ground. I sighed, knowing that I had put a lot of work into that place as a base, and thanked Jonathan for waiting to provide me with that notification. Jonathan noted that he only found out this morning when he was checking on the place to drop off my new electric bike. I thanked him for getting me the bike and noted that I would definitely need it now that my old bike and cart were gone. I thought back and remembered that the tools that I had improved, the salt that I was ready to use for enhancement of items, and the room set up where I was tracking everything was all gone and that I would have to start anew. I pulled out of my thoughts when Jonathan brought up that he thinks that there was a GPS tag in something that I might have brought back from my most recent sting. Apparently, my habit of stealing the bulletproof vests was figured out, and so they took advantage of it. I thought back on things that I had heard, and asked flippantly if a GPS could track something inside of an extradimensional or non-dimensional space. Jonathan seemed a bit perplexed before saying somewhat ruefully that Fitz would have been the best person to answer that question, but that he would be glad to do trials, if I could come up with some way to test it. I thought about it and figured that if I had the chance, and that it might take some time, I might try my hand at making a handy haversack as soon as I found what I considered a suitable pack. I spoke up quietly and asked Jonathan if there was a possibility of having another place set up, with the promise that I wouldn¡¯t be using it as a base of operations for more actions. Jonathan said that they had already set up a temporary hotel stay at the Wyndham Garden Hotel, but that I would need to find a new place on my own within a month. I thanked him and S.H.I.E.L.D. for their consideration and said that I would definitely have something set up for whatever I needed by then. I asked if there was a way that they could set me up with a small chamber or something somewhere nearby that I could work on what I needed to work on, in the interim. Jonathan noted that he could set me up with a storage unit for a little bit too, and started typing something out on his phone, before saying that he would send me a text with the information about access and number for that as well. I thanked him and remained quiet for the rest of the trip to the hotel. When we got overhang just outside of the front desk, Rex and I got out of the back seat, with Jonathan climbing out of the passenger seat. He walked around to the back of the SUV and pulled out my bag of gear for me. He handed me the gear, as well as telling me that my cell phone would operate as a room key, just needing to place my phone over where the card would be swiped, and then the door would unlock. Jonathan added that the new electric bicycle was already in the hotel room, and that he would contact me tomorrow with more information. I thanked him and apologized for not being able to do more than extend the Agent¡¯s lifespan. Jonathan looked at me with a bit of surprise and noted that they had not received anything for any updates, so he didn¡¯t know that there was any effect, and asked me if I could tell him anything more. I didn¡¯t want to breach any confidence that I might have gained with Agent May or Coulson but figured that I could give a minor bit of information, without much of an issue. I told Jonathan that I had possibly increased his available lifespan by another few months. Jonathan was more relaxed after that, but then reflected that the world is getting even more chaotic after the Blip, after a LOT of services and utilities have started to break down. He added that the S.H.I.E.L.D. bike, the hotel, and the storage unit are sadly probably the last things that he would be able to arrange. I asked if he would be okay with a job, and Jonathan told me that S.H.I.E.L.D. still had the capability to keep a long-term Agent like himself paid and in service, but that since my records were more slipshod, I could only be an affiliate until the Agency as a whole recoalesced once the world got righted. Jonathan noted quietly that my methods would probably be a lot more needed now that law, order, fire, rescue, and utilities are now all in flux. I asked if it would be a difficulty to get simple things like pallets of salt. Jonathan quirked an eyebrow and told me that he could arrange a pallet of salt to be at the storage unit location, just out of sheer humor and curiosity. I thanked him and said that this would be very helpful, and that I would try to get something made for him out of it, when it was all said and done. I empathically sent to Rex that he should fly up to the top of the hotel until I go out on to the balcony of my room, and that I will send him a summons to come back down. Rex looked me over, and then took off, flying up into the roof to wait. I walked up to the lobby and then made my way to the front desk, while the SUV with Jonathan pulled away. When I got to the front desk, the person who I thought of as the Innkeeper was there, waiting with a smile. I walked up to them and told them that I had a room reserved for me, possibly under the name of Curtis Zine. The innkeeper looked to be going through their tablet until my name was brought up. She told me that it was suite five hundred and three on the fifth floor. I thanked her by saying, ¡°Many thanks fair Innkeep.¡±, to which she stifled a giggle as she pointed to a room with sideways closing doors that the innkeeper said was called an elevator. I entered the room and looked around as the sideways closing doors, closed. I saw that there was a panel with different numbers on it, which one was labelled ¡°five¡±, so I pressed that button. When I got off on the floor, I saw that there was a hallway with widely spaced doors, with the numbers on those doors going from five hundred and up. I stopped at room nine hundred and three and placed my phone over what looked like a block above a door handle. I heard a chirp, and I opened up the door handle, to reveal a room with a single large bed, a desk, a separate bathroom, a set of doors that go out to a balcony, and a bathroom. My new S.H.I.E.L.D. bike was by the desk, propped up on the kickstand. I locked the door behind me, went to the balcony, opened up the door, and sent the empathic summons to Rex, who immediately flew down and landed on the balcony, before walking in. I closed the door as soon as Rex walked in and started talking to Rex, telling him the ground rules for the room, mainly that he¡¯d have to leave the room at sunrise, cautiously, and then come back after dark, because we didn¡¯t have possession in this room, much less, this who building. Rex agreed with the rules, and I closed up everything for the night. I finished up on my notes, noting that I was going to have to head directly to the shop early enough to get there on time tomorrow morning. Mending and cleaning all of the appropriate gear that I needed, I discovered a ¡°Do Not Disturb¡± thing to hang off of a door handle. I put it outside my door and then got finished getting ready for sleep. Day 11 Monday, June 11, 2018, 9:30 AM Norfolk I woke up shortly after sunrise, having set a timer for exactly eight hours after falling to sleep, so that I was rested enough to get my meditation done. Rex had made his way out of the hotel room and went to go fishing as soon as sunlight had gotten close to rising apparently. I got up and got dressed, before securing everything that I needed to in my bag. I was going to have to go out and buy more clothes today, in addition to everything else that I needed to either replace or recreate. Unfortunately, all I had was my ¡°adventuring gear¡± so I was glad that at least, I had the kote which would allow me to change the clothes as what would be appropriate. Since I ended up ready to go to work a lot earlier than needed, as I was a lot closer to the work building than before, I availed myself of this thing called a ¡°continental breakfast¡± in the lobby. Juice from multiple fruits, oats that you don¡¯t have to soak for hours to eat, some kind of crispy flakes that other hotel patrons were putting in milk (of course, they were wisely putting the flakes in the bowls first, then adding the milk to the required level), fresh fruit that should be from far away, bacon, ground pork patties, tiny sausage links, and other things. Much different than my former standard of pottage for breakfast. It was all set up on long tables where the people would walk past, collecting what they wanted from each item offered, each before going to their individual tables. I followed suit when there was a gap in people going through the lines and collected a big plate of collected items. I went to an open table, sat down, and started eating before someone sat down across from me and asked what I might happen to be doing in Norfolk. I looked up and saw that it was a person in a military uniform with a very shortly cut hairstyle, who had their own heaping plate of food. I shrugged and noted that I was out of town for the weekend, in Tahiti, and some criminals apparently burned down my house while I was gone, so my company arranged a hotel stay for me for a period of time. The man who looked to be in the military nodded and noted that the country had certainly gone downhill since the Blip happened. I asked him if he knew much more about it than everyone else around here. The man looked at me, then looked side to side, and then back to me before he said that he overheard some chatter that some of the Avengers were in Africa, and that there was a large signal of energy over some small country called Wakanda. He added that there was a large spaceship from some other planet had been spotted in orbit over that country, a different style of ship than had been seen over New York City. I muttered incredulously the word, ¡°Spaceship?¡± questioningly, to which the person I was talking with asked if I had not heard about that either. I told him that I had not, and he explained that there was a spaceship that had hovered above New York City, and that Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Dr. Strange had all disappeared into it, before the ship broke atmosphere and then disappeared. All of this was news to me, and I didn¡¯t hesitate to look ill-informed in front of this new individual. For the next thirty or so minutes, I got informed about all of the different oddities and weirdness of this country and the world as a whole, from the first time Tony Stark was declared as ¡°Iron Man¡±, to the resurfacing of a World War II hero (this world had TWO world wars?), to the events of Loki showing up in Germany, and other fantastical things. Eventually, this young military man had to leave, but offered up thanks for getting a chance to meet someone new and the good conversation. I thanked him in turn and wished him well with whatever he was doing today. The man nodded and wished me the same, before him and a few others in the same style uniform all got up and headed out. With it still being before seven AM, I figured that I could use the time to search online to see what I could do about a space in which I could do crafting without it being at my current place of work. There were a few places where I could rent some kind of storage unit or something, but they all had specific requirements about when you could arrive and leave, none of which were in my wheelhouse of what I could really work with. With my current schedule being more mid-day loaded, it didn¡¯t leave me a good stretch of time to really get into crafting, even if I needed to recollect everything that I could get, to get a working setup for making more magical items. I had a fair amount of need, but not a lot of time to work, so this might even be relegated to ¡°weekends¡± or a similar concept. At least I have a month through S.H.I.E.L.D. I didn¡¯t have all that much success, so I decided to start on a list that would help me sort out everything that I would need to make. There wasn¡¯t that long of a list, and on the top of that list was enchanting a backpack to hold stuff in it, maybe I could even make it a handy haversack. Hell, If I can do more, I¡¯ll make bottle that holds more in it too, and then I can have just about everything I could need in one thing. Maybe an enchanted tent that I could put up in abandoned buildings? With some temporary adhesive-based stakes for mounting it to these concrete floors that seem to be all the rage here. Thinking back on it, I figured that I definitely should not limit the item creation to just me, as Rex could definitely use some magical assistance as well. Definitely some things to improve his capabilities, and if they need some kind of command word, I¡¯ll just put it in the only language he can speak, Draconic. I wrote down the list in the draconic written language as well, and the words would be in the elven spoken language, just as another cypher to make sure that my notes are not easily figured out. After a bit more time, and with breakfast having been done and not needed to be picked up, I decided to head out early and check out the area around work, to see if I could spot some long-term storage options. Doing a fair amount of recon but finding nothing that was really striking, I finally made my way to work and finished up on my notes for the morning. Monday, June 11, 2018, 8:00 PM Norfolk ***** Well, that workday was fun, considering that I had all of the rifles already mounted in a new rack that had been placed in my new workshop. I grabbed the first one and started cleaning it and checking the condition of everything, using Prestidigitation and Mending throughout to make everything ¡°brand-new¡±. Looking it over, I figured out something else that I could do, limiting it just to the scope, but that this was something that I would have to approach with caution. I could turn their scopes into what might be the equivalent of my goggles, but that would be expensive and time consuming, and I would only approach this later on, as they would be OBVIOUSLY magical at that point, and I don¡¯t know if that would spark an ¡°arms race¡± for magical equipment. I imagined sniper teams with extended reach scopes, cloaks of elvenkind, rings of sustenance or the equivalent, and other things that would benefit them. After I finished processing the sixteen rifles through the cleaning, mending, and oiling via prestidigitation and mending, I set everything back on the original rack and stepped out to talk to Bob. Bob was waiting in his office, with Doug, and I knocked and waited to be addressed. I informed Bob that I would be working on the special order now, and that I would see how many I could get done. Bob thanked me, and told me that I wouldn¡¯t be bothered, I thanked him and said that I would get as far as I could with them before the end of the day, before addressing Doug to tell him good morning and that I hoped his weekend went well. Doug told me that he heard about my house, and I shrugged, saying that the company that worked to relocate me had owned the house, and while I had lost some things, nothing was lost that couldn¡¯t be replaced. Bob didn¡¯t say anything specifically about it at that point, and I went on to start work on the rifles. I set up the ritual table, with the required salt and started the ritual for the first rifle. After an hour of meditation, the salt all disappeared into the rifle, enhancing the quality. After that hour, I stood up and stretched before starting up on the second rifle, performing the same ritual again. After that second hour, I unlocked the door and went to use the restroom and get refocused before heading back into my workshop. I started up on the third rifle, set up the salt circle, and started the meditation for the ritual. The third rifle was just as quick as the first two, also, just as long. Throwing caution to the wind, I decided that I was going to get the fourth rifle in the series done. The ritual¡¯s setup didn¡¯t take any less time, and neither did the meditation, but thankfully, it allowed me to get the fourth of four possible rifles done. Considering that I had another pallet of salt available, taken in advance from my remuneration, I thought about it for a few minutes before going out to talk to Bob again. Bob was available at that point, and welcomed me into his office, before closing the door. He asked me how it was going, and I told him that I had gotten four of the rifles completed, but that there was another option that could be effective going on from here forward, but that I cautioned him that it might be a bit hard to keep under wraps. Bob asked me what it was, and I told him that since getting back from the island, I had developed the ability to actually enchant non-armor and non-weaponry-based items with effects. Bob asked me what kind of effects these could be, and I pulled off my goggles before handing them to him to try. Bob took off the glasses that he was wearing, and put the goggles on, before being astounded by the level of clarity it brought for distance vision.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I told him that this was only the beginning, and that there were items that I could eventually make that could make people smarter and would already impress skills into their mind, or give them an increased ability to hide, or increase the carry capacity of people, or many other things. I added that I could even now make belts that would allow those who used them to heal, like I had showed him before. Bob was astounded and asked what kind of timeframe that takes. I shrugged, saying that there was a lot that I was going to have to figure out, not the least of which was where I could set up a secret lair that couldn¡¯t be accessed by anyone but the people I trusted. He listened intently, as I continued with saying that I was going to have to split my time between getting the rifles done, and getting things enchanted, but that just meant that it would take longer, adding that I could probably process something similar to the goggles in five days easily, but something similar to my healing belt in just two. Bob looked at me oddly, and I just shrugged, noting that there wasn¡¯t anything really all-encompassing for determining how long it would take to enchant something, except for noting that advanced versions of items usually quadrupled the time it took to make the previous item, for likely only a doubling of the advancement. Bob noted that it sounded terribly complicated, and I agreed that it was, and I explained that it was often easiest to try to get the gist of what someone wanted and try to figure out the most efficient way to do so after the desired result is explained. Bob asked me to keep him apprised as to possibilities, but that he¡¯d certainly be willing to look into something that would keep someone from dying if they got shot. I remembered that there were definitely items that could do that, but that there were trade-offs for each, so that you can get that belt that allows you to heal, but at the same time, you can¡¯t also use a separate belt that increases your carrying capacity, or a belt that increases your strength or flexibility. I spoke up and clarified that I needed to make some thing quick, an extradimensional bag, that would allow me to carry my belongings with me everywhere, so that I could easily ensure that I wouldn¡¯t lose everything again. Bob asked what I needed for that, and I told him that I¡¯d be using the table to start the ritual for it, and I might be able to finish it off after a few days, but that it would not get in the way of working on rifles. I added that I would ensure that I talked every bit over with him before starting a new item, and that I would take any personal requests just providing the materials needed after I get myself sorted. Bob thanked me and told me that he would think long about anything that might request, and that we could talk later about whatever he decided on. I quickly told him that I was going to rush out for food and head right back to try to get started on that enchanted backpack. Bob nodded and recommended the gyro place around to corner for rapid food. I thanked Bob for the recommendation and got my electric bike quickly and headed over to the gyro place that Bob had indicated. I quickly ordered a gyro and paid in cash, before heading directly back to the store and heading directly into that new workshop. I ate quick and then cleaned up myself and the area before figuring out exactly what I can do. I got two hundred pounds of salt out from my pallet, and started out putting it on the table, fifty pounds at a time, with the chest-pack that I had gotten at the ¡°Thrift Store¡± (the only thing I think I had left from the thrift store, actually, that I had previously made masterwork via a spell), in the center of the table. Figuring that I would need to get the rest of the salt added on periodically throughout the ritual, I set out to ensure that I knew exactly when and where to put the additional salt and got prepared. As the ritual went forward, I adjusted the stitching a bit and added a bit more of some of the runes that would be, for the most part replications of the ones that I was making in the salt, stitched in with gold thread. I started running the ritual and the salt was again going in at a very rapid rate, depleting it at a much faster than expected rate. After the first hour, I had to add the first extra fifty pounds. It was at that point that I realized that the magical resonance of using a backpack that had been enhanced by my magic, using tools to stitch it with tailoring tools enhanced with my magic to be masterwork, on a table enchanted to be masterwork by my magic, was causing the enchantment to run even faster than normal. I successfully figured out the cause, and rode the extra magic, further increasing the magic that can be pumped into this backpack. After the second hour, I had needed another fifty pounds of salt added, which I did, dedicatedly. After that third hour, there were not any fantastic changes, but I felt that the enhancement needed closing. I didn¡¯t know the spell that was required to seal this enchantment in, but I could manipulate the energies my own way, and succeeding in wrangling them, just enough, with my inspiration. The bag was completed, with the two side pouches each capable of holding two cubic feet, or twenty pounds, not the one-quart pouch holders that normally would be held. The central back portion of the bag now can hold up to eighty pounds of material, up to eight cubic feet of material. The front pouch, which was itself removable, was left non-magical as part of the enchantment, and can thus be enchanted separately, apparently. I resolved to have this set up with its own enchantment, maybe similar to an item termed a ¡°Pathfinder¡¯s Pouch¡±, but that would take a while, knowing what I know now about the difficulties in not knowing the arcane spells an item relies upon to be created. One positive of the rest of the backpack, was that it was a lot more durable now, having taken some of the physical essence of both the table surface and the salt, making it significantly stronger than just the base material would have normally been. I am certain that this is just due to some residual mystical energy, but the fact that this one time was a happy occurrence, does not mean that the next time will be the same. I resolved to ensure that I had a sufficient ritual table in the next place where I would continue my work. Getting ready at the end of the day, I packed up all of my stuff into a MUCH LIGHTER backpack now and thought about more improvements that can be made to the bike itself overtime. Making it Masterwork was a given, depending on how much salt it would take. Maybe also enchanting a couple of ¡°saddlebags¡± to be holding as well wouldn¡¯t be lost. If I can¡¯t find a way to have a good base, I can set up everything to be a mobile base. As I was heading out for the day, Bob stopped me to ask what I was going to plan to do about housing. As we both stepped into his office, I thought about it for a minute and then I offered up that I was going to use this month that S.H.I.E.L.D. was giving me in the hotel to get all of my plans together, and that after a week, if I could not figure anything out, I would seek out an apartment or something else. Bob looked a bit shady, and mentioned that he had an idea, if I wanted to use it. I told him that I was more than willing to listen to him, and he carefully laid out how I should use the business address to get a post office box for any mail that I might need shipped to me (mail is a thing here?), and also use the address and the post office to try to secure a storage unit at one of the reputable storage places. He pointed out that I could easily use the storage unit to keep any of the non-essential items that I might acquire, or say, make it look like that, and then get a hideaway in the back for when I needed to have a more secure place to rest, and then I could go about resting wherever I could find that would be safe. This seemed to me to be a really rational solution, so I figured that I would start on that tomorrow before I arrived at work. I thanked Bob for his help, and for the opportunities in doing this, and told him that I would continue to try to figure out more of what I can do to help both him and the ¡°good guys¡±. This honestly wasn¡¯t an issue of me not wanting to help others, it was more of an issue of me not being able to help on such a high level of quantity. I can knock out four rifles a day, maybe helping one group of high-end soldiers a week. That it to say nothing about the timeframes it would require for actually enchanting items. Then again, if all I ended up doing was mass-producing was a variant of that healing belt which only allowed you to heal three times a day, and even then, if it only did so for one of those times in the instance of falling unconscious from damage or injury, I figure that I could get the quantity of salt required to decrease dramatically, maybe three bags of sand for each belt? It would have to be limited to honorable service members of the country, or something similar, but then I could reasonably crank one out a day, and those special teams would be so much more likely to survive anything in their missions. Maybe it is just something to ponder. I rode the electric bicycle back to the hotel where I got it back up into the room, before coming back down to get dinner in the restaurant in the hotel. It was automatically charged to the room, since I was a resident, so I enjoyed a burger and fries, with a nice whiskey. After my meal, during which no one bothered me, I went back upstairs and relaxed out of the changed clothing that I was hiding my true status in. I waited until dusk and let the balcony door unlocked and open for Rex. He seemed like he was happy enough with the arrangement for today, so I noted that tomorrow would probably be a repeat of today, as long as nothing dramatic happens. Rex agreed with the arrangement for at least another day, noting that this at least seemed somewhat right to him, living in a cave high overlooking a body of water that he can go fishing in. I could only feel for him, having probably been born on that smuggler¡¯s ship, away from where his aerie would have been far to the south. I finished up my boring day with cleaning and mending everything to get it ready for tomorrow. Day 12 Tuesday, June 12, 2018, 8:30 PM Norfolk Well, today started out with my normal routine of waking up at sunrise, letting Rex go to soar among the clouds and feast on all of the fishes he can safely eat, and then start my meditation. Once I was ready, and ALL of my items and equipment were packed up in this new, ¡°hefty haversack¡± - thank whomsoever invented it for making something that can carry up to one hundred and twenty pounds of equipment and still just weigh only five pounds. Probably someone by the name of Heward or something like that. With all of my worldly belongings, except for the bike, in my bag, I took the bike with me and made my way down to the Black Tuna, where they were serving the continental breakfast thing again. This is something that I can definitely get used to, so much so that if I have to, I will FIND a way to enchant equipment to do this stuff for me on a daily or at least weekly basis. My ¡°friend¡± from yesterday wasn¡¯t there today, so I pretty much just ate in peace and then started on my day, trying to get accommodations done for what I needed. Getting to the post office, I found one that was fairly easy to get, and it was just a little bit under two hundred dollars, which I immediately got for a year in advance. I would have done more, but they would not all it, saying that the rates go up every year, and that they don¡¯t know what next year¡¯s rates would be. It seemed like a fairly rehearsed answer, but I let it slide, getting the smallest option that they had instead. I paid via cash, and then thanked them for the key and a card with the number and full address, both of which I promptly tossed in my haversack, with the knowledge that if I ever needed either, they would be on the top. Then, I quickly found the first storage unit I could access that was in reasonable proximity to both the Gun Shop and the Post Office. They wanted less than ninety dollars a month, but they would in fact take longer durations of prepayment. I decided to stick to twelve months, because if the situation had not changed in that time period, I could go for a longer one, and if it had, I could just let it lapse. I also purchased a lock from them, figuring that I would get another one later on that I would enchant. Again, into my backpack the key goes, where I knew that I would be able to recall it whenever I needed. I think, I will include a bit about only those of my class being able to access into the extradimensional space of my front pouch, to minimize the issues with a more difficult enchantment on the front section. Then it won¡¯t matter if someone can detect it as magical, it will only be able to be ¡°used¡± by me. Just another layer of operational security, so to speak, that came to me when I was pondering how to restrict the magical capabilities of those belts while making them easier to make. Speaking of which, I planned on making a similar belt for Bob today, if he would be so kind as to permit me to handle one of his belts, just as a way of saying thank you. That was before I had made my way to work early and seen what I was fated to see this day. As I was getting there, I saw a couple of louts that had similar clothes and gang markers to the ¡°Painkillers¡± gang that I had been dealing with off and on. I guessed that with the arrival of the Warlocks, the Painkillers were moving into newer territory. They caught on that someone had seen them, and they quickly exited the area before trying anything stupid. I kept riding around the general area, before stopping a little early to do a quick tour around the building. Just as I suspected, they were trying to wedge open a window just enough to ensure that they could get back in quickly some later time after hours. This would not do, so I took a picture with my phone, and then got ready to head in to work. When I got to the door, Doug was standing there, looking at me with interest. I told him what I had seen earlier in the day and showed him the picture. Doug took me straight to Bob, who I repeated the story again for, with the same details. Bob was a bit disturbed and looked over at Doug and then back to me, asking if either of us had any ideas to prevent this from happening. I shrugged and waited for Doug to offer up anything, where all Doug could say is that we can be a bit more focused on the security when we leave for the day, and maybe go pick up a guard dog or something. I offered up that a lot of dogs are skittish around the sounds of explosives and that we might just for now, block down the windows and everything from the inside, so that no matter what they wedge, they can¡¯t find a way to get in. Doug thought about it a bit more, and offered up that we could get some motion sensitive flood lights for the areas that the cameras don¡¯t cover, at least until we can get more cameras. Bob pounced on Doug¡¯s idea and offered Doug the day to go pick that up, using Bob¡¯s credit card to pick up the items, fill up his personal vehicle, and get himself lunch. Doug looked at me for a minute, before remembering that I was currently rocking a bicycle for my main mode of personal transportation. When Doug headed off, Bob rubbed his hand over his head and asked if there was anything I personally could do about it. I offered up that I could look back into various magical items that could add security, but it might take a fair amount of time to figure anything out, let alone make anything, and any research would cut into my rifle work, as the spell essence takes away from the transformation capability, but that I would keep my ears out for anything in the gangs, and that I would do tours around the building when I was off work hours. Bob again rubbed his head in frustration, before saying that it was most important to get those rifles done, as if they get stolen then the military will be on his ass, but if they can¡¯t be completed in the week, he won¡¯t get the chance again.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. I nodded, sympathizing with his predicament, and noted that I can work on the rifles quickly this morning, and maybe it would be best if we get the finished rifles into someplace that is even more secure. Bob agreed with that, and I went into my new workshop and carefully brought out all four of the rifles that I had finished yesterday. Bob took custody of them and then locked them away in his greater secured safe. I thanked him and then I went back into the workshop, to continue to work on the projects. I started to get the room ready for the today¡¯s work. Quickly getting to work, I banged out four rifles, right in a row, with barely any stopping. There wasn¡¯t a lot of time for me to do much else, if I wanted to get a good solid four hours on the next phase of the plan. I had to plan for at least seven SOLID days of crafting, but since that wasn¡¯t going to be an actual availability, I was looking more at thirteen half days, which I might be able to reduce by a full day on Friday and maybe Saturday and Sunday if Bob allows. I¡¯ll offer up that I will act as security for those two days, unpaid, if it will help. Being ready to work on the next project, I went to Bob to let him know that I would need to go pick up some things I would need for other tasks, but that I would be back as quickly as possible. Bob wished me well, and said that I should get whatever I needed, and I added that I would have four more rifles from today¡¯s work at the end of the shift. I got on my bike and rode immediately to a store called ¡°Harbor Freight¡±, who seemed to have exactly what I needed. It was a what looked like a hodge podge of different tools, but the least of which were the canvas tarps that I would need for the tent I was making. Four nine feet by twelve feet canvas ¡°Drop Cloths¡± from which the sides would be cut to be eight foot tall by ten feet long, and then a twelve by fifteen feet drop cloth for the roof. It wouldn¡¯t provide much of a pitch, but then again, it wasn¡¯t needed to do so. I also found that they had an already existing canopy that I could just replace the already existing cheap canopy with what I was going to use, along with this great rope called ¡°paracord¡± that was going to be useful as well. It was about three hundred dollars with everything that I got before I was on my way back. With everything that I needed acquired, I zipped back to work and snagged some quick food on the way back to work. I got everything back into the workshop and started getting as many of the assistants from animating the tools and working myself on getting the everything ready. At the end of the workday, I had a good structure that I could work to enchant tomorrow. Before leaving work, I decided to activate my ¡°ears of the city¡± spell to try to get more information about the Painkillers. It turned up that it pretty much was exactly what I had told Bob, that the Painkillers were pushed off their turf, and that they were just in a scouting mode right now. There were no rumors or hints that there was going to be any movement in the near future. When I brought this back to Bob, I asked him if he would want some additional security for the weekend. Bob said that he will keep me posted and that he figured that I might volunteer. I thanked him for considering me and said that I would be glad to help with it, especially since I figured that I might also be looking at making an item for either him, the work, or both. Bob said that it wasn¡¯t all that necessary, but I shushed him, saying that it would come from my own stores of materials, and that I would be glad to help him in whatever ways I could. Bob was very grateful, and I told him that it was nothing, considering that he was helping me so much. With my day done, I loaded everything that I needed to work on at night, back into the haversack, and then handed the four rifles that were finished to Bob. Bob thanked me and jokingly asked if I could set him up with an extradimensional pack. I shrugged and told him that it wouldn¡¯t be an issue at all, but that he should consider if he wants something that is mobile or something that it more defendable. Bob thought about it, and by the time I was gone, I told him to think more on it, and that I could start on this side project for him likely next week. I got ready and headed out, heading directly back to the hotel, figuring that I¡¯d need to push tomorrow for getting more of the clothing that I would need going forward. I went to put my bicycle back in the hotel room, and then headed back down to the restaurant. I sat down at the bar, and the bartender, a woman who said that she was named Amber, got my food and drink orders before heading over to deal with other people. She seemed nice enough and wasn¡¯t exceptionally pushy. I got my meal and drink, and left a decent tip for Amber, all billed to the room. I thanked her when I was finished with my meal, left, and headed back up to my room. Once back up in my room, I cast some more arcane effects for getting any information about the Painkillers and the Warlocks. There wasn¡¯t all that much, except that there was a single rumor about a guy being a bit stronger than expected among the Warlocks crew, but that he didn¡¯t seem to be the normal motorcyclist type. I resolved to check into it further when I had the time tomorrow. Day 13 Wednesday, June 13, 2018, 8:30 PM Norfolk Today was damn eventful. It started with me making my way downstairs after the standard morning of waking up, getting ready, and letting Rex out. He had developed a nice routine and was looking a little pudgy from the easy fish he was catching in the early morning Elizabeth River. I asked if he¡¯d be willing to stay closer to Bob¡¯s today, in case I had a need of him. Rex laughed in Draconic (a disturbing thing to hear, even if it is from a small creature), and said that he had taken to sleeping in the morning sun on their roof. I smiled and let him head out, realizing that I needed something to help him stay disguised to make this easier. That would be added to the list of items I needed to make, especially since I needed to do something to up the security of the shop. Heading downstairs to the bar, I instantly noticed how there had been some kind of conflict late last night and noting that the innkeeper whom I had checked in with the first night was actually on duty this morning, I stopped by and asked her. Apparently, late last night, just as Black Tuna was slated to be shutting down for the night, a pack of thugs had come in demanding protection money for the Bar and the Hotel. I got a bit annoyed and asked if she knew anything else, but she didn¡¯t, and I asked her to keep me updated on any information that she could provide, to which she agreed. Nothing at the breakfast was that amazing or eventful, but it pushed me to get out of the hotel even faster, to get to that store called Target, that would likely have the items that I needed. When I got to the store, I locked my S.H.I.E.L.D. bicycle in the bike rack, and went inside. There was a sign at the door which indicated that bags had to be left with the Customer Service Desk. I went there and dropped my bag off, who put it in a locker and handed me the tag for the locker. I quickly went into the store and loaded up my cart with several sets of clothing, including a series of what could be termed work clothes, the pants were all black and all were called ¡°cargo pants¡± and the shirts were light gray and were all termed ¡°shirt jackets¡±. Having gotten what I needed, I indulged in getting some treats and snacks, including something chocolate and cinnamon, and some drinks to ensure that I would be good throughout the day, and for the next few days to go. Getting through the cash register, I paid using some of the remaining cash that I had, my resources starting to run lower than I liked. I don¡¯t like to consider it a primary benefit of getting these thugs and robbers, but the side effect of them having a fair amount of cash was something useful to me. After paying, I was still going to be heading to work, but it was a good thing, since I was going to have to do some reconnaissance around the building, to make sure that the Painkillers were not up to anything. The trip there from Target was fine, no issues with the drive, and there weren¡¯t any signs of the gang at work, even if there were some scattered gang tags that were fairly fresh on the way there. Once I got there, Bob was already there and let me in early. I thanked him and said that I was going to be getting the rifles finished as quickly as I could. Bob accepted that I was going to work on the rifles and just before I headed back to my workshop, I asked if it would be more important to find out about a security solution or to get the rifles finished first. Bob hemmed and hawed before noting that the rifles were more important. I nodded and said that while there were not any signs of the Painkillers around the shop, that they had started trying to run a protection racket in the area. Bob listened intently and told me that he would keep his ears open as well, and that I might just need to continue my own nocturnal activities. I nodded but I noted that I would likely need to wait at least until I was done with the rifles, as most of my really effective spells were of the same level as those that I was using for the Masterwork Transformations. I got to work quickly and got the four rifles out of the way quickly. I left the workshop to get a snack and luckily, or unluckily for Steve, something chose just then for the bad luck to strike. Steve was up in the firing range, apparently with someone new, who had showed up to the range with their own ammunition, and had apparently tried to fire, hitting a squib round first, before compounding it by having an overcharged round directly after. I ran immediately to the range, where Steve was lying with blood coming from a wound on his neck. The customer was also unconscious, but not injured, so I immediately knelt over our injured co-worker, and immediately channeled a Cure Light Wounds into him. The wound at his neck started to close, and I fired off a second Cure Light Wounds. Immediately behind me, I heard a female voice ask, supposedly to me, ¡°what the hell was that?¡± I looked behind me, having noticed that Steve was going to be okay, and saw that it was Jessica and Bob, who were just showing up with the first aid kit. Bob looked at Steve, and then back to me and I muttered that it shouldn¡¯t be needed, that Steve would be fine. Jessica came over to check Steve and then looked at me, asking me what I did. Bob stopped her and said that I had dealt with Steve¡¯s wounds, and that he should be okay. Jessica repeatedly muttered, ¡°I saw the glow¡±, quietly, almost under her breath as Bob had him sit down. Steve came to, and I helped him up. Steve checked his neck and felt that there was no wound, only that his hand was slick with blood. Bob looked at Steve, Jessica, and Me, and I stood up, looking at all three of them in turn, and said that we should probably have the discussion now. Bob nodded and looked at the customer, who was just coming to now. Bob asked Jessica to escort the man out, and tell him that he wouldn¡¯t be charged range time for today, as no one ended up seriously hurt, but that he was banned from the store for at least thirty days, and that he would only be able to use the firing range with ammunition that was purchased from here, only after the firearm had been inspected by one of our technicians. Jessica did so, helping the dazed man out to his vehicle, giving me a heavy side-eye as she passed. Bob moved over to Steve and told him to go get cleaned up and shut the store down, and after that, to get Doug and Jessica and gather everyone up in the break room. Steve went to clear out the rest of the building after hitting the restroom while Bob led me to his office. As Bob¡¯s door closed, he asked me directly, how do we want to portray this. I thought for a minute, and asked if these kinds of things ever might just happen on their own. Bob shook his head with a laugh, not unless I wanted to start some kind of religion. I shook my head to that and laughed as well, saying that I didn¡¯t need that kind of smoke. I thought for a minute, and asked if it was better for it to have come from an item, or from me, adding that if it came from an item, it might be a target for theft, but if it came from me, I might be a target for kidnapping. Bob thought about it, and asked how important the belt was to me on a daily basis. I thought about it, and said that it wasn¡¯t all that crucial, but if I needed the healing, I needed it, and it had a twenty-four-hour cooldown to be able to use it for the healing charges. I told Bob that I did not specifically NEED it currently, or even every day, but that I would not feel comfortable in any way letting someone else use it. Bob nodded and said that it would then probably be better if it was something that was limited to me, rather than the item, and that it was a much more limited number of times a day that I can actually do. I thought about it, and offered up that I could do it twice a day, and that I had to do it twice to save Steve, and that it only worked to deal with punctures, cuts, and contusions, and not on more serious issues like diseases, poisons, broken bones, or any real internal injuries. Bob said that he would keep to that line, but that I might need to let them know more, and I offered that I could let them know that I was there with the police on the day of the Blip, and that I had taxed my abilities then, and they were only slowly coming back. Bob nodded and it sounded likely, and that he would make keeping my secret a prerequisite to anyone being employed here. I thanked him and we both headed to the break room, where the other three employees, Doug, Jessica, and Steve, were already waiting. I stepped away from Bob, and started out with announcing to the room that I wasn¡¯t a native to this world, that I had appeared just after the Blip, have been sent from my home world to here due to a different means, and that I had the small ability to heal light wounds, like I had done with Steve just today, as I had done where I appeared, helping save and heal those around me where I appeared here in Norfolk, during the immediate after effects of the Blip. The room was silent so I continued, telling everyone that I couldn¡¯t do more than minor healing or recovery, and that I was also included as a backup hero for situations where it might come up. Jessica¡¯s eyes lit up as she blurted out that she thought that she recognized me, that she had seen me from afar helping get people healed and safe. She then asked about the dragon, to which Bob looked at me with confusion. I sighed and sent an empathic message to Rex, giving him the empathic feeling of desiring his presence. Rex sent me back a sense of smug satisfaction with a hint of sneakiness, giving me the feeling of him being very close. I sighed again and looked back to Bob, and asked him if I should bring Rex in. Bob shrugged, and I left the break room to head back to the employee entrance. Rex was huddled down by the back door and had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. I asked him in Draconic why he was here, and he said that he had felt the empathic surge in me responding to something, and he decided that it would be better if he was close by. I opened the door fully, and Rex slowly and carefully walked in, waiting for me to lead him to where he would be able to be shown. I slowly opened up the door to the break room, and cautioned everyone that Rex would be coming in, and to please not open fire at him. There were some laughs as I slowly led Rex into the room and had him walk into the center in front of everyone. I told everyone that Rex was an intelligent creature, known as a familiar, that was linked to me. He has a degree of my capability in skills, as an aspect of him being a familiar, along with some other unique capabilities as a part of his status as well. I felt some sneaky glee coming from Rex as I told him in Draconic to change into his battle form but to not use his flame breath.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Rex became much larger than his original form, becoming easily as large as a condor, both in body and wingspan. The four others in the room were surprised by the near instantaneous change in size and flinched back reflexively. Rex crooned a little and got scritches from me. Steve spoke up and shakingly asked if this was really a dragon. I laughed and noted that Rex wasn¡¯t actually a dragon, and real dragons were a LOT larger, and that he was an animal who was actually elevated by his status as a familiar. Rex shrunk back down to his normal size, and jumped up onto a table, to curl up in a ball, before noting in Draconic that this is much more comfortable than outside, although the sunlight is a lot better. Bob spoke up and asked what language that was. I told him sheepishly that it was the tongue of dragons, and that he had learned it because I had learned it. Bob looked at me and asked me if he seriously spoke Draconic, breathed fire, could fly, and grow big, but wasn¡¯t actually a dragon. I nodded and noted that most of that was from his status as a familiar, and that dragons could do that naturally. There was a bit of question and answer regarding Rex where I answered what I could, and passed answers back and forth, for those who wanted to know answers directly from him. Towards the end of this conversation the questions started getting more directed towards me, a lot of them asking if I knew any other superheroes, which I did not. Doug seemed a bit upset, and I realized that he was probably a bit miffed about the whole partial deception about the interview, so I resolved to get on a better foot with him. At the end of the conversation, Bob told everyone that he was going to be closing the place for the rest of the day today, that it would be paid, and that he¡¯d like it if Jessica could accompany Steve to the rapid care for a check up to make sure that there were not any other issues. That left Bob, Doug, Rex, and I in the break room. I started to speak but Bob of all people stopped me, and took over the conversation, telling Doug that he had known some of what I was before I had been here to interview, and he wanted Doug to truly test me to see if I could actually do the job, me being a hero or anything else notwithstanding. Bob went on to tell Doug that if I couldn¡¯t cut the job, then I would not have been offered the job, and that Doug¡¯s assessment was the biggest part. I knew that Bob was laying it on a little thick, but Doug threw the both of us for a loop when he said that he was curious what I was actually doing to the rifles to make them better. Apparently, that had been chewing him up for the longest time, so Bob asked me if the three of us could head into my workshop. I gladly acceded, and we headed that way, with Rex staying on the table he was nestled on. When we got in there, I offered up the rack of rifles that had yet to be worked on, and the four rifles that I had completed, for him to inspect. Doug was thorough, and went through two of each of them, finding the similarities and differences, before he stopped and came back to ask me how I had done it. Before I could speak to respond, he mentioned that he saw how everything seemed to just be a bit higher in quality, after the treatment, and that everything that was a wear item was like new, but that they were obviously the same items that they were before. I told Doug that healing people¡¯s minor wounds was not the full extent of gifts that I had, that if I took time and performed a ritual, I can bring out the hidden master craftsmanship that exists in almost any item that isn¡¯t already a master crafted item or is of too poor quality to become a master crafted item. I added that I had to at least have some conceptualization of how the item performs to make it perform better, but that if it is a weapon, it becomes more accurate, if it is an armor, it becomes less encumbering, and if it is a tool of some sort, it becomes more effective. Doug thought about this for a while, and asked why I was keeping it in this room, and Bob answered for me with a simple question to Doug to ask him if we outright told people that the weapons were getting magically better, would people believe it? Doug shook his head in agreement, and then asked if these enhancements went away after a while, and I shook my head along with my response, saying that no, as long as the item isn¡¯t broken, it will remain higher quality, and then, if the item is repaired, if it is repaired properly, it will be the higher quality again, and also that they are no longer magical after the effects coalesce from the ritual. Doug thought on that for a bit before Bob asked him if he could think it over for the rest of the day before deciding if he can continue working here. Doug asked if he could observe me doing the ritual, and I sighed, saying that today it was impossible, because I had expended all of my capability to do so today, but that as long as Bob is willing, he can watch me tomorrow. Bob thought for a minute before he asked me if it would interrupt me too much. I replied back that it wouldn¡¯t, as long as Doug was cognizant of the fact that once I started on one ritual, I couldn¡¯t answer questions or be interrupted for an hour. Doug said that he was okay with that, and I said that when I got here in the morning, he should follow me to the workshop, and I would get the first one done immediately. Doug nodded, and asked if Bob needed him for anything else today, as he was going to get a drink after learning all of this. I had a brilliant idea, and pulled out my bottle of whiskey, and offered it up to him for drinks. Bob saw the bottle and took it from my hand, before looking at Doug and pulling out the cork. They both gave it a sniff, before looking at the two stones in the bottom of the bottle. I saw them looking and told them that they were extremely minor alchemical items that were enhanced in such a way that as long as they stayed submerged in liquid, the crystals stayed ice cold. Doug and Bob looked at the bottle and at each other before laughing and saying that even our whiskey stones were better. Doug asked me what whiskey this was, and I told him it was Oldlaw Whiskey, a single malt from a two-hundred-year-old recipe, from my home world. Doug looked over the bottle before he asked me how much this bottle ran, I flippantly let out that it was almost half a pound of gold. Bob muttered that this was about the price of a Macallan 25 year. I shrugged and said that it was my main drink of choice back home. Bob asked Doug if he wanted to head to a bar, or just drink a bit here. Doug looked more than happy to have some of the whiskey presented to him, and Bob said he¡¯d go get the shot glasses. I told them to enjoy it, but if they could, just get me back the crystals, because I don¡¯t know if I can remake those again, yet. Doug asked me off hand how much the ice crystals went for. I thought about it and told him that each one was worth about a tenth of a pound of gold. Doug¡¯s mouth dropped and I stopped him, telling him that the prices of everything were a bit different there, as a pound of Salt was also a tenth of a pound of silver. Doug looked at me very oddly and I told him that the technology level was a LOT lower than here. Doug¡¯s brain seemed to break at that, and both Bob and him went to Bob¡¯s office. I went back to the workshop and started focusing on the enchanting of the tent when I came up with a realization. Originally, the tent would call for two distinct spells, of which I did not have one of them. However, the effect that was generated by the second spell, I did not need, and I could swap it out with a pair of spells that I did have and would be useful. This inspiration would make the process quicker and easier than it would have been without having to deal with the unknown spell. At the end of four quick hours, Bob and Doug came to check in on me, just as I was finishing up on today¡¯s work. I figured that I would be done by the end of the day Friday at least by this pace. Bob took a look at the tent and asked me what this would do. I smiled and told the both of them that this tent would be MUCH bigger on the inside than the outside, and that items left in the tent overnight would be cleaned and repaired to normal functionality. Doug perked up and asked if I could make more of these. I looked over to Bob and told him that it would run about twenty bags of salt for each tent and the price for the canvas and the canopy, but that I would also like to be able to minimize who all knows about these, as if they got out of hand, they could likely be tracked back to me. Doug said that he¡¯d only use it in remote areas, and that he wouldn¡¯t reveal where he got it from. I told him that I¡¯d gladly think about it, but that the first things on the roster were the rifles and the next thing on the block was that I needed to figure out the best solution for security for the building. Doug asked how long I figured it might take to make another tent, and I shrugged, saying that it might be three weeks to be done with everything else and then done with the tent, as long as we didn¡¯t have any more than the same as this week¡¯s level of scheduling. Bob smiled and said that he might even consider something like the tent, if I could make more, he¡¯d even spring for the salt for them. I thought about it and figured that I might be able to do something more about making the rifle process quicker, but that would take a bit more to figure out. I told Bob that I would put it on my schedule as long as he was good with it. Bob shrugged, but offered up that as long as it didn¡¯t mess with my scheduled work, he didn¡¯t mind. Since it was the end of our daily work schedule, Bob was more than ready to close up shop and head home for the day. Doug was ready to leave too, so I went and woke up Rex before everyone was ready to leave. Getting Rex out to the door, I suggested that he could use a bit of stealth to get out of here, and he agreed. I cast a Vanish Spell on him and felt the wide gust of him taking off. I shut the door and locked it behind me, with Bob checking it, and the three of us got our relevant vehicles and took off from work. I got outside the gate, with it shutting and locking behind us, and sneakily cast the Ears of the City spell to check for any activities in this area today. Nothing much on the front in the immediate area, but there were more rumors of supervillains starting to come in, but nothing concrete or suggesting for where I should check first. Before heading back to the hotel, I took some rides around the area but didn¡¯t see anything specifically gang related, and I took some time to head down alleyways and when I had the chance, I used Prestidigitation to remove any painted gang signs, just to increase confusion. Finally, after an hour or two of unsuccessful searching, I made my way back to the Wyndham, and stopped by the bar. I saw that it was a different bartender, and asked about Amber, and was told that she had taken the day off after the events of last night. I provided the bartender my phone number and told them to contact me if they see anyone who looks like they might be related to the group that had attacked her, that the bartender shouldn¡¯t call the cops. The bartender kind of joked it off before I pulled up the screen on my phone which revealed a S.H.I.E.L.D. badge, with my name, and added that ¡°we¡± would be the ones to handle it since the Blip. The Bartender was more amenable and asked if I should just leave the phone number up here for any bartender, and I nodded quietly, noting that I would be staying in the Hotel for at least the next few weeks, until we have gotten this situation dealt with. The bartender asked if this was something that important, and I replied back that there have been rumors of ¡°super-villains¡± in the area, and that I was the local Agent who was tasked with checking them out, and if necessary, dealing with them. I know it was a bit of a stretch, but it is close enough to be true to be believed. I thanked the bartender for helping me in this investigation and headed back up to my room after my meal. Rex was already outside the room on the Balcony, so I let him in and settled in for a possibly disturbed rest. Day 14 Thursday, June 14, 2018, 8:30 PM Norfolk I woke up at sunrise to see that there had been no notifications and no calls. I quickly got ready, let Rex out for his morning constitutional, and headed down to the restaurant. When I got down there, after packing everything up and all of the other issues, it was nearly seven in the morning. Getting my food, a very pleasant experience, I noticed a pair of sketchy people coming into the restaurant, who didn¡¯t seem to be getting food or anything. They sat down at a table and just watched the people around them not exactly inconspicuously. The breakfast eaters, on the other hand, seemed to be ignoring them to the best of their ability. The staff who kept the buffet pans full noticed the two sitting there, not eating, or drinking anything, and eventually, while cleaning some of the tables, one of them came up to me to ask if I was done with the plate. I thanked them and told them that I was, and the attendant took my plate and left a note on the table as they wiped it down. I stealthily pocketed the note, and got up from the table, getting my bike and heading out of the restaurant. As soon as I left the Hotel, I opened up the note which told me that the two were two of the people who had shaken down the bartender the night before last. I noted this and waited outside of the hotel for the two of the gang members to come outside of the building. Waiting for about half an hour, I saw the two leave the hotel lobby and head towards an alley. I invoked my spell of Oath of Anonymity before I decided that I would rush in behind them. While under the cover of Vanish, and sneaking up behind the two of them, started my attack, firing off my Ultrasonic Ray, which was further enhanced by both my focus and my stance, and a boost to ensure that the gang member is dropped. With the invisibility dropping from the attack, the other criminal noticed me and quickly drew and fired his pistol, striking me square in the chest and severely wounding me. Focusing up, I used my most powerful attack to fire off my Ultrasonic Ray again, dropping this thug. I knew that I could have opened up with that attack on the other thug and gotten a free hit off on the second one, but I wasn¡¯t thinking quickly enough. Quickly using magic to search their bodies, I took their money and jewelry before ensuring that they would both survive, before even healing myself. I knew that it would not be long before the police showed up, so I quickly used Prestidigitation to clean up any possible sign or evidence of my blood or that I was even here. I also used it to fire off a round from the other criminal¡¯s pistol, to get them a charge as well. I quickly left with my reward for dealing with another two criminals, vanishing before leaving the alleyway, and getting my bike from a different area, and rushed away as carefully as possible. I made my way to work and got into my workshop, where Doug was waiting for me. I nodded to him, cleared off my gear from any blood or foreign material, and got the work area ready for another day. I started out with the disassembly, cleaning, mending, oiling, and then reassembly for the first rifle. I removed any sign of fingerprints from the rifle with Prestidigitation, before taking it over to the rack by the ritual table. I set out the required salt into the various patterns and runes that were needed for the ritual to occur. Before starting the ritual, I asked if Doug had any questions. Doug shook his head, and I started my casting of Masterwork Transformation, while he sat there enraptured by the blatant displays of magic that I had already performed. I started the focusing and the meditation that was required to enhance the rifle. After an hour, it was done, and the salt glowed before dissipating into the rifle. Doing a final Prestidigitation to clean off any of the remaining salt, I handed the rifle to Doug who inspected it. Doug took the rifle and inspected it to the best of his ability, while I started the process with the next rifle. By the time that I was done with the preparations and setup, Doug had finished his inspection and asked if this was what I intended on doing for my time here for the rest of my time with this job. I shook my head and said that I was a lot more comfortable with just doing my standard preparation work, but what I preferred and what the company needed for me to do were two different things. Doug smiled when I said that, and muttered something about that being the way that the world works everywhere. I smiled and then nodded to him, saying that he was more than welcome to stay with me while I do the next three, but that I would be going as fast as I could without slowing down, to get the remaining rifles done by lunch. Doug thanked me for the opportunity, but noted that he had a few rebuilds to do, and excused himself. With my observer gone, I worked on the rest of the rifles. I quickly busted through the rest of the rifles and emptied out the rack of rifles to be treated. At lunch time, I brought the four last rifles over to Bob in an effort to stop and talk to him. Bob was receptive, and I noted that I had had a run in with one of the gang members that had been scoping out the shop but ended up getting shot. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Bob looked concerned for a bit, before I shook my head, saying that I got better. Bob stifled a laugh at that but asked me if I thought that it would solve the problem. I told him that I severely doubted that it would, as even if we get rid of this specific gang, that we would likely end up with more gangs in the area, doing power plays. I offered up that I would start my search for a suitable item to make starting tomorrow, and that I would tell him what I figured out before I started making anything. Bob seemed reasonable, and asked if I could make sure that there was a way for Bob to be able to transfer the possession. I told him that I would make sure that it was a property. I had a quick lunch of pizza that Bob had ordered, and Steve stopped to talk to me. Steve wanted to thank me heartily and I told him that it wasn¡¯t needed. I added that I would have done it for anyone, and that I had already worked to make the first aid kit better so that it would have been more likely to save someone in such an instance. I mentioned that I would be looking at further enhancements when I had the time. Steve thanked me again and asked if I ever needed anything from him to just ask. I thanked him for the offer and said that I would keep it in mind, while immediately filing it away to be forgotten as quickly as possible. Jessica happened to come into the break room while I was eating, and quickly turned around and headed back out. I decided that I would be best served by going back to my workshop and finishing up the tent. Getting set up with the Salt and everything that would be left, I had the tent back onto the table to get today¡¯s portion of the tent enchantment done. The runes were all done out, the patterns of the fabric were stitched together, and the canopy frame was ready. I started the meditation for the purpose of enchantment, and suddenly the energy that I was pushing towards it started to go wild. My essence was going way too strong from the efforts I had performed earlier, and I sent an empathic urge to Rex that I needed guarding. The wrestling with the energies then took the full extent of my focus and threatened to fail a few times throughout the four hours I was working away at this enhancement. I was going through the salt so much faster than I had expected and the salt was flowing into the canopy frame and canvas so much quicker than I was prepared to have it happen. I even felt it tearing at the foundations of my body, threatening to break me apart and suck me in if I failed to control this. Luckily, I managed to hold the energy overload stable after this and found that the tent was almost fully enchanted. It would be done with tomorrow¡¯s work and sealing of the ritual. I dried some sweat from my brow and realized that this was a bit more intense than I had been planning. I was going to have to apologize to Steve, that it was going to take me a bit more to be ready for the next tent that I made. I got up and went to the door to the workshop, before opening it in, and seeing Rex standing guard outside of it. I told Rex in Draconic that the work for the day was over and Rex proudly told me in Draconic that Jessica had given him a fish. Not knowing what really to say to that, I thanked him for guarding me, and Bob came out of his office to see me giving Rex a good scratch underneath his long chin. Bob asked if everything was okay, and I sighed, saying that the exertion I might have had earlier might have given me a bit of trouble, but I got through it okay. I added that I might need to reconsider the timeframe to get some of the further enhancements done, but that I would still work on getting the shop more secure first. Bob asked me if there was anything that I could make that might make the task easier for me. I thought about it briefly and noted that there were definitely items that would improve the chances of success, some of them cheaper to make than others. Bob said that it might be a good idea for me to get those done first, to make sure that it is easier to get other things done. I agreed that it might be wiser but then offered up that I really needed to reference what could be made for both circumstances. I asked Bob to please apologize to Steve, that it might take me a bit more than three weeks to get everything done for his version of the tent. Bob said that he would clear things up with Steve and the others, and that I should probably head directly home. I agreed with Bob¡¯s assessment and apologized again for making a mess of things. Bob told me that I didn¡¯t have to worry about it, that since I had been injured dealing with some of the thugs that were scoping out his place, the lease that he can do is give me an easy day tomorrow, especially since I had done all of the rifles that were on the docket this week. I sighed and smiled, knowing that at least the job was done. I thanked him, got Rex ready to escape again, and hit him with a Vanish before letting him out again. I got on my bike and headed back to the hotel to get a bite to eat, and some rest for the night. When I got back to the hotel, Amber was back as the bartender, and thanked me for dealing with the thugs when she had time in between serving other guests. I told her it was no problem, but that the bar staff should keep my number handy in case something like that happens again. Amber said that she would pass it onto the other bartenders, and that I didn¡¯t need to worry about food or drink for the rest of my time here. I shrugged and said that it was all being added to the room bill, and that was covered, so keep charging it out as normal. I finished my meal and headed up to my room. Rex was already waiting on the balcony, and I let him in. I thought about what I would need to get done to make me more successful in my endeavors and realized that I had encountered some items that would be beneficial to me in the past, and that it wouldn¡¯t be all that difficult to recreate here, as long as the fabrication wasn¡¯t that terrible. I put it on my list of things to do before I headed to bed. The day seemed long than it really needed to, and I wasn¡¯t expecting tomorrow to be any better. Rex curled up on the bed at the foot, and I got everything mended and ready for tomorrow. Day 15 Friday, June 15, 2018, 10:00 PM Norfolk When the morning came, I let Rex out as I had the previous days and started getting my things ready for a brand-new day, where the sun is high. The birds were singing, and I called out to Rex that he shouldn¡¯t attack any on the way to the river. Rex did a spin and continued on flying towards his fishing grounds. I got my stuff into the ¡°haversack¡± and got it on and my bike ready before heading down to the elevator to the restaurant. At breakfast, there were some new people there, including a somewhat corpulent businessman, who had been slightly standoffish to others. That was until he started choking on an overly large piece of food that he had stuffed in his gullet. I immediately jumped up as someone mentioned that he was choking. I got behind the man, and performed the maneuver needed to dislodge the material blocking his windpipe. Having saved the man from choking and dying, I cautioned him to take smaller bites after I verified that he would be okay, and then headed out to do my checks in the area. There wasn¡¯t anyone lurking around work, or down any of the alleys that I managed to make my way through, so I got to work and got let in by Doug. I greeted him and then went to my workshop and remembered that I had finished up the rifles yesterday. I cleaned up the workshop and got ready for finishing up the tent. Once the room was done and ready, I went to go talk to Bob. Bob was in his office, talking to Steve. I knocked on the door, and Bob invited me in. Bob told me that he was just explaining to Steve what the issue was. I offered up that I would gladly explain if it would help. Steve listened to me as I explained that the tent just seemed to be a bit beyond me at the moment, to be able to reliably make another one. Steve asked me if I could tell him what the issue was and I told him that the issue seemed to be more of an issue with the extradimensional pocket that was created than anything else, and that it might take me a bit more time to be able to make something like that again. Steve asked if I could make something that wasn¡¯t ¡°extradimensional¡±, and I told him that I could look into options, but that I needed to know if he was good with something that would be worn normally. Steve looked at me oddly and I waved it off before I told him that I would figure out other options and let him know what it might take. Steve seemed a bit more upbeat about it and I apologized before asking Bob if he had anything that he¡¯d like me to focus on before I did research on the additional security for the shop? Bob told me that it would be fine, and that it would be an easy day otherwise. I thanked him and headed back to my workshop, before getting the tent up on the table to finish the enchantment off. It was a tense three hours, but I got all of the enchantments solidified and the tent was now my magical item, and my new hidden workshop. Deciding on getting my studies done quickly as well, I cast my Page-bound Epiphany to try to get some idea for what I can do for the security for this shop. My spell referenced seven different ideas, of which I thought about a multi-layered approach, consisting of a Warding Bell, Hole of Hiding, Missing Chamber, Invisible Helper, Wondrous Absence, Chamber of Safety, and a Guardian Statue, which I copied over to a blank book. To make these items, I was going to need to make one or two items to make my chances that much greater, but these items I already knew of, and wouldn¡¯t be that difficult to complete. I packaged up the canopy, fitting it inside the center section of my haversack, and decided to check on the possibilities for different tents for Steve and the others. Firing up another of my Page-bound Epiphany spells, I got the following items as options: Cloak of Shelter, Daern¡¯s Instant Tent, Personal Oasis, Rod of Security, Rod of Splendor, Survival Pouch, and a Travel Cloak. I copied these over to the same blank book, even though some of them were not even options, and I was ready to talk to Bob, and Steve if he was there as well. I went to Bob¡¯s office, and he was there with someone in uniform, so I assumed that this was the ¡°Seal Team¡± representative and went to the break room. Steve happened to be there, and I asked him if he had a few minutes to talk about options. Steve perked up and asked what I might have for him for options. I cleared my throat and said that there were maybe five options that I could get references for, and each had positives and negatives, including time and likely capability of manufacture. I asked him what order he would like them in, and Steve sighed and said that he would like the most likely first. I referenced my written documents and started with the description of the Travel Cloak. His eyes seemed to light up when I discussed it, especially when I mentioned everything that it did. He asked me why this would be easier than the other one, and I offered up that it didn¡¯t create a large area, and that it didn¡¯t really have a lot of effect for something worn. I contrasted this first cloak with the Cloak of Shelter, where while it doesn¡¯t provide food, water, or other benefits, it transforms to a four-person tent, and on command, becomes a stone lodge. Daern¡¯s Instant Tent, on the other hand, is more taxing than the Travel Cloak, but less than the Cloak of Shelter, even though it becomes a big tent. It still only creates the tent and what would be normally inside. The Survival Pouch would be the most difficult for me to manufacture currently, as there are a lot of different possibilities that it can do, and I would need a LOT more research. Finally, the most difficult and dangerous would be the Personal Oasis, which doesn¡¯t make a lot of sense, but is functional even in the harshest of deserts. Steve asked me my recommendation, and I shrugged, saying that I thought that the Travel Cloak would be the easiest, and thus the easiest for me to work in to the schedule, but it would require him to find an over-coat or poncho that he wanted to be enchanted, as it would be best for him to find the best item for me to modify. It would need to be the same way for the Cloak of Shelter. I added that if he was confident that he wanted one of the non-worn items, it would take a bit more effort to find the proper receptacle to hold the magic. Steve asked if there was any issue with wearing the item frequently, and I shook my head, but noted that I would try to decrease any detectable magical aura on it, to prevent it from being detected by someone else. Steve said that he¡¯d go with the ¡°Travel Cloak¡± option but would like to know if he could make some modifications. I asked him what kind of modifications he would like. He asked if he could change what the flask made to beer. I thought for a minute, and I said that I could make it into wine or mead, but right now, beer was outside of my bailiwick, for arcane reasons. Steve said that he¡¯d prefer to try the mead before saying yes to that. I did some math and asked if he had access to thirty-two gallons of water, that I can convert it right now. Steve looked at me blank faced and asked if I could really just make thirty-two gallons of mead a day. I shook my head, saying that this was in no way correct. I clarified that right now, if I had to push it, I could make two-hundred and eighty-eight gallons of mediocre wine or mead a day. Steve looked at me oddly, very confused, and muttered out that I could do this, and I was working here, while shaking his head. Bob came into the break room then, with an exceedingly large smile on his face, walking over to the two of us, until he noticed the look of despair on Steve¡¯s face. He asked Steve what was wrong, and Steve said that nothing makes sense, and that he just learned that I could change water into wine, at massive quantities, but I was foolish enough to work here. I clarified that this wasn¡¯t high quality wine, in any way, and that the benefit it gives to focusing and noticing things was limited to about an hour and change after I cast the spell. Bob looked at me horrified, and asked if this was true. I sputtered that I had never partaken in this at work, and that the last time I had made so much, I had left it at the former safehouse that had been burnt down. Steve looked at me and said that the people who broke in probably got so drunk that they accidentally set the fire. I didn¡¯t think about that and admitted as such. Bob asked if it was possible to try some. I looked around and grabbed a gallon of distilled water from the storage area, and focused my intent on it, turning it to the equivalent of a house red. I grabbed another gallon and turned it into the equivalent of a house white. Finally, I grabbed the last one, and converted it to a gallon of mead. Bob asked me if it was safe, and I shrugged, noting that I never had a problem with it. Bob again closed down the shop for lunch and got the other two, Doug and Jessica, to come down to try the different drinks. This was a very informal workplace, or maybe Bob was just happy because he had just gotten a big check from the military. The drinks were a mixed bag, and when the other two came to understand that I had made them, there was some consternation. Jessica was muttering that I could heal and turn water into wine. Doug was silent, and Bob and Steve looked at her with a dawning rationalization on their faces. I asked everyone what was wrong, and Bob told me that their religious icon had healed people, turned water into wine, and changed bread to fish and multiplied the quantity. I held up my hands, realizing what had been inferred, and exclaimed that I was in no way claiming to be a holy person or the representative of a deity. I had no means of making fish from bread, that I could not bring back the dead, or that I was in any way casting aspersions or doubt on that deific representative. Jessica perked up, and looked to Bob, Steve, and Doug, before saying that there was proof that it could be done. I backed up, and reminded them that I wasn¡¯t from this world, and that my magic had come from me, whereas their savior had been divinely gifted with their power. Bob put a hand on my shoulder and told me and everyone that he knew that I wasn¡¯t trying to claim to be a servant of the divine, and that Jessica was right to, that since it could be seen to be done, even through other methods, it lent credence to the event having occurred back then. Doug looked up and asked if I thought that he might have been from my world. I shook my head fervently, saying that there were no rumors or legends of this having occurred, and that there would have been legends of my world here. Bob put his hand on Doug¡¯s shoulder and said that it was obvious that I wasn¡¯t denigrating their savior or anything, but that Jessica did bring up a valid point, that this being able to be done now, only validates that someone could do that with divine empowerment. Doug looked a little shell shocked and I told them all that I was sorry that I had not spent enough time learning about the religions here. Bob asked me what I would have done differently. I shrugged and replied that I might have played down the amount of wine or mead that I could make at one time. Bob asked me how much I could do at a maximum at one time. I offered up that I didn¡¯t believe that I would ever be able to do more than eighty gallons at once. Bob perked up and pointed out to Doug that it was six clay barrels of twenty to thirty gallons each, and that I couldn¡¯t ever do that much at the same time. I cleared my throat and specified that NO ONE from my world could make more than ninety or so gallons at once, so likely half, or less. Doug perked up a little, and took a careful sip of the red wine, and said that this one wasn¡¯t all that terrible, kind of like a basic table wine. The taste-testing continued, for a few minutes until after a bit, Bob took me to the side and asked what the cause was for me to even create the alcohol. I quietly told Bob that I had done the research on a few things, and that since I didn¡¯t want to disrupt him while he was talking with the military person, that I had also done research into the different tent options, and I had run into Steve while he was in the breakroom.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Bob asked me how explaining the tent options would have brought this up. I caught the gist of what Bob needed, and told him the brief recount of what each of the tent options did, and what they could be considered, along with how much they would effectively "run" in the salt equivalent. Bob looked at me a little perplexed and asked how long it might take me to make one of those cloaks, the kind where they make the water and "trail rations". I puzzled it out in my head, and said that for a worst case scenario, I could make one in two days, maybe one a day if there are not any issues and I focus ONLY on making them. I added that these items would be best done tailored to the person in particular, that this might ensure that they only take a day each. Bob asked if I might consider something like this and I shrugged, noting that I really didn''t feel the pull for just making more and more items of magic that can be traced back to me. It meant that I could be tracked easier with the resonance from them, and that anyone that was substantially more powerful than I was would be a threat to everyone around me. Bob looked upset and I headed off his next line of questioning, I offered up that the effects that I was already granting to the rifles would not be really traceable beyond someone finding out which store or place of business the rifles were repair/tuned at on their end, that the magic that I had used dissipated very shortly after the spell took effect, so the enhancements can''t be dispelled, won''t go away in a anti-magic zone, and will not provide resonance to track me with. Bob thought for a minute and asked if the same could be said for any magical protections that I gave to the business. I looked him in the eye and told him that if someone was looking for me in this establishment, and was doing so by investing LARGE fields of magic, that they would possibly be scared off by the vast quantity of spells and workings that I might do on this place, and that if they are already here, then it wouldn''t matter much if they know that I am here, as if they are looking for me here, they almost certainly already know that i am here. I then went on to have Bob sit down with me and I explained all of the different options that I had discovered with my investigations into different security based items that I could effect for this store and the people in it. I started out by explaining that the best thing would be to get the grounds covered in the effects of the "Warding Bell". I went on to explain to him all that it did, including how the people that are designated as safe are unaffected by it. I went on with informing him how it could be set up to function without anyone even here, assuming the addition of the "Invisible Helper" in addition to other things like the "Guardian Statue." Bob asked me to give my best estimate on everything, and write it up for him, and that he would look it over to see what he wanted done, considering how much I was going to charge. I looked at him confused, and noted that I was doing all of this to help keep him and my coworkers safe, that the most that I would look at remuneration for this would be just what I made as a daily wage, adding that I wasn''t trying to get rich off of what I was doing. Bob seemed a little taken aback by that and sheepishly reiterated that it would help if I presented him with a full write-up of what I was planning and what it would take to do it. I offered up that I can figure out a few different packages, and if he likes, he can pick what all we go with. Bob seemed to be cheered up with that, and then shifted the discussion back to the tents, and mentioned that it might be a good usage of my time to study up on the Deities and Religions of this world, to prevent any more faux pas. I thanked him for his insight, and asked if he would want to help me with what I just finished today. Bob looked at me curiously and asked what I meant. I told him that I had finished with the tent that I had made for the storage unit that I had gotten, and that since I had already gotten a storage unit, I was going to go set it up after work today. Bob thought about it, and said that it would probably be better if he didn''t, as that would be one more secret that someone else could get out of him. I nodded, and said that this was probably much wiser than anything I could think of. I thanked him for his wisdom and said that I would have it done by the end of the day. Bob acknowledged my response and clapped me on the shoulder before going to smooth things over with everyone else. I went back to my workshop and decided to expend my last usage of Page-Bound Epiphany to get a very short treatise on as many of the various religions of this world that I could, knowing that I would need to focus on each one individually later. Even with that limitation, I didn''t get a complete list, just the major ones and their larger denominations. This was something that I would have to spend a LOT of time on studying. I finished off the workday by setting up the proposals for everything I had talked with Bob about and that I had an inkling to do for the store, as well as giving some specifics for the tents, in case Bob was interested in that. I dropped it off at Bob¡¯s office at the end of the day and headed back to the breakroom to check on the others. The mead and two types of wine were gone, and the break room was empty. I checked Doug¡¯s workshop and it was empty as well. I went to the front of the store and no one was there either, and the front door was locked. I checked the firing range and it was empty. I wondered if I was the last person here, and headed out to the employee parking lot. The only person still here was Bob, who was in his SUV, apparently sleeping. I got my bike, locked up everything, and headed over to Bob¡¯s SUV and knocked on the window. Bob woke up and smiled, rolling down the window to let me know that everyone else had left a few minutes ago, but he didn¡¯t really see the need in bothering me. I asked him how bad the situation was, and Bob told me that they would have the weekend to come to terms with everything. I apologized for making life more difficult for him and that I would leave if it made things easier for him. Bob shook his head, saying that in a worst case scenario, he¡¯d just find a way to have me outside the company, as this enhancement work is WAY too profitable to be left on the wayside. I thanked Bob for his honesty, and told him that I would be heading out for the day, and that I¡¯d be back Monday. Bob nodded, and told me that he hoped I¡¯d have a good weekend. He also offered that we¡¯d get the check from the Seal Team probably Monday or Tuesday, once they confirm receipt and verify that the guns are the same. I thanked him and told him that I had left the proposal on his desk, and that he could let me know if I was going to start with that or just go back to servicing rifles and pistols in the interim. Bob acknowledged it and said that he¡¯d grab the proposal and read it over the weekend, and let me know first thing. We parted with another wish of a good weekend towards each other and I headed out of the company parking lot while Bob went to lock up the building. I rode around for a bit to get an idea of the area, and then made my way to my storage unit. Once I got there, the large, ten foot by fifteen foot unit was still bare, but would not be for long. I had a quick thought, and focused a tiny bit of magic around the latch, where I put a permanent image of the latch being closed over the storage unit latch. It would only really be obvious when the gate was open, but that wouldn¡¯t be a frequent thing. I shut the gate behind me and pulled out an item that I ever so rarely used, my Ioun Torch. I had seen that when the light switch is flicked on from the outside, it shows a light. I didn¡¯t want to deal with that right now, someone dropping by and inspecting why the light is on but the gate is closed, so I figured that I could use my Ioun Torch. I set up the tent, making it a ten minute experience, but a fairly organized one at that. I had set the tent up in the back ten feet of the storage unit, so that I could put up an illusion of boxes and what not ahead of it to keep people from getting too focused on it. Checking out the interior, it was indeed a thirty foot by thirty foot pavilion inside, with three smaller rooms in the back. It was very spartan right now, but I would be handling that with magic and the like, over time. For now, I just left it set up and decided that this would be my new base of operations, at least until I found a more secure area. I¡¯d still use the hotel, at least for the rest of my time available, but for now, I dropped off everything that I did not need on a daily basis. I figured that I would keep one of the three ¡°bedrooms¡± for my own bedroom, one would currently be for my excess gear, and the other side would have a spare bedroom for any ¡°guests¡± that I might have to hide. The large, open area in the front, a twenty by thirty area, would have to be a combination work area, receiving area, and planning area, at least until I figured out something better. ¡°My¡± room would be the first to get set up with proper gear, but there was going to be a lot of conversion going on over time. With everything sorted out, I started out with setting up my Alchemical set and my Firearm set, and started getting them prepped by the animated tools to be cleaned and ready for any action that I might need in the future. I dallied around until it was MUCH later than normal, and I was only heading back to the hotel after nine pm. Fortunately, I saw the group of four Painkillers lurking in an alleyway by the hotel and sent a thought to Rex that I might need his assistance. I keyed up a Vanish spell on myself and snuck up close enough to be in position for an impactful first strike. I picked out who I figured would be in charge, quietly uttered my Oath of anonymity, invoked my Haste spell, and readied myself for the first shot. I started out with a round being fired off by what looked like the head guy, which ricocheted into another one. This dropped the first target and wounded the second. I finished off that second target with a quick hit with a bit of boost to it. The thugs remaining opened fire on me, with me firing in response to the second shot and deflecting it. The first round however, managed to open up a gash on my side. This armor wasn¡¯t doing much for me in this realm. I focused on the target that I had deflected, dropping them with a calculated strike to a vital area, not enough to kill, but enough to get them out of the fight. That left one gang member left, who I shot at with a quick hit, who fired back at me with another glancing hit. Taking one final aim, with the last remaining round in my revolver, I shot the last Painkiller and dropped them. Doing a quick assessment on all of them, I bound the wounds of all of them, and quickly extracted the bullets that I had fired into them. Cleaning up all of my blood quickly, and gathering up all of their ¡°valuable items¡± that I kept (cash and jewelry), I healed myself up and provided minor healing to each of them in the minimum for stabilization and decreasing the effectiveness of figuring out the bullets from the wounds. I quickly Vanished again, using up my last remaining spell, and got away from the area to get into the hotel quickly. I changed my attire via my kote, got into a booth in the restaurant, without having been seated, and cancelled my oath of anonymity after cleaning my clothing and wounds of blood with Prestidigitation. The bartender, Amber, noticed me and ¡°knew¡± to get me a burger and had a shot delivered to my table, with a knowing look. I thanked the waitress and had my drink and some bread while I waited for my meal. After ten minutes or so, I saw a pair of the town guards come in and question Amber. I overheard her tell them that no one recently came into the restaurant, since the gunshots came out. I thanked her silently in my mind before those ¡°cops¡± left. When Amber had a break in drink requests, she came over to my table and gave me a knowing look. I thanked her for her covering for me, and she shushed me, saying that she was sorry that it took so long to get my meal to me. She asked me if I thought that it would be over now. I shrugged, and told her that it would likely not, but that I could use whatever information that she could get for me going forward. Amber said that she would and went back to the bar while I finished my meal. I thanked her again while I headed up to my room, and she waved me off. Up in my hotel room, Rex was chilling on the bed already. I was kind of confused about how he got in, but left it for today. I got into the shower and enjoyed the relaxation aspect of the hot water. I added at least one of these to my mental checklist for my storage center. Day 16 Saturday, June 16, 2018, 8:00 PM Norfolk I woke up feeling a bit better than I had when I had gone to sleep last night. A night of rest helped with the remaining wounds. I took a LONG shower, massaging my muscles and getting the pain worked out from the grazings that I had gotten from the bullets. Getting out of the shower, I saw that Rex was awake and pacing around. I asked him how he had gotten in last night and he told me that the balcony door was unlocked when he got up to the balcony at the end of the day. I snapped to attention and immediately summoned a Sift spell to look for any signs that someone had been in the room. Thanks to a heavy attention to detail, I saw that someone had searched through my room, someone VERY good at hiding their traces. I only managed to find a single red hair that had seemed to have almost been suspiciously left for me to find. This was a calling card for me to know that I was being watched. This means that I will HAVE to up my timeline. I opened up the balcony door for Rex, before indicating to him that we would probably be moving to the storage unit sometime in the next week, or at the very least, the week after. Rex nodded and I informed him that I would work on making him a few items to help him get into the storage unit easier. I had a few ideas for what I could make for him, and also myself, that could help get us in. I was also on a decreased timeline to get the items made for the storage unit. Sighing, I got myself dressed and got my bike ready for another day of driving and getting everything ready for whatever I can do to get all of this done. I went down to the buffet breakfast, and was treated really nicely by the staff. I guess that I was helping to keep them safe in some way. It also means that me being here is also somewhat of a draw for this. I covertly asked one of them if there was anyone who worked here who was a redhead, showing her the long singular red hair. The worker said that there was no one here who had quite that shade of hair, and offered up that it was possible that it was just a former resident of that room. I took that answer for what it really was, since I had done a thorough scouring of the room when I got in with Prestidigitation, I knew that it wasn¡¯t there before I left for work that first day. Since that first morning, I had let Rex out through the Balcony door, and every day since then, as I had locked the Balcony door on the way out. Someone had been inside my room, and might have left any number of methods of monitoring in the room. They could obviously know of Rex and I was very happy that I didn¡¯t think I did anything special when I had gotten in last night. I realized that I needed to keep up the pretense of using the room, which included having Rex in there with me. All of this was just to note that I needed to ensure that my storage unit room would be completed as soon as possible. I finished up my breakfast and I went to head out for a quick trip, picking up four bags of salt, two of which went into the central cavity of the backpack, one was split into the two side cavities, and the last bag was placed in my regular backpack, before taking everything back to the storage unit. I opened up the unit, quickly checking the unit with another Sift spell. No one had been here yet, at least. I transferred the salt to the unit and then I tried to figure out how much more I would need to get Rex his way into the storage unit quickly. Running up the math, I figured that I would need another forty pounds at least, and if I needed forty, there was no point in not getting as many as I could. I went back to that store, and went to look to see what I could do in the way of mass carrying, and realized that I would need to get more than just what my backpack could carry eventually. Or I was just going to have to make some more of these Hefty Haversacks and style them as saddlebags, or whatever the appropriate term would be here. I went back to the hardware store where I had gotten the salt, and bought another four bags. This time, the cashier asked me if I would just like it delivered to an address. I shrugged, and said that I¡¯d consider this going forward, but that it would have to be during the week, as the drop off can¡¯t be done during the weekend. The cashier nodded and said that he could understand that. I thanked him, got a few beef jerky bags, a pair of smaller dog collars, and a drink, and headed outside to load up everything into my bags. I got onto my bike and pedaled my way back to the storage unit. Shutting the gate after I got back into the unit, I took all of the Salt into my dimensionally expanded tent, and started making the items that would be Rex¡¯s entry into the storage unit. Loading everything up, I decided that I would need to reference some of the manuals throughout this world to see if there was anything that I could take from this world. Using Page-Bound Epiphany, the spell reacted oddly, and came back in some very technical jargon about cross dimensionality and convergences. I happened upon a hint that showed me exactly what I needed after getting the study materials. I stitched the runes into the collars, and got them ready for imbuement. The magic almost IMMEDIATELY soaked into the collars. Maybe this realm is just that much more receptive to dimensional magic, or maybe it is the extradimensional aspect in the tent, but it barely took an hour for the magic to set into the wraps. Using the extra time that I had allotted, I enhanced my boots to be masterwork and they changed to have a split toe aesthetic with a thinner, yet enhanced, sole. I started on enchanting them immediately, to try to ¡°strike while the iron is hot, so to speak¡±. Working off of the same diagrams and designs, I stitched in the Runes and set up the salt diagrams in the tent¡¯s main central area. Again, the salt damn near flowed into the boots. At about five in the evening, I was done with all of the enchanting, and my boots would provide just what I needed to get into the storage unit, so I decided to go out on a tour through the area. Before leaving the storage unit, but outside the extradimensional area, I decided to invoke my Eyes of the City spell. The first six seconds didn¡¯t show me much of anything new, unfortunately. Then I got a full immersion into the area of Norfolk, seeing people talk about how the Painkillers had another four people rounded up and in the hospital, before getting charged with disturbing the peace, drug possession with intent to sell, firearm possession by a felon, and a few other crimes. There was talk about some kind of vigilante in green armor who had been the one to jump four of them. I knew that I would have to get a good getup, and that I also would need to get my armor up. Maybe I¡¯ll work to get a bulletproof version of this armor, and get it designed like my current armor. The next thing I saw was people talking about some super strong gang member who was working with the Warlocks, and that they were also working on taking out the Painkillers and Pepsi Boys, on their end. I sighed internally, noticing that I was causing a bit of problems for them, but if I got rid of the Painkillers, I could then move on to the other gangs. I couldn¡¯t glean much more from that assessment, but then the scene changed again, where I was in a bar, where some people in plain clothes, but with the bearing of military members talked about how there was a large ice block that was out in the middle of the sea, but no one was being allowed mess with it. The military members, who seemed to be naval personnel from the clues that I could ascertain, were talking about how the ice block seemed to be getting closer and closer to Norfolk, despite not being able to do anything to or about it. I set that aside for future dealings as there wasn¡¯t much I could do while it was still out to sea.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The next scene that I got was of some other obviously military people talking about how the contractor who had been in the restricted sector and had left in a hurry with that sheaf of paper. One was claiming that the way that they got out was really weird and that they had managed to get out without tripping and doors or alarms on the way out. Transferring my focus to the next set of sights that I could see, there was a group of what looked like young toughs talking about the status of the Pepsi Gang, and how they would likely not be able to make their way out of this, and that they might end up having to leave the area. Useful information, but nothing that I could do anything about. If it was a gang, and they were responsible for drug trafficking and assaults, then they had no place in my new city. The second to last sight that I got was of a group of people talking about how they had heard that there was a guy around who had been causing problems in a different area of town, who was causing people to fall catatonic when he spoke, but he wasn¡¯t being all that pushy about using his powers in large areas. There wasn¡¯t any more information than that about this guy, so I figured that he was fairly new in the area. Finally, I got my final vision of the area and there was a group of women in a shelter of some sort talking about how they were there because of an abusive boyfriend, another because of an abusive husband. For a minute of compressed time, I figured that there might be a miss here, as I couldn¡¯t do much about this unless I got more individual information, at least until the third woman in the circle talked about how she was here because her abusive ex-boyfriend was dead, and that she was worried that the woman with bladed nails would come for her. My eyes opened to the world around me, after less than a minute of true time had passed. Nothing from what I had gotten from the visions I had undertaken had given me anything to go off of, so I just decided to spend a few hours just riding around on my bicycle and getting a handle on different areas and ensuring that I didn¡¯t see any gang related activity. Maybe everyone was sleeping off a banger from last night, or preparing for one tonight. Stopping by the hardware store once more, I picked up a bunch of thin wood, pipe, a shower head, a dial, a bucket, a toilet seat, various sets of tools, and a trio of five gallon water tanks, and into my haversack they went after I ducked into an alleyway. This would give me the resources that I would need to make the next portion of my buildup for the storage unit. I dropped everything off in the storage unit, using my new Dimensional Stride Boots to get into the storage unit without opening the gate. I set up everything to be worked on while the night went on, inside of the tent, to make sure that there was no noise that would be overheard. I animated a bunch of carpentry tools to create the shower setup that I was planning, as well as the commode that would need to be made. WIth three water tanks, I could keep everything separated for the purposes of not mixing waters, and the focus on ensuring cleanliness and safety. Finishing up for the day, I left the extradimensional portion of the storage unit, and used my new boots again to hop out of the unit again with my bike. I left the unit area and headed back to the hotel, with no issues. When I got to the restaurant, Amber was the bartender again, and had me set up with an order fairly quickly. The bar was a bit busy, but she took the time to fold up a newspaper that had something that looked a bit like a drawing of me on the front page with the line, ¡°Verdigris Vigilante?¡± underneath it, and place it next to me with a side look. I got my steak and drink, and ate without issue. I got a thought of annoyance from Rex as I was eating, but that just meant that I thought that he couldn¡¯t get into the room from the balcony. That could change as of tonight, but I¡¯d have to talk to him to let him know that it wasn¡¯t the best idea. After a bit more, I caught a glance from Amber who looked at me with a bit of humor. I finished up my meal and Amber, noticing that I was about to leave, came over to see if I needed another drink. I thanked her, and got what she told me was a ¡°Long Island Iced Tea¡±. It was quite a bit stronger than the whiskey I was used to, but at least it wasn¡¯t as syrupy as the soda that I drank here. I thanked her and Amber said that she should be thanking me, as it seemed that I was getting quite the following. I stood to get up, a little more shaky on my feet, and Amber told me that I shouldn¡¯t forget my newspaper. I took the paper with me, along with the bike, and cautiously checked into my room, quickly doing a Sift cantrip to see if there was any sign of inspection. Bringing the bike in, I locked the door behind me before I looked around the room cautiously. I went to the balcony door, and opened it up, making a scene of Rex stinking and needing a bath. Rex followed me in protesting a little in Draconic that he had bathed in the river after catching enough fish for his day. Once inside the bathroom, I did a Sift cantrip again, specifically looking for any cameras or listening items. I found that there was an audio recorder in the room, but no visual recorders that I could find in the bathroom. I got the hot water going for Rex and made it extra steamy, so that the glass from the shower was getting fogged. I talked to Rex and asked him details about his day, while I wrote out that there was something that was listening to us, but that couldn¡¯t see us, and that Rex should continue to tell me about his day and I would give him the message that he needed written on the fog. Rex nodded and continued to tell me, in Draconic, that he had caught all of these fishes over the past few days. I wrote about how I had made him an item that would help him get into the storage unit, and that it worked from visualization and a command world, which I told him We finished up the bath, which had Rex smelling good, and I dried him off before getting him out of the bathroom, for me to get my own shower. Another day and my wounds would be completely healed as of tonight. I was planning on working on the surrounding area, to try to get some information that can be passed over to the local town guard to see if they can get some more gang members dealt with. If I needed to defeat each one individually, then I would, but it would be better if I could get the ¡°cops¡± to do their job. Finishing off my day, I cast Eyes of the City repeatedly, and I focused for the next three and a half minutes, and opened myself to ALL of the rumors and stories about the different factions and villains in the area. Unfortunately, there wasn¡¯t anything much on the three individuals that I had the most concern for, the knife-nailed woman, the sonorous man, or the muscle-bound mafioso. Mostly the rumors for the Painkillers, the Pepsi Boys, and the Warlocks and where their local haunts were. I wrote down everything that I had seen, separated into different categories for each gang. Looking over all of my information, I figured that the Pepsi Boys or the Painkillers would be the best bet, as dealing with motorcycles wasn¡¯t something I was prepared to do just yet. I got everything I could ready for the next day, and finished off with repeatedly casting Page-Bound Epiphany along with Amanuensis to keep the information that I would get. My decision to focus was on the subject of yesterday¡¯s debacle, that of getting more information about the religions and faiths of this world. Interestingly enough, there were some deities of the same name or at least similar names, here as there were for some far off areas in my old home-world. I had copied everything that I could, and studied everything that I had found, just to make sure that I was not in any way infringing on any prophet or religious teaching for those not of the faith. Mainly I didn¡¯t want to insult anyone anymore. I yawned and got myself into bed, getting ready to rest for tomorrow. Day 17 Sunday, June 17, 2018, 8:00 PM Norfolk I started out the day with going through my normal prospects of preparing all of my gear and letting Rex out. On the balcony, I whispered to him to remember that he can only use it a total of five times a day, and only twenty feet per instance. Rex acknowledged my reminder and said that he¡¯d be extra careful today. I looked around and got everything ready for my upcoming day. As I laid in bed, waiting to fall asleep last night, I figured that I needed to go against the Pepsi Boys for one reason more than any other. I needed to vary up where and when I attacked, to make sure that they didn¡¯t get a grasp on where I was yet. I didn¡¯t mind the whole ¡°verdigris vigilante¡± aspect, as since my armor was already green, it just worked for what I was trying to accomplish, creating a shadow for the enemies of the good folk to tilt after. It certainly doesn¡¯t hurt that my normal clothing is closer to grey than green. With everything prepared, I made my way to the storage unit, opening up the gate and making my way in, closing it after me. I saw that portions of the craft work were complete, but that there wasn¡¯t anything that was finished yet. I started up the animation of the tools again, working to finish up on the frame and everything for the shower first. I was having the tools work more diligently than fast, to ensure that everything was high enough quality for enchanting. I¡¯ll work on carving in the runes for the final work when it is ready. It was going to be more of a work of art, unfortunately, but maybe it will add to the kitsch of it. With everything ready, and it was still early in the morning, I decided to utilize something that I had rarely used since I got here, but I figured that it was worth it for today. I opened myself up to the vagaries of chance, to see what the fates had for me today in my Augury, first with an attack right now against the Warlocks. I got such a strong ¡°WOE¡± response that I almost fell over. I repeated the request for the universe to give me a sign about attacking the Painkillers right now. Strangely, I got no response, not a ¡°Weal¡±, ¡°Woe¡±, or a ¡°Weal and Woe¡±. I¡¯ll have to look into that a bit later. Finally, I asked the same question for the Pepsi Boys, and came up with a ¡°Weal and Woe¡±. Well, that was my best result, so I left the bike in my storage unit, locked it up after me, and then snuck rapidly to the center of Huntersville, where I had discerned that a den happened to be. Rushing to get there, I made it there with a quick stop to get the last thing that I needed in less than twenty minutes. It was barely seven in the morning, and I was preparing for my first actual drug den bust in this world, at least, and definitely my first solo event. I got my new piece of equipment out, a short bow and a quiver full of arrows designed to knock out rather than kill. I wanted to vary up my attacks, just to make sure that people didn¡¯t get too much of a handle on my tactics. I got to the building, and hid while I prepared. I changed all of my gear to be a green with Prestidigitation, that would be something for them to focus on when I attacked. I also prepared a green handkerchief mask to go over my face, before uttering my Oath of Anonymity. The last thing I did before slipping into the building, was activate my Haste Spell. Sneaking into the first room, I saw that these thugs were armed with what I recognized as shotguns, held low while they paced. I listened while the three of them talked to each other about how they needed to make a big push to try to get land back from the Painkillers, before the one guarding a door bent over to light a cigarette and the other two went to go check out windows for any personnel attacking. When they separated to go check different corners, I took on my stance, lined up my shot and fired with my blunted arrow and aimed to bounce from the first to the second, focusing more on the second than the first. I dropped both of them with one shot, lined up so that it bounced off of one thug¡¯s temple and struck the solar plexus of the one lighting up his cigarette. I lined up my second arrow to the third thug that was now facing away from me and the other two, striking him in the back of the head, knocking him forward into a wall and bouncing him off of it, knocking him out and silly. I got the three of them tied up and gagged quickly, not bothering to check their gear or treasure, just making sure that they can¡¯t get free or fire at me if they wake up. I went to the door and realized that I could really use something that would allow me to look through walls right now. Sighing internally, I listened to the door for a few seconds and realized I could make out at least nine different voices, with at least five of them being whiny female ones that sounded a bit slurred, maybe drug abuse. I heard one voice say something about taking these two girls and not wanting to be interrupted for the next two hours. I heard a door shut and I heard one male voice quietly say something to the effect of, ¡°yeah, more like five minutes.¡± Thinking quickly, I utilized a Vanish spell to get some short term invisibility, and looked through the keyhole. I saw a small pipe of some sort on a table about ten feet away from me. I lifted it up telekinetically with the Prestidigitation that I still had access to, and slowly moved it away from the door. The thugs, who had all likely partook of the substance in the pipe, were transfixed by the floating implement. Lining up another shot, while still invisible, I carefully moved to line up my shot to deflect again, while missing the young women who were around the men at the same time. I was still invisible, so the three of them were not prepared at all for my attack. With my first attack, I lined it up and knocked out the two thugs while the furthest was still not paying attention, until I slammed him in the head with my second arrow. This time, the thug wasn¡¯t knocked out like the previous trio and I figured that maybe the bow was losing its pull? The remaining thug, and all of the girls turned to look at me as I faded into view, a viridian vision of vengeful violence. The girls all tried to say something, with bits coming from them like, ¡°oh look, it¡¯s the versa, vega, virgo, virgin, vigilante.¡± They looked back to the thug who passed out from the secondary effect of my strike. I looked at them all and wished that I had a way to clean them out of the drugs that they had coursing through their systems, but the best I could do is tell them to scram before ¡°the Viridian Vigilante¡± takes offense to drug abuse and likely prostitution. The girls looked at me dumbfounded, but stayed in their seats. I grabbed some rope and hogtied all of the thugs in this room before lining them up in front of the door, with the other three as well. I lined up all six and got into position. I summoned up an Unseen Servant to help me move them, and then while I was getting ready, moved over to the door. I walked over to the women, and told them that they should probably call the cops now. One of the girls did so, and I Vanished again, before walking over to the area behind the line of hogtied thugs. My Unseen Servant knocked on the door incessantly. After about twelve seconds of time, while my Vanish spell was ticking down, the big bad came over and opened up the door violently, and got to briefly see his gang all hogtied and trussed up in front of him, before he got treated to a pair of arrows heading his way and my form fading in to view, as he faded from consciousness. With him dealt with, and everyone else already unconscious, I checked over the two girls in the room. They were okay, but undressed. I noted that they probably only had a few minutes until the police got here, so if they didn''t want to be seen au naturel, they should probably get dressed. I walked carefully back out of the building and stealthily waited a distance away. It was less than a minute before the police showed up. They walked up to the drug house carefully and were in there for a few minutes before more police showed up and escorted the addicted young women out. Then a pair of vans showed up and the entirety of the gang were taken by the police. I hoped that it would be something that would stick, at least for a little while. I made my way back to the storage unit the long way around, hiding and keeping out of the line of sight of any police men. Back in the storage unit, I reflected on what I had done and how it might improve our city. I then updated all of my notes in the main area of the different gangs and powers in the area. This was a blow for the Pepsi Boys, but I didn¡¯t know if it would be enough to take them out of the running. With a fair amount of time left for the day, I decided to spend it on getting my storage unit supplies increased. Bookshelves, books, a set of more tools, and more food items. I didn¡¯t have access to power like I did before, and didn¡¯t want to worry about open flames and what that might do in the storage unit, so I resolved to research a spell when I developed the ability to do so, or just make an item that could cook it magically. Then again, if I go with the field ration box that I was thinking about making, then I could just use it. But there were a fair amount of things that I just could not acquire in a way to get it back to the storage unit on my own.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. But the summation of what I can get there, I did and set up as I could in the tent¡¯s main area. I also found a collapsible cot that I can still fit into my handy haversack, and acquired that as well. It would work for my use until I got something better at least, or got the materials to make something better back to the storage unit somehow. Making my way back to the storage unit, I had the idea that I should probably take a nap or something, and sent Rex a mental thought of homesickness, and the feelings of being in the tent. I kept myself in the non-expanded area of the storage unit until I got confirmation that he was on his way. Then I moved into the tent, setting up more things, including a place to nap. I had used a fair amount of spells, and while I knew that I couldn¡¯t regain the ones spent until after I slept for a full eight hours, I wouldn¡¯t have time for that, and then I got the idea to think about ways to get around this issue. Rex made it back okay and without asking, curled up onto my chest as we slept on the cot that I had acquired. When I woke up, I realized that I had crossed another plateau. I felt that some knowledge had actually been taken from me, and realized that I no longer had the knowledge of the spell to conduct short dimensional jumps, but I gained some more defensive spells that will help with combat going forward. Hopefully, the boots will provide what I need for the dimensional jumps. I also realized that I had gained quite a bit better with my combat forms, and a few of them had been advanced as well. I also had garnered a much greater understanding of the manufacture of magical items. I got up and started setting aside what I knew I would need going forward and writing down everything that I would need to get to make my needed items going forward. I got up out of the cot, after Rex got off of me, and went over to my empty planning area. I didn¡¯t have a desk yet, but I did have the space assigned, so I set my updates for the gang status and what I was going to have to plan next. Warlocks were going to have to be hit, there was just no two ways about it. I was going to have to plan it though, they were much more reinforced from what I knew. Going off of what I would need, and what I already had, I decided to ¡°burn¡± some spells on getting as much information as I could on the Warlocks. Using both Page-Bound Epiphany and Eyes of the City, to try to get more information about the motorcycle gang and what I could expect. It was the last rumor that I heard while doing the Eyes of the City spell that uncovered a name for one of the mysterious ¡°supers¡±, Francis Noche. A name gave me at least enough information to Scry, assuming that I can find a mirror that will fulfill my needs. Heading into the other section of the storage unit, I popped open my S.H.I.E.L.D. phone and gave it a look. Coincidentally, there was a shop here in Norfolk that carried the item. Even more coincidentally, it was open on Sundays, and still open after I woke up. This was really straining credibility, to the point that I was wondering IF a Deity of some kind was looking for me to put an end to the predation of these gangs upon the populace. I let Rex know where I was heading, and then made my way to the store, the ¡°Antique Treasures¡±. The clerk was a bit nondescript, maybe too nondescript, as I showed them what I was looking for from their ¡°website¡±. They were a bit snooty with me when they went off to check, asking me why I couldn¡¯t just order it online like a normal person. I looked around while I was waiting for them to come back with the mirror. I found that they had quite a fair amount of older books that looked to have been previously enjoyed, so I grabbed up a stack of those, and then found a very nice portable table that actually would fit inside my haversack! I added it to my purchases along with the extra books and the mirror. Another three hundred bucks down, paid in cash because I thought that it would be better for this individual vendor. I grabbed everything and brought it out to my bike, careful to put my new stock of items in the haversack away from prying eyes. Getting back to the bike, I started my way back to the storage unit, being mindful of traffic and getting back without any further issue. Rex was still curled up on the cot, so I got the table set up along with the mirror, and did some more research via spells for whatever I could find for one, Francis Noche. I invoked the Eyes of the CIty along with focusing on this individual ¡°Francis Noche¡±, and finally managed to get a picture on the last ¡°rumor¡± that I was able to track down. This gave me a picture of him, his name, and also the name of a group called ¡°The Slicing Talons¡±. I decided to use my Page-Bound Epiphany spell to get whatever further information I could get on this ¡°Francis Noche¡± and the ¡°Slicing Talons¡± that he apparently had been included in the roster. There was some fairly interesting information regarding how they (the Slicing Talons) had been members of a team that had gone against Coulson and his team. There were some other names mentioned, Wendell Levi, David Angar, and Karla Faye Gideon among them, as members of the team known as the Slicing Talons. There was enough of a background that I felt that I could TRY to do a Scrying on him. Surprisingly enough, I succeeded, and managed to get some rather riveting images of him in the mirror, of him not doing much but just sitting at a table and drinking. I managed to get my phone out and take some pictures and video of him, hopefully Jonathan will be willing to get me more information on him specifically. I nodded to myself as I took down as much information as I could, his location description (a rundown tavern of some sort), Modelo Especial on the label for the beer in front of him, and a bit more information of all of the inner details of the bar as well. I wondered if Noche had known that he was being observed, but I figured that he didn¡¯t because he never actually glanced at the Scrying aperture the whole time. I didn¡¯t see any of the tell tale signs of someone knowing that they were being observed either, so maybe he is just so intellectually dim that he didn¡¯t have anything much going on mentally at the time anyway. Not having all that much I can do with what I have to get more information on Mr. Francis Noche, I decided to get any more information that I could get on the world religions, going further to transfer everything that I got from the further Page-Bound Epiphany spells and I started having the documents be designated by the individual religion. It was a LOT of basic information for the different faiths that I was researching but it would give me at least a fairly good overall starting point for when I needed to do further research into any of them for any specific reason. Building a dossier for all of the different religions and philosophies is going to take a LARGE amount of shelf-space, so I need to keep it brief, until maybe I make a blessed book or something like that. Maybe I¡¯ll need to find a way to modify my spells to work on this new ¡°electronic media¡±, but for that I will definitely be needing some sort of power source in this area, and it is going to HAVE to be magical, as I can¡¯t trust the single light access outside of the tent. By the time that I was done with the Scrying, Rex had woken up and wandered over to the area that I had made my ¡°office¡±. With him awake, I felt no shame in having more of the furniture and other things be assembled and books shelved. I let him read over my notes for Francis Noche and the Slicing Talons while I went to look at my new gear. There wasn¡¯t anything much that I could do except any of my cantrips. I made LIBERAL usage of the Stick Cantrip to put some of the pictures that I had drawn of the various people, along with my notes for the various gangs. I used Prestidigitation to clean everything that I could with it, got everything ready, and noticed that I was feeling a bit peckish. I informed Rex that I was going to be locking up the Storage Unit for the night, and heading back to the hotel. Rex yawned and indicated that he was going to make his way to the hotel after dark, that he¡¯d let me know if he was trapped. I nodded and asked him why he didn¡¯t want to fish anymore today and he yawned and told me that fishing was always best in the morning. I shrugged, and emptied out my Haversack of everything that I would not need for the night and tomorrow morning, and with a glance to him looking at some of the easier books, I shut the gate to the storage unit and locked it. I made my way to the hotel without too much of an issue and hit the bar/restaurant. The bartender Amber who had been there the previous night wasn¡¯t on staff tonight, but the one who was there noticed me coming in and had a steak and a whiskey delivered to my table without me even having to place an order. While I ate, the television that was easiest in my line of sight was changed to be the ¡°local evening news¡±. I immediately recognized the background that the ¡°reporter on the scene¡± was at. It was the drug den that I had ¡°busted¡± earlier. The reporter was there with one of the local police, and asking questions about the event. The police representative was playing it pretty close to the vest, but it was obvious that they didn¡¯t have much of a clue who the ¡°Viridian Vigilante¡± was, nor even have a good description of who it was, only that he seemed to use a homemade bow and arrow set, modified to not lethally damage the criminals that were found in the drug den. The policeman reiterated that it wasn¡¯t the policy of the Norfolk Police Department to allow or encourage vigilantes of any kind. It was obvious that this was a line that was delivered as required, but there seemed to be little heart in it. When the news put up the best recreation they could of this ¡°Viridian Vigilante¡±, the bartender gave me a knowing look, and I tried to look as innocent as I could as I finished my meal. I finished up my drink after the meal and retreated to the sanctity of my temporary room. I thought about how I would be dealing with the gangs going forward, and what it would take to get rid of them in large enough numbers to get the city safe again. I know I have a long way to go, but I think that with some of the things that I got access to today, I might have a bit more of a chance. I used Prestidigitation to clean up all of my room, after doing another Sift search to see if there was anything I was missing. With no signs of anything out of order, I decided to retire for the night. Curtis Zine Day 18 Monday, June 18, 2018, 9:30 PM Norfolk I woke up wondering if I was actually going to be able to make a difference here in the long run. I know that the police are trying to cover the city as best that they can, and while I am new to this city and world, I know that there are areas where they just can¡¯t get things done. I got up at the crack of dawn again and I sent an empathic feeling of standing in the warmth of the sunrise to Rex, while I got feelings of success back from him. I judged that as Rex having successfully gotten out of the storage unit. I got my bike ready for the day and brought it down with me as I headed to the restaurant for breakfast. I shouldn¡¯t have been surprised at all that there was a newspaper at the table that I frequented where the cover story was another drawing, poorly rendered of course, of the ¡°Viridian Vigilante.¡± I ate my breakfast, and again, the staff were more than happy to be responsive to any of my ¡°needs¡± while I was there. I thanked the staff and made my way out to the streets of Norfolk, seeing the business of another day just starting for many of the people living in the area. Having a fair amount of time, before I was planning on heading in to work, I sent Jonathan the pictures and the video of the person, Francis Noche, and asked if he had any information about him, or any of the other Slicing Talons. Jonathan texted me back almost immediately, asking me when and where I got that picture. Obviously, the video had not been opened yet, as the video showed the total of the Scrying attempt, including the mirror that it was recorded from. Before I could finish writing out a text, Jonathan texted me a second time, asking if that was seriously a video taken of a Scrying spell used in the mirror. I responded in the affirmative, that yes it was, but that I had just recently gotten enough information about JUST Francis Noche to try without having an extremely small chance of success. Jonathan asked if I had a few minutes before work to drop by and talk. I told him that I had to be at work by ten, but that I would drop by his work as soon as possible. I headed in the direction of the building where he worked, and waited there. For about an hour, I was there not doing anything, until around quarter after eight, when a car with some police in it showed up. I was careful to not make any fast moves while the cops got out of their car and walked up to me. The first line of questioning was based around asking me where I was staying and why I was casing the business. I honestly told them that I was staying at the Wyndham Garden Hotel, and that I was waiting for a person to get here who texted me. They demanded that I produce an ID, and I provided them my S.H.I.E.L.D. phone/ID. The Police looked at the phone, looked back at me, and then one of them went back to their car. I stayed with my bike and the other cop while the one in the car was doing something. The cop who stayed with me asked if I knew Captain America or any of the Avengers. I shook my head and said that I had only been brought in to S.H.I.E.L.D. after the Blip. The cop nodded and asked what I did for S.H.I.E.L.D. to which I shrugged, saying that I was basically a researcher for information. The cop in the car came back, handed me my phone, and apologized for the inconvenience. The one who came back gave me a bit of a side eye before he got his partner to head back to the car. Shortly after that, Jonathan showed up and asked me what I had done to get the cops involved. I shrugged, saying that I was just waiting here, and they thought that I was ¡°casing¡± the place. Jonathan escorted me into his office and I followed. He then flicked some switch where I heard a very low static noise. It wasn¡¯t too annoying or anything but it was on the edge of my senses. I snapped back when he said my name a second time and asked me what information I had. I pulled out my journal of notes for the ¡°supers¡± that I had found that were in the area. Jonathan balked a bit when he saw everything that I had amassed, and asked me how I had gotten all of this information. I offered up that much of the information about them being in the area was basically rumors that I witnessed on the street, where the additional information that I received was from written documentation from somewhere in the world. Jonathan asked about the picture and video, and I noted that I had used Scrying for the first time last night. Jonathan asked if I could give him an updated list of my capabilities, which I wrote down for him immediately. Jonathan looked it over and noted the spells of Displacement and Haste. He asked me how many people I thought that I could affect with the Haste Spell. I thought it over, and told him that I might be able to affect up to eight people right now. Jonathan nodded and offered up that this seemed to be a vast improvement over where I was when I got here. I nodded and told him that I had been growing fairly well in experience and power since getting here, and hopefully, I would be able to continue to do so. Jonathan asked me what my next steps were, and I told him that I would likely be gearing up to go after the Warlocks and Francis Noche. Jonathan noted that I might need to be careful, because the Slicing Talons were last seen taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, so it might be an issue with HYDRA. I asked him to get me as much information as he could regarding all of them, as well as any gear that he could get me that would allow me to help take them down, non-lethally. Jonathan said that he would work to find whatever he could, but resources were still tight, which brought him to the subject of the pallet of salt I had requested, and if I wanted it delivered to my storage unit, to which I agreed. Jonathan shook my hand, and I told him that I had one more question for him, asking him if he could track down who¡¯s hair this was, handing him half of the single strand of hair. Jonathan said that he¡¯d try to have some portion of the Agency check it out, but it would probably be on the back-burner. He then asked me why, and I told him that it belonged to someone who had been in my hotel room, and that my hotel room was rigged for monitoring. Jonathan said that the room was rigged for monitoring for the occupants safety, in case an assassin tries to kill the occupant, and that some individual showing up in one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. safe hotels means that the world still might have that kind of person out there. I thanked him for the information and told him that I was going to be moving out of the Hotel as soon as I have a residence set up again. Jonathan nodded and said that he would update my file, and that he¡¯d stay in touch. We said goodbye and I started my trek towards work. There were hints that it was going to be a good start to the week. When I got there at a half-past nine Doug was there and welcomed me in, asking me if I had a productive weekend. I told him that I did, and that I hoped that his weekend was as well. Doug looked at me oddly for a minute, before looking around outside and then letting the door shut behind me. I picked up that Doug was looking for Rex so I told him that Rex would be out fishing and relaxing in the sunlight today. Doug escorted me to the break room, where Bob, Steve, and Jessica were already waiting. I looked at everyone¡¯s face to get a read on the room and it didn¡¯t seem like it was absolutely terrible. There was a copy of the weekend newspaper on the table, the one with the artist¡¯s interpretation of the ¡°Veridian Vigilante¡±. There were a bit of questioning looks at me, and I nodded silently. Bob looked at me a bit worried and asked if this would come back to the store. I told him that I did not use anything that could be tracked back, and that I never went directly here to anywhere. Steve asked if I really just used a homemade bow and arrow set to take them out and I replied that I had to find a way to decrease the lethality of my attack capability, so that I wasn¡¯t stooping to their level. I got varying degrees of understanding from each of them when I told them that. I offered up that if they felt that they were not safe with me around, I would gladly finish up the security upgrades that I had proposed before leaving for other pastures. Bob stood up and said that they were not looking to get rid of me at all, that they were looking to discuss the upgrades that I was offering. I nodded and sat down with them as Doug did before Doug patted me on the back with congratulations for taking down a drug den. We talked for a bit and I offered up that I would be glad to work on anything that was decided, but that I would like to work on something for myself to make sure that I could successfully complete anything on the list. Bob asked me how long that should take, and I told him that if I focused, I could likely get it done in two days, maybe less, and that I wouldn¡¯t accept any pay for the days that I was working on it. Bob asked if I had any other requirements for the items and I told him that it would require some specific items, including some ship¡¯s bell for the Warding Bell defense, a statue for the Guardian Statue defense, and some rope ladders for the Holes of Hiding. Bob nodded, and asked if I had any requirements for any of the tents, to which I said that if it was the cloak, it would be best if we got a company coat for each person. Bob said that that was a decent idea, and that he would look to order each of those items. I offered up that I would have some cleaning operations done for the building today, just that it would be good to know if we have people in those areas. Bob said that he was greenlighting me to make the item I needed to get better to make items easier. I thanked everyone for the consideration and headed into my workshop and immediately cast Page-Bound Epiphany for any hints I could get on making the headband in a form that I was okay with, and immediately got two VERY opposing descriptions on what to do. I needed to make a headband, but I didn¡¯t want to be wearing an obvious headband all day, and one of these references was saying that it couldn¡¯t be done, and the other was specifying that it could. I buckled down and started to compare both of them. After a few minutes, I came up with the inspiration that I needed, and got the first hundred pounds of salt that I needed for the ritual, and set it out as runes and patterns. I pulled out the expandable darkwood pole that I keep in my Bandolier and sawed off a half-inch long segment, before returning the slightly shorter pole back into its designated place. Working diligently, I whittled the disc down into a pair of carved darkwood ear cuffs, complete with the runes that would be needed to be installed into them. I set them on the table and started the enhancement process. Again, like another time, these things seemed to SOAK up both the salt and the magic. When the time came, I added another hundred and so pounds more of salt to the table. After a little under four hours, they were done. I immediately put them on and thought about Rex. I thought it might be useful for him, but then again, it might be more useful for him to have something that increases his perceptiveness, so I held off on planning anything else. I did start work on the engraving stylus that would be needed for the bell, to have employees name¡¯s be registered along the inside of the rim. I wouldn¡¯t be able to enchant it today, but I figured that I could easily get the thing prepared. I willed the ear cuffs to disappear, and headed out to join up with the crew for lunch. It was a sandwich day and I quickly found the one that had been ordered for me in advance, a french dip again. Bob was there and asked me how the preparation project was going. I told him that I was positive that it would be a success, but that I wouldn¡¯t know for certain until mid-day tomorrow. Bob nodded and said that he was thinking about the magical defenses that I was proposing to add, and wanted to know how we would be dealing with adding and subtracting trusted employees. I told him that I was working on that already, and that I would get him that information once I was certain I had made it correctly, but signs were good. Bob asked me to sit down and said he had something to talk about. I did so and Bob asked me if I could use a firearm that was updated. I nodded and said that I had been considering it, since it was obvious that they were much stronger here than the one I had made, but on the flip side, it was more of a worry that I didn¡¯t want to get closer to killing someone. Bob told me that there was certainly an option for both of those, as long as I could find a way to ensure that all of the projectiles are collected like they had been previously. I had a brainstorm about something that I could enchant to do what would be needed easier, and it shouldn¡¯t even cost that much to make. Bob must have noticed me having my mind in another place, because he waited a bit before he asked me to head to his office, when I was done with my lunch. I finished up my meal, got a drink, and headed to Bob¡¯s office, knocking on his door when I got there. Bob told me to come in and to shut the door behind me. I did so and waited for the other shoe to drop.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Bob offered up some apologies that the military deal wasn¡¯t going to be as profitable as we had hoped, and that my share was going to be less than I had expected. I asked him if it was going to cover everything that was already purchased and Bob stopped me and said that it would definitely cover it, it is just that it isn¡¯t as profitable as I would have been expecting. I sighed with relief, figuring that at least I had some degree of coverage for what had already been expended. I asked Bob how much we were going to be getting and Bob told me that my share would be close to three thousand dollars, after tax. I thought about it, and while it would have been a week solid of not being able to pursue information or leads, at least it was pay for what I needed. Bob asked me the big question after that, if I was willing to continue to make more for the military at that rate. I told him that it should be okay, and that as long as the salt and everything else is provided for, I should be good with it. Then he clarified that this was after the salt for both myself and the rifles was purchased. I sighed in relief, and said that I would definitely be okay with that. Before Bob issued out the pay, he asked again if I would be interested in more modern weapons that could do the non-lethal damage that I was looking to do. I told him that I certainly was, and that I would be interested in buying them if he knew where I could get some. Bob asked me to follow him and got up to go to the front of the store. Before heading out to the front, we stopped and Bob said that he¡¯d prefer to keep this off camera, if at all possible. I readily agreed, and he handed me a few long boxes to carry out, and grabbed some smaller boxes for himself. Bob told me before we hit the floor, that we were changing out inventory, and boxing up three guns each. He told me which three I was boxing and then we headed out. I diligently did as I was informed and brought the three rifles back to the back room without comment or anything not resembling professionalism. When I headed back into the main workshop area, Doug was there and took the three rifle boxes, along with Bob and his three boxes of pistols, indicating that he¡¯d be cleaning and preparing two each of these rifles and pistols for shipment, and that I¡¯d get the last one of each. I wasn¡¯t that understanding of what was going on, until Doug handed me one of the three to go work on in my shop. When I got to my workshop, there was a nearly identical rifle and pistol there, along with a note that said that I was to clean and service the two items that were in here, package them in the appropriate boxes, and bring them back to Doug after I was done with enhancing the other two. So I set up my Prestidigitation, and quickly disassembled the four firearms, before cleaning, oiling, and reassembling them again. With the two that were to be shipped out done, I put the two that I was apparently getting over at the table for the Masterwork Transformation spells that they would need to get. I started the first spell on the rifle, and got the enhancing going. Going through both of the spells, the rifle and the pistol were improved in functionality. After the two hours, and change, I put the rifle and the pistol into the appropriate pouches in my Endless Bandolier, and grabbed the boxes to go back to Doug¡¯s workspace. Three of the four firearms were completed by Doug, and I could tell that he was going slow on purpose, so it wouldn¡¯t be that suspicious for me only having two done. I presented the two boxes, to which Doug opened them both up, supposedly to check how I had done, before thanking me and telling me to go check in with Bob. I acknowledged him and headed to Bob¡¯s office, who was waiting for me. Bob had me shut the door and sit down, saying that he¡¯d be giving me five hundred rounds of special ammunition for this, and the two firearms in addition to the three thousand dollars that my share would be. I thanked him greatly, and he handed me a brick of ammunition. The box of ammunition had, ¡°.22lr Home Defense Rubber Bullets.¡± written on it. I pocketed it and thanked him greatly. Bob then sent the money over to my account through S.H.I.E.L.D. and stood up to shake my hand. Bob asked me what I could do for the defenses with what was left with the salt that we had. I thought for a minute before I told him that I could set up the breakroom¡¯s hiding spot and the protection from detection for that room. I added that I was fairly certain that I could make both of those without issue starting tomorrow, if he desired. Bob thought about it for a minute and said that he¡¯d get the rest of the salt ordered to be delivered on a weekly basis from other companies so that it isn¡¯t tracked that we are purchasing that amount. I offered up that if he contacts Jonathan, he could probably arrange it so that it doesn¡¯t flag anything. Bob said that he would consider it, and I headed over to get everything packed up for the day. When I got back to the room, I produced both my revolver and my new pistol, and swapped the weapon crystal over to the pistol, before returning both to the Bandolier. I left work at the end of the day, and in the parking lot, I told Bob that I¡¯d work on whatever he wanted to get started tomorrow morning. Bob thought about it, and asked if I could get a very detailed description of what I could do with the cloaks tomorrow, as he wanted to make sure that he¡¯d get the right coats for the company. I told him that I¡¯d get him the description first thing. We all headed out and I went, via a circuitous means, to the Storage Unit where Rex was already there. I asked him if he had left, and he replied in Draconic that he had briefly, but came back to continue reading. He had been reading the lower level books to try to get a better handle on what he knew how to do from my skills. I congratulated him on learning to read. He told me that since sleeping in the cot, on my belly, yesterday, that he had learned to read Common and Elvish. I congratulated him on his increased knowledge, and then sat down to talk to him, on his level. I asked him, if he had to pick, what he¡¯d prefer to have enhanced, be it Intelligence or Wisdom. Rex asked what each thing would do, and I told him what enhancing each of those would do for him, both for his skills and his natural abilities. I showed Rex the ear cuffs that I had made earlier, and told him that I would be looking to make him something similar, to enhance his own mental capabilities. Rex thanked me and I told him that he had a fair amount of time to think on it, so he can give it full consideration before deciding. I let him go back to reading while I started filling out exactly what was the possibilities with the cloak tents. After a bit, I studied my current notes for the area, and walked out of the tent to summon up the rumors around the area, using Eyes of the City. For my first one, I focused on the Pepsi Boys Gang, to see what the rumors were going around about them. There wasn¡¯t all that much, just a couple of hints that there was a group of three of them were looking to get out of town with their stash to start over in Portsmouth or Newport News. There were also rumors about them seeking out information on whichever gang was going after them. I laughed a bit to myself at that, as it definitely wasn¡¯t a gang that was taking them down. There wasn¡¯t much more than that, but it did give me a location for where I could go to finish them off. My next casting of Eyes of the City I used to focus on the Painkillers Gang. They were too large, and yet too decentralized for me to do much right now. I could possibly get two or three at a time, but they had better numbers and were more spread out with no rumors about any of their bases. I updated everything I could about the Painkillers with what I heard, even if it wasn¡¯t much. There was one hint that there was a ¡°super¡± that was associating with them now, but nothing more than a hint. My third casting of Eyes of the City was used to get more information about the Warlocks Motorcycle Gang. There was a fair amount of information about them seeking to expand into both former Painkiller and Pepsi Boys Gang. There was a bit more about how Francis Noche was basically living the life of a ¡°heavy¡± in the gang, but one that wasn¡¯t being used right now. I noted everything I could for my board and records about the gang and the ¡°Super¡±. I still didn¡¯t have any solid information from the spell or from Jonathan, so I know I was going to push dealing with him off until I can learn more. I resolved to get myself a few black boards or something that I can use to have all of this up. Maybe I can make do with stretched sheets since those are cheap and easy enough to acquire. After enough ruminating, I looked back over the collected information that I had attained, trying to find a through path for what I had learned. I finally decided to use a casting of Eyes of the City on a subject that I had never attempted before, having heard of them from Jonathan earlier. I focused on rumors of HYDRA. Wow, that was a lot of information about things that I did not know about. There were rumors about S.H.I.E.L.D. being infiltrated by HYDRA, rumors about HYDRA being behind people disappearing, rumors about HYDRA agents, and more. The localized rumors about HYDRA were basically focused around the gang activity and attempts to infiltrate governments. There were also some links to the ¡±Supers¡± that were being seeded into gangs for takeovers. There were also some rumors about the HYDRA agents getting into fights with the ¡°Avengers¡± in the past as well. It was getting late and I decided to head out to where the Pepsi Boys were hiding out to get prepared for their escape. Just a block away from the hideout, I hid my bike, and got ready to sneak in. When I was just outside of my entry point, I cast Vanish before I got to the easiest door to access. I quickly cast my Oath of Anonymity to take on the form of my ¡°vigilante¡± costume, where everything was the green color. I then quickly cast Cat¡¯s Grace, Mirror Image, Haste, and finally Displacement before opening the door and coming across the group of them. The three of them were not surprised, maybe because they were keyed up on their own drugs. As I rushed in the door, the three of them all stood up. One of them had what I recognized as a high caliber rifle, probably an automatic. That was the one I focused on first, as one of the others had a pistol and the other had a shotgun. I fired two rounds at the guy, the first one aimed to deflect into the one with the hand cannon, since the shotgun wielder was on the other side of the room. Between my two aimed shots, I dropped the first one and wounded the second guy. Then they responded to my assault and fired back at me. The shotgun wielder hit me and all of my Mirror Images at the same time, dismissing them, through some quirk of fate. While I changed focus to deal with the shotgun wielder, I fired off a surprise shot that deflected the pistol of the other one just enough to miss me. I fired off a pair of shots against the shotgun wielder, knowing that I needed to drop him quickly, and succeeded in doing so. The last remaining thug, who had been previously wounded by me from the reflected shot, and had missed, tried to aim again, but the Displacement spell I had going managed to make him miss. Seeing that he was on the ropes, I extended my other hand and focused on him to hit him with my Ultrasonic Ray spell. There was no one else in the building, so I quickly expended some of the charges on my belt to heal, and felt the pellets push back out of the wounds. I quickly used Prestidigitation to collect all of my rubber bullet rounds and the pellets that had struck me, and clean up all of the evidence of my presence here. I used another aspect of the spell to levitate one of the open phones on the table in the room to do the new trick I learned. I texted 911 that there were shots fired at this address, and that it was a suspected drug house. I wiped my fingerprints off of the phone with Prestidigitation and returned it to the table. I picked up another one and sent to 911 that my friend had gotten high and was shooting up the place. I did the same trick with Prestidigitation. Finally, I checked the last phone and it was locked. I opened it up and saw a button to dial 911 and left it on the table before firing off the automatic rifle holding in the first thug¡¯s hand. I cleaned up everything again that could have my blood, DNA, or other evidence with the Prestidigitation and then snuck out of the building back to my bike and hightailed it out of there. I stopped by the storage unit quickly to clean up before heading to the hotel. I stopped off at the restaurant and Amber was at work behind the bar. I stopped off at the bar, and Amber looked at me with an inquisitive eye before I told her a burger, and she sent the order in and got me a shot of whiskey. After a few minutes Amber asked me if I was the reason why a nice police detective had to leave just a few minutes ago. I shrugged and replied back that I was certain that there wasn¡¯t going to be any danger to anyone who responded to something related to me at all, that people just seemed to be knocked out by their own moral turpitudes. Amber nodded along, and then asked me the most off the wall question, asking me if I preferred ¡°Verdigris or Viridian¡±. I thought about it for a minute and decided that Verdigris was more appropriate than Viridian, due to the connection to copper, and alchemy. Amber smiled and stepped away to go get a drink for another customer while I finished up the meal that was brought out. I watched the news on the television by the bar, as it talked about the most recent gangland bust. When I was done with my meal, and watching the news, I headed up to the room. In the elevator, I got a text from Jonathan that said that he¡¯d put in the request for the information release, and was just waiting for the response now. I thanked him in response, and finished my way back up to the room. I Sifted my room, but there wasn¡¯t anything unexpected. I cleaned up everything and mended my clothing. Curtis Zine, Day 19 Tuesday, June 19, 2018, 8:30 PM Norfolk This morning was very calm, with no indication of anything negative to happen for the day. I was glad that it seemed like it was going to be forecasting a good day. Rex was still in his self imposed relocation to the storage unit, so it was just me. I got myself ready, ensuring that everything was in peak condition and showed no signs of any conflict the night before. My Mending cantrip certainly gets a workout here. I got my bike ready and headed downstairs to get breakfast. There was a table ready for me as soon as I got out of the elevator, set with coffee and a newspaper with the headline ¡°Verdigris Vigilante Vexes Villains¡± that showed the outside of the building where the drug den for the Pepsi Boys was located last night. I sighed and started my morning meal, much to the amusement of the staff working breakfast. I picked up the newspaper and there was a note that just said thank you underneath it. I pocketed the note surreptitiously quickly scanned the article, noting that the police still apparently had no leads for the identity of the vigilante, but that the drug bust was one of the biggest that there had ever been in the city. I didn¡¯t see anything that would have been a reason to worry, so I put it to the back of my mind. After breakfast, I headed to the Storage Unit and checked in on Rex, who was not in the unit. I quickly realized that Rex was going to need a restroom of some sort, so I put it higher on my list, along with the food and water supplies that would be needed for long term habitation. I sighed, and decided that there was not much stopping me, so I headed in to work early. Riding my electric bike down the streets, there was a feeling of vacancy and calm. Maybe after a weekend and follow-up Monday assault by the authorities on the criminal element, the area was calmer for a bit. Bob was already at work, this early in the morning, and opened up the door for me to get in, welcoming me. I moved my bike into the nice cubby hole that I had worked it into, and then followed Bob to his office as he asked me to talk for a bit. Bob asked me about last night, and I told him all about the raid and how it went down. Bob listened intently to me until I was finished, and asked me if I was happy with the progress. I told him that it was a good start, but that the other gangs and organizations would need to be routed out as well. Bob offered up that he could look into getting armor and I told him that I would look into it with the next big commission. Bob nodded and asked if I had gotten the description of those cloaks done, which I immediately produced for him. He looked over the description and then he pulled up a picture on his monitor of a fairly decent sized poncho, from some company named ¡°Charles River Apparel¡±. Bob asked me if I thought that these would be suitably high enough quality. I looked it over and decided on a Parka that they had on the site. Bob looked at it, and asked me why this one specifically, and I referenced the interior pocket, and longer length, to maximize the water deflection capabilities. Bob nodded, and asked me if I was going to be up for cleaning guns today, at least until I was certain that the upgrade that I had made was certain to ¡°take¡±. I told him that I would be fine doing so, and asked him if he was okay with me going all out for the cleaning. He looked at me for a bit, and said told me that since Doug wasn¡¯t here, I could take over his work, and that as long as he had a video of me going in to the workshop, remove all of the guns to my workshop, and bringing them back at the end of the day, he didn¡¯t care as long as they were cleaned to his specification. I readily agreed, and told Bob that I would get whatever was needed done in a very quick period. He thanked me and said that he was considering marketing my cleaning technique and asked if I had any thoughts. I jokingly told him that the only cantrips that didn¡¯t ever come up when I did this was either Ultrasonic Ray, Amanuensis, or Oath of Anonymity, and even then I could see a reason for Amanuensis, if I was copying over technical manuals for a specific firearm that I had never dealt with in the past. Bob smiled, and said that he could call it ¡°Ultrasonic Cleaning¡± and say that he can offer it with a 24 hour window. I laughed and said that it wouldn¡¯t even take me two minutes to do it and Bob told me that he was giving it some lee-way for if I needed to be away or something. I shrugged and told him that I was fine with him claiming it however he wanted, as long as it didn¡¯t get him in trouble. Bob said that he¡¯d start hawking it to the police department to see if they would bite on it for a fair price. I shrugged and set off to go pick up the rack of firearms and start them cleaning in my workshop. I thought about it and started away on the almost meditative aspect of disassembling, cleaning, lubricating, and reassembling the firearms with Animate Tools, Prestidigitation, and Mending as needed to complete the job for every firearm on the rack. It was less than two hours of constant work until I was done with the entire rack of firearms. When I was done, I thought about what was remaining for the work that could be done for the storage unit fairly simply, and thought about getting Rex his source of water and whatnot for the room. I briefly left the workshop after thinking for the rest of that two hour block, before leaving my workshop to talk to Bob. Bob asked me if the rifles were done already. I smiled and told him that they were and he laughed to himself before asking me if I had a minute to talk with him about the defense properties that I had suggested. I came in and sat down and waited for him to bring up what he wanted to discuss. Bob cleared his throat and asked if I had any further thoughts about any of the defenses. I thought about it, politely asked to get the sheet, looked if back over, and consciously removed two of the items from the list, before telling him that this total was the maximum of what should be done, that we can actually decrease it further by requiring everyone to have a specific item on them, but that would prevent people from being able to access it in emergencies when they might not have access to the item. Bob asked me about the Warding bell aspect. I told him that the Warding Bell would keep people from moving around on their own, whereas the security areas would prevent workers from actively going into the security areas. Bob thought about it, and asked if those ¡°Hole of Hiding¡± (air quotes included) areas were really safe. I told him that they were extradimensional, so they would technically be safe from just about everything, and that if we keep the people having their ponchos with them, that they could reasonably be safe until they end up inundated with feces after months of eating and drinking from their area, at least until I find a way to dispose of that kind of material. Bob looked at me, blankly, and asked if I could really build one of these anywhere. I shrugged, and said that I technically could, as long as I had the time and resources. Bob said that if I was willing to do this for others, that he might be able to hire me out to people looking for the ultimate safe rooms. I told him that the problem was that the room didn¡¯t exist until it was invoked, so you can¡¯t store items in there in preparation, and extradimensional items can¡¯t be accessed inside an extradimensional area. Bob asked if a person had one of the cloaks and that Hole of Hiding, if they could really last that long. I told Bob that the person would have food, shelter, and water until they chose to leave the room. Bob asked how much that would cost and I thought about it and asked him what I should provide for the estimate, actual cost, or what the billed cost ¡°should be¡± based on the exchange rate. Bob asked me to provide both, just to get a good idea of what the spread was. I did the math and said that at a price of less than ten dollars per bag of salt, about one hundred and eighty dollars plus the poncho or jacket and the rope/rope ladder at the low end, and more than eighty-five thousand on the high end. Bob whistled at that range and said that the high end was like ten times what a safe room might cost. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. I shrugged and said that it was a safe room that actually didn¡¯t take up any room in the actual building, wouldn¡¯t require special rules or licenses to put in, and were almost guaranteed to not be able to be accessed without an inhabitant¡¯s action. Bob nodded along with my logic, but added that he¡¯d keep it in mind if I ever wanted to just make similar things. Bob told me that he ordered a batch of ten of the ponchos, but that he wouldn¡¯t expect me to enchant every one of them. I nodded and asked Bob what he¡¯d like me to work on for the rest of the day. Bob said that he¡¯d like me to hang around for the rest of the day and let him know if the attempt worked, so that he can work on planning to get the salt ordered. I told him that I would do so, and headed back to my workshop. I quickly pulled off my shoulder guards and put them onto the table and cast a Page-Bound Epiphany to get the information that I would need to get myself a useful item to help me in the instance of another Energy Surge. The suggestions were, to put it politely, were sesquipedalian, and took some quick interpreting to get right. I chiseled in the runes that would be needed and quickly used the salt to get veves and designs into the grainy material. The description I had come across managed to speed up the enchanting process vastly. After just a little after two hours, I was sealing in the magic and putting them back on. I immediately felt more capable of resisting effects against me as well as a gross ability to lift heavier weights, even if it didn¡¯t gain me any more striking power. I blended them back into my appropriate outfit via my magic Items. Slowly but surely, I was gaining gear that would help me with my future. It was just as the ritual was completing that the twenty-four hours elapsed since putting on the ear cuffs. I perked up with the enhanced knowledge in using unique magical items that the ear cuffs brought. It would certainly help with the finalization and sealing of magical items. I left the workshop to go to the breakroom and saw that there wasn¡¯t anyone there. I went out and got a gyro at the place just around the corner. I got back and met up with Bob, and asked him what his next focus was for me, since the items took, and should at least make it possible to get the Warding Bell done. Bob thought a little and asked what kind of chance I gave it of working and I thought about it and guessed that it would likely be at least forty percent. Bob shook his head and said that he¡¯d prefer me to figure out how to make it more likely. I nodded with his assessment and he asked me about the likelihood of success for the Hiding Holes. I shrugged and said that each was at least eighty five percent, possibly up to ninety-five percent. Bob nodded and said that this was a lot more reasonable to put out for it. I agreed with Bob and he said that he had some better ideas about the Holes of Hiding to make them blend in better, and wanted to ask me if I could make it work. He turned his monitor screen around and showed me how he could get some people to frame up what would look like a pull down attic door/ladder. Then he asked if I could make that work. I told him that we¡¯d need to make sure that the ¡°door¡± was no bigger than three by five, but that I didn¡¯t see a good reason not to. I offered up that I could probably do the carpentry work too, if he wanted. Bob perked up when I said that and asked if I had experience woodworking. I shrugged and told him that I had some experience in a lot of fields, but that I wouldn¡¯t grade myself as amazing. I offered up that I should not have any issues ever making normal wooden furniture, hanging regular doors, or installing windows. Going on from there, I figured that I wouldn''t have any problems at all with something like that attic door, only that it might take me a little more time to do it from scratch. Bob offered up that he could just buy the ladders and have me install them if I was fairly certain that I could make them work. I thought about it, and told him that at the very least, if we installed the ladders, and then I added a tiny bit of rope at the top, then the people would just use the rope to get the rest of the way off the ladder and into the space, and it would work that way, if the ladder didn¡¯t. We finished up the plans and the orders that Bob would need to make, before I finished up at the end of the meeting and I headed back into my workshop. I spent the rest of my work day preparing the only item I could for enchantment, the ¡°elven¡± thistledown bedroll I still had from Magnimar. I still contend that the shopkeeper who sold me it was lying that it was made by elves, even if it was already of fine quality. I got it out on my work table and summoned up another Page-Bound Epiphany to get information on what I might need for this item. After another minute of getting the various ¡°recipes¡± for different magical bedrolls and sleeping systems, I found one that I liked, and selected the proper runes to stitch into the material. I pulled out my sewing kit, and used Animate Tools to have them sew the runes into the hem of the bedroll. I also started writing up a list of the different base materials for making the rest of the magic items that I needed. A ¡°pearl¡±, a wooden box, some birch wood planks, a few silver platters, and an orb or something similar. Those in addition to the ¡°shower¡± that I am having made in the unit, should allow most of the facilities to be accomplished. I also would need to figure out the toilet, but I think that there might be an option under ¡°camping¡± and another option for hand cleaning, but I think that I can do that easily enough. Towards the end of the day, I brought all of the firearms back to the main workshop, all having been cleaned, repaired, and oiled, and put them in the finished section. Bob waited until I was done putting everything back, before telling me that he had ordered two of the attic stairs sets, and that they would be here by Friday, and he wanted to know if I would be willing to install them over the weekend. I told him that I would be fine with it, as long as the stuff outside didn¡¯t force my hand. Bob nodded and said that he could understand that. I left on my bike to drive around for a bit before heading to the storage unit. There was absolutely NOTHING going on in Norfolk today. I stopped by another ¡°Antique¡± store called ¡°Mrs. Pinkadot¡¯s¡± and found the majority of that I had figured that I needed earlier in the day, and even met a nice woman by the name of Ryanne Shields, who actually had the wood that was needed as well as some birchwood planks that I could easily use for the enchanted cots that I was going to make for the spare bedroom. The only thing that I did not find, was the ¡°camping toilet¡±, but I knew that I could find that at a different place. When I got to the storage unit, Rex actually was not there. The storage unit was clean and I checked out the interior of the whole thing, and the only issue I found were the piles of books that were placed in the center of the tent area. I didn¡¯t know which ones Rex was done with, so I left them be. I unloaded everything that I had purchased, and set up some Animated Tools to start on the engravings that would be done on the different items I had gotten. I got everything going, and then spent some time using Page-Bound Epiphany and Ears of the City to get a more grounded knowledge of the area and the country that I resided in. I finished up the mass of spell casting by trying to use Scrying on the red hair that I had found. Unfortunately, the attempt was unsuccessful, as all I knew about the person was that they had red hair. Once I at least got a name, I might have more success. I tried to use Scrying on Francis Noche, and got another eight minutes of Francis just sitting in the same bar, drinking and eating, and at one point, he got up, went to the bathroom, relieved himself, and then went back to his table. Not much more information than what I would have had from before. At the end of my time, Rex still had not come back, so I locked up the storage unit behind me and headed back to the Hotel. I got a steak from the restaurant at the hotel and a drink, and ate my meal in peace. There wasn¡¯t much else to say about the day. I headed up to the room and got my gear ready tomorrow. Rex knocked on the balcony door and I let him in. I got into bed and Rex curled up on top of me. Curtis Zine Day 20 Wednesday, June 20, 2018, 8:30 PM Norfolk This morning started off like how it had for any number of days before I had apparently gotten the Nom de Justicier, ¡°Verdigris¡±, with Rex heading out before sunrise and I got ready to head down for breakfast. The newspaper didn¡¯t focus on my extra-diural activities, with the focus being on the tallies going up of people being declared ¡°missing¡± and them all being linked to the ¡°Blip¡±. I quickly scanned this broadsheet and found that this was a worldwide phenomenon. The sheet mentioned that something called the ¡°United Nations¡± was meeting to determine the cause and what can be done about it. I figure that someone at S.H.I.E.L.D. will clue them in on to what they know shortly, but that with the decrease in personnel, it might take a minute. I headed out as normal, shortly after I finished the breakfast, and rode around the city, checking out the old area where the Pepsi Boys were previously located. A little while before I would be heading in to work, I found a trio of the Warlocks starting to speed up to pull up on me. They obviously felt that I was an easy target, but I didn¡¯t think that they knew my other identity, just via my bicycle. I spotted an alleyway up ahead and cast Prestidigitation to get ready. I then rode my bike into an alleyway, a good distance ahead of them, hid my bike, and started up my sequence of spells. I started with Vanish, to get me short term Invisibility. I immediately initiated the Oath of Anonymity, Cat¡¯s Grace, Displacement, and Haste before the trio pulled their bikes up and into the alleyway. I saw them looking around and getting off their bikes with two of them armed with what appeared to be sawn-off shotguns and one armed with a pistol, with chains, knives, or a metal pipe in their other hand. As the Invisibility from my Vanish was ending, I cast Mirror Image, and as I appeared there were five duplicates around me, all shifting oddly in the alleyway. The three bikers looked like they couldn¡¯t believe their eyes when me and the images appeared out of nowhere in front of them. To give them credit, they did react immediately after me, but I did get three shots in before one managed to respond in any way. Unfortunately for them, my shots managed to do a fair amount of damage. My first shot hit the middle one with a sawed off shotgun in the left shoulder, my second one in his right shoulder, knocking them back and out, and deflecting and hitting the one with the colt m1911 in the chest. My third shot hit the same pistol wielder in the chest, knocking the wind out of them and dropping them as well. The final biker, seemingly confused by a) the plethora of multiple copies of the Verdigris Vigilante, b) the fact that they all seem to blur in some way, shape of form, c) the Vigilante seems to be twitching like a meth head, and d) that same set of vigilante images all raised a Beretta, fired, and the shots managed to drop two of his buddies before he could fire a single shot, aimed at the general area of my mass of images, and even managed to get close enough to me to cause one of the images to dissolve. I took aim at the last one, as he seemed to be backing up quickly, and fired off two shots, hitting him twice in the chest, and causing him to fall over backwards and knock himself out. Quickly, I shifted my Prestidigitation to collecting up the five rubber pellets that had been fired in this quick fracas. Since I wasn¡¯t hurt, I checked to make sure that there was no one who was wounded in the crossfire, got my bike, lifted it up, and Vanished to run for a solid twenty four seconds before the Haste effect ended, and I ducked into another alley, so that I wouldn¡¯t pop up out of nowhere in the middle of the street when my Vanish expired. Although the Displacement had already expired while I was invisible, my Mirror Images were still in existence. I didn¡¯t have enough time to wait for the spell to expire before heading to work, so I tried to use some math, and I had no real way to get help from Rex (no way to get a message to him, now that the service that got him messages was lost to the safehouse fire), I decided that I was going to use back roads to get as close as I could, to at least within a quarter of a mile, then I¡¯d pop Vanish again, and speed the rest of the way on the bike. The plan worked well enough, in fact, I was inside the parking lot and at the back door with twelve seconds left to spare before my first casting would expire. I snuck in the back door, put my bike in the usual storage area, and snuck into my workshop quickly, before texting Bob that I had a slight issue, that I was in my workshop, and that I¡¯d show him as soon as he was free. After about thirty seconds, Bob came in to see that I had four copies around me. He shook his head thinking that he was clearing his eyes, and asked if he was drunk or if there were multiples of me. I smiled and told him that it was a defensive spell, to attempt to prevent attackers from hitting me, and that it was set to last for over seventy minutes more unless I could get his simple assistance from him. Bob asked me what I needed him to do and I asked him to attack me with a simple switch until the extra illusions disappeared. Bob asked me why I couldn¡¯t do it myself and I showed how the images shifted ever so slightly to where I could not hit them. I told him that Rex could possibly show up now, but that it would probably take him just as long to get here, as I felt success from him right now, and didn¡¯t want to pull him from that. Bob picked up the switch, and flicked it at me, managing to knock away an image, leaving me with three. Bob laughed as it disappeared, and said that this was fun. He flicked the switch out again, striking another image. He smiled and said that this could be quite cathartic. Bob tried to swing wide and unfortunately missed all of them. He attacked a fourth time and got the second from the last image. Leaving just the image and me, for Bob to figure out when he was swinging. Bob swung the switch a final time and dissolved the image. I thanked him and he asked me if it hurt me at all to have the images disappear. I told him that it didn¡¯t but that if I had been hit, it would have just been a normal hit. I smiled and said that it was better to have some simple switch than a sword or a heavy club swinging away at me. Bob laughed at that and said that he could agree with that. Bob asked me why I had the defensive spell up and I told him that I had been confronted and followed by three of the Warlocks, who tried to jump me in an alleyway that I had ducked in to get away from prying eyes. Bob asked if I had confronted them in my normal clothes, and shook my head, saying that I had activated my Oath of Anonymity to stop others from recognizing me. Bob nodded and said that he hoped that it worked, and worried about my bike being obvious. I admitted that I had not really thought about that, and told him that I would try to figure out a way to work on that in the future. Bob nodded and I asked him if there was any activity going on today. Bob shrugged and said that it looked to be a good business day, but that there wasn¡¯t really a call for my¡­ unique¡­ services yet. Probably just another batch of the ¡°Ultrasonic cleaning¡± if anything. I thanked him and said that I would get on it, whatever Doug wanted to split off with me. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Bob cleared his throat and said that he didn¡¯t know when Doug would be coming back. Bob told me that Doug had called him last night and said that he was having a crisis of faith after the instance with the wine. I held my hands up in apology, and said that I would be more than willing to leave to prevent any dispute with his employees. Bob ran his hand over his head and admitted that he thought this might happen, but he figured that it would be Steve more than Doug. Before I could say anything else, Bob said that the issue was already before us, and me leaving would not solve it, that it was something that Doug would have to come to on his own. I sighed, visibly shirked, and said that I¡¯d go get to work on today¡¯s orders. Bob patted me on the shoulder and thanked me for continuing on. I had an idea as he walked out, but I figured that I would ¡°run the numbers¡± before I even approached Bob with this. I didn¡¯t need to cause any more distress without running things by him first. So, I started my day with getting the racks of rifles, shotguns, and pistols and brought them over to my workshop. It was even more than yesterday, and I assumed it had something to do with decent weather or something like that. I spent the first hour quickly disassembling them, mending them, cleaning them, oiling them, and reassembling them as I had yesterday. With a fair amount of time to kill, while this was going on, I pulled out the four boards that I had prepared to be enchanted for the cots. I used a Page-Bound Epiphany to get instructions on enchanting camping gear like the boards, the shower, the toilet, the purification pearls, the water tank, the field provision box, the platters, and the blankets, knowing that I had already had these instructions in my library at the storage unit, and just didn¡¯t have access to them here. All I had materials for today were the cots, unfortunately, so the shower would have to wait for another day. I quickly got the boards out, as they had already been prepared and carved as needed. I would be doing the whole lot of four of them, as I felt that I should probably be able to get them done quickly. The engineering associated with them was a bit difficult, but it was managed so that it would work, even in an extradimensional area. The salt was heaped upon the table as the four, one foot by two foot, birch wood boards soaked it up. I wondered while I was focusing if I could find a way to concentrate the salt even further to minimize weight, but I put a pin in that for later. After five and a half hours of focus and enchanting, I felt drained and unable to enchant another item for the rest of the day. The four boards were ready, so I brought Bob in to show him, after I got a leftover sandwich from the breakroom. I handed a board to Bob, and told him to visualize a height, and say the command word. He did so, and the board drifted out of his hands, aligned parallel with the ground, and expanded to be four feet by eight feet, as the board unfolded by itself. I told him that the weight limit for the cot was three hundred pounds, and that it would stay at that height until it was dismissed, but that it could not be moved from where it was put, as that would cause the cot to collapse back into its board form. Bob seemed a bit taken aback by this, and asked me how much one of these would run, and then added on both in salt and in currency. I did the math in my head and told him just under fourteen thousand with a direct conversion of gold to cash, or a fifty pound bag of salt, and two hours of work. Bob stared blankly at me for a minute and asked if I had any idea of what this would solve in this world. I shook my head and he told me that he would have killed any number of people to be elevated off the jungle floor four feet when he was in the service. I shrugged and said that I would have been glad to make them, and that I can make up to four a day at that rate. Bob said that this was too important to not bring up to someone in the military, that it was a sleeping system that was comparable to the weight of anything that they had now, required seconds to set up, took up MUCH less room than a cot, and could be set up almost silently. I offered up that I could also make a bedroll that would keep you in good conditions as long as the weather isn¡¯t substantially lower or hotter than normal, and that would also help heal up people who slept in it for a full eight hours. Bob looked at me and asked if he got back in contact with his agent at the Seal Team, if I would be willing to make one of these for each of the sixteen. I told him that I would be glad to make the cots, but that it would take a bit to get them all carved and ready. Bob asked me for the materials and said that he¡¯d get what I needed. I sighed and gave him the number of one foot by two foot birch boards that would be needed, the stain and lacquer, and a set of four carving tool sets, and the salt that would be required. I also added that if he wanted the bedrolls too, I would need sixteen wool bedrolls. He went to his office and brought back a poncho and a woolen blanket and told me that he had been meaning to ask me if this poncho would work for the tents and also if this blanket would work for the bedrolls. I took a look at both of them and figured that the quality would be sufficient for both of them for their assigned rolls and he laughed when I told him. Bob asked me if I would be willing to make a set of four tomorrow, and maybe a blanket the day after tomorrow. I shrugged and said that I would be glad to and said that I could go get the boards today. Bob told me that he would order four of the boards today, and that if the military wasn¡¯t happy with it, that he¡¯d give them out to the people who worked here as gifts. I told him that this sounded like a good idea and told him that each bedroll would be another two bags of salt each as well, and each would be a day¡¯s enchanting. Bob thanked me for another thing to upsell to the military, and I shrugged, saying that it was just another thing that I can do, but that I might need to figure out a way to make more items at once. Bob said that this would probably be a profitable investment for me, long run. I shrugged, saying that getting rich was never a focal point for me. Bob said that he¡¯d get me the lumber by tomorrow morning, and the blankets by Monday. I told him that with the work that would need to be done on the boards, I could probably enchant them on Friday. Bob agreed and said that he¡¯d at least be thankful for a cot that kept him off of the ground for whenever he camped. I nodded and told him that I needed to finish off the day with the firearms, to which Bob agreed and headed back to his office. I finished off the day with the rifles and returned them to the racks for being sent out or picked up the following day, and then said good night to the rest of the crew, before getting my bicycle and leaving. I headed around for a bit before going to the storage unit. I was certain that I wasn¡¯t followed, at least, as I went through a few alleys and down the wrong way down a few one way streets that were empty. When I got there, Rex was in the tent, reading again. I greeted him and asked if he had a productive day, in English. Rex nodded his head, and spoke in Draconic that he had caught many fish. I congratulated him and said that I had something to show him. I took out the four enchanted birch boards and used the command words for each individually, and set up the new ¡°board cots¡±, three in the spare room and one in the bedroom that Rex and I had claimed, to replace the one that I had set up here. I grabbed the ¡°mundane¡± one, collapsed it, put it back in its bag, and put it in the main room in a corner, to be dealt with. I looked over the items left to prepare, and decided on getting the shower and the pearls set up next. Rex claimed one of the board cots and curled up on it. I got everything that I planned to be working on tomorrow and asked Rex if he was going to head back to the Hotel. Rex declined in Draconic and I shrugged, figuring that he could make his way out in the morning. I shut the gate and ¡°locked¡± it, before heading out to the hotel. There wasn¡¯t any danger or attacks on my way there, and I got a decent meal at the restaurant in the hotel. Amber was there and when I got to the bar to get my meal, she indicated that she had heard some interesting news that a group of Warlocks got ambushed by ¡°Verdigris¡±, when they were apparently just driving around before walking down an alleyway, guns drawn, and are now being held on suspicion of gang activity, possession of illegal firearms, possession with intent to distribute for narcotics, and disturbing the peace. I shrugged and said that being in a gang was a dangerous occupation, and that since there were less criminals due to the Blip, it only stands to reason that the remaining criminals would be more likely to get caught. Amber gave me a side eye and a smirk before going off to get someone else a refill. I finished off my meal and my drink before saying good night to Amber and heading up to my room. I did a quick Sift of the room to see if there were any signs of any more infiltrators, found that there was none, and got my stuff ready and clean for the next day. I made sure that the linen was clean and free of any issues and got ready for bed. Curtis Zine, Day 21 Thursday, June 21, 2018, 8:30 PM Norfolk I woke up to an alert from my S.H.I.E.L.D. phone, telling me that I had a text message. It was from Agent May, telling me that I was the only one who would be allowed to know the truth, and that Coulson had disappeared into a portal with L.O.L.A. and the gear that he had arranged, and gave her a goodbye with a smile before leaving. She sent a second message thanking me for everything and reminding me that NO ONE is to know the truth, and that all anyone else will know is that he is dead. I replied back that I accepted these terms and that I was certain that he would do well. Agent May replied that she would be getting back involved with the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D., but that she would keep me in mind if I was needed for something else. With that bit of business out of the way, I got up, cast Prestidigitation, and got ready for my breakfast. Getting my bike down the elevator, I was happy to see that ¡°Verdigris¡± was on the front page again, with this time having an extremely blurry picture of the alter-ego. From the angle and the location, it looked like it was a picture captured from a video that was held by one of the Warlocks. It looked to be from around chest height, so I¡¯m guessing it was a camera in their pocket, maybe a phone? It must have been in the split second just before my Mirror Image took effect. The article referenced that the still was taken from a cell phone camera that was running on the Biker, that it had just started before the group had stopped at the alleyway, and was still recording when the police showed up. Skimming through the article, I found that the police statement was that technically, in this instance, ¡°Verdigris¡± did nothing wrong, as the hostile intent was obvious from some choice things overheard in the video, prior to this still, but that the Norfolk Police Department still did not recommend that people perform vigilante activities or attempt to apprehend criminals. I snickered a bit to myself as I remembered back when I had to deal with cultists that summoned entities from other realms, and while the guns here were a bit painful, they were not anywhere near as dangerous as a Fireball or a Lightning Bolt to the regular man. I finished up my breakfast and was about to leave when I got an anxious feeling in the back of my head. I ducked into the restroom as I used Vanish. Four gang members rushed into the hotel¡¯s restaurant, seeking to rob any of the patrons here, just as I disappeared. I quickly and quietly used Oath of Anonymity while shifting my clothing to my outfit. I moved to be in a better angle, and pulled out the pistol from my Bandolier. Not thinking that this was going to be a bad fight, I knew that I needed to get ready quickly, so I figured on just three defensive spells. I quickly cast Haste while still invisible, and mentally focused myself on the correct stance and set of attacks to ready. People were getting wallets out for the robbers, but it was taking longer than the thugs would have liked, I guessed. I cast Mirror Image, regretting that I hoped that they could ¡°take care¡± of the extra images before I would have to have someone else punch or hit me. It was then that one of the gang members aimed their pistol at the head of one of the people eating their breakfast. I could see the trigger start to pull back and I knew I had to act before I was ready. My bullet bounced the gun just enough to move it away from the person, to hit the ground. The Thugs all looked at me, but I was already in action, as I appeared from the invisibility breaking. I shot my first actual attack at the guy who had tried to shoot the patron, and bounced it off his collarbone into the chest of another thug, and dropped that first one with a second rubber bullet to the forehead, knocking him out. I wheeled to the one that had been hit by the ricochet and dropped him with a similar rubber round to the chest, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to call back onto the edge of the table and knock himself out. Before any other thugs could shoot, I continued my arc to shoot a third thug in the gut, getting his attention. This was a good and bad thing, as both thugs fired off at the mass of images around me, popping two of the three total images. Keeping on target, I dropped that thug that I had hit before aiming at the last thug and firing a round, to keep his eyes, and focus, on me. He fired, and took out the last of my Mirror Images, before I took him out with just one more shot. I looked around the restaurant, and saw no other thugs, before I went to each thug and got everyone¡¯s wallets and valuables that the thugs had lifted. I got my Prestidigitation going collecting the rubber bullet rounds, and then did a Sift on the thugs, before tying them all up with their own shoelaces and belts, while stealthily collecting their jewelry and cash. One of the customers came up to thank me and ask if I was an Avenger, and if I had met Captain America. Another patron, emboldened by the first one, asked if I knew where all of the people had gone. A third one asked if these thugs were part of HYDRA. I didn¡¯t have answers for them, so I used a charge from my Dimensional Stride Boots coupled with my Vanish spell to get away from the forming crowd. While still invisible, I got back to the restroom and changed my gear back to the original, work clothes form, and waited a few seconds for the invisibility to end before coming out of the restroom with my phone to my ear, pretending to be calling the police to report the event, asking everyone loudly if the firing was done. A customer came up to me and told me that Verdigris was here and he had stopped a robbery. I exclaimed my thanks to him along with the others and that the thugs were captured. I had a familiar feeling that I had felt three times before since arriving on this world. I was getting more in tune with how magic flowed in this realm, and what I could do with it. I knew that I would need to rest and prepare after this fight to get full capability, I just didn¡¯t have time. I let the staff know that I had to get to work, and that I would be available if the police really needed me. I hoped that I could use the cameras against themselves by not having been in the area when the whole event happened, and coming out as soon as the fight was done, supposedly on the phone to the police, but I feared that my time at the hotel was coming to an end. I quickly rode my bike and got to work. Bob was there and asked me what the rush was, so I told him of what had happened. Bob was thoughtful for a bit and said that he expected that I would not be able to stay at that hotel for much longer. I agreed with this and said that I would likely have to finish up on my secret shelter. Bob asked if I needed any help getting some things to make it better. I shrugged and said that I could use some driving around time, but that I didn¡¯t want to put him out. Bob told me that it wasn¡¯t a big issue, as Doug was going to be back today, and would like to ease into the day. Bob added that we could go pick up the Birch wood and the blankets for the start of the procedure tomorrow. I agreed, and Bob and I got in his SUV to head to where we needed to go. We picked up the birch boards (enough for four of them), and four blankets from a military surplus store. Also at the military surplus store, I found a portable sink to go with the portable toilet and shower set that I was going to work on. Knowing what I was going to need to be working on, I picked it up and we headed back to the shop. I asked Bob if he wanted me to work on the cleanings today, and Bob shook his head, saying that he would be happy with me getting the boards and the blankets ready for their ¡°enchanting¡±. I agreed to do so, and indicated that we could still use more salt, both for my own projects and for his. Bob said that he had a pallet showing up tomorrow morning, so we should be good for that. I told him that I would have the wooden board and the blankets ready for tomorrow, and carried all of my stuff into my ¡°workshop¡± with the boards and the blankets. Immediately, I started up a few repeated castings of Animate Tools to get the boards carved as needed, since I was already familiar with what was needed from what I had made yesterday. I also used more Animate Tools spells to get the sewing tools running on the blankets. I quickly expended a Page-Bound Epiphany spell to get the information I would need for all of the enchanting, and got to work on the first item, a toilet that would deal with the waste issue. The toilet had a structural flaw, something that I should have figured out from it being a ¡°mass market item¡±, but I managed to work through it and get it together. The twenty-two pounds of salt that it took to get it enchanted wasn¡¯t exactly light, but the material soaked it up like nothing. I¡¯m glad that the plastic didn¡¯t melt or anything, and as an amusing aside, the toilet ended up impervious to fire, so I guess that is a win. I set it back into my bag and checked on the boards. The carving was going fine, so I stepped out to get a drink and a snack before heading back. Barely two hours had elapsed into my day. I started up on the next item, the faucet and found a great amount of elucidation on the merits of clean water for sanitation and what not. I puzzled my way through the banal font and got what I needed out of it, and started on my enchanting. This took slightly more salt, weighing in at twenty-four pounds expended, but was still finished after two hours of meditation and enchantment. I wouldn¡¯t be able to test it without water to be provided for it, but at least it would give us something we can use to wash dishes and what not. I stopped to check on the boards, and they were about half-way done, same with the blankets, so I decided to head to the break room and grab a bite to eat. Jessica was there and at first seemed a little freaked out, before calming down and coming over to ask me how Rex was doing. I reached out to him and got the feelings of soaring and success, and told her that he was probably catching fish in the river right now. Jessica thoughtfully asked if Rex might be willing to help her with an issue that she had at her apartment, explaining that she had an issue with rats. I offered up that I could ask him when I saw him tonight, and that if he says yes, I would gladly let her know. Jessica seemed a bit confused and asked why I couldn¡¯t just ask him now. I explained to her that all I got from him at this distance was vague emotions and feelings, that true communication could not happen unless I was within talking distance to him. Jessica asked if that made me nervous. I shook my head, saying that we can get general ideas to each other fairly easily, and if we get a few specific ideas down pat, we can arrange to meet each other in the middle of the day, it is just that we haven¡¯t created a rubric yet, but that if I felt that he was in danger, I could just scry on him and find out where he was. Jessica nodded and walked off, thinking on her own. I ate my lunch and saw Bob coming out with Doug. I got up to leave and they both stopped me from going and asked me to stay. When they sat, Bob said that Doug had come to terms with my circumstances, and said that he wasn¡¯t going to find an issue with me working here. I told them both that I was glad with that, and that I wouldn¡¯t want either of them, or in fact, any of the people here, to have concerns with me or my presence here, and that I¡¯d gladly leave before anyone feels the need to leave on their own. Doug shook his head and told me that he was fine with me being here, it was just that he needed to figure out where his faith stood with everything. I offered up that there was NO reason for him to disbelieve in the divine, that there was definitive evidence where I was from that the divine existed, and that there was no reason for him to disbelieve in the evidence of the divine in this world at all. Doug asked me why there were not more divine spell casters here, and I offered up that it was probably due to the fact that this world doesn¡¯t literally have a hole to hell here, or literal monsters that the people need to be defended against, so it is a circumstance of wanting to let people have their freedom to live their lives while they can. Doug thought about that and seemed to be good with my answer, and I offered up that there was nothing that I could do, that a divine entity could not do better, stronger, and easier. Bob seemed to be okay with where we were, and Doug asked if I was going to make some more of those cots tomorrow. I told him that I was, and that I was preparing them for the process today, and the enchanting would be done first thing. Bob said that he¡¯d make sure that everyone would get one once they were done, knowing that Doug would like to try one for his camping. Doug walked off and I quietly asked Bob if he can drop by my workshop at the end of the day, that I had something that I was going to try to make and thought that he should see it to see if the military would want this as well. Bob¡¯s interest was piqued, and he said that he¡¯d check in with me. I finished off my meal as Bob went to go talk to Jessica and Doug. I got up when I was done, and headed to the workshop. My next project was the shower, which I knew was going to have some issues with the construction if the toilet or the faucet were any indication. I was correct, but wrong at the same time. There were structural flaws in the fabrication of the shower, and I worked around them with what I could and found that by the time I was done, the shower/utility shelter was about half the weight of what it was originally. There wasn¡¯t any loss in the fabric or the structure, but the weight decreased by half, so it was a lot lighter. Granted, it didn¡¯t need the stakes, the tie-outs, or the rain-fly, so that could have been a portion of the loss of weight. It still absorbed over twenty pounds of salt to finish the enchantment. I looked over the boards and found that they were a little more than seventy-five percent of the way done, which I appreciated, since they worked through lunch. The blankets were similarly almost four fifths of the way there as well. My final item, the one that I wanted Bob¡¯s chops on, was a canteen that would be enchanted to provide up to a total of two gallons of water a day. I wouldn¡¯t need too much more than that on a daily basis, so I didn¡¯t want to create a situation where continual flooding might occur. The canteen again had issues with the structure, which I again came to expect with mass-produced items. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. I focused on the enchantment a bit more than the other ones, as the spell that I would have needed to know was not one that I had access to, so it would require more finesse at the end. Almost twenty-four pounds of salt went into the enchantment of this canteen, and I amusingly had left enough salt that had been spilled and expended on the table that it was now considered a masterwork item for the purposes of final enchantment for items. Also, the canteen managed to be enchanted without showing ANY outward signs or emanations of the magic contained within. With the last item enchanted, the boards engraved, the blankets embroidered, and apparently the table enhanced, I was ready for Bob. I was a little early, so I went to find him and he was in the break room. Bob apologized for making me wait and I told him that I had actually finished a little early and wanted to show him as soon as I could. Bob asked me what it was that I had to show him and I handed him the canteen, told him the word, and had him empty it out. Bob did so, and I asked him to do it again. Bob humored me, and did so again. I asked him to repeat it as often as he could, and he did it a total of eight times before the canteen wouldn''t do it again. Bob looked at me and I smiled, saying that it was about twenty-five pounds of salt for just a canteen that can produce two gallons of water a day. Bob said that he would definitely ask, and asked how many of these I could make in a day. I told him that I can make four of those a day, without issue. Bob said that he¡¯d have to find out, along with the boards and everything, but that water was a definite need for military folk, but two gallons a day per person probably wouldn¡¯t be enough to really move the dial much. I nodded and asked him if he remembered how much it weighed when full, which he thought about it and said that he had not kept it in mind. I told him that it was limited to weighing one pound no matter if it was full or empty. Bob¡¯s eyes perked up a bit at that and I said that I could work on something later that would be a bit more interesting if weight reduction was just the concern. Bob said that this would be a game changer, if I could show this. I said that I would have to be careful, as it might run afoul of having non-dimensional spaces and extra-dimensional spaces, but that I would refresh myself on it. Bob handed me back the canteen and I shoved it into my haversack, causing it to disappear. Bob¡¯s eyebrow perked up at that, and I told him that the bag might take close to four hundred pounds of salt to enchant. Bob seemed to be mulling it over, and I added that it takes at least two days to make. I told Bob goodbye for the day and headed out to ride around and get back to the storage unit, after picking up a few gallons of water and food. I got into the unit and started setting up the newly created items. Once I was done setting everything up in the middle section of the back of the tent, I started emptying the gallon jugs of water into the reservoirs for the faucet, toilet, and shower. By the time that I was done, Rex was just getting back to the unit. I told Rex, as soon as he got in, that it looked like we were not going to be able to stay at the hotel much longer, since one of the gang had attacked this morning and that I was almost caught. Rex replied back that he would be happy with the storage unit, especially now that it had water and waste facilities. I told him that I wouldn¡¯t be staying at the hotel much longer as well, but that I would do my best to not make it bad for him here. Rex told me that he wasn¡¯t that perturbed at all, and that he had managed to figure out the best times to not be noticed when coming and going. I told Rex that I would be working on some more creature comforts after this, and a way to get him disguised as well, so that we can be a bit more hidden. Rex nodded absentmindedly and got a drink from the faucet before heading over to one of the wooden cots, and curled up. Once I had given him all of the information that I could and set up all I could, I decided that I¡¯d like to have a single good meal at the restaurant before I stopped. I locked up the storage unit and used a circuitous path to get back to the hotel, and found a trio of Painkillers lurking around the hotel in a car, seeming to be gearing up for another daring burglary. I sighed and decided to do some quick preparations, and get this dealt with before they had a chance to strike. Before I could do much, I saw a person head out from the restaurant portion of the hotel a little tipsy, and the three gang members got out of their car and moved towards the guy. I rushed towards them while not yet invisible, and invoked the Oath of Anonymity while changing my outfit. The three of them surrounded the hapless intoxicated patron, and were starting to menacingly threaten him. I got within twenty feet, and quickly cast a Haste spell. None of the criminals seemed to notice me, but they did brandish weapons towards the guy. The guy dropped to his knees, a combination of being drunk and scared, and opened up a line of fire for me. Taking aim with my pistol, I felt something new welling up in me. Something Stronger. I decided that I had to get this done as quickly as possible, so I used it. I opened fire at the criminals and fire indeed commenced. My pistol barked out three rounds and the normal fire around them was enhanced even further, to the extent that I had managed to drop all three of them before they could attack the man on the ground. My first round bounced off the first guy and hit another one, in the head, and dropped him unconscious in one hit. My second round dropped the first guy while my final found dropped the guy who I had finished off my aiming on. I quickly ran over to the area and used Prestidigitation to collect my three rubber bullet rounds. I helped the guy up and moved him over to the side. The last guy, who I thought was unconscious, was actually just staggered, and fired at me from behind. Being pissed off at that treachery, I wheeled around and fired off an Ultrasonic Ray at him, dropping him into sweet unconsciousness. I turned back to the victim, and helped him get his phone out and call the cops. I tied up all three of the gang members and did a quick Sift for their valuables. I quickly shook the civilian''s hand and told him that he could tell the police that it was Verdigris that saved him. I ran off while casting Cure Light Wounds on myself to start the healing of the gunshot wound. I got my bike, and activated the Vanish spell to make my way back into the hotel. I managed to get enough of my clothing clear of blood, and texted Amber that I could use an order to be delivered to the table in the corner. I got a thumbs up response and sneakily made my way into the restaurant, after dismissing the Verdigris costume and thus the Oath of Anonymity. A thick steak and a shot were already waiting at the table when I got there and I happily tucked in to eat and drink in success. After a few minutes, where police eventually came through and asked the bar staff about anyone who had come in after the attack, to which the bartender looked through the tabs and said that no new orders had been put in since the time of the attack, and everyone who is here already has their order. The police looked around and sighed in frustration before heading out again. Amber dropped by after a while and asked if I was the one who had dealt with the criminals. I sighed and nodded for them and the ones in the morning. I offered up that I probably would not be able to be here after this, because I seemed to bring trouble with me, and that my company probably would relocate me. Amber sighed and said that she could understand that with the issues that the hotel was having. I told her that she should keep my phone number handy though, for any of the bartenders to keep me updated if any criminal activity happens to the people here, or the hotel. I added that I was not leaving Norfolk, just relocating my base of operations. Amber seemed upset, but that made sense since the hotel was possibly losing a main deterrent for criminal activity. I headed upstairs to my room for what I felt would be the last time and noticed that the door was slightly ajar again. I was pissed that I didn¡¯t have the majority of my spell capability available right now, so all I could do was pull my pistol and throw open the door energetically. A man with a flat-top was in the room with a bow and arrow levelled at me. I knew that he had the drop on me, and just from his stance, that he could end me with one shot. The man asked me if I was Verdigris. I carefully put my pistol on the ground and hoped that I could at least escape if he was going to try to attack me. I asked if I could shut the door so that we could do this without disturbing the other hotel patrons. The archer tilted his chin up ever so slightly, and I shut the door behind me. He asked me again as soon as the door was closed, ensuring that I knew that he meant business and that I wasn¡¯t going to be able to get away with anything at all under his watchful eye. I sighed, and answered in the affirmative, sending empathic thoughts to Rex of hope and freedom. His tension lowered ever so slightly as he asked me why I was taking out criminals. I figured that I didn¡¯t have anything to lose, and if I needed to, I could dimensionally jump past him and then float to the ground safely, so I told him that I was an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. This archer asked me to prove it, and I pulled out my S.H.I.E.L.D. phone, and opened up the credentials screen. He looked through the credentials for a minute before handing me back my phone and relaxing more fully. He sat down at the desk and asked me if I knew anything about the Blip. I leveled with him that I wasn¡¯t even on this world when the Blip happened, that I had showed up immediately AFTER the event happened, and helped people who had been in car accidents from others disappearing. The archer asked me if I knew anything about anyone who had disappeared, and I told him that I did not, that all I knew was what the rumors around were, and what I had been told by either the news or the brief bits of information that I had gotten from Jonathan at S.H.I.E.L.D. The archer looked up at me with pain in his eyes and I knew that he had lost someone. The archer asked me what he was supposed to do now that everyone he loved was gone. I gently sat down, politely summoned my pistol to my hand and put it back in the Bandolier, and told him about my full history, including my time on my homeworld. When I was done, he asked me why I continued to work to save people and I told him that just because we¡¯ve lost everything, doesn¡¯t mean that we can¡¯t help others to prevent them from losing more. The archer noted with a wry grin that I had apparently taken care of at least one gang here. I nodded and said that I was working on number two currently. The archer told me that he was going to look into doing this as well, to which I told him that I would be glad to help, especially if he needed ¡°special resources¡±. He gave me a look with an obvious, ¡°what do you mean by that¡± statement, unspoken but obvious. I sighed and thought about it, and told him that I could enchant his quiver to hold even more arrows. His eyes perked up at that, and I offered up that I could probably commit to at least sixty arrows, as that would be what a regular quiver can be enchanted to hold. He looked at me like I was crazy and said the single word, ¡°Magic¡±. In response I asked him to not be startled by this, and pulled my rifle out of my Bandolier. He was a bit amused and asked if it was a dimensional portal. I shook my head and told him that I could show him even more tomorrow, but that I had spent a lot of my capability either in the fights or enchanting things earlier today. I laughingly told him that I¡¯d offer to enhance his bow, but that the bow was already of superior quality, then I had a brainstorm, and reached into my haversack to pull out my Ioun Torch, handed it to him, and told him to toss it up into the air around his head, within two feet. He did so, and the Ioun Torch started floating around his head as it is supposed to do. I nodded and said that this was about the minimum thing that could be made. I looked around the room and started tidying it up with Prestidigitation, cleaning it and taking care of any stray items. With a thought I asked him if he needed a place to hide out or stay for a while. He told me that he had a place to stay tonight, but that he would catch up with me tomorrow night after I left my ¡°work¡±. He did these movements with his fingers when he said the word work, so I¡¯m certain that there is something up with it. I told him that I could try to think up things I could make, or it would give him something else to think about tonight, but that I was going to have to go to bed, as it was getting late. He agreed, and made his way out the balcony. I snickered and said that the last person to be in my room had left the balcony unlocked too. He looked at me and asked if I had met the last person. I told him that I had not, only that I had found a long red hair in the room that had not been there when I first got the room, and room service hasn¡¯t been allowed into my room since I arrived. He perked up at the mention of long red hair, and asked if I had it with me. I told him that I didn¡¯t have it, that it was located at my scrying mirror. He stopped and said that it was crucial that he see that hair right now. I sighed, got my bike from the hallway, went over to the balcony, and asked if he could keep up with me on a bike. He offered up that he had a better bike than this downstairs. I asked him if he had a quick way down, lifted up my bike, looked at him and jumped off the balcony. I smiled as my Talisman of Beneficial Winds activated, slowing my fall until I landed safely. It wasn¡¯t a few seconds later that he lowered himself via a rope that ran through his grapple arrow. I sighed, got on my bike, and started riding to the storage unit. Once I determined that he was following me, I went through a series of turns, not with the intention of losing him, more to lose anyone else. When we got to the storage unit, I got us into the fenced area and then opened up the grate, where Rex was there in battle form, ready to pounce, until I calmed him down verbally. I introduced Rex to the archer, who just then told me that his name is Clint. I went to my mirror and asked him if he could identify the hair just by looking at it. He took a look at it and gasped, saying Natasha. Perking up, I asked him for her full name, and he told me Natasha Romanoff. We looked at the mirror as I cast Scrying and suddenly it cleared, ever so slightly, and we saw a blond woman and a blond haired man looking at some holographic screens. The Blond haired man (who Clint muttered Steve at), said that this was a nightmare, and the blond woman said that she has had nightmares better than this. I didn¡¯t see the redheaded woman anywhere, and mentioned this to Clint as they watched numbers tick up on the screens with different words on them. Clint told me that this was one of her hairs from a LONG time ago, and that she likely left it as a calling card of some sort. As we watched, another man came in and said that something had stopped. We followed Natasha until we saw another man tell them that the item stopped. There was a conversation about how the battery was bypassed and that they needed to restart it. Then everyone turned around and we briefly saw a long blond haired woman before the scrying ended. I looked at Clint, and he offered up that this was Natasha, Steve, Rhodie, and Bruce, and that they were Avengers. I sighed at the information as it dawned on me, finally finding out who the Avengers were that people were talking about. I asked him if there was anything that I needed to do with this information. Clint shook his head, noting that at least Natasha was alive and well. I yawned and mentioned that I was going to have to head to bed, and offered him up one of the cots in the other room, if he wanted. Clint went and looked in the other room and asked how this worked, since he was in an area where it should have been in another unit. I told him sleepily that he was in an extradimensional space, and as such it didn¡¯t actually exist in the rest of the world. I clapped him on the shoulder and said that I was heading to bed, and that Rex understands English, but doesn¡¯t speak anything other than Draconic. I offered up that I could make something that could give him the ability to Speak Draconic, but that it would take at least a day or two, and that I had a full docket for tomorrow. I went to bed with Rex curling back up on me again. Curtis Zine Day 22 Friday, June 22, 2018, 8:30 PM Norfolk I woke up in my section of the tent, with Rex on my chest, curled up. I got up carefully and went to check on Clint. He was on the flat cot, with a sleeping bag on it. I saw that he was still, and figured that he was already awake and not moving to see what I would do. I yawned loudly, and said that I was going to go out and get breakfast, if he was interested. Clint got up and asked if there was a shower or anything. I showed him to the middle area, and told him how to use each of the items. I went back out to the central area as he asked me if I was serious. I told him it was his first chance to see how magic really worked, and went about meditating for my magic for the day. After fifteen minutes, I realized that I had access to new spells and one of them would certainly be useful for crafting and one that would now be able to modify my bicycle. Clint came out of the ¡°bathroom¡± and asked if I had cleaned and repaired his clothing and gear overnight. I told him that the tent had a constant effect on any items left in the tent for four hours, in that they were automatically cleaned and repaired. Clint shook his head, and I told him that there is a fair amount that I can do, but it is limited in what I can do on a daily basis, including making enchanted items. I offered up that since he was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and an Avenger, as long as he can cover the expenses and I had the free time, I¡¯d help him with whatever he might need. Clint asked me how difficult it was to make the cot that he had slept on last night. I thought about it and told him that I could make four of those a day, and that I was actually making four of them today for the place where I worked. Clint looked at me oddly and asked a single question of ¡°Work?¡±. I told him that Sharon Carter had only managed to get me listed as a S.H.I.E.L.D. affiliate, so I didn¡¯t actually rate a paycheck, just the ID card and access to the bank to store my stuff and get it converted. Clint looked a bit confused, and I told him that I had only ¡°popped into existence¡± in this world less than a month ago, so it wasn¡¯t out of the ordinary for me to not just get a job with S.H.I.E.L.D. He still looked a bit askance at the whole idea, and I shrugged, saying that I was doing fine like this. I added that they had gotten me set me up with a safehouse when I first got here, and then when that was destroyed when I was doing a mission to try to help heal a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, they set me up with the Hotel room, but that was slated to end this week anyway, so moving full time into the storage unit was going to be a thing anyway. Clint asked if I had made the tent and I told him that I had indeed made it, and then went on to describe its functions. Clint¡¯s eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets, so I pulled out my journal that contained all of the magic items that I had researched and/or built. I offered up that I had just recently developed the ability to make magical weapons and armor, and that I had not tried to make anything like that yet, hence why it wasn¡¯t in the book. Clint asked what kind of magic weapons and I told him that it wasn¡¯t like I could make artifacts yet, only slightly enhanced ones that makes you react to danger quicker, or consecrating them to be stronger against vampires or undead, as long as this world has them. Clint was a bit confused when I mentioned vampires, like he knew something that I didn¡¯t about this world, but I told him that undead were a somewhat common occurrence where I was from, but that I was certain that there were other things that I could do, like add energy damage to a weapon, possibly even changeable energy damage via crystals that could be attached and then swapped as needed. Clint looked at me confused, and I told him that I could probably easily make a crystal that would add a little bit of sonic damage with what I already know. I offered up that I could explain more of the damage types according to magic over breakfast, if he was still willing to listen more. Clint nodded, and went to go get dressed for a restaurant, while I sat around collecting my thoughts and getting Rex ready for the day. When Clint came back out, he asked if I was going to be wearing my hero attire, and I used my kote to change my outfit to something more reasonable. Clint balked and asked if I could make something like this, and I could, and that I might be able to make another four of them in a day, if the materials were already ready. Clint asked me what kind of materials and I told him that it would need to be some kind of wrist gear, but that I would need to verify the gear to make sure it was up to standards. Clint thought about it and said that he¡¯d figure something out while I was out today. I agreed and we happily left the storage unit. I offered him the key to the lock and he asked how I was going to get in. I looked at him with a smile and told him that both Rex and I had magical equipment that let us do short range teleports up to five times a day. Before he asked for more information, I told him that it was in my journal, which I had given him to check out. I led him to the NY Bagel Cafe, and we rode our bikes and motorcycles there. When we got there, I ordered us both ¡°Healthy Man¡± breakfast sandwiches and I discussed what all I was planning on doing since getting here, since I figured that I would never be able to get home again, and wasn¡¯t in a rush. I added that since I had a place to stay, for a moderately expensive amount of money (doing the math, renting the storage unit was like one hundred and forty gold a month in salt for just a room), but it was secure enough, and there wouldn¡¯t be that much in the way of questions, I felt comfortable with protecting this city as best I can. Clint asked me if I was willing to help out elsewhere if needed. Without a second thought, I told him that I would be happy to help out wherever I could, but that I doubted that I could have much of an effect outside of boosting others. Clint asked me what I meant by that, and I told him that I¡¯d be happy to show him when I get done with my day job. Clint laughed at that and said that he¡¯d check it out when he had time. I offered up the location and identity of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent that was my ¡°handler¡± as we finished up breakfast. I shook his hand and told him where I worked, in case he needed me before I got out of work for the day, and wished him good luck with his day. I headed to work immediately after we separated, without any specific direction changes. When I got there, Bob was already waiting for me and he let me in as soon as I got there. I brought my bike in and offered him up a ¡°good morning¡± before heading directly into the workshop. I loaded the table up with the salt (thirty five pounds to start with) and got all four of the boards out. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. After just under three hours of planning and focusing, I had tapped out on what I could enchant for the day. The good news is that the cots were all completed, each with an easy to pronounce word in Draconic (along with the appropriate phonetic pronunciation) inscribed on the edge of the board. With everything ready, I took them immediately to Bob, who was waiting in his office. Bob perked up and I produced the well carved boards to show him, and described their usage without activating any specific one. Since it was close to lunch, Bob told me that we would show everyone what these were and what they did, during the lunch. The meeting went fairly well, with Doug and Steve being the most interested until Jessica learned that it wasn¡¯t just a cot, but basically a ¡°floating shelf¡± that can hold up to three hundred pounds, that can be set next to a wall and pretend to be an insert mounted shelf, or as a large fold out table. Bob told them all that he was getting the ponchos late in the week next week, pushed back due to the issues from the Blip. There was a bit more discussion with each about the pronunciation of each board with the individual recipient, and clarifications for questions about what happens when it is overloaded. We finished up our lunch and everyone headed back to their individual areas. Bob pulled me aside and said that while the military was still testing the firearms, but, from what he was hearing, it was going well. I nodded and said that I would be glad to work on enhancing further firearms whenever it comes up. Bob nodded and said that he was going to work on getting more orders. Apparently there was another Seal team stationed nearby that was arranging a meeting, and that there were a bunch of Seals that were split up that had not been reassigned to a full team yet, that might be considered as well. I nodded and told him that I would be glad to work on it whenever it could be set up. Bob thanked me and I went back to cleaning and servicing firearms. I finished off the day with writing down everything that I was going to need for future magical items that I was going to be making for myself, Rex, and now Clint. I had an absolute limit of how much I could make in the way of magical items, so that was a firm boundary on what I could make until I found some other way to increase that limitation. I had a shopping list, including what items I might need for Clint¡¯s stuff that I was thinking about, so I figured that I would head out tomorrow to shop for all of that. I headed out on my bike and headed back to the Storage Unit to check in on Rex. When I got there, both Clint and Rex were there, and it looked like Clint was talking and Rex was nodding or shaking his head. I laughed as I got my bike into the unit and pulled shut the gate afterwards. Once I crossed into the tent, I could hear what Clint was asking, basically a series of yes and no questions regarding favorite foods and where he catches his fish. I was amused by this and after Clint asked me if I knew that Rex was intelligent, I looked at Rex and asked him if he was pulling Clint¡¯s leg at all. Rex laughed and replied that it was only a little. Clint looked over at me and asked what language that was. I told him that it was Draconic, and that it was the only language that Rex¡¯s natural form could intone. I spent time explaining a lot of things about Rex¡¯s nature, and even more so, the nature of magic as I use it. Clint mentioned that the Blip had affected him too, but I did not press as to how it had affected him. If he wanted to tell me, I felt that he would. I went on to go over all of the information that I had for the various gangs in Norfolk, and the various supers that I had gotten hints of being here. I added in everything I knew about the evil agencies that had come up in the rumor mills. Clint absorbed it all in as I spoke, and I told him that I would intend on going out to do some reconnaissance tomorrow evening, if he wanted to join, and was willing to abide by my one request. Clint looked up at me and asked me what that request was, and I told him that we had to attack to subdue, not kill. I offered up that he could use my rifle if he could get that to work for him, but that we couldn¡¯t kill unless it was life or death. Wounding was fine, but nothing that would kill, especially since the police seemed to be tentatively okay with me so far. Clint smiled and said that he could work with that for now. I then asked Clint how the meeting with Jonathan went. Clint laughed and told me that he was told that the pallet of salt would be delivered tomorrow morning, and that Jonathan still wanted to compare notes about my magic, if we ever got the chance where the situation was calm enough. I smiled and said that this was a floating thing, that just seemed to always get pushed back. Maybe it will work out eventually, but until it is safer for the common person, luxuries about comparative magic system discussions wasn¡¯t something that should take a focus. Clint nodded and asked which gang we were going after tomorrow. I sighed and said that we should deal with the Painkillers, as they were the ones who were trying to move into this area, while the Warlocks were working on consolidating their gains in the rest of the city. Clint agreed to this course of action and I offered up that we should probably get something to eat while we planned the next night. I offered up that I might still have a S.H.I.E.L.D. account at the hotel restaurant, so we can eat there. Hawkeye laughed and asked what I was paid per hour where I worked. I told him the amount and he laughed even harder. He told me that if S.H.I.E.L.D. fully took me on, that I would be making three to four times that amount. I shrugged and said that I was perfectly fine with my current rate of pay, especially since I grab the ill-gotten gains off of the criminals I bring down, and use that to fund taking other criminals down. Clint nodded to that and said I was a regular James Jenkins. I told him that I was not familiar with that name, and he brushed me off, saying that it was a semi-famous ¡°thief-taker¡±. I shrugged and said that it sounds like a fairly likely assessment. Clint then asked what would happen if I knew that the money or items that the thugs had belonged to someone else. I replied that I had stopped a mugging from occurring just a few nights ago, recovered the property of the person, and returned it to them. I added that I had mostly been focusing on drug dens and the gang hideouts, and only dealt with the criminals on the street when they jumped me or I saw them in the commission of a crime. Clint listened and said that he could understand that. We talked a bit more about ethics and crime fighting until we got to the hotel. When we went into the restaurant, Amber wasn¡¯t on staff, so we just got a table and ordered food. We talked a bit over dinner and Clint mentioned that this place seemed a bit like a dive, to which I mentioned that it was just as good as anywhere I had ever really been. The meal went okay and they charged it to my room just like before. I asked Clint if he wanted to head back to the storage unit or if he just wanted to catch up tomorrow. Clint told me that he¡¯d drop by the Storage unit, at a little after dawn. I acknowledged the meeting time, and vowed to be ready with as up to date information as I could get. We separated and I headed back to the storage unit. I started a bevy of Scrying, Page-Bound Epiphany (with Amanuensis), and Ears of the City to get as much up to date information as I could about all of the super-villains and gangs in the area and what we might expect. I learned that Francis Noche was still with the Warlocks, but that David Angar was on his own and Karla had joined up with the Painkillers. I got as far as I could before giving up for the night and heading to bed. Curtis Zine Day 23 Saturday, June 23, 2018, 8:30 PM Norfolk The morning arrived without much fanfare and Rex had volunteered to join us on the raid. I worried about him, so I fastened my Badge of Life-Keeping to him to give him an extra boost of emergency healing if he needed it. I also fastened my Healing Belt around him, to give him the ability to heal himself or one of the two of us, if the situation called for it. I focused on getting ready as quickly as possible and meditating to be ready for the assault. Right when I expected it, or maybe when Clint was listening for it, as soon as I opened the roll up door, Clint was getting there, ready to knock. Clint asked if I was ready and I looked over to Rex, who nodded, before I replied to Clint that we were. Clint asked me to lead the way, and I pulled my bike out of the unit, and got on it, getting Rex to pull himself up in my emptied Handy Haversack. Clint watched Rex disappear, except for his head, and muttered that he would never get used to that. I shrugged and said that I could eventually make one of these for him as well. We rode to where I had isolated a decent size drug den for the Painkillers. Along the way, I had put an ear bud in my ear that Clint had given me yesterday, that was connected to my phone. Clint asked me if there was anything specific that he should know about the upcoming fight to be prepared. I told him that before we started the fight, I would cast spells on the both of us, and told him about what to expect from Cat¡¯s Grace, Haste, and Displacement. Clint looked at me amazed and said that he¡¯d be curious as to how it works for him. I shrugged and said that we didn¡¯t really have the time or opportunity to test run either of these spells on him before, but that he should be fine, considering that barely trained common folk suffer no ill-effects from them. Clint gruffly acknowledged my point as we got closer to the location I had identified. We eventually got close enough that I told him that I needed to do a little bit of preparation before we got within striking distance. I had felt a new energy in me ever since that last expansion of my abilities, so I decided that I was going to need to try to use it, instead of something more piece-meal process. While we were in the alley, I activated my new ability, and my appearance changed to that of the costume for Verdigris, right before Clint¡¯s eyes. Clint balked a bit in response, before I invoked my Oath of Anonymity as well as the newly acquired power. Then I cast Cat¡¯s Grace on myself, (and thus Rex), and Clint. I told him that it would last for about nine minutes of boost. We then spent the next two minutes sneaking and getting into position. Right before we were set to bust in, I pulled out the rifle to hand it to Clint, along with the spare magazines, and the pistol for myself. I invoked an Augury to make sure that entering through this entrance was a good idea and got a result of both weal and woe. Then I cast Mirror Image on just Rex, and then Displacement on both myself (and Rex again) and Clint. I told Clint that after I cast the next spell, Haste, that we had to move quickly, as it would only last for less than a minute. Clint nodded and I steadied myself for the time dilation, and then cast Haste. While I did this, Rex assumed his battle form and Clint checked the rifle. Then the three of us, looking like two humans and six medium sized dragons, busted in through the entrance I had selected. It wasn¡¯t the worst experience, but it was certainly worse than I had experienced the first time. The Painkillers were hopped up on their drugs instead of being mentally dulled. They reacted much better than Pepsi Boys did, and started opening fire on us immediately as we got in the door. Clint was very deftly dodging the rounds as we made our way through to good firing areas. I immediately dropped three of them via a combination of a bounced round, and a pair of targeted rounds , struck another one with yet another round, and deflected a shot that was aimed at Rex. Rex was tearing into one of the thugs and breathed fire at another of the thugs. The criminals looked extremely panicked at the ¡°pack¡± of dragons leaping on one of their groups and they were starting to aim towards him. Clint was dropping members of the gang with precision, overwhelming them with extremely rapid hits to vital areas with the ¡°less-than-lethal¡± rounds. I hit refocused and aimed at some more of the gang members, while Rex incinerated yet another one of them. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Clint was putting down a whole bunch until we saw something I didn¡¯t know about in advance. It was Karla, the woman with the razor blade fingernails. She was enraged and rushed towards me, yelling about not allowing Verdigris to stop her plans for revenge. She managed to slash both me and Rex heavily with a pair of outward slashes that we couldn¡¯t dodge and managed to unluckily get past our defenses. Of course Rex was down to just two additional images, so his defenses were a lot weaker now. Clint didn¡¯t have a good angle on Karla, so I got Rex to back off in one direction while I kept Karla¡¯s focus on me, backing up only five feet and unloading everything I could into her. She was still furious and leapt towards me with both of her razor blade enhanced nails, digging into my sides and preventing me from backing up further under my own power. Clint managed to finish off the rest of the thugs and managed to get a hit in at Karla. She was just about on the ropes, when Rex leapt onto her back and hit her with a final fire breath. I gently pulled her nails out of the sides of my chest and immediately cast a Cure Light Wounds on myself. Clint and I secured all of the criminals and checked the grounds. There were a lot of firearms of an automatic variety, along with drugs and other illegal paraphernalia. I immediately cast a Prestidigitation to collect up all of the rubber rounds, and the three of us heard the police sirens VERY close, so we booked it. As soon as we got back to the bike/motorcycle, I cancelled the Disguise Self effect that I had just recently developed, after ten minutes of activation. As the Haste ended, Clint¡¯s reflexes were coming back to normal and he seemed to be winding down into a more relaxed state of mind. I told Clint that Rex and I would be heading back to the storage unit to get things ironed out, and that whenever he wanted, he could drop by. Clint handed me back the rifle and said that this was certainly an interesting raid that we had gone on. I grabbed it and put it back into my Bandolier, disappearing as it went. I offered up that I¡¯d work on isolating out the best setup for magical items for him and let him know what they would be and what they could do, as soon as I got everything worked out together. We parted ways with well wishes, and Rex and I headed back to the storage unit for debriefing and getting ready for the rest of the day. Once back, I isolated all of the different aspects of items that I could now make, that would help Clint the most. He could use enhancement in the realms of stealth, perception, and most importantly, minimizing the lethal damage that he does. I wouldn¡¯t want him to not be able to do lethal damage, but it would be the best to at least have that option without having to specifically aim for it. I know that it will take a fair amount of time to get it done, but there is a fair amount that I can get done, provided I take the time and the resources. Even a small increase in things would help for him though, so I figure that a month or two of constant work would get me most of the way done on his stuff at least. After I finished writing up my list for Clint and also myself, I decided that I should get dinner and do a couple of passes through the town. Later in the night, while I was riding around, I came across a group of three Warlocks looking to break into some closed store. I guess this was a victim of the ¡°Blip¡± who never had a relative come to take over the shop or something. I hid my bike, swapped back to Verdigris, and invoked the Oath of Anonymity before using Vanish to sneak up into position. As soon as the glass on the front door broke, I struck, firing off a barrage at them. I managed to drop the three of them before they could react. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t know if they had set off any alarms or something so I checked for their bikes, found some high proof alcohol, and lit their bikes on fire. I made sure that they were safe from any kind of shrapnel and went off to ensure that I wasn¡¯t on the scene. I made my way back to the storage unit after picking up some food for Rex and myself before retiring for the night. Just before falling asleep, however, my S.H.I.E.L.D. cell phone started buzzing and got up to look at it. Clint was telling me that he would be coming over first thing in the morning, and that we had to head out to someplace outside the city immediately. I replied back that I would be ready, and finished up my plans for what Clint¡¯s suit should be, and got ready for a trip away from the city, packing up everything Rex and I might need. Clint had not explained more, just that we were going to need to be ready to leave quickly. Curtis Zine Day 24 Sunday, June 24, 2018, 7:30 AM Quinjet The important event that Clint was referring to was that one of the Avengers had been wounded and if Natasha had contacted him to know if he knew why I wasn¡¯t at the hotel room anymore. This conversation apparently had happened when I was fighting the Warlocks that were trying to break into that abandoned shop. I immediately packed up my alchemy crafting supplies and what reagents I had left, and hoped that I had what I needed. Rex was staying here, as he wanted to go fishing again, as he hadn¡¯t been doing enough in the last few days, and offered that he¡¯d keep an eye on the storage unit and the surrounding areas. I followed Clint as we made our way to that same military air station, to which he flashed his credentials, and I showed mine. We were allowed in and there was a quinjet waiting for us. Clint and I both stowed our bikes in the hangar and got into the back of the plane. I sat down and strapped into the seat while Clint went to the front of the plane to talk to the pilot. He came back out and sat across from me, made some kind of motion at his ear, and apparently started to nod off. I worked on thinking over whatever I could reflect on from my treatment of Agent Coulson, and I hoped that it wasn¡¯t anything that would prevent me from helping this other Avenger. ********** Sunday, June 24, 2018, 8:30 AM Avengers Compound, Straatsburg, NY We arrived at the building that I would learn to be called ¡°The Avengers Compound¡± pretty quickly after I finished my update. Apparently, this vehicle can travel just as fast as the one that I was on earlier on the way to Coulson. When we landed, Clint woke up and made a similar motion at his ear, like he did before. We both stood up as the quinjet landed, and both walked towards the lowering ramp. There was a redheaded woman who seemed somewhat frazzled who was waiting for us at the bottom of the ramp. She ran up and hugged Clint, apologizing for what happened to his family. She added that Natasha, Steve, Bruce, Thor, and Rhodey were all going with some people from another world to go get the person who did this. Clint hugged her back and asked how Tony was doing. She told him that he was sedated right now, but that he was stable, even if he was still injured. That was when the woman looked over at me and asked if I was the guy who Natasha had told her about. Clint affirmed her guess and introduced me to her, first telling her my name, and then the name that I was operating under, Verdigris. He then introduced her to me, telling me that her name was Pepper. I told her that it was good to meet her, and that I would do everything I could to help however I could. Pepper gave me a sad smile, paused a bit, and then asked if we were both ready to head inside. Clint told me that the quinjet would be waiting for us to be done, so I followed the two of them in. I picked up on some latent issues with Clint and waited until Pepper was gone, going to get some information that I had requested, before asking Clint why he was so keyed up. He told me that this was the first time he had been back in the compound since busting Wanda out, and that this was where he fought a super advanced robot. I asked him if this was going to cause an issue, and he told me that it had all been sorted out, though he did wonder where Wanda and Vision were. It was then that Pepper was coming back in, telling us that from what she heard, Wanda was among those lost when the snap happened, but there was some confusion that Vision was lost in the fight. Clint seems to have stiffened up at this and Pepper said that she could update him on the list of everyone who was lost either in the fight or from the event. Pepper handed me Tony¡¯s medical diagnosis, and then led Clint away to another room while I read the health reports. There was a lot that this individual had been through. A fair amount of reports of trauma to the chest from a number of different sources, and most recently he was stabbed through with a very sharp implement that went through his armor twice, front and back. So, this was an extremely strong individual, who severed bones and did severe damage to organs. From what I could see, there wasn¡¯t any distinct damage that couldn¡¯t be healed from repetitive usage of Cure Light Wounds, so I guess that I shouldn¡¯t have too much of a worry about interactions and whatnot. ********** Sunday, June 24, 2018, 11:00 AM Avengers Compound, Straatsburg, NY When Clint and Pepper came back, there was a determination in his eyes that I was certain that I had not seen before. I knew that I would need to ask him about this later. Pepper asked if I thought that I would be able to help. I told her that I was fairly certain, and that this healing should NOT impact his nutritional levels, as the positive energy should be providing the bulk of the healing energy. Pepper looked at me with an unspoken question as we walked, and I explained how some forms of healing work to increase the speed at which natural healing occurs, whereas mine heals by bringing positive energy into the individual. Pepper asked me if my healing had any limitations, and I told her that the main things I could not do was regenerate organs or limbs, but lacerations, contusions, punctures, and the like should all be able to be healed. Pepper listened along and asked if I ever thought about working to heal others as a positive contribution to others. I told her that I had a limited amount of times per day that I could actually perform this, so it was mainly that I helped as I could. I added that when I appeared here after the Blip, that there was a mass of wounded people and I worked to help save and heal everyone I could at the time. I continued with telling her that now, I worked to save the people of Norfolk from the gangs and villains that were trying to gain a foothold there. We got to the room where the man, I¡¯m guessing Tony, was laying in bed, with bags of fluid attached to him via syringes. He was unconscious, due to the medications in the bags from what I read in the documents, so he didn¡¯t stir from our approach. Pepper quietly asked what all my process entailed, and I told her that she can stay here and watch, and that all it took from me was some chanting, some hand movements, and touching the patient. Pepper stood there watching as I got ready and invoked the first Cure LIght Wounds spell, just to get a handle on how Tony¡¯s body will react to the effect. Pepper gasps slightly when the golden light emanated from my hands and settled over the wounded area in Tony¡¯s chest. There wasn¡¯t any negative sign from Tony¡¯s equipment or anything that I could see, so I cast the spell again. This time Pepper didn¡¯t have an audible reaction as the golden aura dissipated into Tony¡¯s body. I could tell that there were other areas where he had strained muscles or had contusions that needed healing, so I cast the spell four more times, completely expending my ability to generate this level of effect. I figured that if I needed to later in the day, I could always expend extra energy to force this effect, like I did with Coulson. I looked at Pepper, who was still watching me intently, and quietly told her that I believed that I had healed all that I could do that did not just require time to heal. We left the room and went to discuss things further, but I could swear that I saw Tony¡¯s eye flicker open at least once while I was pushing healing energy into him, but I don¡¯t actually know. While Clint, Pepper, and I sat down in the same room as before, we discussed what we were planning on doing going forward in these new, unstable times. I told them both that I would continue to do what I could to help the great people of Norfolk, and I could swear that I heard Clint stifle a laugh. Pepper said that she was probably going to agree to move to the lake house with Tony. Clint had a steely look in his eyes when he said that he was probably going to do something fairly similar to me, but that he didn¡¯t have a city to protect or anything like that, so he¡¯d probably roam about a bit more. Pepper asked if there was anything that I was planning on doing when I got back aside from protecting the ¡°great people of Norfolk, VA¡±, and I thought for a bit and said that I was planning on enchanting a magical suit of armor for Clint, and another for myself. Pepper looked at me a bit confused and I told her that I had the ability to enchant items, even if I was fairly new at it, and that I had just recently expanded that capability into arms and armor as well. Pepper asked if there was something else that I could show her that could be done, so I took the initiative to cast Prestidigitation and focused it on cooling off the water that was at her place at the table to as cold as I could, and offered for her to check it. She touched it and laughed a little when she felt it had dropped at least ten degrees from where it was. I then asked her if it would be okay if I changed the flavor of it, before changing it to taste like Old Law Whiskey after she approved. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Pepper balked a bit at the taste, before I confirmed that there was nothing different about the liquid, only the taste. I changed it to Dr. Pepper and she tried it like that too. Clint was amused at this, as he had already seen a fair amount of what could be done with just this one spell, and he just sat back smiling. I went through a battery of different effects I could do, and Pepper asked if I could make something that could do all of this. I nodded and said that I could make something that would allow a person to do all of these, or other things, but I was limited in what magical energies I could imbue into an item in a day. Clint spoke up and said that I had created floating foldable cots that weighed a pound and could lift up to four feet off the floor. I sighed and explained that I had indeed made them, and that I could make up to four a day of them, and that they would hold three hundred pounds, but once they were activated, they could not be moved horizontally without disrupting the magical effect. I added that I was already planning on making some ponchos for people that could be transformed into tents, create enough food to survive every day, and included a canteen that created water or tea every day as well, but that ended up taking two days to make each individually. Pepper looked astounded, and asked if everyone had this ability where I was from. I told her that no, not everyone did, and that where I was from, people only grew stronger through adversity, and without such, you are much slower to advance in ability or skill. Pepper and Clint both seemed to be taking in the information while I spoke and I offered up that I would be more than happy to add this compound to my future plans for enchanting to increase the defenses, as long as the reagents I need are provided. Pepper asked just what it took, and Clint said that this was better left for another time, to which Pepper agreed. I offered up that one of the main things I was planning on offering up for Clint, as well as making for myself, was an enchantment to ensure that our weapons could do non-lethal damage without decreasing the efficiency. Clint looked at me with a questioning eye, and I offered up that I knew that the weapons that we used were less useful than regular weapons, but that these were the only ones that I could ensure would not kill the people who were to be brought to justice. Pepper seemed a bit impressed, but Clint asked me what would happen if I had landed at a place where there wasn¡¯t a police force to imprison the criminals. I shrugged, and said that I can¡¯t rightly say, but that I would probably spend a LOT more time destroying the weapons and guns that they always have on them, before I eventually made a jail that only I could access, where they would be imprisoned with food and water in cells until I could find a way to suitable judicial system in place. Clint followed up by asking if I would do the same for those who hurt children or murdered. I sighed, and said that I really didn¡¯t feel it was my place to pass judgement, but I would definitely fight to defend those who could not defend themselves, and if the only way to stop someone from killing another, I would terminate the offender in the most expeditious way possible that prevented or at least minimized damage to the innocent. Clint spoke up and said that he knew of a place that was out to sea that could house many of the worst criminals if the case happened. I offered up that once I figured out how to do it, I could make items that could be used to teleport the individuals into specific cells for processing into the facility. Clint and Pepper both seemed very interested in this, but I admitted that it was outside of my reach currently. Pepper asked how long it might take me to get to that point, and I kind of shrugged, saying that it was likely that I would need at least two years of experience and experimentation to get comfortable with the concept of that. Pepper and Clint both nodded sagely, and asked if there was anything that if I might need anything further along the path, then I should reach out to them. I told them that I definitely would, and that if they needed my individual expertise, that they should feel free to ask me. I offered up that I might not be very broad in what I can do, but whatever abilities I can bend to the task will be offered. We continued talking for a bit more, but it lightened up greatly, with me offering to show Pepper my familiar Rex when it was better timing, and that she should feel free to reach out to me if they are ever in Norfolk, that I would gladly have them set up in my dimensionally expanded tent. Pepper looked over to Clint, and Clint choked back another laugh before saying that he felt that it would likely not be up to the level that Tony would be used to. When it was time to leave, Clint and I stood up and I shook Pepper¡¯s hand, before we headed back to the quinjet. When we got in the back of the jet, I sat down and Clint went forward to talk to the pilot again. I started writing out my notes, and when Clint came back, he jokingly asked if I was about to ask her for a lock of her hair. I looked up from what I was writing and told him that meeting and spending time with the person was a much better way to get familiarity with the person to be the subject of the scrying, if I ever needed to find Pepper or Tony for any emergency reason. Clint looked at me for a minute and I told him that I had laid a hand on him to heal him while studying him, of course I was more familiar with him now. Clint asked if I thought that I was familiar enough with him, and I nodded silently, and added that this was only as long as he didn¡¯t resist it when I did try to scry on him. Clint asked if there were ways to prevent scrying, and I admitted that there were, but that it was more difficult than I had access to at the moment, but that I would study more on it. Clint nodded, made the same motion by his ear, and apparently went to sleep as we took off. ********** Sunday, June 24, 2018, 12:00 PM Norfolk, VA When we got back, Clint and I both got our bikes, and rode out from the military base. Clint offered up that I would be a fairly valuable commodity for S.H.I.E.L.D. now, since it was known that I can heal, as well as gain all kinds of information, AND (he emphasized) that I could make magical items that would create food and water, he asked if I would ever consider giving up the crime-fighting lifestyle. I shrugged, saying that it was what I felt the most comfortable with, and added that it was a LOT more difficult to learn and grow if I wasn¡¯t testing myself frequently. Clint seemed to follow along well enough with my train of thought and asked if there was a way that I could just get better over time. I shrugged, saying that conflict was the best way that I knew. When we got back to the storage unit, Clint asked if it was going to be okay if he worked in the city with me for a bit. I told him that I was fine with it, as long as he worked to not kill, as I didn¡¯t need to break faith with the police. Clint swore that he would work to do so, and I offered that I would try to find a way to make it so he could just choose to have his weapon be merciful, so that he wouldn¡¯t suffer from ill effect. I added that I would also try to enchant a better shackle system too. Clint thanked me and said that he¡¯d consider staying here with me for a month to help me acclimate into dealing with S.H.I.E.L.D. and dealing with what he called, ¡°supervillains¡±. I thanked him and got inside the storage unit. Clint wished me a good day and a successful day tomorrow, and that he would contact me whenever he heard anything more. I thanked him for getting me the chance to help one of the Avengers, and asked if he had any more contacts to just let me know. He promised to do so, and seemed upbeat for the first time since I met him. I finished off my day with a bit of crafting, since I had more salt now and I had a day to do something with it. I had a sudden bit of inspiration as to how I could make this, especially with a bit of ¡°flash¡±, and decided that the best thing to do would be to make it look like I was wounding the people, if only temporarily. I dived into some crystals that I had picked up back when I was at the place for alchemical reagents, specifically five hematites, and started engraving them with some symbols for the spells of Cure Light Wounds and Prestidigitation. The person wouldn¡¯t be dead, but their wounds would look real, for an hour or so after getting hit. I started enchanting immediately after I got the carving in place, and the salt started to incandesce quickly and the light was then absorbed into the hematites. Picking them up, I knew that the crystals would function to convert the damage to a non-lethal form, and that the crystal¡¯s activation can be turned on and off mentally. I grabbed three for myself which would leave two for Clint¡¯s weapons. I rounded off my day with noting that I would get the items to Clint tomorrow. Maybe not as packed a day as others, but I think we did good work. An Avenger was healed, we got a contact that we can reach out to in the event of emergency. Rex had a productive fishing day as well, so it looks like this upcoming week will be a good one, hopefully. Day 25 Monday, June 25, 2018, 8:30 PM Norfolk, VA This morning I woke up to a text from Agent May, telling me that she had set up everything so that a Life Model Decoy of Agent Coulson would be what was buried in his plot, and she was letting me know so that I could make sure that I didn¡¯t tip my hand or anything, she added that she¡¯d be releasing the news tomorrow, but that I wouldn¡¯t be included in the initial message link to keep me off the radar. I thanked her for keeping me updated, and that if I heard anything, I would let her know. She thanked me and I went about getting ready for work, knowing that I would be working on an enchantment project for the shop. I also figured that I would need to be getting work done towards Clint¡¯s extra equipment and my own as well. A lot of stuff in the future for me to do, so I need to figure out who to time everything. I got up and got Rex off of me, not abruptly, but he didn¡¯t especially want to get up early today. I got everything ready for my ride into work and thought about the fact that I should separate the ¡°facilities room¡± off from the tent/living area. Maybe there is a small/cheaper item that allows you to have just the restroom in it, as I don¡¯t think it needs a one hundred square foot room. I¡¯ll research that tonight after the work day today, before I go to bed. I got my clothes and everything ready and closed down the storage unit. As I got to work, after getting breakfast, Bob was waiting for me. He seemed especially happy, and that was probably because the parkas had come in. He asked me what all I might need to get started, and I noted that I would work on it with just the salt and the parka, but that I would probably expend around two hundred and forty pounds of salt per parka, and that I would let him know more when I did. I set an Unseen Crafter to disassemble, clean, reassemble, and lubricate any firearms that were placed on the rack, while I worked on the enchantments. While looking over the components, I had a brilliant idea to make them as a set. I wasn¡¯t going to tie the activation of each of them to the activate at the same time, but it was basically the same enchantment redone four times, so making them as a set could help make them quicker. I got the four parkas set up and decided that I wouldn¡¯t add anything special for any of them. If needed, I can update the enchantment for any of them, or make a separate canteen, or some kind of modification to allow for the ¡°upgrade¡± after the fact. It wouldn¡¯t be a difficult thing to accomplish, and it wouldn¡¯t need to be relegated to just the canteen. Just the kind of thinking that will make it quicker. Also, I¡¯m certain that Bob would not want to be promoting alcoholism. When I started to perfect the items, I noticed that there was still a magical resonance about the room, and specifically the table. I think that the only way to get rid of that resonance, would be to either fully enchant the table, or completely dispel the room of any latent magic. The fact that it is lingering so much is a bit concerning though. I started the enhancement process after working my way around the effect and working further into the set of cloaks. I succeeded in taming the rampant energies, drawing some of the extra mystical energy into the cloaks. After eight solid hours of enchanting, I got ready to head out for the day. Bob was there, waiting for me, and asked if I had made progress. I told him that I had, but that it would still be at least a while longer to go. Bob said that he can understand that and just politely asked to be kept informed. He also thanked me for keeping up on the regular aspects of the job while I did so, and that if I could keep that up, I would probably be in line for additional pay. I thanked him, and headed out for the day. I didn¡¯t want to get his hopes up, but if tomorrow goes like today did, I could see the possibility of getting more enchanting done for my own needs, while keeping up my job and doing what Bob requested. I certainly wouldn¡¯t be dipping into the company¡¯s salt, but I could unload one hundred and twenty pounds a day for the next two days, maybe even two hundred and forty if I drop by the storage unit for lunch every day to pick up more. That could give me up to three hundred and sixty pounds to start enchanting something for myself or Clint. I figured that I would start going through the items to whichever is the easiest get made tonight. I headed back out from the storage unit towards dusk, just to try to get some patrols done, and found a robbery in progress. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Another building that was apparently abandoned, and more of the Warlocks trying to muscle in on the territory. This time, it was half a dozen of them. Quickly making my way to a nearby alley, I spied on them for a few minutes to make sure that they were engaged in the activity, while I got ready. I summoned up my Mirror Images, getting a whopping seven images. Then, I activated Heightened Awareness, to get even more of a jump on them, then Cat¡¯s Grace to increase my defenses further. Then, I cast Vanish, to get into position. As I moved into position, I changed into my ¡°Verdigris costume¡±, cast Prestidigitation (to start collecting the rounds as they are fired), and then I cast Displacement and then Haste. As I was ready, I started by getting into my Stance of Piercing Rays, and activated the Solar Reflection maneuver for my first shot, as I appeared. The six Warlocks, despite ¡°knowing¡± something wasn¡¯t right, still got a vicious bevy of shots against them, and the first one I hit even dropped unconscious before he could do anything. The round reflected into the chest of another Warlock, doing a fair amount of damage. My second actual shot was directed at yet a third of the six who took the round in stride, even with my Horizon Wind Lancet maneuver activated, while I wheeled my pistol around to fire at the furthest one out, firing with the Iron Fang maneuver, in an attempt to keep the conscious ones boxed in. Of the six that were standing around, five were left upright, and of those five, three were wounded. Since the bikers were a bit flummoxed by me appearing out of thin air, I continued firing away, firing another shot at the one I stopped on, dropping them. With my next two shots, I hit the one next to him, and then wheeled over to the furthest one on the far side, one of the first four that I had hit, dropping them as well. By this time, the six were now three, and they each fired off a series of rounds at me. Of the rounds that went at me, not a single one struck the actual me. However, of the seven Mirror Images I had started with, I was only left with three. I picked the two remaining central Warlocks to focus on for my ballistic violence on and dropped the two of them from a combined three bullets. This allowed the final biker to actually get a bead on me, and get close to hitting me. Thankfully, I used my last prepared maneuver, Intercepting Shot, to deflect the round away from actually hitting me, and his last shot hit another of my Mirror Images, bringing me to just two remaining. This allowed me to focus fully on the last one, dropping them with three of the rubber bullets. Looking around, I spied that camera that would have recorded the whole thing, tipped my hat to it, and collected any bullets or cartridges that had been expended by me. I picked up one of their cell phones and texted to 911 that there was a drug fueled gunfight occurring at the address. I used Prestidigitation to clean any fingerprints or evidence of me being on the phone, before tossing it back on the gunman¡¯s body. I looked at the camera again, gave a slight head nod, before disappearing into nothingness with another Vanish spell. I quickly made my way back to my bike and changed back to my civilian attire, before escaping through the back alleys back to the storage unit. I started to think about more different ways I could be helping others, but realized that I didn¡¯t want to specifically be known for it. I figured that I could put this on the back burner, as I had enough to worry about currently. I got back into the storage unit and thought about what my future would hold. The firearms seemed to uniformly need at least two shots to drop the average villain here, but maybe if I increase the caliber of the firearm and enchant it, it will be strong enough to allow me to get it in one shot. Something to include in my future plans, I guess. Rex and I settled back in as we bedded down for the night.